cormacfletcher:
“Did I not,” Mac asked with a light tone even though he knew he hadn’t. “Had some time, thought I’d check out the alley, see if there was anything worth seeing. All I found was you.” Bertie could take that however he liked. While it was good for the kid that Mac had found him, Mac wasn’t sure it was good for him. He was glad that Bertie didn’t press about the news thing. Mac had no desire for more news. The Ministry was doing jack all as far as he could tell. Death Eaters seemed to be all about death and destruction. If they had some motive aside from those two things Mac didn’t care. They’d either succeed or not, with things as terrible as they were he didn’t need to be worrying about their end game. And the people of Knockturn were still being used by the people with money. Readingabout any of that wasn’t gonna change things. Mac wasn’t sure there was a way. Much better was talking about stinks. He laughed at Bertie’s words. “Clearly.” Someone with a thing for dungbombs, Hogwarts really churned out some odd ones. Given all the stuff Bertie had talked about he was a little surprised the other hadn’t dealt with garbage stink. Mac chuckled the question. “Way too much time,” he answered honestly. “I got someone to give me some good cleaning charms but it still takes doing them four or five times before the smell comes off, especially on a hot day. I don’t want my clothes wearing out, ya know?” Mac had asked his tutor but that felt weird to say. He usually kept his work clothes separate. But sometimes, like a day like today, there was overlap. It was bad enough he’d ruined a few things thanks to Order missions he didn’t need to start having to spend money on clothes.
Checking out the alley to see what was worth seeing? Bertie wasn’t really sure what would be worth seeing around here -- other than Rotty -- but he kept that thought to himself and just smiled sheepishly when Mac said all he found was Bertie. Maybe he was saying Bertie didn’t count as something worth seeing, but he wasn’t particularly bothered since he wasn’t exactly what someone came to Knockturn looking for. “Tough luck, mate,” he said with a chuckle. Though it felt like it had been a stroke of luck for Bertie. The odd looks weren’t lingering on him quite as long with Mac chatting alongside him. And maybe Bertie could return the favor after all. He shot Mac a curious look when he said he did, in fact, spend a lot of time in dumpsters, and with that addition about seeking out cleaning charms it didn’t sound like that was a joke. He tried to remember what he knew about Mac, but it was surprisingly little. Or maybe not surprising, since until just a short while ago he’d barely thought he could even talk to his own best mates in the Order, let alone someone he didn’t know as well. Rather than ask he just nodded at Mac’s concern with not wanting to wear out his clothes with a dozen cleaning charms. “I can give ya my secret dung bomb formula if you wanna test it out?” He offered. “The trick is to soak the clothes in a mixture of belladona, tomato juice, lemon juice, dish soap, and a dash of knotgrass. Or sage, in a pinch. You cast a cleaning charm on the mixture once the clothes are in it, let that soak for a couple hours, and you’re good to go. At least with dungbombs. If it doesn’t work with dumpster stink I’m sure we can tweak it, but I’d be curious to know how effective it is as-is,” he mused, genuinely interested in the experiment now. Hopefully Mac was willing to test it for him or he’d just have to go crawl in a dumpster himself. Bertie would do it, but it didn’t sound enjoyable.














