welcome to the ghost tour

lex bragnam. the g is silent. ravenclaw class of '81 history buff | wizard & muggle let's talk about ghosts third year time table Ancient Runes II Magical Theory Muggle Studies: Popular Culture from 1800 to Present Internship with the Department of Magical Artefacts

[lexbragnam]

skyehathaway​:

“And if moving to America makes you happy, then I think you should do it. Although, clearly, the ghosts here might miss you.”

“Just a visit for now — who knows I could be back before you know it.” He said, nudging her shoulder. “I’ll miss the ghosts too.”

[lexbragnam]

skyehathaway​:

She nodded, finding it odd that even Lex, who hadn’t exactly ever been a major part of her life, was leaving a mark big enough to miss him if he did go. All of this time, and her heart still bled so openly and willingly for the smallest scratch. “It’s always good to try something new. To never feel stuck.”

Lex nodded in agreement. “It really is.” He said softly. “Don’t even really matter how many times yuh start over. Find yourself as many times as you need to you know? Making yourself happy is what’s important sometimes.”

[lexbragnam]

skyehathaway​:

“If I tell you I’m trying to find myself, will that sounds like a bullshit answer?” Hattie wasn’t lying. She was, in many ways, trying to find out where she fit in the world. Who she had become. What mattered. Only, that was easier said than done, and trickier than Hattie ever dreamed it might be. Ghosts were likely a bad start. But it was better than nothing.

“Not at all.” Lex replied honestly. He knew what that was like. He’d done it once before himself. What thinking about doing it all over again. “Life has a way of sneaking up on ye and pulling the rug out from undah yer feet. When that happens, you can either stay down, or look for solid ground.” He said, thinking about his encounter in the park recently. “I’ve actually been thinking about going to America for awhile. Visiting a friend, clearing my head. It’s been a little foggy since my accident.”

[lexbragnam]

skyehathaway​:

“That is helpful advice. Not quite what I’m looking for. But I’ll take just about anything.” Maybe this wasn’t the best way to up her holiday spirit, but it was effort. It was one foot in front of another. These days, Hattie took what she could give herself.

.

“Then what brings you on this tour?” Lex asked curiously as the group was about to take off. “A vague curiosity or sheer boredom?”

[lexbragnam]

jenniferburke​:

It was easy to get tightly wound when you were already tied up in knots. Jennifer had to remind herself this was only Lex. This was only a friend and real ones did not possess bad intentions. It was an easy thing to believe at the mention of dozens upon dozens of cake options. She could not even help the way her lips unintentionally quirked, sending her face into a grin.

“Can we even say we have a favorite flavor of cake if we haven’t tried them all?” Jennifer suggested rather cheekily, shrugging her coat back onto her shoulders. “I’ve got to wash this mayo off my hands beforehand. Wait for me, I’ll be a minute.” The walk to the toilets was not a long one, but she still glanced over her shoulder on the way for a quick view of her friend gathering their lunch trash.

All was fine, all was safe.

“Clearly we cannot.” Lex beamed at Jen’s response. “Which means we’ve definitely got to try them all.” He nodded as she excused herself, “I’ll be right here.” He replied, moving to tidy up their lunch spot. A stray piece of wrapper got away from him and he followed it into the brush.

Slipping into the cover of trees was his first mistake. After everything he’d learned from Hattie, it hadn’t left him prepared for the entirely unexpected appearance of Olin Burke. Not that he saw him coming. The rock came out of nowhere. Hitting him in the back of the head. “Oi!” Lex shouted as he felt himself being shoved from behind.

Hattie would be disappointed in him he thought as he fell to his knees. A blow to the back taking him down further. He did his best to curl in on himself as he was kicked repeatedly. All he could do was wait for Olin to grow tired, or for himself to pass out from the throbbing ache in the head. Whichever came first.

It was the latter.

FIN

[lexbragnam]

pettyevans​:

“Maybe I am.”  She raised the cigarette to her lips. 

Some women smoked with elegance. Slow, long drawls, flourishing hands, loose fingers. Others cared less, they pinched their filter between pointer and thumb then let the cherry grow so long half the thing was gone before you’d taken another drag. But Petty smoked cigarettes like it was a competition. She was in a race against the smoldering end. She wanted to hit it for everything it was worth and then some. She didn’t smoke them often, but when she did it was down to the butt. 

“But you aren’t though.” She took a guess. “You aren’t coming from any of them.”

.

Lex watched her curiously. Smoking as if her life depended on it, barely time for breath. If Lex were to place a wager on the type of woman she was, well— his gut was telling him she didn’t like to lose— at anything. The type to deny ever being wrong, even if she was because she was above that— and everyone else. That sort was always an interesting sort. 

“It’s funny that you think you’re so sure of that.” He smiled at her as he continued his way down the alley. “Enjoy your night.”

FIN

[jamespooper]

lexbragnam​:

Lex: I’m saying I chose an exceptional photo of you.

James: Course you did, it’s impossible not to

~~~ fin ~~~

[lexbragnam]

skyehathaway​:

when: december 19th, 1980 where: christmas ghost tours who: @lexbragnam​

“You know why I don’t like ghosts?” Hattie asked suddenly. It was purely coincidental that Lex had made his way here, too. “You can’t punch a ghost.”

.

Laughter bubbled up in Lex’s chest at Hattie’s sudden declaration of distaste— for several reasons— the most pressing was that they were on a ghost tour. “True, but you can make them super uncomfortable by walking through them.” He offered in return.

[lexbragnam]

pettyevans​:

He was right and she was wrong, they both knew that. They had to. Yet. “This is a smoker’s alley. I’m perfectly within my right as a patron of the bistro. You,” Petty looked down her nose at him and took a drag, “are trespassing.”

.

Lex stared at her blankly for a moment. “Bit full o’ yerself to assume I’m neither of those things aren’t yous.” He said with a raised brow. “Could be from any of these establishments stepping out for fresh air and smoke. An there ain’ no trespassin’ signs so you're wrong there too, lass.”

[lexbragnam]

jamespooper​:

James: you saying I look like shit?

Lex: I’m saying I chose an exceptional photo of you.

[lexbragnam]

jenniferburke​:

An instinctive and deep pout crossed Jennifer’s face, her cards not being held close to her chest at the moment. Little did Lex know, or maybe he somehow had, it’s all Jennifer thought of nowadays. Her parents had left her gravely unprepared. Now, she was afraid of her wife, of her friends. Nothing was much different than childhood. She was failing her kids with each breath she inhaled and exhaled. 

She could no longer enjoy the sandwich, discarding it to the side.

“If nothing can change, I don’t want to imagine it. I don’t want to miss it. I don’t know that I was ever carefree a day in my life. I’m eternally worried about what is next.”

There were no second chances in the Burke household. Let alone this world each soul helplessly existed in.

.

Lex frowned. He hadn’t meant to upset her, to sour her day in any way. Yet there he was with his big stupid mouth doing just that. With a kiss to her cheek and a gentle squeeze of her hand, “Then I’ll put it out of my mind too.” He said, pulling her from the ledge. “We live in the now and we live for the adventures of the moment.”

Lex had an idea and it was ridiculous, but he felt they needed a little ridiculous in life at the moment, “When you were married, did you get the whole experience wedding planning experience? More specifically did you get to go to all the local bakeries and try wedding cake options?”

[lexbragnam]

jamespooper​:

James: Did you use a good picture of me?

Lex: Honestly it was probably false advertising mate. 

Lex: Coulda found you sooner if they were looking for more what you sent me and less what I posted.

[lexbragnam]

jamespooper​:

When: 10th December 1980 Where: iFlown message from St Mungo’s Who: James and Friends

i lived bitch

LEX: Thank Merlin for that. You and Maeve both missing. Mate, I almost went mental. Put up bloody posters.

[lexbragnam]

pettyevans​:

WHEN: 8 December 1980 WHERE: Behind some restaurant  WHO: @lexbragnam

“AH!” Petty clutched one hand to her heart in shock. The other held a cigarette behind her back, which she slowly moved to stop hiding once she realized the person to spook her was a stranger, and not someone she was in the middle of impressing at the very stressful dinner inside. “Creep,” she accused. “What are you doing sneaking around?” 

.

Lex raised a brow at the woman. Unimpressed with her choice of words. “Could ask you the same thing.” He said plainly. “I was just walking through the alley, you’re the one hiding for a cigarette.” He noted, nodding toward her hand. “Didn’t know taking a shortcut was a crime.”

[lexbragnam]

jenniferburke​:

when: 15 December 1980 where: muggle playpark; Huntly, Scotland who: Jennifer Burke + Lex Bragnam ( @lexbragnam​ )

“Meal deals were a genius muggle creation, I won’t lie.” She quite enjoyed the bacon, sausage, and egg triple they’d found while cruising the shops. They were stopped at park so tiny now, she wasn’t sure if it was significant enough to be written onto a map. She appreciated the quaintness of it. She even loved the squishy sound the damp grounds made underneath her Docs as they swung.

.

“Amen to that.” Lex said as he ate his own breakfast sandwich, complete with tomato and chipotle mayo. “You ever miss being a child?” He asked, as they sat in the lovely quietness of the small park. “Carefree, not having to worry about the big bad world. Not knowin that it’s anything other than a mess.” Though had that been her experience? Was she allowed to be carefree? Allowed to be a child?

[lexbragnam]

maebragnam​:

“Believe it or not, people worse than politicians exist.” She was off to forage for herself through cupboards and the refrigerator next. If she didn’t eat a Cumberland sausage within the next two minutes, she would absolutely melt into puddle much out of place for a November night. A piece of dark chocolate was shoved into her mouth as she balanced a bottle of Coke and the jar of English mustard on the inside of her elbow. “Have mince pies popped up at the shops yet? It’s about that time of year.” 

Maeve busied herself with a pan on the hob, knowing none of this is what Lex wanted to hear, needed to hear, or deserved to hear. Her throat was cleared as a sausage was tossed into the hot Teflon. She added an extra one for her brother. “I’ve been staying in a hotel for the last bit of time, because why would I want to come home to tell my wizard family the Anti-Magic Coalition has been fucking with me? They’d have been better off taking you. You can work a wand, for fuck’s sake.”

.

She was stalling, distracting herself from telling too much. Shouldering the burden all on her own, because that’s what Maeve did she kept it all to herself. The barest of information about who had hurt her, likely to shield him from the horrors and realities of the world, but that was his job, he was the big brother, he was meant to take care of and protect her— and he had failed. He cleared his throat at her question. “Yeah— ehm— I’ll get some for ye, bring ‘em round.”

He watched her carefully, worried that at any moment she might crack. “Yeah, well might have a go-round with ‘em if I ever run into them. They got no right. No right. You haven’t done anythin to earn that. They can’t just lump all wixen in as one. You ain’t done nothing.”

[lexbragnam]

maebragnam​:

“You’ve got no taste, never had. I look like a tart slumming it. Slumtart Millionaire.” Maeve audibly gulped following her quip, her knuckles turning white as she gripped Lex’s t-shirt within two palms. It’s the best I miss you she could muster. There was a bandage at Maeve’s temple, a handful of stitches underneath. It came into view as she stepped away and let him go. She should have them taken out soon. “Have you heard from WixBurger?” It shouldn’t have been a concern of hers, when worry and lack of sleep wrote lines underneath her brothers eyes. Her heartbeat quickened. Who else had been shocked into oblivion? Her parents were the people she wanted to see the least, but most.

.

“See, what’d I say? A brat.” He mumbled, not ready to let go just yet, needing to know she was safe with him for just a little bit longer. “WixBurger knows what’s going on. School too, I went tuh WixB first they were worried when ye missed yer shift since that’s not like ye at all.” He pulled back, eyes surveying her face. “The ministry do?” He asked, his voice low. “I swear to Merlin and Morgana if they did this to you because of a fucking curfew, I swear I’ll sic the whole of the wizards’ council on the bastards.”