It was safe to say that Jacen was enjoying the newfound freedom of being out of Hogwarts, away from home and essentially being on her own. Ish. She had a room on campus, but still, there were no curfews to break or permissions needed to go wherever she pleased and there were absolutely no words to describe that feeling. She didn’t need to worry about having Oliver or Margot breathing down her neck and criticising her actions and choices anymore - not that she ever let that stop her.
However, she was also getting used to managing that freedom. She was now responsible for feeding herself and doing her own laundry and picking up her own mess. Also finding a part-time job to handle whatever frivolous expendentures she may need, as Oliver’s contributions went to necessities.
Jay wasn’t as overwhelmed as she assumed she’d be about the prospect of caring for herself, and while Damien also had his own time to manage and devote to obligation, she found herself needing to do something in her spare time. She no longer had to sneak through the castle or memorise the algorithms of the school’s passwords, which surprisingly took up quite a bit of her time, come to think of it.
This is why she found herself perusing through the muggle shops in her area, keen on learning what other people did in their spare time. It was laughable how far behind one fell in trends when one had to spend nine months secluded with other students away from the rest of the population. Her and Rian’s friends always teased them about how much they missed out on for going to a fancy public school with uniforms for the better part of their school life.
She luckily didn’t have that problem anymore. A few of those friends showed her places they liked to hang out and was surprised to find that they were into what they called ‘occult,’ but what Jay found to be cringy in how mundane and inaccurate their interests were. Their 'magic’ tended to be ineffective attempts at voodoo, crystals, runes, and astronomy. Some of which were funny, but there was a street in particular that wasn’t half bad. It was here that she ended up spending countless hours in, wondering about aimlessly in her favourite little holes in the wall.
She had a book in hand about numerology that she was idly paging through as she walked down the street, but when she heard the question, she jerked her head up and immediately walked into the chair in front of Andy as she turned to see who was speaking. She dropped like a rock, still adjusting to her lankiness and floundering like a newborn giraffe. “Merlin’s bloody fucking kneazle piss,” she swore between her teeth as she kicked away the chair and shot an accusatory glare at Andromeda.
Moving out of Cress’s cottage was oddly bittersweet. Sure, the woman wasn’t much for motherly affection, but there was no denying that she cared in her own bassackwards way. But without the comfort of the common room or her aunt’s cozy home, Andromeda had found life outside of Hogwarts to be quite anxiety inducing. There was no familiarity in the world around her. Even her courses offered little stability what with students or professors skipping class so often she could hardly tell who was really supposed to be there.
Thanks to her inheritance Andy was able rent a small flat off campus. Dorm life lasted… a month? She hadn’t even bothered to unpack before scouring the streets for a leasing opportunity. Too many people, too close. Too…tempting. Getting what you want is so easy when you have the ability to manipulate people on a level that the other person doesn’t even realize. A skill she honed one horrifying week back in sixth year with Riley.
Its just better that way. Really.
Less people to ask questions about where she was going or why, when she’d be home. Nag, nag, nag. In fact, it was the pestering roommates that lead her to exploring muggle London in her free time. Free time to sit on café patios sketching some tall lanky thing walking down the road.
“Rude yourself, legs. I wish I could cast that big ‘a shadow without five-inch heels to break the horizon.”
Andromeda stuffed her charcoals back into their box and waved a coal covered hand at the café window for the server’s attention.
“So what brings you to this side of town?”
