Sticks and Thorns [subtitle
And it's a winding road
And it's a long way home
So don't wait
For someone to tell you it's too late

It was already coming towards the end of the Easter Holidays and in the brunette's opinion the days had flown by a little too quickly for her liking. There was a nagging feeling of having missed out on something big that she should or could have done that she hadn't thought to and now the time for doing it was almost gone. Maybe she should have applied to a part time job where she only worked holidays. Perhaps she had missed the opportunity to meet someone already who could have marked a significant change or moment in her life. Or possibly some sightseeing. Just something to mark this Easter so she could remember it. Have something new to talk about when she went back to school. Some of her schoolmates were getting engaged this week. Engaged! Though... mostly the purists. And namely arranged marriages. Which Kasey by no means wanted any part of and she was glad she'd never be considered for such a thing. In all fairness, she pitied them, because they weren't going to get the opportunity to get out and see the world and truly experience it, or have the chance to find love and marry for that instead of duty.

Though to be perfectly candid, it hadn't done her any good so far... her last date had been nearly two years ago. At this point a guy showing her any interest would be a shock enough to cure the worst bout of hiccups.

Still there was a strong sense of lost opportunity that the Witch couldn't quite reason out with herself as this holiday was no different than any other holiday she'd had from Hogwarts, so she didn't know why it was bothering her so much.  But it was. It was likely that the reason was that Graduation was only two months away and she had no plans. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Not a one. The plans she had stopped just short of it and surrounded the beast that was going to be her exams as she was slightly more concerned about passing them as best she could than her life afterwards. Because if they failed them then she was facing another year at school as well as a permanent blight on her record that she would never be able to live with. Only if she passed did she have to worry about real life and the beautiful thing about that was that it would already be upon her when she got to it. So she could stress in the present and not in the future. She was always reading about living for the "now", and her future now was so stressful that she refused to think about it anymore. If she died under pressure in her future present then at least she'd have gotten her exams out of the way first.

It was a pretty good crowd for a Saturday, and the manager gave her a smile, as she walked out of it and into the clock makers. Probably because he knew he was who she was coming to see, to forget about her life for a while as she tried to replace her watch as her current was falling apart. It had been a spur of the moment decision as she walked past rather than a planned visit and she was prepared for the salesman to try and talk her into something or other. It was funny, really. Kasey was so shy usually that she never would have dared try this in the past. But now? Yeah she still couldn't quite meet his eye as she greeted him and then veered away towards the nearest watch stand. Two years ago she wouldn't have made it through the doors. With that achievement tucked neatly under her belt she felt she could go another. Like... maybe approach the next person she recognised in Diagon or even just on the way home to see what would happen. Because something had to happen, right?

It was just as she leaned forward to look at a sterling silver and green amethyst number that she finally realised she was bored.

While Flora knew her Hestia would never go out with as much as a scratch on her watch, she liked the idea of buying her something. She'd brought Hestia dozens of watches since they came back to power, but perhaps . . . something different. A watch for messy work, perhaps. She'd already given her two Quidditch watches, several publishing. . . but perhaps one for playing with people. The Mudblood last month reminded her that that might be something to look into at some point or another.

The amethyst-and-sapphire bit was bypassed with nary a second glance, as was the silver-and-emerald. Cliched Slytherin colors-- no, her Hestia deserved better. Black and yellow was far too disgustingly Hufflepuff, for all that it was Wasps. The oxidized silver and garnet caught her eye. She frowned, half-considering. Maybe. . .


Dangerous and elegant, just as edged as Hestia, who was often-- there were those who thought that Flora was the more dangerous one of them, the one to watch more, Flora the more vicious. They deluded themselves. Hestia and Flora were a single entity in not-so-separate skins.

There was a child who seemed to be examining at one of the ones she'd bypassed. She wasn't one Flora recognized, nor did she look remotely familiar, but that meant nothing. Hestia was always more social.

"Are you seeing if you breath clouds it up?"