More John Lyon.

[camwyn]

The Animagus Board's secretary, a witch of about nineteen years, stared in almost hypnotized fascination at the wizard waiting. He was a man somewhere past his fortieth birthday, as far as she could tell, and the kindest word she could think of to describe him was 'horse-faced'. He'd been dealt more than his share of the undesirable cards in the Great Deck of Physical Traits: a long, overly boney face, a nose half again the size you could consider reasonably attractive, wind-weathered freckled skin, and thick, shaggy brown-black hair parted roughly down the middle. The hair, at least, might've been attractive if it hadn't kept falling into his eyes. Then again, the eyes were no great prize either in her book- too dark, too deep-set, like something out of a Muggle museum on the ancestors of Man.

It wasn't his looks that had her attention, though. It wasn't even his robes, which looked like the set her father had brought home from Iqaluit as a souvenir. It was what he did with his hands. He had some kind of a stick-and-wheel contraption, balanced almost like a child's top, around which he'd tied some kind of soft brown yarn. With one hand he periodically took a bit of brownish fluff from a bag and pinched it against the yarn; with the other, he set the stick-and-wheel thing to spinning, the stick's long part dangling from the yarn as the wheel spun perpendicular to the floor. His movements were rhythmic, lulling. It took her some time to realise that every time he reached for more of the fluff, the yarn had grown a bit longer.

As he pulled up the contraption and began winding the yarn carefully into a tighter bundle, the young woman ventured to ask, "What's that you're doing?"

The wizard looked up with a faint smile. "Spinning," he said mildly. "I'm making yarn."

"What- you mean, for knitting?"

He nodded, hair falling in his eyes again. With a small sigh he put the yarn aside and reached up to make an unsuccessful stab at straightening his hair.

Something about his appearance gave the young woman pause. He had an English name, true, but he looked awfully rural, and the envelope with his name on it had borne a Firekeeper Service stamp from the Nunavut division. "You know you can buy yarn down here, right?" she asked tentatively.

The man chuckled quietly. "I know," he said, giving up on his hair and reaching for the yarn again. "But I had the wool, and it's really not that hard to spin it myself."

"But- by hand?" Somehow that just struck the witch as wrong. "Without magic?"

The man shrugged. "Magic doesn't keep the hands busy," he said. "Spinning passes the time better than waving a wand at a pile of roving ever could."

She eyed him skeptically. "But- don't you have other things you could be doing instead?"

That drew a laugh more like a snort in nature. "I'm waiting for my appointment with the Registration Board," he said. "I've already read today's Morning Mirror four times-"

"I mean-" She flushed. "You had to learn that sometime, right? Isn't it awfully boring?"

He fixed her with a look, the expression in those overly dark eyes almost unreadable. Eventually, he said, "Miss, I'm stationed at Ellesmere. You don't know what boring is until you've spent a fortnight Apparating between the Firekeeper's house and the actual Fire because the snow's closed all your doors. There's really nothing else at all to do, some of those nights."

She felt her cheeks flushing even redder in embarrassment. Behind her she heard a click.

"Send Mr. Lyon in, please," came the voice of her boss. The wizard in front of her rose to his feet.

"Thank you, Miss," he said politely, "but I think I can take it from here."

Comments

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

*giggles*

You do realize you can buy yarn?

I like. Lots.

[northstar83.livejournal.com]

Okay I like this, its pretty well written and i don;t really see anything to change about it. But i do have a suggestion about the Ministry of Magic would work in larger countries such as Canada. I think there would be smaller factions of the Ministry of Magic in each provice, probably in that provincial capital. (i.e. Toronto, Victoria, Yellowknife ect ect) As well as the main one in Ottawa, that would deal with a lot more of the international dealings. Where the ministry in each captital would deal with a lot of the more day to day, local things. I do think its appropriate that then animangus registration is in Ottawa, mainly because it deals with international security. But just a suggestion for future fics. You're also inspiring me to start writing some Canadian Potterverse myself. And if you don't mind i think i'll use a few of your ideas as far as the floo network works and such.

Anyway thats really all i have to say about it.

Hope the writing is going well.
Cheers,
David

[camwyn]

I think there would be smaller factions of the Ministry of Magic in each provice, probably in that provincial capital.

I was considering that, given how many responsibilities in Canada are divided among the provinces instead of held by the Federal government. I also caught some part of my brain suggesting that there'd be those interested in winning a partial exemption from certain aspects of the Statute of Secrecy for the First Nations wizards, like the way there's partial exemptions from the moratorium on whale hunting. It'd be a background issue to fuss and froth over, like Native fishing rights in the real world and cauldrons / flying carpets / vampires in the Potterverse... anyway. Sure, go ahead, use the Floo network idea if you like.

[withherhands]

Brilliant so far. Laughed at the witch's response of "You know you can buy yarn down here,"--as though spinners do so just for the yarn, not for the act of spinning itself. Ditto her comment about doing it "without magic". I never could get the appeal of Mrs. Weasley's magic knitting needles. Where's the fun in that? :-)
Plus, collecting and spinning one's own quiviut by hand would be a hell of a lot cheaper than buying it. And better than mail-ordering it, as you don't have to worry about whether the price is in Cdn$ or US$. :-)

Can't wait to read more of this!

[camwyn]

I've always wanted to learn to spin, myself, but I still need to get my hands on some roving. Being a knitting maniac, I thought at first that Mrs. Weasley actually hand-knit the jumpers- it wasn't until I saw the movie that I realised she was supposed to be doing it magically. That just made no sense at all to me. Might as well buy the things at the store!

Then again, I've had people look at me while I'm knitting and say- literally- "It's good to see the old ways being kept up," or things like that. And my father has never understood the appeal of knitting socks, since it seems to him to involve too many needles and much too much complication to be worthwhile. His feeling of "you know, I think I'll just buy them, thanks" was what I figured was going through the witch's head as she watched this apparently crazy man spending all that time to do something she simply doesn't understand at all.

And believe me, I know about the price thing! I spent my vacation in Alaska this past year, and wound up traveling something like nine miles round-trip over some disgustingly hilly terrain to get from my hostel to Inua Wool Shoppe and back just for the privilege of buying a single skein of fingering weight qiviut. Lovely, lovely, lovely stuff- and any wizard who has access to it, who wants something warm without resorting to skinning some poor magical creature, would do well to acquire it where they can.

Definitely going to be working more on this. I like John. I like trying to work out the Canadian side of a world we've only seen through British eyes. I think I'd like to hook the story up with someone from the books at some point, even if only in passing, but I haven't yet worked out who...

[withherhands]

I can completely see your dad's comment re: knitting socks--whenever I'm knitting socks in public I see at least one person goggling at the four needles. Which is weird, as all it takes is a little practice to find a comfortable way to hold them, but then why shatter the illusion? Plus, hand-knit socks are so much warmer than store-bought.

I've never actually seen quiviut, but I've heard about it from other knitters. Might have to check Romni Wools--a huge yarn store in Toronto--next time I'm there. Won't be able to afford it, but at least I can fondle a skein. :-)

I'm really looking forward to seeing your interpretation of the Canadian Wizarding world. I've only seen one fic before this that actually took place in Canada, though one has been knocking around my head for a while. I think most of the fics involveing Canadians out there star "exchange students", because how else would the author--I mean, OC--meet and fall in love with Harry/Draco/Sirius/Lupin...