A Midnight Stroll

It was dark in London. There was a party and a festival. All the neighbourhood was invited. There was food and hard liquor all day round. People danced, sang and drank. What a bash it was! Daniel wasn't a huge fan of parties, they bore him. They were a waste of time to him. He wasn't too fond of the Muggles with all their technology and pop culture. Especially those A*Teens and their dancey covers of ABBA songs like 'Lay All Your Love On Me' being constantly played on the sound system. He only ever attended parties if it was somebodies birthday, other than that he rarely partied.

Today he made an exception for a certain somebody. Varod had ordered him to stay put and do his best to pass the time while he  completed some 'unfinished business'. He had no idea what he was up to, all he knew it was important and he didn't question him. He trusted him to look after himself, he did, after all knew his way around the Muggle world, a little more than Danny did. "Roll up, roll up! Ladies, gentleman, boys and girls. The circus is about to begin!" the ringmaster bellowed through his mega sized megaphone. "Buy your ticket now, don't miss your chance to see 'The Phenomenal Puma'. Only nine ninety five!"

"Ugh!" Daniel gagged in disgust, taking a long pull of his butt before throwing it away. He dug his hand into his pocket, pulling out a flask of whiskey and brought it to his lips. As he drank, he felt someone tugging his sleeve, almost making his spill his drink. He looked down to see who it was only two find a red hair kid staring up at him. "Excuse me sir, I am lost and I can't find my parent," the child hiccuping between every second words. Tears was rolling down his cheeks. Daniel scowled at him. "Sorry kid, I can't help you. Go fetch someone else," he looked away from him to watch the crowd walking by. Then there was another tug. "Please, I'm scared. No one else will help me," the kid pleaded. He stared at the kid for a couple of second and kneeled down so he was now the same level as the kid. "Look kid, I don't care. You were stupid to get lost in the first pl-" the kid burst into tears and started wailing. Soon he gave up, he sighed and tried his best to hush the kid. "Alright, alright! I'll help you just.... don't cry."

A dark day in London, with boisterous activities and streets buzzing with life! So much booze, though it was expensive to even buy a small cup of beer. Some people could even be seen cursing each other out or having a fist fight over who would pay the tab. Reinhild sighed as she opened her wallet to find that it was woefully empty except for a couple of galleons in the change compartment. Since the activities weren't very fun without being hammered, she just took to leaning on a nearby tree, though she jumped as she saw a spider crawling up the bark. She hated spiders and everything they stood for, so she backed away to go find a stick to flick it off.

On her quest to find a suitable stick, she saw that the next spectacle was going to begin.

"Pff, Phenominal Puma. Bet it's just a stuffed toy some kid threw away." She kept walking around, hoping to find an ATM to withdraw some cash or to perhaps find some discarded liquor that she could drink. Also, she was still looking for a stick.

"Mama, what are you doing?"

She just realised that she brought her adopted child Daniel with her. He looked up at her with his big, shiny blue eyes and gripped her hand with his own that was covered by the sleeves of his too-large-for-him sweater.

"Looking for an ATM or something. I only have galleons, and I'm sure that these muggles won't take them for a drink."

She heard the sounds of a kid crying nearby and decided to check it out. It'd be more interesting than looking for that stick or for some money to magically fall from the sky. She saw a man interacting with a red-headed kid. She couldn't quite hear what he was saying to the kid until she got a tiny bit closer.

"Mama, that man seems a little mean."

"Nah, he's just having a bit of a bad day, I think. I mean, I'm having a bad day too."

After finally giving up. Daniel straigthened his back so that he was now in a standing position. Quickly, he scanned his surroundings, making sure that no one had seen the little scene the child had made with all his wailing. He sighed, placing his hands on his head.

"Alright," He said, trying to thinks of ways to help find this kid's parent and be done with it. Being a detective before certainly has it perks. One way of finding something you lost was retracing your footstep. Which worked ninety five percent of the time. "Show me where you last saw them," he nodded, unamusingly. It wasn't like he had anything better to do.

"Only four seats remaining! Get your tickets now! The show is about to begin!" boomed the ringmaster once again. "Don't miss your chance to see 'The Phenominal Puma'," Daniel stared at the circus and quickly spun his head around when he heard a young boy say he was 'mean'. He scowled at the boy, noticing that he was not alone and he was in fact with an another adult. "Oi! Watch it kid!" he furrowed his eyebrows.