To that end, she’d come up with a truly pitiable character. A sad and pathetic girl with black, unkempt hair, and a wan face too bony from missed meals. A poor girl forced to live on the streets, with a father too crippled to work and a mother trying to take on the burden of supporting her family with multiple jobs. Perhaps her older sibling had passed away, a cruel reminder of the tragedy that was her world. Hermione hums to herself, inordinately pleased with her story-telling creativity. Beatrice, she’d call this wretched creature, perhaps Bea for short (those commoners did love their nicknames!). It was clearly a story well-suit for peasant-folk.

The girl directs the chauffeur down one final turn through the factory district, closer to that unpleasant feeling of despair. She gets out of the car a block before her destination, to fully sell her story. Her gym bag of ammunition weighs heavily on her shoulder as she walks, and the revolver is concealed at her side. When she arrives outside the abandoned factory, she finds a familiar face already there, panting heavily as her tail droops behind her.

Hermione takes a deep breath, before putting on her best impression of a poor person.

“O-oh, woe is me! I had no change to spare, and had to run all the way here on my own two feet!”

Clover’s ears twitch, and she tiredly looks up at the approaching girl. “Huh?”

‘Beatrice’ brushes her ratty black hair from her eyes. “H-hello! It’s so nice to meet you! My name is Bea! I believe you met my good friend Samantha, earlier today!”

The wolf-girl blinks, then tilts her head. “Oh, so you’re Sammy’s friend?”

“Y-yes!” Hermione smirks to herself, underneath the facade. Her acting was simply impeccable.

“O-okay…”

‘Beatrice’ glances around with an air of nervousness. “I-I’m so scared of everything, s-should we hunt this Witch together? I also heard there was another girl, named Lorene! Do you know where she might be?”

Clover looks down at her phone. “Hm, I think she should be on the way? I gave a pretty clear order as pack-leader, after all!” Clover looks back up at ‘Beatrice’, eyeing her carefully.

“L-let me send out a message too! H-hopefully she doesn’t take too long!” As Hermione quickly taps away with a practiced hand, she ruminates. It was possible Lorene wouldn’t show up; she’d seemed preoccupied with something else when she left Samantha and Clover. In that case, waiting for her could be wasting precious time: she did have an appointment to get to, after all. Maybe at some point, they’d need to just enter the labyrinth without her?

>Time to wait? Or chat? Or head right in???