Who: Marietta and Penelope What: random reunion Where: Diagon Alley When: December 7, around lunchtime Rating: totally G Status: Completed Log
No matter how ridiculous it was, Penny had been keeping to herself more since that idiotic prank. She told her self she was being silly, but she quite honestly hadn't left her house more than absolutely necessary until she'd gone and agreed to help Charlie with his furniture shopping. Once she'd actually forced herself to venture out, she felt doubly silly, of course. There was absolutely nothing to worry about and she found herself actually not wanting to spend the whole of her Saturday shut up at home. Whether she chose to admit to it or not, the house was actually rather lonely and she felt an odd urge to be around people.
That was probably how she came to be in Diagon Alley, browsing the various shops and things, almost hoping to encounter a friendly face. Maybe it was the recent news of Harry and Wendy's marriage. She was truly happy for them, but a part of her recognized that she wanted some kind of companionship for herself. Maybe she should just get a cat. Either way, she was so lost in thought that she almost didn't see Marietta until she'd nearly passed her, but when she looked up and did see her, a smile spread over her face.
"Marietta! Hi!" she greeted the younger woman cheerfully.
--
Marietta, while having no desire to celebrate her birthday at all, knew she had to buy Christmas presents, even if she would rather just skip this whole season altogether. Despite this being the fifth Christmas without her mum, in some ways, it never felt like it got easier. It was because Christmas was often considered the time for family, she supposed, and with only one grandmum here in London and one granddad she didn't see very often, it tended to feel like she had no family to share it with.
Marietta had stopped at a window display of Rememberalls, thinking of her perpetually red one back at her flat, and wondering if she should buy one for Leo Chambers for Christmas. Part of her thought it would be best not to get her former friend anything for Christmas, but there had been several times over this past year he'd been sort of nice and helpful to her, and she didn't like feeling in anyone's debt. Hopefully, if she sent a present or something, it could rectify that feeling.
"Hello, Penelope," she said, when she found herself greeted by the other curly-haired woman, "Christmas shopping?"
--
Penelope shook her head and gave a little shrug of her shoulders. "Not really," she answered honestly. "More like browsing out of sheer boredom." She laughed at herself a little before adding, "I needed to get out of the house, so I figured I'd pop down here and have a look around. How about you?"
It had been entirely too long since Penelope had seen Marietta. To be honest, she couldn't quite remember when the last time had been. They'd never been close, of course, but then again, Penny wasn't close to many people. She considered Marietta a friend, though, even if she wasn't a close one, and she was happy to be running into her. It would be nice to catch up, wouldn't it?
"Merlin, I haven't seen you in an age," she prattled on, feeling a little silly, but apparently not enough to just shut up. "What's new? How have you been?"
--
"Definitely Christmas shopping," Marietta replied, "Though I'm none too far along yet. I don't know why it's so hard to pick out gifts for people, even when you've known them for years."
While Marietta had a much smaller list of who she would consider a friend, mostly due to her trust issues from after the Sneak incident, she did think of Penelope fondly enough - she'd been a big help as a tutor in Marietta's younger years, and was never there at school to see the breakout of her splotches.
"I can't say much is new," she had to admit, "I've just been continuing to work like normal. I've had a few interesting work related trips this year, which is definitely one of the new things, but otherwise...it's a lot of the same. Surely you've some exciting things going on in your life, though."
--
Penny nodded sympathetically. It was difficult to pick out thoughtful and appropriate gifts for people, no matter how well you knew them. It didn't help that she was a complete perfectionist and didn't like to settle for getting something she wasn't completely certain of. She always second-guessed herself a million times when she was shopping for gifts, which was probably why she had a tendency to put it off as much as possible.
Penelope let out a soft chuckle at the suggestion that her life featured anything exciting. "Hardly," she replied with a shake of her head. "All work and very little play, I'm afraid." She shook her head again. "I swear, I haven't always been this boring. I suppose I need to learn to get out more." That much was definitely true, at least the part about needing to get out more. Penny had never been extremely social, but she found herself almost regretting that now.
--
"That likely makes two of us," Marietta mused, although, truth be told, she had always tended to be more the type of person who had preferred to stay in and had never quite warmed to the social scene. "Is your job interesting for you, at least? You have to tell me all about it."
It really was quite nice to be having a civil conversation, and Marietta only could hope that the make-up covering her pustules was on well enough, because she didn't fancy ruining any conversation with talk of that.
--
"Oh, my job is amazing," she beamed at her old schoolmate, gladly leaving the subject of her nonexistent social life behind. "I'm doing Charms research and I love it." That made her a nerd, probably, lighting up at the idea of research, but she was a Ravenclaw. She supposed Marietta would understand, at any rate, and she wasn't going to feel embarrassed about loving what she did.
She was enjoying the conversation, too, and if she noticed what the girl's makeup was covering up, she made no mention of it. Honestly, she probably wouldn't have said too much if she had known about that whole aspect of Marietta's past. It wasn't her place to judge things and she couldn't honestly say she would have acted differently in similar circumstances. She'd been a complete coward during the war, but she refused to be ashamed of that now.
"Your job must be really interesting, too," she continued. "You said you've taken a few trips this year?"
--
"That sounds like it would be very hard," Marietta admitted, "But you probably remember about how well Charms and I got along." She gave a wry smile at that, although her lack of ability in charms was something she'd come to terms with a lot better than some other things in her life. "What sorts of research are you doing now, then? Or is it like the whole Unspeakable thing, where you're not allowed to say?"
Talking about jobs was something Marietta could handle. In truth, it was a lot easier than talking about her social life, or lack thereof. "Well, it's really the sort of job where at times it's extremely busy and interesting, and at others, it's more on the quiet side - and the quiet is preferred, because that means the public are mostly behaving themselves," she joked lightly.
"I did have a couple trips - one was to a Muggle conference in Wales, which I know isn't very far or exciting in the grand scheme of things, but considering how little I get out of London it was excited! And then I was called over to assist in Albania when that murder occurred - did you perhaps read about the investigation in the paper? It was grisly, and you need a strong stomach for that sort of thing, but it was a very interesting experience being somewhere so foreign."
--
Penny laughed as she nodded her head. "You weren't that bad," she offered, even though she was sure Marietta didn't really need to boost to her ego. Still, Penny wasn't lying. Marietta hadn't been very good at Charms, but she was sure she could have been worse, too.
Of course, once Marietta asked about the specifics of her research, Penny easily launched into a small ramble about everything she'd been doing at work, which was probably not remotely interesting to anyone who didn't love Charms the way that she did. She managed to stop herself, fortunately, before she carried on for too long.
Besides, she was honestly much more impressed with what Marietta was saying about her travels. It did sound interesting, even if she was positive that she, herself, definitely wouldn't have the stomach for the grisly stuff. "I could never manage it," she laughed at herself. "Waaay too squeamish. It does sound really interesting, though."
--
Marietta listened politely to Penelope's ramble, nodding politely on the way. To her it did sound interesting, although rather difficult. It might have been the sort of thing she'd enjoy doing if she'd had more talent with a wand. Things were what they were, though, and altogether, she was fairly happy with her job.
"It was difficult at first," Marietta admitted, "But I became able to handle it fairly quickly. You sort of have to so you can do your job, and it's fulfilling in the way that you know you're helping people.
"But I hope I'm not keeping you from anything you need to be doing!" she added.
--
Penny, of course, had completely lost track of time or what she should be doing. She knew she should be heading back to her work, though she was reluctant to leave now. She was enjoying talking and catching up with her old housemate and she was loathe to have that come to and end.
"I do have some work to get back to," she admitted with a slight frown that was almost a pout, "but we should make plans, get together and catch up." It would be fantastic, she thought. They could meet for tea and catch up one everything at their leisure. She found she rather liked the idea and she really hoped that Marietta would agree.
--
"Of course!" Marietta agreed, "Just send me an owl and we'll definitely make some plans."