InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Save the world"

Lucy Spinks (addingvalue) wrote in finnigans_rpg,
@ 2014-09-01 20:07:00

Entry tags:

character: hannah abbott, character: lucy spinks, character: susan bones, status: complete

Express Day
Who: Lucy and OPEN.
What: Lucy's having a nostalgic moment.
Where: The Leaky Cauldron (at least to begin with).
When: Monday, 6pmish.
Rating: SFW.

It was barely a week since Lucy had last been on Diagon Alley. Then, she'd been directed towards Finnigan's, stood outside it for about twenty minutes and then fled. It was just too strange, that it had been opened by someone who'd been in her own school year. It had been too personal a connection to part of her life she thought she'd left behind her.

Then on Monday morning on her way to work she'd seen a tiny blonde girl holding tight to an adults hand - trying to get a caged owl into the lifts at Tufnell Park station. September 1st hadn't been a significant day in Lucy's life for years, but just seeing that she knew what it must mean. The Hogwarts Express would be waiting at King's Cross... All day, Lucy had been trying to distract herself from memories of Susan, Justin, Ernie and Hannah all crowded into one train compartment, talking over one another in their eagerness to share what they'd been doing over the holidays.

So now here she was again, standing in the courtyard of The Leaky Cauldron. She hadn't brought her wand with her, hadn't had any reason to think she would need it when she'd left the house. Part of her wondered whether she'd have been able to activate the doorway even if she did have it. She'd been standing there alone for five minutes when the door to the Leaky behind her opened and Lucy stepped aside, not wanting to be in the way.

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susanamybones
2014-09-05 12:14 pm UTC (link)

"Lucy," Susan said slowly, staring transfixed at the woman in front of her. "Lucy, for Merlin's sake!" With a cry, she gathered her long lost friend up in her arms.

"How have you been," she asked, leaning back to examine her. "Where have you been? I mean, you didn't appear on any of the known casualties list after the war, so we assumed you survived, but Godric!"

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addingvalue
2014-09-06 01:32 pm UTC (link)

Lucy was only too happy to hug Susan in return, though she had to reach up a little to do so. She laughed - it was so strange to hear people say things like 'Merlin's sake' again. "I've been fine. Good!" Mostly good, anyway. Lucy liked her life, and if it felt like there was something missing, well. She tried to ignore it, to be grateful for what she did have.

Where she had been was a more difficult question to answer - because it came with the implied 'why didn't you come back?'. "I stayed in Sheffield for a few years, working. Then I moved to London for a proper office job." She looked up, feeling guilty once more. "How've you been?" she asked, to deflect attention.

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susanamybones
2014-09-07 02:37 am UTC (link)

Susan held her old friend tightly, delighted to see her again. "I'm so glad! How are your sisters? Have they forgiven you for going away to Hogwarts yet?"

She felt her eyebrows shoot up. "You worked? In the Muggle world? What did you confund someone in the Ministry for Education into giving you some A-Levels? What job do you have?" Seeing an expression made of equal parts guilt and embarrassment cross Lucy's face, Susan delicately let the matter drop. "I've been good actually, really good!" She led Susan and Hannah over to a free table and ordered them each a drink. "I'm an Auror now - a dark Wizard catcher you know."

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addingvalue
2014-09-07 04:55 pm UTC (link)

"They're good," Lucy said, her face lighting up as she talked about her sisters. "I'm living with Jennifer and some of her friends. She's a hairdresser so I never have to worry about booking an appointment for a trim. Katie's teaching, which came as a surprise to no one, and Alison's working as a waitress at the moment." She gave a slight shrug at Susan's question. "I think so. They were glad to have me back."

Lucy frowned because of course she'd worked. What else was she going to have done for years? Her parents weren't rich enough to support her while she did nothing. "I... sort of used my sister's name for a while. But then I had a good reference from the shop I was in and my current employers never checked for GCSE results." Her frown only deepened when Susan explained her job. "You catch dark wizards?" She couldn't imagine why anyone who'd lived through what they did would want more of it.

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susanamybones
2014-09-07 05:51 pm UTC (link)

Susan smiled encouragingly as Lucy as she talked lovingly about her sisters. Personally, Susan had always found herself having a less than positive view on the other Spinks sisters, owing mostly to the fact that they made Lucy - in Susan's opinion - feel horrible about 'abandoning them' and joining the Wizarding world. It was utterly unfair, but Susan had always had a suspicion that perhaps if her parents and sisters had been more accepting of her magical identity, that perhaps Susan wouldn't have struggled quite so much. "Well that's excellent! I'm glad they're all doing so well. Although I'm slightly flabbergasted that you avoided snatchers during the war? Justin was taken from inside his parents house!"

She tilted her head and smiled winsomely in acknowledgement of Lucy's slightly offended expression. "That was uh, very crafty of you really. I suppose confunding someone or placing them under a suadeantus jinx would have been a tad risky?" She lifted an eyebrow as Lucy's frown intensified. "I do. I work in the Office of the Aurors Chevaliers within the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. I won't let anyone else's family suffer as much as mine did at the hand of the dark."

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addingvalue
2014-09-09 04:16 pm UTC (link)

"Snatchers?" Lucy had been so cut off from the war that she had really very little idea of what had been involved. She knew Justin had been imprisoned from his letters to her, but she'd known none of the details. "I don't know why they didn't find me. I didn't do any magic, my parents moved house after fifth year and I never knew if I was supposed to tell someone at Hogwarts..." Perhaps there had just been no record of her address left in the magical world. Or perhaps they'd only tried to sense people who had some degree of magical power - something Lucy was all but convinced she'd barely had and had almost certainly lost.

She placed a hand on Susan's arm as she talked about her family. She'd been at school when it had happened, she hadn't forgotten. "It's very brave of you," she said honestly. "I couldn't do it."

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susanamybones
2014-09-11 10:57 am UTC (link)

Susan felt her eyebrows shoot up, as she shook her head in wonderment. "You really did flee the magical world, didn't you," she said, shaking her head. "Well it may have been for the best. To answer your question, the Snatchers were groups of bounty hunters tasked under the auspices of the Muggle-born Registration Commission to hunt down and capture or kill any Muggle-born witches and wizards. They got Justin actually, poor thing." She smiled and patted Lucy on the hand. "Not telling the Ministry your new address may have saved your life, darling."

She smiled at the earnest tone of Lucy's voice. "Thank you, but if I don't stand and fight then I can't expect anyone else to do it for me."

"So, tell me more about your work," she said, leaning forward in interest.

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addingvalue
2014-09-12 11:05 am UTC (link)

Lucy felt another stab of guilt that she'd managed to escape so easily. She was glad of it, she'd left the magical world in part because the events of her sixth year had proved to her that she'd be utterly unable to defend herself against those who wanted her gone. She wondered what she was doing back. The war was over, yes, but she still didn't deserve to be here, benefitting from the fighting everyone else had done in her absence. A look at Susan and Hannah's faces gave the distinct impression that now they'd found her, they weren't going to let her go easily.

All in all, it was easier just to talk about her work, leaving the rest of the conversation to fade. She told Susan about Variety - the charity she worked for. About the wheelchairs they provided, and their coaches that took Special Needs children to activities that would be out of reach otherwise. She talked a bit about what she did in the office, balancing the books and making sure the payments went to the right people. Though obviously enthusiastic about her job, she was still reserved - holding back on the details of her personal life. "How long has this place been open?" she asked when she'd covered the basics.

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susanamybones
2014-09-12 03:16 pm UTC (link)

She watched an expression of intense guilt cross Lucy's expression, and tilted her head slightly. "It's all in the past now anyway," she said lightly. "We're in the midst of a baby boom and a cultural renaissance, and dark wizards are getting less blood-crazy and more just comfortably crazy-crazy."

"That sounds amazing actually," she said enthusiastically. "You should set up a meeting with Alicia, her charity is excellent as well! Although you may have read some of her entries in your journal? Anyway, I'm so glad you're happy." She gestured around vaguely. "Oh a couple of years. Seamus inherited the place from his Uncle, and when the Department of Rejuvenation decided to cleanse Knockturn Alley and turn it into a reputable shopping street, he reopened. It's a bit less stuffy than the Leaky Cauldron, more popular with the young crowd."

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addingvalue
2014-09-16 11:14 am UTC (link)

Looking around, Lucy could see what Susan meant about a younger crowd, and she nodded. Everything else - cultural renaissance, Alicia, Department of Rejuvenation - went over her head a little. It was too much to take in all at once, her friends being here, her friends being together and whole and... She tipped back the last of the pint Susan had bought her.

"Can I get the next round in?" she asked, before flushing slightly as she thought that through. It was instinct, to share rounds with friends, but here... "Actually, I've only got n- muggle money."

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