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Tweak says, "fear is the mind killer"

Susan Amelia Bones (susanamybones) wrote in finnigans_rpg,
@ 2014-10-04 20:15:00

Entry tags:

character: lucy spinks, character: susan bones

RP: Lucy and Susan's Excellent Adventure
Who: Lucy and Susan

What: Susan and Lucy go shopping for clothes for Lucy

Where: London

When: Saturday, 4 October

Rating: SFW, possibly some swearing from Susan.

Susan got to the Leaky Cauldron slightly before she was meant to meet Lucy. She'd taken the time to change some Galleons over to Muggle pounds - a process which, though arduous, had proved to be highly amusing given the deeply affronted manner with which the Goblins had handed her the money.

She settled down at the table and began rummaging around in her new bag, impatiently setting the camping stool and packed up Wizards tent back in the correct compartment before grabbing her book. She'd only read a couple of pages when she looked up and saw her friend. "Hell darling," she said with a huge smile. "Ready are you?"

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addingvalue
2014-10-22 04:40 pm UTC (link)

Lucy rested her elbows on the table and ready over the menu, making a pleased-surprised noise when she noted they had chips and gravy on the menu. That was appropriate between-meals food, as far as she was concerned.

"Dean?" she asked, forehead wrinkling as she tried to remember. "Was that Seamus' friend from school?" She hadn't known either of them well - but she thought she'd seen Dean in a coffee shop near her house a couple of times. Maybe she'd just been imagining it, though. She hadn't been able to remember his name at the time, only that he was one of the Gryffindor boys that wasn't Harry Potter, Ron Weasley or Neville Longbottom.

"I think I'm helping out with the auction," she added, happy to talk about something she knew more about. "Hang on, boyfriend?" She grinned at Susan. She might not be the most feminine girl in the world but still, talking about a boyfriend clearly trumped talking about charity raffles or people Lucy barely knew. "Is he cute? What does he do?' She blinked a little at the mention of Susan's aunt, but decided to keep things on the lighter note.

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susanamybones
2014-10-23 03:50 pm UTC (link)

Susan glanced at her friend and then followed suit, reading through the menu and finding something with chicken and cheese and herbed mayonnaise that met her requirements.

She nodded with a smile. "Dean Thomas yeah, he's Seamus' best friend and one of my best friends, and a very good artist now," she replied, absently twirling a napkin around in her fingers. "He was in Gryffindor with Seamus, Harry, Ron, and Neville. In our year. Lovely bloke."

"Ooooh what are you doing at the action then," she asked with genuine interest. It was just like Alicia to rope people in to help with her very good cause, even people who had barely re-entered the Wizarding world. She quirked her eyebrows at Lucy and nodded. "Yep, a boyfriend, Eddie Carmichael to be precise," she said, returning the grin. "He's very, very hot. Also cute I guess, but definitely hot. He works as a Cursebreaker for Gringott's bank so I don't get to see him as much as I'd like, and the whole boyfriend thing is very new. But yes."

She looked up as the bored looking waitress came over and took their orders, then turned back to her friend. "How about you? Is there anyone on the horizon?"

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addingvalue
2014-10-24 03:57 pm UTC (link)

Filing away this information about Dean, Lucy nodded. It wasn't particularly relevant to her right now - but you never knew when such things might come in useful. "I'm not sure yet. Selling tickets, maybe?" She hoped it would be something simple like that, that she could do without magic.

"Ooh." She smiled. "That's exciting!" Lucy had had a few boyfriends since school, though nothing that had lasted very long, so she tended to favour the early part of the relationship. After the magic fluttery feeling had faded things tended to get awkward or complicated.

After ordering her chips and beefburger - and a milkshake, because why not? - she shook her head. "Not lately." She lifted a hand to her mouth and bit at a nail with her incisor before catching herself and putting her hand back down. "Dating is hard."

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susanamybones
2014-10-25 03:16 pm UTC (link)

"Selling tickets would be great," Susan enthused with a big grin. "You're definitely the right sort of girl for the job - bubbly and bright and passionate without being pushy. The last fundraiser I went to had a surly girl who split her time between being obnoxious and trying to flirt with every wealthy looking married man in the room. It was excellent entertainment, she had an ice sculpture thrown at her head."

"It is exciting," she said with a smile, hoping that Eddie would actually live up to her hopes of what a proper partner could be - as opposed to the whole sadistic monster and his equally depraved wife that had typified Susan's last major romance. Still, the early signs looked promising and Susan didn't want to jinx anything.

She waited for Lucy to order and then smiled at the waitress, ordering the chicken burger, chips, and a milkshake because stuff it. "Dating is hard," she agreed with a sigh. "Still, maybe you'll win a date at the auction? That could be groovy?"

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addingvalue
2014-10-28 01:57 pm UTC (link)

Lucy shook her head, "I promise not to be surly or to judge guys by how wealthy they might be. I don't promise not to flirt, though." She gave Susan a conspiratorial smile. "It'll help ticket sales, if nothing else, and who knows... Alicia didn't mention any ice sculptures, so hopefully I'll be safe."

Their food arrived remarkably quickly, and Lucy eagerly started in on her chips. "I'm planning to buy some tickets," she confirmed. "I don't know who for - I'll probably just go by whoever is handsomest." After all, she knew very few of the wizards on the list Alicia had shown her, so what other criteria was she supposed to judge by? "And even if I don't win, it's for a good cause."

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susanamybones
2014-10-29 04:33 pm UTC (link)

Susan laughed gaily and nodded her head. "That sort of flirting is fine," she admitted with a chuckle. "It's when you try and stick your hand down the pants of the Head of the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures that we have a problem I think. I'll keep an eye out for ice sculptures for you anyway."

As soon as their food arrived, Susan dug into her burger with great gusto - she'd been quite starving and hadn't really had a chance for lunch or breakfast. "That's a great idea," she enthused. "You should buy some tickets for nice chaps - like Bryn, or Terry, or Roger. But you're right in that winning isn't everything and it's a great cause." She paused to eat a couple of the chips that came with her burger, before looking back at Lucy. "So what are your thoughts of the magical world after being away for so long?"

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addingvalue
2014-10-31 05:14 pm UTC (link)

Lucy sipped her milkshake as she thought over Susan's question. What were her thoughts? "I don't really know," she admitted. "It's great to see everyone! But Wayne was talking about us getting jobs here, and Alicia asked if I was interested in something more full time than just the raffle and -" And everytime she thought about it, she felt a flutter of panic, like she was an impostor who didn't belong in this world, because she could barely do magic.

She shrugged and sprinkled pepper over her chips. "It doesn't seem that easy to me. I already have a full-time job. I have friends, my family..." With a sigh, she met Susan's eyes. "You know me. I never could make a decision to save my life. I guess I'm not ready to dive all the way back in yet. I'm dipping my toes in the water."

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susanamybones
2014-11-02 02:28 pm UTC (link)

"Really," Susan asked, quirking an eyebrow in interest. "What was Wayne saying about jobs in the magical world? I mean you both did your OWLs so it's enough to be getting on with if you wanted to." She smiled, touched by Alicia's generosity. "That was lovely of Alicia!"

She nodded, looking at Lucy with a half-smile playing on her lips. "No one's asking you to give up your non-magical life," she said, after a moment of thoughtful chewing. "I mean to a lot of us there's a belief that it's easier for a witch or wizard to live in the magical world as opposed to the Muggle, but I think toe-dipping is smart."

She finished her burger and turned to finish off her chips. "I am quite proud of you," she said casually, deciding to add a smidgen more pepper to her chips. "The magical world is an intimidating place to come back to. It makes me wonder what drove you to come back into the fold, to use an appalling term?"

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addingvalue
2014-11-05 06:15 pm UTC (link)

"More or less that," Lucy said. "I know I'm technically more qualified in the magical world, since I missed my GCSEs - but I have work experience in the muggle world, I'm good with numbers, even if I don't have the qualifications to prove it." She didn't want to give that up and go back to a world in which she didn't feel even competent - but she didn't really expect Susan to understand that, so she focused on her chips.

Her shoulders firmed slightly as Susan confirmed that toe-dipping was a good way to begin. "I get why people believe that," she said. She just wasn't sure it applied to her specifically. Still, at least she was thinking about it, exploring her options. "It is nice not to have to lie so much." She didn't even notice that she'd implicitly admitted to lying at least a little.

Lucy raised an eyebrow. "I don't need you to be proud of me." She pushed her hair out of her face. "I'm not - I don't want to be the little girl who follows you and Ernie and Justin around, needing you to do everything for me." That was the crux of the matter, she supposed. As to the actual question, she shrugged. "Someone sent me a journal and a flyer for Finnigan's."

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susanamybones
2014-11-06 03:50 pm UTC (link)

Susan nodded and smiled, taking in what Lucy was telling her. "I think it's great that you're good with numbers," she said approvingly. "One of the lamentable facts of magical life is how little some of us care about arithmetic and logic," she said with a disapproving shake of her head. "So it's nice to know someone who's good with numbers." Her eyes took on a mirthful light and she leant forward with a faux-conspiratorial whisper, "Besides you never know when you'll need someone to cook the books eh?"

"Of course you do," Susan said, waving a chip to emphasise her point. "You're a smart woman, and I can't even imagine the difficulty of juggling your magical and Muggle identities," she added with sympathy. For Susan, her job required a certain amount of skullduggery and subterfuge as a matter of course, but she could well imagine how it would weigh on Lucy. "Not a fan of lies and chicanery, then?"

Susan felt her own eyebrows raise in response to Lucy's, before an undignified squawk off amusement escaped her lips. "Please don't think I'm being patronising," she said, still deeply amused. "I'm not proud of you in the sense of-" she paused and adopted a simpering matronly sort of voice steeped in the sort of upper class accent that could make anyone schooled by nuns instantly stand straight and correct their non-existant school ties, "Oh Lucy we're simply thrilled with how well you're doing!" She titled her head and ate another chip, assuming her usual voice. "I'm proud in the sense that it takes a lot of gumption to re-enter a world you seemed to have little love for in school, that's all. I don't think of you as anything like that either," she added with a hint of definite steel in her voice. "You're an adult and I'm certainly no one's servant. I would and will help you as much as I would any other friend, no more." She paused and took a sip of her drink, keeping her expression perfectly bland. "Well that was very nice of whoever sent you the journal and the flier, we must thank them one day, don't you think?"

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addingvalue
2014-11-06 11:34 pm UTC (link)

Lucy gave a fierce nod. "I didn't even know," she admitted. The thing she resented most about Hogwarts was that it had thrust her into a world in which she was good at nothing and stopped her from learning she actually had talents in the muggle world. But now that she knew... after all, Susan inadvertently made a good point. Even wizards needed to handle money, if she could convince them she was good at numbers maybe she could find a job. But were there jobs that required no magic? Probably not. Still, perhaps she should investigate - talk to Alicia.

"No," she admitted. "It's easier just not to say anything when people start talking about school..." Not that it happened too often - but it still bothered her. As much as she'd ignored magic since the war, she still knew about it, still knew she was a witch and couldn't tell anyone. "I don't really juggle, though. At least, I didn't before." Now... Yeah, now she was lying more than she liked - about where she spent her evenings. 'Old friends' was what she said when her flatmates asked, but she couldn't talk about them in any detail.

Susan's explaination eased Lucy's prickliness somewhat. She knew Susan was right. Her friends were good people who helped others in general, not just her, but she'd never felt as if she had anything she could volunteer in return. Maybe now things would be different. "I would," she said, "if I knew who it was."

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susanamybones
2014-11-08 04:04 pm UTC (link)

"Well, you do now, so maybe that will help," Susan replied firmly. "Who knows, maybe you could get a job at Gringotts or Alicia's or somewhere like that." She smiled enigmatically, thinking of how nice it would be to have Lucy back in their world properly.

"That makes sense I suppose," she replied with a frown. "I'm interested how well you've managed to go without being caught on the GCSE scores though." She tilted her head, listening to Lucy with interest. "Well of course not, you're a good honest person, but then the Statute of Secrecy kind of has to supercede any personal feelings about it. My cousin's husband is a cop and I've run into him at crime scenes a few times, such wonderfully awkward conversations."

Susan smiled and gave a Gallic shrug. "Who knows," she replied before looking at her watch. She sighed and pushed her plate away. "Well darling, I have to go unfortunately. We must catch up again soon!" She leant forward and kissed Lucy on each cheek before walking outside and down an alley to disapparate.

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