RP: Gossip; You have to be exaggerating! Date: December 30, 2000 Characters: Maddox & Thalia Location: cafeteria, Ministry of Magic Public/Private: Private Summary: Maddox engages in something he normally doesn't: gossip. Will it be fun or remind why he normally avoids idle gossip from his fellow Minister workers? Status: Incomplete
It was lunch time. He should have known to avoid the cafeteria during this time of day, but he hated eating at his desk and he certainly didn't have time to leave and come back. Sighing heavily, he scanned the crowd in the cafeteria for not just someone he knew, but someone who might not mind him sitting with them. It was a bit hard; he had to avoid those who knew who just thrived on pumping him for stories as an Auror or those who just sat there like a stone. What was the point of sitting with someone when they didn't talk? He might as well be sitting by himself. He'd done that many times, sometimes getting someone to ask to sit with him and sometimes not. But today it was far too busy for an empty table.
Looking down at his tray of food, he noticed the cufflinks again. He'd been wearing them when appropriate every since he received. No one, lucky asked where he got them and Andromeda had kept quiet. If she asked, he could just say a friend or co-worker. It was rather easy, but he didn't want to lie by omission by refusing to say who exactly. He hated lying to her. He'd spent over 20 years in a marriage with her and didn't lie to her, but now? He was lying more often than he'd like even for an affair. Both women deserve better, he thought to himself, letting his feet carry him deeper into the mess.
Finally, he stopped in front of a table that Thalia Lestrange and a few other people were sitting at. He rarely spoke to Miss Lestrange, but he certainly knew who she was. He was acquaintances with her father and had known her late mother. It was shamed what happened. She was a good woman and her death still seemed senseless, an accident, a hazard, a causality. Positioning himself behind the empty seat across from her, he asked politely, "The cafeteria is a mess today. Do you mind if I sit with you?"