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Tweak says, "I'll make you scream 'FROGGER'"

michael corner is reluctantly growing up (mlcorner) wrote in pandorarpg,
@ 2011-12-26 22:12:00

Entry tags:

!status: complete, ^date: november 09 2003, character: lavender brown, character: michael corner

Characters: Lavender Brown & Michael Corner
Setting: Lavender's flat, 9 November 2003, 2:31pm
Rating: General Public
Summary: Catching Lavender up on the meeting & getting free baked goods.

Michael wasn't sure if he felt good about the meeting or not. They had discussed plenty of things and learned loads from all different sources, but there had been confrontation and not many had considered some of what he said to be realistic, which he had expected, but being the dutiful not-boyfriend that he was, he had still said it. He wanted to give Lavender a full account of what all had happened, but he had a feeling she wasn't going to like all of it. Hopefully he could put that part off for a while.

Michael knocked on her door rather than trying to enter through the roof, though at least he had been extended an invitation this time. So maybe that meant that he wouldn't be expecting anything to be thrown at him, not that he wouldn't put it past Lavender to turn the tables on him at any moment. He waited for her to open the door, holding a bouquet of lavender coloured flowers he had procured on the way over to Lavender's flat.

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lavishly
2011-12-31 05:05 am UTC (link)

"Sure, kitchen table will work just fine." Which meant it was going to be that kind of conversation, requiring some sort of slightly formal frame. Even if that formal frame did include the Betta fish she had living in a bowl in the middle of her table. Lavender grabbed two forks and the plates before moving over to the glass table. The mess from the frosting adventure could be dealt with later.

Lavender sat down at the table, giving them both a moment to settle and start in on the cake. As it was only a matter of time before the topic came up, Lavender opted to start in on it. "So, I bumped into Justin and Bianca when I popped out to pick up some cream cheese for the frosting earlier today, which didn't seem to go all that well."

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mlcorner
2011-12-31 05:34 am UTC (link)

Michael had a bite of cake halfway to his mouth when she mentioned Justin and Bianca, but it didn't end up making it all the way. "Oh fuck," was all the reply he could first come up with. He certainly couldn't have hoped for a worse way to start things off. Of all the people for her to run into, Justin and Bianca should have been the last.

He sighed and ran his hands over his face and through his hair. "I'm sorry, Lavender. I really am. I guess I probably could have done a better job telling them. I tried to get Justin to understand - fuck, even Ernie understood and he's friends with Bianca - but he just would not listen to reason. I have tried and tried to talk to him but I just don't know. He keeps harping on about me being the one who told everyone for you and just...so what did they say to you?"

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lavishly
2011-12-31 05:55 am UTC (link)

Lavender cut off a piece of her cake, but didn't eat it. "Well, there was a bit of a nasty exchange with Justin in the journals before that so when I saw them I honestly tried to just keep going because I wasn't exactly up for being attacked or something." She had even told them as much because yes, she was feeling better but that didn't mean she wanted to deal with open hostility when today was meant to be a break from the world as it were.

"Except Bianca stops me demanding an answer for why I have suspicions about her like I've been running around telling everyone what I think when all I did was tell you and then ask you to tell the people at the meeting." And maybe that all could have gone differently if it had been a different time of the month, but it wasn't and she had been scared. She still was afraid for her life. "Which I'm sorry about because apparently it was like way more hostile than I thought it would have gone, but they should know because I could be wrong, but what if I was right and it's not impossible."

Lavender hadn't wanted to put Michael in the middle of something, but he had offered and there really was no way she was going anywhere last night. "So, anyway, I told her about not fitting the pattern, her nightmare the first night and her visions and you know also that she doesn't have a spot like all of us who are marked for dead do. Which she doesn't - have a spot and...God!" Lavender paused shaking her head, because of everything how mean Justin had been to her really bothered her. "Then Justin looked at me like I've caused him some great offense before he went off with her saying he was going to prove me wrong."

She had gotten herself all worked up now, totally making her question the worth of the cream cheese. Lavender tried to not let it get to her, to remind herself that she was supposed to be telling Michael, not yelling at him. This wasn't his fault, but she needed to talk to someone, even if for her talking was lots of words stumbling on top of each other all at once.

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mlcorner
2011-12-31 06:28 am UTC (link)

Michael really hated hearing all of it. He hated confrontation between his friends, with his friends, and this was all just seemingly getting worse and worse. He didn't want to interrupt her so he tried his best to keep his comments to himself while she told the story, knowing that she needed to get this all out. Once it seemed like she'd finished he let out a long sigh.

"I'm sorry, Lav." He reached across the table and took her hand in his, squeezing it. "If I had known that it would go this way I never would have mentioned her name at all. But it was important to do so, because we did need to talk to her and find out why she was having visions when everyone else was just having nightmares. Shite, I don't know what to do. Justin thinks that if he waits it out and a murder happens and he was with Bianca that it proves her innocent. As if we know how many people are involved at this time. We don't know how many people Pandora has murdering for her! This is so ridiculous! I don't want him putting himself in danger, but we can't seem to get him to listen at all."

Michael looked at her, knowing that none of this was the least bit helpful. "I really don't know what to say, love. This whole thing is a mess. Are you...okay?"

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lavishly
2011-12-31 10:34 pm UTC (link)

She squeezed his hand back, using it as a sort of focusing point. So far Michael had only helped her and getting mad or frustrated at him when she was really upset about other things wasn't going to help any. "I'm okay," she said, which wasn't the complete truth but it wasn't a lie either.

"I just wish...well, no if I was wishing for things I wouldn't start there, but things are happening so fast, Harry's dead, other people are dying or might die and there's nothing to keep us together, so it's like we're all turning on each other." That was how she saw it. For as bad as things were at Hogwarts, they had stayed united, kept each other safe as they suffered some common experience. Only that didn't exist anymore. This time around they were adults, all out in their own lives, five years gone from actively being part of any sort of army and all with very different things to worry about.

"And I don't want her to be killing people anymore, I don't want anyone to be killing others, but I'm not crazy. I'm not."

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mlcorner
2011-12-31 11:03 pm UTC (link)

Michael knew how things went when people got scared. He'd read enough books to know and when she mentioned turning against each other, one in particular came to mind: Lord of the Flies. He knew just how quickly it could turn into this and he was scared that he might have contributed to the witch hunt by calling out Bianca's name, even if it was true that her case was different than the rest. Maybe he shouldn't have enabled Lavender's suspicions, regardless of how scared she seemed. He wanted to protect her and make her feel safe, but looking back at the fallout now, it seemed more likely it had done more harm than good. Maybe he was doing all of this because he cared too much about Lavender's well being, not because he wanted to find out the truth about Bianca's visions.

He nodded. "I guess this isn't how we started things out in seventh year, huh?" It seemed a lot easier back then, all under one roof and nowhere else to run to unless your parents decided to pull you from school. "Look Lav, I'm here. I don't think you're nutters. I haven't since you first told me. I wouldn't have told them if I did. What you have noticed is true. And maybe Bianca is just a special seer or maybe she is having the visions because she's remembering things she's done. We don't really know one way or the other. All we know is that her case is different and that is something to be weary of, no matter how sweet she might be. That doesn't mean we want her stoned to death on the spot, but I guess-I guess you should just steer clear of her and Justin for a while until we find out more about her visions. Hopefully it will all cool down and we can get some answers."

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lavishly
2012-01-01 12:54 am UTC (link)

"Getting any sort of answers from her, about her, isn't going to be any easier now." Now she had Justin standing up for her, Bianca was on the defensive. The whole thing probably could have been handled better, but what was done what done. She couldn't change that. "Seers, real Seers, people who have a well-developed Inner Eye aren't that common. If she's a Seer, than she's a Seer, and those people like are usually on file with the Ministry along with what they have Seen.

"So why hasn't she gone yet? If she's a Seer, she should have gone the moment she had the vision and I don't know, maybe things could have been prevented." For as much stock as Lavender put into divination, her own Inner Eye was weak - she had dreams sometimes and with the proper focus could get an honest reading, but she never had any sort of real vision. And it wasn't for lack of trying, she would give a lot for that sort of ability even if it came with the burden of knowing. Lavender wanted it and it would be far better than the burdens she received instead.

"And okay, maybe she's scared because like I said this whole thing is scary, but if it was me, no matter how terrified I was or even if I thought it could be me, I would have told the appropriate people." Maybe that was what she didn't get. Lavender was on some level terrified of herself, of what she might become even now years later, that she insisted on regular healer visits to make sure she was healthy, kept herself away from people when it was bad. "So what's keeping her from going? Why is a woman we've never heard of until now her greatest fear? There are just all these questions and suddenly I'm crazy? I'm looking to hang someone?"

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mlcorner
2012-01-01 01:36 am UTC (link)

Michael didn't know much about Seers and how they were registered with the Ministry. He never paid much attention to all that. So if all Seers' visions were on file with the Ministry that meant that Bianca would - should - probably know that as well seeing as she was just as interested in Divination as Lavender was. But that didn't necessarily make her a bad person. It had only been a week, not exactly a long time, but people were being murdered and Michael was fairly certain that he himself would have gone to the Ministry when that had begun if it was happening to him.

"I dunno, Lav. Maybe she didn't know it was a vision - maybe she's never had one before? I don't really know that much about her to be honest. She's pretty quiet. I barely got her to speak two words to me at Justin's party and I'm sure that Smith's appearance didn't help matters any with his calling everyone out...bloody hell!" Michael suddenly perked up as if he'd remembered something. He didn't know why he hadn't seen it before, but now all of Justin's over-reactions to this situation seemed to make sense to him. It was all because of what Zacharias Smith had said about him at the party. Michael now understood what Justin meant about 'being useful.'

"Lav, Smith showed up pissed to Justin party and started spouting a load of rubbish about everyone there. I was the one who answered the door, I tried to keep him out but he pushed past me and just started ripping into every person he could see. Apparently Justin went to Smith's dad's funeral and Smith basically said it was no big deal that his dad died during the war and then called him a useless layabout and I think Justin is just trying not to be useless like Smith said he was. Shite, I can't believe he put any stock into what that prick said. You would think he knew he was a bloody prat by the fact that I punched the fucking idiot right in his smug face." Michael's fist balled up just thinking about it again, but he tried to remain calm because he didn't need to be worrying about Smith or his fucked up sense of reality right then. "I think this is just all a huge over-reaction on Justin's part. I mean, he does think Bianca is innocent, but this isn't just about her either."

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lavishly
2012-01-01 08:46 pm UTC (link)

Michael did make a good point. It could have been her first vision or she could have not known what it was. Except that she did knew and she didn't seem like it was a new thing. If it were, Lavender probably wasn't the person she went to. Looking back it was a bit odd for Bianca to tell Lavender, someone she didn't really know beyond a few shared interests and some friends in common. Maybe it was just as odd for her to invite her into her home, but she had wanted another reading and Bianca had mentioned the interest and ability.

Except she wouldn't have any time to turn those thoughts into words as Michael seemed to have a sudden revelation about things. "You punched him in the face?" Lavender shook her head, that wasn't the point. Although it was becoming clear that she had missed a lot in the span of thirty-six hours. She supposed that just went back to how quickly things were going. "So great on top of the stress and fear of the situation itself, we have that too." It was the sort of thing that might have happened back at school, but at least then they were forced to see each, share space, sometimes even dormitories, so issues got resolved quicker or never reaching the boiling point.

"I mean over-reaction is one thing, but he was unnecessarily mean to me and you know, not being all that smart about the whole thing, even if she is innocent."

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mlcorner
2012-01-02 10:26 pm UTC (link)

Michael nodded and may have given a small smirk because despite having been ridiculously pissed off, he was maybe a little proud of that fact. And it didn't hurt that the prat had deserved every bit of it. "Yes I did and he bloody well deserved it. No one fucks with my mates and gets away with it if I'm there to do something about it." Which was true with Michael Corner; he didn't like bullies and he wouldn't put up with people being rude to his friends.

"What did he say to you?" Michael didn't know what their exchange was but both of them had said that the other had said things now and he had no idea exactly what had transpired between them. "He said that you called him stupid. And then amended it to 'not so smart' later when I didn't make a comment on it saying I should have stood up for him or something. I told him it wasn't really my place to apologise for you if you were mean to him, but like I told him, I really don't know what either of you two said to one another." He really shouldn't even be asking her what Justin said either, because he shouldn't be getting in the middle of it, but there he was and he knew that he'd be in the middle regardless so he might as well see if he could get a better picture of what was said between the two of them.

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lavishly
2012-01-02 11:11 pm UTC (link)

She sighed, picking at her cake for a moment as she tried to figure out a place to start. "He wrote me like this letter in the margins of my journal," said Lavender. "He went on about how Bianca is such a good person that he wouldn't even consider a possibility that she might somehow be involved. Then he claimed that lots of people had visions and belittled my suspicion by saying I should have been there to tell everyone." And she had wanted to be there because all of this was important. IT all mattered because it was people's lives on the line, but for as important as it was, she knew that going to that meeting would not have been a good idea, not when it was also the full moon.

"So, I was like, I didn't just dump it on Michael and bunk the meeting, but I honestly couldn't be there, which he claimed to know, but-" She shook her head, that was not the point. Of all of it, it didn't matter if he knew that she couldn't be there or not. She hadn't been there and Michael was her proxy, she hadn't been running away from anything. "I also explained to him how lots of people don't just have visions. I mean he even called the nightmares of our worst fears that one night visions and they weren't. They were more like dreams or waking dreams for you know, the people who weren't asleep and it's not the same thing.

"I also said that just because Bianca is a good person doesn't make what I feel irrelevant or impossible because look at what happened to Ginny Weasley, and I said that we should seriously consider what Bianca's role might be in all of this." Which seemed like a moot point by now because she was on the defensive and if she was dangerous, it was going to be worse now. "And yeah, I said I don't think that he can objective about the whole thing, which he seemed to take offense to and he's the one who brought up that he might not be as smart as others, but he can give people the benefit of the doubt. And really what right do I have calling anyone stupid?"

Lavender had always been a bit sensitive about the fact that she wasn't all that bright. Especially when a lot of her time at school, she compared herself to Hermione Granger who was the brightest witch of her age. That was certainly what at least part of the Ron Weasley thing had been about and even that turned on her. "But I did say he wasn't being so smart because he wanted to prove me wrong by sticking with her for a few days even if she might be imperiused, which isn't that smart. And all of this concludes rather spectacularly with him telling me to..."

She paused not really wanting to say it, but wanting to get across what he told her accurately. "Fuck off and that he expected an apology. And that was just in the journals. So, yeah, mean."

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