InsaneJournal

A Really Bad Idea?
Who: Lily and Severus
When: Tuesday evening
Where: her room
What: dinner and magic
Rating: Low
Status: Complete

Lily was adjusting to the rules at work -- both the official and unofficial ones. She was learning by observation, and learning by experience, and learning by listening. Mostly, she was trying to keep to herself and do her job well enough that she didn’t draw much attention to her obvious lack of experience. It was fairly easy work though, and she was catching on quickly. It was the rest of it she was taking issue with. Maybe other women accepted the fact it was all right for the blokes to grope them in the elevator or drag them into their offices for a snog, but she wasn’t going to stand for it. She couldn’t outright fight it though, or make scenes, because that just earned derisive laughter … but she was a witch, and she had other ways of dealing. Maybe it was a petty reason to want to learn wandless magic, but it wasn’t as though the skill was going to be useless beyond that. She despised the idea of leaving her wand here in her room while she was at work, but maybe she’d start by keeping it in a handbag in her desk and see if she could feel comfortable enough without it on her person. While she knew this was just carry-over from the war, and that the odds of her needing her wand at work were next to zero, she just wasn’t comfortable without it. Hopefully she’d be able to learn magic without her wand, and that could be a happy compromise. Granted, she had some serious misgivings in regard to agreeing to let Severus tutor her. While she didn’t expect him to be outwardly cruel to her, she couldn’t help but imagine there was going to be a tension between them all the same. She didn’t honestly know where they stood, or what it even meant that he offered to help. She was a little nervous about seeing him in person after all this time, and she knew that was utterly non-conducive to learning. So she tried to make herself relax. She’d taken a quick shower to get the worst of the smoke-smell out of her hair and off her body, and she’d done her best to charm the smell out of her clothing. She wondered if putting up a shield charm around herself at work would keep the smell off of her there, and she thought it was worth looking into. She honestly didn’t understand the appeal, but everyone in the office, without the sole exception of her, had been seen with a cigarette in their hand, usually multiple times a day. After drying off and dressing in something comfortable and casual, Lily set about arranging the furniture (what little of it there was) to clear a space for them to work in. She wasn’t sure how much space they really would need; it wasn’t as though they’d be dueling (she hoped not, at any rate), but she also didn’t want to cause any damage by accident. She reasoned if she had a big enough space bubble, she’d be all right. Perching on the edge of one of the chairs, Lily waited.