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Tweak says, "Not if she bites you first."

in_the_grass (in_the_grass) wrote in wished,
@ 2010-11-28 19:57:00

Entry tags:

!2003: 11, !incomplete, essery oakby, severus snape

Who: Severus Snape & Essery Oakby
What: Date night. No, really.
Where: Shoreditch, London
When: Backdated - Saturday, Nov. 20th.
Warnings: TBA

There were too many things about all of this that were new, or odd, or mildly uncomfortable, or that made him stop to second-guess - and it seemed beyond stupid that he should let clothes occupy even the smallest fraction of his attention. But it had been a couple decades since he'd come within ten feet of jeans. A short black woolen coat and one of his non-mutilated scarves helped allay the strange stark feeling of Muggle clothes, at least, and by the time he had Apparated away from the castle he felt more or less comfortable that he wouldn't stick out too terribly. He wasn't very good at blending in no matter where he went, but it was better than robes.

It wasn't that he didn't care where they were going. Of course he did - he hadn't thought about much else since she'd brought it up - he doubted he'd ever forget the details, because how could you when you dwelled on them this way - but more important, far more important, was that she had asked him and he'd been able to agree. Beyond that, he truly didn't know what he was doing. The street corner, at least, looked familiar in a generic way - a bit run down, a little grimy, dark and grey but clearly popular, full of people rather younger than him and wearing things that he was pretty sure had been in fashion when he was seventeen. Either nothing had changed, or everything had come round again.

"It looks something like I remembered it," he said, dry, glancing at the black boots of a passing young man that were almost indistinguishable from his own. "Less smoke." It made one feel a little less old.

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oakbye
2010-11-29 01:26 am UTC (link)

"Most places," Essery agreed. She thought, actually, that he looked rather dashing in an awkward, hipster sort of way - though thinking about Severus Snape as a black-decked hipster made her prone to giggles and she had to fight back the urge. She could have gotten him a beret, taken him to some coffee shop with a horrible poetry ready, and it would have made the world implode.

Instead she smiled at him, her hand coming to rest at his elbow as she looked around to get her bearings and then started them down the right street toward the little pub her muggle friend of a friend's cover band was playing in.

For her part, she was wearing black jeans, too, and a deep purple sweater, and she was trying incredibly hard to think of this as just a date, and not a date with Severus Snape, who she had kissed, and who thinking about seemed to be a surefire way to short circuit her brain, largely because most of her was sure that this was not a good idea, and that the more logical part of her brain told her she didn't know him nearly as well as she felt that she did. The same, largest parts of her brain weren't letting her care about either of those things.

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in_the_grass
2010-11-29 01:49 am UTC (link)

"That's an improvement, in any case." Even if they hadn't done anything about the litter. It was always so easy for him to find things to complain about, but this evening they seemed to fall into the background. He wasn't used to feeling adrenaline that wasn't warning him of something life-threatening.

Perhaps he should have been taking heed of it as a warning; he should have felt more precarious than he did. He was, as always, planning to be careful before stepping too far out into anything. But planning was one thing, and doing was another, and he'd already moved further than he thought was wise. He just didn't care. As far as he was concerned, he had earned the right to do whatever the hell he wanted. The only thing he had to worry about was the fact that he wasn't exactly in the habit of getting to know people. He still felt closed, though he was trying not to. And there was plenty that he thought Essery might not like if it were open.

But putting things out of his mind was something he was good at. "You can't tell me the music hasn't changed, however." He'd heard the nonsense that passed for wizarding music, and it couldn't be that much better in the world at large.

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oakbye
2010-11-29 01:52 am UTC (link)

"Maybe..." Essery shrugged, but there was something that turned a bit mischievous in her smile as she smiled up at him, and a few minutes later they were standing in a short queue outside a pub that had a marquee with the name of the band she'd been told to look for. Her friend had assured her they were good, that the covers sounded authentic. Tonight, at least, the music hadn't changed - if her friend was right and that all they covered was vintage punk.

The queue assembling jostled her against his side, and she smiled up at him again, and stayed where she was until the line moved.

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in_the_grass
2010-11-29 02:11 am UTC (link)

He arched his eyebrow at her; she was up to something, clearly. "Yes?" he asked, threading his arm around hers when she was pushed closer, and hardly expecting an answer. He found he didn't mind. 'Mischievous' seemed like her element, actually - it suited her, as little as he liked it in anyone very much younger. He moved with the queue, thinking for once that he might actually like to have a drink, although he felt calm enough.

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oakbye
2010-11-29 02:14 am UTC (link)

"Well, I wouldn't have you feeling entirely out of your element," Essery answered, grinning again and then leaning in, impetuously, so that her head was against his chest, over his heart. He was so solid. She remembered thinking once that he'd be cold, if she was this close, but that wasn't the case at all - and she couldn't tell if he was the one who was warm, or if she was just burning up.

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in_the_grass
2010-11-29 02:28 am UTC (link)

"That's generous of you." If still somewhat cryptic. She was good at making him not mind things, however, and looking down to see her this close in was enough to take his mind off whatever his element was supposed to be. He didn't feel solid, personally, but he felt less unsure than he had before, encouraged more than he'd thought possible by the feel of her resting against him. And he definitely didn't feel cold. He shifted his arm to lie around her shoulders. Whoever it was that was playing, he mostly hoped that they simply wouldn't get in the way of this.

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oakbye
2010-11-29 02:37 am UTC (link)

The queue moved them up, and Essery had to step away from where she'd settled leaning in against his chest to step up with it, and before he could be worried about muggle monies she'd paid the cover and was pulling him toward the door. Inside, the band hadn't started yet, and the pub was dark and packed - but there were tables free, and somehow she manged to take his hand and move him to one of those, relatively close to the stage. "This alright?" She asked, above the chatter.

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in_the_grass
2010-11-29 02:48 am UTC (link)

"Fine," he said, glancing toward the stage, though he couldn't really make anything out, before settling into one of the chairs. "Thank you." He didn't object at all to her paying - although he hadn't forgotten how to count out pounds over the last twenty years. He imagined he'd have his chance. "I'll get the drinks." It wasn't a question. This wouldn't be a bad way to spend the evening at all, he decided, once he'd positioned his chair close enough that there wasn't the width of a table between them.

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	oakbye 2010-11-29 02:51 am UTC (link)
	"Sounds good," Essery smiled as he moved his chair, moving hers around too so that she was sitting right beside him, no matter that the table was only meant for two. Others could crowd in if they wanted to, she'd take her seat at his side, where she could touch him. In public. It was heady and odd and she didn't dwell on it. "Tell them I want something fruity." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

in_the_grass
2010-11-29 03:04 am UTC (link)

If anyone tried to crowd in, Severus was more than confident in his ability to make them leave. He'd perfected those skills a very long time ago, and was sure they translated over the the Muggle world without much alternation. "Fruity. Right." He looked at her for just a moment before standing - to make sure she wasn't kidding - before heading for the thick mass of people at the bar. He returned a few minutes later with something that he thought had quite a lot of sugar and pomegranate juice (add some hellebore and some fly wings, he couldn't help thinking, and you'd have the start of a pretty decent blood replenishing potion) and a pint of beer, which he was going to make a concerted effort to learn to enjoy again.

"All right?" He set it down before her, sitting again and not hesitated to draper his arm over the armrest of her chair.

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	oakbye 2010-11-30 02:33 am UTC (link)
	Essery eyed it, then took a sip and smiled at him a moment later. "Perfect. The right amount of fruity..." Then she saw what he had, and looked surprised. "I didn't know you drank beer." It seemed so oddly pedestrian for him, she just never would have thought of it. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

in_the_grass
2010-11-30 02:41 am UTC (link)

"I used to," he admitted, although his decision had just as much to do with the fact that he didn't know anything about wine that wasn't elf-made and didn't much like the idea of drinking something as syrupy and bright as he'd brought her. Of course, back then his primary criteria had been cheap and easy to find, so he wasn't exactly expecting to be impressed. "Back when I didn't have the school's cellars to draw on, quality never seemed quite as important ..." But it wasn't bad, he decided. Bitter was always a good thing. "I'm glad you like it. The man behind the bar was not showing much regard for precise measurement."

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oakbye
2010-11-30 02:46 am UTC (link)

"He would have made a T in Potions too, then?" She whispered, not that anyone around them would be paying attention enough to notice that Potions wasn't an average topic of conversation. She laughed, taking another sip of her drink, then her smile went wider as the lights dimmed a little and went up on stage, the last of the setting up almost done.

"So, you can't blame me if they're completely horrid, right?" She sounded like she was teasing, though.