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Penelope Clearwater (_penny) wrote in wished,
@ 2009-12-15 23:34:00

Entry tags:

!1997: 12, !complete, orsino thruston, penelope clearwater

Who: Penelope Clearwater, Orsino Thruston
What: Jingle bell rocking!
Where: Vinyl Countdown, off Campden Road
When: 15th December
Warnings: PG-13

There was something wonderful about slipping through the crowded London streets ; weaving in and out of the Christmas crowds and slipping past the workers in their bright yellow jackets, clipboards and forced smiles. Penny only wanted to make it to the record shop, not be caught and forced to fill out a form indicating how she felt about kittens being forced to wear clothes.

Entering the shop was an assault on her ears ; somebody with a sense of humour had put on Bob Dylans Christmas Album and the voice crooning out Christmas tunes and cheerful lyrics was a stark contrast to the mounrful tones of his voice.

Penny found herself standing in front of the Christmas section clutching a collection of records to play at home. She adored Oliver and loved sharing a flat with him ; one of the many benefits was access to the record player. It meant she could indulge in music after work and not have to wince every time Celestina Warbeck trilled out one of those awfully pitched notes.

Shifting her albums - the type of music she'd be embarrassed to admit owning in public - she reached forward to pick up a Christmas album. The cover was lurid, gaudy and with enough red cheeked elfs to catch her attention.

A large hand swam into view, blocking the portly santa and Penny reached for the album at the same time. It was the last on the shelf, and it was one of the few albums she could play on repeat for a few hours without Oliver or Meghan staging an intervention.

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_penny
2009-12-17 05:08 pm UTC (link)

"If you ever get the chance, I reccomend it. If you're worried about not being warm enough, you can cheat and use charms"

Her legs had to walk a little faster to keep up with Orsinos legs but it meant she had time to look around and spotted the display briefly.

"Theres a choice; thers a cafe around the corner that does the best ice cream floats in all of London but its a greasy spoon and your ateries clog in the most pleasant way when you step inside. Or," Penny paused to shift her bag to the other arm and dug into her pockets to pull out a pair of gloves "Theres a slightly more upmarket bistro a few minutes walk toards the river. And by upmarket, I mean that the tables have real tablecloths and not the plastic ones you can wipe."

"What takes your fancy?"

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oneandtwoand
2009-12-17 05:24 pm UTC (link)

Orsino stepped out and stretched his arm behind him to hold the door long enough that Penny could follow through. "Well," he began, pulling on his own gloves and zipping the high collar of his jacket up nearly to his chin. As a stiff breeze slapped against his face, he regretted having left his hat at home. "I suppose the first one."

Generally Orsino wasn't very snobbish about where he ate - some of the best places he'd eaten over the years were random little shops on corners, with tables stained from years of use and booths that sagged in strange spots. He knew that regardless of where they chose at this point, this weather would probably see his face pink and mildly raw by the time they arrived. And he did like walking. Orsino shrugged and bounced on the balls of his feet.

"Though if you know both you'd know which is better for our purposes."

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_penny
2009-12-17 05:37 pm UTC (link)

"Excellent," Penny had time to say before she was hit by the blast of the cold air and she grinned like a lunatic at the contrast between the shop and the chilly London air.

"I know some people are a little fussy about where they eat. I don't really mind so long as the food is plentiful and warm." When she'd toured Europe she'd come to appreciate the smaller places that were piled high with mountains of food, although she had spent a larger part of her wages in the four and five starred restaurants.

Part of her couldn't understand why the more you paid for food, the smaller the portions.

"I love London. My family and I used to come up here when Paula got her letter ; it was quite different from our part of Cornwall and we fell in love with it. I' can't imagine growing up here though; I'm a fan of wide open spaces."

As they walked the crowded streets, Penny looked left and right to make sure she was going in the right direction. They passed carollers from one of the local scools, bundled up against the snow and bleating out 'Oh Come All Ye Faithful' and Penny tilted her head in time to the music as she fought the urge to go and look in every single brightly displayed window.

"Oh we have to go down here," Reaching up without thinking, Penny caught ahold of Orsinos elbow and pointed to a small alleyway off the street. At the bottom was a faded pink neon sign with 'Patty's' on it and graying signs in the window.

She could smell the fryups from here and it made her stomach rumble.

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oneandtwoand
2009-12-17 05:53 pm UTC (link)

Being mostly happy just to get out of the cramped store and into the open air, even if the streets were more crowded than usual, Orsino just followed at Penny's side, slowing his normal pace slightly to match hers. By now he knew enough to realize she'd probably keep talking, and, indeed, she lived up to it. He was listening, and nodded every so often. But he was also zoning out a bit, enjoying the smells that mingled in the air. It had been a while since Orsino had cut his hair, and this was made only more apparent as the wind was now blowing it in and out of his eyes every few seconds.

As they passed the carolers, he nodded in their direction in acknowledgment and smiled briefly. Orsino scanned the ground around them to see if there was anywhere for a collection of some sort, and when he spied a tin box near the end of the lineup, he tossed some of his change from Vinyl Countdown into it.

Just after, he was startled by the sudden pressure of Penny's hand at his elbow. He stopped short and looked down the alleyway she indicated. "That was quick," Orsino said a bit stupidly, turning down the alley with Penny and nearing the establishment.

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_penny
2009-12-17 06:08 pm UTC (link)

Penny noticed as he tossed coins into the tin and hid her grin. It was a Nice thing to do, and though Orsino didn't seem to be much of a talker, sparing some change said more about him than answering her ramblings.

"I told you it was just around the corner." Penny pushed open the door and held it open for Orsino to follow through. The small cafe was about half full - in the corner were to old women who were discussing their latest Bingo gossip over scones and tea and near to them was a young family, the children slurping fizzy drinks whilst their parents held a whispered argument about whos turn it was to change the nappy of the baby currently chewing his toes and gurgling happily in his pram.

"Oh, here's an empty table," Penny spotted one and slid in the brightly coloured and bench, despositing the bag beside her. Her feet brushed the ground and should she be so inclined, she could have drummed them against the botom of the booth.

She decided to leave the drumming to the professionals for the time being.

"Its nice to meet you, in person as opposed to through the journals," she dragged a hand through her hair and sent it curling in every direction as she tried to think of what to say. "Did you ever recieve any more cake?"

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oneandtwoand
2009-12-17 06:22 pm UTC (link)

Orsino slid into the booth opposite Penny and leaned back in the seat, stretching his legs a bit but being careful not to invade her territory. This seemed to be just as she'd described it - a top form greasy spoon, with the smells and the sounds that came with such a name. Nonetheless, it was somehow welcoming for all that. He realized that the reason his flat was so often bereft of any real food was because he tended to dine out at least once a day, although it wasn't usually with company outside of the occasional band mate.

He set his hands in his lap, then almost immediately put them on the table, and then his right hand had grabbed the container of sugar almost of its own accord. What Orsino intended to do with the sugar was anyone's guess, most of all his own.

Beginning to feel a bit badly for having barely responded to anything Penny had said since they left, he offered her a slow grin when she asked about the cake.

"Yeah, it was an odd shock," he agreed, then quickly added, "good, though, too. At least I know you weren't some loony trying to get a CD off of me."

Orsino stopped again and thought that that hardly sounded like a compliment, or even a nice thing to say, and he wasn't trying to be rude. Bollocks. He moved on quickly. "Erm. No, I didn't. Probably a good thing, though."

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_penny
2009-12-17 06:43 pm UTC (link)

The grin changed his into something more friendly and Penny leaned forward to straighten the menu and arched an eyebrow at the way he cradled the sugar bowl.

At his comment about her being a loony though she started laughing, and it took a few moments for her to straighten her face. "Trust me, if I wanted a CD off of someone, then I'd go out and buy one." Of all the various types of music she owned, a Weird Sister album was not one of them.

It was too loud and ..pipey.

"But I'm not a loony, honest. I just have this tendancy to ramble. It drives Ol - thats my flatmate - absoloutly mad. It even got me into trouble when I first met Meghan. Imagine two eleven year olds in an empty railway carriage arguing over which was the best team: The Prides or the Falcons.

Shaking her head fondly at the memory, Penny caught the eye of the waitress who bustled over "Bloodshed ensued and then we settled it over chocolate. Its the way of girls."

" A good thing?" Penny raked her gaze over him and then arched an eyebrow in confusion "How do you mean? Don't take this the wrong way but you look as though you could do with a good few cakes, a fry up and a giant pizza. Unless," she lowered her voice to a stage whisper "You're not one of those blokes concerned about your weight are you? If you are, tell me now so I can be sure not to offend you with my eating habbits."

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oneandtwoand
2009-12-17 06:51 pm UTC (link)

He cocked his head a bit, similar to the way a bird or a dog might when it's picked up on something interesting. Realizing that he'd never taken off his gloves, or his jacket for that matter, he abandoned the sugar and tugged the gloves off. Rather than standing again, he squirmed a bit to better position himself for the removal of the jacket. As he accomplished this mighty feat (well, for a tall man at an average-sized restaurant booth, it wasn't exactly easy), Orsino looked up at Penny.

"What? Oh! No."

The supposition that he was worried about his weight almost made him laugh. He was by no means a picky eater, and when it came to food, if he liked something, he'd probably eat it. Unfortunately, his stomach didn't always agree with his taste buds, and he'd more than once regretted having eaten so much of certain things.

His face took on an expression of mixed amusement and concern as he finally freed his second arm from the jacket sleeve and shoved it off beside him. "No. It's just, last time, I ate too much of it all at once and..." He trailed off. If he remembered correctly, he'd told her something like that on the journals. "It was a bad idea."

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_penny
2009-12-17 07:01 pm UTC (link)

Leaning back against the bench, Penny watched Orsino try and get out of his jacket and gloves.

It was a little like watching a giraffe try and escape a strait-jacket.

Of course it didn't do anything to dispel her curiosity as to how exactly they all got in and out of those leather trousers and the thought had her flushing slightly. It was completly inaporpriate to be thinking things like that when she was sitting opposite one of the possible trouser-wearers.

"Um, yes," she said distractedly once he'd sat don again "You mentioned. Since you've no objection to eating, would you be offended if I ordered a Chelsea bun? I can practically hear them calling my name."

The waitress shuffled over and Penny ordered her bun and ice cream float ; banana milkshake with a scoop of mint choc chip. At the strange look she simply smiled pleasantly and batted her eyelashes as she added 'Please'.

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oneandtwoand
2009-12-17 07:20 pm UTC (link)

Orsino wondered why he would be offended by someone ordering food, least of all a bun. Actually, ordering some real food that wasn't just a glass of sugary beverage with a lump of sugary dairy product floating around in it sounded like a good idea. As if to back this thought up, his stomach growled ominously.

After Penny had placed her order, Orsino followed in kind. Not only did he order the float that had gotten him here in the first place - chocolate ice cream, ginger beer, he didn't care if it seemed boring - but also a sandwich. A hot triple layer ham, cheddar, and tomato sandwich, to be precise. As if to further disprove Penny's thought that he might be a conscientious eater.

Once the waitress had wandered away, Orsino was beginning to feel somewhat more comfortable in his surroundings. This wasn't too bad.

"So," he said, folding his arms across his chest and tapping his foot under the table, "you've been friends with Meghan since Hogwarts." It sounded more like a statement than a question.

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_penny
2009-12-17 07:39 pm UTC (link)

Penny was glad he wasn't a fussy eater, it was one of the things she couldn't abide.

"I have. Day one, and we were lucky enough to be sorted into the same house," at the tone of his voice, Penny settled in for a pleasant conversation "I was a member of almost every club in Hogwarts, Prefect, Head and nothing terribly exciting happened to me during my time at Hogwarts."

She missed out being Petrified, and having Sirius Black roam the halls. Some things didn't need to be shared.

"I'm 21, am an apprentice ward smith, lifelong Falcons fan and live in London with my flatmate Oliver Wood. I can provide references if you'd like."

The waitress bustled over with their order, and Penny shut herself up by taking a long drink of the ice cream float until her mouth froze.

"So," she echoed as she mirrored his stance "How did you get into drumming?"

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oneandtwoand
2009-12-17 08:00 pm UTC (link)

Orsino allowed himself to snicker a little at the way Penny rattled off her life history since Hogwarts in about a minute and a half. He thought the name Oliver Wood sounded somewhat familiar, but he wasn't sure why. Probably just remembered it from school. Ah - he'd been the Gryffindor Quidditch captain for a few years, that was it.

"No references needed," he said shortly, pulling the float closer to him and stirring it around a bit with the long spoon that had arrived with it. Penny's query about his drumming took him off guard, and he took a few moments to sort it out. Not as though he didn't remember, but it had been about twelve or thirteen years.

"I, er, it was sort of an accident." He paused to scoop some of the ice cream out of his glass and consumed it. "I was maybe nine or ten and walking around the neighborhood. Someone was selling their old set, and I got my parents to buy it for me and it sort of...went from there."

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_penny
2009-12-17 08:34 pm UTC (link)

"And I bet that made your family popular with the neighbours."

Penny reached down into her float and scooped out a slice of banana, eating it before her tongue darted out to lick the spoon clean.

It was nice to know that he could string a sentance together, and when he was talking about himself he looked more relaxed. Nobody should have shoulders that pointy all the time.

"You're really lucky that you get to do something you love. And something thats very, very noisy. Noise is good."

"And the Weird Sisters? Should I assume thats Kirley's idea? He's always struck me as a male version of Meghan - or in other words, a human tornado."

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oneandtwoand
2009-12-17 08:42 pm UTC (link)

"Well, silencing charms were certainly a help."

He took a break from the float to concentrate on the sandwich, which had come with a heap of chips and was giving off the most appetizing aroma. Chewing thoughtfully, Orsino was becoming increasingly pleased to be here. This sandwich was very good indeed. He made a mental note to remember this place.

And, admittedly, the company had proven to actually be enjoyable - considering how this had all started. One eyebrow quirked and he bobbed his head from side to side as he swallowed, preempting an answer.

"Dunno really. Well, I mean, I know. But I didn't come in until they'd already formed. They lost their first drummer to..something or other." Orsino put two chips in his mouth and continued. "I knew Herman in school. They were sort of getting started when we were graduating, but I wasn't interested then."

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_penny
2009-12-17 09:14 pm UTC (link)

"Oh?" Tilting her head, Penny furrowed her brow thoughtfully "Your parents weren't muggles?"

He'd seen awfully comfortable around the Muggle shops and hadn't blinked as he'd handed over the notes and coins for his cd, and Penny had simply assumed that he came from a muggleborn or half-blood family like herself.

"Poor kid. You always wonder what the ones that leave do with their lives. My dad told me all about Stuart Sutcliffe."

Slicing into her bun, Penny cut it into neat quarters before slicing it carefully to nibble on.

"You travel with them? Isn't it a bit like being back at Hogwarts? I don't think I could share a room - or my life - with a group of girls again. I'm surprised my lungs aren't choked up with the amount of perfume my other roomates bathed in. Wau de..I think it was Magique they used. It was the cheapest stuff you could get and reminds me too much of Madam Puddifoots."

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oneandtwoand
2009-12-17 09:25 pm UTC (link)

"Hm mm." Orsino shook his head, his mouth full of float. He knew better than to swallow it quickly for the sake of discussion. The last thing he wanted was for his whole head to feel as though it'd been subjected to a freezing charm. "My dad's Muggleborn, mum's half-blood. So we had a fairly normal upbringing for...you know."

He looked down at his plate and realized he'd eaten nearly all of the chips without even realizing it. Luckily, there was still half a sandwich, as he was still had quite a lot of room in his stomach. At least, he thought so.

"Not too much. We all have our own lives and things going on." It wasn't like they were stuck in classes, and dorms, and dining halls, and corridors together 24/7. And, for him anyway, living alone made the experience much more tolerable. It was rare that Orsino found himself getting overly frustrated with any of his fellow Weird Sisters during tours or recordings anymore. At least, they seemed to know enough to let him alone now and then. He shrugged. "And girls are different with that sort of thing."

Though maybe not so prone to drunken antics late into the night, and waking up not quite remembering the proceeding of the night before.

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_penny
2009-12-17 09:38 pm UTC (link)

"Ahh" Penny said eloquently "Mums a muggleborn and dad's a muggle. We weren't sure if either Helen or I would get our letters ; Mum had been a bit shifty with the details, but I got mine and Helen followed three years later."

Wriggling around in her seat, Penny crossed her legs and reached down to absentmindedly scratch her thigh. It was a new pair of jeans she was trying to break in and the only thing that was coming close to breaking was her patience with the offending articles.

"You'd be surprised what girls get up. I remember someone," Penny did not Name Names "sneaking in a bottle of firewhisky. I should have reported them, I was hoping to be made Prefect the following year but.."

She gave a small shrug and brushed off the one and only night she'd gotten drunk enough to hug the toilet throughout the night. Ever since then, she'd enjoyed alcohol but never enough to get that sick.

"With boys it seems easier, theres not the constant drama over who fancies who, you know?"

Merlin she missed Helen so much sometimes that it hurt to breathe.

"Okay, so one last question from me ; you get to ask the next one ; whats your favourite Christmas carol? I like Ding Dong Merrily on High or We Three Kings."

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oneandtwoand
2009-12-17 09:48 pm UTC (link)

He thought back to his time at Hogwarts while Penny was reminiscing herself. There was definitely never a time when he'd done something like that - he really had been very much a loner, and, well, a rather nerdy one at that.

Luckily, he didn't attract enough attention to himself to garner any teasing - most people nowadays wouldn't even realize that the weedy blond kid they'd sat next to in Charms for three years was the drummer for a wildly popular rock band. And he was absolutely all right with this.

The brazenly random nature of Penny's "last question" (and he doubted that it really would be) almost made Orsino laugh again. Almost. He could definitely see why she and Meghan got along so well. He was working on the last few bits of sandwich, picking at the scraps that had fallen to his plate.

"That's, erm..." He gave Penny an odd look, meeting her eyes this time and steepling his fingers before becoming very interested in his hands again.

"Carol of the Bells, I suppose."

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_penny
2009-12-17 09:57 pm UTC (link)

"Carol of the bells?" Penny realised that she was out of questions and settled for adding a long 'hrmm'ing noise to the end of the statement and waggling her eyebrows.

It was the international eyebrow sign for tell me more.

Using the long spoon, she fished around in her float ; the ice cream having almost completly melted and fused with the milk into a creamy shake. It was ice cold and just the way she liked it.

At the pause at the end of Orsino's statement, Penny tried not to grin. She liked him, he was even more fun in real life than he had been on the journals. She hoped there would be more meetings in real life - especially if they involved ice cream. A girl could never have enough frinds or scoops.

Waiting on him answering her questions she mirrored his stance; elbows plopped on the table and fingers steepled together with the glass in the centre. And then delicately raised one single eyebrow.

It was her favourite trick ; one she'd spent hours learning aged twelve after watching a James Bond film. Two weeks of practice and a lot of sellotape and bald eyebrows later, she'd perfected it.

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oneandtwoand
2009-12-17 10:09 pm UTC (link)

"...yes?"

There was a pause during which Penny sat there and stirred her ice cream and pulled faces. And then, he realized, proceeded to mimic his current posture. He dropped his hands and leaned back into his seat again, clearing his throat.

She'd said it was his turn to ask questions, hadn't she? At first the thought made Orsino uncomfortable, but then he thought about it. Wouldn't it be rather nice to be on the opposite end of an interview for once? His eyes darted between his lap and the remainder of his float. Sucking some of it through the straw until it started to make that annoying slurp sound, his made a small frown.

"Hm. Ahh..." Drum-drum-drum went his fingers on the table. "How...did you wind up living with, er...Oliver, was it?

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_penny
2009-12-17 10:26 pm UTC (link)

"Oliver, yup," Penny kept her eyes focused on archiving the banana at the bottom of the glass "I got to know him at Hogwarts. He's a friend of Percy Weasleys and we used to date back at Hogwarts. How cliched right, the Head Boy and Girl? But it was through him that I got to know Ol and when Percy and I split up, we continued our friendship. It was all terribly civilised and amicable for eighteen year olds."

Flicking the straw against the side of the glass, Penny tapped it a few times on the side to release any foam and debated sucking it to get the cream out. But she was in Company and her gran's lessons had been installed in her enough to ensure that no matter how much she wanted to, she couldn't.

"Anyway, after Hogwarts I saved up for a bit and then went travelling round Europe earning my keep as a bartender, goat catcher and well, anything and everything. I came back in May and I needed a place to stay. Ol was kind enough to offer his flat. Its good though, we get on really well and he lives in a predominantly normal part of London. He doesn't get mobbed by fans and I get access to wonderful electic goodies like a record player."

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oneandtwoand
2009-12-17 10:32 pm UTC (link)

"Why would he get mobbed by fans?"

It was painfully obvious that Orsino didn't follow Quidditch. He'd never played in school, and had rarely even attended games. Which was odd, considering his father practically lived for Quidditch, coming just short of actually playing himself.

Galen Thruston was a veritable bastion of Quidditch stats, history, and other related information. The man was lucky he'd managed to secure himself a show on the WWN for all these years - it was just a shame neither of his children seemed to care much for the sport.

"You just surround yourself with famous people, don't you?"

As the waitress returned to clear any finished dishes and cups, Orsino ordered a cup of coffee and waited for Penny's answer. It was nice not to be expected to do all the talking.

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