The most lonely place [Open]

[fleurdelacour5787]

{name:Karis Bobbin#|#picture:0}"Can I help you, Madam?", "How much is this beetle's eye?", "Prices for unicorn hair have skyrocketed!". She was surrounded by voice, surrounded by people yet she felt completely isolated.

Karis was always known for her perky disposition and her friendliness, and both were certainly part of her. Few people, however, ever knew her other side. She tended to have major mood swings, leaving her feeling empty, dull, and completely alone even when she was surrounded by "friends". The downside to being the person everyone confided in was that you always felt used, weighed down, and somewhat helpless.

She didn't mind her role in all her relationships per se, at least not enough to do anything about it. It was who she was, and she could do little to change it. It was just that when you're always the confidante, few people ever really care how you are, what's going on with you, or even who you truly are. Yes, it's true, the perpetual best friend had no friends to speak of, at least no one she'd refer to as a friend.

She'd come to Diagon Alley to escape the castle and its constant drama, its needy staff and students seeking a shoulder to cry on or a sympathetic ear turned their way. Soon after she'd arrived, though, she'd realized she'd made a mistake. If being ignored while people purged their secrets was one thing, but disappearing into a crowd of bustling shoppers was not certainly not the remedy she'd had in mind.

She squeezed her way out of the busy apothecary and wound through the crowd outside on her way to a small cafe. She took the last available seat at a table set for four jammed into the corner of the small outdoor section. She ordered a tea and scanned the crowd for a new, friendly face that she might befriend, actually befriend this time. While she wasn't after changing her previous relationships, she was going to try to start anew with someone unfamiliar. She looked up as a wizard approached her smiling. She beamed back and even raised a hand to wave before she noticed the two witches approaching him. Without another glance at her, the wizard nabbed two of the vacant chairs from her table and dragged them to his own.

Back to invisibility, she thought as her tea arrived.

[ydeb]

For once David was glad that he was larger than some people. His solid build allowed him to easily push through crowds. Of course that didn't quite help so much here. With all the noise and people it seemed the crowd was moving slower than molasses.

He had a day off from work and in doing so he ended up in this mess. Might as well try to enjoy it he thought optimistically. He continued to trudge along looking for someway to get out of the crowd.

There was a small cafe down the street and their was one last seat. David moved forward with haste now, hoping to get their first. His body was large and clumsy though so he nearly tripped in his haste. He picked himself up and hopped into the empty seat, exasperated.

[fleurdelacour5787]

{name:Karis Bobbin#|#picture:0}Karis was startled out of her reverie by the appearance of a man she'd never seen before. She allowed her widened eyes to roam over him while her brain attempted to formulate a verbal response to his entrance. Perhaps this was why she had so few friends. She was a little awkward despite her sweet charm.

He appeared to be about her age, perhaps a bit younger. His short brown hair framed his, admittedly, attractive face nicely, and he had a rather charming feel. Not wanting to appear like she was checking him out, she took a sip of her tea and allowed her eyes to wander back to the table for a moment.

After the stinging in her throat from her too-hot tea subsided, she ventured a statement, "Rather busy, isn't it?" she asked lamely, cursing her lack of social skills.

Truth be told, she was sweet and[ kind and all others built her up to be. She was typically lacking in any sort of skill, social or otherwise, but on her day that she'd set aside to escape, she hadn't truthfully expected to be pushed into a social situation. Sure, she'd built up in her mind how a mysterious stranger would approach her, she'd say something witty, and they'd be instant friends, but she hadn't really invested much hope in such a situation.

[ydeb]

Davkid turned, hearing Karis' comment. Yes it is. he said in his thick Irish accent. His words had a business tone to them that was from having a desk job the past few years.

I'm David O'Bailey. he said now smiling. For once his words actually seemed to have a friendly tone to them.

He looked at her for a second trying to see if she was one of those crazed purists. Probably not, she didn't seem to have that determined and arrogant look most of them had.

[fleurdelacour5787]

{name:Karis Bobbin#|#picture:0}"Karis Bobbin," she replied warmly as she extended her still perfectly manicured hand. Having only taught a few classes that served as mere reminders after a summer of freedom, she hadn't really had time to chip away the polish she'd applied the weekend before.

"I don't believe I've seen you before." It was somewhat strange but not utterly unheard of. The wizarding community of London was slightly smaller than other cities she'd visited, or perhaps it only felt that way to those that had been thrown about the rumor mill for so long. In addition to Hogwarts demanding much of her time, the desire to leave the castle rarely plagued her. Altogether, perhaps it wasn't surprising that they'd never met. "Though I don't leave the castle much," she added in explanation.

She had not lost her welcoming nature even in all the time the world had spent in fear and suspicion. Even now when everyone swarming around them was probably wondering who they'd just bumped and what affiliations they might have, she still greeted others with respect and an air of friendliness through the haze of awkwardness. Through her time in the Order, she'd learned that her trust could be seriously misplaced in others that she'd invested in too early, but it had done little to change her actions.

[ydeb]

Nice to meet you, Karis. said David shaking her hand. He had returned to his business tone which he felt he had no control over, even on a break.

Not surprising, I spend most of my time working at the Ministry. 91 hours a week to be exact. he said, addressing her second comment. He really didn't like his job at the Ministry for the job had become more and more boring. There was one upside to the lack of interesting work: he had broken his personal record for disassembling and putting back together a ballpoint pen 20 times. He had brought it from 35 seconds to 13 seconds.

These thoughts allowed his mind to wander. He was lost in his thoughts and oblivious to the world for a little bit. During that time he had a blank yet calm look in his eyes. Nothing seemed to phase him and he seemed to be coming up with a plan.

He shook himself out of his thoughts, and almost subconsciously pulled out a ballpoint pen. He quickly disassembled the pen and put it back together. The spring went on top of the ink cylinder, then the top and the bottom casing screwed together. He smiled, pleased to find he had broken his record by two seconds.

[brae]

ydeb, please refer to the posting minimum of 10 lines (about 150 words) before making your next post. We're not huge sticklers for this rule if muses desert us and will let some posts under the minimum slide, but we do still enforce it.

[fleurdelacour5787]

{name:Karis Bobbin#|#picture:0}Ah, one of those Ministry blokes. The great ruling body had done little to regain her trust in the past two years. Even with one of their own in charge, they still managed to make a general mess of things when given the chance. Needless to say, after everything she'd heard from her time abroad, and everything she'd been let in on from those in the Order, they'd have a hard time making up for all the mistakes they'd made in the past. Honestly, she didn't think they had it in them, and with all the uproar over Shacklebolt being let go wasn't going to help them one bit.

Karis wasn't overly political, but it did irk her that they were able to still hold power after all they'd done and not face even more responsibility for their actions and serious change. She'd never really cared about anything political until she'd joined the Order and seen just what a mess their world was now.

"Things still a mess over there?" she asked innocently. It was simply a means of making small talk until a more interesting topic presented itself, but she had the vague feeling that it might eventually turn him off if allowed to continue too long.

[ydeb]

Unfortunately so. They've been working on reorganizing for a while now but the committee they put together to remodel and reorganize it back to what it was before is a bunch of lazy bums and haven't managed to get everything back in perfect order. The committee has been piecing the place back together with magic and if someone was resourceful enough they could probably make it collapse over heads. The place can be a bit confusing if you haven't been there recently. Thankfully, the committee members disappeared two weeks ago. The dimbulbs at the Ministry haven't gotten a new one and insists on finding the old one. he said, sighing. That was the sad truth, the Ministry was decaying by the day. He looked off to the side in a rather dismayed manner. At this rate he would be unemployed in a couple weeks when the Ministry disintegrated.

[fleurdelacour5787]

{name:Karis Bobbin#|#picture:0}Interesting. Very interesting.

So, there have been more disappearances. These hadn't yet reached the Order, to her knowledge. Karis briefly wondered why that might be; they certainly had contacts in the Ministry. Perhaps it had been covered up enough that it hadn't yet reached them. Or maybe it was thought these didn't have anything to do with the purists or the vigilantes, though that was certainly unlikely. It seemed everything that went wrong could be tied to either of those two groups.

"I'm sorry to hear that. I can certainly see why they'd want to find those people, though. Inside information on the 'new and improved' Ministry in the wrong hands is not something we need at the moment." There was a slight hint of bitterness in her voice, a small bite almost camouflaged in her usual sweet tones.

It seemed like every time they made any headway in their struggle, one opponent or another was breathing down their neck and trying to ruin it. It had been difficult enough to fight a unified enemy during the wars against Voldemort, but having two groups working against everything they did was making it almost impossible, especially with their depleted resources that still plagued them from the war. Membership was down, no one wanted to fight anymore. They just wanted to move on with their lives and bury the pain and anxiety of those years deep down.

[ydeb]

True, but by the time they are found they will have probably been tortured and killed. The Ministry will be searching for the committee as it slowly crumbles until both the committee and the Ministry are a pile of rubble. he said, counter-arguing.

He disassembled his ballpoint pen from earlier and pulled out the spring. The Ministry is no spring, it is more like a... he said, his voice trailing off as he searched for a physical metaphor. He picked up a leaf and began pulling the body of the leaf from the stem. this leaf.

David leaned back trying to think of another way to support his argument. He truly could not find one but he still tried to come up with one anyway. After a few moments he gave up and turned his thoughts in a different direction.

If in the theoretical future the Ministry collapsed, where could he get another job? Nowhere, most likely. At that point he would be in a serious hole.

[fleurdelacour5787]

{name:Karis Bobbin#|#picture:0}It was certainly an interesting metaphor. The Ministry had certainly never proven itself to be able to adapt to any change, let alone major ones. And it was easy to see the crumbling organization as a leaf in autumn, orange and brittle, dreading the winter.

Though no one could deny that the Ministry was facing major remodeling and needed it desperately, she still didn't think it would fall. The chaos that would ensue if that ever happened would urge most of their world to fight against its untimely death. No, until a better option presenting itself, they were stuck. Without a governing body, the muggles would discover them in a matter of months, Dark witches and wizards would go unchecked (except perhaps for the vigilantes), and everything they'd ever built would crumble.

"I agree that they shouldn't pour all their limited resources into finding them, but they must be found if there's the smallest chance they're alive. I wonder why it wasn't reported. I assume they're still leaning on the Prophet, like that ever worked out for their benefit," she answered herself.

[ydeb]

Nope, they've found other sources. There's this guy named Frank Landers who seems to know more than he should. Frank's been tipping them off every day now but the Ministry doesn't seem to care where the information comes from. Personally I don't trust the guy. Every time he tips them off they end up finding a cryptic clue that is numbered something like 7/35, whatever that means. said David. At this point he was letting out more information than he should have but he didn't care. Over time the information would become worthless as the Ministry collapsed and then rebuilt itself.

David twiddled his thumbs for a second seeming to be focused on something invisible. In fact he was thinking about the situation, processing what had gone on. Perhaps he could try and track down Frank Landers himself and figure out what the guy was up to.

[fleurdelacour5787]

{name:Karis Bobbin#|#picture:0}Karis raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow at his statements. Her brain seemed to whirr as she struggled to make sense of what he was telling her, a complete stranger. If he was so worried about the state of the Ministry, it would seem he wouldn't be passing information to the first woman that glanced his way.

"Nope, they've found other sources. There's this guy named Frank Landers who seems to know more than he should. Frank's been tipping them off every day now but the Ministry doesn't seem to care where the information comes from."

That in and of itself was confusing. This Frank bloke was tipping off the Ministry about someone or information on the Ministry was being passed out, and the government couldn't be bothered to find the leak? That didn't seem right; the Ministry was and always had been many things, but lax on security was not really one of them. They were always entirely too strict and curious for their own good.

"Every time he tips them off they end up finding a cryptic clue that is numbered something like 7/35, whatever that means."

7/35? That was interesting. From her limited store of information on history of magic (thank you, Professor Binns) and arithmancy (thank you, Professor Vector), she didn't think that 35 had any magical significance other than the fact that it was a multiple of 7. So, unless she was going to delve into the mathematical equation of 7x5, which would take time and research, it was unlikely she'd discover the hidden meaning behind those digits.

"So," she said, her voice lowered, "I'm confused. The Ministry isn't concerned that information is being leaked?" She said, assuming this Frank fellow wasn't on their side.

[ydeb]

I can't tell though I'm certain that they don't realize it. Changing the subject, have you ever noticed a weird, old dude with a scraggly beard and a sign that he keeps running around with that says: "Paradise is Lost. The Demons are Rising."? Personally I think that guy's brain got scrambled in the last war with Voldemort. I mean "demons are rising" sounds kind of apocalyptic and often times its only crazies who run around with apocalyptic warnings. said David, not feeling like talking about the ministry anymore. Noting that his ballpoint pen was still disassembled he quickly put it back together. 14 seconds, not bad but not the best.

Perhaps if the ministry crumbled he could try getting a job at a muggle pen factory. He mentally laughed at this not even though it did have a very good point. He mentally laughed again at the fact that pens did have a tip or point and that he had just used that for a bad pun. On the outside he was smiling.