The Future is oh so ____ [open]

[.henry john longbottom !]

--------------------------------------Real luxury is time and opportunity to --------------------------------------read for pleasure

         Henry ducked into Diagon Alley's favorite bookstore, Flourish and Blotts, and imediately bounded up the steps to the second floor. The sight of thousands upon thousands of books that his eyes had yet to scour made his heart beat a little faster, and the smell reminded him of an extraordinarily powerful vial of Amortentia. His parents, Neville and Hannah Longbottom were taking his younger sister to go do something about which he couldn't care less. So, what was a young man such as Henry to do to pass the time? Find something to read, of course.
         Henry had thus far spent six years at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, and in that time he had read through every (worthwhile) book in the library. He would go inside every so often to check if anything new had come in, but, for the most part, he only used the library for research. Henry now perused the bookshelves of the lovely bookstore for something that piqued his interest that he could take with him for the coming school year.
         The coming school year, Henry thought with an internal sigh. The letter from school containing important details had hit him harder than the previous year's had (and it wasn't just the owl's failure to land properly). The letter for his seventh year had contained information about his N.E.W.T.s and graduation, and he had quickly realized that in less than one year, he would be out of school, looking for something else to occupy his time. He reminded himself frequently that he had nothing to worry about- that he could quickly get into a higher-level school or land a good job at the ministry. He was, after all, one of the smartest students at school. However, the idea of the future still frightened him more than anything else.
          Henry pulled a slightly used, black, hardcover book from a high shelf. He walked to a nearby chair and sat down. He opened the book and began to read, while he waited for his family to return or for something else more exciting to happen.

word count: 481
tags: open like pipe in the gulf coast
notes: oh god. first actual post. whooooooo!
quote: jane brody
image: still from 'sherlock'

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[DOMINIQUE ANTOINETTE WEASLEY !]

Dominique was more than ever convinced that she had to ensure she listened to her mothers every word from now on. This was coming from a twenty year old stuck babysitting the fourteen year old Lovegood-Scammander twins, while their parents were away. Walking into their house expecting to find two very dull kids, she had been ambushed right away. Being an older Weasley than most of the clan, she was almost stunned by how the twins were acting. After an hour she had finally found a note from Luna on the fridge insisting that they were better behaved at a bookstore. And it would be best to bribe them with a visit, Dominique couldn't have been more stunned for just a moment and then realizing Luna meant the store in Diagon Alley she relaxed slightly. Gathering both boys she set of for the store Flourish and Blots and to find with her relief both of their attitudes calmed right away. Handing them each some money left for them by their parents and allowing them to set of into the spaceless bookstore. Of course, not before she put a tracker spell on them.

Being an arour and well once a teenager herself she knew that kids couldn't be trusted right away. You needed to earn the trust with others and anyone who took an obedient child for granted was nothing more than a moron. Smugly smiling for just a moment she felt rather well accomplished, only her smile then fell when she saw a newspaper. Disappointed with the lack of reports on activity of the death eaters, she could only assume someone was in control in order to limit this. Dominique could only sigh then, how was she ever supposed to make alliances with someone who had more of an idea how to live life if she couldn't even find them. None the less she would continue on, more than glad she could ensure her cover by saying that she was simply appalled by the lack of response by the newspapers. Or even to rant they must be up to more dastardly things saying that a lack of activity only means more time to plan.

None the less she was shocked by the amount of students in the store, then realizing that it was close to august, which must have meant closer to school. Sighing with slight annoyance realizing that there must have been more of a chance as an auror in training she would be stuck doing practically nothing while protecting the school. She would need to make sure to get ahold of whoever was in charge of the assignments, and to also watch where she was going. Smacking into another adult while she was walking wasn't something she would usually do considering she had some poise and balance. At the same time though it caused her to pause and look over to who was sitting in an armchair, oblivious much alike his father would be to the outside world. Sighing for a moment she thought to avoid contact, but considering she had nothing else to do she figured she may as well take the time to talk to a male that wasn't in some way related to her.

Coming to stand in front of him she gently moved down the book, and waved with her other hand. Smiling a little bit she could only chime, "Hello there Longbottom." Returning to her standing position before she plopped down in an armchair next to the Longbottom child. Even though they were a few years younger than one another at school, they still would have known one another. It took her a moment to try and remember his name, hoping she had guessed Henry was the correct choice. Just in case the conversation had continued. He was one of the more tolerable order members who she didn't mind as much talking too. Still though she wished that was was in contact with the death eaters. Brilliant minds like his could be put to good use.

[.henry john longbottom !]

         Henry had instantaneously become lost in the words on the faded , yellowing pages of the book he was reading. He had planned on getting through the introduction before looking for more pieces to take with him to school, and he had most certainly planned on having half an hour at least before his family pulled him away. So he was, of course, surprised when, after only a few pages he found his book being pushed down from him. Annoyance shot through his veins as a delicate voice said, "Hello there Longbottom."
          Henry looked up, still annoyed, to find a tall young woman standing over her. "Dominique," Henry said matter-of-factly. "Good to see you," he continued, holding out his hand for her as she sat down next to him. She was a few years older than him, but he knew her. The Longbottoms were fairly close with the Weasley clan, seeing as his father, Neville, was good friends with Ronald and Ginny Weasley, as well as both of their spouses. Henry had spoken with Dominique a few times whilst they were at school and during the occasional social gathering. He was good with names himself, but he would not hold it against Dominique if she was unable to remember his.
         "How are you?" he asked, "How is life treating you these days?" Unlike most people who merely asked how people were doing out of sheer politeness, Henry genuinely cared to hear how people responded. That's not to say that he cared about the person, he was simply intrigued by the lives of others. In the little time that they had spent together, Henry had found Dominique to be an interesting person. She seemed slightly different than the rest of the Weasleys, though he had never made it his business to indulge his mind further than that by observing or asking questions.
         Henry had, at this point, decided upon buying the book, so he gracefully closed its covers without noticing the page he was on, and placed the book on his lap, clasping his hands on top of it. He could always come back to the bookstore, or browse one of its chains in Hogsmeade. The books would always be there for his entertainment. Good conversation, however, was harder to come by.

word count: 403

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[DOMINIQUE ANTOINETTE WEASLEY !]

Dominique always made a point to shake hands with people she encountered no matter what situation or person for that matter. To her a handshake was a way to delegate to another whether or not she could show signs of being brilliant. In an effort to help soothe her ego she tried to not think of her habit as much of showing of more taking the chance to present herself. Although she had occasional glances away if she happened to have either twins in her sights, from the person she was speaking with, it made no real dent on her conversation. No flashy advertisement was necessary, she was a veela after all, she flaunted nothing but a good work ethic after all. This demeanor however did show a slight sign of flickering when she realized that this boy had remembered her name where she had failed too. Carrying on the conversation she began to search through the names, finally coming up with, "And hello to you to Henry, I'm doing pretty fine myself, in charge of the Scamander Twins if you'll forgive the lack of eye contact." Despite the fact she had tracer charms on them if she caught a flash of blonde out of the corner of her eye, she thought to look up and just make sure to at least check. Taking advantage of the situation that they went so well in a bookstore would have been to a scale of scandal.

She smiled to him with a comely smile she had apparently inherited from her grandfather, one of the more desirable traits in her eyes. Smiles were something that were useful to practically any human being on the planet, the muggles were especially obsessed about whitening them. Obviously there was that special trait someone saw at one point in time that made them such the rage. Of course with such a handy trait from her mother’s side of the family she subconsciously leaned on the charm without much care. Despite the fact lingering in the back of her mind that the boy was at least a couple of years younger than she. That wasn't the only thought of Dominique's mind, she mainly just wanted conversation. Each casual conversation was something that would bring her one step closer to sweeping the conversation with the dark lord.

Laughing a little she patted his arm, "Now I remember your name, you're Henry! That helpful little sprite that was on team for a year or so before I left Hogwarts. Forgive me, I've got two boisterious teenagers to look after today, mother sort of caught me of guard and well next thing you know." She stopped for a moment, flattening her dress, trying to keep some essence of decorum and ladylike qualities, just as her family would have been known for. Of course at the same time to others she would have appeared as if she were carrying out some kind of chore, she had yet to work on that. She perfered to focus on the more finer art of conversation more than anything. "So what's been going on with you? Have you taken an interest in any sort of plant or management areas of study like your parents?" Neville Longbottom was, as many knew infamous for being a plant nerd no one would blame his children for at least having a little background. Hannah herself was an excellent landlady at some little joint in diagon alley, although Dominique just wasn't as acustomed to remembering the names of places anywhere but Knockturn Alley, she remembered the days before she got her flat was when she found Hannah one of the more tolerable order members.

With all this conversation that was focused on the parents, despite it being a smaller part Dominique felt like she should turn to other points of conversation. She after all adressed her mother as 'mother' because that was far more formal, Dominique honestly would have prefered to call the woman who gave birth to her, Fleur. None the less she thought to add wanting Henry to understand the conversation was meant to be about him, or at least making a point to say something on the subject. Chuckling for a moment in a jovial way, "Of course its alright if you don't." Keeping her sentence short, one thing she surely needed to work on was ensuring she wouldn't dominiate the conversation. Focusing on carrying out a conversation wouldn't always need to be ensured she overpowered it. Sure, with her family members that would be a wise route but she had to allow others to speak. She knew someone that would be in the dark lords position would be used to power, and something she would have to get used too. After all, her technique used with most of the members of her family was something to protect her, she wouldn't need to come of as that dominating with the dark lord. She had to hold some things back after all to surprise him, Dominique after all had everything figured out.
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OOC: the link for what her dress looks like is in the word dress on one of the paragraphs, hope the reply is alright loving this thread gives me a better chance to flesh out domi

[.henry john longbottom !]

         Henry was no longer annoyed from the interruption, as he had initially. Dominique was very nice, as well as an extraordinary conversationalist. He recalled the first time that they had spoke together- actually spoke together, not just a polite 'hello, how are you'- and he remembered how taken he was with the fact that she could hold a conversation so well, and she still could. He had often wondered if it came natrually to her, or if she put in conscious effort to ensure that the conversation was equally balanced in terms of topics and speakers, as well as other little things that caused Henry to actually not mind to be talking instead of reading.

         Henry glanced over to where Dominique was occasionally looking to see a pair of twins, about fourteen years old. He recognized them, but couldn't quite place their names. He shrugged it off and said, "I understand, don't worry about it. As for herbology? It's interesting enough, but it has never quite dominated my attention like it does for my father." Henry's father was known for few things, one of which was helping defeat Lord Voldemort during the Second Wizard War, and the other was his fondness and skillfulness of herbology making up for his lack of excellence in other subjects. "Not to say that he hasn't tried, of course, I just simply find little use for the subject matter. As for management, I wouldn't say I am too intrigued by the subject, but I have thought about it as a career. I suppose it just depends on how my N.E.W.T.s go this year."

         "But enough about me," Henry said, "What's going on with you, Dominique?" he asked,"You graduated a few months ago, right? Have you found anything extraordinarily interesting to fill your time as an excellently educated witch?" Henry was very curious to know what Hogwarts graduates closer to his age found themselves doing in terms of work. Henry's ideal job would be to work as Minister of Magic, seeing as he grimaced nearly every time he read the Prophet for the amount of things the current Ministry was doing that he disliked. Namely, it was the Ministry's lack of action towards muggles. Henry was, in no way, a blood purest. He was, after all, halfblooded himself by a half-blood mother. However, Henry was not at all pleased with the idea of the muggle world knowing of the wizarding world. In his mind, it would create hundreds of problems, from muggles wanting magical solutions to all of their petty problems, to the testing Henry had heard rumors about. He often feared that the world would go into another round of witch trials, but this time they wouldn't be able to simply pull a 'Wendelin' and use a Flame-Freezing Charm.

         If Dominique was anything like the rest of her family, especially her grandfather, Arthur Weasley, she would have opposing views to him, at least in the way of muggle-wizard integration. The Weasleys were infamous for being prejudiced against prejudiced people, and Henry often had to keep his political views at bay at school or at home, for his life was dominated by Potters, Weasleys, and Longbottoms, to name a few. Henry somewhat hoped that Dominique's choice of profession could give him some insight to her personal thoughts and beliefs, though there was no way to know for sure without a truth potion.

ooc: Hush, your posts are way better than mine.

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[DOMINIQUE ANTOINETTE WEASLEY !]

Dominique could clearly recall the long hours of Herbology or at least what felt like some cruel joke of a spell to elongate all those hours. Despite all of the mans deluded belief in the cause of fighting against the dark lord, he knew and understood what it meant to be passionate about something. Having a subject like plants that he practically breathed was something unique for those of the order, she just couldn’t see past their bloody undercover personages that often. She could see past that bastard uncle of hers, the same one that thought it would be good to have his niece nearly loose her hearing.

Of course no, that’s not what excuse they gave, they said it was an accident, that George had his assistants approve it and he thought they were smart enough. That had hardly persuaded Dominique otherwise although mentally she always reminded herself to keep the smarter people around her, and choose the people that worked for her for their intelligence and not just because they were nice. Experience told her that mistakes weren’t made by the shrewd and wise, mind the shrewd and stupid had racked up quite a few points but well the shrewd and wise were still at large. In the respect of the death eaters at least, and their new master who she had yet to meet. For some reason whenever she thought of the new master she always took a moment to find the Scamander twins.

Of course thinking about the dark lord was common place for her, almost as if it were a sub-conscious function, like breathing. Once she felt the twinge of the spell telling her that they were safe she focused on the word NEWTS and began laughing. “Trust me, just make sure you read the packet they give you, and the notes of someone obsessive compulsive, and you are pretty much set. I passed those without even trying.” That was true actually, Dominique had hardly been blessed with Ravenclaw level intelligence and just sat down and went through her test pretty well.

Shrugging for a moment she corrected herself, “Well I did fairly well, and I’m training to be an auror, so its not all that bad.” Smiling slightly she heard him change the subject something that at least was done without exasperation of nattering on about your parents for at least a quarter of an hour. She was so used to reciting her parents she could do so drugged most likely, which she found to be an entertaining party trick. Smiling slightly she tried to get some sort of mental grip on what she could possibly bring up about her life, saying boldly in a public place that she was looking for the dark lord to commit herself to his ways wasn’t the best thing. Already people were randomly telling on different aurors without even trying to see if it was correct information. She wouldn’t give anyone reasonable suspicion. Deciding to first poke fun at the idea of being an excellently educated witch.

“If you want something that really pops out of the textbooks, you should try your luck at being an auror, nothing that I took that is needed to be in the auror program is anywhere near useful. By the time you get out of school, all the potions work you did is outdated. People shooting up left right and center, not to mention what,” she paused for a moment leaning in slightly. She looked into his eyes for a moment trying to see how his reaction might be before she spoke candidly but in a low voice. Trying not to seem to suspicious to onlookers though so their conversation wouldn’t be suddenly the target of attempted eaves-droppers. Breathing calmly she stated, “the muggles have gotten their hands on.” Leaning back slightly to gage his reaction she honestly wondered if she should even be mentioning this.

So far it was just the early stages of what had been uncovered to be a sort of drug ring. Some death eater worked to completely enslave an entire muggle neighborhood in the slums on some highly powerful potent stuff. That was one of the ways perhaps she could bring out any sort of different thought in him, tell him about the neighborhood. Figure his true views on the subject, but she first wanted to see how he would take that, keeping the expression of a will to tell more as long as he was calm and not to much of a nuisance. She would have been in deep if he freaked out an order members kid big time, so she needed to be disciplined and patient. She was more than glad for this situation it was perfect, and the ministry to fretful over the violent muggle groups wasn't even paying attention to the other lot. Dominique was basically on a small team of people who really were just blindly filling out paperwork to contribute. This left her with quite an opportunity here really, she honestly felt that it was just perfectly timed.


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OOC: CLICK ME SHE SORTA FORGOT AOUT THE THE NECK LINE, IF HENRY ISNT GIVING HER EYE CONTACT HE SHOULD PREPARE TO FEEL AWKWARD.

[.henry john longbottom !]

          "Yes, I'm not too worried about how my N.E.W.T.s will go this year. O.W.L.s were simple enough- I catch onto things pretty quickly," he said modestly. The truth was that Henry caught onto things at record speed, but he wasn't one to brag- at least, not around most people. However, Dominique seemed, for as little as Henry knew her, that she was very intelligent.

         "An Auror? That's fairly impressive," Henry said. He knew a lot of Aurors, but he didn't doubt the difficulty that it was to become one, especially as Dominique mentioned how most of the things she learned in school were now outdated- something that Henry hadn't heard from other Aurors. He didn't doubt that it was true, however, as most of the Aurors he knew were his parent's age, and did their training decades ago.

         As she mentioned that Henry might enjoy being an Auror, he became slightly more interested in what Dominique was saying. "Do you think so? Its always been an option- and something that my parents and their friends have always suggested. I've been thinking about working for the Ministry no matter what, though. God only knows how many things I want to change," he laughed slightly.

         "How do you like being an Auror?" he asked her. Henry was curious, as always, about various jobs. He was particularly interested in why people chose the jobs that they did, and he was wondering what it was that Dominique wished to accomplish as an Auror. For instance, was she out to rid the world of Death Eaters, or protect the Minister, to name a few things that Henry knew that Aurors did.

ooc:Such an extraordinarily lame post. Sorry.

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