[mp] remembering the future [danny]

Having never been to a Ministry Fundraiser Gala before, Linnet was unsure what to expect. She had been surprised enough to hear that she would be attending, but apparently Ms Robbins had managed to obtain several tickets and wanted to reward her newer recruits with a Gala evening. As far as Linnet was concerned, a better reward would have been three days in the Caledonian Forest in her morphed tree form, but she wasn't about to complain. Being paid a salary was much easier than standing on the streets with her guitar (though she still liked to do that occasionally as well).

Thankfully she still owned a decent set of dress robes, and it had only cost a couple of galleons to have them altered so they didn't look like she'd bought them four years ago. Unfortunately, the latest style was mid-calf length and thus showed off her shoes, which for Linnet was something of a problem given that she only owned hiking boots in various states of mud-encrusted disrepair, clearly not suitable for such an event. Her fellow detective Deirdre Coltrane had loaned her a pair of more suitable shoes and Linnet felt like she was teetering uncertainly on them, even though they had less than a three inch heel. Still, silver court shoes coupled with her deep claret coloured dress robes looked good on her, she'd styled her hair into a sophisticated chignon and while she'd refused to wear any jewellery, had even put on makeup.

In short, Linnet actually looked like a sophisticated adult and nothing like herself.

And, besides the uncomfortable shoes, she was quite enjoying herself. The first editions of the various books were way out of her budget, but there were various small stalls in the foyer selling less expensive volumes and she'd already had a couple of interesting herbology books set aside to collect at the end of the night. Now she was standing at back of the hall, shifting slightly uncomfortably from one foot to the other as she waited for the auction to begin. Her eyes shifted from one well-dressed stranger to another, noticing how that man in the brown robes looked like he'd had one glass of wine too many and how the little, ancient witch had something tucked under her robes that Linnet suspected she probably shouldn't have, and how...

Danny Willbond? Linnet's eyes came to rest on a young man standing a few feet away, looking a little out of place himself and wearing, she was delighted to see, a maginficent lurid pair of socks just visible under the hem of his trousers. She hadn't seen him since... the party. THE party, the one surely every graduating from their seventh year would remember, in the Hogwarts boathouse (and later, all over the grounds, as she recalled). Just a few days later had been their real graduation, and after that...well, Linnet had no memories at all for the next year.

Smiling, she quietly crossed the short distance and came to stand next to him. "Hello, Danny. How are you?" she asked, wondering if he would even recognise her. They'd barely been more than acquaintances at Hogwarts, after all. 

@Danny Willbond  [ooc: I finally got around to this one!]

So yes, he was dressed up and looking fine, his dress robes even (mostly) clean thanks to a quick charm from Freya and his violently bright socks with dancing camels on them the best part of his outfit, of course. He really could clean up quite nicely, if he did say so himself (and he did), but in all honesty, Danny was just here for the food. And what a spread it was. Yes, sure, the charity was very important, generosity, donations, campaigns, yada yada. But the food.

He had done one sweep around the room to survey before he started in on his first course of many. He wasn't sure where Jeremy had wandered off to and he glanced around because dude, he had to try whatever this dip was. Was it dip? He shrugged and dipped some shrimp and shoveled it in. Tasted good, whatever it was.

At the sound of his name, Danny swung around, his cheeks stuffed full, but he tried to smile around it as he took in the blonde next to him. And then blinked. Then blinked again. He had.. no clue who she was, although a vague tingle of familiarity tickled his brain. He knew her from school, but what on Earth was her name again...? Luckily, he had a mouthful of food he had to chew through which gave him a bit of time to rack his brain, hoping a memory might fall out and give him a clue. He raised a hand to gesture apologetically at his full mouth and tried to chew quickly, but not too quickly because he was still trying to remember a name, first, last, anything. Hufflepuff, he decided. But that was it. Ah shit.

"I'm great," he landed on as soon as he gulped down most of the food, wiping the back of his hand against his mouth. "It's great to see you too," he added, trying to pretend like he knew exactly who she was. He was terrible with remembering faces, ask anyone. But it's not like he could tell her that. Or well he could, but he didn't want to be rude. He had been working on that lately. "What are you up to these days?" he asked, figuring it was a safe enough question and maybe one that would trigger some sort of memory.

How did auctions work anyway? Linnet only had the vaguest idea that you bid on items and the highest bidder won whatever it was, but how exactly did you bid? Her father had once described a muggle car auction to her in which people had literally only raised a finger and they'd found themselves buying something. She was glad she had positioned herself at the back of the hall - and that she was short enough not to be seen in case she accidentally twitched and bought something she had no means of affording. There was still time before the auction began though, and while she didn't want to accidentally buy something, she did want to see how it worked.

Maybe she should have just stayed where she was rather than coming over to see Danny. He didn't seem worried about auctions, rather the food that was provided, and after she'd vaguely greeted him found herself waiting while he chewed and swallowed. She assumed that was because he wanted to be polite, but then he wiped his mouth on his hand and replied, and there was something in his tone that told her he didn't remember who she was. That actually wasn't unexpected, but it did mean she had to decide what to do next. Did she take the easy but embarrassing route and explain who she was, or did she string him along and drop the vaguest comments while he tried to remember her? The second option was potentially amusing, but Linnet's mean streak had never really developed enough to know how to tease someone that way.

"Well after Hogwarts..." she hesitated, and then figured literally everyone must have known what had happened to her "and the, um, tree thing, I wasn't really myself for the next year. So I missed out on quite a lot of stuff and then ended up busking in Diagon Alley for a while..." belatedly she realised that sounded like she'd been homeless, which while it wans't far from the truth wasn't something she wanted to be common knowledge . "I'm working for an agency based in London now though" she added quickly "It's entirely female employees, they took me on at the beginning of the year. How about you? What brought you here this evening?" she added, wondering if he was going to ask what sort of agency she worked for. Linnet wasn't sure she was supposed to tell people she worked for a detective agency. Wasn't that kind of defeating the whole purpose of what she did?

He nodded as she spoke, his brain whirring as he tried to remember and think. Where was Freya when he needed her to remind him of things like this? Hogwarts, yep, he had gone there, he knew that. Tree thing? Alright, don't know what that means, but sure, we'll go with it. Basking in Diagon Alley.. was that like sunbathing? Wait no, she said busking. He wasn't exactly sure, but he thought it had to do with-- "Linnet!!" he exclaimed right in the middle of her talking as her name came back to him, the word falling from his lips as he did that no brain-to-mouth filter thing.

Danny paused, realizing he had interrupted her and probably tipped her off on the fact that he hadn't a clue what her name was moments ago so he tried to play it off like a joke. "Linnnnettttt," he repeated in a sing-song voice and gave her a smile and a single finger gun. Little snippets came back to him and he was rewinding through the years at Hogwarts that felt a bit foggy now. At least he had been right about the Hufflepuff thing.

"So what's this on the agency?" he asked, hoping to get her chatting about that again. It sounded cool, professional even. An agency sounded way more adultish than his mail man job. "What kind of agency?" he asked. "What do you do?" He snagged a few more shrimp from his plate as he walked with her down the buffet line, adding a few things here and there and offering to scoop some onto her plate as well. He always kind of hated the 'what do you do' question, but it seemed to go with the territory of adulthood. He gave his usual blase smile. "I was just up for the Supreme Mugwump promotion, but sadly went to a bloke who had a few more years of experience," he joked and then rolled his eyes. "No, I'm in Maintenance with the Ministry and I'm here for the food," Danny admitted a second later, blunt and honest, with a wide smile before he bit into another piece of shrimp.

Apparently literally everyone hadn't been aware of what had happened to her at the end of her seventh year. While Linnet couldn't remember any of it, she had been told by others how shocking it had been to watch her collapse from the poison and then begin to morph into a tree...one of the professors had got her away from the crowds, but she had vaguely imagined that everyone had seen what had happened and assumed that it would be ingrained on their memories. She had even imagined that people would be shocked to see her alive rather than have...forgotten who she was. Linnet had always thought of herself as modest and unassuming, but now she realised with an unpleasant jolt that she had imagined her disappearance to have affected her schoolmates (in which she included professors, acquaintances and first years in other houses she'd never even spoken to) far more than it clearly had.

At the same time she couldn't help but grin. Danny was just how she remembered, just a bit older and...no, exactly the same. At least now she had an excuse to not stand watching the auction which had already gotten exceptionally boring, what with rich people bidding a year's wages for ancient books. Linnet liked books, but she liked the kind she could read, not ones that were kept in enchanted cabinets and were too fragile to even be touched. She reached for a plate, realising as she looked down the line of overfilled bowls and platters that she was starving. She could have said something snarky back about him remembering her name, but it was easier to just move on to talking about what she was doing now.

"It's an all-female detective agency" she said quietly, hoping that Danny wasn't going to excitedly yell that bit of information straight back at her "I've been with them nearly a year now but it's honestly not as exciting as it sounds" She selected a couple of artisan bread rolls and added a generous helping of thinly-sliced crumbed ham, murmuring her thanks as Danny dropped a couple of shrimp and then some sort of cheese-based pastry onto her plate. Nobody was watching them so she took a big bite of shrimp, making a most unladylike groan of appreciation as the taste flooded her tongue.

Luckily she'd just swallowed the morsel when Danny told her what he was doing...or rather, what he wasn't doing, because this time she snorted with laughter "They clearly should have read your resume more carefully" she said with mock commiseration, and then added in a quieter voice "actually, I think maintenance sounds more fun, honestly? You know, not having to go to meetings and answer owls all the time... So, where are you living now?"

"Wow that sounds--" he started to say excitedly before she pre-emptively corrected him so he quickly changed his excitement into a careless shrug. "--right, not exciting. At least its a job." Stable, security, adult things, yay. He nodded a few times as he tried to agree with her even as he thought about rolling around like a spy and dressing in black and doing stake outs. Isn't that what detectives did?

Danny nodded seriously. "Yeah it was all right on there. I should've gotten that position, but alas--" he said, throwing in a new word he had just picked up that he thought made him sound super smart. "--perhaps next time." He gave her a smile before he shoved another shrimp in his mouth, inadvertently dropping some cocktail sauce on his tie. Oops. He glanced down and lifted up his tie to lick it off. There we go.

"Hmm?" he said as he tuned back in as she mentioned maintenance. She was so quiet, it felt like she was whispering and he almost glanced around as if there was someone there who was trying to overhear. "Actually, I do have to mess with owls all the time. Those little poop buckets. Jere and I do the mail running. Do you remember Jeremy? About this high, luscious red curls, at least three notches less handsome than I am.." He could go on and on, but that about summed up his best friend.

"We're in Stoke Newington now. Jere and me and Freya. You remember her too?" Blonde, gorgeous, funny, sexy, way out of his league but somehow but up with him.. Danny was easily distracted. "How about you? Have you.. branched out to anywhere new?" He gave her a slow grin, already laughing at his own joke.