If it wasn't for bad luck [Jane]

It was late afternoon, which was close enough to being evening, therefore close enough to being an acceptable time to be at a bar. He was straight out of work, had stopped home only to change out of his Ministry robes. Because if he went drinking in those, people asked what he did, and he wasn’t about to say “get people tea.”

Zacharias wasn’t one for drinking socially. Usually he’d just drain a bottle of firewhiskey at home on his own. But sometimes it was just nicer to share the experience. Slip under with a couple strangers. It kept him from being a sad drunk most of the time. He refused to go places like clubs, where everyone was expected to dance and try and get laid and everything was sparkly and fruity as hell, but good old dim holes in the wall were okay.

Something moved in his peripheral vision. He glanced at the woman who’d slid in at the end of the bar, and quickly turned his head away. He recognized her: Jane Lennon, DA, Gryffindor. Probably loathed him as much as he couldn’t stand her. Zach pondered what to do about this.

If they’d been in school he’d have started shit. Young Zach hadn’t had much of a sense of when to keep his nose down. But working in subservience had conditioned him to keep his mouth shut. Just ignoring her would be better, and he’d try to enjoy his drink in silence. He looked back at her, and accidentally made eye contact. Damn.

Well, he had to acknowledge her now, or else she’d get the first word in. “I’d ask what a nice girl like you was doing here, Lennon,” he said over the lip of his glass, “but I don’t recall you being very nice.”

@Jane Lennon

Jane had been having a bit of a rough time, honestly. Darren had popped back into her life fairly recently, and things hadn't exactly been going well between them. He still wasn't ready to be serious about her, and she was tired of waiting around for him. She and Ryan had a bit of a row about it but had patched things up rather quickly. He had quickly grown to be her best friend. But, she couldn't exactly gripe to him about his older brother who he had practically worshiped for the majority of his life. So, here she was, drowning her sorrows in a glass of Jack and Coke.

She had put in her resignation with the Auror Department. She still had a couple of days left, but after that, she'd be on the road with Ashley. It wasn't that she didn't still believe in the cause. Obviously, she'd stay within the ranks of the Order. She just... didn't see the harm in some of the small-time stuff that the Ministry was concerning itself with. The war had only just ended recently, and instead of tracking down Death Eaters her department seemed entirely captivated by small-time crooks who had been popping up left and right. Some of them were probably Darren's doing, but she wasn't bothering to cover for him anymore. If he wanted to be on his own, then she'd let him. He'd be on his own shortly, regardless. She was done doing him favors. She'd put her neck out there for him, and this is how he'd repaid her.

Men. She sent a smirk in the direction of a former classmate of hers who's gaze she'd accidentally met. She'd seen him walk in, but she'd been doing her best to avoid talking to him. Now that he had spoken to her, in a tone that she did not at all appreciate, she was forced into the conversation.

"That's funny because I was just about to ask what rock you crawled out from under, Smith. Haven't seen you much. Not that I'd say I'm heartbroken over it." She winked, and took another drink from her glass. Maybe this would be fun after all?

@Zacharias Smith

He pursed his lips. Of course she’d snipe back with just as much ease. Hurriedly, or as hurriedly as he could in his state, he rethought this. Ought he to step down? Was it worth trading barbs with Jane Lennon and probably embarrassing himself? Ruining his drink? Maybe it would be better to just go home. But he sort of missed it, being sharp, letting himself be himself. Holding his opinions in all the time was tiring.

“I’ve been around,” Zach said. “You must not have very good eyes.”

He was not surprised she didn’t think much of him. Not many people did, nor did he ever really give them a reason to. For a person who liked to be right so much, he found himself quite consistently on the wrong side of things. Arguments, history, the bed. He was aggressively wrong, passionately wrong. He was better than this, he thought. But really he wasn’t. This was the sort of thing he’d been reduced to, picking fights in bars to get his frustration out.

The decisions that led him here were many, and all wrong. Doubting Potter, ditching the DA. All those golden people with their lives handed to them. Sometimes he wished he had fought at Hogwarts, despite being unprepared, being so fearful he could barely move. Better to have died a martyr than doing…whatever he was doing.

Zach sighed. “Hear you’ve put in your resignation,” he said. “Going rogue?”

Jane let a chuckle slip as a grin began to tug at her lips. She'd forgotten how much fun Zachy was. Taking another drink from her glass, she nodded along at his retort and set her glass back down. "Ah, well, I might have been ignoring you on purpose actually."

To her, this was a game. She didn't think much of Zacharias Smith, and so it didn't matter much what he said to her. She knew who she was and what she was and she was comfortable. For the most part. Well, perhaps she wasn't quite as confident as she liked to appear. So, she bolstered her self-image with memories of her feats of bravery, which was something she doubted that Smith could do. She remembered his falling out with the DA and how he'd reacted when Death Eaters had actually come to the castle. She'd fought the Death Eaters and the creatures who'd come with them and she had almost died for it. She'd been choking on her own blood when they'd found her. For weeks, she had been stuck in St. Mungos taking at least seven potions a day.

Yet he had the audacity to sit there so smugly because she was resigning from the Auror Department?

Jane finished the last of her drink. "You'd like that, wouldn't you?" A sly smirk rose to her lips. "You know, for someone who claims to hate my guts, you seem awfully interested in my current state of affairs." With that, she gave a wink. "Anything else you'd like to know?" Ah, boys. They really were a lot of fun to play with.

“That’s fair,” said Zach into his drink. “I may have been doing the same to you.”

He spent most of his time in the Ministry avoiding former schoolmates. Some, like Justin, were utterly unavoidable. But others, and Jane was of this type, seemed as intent on ignoring him as he was on ignoring them. It was a good relationship. Frankly much healthier than he’d had in school, just about the only way he was any healthier than in school. Even in these confrontations, where he could say whatever he wanted to say,  his heart wasn’t really in it. He’d rather have not caught her eye at all. Maybe he was just growing up.

It felt a little like he was losing himself, even if it was parts he was probably better off without.

“I was trying to make small talk, Lennon,” he said. It made him feel a little better. Clearly he still had it, that way about him that inflamed people. She was taunting him, and he smirked. “Alright, if you’re offering,” he said, “tell me, what’s life like for Dumbledore’s Army these days?”

He wished he hadn’t asked, he wasn't sure he wanted to hear it. Didn’t want to hear someone more successful gloat about their life. But if she was in this shithole in the middle of the day, maybe there was some failure there. Some way that whatever he did wouldn’t have mattered, that the chosen few were like the rest of them.

Jane snorted again and drained what little liquid remained in her glass before waving the bartender down for another and sliding the appropriate amount of coins across the bar. "Oh, Zachy," she teased, "I'd forgotten how funny you were. Tell me, how much did you miss me?" With a grin she crossed her legs at the knee. She was wearing something close to the same sort of attire that she'd worn on Hogsmeade visits and such at Hogwarts: a pair of fashionably tattered jeans and a black v-neck top with a pair of red canvas sneakers and a black leather jacket.

"A few of us have moved on to better things, it would seem. There aren't many Death Eaters left, now, thankfully." She explained with a smile. "The Boy Who Lived really did save the day, huh? I'm proud of our Golden Boy. Aren't you?" She was being a little sarcastic, admittedly. She had always had a bit of a complicated alliance with the Golden Trio, aside from Hermione. After all, 2/3 of her own "trio" consisted of Slytherin boys. Everyone had always said that she should have been a Slytherin instead. Honestly, she wasn't sure if she should take it as a compliment or an insult. She respected Slytherin house, but she felt, in her heart, that she was truly a lion. She had fought in both battles at Hogwarts and had nearly been martyred for the cause of Harry Potter: The Chosen One.

If she had been a Slytherin, she probably wouldn't have left the Ministry. She didn't possess ambition as much as she possessed a need for adrenaline and danger, which is exactly why she had signed on with Ashley. It was just a pity that it didn't pay as well.

"So, how have you been doing?" Biting her bottom lip, she grinned mischievously. "How's living under that bridge treating you? Make good money on tolls, do you?" Had she just insinuated that he was a troll? Perhaps. Though, honestly, he'd gotten kind of cute since Hogwarts.

"Oh, loads," he mumbled. Truthfully he didn’t miss anything about school, except maybe not having a real job. And he definitely didn’t miss being snapped at and contradicted at every turn. This conversation, though, this was refreshing. A more equal interplay, just for the fun of it. Not like it used to be with him. Just saying what he thought and being mocked for it. He knew better now. Never say what’s on your mind. Filter your words carefully into something smooth.

He met her eyes brazenly. The thought that he might somehow end up getting laid out of this flitted across his mind and he scoffed to himself. Terrible idea. Just awful. Even if they no longer would be working in the same building, he didn’t want to put himself in such a vulnerable position in front of her. He wasn’t into that antagonistic kind of sex anyway. It resulted in him having not very much sex at all, but he didn’t really mind. Though a girl enhanced the experience, it wasn’t by enough to make dealing with other people worth it.

"That he did," said Zach with a snort. “He sure fuckin’ did.”

He didn’t really have an excuse to dislike Harry Potter, besides that Potter disliked him first. The man was frustratingly good. Not big-headed at all, the way Zach would have been for certain if it was him that saved everyone’s hides from totalitarian evil rule. And most people seemed to trust his judgment of character, so most of them avoided Zach like a disease. He didn’t mind being avoided, he rather disliked talking and interacting with others, but because they thought him an inferior person? His pride couldn’t bear it and had made him bitter.

"Oh, yeah, pays real well," he said. “Had a bit of an altercation with a few goats a while back, but other than that it’s alright.” Better play along than answer truthfully. His truth wasn’t fit for talking.

"I thought as much." Jane was pleasantly surprised to find him playing along and laughed a little before taking a sip from her new glass. They made eye contact for a moment, and she couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking. She thought that she knew that look, as she'd seen it on the faces of men who'd looked at her before, but she was obviously mistaken. She'd never taken Zach for much more than an arrogant prick and likely a prude. I mean, not that she would have been morally opposed to a mutual-hate-fueled quickie in the public loo... All the same, that was certainly not a good idea and such thoughts were likely just a product of the whiskey.

Head in the game, Lennon. She smiled and nodded along to his commentary about Potter. They had had similar experiences with Harry Potter, though she was still on slightly better terms with the Boy o' Wonder. She was in the Order and all that, after all. She'd had her go at Auror training, and it turned out that it wasn't something that her heart was really in. Wonder Boy would understand. He was also a bit of a prick, at times, but he wasn't so bad. He wasn't as bad as she'd be, in his position, at least.

Jane laughed again at his mention of goats. "Yeah? It better. It sounds like a dangerous line of work. I hear goats can be pretty vicious. And tricky. Glad you made it out alright."

He couldn’t really tell whether she was laughing at his sarcasm or at him, but he had a suspicion it was the former. This was new. He sort of liked it. He liked being funny, it was something he’d never been intentionally. He liked having that influence over someone, causing a reaction. It was that feeling that he liked about winning an argument, about sex. And there he was, back at that again. Talking to pretty girls was dreadful.

She stared back at him, and he quickly panicked and averted his eyes.

“Yeah,” he mumbled, for lack of response. Merlin, he couldn’t keep going on about goats, could he? Jokes had a limit, and this had been a one-off thing. Desperately he tried to think of a way to continue things, to throw the exchange back or get the last word, but his mind was blank with anxiety. Zach hated this feeling. This stuckness of the tongue, having been stymied, outwitted. Losing. Every conversation was a competition. Cold panic began to freeze his limbs.

Getting out of there as quickly as possible was the only solution. He drained the last drops of his drink and shook the ice. “Well it’s been a pleasure talking to you,” he said quickly, stiffly, getting up off the stool. “But I’m afraid I have to run.” That was his perennial vague excuse. He absolutely never really had to run, besides away from whatever he was dodging, but usually no one questioned it.

Jane couldn't help but chuckle a little at the obvious look of panic that had flickered in Zach's eyes as he looked away. He was kind of cute. Maybe it was just the whiskey? Had to be. Either that or her standards really had dropped quite dramatically.

She took another drink from her glass anyway. It wouldn't be right to sleep with Zach anyway. For one, he was an absolute twat. For two, he was a bit of a wuss and definitely not actually her type. He was a Hufflepuff for Merlin's sake. And, if Darren found out, she didn't like to think about what condition Smith's face might be in. Weren't crazy ex-boyfriends grand? Admittedly, she did sort of like pushing his buttons and making him jealous and crazy. But, she had to be responsible about it.

"Oh, the pleasure's all mine, as usual." She replied with a smirk. Jane's words seemed harmless enough, but she supposed that they could come off as a little suggestive. Just to mess with him. "Hope I didn't scare you off? I'm afraid that I forgot about what a timid little badger you were, Smith. Goodnight."

This time when she laughed at him he hadn’t made a joke. He’d just been so pathetic it was funny. He was back to this again, what he was used to, but this time it stung especially painfully. What was it in him that ruined things? Why was he like this? It didn’t matter. He just was.

He nodded to her sarcastic little farewell as he headed toward the door of the bar, but paused and turned back at the Hufflepuff jab. There were so many things he wanted to say then. Screw you was near the top of the list, not even an attempt to defend himself. Have you ever even met a badger? a close second. Describing one as timid would be laughable. They were fierce things. It was silly girls like Abbott and Bones who gave his house a bad name. But that was beside the point too. The point was that she was calling him a coward from up on her Gryffindor high horse.

He couldn’t very well say he wasn’t one, though.

"Oh, go fuck yourself,” he mumbled weakly, and he left.