To go out and have "fun" - [Open!]

Finally, Brooke was on holiday. It had been a long time coming, and likely she wouldn't have even gone through with it if her mother hadn't of pushed for it. She often found it difficult to leave work when things were unsettled as they were, but Cernunnos would be there when she got back. Or at least, that is what her mother kept repeating.

It was a good thing she did it, truth be told. Brooke often cycled through periods of little socialization, and her friends took notice. They not only took notice -- They complained. She always tried to laugh it off, but they were the first to remind her of this particularly bad habit. Tsk. Either way, she had been enjoying her time off more than she expected. The first few days were spent in Rochester with her family, and now she was staying with a good friend of hers, Serah, in London. It was always a bit of a culture shock to go from quaint and fairly quiet Faunus back to bustling noisy London; not that it didn't have its own charm.

The first day with Serah, and her friend was positively adamant about going out and meeting up with a couple of her girl friends and their guy friends. No matter that Brooke simply wanted to browse the shops at Diagon Alley, of course. Serah was the social butterfly between the two of them, and eventually she would have her way. Come sundown, Brooke had pulled out her nicest cardigan, a pair of fitted slacks, and comfortable boots. When Serah emerged from taking a shower, she just about gawked. Clearly, Brooke's nicest cardigan just wasn't going to cut it. Serah was about Brooke's height, but slimmer in through the hips and rear. They'd went through about two dresses and three skirts before her friend whipped out an "old" skirt from when she'd put on some weight. Said skirt was paired with a soft beige sweater, brown tights, and what Serah referred to as "booties" -- A muggle thing. When Brooke admitted that she did look rather <a href="http://cdn.gurl.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/howtowearskaterskirtswinter9.jpg">bonnie[/url], Serah laughed.

Their destination was a new pub in Diagon Alley that she had yet to visit. What was it again? The name slipped her mind. When they arrived, Brooke took note of the fact that its occupants were all about her age. She ran a hand over her hair as Serah spotted her group of girl friends already paired with a group of guys. One, two, three.. four guys, and three girls. As her friend excitedly introduced Brooke to everyone, she repeated the names in her head trying desperately to remember them. She was notoriously bad with names. In fact, once all introductions were through she'd already forgotten the short blonde's name and two of the guys. Of course, the two she'd forgotten weren't her type anyway and were clearly more interested in each other's jokes than the girls. The one that she was attracted to was fixated on Serah while the fourth ended up at the bar hitting on a cute petite brunette. Her luck with men definitely hadn't improved.

Two hours and a few drinks later, Serah was off at a table with her suitor when the fourth guy, Ralph, circled back from a series of disinterested ladies to try his luck with Brooke. The rest had left to go to a nightclub. Now as she tried not to be overtly rude to Ralph, Brooke was burning holes into the side of her friend's head with her gaze. How could Serah be so oblivious? All she needed was an excuse to get out of there, or for Serah and her beau to separate Ralph from her before her temper grew. Brooke smoothed her skirt over her legs where she stood at the bar avoiding Ralph's glazed over eyes. His breath smelt awful, and she found herself silently cursing whatever drink he'd chose. She would fidget with her hair and nod, and then adjust her cardigan and nod. How could he not see that she could care less about how good he once was at quidditch? To make matters worse, she had to keep shifting her weight from foot to foot. Boots or not, this magizoologist wasn't used to heals, and there was no way she'd sit down only to have Ralph join her permanently.

"Why are we going out tonight?" Brooke had asked her friend earlier before they had left. "To go out and have fun!" She answered.

"Fun", indeed.

Christmas was almost here!

Taking a deep breath of the crisp winter air, Emma let it out again with a happy sigh. While she loved the warm weather, winter was definitely nice as well. She had finally finished her gift shopping earlier in the day and had arranged to meet some friends at one of the pubs in Diagon Alley, which was where she was headed now. As usual, her ensemble of choice was cute yet comfortable – and covered in a fine dusting of snow, which immediately began to melt as soon as she stepped into the warm coziness of the pub. Sliding onto an open barstool, she gave the bartender a warm smile and ordered a butterbeer. Emma wasn’t much of a drinker, and while she wouldn’t have said no to a glass of wine, a hot butterbeer was ultimately what she was craving at the moment.
Once her drink arrived and she tipped the bartender, the tall brunette settled herself comfortably and let her gaze wander.

Emma was a habitual people-watcher. Wherever she went, she found herself surveying the crowd around her – sometimes noting outfits she liked, but mostly observing behaviors. People were fascinating… and irritating and adorable and much more.
So it was hardly unusual for the Slytherin alumna to notice a painfully familiar scene unfolding at the bar-top perpendicular to where she had stationed herself: a guy talking at a clearly disinterested girl. Emma couldn’t hold back a small, rueful smile. She had seen this scenario unfold often when out with friends, and had even had it happen to her a few times. Emma couldn’t help but note the way he swayed slightly as he leaned in close to the redhead, babbling away; how she avoided his gaze, fiddling with her hair and cardigan. She was (probably) too non-confrontational to tell him she wasn’t interested and to take a hike – and this guy was too oblivious (or drunk, or both) to take the hint.

The corners of Emma’s mouth turned down slightly as she watched, a frown creasing her brow. The girl looked vaguely familiar from school (not many people had hair and freckles as vibrant as hers), but she was definitely several years older at minimum.
Emma chewed her lip. Should she help the poor girl out? The brunette was certain she wasn’t misconstruing the situation, though it could turn awkward pretty quickly if she ended up intruding on a private moment. There was always the possibility that the other girl would shut her down completely, but that didn’t bother the former Slytherin. If it all went to hell, well, they likely wouldn’t ever see each other again anyways.
After another thirty seconds of watching the girl shift uncomfortably from foot to foot, Emma made her decision. Shouldering her purse, she quickly arranged her expression to one of pure delight and called out the curly redhead, waving obnoxiously. Emma had absolutely no problem with boldly taking initiative when necessary.

“Oh my God HEY, girl!” she greeted enthusiastically, doing her best to channel a stereotypically exaggerated girls’ reunion. Purposefully, she inserted herself between the older girl and her pursuer and enveloped her in a quick hug.
“So great to see you, we need to catch up! But, hang on, I have to pee… Will you come with me?”
Emma bought the other girl some time to recover (and decide if she even wanted to go along with a quirky stranger’s bizarre scheme) by turning her attention briefly to the guy, giving him a cheery wave. “Sorry, I’m stealing her,” she told him with an impish grin, before glancing back at the redhead and raising her eyebrows slightly.

The situation was growing unbearable. A friend of a friend warranted more patience than a stranger, but this guy was horrid. Even his laugh managed to make Brooke grit her teeth. A few spare glances were sent the way of her inattentive friend in a last effort to see if Serah would step in before Brooke let loose the aggravation bubbling inside. Oh, she did have choice words for the fella', but she'd never get that particular opportunity.

Brooke had just adjusted her cross body-purse and waited for Ralph to actually pause when a loud female voice filled the break. Her eyes widened at what she thought was an outburst from another drunkard. "Who-" She started to mutter under her breath as the brunette seamlessly wedged herself between the two of them and hugged her. Brooke barely lifted a hand to get a single pat on the stranger's back before she had stepped away. The redhead wasn't exactly the sort to initiate physical contact especially if it was with a stranger. Bemusement was written as plainly on her face as if someone had done so with ink and quill. She was at a loss for words. It wasn't until the younger woman suggested going to the bathroom that it clicked -- Lumos! Try as she might to keep the realization from reaching her expression, she failed but did manage to whip out a cheerful smile.

"Oh mah gosh, how are ye'?" Brooke replied, her scottish lilt heavy as she forced the enthusiasm. "Ah ok! Aye, definitely -- A trip ta' the loo sounds good."

To the woman's raised eyebrows, she nodded in confirmation. The woman was an angel as far as she was concerned. Although she knew it might help appearances if she hooked arms and such, she just couldn't bring herself to do it. Instead, she threw her hand up for a quick wave to Ralph who was looking as dumbfounded as a freshly obliviated muggle. Brooke almost laughed at it, and used that emotion to beam happily at her new unknown friend and savior. "Ready?" She asked, and turned to make her way to the bathrooms.

Just after passing through the door, she turned to face the brunette with a broad grin on her face. "Merlin's beard, thank ye so much," She told the stranger. "I'd been listenin' ta him drone on aboot how great he once was fer days, it seemed." Brooke laughed, and shifted over to look at herself in the full length mirror. Well, really, she was checking to see how her face looked. Sure enough, she was flushed. Whether that was from being annoyed for so long or the excitement of finally getting away from the lad, she wasn't sure. Turning back to face the woman, she smiled again and extended her hand.

"I'm Brooke Farrow, and very pleased ta' meet ye'," Brooke genuinely beamed. "I hope yer savin' me didn't interrupt yer evenin'. It'd be a shame if mah bad night caused another."

At her clearly-Scottish peer’s lilting affirmative, Emma grinned brightly. Fortunately, it seemed as though she had indeed read the situation correctly.
“Excellent!” she chirped, brushing a loose strand of hair out of her face. The brunette nodded her own affirmative before quickly fluttering her fingers in the wizard’s direction in a tacit ‘Bye, now’, and had to bite her lip hard to keep from bursting out laughing at the poor guy’s obvious bewilderment. She felt mildly guilty for the possibly construed rudeness, but did her best to shrug it off.
Emma made to link arms with her new friend as the pair set off towards the bathrooms, but at the last second decided to exercise some self-control to avoid completely overwhelming the redhead.

The witches crossed the threshold and Emma couldn’t help but laugh out loud at the other woman’s expression of relief, and easily returned the grin.
“Oh I definitely know the feeling… some of them are just plain clueless. And rude, whether they mean to be or not.” She gave a half-shrug and lifted her hands, palms-up. “And no problem! Glad I could be of assistance.” Emma rubbed the back of her neck absently, thinking, then grimaced slightly. “Though I hope I haven’t complicated things for you. I wouldn’t have bothered you had I not thought you were too nice to tell him to bugger off.”

The Slytherin alumna grinned again as she took the proffered hand and introduced herself in turn.
“I'm Emma. Hennings,” she added, since the redhead had offered her last name. “Great to meet you as well! I thought I recognized you from school but wasn’t totally sure.”
The twenty-year-old shook her head vigorously, as though that would emphasize the veracity of her response. “No no no, not at all! I’m meeting up with friends later on but was just skulking about until then… You’re more than welcome to come with us if you’d like,” she added suddenly, as the notion occurred to her. “We don’t really have a plan for the night at the moment aside from convening here to start, so we’re flexible! No pressure, of course.”
Emma wasn’t entirely sure the older witch would take her up on the offer since they were effectively strangers, but it was a genuine one in any case.

“Regardless, we should probably at least pretend like we’ve met before just now… for when we re-emerge,” she joked, leaning a shoulder casually against the wall. “So we can say we’re friends from school… Did you play Quidditch or anything?”

Sorry it's short and not all that great. >> Let me know if you want me to expand it!