[magical london] i'll check in tomorrow if i don't wake up dead. (ariana)

Yet another week had come and gone at the summer school and Jeremy welcomed the weekend respite from the island. Sure being there wasn't really all that bad, he got free food, the view was pretty nice, and there were all kinds of activities but he still felt like a kid half the time. When he was on a weekend break and back in London things started to really set in. He was an adult now. They all were. And they partied like adults too. Jeremy had spent nearly every waking moment (and quite a few passed out ones) at parties thrown by members of his own graduating class this summer and tonight would be no different. The former Gryffindor took the port key back to a small pocket of wizarding London easily and found himself walking down the street as the sun set behind him. The party was somewhere inside of an old apartment building with way too much detail carved into the window frames but Jeremy barely noticed anything except for the howling sounds of laughter and music coming from above him. Enterring the door that was barely shutting on it's crooked frame let alone locked Jeremy took the stair case to the fourth floor with excited pep in his step. The apartment door was wedged open with a wizard's hat and Jeremy enterred quickly and began his search for the usual suspects. He had a feeling Danny and Freya were here somewhere but the table of snacks caught his attention instead.

The music was blaring and there were a lot of people he didn't actually recognize at this party. Maybe their graduating class had blended with another wizarding school, it wouldn't be the first time he saw students from Beauxbatons or even Mahoutokoro at one of these gatherings. Jeremy wasn't the type to be nervous because he was in strange territory surrounded by unfamiliar faces. In fact it was quite the opposite, the challenge galvanized the outgoing wizard and before he knew it he was mingling. Bringing a plate of snacks and an over filled plastic cup of beer with him the red head began to weave. When he knocked into a dancing witch and spilled beer on hisplaid blue shirt he just shrugged it off, completely not bothered by it. Dancing slightly as he crossed the room, half a cookie in his mouth, Jeremy spotted someone he thought he recognized. From behind it looked like her, after all the time they'd spent having each others backs while fighting the monsters last term he was pretty sure he recognized her.

Jeremy crossed the room and spoke out to her but the music completely covered his voice. One hand occupied by his beer, the other by the piled high plate of food, Jeremy was sure the only logical solution was to shout at her. It would of been okay, if the music hadn't died out at the perfect moment, making his voice obnoxiously louder and garnering a few dirty looks from around the room.

"ARIANA?!" He slid to the wall next to her, desperately trying to play it cool and held the plate of cookies up to her. "Hey, how's it goin?"

@Ariana Laurier

There had been a good many tears involved when Freya had come over to her house, but at the end of it Freya had made her promise to come to something, anything. Ari hadn't been to a party in more than a year, and she was sorely out of practice. There were so many people in this room, it was horribly loud, she had never been a great dancer anyway, and she had decided a year ago that she didn't like beer. After some poking around, she had found a stray bottle of butterbeer that people were using to mix strange drinks and quietly poured the majority of it into her cup. At least the snacks were good.

The music dropped and suddenly she heard her name being yelled by the only person who could yell it in quite such a manner. Ari spun around from her awkward spot on the fringe of the party as the music thankfully came back up to hide her embarrassment. "Jeremy?" She took a cookie, taking in the Gryffindor boy's face. He seemed to have acquired a tan in the Caribbean. And a mustache.

"Jere, what is that on your face?" she said, laughing. She didn't mean it in a bad way, she was just surprised. Anyway, since when were they old enough for anyone to sport facial hair? She supposed they really were adults now, although Ari was almost 19. Perks of being one of the oldest in their year, she supposed.

Although Ari was acting like nothing happened, part of her kind of wondered what Jeremy thought of her now. They'd fought a lot of monsters together in the past year, but Ari was aware--more acutely now what with the fight she'd had with Freya--how short she'd been with everyone. She wasn't exactly sure that Jeremy had noticed what was going on with her, and she hadn't been about to let him on to it. Jeremy hadn't fought in the Battle of Hogwarts, and she didn't need to burden him with how she had felt every time she saw some of the darker creatures that had been some of those to come to Voldemort's aid that night. Then again, if he really was coming to all of these parties, he'd probably noticed that she hadn't been to any of them. Including that one that they'd taken all the polaroids at.

"Ummm, so how are you?" she said, trying to act like she wasn't overthinking it. The nice thing about Jeremy was that he never made you feel too uncomfortable. "I know I haven't been around much, so what's new with you? How's Anansi?"

Feeling like he had made a smooth recovery Jeremy leaned against the wall behind him and looked toward her with an excited smile. He was glad to see someone he knew but especially glad to see her. Ever since their magical and rather uneventful night in the Prefect's bath what felt like forever ago he had been slightly enamored by her. They'd spent half the last term fighting side by side and yet Jeremy felt like he still knew basically nothing about her. She was a mystery, and enigma, and it only made her that much more interesting to the wizard. "Its my fuzz, you like it?" Brushing his hand across his mustache and smoothing the almost nonexistent thing down he puffed out his chest at her. He was entirely too proud of the accomplishment that had literally taken no extra work on his part, it happened by itself all he had to do was nothing. "I'm pretty good now, you?" He answered, caring more about her answer than his own and thus putting very little thought into it.

When she asked more about him and his summer he took a second to think about it before he nodded along with the music and began to speak. "It's pretty rad, the classes aren't too bad but the food is the best. Everything is spicy its great." Food from home was good, Jeremy was far from starving, but he was used to a more bland variety of cuisine than what was served in the islands. He would miss the food, that much he knew for certain. "What's new with you though?" He asked, again wanting to know more about her, but by now he was used to her barely answering his questions. Even though they had spent quite a bit of time together they were still quite distant and even though Jeremy would of loved for that to be different he had absolutely no idea how to get that ball rolling. As the beat picked up Jeremy realized they were playing a new upbeat song by one of his favorite wizarding bands and he suddenly got the urge to move it. He even set down his plate before holding his hand out to her, a look in his eye that said she didn't have to but he really hoped that she would.

"Dance with me Ana?"

Ari considered his meager manicured mustache and winced a little. "It's a little...thin?" Ariana was known for a certain brand of bluntness that might or might not go over well, depending on who she was talking to. "I think I like you better without, but maybe I'm just not used to it yet," she offered frankly. "I'm a bit complicated right now, but starting to get better, I think." Her little boat of emotions was starting to bob back towards shore and stability, but it was going to take some time.

She listened interestedly to Jeremy's comments. Briefly she wondered what it would be like to still be in class right now. Not good, she'd decided. Ari had burned herself clean out with her race to conquer her NEWTs, and she would no more have been able to go straight from Hogwarts to summer school to the specialized Auror training courses than she could levitate herself no matter how good her charming skills. "Better ask about the spices so you can try to make some of it here for us, huh?" she laughed. Ari had no idea if Jeremy could cook at all, but she thought it would be funny to see him try either way. An image of the redhead in a fluffy cute apron made her chuckle seemingly unbidden.

"Oh, nothing much. HR training at the Ministry, just made up with Freya, looking for a place with Camm, figuring life out. What's to be expected the summer after graduation?" She was in a better mood than she'd been in for a while, she had to admit. Jeremy suddenly put down his plate and asked her to dance, and although Ariana Laurier was certainly not as practiced as Freya or Tess, she thought she could maybe do this right now.

A humongous crash of the cymbals followed by a boom from the bass was the motivation she needed. "Okay," she said with a grin, taking his outstretched hand. A moment later, she confessed, laughing, "I really have no idea what I'm doing. I don't really dance very often."

Hearing her talk about how her summer had been reminded Jeremy that they hadn't really seen much of each other since before the dome came down. After the month away and the craziness of the end of term it wasn't really surprising but he hadn't thought about it until that moment. He gave her a puzzled look when she spoke about making up with Freya, clueless as always he wasn't even aware that they hadn't been talking. Jeremy probably heard something about it back at Hogwarts but stuff like that had always been in one ear and out the other. He had to safe room up there for master pranks and pizza jokes right? Smiling at her and bobbing up and down to the music Jeremy was glad to hear that she was at least staying busy. "Hufflepuff Camm?" He asked, needing clarification even though there was probably only one Camm in their entire year. Jeremy was not the brightest lumos in the spell book after all. He laughed at her question but truthfully he had no idea what kind of answer he could give her. He was only a few weeks away from being out of all things academic related and he didn't even know where he was going to sleep yet. Hopefully his parents would let him keep sleeping at the house, at least for a little while, or he could always sofa surf.

When she took his hand it was like the whole room got a little brighter, a little louder, and a whole lot faster. He quickly turned to bring her onto the makeshift dance floor as fast as he could. The flooring underneath them changed from tiles to a stiff Berber rug but it would do just as well. "That's alright just follow my lead!" With a smile he brought them face to face but a comfortable distance apart from one another. The music was upbeat and Jeremy had a way with swinging his arms around like a helicopter so close quarters would not be a very good idea.

"Just sway with the music, do what feels naturallllll~" He said in a sing song kind of voice, bobbing around and hair bouncing as he did. His plaid shirt moved around wildly with him as he swayed from side to side and did an air guitar. He had no idea what he was doing and that was blatantly obvious but the smile on his face made it clear that he didn't care. Jeremy had never been the type to wonder what people thought of him. He did what made him happy and damned the rest. Maybe if he had put a little more time into caring about the impressions he made on other people he could of had a girlfriend before he graduated, or scored a sweet internship during the lame interview his father had set up for him, but he hadn't and so here he was. "So how is the ministry? Is it hard working there? Gotta' wear a suit right?" Though now that he thought about it Ariana in a pant suit probably wasn't a bad look. She had the frame for it, that was sure. The next song started, louder and faster than the rest, and Jeremy joined in with the crowd as they began to surge. Jumping on the balls of his feet up and down he reached out again for her hands so they could bounce together.

"Yeah, Hufflepuff Camm. He's my oldest friend from Hogwarts, we met on the train," she smiled. Letting herself be pulled onto the dance floor, she tried to imitate what he was doing in a slightly less exuberant fashion--no air guitars for her yet. Looking around at the other people, she started to laugh again. "They really should have taught us this in school," she said as she bounced up and down a little bit to the beat, trying to imitate the hip movements that some of the other girls were doing. It didn't work quite as well on her straight figure, but it was something.

Moving from side to side and using her shrug as a sort of dance move, she shook her head. "It's a ton of boring training right now, you'd hate it," she laughed. "I don't really start seriously until September but Human Resources has us trapped a few times a week. We have these Auror trainee robes? They're pretty similar to school robes, anyhow," she said with a shrug. It was the summer, so Ari was dressed casually right now, not remotely the way she would have to at work, and was starting to wish she'd worn shorts instead, given how many people there were here and how they were bringing up the temperature. She was glad that there was magical climate control at the headquarters in any case.

Taking his hands again since he reached out, she followed his lead in time to the beat. "This isn't as hard as it looks, I think," she said, trying convincing herself. "So is this what these parties are always like? Freya told me I missed a ton and insisted I come to this one. I assume you've been to a bunch, you look like an old hand at this," she laughed. "Did I miss anything memorable?"

Hufflepuff Camm was a cool guy if Ariana considered him a friend and he nodded along as she began to laugh. "Your doing great though." He said in honesty before he swung his arms up into the air and did yet another ridiculous move. Dancing was like breathing to Jeremy, it came naturally to him but he didn't exactly look attractive doing it. She was bouncing though and he felt like he had accomplished something in the five minutes that had been hanging out together. During all of their time spent in the dome fighting monsters and the like he couldn't remember ever making her laugh. Maybe he had, he was a pretty goofy guy in general, even among the death and destruction, but he couldn't remember it.

Feeling a surge of pride and the resulting pangs of confidence from it a thought came to him. He smiled and nodded as the bounced to the song, he would almost certainly hate it, she was right about that. He hated the boring stuff, hated reading and studying and remembering facts and techniques. He had zero work ethic, he was late for everything that he managed to remember to go to in the first place, and he rarely stopped talking long enough to learn anything. Still though, he found her story interesting, probably because it was her telling it. She could make anything interesting.

When she took his hands he felt a weird spark between them, it was probably just static electricity, but it was still a spark and Jeremy smiled at it. "This is actually pretty calm compared to some of the others." Jeremy told her with a bubbling enthusiasm as he geared up to tell her all about the parties he'd been to over the summer. "Usually by now at least three things have been broken, someone is crying in the bathroom, and Archie always ends up naked, no one knows why. " Jeremy laughed at the last bit, mentioning a wizard they'd both gone to school with before he'd graduated one year ahead of them. He was apparently still a big part of the summer party circuit though and Jeremy had seen more of him in the last two months than he had ever wanted to literally.

"The Trickster is right you gotta' come to more of them, there is always something going on. Danny's usually around too. And there is always food. And music. And some times fireworks. And will you go on a date with me?

He blurted the last bit out quicker than he'd meant to but Jeremy didn't exactly have style when it came to things like this. Instead of playing it cool, continuing to rock back and forth with her hands in his and pretend it was just any other question his nervous hands dropped to his sides abruptly and he just stared at her awkwardly. Jeremy was the worst at this, which was probably why he'd never actually even been on a real date before. Sure he'd hung out with girls, maybe even kissed them, and there was that one time he almost saw Ariana naked (not that he had earned it), but he was far from a playboy.

Ari's brown eyes widened a little. This particular party did seem to be rather under control for what it was, but she hadn't quite expected them to usually be that bad. And people went to these every week? "I'm surprised anyone still volunteers to host at this rate," she chuckled. "Or at least host Archie. Is he here?" she looked around furtively, not sure whether she wanted to know the answer. Everyone around them seemed clothed at the moment, but who knew what was going on in the bathroom. Or the kitchen.

She started to nod her assent at the pros-of-parties he mentioned, mouth forming a silent "ooh" at the mention of fireworks, right up until the last phrase. She blinked, then glanced down at their slightly-sweaty hands as he dropped his down to his sides nervously. For a moment she was fourteen again, and Chris Jenkins was surprising her so suddenly that she didn't have time to think, and their friendship was never going to recover. She felt a bit of flush rise to her cheeks. But what was it Camm had said on Tuesday? You're not holding out for anyone special, are you? ... Dates are easy for girls. Just wear something clean ... you never know if you don't give it a shot.

Well, Ariana liked Jeremy. He was funny, a dependable friend, easy-going, big-hearted. Then again, he was also the opposite of hard-working, an awful risktaker, and wildly inappropriate. But it wasn't like he was asking her to get married. She had no idea whether Jeremy was any good on dates. Had he ever been on one? Freya would probably know. But regardless, both she and Camm had ragged her in the last week about her perpetual singledom and she promised Camm she'd 'keep it in mind.' Maybe they had a point. Maybe she should just put herself out there.

Plus, he looked like he felt almost as awkward as she did. Ari's lips quirked. "Sure," she said, shrugging her shoulders with a smile. She was certain that some amusement was showing through her eyes but was trying valiantly not to make him feel embarrassed and to feel less embarrassed herself. "I might be as awkward as I am at dancing though."

The nerves that were pumping through his veins were really harshing his mellow but in a way they were also really worth it. Jeremy hadn't really ever asked a girl out before, unless that time he screamed at Casey about being really into cookies counted (which it absolutely did not) and so naturally he was just winging it. Figuring it out as he went was kind of his only play and most of the time he mucked things up more than he actually figured them out. Never the less Jeremy was all about the experience, he didn't much mind making a fool out of himself even if it only paid of one percent of the time. His entire Hogwarts career and subsequent friendship with Danny were proof of that if nothing else.

He thought about tucking tail and running for the hills as it seemed like time slowed down before she answered. His palms were all sweaty and his freckled cheeks were surely growing redder by the second but he was still hopeful that it would be worth it. The music got quieter, at least in his mind, and the throng of drunk young adults surrounding them seemed to slow down, and then all of a sudden like the flick of a wand, someone pressed play on the world again.

"Really!?" He basically screamed at her before clearing his throat awkwardly and then nodding like he'd known she would accept all along. He tried to play it cool, pretend he was more confident than he really was and especially like he had a reason to be cocky (which he didn't). He really had very little to offer her. No job, no money, no motivation, he had a pretty neat set of enchanted shark teeshirts and a bit of a green thumb but that was about it. "I bet." He said in what was supposed to be a sarcastic and some how reassuring tone but instead sounded more like he was agreeing that she was an awkward dancer, which he absolutely wasn't.

Jeremy was just the worst at this whole game.

Instead of allowing himself more time to commit to the impending trainwreck of words that would no doubt come from his mouth he stopped moving, checked a nonexistent watch on his wrist, and then nodded to her awkwardly. "Okay how about tomorrow? Wanna meet at Honeydukes at like seven?" He knew she had a day job, and he was pretty sure he still did but after the mail debacle of last Tuesday he honestly wasn't sure, so he tried to pick a time she might be free for. If he could just get through these last few details, set up a time and place, he could run away like a bat out of hell before she had a chance to change her mind. That was half the trick to dating right?

Ari let out a stifled laugh at his reaction. He seemed surprised--maybe he hadn't been on a date before. She basically hadn't either--that time with Derek didn't really count since Sky had set them up blindly and all--so she supposed they were in the same boat. Maybe that made it better--at least she wouldn't be worried he was trying to pull something slick on her. "Hey!" she said and punched him lightly in the shoulder. "You're not supposed to agree." She laughed again, though.

"Oh--I'm going to Paris tomorrow. There's a book launch for some poetry I was involved in the editing process for," she said apologetically. She'd promised Paul and Thérèse a long time ago, and she was quite excited about Tactile. "What about the day after?" she offered. "I should be back by then unless something goes wrong in Paris. Last time I got stung by a magical bee and got stuck in Muggle Paris unable to cast any spells because of a swollen lip, but this time I'm planning to be with friends the whole time. So it shouldn't be a problem," she concluded. When she said it out loud, it sounded even weirder than it had been.

She grinned at him for reassurance. It would probably be fun--that was Jeremy's middle name. She didn't necessarily have feelings for him, but for once she wasn't letting that deter her. Maybe Freya and Camm were right. She just had to let go a little and see what it was like.

Waving to the Gryffindor boy, she went to locate her blonde friend in a corner. "So guess what just happened?" she said, waggling her eyebrows, and started to regale her with the tale. Maybe the party hadn't been a complete waste by some standards.

Hearing that she had other plans made him frown a little as he awkwardly turned to stare at his super fascinating shoes. "oh, alright no problem.." He began to resign to the idea that the date was going to get stuck in that weird limbo he'd heard the guys talking about back at Hogwarts. He hadn't learned much in class but he had heard some things from the other boys he'd grown up with and especially about girls (not that he'd ever had an occasion to put any of it to use until now). If he didn't lock in a date and time it would forever be a tentative 'hey let's hang out one day' plan and after too much time passed it wouldn't even be valid anymore. He struggled to find what to say next but then she fixed the whole thing and his eyes shot back up to her, face on fire but a smile bringing it to light.

Her story made him smile, he couldn't remember the last time she offered up so much detail without having to be pestered about it. He took it as a good sign. "I really hope you don't get stung by a bee in Paris." He admitted, smiling again and sticking his hands into his pockets. He wasn't casual, he was a train wreck of nerves wrapped up in a red wool sweater, but he was really trying to be. "That sounds great!" He exclaimed just before she walked away and it was done.

For a moment he just kind of stood there, still a bit in shock, going over the last couple of minutes and wondering if they had really happened. He watched her walk away and find Freya and his cheeks burned just a little bit more. Being bashful wasn't exactly something that Jere was familiar with. He was a social butterfly with a reckless soul, doing crazy things for attention was kind of his game. This whole new feeling was foreign to him and even though it was a little uncomfortable he welcomed it. Wasn't this what it was all supposed to be about: growing up and experiencing new things, things Hogwarts hadn't provided for them.

Jeremy turned to walk away and searched the room for his best friend, having the exact same thought as Ariana but of course he had a lot more bragging in mind.

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