everything coming up aces. [ana]

June 2003

Waltzing through the ministry Jeremy had way too much fun getting ready for work this morning. Instead of his normal lackluster tie and wrinkled shirt he was dressed in full on Auror get up and a cheeky smile. He would probably get reprimanded for impersonating a wizard of the law but he had a very specific mission and it was vital that he complete it. He had already worn the outfit once but he felt like it didn't quite get the reaction it deserved so he thought, naturally, it was because it wasn't authentic enough. It had never occurred to him that the tight fitting blue undies he'd putting on display when the Auror robes hit the floor might have turned people off to the entire performance. No Jeremy knew he was a good dancer, nothing wrong there.

He didn't knock on the door to the Auror's office like he might have done if he was delivering a package but instead walked right in. The dark robes moved fluidly as he crossed the room, his shiny shoes tapping on the marble as he did. There was something thrilling about basically breaking into the office dressed up like he belonged there all the while wearing nothing but a pair of tight fitting spandex underneath the tear away robes. It was freeing really. Exhilarating.

And a bit breezy.

Stepping up the the pool of desks the trainees shared when they were doing other things Jeremy looked around for the one that must have belonged to Ariana. He knew she worked here, but he'd been too chicken to come see her for some time now. They had gone out on one date but Jeremy had built it up to so much more of a thing in his head than it really had been. So naturally when she'd started bringing a new French beau around Trivia Nights he'd been heartbroken. Time healed all wounds, at least that was what the sad looking cat greeting card he'd bought himself said, and it had turned out to be true. Though that didn't mean he was particularly looking forward to Prosper becoming a staple in their little group of friends. Not that anyone cared about his opinion on that matter, which was how it should be.

"Lo' Ana." He said to her, slinking up to her desk as he saw her dark brown hair and recognized her almost immediately. He leaned up against her desk in what he thought was a sultry way, showing off the shiny plastic Auror badge pinned to his puffed up chest as he did. "Got a minute?" He asked in a bit of a hushed tone, pretending like he was here on official Ministry business. "Does this pin look right to you?" He asked, pointing it out and flexing at the same time (without realizing his muscles looked exactly the same under the fabric of the robes covering his arms).

@Ariana Laurier

Ari was agonizing over the imminent decision that would require her to specialize in one of the two Auror offices. The degree of separation between the two had been rather murky to her when she was still in school, and in the two years since she'd focused quite heavily on the skillset she was attempting to acquire rather than absorbed in the ins and outs of this decision Most of the Aurors Ari had seen in her unusual years at Hogwarts had been Investigative, and those assignments - clear tasks of protection and disarmament - were appealing, interfacing the most with the regular people she hoped to help. There was a certain prestige to Intelligence, but that had never been her focus, but it was also difficult to give up the path entirely when she knew that some of her skills - language, obscure knowledge like Runes - could be useful.

Truth be told, she had probably already made up her mind, but Ariana tried to give big decisions their due diligence, if only to balance out her weakness of making snap judgments. So although she didn't have a ton of actual work at the moment, she was sitting at her desk early this morning, with few of her fellow trainees around yet, reviewing some of the information the trainees had been given to help their decision. Very much in her head, she gave a little jump when someone approached her, dropping the files with her hand straying toward her wand, even though she was in a relatively secure location and the person in question was wearing the correct robes. She exhaled - Ari had done a lot of work to make her reactivity more discriminating after the incident with Prosper last year, but sometimes all she could do was remember after it happened and try to correct it - and turned toward them with a relaxed expression.

That was, until she saw the violently red curls cascading down over those robes, and registered that he'd called her Ana, which only Jeremy ever did. Ari's eyes bugged out somewhat and she let out a strangled snort, caught somewhere between frantic and amused. How had Jeremy gotten his hands on any of these things? Aside from the fact that it was a security risk, it was probably also a punishable offense to impersonate an Auror. She whipped her head around, long hair flying around her face as she scanned to see who else was around, which was still, honestly, not that many people. Probably for the better. "Jere!" she hissed, although her voice threatened to break into laughter as she looked back at him again. Something about the outfit and the way he seemed so very proud of it was nothing short of hilarious. For all that things had been a little weird between them since she hadn't felt like she could go out with him again and she'd started dating Prosper, Jeremy still could always make her smile, if in a slightly different way than Prosper did. Laughing but also trying to match his lowered tone, she nodded vigorously, "Yes, it looks a little too right, please tell me you didn't steal that, and don't you know that when you decide to impersonate the people who can get you in trouble for doing just that, walking into a room full of them is a terrible idea? What are you doing here?"

Her reaction was exactly what he had been hoping for. A little bit shocked, a little bit worried, but also laughing. He missed making her laugh and some part of him hoped this nonsense would help them get back on track to being friends again. "Oh really, that's great." Whispering at her he toyed with the little Auror's pin on his jet black robes and gave her a big smile. He used the sleeve to shin the pin, breathing on it first, like it was the real deal and he'd earned it or something. Which obviously they both knew wasn't true. Jeremy barely had enough patience and determination to wait for a hot pocket to finish in the muggle microwave let alone actually complete Auror training.

Mocking her surprise, and a bit of disapproval, when she asked if he'd stolen it he placed a dramatic hand on her chest. "You know me better than that." He said, feigning insult, but then quickly followed it up with a low chuckle. Although he thought it was an amazing idea Jeremy wasn't trying to get arrested or anything so he kept his voice down. He hoped if anyone did stumble upon him either they wouldn't recognize him (unlikely, he and his red hair were a menace on the ministry) or they would find it funny and let him slide. Even after what they'd been through growing up Jeremy still had a lot of unfounded faith in people. He gave them too much credit.

"Well I came to see you of course." He said softly, sliding to sit on the edge of her desk and knocking some things over in the process. Little bits of the velcro holding the robes together pulled as he sat, making a scratching sound and giving him even more of a breeze. He tugged at the fabric and gave her a mischievous little grin. "It's my costume for Emma Henning's birthday party. No wait, not costume, uniform." Jeremy couldn't stop smiling. "Is it convincing enough you think? You'll never guess what's underneath."

Jeremy looked much like he did the first time she'd ever seen him shining his prefect badge, especially in clothes that looked like a uniform instead of what he usually wore to pub trivia, and Ari stifled her laugh as she flashed back to a few years ago. Something about the encounter made it feel like they hadn't changed all that much from those days - Ari was still sitting here trying to be responsible, Jeremy was still over there trying to make everyone laugh - even though so much had happened since then, and it was kind of comforting to find that dynamic again.

"Do I?" she said, cocking her head like she really had to think about it. "You know, you see a new package of them coming from the maker through the mailroom, no one will miss one out of thirty...it's the perfect crime..." she teased. She yelped slightly as he knocked over her inkwell and a painting she'd picked up in Montmartre the day before she left Paris, sticking her arm out to catch the inkwell, although not fast enough to stop a bit of splattering of black ink on the floor. Returning it to the far interior of her desk and cleaning up the ink with a quick charm, she shook her head at him. "I dunno, Jere, maybe you should consider a haircut," she said, delivering a suggestion which she knew would horrify him, espeically after that incident with Deyer in seventh year, in a perfectly serious tone. "You could look a lot like Watkins if you had a trim, you know. No one would even recognize you," she grinned.

'You'll never guess' sent Ari's mind spinning in the absolute worst possible direction, and her eyes dropped to his midsection with a bit of horror. "I'm just hoping there's...something underneath?" said, squeaking on the last word. "Isn't Emma's birthday happening at the Burning Beard? I don't recall hearing anything about uniforms," she said, her eyebrows raised. It didn't seem like the costume party type of party. "I don't know if this means that I should definitely go or that I should stay home that night," she laughed.

The longer Jeremy sat on her desk the more suspicious he looked, she thought, still thinking about him getting arrested or fired, and cleared her throat. "You know, I was about to go down to the Munchies stand for a danish or something," a lie, she'd already eaten breakfast, but a plausible one, "any chance you'd wanna come...?" Food was still like a light to Jeremy's moth, she was pretty sure.

Everything she was saying sounded like a good plan and he loved the idea that she thought he was that clever but he'd bought this pin at a joke shop. He was pretty sure it was actually candy wrapped in foil, which was exciting for later. "Man I should of thought of that!" He said louder than he should of and ran his raised hand through his hair to play it cool. He wasn't really the stealing type and he was so far from the 'master plans that actually work' that it wasn't even funny anymore. Jeremy had been cooking up schemes and shenanigans since he was able to walk but they rarely ever went off with out a hitch. See everything he ever did during his tenure at Hogwarts for an example.

He grimaced when he knocked something on her desk over and it turned into an inky disaster. Her magic cleaned it up quickly and he was impressed, there was a reason she worked in this office and he was stuck in the mail room after all. And it wasn't just the obvious differences in maturity levels. He grew distracted by something else he could break on her desk and picked it up to inspect it as she spoke.

"A haircut!?" He yelped when she said it and stopped fiddling with something on her desk that had caught his twelve year old attention span. "Are you out of your mind woman?" He barked, a nervous scared look in his eyes as his hands instinctively went to rest on his beautiful hair and create a cage of protection around the red locks. He would never cut his hair, unless he got lice again, but it had been years since that happened. He didn't count seventh year and the horrible torture Elias had put him through. In his mind he pretended that had never happened. "Not. Gonna. Happen." He finally finished his theatrics with some dramatic last words and then shot her a cheeky grin.

A devious little grin popped onto his freckled cheeks as he watched her eyes travel down to his waist. For a wizard who had very little luck in the love, or even snogging, department he was wickedly confident in himself. "I guess you will have to come to the party to find out." He wiggled his eyebrows at her with another smile. It was probably less about confidence and more about the fact that Jeremy was nearly unable to be embarrassed. He found the humor in everything, even when he was the butt of a joke.

He slid off the desk, that Velcro sound ringing through the air again and he pulled on the cloak sharply. "Woah almost got more than you paid for there Ana." He said softly as he readjusted where the tearaway seam fell to his hip instead of his middle and nodded. "Sure, but only if they have cherry because I swear to Merlin if Donna from accounting bought the last one again she will feel my wrath." He huffed and then dramatically pointed toward the door. It was a good thing Ariana was getting him out of this office because he'd already managed to attract more attention than he should of and Merlin knew he didn't have money for bail if they did come for him.

"Lead the way." He told her with another grin, mostly because the spandex he was wearing was giving him one hell of a wedgie and he'd rather deal with that in private. Well, at least where she couldn't see him, he didn't much care about her coworkers being scarred by that.