First Chance (Annabelle/Lucretia)

[Lucretia 'Storm' Seyrrou]

Lucretia was thinking of closing up, but forgot to turn the sign that indicated this. Although it was the afternoon, Lucretia had a lot to catch up on back at school, she would have to come back later to reopen, the Three Broomsticks could wait, it had been waiting for months.

Turning to the counters she began her usual rub down. Pulling out her wand she waved her wand and the cleaning equipment began to work. Pulling out a small rag she began cleaning up the mugs, unaware that there was someone who was just about to come in.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Anna had been in her bookstore until she realized that lunch had come and gone and her stomach reminded her she hadn't taken a break. Normally she passed right by the shop without more than a second glance at the boarded up windows, but today she noticed the change and decided to check it out. Annabelle walked into the Three Broomsticks and looked around at the void of customers, her gaze stopping at the girl working. "Hi, are you really reopened?" If she had to, she'd go back to Hogwarts and grab a snack from the kitchens, but she hated bugging the house elves more than necessary.

[Lucretia 'Storm' Seyrrou]

Lucretia looked up, the face she had seen only once, ages ago she believed and remembered Dare calling her by Anna. Lucretia's brow raised wondering if the was the same Annabelle she had heard of.

"Yes we are. You can come in if you like." Lucretia usually would have said that they were closed, but her curiosity overpowered her, if this really was Anna... then they had a lot to talk about.

"What can I get you?" she asked in a welcoming tone, she flashed her the usual smile she gave to most customers, warm, inviting and a little overdone. She pointed her wand to the door and the sign swung around allowing everyone outside to see it as closed.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Anna looked at the menu board, then back at the girl she recognized from that one meeting of the drama club. “Do you have any specials or anything? I don’t want to be a bother” She had followed the wand movement and noticed the sign switching to closed. She didn’t really care what she ate, so she just wanted whatever was fast and easy. “It’s Lucretia, right?”

[Lucretia 'Storm' Seyrrou]

Lucretia tapped her chin, wondering what they did have. She nodded, they did have a special, one she had just thought up.

"We have a tasty club sandwich meal with some mushroom soup or a salad if you'd like." she was thinking up things from the top of her head, but Lucretia could make it, or else she wouldn't have got her parents to by the shop for her in the first place.

"And you're Annabelle." she confirmed, her lips pulled up from the corners, it was funny that the one person she really wanted to talk to had all but wondered right into her shop. Lucretia felt the smile slowly slip off as she was in deep thought.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Annabelle nodded. "Yes, that's me. The sandwich sounds sounds good, I'll have one with a bowl of soup." She was watching Lucretia as she placed her order, and tilted her head slightly to the side when her expression changed. If there had been other people in the shop, Anna would have paid and selected a table, but with the emptiness of the shop, she felt bound to stand at the counter and interact with Lucretia.

Other than her constantly meeting up with Markise, Anna had begun to avoid people. She didn't have any need to engage in small talk or keep up with gossip on a regular basis so she didn't feel like she was missing anything important by avoiding others. She knew her self-imposed seclusion had a lot to do with her increasingly sour mood at Chase but she felt helpless about the whole situation.

[Lucretia 'Storm' Seyrrou]

Lucretia nodded her head wordlessly and disappeared into the kitchens. After getting everything ready she returned with a steaming bowl of soup and a sandwich slides diagonally in half. Placing it in front of Anna she grinned.

"If you need anything else just ask." sitting down on the stool behind the counter she propped her elbows on the counter wondering how she could bring the subject up.

Lucretia pulled out the daily prophet, knowing exactly how she would steer the conversation there.

"Recently the daily prophet has died, it's boring reading the usual news. You'd wonder what happened to that Kedavra woman... probably an angry mob tracked her down and got even, it's about time." she snorted, her eyes were scanning the paper before she threw it to the side.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Anna wrinkled her nose in disapproval of the gossip column and took up residence at the first table. The Three Broomsticks was basically closed for any other business, so it didn't make any sense to acquire a corner booth and bury her nose in a book. After finishing a bite of her sandwich, Anna decided she may as well put in her two knuts worth. "One can surely hope. It's not like she ever said anything worthwhile anyway. Anything I ever read was usually covered with lies. I don't know if she liked making things up, or if she was that poor of a researcher."

[Lucretia 'Storm' Seyrrou]

"You would think she was more 'mature' than any of us. I could give a first year the job and he can come up with something greater than anything she ever wrote. It's like she prays on peoples relationships." Lucretia was coming closer, she wouldn't speed it up, but she had to tell Anna. Chase has screwed over to many girls, she wasn't going to let him do the same to Anna.

"Almost every article revolves around someone I know in Hogwarts." she was making it there, about to hit the jackpot, all she needed to do was stir the conversation to Chase, and get confirmation that Anna was seeing him. It would be then that she would have to tell her about Carolynn.

Thinking of the name made her twitch, the girl was the most pathetic excuse of a human being she had ever met. Not only was her fake sweetness so obvious, but her idealism was above and beyond what Lucretia ever expected.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Anna looked down at her food, suddenly interested with her bowl of soup. She was one of the few people that didn't religiously read the column, and the only articles she'd read, she had reread several times until she could see the words even with her eyes shut. She didn't want to think about the last time she'd read the paper, or the vomit that it had induced.

"I've only bothered to read two of her issues, but all the articles could probably be lumped into that, the people and relationships like you said." Relationships wouldn't have been the term Anna had used to describe some of the things the gossip woman wrote about, but she borrowed it gladly. She blushed lightly as she wondered if Lucretia read every article, and if she'd thought that Anna really had slept with Emilian like it had said so long ago.

[Lucretia 'Storm' Seyrrou]

Lucretia knew what Anna was getting at, Lucretia leaned in and shook her head, a reassuring smile came to her lips.

"I don't believe everything she say's, but sometimes... she comes very close to the truth. I got sick of it after having read my own name a few times on it, I hate how it always has something to do with the 'hot studs' of Hogwarts. Emilian... Chase." she paused, waiting for Anna's reaction, she knew she was making it more awkward for Anna, but it had to be done.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Annabelle's eyes narrowed instinctively as she looked up at Lucretia's words. At the moment, Anna wasn't making the connection that both girls had been mentioned in the articles Anna had read. Her initial reaction was that Lucretia was poking fun at her and she needed to defend of her own dignity. "They weren't true you know. I've never even been alone with Emilian, nor have I ever been part of any sick twisted love triangle." Other than unknowingly with Michael and Dare, but the Prophet didn't ever mention that so she would keep it to herself.

[Lucretia 'Storm' Seyrrou]

Lucretia was taken aback, she couldn't remember reading something about Anna sleeping with Emilian, this minor set back could be quickly taken care of.

"Whoa, she wrote that... if it's someone who should be 'blamed' for sleeping with Emilian it should be..." she almost said me and quickly closed her lips, it was only once, but it was a memory she kept thinking of. At that time, she wasn't aware she did it just to get Chase jealous, but now when she looked back, Emilian was right, she did regret it.

"Besides, even if you were in a love triangle, I was a guys Friday night play toy, other girls kept him busy for the remainder of his 'weekend'." she tone went sour for a moment, she mumbled the name without realizing it and was now going onto a full blow cursing rant about Chase in her mind.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Annabelle blinked at Lucretia's reaction, completely missing her last few words about Emilian. She could have sworn.....The rest of the content of the articles came back to her, and she lowered her head to her soup again. She barely caught the name, and probably wouldn't have if Chase hadn't been on her mind so much.

"Sorry, I thought you were trying to draw information out of me or something. I've met people that take her word as a written Bible." She couldn't help but wonder if what Lucretia just said was partly true. She knew the articles concerning her and Chase had some truth to them, if not completely misrepresented and exaggerated beyond belief. But the one mentioning a connection with Emilian had come completely from thin air, so she wouldn't hold any weight to anything the woman wrote.

[Lucretia 'Storm' Seyrrou]

Lucretia sighed, so things would have to be done a little bit differently, but instead the more up front approach would work with Anna. If Lucretia tried to beat around the bush, it might completly change the subject at hand.

"No, I'm trying to give information Annabelle, it's is kind of about what is in the articles... and about a person I met at the coffee shop in Diagon Alley." so it would have to be like this, Lucretia raised a hand to rub her temples. she wanted now to just sink into the chair and now she was looking at the table rather than at Anna.