Poor Planning Gets Nowhere. (Open)

The murmur of many conversations and footsteps played musically in Eleonora's ears as she strolled down Diagon Alley, the bag at her side full of salves and grooming tools she needed to restock on. It was good to get out of Hogwarts and Hogsmede. While she was beginning to think of it as her home now the different scenery and  assortment of people was refreshing.

As she continued her walk Eleonora's attention was grabbed by the motion of a staff clinking its way through the crowd. Her eyes moved from the ordinary looking object to the witch in possession of it who in no way could be described as ordinary. Her beauty hit Eleonora hard and a wave of envy laced with self-consciousness passed over her. The older woman walked with such confidence and grace, moving like she was alone in the world, a queen of her own realm. It made Eleonora feel ungainly and unnoticeable. While usually this did not bother her one bit today it felt oppressive, like her meekness would swallow her and she would forever be drowning in the crowds of Diagon Alley. Perhaps if she was as enchanting as the witch walking near her she wouldn't be alone so often.

Still oddly focused on the woman with the staff Eleonora was not paying close attention to where she was stepping. She had not noticed a dip in the pavement and suddenly felt herself off balance, careening forward. She caught herself mid-stumble, regaining her balance before ending up off of her feet. Still the action caused a wild blush to blaze her cheeks as she tucked her head down and let her hair cover her face. It was inevitable, Eleonora thought, that she would do something so foolish. The fact that few had noticed her at all did not occur to her, just the thought that she wanted to meld out of the crowd and avoid any contact while embarrassed.

Her missed footing had, however, broken the spell like intrigue that the lovely witch held over her. Eleonora was able to look back in her direction and not feel quite so much like an ugly duckling, though traces remained. She quickly made her way across the street in her direction, why she couldn't say, but it seemed the place to go. As she edged closer she noticed a bench where she would take refuge from the people pressing around her in all directions going about their shopping.

Unfortunately when she approached the bench she saw it was occupied by a young man, one who couldn't be much older than some of her students. Should I still sit? She mused, unsure. Simple social decisions had never come easy to Eleonora; she had never learned how to judge situations or how to adhere to social mores. With a quick admonishment to herself, she made up her mind to sit down regardless of what was the proper thing to do. The bench was big enough for two, right? It certainly seemed so as she placed her small frame on the edge of the seat and let her hair fall again around her face so she didn't have to make unwanted contact with the other occupant. She pulled her shopping list out to go over it again, figuring out what she still needed to get today.

She lifted her eyebrows in surprise at the comment, a sly grin spreading on her face "And how old do you think I am?"
She wasn't used to being old and she actually found the comment quite refreshing. It seems the red-hair that was now sitting next to him had broken the veela effect. She moved closer to better look at the pair.

The young man had a dark yet exciting vibe to him. His eyes showed signs of inteligence but underneath that she could see it. Lust for power. Secrecy. He was hiding something. But she was in too much a good mood to care about dark secrets. Maybe when she finished her current project.
Her eyes shifted to the woman. She was actually pretty attractive. Not on the same level as herself, but still she was a sight to see. However her true beauty was not on her looks. Her eyes, very much like the boy's told her a story about the person who they belonged to. This woman was kind, possessing a great heart, although she also seemed a bit shy or nervous.

Another thought crossed Mavis' mind. This woman seemed familiar, although she was sure they had never met. Was it something related with her current project. Or was it a Deja Vu? Her friend at the Though Department in the Dept. of Mysteries could probably be able to answer her question if everything that happened there wasn't so secret.
"I'm sorry... Have we met before?", she asked the woman with a friendly smile.

A quick shift in the air around her told Eleonora that the boy beside her had turned, rather swiftly, to look at her. She could feel his gaze through her curtain of hair, and whether his eyes were piercing or inquisitive she did not care to find it. Staring stubbornly at her parchment Eleonora tried her best to will away his attention.

It appeared to work as the next moment he shifted again to look away, back into the street. Relief washed over her as now she could go back to actually reading her note and not pretending in order to look busy. Unfortunately that didn't seem to be possible as now the stranger started speaking. While his words were not directed at her Eleonora couldn't help but glance up, her head lifting and her hair falling back and uncovering her face.

The woman whom Eleonora had seen with the staff a moment ago was now right in front of them, nearly glowing in her own shinning aura. Again a shock rattled her as she took in the woman's beauty up close, but it quickly faded as the words spoken beside her passed through her ears. They were quite rude, and surely unprovoked. Why would anyone say such a thing to another person, and one so lovely and clearly innocent of any wrong doings to the speaker? It caused a slight frown to mar Eleonora's face as she very scarcely turned her head to look at the boy speaking.

While she was quietly observing his features, hopefully unnoticed, she became aware the woman was now addressing her. Eleonora looked up to her with a lost look, as if she was completely thrown off by someone speaking to her.  The truth being that she was, for today she had not intended to meet anyone but only to go about her errands alone and unseen.

Prompted by the woman's question she thought back, certain that if they had previously met it would have been remembered. How could she have forgotten someone so striking? When Eleonora spoke her voice was quiet, nearly getting lost in the busy street noise. “Oh...no, I don't think so...,” but then she spotted the staff again and something flashed in her memory. That particular clinking noise she had heard threw images of her days at the ministry into her mind. “But I used to work at the Ministry- maybe you saw me there?” The idea that she had ever noticed Eleonora was absurd, really. She didn't stand out the way this woman did.

"70 you say?", she thought about it for a second. How old was she? She often lost track of time... Sometimes her projects took her to places where time was different... More fluid. For all she knew, she coud be 70! But he of course didn't know that... He must had said it as a joke. "Who knows if you're not right!"

As the woman muttered in her almost unaudible voice she nodded "I see.. You're Miss Valenta who used to work in the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. I knew your face looked familiar! So what do you do now?"
Mavis remembered the faces of almost everyone she met although linking the names with the faces was a different story. And this girl... She would most certainly stand in her memory. The girl had a certain feel to her... She was different. Kind. Loving. Friendly.

She bowed announcing "My name is Mavis Westfall. At your service!"
It was things like this that made it hard for people to befriend her... She was "weird", even for a foreigner. But that who she was and she didn't regret a thing.

The mention of her name shocked Eleonora and she momentarily did not know how to respond. This woman, Mavis, knew her. More than that, she knew exactly what she used to do at the Ministry. Never once had anyone recognized her outside of work, or she assumed even inside the building when she worked there. Dedicated to her job and terribly quiet Eleonora did not interact with many people during her stay at the Ministry, and frequently spent whole work days in the company of only magical creatures.

If she knew her then Mavis might also be aware of the circumstances around her resignation. The possibility the the woman knew that Eleonora had stolen Vega and Polaris sent a wave of panic to reach her eyes. She quickly turned her head away and found herself looking in the eyes of the young man next to her. While he may not be the most polite person, he offered a possible way out of this conversation. She silently pleaded him to make another rude comment, anything to divert the attention from herself. Eleonora could only hope he read the look in her eyes and cared to respond to it.

In the meantime she couldn't ignore Mavis any longer. She turned back to her and forced a small smile.

“Y-yes, that's right. I'm sorry I don't remember you, Miss Westfall...I-well I didn't socialize much.” Eleonora was stumbling over her words, uncertain what to say here. Her fingers reached up and found her hair, twirling it around them in rings as she was wont to do when nervous. “I teach at Hogwarts now...” What else to add about her position she wasn't sure. That answer should be sufficient and she really did not want to get into her personal life with a virtual stranger.

"Alas, my job does not allow me to come out of my office that much. I'm an Unspeakable you see?", she tilted her head, realising she probably shouldn't be telling everyone that. She put her index finger on her lips and whispered "But don't go telling anyone about that!" As she said this she looked at the man, peering into his eyes, silently saying "The same goes for you!"

She looked back at the woman. The panic in the woman's eyes that had twinkled a few seconds before was still present. She wondered what someone as sweet as this was afraid of. Completly oblivous to the world around her while working, sometimes being full weeks locked inside her office, Mavis surely hadn't heard about the theft.

"Ah Hogwarts... What a lovely school that must be to work at... The moulding of the young minds so they can aim at the future...", she continued with her rambling to herself.

The beautiful woman before her certainly was a bit odd with the way she spoke and seemed to address both Eleonora and the man beside her as casually as long time acquaintances.  When she mentioned being an Unspeakable Eleonora tried to hide the shock on her face. That was not something that she thought anyone would come out and say, or were allowed to mention at all. Either Mavis did not think Eleonora and the stranger a threat to her or she simply wasn't afraid of breaking protocol. At any rate she did not seem too interested in Eleonora's time at the ministry which lead her to believe she did not know anything else about her, which was a relief.

Eleonora just smiled at her words, not intending to follow up with a comment of her own. Hogwarts was a nice place to work but she wasn't sure that she was molding any minds, but more like filling them with information they were likely to push aside at the end of class. Still if that was how Mavis wanted to view it she was free to, it even put Eleonora in a better light if Mavis believed her to be a respectable professor.

When the man next to her spoke again she gathered he was posing his question to Mavis, who had spoke last. The question seemed innocent enough; perhaps he wasn't so rude after all. A kid that age should be respectful to their elders and however old he had joked that Mavis was, she was no doubt at least older than him. Eleonora chanced another look at him as she thought, trying to decide what to think about him.

Before it was too obvious she was looking, Eleonora lowered his head again to her shopping list as the conversation turned away from her. She still needed a few things and she had intended to stop at the Leaky Cauldron for a quick drink by herself but now thought it was best to head straight back after her shopping. This was more than enough interaction for one day.  She took her parchment and stuffed it back into her bag, gathering his things up in preparation of leaving.

"Far bigger, little boy", she spoke with a mocking tone and a wicked grin on her face. "Bigger than the ministry, than the world even! I wouldn't say I feel noble, but I do feel accomplished." Although she worked at the Ministry, she cared little for the politics or power-struggles that happened within. She was a foreigner after all. All she wanted was to find the answer to the question that had been there her whole life. It was that question and her knowledge already gathered about it that had led her to the Department of Mysteries.

She pulled out her broken time-turner and smiled. So close, yet so far. She looked at Eleonora when she was tidying up, preparing to leave. "No need to run dear. I'm just as normal as your everyday witch", she had a warm smile on her face, almost affectionate. Mavis loved when it was sunny. It was so much easier talking to people. She just felt like she should make everyone around her feel good and happy. Very much unlike rainy days... A shiver went down her spine when she remembered a rainy day some years ago when a certain person decided to double-cross her. Even dark wizards would find it... disturbing.

If there was any doubt in his mind about this woman was stuck up, it was gone now. She was an Unspeakable, doing regrettably unspeakable things, and he wasn't likely to satisfy any curiosity with what she really did behind closed doors. He watched, in his subtle way, as she pulled out an object most foreign to him, and fact that she was practically flaunting her secrets in front of him only aggravated him more. Instead of showing his true colors, he instead turned to the other woman, of whom he had much a better chance at. She, an ex-Ministry member, now a Professor at Hogwarts- she had to have a useful story behind that. No one quit- or fired, perhaps- for no reason. Did she see something that he could use?

A smirk spread slyly across his face as he stood up to meet the red-head, and wrap an arm across her shoulders, "It's true, you know. She's no scarier than I am." Of course, the statement itself was quite controversial, had anyone understood quite what it meant. He glanced to the veela, smiling courteously for a moment, before looking back down at the Hogwarts Professor's hidden face, "Come on stay awhile, this is the first decent conversation I've had in weeks." The friendly face was one he used rarely on people, as it never seemed helpful in most situations. For this one though, he believed her far too timid to refuse the act. If he had more time, he was certain he could learn something from this young... Professor. For the Unspeakable, he would remember what few details she gave, such as her choice of a staff over a wand, the strange necklace she seemed to admire, and the fact that she looked at him as though he were a boy, a silly, harmless boy. He was determined to prove otherwise, even if he couldn't do so now. For the Professor, he needed to learn more details than just simply working under his Aunt.

(Apologies if Dein's character offends! He isn't the kindest of people, like, to anyone xD)

As Eleonora stood and was about to make her escape Mavis turned from the man back to her. A bright warm smile was on her face, making her appear almost motherly as she beckoned for her to stay. Whatever she was Eleonora did not for a moment believe was she just an ordinary witch. There was something too perfect about her, something force-like pulled all of the attention of passerbys to her. With a start, Eleonora realized that Mavis was perhaps part Veela. It would make sense, and she had studied them during her schooling and work. The signs added up but it did little to ease her trepidation about sticking around.

Eleonora froze when the mans arm wrapped its way around her shoulder, her body stiffening and not daring to move. The phrase 'deer in the headlights' ran mockingly through her mind as she willed herself to relax. The weight of his arm was heavy on her, feeling both oppressive and in some perverse way, protective. At that moment his words didn't quite agree with what she felt; he did seem a bit intimidating. Slowly she turned her face up to his and surprisingly caught sight of a friendly expression. She was just being overly sensitive, she chided herself, and gave him a weak smile. “I guess I have some spare time.”

One of her greatest problems, Eleonora had learned over the years, was her inability to refuse peoples offers or pleas. It was not every incident, but it was many. That was how she ended up in such situations as these, unsure if she really wanted to be here or not but unable to just walk away. She felt it was expected of her to remain now and to join in the conversation. What had she to say, though? Surely nothing of substance, nothing that would interest these two. It was not that she did not believe her thoughts of value but she did not care to waste the energy speaking them if they were not something that would add to the conversation.

Instead she remained standing, still under the strangers arm, unable to figure out a way to extract herself without appearing rude. “You haven't mentioned your name yet?” She asked cautiously, bringing her eyes up to his and hoping that the hesitation did not show.