through the looking glass?

[Harland Burrows]

“Thanks Isa,” He said softly, her smile was friendly as she passed the book over the counter to him, slipping the card inside with the due back by date inside of it. She couldn’t speak to him any more than he knew sign language. He was learning some new words, but at this rate, with his work it was only about a word a week. Better than nothing though, he supposed. He could feel the embarrassing attraction to her pretty smile filling him as their hands touched, even if it was for only a moment as he pulled the book up and over to himself, pushing it down into the messenger bag hanging off of his square shoulders. He should buy one of those fancy leather ones, or a briefcase. That was smarter, more manly, though he very much doubted that it was going to make her like him any more. He had no idea how old she was but he knew that she had to be older than him, even if it wasn't by all that much. Women could be weird about that, younger men. Like it was only acceptable for them to date men younger than them if it was by at least fifteen years and they were over forty. Such a silly rule. Regardless,he had to of read just about every book in this library by now...and not read but checked out at least once the other half. Avid reader, she had called him, written it on a paper with a list of recommendations that they didn't carry there. He just needed an excuse to see her on his lunch breaks. Needed something to do with his lunch breaks. His Internship at the paper was almost over and at the end of the month, he was going to be a real reporter. Officially. Could change out his little laminated name tag for a real, ministry badge and that was going to be something amazing. He'd been published a few times now, but nothing to write home about. Well, wouldn't need to write home about it, could just shot from the upstairs if he needed to. Almost had enough for his own official apartment. Well. He had an apartment, just hadn't been able to furnish it yet, was still having to duck home all of the time for silly things like food and hot water, pens. This whole living alone thing was hard.

Didn't help that he had no life to speak of either. Very little in the way of friends. His adoptive parents were more than supportive, and the lunch lady was rather good friends with him. Though, he shouldn't call her the lunch lady. He was far from being in school anymore. He was a writer. A journalist. Reporter. Whichever. Stopping only long enough to get two cups of coffee from the cart outside of the ministry, some pretty thing with a large scarf wrapped over her hair pushed the cups toward him with a look that seemed like she had no idea what she was doing. Wonderful. That meant that she likely burned the coffee, but he smiled at her anyway, his angular eyebrows probably making it look sarcastic. If he had known how to fix that, he would have. He had tried once, hexed his whole damn eyebrow off. It wasn't a good look. He was a rather interesting looking fellow as it was, he didn't need anything else setting him apart. He was too tall, he was too lanky and his face too angular. Didn't help that he was still doing the grunt work. He thought he was a pretty nice fellow though. He paused at the scanner by the door to verify his identity and moved inside, hands getting more warm than usual. Burnt. Had to be. Not that the lady would mind, she always said she hadn't found a coffee place that could make anything strong enough to keep her awake. Said she liked battery acid, she always said. Every time. With her voice like phlegm was constantly coating the bottom of her lungs and coughed like death itself but she was funny. Gave him extra food for free whenever he did eat here. Whenever he wasn't at the library, she supported him. Really all he looked for in a friend.

Turning into the little cafeteria he was surprised there weren't nearly as many people here as usual, only a couple of the tables were occupied at all. An older couple playing cards and a man in a suit taking up three tables with his folders, but oddly, he didn't seem all that stressed to be working through his lunch, couple of girls stirring cups of water...or looked like water, and gossiping in hushed voices and a man sitting alone. He moved right to the line and waited for somebody to come out and talk to him, for Bregita to come out and take her coffee, sniffing at the contents like a dog and laugh as she pretended to turn it away. The humor of old ladies, but she wasn't here. Nobody was here, looked like a cold spread today....sandwiches and the honor system. Maybe. Maybe she was on break. If he left it here, anybody could take it. He turned, his fingers drumming against the Styrofoam as he looked out over the grouping. Work man was a little too busy. Harland wasn't proficient enough at navigating social clues enough to try to talk to either grouping, but he didn't need two cups of coffee, so he strolled up to the only man sitting by himself, extending a cup out in front of him, “Hello, do you want some coffee? I think it's burnt, and I know you don't know me, but the woman it was intended for isn't here...and I wouldn't want to waste it....”

[Matthias Dreher]

Matt’s pen hesitated over the paper he was writing on as he wracked his brain for a few moments. What day had this case been on last week? It really hadn’t been anything special; just he and Seymour had gone out and reversed another small case of accidental underage magic, mundane stuff. In fact, most of their cases these past two weeks had been pretty mundane, pretty ordinary, just numerous. They were beginning to all blend together in his mind now. He leaned back in his chair until he could see past the dividers around his cubby/desk area. “Hey Seymour, what day last week was the kid who turned their family cat purple?” He made sure to only speak loud enough to be heard, but not so loud as to disturb anybody around them. Everyone in this department got along well to a point, but it was like that everywhere. Seymour looked up towards the ceiling, his lips buzzing on an exhale as he thought. “Was that Tuesday? I think it was Tuesday, man.” He looked back over to Matt who merely shrugged, sounded good enough for him and if their paperwork matched it was fine. “Tuesday. Cool. I think I’m going to take my lunch after I finish one or two more if that’s alright?” They didn’t technically need to ask permission to go to lunch, his wasn’t an intern anymore. He just liked to let someone know where he was in case they needed him. He just wanted to do a couple more now, before the he came back with the after lunch sleepiness or something.

“I thought you were going to lunch.” Matt looked up over his shoulder at Seymour who was leaning on the frame of his desk’s entryway. “Yeah, that was only like five minutes ago though.” Seymour’s eyebrows rose up towards his hairline for a moment. “Matt, it’s been over half an hour now. Go to lunch.” Matt pulled the sleeve of his shirt up to check his watch quickly; there was no way. But, he was right; it had been almost forty minutes. On the positive side, he had managed to actually finish around four case files in that time. “Are you listening to me?” “Yes! Yes, I’m going! I swear!” He signed his name at the bottom and initialled in the couple places that needed initials, finishing up this file and closing it and capping his pen. “Are you going to work through your lunch again?” That was one time. Was he going to bring it up every single time that he lost track of time? “No I don’t have any files with me!” He wasn’t taking his bag down with him or anything, just his wallet in his back pocket and a book to read to keep him occupied. He had picked up a fascinating new Charms book on his way home the other day that he was looking forward to reading. “You’re not smuggling one out to do on your lunch?” He looked at Seymour like he had two heads for a moment. “Where would I possibly hide one?” It would look too unprofessional to just fold one up and stuff it in his pocket, and he wasn’t wearing a blazer to tuck it in. “You are a wizard, are you not?” Oh, there was that. A little charm. “Yes, right. Well, I guess you’ll just have to trust me on that one then. Be back in a bit.”

He stood and clapped Seymour on the back once as he made his way past him to the lift. He was just going down to the cafeteria down on the main floor and getting a sandwich of some sorts. He wasn’t hard to please when it came to food, so whatever they had would work for him. He nodded at familiar faces as he walked; it was strange that he recognized more people here than in his apartment building. He was starting to think that this whole married to work thing wasn’t going to fulfill him as much as he imagined it would, not that he didn’t enjoy his job. He just wanted a little something extra. A little more than getting up to come to work, sometimes stopping at the hospital to visit his sister or hanging out with Victoria and that was it. He turned into the cafeteria, it was quieter than it normally was at this time of day. He grabbed a sandwich and left a couple galleons in the area you normally paid, wondering where the woman who stood behind the counter had gotten to before shrugging and going to sit at a table and cracking his book open. After a few pages he was completely wrapped up and almost didn’t notice the man who had walked up to his table until he started to speak. He looked up and wiped absently at the corner of his mouth with his thumb. “Hello, do you want some coffee? I think it’s burnt, and I know you don’t know me, but the woman it was intended for isn’t here...and I wouldn’t want to waste it…” He looked at the cup of coffee in his proffered hand for a few seconds longer than was comfortable. “Um, sure I guess. It would be a shame to waste it.” He reached out to take it and set it on the table. He would have gotten a cup to take back upstairs anyway so it was a two birds/one stone kind of deal almost. After a few beats of silence, Matt spoke again. “You could sit if you want?”

[Harland Burrows]

It had to look very strange indeed, coming up to a perfect stranger and offering them coffee. Miserable coffee at that. It was a lot more outgoing than he was comfortable being, but...it was decent. He was nothing if not decent. He still had the rest of his lunch break to spend, quiet cafeteria was going to make him want to work, and then he would violate his whole no working during lunch thing. At least this man that he had intruded upon, didn't seem too otherwise occupied. “Um, sure I guess. It would be a shame to waste it.” Harland managed a weak smile, and hopefully it came across as friendly, or relieved, or anything of that sort. All of those would be good things, and he handed over the cup of coffee, glad that it was at least warm. “You could sit if you want?” “Thank you,” and now he had to, pulling the chair out from across from him and taking a seat, setting his bag on the floor by his feet, resting his forearms on the table. He could have liberated a slice of pie from the counter, food wouldn't have been a bad idea, even if it had been sitting out for a couple of days...or worse. Pie didn't really ever go bad, did it? “I'm Harland,” he offered, pulling the lid off of his coffee and adding a sugar packet for no real reason. He didn't even like sugar in his coffee....well, not this much sugar anyway. “Work for the Daily Timestopper,” talking helped with the anxiety, his voice was just about the only one in this whole place that was making any sound at all. Everybody else was hushed, should he be hushed as well? “Just...” he put the lid back on his coffee and looked up, realizing that this man likely had no interest in what he did whatsoever. “Finished my internship,” if he had to sit here, might as well make the best of it. “Worked here long?”

[Matthias Dreher]

“I’m Harland.” Matt watched as he pulled the lid off of his coffee and added sugar to the coffee that smelled just a tad over roasted. “I’m Matthias, er, Matt is fine though.” Though, that didn’t really matter to him; he was used to drinking coffee that had been left on the hot plate just a little too long. That was the way his father had liked it so that was the way everyone drank it. “Work for the Daily Timestopper.” A journalist then. That was interesting. He seemed a little nervous to be talking; Matt would have expected a journalist to be well acquainted with talking to someone that they didn’t really know. “Just...finished my internship.” Matt nodded as he took a sip from the coffee in his own hand. Oh yes, just as burnt as he expected it to be and just a touch hotter than was comfortable to drink. “Worked here long?” He lowered the coffee to the table, placing both of his hands around the base of the cup and looking at it while he answered. “Not too long, I just graduated in the Spring. I’m working through my own internship in Magical Accidents and Catastrophes.” He glanced up from the lid, unsure if the man across from his was just exchanging pleasantries or if he was actually interested in sitting and talking with him during their lunches. “Have you been- er, written any of the articles lately?” He rolled his eyes at himself as he stumbled over his own tongue, why was he so bad at this? Matt read the Timestopper everyday, grabbing a copy on the way out and reading it later at home. He needed something to do at night anyway, especially because he could count the number of friends he had on one hand really and Victoria had been working crazier hours lately so she didn’t get to visit each other as often. He hoped this wasn’t going to devolve into an hour of strained small talk.