MARLOW AND RILEY! :]

[bradleys_buzz]

Bradley summoned some glasses and water, and they rested between him and his two interviewees. "I'm glad you both could make it. I wasn't too sure about that 30 to 37 business day crap," he raised an eyebrow, fighting a small smile

Comments

[marloww]

She felt slightly uncomfortable. Sitting there in the room, she had her hands clasped in her lap and her back straight as she looked around. The first time they'd done an interview, it was simple and quick. She figured, there wasn't much actually needed from either of them. But now, she felt slightly nervous.

She looked to her left, sparing a glance at Riley before looking back to Bradley.

"Thank you," she told him, though really, they were Riley's friends. Her hand reached for his. "What were the questions you had for us?"

[riley_s_od]

"Yes," Riley drew out the word, nearly hissing at it's end. He sat next to Marlow, arms crossed as he stared at Bradley with his usual cool expression.

"What intrusive inquiries have you thought up to callously disrupt my grieving period?" Riley yawned, "Lets make this quick. The Japanese post had scheduled a photoshoot of yours truly crying over the restaurant's ashes. They really care about my feelings."

[bradleys_buzz]

Brad forced back the want to roll his eyes. He had to be professional, he needed to get together a killer article to secure his spot at the paper.

"A photoshoot?" he asked, his quill already beginning to scribble, "When's that scheduled for? Have they determined the curse that was the source of the fire?"

[marloww]

Marlow wanted to reach out and see exactly what Bradley was writing down on the parchment. Her brows furrowed as she actually snatched Riley's hand from his falsified yawn and squeezed it slightly. Hopefully he would take it as a sign to maybe not say such things in front of a moving quill.

"He's not serious," she told Bradley, shaking her head. "Grief. Makes him a bit funny. Not... funny ha-ha but you know. Um. No, I imagine if they did figure out the cause they certainly wouldn't tell us. And I haven't seen anything in the papers. My dad said-"

She stopped. She had a feeling her father wouldn't want her talking to the Prophet about Ministry dealings. Especially in an open case in the DMLE.

[riley_s_od]

"-that I was brave and courageous whilst keeping his daughter out of harm's way," Riley finished her sentence, words dripping with smarminess has he absentmindedly picked at his bitten-down fingernails.

He glanced up, lip twitching upward while he tried to keep from smirking.

"You're getting all this, yeah, Cooper?" he asked straightening up to peer over at the parchment paper, "Make sure you mention how my eyes shone with the ghosts of my past."

[bradleys_buzz]

Bradley snatched the quill up, before it could write any of Riley's nonsense. Didn't he realize that the Prophet was going to write whatever he said, sarcasm or otherwise, as if it was the truth?

"Look," he stated firmly, "Anything you say is being recorded by this quill. Merlin knows the Prophet will use ALL of your statement. So can we just keep this as simple as possible, yeah?"

Why did he feel bad for him? Never before had he felt worried about reporting about anyone... but maybe now that he was reporting on a higher level, without anonymity, he was starting to realize the potential repercussions.

Brad relaxed into his seat. He felt better-- they had their warning, the rest was free game. "Right," he sighed. He put the pen down, waving his wand at it once more. "So let's start at the beginning. I may repeat some questions from our first interview, but its at the request of the Prophet. Anyway, we'll begin with, what were you two doing in Japan?"

[marloww]

Marlow shifted in her seat, again. She found it nearly impossible to get comfortable and with Riley stewing in his seat next to her, she wasn't sure how they were all going to get through the interview in one piece. She looked back to Bradley, offering him an apologetic smile.

"We were just having something to eat," she said, shrugging her shoulders. "It'd been a late night for both of us and we wanted to grab something."

Though, the student hall could have been an option- just not for Riley.

[riley_s_od]

"So I dragged her to Japan to get some sushi at my favorite restaurant," even though all the smarminess of Riley's voice, regret was still present in his tone. It took every once of practice he had to keep his lips from pulling downward and betraying his indifferent expression.

"Everything was fine," Riley coughed, looking down at his hands, "until we left."

[bradleys_buzz]

Bradley nodded. "So you exit the restaurant, and then what happens next? Did you hear the crash first, or see the smoke?"

Most witnesses had seen smoke, but having not been there he wanted to cover all of his bases.

[marloww]

"We'd been walking in the opposite direction," Marlow replied, leaning back in her seat as she raked her free hand through her hair. "We were in a really crowded Muggle neighborhood and we stopped for a minute-"

She broke off. The memories of that day came flooding back to her. She pursed her lips in a flat line as she remembered smelling the smoke and then seeing it build over the restaurant. She looked down at her lap.

"-I'm not sure which one of us smelled it first," she continued, shaking her head. "But when we looked back, it was already in flames. It happened... I mean, it was minutes. We couldn't have been gone for more than fifteen minutes. The entire thing.."

[riley_s_od]

Listening to Marlow's account of the story took Riley straight back to Japan. If he closed his eyes, he could've sworn the flames were in front of him-- heat licking at his skin. He smelled the smoke. Heard the screams from inside. Riley's breath caught in his chest.

"Excuse me-" He nearly whispered, "I'll just be a minute."

Before they had a chance to see his shaking hands or the look on his face, Riley got up to slip out of the room.

ooc: He'll be back. Carry on!