Georgiana was outside walking. She wasn't really sure why, only that if she'd spent any longer in that office of hers, in the Office for the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Objects she was going to go crazy. And it wasn't because her dad was there, she actually quite enjoyed working with her dad, seeing another side to him than she'd usually see. No, it was just one of those days where she just had to get out of the office before she picked up one of her colleagues and threw them out the window.
With a sigh, she decided lunch would be the best place to distract herself and shoving her hands in her pockets, she started off, bumping into someone as she went.
Someone bumped into Ruth Ann, and she stumbled (never that difficult for her to manage), catching the side of a building. "Oops, sorry," she replied automatically, though she certainly hadn't been the one to bump into the other woman (for once).
Hello, what was this? One of the lovely people from the Office for the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Objects, possibly one of Ruth Ann's most favorite places in the entire Ministry (after the room with the brains, of course)! "Hi!" she said brightly. "Where are you off to? I'm going to lunch, since they've decided that the grimoires simply just aren't ready for the Dewey Decimal system yet and I've been declared a menace to society for the third time today." The menace bit was, in her opinion, a great insult - she actually was on medication these days, after all. And she watched her sugar intake. It wasn't like when she was in school
Georgie only mumbled an apology and it was barely audible at best. She'd not really gotten better at manners since she'd left Hogwarts, and it was probably only the fact that she knew Ruth Ann that she got any sort of apology at all. Georgie was having a Very Bad Day after all. Still, she did manage some sort of a smile, because if working at the Ministry had taught her anything, it was that politeness went a long way. And she did like Ruth Ann, the girl was everything Georgie was not, and she really did have to admire her confidence. Plus, she was hard to shake, so it was either like her or go insane and Georgie liked being (marginally) sane, thank you very much.
"I'm going to lunch too," Georgie added, "Doesn't much feel like a day to be in the office, really." She chuckled at Ruth Ann's almost tirade.
"Don't I know it," Ruth Ann grumped. "You try to be helpful and people get all upset and explode at you and you can't just hex 'em or throw 'em out a window 'cause, of course there are no windows." Stomping along beside Georgie, she glared at the world at large, as if to blame it for the lack of windows on the ninth floor of the Ministry. "I tell you, there are few things that can solve one's troubles in this world like a good old fashioned defenestration. Bad days are made for windows, really. Or is it the other way around...?" She slowed her pace some, considering this deep, philosophical question.
It was at times like this when Georgiana was reminded that she really did like to have other people around and having friends was actually quite nice even if Ruth Ann did make her want to just stop and take a breath sometimes. The girl was a million miles an hour and sometimes made her feel quite giddy.
"I have a more important question for you, Plato..." Georgie said, teasing her and calling on her very limited knowledge of muggle philosophers. "Where are we going to have lunch today?"
"Well, I was going to go to the Leaky Cauldron 'cause I get a kinda-sorta-discount there because I'm almost an Unspeakable, see, and they get discounts because everyone is all afraid of them (they're a bunch of pompous windbags if you ask me), and I made a fuss about that, so now I get a discount too. Only not as much. And only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. But it's a start, which is what counts," Ruth Ann said with a nod. Never mind that she had no intention of ever becoming an Unspeakable - she sure wasn't going to let them know that over at the Cauldron. As it was, she was of the firm belief that librarians were much scarier, particularly when they had the entirety of the library of the Department of Mysteries at their fingertips. Oh, the spells she could access
( ... )
Georgiana was not one to argue with a discount, especially not when she was priding herself on being Very Good with her money and not spending it on friviolous things like her mother had said she would. (It must be noted for the record that Georgiana did not consider books to be Frivoulous Things and so could not be held responsible for the sheer mass of them invading her flat.)
She had to crinkle her nose at turkey pies however. Georgie liked turkey when it was roasted, but the thought of turkey pie? Well that was just disgusting.
"I'm sure there's other things on the menu," She tried to reply as diplomatically as possible.
"Indeed, indeed!" Ruth Ann said happily, clapping her hands. "There are salads and steaks and potatoes and lamb and sometimes even curry! And it is wussy curry, just like I like," she said with a happy sigh. "That is good curry, not too hot for my mouth."
She frowned for a moment. "There is, however, a distinct lack of hamburgers. To say nothing of macaroni and cheese. But I suppose that is one of life's great tragedies," she concluded with a sigh.
"So, why is your day all cruddy? I don't think your office has a library, so it can't be that you've gone and tried to bring their shelving system into the twenty-first century or anything. Did you accidentally fall asleep with a piece of gum in your mouth last night? I hate it when that happens, I always end up with the worst hair cuts afterwards."
Now Georgiana really did have to stop in her tracks. She stopped where she was and stared at Ruth Ann for a minute, trying to process just how that all fit together. She wasn't having much luck, so instead she burst out laughing. It really felt good to laugh and forget about the constrictive nature of the office, and Georgie felt glad to have her to talk to.
It took her a minute or two to catch her breath, but when she did she felt her behaviour didn't really need an explanation, so instead she went ahead and answered Ruth Ann's question.
"It's just one of those days where more things annoy you than not," She shrugged and that was about as detailed as her explanation was going to get, because Georgie herself wasn't sure what was behind it all. "Have you ever had one of those days where suddenly everything becomes a problem? I got angry at my breakfast cereal!" She laughed at herself, shaking her head. One of these days things would pick up.
"There's a smile," Ruth Ann said with a grin, hopping forward on one foot, then turning to see Georgie's face. "I was afraid something had scared it of, but no, it came back!"
Leaning closer, she gave a shifty-eyed look. "Breakfast cereals are not to be trusted. They can and will go soggy on you for no good reason. Milk? Not a good reason! No, they need to be watched, though breakfast cereals..." Rocking back and forth on her feet for a moment, Ruth Ann mulled over who knows what in her rather shaken-up head. "Bad days happen to everyone. Usually they involve large amounts of math not working correctly, something awful with your hair, and, in my case, forgetting to eat lunch for the third day in a row. Which is why we are going to lunch now. Come!"
Ruth Ann's assessment of breakfast cereals was something Georgiana could absolutely agree with the girl on. She didn't really eat them if she could avoid it, however she been all out of bread and fruit and pretty much everything else in the house, so she'd had to open that lone box of cereal. Really, that was where her bad day had probably began.
"My bad days involve useless twats." The smile that Ruth Ann had been celebrating disappeared off of Georgie's face. "Useless twats who think it is a good idea to not wear protective gear when dissecting snake charms that spit acid at you."
She sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose as she followed along behind to the Leaky Cauldron. "New rule!" She announced for her own sanity as much as anyone elses, "No work talk at lunch."
"Useless twats tend to do useless things like that," Ruth Ann said with a nod of agreement. Like useless twats who were stupid enough not to realize the devastating potential of a properly-charmed rubber chicken and then took it out on you, because their ineptitude was obviously your fault.
"A good rule! Instead we shall talk of other, wonderous things. Such as whether pancakes eaten at twelve forty-five in the afternoon count as breakfast or not, and if they do, can you then eat pie at one thirty and call it lunch?"
Whenever she was with Ruth Ann, Georgie felt just that little bit less tightly wound and even liked to indulge in Ruth Ann's diatribes that generally went from nowhere to nowhere fast. It was a good distraction though.
"As a general rule," Georgiana stated, both an expert on eating and not eating a proper breakfast, "I believe that breakfast foods must be consumed before ten am, unless they're croissants. You can eat croissants at any time of the day. And toast too. Well actually, toast is allowed in the mornings and afternoons and occasionally at night when you're too tired or lazy to make a proper dinner."
She smiled at Ruth Ann. She hadn't put a lot of thought into this, not really.
"Croissants are most certainly any-time-of-day foods," Ruth Ann agreed as she glance about and quickly started across the street. "The best thing about them is that you can say that a chocolate croissant is an actual meal and not a desert, and if you haven't got a chocolate croissant, you can cut a slit in one, put in some chocolate chips, stick it in a microwave or hit it with a warming charm, and voilà! Instant chocolate croissant. I like to eat them by peeling away the layers, though that doesn't work as well on chocolate croissants, because then you get chocolate under your fingernails and it's a bitch to clean, not to mention a waste of chocolate."
Having reached the opposite corner, Ruth Ann paused for a moment and frowned. "But I believe breakfast food can be eaten at any time of day, as long as it's not right after a meal, since it's food to break your fast, yeah? So as long as you haven't just eaten, you're breaking your fast, thus making breakfast food appropriate to the occasion."
Georgiana had to agree with Ruth Ann about the chocolate croissants. Especially on those occasions her job sent her across the channel and she could get PROPER pan au chocolat in Paris. Well truthfully, whenever Georgie was in Paris, she made the most of it. She loved French food, even if her mother did make pointed remarks on her return. Her mother could shut up, really.
"That's a silly rule." Georgiana said emphatically. Her breakfast practices were very precise and not to be messed with. "You can have breakfast foods at breakfast only, with the aforementioned toast and croissants being exceptions. All other foods are allowed to crossover. Just no breakfast crossovers."
"But some breakfast foods taste excellent at other times as well," Ruth Ann countered. "What about waffles and ice cream? Were it not for some inventive fellow thinking to combine the two lo those many years ago, we would have no waffle cones! And I'm not sure if a world without waffle cones is a world worth having.
"To say nothing of omelets! I mean, I don't like omelets that much myself, but I am assured by my father that they are yummy things of awesome, to be eaten at any time of day. Though I've never understood the appeal of mixing lots of things other than cheese or pepper in with eggs..."
With a sigh, she decided lunch would be the best place to distract herself and shoving her hands in her pockets, she started off, bumping into someone as she went.
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Hello, what was this? One of the lovely people from the Office for the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Objects, possibly one of Ruth Ann's most favorite places in the entire Ministry (after the room with the brains, of course)! "Hi!" she said brightly. "Where are you off to? I'm going to lunch, since they've decided that the grimoires simply just aren't ready for the Dewey Decimal system yet and I've been declared a menace to society for the third time today." The menace bit was, in her opinion, a great insult - she actually was on medication these days, after all. And she watched her sugar intake. It wasn't like when she was in school
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"I'm going to lunch too," Georgie added, "Doesn't much feel like a day to be in the office, really." She chuckled at Ruth Ann's almost tirade.
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"I have a more important question for you, Plato..." Georgie said, teasing her and calling on her very limited knowledge of muggle philosophers. "Where are we going to have lunch today?"
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She had to crinkle her nose at turkey pies however. Georgie liked turkey when it was roasted, but the thought of turkey pie? Well that was just disgusting.
"I'm sure there's other things on the menu," She tried to reply as diplomatically as possible.
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She frowned for a moment. "There is, however, a distinct lack of hamburgers. To say nothing of macaroni and cheese. But I suppose that is one of life's great tragedies," she concluded with a sigh.
"So, why is your day all cruddy? I don't think your office has a library, so it can't be that you've gone and tried to bring their shelving system into the twenty-first century or anything. Did you accidentally fall asleep with a piece of gum in your mouth last night? I hate it when that happens, I always end up with the worst hair cuts afterwards."
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It took her a minute or two to catch her breath, but when she did she felt her behaviour didn't really need an explanation, so instead she went ahead and answered Ruth Ann's question.
"It's just one of those days where more things annoy you than not," She shrugged and that was about as detailed as her explanation was going to get, because Georgie herself wasn't sure what was behind it all. "Have you ever had one of those days where suddenly everything becomes a problem? I got angry at my breakfast cereal!" She laughed at herself, shaking her head. One of these days things would pick up.
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Leaning closer, she gave a shifty-eyed look. "Breakfast cereals are not to be trusted. They can and will go soggy on you for no good reason. Milk? Not a good reason! No, they need to be watched, though breakfast cereals..." Rocking back and forth on her feet for a moment, Ruth Ann mulled over who knows what in her rather shaken-up head. "Bad days happen to everyone. Usually they involve large amounts of math not working correctly, something awful with your hair, and, in my case, forgetting to eat lunch for the third day in a row. Which is why we are going to lunch now. Come!"
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"My bad days involve useless twats." The smile that Ruth Ann had been celebrating disappeared off of Georgie's face. "Useless twats who think it is a good idea to not wear protective gear when dissecting snake charms that spit acid at you."
She sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose as she followed along behind to the Leaky Cauldron. "New rule!" She announced for her own sanity as much as anyone elses, "No work talk at lunch."
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"A good rule! Instead we shall talk of other, wonderous things. Such as whether pancakes eaten at twelve forty-five in the afternoon count as breakfast or not, and if they do, can you then eat pie at one thirty and call it lunch?"
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"As a general rule," Georgiana stated, both an expert on eating and not eating a proper breakfast, "I believe that breakfast foods must be consumed before ten am, unless they're croissants. You can eat croissants at any time of the day. And toast too. Well actually, toast is allowed in the mornings and afternoons and occasionally at night when you're too tired or lazy to make a proper dinner."
She smiled at Ruth Ann. She hadn't put a lot of thought into this, not really.
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Having reached the opposite corner, Ruth Ann paused for a moment and frowned. "But I believe breakfast food can be eaten at any time of day, as long as it's not right after a meal, since it's food to break your fast, yeah? So as long as you haven't just eaten, you're breaking your fast, thus making breakfast food appropriate to the occasion."
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"That's a silly rule." Georgiana said emphatically. Her breakfast practices were very precise and not to be messed with. "You can have breakfast foods at breakfast only, with the aforementioned toast and croissants being exceptions. All other foods are allowed to crossover. Just no breakfast crossovers."
All this to avoid discussing work.
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"To say nothing of omelets! I mean, I don't like omelets that much myself, but I am assured by my father that they are yummy things of awesome, to be eaten at any time of day. Though I've never understood the appeal of mixing lots of things other than cheese or pepper in with eggs..."
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