open RP: Albus Dumbledore returns

[lemondrop_party]

(( Approved by the mods, jumped through the appropriate hoops, et voila ))

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[lilypotter60]

As she had so many times, Lily found herself walking towards the Popcorn Room. Her brain was too full and she needed to vent, to rant and rail and let all those words she couldn't say elsewhere tumble out into the cool stillness of the waiting air. To Dumbledore, though he couldn't hear her. To a man she'd seen as a mentor and a father and a friend. Because the thought of a world where Dumbledore didn't exist, wasn't around to advise and guide and protect, was simply beyond her.

Even with the rumors she'd heard, she resolutely clung to the fact that the Dumbledore she remembered - her Albus - lay in that popcorn room. He wasn't dead, he wasn't married to Voldemort, he wasn't gone mad or ineffective. He was simply waiting.

As Lily rounded the corner, she barely glanced up at the movement she caught out of the corner of her eye. But that slight glimpse was enough. She knew that walk. She knew that form. She'd spent most of her life following it. Pausing, mouth dropped open, Lily turned and stared.

DumbledoreWithout a

[lemondrop_party]

Dumbledore embraced Lily warmly. It was a surreptitious test of his arms, which he found surprisingly and gratifyingly strong. "Lily Evans Potter," he said. He had found his half-moon spectacles in a pocket, and was wearing them now. They were only a bit smeary. He'd known better than to try wiping them on his greasy sleeve. Behind them, his eyes twinkled wetly. Genuine emotion welled up in him at the sight of her, much less her palpable embrace: he remembered the night of her death only too well.

There would be a reckoning when she learned how he had allowed her son to be raised, if she had not learned it already. He knew his fiery student too well to expect she would accept his reasons without objection. But for now, he hoped, there would be something of a reprieve.

"Lily," he repeated. "Everything is different, of a certainty." As he hugged her he patted her back, comforting. "Not everything will be made comprehensible. But I am here now."

[lilypotter60]

Laughing still, wiping her eyes with one hand, she pulled back enough to look up at him. Of course he couldn't just say 'everything is fucked to hell' like any normal person. Because he was Albus Dumbledore; and Lily had never been more glad of it. "I... Merlin, I don't even know where to start. You've been gone

[lemondrop_party]

Being within the popcorn was like being a child in utero, in some respects. Auditory stimuli were present, but no reasoning mind to receive and process them. Echoes, ghosts of utterances, to him in memory as maddening as the words of a half-heard song in a foreign language just enough like one's own to almost make sense. He would need a Pensieve and soon. At present he could only take in what Lily told him.

She had been a spy for him, in the Order. Her information was reliable.

At the same time, it would not do to point out just how much was a blank for him. Albus had always understood that his children (was it patronising to think of them as his children? but they were, all his students, all his past students too, regardless of age) needed him to seem strong perhaps even more than they needed him to be strong

[mageofanima]

*Erk wanders by aimlessly, having taken a wrong turn on the way back to Gryffindor. However, somone he catches sight of gives him pause.* Athos-? *No, not Athos. A second glance reveals as much - for one thing, Athos didn't wear glasses. Or a hat.*

My apologies - I thought you were someone else.

[lemondrop_party]

Albus was tired. Popcorn had been no rest at all. Nonetheless, he was never too tired to speak kindly.

"I do hope that was not too much of a disappointment to you," he said. "I am only Albus Dumbledore."

[mageofanima]

*Erk bows.* Pleased to meet you... How would you prefer me to address you, by the way? I am Erk.

[lemondrop_party]

"Oh, 'Dumbledore' is well enough," said Albus with a smile. He was no professor here, nor headmaster, any longer. His former students, he suspected, would have a hard time shaking the habit; and that was well enough, too. More than well enough.

[totallyluminous]

It's unusual in Hogwarts to see someone who you would call old walking the hallways; Mel's surprised indeed at that. That he's recently unpopcorned is another issue; she likes to make sure that people adjust to Hogwarts, be it at a Sorting or unpopcorned.

He reminds her of Michael, though she couldn't say how. Not close enough to see his eyes blaze with intelligence; and maybe they don't, maybe that's just archangels.

Mel approaches the man. 'Excuse me--are you alright? From being unpopcorned, I mean?'

She'd add a sir, but she's never done that before. Not even at school.

[lemondrop_party]

(( By permission of Mel-mun. Ddore is no telepath, but he's extremely learned, and should be able to recognise Certain Things ... ))

Albus straightened a little for the girl's benefit, suppressing a wince more out of instinct than any intent to deceive. He'd not be able to fool this one. She was no ordinary girl.

"As far as anyone is ever all right from being unpopcorned," he said, "I am. I expect I shall be right as rain after a long bath and with a pair of good clean socks."

[totallyluminous]

(And by permission of Dumble-mun; she's learnt *something* from her aura training.)

'My friend Lola,' she says, 'Had the same thing. A bath sorted her right out.'

The Michael comparison strikes again, and Mel wonders what would happen if she put on her aura sunglasses and looked at the man. She suspects his aura would be flaming round him, russet and gold and phoenix-like, forever changing, but always there. He's powerful. That much she can tell.

If she notices him straightening, she doesn't comment. It's like when the Taino recognised her as the One Who Flew On The Wings Of The Storm, the sign their world was ending. Noticing it leads to awkward conversations. She focuses on something else.

'I'm Mel. I've been here a few months. Do you remember Hogwarts before?'

She kicks herself for sounding so patronising. It's not her intent, and she grows a little red.

An ordinary girl in a few respects.

[lemondrop_party]

"That," said Albus, "depends on what you mean when you say 'Hogwarts before'; or, perhaps, simply on what you mean by 'before'. Before I was popcorned, I was headmaster here. Between that time and this, I am given to understand a shadow of myself walked these halls." One might expect the words to be delivered with grimness; yet Albus spoke as though this were an unremarkable thing, nothing to be worried about.

He noted her blush, and said gently, "New friends are a blessing, Miss Mel. I should offer you a chocolate frog or a sherbet lemon, except I fear they have all been saturated by this confounded grease."

[battlefranky36]

Franky was walking through the school, a grin on his face and a long, brown package on his back. Of course, being Franky, anything from a bazooka to lumber could be in it, but he would refuse to tell anyone what was in it. Well, he would refuse them a bit.

As he was thinking this, he bumped into a very, very old man. Lifting his sunglasses onto his forehead so that he could actually see, he looked down at him. "Oi, sorry old man. You okay?"

[lemondrop_party]

(( Hiya! I'll take that hit, but it's best not to connect without player consent, as technically that's godmodding. ))

Gritting his teeth (why, yes, he still had his own teeth), Dumbledore withstood the sudden collision, almost amazed not to have ended up derriere over teakettle. "I am no worse for wear," he said amiably. "And you are?"

[battlefranky36]

((Crap! I'll be far more careful in the future.))

"Me?" Franky carefully set aside his package, and started to pose. "I'm the underground face of Hufflepuff, the most super man at Hogwarts, Franky! What about you?"

[lemondrop_party]

"Albus Dumbledore," said Albus, amiably, "and very honored to meet the underground face of Hufflepuff."

[agentsgent]

Jeeves still made it his habit to come by the popcorn room as often as possible. "Good day, sir," he said, with a slight bow to the gentleman who had only just come back. "Welcome back to Hogwarts. Is there anything I could get for you, sir?"

[lemondrop_party]

Albus regarded this apparition with mild surprise. "Upon my word, Hogwarts seems to have acquired a servant after the old fashion," he said. "In my day we had house-elves. It is a pleasure to meet you, sir, and you need not stand on ceremony on my account. I am Albus Dumbledore, and my needs are modest. I have only to get my bearings."

[agentsgent]

His expression lit with recognition. "Ah, sir, it is an honor to meet you." He bows, slightly. "I have often read of your exploits. My name is Jeeves, sir, valet to Professor Wooster."

[lemondrop_party]

"Professor Wooster, is it?" He softened the query with a genial smile. The implication was not who is this upstart of whom I, conversant with the entire wizarding world, have not heard? but oh, how nice, a new colleague with whom to compare sock yarn. "I'm afraid I have been away some time. What does Professor Wooster teach?"