The woman nervously dropped pearl onions into a boiling pot of some kind. "Uh, a traditional stew."
"Traditional?" Snape said, as scathing as he could. "How do you expect to become a great chef if all you can do is boil an ersatz, counterfeit aggregate of inferior ingredients--"
"Stop, stop!" yelled Stu.
Snape sighed and turned. "What."
"This is for American television," Stu said. "You can't use any word longer than six letters."
"Ersatz is fine, then?"
"And nothing foreign," Stu said.
Snape sighed again and returned to the mousy chef, almost trembling over her leeks. "Okay, Molly--"
"Juliette!" said Stu.
"Okay, Juliette, what are you making for the competition today?"
Severus Snape's favorite thing about being a prep cook was the comfort he found in precision. When he was told to cut carrots one sixth of an inch thick, each and every slice was one sixth of an inch thick, from one side to the other. He wouldn't have been any good at turning them into something that people would pay to eat (although was sometimes tempted to add a few sprinkles of a compound that might enhance generosity), but every bin he covered over with plastic and brought into the walk in fridge was a marvel of exactness. The constant presence of large knives was also reassuring
( ... )
Having no access to his Gringotts account and no means of securing even temporary employment in the wizarding world for the foreseeable future (the Dark Lord being quite big on encouraging staff retention, yet apparently not at all concerned with such trivialities as paying his minions for services rendered), Severus Snape begrudgingly turned toward the Muggle world. After all, a man had to eat, and transfiguring a twig into a bacon buttie was never quite good enough, no matter how much brown sauce he added.
The trouble was, despite Severus's quick wit and unquestioned intelligence, he wasn't actually qualified for anything. The only job that required similar skills to the ones Severus used in potions making and Defense - i.e., tending bar - also required that he be at least slightly congenial. Congeniality hadn't been Severus's long suit even when he was a little boy, and things had most definitely not improved with age
( ... )
graphic design, part 1arsenicjadeJune 30 2006, 03:51:46 UTC
Ginny has always liked the sounds of Muggle words on her father's lips. She knows there is something wrong with them, can always tell by the way Harry flushes and takes a moment and then explains. Harry never corrects her father, so she never gets to hear what they would sound like on his lips. Which she supposes is for the best. She can handle Harry not being hers, she can even handle watching Harry be somebody else's, but there are lines she's pretty sure can't be crossed, and hearing him change the sound of her world as she knows it, that's probably one of them
( ... )
Re: graphic design, part 2arsenicjadeJune 30 2006, 03:52:23 UTC
Working for a Muggle public relations firm is a bit like thinking up jingles for a whole bunch of Weezes products that she's never actually beheld. She learns how to use a computer--a real one, with a screen that works and a keyboard with all the keys--fairly quickly, and when she has to ask questions that she knows are going to make people look at her oddly, she lies with good, solid, Muggle sounding lies: "My father was a dentist, we spent a lot of time in foreign countries giving aid. Things were different over there
( ... )
Re: graphic design, part 3arsenicjadeJune 30 2006, 03:52:58 UTC
Ginny thinks it's somehow appropriate that Harry doesn't need her, he needs her power. She is one of several amongst the crowd at Kings Cross. She hugs her father and her mother, she even hugs the twins, who look at her oddly, like they know something about her that she doesn't. They probably do. She doesn't ask.
Hermione and Ron are not there. Hermione and Ron are with Harry.
Ginny is surprised to find that she doesn't so much mind. She is even more surprised to find herself wishing she had found a moment to drag Grant into a washroom and kiss him goodbye. The do not acknowledge each other at work, not like that. She thinks maybe today would have been a good day.
She didn't know she cared that much.
Then there is a signal--one she does not recognize, but Remus does--and Ginny has no room to care about anything but the spells she is performing. She and the people around her have hidden for a year, waiting to be a surprise to Voldemort.
Ginny wonders if any of the others were a surprise to themselves.
Hey -- I was just checking back for the date and challenge for my piece here, and I don't think I read through all of this one at the time. It's totally brilliant. :-) I love how you do Ginny missing the Muggle world, and changing her mind when she's called on it.
Technically, he wasn't supposed to use magic. But the day hadn't gone well, his in-tray was overflowing, there had been a mix-up in data processing with the Muggle iffernet, and oh -- he didn't understand it, he just wanted it all done. What was the point of being selected to be "under cover" in the Muggle Ministry if one was incapable of hiding a bit of illicit magic? He tried not to take it personally that the Minister had said he could "pass for Muggle."
Thus after hours, Percy had three reports writing themselves, a quick abstersius Charm had corrected his tables (although his 'puter, he had to admit, was smoking a bit), and while he was at it the trash needed to be
( ... )
Comments 9
The woman nervously dropped pearl onions into a boiling pot of some kind. "Uh, a traditional stew."
"Traditional?" Snape said, as scathing as he could. "How do you expect to become a great chef if all you can do is boil an ersatz, counterfeit aggregate of inferior ingredients--"
"Stop, stop!" yelled Stu.
Snape sighed and turned. "What."
"This is for American television," Stu said. "You can't use any word longer than six letters."
"Ersatz is fine, then?"
"And nothing foreign," Stu said.
Snape sighed again and returned to the mousy chef, almost trembling over her leeks. "Okay, Molly--"
"Juliette!" said Stu.
"Okay, Juliette, what are you making for the competition today?"
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Having no access to his Gringotts account and no means of securing even temporary employment in the wizarding world for the foreseeable future (the Dark Lord being quite big on encouraging staff retention, yet apparently not at all concerned with such trivialities as paying his minions for services rendered), Severus Snape begrudgingly turned toward the Muggle world. After all, a man had to eat, and transfiguring a twig into a bacon buttie was never quite good enough, no matter how much brown sauce he added.
The trouble was, despite Severus's quick wit and unquestioned intelligence, he wasn't actually qualified for anything. The only job that required similar skills to the ones Severus used in potions making and Defense - i.e., tending bar - also required that he be at least slightly congenial. Congeniality hadn't been Severus's long suit even when he was a little boy, and things had most definitely not improved with age ( ... )
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Hermione and Ron are not there. Hermione and Ron are with Harry.
Ginny is surprised to find that she doesn't so much mind. She is even more surprised to find herself wishing she had found a moment to drag Grant into a washroom and kiss him goodbye. The do not acknowledge each other at work, not like that. She thinks maybe today would have been a good day.
She didn't know she cared that much.
Then there is a signal--one she does not recognize, but Remus does--and Ginny has no room to care about anything but the spells she is performing. She and the people around her have hidden for a year, waiting to be a surprise to Voldemort.
Ginny wonders if any of the others were a surprise to themselves.
*After Harry kills ( ... )
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Technically, he wasn't supposed to use magic. But the day hadn't gone well, his in-tray was overflowing, there had been a mix-up in data processing with the Muggle iffernet, and oh -- he didn't understand it, he just wanted it all done. What was the point of being selected to be "under cover" in the Muggle Ministry if one was incapable of hiding a bit of illicit magic? He tried not to take it personally that the Minister had said he could "pass for Muggle."
Thus after hours, Percy had three reports writing themselves, a quick abstersius Charm had corrected his tables (although his 'puter, he had to admit, was smoking a bit), and while he was at it the trash needed to be ( ... )
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