Back in the Saddle | Poet

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Angie had agreed to bet set up on a blind date by a friend who insisted that Angie would just love one of their other friends. Angie wasn't actively looking for a relationship, and whether or not one would ever develop from this encounter, which she doubted it would, she was interested in at least meeting some new people and she was confident that she would at least have a good day and spend some good time out of the house in the company of an adult without her 3 year old offspring. 

The ex-Slytherin walked up to the Hyde Park Stables where she had been told they would meet for a horseback riding session. Angie had been on a horse before, but she had been young, and while she wasn't really afraid of nervous of riding again, she was a bigger woman and it made her feel a little self-cautious, which was exactly how she wanted to feel on a date. The woman waited near the gated area where some of the horses roamed. A large brown horse walked over to her and Angie stuck her hand out for the animal to sniff before she began to pet the horse on it's nose. 

@poet

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Poe didn’t really like going on dates. He figured that if he was going to find someone who loved him, it ought to be naturally, instead of contrived by some friend hell-bent on playing matchmaker. Still, a friend – more like a friend of a friend, but that was beside the point – insisted that they had a girl for him, and he absolutely had to meet her. Poe wasn’t entirely sure about the whole situation, but he didn’t have anything better to do, and his friend of a friend said that they owed him a favor now, so it all worked out in the end. Finding Hyde Park Stables hadn’t been difficult, since it seemed everyone in the area had heard about it and were able to give him directions. Poe ambled over to the pasture where the horses were grazing. There was a woman waiting there, petting the horse on the nose, and Poe supposed that must be his date. He cleared his throat as he approached her, giving the blonde an affable smile. “Are you Angie?” Poe asked, sticking his hand out for an old-fashioned handshake. The woman looked quite a bit younger than him, but Poe wasn’t going to let that keep him from having a good time.

@angie

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Angie heard a person approach her and she turned around when he asked if she was herself. Her friend had told her that he was handsome and that was true, however, her friend had left out his age, Angie was an adult and especially since she had a child of her own, age wasn't an issue, but the 23 year old would have appreciated a heads up, or at least the full story. It wouldn't have turned her off of the date, she just would have been a little more prepared for who she was looking for. "Yes, I am Angie. And you're Poe?" she asked even though it was fairly safe to assume. "It's nice to meet you." she said and shook his hand when he offered it. She turned her head back to the horses and then back to her date, "so have you done this before? I'm not sure how they landed on horseback riding, I haven't been riding since I was a child." she admitted. She made a mental note to get Olive into riding, as much as the girl loved animals and adventures, she was sure her daughter would be a natural at horseback riding. 

@poet

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He hadn't managed to go to the wrong location or find the wrong person, so Poe would say that he was succeeding at the whole blind date thing so far. When asked if he was Poe, the Auror nodded. Angie shook his offered hand, saying that it was nice to meet him, and Poe nodded again. "Likewise." He wasn't sure where else the conversation was supposed to go from there, but luckily his date seemed to have some time to think of conversation starters while she had been waiting, and launched right into a question about riding. "I've done a little bit of everything, but I can't say I've ridden a horse recently." He responded. "I've been living in the city recently, so horses aren't exactly common fare." Before London it had been New York City, and before that it had been London again, so not much room for horses or large farms around him. "I fly airplanes, though, so this can't be much different, right?" Poe said with a hopeful smile. He didn't think that steering a horse could be more difficult than steering an airplane, but who knew with animals. It appeared that an attendant from the stables had noticed them standing there, and after asking if they were there for the date - which, of course, they were - led them back into the stables where they would meet their steeds.

@angie

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Angie listened as the man agreed with her that he hadn't rode recently. He explained that they didn't have horses in the city, however, here they were, standing in the city, in a rather large park of course, getting ready to ride horses through the park, but she understood what he meant, they were for those who were looking for something to do for the day, they weren't common on the streets except for the rare horse drawn carriage commissioned by someone much richer than her for some special event or occasion. Olive, her 2 year old daughter, freaked out whenever she saw one, she was very into the idea of fairy-tales and horse drawn carriages were stables in fairy-tales. "You fly airplanes?" Angie asked, "Are you saying you take them a lot, or you actually fly them as the pilot?" she clarified. Either was impressive, she had never been on an airplane, she traveled mostly on trains, but she had only been outside of the UK a handful of times anyway. She desperately wanted to take Olive traveling, it was so important for a young girl to see the world and be exposed to various cultures. "So should we check in and get saddled up?" she asked, gesturing to the booth nearby where you paid and they helped you get on and get comfortable on a horse.

@poet

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Poe’s comment about horses in the city didn’t garner much of a reaction, probably because there was a piece of rather contradictory information right in front of them, in the form of a park in the middle of the city that had horses. Oh well – Poe wasn’t in a habit of coming to this park to ride horses, and as a rule, agricultural settings were better for finding the animals. His hook about flying on airplanes, on the other hand, seemed to get a much more incredulous reaction. “I actually fly airplanes, as a pilot.” He said, pride coloring his voice slightly as he said so. “My mother was one, and she taught me when I was young, and during summers when I was home from school.” And then in his year after school, he had gotten his pilot’s license, and his own plane, and had been flying as much as he possibly could ever since. Angie suggested that they check in, and Poe looked at the young stablehand that had led them back to the area. “I think that’s already taken care of?” He asked uncertainly, pointing at the boy, who was gesturing for them to continue along. He seemed to be a person of few words, but then again, Poe supposed anyone who worked in a stable didn’t do it because they loved people. The boy led them to a pair of horses, and Poe raised his eyebrows slightly. “This one looks less like it could consume human flesh, so you can take him, if you want.” Poe said, walking over instead to the other horse – a big, black one that looked like it would kill just about anything that got near it. Poe doubted that was actually the horse’s personality if beginners were allowed to ride it, but who knew anymore. The stablehand helped Poe onto the monster horse, and he grabbed the reins easily. No use in being scared. “Ready to go?” Poe asked, looking over at Angie to see if she had mounted her own horse.

@angie

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Angie did find herself rather impressed when he explained that was actually a pilot and his mother had taught him to fly. She had never met someone who flew airplanes, she could barely drive. She didn't even own a car, as a Wizard, she just apperated everywhere, but she could imagine that trans-continental apperation was a lot more difficult than just getting to Hogsmead. "So do you fly commercially or just for fun?" she asked as they walked over to the desk to get their horses. He mentioned that it was already taken care of as part of the blind date thing and she nodded, "right, yeah that makes sense." way to make a fool of herself already. They followed a young man into the stables and were given the choice of two horses, one of which was fairly off-putting, Poe insisted that she take the nice looking one and she found herself very thankful. "Okay, thanks." Angie said with a smile. Along with help, Angie made her way onto the horse and found her balance, maybe it wasn't going to be so bad after all. She took hold of the reins, the young man explained how to use the reins to control the horse, something she remembered vaguely from her riding lessons as a little girl but was glad for the refresher on. Poe called to ask if she was ready and she supposed there was nothing left to do, "Yeah, I guess so." she gave her horse the little kick and it began to walk, they made their way out of the stable and out into the park. "This isn't that bad." she gave a relieved smile.

@poet

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Poe smiled a little at Angie when she continued the line of questioning about his being a pilot. It was something he liked to think was unique about himself, and it was nice to talk about something that actually had nothing to do with the wizarding world for a little while. “I work as an Auror.” He said, lowering his voice so none of the Muggles in the park would hear the word, which would only draw unwelcome questions and ruin the date. “So I really only have time to fly when I’m off-duty.” Poe added, his voice once again returning to a normal conversational level. He was off-duty less and less lately, it seemed. He wasn’t one to complain, but he was worried how the younger Aurors were going to handle it, especially since it seemed they were graduating some trainees early in order to make sure there were enough Aurors to go around. Their conversation was momentarily interrupted by the stablehand explaining how to control the horse, which Poe had already guessed. Reins seemed rather intuitively, but he supposed no one wanted to be sued because someone forget to explain that thing. When Angie advanced her horse, Poe also gave his steed a nudge, which earned him a displeased snort in reply. The horse moved forward, though, which Poe considered a win. “I think it’s supposed to be a conversation starter.” Poe commented when Angie said that the ride wasn’t that bad thus far. “You know, bring up the whole ‘do you like animals?’ thing.” He continued. “For my part, I prefer dogs.” Poe announced.

@angie

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An Auror. Angie liked the sound of that. Her father worked for the ministry, but nothing quite that exciting. She had recently had drinks with the assistant to the Minister and now she was horse back riding with an Auror; what a month! She knew that aurors weren't particularly exciting or uncommon, but it was an impressive line of work and one that she had a lot of respect for. Plus, he hadn't really known anyone who was an auror, not that she could think of off the top of her head anyway. "Did you always know you wanted to be an Auror?" she asked casually, lowering her voice at the word like he had, knowing of course that they were in a primarily muggle location.

Once the two were off and riding Poe brought up that the event probably served a purpose to act as a conversation starter, Angie had never been on a blind date, and to be quite honest she hadn't been on many dates period, at least not since she was old enough to think of a date as something more than snogging in the corridors. He told her that he liked dogs and she smiled. "I don't know if I'm a horse person," she nodded, though her horse was decidedly more docile than his. "But I do really love cats. I want to get one, but I'm afraid my daughter won't be able to handle it. So maybe a dog would be better" Olive was fairly rough with her toys and Angie hadn't quite figured out how to explain that a real pet wasn't a toy and the 3 year old couldn't just pick it up and shake it around. Dogs were at least more sturdy. Once Angie had said the thing about Olive, she realized that she hadn't said that she had a daughter yet, that normally wasn't a first date conversation. She tried not to scare them off so early on, but Olive was such an important part of her life that she often didn't even realize she was talking about her until she already had. Talking about her daughter was second nature.

@poet

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Angie asked if he had always known he had wanted to be an Auror, and Poe smiled. If only she knew how much of a question she and stumbled upon. "I always knew that I wanted to make my father proud, and that being an Auror would do that, so... both yes and no." Poe said with a shrug. Being an Auror had never been his dream, but he was more than happy to follow someone else's. "My dad was an Auror, and his dad was an Auror, so it's kind of a family thing." It was beginning to occur to Poe that being part of a legacy of Aurors wasn't actually all that glamorous. It certainly hadn't prepared him for any of the things that he was going to face, partially because the traumas - emotional and physical - weren't really discussed. They hurt too much. Poe hoped that his children - if he had any - wouldn't feel forced to go down the same path he had just because it was his path. If they felt a passion for protection like he did, then he would be happy to show his children everything they needed to know for their exams, but only if it was really their choice.

Angie decided that she wasn't a horse person, and Poe nodded. He wished that he could talk about flying horses, but that seemed like a stretch in the Muggle area. The word 'Auror' would be strange to anyone who overheard it, but it wouldn't reveal the existence of a magical world. Flying horses, on the other hand, would be much more suspicious. His date mentioned a daughter, and Poe raised his eyebrows. "How old is your daughter?" He asked curiously. "A dog can be a good companion to grow up with." Poe offered. He hadn't had a dog as a kid, and he regretted it. Poe thought that every kid ought to grow up with a pet, so they could learn what it meant to love and be loved unconditionally.

@angie

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Poet went on to explain that his job was a family legacy type of thing and Angie nodded as he told her. Her family wasn't like that, not at all. But she knew plenty of people who wanted to do the same job that one of their parents did. She never really felt that drive. She didn't think she had the patience to work for the Ministry and fill out never-ending streams of paper work (even if that wasn't really who it went there), and she was way to squeamish to work for the Hospital like her mother. She wasn't good with sickness. She had built up a bit of a tolerance for it over the years with Olive, but she still just took her to the hospital whenever she wasn't feeling well and then listened to all the doctors instructions carefully and obsessed over them until Olive was back to her normal self. "That's quite the exciting job, isn't it? Intense I mean. I don't think I could handle all the pressure." she admitted.

He asked how old her daughter was, but didn't do the typical 'oh... you have a daughter?' thing that she was expecting. "Uh, she's 4. She'll be 5 in May." she said with a small smile, knowing the judgement was coming. It always did. When people realized that she couldn't have graduated too much longer than 5 years ago and she had a 5 year old. She wasn't sure if he wanted to talk about her child or if it was just an awkward topic, so she continued the topic of animals. "Do you have any pets?" she asked. 

@poet

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Poe shrugged when Angie asked if his job was an exciting one. Most people tended to glamorize Aurors, and talk about how they always charged fearlessly into battle, but there was a lot of preparation that went into that sort of fearlessness. There were endless training drills and an exhausting chain of command and many, many sleepless nights. “There are some days I don’t handle the pressure all that well.” He said with a small grimace.

Angie said that her daughter was four, turning five in May, and Poe smiled. “Five is a big year, right?” He asked. That was when kids were no longer considered toddlers, as far as Poe was concerned. “Are you going to send her to a primary school, or do you have other plans?” For his part, Poe had gone to a Muggle primary school until he was of age for Hogwarts, but depending on Angie’s familiarity with the Muggle world, she might not have been comfortable sending her daughter off into it, especially if there were worries about accidental magic. Poe’s own brand of accidental magic had mostly involved making things fly across the room at high speeds, and that wasn’t exactly atypical in a room full of young children, anyways. At the question about his pets, Poe smiled broadly. “I have a dog, Eight. He’s about as big as this horse.” Poe joked. The horse seemed to take offense to the comment, shaking its head and whinnying loudly. Poe wondered what on earth the animal could have been thinking, but turned his attention instead to his date.

@angie

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Poet didn't try to disagree with her or insist that it wasn't as hard of a job as it seemed. She found that interesting. Most people that she had talked to about working for the ministry always told her that it was a rewarding job and wasn't as stressful or boring as it seemed. It was refreshing to hear that sometimes it really was. However, he didn't seem to be too thrilled to be admitting that. His face showed... pain? He grimaced when he admitted it. Angie had decided then not to press the issue, not to ask him anything else about it. This was supposed to be a fun date. She didn't want to bring up anything that would unsettle him. 

"Yes." she agreed that five was a big year. Her earliest memories were from when she was five years old. It was kind of crazy thinking that Olive wouldn't remember a lot from this period in her life. All of the cute things that she did or said would be memories that Angie would tell her about when she was older and the photos would be just that, photos in an album that she would show future friends and boyfriends of her daughters. It all made her feel so old. He asked about school, a decision that Angie hadn't quite made up her mind on yet. "I'm not sure yet." she admitted. "I think it might be best to home school her or find a tutor or something just because it makes me anxious that she could accidentally display magic in class." she explained. Hopefully, he would understand her hesitance and wouldn't think that she was being weird about it. He explained that he had a dog that was about as big as the horse, something that the horse didn't seem to appreciate, thought he doubted that the horse actually understood him. She laughed anyway. "Do you like kids?" she asked, not in a weird way, but since they were speaking of children already, she felt it was a fair question. 

@poet

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School seemed to have been a good thing to talk about, because it got Angie talking quite a bit. It was easy for parents to talk about their worries, Poe thought with a small smile as he looked over at his date as they continued their ride through the park. “Homeschooling can be difficult. I know I’d be pants at trying to teach my kids arithmancy.” Poe said with a wince. Most of the wand subjects – Charms, Transfiguration, and Defense Against the Dark Arts being the main ones – he was good at, but some of the other subjects, like Divination and Arithmancy, eluded him completely. Of course, homeschooling a child didn’t necessarily mean teaching them about the same subjects as they would learn at Hogwarts, but the point remained that the parents’ weaknesses would be passed on to the child via that method. But tutors were expensive, and Poe knew it would be wrong to assume that everyone could afford that luxury.

“Yeah, I do.” Poe said with a nod at the question about kids. It had never really been a question about whether or not he liked kids, but rather whether or not he’d find someone he’d want to have a baby with (or adopt a baby with, Poe added to himself). He hesitated for a moment before continuing onwards, deciding that honesty was in the spirit of the whole blind date thing. “I think that if I hadn’t put so much pressure on myself to become an Auror, I would have ended up at Hogwarts, teaching something.” Poe confided in Angie. Which subject he would teach, Poe had not a clue, but he had always enjoyed training new recruits more than the other aspects of his career, so he figured that there must have been at least something in him that compelled him to want to share his knowledge with those who needed it. And then there was the matter of the Animagus training that he was undertaking with Grey Slater. Yes, Poe thought to himself with a small smile, teaching would have been good for him. It just wasn’t the path that he had decided to go down.

@angie

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Poet explained that he believed homeschooling to be difficult. Angie had to agree. She always said that she didn't have the patience to work for the ministry, yet she thought that she would be able to home school a child? It was her child, to be fair, and she knew how Olive was and how she liked to learn, but, and maybe this sounded awful, but she didn't want to get annoyed by her daughter. She didn't want them to have a difficult lesson or Olive to throw a fit. She didn't want Olive to feel like she could slack off because it was her mother who was grading her work. Finding a tutor who could stay with her during the day and teach her the traditional muggle school lessons was her ideal, but she wasn't sure if those people existed. "I might try it. Or try something. Well, at least until she goes off to Hogwarts, of course." said the woman on top of her horse. She had almost forgot, momentarily that she was on a horse. But it jerked a little and she was instantly reminded that there was an animal underneath her. 

He liked kids. He had considered teaching. What couldn't he do? From what Angie knew of him already he was fairly perfect. At least in theory. She knew everyone had their flaws, but, a good job, interesting hobbies, a dog and he liked kids. How exactly wasn't he in a relationship already? She wouldn't ask that, that definitely wasn't a first date question, but it interested her. "Do you think you'll ever have any of your own then?" she asked, again, trying to keep the tone of the question very casual. The last thing she wanted was for him to think she was asking because she was interested in having children with him. It was a natural question, right? 

@poet