eyes like yours, can't look away [lucy]

[Deleted]

Imogen wasn't quite sure what she was doing. She had received an invitation to an auction for the Elias Greyback Memorial Fund, something where Quidditch players were selling dates with themselves to raise money for a charity that was founded in honor of the late Durmstrang Champion. She had decided to go, even though she wasn't entirely interested in buying a date with anyone. Which was exactly why she didn't quite understand her choice to hire an escort for the night. She knew she didn't need a date - no one was under the impression that she was dating someone, and Im didn't expect to see many people that she knew at the auction anyways. Maybe, Imogen thought, it was the fact that she craved companionship, or something equally cliche. She had been wondering since she had met a stranger at a bar if maybe she was going about life the wrong way - if the real way to keep people from hurting her wasn't to keep them at arm's length, but rather to hug them so close that they wouldn't be able to free themselves enough to stab her in the back. She had hired the escort on a whim, but now she was waiting a few streets over from where the event was being held so that she could meet up with whomever she had hired. Imogen hadn't specified anything about what she wanted the escort to be like, since she didn't actually have that large of a dating record and dating someone of any gender was possible for her. Imogen checked her watch, shifting slightly as she waited for her date to appear.

@lucyweasley

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This wasn't Lucy's first job, she had only been working for the service for a few weeks and already she had been hired at least a dozen times. She normally went by a different name, however, and changed a lot about herself based on the story that the person who had hired her wanted her to keep. Sometimes she was a successful business woman dating a guy who took her to his 5 year school reunion. She had been to several weddings since it was wedding season after all. And once she had even been the wife of a man who didn't want to tell his family that his bride, whom he had eloped with, left him just a few weeks later. It was weird, pretending to date people. But at the same time it was fun. A lot of fun. And it really helped her stay sharp and brush up on her acting abilities.

Lucy walked to the meeting spot with her client for the evening. She normally didn't know a lot about the client until she met them. Most of the time they were lonely men wanting to seem exciting at some work function or another. This was only the second time that she had got a woman while working for the service. Lucy turned the corner and checked the slip of paper in her hand that this was the right street. It was. She walked down a block before she saw the figure come into view. She blinked her eyes once. Twice. No one else was around the woman was at the location. They really should give us the names before hand, Lucy mused. All they got was the location for the meet up, and the dress code required. "Hi." The young woman said, approaching her ex teacher on the street, feeling rather curious, and a little awkward.

@imogen

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Imogen couldn’t believe her eyes – or maybe it was her luck that she couldn’t believe. Her one and only time hiring from an escort service, asking for an anonymous escort… and she got one of her former students as an escort. For a moment Imogen considered calling the entire date off. She could just not go to the auction and she and Lucy could part, and totally forget ever seeing each other. There were several things wrong with that idea, though, the first of which was that Imogen was horribly curious as to how Lucy had ended up an escort. She had heard that the Slytherin was going to be an actress, but perhaps that was just a euphemism. Another thing about running away was that it had the potential to make the whole situation more awkward, rather than less, and Imogen didn’t want that. She cleared her throat, and managed to smile at Lucy. “Hi.” Imogen replied, searching for anything more to say that wasn’t a lecture. “I, uh, guess we should come up with a reason why you’re dating your ex-professor.” Imogen said. Most people seemed to know that she was the Charms professor, and anyone who knew Lucy would know she had just graduated. If a story got out that she had dated one of her students, then Imogen could, and probably would, be fired, whether or not that story was the truth, so getting their ducks in a row before diving into the actual event was a necessity.

@lucyweasley

[Deleted]

Lucy's first thought what that her ex-charms professor was going to cancel the hire. And Lucy wouldn't blame her. Meeting someone whom you had hired to pretend to date you was always awkward, but, since Lucy normally got muggle clients, she hadn't expected someone from her world to find her in this deep, underground profession she had taken on for herself. But here she was. To her surprise, Imogen Zhu didn't cancel the hire, instead, she asked about coming up with a story, which made Lucy smirk. It was one of her favorite parts of the job. And she tried not to disappoint. The client was paying a lot of money for her services, she knew. Of course, not all the money went to her. But she knew how much her time went for. "Do you go to bars often? Or shops? Maybe a restaurant was overcrowded and they asked if we wouldn't mind sharing a table?" she offered. She could come up with more suggestions, of course. But since she only knew the woman as a professor, she would need to know a little bit more to come up with more ideas.

@imogen

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Lucy smirked at her, and again, Imogen had the impulse to send her home. That same sense of curiosity and obligation overtook her again, though, and the second time the moment of uncertainty lasted only a moment. Imogen was hoping that she wasn’t going to spend the rest of her night wondering whether or not she had made the right decision. Imogen was only slightly surprised when Lucy immediately started coming up with ideas of how they could have met as equals instead of a student and teacher, and Imogen was impressed. Lucy had always had a quick brain, but Imogen had thought that was only with school work. Evidently her imagination was just as sharp. “Bars, no.” Imogen said, despite the fact that she was seriously considering visiting The Three Broomsticks again after the auction to see if she could run into her mystery woman again. Her fake date didn’t need to know anything about her real dating life, Imogen decided, especially since she wasn’t even dating the woman she had met in the bar – just interested in her. “Shops, yes. The restaurant story works well.” Imogen wasn’t the kind of person who would turn away sharing a table, though she did wonder if that story worked as well for Lucy as it did for her. “Did they tell you what the event was?” Imogen asked, deciding that talking just about the business side of things would work well in keeping things from getting awkward.

@lucyweasley

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Lucy’s brain continued to think as the woman standing in front of her shot down her first ideas. Bars were always a good go-to since so many people frequented them, herself included, but her personal life was no conversation for a work evening. Shops got a yes, however, the restaurant idea seemed to click. “Well there we go, we’re both friendly people who don’t mind strangers, and we can even say it was in Diagon Alley. A real restaurant always makes it more believable.” she explained. If the situation were really to arise, Lucy would probably agree to being seated with a stranger, especially if she was really hungry and didn’t want to wait for an open table. Imogen asked her if she knew that the event was that she had been hired for and Lucy shrugged. “I was just told it was an auction, they aren’t very good about giving us the full story. I suppose it’s that Elias Greyback memorial auction thing?” she asked, thinking that was the only auction that her ex-teacher would probably be going to. If Lucy had known what the event was, she probably could have guessed that she would vaguely know the person hiring her. But this was the first time that her work as an escort was colliding with the wizarding world.

@imogen

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Imogen nodded when Lucy said that they were both friendly people who didn’t mind strangers, even if that wasn’t entirely the truth. “Why not say The Three Broomsticks?” She suggested. The place was crowded enough that on any given night it was likely there was wait time for a table, though the place wasn’t in Diagon Alley, as Lucy had suggested. Still, they both had reason to be in Hogsmeade, so it wasn’t a horrible lie. Imogen frowned slightly when Lucy said that her company wasn’t good about giving her all the details of why they were being hired. “Isn’t that a little dangerous?” It seemed ill-advised to send teenaged girls into situations they weren’t fully aware of – not everyone was as harmless as Imogen was. She wasn’t going to lecture, though, because she wasn’t Lucy’s professor anymore, and she needed to remember that if she and Lucy had any hope of fooling anyone into thinking they were on a date together. “But yes, it’s the Elias Greyback auction. I figured it would be a good show of support, or something.” She hadn’t ever interacted with the boy personally since the foreign students had their own classes, but two of his sisters were in her class, so she knew of the surname, and thought it would be good for Hogwarts staff to be at least somewhat represented.

@lucyweasley

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Lucy nodded when Imogen brought up the possibility of using The Three Broomsticks as the place in which they had met. Sure. That made sense. As Imogen was a teacher, she had plenty of reasons to be around the Hogsmead village, and Lucy had loved to spend her Hogsmead weekends at the Three Broomsticks, so it was a very viable option. “The Three Broomsticks it is then.” Lucy confirmed. Imogen didn’t seem to like the idea that the service didn’t give their escorts the full story, but often times, the escort service didn’t know the full story either. People would just pay for a date to an event. They’d give the time and place and rough estimate of how long the escorts’ services would be necessary. Clients could give more information if they wanted to, but it wasn’t required. Some of the escorts did end up in creepy situations, however, Lucy was never worried about it for herself. She was a strong and competent witch and was way more dangerous than any muggle. Not that Imogen knew that, and not that Lucy was going to share anything about that. “It’s fine. Most of us can handle ourselves.” Lucy shrugged. Lucy had also heard of the auction and thought about going herself, however, she hadn’t really interacted with the boy, though she was sure that Anna would want to go to show support for her fallen competitor and his family, so she had thought of seeing if Anna wanted to go with her. Lucy had changed her mind and never asked, though it seemed that fate had a different idea. “Yeah, it should be a good time at least.” Lucy nodded, which seemed odd to say about a memorial, but it sounded like there would be music and food and, of course, the auction. “Shall we then?” Lucy offered.

@imogen

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Their story was straightened out, which made Imogen feel marginally better about the whole situation. There wasn’t going to be any misunderstanding or miscommunication that might punch holes in their story or make people wonder more than they already would. Imogen thought maybe she was being a bit self-centered by assuming that everyone would notice her coming with Lucy on her arm, but she would rather be paranoid about the situation then be caught unawares by questioning and have to admit to hiring an escort service. She was sure that wasn’t something that Lucy wanted to get around, either.

Imogen just nodded stiffly when Lucy said that most of the girls could handle themselves. The key word there was most – and what happened when they couldn’t handle themselves was more catastrophic then Im cared to think about at that moment. Lucy seemed unbothered by it all, and Imogen wondered whether that was the Slytherin’s personality (which she hadn’t gotten to see much of as a professor, if she was honest) or if Lucy was just putting on an act for her client. She didn’t have time to stew on it any longer, because Lucy offered for them to move on, and Imogen knew that they did indeed have to get to the auction soon. The doors weren’t going to close, of course – it was hard to turn people away from a charity event – but Im would rather get there early so that she could stake her claim to a seat with a good view. “We shall.” Imogen said, offering her arm for Lucy to take as she began to walk towards the venue. “How had life been for you since graduation?” Im asked, figuring that if she was going to spend the night with Lucy, they ought to at least fill it with small talk.

@lucyweasley

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Lucy could see that her comment set her ex-teacher on edge, however, it was the truth. All of the escorts, both male and female, knew what they were signing up for and knew the risks involved, and sometimes, something unspeakable did occur, and while everyone felt bad about those things, the service continued to operate. It was a very backdoor type of job, and not one that anyone who worked there wanted people to know that they did. Most of the other escorts had other jobs, like she did, which was what they told people that they did. Lucy wasn’t sure if Escort services were technically illegal, it wasn’t as if they were prostitutes, however, some did offer...special services at an advanced price.

Imogen offered her arm to lucy and Lucy laced her arm through the arm of her date for the evening. It was a bit weird, at first, however, it was part of the Slytherin girls job, and she was very used to interacting with people that she didn’t think she ever would have chosen to spend time with. “Oh well It’s fine. Just getting into the workforce you know…” Lucy explained, taking a pause before the next bit. “I suppose it’s pretty obvious that I’d rather not have people know that I’m an escort.” she added. She never would have said this to any other client, but her normal clients didn’t know her family. Imogen was a part of her world, which she had tried so hard to keep separate.

@imogen

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Having her ex-student’s arm looped around hers as if they were friends, or more than friends, was weird for Imogen. She didn’t have many people that she was close with, and fewer that she was close with in a physical sense, so having someone touch her so casually was weird to say the least. Lucy said that her life since graduation was fine, and that she was getting used to being in the work force, and Imogen nodded. Graduating from Hogwarts was a bit of a culture shock, because working all day was so different from just going to classes and doing clubs and the like. It was exhausting. Lucy paused, and then said that she would rather not people know she was an escort, as Imogen had already guessed. It wasn’t a line of work that came with much prestige, but it did have plenty of stigma attached to it, hence the secrecy. “You wanted to be an actress as well, yes?” Imogen asked, hoping that all of the conversations she had had with other professors were accurate and that was the girl’s intention. “How has that been going? Are you doing magical or Muggle auditions?” Im asked. Some students seemed intent on making their mark on the Muggle world rather than the magical one, which Imogen could understand, given all the unrest that had been stirring lately.

@lucyweasley

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Imogen seemed to understand the secrecy of Lucy’s career and didn’t mind not telling people. Lucy knew that Imogen likely didn’t want people to know that she had hired an escort anyway, however, Lucy thought it was better to just come out and say it, while they were still on the subject of getting the story straight. She then changed the subject to ask about the career that Lucy told people about, Acting. Lucy nodded when Imogen asked her questions. “Yes. I’m going after just about any audition I can get, doesn’t really matter muggle of magical, work is work.” Lucy nodded, That was one different thing between her and the Purifiers, she didn’t mind muggles. She had no desire to marry or breed with one, but she didn’t mind them, she just didn’t think much of them, except for the times while interacting with one that she would marvel at their ignorance. “I haven’t gotten any bites yet, but you’ve gotta keep putting yourself out there if you want to get work in the city.” she explained. “And about you, and classes, I heard that there’s going to be an influx of Ilvermorny students next year? Seems Hogwarts likes hosting foreign students.” Lucy mused. To her, it seemed a little like a target, but then again, everything seemed a little like a target. With all the visiting students and the excitement at the castle this past year, Lucy was surprised the Purifiers had chosen to lay as low as they did.

@imogen

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What Imogen had heard about Lucy wanting to be an actress was correct, and the girl said that she was going to just about any audition she could, regardless of whether the production was magical or not. That was smart, Im thought – beggars couldn’t be choosers, and it seemed like all too often actors had to be beggars to get any work. She had a thing or two to say about that, but she highly doubted Lucy wanted to hear her rant about the importance of the arts, especially since the redhead likely understood the importance already, being an actress and all. Lucy said she hadn’t gotten anything yet, and Imogen nodded again. “Sometimes it takes a while for those things to happen.” Persistence was key – or at least, Imogen thought it must have been. Her own job before Hogwarts hadn’t been all that competitive, and it had been secure, so it wasn’t like Im was familiar with the feeling of having to hustle to get what she wanted out of life.

Lucy mentioned the Ilvermorny students, and Imogen grimaced. “I’m not entirely sure that it’s wise to let them in, in all honesty.” One quiet year didn’t mean the threat was gone, and especially since French and now American terrorists had carried out major attacks, Imogen was worried their own pureblood extremists would be emboldened and come out of the shadows. “But I don’t think it will change much, except for that the students won’t know me.” It didn’t take that long for rumors to fly, though, so Imogen didn’t think her anonymity would last for long.

@lucyweasley

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“Sometimes it takes a while for those things to happen.” Lucy nodded her head. She hadn’t expected to her a job right away, but she was a little more hopeful than she had been. Though, to be fair, she hadn’t gone to more than probably 5 auditions since graduation, and she knew it she was less picky about the show that was being done, or the type of role that she got, she’d have a lot better luck. She was also considering taking singing lessons to better her chances. So many shows had some musical element nowadays, and especially if she ever wanted to work on the West End she’d need to have a voice. She was decent as it was, but she had no training and didn’t know a thing about reading music. “I’m not too worried about it yet.” Lucy agreed. Plus, in just a few weeks of working as an escort she had made more money than any of the paid acting gigs were offering.

Imogen seemed to share some of Lucy’s concerns when it came to the Ilvermorny students attending Hogwarts, which actually sort of surprised Lucy. She would have thought that the faculty members would be all for it. It was very nice of Hogwarts to agree to host the displaced students, but surely another school would have reached out and offered too. And with everything else going on at Hogwarts over the past few years, she just couldn’t help but think that it put a bigger target on the castle and those within it. “You’ll have to re-establish yourself then.” Lucy nodded. “I’ll get any remaining Weasley kids to tell everyone that you’re a bad-assand not to be messed with if you want.” she offered with a wink. Lucy didn't entirely disagree with the statement either. 

@imogen

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Lucy said that she wasn’t worried about her acting career yet, and Imogen nodded. She supposed the fact that Lucy had another job, as an escort, made finding work as an actress a little less pressing, since her financial needs were taken care of. The rate for an escort was surprisingly high, and Imogen could only imagine how much higher it could be if Lucy did more than just spend an evening with someone. Im certainly hoped that Lucy hadn’t gotten into the dark underbelly of the escort business yet, but she knew that such a place existed, and sometimes it was difficult to say no to money.

Imogen nodded when Lucy said that she’d have to re-establish herself. “I already know that every student is not my biggest fan.” It seemed like the students had assumed that because Imogen was younger, she was going to be a pushover, and that wasn’t the case. Unmet expectations were the death of reputations, even if those expectations weren’t exactly fair in the first place. When Lucy made the offer about having her younger cousins spread a rumor about being a badass, Imogen smirked. “How many of your cousins are even at school now, anyways?” She knew that a whole slew of Weasleys had graduated in May, but Imogen didn’t know how many were left at the school. Before she could get her answer, they reached the destination, and Imogen smiled at the doorman who waved them in before turning back to Lucy.

@lucyweasley