Celebrate Good Times [JESSAVETTE]

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It was five o’clock in the early evening, when most people would be just getting out of work, and not eager to get back into the office. However, for Beatrice it was one of those days where she was tingling with anticipation of bursting through those doors of the Daily Prophet after the game she had just witnessed. Five hours of the most intense Quidditch match she had ever seen in her life, including the substitution of players on the pitch by both the Arrows and the Wasps. The scoring was so evenly matched that Bea flipped on which team she thought was going to win at least ten times. Of course, she wanted the Arrows to win as she was their team reporter, but technically as a journalist she was supposed to remain neutral. Still, she couldn’t help but shout in delight as the Seeker for the Arrows caught the Snitch in the sixth hour of play, before sitting down with a sheepish grin on her face.

Bea had elected to take the train in from her parents’ home after she had Apparated back - she did some of her best writing on the London Tube, which she knew some people found very odd. With her finished article in hand, she burst through the doors of the Daily Prophet office and with a flick of her wand, the article landed in the inbox of her editor. Bea’s eyes searched the cubicles, which were mostly empty, until she found one of the people she was looking for. Jessavette Dupont was a young upstart at the paper, and Bea had somewhat taken the girl under her wing as an intern. Thankfully, the brunette was still at her cube, and Beatrice made a beeline for her. “Tell me you don’t already have plans with that hunk of a boyfriend you have. I just came from the Arrows-Wasps game and I am feeling the need for a nice dinner with a good bottle of wine,” she exclaimed, slapping her hands onto Jess’ desk and looking the girl in the eye expectantly.

@jessavette

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Jess was working later than she wanted to be, but it didn't really matter. Fin was busy at work tonight, so if she left she'd just be going home alone. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, it just didn't give her motivation to do her work quickly. Which was stupid, because not being at work was definitely more fun than being at work. 

She jumped when she heard someone else moving toward her. Jess looked up when she heard the familiar voice and then smiled. It was Bea! She shook her head, "No, Fin is working tonight," she answered, eyes lighting up when she realized what Bea was asking. She wasn't going to have to go straight home after work. "That sounds great! You're going to tell me all about the game, right? I was stuck here and didn't get to watch," Jess made a face. As much as she liked writing, she would have much preferred to go to the game. "You lead the way. I'm too tired to decide where we eat today," she added quickly. Jess often got stuck choosing where to eat, but she really didn't want to today.

@beatrice

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Beatrice barely even registered that Jess was asking her to pick the place; as if she didn’t already have a place in mind! “Oh, you will hear plenty about the game, don’t you worry,” Bea agreed with a wide grin, tucking Jess’ hand under the crook of her elbow and leading the younger reporter out of their stuffy office and into the crisp cool evening air of October. “We’re going to one of my FAVORITE pubs, the Mayflower. Oh you’ll love it, their food is to DIE for,” she gushed, leading her down the twisting streets of London until they reached the riverside pub. The fairy lights twinkled on the outdoor deck, where roaring fires in their steel cases kept the diners warm. Beatrice led them inside however; her brothers friend was tending the bar tonight, so they’d get prime service if they sat at the pub. Luckily, she had called ahead and convinced him to reserve two end seats at the pub, and there the empty stools stood as the two girls pushed their way into the relatively crowded pub.

“You alright Ben?” Beatrice called cheerfully to the bartender, who saluted her in greeting. Bea shook off her coat and hung it on the hook under the bar before taking a seat. “Gosh I love this place,” she said, looking over at Jess with a smile. “I know most people in our office tend to go for a more...magical locale so to speak, but being Muggleborn I like to remember my roots.” Ben the bartender brought them a round of drinks, and Beatrice clinked her glass with Jess’ before taking a dainty sip. “Now then to the good stuff, do you want a recap or detailed play by play?” Beatrice asked her eagerly. She would be happy to give either type of rundown but she was hoping Jess would agree to hear the play by play, no matter how long it took Bea to get all the words out.

@jessavette

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Jess grinned at her friend's enthusiasm. Honestly, this was one of the things she loved about working at the Daily Prophet. Most of the reporters and journalists here loved their jobs and it showed in their work. Also, it was fun to be able to develop relationships with the ones that had similar interests, like she and Bea. "Oooh I can't wait!" Jess gushed, knowing it would further animate her friend. She grinned as the other girl led her out of the office, saying she had a favorite place she wanted to take her to. Jess followed easily, excited to see where her friend was taking her. "I love it," she gasped as they approached the place. "Oh it's beautiful!" How had she never heard of this place? Maybe she could convince Fin to come here with her sometime.

"I believe it," she answered with a firm nod when Bea mentioned how much she loved it here. "It's beautiful and cozy and ... oh I'm definitely coming back here sometime." Jess shrugged at the mention of how the wizards normally preferred somewhere magical. "Well I'm a muggleborn right along with you, so I really like this place." Jess knew she would have liked it even if she weren't muggleborn though. It was just her kind of a place. Jess took a sip when Bea did, rolling her eyes at her friend's question. "A play-by-play, duh! What kind of a Quidditch fan do you think I am?" she demanded. 

@beatrice

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Beatrice had honestly forgotten Jess was a Muggleborn as well; bloodlines weren’t exactly a hot topic at the Daily Prophet, at least in the sense that was part of common conversations between colleagues. The Purifiers hatred of Muggleborns was obviously well known and well reported on, but it felt odd to bring up at random times. “Well, all the more reason to come back!” she exclaimed with a wide smile. “I try to come here at LEAST once a month, so we can always coordinate,” she added with a laugh as the bartender shook his head at them with a smile. “See, he knows,” she commented, pointing over at him with a grin.

Beatrice clapped her hands together when Jess responded, just as enthusiastically as her, that she wanted the complete play-by-play. “Okay, so it started off pretty slow,” she began, then launched into details about all the scorings, the misses, the Bludger hits, the fouls (of which there were many), the rowdiness of the crowds which had grown to alarming heights near the end of the game, and a shouting match between the Beaters of the two teams near the end of the game. “Finally, there was a spectacular diving race between the two Seekers and just when we thought the Wasps had it, Aaron came through and catch the Snitch!” Beatrice finished, banging her hand on the tabletop with excitement. The bartender came back over at that point and offered them food menus. “Okay, so everything's good here, the baked camembert is great for sharing and obviously the pies are to die for,” she exclaimed, signalling for her baked honey and rosemary camembert to go in the oven immediately.

@jessavette

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Jess nodded enthusiastically when Beatrice told her she should come back to this place to eat some other time. "Yes, I think you're definitely right about that," Jess agreed. She wanted to come back here and be able to enjoy this place. Maybe she could bring Fin here. She wasn't entirely sure if he would enjoy it as much as she thought she was going to. Mmmm, maybe she should see what she thought about it before making plans to bring Fin here. She laughed when the bartender made it clear that he knew Beatrice. "Feel free to bring me here whenever you want to," Jess told her with a laugh. 

Beatrice was obviously so excited to talk about the game and Jess listened with rapt attention as she explained everything that happened. By the end of her story, Jess was bouncing up and down and clapping her hands enthusiastically. She was sure that other people in the place were probably staring at her, but she didn't care. This was amazing. "Oh Merlin, I wish I could have been there! That sounds totally amazing!" She laughed, shaking her head as she tried to digest what she'd just been told. "I want to have the same thing as her," she told the bartender, hoping that he wouldn't mind her giving her order to him. "So did you get any interviews with the players or anything?"

@beatrice

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Beatrice was thrilled to be sharing a pint and a meal with someone like Jess; it had been hard bonding with some of the other Quidditch correspondents due to the age difference between most of them, and with Nova traveling all the time before she had come back to Hogwarts she’d hardly had anyone to talk to. Alright, anyone she enjoyed talking to she supposed. Unlike her, Jess had actually had the coordination to play the sport instead of just watch it. She still enjoyed talking Quidditch, which had drawn Tris to her immediately. “Well I’m so glad someone shares my enthusiasm,” she said brightly, taking another sip of her drink. “Have you thought about applying to be a Quidditch Correspondent? I know the best team is taken,” she paused and laughed; she had always been a bit biased when it came to the Appleby Arrows after all. “But there are so many teams out there!” Beatrice then lowered her voice conspiratorially. “Plus, I’ve heard the correspondent for Puddlemere United is considering retirement after his last bout of dragon pox. Poor lad seems to get it more often than not!” It was one of the Prophets’ ill kept secrets after all, so she was sure Jess had already heard about it.

Their baked camemberts came out soon after her revelation, and Tris tucked into the food, giving Jessavette time to take in the news. Tris savored every bite, reminding her exactly why she kept coming back to this one particular place time and time again. She had never taken a date here though, specifically because her relationships never seemed to last more than a few months, and she hadn’t wanted to ruin the atmosphere. “I did get some good quotes from Kai Jones, though I’ll have to edit out the explicatives,” she told Jess with a laugh; the Beater was known for his rather colorful choice in language, so it wasn’t altogether surprising. “Coach Gamp too, the rest were too busy whooping and hollering from what I could say to let me have a word in edgewise. Thankfully the commentary on the game did all the talking I needed to fill my word quota.” Beatrice took another bite. “What about you? Get any interesting stories passed your way yet this week?” she asked curiously.

@jessavette

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Jess couldn’t help but laugh when her friend mentioned feeling glad that she knew someone who appreciated Quidditch like she did. “Oh, I’m sure there are plenty of people that like Quidditch as much as we do,” she answered, “but I am glad that you found me before any of them.” Jess loved getting a rundown of the matches from her friend. She liked imagining the match in her head, even though that was hardly better than actually getting to watch it in person. Still, she was quite busy with work so there wasn’t a lot of time for watching Quidditch. She nodded when Beatrice asked if she’d thought about being a Quidditch Correspondent. “I have. I’m just not entirely sure if it’s what I want. I mean, I love sports, but lately the idea of being an investigative journalist has kind of wedged itself into my mind.” She shrugged. Jess wasn’t entirely sure she’d do any good at investigative work, but she couldn’t stop thinking about it, so she wanted to give it a try. If it didn’t work, she could always go into writing for sports then. Couldn’t she?

The food arrived and Jess began eating right along with her friend. She gasped a little after her first bite, looking up to her friend with an accusatory glance. “I can’t believe you haven’t brought me here before. This is amazing!” Jess new from one taste that she would definitely be returning here sometime. She took another bite, closing her eyes and sighing as she savored the food. When her friend started talking again, Jess opened her eyes and laughed along with her. “That sounds like fun,” she answered at the mention of Kai Jones. He was a good player, definitely one of Jess’ favorites. He just had good style, honestly. “I can imagine that it wasn’t easy trying to get interviews then,” Jess agreed. At school she’d never had anyone asking for interviews after a game, but that was probably because the whole school attended the matches so no article was necessary. Also, stopping any team from partying after winning was basically laughable.

She shrugged when Beatrice turned the conversation back to her. “No, not yet. I should be going out on assignment with Mary tomorrow.” Mary was one of their investigative journalists, one of the best actually, and Jess was very excited to shadow her. This would be her chance to see if she was cut out for that type of writing, or even if she was interested in it. It was an exciting prospect.

@beatrice

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Beatrice smiled and raised her glass in Jessavette’s direction. She too was glad that she had found Jess before any other Quidditch obsessed newcomers had made their presence known in the Prophet office. She found Jess to be a similar kindred spirit; both were Muggleborns with similar personalities and passions. But she wasn’t surprised when her friend mentioned feeling pretty set on investigative reporting. “Fair enough,” she replied with a nod of her head. Personally, Beatrice had never really felt the call to be out in the trenches when it came to investigative reporting - she liked the relative safety of being in the press box for Quidditch matches. Of course there was that one time where a Bludger almost pelted its way through the box, but a quick move by none other than Kai Jones had saved Tris from bearing a broken nose or jaw from the Bludger. Perhaps that was why he was so inclined to give comments after matches, he fancied himself a knight in Arrows Quidditch robes. Honestly, that would not surprise her.

Beatrice took the moments of silence while Jess was savoring her food with bites of her own meal. Every time she came, she couldn’t believe she went as long as she had without eating this baked camembert, even if it had only been a few short weeks in between times. It was still not enough! Too soon, both girls’ plates were sparkling clean, and the bartender cleared them away, refreshing their drinks as he did so. Beatrice made a mental note to tip him well afterwards. “Ooh, Mary - I actually shadowed her in my first months as a reporter as well. The editor in chief at the time wanted to make sure the fresh blood reporters got a taste of every aspect of journalism before going into their niches.” It was smart actually on his part; it had certainly made Tris realize that she wanted to report on Quidditch matches even more than she already thought before. “What sort of breaking news would you love to report on?” Tris then asked Jess curiously. Perhaps the girl would say something about the Purifiers, or even the Muggle serial killer that had already claimed the lives of three people, with no trace left behind whatsoever. Personally, Tris had a hunch it may be a wizard, or someone who had wizarding connections, but there was no evidence yet of that, and she was not so inclined to investigate it herself.

@jessavette

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Beatrice didn't say much of anything when Jess told her that she wanted to try out investigative journalism. In all actuality, it wasn't the danger aspect that pulled Jess in that direction. It was the unknown. If she went out writing about Quidditch, she knew wexactky what she'd be doin. Going to matches, writing how they went, over and over. There wasn't anything wrong about Quidditch and Jess was almost positive that she'd enjoy that a lot, but ... the mystery of investigative journalism drew her somehow. Each assignment would be different, unique in its own aspect, but each one would present a challenge too. Not only would she need to figure out how to write about it, but she'd also have to find something to write about. At least, that was how Jess thought of it now. Maybe after she went out with Mary she would see things in a different light. That was why this was a trial run, after all. 

The meal was delightful. Normally Jess would try to keep the conversation going while she ate, but it was hard to focus on something other than the food in front of her. One glance at her friend showed that Beatrice felt the same way as well. Her eyes widened when her friend commented about working with Mary before. "Oh really? What did you do with her? What did you think of her?" So far, Jess had yet to talk to anyone that really knew anything about Mary and she was a little worried about the mystery of the woman. Would she be completely serious, focused on her work and expecting Jess to know what she was supposed to do, or would she teach her? Jess was hoping she'd be a good teacher.

Jess shrugged a little at the other girl's question. "I don't think I get to choose what I write about for a while. At the moment, I'm kind of hoping we can start off with something easy, but there's another part of me that just wants to jump in with Mary and see how it goes." Which was why Jess was no good at trying to plan out what she wanted to do. She knew that once she jumped into a job, she might love it or hate it. She was hoping she'd like investigative journalism, but she didn't know if she would. That was the big question.

@beatrice

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Beatrice was relieved to find out that Jess was not the type to try and keep a conversation going while they ate, especially not with such amazing food on the plates in front of them. They enjoyed a comfortable silence as they devoured their food with gusto, pausing every so often to take a refreshing sip of their drinks before tucking back in. As they finished with their meal, Jess turned the conversation to Mary, a woman it seemed that both of them had, or would be, working with. “Mary was lovely, very experienced and knowledgeable about the world of investigative reporting,” she reassured the younger woman, not wanting her to be worried before going out on assignment with the reporter. “I always knew I was destined to be a Quidditch correspondent, but our editor back then was quite convinced we’d make better journalists if we sampled every single aspect of reporting before making our final choices.” Their editor back then was now the owner of the paper, Mr. Jones, and he had had a good point. Beatrice had enjoyed her time working with Mary, but in the end, her heart knew what she wanted to do, and that was Quidditch.

“She definitely is one of those people whose brains work faster than her mouth, so be prepared for her to seem perfectly random, but in her head she makes complete sense,” she advised, remembering Mary’s seemingly mindless chatter that when strung together, actually was quite comprehensible. “You won’t start off easy with Mary; the editor loves putting her on the tough to crack cases because of the way her mind thinks. Kind of like that Muggle book series, Sherlock Holmes. She rather reminds me of him,” she explained. Mary was one of their most skilled investigative reporters, and Beatrice highly doubted she would ease Jessavette into anything.

@jessavette

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The food was delightful. Jess leaned back once she'd finished, smiling in satisfaction. She loved this place and would definitely try to convince Fin to come here with her sometime ... not that she thought that would be hard. As a general rule, as long as they were together, both she and Fin were happy to do whatever. It was one of the things she liked about him. He was willing to do new things with her. Like that haunted house they were planning on attending sometime in October. It would be great! She nodded as Beatrice started explaining a little more about her experience with Mary and the editor's perspective with new journalists. Jess grimaced, "Man, now I kind of wish he was still editor. I'm not entirely sure which area I want to go in, so trying them all could be one way of figuring it out." She was kind of doing that on her own, but it wasn't in an official capacity, which Jess thought might be more worth it, or maybe just more helpful. 

As Bea went into even further detail about Mary, Jess found herself taking mental notes. Random comments, definitely not starting easy. That was fine. At least she'd get thrown into the middle of it. Then she'd probably be able to tell whether or not investigative journaling was for her or not. "Okay, my mentor is Sherlock Homes," Jess echoed at the end, chuckling a little. "Thanks for telling me all that. I'll keep it in mind, and I'm sure it'll be helpful." She paused a moment before adding, "I'll let you know how it goes."

"So other than your awesome game, how have you been doing lately?" Jess asked, tilting her head to the side as she looked at her friend. It'd been a while since their last talk, so Jess wanted to hear a little bit more. "Other than loving your job, I mean," she teased, unable to resist.

@beatrice

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Beatrice smiled. “They still let you sample things out you know,” she said teasingly. “But if you did want to gain some insight into Quidditch reporting, you know I’m more than happy to have you along for the Arrows ride,” she added nonchalantly. She knew Jess was crazy about Quidditch as a fan, but wasn’t sure she wanted to write about it the rest of her life. It wasn’t for everyone Bea knew, but at least she had figured out from an early start that it was the right place for her. Of course, it had meant that stupid Elliot Nader had gotten the editor position over her, but the reality was that Beatrice simply wasn’t cut out for a desk job, which is what the junior editor position would have meant for her. Let Elliot and his smug face keep the small office that belonged to the junior editor, and Beatrice her cubicle that she was rarely at. She knew her worth, and she didn’t have to brown nose to get her way there.

“Oh nothing much,” Bea said in response to Jess’ other question, waving a hand and closing her eyes for a moment. The brief image of her ex-boyfriend floated across her closed eyelids, before she shook her head and reopened her eyes. “I ran into my old friend from Hogwarts who got a teaching position there - Alchemy. She had always been good at that sort of magic; she was my saving grace for sure,” she said with a laugh. “Other than that, just working really, seeing family and friends, nothing interesting.” Jess was sweet, but Beatrice was not about to divulge her late night break room romps with Elliot; NOBODY knew about those except the two of them. “What about you? Hadn’t you mentioned someone at the Ministry was taking a weird interest in you? Where’d that go,” she asked, remembering the oddity Jess had mentioned some time ago. Jess had been a bit weirded out by it all, and from what she had told Beatrice, she had every reason to be.

@jessavette

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Jess chuckled as Beatrice teased her, saying she could still sample jobs if she wanted to. "I know," she answered, "I just want to know what interests me fast." Jess wasn't the most patient, now that she was out of the intern stage. She wanted to find a place and start writing and making a contribution to the paper. She nodded, "Thanks. If I don't like investigative journalism, I'm pretty sure I'll be taking you up on that offer." Jess appreciated that her friend would be there to help her if she needed it, even though she wasn't very surprised by that. Bea was a very encouraging friend. 

Bea said that she wasn't really up to much, mentioning that she ran into a friend that works at Hogwarts now and Jess smiled. "Oh that must have been nice. Did the two of you get the chance to talk and catch up?" she asked with interest. She always liked running into old friend. Jess was one that liked talking with anyone and everyone. Sometimes it got her into awkward situations, but more often than not it made her friends, which was the whole point of it. She shrugged when Bea asked about her, then mentioning Isolde. She frowned as she thought about the older woman. "I don't know. She ... disappeared. I haven't heard anything from her in weeks." Which worried Jess a little. She couldn't help but think that something bad happened to the woman, but she didn't want to look into it. She forced a smile after a second. "I just spend most of my free time with Finley, so I don't really have anything else to talk about." Her smile became more real as she thought about her boyfriend. The threatening notes and such had stopped and while Jess wasn't quite certain why they started or stopped, she was glad. 

@beatrice

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Beatrice laughed as Jess admitted she didn't have much to talk about, other than Finley. "Ah, young love," she said teasingly. "I remember being in your position, though I was younger. Back at Hogwarts, my beau and I were completely inseperable during our seventh year.  Even as Head Girl and him with his Quidditch games, I still found a way to spend all my spare time with him."  She remembered her ex fondly as the memories flowed through her eyes.  They truly had been a power couple - the Muggleborn Head Girl, and the Pureblood Slytherin Quidditch Captain.  Everyone had thought they were doomed to fail, as his parents were a bit...snobbish when it came to her blood status.  Of course, they had been right.  Beatrice had truly thought what she was doing was for the best when she broke things off.  He was off to play Quidditch in Japan and she was going to be a star journalist at the Daily Prophet.  The timing just hadn't been on their side to continue their relationship.

Shaking her head from the cloud of her memories, Beatrice listened to Jess as she explained how the woman had just disappeared one day.  "Odd," she commented, taking a sip of her drink.  "At least she's not bothering you anymore?  Wasn't she getting a bit too personal for your liking, if I remember correctly?" she asked, hoping she was remembering right.  It had been very odd for a woman high up in the Ministry to take such a...personal interest, too personal in Bea's opinion.  It hadn't sat right with her at all.

@jessavette