PAST REVISITED | GREY

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I'VE LOVED AND I'VE LOST

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NOVEMBER 10, 2024

A now nineteen-year-old Kaitlynn wandered through Diagon Alley, after having just left behind the bank where she deposited more of her money within her vault. Her heels clicked against the ground, her head held high as she wandered through the familiar streets a much older woman, but she felt no different at all. Her eyes wandered around, she had plans for this evening to go out with some friends that remembered it to be her birthday, but that was much later on, and while it was merely still morning within the wizarding world, she had to figure out her breakfast. ‘A breakfast for champions’, her mother had always said to her as she placed her favorite food before her in the morning. Oh how she missed the woman with all her heart, but she couldn’t bring her back, all she could do was remember her.

As she was walking, thoughts lost on her parents, and her birthday, she grew closer and closer to the headquarters for the Daily Prophet – and smacked right into someone. She was taken aback, stumbling backward and trying to straighten herself out. She went to speak before realizing just whom she had run into, and slowly a smile appeared on her face, “Grey Slater, how I live and breathe…” she said before shaking her head, “Sorry—I didn’t see you…walking in my path,” she said with an awkward laugh, brushing strands of her hair behind her ear.

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@kaitlynn

11.10.2024

A few weeks had passed since he turned in his resignation papers at the Auror department. They hadn’t seemed surprised at all – he was only another notch on the ‘failure’ wall. At least he wasn’t an addition to the wall of those long deceased. Passing by that was always a reminder that what they were doing in the department was very real and something he very much did not want to be doing anymore. Making it through the first six months of the training had been far more than some of his peers had gone though. The class had effectively been slashed in half within the first few weeks, with more dropping out every week after until only a dozen or so remained. He was only another statistic, which he was fine with. He was also a statistic as a graduate from Hogwarts and as a late intern at his new place of work, the Daily Prophet. The change in atmosphere was really all he needed. The stress of working for a newspaper again was welcoming, as twisted as that sounded. Doing the school paper had awakened some sort of sick perversion towards being on a time crunch, always threatened with not accomplishing the tasks at hand on a piece or failing to put out a paper on time. Everything always managed to be done in time when it came down to it, but then he, and those like him, decided to do it all over again every day of the week. Masochists for the job, they were. And he liked it a lot more than sitting in classes all day or learning how to disarm someone that was trying to kill him.

Exiting the Daily Prophet building was usually fairly easy, the only people ever going in and out being the ones that worked there. So walking out with his nose stuffed into the list indicating his assignments for the day was normal, not really needing to pay attention until he felt his feet hit the normal cobblestone of Diagon Alley’s walkways. Being ran into head-on was not something he had experienced yet since starting at the Prophet, but there was a first for everything. The girl that bumped into him (or had he bumped into her?) said his name, immediately pulling his eyes away from his now crumpled list of duties. Kaitlynn Poole – they had been classmates at school and Auror trainees together. “No, it was my fault. I’m afraid I’m forgetting my training already. Keeping an eye out on my surroundings, or whatever,” he apologized. “Training going well with one less deadbeat around?” The deadbeat being himself. If he could kick himself for turning to self-deprecation at every chance he got, he would. Those were the sorts of defense mechanisms he had been trying to be rid of over the last few months but they always found their way back in the end.

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I'VE LOVED AND I'VE LOST

[attr="class","next"] Being distracted and not aware of one’s surroundings was like basic protocol as an auror in training, and yet here she was, far away from her own eyes that she couldn’t pay attention. Of course, the guy seemed to recognize her just as quickly as she did for him and blamed it on himself and his forgetting the training. She wanted to laugh at him for taking the fall for it, but clearly, both of them had been at fault, maybe her more than him. Maybe auror is not for me; she thought quietly to herself, something she had been doing a while now. Grey took the easy way out, much like a few others, but she was a determined young woman and planned to follow through on her new job. She rolled her eyes, no amusement in her tone as she said, “You are not a deadbeat.” It was true, there were people worse than him that had finally been kicked from the program or left themselves, he was pretty good from what she saw, then again, she had joined the trainee program later than many others. “Training is training, I suppose…Now that there only a small handful left, they’ve gotten a lot tougher—probably scared more people will fuck up and get kicked from the program or leave themselves.”

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@kaitlynn

11.10.2024

Not a deadbeat? If she spent five minutes talking to his parents, they would wholly convert her in that span of time. They hadn’t outright said it to him yet, but if disapproving looks could kill, he was dead ten times over already. Thankfully they hadn’t found out that he had a vampire girlfriend. That would be the icing on the cake for sure. What they also didn’t know was that he had apartment viewings coming up soon. Escaping his parents’ house was the last step to ridding himself of their subtle tyranny, and them of him. Then all they had to deal with was Addi graduating and probably moving out immediately. He didn’t peg his younger sister as the type to stick around in the family house. All the pressure would be on her now, after all, and that was assuming they would do to her what they had done to him.

He let out a small chuckle at the deadbeat comment though, and shook his head, thinking of the best way to phrase his response. “I’m a reporter. We’re all deadbeats. It’s kind of hard to get the job when you aren’t one,” Grey shrugged. He certainly had been that way in school with the newspaper, though Kaitlynn would have never seen that. The majority of his work had been kept to the club room, sequestered from the prying eyes of the general Hogwarts populace, or to the Gryffindor common room. He vehemently refused to do work on the paper anywhere else, and flashing about articles was the fastest way to lose a big story. Rumors spread fast on their own, and one in the wrong hands at Hogwarts was like a flash-flood. Sometimes there was a warning, but most of the time the club was caught with their pants down and forced to scrap what they had written. Old news was not good news.

Kaitlynn continued on, focusing on answering his question about how the training was progressing without him. He could have guessed that the trainers were going to make things more difficult and was glad that it wasn’t the reason he dropped out. Calling it quits because he didn’t want to do what mummy and daddy wanted him to do anymore was far nobler than throwing in the towel the normal way. Whether or not the program believed him though…that was probably up for debate. “I’m sure it’ll be worth it for everyone that makes it through.”

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I'VE LOVED AND I'VE LOST

[attr="class","next"] Kaitlynn didn’t see Grey as a deadbeat, even though he had dropped out of the Auror program. A lot of people did, and she was surprised herself that she had lasted this long, mainly because she started so late and was playing catch up to “graduate” on time. Grey wasn’t the only one that had dropped out, there were a few that didn’t make the cut or didn’t want to continue, but doing so did not consider oneself a deadbeat because of it. People had different personalities and abilities, and one just had to find where they fit in just right. He stated that he was a reporter and that made him a deadbeat, as well as everyone, stating that everyone was a deadbeat because it was hard to get a job when you weren’t one. She frowned and shook her head, not agreeing with him but also not commenting on it.

‘I’m sure it’ll be worth it for everyone that makes it through.’ She nodded her head at his comment and smiled, “I’m sure it will be. Getting past the training and the lessons and heading straight for danger—that’s the best part. I’m sure everyone is waiting for their first assignment and time on the field tracking down dark wizards. That’s what a lot of people are holding out for,” she said with a soft laugh. While she was one of the ones looking forward to an assignment, she wasn’t in it to track down dark witches and wizards, but she was in it to protect the populace. “How has the prophet been? Suit you better?” she questioned, hoping that he was enjoying his time at the prophet more.

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@kaitlynn

11.10.2024

The concept of getting to complete Auror training and then jumping right into real law enforcement work wasn’t lost on Grey; there was still a small part of him somewhere that longed to complete it and be officially licensed as an Auror. Even if he never went past that, he would still have the skills and know-how of the system. An extra degree on top of his Hogwarts one would look even better in the eyes of the daily Prophet. He was sure of it.

But that was all behind him now, and it was too late to go back. The program wouldn’t want a dropout anyways, and he felt like he had enough difficulty convincing the Prophet that he wouldn’t do the same thing to them if they took him on as an intern. That had been the one aspect of his former job that he had been afraid of, and it certainly made its appearance during the interview. Confidence was key and it had all the difference in the interview for the newspaper, not to mention his history with the Hogwarts paper. He was pretty sure that looked a lot better on a résumé than an Auror trainee dropout did.

“Loads better,” Grey said confidently. “I should have gone there from the start. The Gryffindor stubbornness hadn’t worn off yet I suppose.” Among other things. He didn’t need to dump all of his personal and family issues on another person; there had been plenty of that over the last few years and he was done with it now. He got what he wanted and was free of his parents, and that was good enough for now. “I’m the lowest on the totem pole for interns too, since I joined so late,” Grey started to explain, “So the other interns and the reporters have me running around like crazy.”

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I'VE LOVED AND I'VE LOST

[attr="class","next"] Kaitlynn had never been good at writing; if you took one look at her papers, you would see why. She was not creative or had the best penmanship, even for a female. She hated it, and the idea of working for the Prophet had never been on her radar. She was more hands-on, more active, and was a lot more suited for Quidditch then she was for being an Auror, but she wanted to protect people. She wanted to help change the world and make it safe again, and you couldn’t exactly do that from the Quidditch field.

But she was glad that Grey had found his grove, that the pressure of Auror training had led him to something that he likely would thrive at, she had faith that he would. She laughed as he blamed the Gryffindor stubbornness not having worn off yet, and she smiled, “That is possible. It may never wear off but guess we will see as time goes on.” There were still loads of stubborn people that had been in Gryffindor before them, she wondered if that was the root of the problem for many – the infamous stubbornness of the Gryffindor House.

‘I’m the lowest on the totem pole for interns too, since I joined so late. So the other interns and the reporters have me running around like crazy.’ She wrinkled her nose, that so did not sound like fun. “Let me guess—you get bossed around and forced to fetch coffee?” she questioned, raising her eyebrow—she could be wrong, but that’s what interns did in muggle cinema.

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