Pancakes [Benji]

[cordelia regan smith]

@benji

Even though the early start to summer had come at a great cost, it still meant more time out of school. Which also meant more time to explore London and take pictures to her heart’s content. The best part about being out in the muggle side of things? She could use her digital cameras. Plural. Hogwarts always restricted Cordelia to her film one, and while it was absolutely wonderful when it came to certain aesthetics, she desperately wanted to see the results of her work immediately. In a way, photography was twofold from film to digital. Her eye was trained to an almost expert level while staring through a film camera’s viewfinder – perfect for testing out specific blocking and learning what looks good on black and white film. Digital meant she could get sloppy and make manipulations that were ten times harder to do while on film. That and it gave her an excuse to sit on her computer all night and tweak things that were also impossible on the older generation of cameras. Absolutely none of this made sense to her parents, so they let her roam the muggle streets at her own leisure. Despite her serious social flaws at times, she was still well equipped with a wand and arsenal of spells that could repel even the vilest wizard, muggle, or beast.

Before spending a day shooting though, breakfast was necessary. Cordelia had been too eager to get out of the house and spend her first ‘free’ day with as much time available to her as possible, and thus had omitted anything substantial food wise. Thankfully she had enough muggle money to find her way to a decent looking coffee shop and get a muffin and coffee. The idea had been to go to a diner, but all of those seemed too far away, and having to constantly talk to a waitress just to order pancakes seemed a little overkill. With a coffee shop, all she had to do was say two words, and that was it. She liked easy. Camping outside at a table, Cordelia fiddled with her camera a bit while waiting for her coffee to cool down. Once that and her muffin were finished, it would be on to photographing whatever caught her eye. Finally.

[Deleted]

Benji hadn't been to work yet today and still had quite a bit of time before needing to do so. The casino was slow in the daylight and his security team generally handled that time without him. Benji preferred to be there when things were more busy. Now, he was using his free time to do a little grocery shopping/

At least that was his plan.

He stopped to order a coffee and on his way out of the store scurried to the side to avoid a woman walking her dog, her pace fast and the dog clearly dictating the direction they were going. The small dog decided to dart toward the outside table right next to Benji, which made Benji falter. That, was when his coffee spilled. It poured all over his hand and onto the table next to him. He gasped at the searing heat of the coffee, then turned to assess the damage.

A girl with a camera. The camera!

"Oh! Oh, no," he swiftly set his coffee cup down and picked up the nearest napkin, looking at the camera in a panic.

@cordela

[cordelia regan smith]

@benji

The intent was to take photographs today. At least it had been. Now Cordelia was staring at her camera, covered in coffee. She had picked her own cup up to test the temperature of it, and within that span of time, a man that was walking by her somehow managed to tip his own drink over. Right onto her precious camera. Processing the sequence of events was virtually impossible for her, as she stared at the piece of equipment, now covered in boiling liquid. Cameras had been broken by her own hand numerous times – always at school though, and always in a situation where she could just pull her wand out and fix as fast as she had broken it. That was why she was good at charms. This though…this was something else. She was in muggle London, in public (something she wasn’t exactly fond of), and now a random stranger had destroyed her camera. There was no way that the coffee wasn’t seeping into the connector points between the lens and camera body. The electronics were going to be fried the second she turned it on.

The man looked like he was going to dab at it with a napkin, and while Cordelia knew that would work for now, she was going to have to do some extensive repairs on it later, out of the watchful eye of non-magical people. That meant going home, because trying to concentrate on this while out and about would be impossible. The fact that she wasn’t immediately distraught about it would probably be alarming to a normal person, so she quickly changed gears from thinking of how to fix the camera, to making it look like she was concerned about it. Putting her own drink down quickly, she pulled a few of her own napkins towards the camera as well. “It’s uhhh i-it’s p-probably n-not as b-bad as it l-l-looks…” And then her arm bumped into her own cup of coffee and sent it across the table, right underneath the camera. Wonderful.

[Deleted]

This was terrible. He had just wrecked some poor muggle girls camera. He wished he could just pull his wand out and try to dry it that way, but he was in the middle of muggle London, he couldn't do that. He also didn't have any large amount of muggle money on him to give her to replace it. He'd work this out. He looked up at her, before his napkin reached the camera, and she was just staring at it. He slowly dabbed the top and then she finally started to show some concern, maybe she didn't want him touching it.

But then she had a napkin too, so he kept dabbing as she spoke... and knocked her own cup over as well. "Gods!" he exclaimed, quickly leaning forward to catch her cup and set it upright, but the damage was done. He sighed, furrowing his brow and looking up at her, "well, we're quite a clumsy pair, aren't we? I'm so sorry about this, I'll help you get a new one," he said, his voice almost pleading for forgiveness.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

@benji

The man was faster than she was when it came to scooping up her knocked over cup, and all Cordelia could do the entire time was grimace and mentally face palm at her own clumsiness. This had gone from something she could probably fix in an hour or so, to now the rest of the day. Not to mention that her coffee was also completely gone now. All she had left was her half eaten muffin, and she really didn’t have the appetite to finish it after watching how much abuse her poor camera had just been put through. Dropping it and watching it smash into millions of pieces in slow motion was less painful than knocking two cups of coffee on it was.

Napkin still clutched tightly in her hand, Cordelia continued to dab at the side of the camera so that she could at least pick it up without risk of burning her hand. She wasn’t sure how hot the man’s coffee had been, but her own was still boiling, and letting it sit on that wasn’t going to help her fix it later on. “W-Wish I c-could say this w-was the f-first t-time I’ve d-done this…” she said quietly as she picked the camera up tentatively, observing the bottom of it as coffee dripped off of it. With the drink being underneath it, there was a chance it had gotten into the battery housing too. The man seemed to be saying something about heling her get a new one, and she shook her head. “I uhh…they-they’re k-kind of expensive…it’s f-fine…” She didn’t need this man spending money on a camera she could fix herself once she was home. That and this one alone cost something like three thousand pounds. Asking a stranger to fork over a partial amount of that was too much, even if he was willing to do so.

[Deleted]

She said it wasn't the first time she had done this, and that was when he noticed the stutter. He hadn't realized it with her last sentence because he was just so worried about what he had done to her camera. She that that they were expensive, and that it was fine. But there was no way he was going to let her get away with him not helping out in some way. He sat down in the seat across from her to continue drying as much of the camera as he could. "Maybe I could try to get my friend to fix it for you? Brilliant man. good with things like this," that was a pretty lame cover up for 'let me take it so I can try to fix it with magic', but that was what came out of his mouth. It wasn't anything a genius would come up with. In fact, she probably thought he sounded like a total idiot at that point. Still, he didn't want her to leave without some promise that this would all be remedied. "At least let me buy you another coffee, once we - perhaps - move this camera out of the way," he suggested, a hint of humor at that. The camera did need to be saved from more coffee, after all.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

@benji

He sat down across from her to help clean up the mess that they had both caused. There was one good thing from this (and she felt weird even thinking that way), and that was that she couldn’t exactly be mad at the man, because she had also done damage to the camera. Obviously the flip-side was that she never would have spilled her own coffee if he hadn’t done his first, but there was no guarantee with her clumsiness, and there was always the chance that it could have happened regardless. Like she had said, this wasn’t the first time she had broken one of her cameras.

As she picked up the camera, she began to wipe off the bottom of it, which was starting to look like it would be the hardest part to fix. Having observed the battery casing earlier, it was clear that something had made it through the small hatch. She didn’t want to know how much though. The man offered to take the camera off of her and have his friend fix it, and Cordelia unconsciously pulled it closer to her. “N-No, l-l-like I said, it’s f-fine. I-I c-can f-fix it,” she said adamantly. This really wasn’t going to be a problem for her. The worst part would be if the SD card received damage, because that was hard to reverse once it was fried. The inner workings of the camera would never be a tough repair for magic. On that note, Cordelia slid the SD card slot open and quickly ejected the storage unit, before shoving it in her pocket, right next to where her wand was. The man offered her another coffee as she did so, and the Hufflepuff contemplated it. “…o-okay. It’s r-really n-not a b-big d-deal though…”

[Deleted]

She said she could fix it and he raised an eyebrow. A teenage muggle girl knew how to fix a camera from a coffee spill? That was impressive. He was convinced she was just trying to make him feel better. He wasn't going to push it, though. That wouldn't be very polite. The girl took the memory card out and accepted his offer for coffee. He smiled, nodding. "Great, how do you take your coffee?" he asked, so he could go get it. "I'm Benji, by the way," he added. "I'd offer a hand but... coffee," in fact, he probably should get someone to help them clean up this mess while he was ordering the coffee.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

@benji

Cordelia had no idea how convincing her ability to fix the camera actually was. She didn’t initially realize that a normal person would not be able to clean the inside workings of a camera, or even have the knowledge to do so. Water damage was a difficult thing to fix to begin with on anything electronical. A camera had even more mechanisms to it, than say a phone did, and semi-exposed parts proficient in sucking up liquid unnoticed. Drizzles wouldn’t do a thing to it, but coffee was a different story. The guy didn’t argue with her statement though, instead asking how she took her coffee. “C-Cream and t-two sugars,” she said as she continued to shake coffee off of her camera. Drinking it black was too much for her, and while she didn’t like horribly sweet foods, the extra sugar in her coffee simultaneously muted the harsh flavors and gave her a little kick.

“N-Nice to m-meet y-you…considering,” Cordelia said slowly. Under normal circumstances (meaning ones that didn’t include coffee being spilled on her camera), she probably never would have even thought that this man would talk to her. She was wrapped in her own world, and it wasn’t like that was even that interesting for a stranger to take notice. Still, Cordelia didn’t respond with her name because she felt like her parents would have scolded her if they heard her give it out to someone she didn’t know so easily. At least she always had magic if something bad happened, though this Benji character didn’t really throw off creepy signals. He had an accident, and now he was making up for it. That was what good people did. Unless that was the whole trick. Sometimes she hated herself for thinking more than speaking, because it never helped her in the long run. Giving him the benefit of the doubt was normal, but he had ‘spilled’ his coffee on her camera, offered to take it to have it fixed, and was now getting her a new drink. There weren’t people out there that were that nice, were there?

[Deleted]

She explained how she took her coffee, saying it was nice to meet him, considering. "Yeah... I'll be right back," he quickly stepped inside to order her a new coffee, cream and two sugars, and an identical one for himself. He let the staff know their table needing a clean up and a server went out there to wipe it up. He peered out the window to check on the girl, afraid that she'd leave. He really felt bad for what he'd done and just wanted to make it up to the kid with this new coffee, since it was all she would let him do.

He came back outside, slowly approaching the now clean table and setting the coffees down. He took a seat, "so, you do photography? I mean, I'm guessing since you have - had the camera and all," he was being a moron, that was clear. He wasn't usually this awkward, but his coffee ruining her camera had made him incredibly nervous.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

@benji

Cordelia contemplated collecting her camera and creeping away from the coffee shop while Benji went to get the new drinks. It would have been so easy to do just that too. She could have walked around the corner and disapparated in a heartbeat if she so pleased, never having to see this man again and being able to fix her camera. But she was too slow, and while she began to stand up to leave, one of the employees had walked out to clean up the remainder of the mess. She was sure Benji was checking the status of the cleanup from inside, so she carefully lifted her camera off of the table so that the surface could be wiped down, before taking her seat once again. She could live with the stuttering and social anxieties even if she felt like they put her at a disadvantage sometimes. The indecisiveness though? That was easily the worst of it all. There were times where she should have left or done a task a certain way but because she couldn’t make her mind up in time she lost the experience altogether. Trying to make it look like she was intent on staying for a little while longer, Cordelia continued to dab at her camera as Benji returned a few minutes later with the new coffees.

She looked up from her fiddling as the coffee was set in front of her, pulling it slowly across the table towards where her old one had been, albeit in a spot where her camera wasn’t front and center in the splash zone. “Thank you,” she said, popping the top off to see how much cream was in it. Satisfied with the milky brown tint, she suctioned the top back onto the cup and nodded her head as Benji asked her if she did photography. “T-Try to at l-l-least. M-Mostly at school.”

[Deleted]

She thanked him and he waved it off, indicating it was no trouble. She said she tried to do her photography, mostly at school. He nodded, "there are some beautiful schools here, great architecture, I'm sure you get good shots. What do you take pictures of?" he asked, started to sip his coffee as he waited for her to answer. He didn't mind the heat of it, and right now it actually made him feel better to have his tongue slightly numbed by the coffee. Maybe he wouldn't be such a moron if he couldn't talk as well. He was sure this would be a short conversation, he didn't know this girl, after all, and he just wanted to make sure she wasn't going to burst into sobs or anything the second he left. Even if she did, though, there would be nothing he could do to change that. But he wanted to at least try and help her get into a more positive mindset, even with a broken camera and all.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

@benji

She gave the man (Benji was his name right? Or was it Bernie? She had already forgotten, which was rather terrible of her), a small smile as he waved off her thanks. In these kinds of situations, wasn’t it right for the person that caused the accident to fix it? If so, then the man had followed proper procedure. Usually when she made a mistake, like bumping into someone in the corridor, she was the one to take a tumble or break something. Hopefully to no one’s surprise, the thing that broke was almost always one of her cameras. The man stated that there were some great schools around, and then proceeded to ask what kinds she took. He wasn’t wrong – the architecture of a lot of buildings in London was stunning. But Hogwarts still had something to it that nothing muggle made would ever be able to achieve. Cordelia was sure that it had something to do with the magic of the castle, or that it was literally ancient. Both of those were feats that any modern building would never be able to achieve. “At school, m-mostly the b-building and grounds. Can’t really w-wander f-far off from it.” There were muggle boarding schools still, right? She was positive that she had seen shows about them so that meant they had to be real, or at least in existence. If he asked she could easily lie and say it was a no-name all-girls school outside of the city. That would probably make him back off on the subject. As for giving away Hogwarts, Cordelia found that almost impossible. There were plenty of large schools she walked by, whether they were private or not she didn’t know, that had expansive grounds worthy of her camera. “B-But around here, b-buildings…”

[Deleted]

She explained that at school she took pictures of the buildings and grounds due to not being able to wander far, which made sense if she didn't live at home during the school year. "Do you go to a boarding school or something? I was homeschooled so I don't know much about that kind of life," he admitted. "My parents study animals, so we've traveled all over the world. Some of my siblings went to school here, but I stayed with them and learned while we were out and about. Amazing things to take pictures of out in the world, you should do some travelling," he suggested. At least he was trying to be somewhat helpful and maybe inspiring? It was the least he could give for ruining this girls camera.

She said around here she also took pictures of buildings and he nodded, "have you been to Rome? Amazing buildings there, amazing," she was pretty young to have traveled much but hey, some kids did with their parents.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

@benji

He asked the question she was hoping he wouldn’t – about going to a boarding school. Cordelia took a deep breath, as she tried to think back on the story that her parents had given her almost seven years ago to the date: she went to a private, all girl’s boarding school in Scotland, which focused mostly on the artistic sort of children. Having her camera with her everywhere she went helped sell the lie, and her enrollment in the art club at Hogwarts gave her the rest of the knowledge she would need to go to one of those real muggle art schools. Her parents had even found a name to fit the description of the school. As long as she kept her distance from those that actually attended, she would be fine. Running into someone that currently went or was an alumni whilst in London was virtually impossible, so it always worked out perfectly.

The man said he had been homeschooled because his parents studied animals, Cordelia’s mind drifting off as he explained that some of his family had gone to school while he hadn’t. She could only imagine how fun it would have been to growing up traveling all over the world. “Y-Yes…there are,” she agreed. “And y-yeah. A p-private b-boarding school for arts.” Cordelia looked down at her broken camera, as if to tell the man that it was the reason she was at the school in the first place. Technically she hadn’t lied there. She did go to a private boarding school for the arts – just one that practiced the art of magic.

At his question about going to Rome, she shook her head. If only. Buying her camera supplies was the extent to her parents’ good graces. She knew they traveled extensively while she was in school, when her mum’s work allowed her time off, of course. “S-Someday. Hope-Hopefully. B-But I f-feel l-like Rome is overd-done,” Cordelia explained. While she would be thrilled to go there regardless, it didn’t change her opinion on it. “Eastern Europe k-kind of interests m-me though. Old ch-churches and t-towns.”