Early Days Late Nights (Open)

[Zoe Stephans]

How can i save tonight? 'cause i can't sleep tonight

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Butterflys are singing and i can't sleep tonight[/size][/font]
The sound of silence in my head is broken[/size][/font][/center]

Zoe sat at a table in the three broomsticks looking into her tea, which was doing nothing for her fatigue. She looked out the window to see the sun almost fully raised and the sky clear and blue with only thin wisps here and there. It was pretty but if the clock was right it was seven in the morning. She still had two and a half hours to sleep and yet she was not in bad. Instead she sat in the seat she’d been in for about a half an hour sipping decaffeinated tea and wishing for some muggel coffee right about now. She couldn’t sleep. She’d gone to bed at her normal late hour, long after she’d closed shop. She always closed at nine so she didn’t have to get to work until ten, which was usually the perfect schedule for her. She would spend her break walking or writing or eating and conversing with friends. Then after work she would write for a little while, and go to sleep. Last night her perfect schedule that she always kept and rarely deviated from had failed her because of her body’s stubborn tendencies to not follow her schedule. She had done everything she could think of but she still couldn’t sleep, which she was blaming on her missing muses and her damn writers block.

Zoe looked back down at the tea and drank the last sip tracing the wood grain of the table with her long fingers. Her brown eyes traced the black ridges following her fingers and her mind traveled to the blank pages in her writing. Every way she turned in her story seemed to be dry. She knew the next part and what would happen then, she knew essentially what she needed to do to get there, but she couldn’t find a way from her current spot to where she needed to be that worked with the overall plot and kept the reader interested. It had been baffling her all week now. She was hoping that getting out and talking to people would work as she had already exhausted all of her thinking spots and was starting to get annoyed with her lack of solutions. The barkeep stirred her from her musings bringing her her breakfast and refilling her tea, which she filled with sugar and cream until it was little more than sugary milk water. She thanked the barkeep and picked up her tea taking a sip and laughing at the barkeep’s sickened face at how much sugar she had in it.

Zoe loved sugar, she survived on it half the time, which meant that her thin from was a rather amazing feat. It wasn’t magic, though she was sure magic could work, it was simple muggel genetics. Her entire family had high metabolisms and she was only the last in a long like. However she was the first to like sugar quite as much. When in the muggel world tea and coffee were her staples and they tasted horrible without tons of sugar. She did drink coke light and such, which didn’t have any sugar but that, was just because she was raised on the stuff. It was strange to hear people say it tastes weird, which was something that never happened in this world, after all none of them knew what soda was. It was something that had always been hysterical to her. She had always wondered how they would react to carbonation. They had Butterbeer, which was amazing and tasted slightly like cream soda with butterscotch flavoring dipped in. Still, it wasn’t quite the same and she always wondered what they would do.

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DATE ~ 21 August 1994
TAGGED ~ OPEN
WORDS ~ idk
OUTFIT ~ Work uniform
LYRICS ~ I Can’t Sleep Tonight- A Last Failure
NOTES ~ First real post YAY!

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[Elliott Dark Dames]

I’d like to make myself believe
That planet earth turns SLOWLY
It’s hard to say that I’d rather stay awake when I’m asleep
’cause everything is never as it seems
When I fall asleep

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Elliott stared at what seemed to be a faint reflection of himself on his many finished fire whiskey glasses. The fire sensation was rapidly increasing in his throat. Though it was exactly what he needed for the early morning he had to face. Not that he didn’t like early mornings as such but he always seemed to like spending them alone at the three broomsticks, planting a nutcracker every now and then and watching the costumers boast about Zonko’s products to be banned here. Elliott could not imagine how life would be without Zonko’s here. It would be like death to him and other prankster coming here enjoying a few drinks and pulling a few pranks. He stared at the people around him which he new fairly well due to his job at Zonko’s Joke Shop. It wasn’t everyday that Zonko’s needed a new worker as they are very picky with staff personal, but Elliott was right for the job as he grew up around Zonko’s. He stared at his wrist watch keeping track on time every now and then as he didn’t want to be late for work and also most importantly the launch of their new product, XL Dungbombs which let out extra the odour as normal dungbombs.

Locked away in his far away world a girl sitting by herself with some parchment and a quill caught his eye. Her light brown wavy hair coming down on her back with somewhat uniform on. Elliott knew who she was. He graduated the same year as he did in Hogwarts and she has a job at Honeydukes. “Zoe Stephens,” Elliott mumbled to himself. That’s her all right as he had a crush on her every since he started at Hogwarts, but they weren’t placed in the same house as Zoe was smarter than Elliott and got placed in Ravenclaw and Elliott went off into his own little world in Hufflepuff. He had never had the courage to go up to her and talk to her when she had friends with her never the less when she was alone and simply ask her, Care to join me for a drink? But today Elliott felt a tingle inside him. Today was the new launch of a new product and today should be the new launch of a forever soul mate.

A rush of questions bounced around in his head. Is there something in my teeth? What happens if she rejects me? Elliott shock his head. “Calm down,” he muttered to himself. He quickly stood up and saw a mirror to his right. He stared at himself. He was wearing nothing to fancy just leather jeans, muggle chucks from America and a gray beanie as at Zonko’s your uniform was only a clip on a worker’s tag and that was it. He licked his lips and straighten his shirt then went up to where Zoe was sitting. “Hey Zoe, remember me? We used to go to Hogwarts together,” Elliott said as he spoke very casually. “I was wondering whether you would like me to buy you a drink or if you wanted to come and see the brand new XL Dungbombs launching today at Zonko’s?” Elliott asked very politely with a smile.

DATE 21 August 1994
TAGGED Zoe Stephens and anyone else!
WORDS No idea
OUTFIT i38.tinypic.com/2aaapus.jpg
LYRICS Fireflies by Owl City
NOTES Elliott’s first role playing post!

[Zoe Stephans]

How can i save tonight? 'cause i can't sleep tonight

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Butterflys are singing and i can't sleep tonight[/size][/font]
The sound of silence in my head is broken[/size][/font][/center]

Zoe looked up from her fingers and her tea flavored sugar milk to see a pair of bright emerald eyes looking down at her. Something in her stomach squirmed a bit. There he was Elliott Dames, she was so sure she wouldn’t have to look up to see that hair or those eyes after graduation, but here before her stood his handsome, funny, and charming face. He had been something of a player in school, though not the mean kind just the kind who got any girl he wanted. Handsome, popular, athletic, all he needed was the prefect/head boy aspect and he would have been a god among men. If you asked a few people in her graduating class he already was. Elliott Dames had been so popular with every girl he came into contact with in school, she wasn’t really sure it wasn’t some kind of charm or something. The thing was that she was one of the few girls he’d never asked out. The ironic thing about that was that, really, if she were honest, this was the boy she would have broken her reputation for.

She usually thrived on having every guy in school completely convinced she was asexual. She had turned down the few suitors she had. Made friends with everyone from Nymphadora Tonks, who was four years ahead of he and pretty much friends with everyone, to Percy Weasley, who really didn’t have friend just ‘business associates’ as he called them. Still she had a small circle of friend that she kind of latched on to and never went anywhere without. She was a bit of a hermit, she was pretty, even she would admit that, and smart, and knew that more than one boy in that school had liked her, which was where her reputation have come from to begin with. She was always busy between school, family, work, writing her book, and having friends she didn’t have time to cultivate a relationship with anyone in a romantic way. It took too much time and energy, time she didn’t have. After turning down the first five people who asked her out, and never overtly showing an interest in anyone period, they all a just assumed she wasn’t the kind to have romantic entanglements.

To an extent all of that was true, but here he was the one person who would ruin her perfect record of never dating, and if she wasn’t hallucinating he was asking her out. After a second the words coming out of him mouth reached past the image of his face, mainly his eyes, filling her mind and sunk in. “Hey Zoe, remember me? We used to go to Hogwarts together,” Reached her ears first so she jumped onto that. “Yeah I remember, Hi Elliott, good to see you.” She said standing up and sticking out one hand to shake while the other nervously raked some of her hair behind her ear. “I was wondering whether you would like me to buy you a drink or if you wanted to come and see the brand new XL Dungbombs launching today at Zonko’s?” reached her mind finally even though it came before her sentence it didn’t register until after. She smiled at him, and there it was, he’d finally asked her out. This was the moment where she had to make a decision: keep her reputation and be the writing, asexual, old maid for the rest of her life, or at least until she was 20,or she could go to the bar with him, order some Butterbeer and test the waters, maybe go for a real drink that night after she closed.

The decision had been made long ago really, back when they were in school, so with no time after her polite greeting she added “I’d love to, just one question, when is the unveiling because my shift starts at 10.” She added smiling and hoping that the nervousness she felt didn’t show in her voice. A nervousness that could probably be attributed to the feeling of her stomach pooling somewhere in her feet from being closer to him than anytime she could remember. Oddly enough the feeling wasn’t an awful one; she could have gladly and comfortably lived with that feeling inhabiting her stomach for a long while. It was the insanely fast pounding her heart was doing that was the problem. It sounded loud in her ears as the blood pumped to her face fighting against her sheer will power, which was pushing the blush away. All while her mind kept hoping that no one noticed her internal struggle to keep all of her appearance and functions perfectly normal and not have her giggling like a school girl.

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DATE ~ 21 August 1994
TAGGED ~ Elliot
WORDS ~ a lot more than the first one LOL
OUTFIT ~ Work uniform red and white striped apron and little paper hat over a white collared shirt and fitted bootcut jeans
LYRICS ~ I Can’t Sleep Tonight- A Last Failure
NOTES ~ You amazing person you brought my muses back! I owe you... plus this should be fun and very cute lol!

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[Elliott Dark Dames]

I’d like to make myself believe
That planet earth turns SLOWLY
It’s hard to say that I’d rather stay awake when I’m asleep
’cause everything is never as it seems
When I fall asleep

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Elliott had the nerve of going back into his seat and sitting there just staring into the far distance and what ever happened would happen, but he had go up asked the girl of his dreams the question every girl in Hogwarts wanted to hear from him. Struck back from what he had said and how he managed to pull the words out of his lips was so farfetched for him. Though most of the time at Hogwarts, girls were the ones who asked him out. Never in his life before this moment had he had the courage to go up to any girl and say the question that many of them have dreamed of. He also knew that Zoe Stephans was normally focused on her studies and more of a suffer in silence type like most Ravenclaws. She also has the record of being undated for her whole life but would she Zoe Stephans break her record for a guy a guy like him? This question rushed through his head. He didn’t see why she should break it or why she shouldn’t, but earning a record is a lot of hard work and breaking it is half the work of earning it.

But life at Hogwarts for Elliott wasn’t all girls. He was very good at Quidditch, never the less the Quidditch Captain and Beater. He was indeed what you called to be in the “popular group” and was one of the troublesome ones. He was used to pulling pranks on teachers as he loved to do that which also led him to his job at Zonko’s Joke Shop. Elliott was also one of those students that you could never hang out with as he spent most of his time at detentions with either Professor Snape or with Mr. Flitch for inappropriate behaviour, disrespect to personal property or use of banned items on Mr. Flitch’s list which included most of Zonko’s items and Elliott without Zonko’s isn’t Elliott at all. And if Elliott wasn’t at detention he was of course hanging out with his friends. He had been friends with most of the popular guys in Hufflepuff and making it one of the most popular houses to be in, though everything changed when The Boy Who Lived, Harry Potter came in and all of a sudden Gryffindor was the house to be in as it contained The Chosen One.

Though back to reality. Elliott stared at the hazel pair of eyes which belonged to the face of Zoe Stephans. As all of a sudden he heard the voice that he had heard many times before graduation “I’d love to, just one question, when is the unveiling because my shift starts at 10.” It was like a lyric to his ears when Zoe Stephans said a word to him never the less a sentence which sounded like a whole single song sung by The Weird Sisters. Elliott smiled gently. This is it Elliott, if you muck this up she’ll forever think you’re a jerk. He nodded and spoke softly, “Oh that’s great then because the unveiling is at eight thirty and my shift starts at eight forty five.” He crossed his hands across his shoulders. “So what are we waiting for, if we don’t go now we might be late for your shift,” Elliott said as he stared into his sliver plated watch which read sixteen past eight.

DATE 21 August 1994
TAGGED Zoe Stephans
WORDS No idea
OUTFIT i38.tinypic.com/2aaapus.jpg
LYRICS Fireflies by Owl City
NOTES Sorry its short ):

[Zoe Stephans]

How can i save tonight? 'cause i can't sleep tonight

[/size][/font]
Butterflys are singing and i can't sleep tonight[/size][/font]
The sound of silence in my head is broken[/size][/font][/center]

Zoe looked back to her paper and quill realizing that as soon as he’d walked over, she had left her writing stuff and left her story forgetting about it. “Oh that’s great then because the unveiling is at eight thirty and my shift starts at eight forty five. So what are we waiting for, if we don’t go now we might be late for your shift,” he said pulling her eyes back to him and she smiled. “Great, let me just pack up.” She said reaching back to the table and picking up the paper and quill and ink and the collection of muggel pens and mechanical pencils. She dumped the pens and quills and such in the bag. Then she blew on the paper a little, to dry it a little more. Then she folded it placed it in her bag too before slinging the bag over her shoulder. It was light as it was mainly full of writing supplies, she didn’t really need anything else. Her uniform was comfortable. She did decide to slip off the hat and apron if she was going out though. She pulled back the baggy shirt tying it behind her back so it clung to her a little more. She smiled at him and placed down a galleon and some Sickles and looked up at him smiling.

She looked over at him and waited for him to take the lead to the store. Normally she wouldn’t be this passive, but she figured it was time to give someone else the lead. She looked over at him and suddenly got a flash back to being in school. He was the school prankster, only surpassed by Fred and George. He almost always got caught, mainly because he was proud of his pranks. Usually it was almost impossible to tell which pranks were his and which were the twins from an outside eye. However there had always been an anonymous vigilante that neither of them knew of. There was one person in the school who only pulled pranks on Snape, and no one could ever catch them. The group that got in trouble thought it was the other but neither would say it wasn’t them because of pride. The vigilante’s escapades were sometimes very well known as well. The time Snape’s pumpkin juice was spiked was the most prominent of them all. She never knew which group got in trouble for that, but she’d done it, along with all the others that neither the twins nor Elliott knew about.

Still Zoe was glad this wasn’t school. If it were, she would have a group of girls laughing at her and teasing her for being weak for him, like she always said they were. She’d always gotten twice as defensive when they had talked about Elliott. They had Cedric mooning times, even if he was younger than them by two years, he still had that charm. She was fine with the Cedric fits; she would just roll her eyes and remind them he was too young. Then they would sigh over the other heartthrob of the week, and she was fine. When it got to Him through, she was look upset and uncomfortable and try to change the subject. It was her defense system, and it was just about now where she was wondering where that system went. It never had had to go up against the object of her affection before. It had been perfectly trained and crafted against conversation, but this was an alien situation for her battle systems, and she realized that none of them were engaged anymore, she was completely exposed to his charms. Oddly enough though, she wasn’t adverse to it.

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DATE ~ 21 August 1994
TAGGED ~ OPEN
WORDS ~ were used a great deal in this post
OUTFIT ~ Work uniform
LYRICS ~ I Can’t Sleep Tonight- A Last Failure
NOTES ~ ok then here we go... sorry these posts are ending up being a lot of character development. The terrors of being the person to get my first few posts.

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