Disclaimer: JK owns the Potterverse. I only dabble in it.
A/N: Lots of stuff to say at the end, so I won't bother you now.
The interior of the Prancing Manticore reminded me of the one time I had visited my aunt Matilda when I was eight. She lived in France, and the interior of her house was dark, formal, and smelled like leather and musky perfume. Aunt Matilda would adore this place, I thought, stepping through the entry way and letting the door close behind me. The walls were covered in a dark green tapestry print, lit every few meters by torches. I couldn't see any tables like there were in a traditional restaurant. Instead, the walls were lined with massive booths, each looking like they could easily seat twenty people. Thick, mahogany panels separated the booths guaranteeing that no one could spy on anyone else's business, I supposed. Large, glass covered tables centered each booth, and I could see a few wizards eating stew and looking over business parchments at the booth nearest to the reception area. I couldn't hear a word they were saying, however, and I wondered idly if the booths contained some sort of soundproofing charm. In the center of the room, there was a large fire seemingly floating in midair. Occasionally it would flash blue as a waiter would pop out of the flames and attend to a table. When the waiters re-entered the fire, it would once again change to blue.
Hesitantly, I stepped towards a desk that was directly in front of me. I could see a large, heavy looking book on top. It lay open, but there appeared to be nothing written on the pages. A vat of ink, an eagle feather quill, and a small bell were the only other things on the desk. As I began to walk around the desk, figuring that I should seat myself, a sign popped into the thin air in front of me, blocking my path. I stopped and read the carefully lettered script:
If host is not at desk, please ring bell. Our staff will be happy to assist you.
Almost as soon as I was done reading it, the sign moved forward as if to push me back to the desk. Alarmed, I hurriedly retreated a few steps back. Immediately, the sign vanished. I took a last look around, hoping someone would see me. Finally, I gave in and rang the bell.
I was expecting a ringing, a chime, or something, but the bell emitted no sound even though I was sure I had pressed it quite firmly. I frowned. Before I could decide whether or not to hit it again, I heard a whoosh sound from the center of the room. I looked up and saw the fire suddenly change from golden flames to a bluish hue. A man emerged from the flames and began to walk towards the desk. Behind him, I could see that the fire had reverted back to its previous color. As he approached, I could see he was wearing smart looking black robes with a golden manticore stitched on the upper left hand side.
"Name please?" The man had reached the desk, and was looking at me expectantly, holding the quill in ready position above the book.
"Uh – Alicia. Alicia Spinnet." I watched as he tapped the quill with his finger so that a drop of ink fell from the tip. Instantly, the ink spread all over the page, forming words and numbers.
"Ah, yes. Miss Spinnet." The quill scratched the parchment as he wrote something at the bottom of the page. "Welcome to the Prancing Manticore. My name is Henry, and I will be assisting you today. The other half of your party should be arriving shortly, but in the meantime I would be delighted to seat you. Now, how did you arrive?" He smiled at me, the quill once again poised in the air.
I stared at him. "Arrive?"
"Did you arrive today by broomstick, Floo, or apparition? If you arrived by broomstick, our valet will be happy to park it for you. If you arrived by Floo, feel free to enjoy a ride "on us" back to your original destination, or wherever your next stop may be. And if you apparated, just say the word and we'll provide you with any comfort you wish for your dissipation. Here at the Prancing Manticore, we pride ourselves on being a full service establishment." Henry said all of this very fast, and then gave me that same expectant smile.
"Actually, I walked." I bit my lip, wondering why I felt so embarrassed.
"Walked?" The smile was slowly fading from Henry's face.
"Well, I go to Hogwarts, and, you know, and actually, I'm not of age yet, but even if I was we're not allowed to apparate while school is in session…"
Henry looked mildly flustered, as if his training manual had in no way prepared him for this. He blinked a few times, and then suddenly began to smile again.
"No worries, Miss Spinnet. We cater to all sorts of needs here at the Prancing Manticore. I will simply mark you down as having arrived by Floo. This way, any time you need a Floo transportation from here to anywhere in England, feel free to come here and enjoy a trip for free. Simply mention your name to whomever is running the reception that day, and they will make all the necessary arrangements. Is that satisfactory with you?"
"That's – that's wonderful. Thank you." I tried to smile at Henry; still not sure what exactly to make of what was going on.
"Excellent." Henry made a final mark in the book before raising the quill and tapping it for a second time. The drop of ink hit, the page wiped clean, and Henry closed the book with a flourish. He set down the quill and picked up two menus, which I could have sworn hadn't been there a moment ago.
"If you would follow me right this way, Miss Spinnet." I followed Henri to one of the booths. I sat, feeling rather awkward.
"Could I start you off with something to drink?"
"Uh – water would be fine." Henri smiled. With a flourish, he withdrew a wand from inside his robes. He tapped the edge of the glass in front of me, and a clear jet of water began to stream from his wand. Once the glass was nearly full, he swished the wand, and the water abruptly stopped.
"Thank you," I said, trying to sound dignified. Henri simply smiled and handed me a menu. With a swish of his robes, he was gone, headed back to the fire.
Cautiously, I opened my menu. As I scanned the list of dishes, I felt myself beginning to panic. How was I supposed to order if I couldn't understand any of the words on the menu?
"Alicia Spinnet?" I looked up. A tall, pale woman was standing in front of the table. I nodded, and started to get up.
"Oh, no. Please, stay seated. I apologize for my lateness. I'm the representative for Lux Et Veritas. My name is Lilah Morgan." She sat at down in the booth, extending her hand across the table as she did so.
"Nice to meet you, Ms. Morgan."
"Oh, please. Call me Lilah." She smiled at me in a way that implied that if I called her Lilah, I probably wouldn't wake up the next morning. As I began to feel fear mixing in the panic, something clicked in my mind. This was what my vision had been about. Come on, Spinnet, I tried to assure myself. Another false-alarm vision. This woman may be intimidating, but she's perfectly nice. I took a deep breath, and gave her a shaky smile in return.
"Well, how about we order before we talk business?" She gave a little laugh, and then began to study her menu. I tried to look at my menu as well, but I found that I couldn't help looking at her. I realized that she was at least Angelina's height, maybe even taller. She had brown hair that was highlighted with streaks of blonde, cut in a style that just approached her shoulders. She was wearing plain navy blue robes, and I could see a type of business suit underneath. She looked – well, she looked like a woman that I wouldn't want to cross.
"Are you ready to order?"
I jumped about a foot. I hadn't realized that Henri had come back, and was now standing expectantly at the side of the table.
"I'll have the Caesar salad." Lilah smiled, handing her menu to Henri.
"I'll – I'll have the same," I said, also surrendering my menu. I wondered where on the menu she had gotten Caesar salad since the entire thing appeared to be written in French. Henri smiled and gave both of us a slight bow. As he left, Lilah reached over to her briefcase and withdrew a plain folder. She slid it across the table towards me. I placed my hand on the top, not sure whether or not I should open it.
"I thought that I'd give you a general overview of our company, and then when I'm done, I'll be happy to answer any of your questions. That folder there is – well, I'll get to that later." She shot me another slightly terrifying smile before continuing.
"As you probably gathered from our letter, Lux Et Veritas is a security company. Now, I don't mean security like a Ministry bodyguard. After all, Alicia, you and I aren't really the type for that sort of work, are we?"
I smiled, trying to look as if I was enjoying the joke, rather than wondering if she had read my mind. "No, Ms. Morgan. Not at all."
"No, at our corporation, we specialize in a different sort of security. You see, Alicia, we want employees like you. Employees who are special." She gave me a pointed stare. I squirmed slightly, feeling as if this were some sort of test."
"Ms. Morgan, I don't know what you saw on my academic records, but my grades really aren't that –"
"We don't care about academics, Alicia. We care about other things."
Suddenly, I got it. "You mean my visions?"
I was rewarded by a smile. "Exactly, Alicia. You may not know it, but every time you have a vision, magical sensors at our headquarters go wild. There are very few people with your gift, Alicia, and we employ most of them. You see, when you get a vision, you don't expect it. It comes at a random time, and you don't know what it will be about, or who, or even if you know the person in the vision. In other words, you don't control them, they control you. Is that right?"
I nodded.
"Well, we'd like to change that. With our help, we believe that you can control the subjects of your visions, and the times at which you get them. And then, in turn, you can help us. You see, our clients like to know what will happen to them. Not detail for detail, of course; free will does exist, after all. But all the big things, Alicia, those were set down long before either you or I were around. And those big things are what we like to be ready for."
I swallowed, trying to take in the huge amount of information that had just been given to me. "I think I understand what I'm saying. But how do I control my visions?"
She smiled at me. "Well, there are several ways. But we're going to start you off slow. You see, Alicia, we would like to employ you after you graduate from Hogwarts. However, we would like to start you as a full time employee. I'm sure you would like that, as well. If you would open the folder, Alicia, the first piece of paper has a number written on it. This is the amount that we would be offering you as an initial salary."
I opened the folder, and seeing the number on the page, I couldn't help letting out a small gasp. Lilah smiled.
"We feel that it is a generous offer. You see, Alicia, we don't want to train you after you graduate. We want to train you now."
"I'm flattered. Believe me, I'm really flattered. But I don't think I can drop out of school."
Lilah laughed. "Of course not, Alicia. We want you to finish your education. What we would want you to do this year is a few practice assignments. Go ahead and flip to the next sheet in the folder."
I picked up the next page in the folder. It was covered with tiny symbols that had absolutely zero meaning to me. Puzzled, I looked up at Lilah.
"What you are looking at, Alicia, is a wand print. A wand print is even more distinctive than a fingerprint. Each wizard's wand print is completely unique. Therefore, when you look at a wand print, you can only have a vision about the wizard whose wand it is from. So. Now for a little test." She paused, noticing the look on my face. "Don't worry, Alicia. You should pass this with flying colors. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to study the wand print as closely as you can. If this works, you should get a vision within a few minutes.
I took a deep breath, and stared closely at the little lines and squiggles. Come on, I told myself. Concentrate. Concentrate. Concen –
a man on a corner black robe blonde hair tall sign MAPLEWOOD other man coming
Gasping, I jerked my head up. Lilah nudged my glass of water towards me.
"Here. Take a drink. It's a little jarring the first time you do it that way."
I nodded and sipped my water, trying to calm my nerves.
"Whenever you're ready, tell me what you saw."
I took another sip of water before responding. "It was all kind of fast, and kind of blurry. But there was a man. He was wearing a black robe, and he had very blonde hair. He was standing on a street corner. Um, the street had a sign on top that said Maplewood. Oh, and another man was coming towards him."
Lilah was recording down everything I had said with a large quill. "Perfect. Now, if you could just pass me that wand print." I slid the piece of paper across the table to her. She glanced at it for a moment, and then set it down, smiling brightly.
"Brilliant, Alicia, absolutely brilliant. The blonde man you saw in that vision is actually one of our employees. We took a wand print from him, and he was instructed to stand on the corner of Maplewood at one 'o clock this afternoon. Alicia, right now it's only quarter past twelve. You saw a vision of his future."
"I – oh, wow. Wow." I couldn't help smiling. This – this was just cool. I was still grinning when Henri appeared next to the table, and set down two Caesar salads in front of us. I picked up my fork, and then set it down again.
"So you're telling me that I get paid to do that?"
Lilah laughed. "Well, it's a little more complicated than that. But initially, yes. We'll send you wand prints, probably at a rate of about two to three a week. Whenever it's convenient to you, you simply read them. You write down what you see, owl it off to us, and you receive compensation in the mail. Speaking of which." She once again rummaged through her briefcase, and preceded to hand me a small drawstring bag. I shook it slightly and heard a jingling sound from the inside.
"There are your five galleons, Alicia. At Lux Et Veritas, we keep our promises."
"Thank you." I still couldn't stop smiling.
"You're welcome, Alicia. But I need to make something very clear to you. We expect to receive from our employees exactly what we give to them. We keep our promises to you, Alicia. That means that it is imperative that you keep all of your promises to us. If for some reason you decided not to do a job for us, or lie about it, or try to sabotage it in any way… well, you need to understand that we don't take very kindly to that sort of thing. You can expect more than a pay cut for that sort of stunt. If you try to cross us, Alicia, I promise that we will find out."
Ok, hands down, Lilah was officially the most terrifying woman I had met in my entire life.
"I would never think of doing something like that." I gulped, hoping that she believed me. Lilah's icy gaze quickly gave way into a smile.
"Of course you wouldn't! I'm sorry, Alicia. I didn't mean to frighten you there, but we're required to inform all employees of our policies. Now, I've got to run, but you stay hear as long as you want and enjoy that salad. Don't worry about the bill; it's already taken care of. Now, in that folder is an overview of everything that I've told you, plus a sheet informing you how much you'll be paid per wand print reading. If you have any questions, just go ahead and send me an owl. And welcome on board, Alicia. We at Lux Et Veritas are very excited to have you."
********************************
Later that night, sitting in the common room, I was still somewhere on cloud nine. I was laying on one of the couches, grinning like an idiot, when the team began to climb through the portrait whole. I quickly wiped the smile off of my face and tried to look like I was in great pain.
"I was wondering about you guys. I'm not judging, Angelina, but ten hours seems a little excessive."
"If I ever make you practice for ten hours, you can rename me Oliver Wood." Angelina perched herself on the arm of the sofa. She seemed to be in a considerably better mood than she had been this morning.
"We practiced for about three hours," said Ron, collapsing in an armchair. "Then we broke for lunch –"
"So that we would be well rested and fed for Angie's two hour strategy discussion," said Fred, grinning and nudging Angelina in the side. Off of her glare, however, he quickly amended. "It's out of love, honey. Always out of love." Angelina, along with the rest of us, rolled her eyes.
"Well, that's about six hours. What about the other four?" I propped myself up on my elbows
"Actually, we wandered down to Hogsmeade." Katie had managed to squeeze herself into the space between my feet and the arm of the sofa. "George's idea."
"Really? Hogsmeade? How interesting." I stared at George, but he turned away, refusing to catch my eye. Before I could say anything else, Angelina stood up.
"Well, I'd love to fill you in, Al, but before I do anything, I need to shower. I reek." A chorus of "yeahs" and "me toos" followed Angelina's pronouncement. The rest of the team stood and began to head towards the dorm rooms, but I managed to grab onto a handful of George's robes as he passed
"Oh no you don't." George looked at me for a moment, and then sighed, sitting on the arm of the couch. I sat up and turned to face him.
"So. You just randomly decided that Hogsmeade was the hip and happening place to be?"
"I'll have you know that I wanted to go to Hogsmeade because… because I wanted to write a poem." George gave me a pointed glance and folded his arms across his chest. I snorted.
"Really. And what, may I ask, did George Weasley write a poem about?"
"Um – flowers."
I pushed aside a mental image of George prancing through a field of flowers, sprouting poetry as he skipped and sang. Fighting back a giggle, I forced myself to adapt a stern tone. "And, of course, flowers can only be found in Hogsmeade."
"Well, I needed the special flowers, you see, and of course there's the, uh, special poetry quills that one can buy in Hogsmeade, and…" George trailed off, looking rather put out. "Are you actually going to make me say that I went to Hogsmeade to check up on you?"
"Because obviously I needed checking up on."
George rolled his eyes. "So kill me, Alicia, I was worried. I just wanted to make sure that you were ok."
"Well, as annoyed as I am… I guess I'm also sort of touched. But you're a freak. Just so you know." I smiled at George, trying to kill of the sudden amounts of butterflies that were dancing in my stomach.
"I think that there was a thank you somewhere in there. So I'll just say you're welcome." He elbowed me in the side, and I retailed in like kind.
"So. Did you get the job?"
I paused for a moment. "No. No, they said that I wasn't exactly what they were looking for."
George patted me on the shoulder. "Better luck next time, right?"
Relieved that he had bought it, I nodded. George shifted his position and leaned in slightly towards me. "Well, you didn't get the job. But I know what you did get today."
I frowned. "What?"
"Tickled." Before I could make sense of what he had just said, George had launched himself on top of me and was tickling me mercilessly. I squealed.
"George Weasley, you are so dead! Stop! I am going to bloody murder you!" Giggling uncontrollably, I managed to roll us off of the couch and onto the floor. As we continued to wrestle on the common room floor, I decided that this was the best day I'd had in a very long time.
A/N: Thought I'd cover a few things:
This fic is going to more or less be OotP compatible. I'm not going to go back and edit chapters, so any inconsistencies in my earlier chapters are going to remain. Also, in my story, Katie is the same age as everyone else. I can sense that all of you were dying to know that.
Also, some of you may recognize the name Lilah Morgan. She was an evil lawyer on the show Angel. While originally I was just going to use her name and appearance, I found myself writing all of her dialogue in, well, her voice. If you want to know how I visualize Lilah, check out any episode of Angel from seasons three or four.
To those of you who asked: Lux Et Veritas is a Latin phrase that translates to Light and Truth. Make of that what you will.
And now it's time for… fic recommendations! First, a Harry Potter fic:
The Amazing Adventures of Professor Barney McKnob, by Neuri. Don't be fooled by the title – it's a MWPP fic, and probably the best one I've ever read. She nails the character voices, and her Marauders are actually multi-dimensional, a very difficult thing to find in MWPP fics. It's a complete mystery to me why she doesn't have hundreds of reviews for this fic.
Now… the non Harry Potter fic:
The Spike Spinoff Showcase, by… well, by me. Ahem. Yes, I'm shamelessly promoting one of my own fics here. But I swear, people, it's good. Imagine if Spike the vampire (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) got his own spinoff. Watch as I blast Spike, Buffy, Angel, Riley, and every tired plot device under the sun. Spike haters, Spike lovers, come one come all. Guaranteed or your money back.
Reviewers!
Morgana Wenlock: Hopefully it's not just a random love story, lol. Thanks for your praise of Lee – I try to make him both a friend and a boyfriend. Now, where's that update on your fic? I'm on pins and needles!
Dyrim123: Thanks. I'm always happy to attract new readers!
GryffinMiraur: Seriously, you telling me that Alicia is not a Mary Sue is the highest compliment I could ever hope for. That is my biggest worry in writing this story. Thanks for your emails as well. I love chatting with fellow G/Aers. (P.S. Hey everyone, read her stuff! She has soo much Alicia fic that everyone needs to read right now! Go, I tell you!)
Jagged Epiphany: Hey, reccing your fic was the least I could do. You are the person who inspired me to write G/A, after all. And thanks for the equally lovely reccomendation in Old Faces, New Tricks. So… ahem… you owe me a chapter!
ShadowChik: Hee, you're the first person to describe my story as "most awesome." Thanks!
Cute-crazy-chick1: Flattering my ego? Muchos chocolate frogs for you!
Tigger-180: You ask, I produce. Here's a whole new chapter!
Cecilia Orechio: Falling out of your chair? I'd hate for you to have medical problems on account of me not updating! Lol. Yeah, I have big plans for Alicia's little secret. Please email me when you post your next fic, I'm really looking forward to it!
Neuri: Yeah, I spent waaaay too much time on the bio. I'm glad you enjoyed it though. I try to think of it as an excuse for my slow updates. Thanks for your compliments about me writing in the first person. I'm glad you think I've been successful; I think one of the hardest things about first person POV is not inserting too much of yourself in the character. Oh yeah, and one more thing. Could you please update your story? Pretty please with sugar on top?
Rachel: Sketch is definitely a good word to describe the folks at Lux Et Veritas. Hope enjoyed reading about the meeting!
Spyra: Quit making me blush! Seriously, that was a VERY flattering review. Plus, I love the term quidditch shipper. That is now how I will officially refer to myself.
Oliverwoodschic: Glad you found my story! I hope the G/A content in this chapter was to your satisfaction. Don't worry, I'll keep those two bumping into each other…
Um, I think that's it. Please check out my shiny new profile… and oh yeah review!!!
Love,
Betsy