All of them but Stan were now standing in front of the door to the living room. Heidi could not have smiled any harder. She had just left some of the fresh baked pastries in front of the great Alastor Moody with the most flavorsome tea she could mix on the fly. She had sprinted to her room and mixed a little orange zest with a little lavender and a black tea from India that she had picked up in Tangenti Alley that smelled crisp. It would go perfectly with the biscuits! Maybe she could make something else but for now she was standing outside the door unable to contain herself. Dorcas was still unsure of the outfit she was wearing.
"Anything will do. You look lovely now but you can't keep him waiting all day." Bradley hissed.
"Brad's right." Lydia said eying Dorcas outfit.
"What's wrong?" Dorcas replied.
"Nothing." Lydia said. "Nothing at all.
"Lydia…"
"It's nothing. Really." She said unconvincingly. Heidi could not contain herself.
"He said he really enjoyed the biscuits! And the tea! He wished me good luck on the bakery, said if he'd have known, he would have brought something to take seconds!"
"So just pack him something to go then, 'Dis."
"He's leaving? Has he left?!" Stan eyes stared wide from his place on the steps. He had a handful of parchment of photos or papers nearly crushed in his hands.
"Quiet." Bradley pointed towards the door.
Stan deflated, looked like he was going to cry. His free hand left the bannister and flew to his panting chest. This was all too much for him. Lydia surveyed the scene. All this feeling from someone who studied the stars. And this is precisely why she hadn't studied divinations. She shook her head.
"Ooh, the blue top!" Brad said. "The one with daisies. You look lovely in that one."
"I couldn't find it…" said Dorcas, smoothing over her top. Lydia's mouth drew into a straight line exposing her teeth.
"I lent it to Heidi." she said.
Heidi wished she still had something in her hands and scratched the back of her hairline.
"It's good luck. I wore it when I got my apprenticeship and thought it could be good luck to someone else so I lent it to someone we went to school with. You know Emily? She was a Ravenclaw I think…" Her voice dropped away.
Lydia had seized on the truth of what Heidi had said. "It really is good luck."
Dorcas looked back and forth at them both.
"Might have been nice to have some of that luck now."
"I'll say." Brad added.
Dorcas looked at him sidelong.
Brad shrugged his shoulders.
"We make our own luck, don't we?" Said Stan fully recovered and gleeful again. "Some of it's the stars and the rest is us."
He shoved the papers in Dorcas direction dumping them in her arms. Dorcas looked down and saw the man she was supposed to meet on the other side of the door looking at her from a photograph. She couldn't do this.
"I can't do this." Dorcas said.
"Of course you can." They all said in their own way at the same time, some slightly kinder than the others.
"What if he's telling me I can't be an auror? Or something about, about something?"
Lydia was losing patience. "During a war? They send out one of history's greatest aurors to tell an almost auror that she can't be one?" She could tell Dorcas really was nervous. Her shoulders dropped and she rolled her eyes understanding what she had gone through that day and trying to understand what she'd been through to get that far and feeling slightly guilty for it. "Look Dorcas, whatever he says will be fine. You are an extraordinary witch and I wouldn't say that to just anyone."
Heidi conceded, nodding in affirmation. Lydia placed both hands on Dorcas' shoulders.
"Go in there with your chin up and shoulders down and whatever he says we will deal with together…"
Tears stood in Stan's eyes.
"…Or alone depends on what he says."
"Good on you, Lydia!"
"What? Did I say something wrong?" Said Lydia looking back and forth between Brad and Dorcas sensing the sarcasm in Brad's voice.
Dorcas smiled and shook her head. She knew Lydia. They all knew her even though Lydia might have sworn that they didn't.
"Nothing at all but, maybe we can speed this up since he's been waiting for at least fifteen minutes now! So go!" Said Brad.
Dorcas took a deep breath and, clutching the papers to her chest, made her way for the door.
"Wait!" Hissed Lydia. She ran to the kitchen, and grabbed her wand.
She returned and waved it, the papers flew into the air. She waved her wand again and Dorcas' shirt tucked itself in and she waved her wand a third time and the papers landed neatly and straightened out in her hands.
"Better will have to do." She muttered. Dorcas gave her a look of thanks.
"Wait!" Lydia said as Dorcas turned the door knob. She slid up to Dorcas and sighed. Under her breath and quickly but still sincerely she said.
"Look, you know how I feel about people but I really do enjoy living here and anyway, I don't think I can afford to live somewhere else on my salary right now. Try not to get sacked."
And she pushed the door open so Dorcas had no choice but to enter the room.
The door closed neatly behind her.
