Just Dinner

Khaat had sent Archangel with an invitation to Vincent for dinner. He hadn't said no, so she planned on meeting him. She had chosen Murrays. She was in the mood for something a bit more upscale that the bistro fare at her own place. She chose a little sparkling copper colored cocktail dress and tall neutral colored stilettos.

She arrived first and was shown to a table by the host. She ordered a martini, and sat down to wait. It had been awhile since she had seen Vincent. She was hoping that things had gone well for him. She had missed Vincent, and had not seen him all summer. Well, part of it had been her holiday in Tuscany. But part of it wsa that she had just honestly lost track of what was going on with her friend, and now Doyle was headmaster. She felt genuine concern for Vincent and was eager to see him and see how he was and what his next plans were. She took a sip of her drink. Nice gin, she thought.

She hadn't been there very long when an obnoxious young man slid into the booth seat beside her, shoving her over. "What's a nice girl like you doing here all alone?" he said, smelling strong of firewhiskey. "You need a gentleman to show you a good time, Doll."

"Unfortunately, I haven't seen any gentlemen," Khaat replied, dryly, unimpressed with him.

"But I'm here now! I'll show you things you haven't seen. Hang with me, Beautiful. The night is young."

"I'm meeting someone," Khaat said, hoping he'd get the hint.

"Then I'll just wait with you. Maybe she has a sister," he slid his arm around her shoulder.

"I bet he doesn't," she said pointedly and with no small amount of sarcasm in her voice. Khaat had no doubt whatsoever that Vincent would have had no patience with this boy's arrogance. That sort of thing always did seem to bore Vincent. She didn't know whether to hope Vincent arrived soon for her sake, or not--for this foolish young mans's sake.

"Well, he can't be very much if he stands up a woman like you." Khaat bristled angrily at his words. She felt him slide closer until he was pasted against her. She had a burst of irrepressible temper, drew her wand and flicked it at him. In an instant, he transfigured into a rather loudly ticking pocketwatch laying on the seat beside her. She picked up the watch and laid it on the table.

"I warned you. I had enough of that nonsense," she told the watch. She took another sip of her drink.

The summer had been an uneventful one for Vincent Majere . He had generally remained idle for all of it, besides the first month - where he had to keep track of the graduates futures, what jobs they are doing now and etcetera. That was all Wilson's job now, and Vincent had to admit that it seemed like a good move. The money as headmaster was good, but what good was money for? It was all about power for him, power over others. And as Hogwarts Headmaster all he had were a bunch of annoying students, all who hated him. So he had resigned from the job, got some money (through largely illegal means), purchased a house and just stayed there for the Summer.

Though if people knew him, they would know he hadn't remained completely idle. Vincent had formulated a plan to get something better then headmaster, something to do with the ministry. If he never did anything greater than headmaster, the world would remember him as one of the shortest last Hogwarts headmasters in the schools long History. But he would, surely. In the ministry he had several close friends who would make his own rise there easier. One of them was Khaat. However, he had sort of wrecked his relationship with Khaat by destroying the Order almost single-handedly. It would be easy though for him to repair the relationship, and use her to gain more for himself. For love is blind and lovers cannot see.

And so, Vincent had accepted an invitation he would have usually declined without second thought. He didn't like restaurants, and hardly ever dined at them. This was mainly because of his frail health. Because of it, he had adopted a diet consisting of fruits, vegetables and, occasionally, bread. Nothing heavier. Restaurant food didn't always agree with him,but at least this wasn't sparks or some other middle-class one. He knew that Murray's place was a high class restaurant, perhaps Khaat was trying to impress him.

Vincent had agreed to the meeting, and was now outside Murrays place, right on time. Most of the people entering the restaurant wore fancy muggle clothes. Instead, he had chosen to wear his black and gold robes. Entering the restaraunt, Vincent walked past the welcome lady without a word and looked around for Khaat. She was sitting next to some man and looking quite uncomfortable. He smiled slightly after watching her use transfiguration and turn the man into a pocketwatch. He walked over.

"Good job. Very creative," he said appraisingly as he took his seat next to her. "How are you Khaat, I haven't seen you since.. well.. a long time." He had about to say the battle, which was the last time he had seen her, but it was best to not mention that.

"Hello, Vincent, and thank you. I did warn him. He was betting me you had a sister you wouldn't mind introducing him to. I assured him you didn't. I wouldn't have introduced him to anybody's sister, actually. Anyway, its good to see you, and you're right. It has been much too long. I wasn't sure if I had missed you because you had taken time off this summer, perhaps, or because I took time off myself. How have you been?"

The server came and delivered menus. When he asked Khaat if she wanted another martini, Khaat passed and ordered coffee. One drink was enough. She never had more than one if she wasn't at home. And even when she was at home, she never had more than two. The pocketwatch started ticking rather loudly and annoyingly and Khaat scooped it up off the table. "Stop that," she rebuked it. "You keep that up and I'll take out your main spring. And don't think I can't." The watch quieted immediately, and Khaat dropped it into her purse. "Perhaps I'll give him to my father at Christmas, if I can tolerate a snide pocketwatch that long."

She opened the menu and glanced at the first courses. "How is the caprese salad?" she asked the server. She knew Blaire was an excellent judge of Italian food, so she could not imagine that the caprese would be anything but first rate. The server recommended it and said that the simple salad was a new offering on the menu. Khaat ordered it. The caprese was a healthy choice, and it reminded her of many good times she had had over her summer. The server then turned to Vincent, offered him a cocktail before dinner and offered to take his order for an appetizer or a salad.

Vincent snorted, thinking of what his sister would have done to the man if she had heard that. Khaat had been rather kind to him, Vincent would have done much worse, he could not stand people who breached discipline, especially at a place like this which was supposed to be a high class restaraunt. "Sick," he replied shortly to her asking how he was. That was, perhaps the best answer, he usually remained sick so it was nothing new, but he hadn't done anything the whole summer either. "Fever, cold, sore throat, Osteoarthritis as well as chest pain. The usual. Your potion did help though, thank you. It was very thoughtful of you," he said warmly. He was thankful about that, but it wasn't like it would change his opinion about Khaat. It just meant she was weak, that she would do that for a friend who didn't care for her. Kindness wasn't something Vincent gave much respect.

"How is work going?" he asked casually, already wanting to get into the main conversation so that he could talk about what he really wanted to talk about. At that moment though, the waiter arrived with the menu's as well as asking them if they wanted a cocktail. Vincent gave the waiter a glare before refusing the cocktail. Vincent was a total teetotaler, alcohol was not good for his system at all and besides, even if he was more healthy he would not take it. Horrible thing alcohol, it dulls your brain and shortens your life, yet people loved to drink it. Instead, he told the waiter to just bring tea at the end and bring Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Chips now. It had been the first remotely healthy thing he had seen on the menu, so he decided to order that. He would probably not be able to eat much more than an appetizer anyway.

She was genuinely sorry to hear he had been ill all summer, but she was learning that was rather typical for him. And he did have choices about that, that he was apparently willing to forego. He had the choice of seeking medical attention and working with someone at St. Mungos to build his resistance, but he apparently chose to stay ill. She wasn't pursuing it with him again. Actually, she saw no point in anyone willfully remaining ill, out of shape and vulnerable to every bloody thing that came along. She had never been able to afford that luxury, but somehow, Vincent saw himself above needing to do the basics that others needed to do to stay well. Well, that was clearly his right. If he stayed his course, he could most likely age quicker and die younger. That was also his right.

"Work is about the same," she said. "Nothing much ever changes there. I spent part of the summer on the continent. It was a good escape. It probably would not have been your speed, though. Lots of hiking, fishing, sailing, swimming, racing, and sports. It really was a lot of fun. I don't know--I might go back on weekends and take my girls along.

"Oh, you might have missed that. You knew I had Abbey, but you might not have known that my daughter, Miseria, had a baby about a month after I did. I have custody of that baby too. Miseria cannot take care of a baby at her age, and certainly not while she goes to school. I think she was anorexic enough that none of the professors noticed she was pregnant during this last school year. So, the end result is that I have a daughter and a granddaughter that are the same age almost. Abbey is 4 months, and Dakota is 3 months. "

It wasn't that Vincent was far too arrogant to go to St.Mungos to show them his illness, okay well maybe it partly was, but the real reason was that it would just be a waste of time. He had been told a far time ago that his ilness was a permanent sickness, the healers could keep it from getting too bad but never get rid of it entirely. The illness was a part of him, he had been born by it, and would probably die with it. Vincent recognized this as his one main weakness, and had shown it to one of the best healers at St.Mungos a while ago, but even he had not been able to do anything about it. So Vincent just stuck to potions to keep himself from getting too ill. On the days that he forgot, well it was like going through hell, just like the day when they destroyed Grimmauld Place. Besides the fact that it made him weaker to enemies, the illness didn't trouble him too much. The pain was horrible, but you eventually got used to it, even though it never faded away completely. His illness also gave him a good reason to keep away from people he didn't want to talk to, like this Summer for example. Vincent had never enjoyed any other person's company for some reason, this was - in fact - the first time he was actually talking to someone since around June. Though that fact might of struck the others as quite odd, it was only usual for him.

Vincent nodded, that definitely wasn't his type of thing to do. Swimming, hiking, camping and etcetera, these things would probably kill him, and he didn't have the intention of dying soon. "Oh, thats great. I did notice that. Glad to see it all went well," Vincent replied, faking his interest in that subject. He was glad to see Khaat hadn't died, but that was about as far as it went. Personally, he hated children. "Miseria?" he repeated, rather surprised. He had met that girl a year ago, and couldn't say she was the most politest young girl he had met. But he did remember that she had been about fourteen then, and she had a child now. He couldn't say he was agreeable to that though, he hated any mention of young girls having babies, it was both irresponsible and stupid. The babies were usually fatherless too. Vincent decided it was best not to mention it though. "Thats nice... Dakota has a little niece to play with.." he said slowly, forcing a smile.

"But I heard you got promoted to Wizengamot Chief Warlock," Vincent continued, trying to get on the point. "Congratulations." Khaat was the same as usual, not interested in her own personal achievements at all. All it seemed she wanted to do was chit chat about pointless stuff, which Vincent hardly had time to hear. Reflecting on that, he did notice that Khaats achievements almost rivaled his. He had started an auror, and moved to headmaster of Hogwarts. She meanwhile had started a healer, and now was Chief Warlock as well as head healer. She also owned a bistro. Impressive, but what for? She had no desire for power, she was weak. Yet, that served him well, as his plan involved him using her position on the Wizengamot.

Khaat had caught Vincent's surprise and disapproval about Miseria's pregnancy, and, frankly, it had not been Khaat's first choice for Miseria's life either.

"Well," Khaat said dryly, "I didn't exactly do handsprings when I found out Mis was pregnant either. She was entirely too young, but apparently, its fairly normal behavior for young Romanian girls. Its one of those cultural differences things. Besides that, I think she was acting out after the murder of her parents. It doesn't give her an excuse, but it at least explains it. And I didn't decide to be her mother just when things went rosy. I'm her mother for the long haul."

She was glad the potions had helped him, but she was not offering more of it. If he wanted more, he knew where she worked. And whatever medical business he was hiding, although it was his business, Khaat figured that she might be able to offer at least some symptomatic relief. But, hey, if his secrecy and his insecurities were more important than feeling well, that was his business. She had never lived that way, so she had no firsthand experience at that mindset, although it seemed to be perfectly normal for wizards with some sort of rather chronic vulnerability. A flaw in wizards that she rarely ever saw in the muggle neighbors she had grown up with in the fishing village near her parents' farm.

As far as Khaat was concerned, if Vincent wanted help, all he needed to do was ask. Vincent was obviously not the polished athlete that she found with some of her other friends, but she still had the utmost respect for him as an auror and a duelist. But she had seen time and time again that Vincent's strength was in his mind and in his wand. He could be a good ally, but an even more formidible foe. Her relationship with him was always a lot like kissing a cobra. At its best, it was unpredictable,and at its worst, it was utterly deadly. She always had to walk a fine line where he was concerned.

"Thank you," Khaat said, when he referred to her appointment as Chief Warlock. "I like to keep busy. I'm actually looking forward to perhaps doing some training with my father as he trains up the aurors a bit. Oh, that's right. You didn't know that either. My father is the Head of Law Enforcement. Your old post. I am looking forward to being able to train with them. You know, polishing up my dueling skills. I do enjoy doing that. So what are you going to do now that you''re not at Hogwarts anymore?"

The server delivered their salad course and politely excused himself.

Vincent remembered when Khaat had sent the potion shortly after Grimmauld Place fell. He hadn't been too stubborn to take it then. Everytime he became like that it felt like he was about to die, and that was something he didn't want to experience. He was too stubborn now though. He didn't want to show anyone that he was weak like that. Requiring potions merely to survive, it was embarrassing, and had Khaat even offered some now he would have refused. Instead, he had Wilson make it, though lately he had begun to make the potion himself. You couldn't trust or believe in anyone.

Vincent also knew that he was now in Khaats debt, she had helped him and possibly saved his life with that potion. He wasn't about to thank her though. He would pay her back though, somehow. He believed in direct Karma, the philosophy that every good and bad deed should be repaid and kind, and when the time came, he would pay her back.

Vincent rolled his eyes when Khaat tried to explain for Miseria's sake. "Its stupid and irresponsible, and there is no excuse for stupidity," he said curtly. "These girls are fatherless, I lived without my father and it affected me a lot. An abortion would have been the more responsible thing for Ms. Manson to do. Or to marry the father, if she could recall him.." he said, his tone thick with disapproval. He wasn't getting emotional or anything, Vincent was just like that. Cynical and hateful.

Vincent almost scowled after hearing that her father had taken his old job, but he remained cool and stoic and showed no change in his expression. "My my, the Lupins are taking over the ministry," he observed with a small smile. It worried him a little bit, but by the tone he spoke in, Khaat would probably think he was just joking. "Well I wish him luck with that position, its not an easy one. The head of law enforcement is usually a common target for the.. them," he said, purposefully changing what he was going to say mid-sentence, in order to avoid uttering Death Eaters in the restaurant. Besides, Khaat would know whom he was talking about. The way he had said it, he hoped she would not take it like a threat, but more as a warning. Despite the fact Vincent had actually meant the former.

Vincent didn't bother to thank the server for bringing the food, he didn't have to exchange such pleasantries with the proletariat. With one look at his food, Vincent turned his gaze back towards Khaat. "Work... I was getting bored of educating adolescents, so I gave the job to Wilson, who passed it on to his little friend," he said, quite honestly. The headmaster post was very uninteresting, uneventful and useless as well. "What am I going to do? Well thats an interesting question..."

They had arrived on the topic he had really wanted to talk about, but he needed to choose his words carefully from hereon. His whole plan revolved around Khaat, and he didn't want to make a mistake here, or it would mess up the whole plot he had been planning all Summer.

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I'm wondering, should Vincent try to convince Khaat to make him Minister, or blackmail and threaten her instead? The latter would be more Vincent-ish, but it really depends on which would work better.

OOC: Well, if he holds true to how he has thought and behaved towards Khaat, I think he would be sorely tempted to try to blackmail her and then find himself inexplicably unable to do it, and be pissed with himself that he can't. i think he would then shift to trying to get her to align with him. but that's just my 2 cents.

She let his remarks about Miseria pass. That was just Vincent being Vincent. She had come to let that sort of thing just blow over. She had come to let a lot of what he threw out blow over. And she wasn't surprised that teens bored him. That was also rather typical for him. Insolence bothered him immensely. However, for him to give up one of the most powerful positions in England, that was not typically Vincent. And, career wise, he never wanted to go down the ladder or make a lateral move. That much she knew very well. And from Headmaster of Hogwarts there were few places left to go. Very few indeed. At least in England. She wondered if he would "man up" and actually come out and tell her what he wanted to do next, or if he would hedge. Vincent always had a plan. He was a man who was never clueless. She knew he had not spent all summer being idle. Not unless he'd been in a freaking coma. Even if he had been bedridden, his brain would not have been idle. Sometimes, he made critical errors where she was concerned from not bothering to get to know her as much as he thought he did.

"Vincent," she flashed him a rather bored look, "You do have a habit of underestimating Lupins. You forget we've had generations of being targetted for just about everything under the sun in this magical world of ours. It seems to be part of our DNA. My father is not as easy to overtake as people think. He will do fine in his post. You must be the first to realize that it takes a strong auror to do that job and do it well. And as far as 'they' go, neither of us--my father or I--i will allow ourselves to be frightened of a witch or a wizard wearing a really bad Halloween mask."

She said her last sentence in lowered tones. She sliced into her caprese salad. There was something refreshing about fresh heirloom tomatoes, leaves of crisp basil, and freshly made mozzarella, all drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and seasoned with freshly ground sea salt and freshly cracked peppercorns. She had decided that she was going to order the veal piccata when the waiter asked for the main course orders. Blaire always made sure that was prepared well. Well, honestly, there wasn't much on Blaire's menu she didn't like.

Seeing her eat, Vincent brought his appetizer closer as well and ate a spoonful. The fruit salsa was good, he had to admit, but the main course would be different. Expensive food did not always mean healthy food, and restaurants usually used ingredients to make their food taste better. As Vincent was usually used to a simple meal of fruit, vegetables, bread and water, not much else tasted good to him. Besides, the taste of food hardly mattered to Vincent. It was just one of the many things that made him different from most people. As well as that, he never felt hungry. He hardly ever felt sleepy, or alert for that matter - but merely a state in between. Money, women and many other corporeal things never brought any enthusiasm, interest or excitement to him. As for love... well if he had ever felt it it had long since vanished. The man had pretty much given everything away in return for one thing - power. The power to control, to influence, to change, to dominate. Was that evil? Perhaps, but it was a much different manifestation of it then say for example, Voldemort's.

Her reply brought back the mocking expression, the sneer on his face. Vincent just couldn't control it for long. He could be nice and pleasant sometimes, but not for long, how long depended on the conversation with whomever he was speaking to at the time. In this case he just couldn't control his reaction to Khaats comment. He did however, manage to control himself from making a taunting reply. Vincent forced himself to remember that he had accepted the invitation to gain Khaat's trust, but then again, he was starting to believe that that would be a near impossible of a task. "I do not underestimate anyone.. Or.... perhaps I underestimate everyone? I never could quite understand these puzzles... But on the matter of your father, I am sure he is a great auror, but forgive me for saying it, the Lupins have never been great leaders. They are too naive, too willing to trust." As well as a bit stupid. Others would call it courage and nobility but to Vincent all three things were one and the same. The courageous people usually just brought themselves to an early grave and that was precisely why half of the Lupins had went and gotten themselves murdered so quickly.

A witch wearing a really bad Halloween mask? Vincent wanted to laugh, and he almost did had he not believed it was inappropriate to do such things in a restaraunt. Not to mention that he hardly did such things anyway, even when amused. It was just that she was right, Sandra and her lackeys were hardly terrifying, but she and her father would be a fool to underestimate them. "Didn't those witches and wizards wearing Halloween masks infiltrate and forcefully take over your headquarters?" he inquired, his tone thick with dense with sarcasm and irony. Though this was hardly the best thing to remind her about, he just had to do it. Another example of how he just could not control himself from making mocking statements, it was something he needed work on.


Having thought of what he had wanted to say, he continued. "Well, you know me, I don't like going down on the rank ladder, and there are only a few positions above the headmaster of Hogwarts right?" He said in a casual tone. "Well, now that our pitiable and lackadaisical teenage minister Matt Lestrange has been kind enough to resign, we need a new and more attentive and responsible minister don't you think?" Vincent wasn't going to go further then that, surely she would get the point and give her reaction to his proposition? After observing Khaats reaction Vincent would know which way to take the conversation from here on. Personally, Vincent always preferred the easy way to do stuff. Using extortion to get what he wanted always did make him feel just a bit guilty. Besides, it would be more productive to make Khaat on his side through befriending her rather than through intimidation. That way, he had a key ally in the ministry. Through extortion, he would have to get rid of her and her father after getting the position.

Either way, he was going to get it. It was her choice now whether she wanted to make things easy or difficult for herself.

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Honey, you don't seem to know my character very well. He does not dislike or hold any grudges towards Khaat, and he may even like her, thats a bit confusing, but he certainly isn't fussed about using her like he uses everyone else.