Reunion

[couldn't think of a better name o.O
Future thread. Darren is about 29 at this point and is... unemployed !
As for plot.. I guess the death eaters have been defeated by now and times are far better than the present]

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Darren Riddle was sitting at a table towards the corner of the Leaky Cauldron, sipping his butterbeer as he read a novel he had just bought from Flourish and Blotts. Since he was young, he had spent most of his time reading, and nothing had changed since. Almost everything about him, his personality, appearance, hobbies, had changed over time, but not his reading habit. Now, he was deeply absorbed in the tale, which was at its climax, and was only remotely aware of what was going on around him. The Leaky Cauldron had become one of Darren's favorite haunts of late. It was probably he place he would generally avoid - crowded and noisy as it was - but he had noticed that, in a larger crowd, you could avoid attention more easily. Besides, it would probably be better for him to interact with someone once in a while. Darren had generally spent a life of isolation since graduating from Hogwarts, somewhat because of his own choice, but mostly because it had been necessary too. Of course, he missed his friends, the ones he had made at Hogwarts, but he had let go of them a long time ago, convinced he wouldn't ever meet them again. Now, he was no longer aware where they lived or how their lives had gone after graduation. He frowned as he remembered Gin, then Mari, Sophia, Adrenn and Jess. Jess, well Darren had recieved a lot of news about him. He was now the head of aurors, and the head of the Order as well. He had never quite understood how Jess had managed to be so successful, whereas he was unemployed, living in a flat at knockturn alley. From what he remembered from his Hogwarts years, he could recall that Jess had been a silly, absurd boy then who had hardly ever been serious - whereas Darren had always been studious, always the top of the class. Indeed, life was full of irony.

Jess walked into the leaky cauldron, stopping at the door and bracing himself, the dingy smell that clung to the bar was almost unbearable at times, he much preferred the Three Broomsticks, himself, but it was just so out of the way.

He'd spent the day in London, as usual, at the Ministry, dealing with more of his deskwork. As a boy he'd always envisioned the job of Auror to be a much more exciting, action packed, adventure filled life, and indeed it had been for the first few years, while the Death Eaters still actively kept the world on their toes. The year he'd joined the department was the year He Who Must Not Be Named, Lord Voldemort, was raised once more from the dead, apparently he'd found another way to prolong life. That was a time of nightmares, the only highlight of that period of time was that the Ministry held its own that time, and the Order managed to hold a feeble, but working Alliance with the Ministry, which kept the Death Eaters from emerging into full dominance, and managed to quell them again.

Of course, during the closing battles of the third Wizarding War Jess had lost the use of his right eye, which had pushed him into desk duties. With his combat roles effectively ended he found himself rising in rank until eventually he was given the top job of the Department, a job that even if he'd been at his full potential, would still have consisted heavily of paperwork stuff.

Looking around he proceeded into the bar, having decided that he'd stop and have a drink on his way home to Mari, and sat on a stool, ordering himself a pint of butterbeer, and relaxing, paying attention to the goings on around him. Scanning the room he spotted a face that seemed a little familiar. Grabbing his drink he walked to the back of the room and stood in front of the table. "Darren?" He asked, looking down at man reading his book. "is that you?" He asked, thinking of the last time he'd seen his friend.

The two of them had made their friendship up again during the final wars, when he'd sided with Jess to take out the Death Eaters, since then they'd kept in contact, not freakishly so, but he'd managed to keep everything up to date, and they still visited each other every so often... though not so much in the last year or two.

Waiting for the man to look up, and feeling like a fool if it weren't him, Jess waited for a response

Darren had, in fact, played a major part in the Wizarding War that had ended a year ago. In his own of course. He believed that if you wanted to destroy something, you had to do it from the inside, which he had. He had been a follower of the Death Eaters, a trusted one, and that had helped Darren cause chaos and division within the group. Of course, no one had noticed, and therefore, his acts were once again left in the darkness. No, the real hero had been Jess Potter and his friends in the Order of the Phoenix. That caused him more than a little bit of frustration, that his efforts hadn't been recognized even slightly. But then again, he no longer wanted fame or wealth. He had been interested in those corporeal things in the past, when he had graduated. Darren recalled that he had been ambitious then, keen to rule, obsessed with power, fame and glory. But glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever. Most of his emotions and dreams had vanished away since then, replaced by just one real feeling - regret. But why dwell on these things? There was no way to bring back the past.

Darren slipped out of his reverie as he heard his name being called. The voice was familiar, he had heard it on the Wizarding News Network several times. Jess Potter. Darren didn't look up for some time, instead staring at his book without reading a word. How had he not seen the man coming in? Perhaps because of the crowd, the time was near seven, dusk - the time of the day when the LC was most crowded. But anyways, it had been stupid of him not to wear his hood. He was dressed in robes and a cloak, as usual, but the hood was down. He had assumed that even if one of his childhood friends had walked in, they would not spot him. He had, obviously, changed with age, but their were other changes too. His long hair untidy hair was now shorter, so it didn't come into his eyes, the skin was paler, his eyes were dark and sunken, but still a strange, unnatural shade of green.

To see his friend after such a long time was quite, well, odd. He did not quite know what to feel or what to say. Pretend that he was someone else? Yes he could do that, but then again, he wanted to talk to Jess, and what was the harm in doing so anyway? "Jess Potter," he said, looking up. The voice had changed too, quieter now and more raspy. Jess meanwhile looked more or less the same. Aged, but easily recognizable, and well - happy. "Haven't seen you in a long time."

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I know you don't like 'long' posts, but if Ginny is going to join your going to have to do 400+ soon anyways. So get used to it