HEY MISS BARTENDER MIX ME A DRINK. [Closed]

[JAMES ALASTAIR BLACK]

Feeling something put pressure on his cheeks he opened his eyes and looked to Scooter who was using his paws to wake up James. "Scooter, scoot," he mumbled and closed his eyes again and turned over in his bed. The Black then felt another one of his pets jump on his bed and lick his face. "Get off me! Go back to bed." James was tired and he deserved his rest. Lately he had been working more than usual since Amanda was away on vacation. She mentioned something about her grandfather had fallen ill and the family was going to go and visit the family. To be honest he was quiet jealous of her 'cause she would be away from the castle for a while and he was stuck here making sure everything ran smoothly. Another dog jumped on the bed and hit James in the face with something else that felt like paper. "You did not get me the newspaper did you?" Opening his eyes again he looked up to see all three of his dogs in his face. "You three are going to be the death of me one of these days."

The young headmaster sat up and put his back against his headboard. James rubbed his face and looked at the newspaper. "When do you guys take a break from the usual routine?" His green eyes looked over the cover page to see if there was any new stats from the Quidditch World Cup. Unfortunately he was unable to attend this one. A yawn came from his lips as he noticed a familiar name - Jennifer Black. What is she doing here? Gramps couldn't have left her the business could he? Flipping through the newspaper he found the article about his sister and the bar in Summerton. Wow. Gramps actually left her the business. I wonder if Jennifer is there already. Instead of being cooped up in the castle all day James Alastair Black was going to go to the village to go visit his younger sister. He wanted to spend some quality time with her since he had not even really spoken to her since he left for the school. I guess this means Dad is still making her not play Quidditch.

Out of the bed he began finding his attire for the day. The dogs ran out of the room for whatever reason they had. I'll let them outside when I leave for the village. Give them something to do other than to terrorize the students. Another yawn came from his lips as he put his clothing on his bed. His left hand ran through his dark brown hair as he went into the bathroom to go take his morning shower. When the water started running he let it heat up, even though it felt like it was blazing and began taking off his shirt. The shirt hit the floor and he took off the rest of his clothing. Since he lived at the castle he could not go walking around in his boxers, against his dismay. Never knew when someone was going to barge in and he really never had his privacy at all. In the shower he washed his hair and his body until he felt like he was about to start squeaking. Out of the shower he turned off the water and began drying off. A sigh came through his lips as he began messing with his hair.

Drying off he walked into his bedroom again and dressed himself. Dressed and almost ready to go James stretched his back and arms making them pop. James used his wand to clean the room and he placed his wand in his back pocket, which was never safe. He put on his socks and shoes and looked around the room. "Now where are my sunglasses? I had them yesterday when I took the dogs out for a jog." With his hands on his hips like a female he looked around the room again. Not spotting them right away he began looking through some drawers. "Found them. I got to stop cleaning my room before I find what I want. I can never find anything after I clean." James closed his door as he left the room. With his wand he locked his door so that no one could get in and began walking down the hallway. "SCOOTER! BAM-BAM! PEBBLES!," he yelled as he walked down the hallway toward the stairwell. Soon he heard paws on the stone flooring and spotted his pets coming toward him.

"Lets go outside, boys!" The young Black clapped his hands and began going down the steps hoping that the stairwell wouldn't change as he walked. It had not done that yet since he had been back at the school, but in his school days it seemed like it took him forever to get anywhere 'cause the stairs kept moving. He rubbed the back of his neck as he continued to walk with his animals at his heels. "Ready to go outside, boys? Ready to go get those animals? Show 'em who's the boss around here?" In the entrance hall James noticed it was rather empty. They had not got any new students and no new staff members, which worried him a great deal. It would be a while before the school was in full bloom, but this was ridiculous. James did not know what else to do to get new students and new staff. It seemed like what they could do had already been done already. Outside the dogs took off and James yelled, "PEBBLES IS IN CHARGE!" What kids they are. If anything were to happen to his dogs he would go insane. They were pretty much his children in a sense.

It took no time for James Black to make it to Summerton Village. James walked into Black's Bar and noticed it was kinda full, which pleased him. There were always people coming in and out of this place since he remembered. Probably should have picked a job here after Quidditch. Would have been better than moping around the house all the time. Brown eyes began looking for his younger sister who should be working. He walked over to the bar area and saw a familiar red-headed female. "Jennifer," he said sweetly as he began smiling. "You haven't changed one bit since I last saw you." The Black moved over to behind the bar area to give her a hug. "What have you been up to? How come I didn't know you were going to get this place? How's the parents?" Last time he checked Mr. Black was sore at Jennifer for wanting to play Quidditch professionally and Mrs. Black had been worried also about that. Jennifer was the hot topic at home since she had just recently graduated and needed to start her future. "I missed you tons," he said squeezing his younger sister.

APPAREL • clothing.
MUSE • i guess i have some because i made this longer than what i intended. o.O
NOTE(S) • our first thread in months. ☺
TAG • jennifer black.
WORD COUNT • 1’157 [without coding].

[“jennifer a. black„]

THERE'S SOMEONE DOWN BELOW

BLOWING YOU A KISS

Jennifer rolled over in her sleep, not stirring any more than that. If she could, she would sleep all day, but she subconsciously knew that it would never happen. She had a business to run. Urgh, a business to run...it wasn't exactly what she had planned to be doing with her time once she graduated. She'd so wanted to follow in her brother's footsteps, but she knew that it wasn't going to happen any time soon. A steady tapping noise was what finally woke her, the sound of beak on glass. She slowly blinked herself awake, getting out of bed in a daze and crossing the room to her window. She threw back the curtains and saw the blurry outline of her owl, delivering her post. It was the same every day: she would be subconsciously wishing that she could stay in bed all day, but the same subconscious knew she would have to get up soon, something that happened when the sound of the delivery owl tapping on her window. She unlatched the window, letting the owl inside.

The owl was something that seemed to have come with the building, with the job. She wasn't even sure what the creature was called. It wasn't like it had any identifiers on it. Then again, it might be mentioned in the bar documents somewhere. She just hadn't had chance to go through absolutely everything yet. She hadn't decided to get rid of the animal as it was just a massive convenience thing for her at the moment. Things just seemed to run smoother if she didn't have to worry about where certain things were coming from. It was a smart owl, she couldn't deny that. It wasn't like it wasn't well trained either: it would come to the window and tap rhythmically until someone let it in and then it would sit on the sill until it was interacted with. Interactions with the owl were simply taking the mail from it in trade for a few treats for it's efforts, something that Jennifer already had to hand near the sill anyway. That was something else she had found when she had arrived here.

She made the trade, taking the mail from the bird and handing it a few treats before letting it fly away. She closed the window behind it, drawing the curtains closed until only a crack of sunlight was showing into the room. It was far too early for this sort of thing. She flipped through her mail in a systematic fashion as she crossed the room to her bed: the day's copy of the Daily Prophet was at the bottom and could easily wait; on top of that was her copy of Seeker Weekly (was it that time of week already?!) (yeah, she wasn't a Seeker, but the Seeker Weekly was good for all sorts of Quidditch statistics, it was an internationally published magazine for crying out loud and she still had every copy she had every bought or had bought for her); and on top of that was the general mail she had to flip through. She dropped the Daily Prophet and Seeker Weekly on her bed as she flipped through the other mail. It looked like it was all bar related mail, so it could wait until she was downstairs.

She had to admit, despite not liking how early it was, she knew she'd be a hell of a lot worse had she gone home to bed. Staying in the rooms above the Black Bar was becoming more and more of a regular occurrence. It was easier for getting to work and sorting things out and meant she could avoid her parents with minimal effort required. Dropping her mail on her bed, she sloped off towards the bathroom, pulling her long red hair out of the braids she had kept it in over night. She prepared the shower, letting the water warm up whilst she got out of her pyjamas. Getting into the shower, she just spent a good ten minutes with her forehead pressed against the tiles and her eyes shut as her skin adjusted to the water. She showered relatively slowly and quite lazily. She still wasn't quite awake for any of this. The water was warm and comforting as well, which probably didn't help her process of trying to wake up. She would get there eventually.

Getting out of the shower, she shut off the water and grabbed a towel, wrapping it neatly around herself. She crossed out of the bathroom into her bedroom again. She pulled out a random combination of clothes out of the dresser and her travelling trunk before drying off and getting dressed. She lazily picked up her wand from the dresser top, flicking it at her hair and drying it to it's usual neat red curls that settled neatly around her shoulders. She tucked her wand into her pocket again, checking her appearance in the mirror on the back of the door out of the room. Picking up her post from her bed again, she made her way downstairs into the bar. She dropped it off onto the bar, taking her wand out of her back pocket and flicking it around the room. Various things happened at once: the chairs that were stacked on the tables tipped off and tucked themselves under their tables; all of the blinds opened, letting the vibrant daylight into the bar; and finally the front door was unlocked, with the sign flipped around from 'closed' to 'open'.

It didn't take long for patrons to start wander into the bar. Some people just seemed to have to start their day out in the bar. It was kind of sad, but maybe that was her take on things, marred by her disdain for the job. It hadn't really taken that long for Jennifer to adjust to the fact that the Black Bar was going to be busy more often than not. People had certain expectations of the place considering who had had owned the bar to begin with. She hadn't been out of school long for her sort of crowd factor adjustment to have worn off and, at this rate, it would never wear off and not for the reasons she wanted. She'd rather have that adjustment in relation to Quidditch crowds, but it would seem that her parents weren't exactly going to budge quickly on their decision about keeping her out of the professional Quidditch scene. She tended to the patrons that were milling in and out of the bar, finally taking the time to address the mail she had.

Once again, she abandoned the Daily Prophet and the Seeker Weekly to the bar top whilst she addressed the other mail. She wasn't far wrong from her first assumptions of the other post she had. It all seemed relatively bar related: a couple of notes from suppliers with invoices for orders she had placed and due delivery dates; there was also a note from her mother saying that she would be calling in with her father at some point to drop off a few things for their daughter, concerned that she didn't have enough things in the rooms above the bar to warrant her staying there as much as she did; and finally an owl from one of her old house mates asking how she was and congratulating her on her new job and business. Now, the invoices from suppliers she expected. Hell, she even expected the note of concern from her mother. She didn't mind getting a letter from her old house mate either, but there was something about that which was amiss: how the hell did he know about her new job and business?

Jennifer had made a particular choice about telling people about the job: she didn't tell anyone unless they asked first. Granted, her mother and father did often spend their time telling people of their daughters new found, inherited success, but she knew that her house mate had no affiliation with her parents and she didn't think they would go out of their way to tell her old house mates of how well she was doing. They weren't that sort of parents. They would brag to their friends, but it didn't matter about her friends or even James' friends for that matter. She continued to read the letter from her friend. Well, she thought she had read it properly the first time, but things just didn't add up and it probably didn't help she was serving customers and trying to read her letters. She finally took a proper moment for herself, standing ever so perfectly still and letting her eyes slowly flow over the handwritten text on the parchment in her hands.

'Oh, yeah, and congratulations on the job! I saw the mention in the paper this morning and just had to get an owl straight out to you,' was the start of the final paragraph. The news was in the paper? She should have known better than to leave her mother alone for two seconds because something told her this was her doing. Her eyes scanned up to the date in the top corner. It was today's date. The news was in TODAY'S paper?! She tried to stash the rest of the mail away as quickly as she could, but without looking panicked. She flipped the shiny new copy of Seeker Weekly off of the top of the Prophet, picking up the paper and flipping through the pages, scanning quickly for mentions of the bar or herself, even bypassing the new Quidditch statistics, which wasn't like her. You knew there was something wrong if she skipped Quidditch news. Much as it would make her pine for the game, she would still never miss and opportunity to be up to date about what was going on in the world of Quidditch.

There it was, in clear black and white print, a few pages into the paper: a black and white static image (which was surprising in itself, it was very rare that the Prophet didn't take the opportunity to get something that shifted and changed) of the bar and a short piece about the bar and it's new owner, her. She let out a soft sigh, shaking her head slightly as she lifted her head and looked around the bar. She should have realised that, despite the place being quite busy usually, this was even busier than usual. She should have known that through how gosh darn pleasant everyone was being. It wasn't the usual crowd of early day drinkers. She'd even arranged a breakfast for someone already. That didn't really happen. If people came in here in the morning, it was to drink, which could mean anything from a totally alcohol free glass of milk, down to the hardest liquor that she hid behind the bar (well, with the exception of the stuff she saved in the cellar for special occasions).

She calmly folded the paper shut, masking her irritation. She'd be having words with her dear parents when she saw them, very stern, probably quite angry words. This was her business and, as much as she resented her parents from forcing her into this and away from Quidditch, she was going to run it how she saw fit, which meant that she didn't need them interfering. She tucked the paper away with the rest of her mail before shifting forward, leaning on the bar in order to flip open the Seeker Weekly that was still patiently waiting to be read. She would come to read the Daily Prophet Quidditch news when she had calmed down about the fact that she was essentially in the paper. She idly flipped through the glossy pages of the magazine. Even fantasising about how she should be somewhere on these pages didn't distract her completely from her annoyance about the article in the Daily Prophet. That was all she needed right now, famous for all the wrong reasons.

'Jennifer,' the familiar voice of James Black greeted. She lazily looked up from her magazine to see her brother making his way around the bar and wrap his arms around her. 'You haven't changed one bit since I last saw you,' he said as he hugged her. She half-heartedly smiled and shrugged. “I guess you have our darling parents to thank for that,” she muttered sarcastically. If she'd have had her way, she would have had a couple of broken bones or something by now, but, no, not with their parents on watch of her. No chance of any Quidditch there. She didn't even think she'd get away with cutting her hair or something without their say so nowadays. She lifted her arms in gesture to their surroundings when James asked what she had been up to. “This is pretty much it,” she replied before lowering her hands back onto the bar. She shrugged when he asked how come he didn't know that she was going to get this place. “Not a clue. Not even I knew anything about it 'til the folks sorted dropped it on me,” she answered.

“Second. Biggest. Bombshell. Ever,” she added sadly. The first biggest bombshell was, of course, being told that she wasn't allowed to play Quidditch professionally like she had planned. Being told that she was going to have to successfully own and run the Black Bar was like the icing on the bombshell cake. 'How's the parents?' Now there was something that she wasn't really sure that she wanted to talk about. She wasn't exactly the best of friends with her parents. Daddy Black was still annoyed by the fact that she still wanted to be a professional Quidditch player and Mommy Black had decided to suddenly get all protective and motherly about her little girl. It didn't seem to bother them when she was at school. Then again, she didn't really talk about her school Quidditch career, knowing they'd go crazy if they found out she hadn't automatically dropped out after James' accident. “I guess they're alright. Not really been home much,” she responded.

“You'd have to ask them. It's so easy not to go home when I can just stay here, which is, obviously, easier to do,” she went on before shrugging. “The work never stops, so it makes more sense to stay local,” she finished. She knew that, in part, that was a lie in itself. It was easier to stay here to avoid conflicts at home. “They are threatening a visit to drop some stuff off though,” she added as a total afterthought, her mind wandering to the note she had briefly skimmed over from her mother. “You might not wanna be around then 'cause you better not think it won't start an argument right now,” she continued irritably. How dare her parents go completely over her head about what she wanted to do about publicity for the bar. It wasn't as if it was shut for very long. It wasn't like there wasn't a regular crowd of people throughout various points of the day. She thought the point of her getting the bar was her having to stand on her own two feet and forget about Quidditch. That wasn't going to happen with their constant input.

She finally smiled properly when James said that he had missed her tons and squeezed her. “Missed you too, bro, but if you carry on squeezing me like that, there'll be nothing left to miss,” she quipped in reply. She chuckled lightly to herself, brushing a hand back through her hair. She quickly managed to detach herself from her brother, shaking her head at him briefly, in order to deal with another customer who had appeared at the bar. She flipped her hair around before turning to her brother again to carry on their conversation. “How are you anyway? Feels like forever,” she wondered out loud as she shuffled a few things around the bar, trying desperately to avoid the paper, which she had tucked away. It was bothering her enough. She thought out of sight, out of mind might apply, but it really didn't in the current state of her mind. It was there, niggling at her as she tried to push it away and just enjoy the fact that her brother had come to visit.

tags:: james black;; song:: this;; words:: 2770;; outfit:: this
notes:: I love how you magically got muse for this XD sorry for the massively long wait -.-