e m m e l i n e ♔ (advancingly) wrote in valesco,
@ 2010-03-22 22:15:00

Entry tags:

Edward!
In all the excitement and hub bub of Ms. Smith's book release (Emmeline had managed an autographed copy--probably not the most professional of things, but she was no professional, not yet), she had found a few minutes to actually appreciate the novel. Emmeline had no problem stepping out into the darkness of the night and battling death eaters, but there was no way she believed she could be brave enough to slap her name on a book that so obviously insulted and attacked the way the world was being run now. The book started off with a bang; you were already immersed in a world where muggleborns were enslaved like house-elves, and muggles were hunted for sport---

Emmeline's heels dropped from her desk as a drawer, or a door, shut behind her. The book dropped to her lap and she tried to look busy by wheeling herself properly under her desk and picking up a quill. Patrick usually just snarked about nepotism or something, but Edward was always quite concerned with how her work was coming. Who knew if he was going to be ridiculously frazzled about the book release or not.

"It's such a shame how no one in this world knows how to use a semicolon," she said, swiveling her chair slightly to see that it was indeed Edward, and not her older cousin. Well, at least she wouldn't get called Emmy or something silly like that.

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esp
2010-03-23 01:22 am UTC (link)

Edward was extremely frazzled with Graciela's new book release. Any kind of book promoting or signing made him anxious, but this one especially created uneasy feelings in his chest. Things like extra security, look outs and tall, official looking men did not attract customers! They scared them away, and for right reason! Having all this ministry security only set the example that they (the publishing company) were in fact afraid of what people would think of the content of Graciela's book! While granted it was not exactly the most under the radar of topics, and people did not need another reason to be seen where they thought someone should not be seeing them.... Graciela's book was still good. And-- and--- that should be enough! For--- people to want to meet her.

Of course Edward's strong beliefs did not, on the other hand, help him to deal with anxiety of facing large crowds appropriately. Or even one person sometimes. Edward looked up from the stack of parchment in his hands while walking to his desk, which turned out to be a very bad idea. One distracted look from his work to Emmeline nearly sent him knee-first into the corner of her desk. Luckily, he saved himself just in time to hopefully make it look like he had just tripped over his own feet.

Which.... was not exactly a better alternative, but he didn't know at this point everything was just going insane right now!

"Hm? Oh-- yes," he rushed, readjusting the contents in his arms before continuing to his desk. "But not really," Edward continued, finally sitting down at his desk. Hm. That was another thing he needed to fix. His desk was set just in a way that he had a direct sight of Emmeline at all times (first, a decision made purely to ensure her work ethic was positive), but now every time he saw her, all he could think about was Derek's unhelpful advice and-- "--- since it was wrong."

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advancingly
2010-03-23 02:01 am UTC (link)

Emmeline bit back any rude thoughts she might have at his stumbling (being around her extremely sarcastic relative was not helping her own negative habits) frowned as she waited to see if he was all right. She was always startling Edward, which was never a good thing when there were stacks of parchment around, but there was nothing a little magic couldn't fix. To be honest, she liked that toppling towers of parchment was her biggest concern, especially after the last few days (hours?) she'd had to go through with the Order.

She had forgotten how much she hated warding houses. First they had to make sure they weren't being watched, and then they had to ensure that the objects that were touched by the dark magic weren't deadly, and that went way into the late (early?) hours of the night. Emmeline was glad for shifts, but she was sore and tired, and quite sure that whatever remnants of the Dark Mark that had been floating about had managed to get sucked up into her lungs. Delightful.

Her cheeks sucked in, ready to go back to work, but as she looked down at the manuscript she immediately grew bored and tired of it, and her mind itched to get back to Smith's book.

"Are you excited for tomorrow?" Emmeline decided to start a conversation instead, hoping to turn the conversation to the book, so she could discuss it---she really needed to join a book club, "I've never been to a book signing. Well--I got Dumbledore to sign the latest edition of Hogwarts, A History because he wrote that foreword, but that was simply at lunch one day at school.."

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esp
2010-03-23 10:04 pm UTC (link)

Edward knew he wasn't going to get much done today, but that was not stopping attempting to try to get a substantial amount of work done before the chaos that would be tomorrow came. So it took him a while to look up at Emmeline for that reason (among others).

"Ah--- not especially," he confessed, putting his quill down as he spoke. Book signings were not one of the most enjoyable things that Edward experienced in previous last twenty-one years of life. They were loud, confined, sweaty and most importantly tense. Who was upset with that, what had just gone off and who was waiting in line with fifty books (yes, he remembered that day well). It was too much of a departure from his quiet work space in Calliope. He supposed it was all part of the job, however; most people did not enjoy their occupations at all, so he really in the scheme of things was lucky.

"They are always all chaotic and whatnot," Edward continued. His attempt to look at Emmeline in the best, professional way seemed impossible; the only thing that kept running through his head was Derek's words! Why were such unethical thoughts continuing to plague him? It simply was just as stressful as the prospect of the book signing tomorrow. Except, the book signing would end. This brash set of feelings were appearing to not die anytime fast.

"And Mrs. Smith is a particular friend of mine, only making the situation more particular since my personal interest is invested in everything going smoothly--- I'm sure you will enjoy it thought."

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advancingly
2010-03-24 12:16 am UTC (link)

"Ooh, right, her--the first book was banned during the M.A.G.I.C. act..." Emmeline mused out loud, swiveling her chair toward her desk to look back on the book. She rapped her fingers on the cover in thought, then looked back over at Edward with an intrigued look on her face, her lips curling into a somewhat devious grin, "A particular friend?"

Emmeline knew for a fact that Ms. Smith was the Virgin Mary before she got married (or whatever the story was, she'd only paid some passing attention to Goldstein and his stories), but she really didn't know Edward's history. He had been very attentive to this book release, maybe it had something to do with some prior relationship he'd had with the author. Emmeline didn't know where this gossip-hungry bit of her had come from, but she blamed it on the lack of Anneliese's presence.

Her eyebrows rose as she sat forward, exaggerating her interest.

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esp
2010-03-24 01:29 am UTC (link)

For not the first time in his life, Edward froze exactly as he sat to give himself the ability to fully think over what had just progressed in the last ten seconds. Emmeline was sending him a very unique face, therefore creating a very unnatural essence in the room. Why had this started? Yes, Graciela had been one of Edward's few friends in Hogwarts that had seemed to understand his love for reading. And outside of his housemates, she was one of the few he had kept in touch with over the years. So that, by definition, fit what he had said.

But there was still a miscommunication here.

Edward thought for a few more moments, and suddenly he came to a realization. Emmeline was directly related to Giada, and Giada always thought differently than he did, and she always told him how sometimes the things he said could be taken differently....

Oh.

Sputtering to life, Edward shook his head vehemently from side to side as the rest of his body came back to life. That implication was much more worse than-- than-- Emmeline! "Absolutely not!" Edward's face contorted, despite his face starting to heat up. That was--- was-- very inappropriate! "I did mean it that way."

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advancingly
2010-03-24 02:10 am UTC (link)

Emmeline continued to watch him with the same expression, trying to maybe mentally urge Edward to reveal any secrets. But, he just continued to grow red and fluster, so she dropped her gaze and laughed at him, because he was something of a caricature when it came to conveying his emotions. Everything was very intense with him, whether Edward knew it or not, and it proved quite amusing to Emmeline.

"Sorry, sorry, I just thought, maybe," she quickly dismissed him with a wave of her hand before beginning to tie her hair up. It wasn't something she was used to doing, and only felt the need when in the offices because of all the ink she'd end up getting on the tips (and ink was honestly a pain to get out), "It just sort of made sense, she's nice, you're nice. She's cute, you're cute. She writes books, you read them. I'm forgetting that she's married, though so let me digress--"

Emmeline twisted the band one last time before settling back in her chair, wondering if she should get back to work already. She felt extremely distracted for some reason.

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esp
2010-03-24 03:00 am UTC (link)

Usually, Edward was not one to get upset over things in the sense of feeling anger concerning a certain subject. There was never something worth getting angry over ninety-nine percent of the time, seeing as usually it could be worked out logically. But now, for reasons Edward didn't quite understand himself, he felt his chest rise and something of an annoyed feeling fill himself.

Emmeline was making fun of him. And--- was being very unprofessional! He was her boss, technically speaking, he could fire her for such inappropriate gossiping in the work place! He wouldn't, of course, because firing her would be near impossible at this point, but she didn't know that! For all she knew he hated her! With an undying passion.

Again, something that wasn't exactly true, but! But it could be! And! And to imply that Graciela had-- or would-- Edward didn't even know! He had never been good in keeping up with Giada and Rachel's gossiping skills, or even understand them sometimes. But-- Emmeline was not-- he did not want her thinking about him and other women.

"No," Edward responded in a low voice, his chin ducking slightly before dropping his gaze back to his desk. He picked up his quill again and began writing before continuing. "You are incorrect in your assumption. Now I suggest you get back to work." And... that was about as harsh as he could muster.

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advancingly
2010-03-24 03:20 am UTC (link)

And there was the Edward she'd been afraid to be caught slacking by. Emmeline looked away quickly, forcing herself not to allow her face to express the surprise and...it wasn't exactly annoyance, but it felt like it. A bit of frustration thrown into the mix too, and it felt like she was back at Hogwarts with her too high strung year mates unable to take a bit of teasing. Dedalus and Elphias could write encyclopedias on not understanding jokes and being offended by them, but clearly Edward should be the publisher of that lengthy tome.

Honestly. What was there to be so snippy about, anyway? It wasn't as if she was saying he couldn't have been with Graciela, it should be taken as a compliment! And she'd complimented him. Twice! Boys usually flustered like mad when a girl said they were nice, and cute. Maybe he didn't like being called cute? She should have said handsome. Handsome was a better description anyway; Emmeline could believe that Edward was insulted by her choice of wording and--

She shot a somewhat hard look at him from the corner of her eye before going back to the manuscript, finding herself completely worked up and offended even though she was to blame for the inappropriateness, or whatever he was going on about. Emmeline couldn't even find a second to question why she was so irked by it, and twisted her chair toward the wall to lean fully on her desk and away from Edward.

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esp
2010-03-25 01:05 am UTC (link)

Hm.

While that delivery had been effective in achieving what Edward desired, he noticed he was not feeling very accomplished. He was well aware of Emmeline's unhappy glance his way, and because of it, Edward awkwardly shifted in his chair and cleared his throat.

Well! She had! Started it! And-- what did she expect? He was certainly not Giada or any person that looked like he enjoyed gossiping. Especially about himself! Who liked gossiping about yourself? And above all, the last thing he wanted was her thinking about was him with other women--- ah.

Clearing his throat again, Edward took a long sigh before looking up from his desk--- to see Emmeline completely turned away from him. She was that offended? His face contorted for a second in confusion, obviously misjudging the harshness of his words. What else could it be? Not to mention it bothered him to think that she was upset because of him.

"Um---" Edward's mouth dropped open before he had been able to think of something to say. Quickly! "I'm sorry--- this signing has me extremely wound up." He paused for a second, then continued, leaning slightly over his desk to get a fuller image of Emmeline. "I hope you understand."

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advancingly
2010-03-25 02:26 am UTC (link)

It was a surprise to hear Edward apologize, and even though Emmeline knew she had been the one that was in the wrong (but honestly, they were adults!), she was still pleased. She turned to say that she was sorry too, because that was the right thing to do, but she didn't have the chance to because her cousin and boss, Patrick, waltzed in, rattling off some instructions before looking up and between the two of them.

"Am I...interrupting something? What's with that stupid smile on your face, Emmy?"

She was too struck by his words to complain about the nickname. Emmeline blinked up at Patrick, not having realized she had been smiling, let alone stupidly. She didn't do anything stupidly, why would she be smiling stupidly? At Edward? She'd just been happy that he'd apologized, that was all. Why was she happy? She was happy that Edward wasn't mad at her, and the second she thought about that, the second her mind jumped to why that was a good thing and----Emmeline suddenly realized that her ears were nearly ready to set her hair on fire and she turned quickly back to her desk, nearly spinning herself around with the speed.

Oh God. Really? No. Maybe? Nah...it had been so long since she'd honestly---nooo.

"Wow, okay, I'll just leave you two alone," she heard Patrick say, but Emmeline was forcing herself to focus so incredibly hard on her work that she wasn't sure if he'd actually said it or if it was her mind creating the ideal situation.

Not that being alone with Edward was ideal! Not that it---wasn't! Not---oh, hell.

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