Post by Cassandra Seymour on Jun 21, 2019 14:31:45 GMT -5
She was taking an extended lunch break, needing out of her office at Cavanaugh & Slagle. Although the anxiety kept her from actually feeling hungry, so food wasn’t her mission this time. If there was one place that Cassandra could relax for an hour or so, it was a bookstore. Normally not Flourish & Blotts but it was early summer so it was rather quiet. She doubted much of anyone would be there at noon on a random summer Tuesday, as there weren’t many people even out in the alley itself. The lawyer had decided to take the long route, having changed her heels into flats before leaving the office. The slight loss of height bothered her, as she wasn’t naturally tall and had gotten used to wearing heels almost every minute of every day, but she knew her feet would thank her when she returned. If she returned. No. Of course she would go back to work; she couldn’t very well just take the rest of the day off because coworkers were talking about her.
Not that she had gotten any actual work done yet today. The distractions were plentiful. It seemed that everyone had to come stop by her office today, and not for any actual official business. But she couldn’t be rude to her coworkers despite some of them being less than civil themselves. Couldn’t give them another reason to think her unprofessional. When she first started working at the firm it was said that her dresses were too short. That kind of thing she was able to roll off her shoulders easily. How she wished to go back to those days now. Her blue dress today was on the shorter side. Still decent and appropriate but toeing the line. But no one wanted to talk about that today, oh no, it was all about her embarrassing interruption into one of the lawyer’s offices outside of the Ministry courtrooms. Her blonde self had never felt so stupid. In all actuality it wasn’t as big a deal as she was making it, but her brain always did have a way of embellishing things.
Cassandra’s anxiety was only quelled by a select few things, including her family, herbology, and reading. Already she had text her beloved aunt. She was incredibly close to the maternal side of her family, her aunt in particular. Although technically a Seymour, she would always be proud to be a Parr.
When words from the family she admired weren’t enough to quiet her mind she normally would turn to herbology. But, there were no plants in her office. Keeping them in a windowless room was hard. And Cassandra felt absolutely terrible when they died. She never lost so many when she still had her magic. It allowed her a way to make sure the plants thrived even without natural sunlight. But, there was really nothing she could do about her loss of magic. She was just the one of many affected. And to be honest she had adapted quite well to getting along without it. A large part of that she owed to her alma mater, as the Graenneog Institute implemented many muggle technologies into its curriculum. She supposed it had to, since it was founded by squibs and not everyone there had magic to use to begin with. And luckily she didn’t require magic to be a good lawyer either.
That left one thing on her list of calming techniques; reading, as Cassandra always was a bookish type. The quest of expanding the mind and gaining knowledge was a never ending one. Especially in the field of law, as things were always changing. Not always as dramatically as the last two years, what with the muggleborn registration and then the recent disbandment of it. That was a shit show and a half. Although not directly affected by the muggleborn registration as she herself was a halfblood, it changed things for her. Not to mention boiled her blood. And then there was the epidemic. And that did directly affect her.
Of course she missed the luxuries having magic afforded her. It was much easier to multi-task when things could just do themselves. It created an interesting new economy, the loss of magic did. She had heard friends and colleagues talk about how they now had to hire someone to clean their homes or cook their meals. Luckily Cassandra Seymour was a self-proclaimed neat-freak and had a desire to clean whether it was with wand or by hand. She could understand the need or want for help though. Especially from the old wizarding families in particular whom had always grown up with magic and knew no other way. She would be lying if she said she hadn’t thought about it before though, particularly hiring a chef, as Cassandra herself wasn’t a great cook even when she had magic. She still tried, however, certain that practice would make perfect eventually. Even if she hasn’t seen much progress yet in her twenty-five years of life. Luckily the woman wasn’t strapped for cash. Restaurants provided approximately 80% of her meals.
Depending on how terribly she messed up her attempt at making one.
After looking through her small collection of books inside her office, she realized that she had read every single one. At least the ones that interested her. There were some others but ultimately they would probably stress her out more than relax her. Not the thing she needed at the moment. A distraction. That is what was needed. The walk to the bookstore was quieter than usual, given the time of year, but pleasantly distracting nonetheless. She passed by many storefronts where something caught her eye. But her lunch break couldn’t last forever. She only had an hour or two maximum. Even if she did plan on staying late tonight to finish what her addled brain couldn’t during the day. But she tried not to think about that now. She would cross that bridge when it came to it, for now she would enjoy letting herself take a break.
It didn’t take too long to get to the bookshop despite her leisurely pace and taking a longer route. It wasn’t like Diagon Alley was huge. Although she still was glad she had changed shoes. Cassandra pushed the door open and walked inside as the bell above chimed, alerting the workers to her arrival. Not that she could see any. But she preferred not be heckled by bookshop employees if she could avoid it. Not like she was looking for anything specific anyway. Casually making her way down the aisles, she was pleased to see that her assumption had been correct. Flourish and Blotts was practically dead at this time.
There were a couple stragglers, sure. They were spread out pretty diversely around the shop. Or she thought they were customers, at least. No one had yet grabbed her attention or looked like someone who worked there.
She milled about aimlessly until a book caught her attention. She didn’t know how or why. It was tucked away on the top shelf above her head. But Cassandra wanted it. Perhaps it was the bright purple cover. Reaching up, however, the book was just out of reach. Even standing on her toes. She suddenly wished for her heels again. Looking around, she attempted to snag the attention of the first person she saw. “Excuse me?”
Not that she had gotten any actual work done yet today. The distractions were plentiful. It seemed that everyone had to come stop by her office today, and not for any actual official business. But she couldn’t be rude to her coworkers despite some of them being less than civil themselves. Couldn’t give them another reason to think her unprofessional. When she first started working at the firm it was said that her dresses were too short. That kind of thing she was able to roll off her shoulders easily. How she wished to go back to those days now. Her blue dress today was on the shorter side. Still decent and appropriate but toeing the line. But no one wanted to talk about that today, oh no, it was all about her embarrassing interruption into one of the lawyer’s offices outside of the Ministry courtrooms. Her blonde self had never felt so stupid. In all actuality it wasn’t as big a deal as she was making it, but her brain always did have a way of embellishing things.
Cassandra’s anxiety was only quelled by a select few things, including her family, herbology, and reading. Already she had text her beloved aunt. She was incredibly close to the maternal side of her family, her aunt in particular. Although technically a Seymour, she would always be proud to be a Parr.
When words from the family she admired weren’t enough to quiet her mind she normally would turn to herbology. But, there were no plants in her office. Keeping them in a windowless room was hard. And Cassandra felt absolutely terrible when they died. She never lost so many when she still had her magic. It allowed her a way to make sure the plants thrived even without natural sunlight. But, there was really nothing she could do about her loss of magic. She was just the one of many affected. And to be honest she had adapted quite well to getting along without it. A large part of that she owed to her alma mater, as the Graenneog Institute implemented many muggle technologies into its curriculum. She supposed it had to, since it was founded by squibs and not everyone there had magic to use to begin with. And luckily she didn’t require magic to be a good lawyer either.
That left one thing on her list of calming techniques; reading, as Cassandra always was a bookish type. The quest of expanding the mind and gaining knowledge was a never ending one. Especially in the field of law, as things were always changing. Not always as dramatically as the last two years, what with the muggleborn registration and then the recent disbandment of it. That was a shit show and a half. Although not directly affected by the muggleborn registration as she herself was a halfblood, it changed things for her. Not to mention boiled her blood. And then there was the epidemic. And that did directly affect her.
Of course she missed the luxuries having magic afforded her. It was much easier to multi-task when things could just do themselves. It created an interesting new economy, the loss of magic did. She had heard friends and colleagues talk about how they now had to hire someone to clean their homes or cook their meals. Luckily Cassandra Seymour was a self-proclaimed neat-freak and had a desire to clean whether it was with wand or by hand. She could understand the need or want for help though. Especially from the old wizarding families in particular whom had always grown up with magic and knew no other way. She would be lying if she said she hadn’t thought about it before though, particularly hiring a chef, as Cassandra herself wasn’t a great cook even when she had magic. She still tried, however, certain that practice would make perfect eventually. Even if she hasn’t seen much progress yet in her twenty-five years of life. Luckily the woman wasn’t strapped for cash. Restaurants provided approximately 80% of her meals.
Depending on how terribly she messed up her attempt at making one.
After looking through her small collection of books inside her office, she realized that she had read every single one. At least the ones that interested her. There were some others but ultimately they would probably stress her out more than relax her. Not the thing she needed at the moment. A distraction. That is what was needed. The walk to the bookstore was quieter than usual, given the time of year, but pleasantly distracting nonetheless. She passed by many storefronts where something caught her eye. But her lunch break couldn’t last forever. She only had an hour or two maximum. Even if she did plan on staying late tonight to finish what her addled brain couldn’t during the day. But she tried not to think about that now. She would cross that bridge when it came to it, for now she would enjoy letting herself take a break.
It didn’t take too long to get to the bookshop despite her leisurely pace and taking a longer route. It wasn’t like Diagon Alley was huge. Although she still was glad she had changed shoes. Cassandra pushed the door open and walked inside as the bell above chimed, alerting the workers to her arrival. Not that she could see any. But she preferred not be heckled by bookshop employees if she could avoid it. Not like she was looking for anything specific anyway. Casually making her way down the aisles, she was pleased to see that her assumption had been correct. Flourish and Blotts was practically dead at this time.
There were a couple stragglers, sure. They were spread out pretty diversely around the shop. Or she thought they were customers, at least. No one had yet grabbed her attention or looked like someone who worked there.
She milled about aimlessly until a book caught her attention. She didn’t know how or why. It was tucked away on the top shelf above her head. But Cassandra wanted it. Perhaps it was the bright purple cover. Reaching up, however, the book was just out of reach. Even standing on her toes. She suddenly wished for her heels again. Looking around, she attempted to snag the attention of the first person she saw. “Excuse me?”
