NEVER GO OUT OF STYLE

jame dean daydream look in your eye

when we go crashing down, we come back every time

He wished he didn't have to come back to the castle on Thursday night. It seemed dumb that he had to. Like why? What was the point? He had to be at the Ministry first thing tomorrow. It was absurd that he had to come back here instead of staying at home. But it was what it was--and he had to be back.

So, to make the best of it, he was meeting Lyla to discuss The Advocate... well more specifically to discuss why the story he was writing deserved to be the cover piece for the next edition. She was his editor--so, he had to prove why it was worthwhile to her...and make a case for why readers here at Hogwarts would care about it. 

There were not that many spaces in the school that he felt were well suited to this discussion. He wanted somewhere that had some level of privacy, since he didn't want the whole story ruined before it was published- He thought about going up to the Turret, but that wouldn't be available until midnight...and really when Emanuel Delaney invited you up there, it wasn't just to talk. 

So, here they were, in front of the chamber once used by the founders of the school-- At the door, he said simply: "The Advocate." And when he reached for the handle and pushed, it swung open for him. "Witches, first, Lady Editor," he offered, showing a bit of gallantry as he gestured inside. A whip of his wand shifted two of the plain wooden stools into more comfortable seats. Emanuel set down in the one that Lyla didn't chose after she had taken a seat herself. 

"So, I've got something...I think it's good," he spoke with confidence, but did not portray an unreasonable arrogance. This room was meant to be a place of honesty. He liked to talk to here, because he could trust for the most part that they were being straight with him. Sure, some could bend the rules--and Lyla had the brains to do it, but he didn't think she was likely to sugar coat her opinion on his article idea no matter where they were. 

@lyla • 363 • uniform, loose tie

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

taste of freedom

You got me runnin' baby

wild at heart

Lyla had spent the afternoon in the Ministry, and she was going back in the morning. Fridays were nice, because she had the entire day off, and she didn’t have to worry about being here for much of anything. She knew that Aunt Isolde wasn’t going to like it if she just happened to stay out of the castle all weekend, but she also knew that Mum needed the help, and that she was going back to work tomorrow. Not that anyone else knew that, after all, but Lyla did. She had told her, and Lyla thought that that was a good thing. She was tired of making all of the trips back and forth between here, and the Ministry, and home. It was a lot.

It gave her time to get to see her baby sister. And Lyla could honestly say that she was surprised. That she really did like Cordelia, for as much as she had worried about her existence at all. It was different, knowing that there was someone else that was always going to be Daddy’s little girl too. But somehow Lyla didn’t feel like her status there had changed all that much. Cordelia was Mum’s baby, just as much as Cal and Anderson. Sometimes Lyla felt like she was the only one that really preferred Dad. And she knew why…

She was so much like Mum. They were nearly identical in most ways, and she was always just better at getting along with Dad. She was too much like Mum. They butted heads. It was Mum that had said that she couldn’t go to the Christmas party, Dad had said that she could. And Mum had put stipulations on it. She could go, if her father and her brother went with her. She could go, if she went with chaperones. And Lyla didn’t know what it was that Mum was so worried about. Mum knew everything. Mum knew when Lyla had had her first kiss. She knew the first time she had ever liked a boy.

Mum knew everything. And she would have known if there was something to worry about. She would have known if there was a reason for her to be so protective. And there wasn’t. Lyla knew that there wasn’t. But she also knew that having Cordelia had made Mum super crazy for the last couple of months. She was almost as bad as a Gryffindor when it came to her jumping to protect things. But coming back to the castle tonight, she didn’t have to think about Mum, or the baby, or the Ministry again until tomorrow.

She had come back in time for dinner, and in time for this meeting with Delaney before she had to go to Astronomy. Lyla wasn’t really sure why she had elected to keep Astronomy all of these years, but she had always been good at it, and it was a class that would transfer easily to the muggle world when she had had to take all of the tests to get into Oxford. It had been one that she had known.

Nodding in thanks when he opened the door for her, Lyla slipped past him and chuckled when he changed the stools into more comfortable seats. “I take it this isn’t just a quick chat then?” There was a smile on her face, but she really didn’t think that there was any reason to change the stools if they were going to be here for just a minute. Whatever he wanted to talk about must come with a discussion. And Lyla liked discussions. They were fun.

Dropping gracefully into one of the seats that he had made, the witch crossed her ankles to the side and put her hands in her lap. Even if she wasn’t a pureblood, she was the daughter of a Death Eater, and she had been taught how to do, and how to act. There were times for being wild and having fun. And there were times for being serious. And when he wanted to talk about the paper, it was Mum that Lyla seemed to embody. Head up, alert, listening. Whatever he wanted to talk about, she was ready. The corner of her mouth crooked up in a smirk as he spoke again, “Am I going to hate it? Is that why we’re in here?”

@ lion • 727 • lyla's outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

NEVER GO OUT OF STYLE

jame dean daydream look in your eye

when we go crashing down, we come back every time

Thursdays were good days. Fridays were better, but Thursdays were good days. Ending this one chatting with Lyla served to make it an even better day. But Emanual was not just here to try to flirt a girl up. He loved to flirt, of course...and to do the things that tended to come after flirting, obviously. But this was not about that. Well, not completely. Everything at some level was probably about that sort of thing if you looked at it from a completely biological, animalistic sort of perspective.

But he was not doing that. He was not just some animal or even just a run of the mill teenage boy. He had a ten year plan; shit, he had a twenty year plan--but there was some flexibility in that bit. There wasn't much in what the next few years of his life held. He knew what he wanted from life and he was going for it. That meant law degrees. That meant winning cases. That meant making a name for himself outside of Delaney and Delaney before joining the family firm on the fast track for partner. That was where his head was...on that future. 

But he still wanted to have fun along the way. He wasn't going to go celibate to stick to the ten year plan. Those things did not have to mutually exclusive.  Work-life balance was important, which was why he did things like writing poetry and for the Advocate. Plus, being part of the paper felt worthwhile. It gave a vehicle for him to voice his opinions and concerns. The Gryffindor had opinions- and believed himself eloquent and educated enough that his were worth sharing. That was why he wanted to do a piece on the muggleborns coming back to Hogwarts. He had helped Sasha prepare for her owls, but he still did not really know the truth about what had happened to her and everyone else. But his thoughts on writing a piece about them was not just to be like 'oh how sad, look at all these bad things that happened'--he wanted to give advice, to direct returning students to resources, to do something for them to help them really get their lives back. It seemed like the least he could do, really. 

His transfiguration of the chairs drew a comment from his editor and he grinned. "I mean, you can always make it a short one by shutting me down, but I think I have some meaningful points to argue." Everything with him hinted back to the way he had been raised--all arguments he made were supported by 'meaningful points' (at least three of them) and he spoke with confidence in himself and his message. That was one of the first lessons the Delaneys instilled in their children: if you don't believe in yourself and what you are saying, no one else will either. So, when he spoke, it did it purposefully and with intent.

Lyla's smirk was met with one of his own. The expression gave a mischievous spark to his eyes and he gave a low chuckle. "Depending on what direction I tried to take it you might," he admitted, dropping into the seat across from her. He did not think Lyla was going to just immediately say no without hearing what he had to say and he voiced that thought; "but if you will hold judgment until I've laid out the idea fully, I think you'll see the value in it." 

Leaning forwards towards the witch, his eyes rested heavy on her. This was his 'I'm being serious with you' face. "So--I want to do a piece or maybe even a series on the muggleborn reintegration." He let Lyla process the declaration a moment before he went on. "Not just some fluff about what they went through or how hard it was, but something that can let them know they are welcomed back, that they have a place here, and that there are resources available to help them succeed. I don't want to shy away from addressing the sort of things they went through, because I think the student body deserves to know--and to be reminded. We have people we knew for years and years that are back that are not the same as they were when they left. Damage has been done and who even knows how much. To not cover this story is irresponsible and neglects the duty of the Advocate. We're more than gossip columns and quidditch recaps. I believe in this." And he really did. Emanuel did not think there were a lot of opportunities at their age to write something meaningful, something important, but he thought this series could be---and yes, it was a series in his mind, because really the natural and complexity of this issue could not be addressed in one little article. More was needed. 

@ my editor • 815 • outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

taste of freedom

You got me runnin' baby

wild at heart

Lyla knew how to play the game. She knew how to bend the rules and use them in her favor. That was just who she was. She was good at finding loopholes. She was tricky enough to talk her way into and out of, just about anything. That was the reason she had almost followed Cal, and Dad, right into Slytherin. But she wasn’t a Slytherin, not really. She had a deep rooted sense of what was right and wrong, and yet, she knew that there was always one thing that she would make an exception for. Family. It wasn’t exactly the family motto, but it would do, Graves Came First.

She would look the other way, she would excuse nearly anything, if it meant protecting her family. And maybe that made her a little Slytherin too. Maybe she really should have followed Dad’s path, but it was Mum that she took after, and it was her mum that she idolized. Lyla wanted to be Olivia Graves. She wanted to be that strong. She wanted to be that feared, respected, in a courtroom. She wanted the world to stop and listen when she spoke up.

That was the kind of witch that had raised her, and that was the kind of witch that she wanted to be. She wanted to do what was right, and she wanted to do what was just. She wanted to walk the path that was truly neutral. That was truly unbiased. And she knew that that was nearly impossible. She knew that it was going to be rather difficult to try and make things fall into place for herself like that. But she was going to try. She was always going to try. If she didn’t give 110% was she even really a Graves at all?

That had been the rule, when they had been little, it was the rule for Anderson now. Whatever he wanted to do, that was fine. They would all support one another. But if you chose something, you stuck with it, and you gave it everything you had. She gave her all to quidditch. And to being a prefect. And to helping out around the Ministry. She but her mind to it, and she did it. That was just who she had been raised to be. And it was who she wanted to be, more than anything else, she wanted people to look at her, and think that she was worthy of the name she carried.

“I’d be disappointed if you didn’t.” Her returning smirk matched the grin that he had given her. She didn’t sit back in her chair, she didn’t slouch. She was listening. She was attentive. He wanted her attention, and he had it. Whatever it was that he wanted to talk about, she was all his for however long they were in here. And this room meant telling the truth. It meant that they were going to have to be honest with one another. A task that could sometimes be tricky in journalism.

But still… She listened.

As he returned her quip she switched the way that her ankles were crossed and she watched him expectantly. Lyla couldn’t day that she really knew Emanuel Delaney, but she knew enough to know that she was about to hear an argument, or really, an opening statement. And in this case, she was judge and jury.

Muggleborns… The witch didn’t know what she had been expecting but she wasn’t sure that it had been that. Still, she waited for him to continue on, and she listened. She wasn’t just hearing him speak, she was listening to what he had to say. When he finished, she was silent. He had a point, but she didn’t know how he planned on getting there. “I… Understand your viewpoint. And to an extent I agree. We owe the paper, and the students themselves, the story. We owe those affected a chance to be heard. The problem is how?”

She paused and tucked a strand of her long hair back behind her ear, “We can’t just start publishing it. We have to find the people, you have to find people, that are willing to talk to you. Do you know if they are going to talk? Have you felt anyone out? Or is this a story with no sources?” She assumes he had sources, she thought that there would be people willing to talk about what happened. But that was just their first hurdle.

@ crusader • 750 • lyla's outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

NEVER GO OUT OF STYLE

jame dean daydream look in your eye

when we go crashing down, we come back every time

Talking with Lyla Graves was always interesting. She was smart and sharp. She had strong defenses for the points she made--and she asked questions that mattered. He knew when be brought this idea to the witch that she would have thoughtful and pertinent questions for him. So, he tried his best to prepare for them. He wasn't trying to waste anyone's time. They were both far too busy for that. He would not disrespect her in that way. Not if he could help it. There might have been something she would think of that he hadn't, of course, but it wasn't for lack of trying. He put time and thought into each story before he brought the pitch to her. He figured she knew that. 

She noticed things. He noticed things, too, of course. More about Lyla than about most other people...but that was something he had not really put a lot extra thought into. He just knew when she was going to need a nice cup of tea--and he knew that she favored pens over quills. He knew she liked to pull her hair back when she wrote... He even kept a few hair bands in his desk in the Advocate room for when she has lost one again. Not that he would ever say anything about--just drop it there on her desk for her. He didn't really do that for other people, but he didn't even think about the fact that he did it for her. He just did--because she was Lyla... whatever that meant--

She was a friend. She was his editor. And she was really cute. And yes, sometimes, he thought about what it would be like to snog her...or shag her. That happened. Sure. He wasn't denying it. He just wasn't dwelling on it. There were other things to focus on--like why this story was a good one and why he was ready to move forward with it.

Lyla seemed open to it. She didn't immediately shut it down and the questions she posed to him were reasonable. He was expecting some of them. He gave a nod of his head as he started to speak. "I have been feeling people out some. I helped one student prep for their OWLs when they came back and then there is another who came back onto the Gryffindor Quidditch team who I think I could probe a little bit. I've volunteered in a few classes to do some tutoring, too, with students that came back. So, the connections are there. I haven't asked anyone to speak on the record--and I really don't think we should use their names anyway. I wouldn't want any blow back on them. But I think there are people definitely willing to talk. Especially some more than others. People that we know--that were good in school--they have things to say. They were dealt a terrible disservice. People need to know. They need to have the truth pushed in their faces. It's too easy to ignore what has happened if it isn't made that blatant. That is why I am wanting to do a full series, because there is too much to do and say for one piece. People need to be made aware of what has gone one--and then the muggleborns need to be shown what can be done to get their lives back on track. Those two messages don't really coalesce down to one article." He could have kept going, but he knew he was bordering on rambling now. He just genuinely believed in what he was saying. He thought the message had a lot of worth--and really there weren't that many opportunities to publish something truly meaningful in a school paper. They had a unique situation before them. They could do something worthwhile with it. 

@ my editor • 625 • outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

taste of freedom

You got me runnin' baby

wild at heart

She had learned years ago that if she wanted something, she had to work for it. There was a time and a place for presents, and there was a time and a place for persistence, and Lyla thought that her parents had tried to teach her both. They had tried to make sure that she knew how important it was to be herself. To be true to who she was, but to also be true to what it meant to be a Graves. There were a lot of things that she took pride in, and what made her her was one of them. She wanted to prove herself worthy of that. Worthy of her Graves name. Worthy of her Le Fay blood. She wanted to be worthy of all of it.

And everything that she had done in Hogwarts. Everything that she had spent the last seven years working towards, was coming so fast towards a close. She was hurtling head first towards the end of all of this, and she didn’t really know what was going to happen next. But she knew that there were things that she didn’t understand. She knew that there were things that she was going to have to try and piece together as she went along. Because if there was one thing that Lyla knew for certain, it was that she wasn’t going to give up.

Giving up on things was not an option. You followed through with your choices. You did what you were supposed to do. And Lyla thought that she was going to be proud of what she had worked for, because she had worked for it in the first place. She thought that that was probably the whole point. But she realized that they had done it. That they had instilled that in her. And she didn’t know that everyone had that. She didn’t know that they could be proud of being prefect, or captain of the quidditch team, or editor of the school paper, because she didn’t know if anyone else had worked like she had for it.

She knew that she was privileged. She wasn’t trying to deny that. There were things that she had in her life that she knew someone with parents that weren’t as well off as hers wouldn’t have had. She knew that she had been born into a family that could take care of her. One that was safe and cared for. They had gotten burned in that fire on Halloween a few years ago, but not as badly as the purebloods had. She didn’t have any scars. Neither did Cal. Nothing like what happened to Edmund Rosier, Lyla was pretty sure he was always going to have that scar.

But she knew that they were still so much better off than the muggleborns. Or the people like Liam and Adaline. They weren’t muggleborns, but with who their mum was their whole lives had changed too. People knew Lyla’s parents. They knew their reputations. They knew the name Graves. But they weren’t famous. Not like that. And she knew that listening to Emanuel on this topic was enough to make a statement against that mark on her father’s arm. But Lyla wasn’t convinced that her father even really believed in what the Death Eaters were doing anymore. And she knew that Mum didn’t.

Keeping things as level as possible was Mum’s job. But that didn’t mean that she agreed with it every step of the way. She made things as smooth as possible, for whatever Minister was in office. And she had since she had started working at the Ministry under Fudge. Lyla wanted to be that kind of adaptable. She wanted to be that kind of open, and flexible. She didn’t want to get too caught up on one side of a fight that hadn’t been hers to begin with. But she thought that he was right. They did deserve a voice. And the paper was probably the one place that they could give it to them.

She posed her questions, and she listened to his answer. It was well thought out. He hadn’t just sprung up with this idea. He had thought it through, and she could see the merit of it. “Do you want to do it one mini-series at a time then? Let everyone read their stories, get people thinking about it. Expose everyone to whatever it is that they can share. And then turn it around? Say that this is what can be done to help get them back on their feet? Or, I guess I’m asking how you want to format such a series?”

Lyla had already decided that she was going to green light the project. He was passionate about it. He had it all planned out. She couldn’t say no to that twinkle in his eyes when he was talking. There was just something about it that made her want to keep it there. And it was such a complicated, but such a simple, way to do that. They could print the message, and they could maybe, hopefully, get people their age to see that this wasn’t a fight that they could keep having.

@ crusader • 869 • lyla's outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0