Callie loved meeting new people; she always had. Back in school, she had a specific group of friends, yes, but she knew just about everyone else as well. She saw no reason to give into house rivalries or stereotypes, or pay attention to whatever cliques were forming as that was what normally happened as teenagers anyhow. As car as she was concerned, there was no reason not to at least attempt to befriend anyone she came across—she simply kept low expectations about them. People had never really understood that mentality, calling her pessimistic, but it made perfect sense to her. If she didn’t expect anything out of anyone, then if she found out that they were an amazing person, she could be happy about it, and if they ended up being an asshole, she hadn’t expected anything else. It worked out perfectly because it meant she never knew what to expect, and it was always a good day when someone surprised her by being more than what she had expected. Callie had expected nothing from LJ when he had walked up to her, apart from assuming he was just looking for a shag, and now she was happily surprised to find that he was interesting to talk to. She had come to the bar not expecting anyone to talk to her, so now the trip was going better than she’d planned. It was the perfect mentality, in her mind.

“And how do you plan to straighten them out?” Callie asked, raising an eyebrow. She was quite curious to hear his answer to that one, even though he’d obviously been joking. So far he’d managed to keep up the amusing comments, and she was rather impressed by that. It was rare to find someone that didn’t have to try all that hard to be funny, as some people tried far too hard. She took the final swig of her firewhiskey before setting the empty glass down on the bar. Although they’d come to their little arrangement about her being further indebted to him by buying the next round, Callie saw no rush, and could probably use a brief reprieve anyhow. She also simply didn’t want to bring it back up again in case he had changed his mind—since she had no expectations of the situation, it really made no difference to her. “Not going to lie, that sounds a hell of a lot better than healing up clumsy teenagers.” Callie stated, laughing. Owning a bar and having no one to report to did sound nice, though she didn’t necessarily think she had it in her to run an entire business. She did love her job though, so it all worked out.

In all of the years following his graduation from school, he had never once ran into having a conversation this long with a bint without being completely focused on the task at hand; shagging her before the night was up. It wasn’t like he was going to do something stupid and ask her on a date or something because Levi Christenson did not date. He had far better uses of his time than wasting his time on thinking that relationships actually worked out. Besides, he hardly even knew this bint so even asking her was absolutely ridiculous. Really, his mind should not be thinking about this as even that was a waste, distracting him from the potentially great shag that he could find in this mysterious woman. No, she absolutely wasn’t mysterious because no woman was bloody mysterious, obviously. This lack of judgment that he was having was really bloody obnoxious.

Nothing was really coming to his mind to answer her question that didn’t sound sexual in nature. Usually, it wouldn’t matter to him and he would just flat out say what was on his mind. This time, though, he didn’t find that appropriate, which was once again bloody annoying. If he had any hope for self-dignity and preservation, he would bloody say something. Instead, he was wasting away in this ridiculousness, actually caring about if he was going to insult her or something. “Maybe you’ll find out sometime,” he finally shrugged in response, finishing his own drink as he watched her finish hers. He motioned over for the bartender, easily gaining the attention and putting in for a couple more drinks. Within moments, they were both served another firewhiskey. “I believe my debt’s paid in full,” he joked lightly, taking a swig of his new drink. “Oh, it’s definitely worth it,” he commented with a nod. What he wouldn’t share, as he didn’t bloody complain, was that being one’s own boss meant that they were practically a slave to whatever industry they were serving, needing to work long hours just to ensure that their shop didn’t tank. “Why did you want to be a Healer anyhow?” he asked, frustrated that he was even wasting his time asking.

Although Callie did enjoy her job, she was looking forward to the summer months. Really, she had gotten hired at quite the convenient time. She had started over the Easter holidays, when many students were home anyhow, and now that she had a few months of experience under her belt, there would be a long summer’s break. It meant that she could start the new school year knowing what she was doing, but could already receive some vacation time. Being used to being up at the school all day, it would be ice to not have to do that in slightest, and instead she would be able to do pretty much whatever she wanted all summer. So, knowing her, that would be a lot of drinking and shagging—no one could say that she wasn’t an easy person to please, because she was perfectly content of a summer of doing just that. Having the time off would also give her the time to reconnect with some of the friends she had lost touch with since graduation, and obviously she would have her Dimitte meetings. Hopefully, they figured out what they wanted to do next, as it seemed entirely necessary to come up with different ways to spread awareness about the ridiculousness of the treatment of Death Eaters and pureblood families and anyone else who was treated unequally. But now was not the time to think about that… the point was simply that the summer was a break that she was certainly looking forward to.

LJ was almost a bit mysterious, she was finding, and that made her more interested in finding out more about him. That wasn’t necessarily uncommon—that she was interested in people, at least, though it wasn’t too often that Callie deemed someone to be mysterious. Most people were pretty easy to figure out, actually, but it seemed that he might be an exception, and even that was intriguing in and of itself. “Hopefully I will,” she answered, glancing over at him. Mysterious indeed, she mused, watching as he ordered another round of firewhiskey. “It seems so,” Callie agreed, picking up the new glass, “Thank you,” she added, before taking a swig of the firewhiskey. Although she hadn’t been lying about the very long and happy relationship she had with the drink, she knew that her third of the night was getting close to the level that she would reasonably be happy with staying at; though she supposed she would just take it by ear, but she simply knew that getting drunk wasn’t on the agenda this evening. “Endless access to alcohol, endless access to interesting conversations,” she said, shrugging, “Probably a hell of a lot of work, also, but I see it being worth it.” Callie knew that she would never be able to run a bar successfully, so she was impressed that he managed to, really. “I’m not good at repetitive, and I find that most jobs are,” Callie answered, pausing to take another sip of her firewhiskey, “Healing seemed exciting enough. No one can injure themselves exactly the same way twice, so I could hardly call it repetitive.”

There was absolutely nothing different about this bint than others, Levi was slowly convincing himself. It wasn’t terribly convincing just yet, but he was sure it was coming soon, obviously. This temporary lapse in judgment would pass and everything would return to normal. He would convince this attractive bint to shag and then he would leave, never to see her again. At least she worked at the bloody school as he would have no trouble avoiding that place as he had absolutely no reason to head that way. It would be horrific if she worked at one of these shops, knowing that the chances of bumping into her again would be high….not that that bloody mattered before, making him confused why he was even worrying about it now. Hell, he was wondering why he was worrying about anything in the first place, not even understanding that emotion in the slightest.

“Well, if ever you swing by the Hog’s Head, ask for me and I’ll consider hooking you up,” he grinned, wondering why the hell he had even stated that. He never bloody gave special privileges…unless he was bartering. Interesting conversations, amusing fights…all in the usual night,” he shrugged, wondering how his pub was doing that night. “That is true,” he nodded in agreement. Levi noted that he really needed to get this conversation to end in order to start with the shagging portion, hopefully breaking out of whatever breakdown he was experiencing. “I’d rather deal with whiny adults than whiny brats any day,” he shrugged. “At least I’m allowed to kick the whiny ones out.”

Callie really did enjoy the Hog’s Head on occasion, finding it to be a lot more relaxing there than the Three Broomsticks. It depended on her mood, she supposed, since there was less chance for interaction at that place. A lot of people didn’t really seem to want to talk there, which was fine when she just wanted to have a drink; she didn’t normally end the night with a shag there either, but once again, Callie never really did go out assuming that she was going to find some bloke for the night. She just went where the night took her, and nights typically didn’t go that way when at the Hog’s head. She raised her eyebrows at his words, nodding. “I’ll keep that in mind,” she replied. As she had already enjoyed spending time at the bar, it was a tempting offer though it was one that she was surprised that he was making. Normally she was good at figuring out the motives of others, but she was absolutely stumped with this one. But that was fine since she was more intrigued by him because of that, unsure where this conversation was leading—but it was interesting either way, and that meant that the motives behind it didn’t have to be all that important. Sometimes people just liked to talk at the bar, not wanting to drink by themselves; Callie wouldn’t have pegged him as that type, but she had been wrong before, clearly.

“I’ve seen a few fights there,” she agreed, taking a swig of her drink. Drunk bar fights were the norm at any establishment, so she had seen her fair share of them. Sometimes, she tried to help break them up—she was a bloody Gryffindor through and through, apparently, and other times she just tried to ignore them and to focus on whatever conversation she was finding herself in, “Well, I suppose I’ve seen fights just about everywhere—damn drunks,” Callie said, jokingly. Something about alcohol just made people want to punch each other for silly reasons, though she had never really seen the draw of doing that. Perhaps that was just because she was a hard person to piss off. “That’s true, you do have that going for you,” Callie replied, laughing. She couldn’t exactly kick anyone out of the hospital wing, even if she did think that they were making up an injury. After all, she had to give them the benefit of the doubt and see if anything was wrong. She also really wasn’t a kid person, but that was irrelevant in doing her job, really, and only further reminded her just why she wasn’t the type to settle down.

A part of Levi wished he had never come this way tonight, irritated that he was still having a bloody conversation with the bint. He should have just stayed in that night, not aware that he was apparently coming down with the flu or some shit. Perhaps he should go see a healer…particularly, this healer, he thought before shaking his head of the thought. The fact that he was even contemplating knocking her off that list was irritating as that certainly was not what he normally would have done. Usually, he’d be already shagging the bint, having convinced her that shagging was what she truly desired. It just went to show that bints were just as close to pigs as blokes were, though it never made sense to Levi. Bints cried about blokes only wanting one thing but when it came down to it, bints wanted that same one thing. Of course, they thought it meant that they were loved or some shit. It just felt really fucking good, obviously. He was going to attribute his poor skills here with the two other creatures he had shagged a few weeks back. Clearly, they had some sort of…mental psychotic shit on him or something, he mused, before realizing just how actually psychotic that sounded.

“Never mess with a drunk’s drink,” he grinned. “That’s our motto. Give him the drink, knock him out…everyone’s happy and he won’t remember a damn thing when he wakes anyways, attributing the pounding headache to drinking and the black eye to feeling up some bint that was taken,” he chuckled good naturedly, taking a swig from his drink.

Callie was glad she’d made the decision to come to the pub tonight, since she partially had been unsure of her decision. Going out for a few drinks when she had work the next day was something that she hadn’t fully worked out, whether or not she should be doing that. For the most part, she was starting to think that it was something that she was just overthinking; if she wanted to go for a few drinks after work, that was something that she was able to do. Yes, her work hours were a little foggy since technically someone could get injured or sick at any time back at the castle, but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t enjoy herself on her off hours. This company was certainly an example of this, as she was having quite the good time just casually drinking while speaking to this bloke. It wasn’t what she had been expecting, but she was glad for it all the same and it made her glad that she’d come to the pub. It had been that or the Hog’s Head, ironically enough, since she was now speaking to the owner of the other pub. Their conversation was one that was quite interesting to her, finding that he was proving more by the moment that he wasn’t at all what she had thought he would be like upon him joining her.

She laughed lightly at his words, nodding in agreement before taking a swig of her firewhiskey. “Sounds like a decent enough plan—get their mind foggy enough that the next morning all they know is they must have had a hell of a time,” she stated, grinning. It had been a long time since she personally had gotten drunk enough to actually forget something that happened to her the night before, finding that she could hold her own… to an extent, but only because she knew her limits, obviously. She liked to think that she had a decent tolerance, but she knew that as a female it wasn’t as good as it could have been. But compared to other bints that she saw out, she certainly thought that she did all right.

This evening sucked, and at the same time, Levi was finding that he actually was enjoying himself. He always enjoyed himself when he knew he was going to get laid that night, but this was different. He actually wasn’t intentionally trying to get laid and was more being himself, not trying to work his magic in getting her laid through whatever it was that would get her to spread her legs for him. This was unacceptable, clearly, as that should be the only thing that he should be concerned about and he wasn’t. Instead, he was merely concerned over…nothing but conversation. He took another long sip of his drink, realizing that it was empty before ordering another one. He really needed it, obviously, as apparently he needed to be drunk in order to flirt with this bint, caught off guard by her attractiveness. He nearly groaned in irritation, realizing how ridiculous his thoughts were sounding even to him, knowing if he voice it, it would simply be worse.

Levi chuckled at her response, nodding his head. “Yes, now you understand,” he replied, smirking. “Works every time,” he laughed, shaking his head in amusement. “They’ll never know what hit them,” he stated definitively. He really did love his job when he got to knock someone out for whatever reason, finding that to be a good stress relief, not that he was ever stressed. He paused as the conversation seemed to slow down, staring at his new drink before taking a gulp of it. He really didn’t know how to get back on track on how this conversation really should have gone, though he really needed to find a way. “Everyone has a hell of a time at my pub; and if you don’t, I’ll personally show you a hell of a time,” he stated, glancing over briefly to wink at her before looking away, smirking.

For the most part she would have to admit that this bloke was a rare one. It was hard to find someone who was as interesting to be around as they were attractive, as normally it was one or the other. Callie wasn’t particularly shallow, but she couldn’t deny that he was easily one of the more attractive blokes that she had seen in a hell of a long time. But she found that his personality was even more interesting than he was attractive, and that shouldn’t even be possible. If she were the type to settle down, she was sure she would be scrambling to make some kind of good first impression in order to try to get a date out of him or something… that seemed like something that bints did in situations like this one. Worrying about settling down just took all the fun out of everything and she was unsure why anyone held with the idea that it was so important. It just seemed like more stress than it was worth, or at least that was what she had learned from her parents’ relationship. Of course, they were a whole different kind of fucked up, staying with each other when they hardly even liked each other, but that was their problem and quite clearly not hers anymore.

“Now I know why everyone is always so drunk there,” she answered, smiling. It would be quite fun to own at a bar, really, though it was probably more work than he’d let on. Even working at one would be entertaining, something that would constantly be amusing with all of the drunk patrols that would habit the place. She had seen some rowdiness at the Hog’s Head in her day, that much she could most certainly recall. Her smile widened at his words, before glancing down to grab her glass to take another sip of the liquor. “Well, that would certainly be too good of an opportunity to pass up,” Callie replied, lightly, keeping her gaze forward since he was probably trying to gauge her reaction anyhow. So he was trying to sleep with her? She couldn’t decide, but the overtones of that statement had been pretty clear in her mind.

Levi was hopeful that this was just going to be a random occurrence of him messing up his usual routine and he couldn’t wait for the night to be over. Well, he could wait until he shagged her, at least…then the night could end. So far, she was continuing to be entertaining, not the typical bint that he came across. Merlin, she wasn’t the typical bint that he shagged at this point as any bint that talked more than a simple conversation wasn’t his type in the slightest. The fact that he had to even think about where his eyes were going was frustrating as he normally wouldn’t stop himself from checking out a bint before. With her full lips and dramatic eyes, he really struggled to stay focused instead of letting his mind wander. As soon as he realized that, it would just frustrate him more as he would never stop himself from very obviously checking someone out.

“Go there often?” he asked casually, knowing that he certainly would have remembered her face if she had. It wasn’t like he got drunk when he was working, finding that he had at least some class to him than that. Owning a bar had certainly been the best idea that he had as he certainly enjoyed it. It wasn’t just the fact that he thoroughly enjoyed drinking, as he very much did, but it had to also do with the fact that he was in control of the success of a business, his business. He was able to make the final decisions and he was able to see what worked. He really did like being his own boss, clearly. “I can give you a taste, if you’d prefer,” he winked, bloody thankful that he was getting back on track finally. It seemed he had lost himself a bit there, for whatever reason that was, but slowly, he could feel himself returning.