The Three Broomsticks: Order of the Joberknoll

[veneficusvenato]

[ OOC Post Details Here ]

The Three Broomsticks has closed every Thursday night since before the end of the last war. Each of the new owners has followed suit when they picked up the place. The second one said it had to do with luck and honors. And Jo Harvelle, who snuck into the place more times than any could count a decade ago, seems to be following in all their stead with an easy, unruffable grace.






The Closed sign hangs carelessly askew, like normal, and the windows are dark.

(And it will remain that way unless you have an invitation of some kind.)

Comments

[veneficusvenato]

Jo's impassive expression cracked for a smile. 
Watching Li's hands glow. 

"It just wanted someone to pay attention to it, too."

[trickswithsticks]

"It can have all the attention it wants," says Leah, with a merry grin that indicates it's the greatest of very few, very mild cares she has in the world.

"Now I've finally fixed the fireplace in my classroom."

[veneficusvenato]

Jo's shoulders trembled. 
With the silent laughter. 

"Let me guess, it never goes out now?"

[trickswithsticks]

"It goes out occasionally," Leah says, mock-grouchily.

"Maybe not when I always expect it to, but it keeps me on my toes."

[veneficusvenato]

Jo leaned over to nudge her shoulder.

"Bonus points to the house of the student who can relight it fastest?"

[trickswithsticks]

"Ravenclaw," Leah protests, "do not need more points from me.

"I'm doing points for the people who are so interested in History that they either don't notice, or they have the good taste not to complain about the bloody thing."

[veneficusvenato]

"Harsh." But she was grinning.

Studious or Professor smart.

[trickswithsticks]

"Yeah, well, its taken me a year to beat half of them into thinking about the subject and not the house points," Leah complains. "I'm not going to ruin it just because I'm too lazy to sort the damn thing out properly."

Which they both know is it. If Leah really wanted her classroom warm, she'd figure out a way.

[veneficusvenato]

She would, too.

Brilliant enough to solve her own problems.
If they were problems that actually needed it.






Jo leaned on the bar, watching all the others.
The coalescing group of the evening forming.

"What do you think my odds are?"

[trickswithsticks]

"Of?"

[veneficusvenato]

"Who stays and who goes tonight."

Coming back meant the wanted to be in The Order.
Staying meant swearing themselves to The Order, itself.


She'd gotten to mention it to the two of them earlier this week.

Enough to show up and leave Sokka with the Secret Keeper request.
But not long enough to really get to talk to them about it.
That was the problem with secrets in unsecret places.

[trickswithsticks]

Leah's eyes rotate in their sockets, trurned over and around as they scane the room without her head moving.

"The kids'll stay," she remarks. "They care about this kinda thing. Maybe the Gryffs'll give it more than Crumrin, but he'll stick to it.

"I reckon all the teachers will, too. No one's the type to blink at it."

Well, except Leah herself, but she's here.

[veneficusvenato]

"Less of a game for them with each step."



And the 'them' is rather specific.
Even if she doesn't actually choose it.

Because it's almost been a Them or Us place.
When she's talking with Sokka or Lee, even now.

Even with the Winchesters over at that table, too.
And if her eyes lingered for a moment on either brother?
They were echoes of other lives, other times. Still Them.

[trickswithsticks]

"Well, some might see this as just another round of the game," Leah remarks. "It's not a failsafe."

People have got around these before.

[veneficusvenato]

"Magic and honor." Jo's eye narrowed, watching still.



Words that were old and belonging to history classes.
Long, ago classes. When dreaming of the world as it was.

She'd said so many, different of these in her last decade.

[trickswithsticks]

"We know one of those exists," says Leah, ever the cynic.

"I'm not happy, JB." Funny, her pleasant tone fails to suggest that this is the case.

[veneficusvenato]

Jo glanced over. "Yeah?" 
Is less question, than response. 


Binding contracts. Vows. Even promises. 

[trickswithsticks]

It's not that Leah makes a habit of breaking them.
She just doesn't make them.

"I'll get over it," she says lightly. Also true.

"Mind, if I can live and deal with it, so can other people."

She can live with it because she knows that if she needs to work around it, she'll find a way.
Which leaves the fact that someone else might.

[veneficusvenato]

Jo's pretty sure that will be everyone's thought.
The mental panic scramble the moment they figure out.


How to make it vague enough. What loop holes to add in.
And every single edit will be something Jo takes to heart.



Jo nudged her shoulder again. Quieter. Softer this time.

There's a solemnity that wasn't in the joking earlier.
"You do what you need to do. I'm not going anywhere."

She'd still be Lee's JB no matter what happened.

[trickswithsticks]

"Oh, I know."

Leah leans in that direction, shoulder to shoulder for a second.

"I just don't trust Socks to keep an eye on you on his own."

She'll be there to back them up, however she needs to.

[veneficusvenato]

"Mermaid Boy couldn't keep my feet anchored if he tried."
It's totally a lie. They both do. But Jo smiled. Barely.


A little quieter. "I'm gonna be out of dodge later this week, again."

Because she always can't tell how she should feel telling them.
Happy. Because she's going to do what she was born to do.
Sad. Because she feels like she's leaving them behind.

But she promised. As little lying as possible.
Mostly either words, or none at all.

As best she can. So said it at least.

[trickswithsticks]

"Oh yeah?"

Well, that sucks. Leah takes it as the goodbad news it is. Jo being Jo. Away from her.

"Business or pleasure?"

Is not the question. The question is 'on your own back or is someone sending you?'

[veneficusvenato]

Jo has to think about it sometimes.
She's not an Unspeakable. Like Dean.

But she's covered in many spells.
Many vows and oaths and promises.
All of them more specific.
More binding.



Some that she can't speak of even.

"Business. You'd be coming otherwise."

[trickswithsticks]

"No," Leah says gently. "I wouldn't."

Not while she isn't sure what the Headmaster is up to. Not while someone who knows the history of Hogwarts better than anyone else might need to be on hand to make shit up by the seat of her pants.

"Can you at least let me know where I should be sending the owls?"

[veneficusvenato]

No, she wouldn't. But then Jo can't remember her last vacation.
So maybe in the dream world where either of them could - they did.




Jo opened her mouth. Except. The city name obliterates.
She tries again. Larger. Even the country. Slides from her.
Always back a second later. Like words forgotten, remembered.




Jo frowned. "Asia."

This comes out two ways.
Annoyed, and relieved.

Bloody big enough.