“Bergdorf Goodman” 1971

ravenclaw✨ intelligent • witty • creative

1x07 / 2x07 / 2x10 / 2x11

ava-avery​:

There was something freeing, fleeting about being in a hotel bar alone. There was a feeling of mystery; was she there on her own? Going somewhere or just meeting someone? The possibilities were endless and she highly enjoyed that. Hotels, Ava thought, had the same fleetingness of an airport, but with less stress and more class. 

Technically, Ava had started the night with a friend. A distant one she only knew from the party scene, and who had needed someone for liquid courage and to back her up when meeting a bloke. So Ava had come with to make sure her friend wasn’t being kidnapped or set up with someone terrible. After waving her mate off to her date, she’d decided to stay at the hotel for a few drinks. 

Plenty of interesting things happened in a hotel bar at a friday night. Travellers and locals alike gathered for a drink. And sometimes, it seemed, even the owner paid the bar a visit. 

Ava turned at the sound of her name, smile at the ready. “Harper, hello;” she cooed. That was the great thing about the wizarding community; there were always someone around if you just hung around long enough. “Are you doing a late work-night inspection, or are you here to play?”

-

Harper leaned over the bar, meeting the bartender’s eyes and greeting him politely before gesturing towards herself and Ava. Moments later two drinks slid towards her, and with a nod and word of thanks, she picked them up and turned to face Ava again. “I’m done with work for the day” she punctuated her declaration with a freeing exhale and sip of her drink, holding the second glass out to the other woman. “I just figured I’d start my night on the path of least resistance. And besides, I was hoping to run into someone who’d want to join me in doing the same,” she continued, a twinkle in her eyes.

Despite many of her reserved tendencies, Harper really did enjoy just going out and adventuring for a night, hopping between bars and other establishments. Sometimes shops took advantage of the extended summer daylight hours and stayed open longer— a fact that was especially tempting.

Glancing around the bar again, Harper wondered how long Ava had been there. She voiced the question, her curiosity getting the best of her as she added “And have you seen anything interesting go on?” Despite the number of people, things seemed to be relatively uneventful so far. Good for business, Harper thought, but the night was still young, so there was hope for some drama to develop… Though she would highly prefer it not be at one of her hotel bars.

archive moodboard for @vangcgh

“In the darkness, two shadows, reaching through the hopeless, heavy dusk. their hands meet, and light spills in a flood like a hundred golden urns pouring out of the sun.”

Started in Beautiful Rooms // Harper and Antonin

Approaching the Malfoy Malfoy Manor simultaneously comforted Harper while also setting her on edge. It oozed elegance and class, along with mystery and foreboding; just her type. She was intrigued by it, and to some extent, that worried her. Less so than it had in the past, but there was still a dull, nagging concern in the back of her mind.

“How did I get here?” she sometimes asked herself, flashing through memories of the intense and turbulent series of events that led to her current arrangement. She stopped herself before she could get too far. Wrong time, wrong place. She had a job to do and an image to uphold.

Many of the BDK hotels were large and sophisticated, and Harper had no problem walking into those with an air of confidence and ownership, but here? Here she felt dwarfed. Sometimes she even felt that the perfectly manicured shrubbery hissed at her presence. None of this was helped by the fact that, unlike most of the Death Eaters, Harper was not allowed to apparate into the manor. She knew why that was; because she was a half-blood. It didn’t matter that she was smarter than most of them, and perhaps more talented, to boot. According to them, she was lesser. Momentarily clenching her hands into fists and looking down at her shoes, she took a deep breath and tried to channel the attitude she could usually put on so well, before lifting her head and venturing forward up the walkway to the manor’s ornate front door.

Upon reaching it, Harper hesitated. Was she to knock? Was she to ring the bell? She doubted it was in her best interest to just walk in, though that was what she would prefer to do. Attempting to gain some control over the situation, she gave two raps on the door, paused a second, and tested the handle, discovering the door was unlocked.

Harper was acutely aware, as she crossed the threshold, that the door being unlocked was no coincidence. And although there was no one in sight, she instinctively knew that she was being watched. Perhaps someone wanted to observe how she behaved when she thought she was alone, or perhaps it was just another demeaning tactic. Adjusting her bag on her shoulder, she entered the room to her right. It appeared to be a sitting room (likely one of many), with portraits adorning the walls. Intrigued, Harper began to examine them, beginning with the one closest to the door, intending to make her way from there to the other side. She was only a couple of pictures in when she sensed a presence at the doorway, and looked over her shoulder to see who it was.

@antonin-whoisleft​

fabianprewtt​:

“Hey…” Soft footfalls stopped, grounding Fabian in an indecisive stance. Not quite an uncomfortable one - maybe slightly - but one more of trying to avoid intrusion yet acknowledge Harper once she had spoken. If the actual location wasn’t indicating wanting solitude enough, Harper’s book and black clothes seemed like bright, blaring signals that she might want to be left alone. Yet, she had spoken, and thus Fabian had stopped. 

She was a fellow Ravenclaw. They had lived together for years in that tower. She wasn’t a stranger - or, well, adulthood perhaps had made them that, but still. Not a complete stranger. Fabian considered what more to say, not a loss of words per se, but trying to feel what would be the best course - asking how she was seemed quite pointless, catching up unfitting, unless Harper led the conversation there. It ended with him gesturing softly at Harper’s book. 

“What are you reading?”

-

If, when she looked up, it had just been some unknown passerby, Harper likely would have returned to her book, doubling down on her oblivion and indifference to the outside world. But when she recognized Fabian, she felt compelled at least say a little something. The thought that maybe now, of all times, the networking instinct was kicking in, almost made her chuckle with its absurdity.

They hadn’t spoken often since their last night at Hogwarts. A night that was supposed to be a whirlwind of joy and excitement, with some other understandably mixed emotions thrown in, ultimately ended up a night marked, for Harper, by shockwaves and tear stains. Sometimes it felt like the past five years had been centuries, other times, just a few months. Seeing Fabian made it feel quicker; it brought back fond memories of late nights in Ravenclaw Tower, talking, studying, hanging around.

“Pride and Prejudice” Harper answered sheepishly, eyes darting from the cover of her book back to Fabian. “I’m not usually one for romance novels,” she explained, “but a friend suggested I give one a try… and this—“ she hesitated, thumbing through the pages, “this was my mother’s copy.” Harper could have stopped sharing after that, instead continued on. “I guess now felt as fitting as ever to give it a try,” she mused, gesturing towards the elegant headstone to her left. It was sizable without being tacky, and clearly the pair of the one to her right.

“So, how about you?” Harper asked, before realizing her mistake, “I mean, how are you doing? Not what are you reading… Unless that’s what you want to answer. I mean—” she put a hand to her face, mortified at tripping over her own words this way.