Out for a stroll

[Ioan Finch]

Ioan was bored so he decided to go out for a stroll because it was how he came up with some of his best ideas. He had a meeting to go to later in the night, but as he had nothing to do at the moment, Ioan decided to go pay a visit to Obsidian Harbor. After a month of living in New Zealand, Ioan still had not visited there.

Ioan arrived at Obsidian Harbor and began strolling the cobble-stone streets. They reminded him of the area where he lived when he was a young boy. Lost in thought, Ioan continued to stroll the streets trying his best not to bump into anyone. Luckily, the area wasn't very crowded. Most people were simply exiting one store and entering another. Ioan felt no desire to shop though so he simply kept walking, hoping to find something exciting going on.

 

[Martine Laurent]

Martine walked out of the Leaky Cauldron and down in to Obsidian Harbor. She really needed to find a proper place to stay, she knew - as the owner of the Leaky Cauldron was a tad suspicious, and she knew that the woman didn't like her much, either. All Martine could do was stay out of her was as much as possible. She'd be out of the Leaky Cauldron once her results came back. This was causing Martine a lot of nervousness - she had no idea whether or not she would become an Auror. She had tried her hardest on the tests and she thought she had done well, but only time would tell if she had done well enough to achieve her dream job.

Walking along the cobble-stone street in one of the quieter parts of the harbor, Martine was completely lost in her own thoughts - that is, until the heel of one of her shoes caught in one of the cracks in the street, causing her to trip and sending her sprawling to the ground. "Ah!" she exclaimed, reacting in time to stop herself falling with the palms of her hands. She knew she needed to stop wearing high heels, but she couldn't help it - they were just so pretty and remarkably comfortable, given how elaborate they were. Besides, she wasn't an Auror yet. She could draw attention to herself for now, couldn't she?

 

[Ioan Finch]

Lost in his own thoughts, Ioan barely saw the woman walking near him. He was jarred out of his thoughts as he saw her falling out of the corner of his eye. Ever the gentleman, especially when a lady was concerned, Ioan held out his hand and said "Are you ok?"

The lady sprawled on the floor in front of him was wearing a pair of heels, which likely caused her to fall. " I don't think those shoes and these cobblestones are a good mix" he said jokingly with a smirk on his face.

 

[Martine Laurent]

Martine looked up at the man with his hand outstretched, and gladly took the help, biting her lip in embarassment. "Oh, I am fine, thank you," she said, in her accented English. "Only my pride has been bruised," she added, as a joke.

She winced slightly when the man, who looked to be around her age, commented on her heels. "Oh, I know," she sighed, shaking her head. "It was rather foolish of me to wear them...but I am such a girl that I simply can not help but be compelled to wear a pretty pair of shoes," she laughed, still feeling a little self-conscious, but trying not to let it show. "I'm Martine, by the way, what is your name?" she asked, being friendly.

 

[Ioan Finch]

Ioan watched as the lady got up and joked about the incident. He smiled as she did so because it was nice to see someone who didn't take themselves so seriously. He listened as she introduced herself as Martine and asked for his name. "I'm Ioan...nice to meet you" he said with his deep voice. He had a slight accent because Romanian was his first language but it had been years since he had spoken Romanian.

"You sound English, are you new here?" Ioan asked hesitantly. He wondered whether she was new like him. He had only been in New Zealand for a little over a month and still did not know many people, other than the people he was staying with.

 

[Martine Laurent]

"Pleasure," she responded to the man - Ioan - with a warm smile. Martine had only been living in New Zealand a few weeks now, and she still barely knew anybody except for her cousin, Mark. Still, Martine was tenacious, and never backed down from a challenge, even if she was all alone.

Martine shook her head at Ioan. "I am new here but I am not English. Belgian," she explained, with a smile. "I went to Beauxbatons," she added - a little unnecessarily. "Are you new here as well?" Martine asked, hopefully - it would be good to know someone else in the same situation as her. That way she would feel less alone.

 

[Ioan Finch]

"Oh, a Beaubaxton girl" Ioan said with a smile. He had dated someone from that school once before. "I went to Durmstrang myself"Ioan said. He readied himself for a glare or some other negative look, knowing that many people automatically disliked people who went Durmstrang. If she was one of those people, Ioan wanted to find out before he even wasted any more time speaking with her.

When the girl asked whether he was new as well, Ioan nodded, "Yes, I've been here only about a month. What brought you here?" he asked.

 

[Martine Laurent]

((meep, sorry))

Martine smiled when Ioan mentioned he was from Durmstrang. "Ah, my cousins went there," she said, nodding. "It is a good school, I have heard. Mama and papa wanted me to attend Beauxbatons, however," she explained, with a shrug. The schools had their good points, they also had their bad points. Beauxbatons girls (and boys) spent an awful lot of time flirting and concucting love potions, as a generalisation, so it had been easy for Martine to top the year level. Apparently Durmstrang people used the Dark Arts. So what if they were taught yit at school, that did not make all Durmstrang students Death Eaters. Hogwarts had produced its fair share of Death Eaters too, and people always seemed to sing the praise of Hogwarts.
"I have only been here a month also, I wanted to get away from Belgium and New Zealand seemed to be a nice place, different, good sized magical community. What about you?"

 

[Ioan Finch]

Ioan breathed a silent sigh of relief as Martine seemed completely at ease with the fact that he was a Durmstrang gentleman. He listened to her explain why she had come to New Zealand and then ask him for his story. Ioan knew that the question was coming and although he hadn't met very many people yet, he already had a set answer. "I've been traveling a lot in the past few months and one of my friends invited me to spend a few months with him helping him out, so I jumped at the chance. It's one of the bigger magical communities so everyone is very pleasant unlike some of the places I've been where Muggles are around more than magical people."

It felt good to talk to someone new and for some reason, Ioan felt as if he'd known Martine for years.