Standing Up For Anything

[Celestyn Helkovaara]

It had been a stressful day for the reporter, he had a lot of work to be done and not that much time to do it in. He worked hard sure, but he procrastinated, always leaving things to the last minute so he wouldn't need to deal with them before. The man had been having a hard day, the anniversary he was dreading was coming up though this stress had been mostly his own doing, if he hadn't procrastinated so much he likely wouldn't be in the situation he'd found himself in the morning when he'd stepped in his office at the Daily Prophet. Celestyn had been buried under his work most of the day barely stopping for lunch, trying to get all the work done by the end of the working day, though part of his mind doubted that he would ever be able to get any of it done. He was keen to just push through everything progressively not rushing any piece of work. The most vital bits first of course and the lesser important bits last they could wait, he could procrastinate a little longer when it came to them. It was a trying day but as the working hours dwindled the man found that he'd come much further than he'd thought he would and was actually pretty close to just being done. Since that was the case Celestyn had decided to take the rest of it with him as he left work and headed home. He didn't need to do what was left in work and doing it at home was far more desirable to him. He gathered his things, and placed most of what he needed into his bag. After that was done the man waved his goodbyes and left the room yawning slightly as he did. Celestyn walked out of the building and on to the street taking in the cool air of the early evening. He stopped just after having walked out and placed down his bag and began to riffle through it, clearly searching for something. It was a few moments later than Celestyn found what he was looking for.

A pack of cigarettes, Celestyn didn't often smoke, he didn't think it was a particularly good habit to have but when it came to having high levels of stress usually Celestyn took the opportunity to unwind with a cigarette or two. Eventually after searching and failing to find a lighter, he used his wand to lit the cigarette which was now in his mouth. He took a long drag of the cigarette and breathed out all the smoke; letting the calming sensation of it calm his still wrought nerves and high stress. He stood just a little off the doorway, with his muggle phone in his hand sending a message to Rhianne. He hadn't thought he'd keep in contact but the man was trying. He needed more friends and it seemed only right to keep in contact with her after everything. Celestyn finished his reply and pocketed the phone, before looking up. The cigarette now held in his hand away from his mouth, he was watching a strange altercation going on in front of him, he wasn't quite sure what was going on and so felt no need to intervene on anything. He just took another drag of the cigarette watching silently until all that was left was a girl, "You all right?" he called to her, his lightly accented english breaking the silence which had developed once she'd been left alone. Despite his desire to go home, the man would first make sure that this woman was alright, it was the polite thing to do, and while Celestyn sometimes struggled with being polite or with people he felt like this was just about the right thing to do. It was a simple way of him trying to be nice.
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[Stephanie Harris]

The last few weeks had been good to Stephanie and the young woman couldn't help but smile. She had been sarching for a job ever since she got fired from the one that got her to New Zealand in the first place, however there had been no job available for her that had to do with the wizarding world and she had been pretty disappointing about that. When the search for a job seemed to have no end her parents had been trying to convince her to come back to Australia, to work with her dad for a while untill she had found something else, but Stephanie had kindly refused. She had grown to be very fond of the small appartment she had been living in and she had to admit it felt great to live on her own. The fact that she had now found a job, even though it was a Muggle job, made that a little bit better. She would once again be able t provide for herself and wouldn't have to accept money from her parents anymore. Not that she hadn't been grateful for there help, because she really was, but she never felt happy about having to ask them for money and she was determined to pay them back in one way or another, even if they thought that wasn't necessary.

The young woman was making her way down the street when she heard someone calling out to here. Turning around to see whom the voice belonged to the smile on her face immediately faded. A lousy looking man, whom she recognised as one of the regulars of the bar she was working at, was making his way over to her and by the way he looked Stephanie could tell he had already been drinking. When at work the young woman always tried to ignore the words drunk men called out to her, but today she had a day of and she most certainly hadn't been planning on seeing one of them around. As the man got closer Stephanie just kept walking, hoping to avoid him, but the man had soon caught up with her and grabbed her arm to turn her around to face him. The man was slurring his words and Stephanie looked at him with a grimace as he started to talk to her the same he would always do, but when she tried to get rid of him in a friendly manner the man got angry and started to raise his voice and sneer at her. The young woman did nothing. She just stood there, listening to the somewhat terrible words he was spitting at her as she grit her teeth. Seeing as the man was clearly drunk his actions were unpredictable and if she wasn't so spineless Stephanie might've opened her mouth to make him get away, but she didn't do anything. After a while the man finally seemed to get bored of her and left, leaving a frustrated Stephanie behind. Why couldn't she ever stand up for herself? A voice woke her up out of her thoughts and she looked up to see a young man a few feet away. "Yeah, I guess so." She answered, trying to sound as confident as possible, but it didn't really work. ​

I'm sorry it's so late and bad but I kind of forgot and ater that had some trouble thinking of what could've happened to her

 

[Celestyn Helkovaara]

Celestyn had arrived too late to be able to help this girl with whatever it had been, the last of it occurring when he had left his work and in the time it had taken him to get the cigarette out and lit even more time had passed and it had been just as he was considering to go help her that it had all finished and the man who had been harassing the woman had left. While he had done nothing of use for this woman, interacting with her still seemed like the best option for him, essentially making sure she was alright. He smiled slightly at her, though in a strained fashion as if he really didn't smile often. The woman didn't seem completely fine, he couldn't help but think that if it were him, it wouldn't be alright, but she said she was, "You sure?" it wasn't so much that Celestyn was questioning it, he just felt skeptical about her being fine. After all even if this happened to the strongest of people it was always all right to say that you weren't okay, situations could be stressful to even the strongest of people. That was normal, or so he assumed, telling others when they weren't okay. Celestyn wasn't one to follow his own advice, he would not bother with telling someone he wasn't alright not wanting to burden them with his problems, so perhaps this girl was like him too. The man took a long drag of the cigarette, before fishing back into his bag and offering one to her, "You want one?" he asked the usual drawl of his Finnish accent on the words.

As she gave her answer, Celestyn responded in kind, before pocketing the box, he had closed the distance between them with a short few steps, he wasn't smiling particularly much but he had a vague look of concern, "You shouldn't let people be like that to you," Celestyn said to her, he glanced around them, he didn't think of himself as her saviour or protector, Celestyn felt she was probably capable of protecting herself if given the right confidence to believe in herself, "You're a witch, next time, hex the bastard," he suggested with a shrug, Celestyn had never really been in such situations, he generally avoided hanging out with people and that sort of stopped him being able ever get into situations like the one she'd been in, as he'd said this he brought cigarette to his lips and took a deep breath. The man also felt his height maybe had a little to do with the fact he'd never been in such a situation. He offered the girl a small smile, before motioning vaguely into the distance, "Do you want me to walk you to where ever you need to be, in case they come back?" He knew that she was likely more than capable of taking care of herself he just didn't feel like she should have to do it alone considering. While the people had gone, he didn't know if they would come back and he would actually feel bad if something happened to her when he had been perfectly capable of taking a little bit of time out of his day to help her. Literally, this wouldn't exactly kill him, "It's not that I don't think you're not capable of defending yourself, there is however strength in numbers" he added at the end, trying to not make it seem like he was trying to be a hero saving or helping the damsel in distress, just a friend-type looking to help someone out who may well want it.
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