The warmth in your eyes swept me into your arms

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Esmerelda Lazuli

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OOC First Name
Jasmine ;-)
Wand
13", Ivy and essence of dragon scale
Esmerelda Lazuli strolled nonchantly through the Dunedin Public Gardens. It was a radiently blue-sky day, but the wind was cold and the Death Eater pulled her long black coat tighter. It wasn't really a good day to be in the gardens, in her opinion, but she'd felt the need to escape the house. Hogwarts holidays were far too stressful, what with her daughter, her husband's ghost, and all the chaos that surrounded the family.

In the Gardens, she could be left alone. No-one would dare approach this sullen stranger. Except . . . A man was approaching, seemingly with the intention of speaking to her. Esmerelda supposed she would have to be civil. His grin was already melting her hostility a little.
 
Demetrius felt stupid. He had left the comfort of his warm and rather large home for an outing to the Public Gardens. The Dunedin weather was proving predictible as a cold wind was blowing and the sky was a dull overcast. Frowning as his dark hair whipped across his forehead the young man brushed it back with the back of his hand. The chaos in his home had been the reason he had left in the first place, two five year olds was enough to drive anyone crazy.

Glancing around he noticed someone else who looked just as unhappy to be here as he was. Spreading a wide grin across his face he began to approach the woman. Perhaps she could fill in some time before he had to return to his chaotic home.
 
"Hello," Esmerelda said vaguely as the man approached. She wasn't really in the mood for conversation, but this man . . . There was something about him that Esmerelda couldn't quite place. It wasn't his slightly harried look, although that was familiar. Perhaps he had also come here to escape. After all, why else would anyone be in the usually glorious gardens on a day like this? What was it she could see in him? A hidden darkness, perhaps. It reminded her of Lorenzo. Immediately, Esmerelda pushed the thought away. She didn't want to think about her husband, not now.

Curiosity overcoming suspicion, Esmerelda offered her hand to shake. "Esmerelda Lazuli."
 
"Hey." He responded, smile widening. Taking her hand in his own he shook "Demetrius Van Laar Veth." he introduced himself, the hint of his Scottish accent slipping in. Blue eyes flashing warmly, "What brings you here on this, er, morning?" he asked shoving his hands deep into his jeans pockets.

Demetrius could sense something about Esmerelda, something dark that was familiar and alluring all at once. Something that was completely lacking when it came to Sianna, she was too nice for her own good, and Demetrius was always one for the not so nice people.
 
Esmerelda smiled, liking this charming man despite herself. "Oh, I just needed to escape the chaos of the home, you know." And it was indeed chaotic. Esmerelda couldn't think of a better word to describe the Lazuli residence. Of course, it would be better once Lapis returned to school, but she couldn't evade Lorenzo.

"What about you? It's not exactly the perfect day for a walk." A little of Esmerelda's cynicism slipped once again out of her otherwise polite conversation.
 
Demetrius nodded in agreement, "I know exactly what you mean!." he chuckled. The young man understood exactly what she meant, he had plenty of it at home as well. "My household is completely crazy at the moment." Even with three of the girls away at school he had the two worst bickers left. He couldn't wait until they were old enough to go to school as well. Five year olds were tiring.

Demetrius passed off Esmerelda's cynical nature without a blink, he was used to cynicism his eldest daughter was full of it. "Good ol' Dunedin for turning on the crappy weather." he laughed. "When it's time for a little alone time, you can't exactly tell the weather to be good just so you can get out of the house. I don't mean to pry but," Demetrius gave Esmerelda a 1000 watt smile "What kind of chaos?"
 
Esmerelda raised one arched eyebrow. "You really want to know?" Seeing his curiosity not in the least decreased, she sighed. Esmerelda never could resist the kinship of shared curiosity. "Well, where do I start? My daughter, I suppose. I love Lapis, but she's a teenager. I'm sure you know about them. She doesn't approve of my interests, and I can't say I blame her."

Demetrius really did seem to be interested in her problems. But Esmerelda wouldn't tell about Lorenzo. Having a ghost in the house was just too complicated. It raised too many questions . . . about how he had died, for instance.
 
Demetrius nodded and let Esmerelda unload the chaos, nodding he smiled, "Ah, teenagers. Yes I get what you mean, I'm looking after 3 teens, two 16 year olds and a 14 year old." he laughed awkwardly, the amount of kids he was looking after sounded crazy when he started listing them.

Curiousity sparked in Demetrius' gut, "What interests?" he asked with a slightly knowing look. He had a vague idea what she was talking about but wanted to confirm his suspicions. Hopefully his prying didn't annoy her to the point of no longer talking to him.
 
"Three? How do you survive?" Esmerelda chuckled darkly. She had enough trouble with one teen. She wondered how he had aquired so many kids, but saved the question for later.

His next query threw the thought out of her mind, anyway. There was no easy way to answer this one. If they understood, it usually sounded scary, if they didn't it was plain crazy. "You are a wizard, right?" That was always the most awkward sentence to start with, and Esmerelda was sincerely relieved when he nodded. She wouldn't usually assume, of course, but Esmerelda had had that impression from the start. She was glad to have it confirmed.
"Well, I suppose you could say my interests were . . . darker than most."
 
"With great difficulty." Demetrius laughed with a shrug. "You have to have a lot of patience and a lot of room." he added scratching the back of his head.

Demetrius nodded, of course he was a wizard, his pure blood mother had made sure of that, there was no way that he would be here if he had turned out to not be a wizard, or worse a squib. The next comment confirmed his question. "Ah I see, that kind of dark." He couldn't deny that he wasn't impressed, there was of course a time when he had wanted to follow in his mothers footsteps and become a death eater himself but he got cold feet, not something he was proud of. "How did," he thought for a moment, "Lapis take that?" he had always wondered how other children reacted to that kind of news, remembering how he himself had taken the news.
 
"For a long time she hated me," Esmerelda replied simply. She was secretly relieved that Demetrius didn't react in the same way. "Now she tolerates it mostly, but occassionally we argue. Like today." Of course that was only half of the problem. Lorenzo, despite having been a Death Eater himself, did not approve either.

The pair strolled along in silence for a while. Esmerelda imagined that her companion wouldn't be entirely sure how to reply to that admission, so eventually she broke the silence herself. "By the way, how on Earth did you come to have three teenagers in the same house?"
 
Demetrius nodded slowly, that made sense he felt angry himself when he found out his mother was a death eater. But then again his mother was a terrifying woman and you couldn't be angry at her, she was far too intimidating for that. "That makes sense." was all he said, he felt he didn't need to elaborate further.

Walking for a moment Demetrius let the silence ang, he felt he had done enough prying for the moment and allowed Esmerelda the chance to ask her own questions. The question she did ask though was a tough one and he rubbed at his neck uncomfortably. "Er... well, that's complicated, I... uh found a daughter I didn't even know I had and...I adopted a couple of sisters from Omarama..." was all he said, not finding it important to mention the girlfriend that had adopted the girls in the first place.
 
"Wow," Esmerelda said. It was a word she didn't usually use, but she thought it seemed appropriate. "That does sound complicated." She had no idea what else to say. She had a complicated life, but at least it didn't involve any long-lost family members. In fact, the only family Esmerelda had any contact with was her cousin and best friend Cassandra Calbrese. The Lazuli side of the family had essentially disowned her afrer . . . She refused to think about that.

Instead, Esmerelda tried to change the subject. "Do your girls go to Hogwarts New Zealand?" A particularly strong gust of wind blew Esmerelda's long dark hair all over her face, and she laughed along with Demetrius before he answered her query.
 
Demetrius laughed, "Yeah, it can get complicated." he admitted, but that wasn't the half of it, the family he lived with was pieced together by a whole array of people and keeping up with the expansive amount of drama was a full time job. He could barely keep up with who was friends with who, who hated who, not to mention the rumours and the heartbreak. His household was crazy.

Demetrius snickered at Esmerelda's expression as she swept the hair out of her face. "Yeah the two adopted girls, Eliza Beth and Emmaline are in Ravenclaw, and my daughter Aimee is in Slytherin like I was." he threw Esmerelda a quick grin, "What about Lapis?" he asked as they turned a corner.
 
"Lapis is a Ravenclaw," Esmerelda replied, not without regret. How much easier life could be if Lapis had followed her parents' path! "I believe she's mentioned Aimee, generally in conjunction with her friend Elspeth." Esmerelda fell silent again, contenplating Elspeth Brookes. That strange girl, and their strange meeting in Brightstone, had frequently been on her mind. It seemed the Ravenclaw wanted to be a Death Eater . . .

Esmerelda cast around for another topic of conversation. She was no good at small talk, she'd found it of limited use to her own ambitions, but this man . . . Putting those thoughts aside for the moment, Esmerelda siezed on his last comment. "I was in Slytherin too, but I went to Hogwarts Scotland."
 
Demetrius nodded sympathetically, "I see." He could understand Esmerelda's disdain for having a Ravenclaw daughter. He could proudly say that his daughter was a slytherin. Demetrius thought for a moment, he too recalling the name Elspeth, his daughter was very good friends with her and continuously talked about her. Much to the displeasure of one Eliza Beth who seemed to not like either of them.

Demetrius grinned, "So did I, I was born and raised in Scotland. Only moved here about 8 or 9 years ago." He wondered if they had attended school at the same time? He doubted it, surely he would remember someone like Esmerelda.
 
"Oh! I moved with my late husband . . . when we got married- I'm not sure how long ago that was. I wanted to escape my relatives; except for my cousin Cassandra, they're all pretty annoying. Why did you come over here?" Esmerelda began to suspect she'd divulged too much information, but was relieved at seeing Demetrius' apparent interest in her mention of Cassandra.

Seeing that they were passing the Gardens' cafe, the Croque-O-Dile, Esmerelda remembered how cold it was. "Would you like to go for a coffee?" she asked, slowly veering towards the steps.
 
Demetrius nodded empathetically understanding the desire to move away from troublesome relatives, he had his fair share of them himself. "Yeah, I get that." He said with a smile. "Me? I moved here because I needed a fresh start." Not completely sure that he wanted to elaborate further. It was all very complicated. Demetrius raised an eyebrow, "What made Cassandra different?" he asked curious as to what was so special about this cousin. 'There was always one exception to the rule' he thought to himself.

Demetrius shivered involuntarily realizing just how cold it was. Coffee sounded good right about now and he nodded enthusiastically at the mention of it. "Sure." He said following Esmerelda up the steps and opening the door for her politely, "After you." He said with a grin full of charm, before following her into the café.
 
"Cassandra has been a friend of mine for a long time," Esmerelda explained as she entered the cafe, acknowledging his grin with a regal nod. "She has the same . . . interests that I do." Knowing that there were Muggles around, she grew more careful with her word choice. "Coffee," she snapped at the woman behind the counter, who recoiled slightly at her hostile manner. Esmerelda exchanged a smirk with Demetrius as they went to sit down.

"And she lives in Dunedin too, so we actually get to see each other regularly." Esmerelda sank gratefully into a chair at the window, suddenly realising that she felt tired. She was warming up already.
 
"Ah, interests." Demetrius nodded knowingly. He too recognized their location and dropped his voice to a murmur. "I know exactly what you mean." Following Esmerelda to the counter he gave the lady behind it a small grin. "A flat white for me, thanks." he said before taking his seat across from Esmerelda.

Demtrius took the opportunity to look Esmerelda up and down again. There was something about her... catching Esmerelda's eye he felt his cheeks redden slightly. "Er..." he mumbled, looking away. Appearing to look as though he was waiting for the coffee to arrive. "Well that's good. Being close to Cassandra... and all..." he said sheepishly turning back to face her.
 
Suzanne wandered into the main space of the cafe, a cup of coffee balanced precariously in each hand. She approached the table where two people who looked vaguely strange (not that Suzanne could say anything about looking vaguely strange) were sitting. An awkward silence hung between them. Suzanne cut the thread holding it up. "Coffee?"
 
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