Open Whatever They Do, We Do It Better

[Celia Vu]

Celia couldn't say she was happy to be spending her break in New Zealand, much less magical New Zealand. But she could at least admit that she was a little excited to be in the country during the run-up to the Minister for Magic election, especially since she was volunteering with one of the campaigns. Of course, she would have rather had a chance to volunteer for one of the presidential campaigns back home in the U.S., like some of her friends had. But this was the next best thing.

Today Celia had been tasked with handing out leaflets to Obsidian Harbour businesses. She'd done her best to capitalize on the "cute little girl" image adults had of her, sweet-talking shopkeepers into letting her pin leaflets to their bulletin boards. The condescending smiles were irritating, but she was willing to put up with it if it meant helping James Cade get elected. He was the only candidate who seemed to understand that Hogwarts needed serious reform and that the world was much bigger than just New Zealand.

As Celia passed through a crowded square, she noticed a public bulletin board. There were already a couple flyers for the other candidates, and she took a second to study them. It was hard to take some of these candidates seriously, and she scoffed as she read through their campaign slogans and promises. Why on earth was the head of the Quidditch league running for minister? What could a random cursebreaker possibly know about heading a national government? Shaking her head slightly, Celia reached for one of her Cade posters and set to work taping it over the other candidates' leaflets.

 

[Lilisette Earnshaw]

Lizzie was feeling pretty good, all things considered. She thought Rupert Cresswell had knocked it out of the park in every debate. And he was bound to be a great minister, since he had so many great ideas that would be fantastic for the community when he implimented them. After all, since he'd made these campaign promises he was definitely going to follow up on them, right? Lizzie had no doubt, at least.

She'd spent a good amount of time refreshing the flyers she'd stuck up in Obsidian, wanting to be as helpful to the campaign as she could, when she noticed a younger girl putting flyers over the ones she'd just put up. The kid had to still be in school, right? Lizzie had only been out of school a couple of years and still hardly thought of herself as an adult, but she was certainly more mature than a schoolkid and wouldn't make an issue of it.

Yeah, right.

"Hey," she approached, her own flyers still in her hand, her tone a little whiny. "I just put those up. Put them over the other candidates, can't you?"

 

[Celia Vu]

Smoothing down the corner of the poster, Celia finished taping it down before stepping back to admire her work. The flyer was perfectly level, and there were no wrinkles. Even better, Rupert Cresswell's ugly face was no longer visible. Celia just wished she could use magic to secure the James Cade poster, but with any luck, no one from the other campaigns would come back this way. And why would they? As far as they knew, they had already covered this spot.

Celia was about to start putting up another poster — this time covering a couple Fontaine leaflets — when someone approached her. The newcomer was older, an adult, but she still looked pretty young. Celia made up her mind in a second. "Oh, sorry!" She flashed the woman her best smile, the one she had used to charm all those other shopkeepers, but she made no move to take down the Cade poster. "I saw another board back there," she gestured vaguely towards the entrance to Bleak Street. "You could try putting your posters up there." Celia turned back to the bulletin board and started to tape the next flyer in place.

 

[Lilisette Earnshaw]

Lizzie faltered a little. After all, she really was only a kid, wasn't she? It wasn't fair of Lizzie to try and argue with a kid. She did have to be older and more responsible, and the girl did apologize even if she had no intention of moving the posters she was putting up. And Lizzie wasn't going to stop her from putting them over the other candidates, as far as she was concerned, they were free game. She only took offense to them being over her work, as she'd spent time putting them up and was thoroughly convinced that her candidate was the right man for the job. "Oh, I already went down there," she said, airily. She guessed Bleak Street was kind of like Knockturn Alley, really. Somewhere she'd been told to steer clear of, but nobody down there had seemed to give her any real trouble. "I wonder why these were the only flyers up there, though," she added, more to herself than anything. She shrugged, putting one of her flyers over a Siobhan McGowan flyer, making a mental note to try and come back later to take down the Cade flyers or put more of hers up - a note that she had absolutely no chance of remembering to follow up on.

 

[Celia Vu]

As Celia smoothed down a piece of tape, she swore she could feel the woman staring at her. But she was counting on the woman not wanting to pick a fight in public with a kid (even if she detested thinking of herself as a mere child). To her surprise, the woman said she'd already hit up Bleak Street, and Celia glanced sidelong at her, wondering if she was lying. Though Celia was very curious to know what Bleak Street looked like, she knew better than to stroll in there while holding a bunch of posters supporting an auror.

"Well, there's not much point in flyering a hideout for dark wizards," Celia said, maintaining her cheerful tone. "But I'm not surprised Cresswell would want to try and appeal to them too." Maybe she should have kept her mouth shut, but she was feeling bolder now after the woman had given up so easily on the poster thing. Besides, it was true. As far as Celia could tell, Cresswell didn't have much in terms of plans. He seemed to enjoy deflecting questions with vague platitudes and promises to hear people out without ever touching on actual solutions. The other woman started to cover up a Siobhan McGowan flyer, causing Celia to smirk. "Not a fan of McGowan?"