Volunteer for the Olivia St. Culpo campaign. If anything rang true, it was that Benjy didn’t have much of a usual. Organized protests, debates throughout the castle, letters upon letters being sent to anyone who wouldn’t listen, trying to get in the papers. It ranged from grassroots to sporadic, but if this one was unquestionably official.
He was still fighting for someone who felt like an underdog. There wasn’t a single cause of hers he disagreed with; few that he thought should be brought to the forefront. He was learning the game of getting someone elected, slowly but surely, and while she’d already won his vote, she wasn’t the only candidate who’d won his support.
Slumped next to him on the ground was his bag sporting buttons for Moonfall, Dodge, and Cloven alike along with St. Culpo—featured most prominently and twice. In his eyes, there were three seats to be filled. If people disagreed with him in this regard, then any of the other three would be excellent candidates for the other two positions.
Cloven felt weak, like a bit of an obligation given how much was going on in the world around him and his misaligned priorities. Education was the lynch pin to reform; Benjy believed that, but wishing they were past that point didn’t change the fact they were. Moonfall even a step further behind with the mess of the prison system needing to be acknowledged and tragic but something that should come with other priorities.
All the same, it could be worse. Tara Norwood and her dangerously well masked bigotry. Leland Talbot and his military state. Not to mention his wariness of anyone who seemed ready to put the well being of business first.
He was exhausted. It was worth it.
It was always worth it; it had to be. He was used to seemingly fruitless flyer-ing and the invisibility that came with holding a clipboard. He could get discouraged like anyone, but he refused to let it stop him. Insurmountable odds, the world constantly pushing back against him. Poisoned not weeks before hand and refusing to quit as he always, always, always did.
He pushed off the wall he’d been resting against, set his jaw, and ignored his slight unsteadiness on his feet that came with chasing that rabbit.
“Do you have a minute to talk about Olivia St. Culpo? She’s the only candidate who can be said is doing not just enough but above and beyond for progressive reforms.” Most of it fell on deaf ears, but that wasn’t what silenced him now. He recognized trio. It wasn’t their first pass, and he caught the red flags immediately. They were chatting, taking their time and watching him openly now that he was paying attention.
To his credit—or perhaps Gretchen's—he moved fast enough, wand in his hand in time to get up a shield. He wasn’t about to throw the first hex but was ready with the second except they hadn’t come at him with magic, no. It was wet—brown paint going right through and hitting him squarely across the face and chest, dousing his materials.
He reached up to wipe his eye and realized no, not paint. Mud.
“Mud?” Benjy shouted after them. His papers fell to the ground, but his grip on his wand only tightened. “You fucking, lowlife cowards.” He knew he could go after them, could pick the fight further. His hand twitched, but no. Even if he felt confident enough in his dueling to take on three in a market where people would too happily turn a blind eye, he wasn’t going to strike first. If it could be called that; it was technically an assault.
“Cretins,” he said, sticking to words. He wiped his sleeve across his face, trying to just get some off until he was comfortable lowering his guard to properly clean up. “It’s not enough to dehumanize me.” It was. Every damn time, it cut and lingered until he could shape it into something bearable, something usable. “It’s not going to stop this.“
Alice felt like the time since New Year’s had both been on fast forward and in slow motion. She couldn’t quite explain the sensation, but she could quite simply tell you she didn’t like it. It felt like something had shifted irrevocably with the events of New Years. So many things had happened in the last year, but somehow this had hit her like nothing else. Perhaps it was because she’d had a front row seat to this event or that the entire Auror department had a front row seat. She knew how meticulous the security had been and how thorough the planning had been. Training had seemed to have taken on an added edge a greater sense of purpose and as for the Order. Well, something had shifted in her what she had imagined was one thing was clearly something else entirely. Instead of feeling like there was something to dread or an obligation she found herself glad to have some way to help. Which is how she found herself in Hogsmeade, not with any real purpose other than to be another pair of boots on the ground another pair of eyes on things and a wand at the ready were it necessary. All, of course, in that kind of casual way that looked like nothing more than her usual random wanderings into Hogsmeade.
Political posters seemed to be everywhere both support and opposition, though Alice wasn’t sure she felt like the opposition posters were necessary it was nice to see everyone passionate about the decisions ahead of them although there were some on the ballot that made her far more nervous than others. She was trying to decide where she was heading when movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. She wasn’t exactly certain where the mud had originated from and if she were doing something for the Auror office she would have gone straight for figuring out who had been responsible for it. However, since she wasn’t she headed instead of where it landed. Stopping as she got to Benjy pulling off her scarf, “Are you alright?” She asked him gently as she offered her scarf to clean him up, her instinct was to reach out and do it herself, but she also knew not everyone wanted someone invading their space. “I didn’t see where it came from, but honestly they’re probably not worth it. But I’m sorry it happened.” Her eyes strayed to the flyers in his hands “I’m afraid those might not clean quite as easily as you, but we can give it a go.”
