WHO: Vincent Avery and Charity Burbage WHERE: Chess Club, Meeting WHEN: Wednesday, June 6th, 1979. 2:23PM.
He wasn’t sure what he was doing, coming here. Despite being the club’s president, it had been a long time since Vincent had shown up for a meeting. He’d always enjoyed Chess Club. It was a fond pastime, and it didn’t hurt that he was quite clearly the best one in there. But just like everything else in his life, that had all changed two months ago. He had retreated, disappearing deep into Diagon Alley. Work, home, sleep. Every single day. He hadn’t wanted to face anyone. Well, it was too late for that. Seeing Vivianne and Anastasiya had rattled him. It was all so different now.
He wasn’t going to hide anymore. At least, he wouldn’t hide like he had done before. Still, he hadn’t yet come to a conclusion on whether showing up to this meeting was a good thing or not. He loved Chess Club, but it wasn’t the same. He wouldn’t have Georgina, and that alone made everything so strange. Maybe he would quit. Maybe he would walk in there and take a seat at his usual table.
—- Or maybe he would sit by someone more unassuming, someone less likely to take things sour.
He glanced around, discreetly scouting the people around, trying to see if any of them were members of Chess Club. Specifically, the right members. Merlin forbid he make eye contact with Georgina or Vivianne. Would they even be coming? He tried not to let himself hope so. As this thought was crossing through his mind, he glanced towards his left and looked directly into the eyes of Charity Burbage.
@cbvrbage
Charity had realized that keeping up with her hobbies, the things she did outside of work and brooding, was important too. She had tried going without them for a while but had soon found out that she needed to distract her mind at times in order to keep herself from getting stuck. Chess truly was the perfect opportunity to do so, mentally challenging enough for her not to think about too much else and entertaining too. A lot of the members of the club were far more competitive than her but for Charity, the goal was not winning but learning instead. Chess was one of the oldest strategical games for a reason after all.
The brunette had arrived early, made some small talk with some of the other members and finally decided to take a seat already. The violence taking place outside of their meetings had made them a little awkward at times and Charity while being a pureblood, was very well known for her positions. There were people here she’d better avoid, for exactly that reason.
Taking a look around, trying to find one of her friends, her gaze instead found Vincent Avery. He hadn’t come to any of their meetings for a while so his entrance managed to catch the attention of quite some people in the room and Charity was just about to respectfully look away again when their gazes met.
He looked unsure, which instantly made Charity want to help him. From friends, she knew about what he had been through lately and while they had never really spoken before, Charity was interested in how he was doing. Without much hesitation, she offered him a friendly smile and gestured towards the chair next to her. It was enough of an invitation for him to come over if he wanted to but also to just ignore her if he’d prefer to stay for himself or with somebody else.
