m. bulstrode

I'm a fact checker at the Daily Prophet. Don't bother me unless you're bringing me coffee.

[swipeupforpansyparkinson-blog]

“Oh boo hoo. They just can’t stand being told that they got something wrong.” Pansy could easily delight in whatever misery her friend was causing the writers at the Prophet. “It’s your job to make changes. I’m not suggesting you do something that would get you fired. I’m just saying, Millie… they better not try belittling our House again this year. You may be the only person working here who cares enough to be honest about what happened to our Slytherin friends that day.”

[swiped-mbulstrode-blog]

“Like I said...I’m going to do the best I can. It’s my job to suggest changes to the information they’ve already chosen to present, not to suggest a completely different take on the article.” Millicent wasn’t like Pansy - she wasn’t one to just stick her neck out for what she thought was a good cause. “Maybe someone should write their own article with an opposing view,” she said with a raised eyebrow. “Pen names are supposed to be all sorts of fun.”

[swipeupforpansyparkinson-blog]

“Because they ran the same story this time of year last year too,” Pansy said with a roll of her eyes like it was obvious. “To your employees, our trauma is nothing more than money to be made.” She took a sip of her coffee before continuing, her gaze falling upon the piece Millicent was currently working on. “You know me, I’m normally I don’t care if the gossip is true or not, but when the Prophet publishes bad gossip it becomes slander. Slander against you, me, our friends… Slytherins…” She turned her gaze up to Millicent’s face with a meaningful look.

[swiped-mbulstrode-blog]

“Fair point.” Millicent reached out for her quill, stopping what it’s basic grammar corrections, and set it down. She dried the ink with a flick of her hand, the spell simple enough to not need her wand, before shutting the folder it was in. “I do the best I can, but I’m technically just meant to be making sure everything is accurate. The writers aren’t thrilled when I make content changes and they go crying to the editor...” she trailed off, looking to Pansy with a shrug.

[terrybootus-blog]

Fighting not to lean back in his seat, Terry watched her spin back toward him after ordering another drink. She was comfortable in the atmosphere of the bar much more so than him, although he’d had a lot of practice for a couple months now. “So I see you don’t listen as well as think too highly of yourself,” he commented. “Believe me, I don’t think you’re better than anyone.” What was he doing? Someone needed to stop him.

[swiped-mbulstrode-blog]

“You wound me with your opinion.” She rolled her eyes at him, obviously unaffected. “Why do you get so much pleasure out of trying to irritate me? You just keep making yourself look more foolish.”

[swipedgoyle-blog]

“You’ll never believe what some guy’s kid did. He apparently got happy enough to make a trash can grow legs, and it just ran down the street. I’m surprised only three people saw it.”

[swiped-mbulstrode-blog]

"A trashcan? Why a trashcan?”

[swipeupforpansyparkinson-blog]

“Double-shot of espresso. You’ll be wired after this.” Upon reaching Millicent’s desk Pansy handed over the takeaway cup, then perched herself on the edge of the desk with her own coffee in hand, slim legs crossed and brown leather heels dangling just above the floor. “You’re working on a piece about the war today, aren’t you?”

[swiped-mbulstrode-blog]

Millicent took the proffered cup gratefully, downing the espresso with more enthusiasm than she showed for basically anything else.  She dropped the cup into her trash bin, turning back to Pansy with a smile. “Thanks.” She turn back to the pile of folders on her desk, adjusting them into a neater stack. “How did you know that?” She didn’t think Pansy had been on the list of people that the writers had been sent to interview, but maybe she was wrong.

[terrybootus-blog]

Now normally Terry would back off, relieved he didn’t need to keep putting himself through this humiliation. But he remembered the last time he’d encountered Miss Bulstrode and something inside him wouldn’t let him shut his mouth. “So exactly how long have you believed you’re better than the lot of us?” he asked with a sardonic smile.

[swiped-mbulstrode-blog]

Millicent narrowed her eyes as Boot’s voice pulled her away from her thoughts & her drink again. She took a moment before she turned back to him - downing her drink and nudging her glass towards the bartender, knowing she’d get a refill without having to ask. After that was done, she turned back toward the source of her annoyance. “I’m not sure who ‘the lot of you’ is meant to imply,” she said with a raised eyebrow, “or what exactly you think I’m better than you specifically at, but I’m sure it’s true.”

[swiped-mbulstrode-blog]

@swipeupforpansyparkinson

“I know you didn’t come to see me without bringing coffee.” Millicent didn’t need to look up to know that it was Pansy at her office door - no one at the Prophet wore heels, and Astoria usually owled before she visited.

[terrybootus-blog]

He felt himself bristle at her words. “I’ll have you know my tolerance is quite high. This happens to be my tenth pint.” Hearing himself speak actually mortified him. Why was he telling her this? And yet he couldn’t stop himself. “Believe me, I can take care of myself.”

[swiped-mbulstrode-blog]

“I’m sure you can.” Her voice was dry, the sarcasm obvious to anyone who was listening. She turned back to her own drink, swiveling away from him.

[terrybootus-blog]

“Is there such a thing as oversharing when everyone is drunk?” Terry questioned, not recognizing the voice at first. He spun in his seat and nearly jumped back when he saw Bulstrode giving him her famous disdainful glance. “Fuck,” he gasped, heart pounding.

[swiped-mbulstrode-blog]

Boot’s obvious terror at her presence was almost enough to make Millicent want to smile - she truly enjoyed striking fear into people’s hearts. “Maybe some of us should’ve stopped two drinks ago. I see you’re what we call a lightweight.”

[terrybootus-blog]

“I really need to get laid.”

[swiped-mbulstrode-blog]

Millicent turned to scowl at whoever was next to her, her frown deepening when she realized it was Boot. “You’re oversharing quite a bit there.”

[swipeupforpansyparkinson-blog]

“That makes sense though. Just about every witch and wizard in the UK went to Hogwarts. Unless you get paired with, like, a foreigner or a way-older guy, you’re def gonna know them from school. I’d totally go for a hot foreigner by the way,” she sighed. “It’s something about the accents that get me going.” Pansy considered Millicent a moment. “Who would you pick, then? If you had to suffer through a date with anyone you know from Hogwarts?”

[swiped-mbulstrode-blog]

Millicent knew that Pansy was factually correct, but sometimes the idea of knowing everyone drove her insane. She didn’t like most of the people they’d gone to school with, and bar leaving the country there was no way to really avoid them all. She felt tempted to answer Pansy’s question with a fake answer, someone like Pansy herself, or Tori, or someone totally ridiculous like Harry Potter, but she knew Pansy would force her to answer the question one way or the other. “I think it would be preferable to be forced to go out with someone I don’t know so well, maybe a Ravenclaw? Merlin, who even knows any of their names? Honestly, Pansy, it would be easier to ask me who I don’t want to suffer through a date with.”

[swipedtracey-blog]

“Because I make questionable life choices, clearly.”

“And also because I needed coffee.”

[swiped-mbulstrode-blog]

“Coffee does heal all wounds.” She studied Tracey for a moment, setting her own cup of coffee down on the table she was at. “Do you want me to go get you one?” She wouldn’t usually offer but the other girl looked pretty pathetic at the moment.

[swipeupforpansyparkinson-blog]

“Are you sure? Because I can think up a million and one excuses for you to abandon your pretty date and curl up at home instead.” She’d thought that Millicent would want that. Unless her friend secretly wanted to give the date a go. Pansy smirked and kept that thought to herself. “I have a date. Not at the same time or place as you, I’m sure. If there’s any truth to these Mirrors, then my date is both ambitious and decisive. I don’t know about ‘decisive’, but ‘ambitious’ sounds like he’s a Slytherin.”

[swiped-mbulstrode-blog]

Millicent just shook her head, more than happy to let the conversation move onto Pansy’s date. “If you’re lucky it’ll be someone we didn’t go to school with, though I feel like the only people I ever see at from Hogwarts. It’s like we’re the only people in London.”

[swipedtracey-blog]

“I don’t think I’ve been this hungover in my entire life.”

[swiped-mbulstrode-blog]

“Why’re you out in public, then?”

[swiped-mbulstrode-blog]

swipeupforpansyparkinson:

“I know, and I feel sexually frustrated on your behalf.” Pansy groaned in an over-dramatic nature at this. “Alright Millie, just because you’re my friend I’ll give you an out if you want it. I can hang around in the area and if you really want the date to end, give me some covert signal and I’ll appear to whisk you away to where you can be your asocial self again.”

“Oh, Merlin, no thank you. That sounds far worse.” She shuddered at the thought. “The idea of you lurking around to spy on me...or worse, deciding to join in the conversation? That won’t be necessary.” She knew Pansy meant well, but she also knew that good intentions weren’t always all they were cracked up to be. “Besides, won’t you be busy with your own mirror dates?” There was no way Millicent would believe that Pansy hadn’t touched her device.

[swiped-mbulstrode-blog]

swipedlily:

                          “Nope, still hate it. Should probably learn how to act like you care, friend.” Lily smirked at the look on Millicent’s face, pouring the coffee and sliding the mug over to the other girl.

“Oh, I know how to care...I just don’t care to act like I do,” she replied, raising an eyebrow at her own stupid pun. “Thanks for the coffee,” she added, wrapping her hands greedily around the mug and taking a sip.

[swiped-mbulstrode-blog]

zawesomesmith:

He did the same with his own glass, relishing the quick burn of the whiskey. It wasn’t half bad, meaning that no immediate criticism came to mind. 

“Cheers,” he managed late, after downing his own. “None of them are exactly in diapers, that was a bit of an exaggeration. Ages seven to eleven, but I take down to five for private lessons.” Zacharias grinned at her distaste, happy to have found someone who seemed to keep pace with his drinking. “I’m a juvenile flying instructor, which yeah, but I’m my own boss and I keep my own hours.” It wasn’t that he loved his job, or could admit that he liked what he did for a living, but he was proud of how he did what he did. Namely on his own terms. 

“So, what gets you out of your flat then? I thought a toddler in the right light could get a lady to go anywhere.” 

Not only did he work with children, but he taught flying? The idea was mildly horrifying to Millicent - there wasn’t that she disliked more than those two things.

“I’m not a lady,” she replied with a lifted eyebrow, “so the thought of seeing children doesn’t work on me. I work for the Prophet,” she added in answer to his question. “I’m the primary fact checker, so basically I sit in a cramped office and correct people. It’s fairly blissful so long as I’m left alone.” She knew her job wasn’t appealing to most people, but she really did like it.

“Other than work, I can generally be persuaded to put clothes on for the promise of a strong drink,” she said with a shrug. The second shot of firewhiskey was calling to her, and she reached a hand out to pull the shot glass closer. She wondered idly if he could keep up with her drink-wise. “Are we going for a delayed sort of drunkenness, or more of a speedy ‘lets avoid thinking about our mediocre realities’ situation?”