Counting To Three (Open)

Today was Rowan's first day of Auror training. And frankly, it was not going well. She felt stupid compared to all the other auoror's, and that was not suiting well with her. Rowan wasn't stupid. She had been in Ravenclaw! If that didn't prove anything, then Rowan was doomed. She sat in the Atrium on her break and let a tear slip down her face. All throughout Hogwarts, she had known that being an Auror was what she was meant to do. If this was what it was supposed to be like, then she had no idea what to do next, because this wasn't what she expected.

Rowan took a deep breath pulling her long hair into a pony tail. She wondered if everyone else was going through what she was going through, or if it was just her. If it was just her, maybe she had picked the wrong thing to do with her life. And that scared her, because there was nothing more that she wanted than being an Auror. She layed her head down on the table and took deep breaths. Now was not the time to panic. She couldn't do that in front of her co-workers and boss, that would be unprofessional, and Rowan was anything but. She wiped away her tears, and counted to three.

That was a trick that her grandmother had taught her before she died when she was having panic attacks. She wondered what her grandmother would think of her right now. She was proving everybody right at that moment. That was not okay with her. She had to be the bigger person and prove them wrong. Her parents where not okay with her becoming an auror. They feared for her safety. She had high enough grades to become anything she wanted to be, and she had chosen the one thing that they had didn't want her to become. They would be okay if she failed, but she knew she would be disappointed in herself. Once again, she layed her head down on the table, and counted to three while taking deep breaths. And suddenly she felt ten times better.

OOC: Suzzy, I tried to set it up so you can join with Lucy, too, if you want, or not! Rowan, Rowan would probably recognize Hunter pretty easily, since they were in the same year at school and Hunter was pretty popular, even though she was quiet.

Work was a bitch. Not that it wasn't always, but the past few weeks of training had been the most grueling that Hunter had endured so far. Which was saying something, because up until now he wasn't sure that it could've gotten any worse. It wasn't even that it was taking up all of his time, like it had when he started. If anything, the hours had lightened up considerably - but the content of his training was now far more intense, and left him completely exhausted when the day was over. And unfortunately, according to his watch, the day wasn't even half over. When Lucy - who had thankfully been assigned to him the past few days - finally let him break for lunch, he breathed a sigh of relief. Truthfully, he missed the days when the sweat on his brow was from nothing more than trying to stay in shape. But  lately, it came from concentration, not duress.

"I'm starting to wish I hadn't bothered in those last couple years of school, you know," he said to Lucy as they made their way from training to the Atrium for lunch. "I mean, working at Zonko's my entire life wouldn't really be so bad," he added with a grin. Honestly though, for nearly his whole life, he hadn't given a shit about school, or his future. And now, here he was, giving up his time and freedom to pursue one of the most difficult jobs he could have chosen. When they reached the atrium, Hunter split off from Lucy. Sometimes, she stayed with him for lunch, and sometimes she went off to spend time with her older, not in training colleagues that didn't complain about their job the entire time like Hunter did. If she wanted to sit with him, she'd find him. For now, Hunter was entirely focused on getting a burrito.

Once he'd gotten his food, his eyes lazily scanned the area for a seat. Damn place was always busy. After a moment, his eyes found a table with only one person, and he started toward it before really looking at them. Though, it only took him a second to recognize the girl sitting there. Her name was Rowan, and they'd gone to school together. But she was a loner - she was in his year, he'd never hooked up with her, and he barely knew anything about her, so she had to be. The only thing he knew about her now was her name, that she'd been a Ravenclaw, and that she was an Auror trainee, because he'd seen her in the department earlier that morning. Raising a slightly amused eyebrow, Hunter slid into the seat across from her without bothering to ask permission. "Let me guess. First day?" he asked, his voice light. The corner of his mouth turned up a bit, though she wouldn't see it because her face was still buried into the table. "Well, let me be the first to tell you that it doesn't get much better, and you might as well say goodbye to your free time for what will feel like the rest of your life." It wasn't that Hunter couldn't be comforting. It was just that he only bothered to be with very particular people. "Rowan, right? We went to school together." Not that he really needed to point that out - it was pretty unlikely that she wouldn't recognize him, recluse or not.

Rowan jumped a little bit when she heard movement come and sit down at HER table. Rude. Normally someone should ask if they want to sit down, but NO. This person just came and sat down like he owned the place. Well, she was assuming it was a guy. Either that, or a very manly sounding woman. She rolled her eyes into the table to get it out of her system. When she looked up she scoffed. Of course. VanDerberg. She had went to school with the boy, and didn't particularly like him. He was too hot headed, and thought he was better than everyone. Why would he come and sit with her? Rowan decided to play nice, since now he decided to see that she existed. She said, "You should care about school. School set your future, and where you are right now. Working at Zonko's for the rest of your life would be a terrible idea. You would be miserable."

She nodded when he asked about it being her first day. Yeah it was her first day. She was miserable. And her face fell when he said it wouldn't get any better. She sighed and put her head back on the table. How could it get any worse than it already was? His advice was not at all comforting. What happened to "You'll get threw it!" Or, "It will get better in the end." Any of those would work better than what he was currently doing. Crushing her dreams. Oh. So he did actually know who she was. She nodded and said, "Hunter VanDerberg Right? Gryffindor?" She didn't need him to answer her questions. She had been in Ravenclaw. And Ravenclaw's knew everything.