June 23, 1888 — The Leaky Cauldron
Sydney Podmore

If his job wasn't working him to exhaustion, his newfound feelings for February Lynch were. He'd never paid enough mind to a woman to keep her in the forefront of his mind, especially while he was working; it was keeping him on the edge, simply because he wasn't supposed to be seeing her. The Minister had said as much; she was a distraction and a potential cause for scandal—and he'd said that without knowing of the full extent of their involvement. The feeling of her hands in his hair and lips on his was still clear in her mind, and Merlin was it a distraction indeed. After a long day of dealing with everything, Edric decided he was in need of a drink.

And his drinking buddy? Sydney Podmore.

The man was not but one year his senior and—from Edric's knowledge of his life and personality—just as useless on the romantic front as Edric had been for the majority of his life. Both of their jobs (Edric's auror position and Podmore's as one of those high-up healers) provided an temporary excuse for their lack of matrimony, but he didn't doubt that the thought of marriage had begun to find its way into the healer's mind.

"Still wasting away at that hospital, eh?" he asked casually and without any seriousness in his tone. He took a sip of beer from his pint; it would be enough to make him feel buzzed without being wasted (and Merlin forbid he go spouting things like feelings when a woman's reputation was at stake).

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— set by MJ! —

Being in London sometimes had its perks. He was very conveniently kept out this fog nonsense, which was a plus, but it mean the hospital was getting all of the overflow from Hogsmeade that they couldn't handle without magic. Treating a small battalion of people after a troll attack demolished Honeyduke's was no small feat after all. Most of the ward was still full of people recovering from that.

Needless to say, Syd needed a drink and as luck would have it, his old school mate was in a similar situation.

He didn't frequently haunt the Cauldron, but every once in a while it was alright, if a big dingy. "Hey, I got promoted long before you did, mate." He chuckled, leaning back in his seat in an attempt to stretch out sore muscles. "A belated congratulations to you for that." He raised his own measure of whiskey in salute. "Hell of a time though, you must be barking mad to take that." Taking the Head Auror position while half of the magical community of Scotland was under a layer of mysterious, magic-inhibiting fog was a ballsy move.  

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I wasn't sure it was possible, but he's even more yummy, by MJ ♥
Podmore Zoological Gardens - Irvingly

Edric smirked. "Exactly my point. Dealing with whining patients—" Not that he could say much; he'd spent enough time in St. Mungo's over his years as an auror. "—has to take a toll on your patience, yet you're still there." Despite having earned the grades to pursue a healing career, it was never in his disposition to do so; he didn't have the patience to handle people who proclaimed to know more about his job than himself.

"And you've got to be some level of mad to go into the auror training program anyway," he joked, the corner of his lips turning upwards into a smile. "I suppose fourteen years on the field has driven me even madder. I wasn't foolish enough to turn down the opportunity, though; those offers don't come every day." And Merlin be damned if he passed on the offer simply because of the 'situation'.

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— set by MJ! —

Syd scoffed. "You forget I have a lifetime of dealing with Clinton and Vera." Those two were enough to test anyone's patience, especially growing up. "If I'm lucky they're unconscious and I don't have to deal with the whining." That was harsh, and not particularly true, but it was an option. "Besides, that's a perk of being administration, I don't always have to deal with patients directly." Also he could hand them off to someone else if he wasn't strictly needed.

Leaning forward again, Syd rested his elbows on the table and took a sip of his whiskey, listening to Edric reason out being crazy. They were all some level of crazy, he supposed. "That's true enough." He wouldn't have been caught dead in the auror program. That was not his shtick.

"True again. Fourteen years of anything would drive a bloke to drink." He laughed and took another sip of his drink.

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I wasn't sure it was possible, but he's even more yummy, by MJ ♥
Podmore Zoological Gardens - Irvingly

Edric rolled his eyes. He'd dealt with enough unconscious people to relate to Podmore in that respect. Being unconscious was better than being combative or trying to handle the situation without the assistance of trained professionals—unless they were February Lynch, in which chase he found both qualities appallingly endearing.

"Unfortunately being the head auror doesn't get you off duty most of the time. You're just responsible for coordination and everyone else's mistakes, from what I've gathered," he explained. That was probably a lie, but he 100% expected to be blamed for other aurors' mistakes during this time of chaos.

"It doesn't matter, anyways—I don't need an excuse to drink," he chuckled, raising his pint.

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— set by MJ! —

Nodding along, Syd could see where he was coming from. Having been in an administrative position for a little while himself now, something was always his fault whether it was actually his fault or not. He had to wonder if that would change when he got Healer In Charge.

"Excuses are for the weak." Though Syd had a couple he could think of. Work was one, a pretty brunette was another. The latter was... well his own fault and he was trying to figure out what to do about that. He took a pensive sip of his whiskey, thinking about asking about Umbridge's personal life, but decided he didn't really want that question turned back on him.

Instead he settled for, "I see you've been in the paper a lot lately." Syd mentioned it casually, though there was a glint in his eyes that clearly said he was curious.

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I wasn't sure it was possible, but he's even more yummy, by MJ ♥
Podmore Zoological Gardens - Irvingly

Edric smiled at the comment; there were few who received such an expression, and most of them were his drinking buddies. Alcohol was one of the few methods to get him to relax, and it was unfortunate that Ministry policy didn't allow it when he was confined to the office for the majority of the day.

Unfortunately, Podmore's next words wiped the smile off his face and prompted a eye-roll.

"It would figure, wouldn't it? 'Gone my whole adult life without a hint of trouble—without even being known by many people—only to have my face plastered there twice in a week's time," he sighed, picking up his drink to tack another swig. "...At least one of them was for something good, right?"

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— set by MJ! —

Syd snorted as he leaned back in his seat. "I mean the first one didn't make you look bad, not really." Syd shrugged, still smirking a little bit. Truthfully he'd only skimmed the article concerning a Miss Lynch. "But I don't know the whole story, nor do I need to." He held up his hands to signal he was ambivalent. He'd learned long ago not to go prying into people's personal lives. It irked him beyond reason when his mother or sister did it to him and so he would not go any further than that.

"But the promotion is a big deal, in the middle of this Merlin-forsaken fog. I cannot wait for this nonsense to be over. There hasn't been much overflow, Mercy Magical gets most of that, but it's been an adventure." Not to mention they were down staff. Thankfully the hospital in Edinburgh was easier for the Hogsmeade residents to get to.

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I wasn't sure it was possible, but he's even more yummy, by MJ ♥
Podmore Zoological Gardens - Irvingly

It was hard to think about February Lynch in the context of his job when he was still reeling from the memo (and the subsequent meeting) he'd had with the Minister over the matter. Part of him was angry at himself that he'd allowed himself to be embroiled in scandal he didn't need; part of him was angry at himself that he'd spoken to reporters, which, much to his dismay, had only made things worse; and part of him was bitter that the Minister was interjecting himself in his personal matters. Perhaps what annoyed him the most was that the Minister was right, at least in regards to his carelessness, and knowing that led him to doubt himself.

He took another long, drawn-out gulp.

"You wouldn't believe any of it anyways," he all but laughed, flashing a wide, carefree smile at his friend. The least he could do was act happy; he didn't want to be That Guy who came and moped at the pub with his friend. "I've got this nagging feeling that taking the promotion is going to bite me in the arse when this is all said and done—or at least I'll be taking the blame for something."

Maybe it would be his fault. Maybe it wouldn't.

"I imagine you've got it rougher than some, even outside of work. You got a brother stuck down in Hogsmeade, don't you? His family, too?" Edric didn't have siblings, nor any extended family whose names he could recount, and thus only worried about him and his father.

Publicly, at least.

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— set by MJ! —

Syd could only take a sip of his drink and shrug. It wasn't any of his business and it didn't seem like Edric was inclined to share anyway. Syd was pretty good at skirting around personal things; he had a lot of practice.

"Welcome to administration, that's our job." Was all Syd could laugh out as he raised his glass. Ever since he'd taken the assistant head position he'd been much more mindful about what he said and did, in regards to his employees, his professional presence and a whole host of other things. People needed to have faith in their hospital staff and having a bad reputation was non-option. It would be the same for Edric in his new position.

At the mention of having family in the fog, again Syd could only shrug. "I'm not too worried about Hudson and his family. He's probably enjoying himself." Who knew? The pair hadn't ever been particularly close, given the age gap, but it was their mother that would do enough worrying for all of them. "I'm sure Clint's running around the ministry like a chicken with its head cut off. I hear Morwenna Skeeter isn't all that easy to work for." Which was probably good for Clint, really. Everyone else was perfectly fine in London, as usual, though his mother was also lamenting the impact on the social season. Syd wasn't too sad about that.

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I wasn't sure it was possible, but he's even more yummy, by MJ ♥
Podmore Zoological Gardens - Irvingly

He would have much rather preferred a position where he could boss people around without being blamed for their mistakes, but such positions didn't exist - not even in the sort of dictatorships that he'd read about growing up. He supposed he could blame the multitude of changes in his life - from obscurity to prominence, from loneliness to an actual relationship. He just needed to learn balance, and without making a fool of himself in the process.

No more of that topic, though.

"Hudson's the professor, isn't he?" he chuckled. "They say Hogwarts turns its professors into a crazy lot - he's probably reveling in the mystery," he teased, if only to help soothe his friend's worries. "But you're right about Skeeter. They say she has ridiculously high expectations for merely dealing with creatures. Imagine the poor bastards running the lower offices - they don't deserve that."

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— set by MJ! —

"Considering I see the people who don't have ridiculously high standards for dealing with creatures, I appreciate her approach." Syd laughed as he drained his glass, eyeing it carefully, wondering if he should have another or call it quits. "Also dealing with Clinton requires... a firm hand, as he is one of those poor bastards running one of the lower offices." His brother was well, opinionated and pretty good at his job, but it didn't hurt to have somebody above him who was going to keep him on track.

Syd set his glass down, deciding against another round and leaned forward in his seat to stretch out his back. "I'm beat mate, I think I'm going to have to call it, unless you desperately need another round." He admitted wryly. Syd wasn't as young as he used to be and he liked to be in bed at a certain point in the day. Basically he was turning into an old man. It was fine.

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I wasn't sure it was possible, but he's even more yummy, by MJ ♥
Podmore Zoological Gardens - Irvingly