Gerti laughed outloud when she reached the Seating Area and saw that she was the first one. Well now, she HAD woken up early to come to this debate before it had started. Gerti made her way to the front row so she could see the debate pavilion better.

AW

Making her way through the nearly empty seating area, Emmanuelle was startled by a sudden laugh. Looking over at the woman that the noise had come from, she just shook her head. Okay, staying far away from her. Honestly, who laughs just because they were the first ones at a place. Sure it was nice to be able to chose your own seat, but most people just chose the seat quietly with only a comment to their friends.

Anyway, she chose a seat in the middle. Where everyone knew the best seats were. And far from crazy laughing lady. Reflecting on how nice it was to be back in Hogsmeade, this time as an adult. Though she did give the student area a slightly longing look.......

Leaving the backstage area Livia made her way to the 'General Seating Area' to find herself a seat with good view of the platform, the proceedings and most importantly her candidate, Atticus. She paused to scan over the rows of chairs. In the front row a woman (Gerti) was cackling loudly for some unknown reason. And there was another woman (Emmanuelle) already seated in one of the rows in the middle.

Choosing a seat in the first row, but on the right side and very far away from the loud woman Livia wrinkled out her dress, sat down and busied herself with viewing the program for the debate.

His candidate was ready. He had no doubts where that was concerned. All he had to do now was sit back and enjoy the debate. If he was correct the students at Hogwarts helped to organize this whole thing, yeah? He nodded in approval. They didn't do a bad job. Not at all.

After leaving the backstage area he made his way to the seating area where a woman was having a good laugh...with herself...Mhmm...nothing strange about that. He eyed her, wondering if someone might have slipped her a potion and he would have tried finding out too but for two reasons he didn't; 1. He had a debate to focus on and 2. It didn't particularly interest him. Nate looked around. He might have sat in the middle but he needed a good view so the front it was.

"Hello." He said briefly to the woman in the seat next to him. Didn't he see her backstage just now. Ah, another manager. "Nathaniel Black." And with that he extended a hand to shake.

So there was a debate on in Hogsmeade, eh? Wes was interested. He had studied politic-like things at university, and he was a Hogwarts alum. Naturally he wanted to see what all the to-do was about, so he brought the wife and kids along.

Hey, don't judge. They were good kids. They wouldn't make a peep. Wes had one on one arm don't ask him which, they were still identical at this stage and was holding Izzy's hand with the other, leading the way through the little pavilion.

They couldn't have made this place any bigger, huh? Wes grunted and came to a stop in the middle/back of the seating area. "Here good?" Well he was going to sit down, anyway. He kept a balance of the toddler and adjusted the little guy's hat, turning him around so he could see the action too.

Well this would be nice. A nice little family outing for the Fergusons.

This was Isobel's first real outing since she had been unzombified. She'd spent a couple of days in her department, ensuring things hadn't collapsed within her absence. Luckily it hadn't. Not too much anyway. She planned to move on stead fast with things after christmas. Now she needed a little break at least. She'd been cooped up in that ministry for far too long. Sure she loved her job, but she hadn't really wanted to live in the ministry. It had been rather boring. But this debate was certainly going to be interesting.

She held the other twin in her arm, glancing around Wes to ensure her other son was okay. Of course she trusted her husband, but she'd been without her twins for a while, and wanted to make sure that they were okay every single moment of the day. The poor boys were going to be sick of her. "Here's fine." She nodded with a smile, taking a seat next to Wes. She settled her twin onto her lap, leaning him against her chest. She glanced up at Wes. "Do you know who's running?" Because she'd kind of been out of the loop for a while.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RachieRu

This was Isobel's first real outing since she had been unzombified. She'd spent a couple of days in her department, ensuring things hadn't collapsed within her absence. Luckily it hadn't. Not too much anyway. She planned to move on stead fast with things after christmas. Now she needed a little break at least. She'd been cooped up in that ministry for far too long. Sure she loved her job, but she hadn't really wanted to live in the ministry. It had been rather boring. But this debate was certainly going to be interesting.

She held the other twin in her arm, glancing around Wes to ensure her other son was okay. Of course she trusted her husband, but she'd been without her twins for a while, and wanted to make sure that they were okay every single moment of the day. The poor boys were going to be sick of her. "Here's fine." She nodded with a smile, taking a seat next to Wes. She settled her twin onto her lap, leaning him against her chest. She glanced up at Wes. "Do you know who's running?" Because she'd kind of been out of the loop for a while.

Wes noticed Izzy leaning around him to look at the boy, so he bounced him on his knee a little. See? He was fine. Kid was fine. A little bundled up, sure, but he was breathing and stuff.

"Yeah, a lot of people are still in it," he replied, squinting at the stage a bit to see if they had all made it up there. "Althea's running." Izzy probably didn't know that, since she'd been a little... loopy and drooly, as of late. "And some of our other coworkers. Roxanne from my level, Lourdes from Games & Sports, uh...." He looked over at Izzy. "That old man from Mysteries, you know him, he rolls around but doesn't talk much..."

What was his name? Grant? No... "Sherman!" Yeah, that was it.

Isobel had to laugh a little as Wes bounced the boy up on his knee. She smiled at her husband, using one hand to run her finger over baby's cheek gently. He was fine, she trusted Wes. Baby was okay. For now anyway. She kind of hoped they wouldn't cause too much trouble. They tended to be a little troublesome. Maybe they'd decide that they wanted a little nap later on, because that would be totally fine with her.

Izzy figured that maybe she should have had a little read of who was actually running before coming here. She had been a little preoccupied though. So she figured that it was okay. "Thea's running?" Izzy still needed to go and talk to Thea. Patch things up. She really missed her best friend. She frowned a little as Wes talked about Sherman. "Rolls about?" Okay. so he did kind of do that. "It's called a wheelchair dear." But she was glad he was running. Sherman was good guy.

"Well let's hope they do good to the school whoever gets elected." Because her kids would be coming here, and she wanted it to be as good as it had been when she'd come here.

Tamara had arrived a while ago and was trying to avoid people... just people in general. HA! Not a great place for it. But truth be told, there was only ONE reason why the Scamander woman was in attendance today, and that was to see her lovely cousin Althea.

...

And when Tam spotted her she immediately narrowed her eyes. What the hell? Why was she smiling like a fool? This was NOT the Althea that she loved. Althea was not bubbly and THAT smile looked bubbly. What was really going on here?Tamara would NOT be happy if there was some funny business going on with her cousin. Not. At. All.

Izzy and the children were just too cute together, really. Wes vaguely wondered why he had ever doubted her abilities as a mother - not that he was going to go and say that out loud now. Instead he leaned into her some and gave her a little kiss on the cheek.

"I missed you, Iz. I did." He leaned back with a smile. Yeah yeah, Sherman had a wheelchair. "I knew that," he half fibbed. "They all look like good candidates, well the ones I know, anyway. We'll have to see if their answers are any good at this debate though."

It was then that he remembered the program he had sat upon just a few moments before. Wes kept one hand steady on the baby and pulled out the agenda from under his bum with the other. "Here, hun," he grinned and passed it over his wife. "You can read allllll about 'em here."

Yeah they'd better do good for Hogwarts. He didn't want to go intervening in any more time thief cases, for example. Wes nodded in agreement there.

Isobel turned her attention to Wes as he kissed her cheek, and she smiled at him softly. "I missed you too." So much. They hadn't spent much time apart since they had gotten together, and it had been pretty hard. Even more so with the babies. She'd felt so guilty, leaving her boys. She was here now though, and determined to make it up. Although it wasn't like they would really remember. So that was something really. "I missed the boys too..." She murmured, hugging her baby close. She was so thankful for her sister, knowing that they wouldn't have made it through the last couple of months without her.

"I'm sure Thea's will be good." Iz laughed, glancing down at the program Wes had given her. "Mmm..." She mused a little as she read through it. Very interesting. Just needed to see how they would answer the questions now. They might look good, but it would all depend on how they acted here. Isobel would have her eyes on them.

Talking about having her eyes on people, she glanced up noticing that Thea was up there. "Hmmm...." She frowned a little, watching Thea for a few more moments. "There's something up with Thea."

After that quick trip form the Ministry of Magic, Zach found himself in Hogsmeade for the Candidate's Debate. He had received the program and agenda a week ago.

He looked and checked the general seating area where he is planning to seat. When he looked, Alas!, Ministry of Magic employees!

This will be exciting! he thought as he walk towards the general seating area. He picked a seat near the stage, he smiled as he passed by the Department Heads nodding at them.

He then took a seat and prepared his notebook and pen - things that might come in handy.

So debates, yeah they weren't really Ashley's thing. She still came though, a mixture of curiosity and responsibility forcing her into it. She eyed her department head as she passed the stage and gave her a small smile, knowing the woman was perfectly capable of representing herself. Althea had done an amazing job with their department since she'd started and the blonde was eager to see her in this kind of setting. You go, girl.

Ash made her way to the general seating area and sat down, placing her clutch in her lap. Yup...so this was it, huh? And cool, people seemed to be chatting with their family members or significant others and Ashley didn't have either of those with her. Nothing like being reminded of the fact you're alone to boost your mood...Sigh.

At least there was food at this thing.

...There was food, wasn't there?

The only reason why Derek was there that day was because of his boss. Really. Oh, and there she was already. Huh.. was she alright? The young man gave her a polite and quick nod as he walked to the right side of the seatings. That was where he was supposed to seat, apparently. At least the other side was just filled with Hogwarts aged kids, so...

"Hi." Derek greeted hi co-worked like the normal person he was not. He knew that the place would fill up pretty quickly and that he would end up sitting with someone anyway, so at least it would be with someone he already knew. And hopefully wouldn't talk to him a lot.

So there he sat and waited for... anything to happen.

Hawk Ebony had great interest in this debate, he had been watching news of the candidates for months in the paper. And Carter was one of the candidates, she had been one of his co-workers in the MLE when they fought the Cultists. Hawk pursed his lips angrily at the memory.
He made his way down the first row of chairs, stepping around people as he went. He actually looked intimidating, being six feet tall and wearing a black robe that left the top of his hairy, battle scarred muscular chest visible. He often boasted of how large his chest and arm muscles were at only 30.

A woman seated on the right of the front row instantly caught his attnetion. He saw her face for just a moment, but in that moment he thought she looked like his girlfriend who had been arrested months befor. But he looked at her again, and the thought left his mind. This wasn't her, but she did look a little like her because of her stature and face. Hawk decided he wanted to know about her, just out of curiosity.

He sat down on the chair right behind her, someone was already sitting right next to her. "That's a very beautiful dress you are wearing Miss. It fits you."

Honora just could not take the smile off of her face, even if she wanted to. This was so FUN! She should probably find a good seat in the front, whether there be a splash zone or not, and that's just where she headed when she came out from the backstage. After grabbing one of the programs, Honora almost floated her way up to the front, feeling like she was on a cloud for all this excitement.

She took her seat in the second row, behind two people.

Honora sat quietly. As long as she could....

Before leaning forward, head sticking right between the woman and the man. "Hey, Hi, Hello." the red haired woman giggled, glancing between the two. "How are you guys? Are you excited? This is so much fun, thank goodness we have this glass enclosure, huh?" Putting a hand on either of their shoulders closest to her, Honora beamed and shook them a little, leaning back in her seat.

Right before leaning back to invading their space again. "Have either of you been to a debate before? The excitement is killer!"

DEBATES RULE!

Even though Livia was seemingly busy reading through the debate program it didn’t mean that she wasn’t aware of what was happening around her. She heard and sensed how a man took the empty seat next to her. Over the top of her program she shot him a bright-eyed and bubbly smile "Helloooo!"

Taking his hand in both of hers she chirped enthusiastically as she shook it vigorously "It's a pleasure to meet you Nathaniel. I’m Livia Frost, campaign manager and zoo keeper." Releasing his hand to gesture with her program she bubbled on "Isn't debate’s fun? I wonder what that big tank is for. Do you know what the tank is for?"

Livia studied the tank with keen bright-eyes for a moment before she turned her attention back to the good looking dark haired man "Are you a campaign manager too?"

Hearing a voice coming from behind her Livia spun around in her seat excitedly to at first stare at the man’s hairy scarred chest for a moment. Watering her lips she raised her eyes to meet the man’s with a bubbly smile "Thank you very much it’s made by an upcoming designer and friend. Paul has always been good at making clothes and knowing what suits people best."

Pointing a red nail-polished finger at the man’s chest Livia asked curiously still bright-eyed and smiley. "What happened to your chest?"

Livia felt awfully bouncy and joyful at the moment. This was an amazing day. The debate was about to start and two men were chatting to her. They probably thought she was pretty and a girl needed to feel pretty. When a red haired woman’s head stuck out beside her Livia gave off a loud good natured giggle. "Hi, Hello, right back at you!"

"I'm feeling awesome. How do you feel? Debates are super exciting and so much fun. I can’t wait for it start you know?" Livia bubbled on to the red haired woman almost bouncing up and down in her seat. Grabbing the woman’s hand when she felt her shook her shoulder Livia squeezed it tightly before letting go "I have been to a debate before but this excitement and being the manager of one of the candidates taking part makes it so much more special and tense."

Debates were EXCITING!!

It had been what seemed like eons since Renée had set foot in Hogsmeade. In fact, as she thought about it, she realized she might not have been back since she’d left teaching, possibly since even before that. Namely, the last trip she’d taken here that she could remember had been when her relationship with Jared had officially moved past a question, and that movement forward was evident by her companion for the day. She could very easily have gotten Gabrielle to babysit Seraphine, but her relationship with Jared’s sister was likely as good as his own was and instead she had chosen to let the two-year-old accompany her on this trip. Sera was a good girl, anyhow, when she wanted to be, and the fact she’d been allowed to bring her bunny along helped immensely. She suspected the bunny was a stand-in for her father, but Jared had had to work and she knew that Sera understood that in her own little way.

In any case, the trip had distracted the little girl anyway, seeing as Renée had thought they were never going to make it to the debate before it began. Of course, she’d done her share of looking around at all the shops again as well, but she had the memories. This was her baby’s first trip here, and she figured they’d need to wander a bit after the debate was over with. First things first, and she scooped the toddler up as she arrived at the seating area. She didn’t want any getting lost now, especially not when there were strange women cackling about something or other. She was going to stay away from her, and she looked around for a good place. Only to land on a couple with two other young children, which made her smile. At least she wasn’t the only one to bring their child to the event, but she took a seat a row or two in front of them. It looked as if the debate might be starting soon anyhow, so she wanted to get comfortable before that happened.

Of all the debates in all the world, Derek seriously had to walk into hers? Seriously? The blonde shrugged and gave him a smile, thinking it was actually better now that she knew someone here. They could just support Althea together? Well not together but...together. Yeah. Besides, Derek's quirkiness could actually make this thing sort of entertaining, yeah?

"Hello." She said, glancing at him and then back up at the stage. "How are you?" Still annoyed by most people and things? Ash was sure that was the case though she hadn't seen him in a while.

And then introductions were being made on stage and the blonde clapped politely for those mentioned, smiling a little at the younger ones. Yup, she remembered being at Hogwarts. Those were the days.

Jade wondered into the debate area, she couldn't believe that she was "convinced" by Althea to attend this--especially after the weeks she had with the zombie infection. Seeing that there were children, Hogwarts students, around made Jade frown. Although she supposed that they were entitled to witness a debate about who would make the decisions that affect them in particular. She just wished that she had had the guts to say no.

As she wondered towards the general seating area, which thankfully was for the adults mostly except for the odd family here and there, she spotted Derek and Ashley from her department. At least Jade would have company in her misery since she knew that Derek wasn't happy to be here either and well Ashley was always good for a chat.

She walked up to both of them, "Hey Derek and Ashley. Fancy meeting you here." She laughed, "What a turnout huh?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by RachieRu

Isobel turned her attention to Wes as he kissed her cheek, and she smiled at him softly. "I missed you too." So much. They hadn't spent much time apart since they had gotten together, and it had been pretty hard. Even more so with the babies. She'd felt so guilty, leaving her boys. She was here now though, and determined to make it up. Although it wasn't like they would really remember. So that was something really. "I missed the boys too..." She murmured, hugging her baby close. She was so thankful for her sister, knowing that they wouldn't have made it through the last couple of months without her.

"I'm sure Thea's will be good." Iz laughed, glancing down at the program Wes had given her. "Mmm..." She mused a little as she read through it. Very interesting. Just needed to see how they would answer the questions now. They might look good, but it would all depend on how they acted here. Isobel would have her eyes on them.

Talking about having her eyes on people, she glanced up noticing that Thea was up there. "Hmmm...." She frowned a little, watching Thea for a few more moments. "There's something up with Thea."

"I know," Wes said simply, not wanting the moment to get TOO sappy. They were in public, after all. "The boys missed you too," he did say though, putting his big paw on the head of the one he was holding. "But don't worry, they probably won't remember this when they're older." Heheh. That was a joke, see? Keeping things light.

He looked around at who else was arriving to watch the debate and noticed a crowd of workers from Althea's department, surprisingly. Several of them had been quite helpful during the recent crisis. Wes thought he might go thank them later, even if they were just here to wave 'TEAM THEA' banners or whatever.

"Something up with Thea?" Wes repeated, pulling his eyes up to look at the platform. "What do you mean?" And how could she tell from here? C'mon.

Abigail just had to come to the Debate, expecially that her little cousin Sarah was one of those students organising it. She loved having wizarding famiy, being a muggle born herself, yet when she found out that she had a second cousin who went to Hogwarts as well, had children and now her children were in Hogwarts, Abigail was happy. Also, she had something for Sarah. The two had been in contact via owl for a while already, as Abigail had known the Edwards since her earlier days of Hogwarts when she first visited the Edwards farm and was at once drawn to the loving, affectionate, funny, warm family who had the brightest children and of course spunky Sarah who was chatterbox even then. That fiesty kid had became a surrogate little sister to Abigail, neither of them having sisters. Now ickle Sarah was on the planning committee. In one of her very long letters to Abigail (Sarah's talkative traits came out in letters as well) she had mentioned two things... one about spending too much money on a book at an auction and the other thing was about the debate they were planning. So Abigail knew that she was attend the debate and while she was there get some extra cash to her cousin who fretted about money too much.
She clapped loudly when Sarah was mentioned and she even saw her cousin in the programe which was so cool. Now Abigail had to listen to the debate... which was probably going to be very interesting

Looking a bit apprehensive, Alistaire Firth slid into the back row of the seating area. He'd had a bit of a situation to attend to with his pet, Bonny, but otherwise he was normally very prompt. Glancing around, he didn't see anyone looking at him. Good, maybe no one noticed my late entrance.

It appeared that the debate had already started. Great, now he'd missed some invaluable answers. Or, well, maybe not so invaluable by the sounds of some of them...

Botros took his time walking from the entrance and across the hall, he'd hoped to bring one of his grandchildren to give him a hand in case he needed help with something, like squirming through crowds to get food or drinks. Neither one of his old enough grandchildren wanted to come, though. Their parents had their own jobs too, not to mention that no one was in London. No problem, though, he could manage with his charmed cane and runic charms hanging around his neck under those clothes. At least his arm and leg progressed remarkably.

By the time he arrived at the seating area, professor Muggle Studies was welcoming everyone and announcing the start of the debate. Good thing he hurried and took only two minutes from the door! He took off his hat and plopped down on one of the seats, resting his cane and hat on top of each other on his knee.

Let's see how those English wizards and witches did their debates.