Opposites Attract (Bri and Gene)

Briony didn't really know what to do with herself these days, after having it out with Richard she had settled back into being her normal cold self and she was glad of that, she wanted to be able to go back to how she was.

Waltzing up to the bar she held up two fingers and two whole bottles of firewhiskey were placed in front of her.

Ah they knew her well here.

Paying for them she took a seat next to the fire and poured the first shot of many that she would be having that night.

"Yes... Yes... I know... Anyway, I need to go to work now... Bye!" He hung up the phone on his wife, and grabbed a handful of floo powder and flung them into the fireplace, and said loudly, "Three Broomsticks!"

With a great swirling, he fell out of the fireplace and landed in the Three Broomsticks, and picking up his briefcase, he saw a fellow professor, the usually cold, unfeeling Briony Romain was there. Everytime her eyes focused on him in school, it sent chills down his spine and made him feel like fleeing to the nearest classroom and hide with the students.

Coughing, he ordered a Butterbeer, and decided to try his luck to warm up to this teacher, they have been colleagues for years, and he can count exactly that they had exchanged words in sentences. And he was late for her wedding as well.

Sitting directly across her, he smiled.

"Hello, Miss Romain."

Briony looked up as a new voice entered the room and she looked over him as he walked over to get a butterbeer. Of course she knew who he was, they had been teaching in the same school for years.

"Professor Downie."

Inclining her head towards him Briony chucked back the shot without flinching and welcomed the warming feeling the alcohol sent through her system, it was comforting and she craved more.

"I suppose you intend on sitting with me?"

She asked with her gaze tacked intently to his even as she poured a new shot.

Christ... This was what he hated the most. He knew she was a little more of an anti-social, other than to her husband which actually means that making conversation with her would be ten times harder than the average human being.

He sat down across her and nodded steely, and sipped his Butterbeer.

"Anything new in Hogwarts, Professor Romain? I haven't been there for a good term or so. Business. Personal business." He asked, returning the look she was giving him.

Briony watched with cold eyes as Gene sat down opposite her, she blinked softly and she bit her lip, swirling the Amber liquid around the glass and she quickly downed it, feeling more relaxed than she had been in a while.

"That's good, I was beginning to get bored of watching men slowly get pissed and make fools of themselves."

Shrugging her shoulders Briony knew nothing of Hogwarts since she hadn't been there either, she had also had personal business to attend to, and she was glad to be going back and terrorising kids.

"I haven't been there either, on matters similar to your own."

"Uhhh..." He had no idea what to say after this, she effectively killed off any means to communicate with her any further.

"Well anyway, I uhh... Well took sometime off to pursue higher education. You? If it's too personal, you can choose not to say!" He smiled, and sipped the butterbeer, before pulling out some papers to fold origami.

Briony smirked at Gene and relaxed a little bit more, she didn't mind the man, he just took some getting used to and she was just slipping into her moos where she could do that easily. Before who knows what shed have done.

"Higher education? What did you study?"

Tipping back yet another shot Briony shudders lightly the alcohol beginning to take effect on her senses and to make her feel generally more sociable than she would have been normally. Then, very natter of factly she sighed.

"I had a miscarriage."

Briony gave up on shots and just tipped the bottle into her mouth.

"I went to pursue Engineering. I want to build something big and scary at the basement of my house one day..." He joked, and drank more from his Butterbeer.

"Oh.. I am sorry... I lost my child too you know..." He smiled sadly, and looked at the floor and blinked foolishly at it for a few moments, steeling himself, before he decided he couldn't take it anymore, and he reached into his bag, and took out a bottle of Whiskey, and drank from it, as the warm liquid ran through him.

"Do you know what is a Vocaloid?" He decided to abruptly change the topic, and he smiled.

Briony wasn't surprised that Gene was into this sort of thing, he didn't strike her as a very academic sort of man. So she looked carefully at him while he spoke, her gaze not leaving his face.

"Sounds interesting to tell the truth."

It was a little interesting, so it wasn't a total lie.

"Mhmm nothing can compare."

Briony chugged back some more firewhiskey and looked at the abandoned shot glass which looked instantly smaller than it had done before, mostly because it was not big enough to hold her intake size.

"No...what is it?@

"Oh..?" He said and didn't further comment on his higher education path. She seemed more interested in staying silent, it seemed to him, for now at least.

"Mhm..." He said, drinking more from the whiskey before bottling it and grabbing the Butterbeer again.

Energized by a positive response, he placed the Butterbeer aside and clasped his hands together.

"Well a Vocaloid is a virtual singer. Such as by having a hologram sing a song that is generated by a computer. But the holograms would look like anime style, which will generally appeal to a largely youthful audience."

Briony saw that because of something that she had said Gene was now happy and was going to go on and talk about it to her, she didn't mind, afte all she did say she wanted to know what it was.

"Oh so it's a musical programme? Interesting. Why don't you just play your own?"

She herself played at least a bit of most musical instruments, but mostly string and percussion, brass just didn't do it for her.

"Anime? What is that?"

It was then that Briony realised that she was trying to entertain a muggle concept and it made sense then why she hadn't heard of it, after all she didn't keep up to date with muggle inventions.

"No it's actually a voice. A computer voice. Sometimes, humans can't do certain things such as making your voice go so high that it is almost impossible. And anime is uhm... Japanese cartoon. You should watch some one day. Such as Ouran High. They are amazingly entertaining and pure awesomeness for hours." He rambled, smiling to himself.

When the hype died down, he gulped.

"You think I'm weird right?"

Briony looked at Gene and blinked a little, she almost sighed, this man was a total muggle enthusiast and she really didn't get what the big fuss was about because they seemed totally useless to her.

"Well, that would be hard, I don't have a television."

Shaking her head Briony bit her lip and she took another swig of firewhiskey.

"Yes, I do think you're very weird."

"Alright... Alright... I get your point... You hate muggles right..? Your husband is Head of Slytherin... And husbands and wives are similar in some areas, so I guess you can't take my muggle nonsense..." Gene said bluntly, for he knew this woman was probably unfeeling to the point where she would prefer criticism to be dished right in her face

"I know I am weird... I prefer the company of my students than my colleagues half the time. Well, I think it I shouldn't trouble you with my weirdness anyway." He stood up, slightly irritated because skepticism was written all over her face, and he himself was getting annoyed that there was so many pure blooded supremacists out there.

"Well, good bye and good luck to your future endeavors." He said with a smile and turned to leave.

Briony watched Gene stand up to leave and she looked over her bottle of firewhiskey at him, trying and failing to control the anger that was dwelling just below the surface of her skin, she let it out, all directed at Gene.

"You know nothing about me, and yet you judge me, but you are right, I do hate muggles, but you don't know the reason for that and you know what annoys me? All these wizards going around thinking that pure bloods are the worst thing to happen to muggle rights when most of you don't know anything and just think that you're the best thing since sliced bread."

Taking a breath Briony glowered: "But you'd be wrong."

"If its over a personal matter to hate an entire race of muggles, there really is no point in it. And no, I don't think I care much for pure bloods being uber superior to them. If only everyone could exist in harmony, that would really save us from all the extra crap. I apologise if I was too blunt. But that doesn't change my initial statement. And lucky for you, my kind is in the great minority. Farewell." He pushed open the door and turned to leave, inwardly hoping that he could meet her in a better light still.

But hard, it was. He knew it was a near practical impossibility.