Open your heart

[Justin Biermann]

Justin shifted uncomfortably at Bradley's sarcastic comment about his great-grandfather, but didn't say anything. He understood that growing up in that sort of family, you probably had to develop a dark sense of humor about it... but coming from the outside, from a family of Muggles no less, it still made him uneasy.

"Yeah, I've seen you drink too many Buds to trust your taste in anything, sorry," Justin laughed, suddenly back on his lighthearted 'take the piss out of O'Connor' kick. "I still vote that if anyone orders one, we ought to serve them dishwater, as that is essentially what they are asking for." He then reached out and high-fived Adriana. "Unless me and Truscott start our own bar, leave you in the dust," he joked. "But seriously, we know a good number of people who do music, and I agree, anything is better than karaoke. There's my flatmate Juliet, Noah... still think you ought to date 'im by the way, Adriana."

Justin looked apologetically at Lacey before helping another patron. As he shuffled past Bradley to grab a bottle of beer, he piped up, "Hey now, I won't stand to have you insult the best beard I ever had!"

[Lacey Holloway]

"Vodka and orange, thanks," Lacey said curtly before pursing her lips and staring toward the other end of the bar. "Mmhmm," she confirmed when Bradley asked her name, wheeling herself back around and boredly resting her chin in her hand. She looked a little confused at his comment, as she'd always liked Nat. "Really? You don't? I thought you purebloods were all about getting down with your cousins," she commented innocently, smirking with her straw caught in the corner of her mouth.

Her mouth fell into a small 'o' at Justin's drive-by comment. "Oh my God, that explains so much about that relationship. Ugh, why am I always the last one to know things?" She shook her head in annoyance. "It's nice that you lot are all still mates and do this pub thing or whatever. I hardly talk to any of those bitches I used to be friends with, you know?"

[Bradley O'Connor]

Bradley pretended to be offended by Justin's comment but then dropped the act with a laugh, "Fair enough," he conceded to the point about him drinking Bud, "Can I also add Fosters and Carling to the list of drinks we replace with dishwater if ordered?" Watching the other guy high-five Adriana then he narrowed his eyes suspiciously, "Already trying to steal the talent I've barely managed to book, I never thought you would stoop so low, Biermann," he said in a dangerously quiet, disappointed voice. Then, recovering quickly, "Noah? Oh right, he played Quidditch with us, yeah?" he checked if he had the right guy before spluttering slightly but coughing to cover it up, turning to Adriana skeptically, "You like him?" he asked.

Turning to add a measure of vodka to Lacey's glass he frowned, "Wait, there actually exists a girl who didn't hate Natasha? Well, I'll be!" Bradley said in mock surprise before snorting softly in amusement at her cousin comment, "Nah, we prefer second cousins," he explained sarcastically as he passed her over her drink. Turning to look at Justin when he walked past the blond nodded, "If you say so, but how many beards did you have that she rose above the rest as the best one?" he asked with a slight laugh. "You're the last to know things because you don't talk to any of those bitches you used to be friends with," he offered in counter, taking her turn of phrase and using it lightly in teasing.

[Justin Biermann]

"Noted," Justin said while looking with pointed disdain at the aforementioned beers. "I'll experience crippling Catholic guilt over it, if that makes you feel better?" Justin laughed.

He reached for a glass before looking at Bradley like he was insane. "Wait. How do you have a problem with Noah? Literally five seconds ago you barely knew who he was," he noted suspiciously.

[Lacey Holloway]

"Oh. Of course you do. Someone should tell Rhys," Lacey laughed. "The whole 'beard' thing is so stupid. Like, no one assumed he was gay just because he wasn't dating anyone. Who even cares, right?" she asked, trying to sound nonchalant and dismissive, though her voice had a high, panicky edge to it as she looked to Bradley for confirmation.

"Ugh. Fine. Touché," Lacey responded in mild annoyance while waving her hand around. "I still talk to older friends or whatever and there are people I have to see because we both work at the Ministry. I just get really sick of everyone sometimes and want to be left the fuck alone, you know? Does that make me a horrid person?"

[Bradley O'Connor]

Bradley adopted a thoughtful look for a moment, "Yeah, Catholic guilt really does make up for it," he agreed solemnly before shrugging, "Did I inflect on the wrong bit of that sentence? I meant... 'you like him?'. Better?" he asked Justin in an undertone before smiling at Adriana tightly as though nothing was wrong at all with the possibility of her liking Noah. I mean he didn't care at all, why should he? It wasn't like it affected him in any way, shape, or form.

He became a tad defensive then, "Besides, I know who Noah is... Coulson. I just mostly remembered him as that, instead of 'Noah', so sue me," he replied. Turning back to Lacey, "Rhys didn't get the cousin memo," Bradley laughed with her, shaking his head in amusement, "You know, he is never going to live that down, in fact I've made in my mission to make sure he never lives it down. And on the beard thing... I think it's unnecessary, just because you're single doesn't necessarily mean you're same-sex orientated, there are plenty of people who are gay who are also single. Most people don't make the assumption but... boys can be dicks towards each other I guess?" he shrugged. He'd had friends who had certainly made the assumption that if a guy was single, and clearly not interested in pursuing a relationship (or at least a quick fumble at a party), then they must be gay.

Bradley inclined his head as if acknowledging her 'touché' humbly before shrugging casually, "Wanting to be left the fuck alone sometimes isn't horrid, I'd say it was a natural defence mechanism," he offered lightly, "So people irritate you then, eh? Every single person or just a select few?"

[Lacey Holloway]

Lacey frowned. 'Boys can be dicks towards each other', besides being a sentiment she probably could have pieced together for herself, was not entirely applicable to her situation. "Were you ever a dick to other guys? About anything, I mean. I'm not going to get on my high horse and judge you or whatever. I once called Lillian Turner a lezzer because of her boots," she admitted, looking down at her nails. Lacey felt absolutely miserable about that, but it wasn't obvious from her nonchalant tone, and all that horrible guilt and the reasons why she joined in on the teasing were far too complicated and personal to get into during her free therapy session with the guy behind the bar.

She sighed and shrugged. "Oh, you know. Just my mum, and my siblings, and people who think I'm a vapid idiot, and guys who can't take a fucking hint, and basically everyone I interact with at work... but other than that I'm a ray of freaking sunshine all the time," she finished sarcastically.

[Adriana Truscott]

“Aye Bradders you better watch out, I might steal this one away from you,” Adriana said gesturing to Justin as they spoke about running off and creating their own bar and leaving Brad in the dust. Adriana blushed as Justin said he thought she ought to date Noah. “Nah, we’re friends and, he doesn’t like me that way,” she shrugged, “He has a great voice though, and his band is pretty good, you should totally have them sing here, or do a gig here,” she suggested nudging Brad.

At Bradley’s skepticism she shrugged, “Well, yeah, he’s nice. I don’t like him, like him if that’s what you mean. We’re friends,” she said a bit defensively. “Yeah, what is your problem with him really?” Adriana asked almost teasingly, taking another sip of her drink.

[Grace Cohen]

Grace reappeared having brought up another heavy crate of beers Justin had miraculously concocted. “These were the ones you will need for tonight, right?” she asked setting the crate down with a relieved sigh. “Oh, hey Lacey,” she smiled seeing the girl, “How are you? How is Ministry life treating you these days?” she asked conversationally.

Overhearing their conversation about their cousins she shrugged. “Beards happen a lot in pureblood families, my Aunt Mildred has been a beard for my Uncle Neville for years.”

“Noah is a nice bloke, I think you two would get on Brad,” she mentioned restocking the shelves behind them, and busying herself with work. She would have piped in on Lacey’s conversation with Bradley but felt that so far he was doing a relatively good job about it. Though some of her actions sounded very familiar to her own. Grace had once (alright more than once) ridiculed other people because she was confused about her own sexuality and frightened that being called a lezzer or having others know she was into girls and guys would ruin her reputation. During her time at Hogwarts Grace had been a very different person, a lot more mainstream and popular, though her snarky, cynical side did flourish from time to time. It wasn’t until seventh year that she returned from the summer holiday wearing nearly all black and sporting a bellybutton ring and a few tattoos. Both Natalie and Simone, her two first girl experiences, the latter being the love of her life, had left and Grace was feeling rejected and acted out all throughout her seventh year. Doing drugs and hooking up with as many people as possible probably wasn’t the best way of going about it.

((ooc: Sorry it has taken me so long to reply and that these are rather crappy but they are there lol.))

[Bradley O'Connor]

"Steal Biermann and start up your own place? Listen very carefully," he paused, leaning over the bar, his gaze locking onto hers seriously, "Over... my... dead... body... Truscott," he emphasised each word, maintaining his faux-serious warning glare before he became casual again and looked between Justin and Adriana when they talked of Noah. Admittedly he was looking more at Adriana for her reaction to Justin's suggestion that the two of them ought to date. "Don't think I've ever heard Coulson sing, didn't realise he could. Though to be fair I only knew his Quidditch abilities which weren't shabby so..." he trailed off, trying to be very casual and shrug his way through the whole thing, hopefully move the conversation away from Noah Coulson at some point. The fact Adriana blushed was not a good sign.

"Sure, band, sure. We seem to be bouncing off ideas about live nights so, why not... I've said you can help, you want responsibility for it all? You're much more into performing, music, all that stuff than I am so... talk to him, get him on-board, Justin can talk to this Juliet and we'll have a pretty good bill already," Bradley suggested, making to turn back to Lacey before he sighed at Grace's addition to Adriana's question, "I don't have a 'problem' with him, who said I did? I don't know the guy that well, how can I take issue with him if I barely know him?" he posed the question as though such a thing were preposterous but Bradley had in his time hated many a person he'd never even spoke to. It was a tad amusing to hear him say such a thing now.

Leaning on the bar opposite Lacey he continued finally, "Of course I was a dick to other guys," Bradley replied with a simple kind of honesty, "Anyone who says they weren't, is lying. It's mostly a bravado thing, gang up on the single lad and rip into him using anything you can. I was part of that, no point in denying it. I'm not saying I'm proud of myself for it, obviously," he pointed out with a shrug of his shoulders. "Lillian is awesome though. She's not a lesbian but you know what? If she was, who cares, whatever, I think you get past all that drama once you leave Hogwarts. Besides, if I was going to get all homophobic I'd be turning on my own brother who has finally 'came out' though I don't know if it really counts as coming out with Matt..." he trailed off in bemusement, looking to the others for confirmation that yeah everyone already knew Matt was a little bicurious from the minute he knew what sexual attraction was.

Nodding along in sympathy, "Oh yeah, parents, siblings, colleagues, general male population... sounds about right," he agreed with an amused smirk, "Well your sunshine nature is brightening up this bar, I can tell you. Though it's nice to have a bit of stone cold realism once in a while, you might have noticed optimism and idealism isn't really my bag."

[Adriana Truscott]

Adriana looked thoughtful for a moment as she rested her chin in her hand, “We could arrange that,” she supposed aloud and then laughed. “Juliet is good too, you will have a nice mix of music if you have all three of us, and by three I mean Noah’s band,” her eyebrows pulled together as she tried to remember their name, “I think they are called the Leonardo Dicaprio’s now,” she shrugged, “I have been called them Nonames for the past few weeks so…” she trailed off with a shrug.

Adriana rolled her eyes at Bradley, “Okay Mister ‘I am reformed,’” she teased with a smile. “So does that mean we should all gang up on you and rip into you?” she suggested, assuming Bradley was single, she hadn’t seen a girl fawning all over him lately. At his comment about Matt she nodded, and gave a rather noncommittal, “Yeah.” She sipped from her drink, “I don’t think it’s even in your wheelhouse, or maybe your vocabulary,” she added a bit mockingly to Bradley, she couldn’t help it.

[Bradley O'Connor]

"Right so Juliet's stuff is a bit more... complaint rock... rock-chick-y yeah?" Bradley asked hesitantly, not quite sure how to word it - point is, girl liked Alanis Morrissette and Adele which equalled 'scorned woman hits back greatly through song' as far as he was concerned. Not that that was a bad thing, just different to his usual wheelhouse when it came to music. Not that he knew the first thing about music so, really, his role here was just to say 'yeah you can all play here' and then sit back with a very much mainstream bottle of beer, as ever. "Well, book 'em, why not, just tell them not to introduce themselves as the Leonardo DiCaprios... I don't even want to go there with that name... I assume it's ironic?" he shrugged it off, utterly confused by it and not willing to linger on that feeling. He liked music in a sort of passing way, he was much more into sports, and his ineptitude when it came to anything musical was painfully obvious at times like this. Huh, so that's another thing this Noah had over him. Not that he was keeping score, nope, no sir!

He became defensive then, "Hey, I didn't say I was reformed like that, I just meant I'm not quite as dickish as I was when I hung around with the likes of Carl and Liam at Hogwarts. Right, right guys?" he asked, looking to Justin hopefully for confirmation of this. "Pff, you assume I'm single, Truscott? And you know what people say about assumption, right? Look, you know what, gang up on me, make snide remarks about me, I don't really give a shit because you know I could say all the same back to you. Unless you've got a secret boyfriend you're not telling anyone about, hmmm?" he teased lightly. In the past it might have been a slightly spiteful, harsh kind of teasing but there just wasn't as much hatred or genuine malice in Bradley's tone any more - he had softened since graduation, whether people like Adriana would admit it or not.

"Fuck off," he said but good-naturedly, accompanied by a laugh and a shake of his head, "I know the meaning of optimism and idealism thank you very much, I just don't subscribe to them, Truscott."

[Justin Biermann]

Justin held his hand to his heart as Adriana and Bradley mock-argued about stealing him away. "Well, don't I feel like the prettiest girl at the bar," he deadpanned. The bulk of Justin's attempts at comedy seemed to center around the contrast between his words and the coma-inducing monotone from which his voice rarely strayed, no matter what emotion he happened to be experiencing at the time.

He went to grab drinks for a couple of girls before turning back to the group, just as Bradley mentioned his brother. "Matt came out? To your parents? That's great! Tell him I said congrats. Look, you might not think it's a big deal but... you've never lived it. It's a major step," Justin said sincerely.

"To be fair, 'less dickish than Carl and Liam' is faint praise, mate," Justin said with one eye squinted. Now there were two guys who had decidedly not 'gotten past all the drama' after leaving Hogwarts. He tried to minimize his interactions with them, if he could. "I dislike you slightly less than when I first met you, and I can only hope you'd say the same for me," Justin laughed. He did genuinely like Bradley as a person, but it had taken both of them changing a lot over the past few years to get to that point. If Justin was an uptight, morally superior, insufferable know-it-all at age 21, he was a million times worse (with exactly none of the self-awareness) at 11.

[Noah Coulson]

Wandering into O'Connor's, he was relieved to immediately spot Adriana sitting at the bar and Justin and Grace serving behind it. He knew Bradley vaguely from Hogwarts, sure, but he'd never actually been in his bar until now and now it was mainly only because Adriana had mentioned she might pop in for a drink. Fresh from a band practice over at Elliot's new university house (something his house mates had appreciated, despite their protests he was sure), Noah's guitar bag was slung over his back as he appeared. Holding his hand up in greeting to the girl, "Hey Ad! Tracked you down quite easily," he smiled as he pulled up a barstool beside her.

"Hey Biermann, can I get a beer? Nothing too heavy but expert's choice other than that," he gave the other guy free reign to pick a drink out for him (it had worked quite well at Sam's party after all) whilst he bent to stow his guitar under the bar and then straightened on the stool. Noah turned to Adriana, "So how's it going then? Damn I forgot uh- I meant to remember to bring you this book of sheet music I found in the shop the other day, looks pretty good, right up your street. I'll drop it by your place later," he offered.

[Adriana Truscott]

Adriana brightened as she saw Noah enter the bar. “Noah!” she enthused with a broad smile, “You made it,” she said having mentioned that he should join her earlier before she headed to O’Connors. “Oh, love the hair, were you doing another rehearsal?” she asked teasingly, knowing quite a few Uni girls often came to watch them, or more appropriately Greg, practice on occasion and sometimes Noah had been prone to actually looking in the mirror before going over there, “wait,” she fussed with the front part of his hair, “There, perfect,” she laughed resting her chin on her hand, not even bothering to look over at Bradley. Listening to him talk about music as she sipped on her drink she nodded along. “Oh lovely. I’m heading home after this I could take it with me if you like, or if you wanted to be a gentleman you could give me a ride home,” her tone could have easily been misconstrued as flirting. Rethinking this plan as her home was a crappy whole in the wall she added, “Actually never mind I can just take it, apparating is so much faster.”

Then taking another sip she added, “Noah we were actually just talking about music and you and me, and Juliet and your band. We think your band should play here, you know, have a proper gig,” she nudged him. Glancing back at Justin and Bradley she nodded “He is really good.” Then back at Noah, “C’mon you are brilliant! You have a great voice, much better than Greg’s but don’t tell him I said that or I may have to murder you,” then looking back at the others she shrugged, “What? He may be a dick, but he has great hair. And he’s a good kisser. Oh, don’t look at me like that it was a Christmas party and we were standing under the mistletoe,” she said as if it were no big deal that her snogging Greg was public knowledge. “Honestly with as many girls as he has “accidentally bumped into” under the mistletoe I’m surprised he hasn’t caught anything.”

Then Adriana suddenly had an idea, “Oh, oh, you should do an audition,” she told Noah her eyes widening with excitement, “Yeah, oh, you could do one right now!” she nodded at him and then back at Bradley and Justin as if this was clearly a good idea and they should say yes to it. Not taking no for an answer she slipped off her stool. Then giving Noah a bemused ‘haha very funny’ expression, she nudged him, “C’mon, I’ll sing with you and you could play your guitar. I need to audition anyways, don’t I?” she looked to Bradley for confirmation. “You can just hide behind my brilliance and fame,” she teased Noah to try and make him feel less awkward, she had no fame whatsoever. Walking towards what would be the small stage. “We can sing that duet, the Coldplay song you like, the Princess of China?” she asked. “Get your cute arse up here Noah, I can’t sing both parts, well I could but it would sound really weird,” she teased.

((ooc: hope that was okay, I can change anything. This was a bit crappy, I blame the fact that it is really late and I am sleep deprived lol.))