Julian walked along Diagon Alley, his blue cape falling from his tall frame in rich folds of soft wool. The silver clasp at his throat was engraved with tiny snowflakes, the symbol of his house and several small sapphires winked from their settings. The scent of coffee and freshly baked bread flowed across his nostrils, rich and tempting making his stomach grumble as he turned towards one of the small café's and took a seat.

"I heard that the French minister for culture was a victim to it.." A voice behind him gossiped as the waitress walked over to take his order.
"No.. No.. It was their minister for the interior. You know…" The voice lowered. "their spies."

"Whatever he was.. If it can strike as high as that, then are the rest of us safe?"

indeed.. Are we? Julian thought as he ordered a coffee and a baguette and drew out his paper.

"Why it's De Winter isn’t it?" Julian cursed inwardly and looked up from his paper, the man standing before him was short and stocky, the dark blonde hair and green eyes identifying him as Marcus Lynch. "I don't know if you'd remember me, but I know your father."

Julian gave a polite smile, he certainly knew Lynch and his father hated him, pureblood snob that he was.

"May I join you?"

Julian hesitated for a brief instant before answering, "I'm sorry I'm waiting for someone… in fact.." He glanced over the crowd and he found a face. "They're here now." He beckoned the stranger over.

Ron was once again feeling burdened from the reams of paperwork he had to wade through as Deputy Department Head of Level 2, the MLE. However, he had grown tired of escaping to the Atrium, or the Leaky Cauldron. There was always someone there who knew him and had just the type of questions for him that he was trying to escape from as well. Besides, it was the middle of the day, and he had no desire to assault his senses with a firewhiskey andd then return to work slightly inebriated. He was sure that it would make the process of writing comments on the reports go moree quickly, but he didn't think his comments would be that useful.

So Ron through on an old cloak, one that wouldn't make him stand out in a crowd, outside of his shock of red hair of course. As he travelled toward one of the cafe's in the Alley he nodded politely at a few of the people who did recognize him. He brushed by a group of people who were onviously talking about some type of disappearance. Obviously, not something I want to get involved in, thought Ron. He wouldn't get a chance to breathe, let alone drink. He got to the spot where he would shout out his request, and while he was considering his selection, he saw a curious man in a blue robe, who was being accosted by a couple of other persons. Inexplicably, the man in the blue robe seemed to latch on to his face, and shouted out a greeting. Just who the hell is this guy and what does he want hith me, Ron thought, as he flashed a smile of feigned, but friendly recognition.

OCC - I can delete this if you want to talk to another character than mine!

"Don't worry I saved you a seat!" Julian said to the newcomer, indicating the seat opposite. His eyes flickered up to Lynch and he continued smoothly. "as you see, my friend has arrived, perhaps we can meet up another day."

Lynch looked across at Ron, raised one sneering eyebrow and pulled back. "Of course De Winter.. I wouldn't dream of interrupting you further. Please tell your father that I enquired after him!" Marcus pulled his robes straight about his shoulders and turned to walk away.

"I will certainly inform him." Julian replied as he watched the older man start to walk off. After several moments, Julian turned to face Ron and smiled ruefully. He did recognise the red hair, who else but the Weasley's had that hair colour, but he didn't know the man personally, he felt slightly bad for dragging the poor fellow away from the queue and he hoped that the man wouldn't hold it against him.

"I'm sorry about that!" he apologised as the waitress placed a cup before him. "I only came out for a spot of lunch and I really didn't want to spend it with that..." He nodded briskly in the direction of the departed man.

"individual and I'm not very good at coming up with excuses on the spot." He settled back in the seat and drew the cup towards him, an apologetic smile on his face.

"I'm Julian De Winter and I sincerely apologise for subjecting you to any inconvienience.!"

"Don't worry I saved you a seat!" Julian said to the newcomer, indicating the seat opposite. His eyes flickered up to Lynch and he continued smoothly. "as you see, my friend has arrived, perhaps we can meet up another day."

Ron could easily see that the person who had hailed him was desperately try to escape from these individuals. The one who was speaking had a definitely snobby tone to his verbal attitude. So Ron made the split-second decision to come to the blue-robed one's aid. The snobby sort always reminded him of the Malfoys, and they always got under his skin. He thought that resonding in an official tone would be the best line of attack. "Why thank you .... that was quite thoughtful of you .... I had forgotten how busy a place that this could be." Suddenly Ron turned toward Lynch. "I could not help but hear the line of conversation that you were pursuing. As deputy Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and an Auror, it is my earnest advice to you not to discuss your theories about these disappearances in the public square, unless you have pertinent information about the disappearances which should be brought to the attention Ministry and investigative officials. Since we are all working for the good of the wizarding community, I am sure that none of us would want to be seen as being a negative or a destructive force, now would we. Good day ..... gentleman .... enjoy your lunch," implying that they enjoy it somewhere else, far away.

"Well, I certainly won't miss them one little bit. Now ..... exactly who the hell are you and what was that all about?," he inquired quizzically. "Your apology is if course accepted. I can surely understand why you wouldn't want to waste your lunch with them. Who exactly was that anyway? He reminded me of a particularly annoying pureblood that I went to Hogwarts with. By the way, I'm Ron Weasley. I'm very happy to accept your invitation .... besides it will give you some time and opportunity for you to answer my questions, as well as recover from the contact with those 'old friends' of yours."

Julian looked up at the newcomer and nodded, Ron Weasley! He had just accosted the best friend of Harry Potter, had he been prone to bouts of fandom, he might have sat there silently starstruck, however Julian wasn't given to fits of hero worship, so he indicated the seat opposite and smiled at the man.

"I'm Julian De Winter!" He didn't elaborate on his name, the De Winters were a famed pureblood family whose line stretched back a thousand years. "I'm a healer at Mungo's and that..." He pointed in the direction of Marcus Lynch.

"was Marcus Lynch, currently married to the widow of John Spicer and all round snob. He's utter poison!" He indicated to the waitress to bring another coffee cup and continued with his story.

"Lynch takes every opportunity to gain access to our family secrets. When we used to hold balls, he would attend only to try to steal from our library." The De Winter house had an extensive library and was currently being borrowed by several members of the ministry to help their investigations. If there was any information to be found on unknown magics, it could be found in the library of the most scholarly family in pureblood society.

"I could have spent the entire conversation fielding his attempts to find out what my sister is working on, or if we have found any particular volumes of interest, but I'm on my lunch and hungry."

Ron had noticed 2 waves of recognition in the man's eyes. The first was the most obvious ...... he had caught him first staring at his ginger-red hair, and so he knew it was likely that he knew he was a Weasley. When he told him what his name was he saw the other hint of recognition in his face. He knew to most people that all the name was that he was the close friend of Harry Potter. He wondered if this fellow was like most people.

De Winter? The first name meant nothing to him, honestly. Obviously he had never been in trouble with the authorities, at least the Aurors in the MLE. His last name, however, was quite prominent, in a variety of ways. They, of course, were one of the most well-known and probably respected of the pure-blood families, and quite wealthy as he remembered. He found it curious that this one did not want to suffer the company of others, who at first glance, appeared to be quite snobbish purebloods. He could be an interesting person to get to know, he considered

“Thanks for the coffee. St. Mungo’s, eh? I don’t know hardly any folks over there, although one of my old friend’s parents are permanent residents of the ward there. Have you been there long and do you have a particular area of expertise when it comes to being a healer? I am glad to see that you have some preferences when it comes to lunch companions,” Ron laughed. “I’m afraid I wouldn’t be so tolerant of him, and people like him, if I were in your shoes. I’m a bit more known for reacting impulsively, though, I guess. What were you looking to eat and how long do you have?,” asked Ron, who was always looking forward to eating, and unlike much of his recent past he would have somebody to talk to at the same time. That would be a pleasant change.

OOC Sorry to take so long, but I lost the entire post..

BIC

Julian nodded without comment as Ron mentioned the Longbottoms, it wasn't a huge secret that they resided in the long term residents ward and like the rest of the staff in the hospital, he didn't talk too much about his patients.

"I work in the burns unit!" He answered the first of Ron's questions as he spooned sugar into his coffee and reached for a spoon. "As you know, magical burns are very difficult to get rid of, sometimes only the application of extremely powerful magic can deal with them! I intend to sort that situation out. It's a long term and almost dream of a goal, but it's something that I feel strongly about."

He had noticed the slight surprise on his companion's face at his name and status and was not phased by it. Most pureblood families seemed shocked by the De Winters lack of pureblood superiority, yet it was understandable. The De Winters prided themselves on knowledge and learning. Since their earliest times they had prized hard work and intelligence and did not feel that such things came purely due to blood.

"I'd prefer to exhaust my energies on something beneficial rather than whatever Lynch is peddling. Marcus Lynch is an anachronism, he hasn't realised that things have moved on. He'd drag us screaming back into the dark ages if he could."

He took a deep breath and stopped speaking, realising that a first meeting was not perhaps the best place for deep discussion. He looked down at the menu and continued in a lighter tone. "I think I'm going to have one of their hot baguettes, I only get forty five minutes and usually I meet my brother for lunch as he only works across the street." He pointed towards Ollivanders on the other side of the road. "but I think he has a lot of work on at the moment! This is the month they set aside for wand creation."

Ron had always had a lot of admiration for the people and the work they did as healers in St. Mungo's. Of course, there were some, like the Longbottoms that very little could be done for except to make them as comfortable as possible. "Burns, eh ...... you do seem to be pretty enthusiastic about your work. That's really the first step towards one to becoming productive at their work. Its good to see that you're so optomistic about what you can accomplish too."

Ron was not so much as shocked but pleasantly surprised to find out that he was a Healer, but still carried one of the most respected pure-blood names. "One does not normally associate pure-bloods with healers or those who are less well-off than they are. Of course, my family is pure-blood as well, but we have never looked at that as giving us any special status compared to other wizards or even Muggles."

Ron nodded his head in sad agreement about Marcus Lynch and his type."Unfortunately there are many who still have Lynch's attitude I'm afraid." When the subject of food came up, Ron was all ears, since food was one of his favorite things to enjoy. "Well ..... that's understandable about your brother .... I hope I'm a good stand-in as a lunch companion. In any case, since I like just about anything, I ll just go with whatever you select. If that's what you have in mind, it sounds fine to me as well."

"Sure!" Julian ordered two ham, cheese with wholegrain mustard baguettes which arrived at the table steaming, the cheese melted and dripping onto the plate.

"I agree with you about status!" Julian answered as he picked up his knife and fork. "My family has a different view about purebloods and muggleborns. To us, intelligence and magical prowess is a better indicator than blood. I've met so many half bloods and muggle borns who have more magical ability than a tenth generation wizard that its hard to dismiss that." He took a bite of the baguette and gave an appreciative nod.

It was a good feeling, sat in the small cafe, eating good food and talking about anything other than work or his loss. A small hope built within Julian's chest, perhaps Ron would be a regular lunch companion. It would make a change from his brother.

"You should see my family when we get together though.." He chuckled. "All of us with our own theories. My mother nearly tears her hair out at dinner tables we tend to get a bit impassioned and let the dinner go cold. That's probably the reason that we are uniformly skinny. "

Ron thought that he had made a wise decision in letting Julian make the decision about what they would eat. When it arrived it both smelled and tasted well worth waiting for. "A good selection," Ron told him in-between bites. "Is there any reason that you come to this particular area to eat," he questioned.

Ron was glad that Julian was of the same mind as the Weasleys when it came to the importance of being a pureblood .... ability and merit were more important. "Yes, there is a wide variability in the wizarding world in magical ability and its application that bears no relationship to how 'pure' you may be. For example, some of the most gifted wizards and witches that I have met have turned out to be Muggleborn."

Ron could just imagine what Julian's family was like. His only reference was his family, and he knew that his family gatherings could be quite entertaining. "Well, for the most part, the Weasleys didn't worry about being skinny, too much. The twins and Percy were always pretty lean, but we always had plenty to eat. The thing you have to watch out for with the Weasleys is the pranks and the practical jokes. Fortunately, we're all a pretty tolerant lot, except for my brother Percy and sometimes my sister Ginny. There were all a lot of times they took things too seriously."

OOC sorry to take so long

BIC

"I love the food!" Julian answered as he swallowed the large mouthful of baguette. "And it's central, I can meet either Peter or my sister Carly for lunch or several of my friends who work within walking distance." His eyes flowed around the bustling market. "and its convienient for shopping if necessary."

He glanced over at Ron, he of course had heard tales of the Weasley family and he sympathised, coming from a large family himself. Granted his parents did have the house to accommodate all of their children and various other relatives, but he still knew what it was like to have so many siblings.

"I understand completely!" He said as he took another sip of drink. "My older sister Carly can be quite serious, she works for the ministry and she can be fairly intense. She married a lawyer a few years back and both of them treat life as some kind of trial. Peter is fairly easy going and has a love of creating things, Emily is the joker in the bunch and Megan." He gave a smile, remembering his younger sister with fondness. "Well Megan is ten and cute as a button."

Ron had to agree that the food was quite good, and his reasoning about the cafe's centrality made sense as well. "Well, I must admit that your food selection is brilliant ... first-rate. My problem is that I usually eat in the Atrium. I save my long walks for walking around the Ministry and Diagon, in general, not for hunting out eating establishments. Part of that is that I don't have anybody to eat with, and use my lunch and my breaks to stay away from the office and some of the idiots work. I'm still close to many members of my family .... I do take my eating seriously you know .... but I don't run across anybody during lunch, especially since Harry is gone now," as Ron fell momentarily silent, contemplating what he had just said. Suddenly Ron's eyes sparkled a bit, "Well, I've ver been known for my shopping prowess," he chuckled.

It was obvious that Julian had all kinds of experiences with his own family and sibling. Some of them would have been similar to Ron's, and some, probably given their position in wizarding society, would have been much different. Ron got the feeling though that he had a high level of understanding what life in a large wizarding family was, especially for a younger member. He wondered if he had similar feelings, of always having to prove oneself to everyone else?

"My brothers and sister are all different in their own ways. I have some older brothers who have always been into research, dragons and the like, in Eastern Europe and elsewhere. "I have a brother, Percy, who is a relatively high Ministry official, and has always acted as if he was a bit better than the rest of us, but that's how he's been since he was a House Prefect at Hogwarts. I did have 2 twin brothers who left Hogwarts to run a jokeshop her on the Alley, but one of them died at the battle for Hogwarts at the end of the last of the wizarding wars. hen there's my younger sister Ginny. I am sure she is quite lost, with out our Harry, her husband. So, we are quite a group although we don't talk much."