For all of Carmen's naturally acidic personality traits, and her reputation as the sort of person that was more likely to AK you than talk with you (she knew perfectly well what some of her employees were whispering behind her back), she still had the healthy social life that was required of a woman in her position. Her social circles included people who were just as ruthless and business-minded as herself, including Lola Davis, the young but promising gossip columnist at the Prophet, and Griselda Campbell, a novelist whose renown as a writer was almost eclipsed by her renown as a middle-aged man eater. Two to three times a week the ladies and the occasional guest would gather to exchange gossip in the most unlikely of places: Madam Puddifoot's.

They must have made quite a sight to passers-by. Carmen's pregnancy was by this point noticeable, at least to women who, unlike men, saw beyond her ballooning breasts to see her general roundness and rosiness. Where she had used to have one tea and a biscuit during their meetings, she now had at least four cups of tea and the oddest looking dishes, usually involving pickles or duck sauce dressing, that were piled onto the delicate pink plates in precarious towers in front of her, barely leaving enough room for the reams of parchment she brought with her. Lola often had her notes and Griselda had her own dish of gossip.

Not the usual sort of people that frequented Madam Puddifoot's. Carmen enjoyed the irony. She made a game out of scaring off young Hogwarts couples who walked too close to their table. One moment she would be shooting venom at a pair of hapless Hufflepuffs, and the next she was calm and pleasant as Lola explained to her how they could destroy another witch or wizard's life.

"The first order of business," she said to the closest things she had to friends around a mouthful of pineapple and lamb tart, "Is Minister Channing. Naturally. Do we have any more information on this Roscoe creature?"

Ah, tea time with the terrors. How she missed this.

Griselda had been quite excited when she'd heard that Carmen and was still doing her terrible tea time at Madam Puddifoot's, and even that her own presence was still welcome. It was a girltime tradition that was simply so much fun -- and a fabulous source of yum-yums for her gossip column. Bright red lipstick, her gorgeous, curly hair flying free, and a small, slinky emerald dress with shawl and a clutch. And her moleskine, of course. What was a writer/thinker without their little notebook? She'd heard a friend call it their "brain" before -- all of one's ideas and notes on paper, it was much indeed like a second memory bank, with everything at one's fingerprints, and just as poorly organised. She loved it so. For sentimentality's sake, she picked a necklace -- a bronze-gold chain with a a blood red brooch at the end, accentuating her neck with its length and bosom with position -- that had been given to her by Carmen numerous Christmases and Birthday parties in the past. Mind, everything else was brand new -- Zimmerman's, of course.

Floo powder? As if. Griselda Apparated herself to her destination, arriving at the tea shop with the kind of haughty, self-indulgeant pride that these teatimes gave her. Like she was a Queen Bitch, and she was going to go to court with her fellow Bitches, and they were going to be true to themselves and cause a bit of mischeivous -- over scones and English Breakfast and chocolate covered strawberries. Oh, it was wonderful!

She greeted Lola with a kiss on the cheek, and Carmen with a squeeze from behind -- she was getting quite pregnant, and seeing as this was the first time Griselda had actually seen her in person in some time, she gave her congratulations again, making light chatter about the baby's plans. Lola, she'd read some of her work, and was pleased and impressed by the young writer. "You'll forgive me if I give you a bit of friendly competition," she warned with a friendly smile and a wink.

After ordering tea and in general getting past the usual friendliness, Carmen -- ever the professional, cleared her throat importantly.

"The first order of business, girls," she said around a mouthful of pineapple and lamb tart -- my, her appetite was quite an exquisite one. Looks like a boy, Griselda thought to herself -- "Is Minister Channing. Naturally."

"Of course," Griselda replied happily. My, was she pleased when she'd heard that the Minister was gay. Ah, the joy of the strangeness of someone of the crooked sexual orientation. Not that she hadn't known a number of gay people, but the fact that they had the danger of fancying people who wouldn't touch them with a yardstick added a level of complexity and angst and drama which was nothing less than delicious.

"So. Do we have any more information on this Roscoe creature?"

Griselda smiled. "Of course. You do know I love my research challenges..." She pulled out a small summary she'd made herself based off of her research, and shared -- they each had a picture of the fellow in question. "As you'll see, devilishly good-looking, and, as an added plus, single." If anyone saw a challenge, Griselda did. She might have to make herself familiar with this fellow herself.

"Name's Roscoe Blaine, 40 years of age. College student -- he's a Muggle, ladies. Graduated top of his class in Oxford, and has a degree from Cambridge -- Math and Engineering. A smart one. Paid for it with -- get this -- male stripping." She beamed. Just imagining this pretty boy dancing for her sounded like such a wonderful thing. "At the moment, does a number of random and obscure jobs -- fixing things, and writing fortune cookies, for example. Makes him a bit tricky to find, but I have information about a living statue gig he has next week." She giggled. "Yeah, living statue. I might have to make a list of jobs he hasn't had yet, and even that might be a bit specific. A man of many talents. It's no wonder our Minister has his eye on this one." Heck, she had her eye on this one. She was curious as to where this man of sex god-material had been for so long.

Lola glanced at her watch and noted with a bit of alarm that she was running rather behind schedule. In fact she ought to be in Hogsmeade already for afternoon tea with Carmen and Griselda. However, she suspected that they would forgive her anyway when she revealed the juicy tidbits she had spent all morning picking up. With a loud snap the crowded alley disappeared and after a few moments of suffocating pressure the frilly exterior of Madame Puddifoot’s appeared before her.

It was the silliest looking café in England and she might have avoided visiting it altogether to save her eyes the agony if it weren’t such an excellent place to pick up gossip. There were always otherwise sensible officials sneaking away to meet a mistress over a doily-covered table. Hidden away at Hogsmeade they wrongly believed that they were free of eyes such as Lola’s. But Lola hadn’t been the best source of gossip at Hogwarts for no reason. She knew all such places that people snuck away to hide their indiscretions.

As it happened she wasn’t late after all and cheerfully greeted Carmen as she entered the tea shop. She couldn’t help but feel a bit of rivalry towards the other woman. Strictly speaking she was the sort of woman who would interest Lola greatly, a moderately well known novelist with a predilection for young handsome men. However, she took as active an interest in gossip as Lola herself. It was bad enough to trying to dig up scandals before the columnists at other papers but now she had to compete even with her own colleagues. Nevertheless, she smiled politely; they did have a great deal in common after all.

Soon they sat down to tea and Carmen brought up the juicy story to be had the new Minister of Magic, Will Channing. As for his politics he was a perfectly boring do-gooder, but his private life was deliciously interesting.

Griselda had managed to dig up quite a bit on the mysterious boy-toy of their new minister. More than Lola knew about him, which was saying quite a lot in and of itself. But what she lacked in details of this Roscoe Blaine’s past Lola made up for in knowledge of his present activities.

“More than just an eye if you ask me.” She said leaning forward conspiratorially with a wicked grin on her face. “From what I’ve gathered Minister Channing has already had Blaine move in with him!”


~~~~~~~~~~~~
(OOC: Sorry for the delay! Blame my wrists... I wasn't sure if the Roscoe staying w/ Will was public knowledge, but I figured it wasn't.)