Skip The Charade

[Mortimer Skeeter]

At Barney's campaign luncheon. Probably open to someone on the more irreverent or younger side, 17-29ish!

Mortimer thought, if it wouldn't have looked outright unsupportive of his own relation, that he would probably have been doing Barney a favour by not showing up, because it was hard to take this whole thing seriously.

That said, a free lunch was a free lunch, and was only made sweeter for coming out of his brother's paycheck. Obviously he wasn't the only one to make this decision, because the Hogsmeade ballroom was more bustling than he'd expected it to be. Who half of these people were and whether any of them were actually planning to vote for Barney was another question. He might be a one-legged troll-fighting hero (one couldn't think the thought without rolling one's eyes) but he was also, well, short and bad-tempered and weirdly pedantic; sort of the runt of the family, if he weren't the second oldest.

Anyway, Morty had been amusing himself near the back of the room, riffling through someone else's party bag (they'd kindly let him look through, since apparently as family, he didn't deserve one). Thankfully, this guest at least didn't seem to be a groupie of Barney's, and judging by a thing or two they'd already said, Morty supposed he could speak freely. He carefully folded down Barney's portrait before he passed the bag back over, suppressing a snort at the sudden indignation on the moving picture's face.

"You know, I think this might just be an elaborate ploy to find himself a girlfriend," Morty considered, looking around at how much here - the guest list, the shop samples - was clearly intended for the female population. Most of whom couldn't actually vote.  

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   Ophelia Dippet

[Simeon Graves]

Simeon was deeply interested in the politics that would make up this campaign season, but he had not yet decided what candidates he would vote for. He knew Malfoy and Crouch and Flint and Malcorvus and Greyback and Power wouldn't be receiving his vote, but there were plenty more to choose from.

Simeon was surprised at the effort put into this event — and more specifically, how Mr. Barnabas Skeeter was trying to appeal to the female population. He knew not one woman who could vote, which made the whole thing seem silly overall. The candidate, however, did seem to be trying to put in effort to speak with everyone who came his way, including the men who could vote.

"A girlfriend?" Simeon questioned with brows raised. "That seems like a lot of effort put in just to win a woman's heart. He's already had to deal with slander, you know — that's not the sort of thing that attracts a young woman. And not to mention the money involved ..." he explained, eyeing the candidate from afar.

  

[Mortimer Skeeter]

Morty had mostly been joking, at least when he's said it, but when the fellow he was talking with took the thought in earnest, Morty decided it really wasn't an idea to rule out. He wouldn't put it past Barney, and it would see his apparent change of heart on women and liberalism and all that make more sense, beyond being some more progressive vote-grabbing pretence. Morty couldn't say that he expected Hogsmeade to fall for it on either front.

"It looks like a lot of effort, yeah," Morty agreed, with an easy shrug, "but trust me, Barney needs all the help he can get." The other guy did have a point about Barney having already opened himself up to slander by running, but his brother had already gotten shat on publicly for his failure of a duelling reform, so maybe he thought it'd be worth the trouble. Maybe he thought if he became Minister, he'd have a better chance at finding a girl who wouldn't get bored of him within ten minutes, or however long any woman he'd entertained beforehand (Morty didn't pay much attention to these things, and Barney didn't particularly share them with him - for some wild reason -) had lasted.

"'Course, I didn't say it'd actually work," he put in next, cheerfully enough. Whether or not this man here was an expert on how to attract a young woman  - Morty nearly wanted to ask whether he was an authority on the subject, but refrained, in case it made him sound rude - he was making some sense. "It is a lot of money, isn't it?" He added, peering at the party bags again and wondering whether Barney could really afford all this.