Fauna sat, fully clothed, in the basement bathtub of their new house. The basement seemed to be the least hot and stuffy place, and the cool surface of the bathtub felt refreshing. Her legs dangled off the edge of the tub, and she rested her head against the wall, a damp washcloth covering her face. There was no water in the tub. Just Fauna, in shorts and an old t-shirt, and her yellow sneakers.

Hoot!

She jumped, banging her head on the mirror above her head, the washcloth landing on her shirt. A large owl perched on the towel rack and tilted its head at her, then crept closer, dropping the letter on her head.

"Hey!"

It was around noon, and she and her housemates had been moving in their things all morning. Granted, moving was much easier with magic, but it was still exhausting, especially with the extra special house that Dax had bought.

Fauna sighed, ripping open the envelope with her finger as the owl stared at her haughtily. The first paragraph sounded strangely formal and complimentary. As she skimmed, she started to sit up straighter, then fell back again, her shorts slipping on the bottom of the tub.

"Ack! Oh my god!"

Auror training program. Hogwarts School Governors. SAWS. And Persepolis Zephyr! Holy shite!

"Oh shite!" Fauna grinned, scrambling to get out of the tub, the letter clutched in her hand.

She ran through the basement and up the stairs, ignoring the owl, which followed her like an offended turkey. "Oy! Dion!" Fauna called once she'd made it to the kitchen. Empty! Empty except for pots and pans and boxes! Fauna frowned, then raced through the library, the study, the room with the pink chairs, and then finally up to the second floor. She popped her head into each bedroom, but no Dion. When she was in the attic room, she thought to glance out the window, and saw a familiar blond head in the garden.

Down the stairs again! And again, the owl followed.

"Dion!" She hollered, jumping over the porch steps and landing clumsily. "Look!" Fauna waved the letter in the air, face flushed, still grinning. Fauna jogged towards him and shoved the letter at his chest.

"Look, look, look!" She chanted, doing a funny little dance. The owl finally gave up on getting a prompt reply, and flew away.

"Can you believe it? Shite, what are we going to say!"

Dion had heard a vague sound that had sounded like his name, but with all of the other noise around them - birds, Dax dropping things on his feet, the background hum of London - it had drowned out to the point it seemed like a figment of his imagination.

Of course, the boxes he was carrying around were equally distracting, mostly due to the concentration it took to keep the massive boxes of books off the ground. Books! Half of them were his but all of them were trouble. Who'd have thought paper would get so heavy when you stacked it?

When Fauna appeared suddenly and waved the letter at him, he promptly lost his concentration and the large box hit the paving stones with a thud, narrowly missing his foot. He looked at it apprehensively and took the letter silently, eyebrow raised.

He pressed his lips together, but even the concerted effort to look serious failed, and he smiled. "Interesting," he said, coughing in an attempt not to smirk. "Well..."

Running a hand through his hair, he sat on the steps, frowning. How did they want to do it? The control freak in him wanted to keep the meeting between himself and Fauna, but...

"We need to prepare ourselves," he said, leaning back against the stone. "The meetings are kind of chaotic, but this really can't be. If we want to impress her, we need to be controlled. Collected. Unified." Which was easy, of course. He did it all the time!

"Who did you want to bring?" He asked.

In his own reserved way, Dion looked pleased about the letter from Persepolis Zephyr. Fauna translated his choice of the word 'interesting' into a more enthusiastic 'brilliant!' in her head, and sat with him on the porch steps.

And just like that, he offered up his thoughts and a clear direction, which Fauna had been counting on. She nodded. It seemed easy to talk about, though the knowledge that they were planning the most important SAWS meeting yet hovered in the back of her mind.

"Well," Fauna fidgeted with her shoelaces as she mentally ran through the list of students. "Everyone," she looked at him, completely serious.

"I mean, everyone who wants to go. Even the less, uh... careful ones. If we invite everybody, I reckon that'll help unify them this summer, and when the school year starts again. And I wouldn't feel right picking and choosing for something so... I don't know, exciting? This is huge," she smiled a little, looking hopeful. It had been a while since she'd felt so enthusiastic about SAWS and their goals.

"But right, we need a plan. We should prepare questions and stuff before we meet her, and figure out some type of order to ask them in, and remind everyone, you know, to be on their best behavior."

Fauna paused, looking both amused and disturbed that she sounded like her mum had early this morning, when she'd lectured her about 'moving into a strange house with strange people'.

Dion looked at her, carefully, and then averted his gaze out to the overgrown and messy garden. Fauna had a good heart, she really did; but she had no head for politics or for, well - official business. The perception was more important than the reality. But he couldn't think of what to say, exactly...

He stood suddenly, pacing up the stairs and then rubbing the back of his neck as he paced the patio. "Not everyone," he said, firmly. "This can't be like one of our discussion meetings - Sellaphix can't be making jokes, we can't have people talking all at once. Ó Móráin and Storm didn't have as much to lose as Zephyr does - if we're too much of a gable, or not organised enough for her, we'll lose our only chance at this."

Of course, in Dion's mind, the meeting would ideally be small; himself (obviously) Fauna, Sophie and possibly Pax - Pax being a very handy little secret weapon, of course. He was photogenic and eager and utterly behind the cause, and as much as Dion genuinely liked the kid, that made him potentially very useful.

"We need to figure out and be firm on what our goals are and our principles are," he added, pausing and drumming his fingers on the wooden pillar next to him. "As I said - we need a unified front. And..." He chewed his thumb for a moment. "We need to be clear and establish spokespeople. If she does go to us individually - everyone she talks to needs to at least claim to be behind whatever the group presents even if they aren't."

Fauna grew quiet and watched as Dion paced the patio, and she realized that they had two very different ideas of how this meeting with Zephyr should go. Normally, Fauna was fine being the bleeding heart, and Dion fit in well as the more authoritative leader. He kept her grounded while she tried to incorporate everyone.

This time, though, she didn't see a good compromise. She'd brought the letter to him because they were in this together, and she hadn't expected them to disagree much.

She frowned, and shifted her legs closer to her, looking like she was about to stand for a second. Instead, she craned her neck and glanced up again.

"Dion, we're not... you know... some official section of the Ministry," she picked her words slowly. "You and me and a few other seventh years are the first graduates. The rest are still kids. She knows that. I think it's why she reached out to us."

She paused, having a hard time saying what she wanted to. "I don't know... if I want to impose one view on everybody. Well, not impose, but," Fauna made a face. "That's not what it's about. To me, anyway. 'Cause yeah, everyone should be respectful and we should plan questions and stuff before we meet with her, but I really think that everyone should come."

Dion paused again, looking at her blankly for a few moments. Then he sighed - letting his breath out in a gust of air - and sat next to her, chin in his hands.

"I know," he said after a moment's awkward silence. "I just - we get one shot, you know? I just...don't want to have everyone start debating and ruin it." The was a moment where he betrayed his nervousness, his hands folding on top of his knees and clasping just a bit too tightly.

Then he pressed his lips together, forcibly relaxing a bit. "And she does say the group, so...you're right." He offered her one of his lighting-quick smiles.

"We do need to plan, though. So we're at least sure on our main points, you know? That's what politicians like - bullet points. Lists. Mission statements," there was a hint of humor in his tone. "It's probably easier to talk in her language before we coax her into talking in ours, you know? But..."

He messed his hair up again as he thought. "I wonder what she wants," he said, finally. "If she was just approaching us as a school governor, I'd assume it's school related, but -" He shook his head, looking back up from where his gaze had dropped to the flagstones.

"What do you want to do?" He asked, finally. "You're the leader, Fauna. Even if it's a little bleeding heart for me...I'll support what you want to do." He patted her shoulder, smiling again.

She nodded and glanced down, understanding where he was coming from. If SAWS argued during their meeting with Zephyr, she might just bite a few heads off and inadvertently set off another round of werewolf rumors. As he worked out his thoughts, she looked up again, hopeful, and returned his smile with a relieved one of her own. He got it. He understood. And he was willing to possibly let her mess it all up, even though he didn't completely agree with her approach.

"Thanks," she looked at him for a moment, meaning it.

"Planning is a good plan," she agreed in a slightly teasing tone. "Well, I guess we could ask her? Not in the 'what do you want' way," Fauna mimicked an especially grumpy Kurby Bagnold for a moment. "But more like... 'what do you want'?" She ended with a very pleasant, customer-service type of voice.

Fauna smiled self-consciously at Dion, who was very familiar with her clumsy speech patterns.

"You're good at the... formal writing thing." The formal everything. "To start, would you help me figure out how to phrase things and what to say? Even if we don't have a date set just yet, I reckon we should reply this afternoon and let her know we're up for it."

"So we should make a plan to get everyone together so we can plan the plan," he said, with uncharacteristic humor. "Let's write off to the others tonight. Just say we need to get together and it's urgent; I'd rather break this to them in person than just say it in a letter."

He sat back against the steps again, propped up on his elbows. "I know what you mean," he affirmed, going over the phrasing in his head. He looked back at her as she asked for what he'd been about to offer, his eyebrows rising slightly before he nodded.

"Of course," he said. "Want to write it now, or..." He glanced at the boxes, about to suggest they get back to moving, and from inside the house the sounds of the others moving things could still be heard. Then he pursed his lips and said. "Let's do it now."

Fauna nodded, agreeing with his idea to meet as soon as they could with the other SAWS members and discuss Persepolis Zephyr's invite in person. She hopped up a few seconds after he'd sat on the steps again, excited about getting things started.
 
"Alright," she grinned. Their roomies would probably understand if they took a break from unpacking to work on this, so she didn't feel too bad, ignoring the sudden clang and swearing from inside.
 
"I'll grab a parchment and quill. Um, hmm," she glanced around the garden, as if expecting a gnome to leap out of the grass and hand it to her. "I think there's... oh, I think I know where it is. I'll be right back!"
 
Briefly touching his shoulder on her way up the porch steps, Fauna rushed around the house until one of her housemates noticed her panicked scrambling and told her she could borrow parchment if she needed it. Armed with a stack of paper, two quills, and black ink, she emerged from the house and sat next to Dion. Fauna handed him some of the supplies and started on the first draft, drawing her knees up and resting the parchment against her legs.
 
"Alright, so... Dear Persepolis Zephyr," she wrote, then paused.
 
"Or should it be... School Governor Zephyr? Ms. Zephyr? Upcoming Minister of Magic Zephyr?" She smiled slightly at her own joke, but glanced at him for his opinion.

Dion automatically rose to pace again, his hands folded behind his back and his shoulders rolled back as he dictated in the exact manner one would expect from a man speaking to a secretary. It was frankly surprising he didn't instruct Fauna to 'take a letter' before he began.

"Dear Governor Zephyr," he said, rubbing his chin - upon which was a rather noticeable amount of stubble, at least by his standards. He paused a moment as he seemed to notice this, rubbing his chin a bit harder for a second before he shook his head and continued.

"Dear Governor Zephyr," he repeated. "We would very much enjoy meeting with you, and will let you know as soon as possible when we can get everyone together. If you have a certain date in mind we can do our best to meet it..."

He paused again, lips pressed together.

Fauna glanced up and bit her lip to keep from laughing. Dion was pacing the porch again, and though she wished he'd sit next to her so she could feel like they were writing it together, at least his serious stance was amusing. She wrote fast and frowned at the parchment for a moment. Her handwriting tilted in different directions, and hadn't evolved much since her first year at Hogwarts. Dion's always looked elegant. He was probably one of those people who practiced his signature.

"That's a great start," she piped up. "Sounds professional. Um... what's next. Maybe letting her know how many students might be coming? Like a range? Oh, and ask if there's anything she wants to know before she meets with us, that we can answer by owl? We could probably warn her that we'll have a lot of questions for her, too."

She tapped her quill on the parchment, thinking through possible ways to phrase it before she said it out loud.

"Yeah." He rubbed the back of his neck again, trying to mentally tally SAWS' uncounted member group; they had a lot of steady and dedicated members, but it was still hard to come up with a solid estimate, especially with so many of the kids away overseas.

"Let's expect between 10 and 20," he said, with a shrug. "And tell her we'll be sure to let her know exactly how many people can make it.." They didn't know where she wanted to meet, either; looking up at the house, he thought about offering it -

And instantly thought better of it. The last thing SAWS needed was their house to rotate the wall and dump a school governor (and Minister hopeful!) into the downstairs bathtub. The very thought made Dion swallow and sit, shaking his head at himself. The scandal! That'd go on his resume, he was sure.

He let his breath out, looking at Fauna's writing for a moment before he tried the words out. "...we can do our best to meet it, and estimate between 10 and 20 attendees of various ages. Our members will no doubt have plenty of questions for you, so if you have a specific goal in mind for this meeting, that would be helpful to know going in, so that we can use the time to best effect..." He trailed off. "That doesn't sound right," he said, putting his elbows on his knees and propping his head on his hands.

Fauna looked at him curiously, and nodded when he estimated between ten to twenty people. He seemed more nervous than she was.

"It's ok," she reassured him, secretly relieved that he wasn't an Emily Post manual. She might be able to help out with this one!

Glancing over what they had so far, she started writing down a few words, mumbling them out loud, "and estimate between 10 and 20... teenagers?" Fauna smiled slightly. "That's accurate, right?" The 'S' in SAWS did stand for students. And if Tulo happened to be there, well, she was a kid at heart.

"Hmm," she thought back to what he'd said earlier. "Maybe just something like... 'our members will be very excited to meet you, so if there's any stuff... uh, not stuff, questions, that we can answer by owl, or if there are things... points? Points during the meeting that you want to be sure to address," Fauna paused for a second, glad she'd thought of the word 'addressed'. Dion must be a good influence on her.

"Er, please tell us and we can... prepare? Prioritize so all that stuff is taken care of? Oh, bollocks." Fauna rolled her eyes at herself, not realizing how often she said the word 'stuff' until now.