"Goodnight." Camille's footsteps retreated up the stairs, growing softer. The floorboards creaked upstairs as she headed to bed in the back room, weary from a long day. Below her, in the belly of the house which had once been a village classroom the lamps were burning low, and all was quiet.
"She wanted to ask his advice before she slept." Wolfgang spoke suddenly, his gaze directed to the low table before him. The wizard's voice lacked the edge to his voice that Ignan was familiar with. He wasn't angry, he sounded lost. Wolfgang's hands nursed a glass of red wine, Ignan noticed it was the same glass for an hour now, which his cousin had just turned in his hands and sipped from while lost in his thoughts.
"Hmm?"
"Johann. Camille wanted to ask his advice before tomorrow."

Ignan looked up from the journal he was reading and looked to the time. He'd bid Camille goodnight without too much thought of the time. Dinner had been a quiet, subdued affair between the three of them, both of his guests tired after a day trying to acquire work. Ignan had put his house elf, and theirs to good work in the meantime, up on the roof of the house with him.
"I expect he's out seeing clients." Ignan suggested, before realising it was just past half past ten, later than he had perceived. His gaze returned to the journal resting on his crossed leg, finishing the last paragraph and turning the page to continue.

Wolfgang leaned forward from the sofa opposite Ignan's armchair, placing the now empty wine glass down on the table. In the Professor's peripheral vision, he saw that his relative did not sit back, but was watching him read. Ignan felt his reading did not require an audience, and his brow creased into a slight frown as a result.
"I promise we'll be out from under you at the earliest opportunity, Ignan. You have my word." At Wolfgang's assurance, Ignan did not react immediately, but finished the section he was reading before reaching for a mark to place between the pages. He set the journal down to one side and squared his shoulders to Wolfgang.
"That was our agreement, Wolfgang."

Their faces were shadowed by the low light, and the brighter lamp beside Ignan threw one half of his face entirely into shadow to the observer.
"You have taken advantage of my situation, and I do not appreciate it." The armchair beneath Ignan creaked as his weight leaned forward, the light and shadows shifting across his features as he changed position. He kept his voice low, so as not to let Camille overhear, as this situation was entirely of Wolfgang's creation.
"My plans were to retire for the summer alone. Not even your son should be here, so the fact he is not at this moment is in your favour," the Professor explained without any affection in his tone. "I took him under my roof as a favour to Camille."

Wolfgang's features darkened, and his knobbly fingers gripped the material around his kneecaps, reflecting the tension, and his eyebrows lowered towards his nose beneath deep forehead lines.
"For which she is deeply grateful." He assured his relative swiftly. "But we had little choice of where to go." Ignan's expression was unchanged by this, his blue-eyed gaze unflinching. There had been enough of a terse exchange on the Sunday when the Deputy Headmaster had returned from Hogwarts to find them in his house without invitation. Wolfgang had been on his best behaviour for several days now, but this was already far longer than he'd ever spent in Ignan's company, and was far from ideal. It was only a matter of time before one or the other snapped, and that evening Ignan felt like it was going to be him first.

"Aloisia and Torolf would have laughed me out of their house. Besides, Torolf couldn't have been seen to help me with Durmstrang as his employer. I wasn't going to bloody to Martjin and Margo. Since the other month when Camille went to stay for a bit I've not been welcome." Wolfgang explained. Ignan noticed a change in tone as he explained his wife departing for some time to stay with her elder brother, Wolfgang's brother in law who had a number of young adult children who were fond of Johann. Ignan did not need to spend long with Wolfgang - through his son and from what he had seen of the couple together, Ignan knew the wizard held a bright torch for his wife. She was one person he would listen to and move mountains for. Rightly so, in Ignan's opinion.

Separation had been difficult, Camille had admitted in a letter to Ignan, the same letter where she implored Ignan to keep a close eye on Johann for her. At the time Ignan had rued yet another request from the extended family. He'd had Vasily not so long ago, and he had a school full of young charges most of the year. Still, he was somewhat fond of Johann, and although he would not admit it to anyone else.
"What was it, that they found?" Ignan asked after a moment of staring at each other over the low table. "You're not so much as a fool to let yourself be made homeless without good evidence." He watched Wolfgang swallow slowly, but he did not leap to answer. The professor narrowed his eyes ever so slightly.
"Johann told me, about the dog's head[1], about Miss Bombay attacking you in return[2]."
"When?"
"Not until he moved in here." Wolfgang didn't deny the story, he was strangely more concerned with how long Ignan had known. Eye contact was broken, and Ignan blinked as Wolfgang looked down at the table and rested his fingertips on the edge.
"You're a piece of work, Wolfgang."
The banker's eyes snapped back to Ignan's face and he snarled,
"Well your late father told me some rather interesting things about you in his later days."

The accusation hung in the air between them for a split second before Ignan laughed. He was mocking Wolfgang, and shook his head.
"You believed anything my father said in his last years? Wolfgang I take back my earlier comment about you being no fool - you must be." He reached for the journal from the arm of the chair, and got to his feet, towering over Wolfgang who remained sat on the end of the sofa. He looked up at Ignan with his jaw set, seething. The Professor remained standing, his gaze steady but cold towards his unwelcome guest. Without a word his intention was clear. Wolfgang got to his feet, averted his eyes and crossed the room in silence before ascending the stairs to follow his wife to bed.

1.	5 Jan - Eager Joey's Gift
2.	5 Jan - Who Let the Dog In?