Late afternoon, in the Great Hall.

The shadows of the day had grown long, and the magical ceiling in the Great Hall was already starting to dim as the sun set against the sky outside.  Most of the presenters were growing as restless as the students; one or two had already begun to irritatedly usher away the crowds as they began to Vanish their brochures or cram their booths back into a magically-expanded briefcase for transport.

Once the Auror Corps demonstration had finished, Adon had joined them at the booth.  That had made the afternoon much more entertaining, although amazingly even less productive, but after a few hours of banter, Jonas had begun to grow restless.  He'd finally left Operation: Cheer Up Eddie in Adon's capable hands, begging off that he needed to use the loo just for an excuse to get out from behind the table and walk around.

After he'd finished, Jonas had taken the long way around back to the Level Two booth.  Jibbing the kids all day long had certainly been entertaining, but a few hours of sitting were more than enough to do him in.  He reveled in the opportunity to finally stretch his legs, shaking off the stiffness in his bad knee as he wandered between displays, paying more attention to the crowd than to any of the careers being advertised.

The red-headed Auror had just dodged around a group of Ravenclaws who were talking anxiously to Dreogan Eleor at DIMC, narrowly avoiding colliding with a floating display that proclaimed that 'You Too Can Be an Arithmancer!' when his gaze happened across a familiar figure, bent over a table on the opposite side of the room.

Just as he'd half-suspected that he'd run into his niece, Jonas had had a bad feeling that he might encounter the Hogwarts Runes professor.  He hadn't spoken to Aileen Reid since the day that the student had been murdered.  He hadn't been avoiding her, not exactly, but since becoming an Auror, he hadn't really wanted to go out of his way to broadcast to the world that he was magicless.  Jonas had assumed that if Reid had come up with a solution to the magic situation that she would have gone out of her way to contact him.

But she hadn't.  The months had stretched on, the problem had continued, and now, his rock-and-a-hard-place had devolved into a pit-of-death-and-a-hungry-manticore.  With the pressure on the Ministry increasing and the constant threat of attack, his lack of magic had changed from a nuisance into a possibly deadly situation.  And still, Aileen Reid hadn't seemed to care.  For all the correspondence she'd sent him, she hadn't even thought on it twice since he'd seen her last.

Jonas raised his eyebrows, studying the woman's back for a long moment.  Approaching her here in public, especially considering the current situation, was very possibly not the brightest action he could take.  But on the other hand, he was getting bloody sick and tired of waiting.  If Reid wasn't going to take this seriously, if she wasn't going to help him after he'd gotten into this mess in the first place because of her, then he could see to it that she suffered nearly as many inconveniences as he had to.  Despite the pains of following proper procedures and the stress of life at the Ministry, there were certainly some advantages to being an Auror over a private detective.

Tucking his hands into the pockets of his red robes, which he was only just growing used to again, Jonas carefully made his way across the room, cautiously keeping out of the Runes professor's immediate line of sight.

He couldn't tell if Reid had been working or not today.  She was in what were probably professional robes, but her hands were already full with pamphlets.  She had her head bowed over the table, considering another one with slightly pursed lips, when he stepped up behind her and cued his entrance by clearing his throat.

"Thinking on a career change, are you?" he asked cheerfully, sliding into place behind her.  With any luck, she'd be trapped between him and the table.  Magicless or not, home turf or not, there would be no easy escape today.  "Can't imagine why.  Seemed like you were doing so well with the last one, Professor, ancient curses and all."

Up until now, Aileen had been having a good day.

She'd helped Myrni for a few hours at the Year Out Adventures booth, and was actually considering doing a trip over the summer with any interested students (which did not involve ancient tombs that should be left unopened). Chatting with the students had allowed her to forget about the stress in her life for a while, and by the end of the afternoon, she was flipping through the pamphlets she'd collected and looking forward to heading home and sprinkling the pamphlets where Abby would be sure to see them.

When a familiar voice sounded close behind her, Aileen's back stiffened and her fingers stilled. Just like that, her entire day went to hell.

She stood there for a long moment as the snide comment about her job and the ancient curses sank in. Finally, Aileen turned around and narrowed her eyes at him, only finding slight comfort in the fact that his hair clashed horribly with those new red robes. There were other, more important concerns on her mind.

"Somehow I manage," Aileen replied shortly, dropping the pamphlets in her purse and waiting for him to move out of her way. When that didn't happen, Aileen briefly entertained the thought of shouldering past him and making her exit. She had long legs. He had a bad knee and no magic. It could work!

"How do you like your new profession, Auror Trevelyan?" She matched his cheerful attitude. "Must be nice to paint a picture of heroism for all those young hopefuls. Someday, they too, can learn how to catch criminals and rip apart families with the best of them. I'm sure it's going so well for you."

There was an angry glint in her eye that let him know she was not happy with him, if he couldn't tell from the falsely chipper tone. They hadn't spoken since February first, when he'd had her believe, if just for an hour or two, that she could have had something to do with a student's death. Two weeks later, Alberic had told her about Trevelyan helping the Aurors with the information they needed to arrest her older brother. And now, here he stood in Auror robes, pestering her about the curse again. She didn't know how long he'd been working for the MLE, but imagined it must have been earlier than January if he'd helped catch her brother.

There was a time Aileen had trusted him, just a little. That was gone. He had reason to feel frustrated, angry and betrayed. So did she, in her opinion. She still intended on giving him the solution when she had one, but frankly, out of all the annoyances and bothersome people in her life, he was safest to ignore.

An enormous rock could have smashed right into the Auror from behind; a dragon could have swooped in from nowhere and set him on fire, and his expression still wouldn't have faltered.  He smiled pleasantly back at the professor, crossing his arms as he stood his ground.

"Yeah, it's been right smashing," he agreed good-naturedly.  Reid's tone had transitioned from irritated to jocund with all the speed and grace of a pureblood wizard, but even years and years of careful inbreeding couldn't match sheer, stubborn exuberance when he put his mind to it.  "All the magic's the best part.  It's been nice to let loose right and proper again."

The digs at his career change shouldn't have prickled him.  Jonas would never, ever feel anything but distrust and distaste for Trevor Reid; anyone who spent so many years involved in the Runespoor trade, who had played even a minor role in ruining so many lives, deserved nothing better than a long sentence in Azkaban.  Even his guilt over using the information that he'd collected while working for her as a private detective, over the trust that he'd chosen to betray, had somewhat faded.  He had no idea if Aileen Reid knew for certain that he'd been involved in her brother's arrest, but his name had appeared in the paper alongside Adon's.  It wouldn't be too difficult for the woman to put two and two together.

But the rest of her family...  Jonas had liked Abby Reid a good deal.  It wasn't the teenager's fault that her family was so horrific; the fact that she'd managed to survive countless meals around the dining room table without adopting their purist attitudes was a miracle in itself.  Whether or not she was a Squib didn't matter.  He was living proof that one didn't need magic to survive in the magical world, and besides that, his life was also proof that there was an entire other world outside of it.  If he could have had his way, he would have been happy to introduce her to it, to help the girl stand on her own two feet outside of her family's misconceptions and meddling.

The fact that he'd betrayed Abigail's trust did sting, just a little.  Jonas hadn't seen or heard from the girl since her brother's arrest.  For all he knew, she was as angry with him as her sister was.

But he wasn't about to let on to that before Professor Reid.  The woman had gotten him cursed, abandoned him to a mummified hoard, and taken her bloody time to help him with what was very probably a life-or-death situation.  Letting her know that he was suffering pangs of conscience -- hell, letting her know that he had any sort of heart at all -- was clearly out of the question.

"The work's interesting, as well," he continued blithely, still smiling at the woman.  "It was never me speciality before, but since I've been back, I've been getting involved in investigations with all kinds of illegal trading.  It's amazing, the sort of double deals you can find once you go sticking your nose into things.  Under-the-table imports.  Falsified certificates.  Doesn't take much to put someone on our map, and once they're there, it seems like we always turn something up."

The vast Great Hall felt like a small, suffocating room, with the table as one barrier and Trevelyan as the other, his crossed arms making that all the more apparent. Employers and students were still milling about, a few casting curious glances in their direction. Aileen was caught between trying to figure out who might overhear them and focusing on the threats coming out of his mouth.

He was not just a nuisance anymore, and had resorted to waving his new badge around in absence of a wand. It didn't surprise her that he had become even more insufferable (red robes had that effect), but she could scarcely believe he was doing this right at the end of the career fair. Though they were about the same height, she tilted her chin up and glared down at him, expression frosty.

"I bet you do," Aileen said coolly. "You must be an expert at that by now. Sticking your nose into things, then whining when you run into unpleasant consequences."

Aileen had never really allowed herself to feel guilty about the dagger's curse causing Trevelyan to lose his magic. She was certainly too angry now, too resentful to show the slightest bit of sympathy. He'd decided to join the Aurors, which was like its own death sentence. For all she knew, he could have been using his private investigator role as an undercover job for years.

"Go ahead and turn something up, if it makes you feel better," she continued, her falsely chipper tone strained. "Someone else can help you find a solution to your problem. In the meantime, I'm sure your mere presence inspires plenty of confidence in the corps and the people you serve. And I'm sure your actions now will have no effect whatsoever on your efforts to lock up my brother," Aileen raised her eyebrows at him, then smiled. "We wouldn't want all of your hard work to go to waste."

Despite her outward blasé attitude, Aileen's unease grew. The thought of  bringing him down with her only offered paltry satisfaction. If he went through with his threats, she'd lose everything: her job, her reputation, and most importantly, her sister. Without her, Healer Foley should be able to cure Abby in time, but she'd have to face the world on her own at seventeen. And Aileen didn't even want to consider what the Headmistress and Joao would do with some of those artifacts, given free reign.

Even as the chaos of the Career Fair swirled around him, as students bumped by rushing to one final booth before it closed, time seemed to slow down at the Professor's words.  Jonas went suddenly, completely still.  His eyes narrowed as he stared back at the woman. 

Ever since he'd lost his magic, he hadn't whined; in fact, he rather thought he'd done the opposite, ignoring it beyond all sensible reason until Adon had finally forced his hand.  All in all, he didn't really miss his magic.  Part of him was almost glad to have the excuse, since it meant he didn't have to struggle time and again to achieve something that had come so effortlessly in his youth.  The Ministry had too many enemies, and as long as he intended to let them employ him (or intended to purposely interject his nose into Ministry business), he couldn't afford to give up such an advantage to the other side.  It had never been about him not having magic; it had always been that they did.

He had threatened Reid, thrown his trump card, and he knew she was right.  Going at her with everything he had would only give her leave to use her ammunition.  If he exposed her for illegally importing artifacts from her dig, she'd simply tell everyone why he was so avidly interested in her personal business.  And Reid didn't even necessarily have to wait until he went to the Ministry to hurt him with a revelation.  He knew she had connections to Tawse.  All it would take was one carefully worded owl, one discreet message passed on, and she could expose him as badly as he could ever expose her.

The sensation of having his back against the wall, of being on the verge of informational Armageddon, was not one that he found that he liked.  Jonas visibly bristled, teeth gritting and hands instinctively clenching as he glowered back at her.

"Your brother's as good as got a proper conviction," he snapped back.  "And you haven't done a bloody thing to help me find a solution, so I don't see what goddamned difference it makes.  You don't want to get into that game with me," he informed her in a low voice, his expression hard as he growled out each word.  "If you're not going to help, then I will find someone else.  Which means you're going to give me the bloody thing back."

Smug satisfaction flared as Aileen finally wiped away that cheerful facade of his. She knew whatever was lurking underneath couldn't be pleasant, but hoped that he held his own life in high enough regard to resist exposing her secrets.

When he snapped, Aileen listened to him rant in stony, disbelieving silence. First he threw threats at her, and in his next breath he expected her to trust him enough to just hand it over? She couldn't, even if she wanted to, even if she swallowed her pride. Snark would have her head.

Months of anger and resentment bubbled up to the surface, and Aileen glowered back, nearly forgetting they were still in public.

"That's out of the question," she snapped, crossing her arms. Abby needed the cure more than he did. Not that he knew that.

"Don't tell me what I have and haven't done, Trevelyan," her voice rose to an animated hiss. "I told you I'd contact you once I found answers, and that still stands, but threatening me will not speed up the process. I have greater concerns than-"

She stopped speaking abruptly, struggling to smooth out her expression and relax her posture as a professor appeared nearby.

He hadn't been eavesdropping, exactly. It wasn't eavesdropping if you did it accidentally, was it?

His common sense reminded him it became eavesdropping if you decided to stay and listen in even if it was originally an accident. He decided to ignore this rather prudent point. He wasn't sure if this was the best thing to do, of course, but still. It was like a train wreck, and also it gave him a chance to get a better image of Trevelyan, who he was now increasingly suspicious of.

As for what Trevelyan's beef with Aileen was, Tapendra didn't know. Someone having a beef with Aileen wasn't exactly surprising; this was Aileen they were talking about, after all. But still. With his own concerns about the man, it was far too easy to see this as Jonas threatening Aileen over...something.  His illogical mind couldn't help but wonder if this was at all related to the things Trevelyan had all too recently talked to him about.

Tapendra had been sitting nearby. He was in visual range and in earshot, of course, but the crowd had helped somewhat with keeping him at a low profile. Their voices had stayed pleasant - obviously strained, but pleasant, and now...

Well, he did owe Aileen a favor after the Drinking Incident.

He stood, almost without thinking, and headed to the two of them, neither of whom seemed to notice his approach. He put one hand on the table behind Aileen, leaning over her, the quiet thud of his hand loud in the silence as Aileen cut herself off. His height helped with the sudden loom.

"Reid, a student-" he started, tone as innocently cheerful as ever. "I'm sorry," he said, smiling at Trevelyan with barely a flicker of concern. "Have I interrupted...?"

"You've got greater concerns than helping me?" Jonas demanded incredulously, fighting to keep his voice to a moderate level. 

It wasn't as if the statement were really that unbelievable.  The Auror knew that he wasn't anywhere near delusional enough to think that helping him was anywhere but the bottom of Aileen Reid's personal to-do list, several items below cleaning up after Abby's terrier and probably just above confessing her love for Muggleborns or publicly admitting her own self failures.  If she gave his problem any effort at all, it was merely because she was simply that bored, or was slightly concerned about what he might do if she didn't maintain the appearance of trying to fix the problem.

But knowing it and hearing it were two entirely different things.  With the first, he was quite capable of ignoring that knowledge as he went about his daily life, pretending that the Runes professor was working vigorously to save him just off-screen.  Hearing her state quite clearly that she had better things to do stripped away even that most minor of self delusions.

"Your bloody process has been going on for six months!" he hissed, so furiously focused that he was unaware of the looming presence behind Aileen.  "I'm not going to just sit back and wait for you to get around to it!  If you won't do a proper job of it yourself, Reid, then I'll find --"

"Reid, a student-" he started, tone as innocently cheerful as ever. "I'm sorry," he said, smiling at Trevelyan with barely a flicker of concern. "Have I interrupted...?"

Jonas started, and then scowled, his jaw tightening.

"Yeah," he fired off sharply, before catching himself.  Jonas took a quick breath, letting the air hiss out through clenched teeth.  His face was burning, which would have probably triggered any number of hair color jokes if Pratt or Radley had been within earshot, and he had moved well beyond flight-or-fight response into the 'Preparing to Beat the Bloody Hell Out of Someone' range.  If he kept on at Reid, he was going to blow any number of carefully laid investigative strategies out of the water, especially now that Trishna was present.

He couldn't do this.  Losing control and blowing up was Adon's usual strategy, not his.  He needed to stay cool-headed, calm and collected. 

But he didn't feel particularly calm right now, unless one took into consideration that wanting to personally throttle Aileen Reid was probably a perfectly logical response, even in the best of circumstances.  Jonas shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his red robes and tore his murderous glare away from the woman.

"We'll talk later," he muttered at her as he turned to go, letting the threat hang.  Hopefully it sounded more ominous than angry.  "Get on with whatever you need to do, Trishna."

Aileen glared at Trevelyan, letting him sputter and hiss like a boiling tea kettle, his face so red that she wouldn't be surprised if steam came out of his ears. It served him right, strutting around in his new robes, expecting her to just pull a cure out of her purse and hand it to him. She'd rather draw her wand and hex him!

At the sudden looming presence over her, she stilled, assuming Trevelyan had signaled a fellow Auror. But it was Trishna. Aileen blinked at him, his words barely registering. As Trevelyan grumbled and growled, she ran through the last of their conversation in her head, worrying about what the professor had overheard, what he'd guessed, and if Trevelyan was angry enough to continue this argument in public.

Luckily not! She watched the Auror go, letting out a breath. The relief and smug satisfaction she felt at his departure paled under the knowledge that he wasn't going to give up. He would be back.

With unsteady hands, she adjusted her purse on her shoulder and gave Trishna a searching, wary look. He'd just gone out of his way to help her out. She didn't really think of him as a friend-- friendly, perhaps, when she wasn't holding grudges against him for chauffeuring Abby halfway across England. But they both hated Snark and Bombay. Trevelyan could be another.

"Thank you," she told him, the words sounding cautious and stilted.

"Apparently, Trevelyan couldn't miss his chance to demonstrate how quickly an Auror badge goes to one's head,"  she shook her head bitterly, glancing around the room. Aileen could almost see the rumors flying. And she knew better than to hope that Trevelyan's talent for color coordination was the only thing that set tongues wagging.

"I should go before the reporters descend," she shot another glance around them, then headed out of the Great Hall. Little did she know, one had already followed Trevelyan out the door!


Fin!