Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.
~C. S. Lewis

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Tuesdays were the one day of the week that Isaac had virtually nothing Hogwarts related on his schedule. Instead of venturing to the school to work on planning as he had the first few weeks of the new term, he moved along the streets of Diagon Alley with two coffees in hand. It was nearly eleven thirty but it seemed like an appropriate thing to have in hand as he neared the record shop.

When Jacoba left London he had figured she might stay away for good. Much to his surprise that had not been the case. He had not had thought he was seeing things when he spotted her in the distance at the first task, after all she wasn't supposed to even be in Great Britain. The confirmation to his suspicion had come just a few days ago and he found himself unable to not stop by for a visit.

Entering the record shop he was a bit disappointed that the face of the clerk behind the counter was not hers. His understanding though was that she was currently living upstairs in the attic.  It wasn’t an ideal place to stay, but he figured the shop would have a certain amount of security.

“Excuse me,” he said to the clerk, “I’m a friend of Jacoba Schlagenweit.  Do you know if she’s here?”

The clerk pointed him in the direction of the stairs to the attic and with a quick thanks, Isaac began the short climb.  The first time he had showed up at her doorstep unannounced nearly a year ago coffee had been an after thought.  If the need hadn’t been so urgent the gentleman in him would have insisted at stopping at the little shop around the corner first.

Reaching the top of the stairs he shifted the coffees slightly to free up a hand.  With any luck eleven thirty would be late enough and he wouldn’t be waking her...if he had hopefully the offer of coffee would make up for his mistake.  Taking a breath he reached up and knocked.

Two repetitions, spaced nine months apart, hardly constituted a pattern.  But, this wasn't the first time Jacoba had answered her door in her pajamas to find Isaac standing on the other side.  But, there wasn't any sign of panic or concern in the man's expression or demeanor and Jacoba grinned at the two cups of what smelled like coffee in the man's hands. 

"No catastrophe?" Jacoba asked, just to be sure.  At this point, though, if there was some tidings of bad news to be shared, Isaac would have likely not arrived alone.  Or baring drinks.  "Come in."  Jacoba stood back and held the door and gestured him inside. 

Her living space wasn't much to write home about but it was comfortable, offered enough space and was a good step up from most of the places she'd lived since leaving her parents' house.  She tended not to accumulates stuff; she arrived back in London with what she'd left with: what bare necessities could fit into a decent sized backpack.  But, she had absconded with a few of the band posters from around the shop and had done her best to 'decorate' the space with what she could find and what she'd brought with her.  But, from the pair of miss-matched stuffed chairs to the old stone hearth, the space suited her well enough. 

Jacoba gestured towards one of the chairs in invitation.  "I suppose I owe an apology," Jacoba offered.  Apologies seemed to be the current specialty; Jacoba had been serving up a fair few of them.  Among the many reasons it had usually proved easiest to never look back once she'd chosen to move on. 

"I've always been pretty good at the actual leaving bit.  The explanations and the fare the wells always seemed to trump me.  I've never had to deal with the fall out from that before, though."  That new counselor at Hogwarts had been right; in many ways Jacoba supposed she was well-adjusted.  But, not in all.  She had her own ghosts haunting her; she was just better at giving them the cold shoulder.

Apparently his timing had not improved, but he offered her a small smile.  She was still in her pajamas although he wasn't entirely sure she had been asleep still.  The question about catastrophe  was certainly understandable given the circumstances behind his first visit.  He couldn't help but laugh slightly as he offered her one of the coffees.

"No, when I left Hogwarts yesterday evening everything appeared to be well and I have not heard otherwise," he told her.  "This is purely a social visit."

Moving through the door he looked around the space that had been turned into her current living accommodations.  It was cozy and she had done a bit of decorating with posters to sort of make it her own.  He settled in one of the chairs, hoping he had gotten the coffee order right.  He was taking a sip of his own when she began to offer an apology.

He was a bit surprised, and he hadn't exactly been expecting and apology or come looking for one.  Yes, he had been hurt when she decided to leave, but they had remained just friends.  He hadn't deluded himself into thinking she might had stayed purely for the sake of their friendship, but he had hoped that she had enough connections in Great Britain to stay.

"I've always been pretty good at the actual leaving bit.  The explanations and the fare the wells always seemed to trump me.  I've never had to deal with the fall out from that before, though."

"You don't have to explain," he said with a slight shrug, trying to play it off a bit.  He had a soft spot for her, but he had tried to keep it to himself, especially when she had entered into a relationship with her former flatmate.  "I'm not here to pass judgement..."

He took another sip of coffee. The truth of the matter was that a part of him had wished he had taken a moment to check in on her while he was busy tending work and family issues around the time she had left. He had his duty to his family and he knew his first priority had to be to his mother after his father's passing. There was part of him though that had always found it difficult to accept that perhaps he had missed being there for a friend who might have needed a shoulder to cry on. After all, he was supposedly the steady and dependable type.

"I know there was a lot going on," he continued. "Things happen and we all tend to cope in different ways. Sometimes a little space is needed. I'm just glad you chose to come back."  He took another sip of coffee to stop himself from babbling on.

In Jacoba's opinion, it was hard to get a coffee order wrong.  Okay.  It wasn't that hard - there was a lot of mediocre coffee out there.  But, as long as one took the effort of finding the decent stuff, it was hard to go wrong from there. 

Jacoba popped the cover off her cup to allow her nose maximum access to the surface area of the brew and fished in the cupboard for a paper bag with a couple of sugar brioches from the bakery down the alley.  After offering one to Isaac, she fetched one for herself before perching herself in her favorite spot: on the wide sill of the round window under the eaves of the shop, looking out to the alley below. 

"That's a pretty remarkable place," Jacoba admitted, balancing the cup of coffee on the sill between her legs.  "Hogwarts.  I'm not sure I could get over how dark it is inside there, though.  I was there.  To see the tournament."  A fact which raised its own questions.  "That was intense.  My school just had badminton.  Or, Greek workshops on language day." Nothing that came close to marauding, giant spiders, as exciting as Greek day might have been. 

Jacoba smiled at the man and nodded, appreciative he wasn't expecting any thorough explanation.  She'd provided one to Tilly and, later, one (a more extensive one) to her brother.  They, of course, hadn't really passed judgement.  Well, Tilly hadn't.  The most that could be said for her conversation with Sasha was that it had gone better than she'd been fearing. 

But, Isaac had always been steady and reliable; Jacoba had always appreciated that about him.  Jacoba considered the man for a moment before taking a sip of the coffee.  "Yeah - it was starting to feel like the past was repeating itself.  In a whole new way.  And, I was certain, once I was on my own, the Ministry was ready to zap my brain and evict me.  I panicked and did what I know how to do best.  I didn't really expect to come back.  But, I'm glad I did, too."

The tournament was certainly a spectacle.  He wasn't exactly sure he was completely comfortable with the possible risk to the students.  After all, there was a reason it was discontinued at one time.  The worrier in him wasn't thrilled, but he didn't voice his concern.  It wouldn't really do any good.

"I thought I saw you at the tournament," he admitted, with a smile.  "But, I was far enough away that I figured it was just my eyes playing a trick on me."  His smile turned into a smirk as he couldn't help adding, "Although, I don't think you're giving badminton enough credit...Those flying birdies can be quite frightening."

"Yeah - it was starting to feel like the past was repeating itself.  In a whole new way.  And, I was certain, once I was on my own, the Ministry was ready to zap my brain and evict me.  I panicked and did what I know how to do best.  I didn't really expect to come back.  But, I'm glad I did, too."

He sipped at his coffee as she spoke.  It was a legitimate fear.  She had managed to work her way into Wizarding society and there were many who even now, years after the war, weren't fond of the non-magical comunity.  Given his previous publications he was well aware that hatred still existed towards the Muggle world.  Sometimes it would seem ignorance was would have been how many Muggles remained safe.

"The Ministry does like to get caught up on all their regulation, but what government doesn't," he said, trying and failing a bit to keep the cynicism out of his tone.  Many of the regulations, in his experience, hadn't done one bit of good in truly keeping people safe.  Usually they just made things more difficult.

"I wish I had been more available while all this was going on...I'm just relieved everything seems to be settling down again," he continued.  "You were missed...but it would have been that much worse if they had managed to 'zap' your brain, as you put it."

He was trying not to dwell on the image of what it would have been like if her memory had been modified and he had bumped into her.  Having watched his father's mind slowly decay until the elderly man hadn't even recognized his family had caused so much heart ache over the last few years.  He had been able to accept it due to the nature of his father's condition, but to have a friend who was vibrant and full of life possibly look at him like a stranger would have been extremely difficult to accept.

Pushing the thought aside, he took another look around her accommodations and decided on a subject change, "You've made quite the cozy nest for yourself here."

"No, your eyes weren't playing tricks-"  Jacoba confirmed, her voice trailing off slightly.  "That tournament was something else.  I have to admit, I never would have guessed my brother would do something like that. Let alone ... do well.  I know that sounds bad.  I just keep picturing the toe-headed kid that refused to go over the monkey bars to avoid the imaginary crocodiles."  But, then, Jacoba hadn't seen her brother at all from when he was eight to just recently; she didn't see him grow up. 

Which, of course, was a correct and fair and all that good stuff.  It did avoid the underlying fact.  That she'd been there in the first place.  Jacoba did plan on telling Isaac about the recent development, though she'd been reluctant to share the information far and wide.  She trusted him.  Felt comfortable around him and did want his advice. 

He was right, of course.  All governments got caught up in their own details and bureaucracy; Jacoba was just so used to being on the fringes that she'd never given it much thought. 

"I knew you were there.  I knew I could find you; you weren't unavailable.  I just hadn't expected my support network to fall out from underneath me so fully.  And, suddenly."  And, without warning.  She'd gone from celebrating a promotion to homeless in a matter of hours.  She still wasn't sure what had gone wrong. 

Jacoba glanced around her nest and grinned.  "Once the apologies were out of the way, it was actually really good to be back.  And, it seemed kind of appropriate given ... something happened.  Which is why I was at the tournament in the first place.  I-"  Jacoba glanced awkwardly towards Isaac and shrugged.  "You know, I've heard in passing about how young witches and wizards have these uncontrolled spurts?  Inexplicable things happen?  I had a couple strange incidents in Berlin which I can't really explain.  Some fairly non-muggle-y things."

There would always be part of him that would be believe he could have done a better job at being there...to be part of the support network when she had needed someone.  He didn't know all the details of what had happened, and he wasn't about to push or pry.  If and when she wished to share, she would.  She was likely also still trying to process it all.

His attention was completely drawn away from all that though when the subject changed, and not exactly in a direction he had ever anticipated.  He took a sip of his coffee, giving himself a moment to digest this new piece of information.  For a moment he wasn't even entirely sure he had heard her correctly.  If he had, that would mean might actually be a witch who had never been given any sort of proper training.  It also meant that anyone who wanted her out of the Wizarding Community would have a much weaker case...if she did indeed have magical abilities. 

"And here I was thinking that your return was the only surprise...," he said, giving her a reassuring smile once he had processed what she was telling.  "That is sometimes what happens...although usually it happens much earlier.  "What exactly happened during these incidents?"

Jacoba held nothing against Isaac and she didn't see any reason to do so.  She, with the help of old habits, had made her own decisions.  She had known there were those she could turn to; she'd decided to leave without reaching out to them.  She'd left, determined to leave the past behind her and, as was her MO, make it as difficult as possible for the people she left behind to catch up with her. 

But, somehow, Johann had managed to track her down once her aimless wandering had finally let her rest in Berlin.  By then, those two ... incidents ... had already occurred. 

"My returning was really only secondary to the main surprise," Jacoba offered with a slight half-grin.  "And, to be honest - I wasn't even entirely sure what it meant.  Or, if I was making it up - wishful thinking and all of that.  I'm still not entirely sure I get it.  I ... I don't really know what I'm doing.  Beyond going back to where things made sense and winging it." 

What exactly happened during those incidents?  "The first time it was more vague.  Easier to dismiss?"  Jacoba shifted and slid off the window sill and crossed the room to fold herself into the mismatched chair next to Isaac's.  "I'd been in Vienna, running to catch a connecting train to Prague - it was the last train of the evening and, if I missed it ... well, station benches aren't the most comfortable sleeping spots, you know?"  Isaac had travelled enough; Jacoba assumed it wasn't too far fetched a notion that he might have missed a connection or two. 

Except, of course, he was a wizard.  Who could poof where he needed to go if he had to. 

"And, I should have missed it - I'd ended up on the wrong platform and I saw the doors closing.  But, the last door got stuck.  The conductors were still fighting with it when I hopped on the train and then it just ... unstuck.  Vague, I know.  I dismissed it as luck at the time.  But, then, a week before Johann showed up, I'd been working nights a club in Berlin and I'd stepped outside and this drunk idiot had started harassing me.  He grabbed me and I shoved him off and, when he tried to follow, he fell flat on his face.  Just-"  Jacoba raised and arm and dropped it, pantomiming a falling tree.  Or, drunk.  "When I looked back, his shoe laces were tied.  Tight.  Tight enough there was no way he could have walked out there." 

Jacoba shrugged.  "I didn't know what else it could be - and, when I went to the tournament, the Ministry blokes scanned me like everyone else to make sure no non-magical family members were sneaking in.  They waved me through."  She had magical capabilities - at some capacity.  How much was anyone's guess.