Johann Storm ambled down Diagon Alley with his familiar satchel bag over his shoulder. He had been hoping to make this trip yesterday, but as the first Tetra-wizard tournament task was the following weekend, he had been forced into a Saturday stint. Frustrating as that was when he had business to do elsewhere, it was still common knowledge that the Department of International Magical Co-Operation were using misinformation and decoys on their staff to monitor leaks of information.

The department was "as tight as a duck's chuff" according to Francis Pepper, who worked for the Department of Mysteries - who undoubtedly was giving Gabrielle Murray-Harker plenty of advice on secrecy this year. Johann had initially decided that this was high praise, and then remembered Francis and Gabrielle were spending a lot of time alone together, which was the subject of Ministry gossip.

Instead, he'd distracted his indifference with a request for a definition of 'chuff', only to be informed it had to do with the watertightness of back passages, and felt no happier for asking at all.

Avian buttocks aside, Johann pushed open the door of Reducto Records and inhaled the scent of vinyl, rosin and a underlying hint of incense. The inside of the shop was cheery enough, though a little too popular culture to become one of Johann's haunts.

Jacoba Schlagenweit was engaged with a customer when he arrived, and he lingered, watching another customer leaf through the vinyl records. Deciding to do the same, he reached out, leafing through a pile without really examining the artwork with any concentration. Customer satisfied, Johann smiled across at Sasha's older sister, hoping to make polite acquaintance with her again since they had last spoken abroad.

It was only then that he noticed he was leafing through the children's section.

Johann hurriedly dropped a bright, sparkly vinyl for Muggly the Bear back into the display, his cheeks blushing. It took a deep cough to try and cover his embarrassment.

"Merlin, I er... hadn't realised..." That better not ever get back to Ignan.

"Hello again. Am I interrupting?" Johann asked Jacoba politely, adjusting his bag on his shoulder. "I was hoping you wouldn't be too busy - not that I was hoping your trade would be poor, just that I wouldn't inconvenience you to do what we spoke about."

The other wizard Johann had moment before imitated by studying records was staring at him acutely and he inwardly cursed.

"No, no.  I'm sure she won't disappoint."  There were, obviously, profound differences between the wizarding world and the muggle world.  But, since Jacoba's arrival a little over a year ago, Jacoba had come across no shortage of similarities.  Including little old ladies who, for the life of themselves, couldn't recognize when they'd firmly driven a conversation topic into the ground and trampled on its poor, lifeless body. 

Old Mrs. Clovis Cutteridge was one of the sweetest customers they got, but she had clearly reached that age when she could no longer remember she told Jacoba how wonderful Franny McFraggelstein's harmonies were during every one of her fifteen visits to the shop. 

Jacoba spotted Johann over the point of the older witch's lilac-trimmed hat and offered the briefest grimace of pain before turning her attention back to Mrs. Cutteridge. 

"No, no.  I haven't heard of any more upcoming albums.  But, you know that if I do, you'll be the first I'll tell."  It wasn't like there was much competition for ol' McFraggelstein's sleepy, droning ballads. 

"Did I pay?" Mrs. Cutteridge asked, turning back towards the counter.

"Yes, you paid already.  You're all good to go.  I have no reason to call the Aurors on you."  Which, as usual, Mrs. Cutteridge seemed to think was the wittiest quip she'd ever heard and her chuckles seemed to follow her out the door. 

Jacoba had been following the witch, just to make sure she turned the right direction, which put her in prime position to spot Johann's current choice.  A nice jab of friendly humor was just what she needed to de-Cutteridgify.  Completely ignoring his assertion that he had no idea what he was holding, Jacoba grinned coyly over the record stacks. 

"If you're going for sleepy time music, I recommend their second release.  Dancetime with Mr. Giggles and the Moon will lull you to sleep in no time." 

Jacoba shook her head, waving off his long-winded expression of concern.  "If I take on Mrs. Cutteridge, I get an extra twenty minutes on my lunch break.  Tony insists it's a fair trade; who am I to disagree.  Do you mind if we take this matter upstairs, though?  I can toss lunch together while you do ... whatever it is we're doing.  Some sort of bloodletting, if I remember?" 

"If you're going for sleepy time music, I recommend their second release.  Dancetime with Mr. Giggles and the Moon will lull you to sleep in no time."

"Really?" Johann replied, completely believing it and wondering for the faintest of moments if it would work instead of potion - so much, his hand instinctively darted back to the pile before he realised it was a joke.

"If I take on Mrs. Cutteridge, I get an extra twenty minutes on my lunch break.  Tony insists it's a fair trade; who am I to disagree.  Do you mind if we take this matter upstairs, though?  I can toss lunch together while you do ... whatever it is we're doing.  Some sort of bloodletting, if I remember?"

"Of course, I was hoping there would be somewhere other than asking you to give blood on the shop floor." He grinned, "As long as the request to prick your finger won't put you off your lunch."

With that, they headed upstairs, Johann casting curious glances around the place as he went, ever nosey.
"I wish I got an extra twenty minutes on my lunch break for dealing with old ladies, or even my most irritating colleagues." He explained as he followed Sasha's sister. "Hopefully I won't monopolise too long on your extra minutes, this is probably the last thing you want to be doing."

In August, Johann had been routinely demonstrating the Relation Elixir[1] to Sasha when they had discovered he and Johann were related[2]. There was a question over Sasha's father, which Sasha suggested his sister Jacoba would know more about. Fortunately Johann was able to locate and visit Jacoba while in Germany, and now that they were all back in the UK, they could work out if the blood tie was maternal or paternal.

If Johann and Jacoba were also related, it was through the maternal side, but if they were not, it indicated that Sasha's father was related to the Storm family further up the generations, and the only other blood relative around to test was Ignan, who nobody was particularly fond of approaching for such a reason.

"Its relatively simple, a drop of  our blood from a finger prick, and we compare the colour of the elixir for the result. As the younger, your blood is dropped first, and mine after."

Withdrawing the box from his bag he began to unpack each of the items swiftly and carefully.

1.	Wiki link
2.	Thread: Six Degrees of Separation

Jacoba chuckled as she led the way up the backstairs to the attic, the back portion of which had been modified into a humble, but cozy flat.  Beyond the usual basic furnishings, a few band posters from the main shop had been pilfered to adorn the wall.  It wasn't much to gloat about; compared to her brother's multiple residents it was quite minimal.  But, it was home, comfortable and Jacoba was grateful to have it. 

"It'll take more than a little finger prick to turn  me off of lunch.  Between tattoos and piercings, I've been around enough needles and such." 

Jacoba gestured in a inviting manner towards the pair of rickety yet artistically painted chairs gathered around the small kitchen table.  She quickly gathered the handful of Amnesty International magazines and straightened them up into a neat pile to the side of the table.  "Have you tried sleep-inducing music?" she asked as she grabbed a block of cheese, a salami and a loaf of bread before settling on the far side of the table.  "Obviously not Mr. Muggly.  He's more likely to make you want to poke your eye out.  But, there's some fairly coma-enducing new age stuff in the muggle world.  I could order some." 

"You get extra wages for dealing with demanding clients," Jacoba pointed out.  Or, rather, she assumed.  Most government jobs were pretty comfortable; she assumed the Ministry of Magic was similar.  "Luckily, the colleagues are pretty easy to deal with here.  If they're too uptight, they get weeded out pretty quickly.  They just get me to load some Rammstein on the phonograph and that usually gets them to move on pretty quick."  Jacoba smirked.  Of course, that was a joke.  Reducto didn't really attract the uptight crowd in the first place and had a strict policy about chasing people out.  Most the resident employees had enough personal experience with that themselves.   "You probably don't know who that is, though." 

Actually, in hindsight, he probably did know who that was.  Even if he didn't know by name.  Little more than a month before, Johann had managed to track her down in Berlin where she'd finally settled after wandering aimlessly through Romania for a month.  Industrial metal tended to be the music of choice at the club where she'd managed to land some part time work. 

"You know, in the muggle world we can do this with a few cheek cells.  No broken skin necessary," Jacoba pointed out as she watched Johann unpack the items from his bag. 

"But, you know this is a formality."  Jacoba vaguely understood why Johann and Sasha were ruling out the easy candidates first but, being somewhat of an outsider to the whole affair, she didn't really share their trepidations.  "I can promise you,...okay, I can't promise you.  But, I'm ninety percent certain it's not my mother.  I've studied my family history.  In the muggle world.  I know who I'm related to.  And, the chances of my mother being a witch or a squib are almost nil."

Johann took a seat at the table, listening to Jacoba and working round the Amnesty International magazines. At the suggestion he did not know who Rammstein were, he paused, trying to recall if it was one of the band Adelia Delacroix had ever mentioned. Within moments, all the items were assembled in the space, as Jacoba threw together her lunch.

"Cheek cells?" Johann asked, puzzled at her comparison. "Are they like rings of trees to Muggles?" He scratched his curls and set himself down on one of the chairs. Realising the explanation was going to require a long explanation, he waved a hand to indicate it wasn't necessary. "Perhaps one day you can share a greater insight on such curious matters." He shrugged.

"I can promise you,...okay, I can't promise you.  But, I'm ninety percent certain it's not my mother.  I've studied my family history.  In the muggle world.  I know who I'm related to.  And, the chances of my mother being a witch or a squib are almost nil."

Johann nodded, and tilted his head to one side trying to convey his understanding of the probability.
"Indeed, but your brother and his scientific approach agree it would be useful to rule out that segment of doubt. Sorry to inconvenience you, Jacoba."

With both hands raised to above the table, he gestured to the setup.
"I'll get on and be out of your hair?"

Truth be told he actually enjoyed the strange conversations between them, and was quite keen to hear about the Muggle world and how it differed. He kept strange company of werewolves in Colin and Hannah, and a Muggle contact would be very useful to his colleagues in the Muggle Liaison office within the DIMC. That was not to say Johann saw that as Jacoba's only use - she was most pleasant to converse with, had knowledge about a whole different culture, and they had some shared history in the geography they were raised in. If everything worked out as they were anticipating, but also dreading, the two families would be even closer. He didn't want to irritate Sasha's sister any more than he had to in these early days.

Johann picked up the elixir and began to measure out the twenty drops into a couple of dishes to be sure.
"This is relationship elixir." He explained, "Compares bloods by changing colour. I'm no potions expert, so I cannot begin to explain how the properties work, just that it does." The slightly white, cloudy potion drizzled from the brown bottle and the air rippled. The smell of lakewater and aniseed combined with Jacoba's choice of lunch as Johann restoppered the bottle.

"Here," Johann spoke softly, getting to his feet. "A drop of your blood in these two is all I need." He showed her a very sharp tipped knife made of goblin steel and gestured to the shallow dishes of potion. He extended his hand palm uppermost to receive her own so he could make the prick.

"Your brother still has a couple of fingers left after last time." He added, though the glint in his eyes deceived his deadpan expression.

Jacoba blinked and, then, for several long moments just stared at Johann, trying desperately to grasp what he was trying to say.  After a year of quick assimilation to the wizarding world, it didn't seem to be details of the magical culture that stumped her as much as wizards attempts to relate to the muggle world.  For the life of her, she couldn't figure out what cheek cells might have to do with a group of trees arranged in a ring.

Finally, Jacoba shook her head.  "I don't think so?"  Though, truth be told, she felt wholly unqualified to answer that question.  She didn't know anything about groups of trees and her knowledge of cheek cell use was limited to what she observed on television police shows.  "If you're really curious, you're probably better off asking my brother.  Languages and history are my thing; I've never been a science geek." 

"Don't worry, you're not in my hair," Jacoba insisted.  WIth a smirk, she added: "And, I'm very aware of my brother's brand of thoroughness.  I can only imagine how unnerving this must be for him." 

Jacoba set her meal to the side, briefly, and leaned forward to watch the strange, slightly milky substance pour into the dish.  There was something strangely mesmerizing about the white suspended in the otherwise clear liquid - like butter melting into a mug of warm rum.  Or, the northern lights. 

Jacoba set her hand in Johann's and reminded herself that, in most cases like this, the anticipation was considerably worse than the actual event.  "Oddly, as a muggle," or former muggle.  "Loss of fingers isn't my biggest worry.  It's just hard to really, completely abandon worrying about things like bloodborne pathogens and such.  We're taught to be paranoid about such things.  It's just habit." 

"I see." Johann replied, a little distractedly as he pricked Jacoba's finger tip. Into the solution it went as he guided her hand over the dishes.

"It doesn't take too long to grow a whole finger back depending on the means it was lost, with magic, I understand. Though loss of fingers through wand misfunction is still a main cause. Well, next to creatures." His tone was matter-of-fact, very much to business, due to the concentration at not mucking up the whole process.

Knife wiped, onto his own fingertip which stang as he nicked it, and down, down into the solution to follow Jacoba's. He sucked the tip of his finger instinctively while placing down the knife and exchanging it for his wand to warm.

"There, now, just a slip of the parchment will let us know if the two of us are coincidentally related."

Floating for a moment on the surface, the parchment spun lazily, and then began to absorb the elixir, changing colour rapidly to a resolute black.

"As you thought." Johann sighed, and sat down at the table to ponder. "No relation whatsoever."

He raised his eyes to Jacoba,
"Which leaves us back where we started that your brother's father is an as yet unknown member of my own family."

Jacoba hardly flinched when the knife tip pricked her finger.  Once the required number of blood droplets had dripped into the dish, Jacoba simply pressed her thumb against the tip of her finger and held it, firmly. 

"Wand misfunction?"  Jacoba eyed Johann briefly, waiting for any indications that had been a joke.  But, the fellow remained stoic and focused.  "That sounds unpleasant.  I ..."  Jacoba shook her head, filing that bit of information into the growing list of reasons she was hesitant to explore this whole new realm of magical possibility. 

The test results weren't a surprise, but there was still the slightest hint of disappointment.  Jacoba had known the chances of the man sitting next to her being the first part of some secret wizarding family she didn't know about were slim.  But, to discover some unknown branch of her family - that had been completely unconnected to her mother and father - she couldn't deny part of her had hoped to be surprised. 

"Do you have candidates you can test there?  Is that your next step?" Jacoba asked, leaning back away from the table.  "From what I understand, there are a couple possibilities.  I assume, they should all offer some results - it's just a matter of finding out who produces which results, yes?" 

"Do you have candidates you can test there?  Is that your next step? From what I understand, there are a couple possibilities.  I assume, they should all offer some results - it's just a matter of finding out who produces which results, yes?"

Johann nodded absentmindedly.
"Oh yes, only back home, or someone I don't really want to have to say 'just checking if you are related to one of your students, who isn't sure who his father is'." Johann pouted and looked up at Jacoba. "My cousin, who is also on that side of the family, teaches your brother at the school. He's the only suitable blood relative in Britain to rule out. I've tested Sasha against my father and the result was that he's more closely related to Sasha than I am even."

He slowly began to pack away the box of equipment, casting evanesco as he went,
"What would it mean if your brother did find out the identity of his father? I understand from the details I am privy to that things are convoluted. To add a wizard into the family - if it turns out to be a live relative - would that make Sasha... happy?"

Johann's brow was furrowed as he tried to quantify what he meant. If the search was futile due to complication, if there was any chance he didn't have to try and get blood out of Ignan and rule either way about him being related to Schlagenweit, Johann would take it.

"That's bound to be awkward."  And, her brother had a knack for making the most mundane of situations awkward.

Jacoba took a moment to consider Johann's question, taking into consideration what limited information she knew about the situation.  She sliced a small piece of cheese off the block and sat back.  She wished she had an answer to his question, but she didn't.  She'd gotten to know her brother better over the last year but that only an improvement to being almost complete strangers before. 

"I can only speculate," Jacoba admitted.  "But, it's just a guess.  I'm not sure - I was kicked out when he found out he wasn't my father's son.  So, we've never really talked about it, and it's a bit of an uneasy topic.  It is all a bit convoluted, but I just don't know.  Given everything that's happened, I ... I just don't know.  But, I presume you're pursuing this because he's asked, yes?" 

"You've both gotten this far together so, I assume he's already suspicious?  My guess is it'll be hard to just forget about it.  It seems a lot to just ignore."

"Drat." Johann muttered, pouting and looking most disappointed. Part of him was furiously curious, though the majority of his feeling was he would do anything else to avoid Ignan, even if it meant testing the rest of his family in turn - but that would mean going back to Germany... which meant further complications.

"Well, I can tell him the news that we've ruled you and I out of the equation, and let him make up his mind about what he wants to do about it. The Tetra Wizard will be keeping him busy, along with all his studies, so perhaps he might forget about it a while." Johann suggested hopefully.

The box snapped shut and Johann got to his feet, sliding it back into his satchel.
"Thank you for agreeing to the test just to be sure." He spoke sincerely, "I'll interrupt your lunch no longer."

The satchel slung over his shoulder, her headed for the top of the stairs, and then paused,
"That coma-inducing new age stuff. Does it work?"



End of Thread