They were experiencing an unseasonable warm ending to October.[1] As such it seemed a shame to stay inside and upon catching up with Tapendra, the two professors had trailed round the edge of the lake, beyond the popular positions of the students who would sit on the rocks or benches before the pebble run beaches, cooing and passing flirtatious compliments.

The two wizards followed the level path towards the shadow of the hills looming over the water. Ignan had slipped his hands into his pockets, feeling a little more at ease to be in the presence of his dear friend than anyone else at present. He had switched his usual three piece suit for a shirt and lighter jumper without a tie and due to the milder temperature, had left his usual cloak hanging back at his office.

"It'll be torrential rain, sleet or snow next week, just to take everyone back to reality." Ignan mused, casting a glance back over his shoulder at the students who had exploded into laughter over someone falling face first into the mud. They had been quiet as the two of them had passed moments before, and Ignan had wondered if they would have said hello if Tappy were alone.

"Hmph. Well, how are things? We hardly seem to get a moment this year to stop and ask." They negotiated a dried out rut of mud where someone had ploughed their broomstick in after heavy rain.
"Staff meetings don't count, obviously." Conversing with Tapendra across a table full of parchment in the staff room about the standards of first years verses the previous years was not conducive to friendly conversation. Ignan would only be friendly in such a conversation with colleagues if this year's first years were exceeding last year's at Defences, which naturally, they were.

1.	Though another thread has already established its a sunny afternoon of 16C, so we'll stick with that with rain later.

Tapendra, largely due to the soil, was actually wearing shoes today - boots, in fact, which he had almost forgotten he owned. Beyond that, his attire was largely what one would expect. Casual...without actually being all that casual. Corporate casual is what he would have called it, had the term been understood by any of the other staff. They would probably have still commented. Tapendra, much to his annoyance, seemed to be able to project an air of underdressed even in a dress shirt and waistcoat.

"I hope not," he said, smiling slightly. "Unpredictable weather plays havok on my lesson plans." Though he wouldn't mind snow. Tapendra had always rather liked the stuff.  As for how he was doing - well, the correct answer was not well. He'd been in a foul mood since the rather unpleasant evening before, and he let his breath out in an exasperated sigh.

"Could be better," he admitted, rather lightly and with a snort of laughter. "Are you familiar with our new Charm's professor at all, Ignan? I had the pleasure of meeting him properly last night."

The sarcasm wasn't emphasized, but it hung in the air like a cloud. He'd calmed down, but thinking about Kesali's words and actions still got him steamed. What a tit! And all because Tapendra hadn't instantly folded to his terrifyingly incompetent logic and apologized for offering to help, as far as he could tell.

"Who, Kesali?" Ignan asked, looking up a little surprised that this could be related to Tapendra not being in the best of spirits.

"I can't say we have spoken many more than a few words professionally. Seems to be one of those ethereal types. Some of the students thought he was a wizarding pirate when he arrived due to the eye." He chuckled, and shook his head. As if, the man had far too pretty a face to be that hardy, surely.

"Why, did you not like what you saw in him?"

Tapendra laughed at the idea as well. Eyepatch or not, Kesali looked the sort of person who'd wind up tossed over the side of any self respecting pirate ship the moment they were out of port. From what he knew of pirates, looks only got you anywhere if you were a wench with large tits, and Kesali did not possess either of those qualities.

"Cannot say I did, no," Tapendra said, stroking his beard absently. "Had a bit of an incident in the wood last night - I had to go out and talk to the centaurs, as you might recall. Stumbled across Kesali with an acquaintance of mine, deep in the wood. Mister Morgan - he's the Librarian's cousin, tailor chap - was assaulted in London. They....well." He paused, awkwardly.

"Found Kesali crouched over a bleeding and unconscious person and I - had something of a flashback to January." He glanced at Ignan, the only other staff member who'd seen the tableau of Sasha with Ava's bleeding body. "I greeted them with more aggression than the situation called for. Kesali did not take it well, and..." His hand ran through his hair. "He was not particularly friendly to me after that, shall we say. I haven't had another staff member get on my nerves that quickly, Ignan. I admit my own actions did not help, but - Kesali seemed to go out of his way to be abrasive and mocking. It was bizarre, really - he'd switch from open and caring concern for Mister Morgan's condition to all but hissing at me."

Ignan listened quietly as Tapendra quickly explained his recent interactions with Nightingale Kesali. The January flashback mention caused Ignan to shiver. Not the best night of his career at Hogwarts at all, and the incident that had first brought his biological son to his attention in any great way.

"I greeted them with more aggression than the situation called for. Kesali did not take it well, and... He was not particularly friendly to me after that, shall we say. I haven't had another staff member get on my nerves that quickly, Ignan. I admit my own actions did not help, but - Kesali seemed to go out of his way to be abrasive and mocking. It was bizarre, really - he'd switch from open and caring concern for Mister Morgan's condition to all but hissing at me."

His brow furrowed, and he thought a moment before offering supportive words to his best friend.
"I'm sure it will be water under the bridge in a matter of days, if not already forgotten." Ignan replied in a smooth, calm tone, sounding altogether reasonable. "Though you're not one to normally hear of being angry, so he really must have been wretched." The older man held his bottom lip between his own teeth for the fraction of a second before continuing.

"I think I do know what you mean about the switching though. He played cards the other day with Landis and Bai Li Yang from Salem and I, and said a few odd things back then to Landis that were particularly harsh. Does he know the family well, perhaps?" His forehead creased as he considered the link.

"What was Kesali doing with Morgan's cousin in the woods, anyhow? Had he been the cause of the man's… condition?"

"I hope that's the case," he said, gaze falling to the muddy, wet ground. The whole fiasco was weighing heavily on him, despite Tulojow's words the night before and Darian's just mere hours before, when he'd walked the man to Hogsmeade. Tapendra didn't enjoy being angry; he might hold grudges for longer than he really liked, but being actively angry just made him sick, after a few hours.

Still - the darker parts of him would have liked to have just given in and punched Kesali. He'd have lost his job but the satisfaction - however fleeting - had felt like it'd have been worth it, at the time.

He looked over at Ignan as Ignan spoke again, nodding slightly. Somehow Kesali saying things in front of the other professors - even foreign ones - wasn't surprising. The man has seemed eager to spit and hiss like a cat, and Morgan was the sort that he could see getting that reaction from Kesali anyway.

"He didn't seem to know the family, no. Dar - Mister Morgan had never met or heard of him before last night, from what I gathered." He ran a hand through his hair, ultimately resting it at the base of his neck.

"He wasn't the one who did it, no. He apparently saved Mister Morgan from thugs in London, and...brought him to the Forbidden Forest in a panic? He kept saying it was the only place he felt safe." His glance at Ignan said it all - what loony felt safe in the Forbidden Forest, the forest famous for being a refuge for the dark and dangerous? It was like feeling safe in a warzone.

"I'm not really sure what his intent after arriving was. His attitude was changing so wildly that...I can't really take him at his word, can I? He would spit and growl at me and be sweet to Mister Morgan the next, sometimes in the same breath."

Ignan listened to Tapendra's account with interest.

"So, he brought an injured stranger all the way here, to Hogwarts?" He clarified, thinking it a little illogical. Surely if he wanted to aid the man, he'd have taken him to St Mungo's, or did the school's charms professor need a lesson in where that was?

"Quite, the forest is not that safe, even for us Professors, and the more arrogant of us, even less so." He bristled, remembering, as Tapendra must, the encounter of Grosvenor's corpse.

Their walk continued at an even pace, Ignan's brow furrowed in thought at Tapendra's final comment of the man's changing irritability.

"He sounds quite unhinged, given your explanation. Had he been drinking, perhaps? Drink does lend for poor judgement. Perhaps we should keep an eye out for this uneven temperament... If it is something like drink, I'll be duty-bound to intervene." Ignan sighed. For the benefit and protection of the students of course, and whether it was with his fist and the destruction of his liquor by fire, it didn't matter to Ignan as long as the message was read and understood.

Then again, one was quite jumping to conclusions. He hadn't had much interaction with Kesali to date, even if he seemed distantly familiar like he'd met someone who looked similar in the past.

"Did he do any worse than provide a tongue lashing at irregular intervals?" Ignan enquired.

"Yes, he did," he said. "His reasons for it seem to be...panic, I suppose? Which makes me disinclined to be comfortable with his helping in emergencies, I'll admit..."

He was silent then, shrugging at Ignan's question. The lakeside was pleasant, if a bit slick and muddy, and he took a few moments to let the serenity of the place calm him somewhat.

"If he'd been drinking, he never mentioned it or showed any sign. I wouldn't put it outside of consideration, of course. But he didn't seem drunk." At least, not like the drunks Tapendra most commonly associated with. Most of them, even the angry ones, showed a common set of symptoms - a slurred method of speech, a loss of balance, generally acting a bit loopy. Kesali, for all his rapid change of emotions and generally threatening demeanor, had seemed lucid. Just unhinged.

Tapendra let his breath out. "No, he didn't. He seemed threatening but it never became more than a...feeling, I suppose. I'm sorry - I've never had someone be that directly offensive towards me outside of schoolyard bullying. I'm a bit on edge."

"Hmm, I shouldn't let him get to you." Ignan replied in an almost father-like manner. "Perhaps he enjoys trying to unsettle folk." He shrugged. "Moments like that I'd pull rank, almost certainly - something you're not unable to do either of course..." The older wizard raised an eyebrow and smirked.

"Well, if he does get to you, I can have a word, but I think you'll be overjoyed to try a couple of those methods you used to use on Graham Bombay when you were a student." The grumpy ex-herbology professor had been at war with Trishna when they had been Hogwarts students, and when Tapendra had arrived back at the start of 2009, the irritation between them had been rekindled, observed, and then understood better by Ignan later.

Frowning at his friend, who still seemed troubled, he added,
"He's really got to you, hasn't he?"

"Perhaps." He left his breath out, aware suddenly that the air was chiller than he'd been noticing for some time. He rubbed an arm, looking out at the lake. "Somehow I don't think pulling rank would help. Doesn't seem the sort that would work on." He looked back to Ignan, corners of his mouth twitching up. "Unlike you, my rank doesn't give me power over the staff. Which is likely a good thing, eh?"

He smiled, and finally laughed, at Ignan's suggestion. His war with Graham had consumed much of his Hogwarts years, fading to a minor annoyance when they'd reached OWL levels. The Charms professor did seem a bit old hat compared to Bombay, he'd admit, but at least Bombay had followed logic.

"If I wish to lose my job, I'll consider it. Judy developed this horrible hex that...well. He'd be quite the spectacle," he said, with a grin, and he looked at Ignan. His grin faded to slightly more reserved smile. "I'm sorry," he said, shaking his head and waving a hand. "Must seem so silly, really. It is, actually. After everything this last year, this is the one thing that eats at me like this?"

He laughed, but it had a bit of an edge to it. "I'll try and reign it in, sir," he added, letting his breath out and nodding. "Thank you, Ignan," he added, much more calmly. "For putting up with me."

"Horrible hex?" Ignan asked with curiosity. "Oh go on, we'll have to try it, just once..." He suggested darkly, but knew Tapendra would not take him seriously.

"Psh, I don't know why I do, but you must be one of the lucky ones." Ignan retorted to the comment about putting up with him. He gave a genuine rosy-cheeked smile for one fleeting moment.

"Despite the changes this year, you're still permitted to barge into a detention and demand my attention. Those three were not worse the wear for it, and I believe rather relieved."[1] Ignan thought back and scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Perhaps I should employ that detention strategy more often, I think they did remember the contents rather well, come their exams."

"How are things other than irritating colleagues, Georgiana, Cyhirae all well? Keeping out of my hair enough this term at least."

1.	Its All Too Much - March 2009

"It, erm...may not be horrible the way you're thinking. It's harmless, just -" He made a gesture, hand darting between his nose and waistline. "It...switches things. Only works on men." Thankfully, she'd never tried it on him. Or anyone he liked, except Ryan. Who had managed to dodge.

He cleared his throat. As funny as it had been at the time, it seemed rather juvenile now, didn't it?

"Hah!" He said, smirking at Ignan's comments. "I'd count myself as lucky either way, but you're probably right." He still didn't understand quite why the older man liked him, but he also wasn't going to question it. His thoughts briefly darted to the issue with Malvivicus that he'd been sitting on, but...no. That wasn't a problem Ignan needed to stress over. Not yet, anyway.

"I doubt Reid would approve, Ignan," he chided. "You're the Deputy Headmaster now; you've got to be a bit more proper and adhere to tradition." He rubbed his chin. "As I recall, Hogwarts tradition includes thumbscrews, though, so perhaps not." There were a few children that would work rather well on, he had to admit - in a joking light, of course. Tapendra tended to prefer weaponised boredom.

"They're well. Or as well as they get, anyhow. Georgiana tends to seem to want to not be well so she can complain about it  - it's a teenage phase I skipped, apparently."

With the explanation, Ignan's eyebrows rose higher and higher until they plummeted in confusion and he shook his head, not sure he wanted to know any more.

"Really?" He asked, surprised at the notion of Georgiana moaning about being unwell. "Tell her I'll be only happy to make her feel properly unwell in which case." Then realising what he said raised both hands and shook them from side to side, "I mean, I'll give her a reason to feel unwell. Oh... Merlin." He put a hand to his face.

"On second thoughts, don't." He sighed. "But perhaps a better placed word when I do meet her next might disuade her. Unless she's just looking for your attention...?" The older wizard tilted his head and raised an eyebrow. "Probably just needs a young man in her life." He suggested, just because he knew the thought of boyfriends for Georgiana and Cyhirae made Tapendra twitch, especially if they were particularly unsuitable.

Tapendra just laughed at Ignan's stumbling, shaking his head. He knew what the man was attempting to say, as awkward as the phrasing had turned out to be. "I'm not sure the traditional way of making students miserable would help, anyway. She seems to desire a kind of...fashionable misery." Tapendra, who'd spent most of his teenage years genuinely miserable, found the motion beyond silly. "I think it's difficult to be fashionably depressed over term papers."

Still, his sister could probably manage it, he'd admit. Half the Slytherin could.

Tapendra paused, and had to wonder if Ignan was right. The drift between he and Georgiana was easy to write off as her own doing, though he knew in his heart of hearts Cyhirae had a lot to do with it - no matter what their relationship had worked out as, it was strange to think of Georgiana quite the same way he thought of Cyhirae. He let his breath out, looking at the lake.

Thankfully, Ignan's next comment made him bristle. "Oh gods, no," he said, rubbing his forehead. "You should see the kind of boys she likes, Ignan - they're nightmares. I wouldn't let them in the house." His annoyance turned to a wry grin. "Besides, she'd probably be hopelessly chasing Deres, and we all know where his heart lies." He gave Ignan an innocent look, but the smirk rather ruined it.

Ignan rolled his eyes and shook his head at the thought of Deus.

"Now, that is attention-seeking. He thinks its a death-wish, bravado because of my reputation." Deus Deres had begun more elaborate forms of getting his attention by proclaiming romantic feelings for the older wizard, beginning at Valentines day earlier that year. He seemed to be getting bolder. Ignan tried not to dwell on the thought and for the majority of the time ignored it. Generally the boy accepted there was a time and a place for such notions.

"Perhaps it would be good if he took a liking to Georgiana, he might forget me." Ignan shrugged, as if he was being serious and then smirked. "She'd take him down a few pegs, that's for certain... then it'd only be whether you'd let him in the house?"

He managed a genuine smile of amusement at imagining Deres turning up on the Trishna's doorstep behind the car-thing that seemed to be alive but not.

"Your sister will soon be of the age where there's little you can do, and if she's anything like her mother, trying to sway her opinion once her mind is set is a dangerous attempt. I have to say of late I've been more humoured by the fourth years attempting their relations. Gives me a new repertoire of jokes that really hit home about mooning at each other. We just have to be wary whether Oliver and Pepper do form their volatile alliance. Merlin, they're bad enough. My money's on O'Doherty being allergic to girls though."