"Oh, hello, Francis about?"

Johann put his head through the door to the time turner workshop which was ajar instead of firmly closed. One of the first times he'd been in, he'd ended up fast asleep on the floor, before waking up on Colin's slab like a dead body. This morning the objects inside still shone as brightly as ever, but it seemed quieter, still. 

The tall, lanky linguist observed Theta Pepper, her face magnified tenfold or more by the huge magnifying glass before her features. Her forgiving eyes looked up in enormous surprise, which was lessened as she tilted her head out to one side and blinked at him. Johann stepped inside the door frame, his long pale fingers curling round the edge.

"I was dropping something off with Colin, thought I'd stick my head in…" Johann explained a little further, a little puzzled by the lack of response, and the lack of Francis. He was always in here, wasn't he? When he wasn't attached at the hip to Gabrielle that was. He'd never yet encountered Theta here alone.

"… Bad time?" Johann asked, exasperated.

Under, round, a little heat, cool.

Theta's tongue poked ever so slightly out of the side of her neat mouth as she worked, trying to remember all the directions from Francis. He would normally be sat beside her, peering through the same glass, giving instructions and advice when she held the tools. This turner needed to be back in an hour, and she wasn't going to let him down. Thankfully it was just the outer ring that had fractured. It made it simpler to repair, and they had done one like this not long ago.

Johann appearing at the door almost made her drop the whole thing into the flame. In horror she realised she had left the door open without thinking that morning. Startled, she stared at him in surprise through the magnifying glass which flipped him upside down due to the the distance he stood at from her workbench.

The young unspeakable peered round to see who it was and blinked, trying desperately to think what she could say. She had not anticipated a visitor, and Johann had a reputation for fiddling with things. That was all she needed.

"… Bad time?" Johann Storm asked, hanging through the door, feet within already.

"Ah…er…" Theta managed to vocalise, feeling every second the novice, "sort of yes. Erm, come in, just please don't touch anything." The words slipped out of her mouth before she realised. She sounded like her uncle, who disliked tinkering fingers in his workshop.

"I'm just trying to finish this before its needed this morning." She explained, "Sorry, I didn't expect anyone to visit."

Johann stepped carefully through the workshop, heeding Theta's instructions for once as she looked a little distracted with life. He made his way round to where she sat, a bright orb floating in the air beside her to give out light for what she was working on.

"Are you on your own?" He asked, peering at what she was up to, hands clasped behind his back. "Or is Francis going to reappear through the door after testing at any moment?"

He leaned closer to Theta who was bending the metal with tiny, fragile looking tools, examined through the magnifying glass. She smelt of vanilla and her hair was tucked so very neatly into a bun behind her ears as it was first thing in the working day. Her shirt sleeves were folded up and she wore an apron that looked considerably newer than the one Francis tended to wear.

"That must require exquisite concentration." He remarked, inches from her right ear.

"Merlin's beard!" Theta squeaked. She managed not to snap the delicate piece, and instead dropped it carefully back into the box and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Johann." Theta spoke politely but firmly, and stood up from her stool a moment. "Don't," she took one of his forearms in each of her hands and sat him down on the adjacent stool, "ever do that again. You could have caused a magical accident." For a fleeting moment it felt as if she were talking to Ambrose, not a grown man and Ministry employee sat opposite her in a suit.

The young unspeakable sat back down again and faced him, breathing a sigh of relief.
"What did you want?"

Johann allowed himself to be sat down like a child being handled firmly by his mother. For such a tiny lady, Theta's grip was firm and she shared her uncle's patience clearly. Then again, Francis would have made him stand in the doorway so he couldn't get closer, and Theta had let him in. He admired her dedication.

"To see Francis?" Johann stated simply. "If he's not here, I'll go… you're busy, I'm a distraction."

He raised his hands with palms towards her in apology and went to get up.

Theta studied Johann's face which loomed a head or so above her when seated. He had curly black hair which seemed abundant upon his head, and very pale skin like she did. His limbs seemed to go on for miles, and he had a very intense gaze which made you wonder if he was seeing straight through you.

"He's not here." Theta explained quickly and simply. Then swallowed loudly. "He's at St Mungos."

Her gaze moved away and back to her work. She'd received the owl first thing that morning, Claire had been taken ill or something. The healers had asked him to be present - he hadn't gone into details. Theta was only just able to decipher the scribbling.

Out of the corner of her eye, Johann's expression went from concern that Francis had hurt himself to realisation at what Theta meant.

"He's been there since the early hours, wrote me an owl to let me know I had to mind the shop here. I'm trying hard to do what I can." She gestured to the time turner. "Here's hoping they don't end up in last week instead of an hour or two ago." She sighed.

St Mungo's, well, that was self-explanatory. Though his arrival in the early hours sounded drastic, and Johann's mind ticked over several possibilities at what could be the matter. He only hoped Francis hadn't done anything rash given the discussion in the cafe that day.

He noticed Theta was staring at him, presumably because he hadn't replied.

"How is Francis? Did you see him over the weekend? Was he out of sorts at all? What did he write in his letter?" Johann fired off each of the questions in turn to the little witch who looked startled. Johann read her expression that she knew something and the worst had quite possibly happened at St Mungo's.

"Theta." He clasped her upper arms and she dropped a tool in fright.

"Johann!" Francis Pepper filled the doorway to the workshop, his curly hair out at all angles and shadows under his eyes. His tone was not friendly, he had walked in to find Johann grasping Theta by the upper arms, her expression startled.
"Theta, are you quite alright?" He asked kindly, coming across the room and pointedly stepping between his niece and his friend. "Johann, don't make yourself a nuisance in here when I am away, it is the last thing she needs."

Pushing a gap between them both, he looked between the two of them firmly, a piece of curly hair falling down to his nose, which he pushed back with a frown.
"Look, I haven't had the best of mornings, but while you're both here, I should probably tell you something." Either side of him, expressions changed to concern - they must have figured it was about Claire.
"Claire's fine, she just had a particularly bad episode, turned her room upside down." Theta looked surprised to his left, and Johann's eyebrow raised to his right. "We were trying to work out what might have triggered it." Francis added much more guiltily and let his eyes fall to the workbench before them instead.

"Gabrielle and I are back together."

Theta squeaked without wishing to let it out and clapped a hand to her mouth. She didn't know whether to hug her uncle or not - it was fantastic he could be happy but at the same time, it brought a whole new bucket of trouble, considering he was still married to aunt Claire, even if she didn't remember.

"Congratulations!" She managed instead, and extended her arms to offer a hug, or at least a brief embrace. It was received, and Theta clasped him tightly, inhaling the smell of his clothes, aftershave and the lingering smell of the hospital which had caught in his coat.

"How did that happen? I know you two were, well, you know, almost married once, but I wasn't sure you would ever get past friends again, you know?" Theta fumbled, "I'm happy for you, but, I know its going to be a bit complicated." She held onto his sleeve a moment, "Do Ambrose and Tim know?"

Johann picked up on the stress in Francis Pepper's voice as he explained the incident that morning. He'd once explained Claire's treatment to Johann, the German had been mostly silent during the conversation, fascinated by how the man worked his head around the situation of a wife who didn't know him. Romantic complications were interesting, but he had no wish to experience them, just observe. From that conversation he knew Claire was generally kept under a state of some sedation and the same questions and facts were repeated to her on a daily basis to try and push them into long term memory. Turning her room over seemed highly unlikely for a sedated patient, unless something had triggered something deeper.

Had Francis told his wife about Gabrielle? Had she understood? Up until now Francis had always seemed a most upstanding, honest, enormously respected member of magical society. People raised him as an example of how a marriage vow should be held, how love really was. Declaring his relationship with Gabrielle like this - effectively an affair - contradicted all of that. He had reasons, but Johann had the strong suspicion that Francis Pepper wouldn't be so happy to tell them if he hadn't put things right first.

"Happy for you." Johann uttered quietly as Francis and Theta embraced. His niece seemed to be happy but show some reservations given Francis had two sons, who appeared to not know. That, Johann could understand. Teenage boys were something else, and they were both at school. The upheaval of their mother's accident still tainted their daily lives and thoughts, the mention of her at home saw the younger one avert his gaze, and the older one to glance to his brother protectively. Johann had met them during the summer months at their Muggle home, his surname not mentioned in the house, apparently Ignan took particular dislike to the elder son.

"You'll be telling them soon, before they hear from anyone else. I take it we're to keep this under our hats, Francis?" Johann asked in a businesslike manner.

"Do Ambrose and Tim know?" Theta asked, still holding his arm left, he drew breath to answer, but Johann spoke first.
"You'll be telling them soon, before they hear from anyone else. I take it we're to keep this under our hats, Francis?" He glanced to his friend to his right and gave him a cautious look - there was something in the way Johann was looking at him suggested that the man was putting the situation together in his mind and seeing a little more to it.

"No, they don't know. Its going to be difficult to talk to them at school, so might need to keep it to ourselves until the Christmas holidays." Francis winced, "I don't want to write it to them, they need to hear it from me, when they haven't got their school friends breathing down their necks." He patted Theta's hand on his arm and she let go.

"Is that the fractured outer ring?" Francis asked, catching sight of what Theta had been working on, keen for a distraction. His niece nodded. "Thank you for starting on that, we're behind time now with my late arrival, you better carry on." Pepper motioned for his apprentice to resume work, and gestured for Johann to turn on the spot and step away and walk with him towards the door. Johann followed the gesture.

Francis caught Johann's left elbow just as they got to the door of the workshop.
"I can rely on you for this, can't I?" He asked the man in a low voice. "I know you went to Gabrielle that day, but I'm glad you did. However, this time, I'd appreciate you keeping it to yourself."
Johann smiled in his carefree way, the suspicion vanishing from his features. The reaction gave Francis that same uneasy feeling.



End