Tapendra relaxed too, shoulders slumping. No more yelling, for now. It might come again, but for now...well, he'd see. He'd have to talk to Luthas soon - tonight, if possible. Ignan...he'd have to figure that one out. That might have to wait time school resumed so as not to seem odd.

Tapendra nodded, looking at the kitchen, but his gaze looked to her when she mentioned Jacoba. He frowned, rubbing his neck. "I don't know about her. Sasha doesn't seem...close to her, I guess. She was spared in the -" He paused, glanced at the kitchen again. No - he and Aileen could discuss that later, without Abby to overhear it.

"She seems to fly under the radar for everyone, I suppose. I'll talk to him - and her, depending on what he says. There's a possibility Malvivicus simply doesn't know about her, given the situation." He doubted it, highly. Especially with her presence in the Wizarding World.

He paused, furrowing his brows. Wait - she and Aileen had met? How did Aileen know about her?

"She's not the last...exactly. He has grandaunts and such in Germany, apparently. But she is the closest, yes." He looked up, hearing the crup scrabbling on the tile floor of the kitchen. "Do you want me to say anything to Abby?"

Aileen nodded, relieved to hear that he would ask Sasha about Jacoba, and then see where that conversation took things. She caught his confusion, but knew now was not the time to delve into Jacoba's magical abilities.

"Not too much," she replied, a wry smile flickering on her face. "But if you could 'back me up', so to speak, I would appreciate it."

It'd be better if Abby saw a united front before he left.

She moved forward and opened the kitchen door.

Abby sat on the counter, kicking her heels gently against the cabinets. She had pressed her ear to the door earlier, then eased away at the continual arguing, which had begun to upset her enough that she hadn't even wanted to eavesdrop.

Roxy kept skittering to the door, staring expectantly at it, and let out a woof in the back of her throat before skittering to Abby. Back and forth. Back and forth. Abby waved an oven mitt at her to try to distract her, only to succeed in getting slobber on it before Roxy lost interest.

The sitting room had gone quiet. Aileen had apparently calmed down, and Abby couldn't decide if that was good or bad. The last she'd heard of it, her sister had been ranting at Professor Tappy about trying to solve things himself. Valid point - Abby did not want to see the professor get hurt, but she didn't want to see Sasha hurt either, and she wished Aileen would offer some solution and fix it. They were all in this together, in Abby's opinion. It made no sense to quibble over the Aurors. Abby could simply ring Eleor and Trevelyan and get things settled!

No. She wouldn't do that.

Abby looked up as the door creaked open. Aileen stood in the doorway, the professor behind her.

Her sister looked almost apologetic, "You can come out now."

Abby hopped off the counter. "Oh goody! I was almost considering doing the dishes."

She glanced at Professor Tappy as she walked into the room, relieved that he didn't seem completely defeated. Abby followed Aileen's gesture and sat on the couch, raising her eyebrows as Aileen sat next to her and looked to Tapendra to do the same.

"I don't know how much you overheard," Aileen began.

"I stopped listening when you yelled at Professor Tappy for wanting to go out and find Malvivicus and-" Die. "All that lovely stuff."

Aileen locked eyes with him. "We are working out other options, I assure you."

Abby glanced between them. "What are we doing? What's the plan?"

Her older sister stared at her, taking a deep breath. "You don't need to do anything. Except keep safe. I expect you to listen to me, even if it doesn't make sense at the time. And you absolutely must let me know who you're with, when you'll be home, what your plans are, especially now."

Abby made a face and leaned back in her seat. "So, nothing then."

Aileen glanced at Professor Tappy. "The best thing you can do right now is be a friend to Sasha.  The rest is being... handled."

Tapendra moved slightly on the couch so Abby could sit down, leaning back into the cushions. Somehow, having the squib about made things better - it was nice, after all the yelling, to be able to focus on a slightly simpler task. But also one that they could sort of work on together.

He met Aileen's gaze, keeping the urge to cringe at it down a bit. Other options. Oh, yes. But - well...he'd see. He had to admit he was still a bit tickled by the idea of creating a port key and using it to dump all of Level 2 right on top of Malvivicus.

He still had difficulty not just wanting to kick the door down and shoot everyone between him and the crime lord, though. It had worked last time! Sort of...

He nodded with Aileen's statement, but wouldn't help a small but wry smile at Abby's comment. "Essentially, yes. But..." Was there anything Abby could do? Act normal was the number one thing, of course, but...

"It might best for you to resume having a job of sorts?" It was a question, directed at Aileen more than Abby. "Is there someone she could work with that you trust? It'd be the best way to give her something to do during the day without taking unnecessary risk." There were other benefits he could think of, of course - namely that Abby would be realized to be missing much sooner than the hours on end she'd be alone otherwise. But saying that now seemed like a bad idea.

Aileen's shoulders stiffened at Tapendra's suggestion. A touchy subject as of late.

Abby looked at her hopefully. Oh, how Aileen hated that look.

"We had agreed to discuss that at the end of this month," Aileen chose her words carefully.

"Or when Mr. Eleor is found," Abby added.

If he was found. Found dead, most likely. Aileen couldn't say that out loud. "I really don't want you in the same department as Mr. Eleor, at least not right now, with everything going on," she glanced at Tapendra, believing he would understand that after he'd commented earlier on the possibility that Eleor's kidnapping was related to Sasha.

He had a point, however. A job would keep her busy and out of trouble, Aileen would know where she was during the day, and it would give her another purpose to consider other than marriage arrangements with Tyr.

"But surely there must be something else. I'll look into it, Abby. In the meantime, do let me know what kinds of opportunities you'd like to explore."

The two sisters looked at Tapendra, both seeming grateful for the thought.

"Astronomy teacher's assistant," Abby stated with a straight face, then tossed a joking grin at the man.

He looked between them, confused for a moment before the blocks clicked into place. Oh. Well, that certainly explained Aileen's reaction, didn't it...

"Ah," he said, politely, but was glad to see the idea wasn't totally out of bounds. The idea of Abby alone in the house for most of the day was both depressing and, well - dangerous. In his mind it was rather like painting 'hello abduct me please' on the side of the place.

He laughed a Abby's jest, patting her on the back. "I'd take you up on that but you'd be bored to tears, trust me." It would have been a good solution, to some extent, though it would have seemed suspicious too.

"I'll keep you in the loop," he told Aileen, over Abby's head.

Aileen nodded her thanks at Tapendra, then told Abby she supposed that was it for now; she'd just wanted to reassure her things would be alright. Her younger sister would need to believe that. Even if Aileen wasn't sure she believed it herself.

Abby rose to head upstairs, then stopped, turning to Tapendra and giving him a hug. Aileen waited, her expression neutral, and gave her sister a small smile as she moved past.

The tea had not been touched, and had likely gone cold, but somehow, Aileen suspected no one wanted to sit around and make chit chat after all of this today. She moved for the door.

"Thank you for stopping by," she said with a wry glance out the window at the strange automobile.

"Tapendra," she paused, her hand on the doorknob. "If I can do anything to help."

That didn't involve dropping in on Malvivicus in his mansion.

"Please ask. I can't guarantee I will go along with it, and I have to put Abby first, you understand." She met his eyes.

"But at the very least, I can offer my input."

She raised her eyebrows, nearly humorously. He must know that by now!

Tapendra hugged Abby back, after a moment of awkward uncertainty. For a man to whom hugging others came easily, he always felt a bit thrown off when people hugged him.

He got awkwardly to his feet as she moved towards the door, aware as she was of the awkward hang in the air. She'd been yelling at him just a few minutes before, and that hadn't quite gone away - but even so, he did his best to ignore it. It was better to try to feel a bit more unified on this than divided, after all.

And - he was somewhat glad she knew. It helped to have another adult he could sort of trust to talk to - even if she did yell. Morgan, for as much as Tapendra respected and pitied the man, he didn't trust. Couldn't. He tried to be selective in what he told the man. Luthas would be good to tell, in that respect.

He looked at her for a moment before he nodded, having to sit on the step just inside the door to get his boots back on. "I will," he said, looking up at her as he laced up the old leather boots largely from muscle memory. "I won't ask you to do anything you can't, but -" He tugged the laces on one boot tight, "The input would be more useful than you know."

Tapendra paused as he grabbed the laces for his other boot, reaching up to pet the Sha, which had watched the proceedings with its usual idle interest. Now it had followed them to the door, watching him.

"If you want - at Hogwarts - I can show you what we've got to work with," he said, looking up at her again. "I can't do it at home - the house is too bloody crowded. But the letters and case details might help you protect Abby, at the very least."

Letters. She was certain those were disturbing. Though she still couldn’t relate to Tapendra’s fervent determination in this matter, at least he was willing to include her after she’d ranted at him.

As well as protecting Abby, perhaps the letters would help her understand what in the world Sasha was thinking.

“I’d appreciate that.”

Aileen looked between the Sha and the crouched professor, idly curious if the creature missed Tapendra or being in the castle. She didn’t mind having the creature here, and was getting used to its steady presence, though there had been a few times it had startled her as it crept around the house – especially in the mornings when she was still waking up. Which Abby found highly amusing.

“Safe travels,” she told him in parting, with another wary glance at the car hibernating in the driveway.