4:30 PM

Diagon Alley seemed to be filled with a flurry of figures, adults and children alike, out for conversation or shopping or merely to get away from home. Aisling sat at the small table of an outdoor cafe, a pile of notes and a cup of tea in front of her. Occasionally she'd stop scribbling on parchment with her quill, and hold her hands about the cup to warm them.

Officially, she wasn't off from work yet, and this meeting would occur as followup on a particular incident. Unofficially, it was much the same, with a bit of flexibility because of family ties. From how his mother had reacted, she doubted that Paetyn had been quite informed yet on just who would be meeting him.

And she did hope it would be a more pleasant surprise, rather than the other sort. Presuming that he managed to find her.

She lifted her eyes to scan the crowd, attempting to catch one small figure amongst the rush.

Paetyn knew, without a doubt, that he should be hanging his head. Sending puffapod seeds to his mum had been a terrible idea, but really! Muggles bouncing around the street was hilarious. His parents hadn’t exactly been happy with him and had said only a handful of words to him the entire break. Even Christmas had been a frosty affair, and that just wasn’t cool. So it was with a smile on his face that the young wizard skipped through the bustling streets of Diagon.

His short head was barely above the flaying elbows of the busy crowd and he was constantly buffeted by shopping bags as he made his way toward the café where he was supposed to be meeting the ministry lady and he secretly hoped that she’d be nicer than the meanie that came to talk to him directly after the ‘incident’.

He wrapped his hufflepuff-y scarf around him a bit tighter to ward of the chill and paused in front of a storefront to gaze at the magical toys on display: a miniature stuffed unicorn that actually pooped cotton candy! The boy’s eyes lit up with excitement and he reached in his pocket for his spare pocket change, only to realize that he had only a five pound note, and he was pretty sure that the toy shop wouldn’t take muggle money.

He really did hang his head then, but only for a moment or two before the cheerfulness shined through again. He’d be going back to Hogwarts in a couple days, where he could immerse himself in magic again and totally forget about the muggles that seemed to act like he was diseased. Not that Paetyn didn’t enjoy watching a bit of telly! He just really missed his friends, even the mean old Professor Storm, who he was convinced was pure evil.

“Excuse me,” He said, walking boldly up to the nearest table when he reached the café, “Do you know where I can find Mrs. Knight?”

“Do you know where I can find Mrs. Knight?”

Aisling couldn't quite see whatever figure had asked the question, but his voice gave her a bit of a direction for her response. "I am over here." That she had a little recognition of Paetyn and his  tone was rather helpful, even if she did not see Bailey and his family that often in these more recent years.

"I hope your trip wasn't too much trouble?" He had sounded close, and a careful look about-ah, there he was. "Please, come and sit down." If he hadn't seen her yet then he could at least follow her voice.

A few of the notes had become scattered across the table, and she gathered them up, then pulled out one of the chairs for him when he arrived. Perhaps the entire matter would go calmly. She could use a bit more luck in relation to this whole matter.

Though perhaps this time she wouldn't walk away with a head injury.

The grumpy old man he’d asked for help from only offered him a gruff grunt in response for his questioning, and Paetyn wondered if the man even knew English. He was about to attempt to use sign language and try speaking a bit of French, but he’d only managed to pick up a few unhelpful words from the Beauxbatons kids. Thankfully the woman he was looking for was close and called out to him before he had to resort to such drastic measures.

“Oh hi there! The trip was no problem, really” he said cheerfully. If his parents had taught him anything it was that first impressions were everything and a cheerful attitude can go a long way. True, his parents weren’t enjoying his cheerful attitude lately, but that didn’t mean he should forget his ideals! “I had to have a guy poke at the wall for me in the Leaky Cauldron, a’cause I’m too short and couldn’t remember what I’m supposed to poke, but I found this place easy enough.” Babbling was what Paetyn’s did best! “Sure, I’ll sit! Whacha workin’ on?” He asked as he sidled up into the chair opposite the witch.

His legs dangled helplessly as he peered across the table, trying to nose his way into her business, where it certainly didn’t belong. “It’s nice to meet you, ma’am! Bit chilly out today, don’t ya think?” Perhaps he should stop talking… this wasn’t a social visit, after all.   

"Well, I am glad you made it. Can I get you anything? Tea, hot chocolate, butterbeer?" It seemed that Paetyn's mouth was working far faster than his thoughts, or else the occasional Christmas visits had slipped his memory completely.

He'd probably been distracted by the sort of matters that were more relevant to children over Christmas. Food, and gifts. "And I'm just going through a few reports. Not nearly as exciting as the rest of Diagon, I fear." She lifted her cup of tea with both hands and peered at him over it. "How was your Christmas? The girls were rather disappointed that they didn't get to see you." It was good for them to keep in contact with her family. Particularly with how much of Tarron's viewed them.

"It is rather chilly, though. Are you certain you're warm enough?" Her gaze turned to his scarf for a moment. It wouldn't do to have him shivering through the entire conversation. While her hands might feel a bit cold, the warming charms on her cloak kept her largely comfortable through this weather.

HOLY HELGA’S HONKERS!!!!! As Paetyn peered up into the lady’s face, he realized one thing that even the silly distracted Hufflepuff never should have missed: THIS LADY WAS HIS AUNTIE AISLING! His mouth opened in utter astonishment and he shook his head vigorously. Gloved hands lifted to rub his eyes, quickly followed by a sharp slap to his face. Then came the denial. There was NO WAY that this lady was his favorite auntie! Auntie Aisling wasn’t a witch – Paetyn would have known.

“Uh… aun-… uhm.. dah…” Paetyn sputtered, trying hard to make coherent words issue from his gaping maw. “Uhm… Excuse me,” He squeaked out, now scared, despite what his eyes promised him to be true. “Did you kill my Auntie Aisling and steal her body?” Bluntness was obviously the way to go. Maybe the not-Auntie shuffled up the papers so quickly so that Paetyn couldn’t see that there were murderous plans scribbled on them.

“Only… I dunno why you’d wanna kill a muggle. Oh, do you have a brother or something that’s a muggle that got in the way of my sneezy plants? If so, I’m really sorry,” His left hand was now placed upon his wand, gripped tightly in his pocket, and his right was shaking nervously in his lap. He just didn’t wanna die!

A bit of dramatics from Paetyn was not unexpected, but this was even a bit more theatrical than Aisling had prepared herself for. "No one has been killed. And I'm not a Muggle. Why do you think I couldn't tell you about my work?" She gave him her most reassuring smile-the sort previously used when she'd caught him in the sort of little accidents that accompanied small children. Such as breaking one of her mother's best dishes.

"Or why your Uncle Tarron gave the television such odd looks. I think one of Teagan's girls asked him if he was the Doctor again." She folded her hands on the table and spared a moment to look around for a waiter-or a floating menu. "I did get hit by a couple Muggles with the sneezing plants, though. Tarron insisted I visit St. Mungo's afterward."

Perhaps that would be enough to calm him down. Merlin, but the holidays could be exhausting. "Oh, and your mother gave me a list of a few things for school. I promised her that I  would take you shopping, since I'm rather more familiar with Diagon." She pulled the list out of a hidden pocket and set it in front of Paetyn.

The hand shanking nervously in the poor Hufflepuff’s lap slowly started to lose its spasms and his hand relaxed his grip on his wand – not like it would have done him any good had his auntie really been a murderous villain. A first year against a murdering magic folk? Yeah right.

So maybe his auntie really was a witch. He supposed it wasn’t that unheard of… and that would explain why his Uncle Tarron always showed up dressed like someone from a kajillion years ago. “Holy Hufflepuff!” He squeaked, all thoughts of a deadly assassin stripped from his mind. The fleeting thoughts of a twelve year old boy really were a wondrous thing. “I always thought you worked for like MI-6 or something and couldn’t tell me. I thought you were like a British spy or something awesome… not a boring ministry worker. Not that I think you’re boring, or anything,”

He paused in his tirade to take a breath, “Can I have a hot chocolate?” He asked his aunt, “Do you know how to just summon one? Some of the older Hufflers said that I’d learn how to summon stuff eventually. Oh my goodness, this is so awesome. I’m sorry you had to go to the hospital, I mean… It wasn’t really my fault. No one said that puffapods made people fly all over.” Actually… that might not be true, Professor Longbottom could have definitely mentioned it and Paetyn just wasn’t listening… Paetyn was good at not listening.

“Hey! You’re gonna take me shopping? There was this awesome unicorn that poops cotton candy back there, think I can have it? Oh! Are Rowena and Sophia magic folk too? Only I haven’t seen them around the castle, so I’m sure they’re not in Hufflepuff. Do you have any jelly beans on ya? I’m starved!”

"No, nothing quite that exciting. Though it's not boring, either. Tarron's job is more important; he's the head of the Wizengamot." She wasn't quite sure if Paetyn would know of the Wizengamot. But he seemed to have moved on from fears of murder, at least. Hot chocolate and shopping were perfectly benign in comparison.

"Accio hot chocolate." A quick movement of her wand, and a steaming mug of it settled down in front of Paetyn. "There you go. And I didn't spend much time at St. Mungo's, though they had a lot of people with head injuries to take care of." She gave Paetyn a smile. It was good to no longer be the only one in the family. "Though please don't go off bringing anything else home from school without permission. I'm already busy enough."

But Paetyn was off about shopping and school and candy. So young, so enthusiastic. "I'm sure we can get it. Though don't rush through your hot chocolate." She snuck one hand into a pocket and  pulled out a small bag of strawberry jelly beans. They were her favorite, after all. "Here, take these. And the girls are attending Hogwarts. Sophia's in Ravenclaw, as I was. And Rowena is in Gryffindor." They'd seen each other so rarely before school, it was not hard to see how the connection had been missed, for a time.

Uncle Tarron on the Wizengamot? And that was important? Paetyn racked his brains to try and remember what the Wizengamot was – he kinda sorta remembered Professor Jowd saying something about them… were they the guys that sent you to Allen-kaboom if you were bad? Paetyn took a quick mental note to not get on his uncle’s bad side. He didn’t wanna have is wand broken and sent to a scary water jail where they feed you to sharks if you don’t act right. Uncle Tarron was scary enough with his grumpy personality… maybe Paetyn should make him a present to apologize for anything that he might have done in the past. Surely there was quite a bit he should apologize for.

“Oh, I won’t. I’ve learned my lesson. Swear it,” Paetyn stuck his right hand in the air like he was swearing in at a courtroom, but quickly lowered it when he realized how foolish he looked. The young Huffler took his hot chocolate in his hand and blew upon the top. Even though it was chilly out, Paetyn never enjoyed drinking his beverages when they were super warm. What would happen if he burned his tongue and couldn’t taste anything for days? That would just be terrible. There’s always something new to try at Hogwarts and Paetyn was determined to try them all – even that yucky fishy stuff that the scary Durmstrang people were so fond of.

“I guess I just haven’t been paying attention to everyone,” He said then shrugged, “I’m a Hufflepuff! It’s a fun house, everyone’s super nice, but if you don’t thump right, you get splashed with icky and shot right out of the hole. So sometimes I just wait for the older kids to come in,” Truthfully, Paetyn got too distracted when trying to get into the common room and ended up drenched every time. “OH NO!” He yelled, a thought hitting him, “I failed flying! Is Uncle Tarron gonna break my wand? Oh please don’t let him Auntie! I like my wand! Flying’s just super hard, and I don’t like it, and did you know that Madam Hooch was hatched out of an egg? It’s scary! I swear I’ll pass the next time, just don’t let him take my wand, okay?”

Somehow, Aisling was not at all surprised that Paetyn had wound up among the badgers. She sipped at her tea as he rambled straight into panic. Merlin, but had some of the other students been telling him stories just to frighten him? Probably, with the egg comment. "No, no one will be taking your wand away over your grade in flying. Or over any of your grades. Though we'd certainly love to see you do well." She smiled at him across the table.

"And I'm sure you'll get it next time. You could ask Rowena to practice with you. She's fond of flying, enough so that I worry about her sometimes." A concern that showed itself in a brief frown before the smile returned, both of them showcasing the fine lines around her mouth and eyes, this close.  "I'm glad to hear you're enjoying Hufflepuff, though. I've met so many wonderful people from that House."

"What classes do you like? I've heard Professor Binns isn't teaching History of Magic any longer. He was why I stopped taking it when I was in school. Hard to learn much from a droning ghost." She set her cup down and brushed  a hand over her eyes. "That was the only class I ever fell asleep in. Though a lot of people slept in it." There were very few people she could remember who'd continued on into the NEWT for that particular subject.

The little Hufflepuff’s face had been a revolving door of emotions in the few short minutes that he and his aunt had been together. Now, the frown that had been planted there at the thought of his uncle breaking his wand was once again replaced by a smile. Paetyn’s poor face would probably be sore from the workout it was getting. “I’m glad. I like my wand. Did you know that they actually stuff hair inside it? Mine’s got a unicorn hair in there, and people say that it’s kinda odd that the wood is eucalyptus, I guess that’s not all that common,” He shrugged, took a deep breath, and continued, “I’m glad Rowena likes flying, but how does she not get scared she’s gonna splat on the ground? The brooms go so high up; it’s not fun at all. I really don’t wanna take the class again, but I won’t give up. I’m going to be the best wizard there ever was, watch and see. I’ll be even better than Uncle Tarron.”

“Ooooooh! I’ve heard of that dude, he was a ghost. Oh don’t ghosts give you the creepies? I hate them, floating around the castle running right through you. There’s a nice one, her name’s Nancy, but it’s still scary. What if they watch you when you sleep? Wouldn’t that just be the worst? Anyway, yeah, now it’s Professor Jowd. He’s pretty nice – actually… he’s one of the only normal professors that we have. I like Herbology, it’s fun. I like planting stuff and did you know that there are even plants that if you eat will let you breathe underwater? It’s awesome! Gillytoad or something like that. OOOOOH! Did you know that our new Headmistress was part of the big war? I mean, she’s like ancient but it’s really neat. I think that she’s in league with Professor Storm though. They’re both out to kill all the first years. Did I tell you about Professor Storm breaking peoples fingers and slicing their arms open? It was so scary! I was terrified!”

And the boy just kept talking…

“And then there are all those Durmstrang kids, I never walk down the halls alone anymore because I hear that they kick the first years and these kids they call dregs, like the stuff in the bottom of the tea cup. It’s really mean, so I avoid them. Don’t wanna get on their bad side, y’know?” He paused long enough to take a hearty sip from his mug of chocolate and then looked up at his aunt expectantly. “What were your favorite classes? Did you play quidditch? What house was Uncle Tarron in? Probably Slytherin.” Paetyn reached into the bag of jelly beans and stuffed a handful in his mouth, giving Aisling only the shortest of moments to sort through the wall of words.

"She gets scared sometimes, but she still keeps doing it. Then she can remember all the times she didn't fall, as well." Aisling watched as all the words spilled out,  smiling and sipping her tea. "And I'm certain that you won't give up. I do remember how determined you can be when you want something." Rowena had a bit of that as well, but at least their home kept out the battery-operated noisemakers.

"It does sound like you're enjoying school. And yes, the ghosts can be disconcerting. I expect your cousins will agree with you there. Hopefully you'll get to see them more once you're back to school." She only allowed herself a short pause from speaking, and brushed fingertips over the silver cuff on one arm. "There's so much to learn. But don't worry yourself about Headmistress McGonagall. Or Professor Storm. They just want to make sure you can manage if someone really does try to hurt you." A quick wave of her wand brought a small plate of sweets over to the table, where it fluttered down in front of Paetyn.

She did give herself a moment to think after the last burst of questions. "Most of the classes I enjoyed were the electives. Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, some parts of Divination. Some of Muggle Studies as well. And no, I never played Quidditch. Fear I wouldn't have been much good at it. I wasn't bad at flying, but nor could I be considered good." Her smile was more encouraging, now. "And yes, your Uncle was in Slytherin. I half-thought Sophia would end up in that House as well, but she seems pleased enough with Ravenclaw."

If Paetyn went after the shopping in the same way he did words, they'd  be leaving Diagon with enough packages to build a small house. But, it'd been some time since Aisling had any chance to spoil him.

Additional sweets for the Hufflepuff boy was a bad idea, especially since he was already starting to get a sugar rush from the jelly beans and chocolate. He, however, wasn’t one to complain, and certainly wasn’t about to turn down snackages, so with one swift move, he took a pastry from the plate and dunked it unceremoniously into his mug of chocolate and brought the dripping treat back up to his mouth. It was delicious and Paetyn was super happy that his Auntie Aisling was a witch. That meant, at least to Paetyn, that she could summon him treats ALL THE TIME and that was just awesome.

“I knew Uncle Tarron was a Slytherin. No offense, but he’s kinda mean sometimes. Loads of the Slytherins are mean. It’s no wonder they have the mascot of a snake. I’m not scared of snakes though, most snakes are harmless, and a lot of them really help keep nasty bugs and critters out of the gardens. That’s what the herbology professors say anyway. Plus, if you’ve got a wand, you can always just turn it into a furry hamster or something,” Paetyn took another bite of his chocolaty goodness. “I’m glad you weren’t a flier, because then I’d know I had to really try,”

If anything, Paetyn looked up to Aisling even more now that he knew she was a witch. Before, she was the cool aunt that brought him treats… now she was the cool witch that brought him treats. There’s a totally huge difference, and it was one that made Paetyn want to be more like her. I mean… he’d never want to be married to someone as grouchy as Tarron, but other than that…

"He is very serious. And it is hard for him when he visits. Tarron never had real contact with the normal world before we were married. And yes, snakes are important to have around, they're just not cuddly. Unlike hamsters." She summoned over another cup of tea for herself. It was good to see Paetyn again, and to know that he would have her to guide him through this world.

"You can worry about your flying when you're back to school. For now its just us and shopping. And sweets, of course. I'm your aunt, I am allowed to treat you a bit." She chuckled. This would be something she'd enjoy far too much. Buying just the right gifts. "And you will have to put up with packages at school as the girls do."

She thought for a bit, amid drinking her new cup of tea. It was pleasant to have her worlds not be so far apart for once. "Do you have a pet for school yet? Your cousins both received kittens for Christmas. Rowena's has been a bit of a terror already." Which rather fit her more adventuresome daughter, if Aisling was honest.