"Is she really?" Ignan sounded genuinely surprised. "I thought her birthday was last summer, is she not near of age?" He thought very little about the age of his students in general, as age was rarely a good milestone for experience and maturity, especially with some of the world wise youngsters, and the NEWT students who still struggled to tell the time by the way they always turned up late.

"All the more reason for getting out and defending herself in the real world. In a year she'll be out there, and you won't be able to stop her getting up to whatever she wants." Ignan waved a finger across at Tappy, still in a rather upbeat mood overall. "And it's not like she wouldn't be with someone capable of watching her back."

On the contrary, Ignan thought to himself, she'd probably be one of the better people for watching my back.

But on seeing Tapendra's expression he used the option to retreat, though the corners of his mouth defied his line:
"Ah, I'm just winding you up. I was actually considering Cyhirae..."

"Well, she's -" Tapendra struggled, for a moment, with the hard reality that Georgiana was going to be 17 this year. It hurt, really, to think about her likely wanting to leave. They fought often (or rather, she got upset and he was aggressively reasonable) but that didn't mean he wanted her to move out. But she'd want to, wouldn't she? How would he keep an eye on her then?  "Even so," he muttered, having no real answer to that. "Vampires are a bit...much." Couldn't they practice on something...safer? Imps, perhaps? Straw target dummies?

Tapendra snorted derisively at Ignan's comment, raising his eyebrows. "Oh, now I know you're having me on," he said. "Stop trying to panic me, yer bastard." He smirked, shaking his head. Old bastard indeed.

"What makes you think Georgiana would be so good in the Black Forest, anyhow?" He asked, after a moment's silence. "She's apt with a wand, but -" Somehow relating that she was quite good at violent video games didn't seem wise, if only because he didn't feel like explaining. "She hasn't been exactly a DADA star student, at least until more recently."

Ignan couldn't help but laugh at his friend as he came round to believing the older wizard was entirely winding him up about his two charges.

"I have a hunch." He explained, staring somewhere between their drinks on the table. "Often I think all that's lacking for her in motivation is a real motive." He shrugged, and met his friend's eyes sincerely.

"She's self-motivated certainly, but she's cocky enough to believe she can handle most, if not all of the reasonable dangers here, short of the Tetra-wizard events." He turned over one palm and then the other, weighing up the considerations.

"Though from what I've thrown at her, I believe your sister would rise to the occasion nicely, and if not, it would give her a pinch of realism salt - in an experienced set of hands, so to say." He gave another shrug.

"I can see it's not your idea of a suitable summer. Don't worry, I've not spoken of any of this to her, either. She has examinations to focus on before I fuel some obsession with foreign travel." He gave a smaller shrug and let his hands return to his drink. "Besides, I doubt she'd tolerate spending any more time than she has to with me…. nor should she."

His features attempted to convey some reassurance in his message to Tapendra, but ended up looking a little awkward about it all. Perhaps they better stick to discussing colleagues and students who weren't related, and others they knew. They were altogether safer topics!

End