It was as if Aisling were made of ice while she walked through the floor, past desks and piles of paperwork that leaned until they threatened to spill over. Her arms were held too close to her sides, and every step she took was an exercise in silence. Fingers wrapped tight about her wand, though it hung down as if she had forgotten its presence.

Her knock against Edwin’s door was a faint, exhausted thing. One brief rap, and then she collapsed against the expanse of wood.

“Edwin?” The sound was no stronger than her knock had been. Her voice a paltry thing that broke at the end of the word.

Her mind had been cracked and battered all those years ago. But it was rare for her to have such difficulty masking it.

Edwin was pulling files from the filing cabinet when there was a knock at the door. He almost missed it, what with the rattling of the draws and his nose pressed in paperwork.

Why did people have to ask questions of his Department's actions months after the event? If they asked sooner everyone would remember a little better about their actions, and he wouldn't have to dredge up reports and his own notes on serious issues.

"Come!" He called rather brashly, and picked up on the voice that spoke at about the same time to be Aisling's. When she stepped in, he pushed the magically extended filing cabinet draw back in with gusto and threw the paperwork down on the top of it.

"Why can't people raise these things earlier?" He asked, hands on hips and turned round to look at her properly. There was a pause of half a second here his expression went from wrapped up in his own irritations to realising something wasn't quite right.

"Ais?" His hand went up and the door swung shut with a click. Any unfortunate soul who tried to open it now would be at the receiving end of his full on yell.

"What's happened?" He asked more softly, stepping away and towards her, not sure whether to guide her to a chair, or touch her or just speak softly and hear.

Aisling stepped inside, seeming still a bit dazed. Her wand dropped from her hand and she braced herself against the nearest wall. She didn't even look up, her gaze lost somewhere on the floor, where her wand still rolled and clattered. "Dementors," she said finally. "On the way back."

She pressed her arms together, pulling her shoulders in tight. Now she was shivering, tiny bumps appearing upon her arms, even with the warmth of her cloak. "Don't tell anyone, I do not need the fuss." The worry, the pity, the politics. She was so tired.

"Is it cold? Or am I...." She pressed one hand into her forehead until her nails left sharp red lines. "There's so much to remember."

"Dementors?" Edwin replied with alarm, his expression intensifying in its worry. There had been so few dementor instances over the past decade that to hear that Aisling had come face to face with one so recently was staggering and very worrying. They were on the increase, and he would have to take action to brief his department on being prepared for these incidents.

Without conscious thought he reached out to Aisling and bundled her towards the visitor's chair in fear her legs would give out the way she looked. Her skin was cool to the touch, as she protested the cold, and he didn't want her to cause a scene, she was too proud for such things.

"It's ok," he reassured her, and himself, in a soft, calm tone which he had always used on his victims before obliviating them,  "you're safe."

He released her hands and turned away, taking swift purposeful steps around the furniture. He rifled through his desk drawers until he found some emergency chocolate, a big gold foil wrapped block which he pressed into Aisling's shaky hands, and helped her to unwrap, kneeling on the rug beside the chair, glancing to her features like a worried dog.

"How did it happen? Where were you?" He implored softly, snapping chocolate blocks between his fingers and pressing them into her hands like a parent would a child.

Aisling let him guide her, too lost to fuss or resist. She stared down at the chocolates as if they were some strange foreign thing, but still took one hesitant bite from the candy.

It had softened somewhat from the touch of fingers, and near melted as it touched her lips. She finished that piece, then looked up to Edwin and his questions. "I was just heading back; stayed the longest to make certain that all had been cleaned up. Found an alley to apparate back from, and it was there."

She shook her head and reached for another piece of chocolate. It slipped from her fingers. "It was not as cold as I remembered. Not with just one." But it had been cold enough.

"Thank goodness it was just one," Edwin remarked upon AIsling's brief description.

He scooped up the piece of chocolate that had escaped before it hit the floor and raised it to her lips cautiously. Once relinquished, set about breaking the rest of the chocolate up into its blocks within the wrapper with his fingers, a dull snapping noise breaking the silence.

"Did you manage to conjure your patronus, or did you escape with apparition?" He asked, "and were there any Muggles present?"

"I...I suppose so." Aisling was shaking again, and she crushed her hands together. "And Patronus...no one else."

She pulled her hands apart, and pressed chocolate-smeared fingers to her forehead, hid her eyes. There was a smudge left when she moved her hand away.

"Do you think it's starting again?" She lifted her head to stare at him, though her body continued to shiver.

From where he knelt on the office rug beside her, Edwin shifted uncomfortably, not meeting her eyes. He had read enough about the dementors increasing their appearances to witches and wizards, and sat in high-level Ministry meetings about them too. None of it made for greatly reassuring news - and a small part of him rejoiced that there was trouble on the horizon.

"Oh gosh, no I don't think its Voldemort. We very much verified this time he was gone." He explained, finally meeting her stare again.
"There's theories that they've lost some sort of food source that they were using - which is why they've reappeared in numbers of late, and decided to try and feed."

He broke the chocolate again, offered some more in thought.
"I wish I had been there with you." He told Aisling, and his expression looked to all intents regretful for that moment.

"To see them again…" He added more softly, staring off towards the door in wistful thought. It had been a long time since he'd encountered a dementor, and he'd have faced it, just to see if he could still defend himself.

For all of Aisling's fears on the past, in the war, in the time she had been thrown into Azkaban, Edwin had survived in the Ministry as a Slytherin, by co-operating to a point to create catastrophe, and those months had revealed a far less palatable side to him - that craved the danger and the distress. It had been one of the main draws in his subconscious to joining the Department all those years ago.

"That's not especially reassuring, Edwin." Aisling took another piece of the chocolate and took a small bite, letting the rest of it sit in her hand. Her shivering had slowed, though still had not quite stopped. "And I wouldn't have wanted you there, did you ever see-"

She cut herself off and finished the rest of the chocolate in one gulp. "I...I should go write up my report. Thank you."