Casper merely smirked before shrugging at Nicholas’s question. It was sometimes entertaining to watch children bicker. He frowned briefly, slight confusion in his eyes, at Figaro’s question. “Wha-” He blinked and glanced between the two. Amusement turned into confusion; Casper merely shook his head and gave them both a smile. “Internship applications, yes.” Considering what they did in their department, NEWTs were an absolute must.

“Some charms are permanent. Or have a fail safe on them. It all depends on the skill of the castor and the wizard’s intent behind it.” If that made sense. It was similar to the Unforgivable curses; if you didn’t have the true intent behind it, it wasn’t going to do what it was intended to do. There was plenty of literature and ‘research’ available to be read about memory charms. The brain was a very peculiar organ of the body, one that was easily persuaded and manipulated but difficult to put back into the same box at the end of the day.

Memories were just another interesting piece to the puzzle. Add in a wizard who has some sort of brain damage and it became even more frustrating and confusing. “The essay lets us have more of an idea of the young witches and wizards who we might take on.” Not that Casper was going to explain that most of the applicants were taken because they needed to meet a quota.

Glancing to the young woman, Casper raised an eyebrow before forcing a smile back on his lips. He offered her an application as well. “It is a noble profession. Would you care to apply? Any burning questions about the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes that I can answer?”

“Ah, pardon the interruption,” Deborah told him in a gentle voice, having noticed the tight smile he gave her. “I do believe it is a noble profession, Sire - my father told me that my biological father used to work for this department as an Obliviator. I don’t see him anymore, ever since I was five.” She smiled a genuine smile in turn back at him - taking the offered application, not needing to scan it twice but instead, decide whether she would like to fill out her own copy.

“You’ve mentioned something about some charms being permanent - like other charms, do you mean to say that it is also open to being backfired? On the 29th of May, 1993, a professor named Gilderoy Lockhart attempted to erase the memories of Harry Potter and Ron Weasley to cover his reputation. The spell was known to have backfired onto himself because of a broken wand - however, is it possible that a castor, no matter how skilled he is at the field of casting the spell, could still be immersed in the wrong side of after-effects should his intentions be incorrect?” She was getting interested in the topic that was presented and knew that she had to ask with all her heart to try and get to know everything about it - taking chances, she continued. “Also, during the 1996-1997 school year, the war heroine, Hermione Granger, was known to have Obliviated her parents, while later on coming to state that she would find them after the war and lift it. So, is it reversible?”

“And if it is indeed prone to breakage, wouldn’t that mean having to undergo torture? Not to mention that St. Mungo’s wouldn’t probably allow that just to recover certain people’s memories. If cast on one’s self, to what extent will the permanent erasure go? How are you supposed to modify it specifically?” She caught herself asking far too many questions and paused, taking in everything that she’s said. From the inside-out, she still looked formal and composed, but her mind was whirling with many things to take on. “I’m sorry,” she said sheepishly this time, “You must be thinking that I have too many things to inquire about.”

Lovely.  It was Flo.

Figaro turned stiffly and gave her a weird look.  She wasn't a horrible person, just...odd.  Wealthy, Slytherin, and prone to speaking with floating flowery prose.  Again - not horrible.  Just. Odd. 

"Yea..." he said and held his application to his chest defensively. 

Soon Flo was interrogating the poor Obliviator about all manner of dry and historical topics.  Was she actually interested or just showing off?  Maybe she just wasn't self aware enough to know she was seriously strange?

"No, no," he mockingly encouraged her.  "Do go on, Deborah.  Ask one thousand more boring questions."

Nicholas would have echoed Fig's sentiment at having to write an essay had he not been trying to avoid embarrassing himself or hurting his chances anymore than he already had by his ogling.  "So—"

"Both of you are going to intern?"

Leave it a Slytherin to interrupt with a pointed question like that.  He looked at Deborah as she seemed to go for the pity angle before changing tactics and maybe she was trying to impress with her knowledge of random people who had been obliviated. And though he might not have remembered the dates, they were names he was familiar with.  He had read the biography[1] like just about everyone else in the world. 

"I don't know about you, but I've never had my wand back-fire on me."  It certainly had blown things up, even a few times in his face, though he was not about to admit that, but it had never yet shot out the wrong end of his wand.  And now between Fig giving Deborah a hard time about her questions, and her questions themselves, Nicholas couldn't even remember the question he'd been about to ask.

1.	Seven Volume Biography of Harry Potter