The weather was not particularly good, which had been predicted long term by the Department of Mysteries, but in the spirit of no spoilers, and not letting secrets slip, they'd let the other Departments in the Ministry find out by reading the Daily Prophet's forecast.

Gamp had come by, not only because he'd originally been set to assist way back when the committee had been assembled for the event, but because he wanted to ensure personally that their stand was attracting the high quality candidates from Hogwarts and the foreign schools. They needed fresh blood (literally as well as new employees to train up) and here was a hot bed of it. Foreigners and their high class schooling apparently put Hogwarts to shame in some areas, however Gamp was quite sure the Hogwarts students were the best problem-solvers of the bunch. He himself was a proud Hogwarts graduate of Slytherin house more years ago than he dared to dwell on.

Through the initial drapes of their tent all appeared rather gloomy and a strange glow lit the centre of the tent from a rather large pensieve. Here students would be invited to review relatively mundane memories deposited from a variety of sources and attempt to bottle them with instruction from one of the more docile unspeakables, who wouldn't shout at them. This was the simplest of the tasks, the format roughly following the previous years with a series of mental challenges and puzzles.

Quills and parchment were bewitched to follow all the visitors and note their reactions and their progress with the tasks, before filing the results with names for the unspeakable recruiters to analyse later. They'd take into account the dates and times of birth, school records and the results of tarot readings amongst other forms of testing before these likely candidates would be shortlisted.

The tent was already humming with activity, a bunch of of younger students huddled round a board game trying to figure out how to beat the sentient playing pieces together, whereas several older students were acting alone, very much deep in though under the watchful but silent gaze of unspeakables who wouldn't intervene unless the puzzles actually risked life and limb, which was of fairly low probability to prevent becoming unfortunate front-page news. It was bad enough when the interns disappeared.

Finding everything appeared to be in order, his attention was drawn by a nearby teenager who was manipulating a puzzle a little further into the tent. Gamp lifted his hand behind them to turn the floating parchment towards him to reveal the student's name and what notes had been so far made and raised both wisened eyebrows before stopping to observe, seeing the puzzle was seconds from completion. Just two more twists and then - there - complete! The quill excitedly noted all was in order, and a time.

"My congratulations," Gamp landed a hand on the student's shoulder, not caring if he scared the wits out of them. "A most impressive display of intellect. How did you find it?" He gestured with his other hand to the puzzle.

Evelyn Grimlish was bored. Spring recess had been far too brief for her liking, and the gentle Ravenclaw witch had spent the majority of the break attempting to talk her way out of returning to school at all. She didn't trust teachers, and hadn't in a long time, and these days she was so dedicated to her own musings and topics of interest that school lectures had begun to seem needlessly tedious. Her mother had been able to convince the ministry that she was, in fact, seventeen years old, using whatever readings and documentation she'd managed to scrounge up, and she could now legally apparate. As far as Evelyn was concerned (and, she realized, even in the eyes of the law), she was an adult. Hogwarts had done everything it could for her and she was ready for life beyond its restrictive classrooms and sniggering tormentors. And yet... Elijah was also at school, and still struggling with his prophetic gift, and the thought of leaving him to pursue her own exotic whims caused her stomach to writhe with discomfort. Thus, Evelyn had returned to Hogwarts, albeit reluctantly. The convenient opportunity to look to the future rather than dwelling on the realities of her present situation could not have come at a better time.

As a rule, Grimlishes did not follow in one another's footsteps. Grimlishes ran headlong in completely opposite directions and forged their own paths, and then came back together to discuss their separate adventures and experiences. Like the Grimlishes who'd come before her, Evie was a free spirit and had plans to pursue her own eclectic set of passions, whatever they might be this week. With that in mind, the fact that Evelyn's mother was an unspeakable had not been what had drawn her to the Department of Mysteries tent at the career event. If Evie was anything at all, it was curious, and questions that couldn't be answered frustrated her beyond words. The Department of Mysteries itself was one such question. The little details her mother occasionally let slip were not enough to satisfy her. She wanted to know the questions that unspeakables were asking so she might ask them herself. To be unaware of what you didn't know was the most frustrating situation to find oneself in. Content with the knowledge that her mother would not be at the event that day, Evie had wandered into that tent to look for a hint.

What she found instead were puzzles. What were puzzles to a Ravenclaw? The average young witch or wizard gifted enough to find themselves cloaked in blue worked out at least three puzzles per day on average – they didn't have any other choice if they wanted to get into the tower. These were different puzzles, though, and it was nice to face an interesting intellectual challenge that you could solve at your leisure, particularly when you didn't have a full bladder and weren't lugging an armful of library books with you. Her attention was fully focused on the challenge in front of her, paying no mind to the furiously scribbling quill floating above her, the preening live fairies that lined her long braid, or the third years arguing over a game board in the corner. She hadn't been working out a solution so much as playing within the confines of the little game itself, which was a sort of complex maze with a twist. After exploring for some time she'd begun to understand the quirks and mechanics of the task so well that the solution made itself evident to her, and she couldn't help but to attempt to solve it to see if her instinct was right. And, it seemed, it was! It was satisfying but bittersweet – she'd been having a good time, even if her stoic face didn't show it.

Evie turned her face up toward the man who'd placed a hand on her shoulder, showing no particular alarm, just a mild fascination. In fact, she recognized him. “I was lost in it,” she admitted in response to his inquiry, speaking evenly in her typical soft tone, “I wish it was more complex, though I have a mild inkling that there may be more to it. There's another solution I'd like to try.” Her head was still stuck on the maze, and she found more interest in the game than in a conversation with her mother's boss – not that there was anything wrong with Mister Gamp, of course. She couldn't remember having spoken to him properly since she was much smaller than she was now, and she wondered if he'd recognize her. Her hair had grown much longer, though she'd been playing with fairies even then.

Her gaze flickered upward to the quill and parchment floating above her, which had gone still. “I'd like to know what's on the parchment,” she told the wizard placidly, “And who will be looking at it.  And why.”

Of course it was a Grimlish, the family name was held in high regard amongst the unspeakables, and the wizarding world at large.

It had been a number of years since he'd seen young Evelyn Grimlish though. Whereas he hadn't been head of the department for al that long, he had been an unspeakable for decades, and he had a long memory.

"More complicated?" He asked her softly, though he sounded impressed even if it could be boastful on the teenager's part, "Well, one has to allow for some of your classmates to attempt tasks," he explained and his lips turned into a thin smile, regrasping his hands behind his back.

"I'd like to know what's on the parchment, and who will be looking t it. And why."

He inclined his head towards her in a quiet nod, and reached one hand up without hesitation to grasp the parchment, bringing it down so he could see, but not Evie, who he glanced at and raised an eyebrow, playing with her.

"Nothing to be concerned about, Evelyn." He assured her and looked to be scrutinising the parchment with some concern, "or perhaps not. Oh deary me…"

It was clear he was toying with her as he let himself smile at her and released the parchment which bobbed back into the air and continued to scribble with the quill.

"It's merely a record of which puzzles you attempt, and your progress - and where my unspeakables have enchanted, it describes the route you take to solve them. A rudimentary and casual analysis of how your mind works, ahead of controlled aptitude testing for a role with us. Are you considering following your mother's footsteps, my dear?"

Though her words did seem the slightest bit boastful, it would have been difficult to believe that Evelyn could truly be boasting – not with a tone so simple and even, or an expression so earnest. He'd asked her a question and she'd answered honestly, as she always did, and received no indication from Mr. Gamp that such a response had been rude or wrong. “No, I didn't say complicated,” she responded evenly, totally oblivious to the fact that it may have been in bad taste to contradict the head of one of the most prestigious departments of her world's governing body. “I said complex,” she went on to explain, “I realize they aren't mutually exclusive, but I didn't mean to imply it should be any more difficult, only longer, with more choices to make. The new parts needn't be any more challenging than the others. It was an engaging game and I would have liked more. I dreaded the end of it the way you might dread the final pages of an exciting novel.” She craved stimulation. A conversation with an adult who she knew was listening to her definitely helped in that area. She'd been spoiled at home during the holiday, and she missed being taken seriously.

Her eyes followed the wizard's hand as he reached up for the parchment that was floating above her, swallowing a lump back as he shot his raised-browed look her way. Her expression remained neutral even had her heart began beating the slightest bit faster in her chest. She wasn't a witty sort of Ravenclaw, and wasn't inclined toward humor, so it didn't even begin to occur to her that he was playing. This was, after all, the Department of Mysteries tent, and she had no reason to believe the parchment was related to the puzzle. They had access to magic she was unable to even dream of – they could be recording almost anything, for any purpose. There was a tense moment in which she was very still, wondering if he'd discovered some secret about her that even she didn't know. But no – he was teasing. She released a soft exhale through her nose. She supposed she understood the humor, but she couldn't bring herself to smile. She didn't like being a joke.

Evelyn nodded as he explained what the parchment was actually recording, and she had to admit that it was the slightest bit disappointing. She was curious about how her mind worked, however. She spent so much time living inside of it that she rarely thought to consider it from an outside perspective. “I'm considering many things, and I plan to do as many as I can, beginning with a trip to Brazil and some travel writing, perhaps as soon as this summer. I know my mother was able to travel as part of her early work for the department,” she observed. That, after all, was how they'd found one another. “It's difficult to consider committing to something when you aren't sure what you'd be committing to – though it's also quite exciting. I may be interested. I suppose it comes down to whether the department is interested in me, and fate will certainly play a role as well.” 

Grimlish didn't appear to be amused. Mortimer recognised the signs, a teenager on their way to adulthood, shedding childish humour on the way and becoming deadly serious in the process. He'd only wished his sons had reached this stage at the age young Grimlish was, it would have saved a lot of bother.

"If you pay an interest in the Department, the Department will always pay an interest in you my dear." He assured Evelyn, "why, we've watched you from afar all your days, depending on your paranoia."

He took a step away from her, turned that his back was to her puzzle, but that he could still speak to her while observing the rest of the tent. Having his back to a crowd didn't do. He had come to observe those he now led and also to cast an eye on those who he might lead in future, if he was successful in the post.

Certainly his predecessors had their woes and opportunities, Analiza to the school, and then to Merlin only knew where, Dante to step aside in is own terms. Mortimer was old enough not to worry great plans, he had children and family, and a wife, and had seen more decades than some wizards usually survived as an unspeakable.

"I remember your mother's early days," he told Evelyn, his eyes narrowing as he recalled young Grimlish. Their paths hadn't crossed so regularly, but she had certainly been admired by her colleagues from the way they interacted with her, even if none could speak exactly their research.

Whether daughter cared to know that he remembered this, or even thought on it now, he suspected was unlikely. The day was about choosing their own paths, the minds were on self reflection, and self projection too - could they see themselves as aurors, what were their shortcomings, how much they still had to learn even if they were leaving the school gates within months. Youth often had a funny way of believing it knew everything, whereas the wisest respected what they did not know, far more than what they knew they did, and further still, questioned what they did not know on a regular basis.

"She seized every chance," the older wizard explained, sounding somewhat wistful of those gone days where he had so much adventure ahead of him, instead of past, "… as the best unspeakables do. But you'll never know, tis the shame, and should you follow her footsteps into level nine, she will not know to what extent either you seize yours." He gestured a gentle shrug, though his eyes had slid away to watch the group of students depart, beaten by the game. He hoped that even though they were not suited to the Department, that it had taught them a small lesson.

Picking up on her earlier comment, he looked back to her with a steady gaze,
"You do not believe fate will dictate your path entirely, then, Evelyn?"

Evelyn couldn't remember being a child. She knew she'd once been smaller, and that she'd played, but she'd always done so with a certain purpose and intensity. They'd called her precocious back then. The only thing that had really changed as she'd grown was that her precociousness was no longer cute. She was a creepy kid – it was her brother who had inherited all of the endearing genes.  She didn't know how to change, and she didn't necessarily want to. Her stoic nature may have been a detriment at school, but it would certainly serve her out in the real world, where people saw through eccentricity to things like focus and intellect and passion. She had all three in droves, somewhere behind the ripped stockings and the living hair ornaments and the flat affect.

She didn't mind one bit when Mr. Gamp turned away – in fact, it allowed her to return to her puzzle to try out her second solution without coming off as rude. Whether the quill floating above her would note that her return to the same puzzle was positive or negative she did not know, but the witch was nothing if not dedicated to her interests and whims, and, frankly, didn't care so much about the parchment now that she knew what it was. Let it record what it saw – it made no difference. Once you put something out into the universe there was no calling it back, written record or no. She hummed gently as he began speaking about her mother, expressing interest without sacrificing concentration.

It was a nice story he told, about seizing opportunities, but that was already Evelyn's plan. What she was interested in, however, was fate. She had many, many thoughts and opinions on the subject, some of which were in direct contradiction – but whether or not she had it all worked out, she knew for a fact that it had a major influence on her life. Sometimes she hated it – in fact, she was only so obsessed with the idea of it because it frustrated her so much to know that she could live her whole life without ever making a real choice. She didn't want that to be true, so she picked at it, and resisted it, and did what she could to try and find loopholes.

“It will,” she responded with certainty, “But I'd like to think I'm proactive enough that my will might influence my path. You cannot decide what will happen in a lifetime, but you can decide where you're standing, and how you feel as you stand there.” If paths were meant to cross, they would cross. If lives were meant to end, they would end. And if she was meant to work for the Department of Mysteries then she'd certainly find her way there no matter what she did in the meantime. “I have my cards read regularly, my brother is a seer, and I'm very attuned to omens,” she told him, “So is my mother. It's when we have the same feelings about something that I know I can trust my own. I do not know what's coming for me but I feel prepared.” She nodded once, her eyes still trained on the maze, which she was approaching from an entirely different angle this time.

“Off the record, sir, do you think there may be a place for me on the department?” she asked him. “I'm also considering an apprenticeship in cauldron repair, but I have another year of schooling and I haven't quite decided.”

She was not teasing.

Young Grimlish certainly did have a rather wonderful mind up there, and to no great surprise if he thought about the family. It would be a tremendous joy to have her as part of the Department when she finished her NEWTs, if that was what she chose. Of course, if he were still in the role, he would ask for her to receive a tap on the shoulder, a quite invitation to join if she hadn't applied, just to try and persuade her.

The parchment and quill were going ten to the dozen above their heads as she turned to the maze on the board before her once more. Mortimer heeded it no attention, and certainly her gaze was entirely focused on the puzzle.

"Evelyn, I hope that the fates are in our advantage and that you do join us. Much as it is your choice entirely, I would hope that when the time comes, you work with us, even for a few years." He spoke softly, "Not so as to swell your head, but we do not say this to many students." Looking across the tent he added,

"Cauldron repair is a well respected profession too, though we have our own repairs, time turners, artefacts, restoration within the department too that you might consider. Francis Pepper over there would welcome another apprentice." He nodded in the direction, though he knew Evelyn had her back to his colleague.

Turning back to her properly once more, he gave a closed-lipped smile that lifted some of the lines on his face.
"I will leave you to your work, Grimlish, but should you wish to speak further you know to ask for me." With that he left her to continue with the puzzle while he wandered slowly round the tent with hands clasped behind his back.

"Thomas!" Ari exclaimed, with enough gusto to make anyone around them think she hadn't seen him in a lifetime, rather than about fifteen minutes. "Tom, you HAVE to come, no seriously, really, you have to!"

Shouldering off people around him Ariadne seized her classmate's arm, over his clothes, her face bright and excited.
"It's like I said it might be, the Department of Mysteries tent is full of puzzles, just like last year, but different ones!" It had not escaped Ariadne's attention that Thomas liked a puzzle, he was forever puzzling out all manner of strange problems, and had that knack of being able to instantly tell you the answer to the chicken, grain, farmer, fox and the rest of the farmyard with the boat problem. It was both amazing but could make her incredibly jealous when he figured things out before she did.

"My grandfather was having me on when he said they weren't even going to come, or they were going to set themselves up in somewhere strange in disguise so people only found them if they looked, which would have been great, but not if you know what I mean..." She was rambling and as she did she tugged her classmate's arm gently, encouraging him to come with her.

"Come see, you'll be amazeballs at it, you always are, he'll be so pleased to see you too..." Ariadne's father, Mortimer, knew Thomas' uncle Cabhan well from working together since forever.

Weaving between tents and booths and lots of people, they arrived at the door of a shadowy looking tent, and Ariadne pressed her finger to her lips and looked back at Thomas.
"I saw Evelyn Grimlish in here when I looked in before, and the last thing I want to do is get on the wrong side of the Grimlishes." She whispered and they pushed through the tent door.

Almost instantly two pieces of parchment and quills shot up from a table and appeared by their shoulders, ready to record their every move.
"Gramps!" Ariadne greeted, instantly forgetting to be quiet and then clapped a hand over her mouth as the Head of the Department looked round with a mixed expression of anguish for the noise and delight. He was also not too keen on the nickname, preferring grandfather.

"I found him!" She attempted to whisper, gesturing to Thomas with an enormous grin.

Thomas had been taken a bit off guard when Ari had jolted him from his seat to see the career fair.  He certainly hadn't been expecting Ari to visit him, let alone drag him there.  He used "drag" affectionately in his head as they went.  "Fine, fine," he replied, smirking.  "Let's go see what all of this fuss is."

The puzzles, in particular, had caught his attention.  He enjoyed solving them, making them, everything.  Plus, Ari was a friend.  He liked hanging out with her, especially when he figured out puzzles and riddles before she did.  That always drove her crazy. 

He silently accompanied her as they made their way to Department of Mysteries tent, listening to her speaking as they went.  His mind began wandering for a moment, contemplating a riddle his sister Victoria had told him a few days before.  Suddenly, his mind snapped back when they arrived. 

"Evelyn Grimlish, eh?" he replied, quietly.  He wasn't much for the politics of the scene, but he knew enough about the Grimlishes to stay out of their way.  Exploring the tent, Ari called him over.  "I found him!" he heard her say in a sort of half-whisper.  Thomas walked over, scratching his head, his mind having returned to Victoria's riddle.  "Found your grandfather, have you?" he returned, quietly. 

Through the tent door burst a familiar face - his granddaughter, Ariadne, daughter of his son Orion. She took after his son far more than she did her grandfather, what with her brash enthusiasm and inability to be quiet for long.

"Gramps!"

With her trailed Thomas Argall, a familiar face from the past few years. Ariadne's classmate. The Argalls were in the same social circles as Mortimer and his wife Lyra, and he had kept an eye on the boy at a distance as he might turn out of be of use.

"I found him!"

"Found your grandfather, have you?"

"I believe Ariadne means she has retrieved you to the tent as she suggested when we spoke about it at Easter. Thomas, good to see you. Pity you didn't find your own way here, but well, never mind. Perhaps you might join the likes of Ms Grimlish with our puzzles. My Department have constructed some new ones to tickle your mind this year."

He gestured around them with both hands before clasping them behind his back and peering at Argall.

"Something tells me you will be very good at these. Perhaps the riddles?" He nodded towards a nearby table with a box on inscribed with symbols and words which was at the next table to Evelyn Grimlish who was trying her other solution to a puzzle, where he had just left her.

"No silly! Weren't you listening?" Ari exclaimed, but let her grandfather speak to Thomas kindly about the tent. She knew he had a bit of a soft spot for Argyll because he was chummy with the rest of their family. Ari had a soft spot for Thomas because they'd grown up together, and he was rather lovely....

Seeing Grandfather Gamp already directing the Ravenclaw to some of the puzzles and challenges, Ariadne slunk over to Evelyn Grimlish on her tiptoes, the parchment and quill bobbing behind her, yet to make much of a mark on the page. However, the one above Grimlish seemed to be extending at a rate of knots, curling itself round into a scroll.

Hardly daring to breathe, the Gryffindor peered over the girl's shoulder at the table below her classmate's hands. She held her breath without thinking and watched in strange silence as Evelyn worked, until Harry could hold her breath no longer and exhaled.

"How do you figure that out so damned fast?" She eventually exploded in a rushed question, sinking back down onto her heels. "It's like you were made to work in this department, right?"

Thomas was intrigued when Mr. Gamp showed him the various puzzles and riddles that he had.  He also noticed the slight twinge in his voice when he suggested that Thomas may have come on his own, although he brushed it off, thinking of how his sister Victoria would've had a smart remark to reply with.  He perused over the various riddles that he was being shown, until one box that had been pointed out in emphasis caught his eye.  Victoria's own riddle was pushed to the corner of his mind as he examined it.

He looked back after examining the box.  "Sir," he began, with a sly grin, "I think I may have a riddle for you, should I successfully solve this one.  I've been wrestling with it since my family and I returned from our holiday in the US." He turned back, putting his hand on his chin, thinking.  He also took a silent note of Evelyn Grimlish being directly to his left, working herself on a riddle.  "Now," he thought to himself.  "What have we got here?"

"I think I may have a riddle for you, should I successfully solve this one.  I've been wrestling with it since my family and I returned from our holiday in the US." Thomas explained.

"Oh?" Gamp replied, his eyebrows ascending, and his brow deeply lining, owing to his age. "If you feel so, I suppose...?" He wondered that the boy's puzzle would be a riddle, or whether it was merely a moral quandary, but he wasn't about to dismiss it immediately, even if he was tempted. Argyll got down to the puzzle before him, however, so the decision was delayed.

Ariadne had wandered over to Grimlish, but the girl seemed to be fully engaged in her second solution, and grandfather indicated to granddaughter to come away and not bother her.

"Perhaps you might try your own hand at some of these, Ariadne, you are capable." She shrugged, and uttered about not wanting to show him up, and peered over her friend's shoulder instead, where Thomas had made a start.



End - timeline moving on