"To think I was looking forward to an empty house." Ignan sighed, staring across the pub into middle distance, a rare pint resting between his fingertips, barely sipped.
"Heh, quite." To his left, Johann set down his own pint, an inch down already from the lip of the glass. Ignan gave his younger relative a sidelong glance, as if to say that included evicting you and then returned to staring across the room with a thoughtful look on his face.
"I'd put your parents to good use, only I prefer they found gainful employment and somewhere else to live." Johann nodded almost too vigorously beside him. He was not enjoying sharing Ignan's house with his parents. He'd suddenly become very scarce, working, or staying out, creeping back in at eleven, leaving the house again by seven. For the few days the previous holiday that they'd co-existed in the house while Ignan did his studies on livestock for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement's corpus inversus case, he knew full well what Johann's routine had been like. If anything, he had less work now the tournament had finished and the foreigners had gone home. Well, some of them, anyway.
"Johann," Ignan addressed, turning properly to look at the younger wizard directly, "I need them out of my house. Get rid of them."

Beneath his mop of black hair, Johann swallowed visibly.
"How am I going to do that?"
"You'll think of something."
"It's your house."
"Precisely, and you can find somewhere too."

His gaze was unwavering. He'd got back from Hogwarts on the Sunday. Sending the students home on the Saturday and attending to final matters as Deputy Headmaster had meant he couldn't easily return on the Saturday afternoon when Gerda had popped up beside him to explain what was happening at Godric's Hollow. Since then he'd had to share his house with three adults that he hadn't planned, and two house elves. He'd only invited one wizard, and his invitation was preplanned to expire, and he was still there, and his parents were there too. To make matters worse, they were unemployed, homeless and still somewhat at odds with their own son. Ignan preferred dealing with family dispute when it wasn't happening under his leaking roof. Besides, he had planned to ask Mira to stay again, especially as she was hosting a benefit event the following evening at St Mungo's, and would need a rest away from her daughter, her dodgy boyfriend and a crying grandchild.

Johann was glaring at him, which was new. He actually looked reminiscent of Wolfgang when he did, fancy that. Ignan had almost entirely figured he took after his mother.
"If you get rid of them by the weekend, you can stay a little longer?" Ignan offered grudgingly, upturning his palms as if to weigh up the offer.
"I'll see what I can do."

Now that the elephant in the room had been hexed, body bound and silenced, the two of them visibly relaxed.
"Are you off to this event tomorrow night?" Ignan asked, referring to the St Mungo's benefit Mira had organised.
"Unless i get a better offer." Johann shrugged with a grin. "If asked, I'm Elixa's 'plus one'. Never pass off an opportunity to gather business people and deep pockets in a room, I could do with a few more private clients."
"Fair enough, though let them put their hands in their pockets for the hospital first."

Johann wasn't paying attention, something had caught his eye, which was not entirely unusual, but Ignan followed his gaze and realised it was a familiar face to both of them, and gestured to join them.

It was balmy for Scotland, and Landis had foregone his cloak for the trip down to Hogsmeade on a walk that was blessedly student-free. The holiday had come and he was still lurking around the castle at loose ends. He'd given up his London flat some time ago as it seemed a waste of money to keep, and hadn't yet wanted to move in with Juliette for the summer. While he hardly regretted any of the decisions that had led to where their relationship was now, he would need a good excuse for his criminal comings-and-goings once he no longer lived alone.

Technically the library hadn't undergone a complete inventory for over 400 years, but even Landis with his instinctive revulsion for disorder hesitated at the magnitude of that job. He'd need more than a summer - and at least a dozen students bullied into assistance, if not more. Or house elves. House elves would be far better workers. Now there was a thought...

Landis was getting his change at the bar when Ignan hailed him. He straightened in surprise, took his foot off the rail of the bar, then after a brief last word with Madam Rosmerta maneuvered tables to join them with drink in hand. It was odd to see the two Storms together, though he knew they were related. It was as if facets of his different work lives had sat down together - Ignan welcoming his public persona, and Johann's high-brow and high-strung visage representing pursuits more illicit. It made him wary to mix business aspects, but the wizarding world was small. It was unavoidable.

He greeted them both with a nod, his gaze flitting from one Storm to the other. Johann received the weightier and more measuring share of the look. "Good to see you again," he remarked to Johann, and to both, "Family visit?" It was a nice day for it, his particularly British sensibilities compelled him to note. "You were wise to avoid the children."

"Family visit?" It was Ignan who gave a sarcastic hoot at this, which made Johann shuffle uncomfortably in his seat beside his older cousin. As he did, he remembered how he was meant to know Landis, vs how he rather did know Landis from.

"I thought Ignan scared children off?" Johann asked Landis with a genuine smile, glad that someone interrupted the conversation he'd been engaged in, as he hadn't enjoyed its direction.

"Just getting out of the house." Ignan replied as if Johann hadn't spoken at all and put down his pint, fingertips wiping his top lip gently to make sure there was no head foam left.

Johann nodded in agreement and looked to Landis with keen interest all of a sudden, seizing an opportunity to change the subject.
"How are things with you, Landis? I don't think I've seen you to congratulate you on your news? I suppose it's old news now, but still, I wish you both well."

The timing was a lie, but in their professional interactions there wasn't much time to show real interest or pleasure in the romantic progress of a colleague and their good woman.

"Staying out of the way of dementors?" He added, and glanced between his two fellow drinkers to catch Ignan's lip curl into a gentle sneer. Landis was one of Ignan's respected colleagues, who made the grade, as far as Johann knew, so this perhaps was an obvious answer to the Professor.