Outside of level nine there were Christmas trees, sprigs of holly, ruddy faces discussing Christmas celebrations, presents, time with family. Mortimer was glad to escape it. The Department of Mysteries held no marker of time passing, clocks were often deceptive, days could go backwards and double. Much as he would indulge his own family group a Christmas together in Godric's Hollow, once he was here in London, he did not think of it.

Today his office, deep within the Department felt like it was lit in the middle of the night. It was sparse, almost too bare, a dark oak desk, deep green carpet and two uncomfortable chairs were the only visible furniture. The walls bore a few portraits, each with a stern expression, men, women, predecessors. They shifted in and out of their frames silently, interruptions respectful coughs and suggestions.

In one of the uncomfortable chairs were the narrow shoulders of a young man not long initiated into the Department after finishing at Hogwarts. Mortimer's secretary had shown Patil in a moment before the Department Head's impending arrival. As a metamorphmagus she changed her face with regularity and was that morning sporting bright blonde hair and brilliant blue eyes, taking years off her.

"Patil." Mortimer greeted with an attempt of welcome in his tone which fell far short of society's expectations. For the anxious young man, it was probably least unsettling to be addressed from behind without any sound of the latch on the office door.

Gamp extended his hand to shake, though as he shook, he studied Jai without hiding his interest. The young man was under keen examination.
"You feel you are ready to return." The Department Head stated, no question there. "Naturally we have made our own assessments of you. We have not been far away all the time you were recovering." He settled into his high backed chair the other side of the desk. "Have you ever been obliviated, Patil?"

It had been just a few days since Jai’s memory made its way back to its rightful place in Jai’s head. Waking up that morning had felt like putting on a glove. Everything fit, there were no questions about where the trophies in his room had come from, how he had met his girlfriend, or unfortunately, what had happened that night at the Leaky Cauldron. Jai had vivid dreams about the blast and the subsequent pain. He shoved those to the back of his mind, pre-occupying himself with his old habits of meticulously arranging things.

His return to work had come with much reservation on Jai’s part. There were dozens of concerns that flooded his mind in the night before his return -- what if he wasn’t ready? What if they didn’t want him back? He had sustained rather a severe head injury that night at the Cauldron. What if there were bits of information that he’d once had, gone forever?

“Patil.”

Jai jumped at the voice that had come from behind him. He had been watching the walls around him, overwhelmed by how active they were and yet so intimidating. None of the faces looked happy with him and that didn’t help Jai’s spirit any. His worries about returning to the department stayed front and center. “Mr Gamp,” Jai said, trying to cover up his spasm.

It was time to talk about the return to work, now. And so Jai had to force a confidence he didn’t normally exude. He had to believe himself that this was the right choice. When Gamp asked if he’d ever been obliviated, though, Jai was thrown. “No, sir,” he answered. “I’ve never been obliviated.” Jai hoped that he wasn’t about to experience his first.

"Pity, you don't recall," Gamp replied, sounding genuinely dismayed, the pace of his words a little slower than one might usually converse with, though lingering to suggest not to interrupt. The obliviators down on level 9 were incredibly efficient, not as heavy handed as Glass and his team.

"I would have asked for your comparison of amnesia. Another time." A clock, or what might have been, chimed once primly in the background, only illuminating how suffocatingly quiet the room was.

"St Mungo's have declared you fit and well. Do you agree?"

Somehow the lack of obliviation experience was disappointing to Mortimer. It was really only in the Department of Mysteries where something like this would happen and discussed intellectually. Time and space -- they were tricky, wibbly wobbly. And endlessly fascinating to the research he had been assisting with at the Astrolab. Yeah-- he needed to be back. Weirdly enough, Gamp's disappointment gave him a little bit of confidence.

"That does sound interesting actually," Jai agreed. "Sorry I couldn't help now. Maybe someday we could  arrange an experiment." What's the worst that could happen? Jai was deeply organized, and felt like his brain followed suit.

  "St Mungo's have declared you fit and well. Do you agree?"

For anyone with an anxiety or panic disorder like Jai very much did, this question was pretty loaded. "Well, I'm the same old me, anyway," he offered.

Patil fell into the trap, missing the part where Mortimer had suggested the young man had already been obliviated, but did not realise such, and eagerly agreeing to an experiment at some point in the future. There were more disposable test subjects than Patil to be used for such things, but the ethics on sourcing them were a minefield. He preferred to throw a few things into it and let the mines go off before dashing through.

"Are you though?" Mr Gamp asked, the only part of him that moved other than his lips were his eyebrows, creasing up his long forehead with deep wrinkles. "Is anyone the same as yesterday?" He was toying with his food so to speak, it wasn't polite.

"What do you recall of Guy Fawkes night?" He asked in a low, steady voice, eyes fixed on Jai, unblinking.

“Are you though? …. Is anyone the same as yesterday?”

These had been the very questions plaguing Jai’s mind in the past few days. Although he remembered most of what he’d forgotten, he was constantly testing himself to see if there were any holes, anything that had been lost to the explosion forever. Obliterated, just like most of the old Wizarding landmark.

“What do you recall of Guy Fawkes night?”

Gamp’s eyes were fixated on him, and therefore had to have witnessed Jai’s twitch in response to the question. Jai had been dreading this very inquest. There was not much of what he remembered, but there was enough to make him spasm at the thought. “I-” Jai started with a stammer. “Was there for my birthday, celebrating. Everything was fine…” He brought the happier moments of the night to the surface, the warm light and blurred vision, laughter and singing. “Until… it wasn’t.” Gamp knew, obviously, what wasn’t fine about the night. Jai didn’t wish to go into much more detail, and wouldn’t, unless his boss asked him.

"But you remember it all now?" Gamp asked coolly. "Despite waking up with no memory of who you were?" He was sat very still in his chair still, almost unnervingly so.

It wasn't easy to read him, whether this was personal or professional curiosity about Jai's wellbeing, the incident itself or a test of his response to the pressing queries.

Of course Gamp knew the ins and outs of the incident, and he knew very well who had set it off - or at least who was claimed to have set it off and ended up recovering with Glass. As for why he hadn't pursued yet, but there were theories. A jigsaw to be pieced together when interested enough.

"Can you walk by the ruins of the Leaky Cauldron?" He asked in further pursuit of answers.

Jai was not sure what to expect from his visit with Mr Gamp. Frankly Jai was not even sure that Gamp was the one who could authorize his return. He was head of the department, though, and even if he wasn’t Jai’s direct boss, he was way above anyone Jai worked with anyway.

"But you remember it all now?" Gamp asked coolly. "Despite waking up with no memory of who you were?"

He shifted uncomfortably; this had been something Jai had been asking himself ever since his memory came back. Was it all there? Were there any pieces of him gone? Memories missing forever? “Pretty sure,” Jai answered vaguely. He was intimidated by the older man, couldn’t figure out why he was so curious about one of his entry-level employees.

"Can you walk by the ruins of the Leaky Cauldron?”

The questions were getting increasingly harder. A large twitch shook Jai’s body in response to the question, and his physical reaction felt rather self-explanatory. Still, Jai answered, “I haven’t really…” he sighed. “Had the nerve to go by, yet.” Jai’s lips twitched to the side and he looked down, feeling ashamed of his excessive anxiety. "D'you think I should, sir?" Maybe lost memories would be found there, after all.

Patil was looking increasingly uncomfortable with the line of questioning, which only fuelled Gamp's interest. He wanted to know each and every one in his Department and what made them uncomfortable, their little pressure points. Made for interesting use when he had to persuade them for the good of research later.

"I think you should, Patil." Gamp replied, absolutely straight, gaze unmoving from the younger man's face. "I think you should go by very soon." He inclined forward steadily, "See what remains. The carcass. Charred beams, blackened brickwork, shattered glass. The place two breathed their last, lungs thick with smoke."

He blinked, after what must have felt like an unnaturally long time for his visitor.
"Spend half an hour, alone. Reflect." Of course this wasn't necessarily healthy, but it was decidedly creepy and interesting to watch the response to. "Draw on it." He added a little more quietly and sat back, lifting his chin, blinking again. The body language suggesting that it would be in Jai's interests to agree and dismiss himself. Whether Patil would though, he suspected he might linger - curiosity, if he didn't flee.

And he would know if Patil did go of course.

Jai listened closely to his superior, an elder wizard who had accomplished so much in his life. He respected him. The suggestions that he was making made Jai nervous; the thought of going back to that place and seeing how close he’d come to death, how much destruction and death -- Jai began to compulsively fidget, trying to focus on Mortimer instead of the crooked shelf on the wall behind him that he now desperately wanted to adjust.

“I’ll do that, sir. Thank you for the advice,” Jai was a little shaky but he gave the man a friendly smile.
“Have you gone by, sir?” Jai didn’t know if Gamp had been anywhere near the Leaky Cauldron on the night of the explosion, but he was certain that it had to be interfering with the man’s life somehow. It had affected so many people.

Good, Patil, good. A smile, he was obedient. This was encouraging. Mortimer would wager a little bet with himself on whether Jai did go though.

"Have you gone by, Sir?"

Gamp blinked slowly. His interest in Patil was transient, and his mind had already moved on to his next appointment, immediate curiosity sated.

"What influence do my movements have in this situation, Patil?" He asked levelly at the direct question. He might have gone by, he might have studied the full reports from the other floors involved in the investigation. He might even know of prophecy predicting the night. If all or any of the above were true or false, he was not intending to disclose it to Patil.

To Mortimer's left, one of the dark portrait occupants shuffled back into view and cleared her throat, beady eyes shifting from Mortimer to Jai and back again. Mortimer did not regard her at all but reached into his robes with complete disinterest of the young unspeakable. It was as if Jai had vanished from the room at the same moment.

Behind the desk, visible to Jai over Gamp's shoulder, a door appeared in the wall where one had not been before. The Department Head stood and left through it without another word. The door melted back into the wall again in the blink of an eye.

The witch in the portrait cleared her throat again, and the door from which Jai had entered clicked open behind him.