Lix wondered if she ought to have crafted second year badges for this very occasion. She'd barely arrived to live in Britain last time she'd attempted this sort of event, but had met Maiko for the evening. It was to her regret that they hadn't really followed things up much during the year, though Lix suspected Maiko wasn't into the same sort of lifestyle.

It was to her surprise that the witch she faced at the table was of similar height and build - daresay at a push they might have passed as sisters with the dark curls.

"Hello!" Lix greeted, extending both arms to offer a friendly embrace. "Lovely to meet you. All very exciting isn't it? Lix - by the way." She winked, and internally questioned why she'd done it. False confidence. She should have loaned it to Arc.

"Basics then," Elixa carried on, taking a seat, propping her elbow on the table and her chin in her hand, "I'm a healer in training at St Mungo's, the accent is Swedish, and if I had to choose between cats and dogs, it'd be cats. You?"

"Andromeda." They did not shake hands. Elixa smelled really nice. That was a strange first impression. "You can call me Andie if you like." The witch had a foreign accent.

They took seats at their table. Lix was quick to say a few facts. Andromeda liked her pace. "I am an auror." Andromeda replied. "British accent." She laughed because that was really really obvious. "Cats or dogs. Hard! I think cats. My patronus is a panther and I like my brother's cat. We never had a dog."
Her turn to ask some questions. "I have two older brothers. I have been an auror for almost a decade. Do not take this the wrong way, but you look my age. I always picture trainee healers to be Hogwarts graduates."

"We never had a dog either," Lix replied smoothly to Andromeda, "Not so popular are they?" She asked rhetorically and let the auror go on. No wonder she held herself confidently if she was one of those. Lix had enormous respect for all the aurors she'd so far encountered, especially the likes of Zeke Wingate who had saved her bacon[1].

Lix laughed at Andromeda's observations,
"Most of them are that's why." She agreed, spreading her hands flat on the table, decorative rings glinting in the light of the candle on their table. Her black hair cascaded over her shoulders to frame her face with heavily shadowed eyes. "I trained once before back in Sweden, but decided to become an apothecary instead. Time to put things right, so I'm training on the third floor - potions." She gave a nod when she could see Andromeda knew which she meant. "And I'm just thirty-five but I reckon you're younger than me, so I will take it as a compliment." Elixa grinned.

"I've two brothers as well, they're twins. Younger than me, Belarius and Benedick. They're living in Sweden. I've been here a year now. Time flies." She raised her eyebrows and looked Andromeda up and down. "You?" She asked, "and what's the most dangerous thing you've had to do as an auror then?"

1.	24 March 2010 - The Desperate Thief

"I am 29." Andromeda replied. "It does not matter though." She shrugged. "My brothers are older. One is here too." She turned around. The table Cepheus was meant to be sat at was empty. "He was here at least." She wondered who he had been put with. "Cepheus and Orion. The most dangerous thing? Fight a guy at the top of a really tall building. I had to chase him across lots of roofs in York. I caught him though." She grinned back at Elixa.

"I'm an aunt too. My niece Ariadne is a Gryffindor like I was." She was very proud of this and sat up straight. "Where did you go to school? Did you go to Durmstrang?"

"Ceph!" Lix exclaimed, "Thin as a rake, little guy, right? I think I know him. You're his little sister. Damn." The healer in training's eyes brightened, "You must kick your brother's backsides!" She chuckled and nodded.

"I did go to Durmstrang. I grew up in Sweden and ended up there. My father was in Hufflepuff though. I know a bit about Hogwarts. I graduated the year before the Triwizard tournament. You must have, ah. Yeah." Lix's maths suddenly realised that the conversation was heading into tricky waters. "Let's get another drink. Come on." She extended her hand across the table for Andromeda to take.

"Yes that is him." Andromeda laughed. "Yes I can kick their backsides. I can also do it to dark wizards too." She took Elixa's hand and they walked to the bar. "Do you know lots of people here?" Andromeda asked. "I recognise lots of faces." Andromeda leaned on the bar. "I do not drink here very often. I saw you flirting with Rufus earlier. Are you sad you were not paired with him?"

“You don’t miss a trick, do you?” Lix replied, surprised that Andromeda noticed. “Me and Rufus are close, yeah, but not anything regular. As for the rest..” the healer in training turned away from the bar to survey the scene of potential couples.

Edwin had been paired up with a graceful witch who perhaps was closer to his age in the group, but probably still a way off it. Margo had ended up with fellow trainee on the third floor, Tracy. That was luck, although he was her junior, he was easy on the eye and then some, lucky Margo!

Poor Nate had drawn Camille - that wasn’t going to be much of a match, but perhaps a nice chat. It was good to see them both trying, though she felt fate could have drawn them a more likely match. Rufus had been drawn with a young guy that Lix didn’t recognise, and her housemate, Arc was sat opposite Dodger. She was surprised he was still there - and hadn’t dashed out the door in fright.

“I know half a dozen or more, yeah.” She summarised for Andromeda, returning the sweep of her eyes to her allotted pair. “Why, hoping for an introduction to someone better?” She grinned cheekily, ordering two cocktails that would put them both at ease with the alcohol content. “How about you? What are you looking for tonight?”

"I am an auror." Andromeda winked at Elixa. "He's cute." She shrugged her shoulders. "No. Unless you want to?" Andromeda shook her head. She had not spoken to Elixa for very long. Why would she want to talk to someone else immediately? "I don't know." Andromeda admitted. She had not come tonight expecting to find anyone. "Some fun? I hardly think my soul mate is here." She shrugged. "I have not been lucky of late. I just have fun instead. You?" Andromeda toasted Elixa with her cocktail and drank.

"Some fun? I hardly think my soul mate is here.” Andromeda stated rather abruptly. Lix was a little more open minded, even if she believed the probability was low. You never quite knew when you were going to run into your soul mate. For a friend since school, it had been a few months ago in Le Masquerade - Rover’s Fancy was not a mile away.
“I’m always lucky if I want to be.” Lix smirked, sipping her cocktail and giving Andromeda a sidelong glance. “I also came looking for fun, someone new.” She swung herself up onto a stool by the bar and made a point of looking her date up and down now she could see all of her. “I’ve not been out so much since I began retraining, so I need a bit of a release.” Well, Andromeda was easy on the eye and an auror. She’d be mad if she didn’t, and tonight she was oddly determined to have her fun with someone. Only polite to give first refusal to her date.

"I would never have guessed." Andromeda said. Elixa could only make it clearer by saying my place or yours. "Is sex the most fun you have?" Andromeda asked. "I like drinking and dancing too. Shall we try those first?" She grinned and sipped her drink. She wondered whether Elixa would be offended. Some people here were looking to jump into bed, sure. But there were other ways to do that. Ones which did not involve filling out a form about yourself.

Elixa laughed - Andromeda was very blunt, but very true in her observations. Sometimes the ploy worked, but it rather depended on what the other person was looking for in a night. Sometimes it paid to be upfront about it all, she hadn't got patience to chat people up.

"Ah spoilsport," she laughed and clapped her hand to Andromeda's shoulder, "I'm joking, of course we can." She tucked her feet up on the stool and and elbow on the bar. "You know those red cloaks..." She began, "don't you all faceplant on them once in a while when you're running?"

"More often than you would believe." Andromeda said. "It is a trick to play on trainees. When they first get their robes. You know, they are all pristine." Andromeda smiled. "Make them grow an inch or two." She shook her head. "Only in the office. When it does not matter." She drank her drink. "Do you ever fall over your robes? Do healers play tricks on each other?"

"When I got my trainee set, perhaps," Lix admitted, "soon sorted that out. We have our fair share of laughs without having to play tricks. The weird and wonderful things that people come in with. On my floor it's about dodging vomit and exploding boils, not to mention the explosive diarrhoea. One of my fellow trainees learned that one the hard way when taking a rectal temperature the other day. Poor sod had to shower and change all his uniform but could smell it all day." Lix paused to giggle to herself. Bodily functions and their unfortunate malfunctions wasn't often her bar smalltalk, but she was sure a fierce auror could cope.

"You manage to stay out of the hospital? Spell damage seem to have at least one of you lot in each day." 

"Last year I was in." Andie said. "I got hit with a bad curse. I was in for weeks. Ok now but I have another scar." She put her hand on her stomach. She shrugged. "I feel sorry for that trainee. That sounds gross. Has anything like that happened to you?"

“More than a few times…” Lix agreed, “You learn how to dodge after the first few, but sometimes there’s no getting out of the way. I am sure to leave an offering to the great god scourgify on a regular basis.” She joked, and then her smile diminished. This was a queer little conversation, and definitely not how she’d imagined it might pan out. However, at least they were making conversation. There were some awkward looking couples around the room who were struggling with it. They’d already covered family, names, basics of their professions, and the fact Andromeda wasn’t about to down a cocktail and jump into bed as as result of being here alone. The comment had made Lix feel awful for her attempt to make conversation. She’d really got far too used to meeting people where you couldn’t talk to them…

For a moment there was an awkward silence. “Did you always want to be an auror?” She asked, “Or did you want to do something entirely different when you were little? I always wanted to be a healer because my parents were and I knew a lot about it, but had it not been, I might have tried to be a musician or farmed. Funny how life works out."