4.45pm , Ministry of Magic.


The lift doors on level one slid open and Virgil Carstairs stepped into the carriage with a heavy sigh. He had just been to deliver a set of classified documents to the Minister's office - level nine paperwork that Yavin entrusted to trainees rather than delivery charms. It was one of those Mondays. The sort where you feel like you've been running on the spot without going anywhere and everything you did took aaaaages.

Unspeakables-in-Training generally had a good time of it. In addition to running errands, they helped out on all sorts of projects in different chambers and  life was rarely boring. Even so, Virgil was fighting to distract himself from recent events with Cepheus.

He had bragged to Yavin that he would solve his puzzle[1] under a month. Yav had said two months. Naturally, this brought out an ambitious colour in the younger wizard. It was nice, to be playing games with his old tutor again.

Ding! the lift door stopped on level two, where a couple of arguing Hitwizards dithered about boarding for so long that Virgil leaned against the walls and shut his eyes in frustration. He reached out to Yavin's head, as they were already linked.

The puzzle. Their puzzles had been easy ones when he was a child. Like word searches or jigsaws or numerical equations that had him reaching for a muggle textbook. Every time he solved a puzzle, he gained access to Yavin's mindscape: like unlocking a backdoor. The puzzles now, however, were much trickier.

They played on different sensory complications. In his mind's eye, Virgil was not in the lift but in a lush forest scene - next to a rushing waterfall. The scene played itself smoothly: bird calls, rustling leaves, humid air, warm sunshine, falling water. The trick was to find out where the loop started and ended. If he could find it and apply some mental force, he'd fracture the loop. It was an exercise in recognising patterns yet it was hard to tell: was that bird call a repeat, or part of the cycle? Did the sun fall like this before?

A frown appeared between his blonde eyebrows in reality whilst the doors closed and the carriage descended to level three. Nearly had it. He'd been working on this a little bit every day and he was sure he knew exactly where the loop repeated itself now. Ding! the lift arrived at Magical Catastrophes.

Virgil tried to break through the loop in his mind, opening his vivid blue gaze, and --

-- and SPLASH! there was water everywhere! He yelled in surprise, a river fish landing on his head and flip-flopping to the floor. Then another, and another. It was freezing! Yavin! There was deep laughter, he could sense it, somewhere in his mind. Awful awful man!

He'd be genuinely upset if he didn't think it was a brilliant boobytrap. Virgil, grinning, wiped the water out his eyes and squinted at whoever had joined him in the lift. Oh.

It was just Nick.

1.	More Answers From Mysteries - 15th Septh

Nicholas just stood there in the lift with his mouth open all thoughts about how he shouldn't have to be the errand boy anymore pushed from his head.  He was used to seeing his flatmate around the Ministry, the lifts being the most likely place to run into Virgil given the department he worked for.  But water... and fish!... appearing from nowhere in the lift, above his friend's head, that was different.

"There are easier ways to say you want fish for dinner."  Nicholas said with a smirk.  He toed one of the fish out of his way, so that he could step all the way into the lift.   He looked over at Virgil, who was still dripping.  "Am I allowed to ask?"

He searched his pockets for his wand, glancing up at Nick's smirk. Fish for dinner! Perhaps. It was getting towards that time of the day and he hadn't had any tea yet.

            "Am I allowed to ask?"

The lift doors closed. "It's not exactly level nine related." Virgil admitted before casting a charm to dry himself up - the carriage was briefly filled with a mist as the water evaporated, smelling very much like a murky English river indeed. "Mind magic exercise," he tousled his damp hair.

Ariadne already knew. It was something he had been meaning to tell Nick because keeping secrets from flatmates was difficult. Virgil had nearly let it slip a few times when the three of them were in their living room. This was as good a time as any.

"Legilimency actually," he gave his wand a flick at the fish now; causing them to freeze over and settle down. "I set off a booby-trap."

"Good to know they aren't hazing you down there."  Nicholas said as the lift turned into a sauna.  A foul smelling sauna.  Something told him Virgil was probably going to need more than just a drying charm.  But he wasn't going to start sniffing him to find out.  Not that he could until he got the smell out of his nose anyways.

"So mind booby-traps are how you learn to become a legilimens?" Nicholas asked.  It seemed like an annoying way to learn.  Especially when failure could be so public.  He'd hate to end up soaking wet in the middle of the Ministry where he could run into anyone.  That was assuming it was water every time.  And fish.  He still didn't get the fish, he looked down at them no longer flopping around.

Lift booby-traps seemed beyond learning though.  Not that Nicholas had ever inquired about the skill.  Mind-reading had never interested him.  Okay maybe a little bit to see if someone wanted to have some fun.  But he'd found just being direct got an answer and didn't involve dubious skills and invasions of privacy.

"How long have you been at it?"  It wasn't the question he really wanted to ask, but if it had only been a few weeks he didn't want to accuse his flatmate of reading his mind.

The lift continued to descend, stopping on fourth for either nobody or an ambiguous passenger of the Spirit Division. Virgil leaned down to pick up the fish - he slipped them into his vest pockets while Nick posed a few questions. He was actually one of the few people who did ask the most logical questions.

"Not how anyone learns, I hope." Virgil muttered ruefully and wiggled his toes in his shoes; they were still squishy. These fish were going to go into Yavin's drawer. Or drawers.

            "How long have you been at it?"

"Since before Hogwarts," he replied vaguely and finally met his flatmate in the eye with a sardonic little smile. "Don't worry, I haven't been eavesdropping. Much." Virgil didn't want to make himself sound too exceptional - the trainees learning Legilimency in the Brain Room already thought he was a teacher's pet.

They weren't wrong but he could hardly help it. "I've told Ariadne, she caught me at it earlier this year."

"That's a....  You've read my mind?"  So he wasn't going to have to ask.  Virgil was just going to volunteer the information.  He wasn't sure how to feel about it.  On the one hand, it was a complete invasion of privacy.  On the other, he wasn't all that concerned with privacy.  At least for the things that he'd been told he should care about. 

He'd never really thought about the recesses of his own mind being something he should worry about.  Despite knowing about legilimens.  Despite picking a job where he finds and modifies and erases peoples memories.

It had never occurred to him that he'd be a target of either.  "When you say much, what does that mean?" Nicholas asked, frowning at Virgil.

            "That's a....  You've read my mind?" 

A diffident nod. It wasn't quite the end of the day yet so they were lucky they hadn't run into anybody else in the lift. Virgil was beginning to feel reluctant about getting back to level nine and having to deal with Yavin's smug look. He was going to solve that puzzle, and he was going to do it this week.

"I mean when, you know -" Virgil gestured, almost mimicking his department head, "- when I'm confused about something you said. Or if you're upset, like when the kidnappings are mentioned, it's hard not to hear."

Some emotions and thoughts were louder than others. He watched the lift dial descend further, passing the fifth floor. "I don't do it for fun," Virgil clarified as he leaned back against the wall.

Nicholas stood there and watched the dial.  They'd jut passed the level five, two more levels to go before he got off. And he wasn't sure that he was done talking to Virgil. He also wasn't sure what to say to him either.  It would have been much easier to deal with if Virgil was just learning or had just said no of course I've never read your mind.

But he was pretty sure he'd confused Virgil plenty of the years, and their'd been months when he'd thought of nothing but the kidnapping when he wasn't high or drunk.  And Ariadne knew.  A heads up would have been nice.  Hey, our friend can read your mind, was all it would have taken.

He wasn't even mad.  Or at least he didn't feel angry.  Frustrated maybe.  Left out of the secret.  Annoyed that Virgil had been in his thoughts.  "I'm glad you don't do it for fun.  I'd hate to be your entertainment," he said flatly.  "And maybe for the time being don't make eye contact."  He was pretty sure that was required.  And he'd certainly be checking.

Nick didn't seem amused by any of his explanations. In a way, it was probably the most muggle reaction Virgil had experienced to telling someone about all of this. People like Abby or Ari, who came from wizarding families, took it in their stride as a personality quirk. Not necessarily a welcome quirk but they didn't mind him not having mentioned before.
 
           "And maybe for the time being don't make eye contact."

"Um." Virgil glanced at the dial, moving on towards the sixth floor, and then decided that it would be a bad idea to underplay the reality of the situation. "Won't make much of a difference, I don't need it."

Neither did Yavin, though that was a result of actual training rather than natural skill like with Virgil. Wands and incantations didn't have a place in how he practiced Legilimency. It was very rare but Yav had told him there was historical precedence. Virgil looked at Nick, a bit more serious now.

"I'm not trying to exaggerate," he explained in a quiet voice, the dial needle moved past six and towards seven. "I've always been like this. The best thing to do is just not get too paranoid about it."

Virgil's parents had been paranoid to begin with but in the end they'd gotten used to it and trusted him not to wander if he could help it. Otherwise life would be hellish for them.

"Really? Great!" So Nicholas wasn't even able to keep his thoughts to himself by avoiding eye contact.  He'd have to become proficient in a whole other branch of magic.  And something told him he'd have to be damn good at it for it to do any good.  Because he didn't think even for a moment that Virgil was exaggerating.

"I'm not paranoid.  I just wish I'd have known.  I wish you would have told me."  He sighed, "I get we weren't close or anything but it would have been nice to know after..." He waved his hand in the air.  "Or before we moved in together."

The lift finally dinged and started opening to the seventh floor, where he'd finally be able to get out of this conversation and deliver the damn file to the quidditch league.  He started to step off but put his arm in the doorway to keep it from closing and moving on instead and turned to Virgil.

"How the hell did you get so wrapped up in Cepheus?  How was it not obvious to you he wasn't interested in an eighteen year old amateur-actor-unspeakable-trainee?" He asked before stepping out of the lift.

Being in an enclosed space with an angry person was not a good idea - Virgil realised that he should have chosen a better time and place, probably one that involved less fish smell.

He wasn't sure what to say to Nick's complaints, telling people about his Legilimency only ever seemed to happen after some incident to do with it and he never felt like he owed anyone that knowledge. But looking at it from the other wizard's perspective, Nick did seem like the odd one out in their flat.

The doors slid open to level seven, where there was luckily nobody waiting for the carriage who might overhear their exchange. Virgil opened his mouth to get a word i--

            "How the hell did you get so wrapped up in Cepheus?  How was it not obvious to you he wasn't interested in an eighteen year old amateur-actor-unspeakable-trainee?"

Amateur?? Bizarrely, that was the first objection he had against the stinging remark. It contained too many descriptives to come off as genuinely insulting but Virgil was more offended to know that Nick would try to aim for an obvious sore spot. Nor did he appreciate the implication that he perused Ceph's mind often. He stuck out his lip in a sullen pout and glared, letting the doors slide shut.


---

The fish in his pockets were cold and the lift descended another two floors, depositing the young wizard at the Department of Mysteries.

To absolutely nobody's surprise, Yavin was waiting in the dark entrance chamber. He had his hands behind his back, the office doors were wide open behind him. It was nearly five and regular work hours would soon be over.

            "Pushed your, ahah, your luck with that puzzle, huh?"
"You could have told me what kind of booby-trap it was," Virgil complained and began emptying the fish out as he followed Yav into the office.

They entered the room, all gleaming white marble and skeletal grins.

"Do you ever get tired of telling people you're a Legilimens?" he asked and dropped into a seat across from the desk, still pouting.
            "Yes. It gets easier if you stop caring." Yavin stood by his three windows, not particularly concerned by the question. "Ready? You were, hm, you were close."

Virgil sat a little straighter and gave his neck a stretch by cracking it slightly. "Alright. I'll solve it this time."