Neville sat at a table at the small tea shop that was across from the Welcome desk in the Atrium. He looked tired and run down but that was a rather accustomed look for any Auror. Ever since the Dementor attack at St. Mungo's his unwilling passenger was becoming more and more active. No longer coming to the surface during life and death situations but now whenever his emotions rose. He needed to learn more about what was going on but the phenomenon seemed to be rare and virtually unheard of.

Neville decided to turn to one of the few people that may be able to help. He had left a quick note with Blake, asking if the trainee was free for tea and a talk. He knew that she was tied up in her investigation and may not have much time for his small worries. Thankfully she had agreed to meet him.

He sipped his tea and scanned the crowd for any sight of her. He was beginning to think that in whatever past life his passenger had, it had been a man as the constant chatter at the back of his mind was not being all too polite about the prospect of seeing Fauna. Mirroring his own budding attraction to the Trainee.

Fauna was in a good mood. It was Friday, it was payday, and Roh had mentioned bringing her and Raine along on a murder case next week[1]. That put an extra pep in her step as she crossed the Atrium, snugly wrapped in a black and white checkered shawl she wore over her uniform. Several trainees had teased her about keeping a blanket at her desk, but those same trainees asked if she had an extra on a colder day like today.

She wasn't sure exactly what Neville Longbottom wanted to talk about, but the note from him had made her smile in surprise. First the Aurors invited her out for drinks, now for tea! Granted, they were still at the Ministry, and he probably needed a break from work, or to chat about work away from work, but that was fine, it was nice to feel included and like she might finally be on their level. The level of Badassery. The best part was, Longbottom didn't act like a typical badass. He simply did his job, acknowledged everyone when it went well, didn't blame anyone when it didn't. 

He hadn't blamed anyone for what had happened at the lakehouse.

A twinge of guilt filtered through her carefree thoughts. Fauna paused near the entrance of the tea shop, spotting Neville at a table. She gave a little wave, and gestured at the counter to indicate she was getting a tea.

While waiting in the queue, a sign levitated near her shoulder, and then floated away to harass the next customer. No tea in the library. No teacups on top of library books, either!

It coaxed a chuckle out of her most days, imagining some librarian marching across the atrium to complain.

Today, she made small talk with the barista, who wondered where she'd gotten her blanket (shawl!). She ordered a chai tea latte and a huge chocolate chip cookie, the kind they always seemed to offer at tea and coffee shops.

When the drink was ready, she grabbed a handful of napkins and took a seat across from Auror Longbottom. She let the tea cool off for a moment.

"It's Friday," Fauna smiled in greeting.

She broke off half of the cookie with a napkin, and hesitated. Was it weird to offer him half? She couldn't tell if he was just tired or glum.

"Would you like um, half of this? It has chocolate," she added. It was, in fact, a chocolate chip cookie.

1.	Suspicions Surround Azkaban Guard Death

Despite being tired and worn down, ready to just sleep off the tail end of the month, Neville couldn't help the smile that broke out when he caught sight of Blake. He had no idea what she was wearing but she looked warm and comfortable. Something that was important this late in the year, Winter was Coming.

A surprised chuckle escaped his lips as she greeted him. He smirked and with an amused snark to his voice he added without thinking, "I guess that's one way to say Hi." As she offered the cookie the smirk turned back to a smile and he was certain a light blush had come to his cheeks, "thank you."

He took another sip of his tea and subtlely removed his wand. Keeping it under the table at waist height he cast a quick privacy spell so they wouldn't be overheard. He didn't think there was anything to be worried about but the Pentrals weren't widely known about and Neville wasn't exactly being vocal about the fact that he was currently possessed.

"Thanks for meeting me as well." He swallowed hard, hoping he didn't look as awkward as he felt, "I just had a few questions I thought maybe you could help me with." He prepared himself for any shock or resistance on her part. After all he was a full fledged Auror asking a trainee for help. There were some that wouldn't think too highly about that.

"You're friends with the Reid girl, yeah? Has she ever talked to you about . . . Um, the, uh, pentral?" Despite the privacy charm he still whispered the last part.

Fauna blinked in surprise, hoping she hadn't overstepped, but he didn't seem to mind. She smiled again, sliding the half-cookie on the napkin across the table to him, a slow and awkward journey as the napkin bunched up against her fingers.

Letting her hands rest lightly around the steaming teacup in front of her, she glanced around at a magic shimmer settling in the air around their table, recognizing it as a version of the Muffliato charm. Ok, wow. This was not a lighthearted chat over tea. Her stomach jumped, but she let the nervous feeling pass. If she were in trouble or had done something wrong, he definitely wouldn't have asked to meet her outside of Level Two. This felt... personal? He looked so uncomfortable.

She straightened in her seat, worry flickering over her face.

"I just had a few questions I thought maybe you could help me with."

"Um, well, of course," she nodded encouragingly, after a pause. "I'll answer anything I can."

Not in trouble, not in trouble, he doesn't play mind games, she chanted in her head.

Pentrals! Her eyes widened. It was the sort of word that encouraged whispering and secrecy charms. Fauna drew back ever so slightly, and studied his face. He looked tired, but maybe this went beyond that.

"Yeah, Abby has," Fauna glanced around and lowered her voice out of habit. "We talk about it sometimes. I don't know her as well as Raine does, but we've become friends."

No big surprise there. She was just stating the obvious, and yet she wasn't sure how much to say and what he really wanted to know.

"Has Abby said or uh, done something that worried you?"

Even as she asked it, Fauna had a gut feeling that she was wrong. Wrong question. Her voice revealed her doubt and worry.

She sipped her tea, and let the question hang there anyway, let the Auror come around in a roundabout way, if that was what he wanted.

Guilt twisted at his stomach at the expression on her face. He was hoping for a little privacy but he was worried he had sent her the wrong message. Again he thought back to the idea of a full fledged Auror asking a Trainee for advice. Merlin, she must think she's in trouble. There was no taking it back now though. He was just going to have to push through it and do his best to reassure her. Hopefully once he started asking his questions, getting to the point as it were, she'd relax a little more. Than again opening up about being possessed may just make her even more anxious.

Neville took a bite of the cookie to try and ease his own nerves, nodding as she affirmed that her and Abby were friends. He swallowed the cookie quickly and coughed as it went down roughly, "No!" He cleared his throat, taking a sip from his own tea, "No, no ,no. Nothing like that. She's just, the only other person I know of that's living with a Pentral."

He sighed heavily, trying to block out the voice in the back of his head, "I'm just trying to make sense of what's happening. I was hoping maybe you'd have some insight?" He looked at her pensively, almost apologetically. He felt bad for making her worry.

Fauna broke off a piece of her cookie just as the Auror started coughing. She glanced up in alarm, then understood he was trying to reassure her. Abby was fine. That was a relief. But Neville didn't seem to be.

Me? Fauna almost said. He wanted to talk to her about it? She finished the bite of cookie, and swallowed, eyebrows raised in surprise. Why not Abby? Well, Abby was dealing with her own pentral problem and all sorts of revelations this month. Why not Raine? Well, Raine might feel protective. Why not Carstairs or Pratt? Well...

Her expression softened. "Sure. I mean, I'll do my best. I'll try," she nodded and offered a small smile, mirroring his apologetic look. It took a certain amount of guts to ask for insight, let alone from someone who was still a trainee.

"I don't know how much I can tell you as um, someone seeing it from the outside," she added, "Or how much Abby would want me to say," Fauna said slowly, realizing how personal something like this was. "But I can at least give you an idea," she shrugged one shoulder, looking hopeful.

"What do you want to know?"

"You're too nice kid, this job is going to eat you up." Neville found himself thinking and for a moment he had to question whether or not it had been his own thought or that of his passenger.

"I really appreciate this Blake."

He ran his hand through his hair again, "I just wasn't sure who to ask about this. It's uh . . . not exactly well known what happened . . . you know, at the uh . . . Lilly House." He gave her another sheepish look. He knew he likely should tell someone, anyone, that could be helping him with his situation but he couldn't bring himself to share it.

"Has your friend mentioned anything about acting different? Doing things out of character?"

Fauna tilted her head, a bit confused by his phrasing. She supposed no one outside of Level Two knew that Auror Longbottom had been attacked by a pentral at the Lilly house, but the other Aurors knew. Right? They'd been surprisingly considerate about it, treating Neville as they always had, and so Fauna hadn't even had to bring it up, but it must be in the report, right?

A twinge of doubt rose up, and Fauna shook her head, trying to focus. He was talking to her! He'd sent her a note. He hadn't asked someone more knowledgeable. Which was not strange at all....

Right?

"Uh, yeah, she has," Fauna nodded. "Sometimes she gets some kind of warning, like a headache coming on, and then she'll say something she didn't mean to say, or reference something that came from another memory. At least from what she tells me."

Fauna hesitated, feeling a little bad talking about Abby when she wasn't here, especially when she'd seemed so unhappy since that meeting with the Department Heads. Level Two was finally getting somewhere on this case, having discovered the identities of Abby's pentral and the Lilly siblings[1], but that didn't make it any easier for her friend. They'd gained important information, but at the cost of a sense of agency and privacy. No wonder Neville felt embarrassed to talk about it.

"Er, sometimes I notice her acting out of character," she shifted perspective, hoping to lessen her guilt. "Like she'll get quiet or strangely no-nonsense, or she'll sound different or move different. It's hard to tell though," Fauna glanced down. "You know, what comes from just having a bad day, or if it's more than that. Like if it's everything she's been through that's influencing her, or if it's the stress of just being possessed, or if it's the pentral actually speaking through her. She acts differently but it's not always easy to tell where it's coming from."

Fauna sipped at her coffee and looked at him searchingly, curious if he could relate.

1.	We know not the fire in which we burn

Neville's shoulders lifted and mild relief washed over him. At least He wasn't the only one. It sounded as though Abby was experiencing the same things he was. For a moment he hesitated. How much should he tell Fauna? He had come to her after all, it wasn't fair to close up now but he could feel (more than hear) his passenger's reluctance to let it all out.

Despite all the privacy charms he had put in place he still leaned forward and kept his voice low, "It's been the same for me." He averted his eyes, looking down to his tea instead, "at first there was nothing. Then the dementors attacked St Mungo's. I was one of the first responders and all of a sudden this voice in my head just started screaming. Desperate to get away."

He looked back up to Fauna, "He hasn't really stopped since then the other day with Malfoy." A sort of tortured sadness took over his features, "Malfoy made my Hogwarts days horrible, I was the butt of all of his jokes but I haven't thought much of him since the war."

"Seeing him again . . . Fauna that wasn't me. I didn't say those things to him." He sounded scared and pleading, knowing that she had been watching the entire exchange as he had been interrogating her suspect.

"I haven't been able to talk about it. I . . . Don't want people to think I'm crazy."

Her brow furrowed. How awful that must have felt, to hear someone screaming in his own head as he was trying to defend St. Mungo's. How could he defend himself against an attack like that? How could he defend others? This was dangerous.

Fauna leaned in as he did, remembering when they'd brought in Draco Malfoy. Ugh. Malfoy. She hadn't known much about the history between the two of them at Hogwarts, though she had noticed Neville acting a bit snarky during the interrogation. Who wouldn't? At that late hour, with that particular git wasting resources? She could relate to the bullying, and understood his reaction, except his reaction hadn't been his own, he said. The pentral must have picked up on some of his anxiety and acted for him. That was worrisome in itself.

She sipped at her coffee, meeting his eyes with her worried ones. Again, he mentioned not being able to talk about it.

"I'm sorry you've had to deal with all of this," Fauna glanced down at her fingers, tense around the coffee cup. She looked up at him again. "No one thinks you're crazy. I mean, this job is stressful enough, and yet you faced St. Mungo's and you dealt with Malfoy just fine. Really. I think I was ruder to him than you were," she smiled slightly, her eyes still worried. "But that's all I saw, you know. You were maybe just a bit snarky."

She watched his face, hoping she was getting through to him. Despite her reassurance, he had every right, every reason to feel scared. Her heart rate picked up. She tried to ignore it.

"Neville," she paused. "Did you tell Pratt or someone else on Level Two what happened at St. Mungo's? Or have any Healers been able to help since then?"

Neville took comfort in her words. It was nice to know that he hadn't been as horrible to Malfoy as he had been thinking he was. Then again, she didn't know him in Hogwarts, didn't know the extent of how he had been treated or how long it had taken him to start standing up for himself. What may have looked like being slightly snarky was a big step for him.

He gave her a sheepish look before shaking his head, "I haven't told anyone. I thought . . . maybe I could just handle it myself." He shrugged and sipped his tea,"Guess I was wrong. I just don't know where to start. It's been months since it happened. How do I explain not doing anything about it sooner?" Granted his passenger had been quiet for most of that time, it wasn't really his fault, right? He frowned at his own thoughts.

"I just, I wanted to thank you for listening to me Blake." Neville averted his eyes again and realized he had reached across the table and placed a hand over hers. He quickly withdrew, "sorry! I'm sorry. I didn't, I just." He looked up to her. His own attraction to the trainee not withstanding, what was he supposed to say here? The Pentral made me do it?

No one knew? Oh shit! Fauna's eyes widened, drawing back in her seat as she glanced around the cafe. Level Eight. They were on Level Eight now, and she had to convince him to head to Level Two and tell someone with real authority. Or she would just have to do it.

She shook her head, her hands limp on the table. How had they missed this? The Auror spoke like he understood that he couldn't handle it alone anymore, but to what extent did his actions stem from the pentral...

Fauna glanced at Neville's hand resting over hers. She blinked. She glanced at him. He was looking away from her. She opened her mouth, feeling very odd about it all, when he drew away and stammered an apology.

"Um, you're ok," she said quickly. She'd agonize over this later. No time now!

Fauna sipped at her latte, straightening her shoulders and drawing her other hand back to rest on her lap.

"Thank you for telling me," she looked him in the eye, meaning it. She wished he hadn't tried to hide it, but if she were him, what would she have done?

"This isn't on you, you know. Not completely. We're all supposed to look out for each other, right? There were, er, four of us at the lakehouse that day, and one of us should have made sure you were doing alright and followed up with Pratt and definitely asked about St. Mungo's."

Fauna grimaced, but it was a fleeting expression. Distracted. Her gaze steadied on him and her voice grew quiet.

"Neville, I'm happy to listen, you know, and I'll help as much as I can." The corners of her mouth quirked up for a second. "Who else would you feel most comfortable talking to about it? We can start there. We can go to," she took a breath, "Pratt, or Carstairs, or a Healer." She searched his face. "Whoever it is, I'll go with you."

She needed to know the whole truth got told this time.

"I'll help explain."

Neville occupied his hands with his tea and ignored the heat he could feel in his cheeks. There was laughing in the back of his mind that only served to make this incredibly awkward encounter even more so. He barely registered what Fauna had said to him. He knew he should have told someone about all of this long before it became too much but he never wanted to bother anyone. He also wasn't sure what would happen to him. Would they take him off active duty again?

"You're sweet Fauna." He said simply with a genuine smile.

He tried to think if there was anyone in the department he'd be comfortable talking to about this. He knew he was going to have to report it eventually. He knew it would be easier to tell Jonas or Andi what really happened back at the mansion but there was little authority there. He was going to have to tell Carstairs eventually. Just not right now.

He made a soft noise almost like a scoff. The kind of noise one makes when they realize something that should be abundantly obvious, "I can't believe I haven't told Harry." He said more to himself than to her. The former Gryffindor had been so wrapped up in his own world he forgot his old Hogwarts friend knew a thing or two about having someone else's thoughts in your head.

He took a long breath and turned back to Fauna with a smile, "I'd really appreciate you helping Fauna. It means a lot." He paused and looked down at the crumbs of his cookie, "Maybe we should tell Pratt first?"

It was the name she had been hoping and yet dreading to hear. Pratt. She took a deep breath, forced a smile, and nodded. Fauna would rather stick her head into a pit of runespoors than admit to Eddie Pratt that she was partially responsible for and had failed to mention a pentral problem for two months. She fully expected lots of yelling. Neville would probably get desk duty until the pentral was out, and she shuddered to think of what might be in store for her.

But Neville was doing the right thing and she’d promised to help. She positioned her hand over one side of her face and ducked her head, blushing a bit at the compliment (how many Aurors called her sweet in such a genuine way?) and his earlier embarrassment. Well, it wasn’t that odd, was it? She had, many times, held the hand of many a friend. It was just maybe a little odd that they were more colleagues than friends currently and that he was an Auror and she was a trainee and that his horrified, exaggerated reaction made her wonder…

Nope. Nope, nope. Focus on the situation, agonize later.

“I’m sure Harry, I mean Potter, will be helpful,” she smiled back. “I mean, he’s... he's a sweet person too.”

Oh god, just call her captain Obvious! What in Helga’s name was she saying now?

She shook her head at herself, balling up her napkin with the last of the crumbs and taking another sip of her tea.

“Um. He can stand outside Pratt’s office and do uh, traffic control. We should ask him when we get back to Level Two,” her eyes widened in amusement, hoping to put Neville at ease.

“Hey, Potter, I know you’re the boy that lived and all, but how about you make sure that while we’re in there, Bailey keeps walking instead of snooping? And Carstairs stays in his own office, and Roh takes her reports directly to whoever because the reports are written perfectly anyway, and er… if Pratt’s face turns too red and he looks ready to pop, maybe then Potter can walk in and bring him back down to earth.”

She blinked, and leaned forward slightly. “Didn’t he do that once, as a kid? Literally pulled someone back to earth as she was floating up in the air.”

A bemused smile flickered over her face. Was she remembering that wrong?[1]

1.	She's definitely remembering the story wrong

Neville felt a sense of relief rush over him. He could tell she was just as apprehensive as he was about telling Pratt but she was handling it well. They both knew it was an eventuality and he was actually rather thankful that she wasn't balking at the suggestion now that he brought it forward.

He allowed himself a comfortable laugh as she word vomitted a situation for them. He found it rather amusing and couldn't help himself from thinking back to when they had once done something similar for Harry while he had snuck into Umbridge's office back in his fifth year.

"I'm sure he'd get a kick out of that." He tried to think of the last time he had seen Harry, outside of the office. He had come round for tea shortly after the St Mungo's accident to check in on Neville. At the time he had kept quiet about the pentral as his longtime friend had been more concerned about Neville's family. All of whom were currently in long term care at the Wizarding Hospital.

Neville shook his head with another soft laugh, "No, no. Quite the opposite actually," He corrected gently, "he had actually blown up his Aunt like a big balloon and sent her off."