From Level Two, Fauna stepped onto the lifts. As the doors stood open, there was a moment when she thought Roh might appear, stick her foot in, and say she'd changed her mind. The doors closed and Fauna let out a sigh of relief. She fiddled with the buttons on the end of her black Trainee jacket, feeling sure she was doing the right thing. Or at least the thing that made her feel better.

Fauna had a bad feeling that the Shahidi murder was only the first incident of many, especially if Kingstreet was involved. At Azkaban, Fauna had found no record of Genevieve's visit to Kingstreet, and when Roh had visited Leo Gamp, even he had seemed afraid of the criminal. The more Fauna glanced at the article that Gamp had scrawled over in red ink, the more she wondered what might scare someone who was determined to be so angry.

She stepped onto Level Four, strolling through the various divisions with a relaxed air. Fauna waved at Penny as she passed through the Beast Division, and in the Being Division, she glanced at a new poster about SQUEAL. She came to a stop in the Werewolf Wing.

Fauna straightened, running a hand through her hair and glancing around with hopeful eyes. Perhaps a certain bewitching witch was mentoring werewolves this morning! Perhaps Tia would like to take a coffee break or get lunch later. She took a step towards the offices, momentarily distracted, when a loud group of young trainees brushed past her and headed through the area marked WCU.

Shaking her head at herself, she followed. Focus, Blake. Focus!

She walked into chaos. Everyone rushed about, memos whizzed by faster than the levitating stacks of parchment, someone was bellowing, someone else was barking orders, and a lunar chart hung next to a time table flashing their schedule in red. The notices on the walls were stark, the images dire. They must be preparing for the direwolves around the full moon. She'd heard about the extra patrols Level Two was sending.

Well, shite. Bad timing.

Her brow furrowed, Fauna stepped around the huddles of people. She hadn't been down here enough times to feel familiar with the layout.

But the bellowing had a source, and she recognized it. Fauna waited till the group around him had dispersed, and waited another moment as some bloke named Harrington or Harris made a joke about holding down the fort, haha, he meant Winterfell.

Blinking in recognition, Fauna suppressed a smile.

"Bagnold," she said quickly, stepping forward. "Do you have a minute?"

Another memo whizzed by her ear. Fauna shot the barest of glances at Harris, who was pretending interest in the memo he caught.

"It's about a case," she added.

Kurby had already harbored doubts about the newest Capture Unit recruit's ability to survive the extended full moon that weekend.  But then young Charlie Harris had set things off by going out of his way to interrupt him and ask about assigning a patrol to some place that he'd never heard of, and now he was starting to doubt the kid's ability to make it through the Thursday workday.

"And why the hell d'you think that we've got so much goddamned time to waste that you can just stand around makin' jokes?" he bellowed at the kid.  "We know that winter is coming!  It bleedin' well starts on the twenty-first of December!"

Harris, ashen-faced and avoiding his gaze, squeaked out something nearly incomprehensible about how someone thought he would appreciate the punchline.

Kurby had been in the process of opening his mouth to roar at him again when a strangled-sounding laugh managed to cut through the noisy chaos.  Suddenly struck by suspicion, he turned to glare at the rest of the room.  Off to the side, he saw that Bellingham had turned away so that his back was to them, his attention seemingly focused on the map on his desk.  Li, on the opposite side of the room, was pretending to cough so that she had an excuse to cover her mouth with her hand.

Scowling, Kurby took a deep breath in preparation for snapping at them, too, when the Level Two emissary spoke up and saved the lot of them.

"Bagnold.  Do you have a minute?"

Kurby snapped his mouth shut, whirling to face towards Fauna Blake.  He eyed her for a moment, and then took a deep breath.  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that the pale-faced Harris become suddenly interested in a purple memo that he'd snatched out of the year.

"Yeah," he said shortly to Blake.  "C'mon."

Rolling his eyes in the direction of his so-called teammates, he whirled on his heel and headed out of the Capture Unit office.

The hallway of the Werewolf Wing at least granted a temporary reprieve to the chaos.  Kurby kept his head down as he started to walk, visibly attempting to force some of the frustration out of his body language.

"There's a couple of conference rooms at the end that don't get used much," he muttered, casting a look over at Blake.  The trainee had come in her black jacket, clearly on official business.  "Assumin' this needs to be private."

Fauna gave a nod in thanks, relieved that she wouldn't have to convince Bagnold to take time out of his day. He was clearly in a Bad Mood, and while it was entertaining to see him unleash it on his coworkers, she'd experienced the full brunt of it before and didn't want to experience it again. Not her goal for the morning.

"Yeah, a conference room would work," she replied mildly, glancing back to make sure someone like Harris wasn't trotting after them. Fauna was surprised that Bagnold didn't have his own office, but she supposed his voice carried better in an open floor plan.

They walked down the hall of the Werewolf Wing, and she glanced at Bagnold ducking his head down while they passed the friendlier signage pointing towards the Lupin library. What sort of sadistic idiot or genius had mapped out Level Four like this? She imagined what it must be like for them on a daily basis, the militarism of the capture unit butted up against the resources and mentoring for werewolves. Werewolves and WCU units walking past each other every day. How quiet it must be in this hall, come the full moon, and even now, how the WCU spread out to overtake the empty rooms.

Strangely, thinking about the nuances of Level Four calmed her nerves. This short meeting should go smoothly in comparison to the tense situations they'd faced in the past, and the tension this hall had already seen.

They found an empty conference room and stepped inside. Fauna remained standing, pushing in a chair to give them more space by the table. She drew in a breath and let it out slowly, glancing around in automatic assessment before focusing on Bagnold.

"No notebook today," Fauna raised her hands palms up, a smile flickering over her face, then fading as fast as the joke that landed.

"I just wanted to give you an update on the Shahidi case. I don't know how much anyone has, uh, told you, since November."

She raised her eyebrows and looked at him curiously, trying to gauge his expression. If Genevieve Garcia-Gamp had already warned him, then he'd probably grumble and get right back to work, but if he didn't know, then what she said next would come as an unpleasant surprise.

"We're not as concerned about Leo Gamp anymore," she said with some gravity. "Everything we've gathered so far points to someone, well, worse, in my opinion. I'm not telling you this to alarm you, or to involve you further, but just so you're aware of what's going on."

She said this steadily enough, but in the back of her mind she fully believed that if Kingstreet had singled Genevieve out, anyone connected to the editor could be in danger.

"We're looking at Theodora Kingstreet. We have reason to think she's connected to Shahidi's death."

By this point, Fauna could say the name aloud without hesitating. Her gaze serious, she watched for the sort of stillness that sometimes came over his face when he was startled and processing unpleasant news.

Luckily, both conference rooms at the end of the hallway were empty.  The rest of the Werewolf Wing would be mostly quiet for another two days; it wasn’t until the morning of the regular full moon, when the understaffed Registry staff had to start preparing for the wave of registered werewolves that would be arriving later that day, when the energy truly began to pick up.    The werewolf mentors sometimes used the conference rooms, but most of them preferred to schedule their meetings closer to the middle of the month, well away from the aggressive energy that came when the moon was full.

Blake remained standing after she entered, so Kurby did too.  As on edge as he was with the full moon so near and preparations still underway, her comment about the notebook made him snort and flash her a half-smirk.  At least the Auror Corps’ training program had deigned to allow her to maintain a small sense of humor.

“I just wanted to give you an update," Blake started a beat later, “on the Shahidi case.”

Uncertainty flickered over the werewolf hunter’s expression, although he quickly masked it.  When Blake had dropped in and asked to talk, he’d half-expected that it had to do with Greer Grant and her parents.  Although he was still frustrated at the public teasing that had resulted from the situation with Gen over a week ago, he hadn’t thought much about the Azkaban guard’s murder after that first day.  Other than a couple of notes that he’d exchanged with Blake, nobody from Level Two had reached out to him or expressed that they had any more questions.  Like many things involving the Auror Corps, he’d assumed that no news was good news.

In this case, the fact that there suddenly was news meant that it inherently wasn’t going to be good.

Kurby listened silently as Blake spoke, quietly alarmed, his gaze focused entirely on her.  If Gamp wasn’t a suspect…an uncomfortable feeling rose in his stomach, but he pushed that down quickly.  Roh wouldn’t have sent Fauna Blake to have an offline discussion with him if he had belatedly fallen under any suspicion.

And then Blake got to the point, and his stomach dropped.

”What?!”  Kurby gaped back at her, having momentarily forgotten how to communicate.  He opened his mouth, and then shut it again, his eyes still locked on the trainee.

Theodora Kingstreet?

Silently, he reached back for the table behind him.  Tearing his gaze away from Blake, he diverted it instead to some imaginary spot on the floor as he tried to think.  Theodora Kingstreet, who could dissever a wizard from head to toe with a single pen stroke, had been sentenced to Azkaban twice in his lifetime.  What the hell did she have to do with Genevieve or Leo Gamp?  With Genevieve's shoe?

Kurby swallowed, and then looked back at the trainee, dark eyes meeting hers.  “That doesn’t make any bleedin’ sense…” he started uncomfortably. 

Or did it?  Gen clearly hadn’t told him very much, but he couldn't believe that she would have hidden something like this.

Or perhaps she would.  Second-guessing himself again, Kurby snapped his mouth shut and looked down, feeling suddenly sick to his stomach.

Fauna grimaced sympathetically, averting her gaze for a moment as Bagnold reeled from the news. She'd felt the same touch of panic upon hearing Kingstreet's name earlier, and could imagine what it must feel like on a personal level. He understood the gravity of the situation though, or was beginning to. He'd battled his way through the second war, and might have seen or heard something of the former lawyer's crimes in the late 90's. Leo Gamp might have been busy then too, but Kingstreet had a terrible efficiency all her own.

And that was just the crimes that were known. That was just the first time she'd been thrown into Azkaban.

"Yeah, unfortunately..." she began quietly.

Fauna glanced at the door, aware of the quiet, nearly empty hall outside. She flicked her wand in that direction anyway, casting a mild privacy charm on the wall that would muffle and distort their voices. Roh's Be-Careful-Nao face came to mind, her concern that the press would catch wind of it.

She looked at Bagnold and decided to stick with the tried and true wisdom of only offering necessary information. It wasn't her business to tattle on Gen and damage an already fraught relationship... ship? Something-ship. The last time she'd talked to Bagnold about the case, he'd only been involved because he'd happened to be at Gen's flat that morning. He'd told Fauna that Gen feared her husband's release from Azkaban. He hadn't known then about the fateful visit to Kingstreet, and he still didn't seem to know.

"There was an incident at Azkaban last month involving Kingstreet and the guard, Shahidi. And Genevieve," she admitted. "Kingstreet had reason - what she thinks is reason anyway - to lash out over it."

Fauna shook her head. Killing a guard to prove a point? The criminal had done much worse and much more, but it felt like such a waste.

"To add to that, Leo Gamp's trial is coming up. His conviction could get overturned based on Kingstreet's, uh, state of mind back then. Her state of mind now," Fauna shrugged a tense shoulder. "I don't know what's running through her head, how she might react to losing a victory on the case she'd prosecuted, but she's connected to both of them. Leo and Genevieve."

Slight warning for language.

This was unreal.  Kurby stared blankly at Blake as she cast a privacy charm on the wall, like they were in the shadows conspiring against the crown.  Without a word, he reached behind him and pulled out a chair, dropping in it to sit.

"What the bleedin' hell is 'an incident at Azkaban' supposed to mean?" he asked sharply, as he took his head in his hands.  "What, did Genevieve stroll into Kingstreet's cell and try to interview her for her next memoir or somethin'?"

A few moments ago, he'd wished that he could justify punching Harris without getting written up as the kid's supervisor.  But now, he would have settled for punching anything.  Genevieve Garcia, Leo Gamp, the stupid dead Azkaban guard, even the goddamned table in front of him, except he knew from experience that that would hurt and he was going to have to return to work once this interlude was over. 

'Incident.'   Fuck.

He didn't want to punch Blake, though.  She'd come here to tell him about this, and the visit seemed to be of her own volition.  He wasn't involved in the investigation; he didn't need to be kept in the loop.  Kurby took a deep breath and straightened partway again. 

"Sorry," he muttered at the trainee, not quite making eye contact. 

The vague details that Blake was leaking connected too well in context.  She had said that the 'incident' had happened last month.  If that was true, that meant that Gen had clearly gone back to Azkaban after her first visit and then hadn't said a word about it.  Kurby sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.  He'd helped her with her wards after the goddamned shoe had been stolen.  He'd spent the bleeding night at her flat over and over again when she'd asked.  And she'd run off causing incidents that resulted in infamous psychopaths committing incriminating murders, and then lied and told him that some brain-addled fan had stolen her shoe.

"Well, at least the next time we end up bickerin' about bad decisions and saliva exchange, you can bring this one up," he said tiredly.

He finally raised his head fully and met Blake's gaze.  His own expression was half-questioning, half-not-even-really-wanting-to-goddamned-know. 

"You lot think somethin' else might happen," he said, very quietly.  "That's why you're tellin' me."

Fauna's mouth thinned into an unhappy line as Bagnold went off about the 'incident' at Azkaban. She'd said all she was going to say about it. If she wanted to get yelled at, she could have stayed on Level Two. Still, he took a seat and he wasn't yelling yet. That was something.

She pulled out the chair next to him and settled in, leaving enough space between them so he could fidget with his silver and glower at the table to his heart's content. Resting an elbow on the table, she waited for him to ask something that she could actually answer.

"Sorry," he muttered, not quite making eye contact.

Fauna's brow furrowed and she drew back in her seat. Huh? Did he just say...? Did Kurby Bagnold just apologize?

Well. Sometimes the sun shone brightly in London. Could she pensieve this moment? Record it for all time? Why hadn't she brought her notebook?

"It's... you're ok," she made a waving gesture with her hand, studying his face.

Was he possessed? No.

She smiled bemusedly at his comment, not surprised at his reference to their past bickering, but surprised he was conceding this to her. "I don't know, maybe this means we're even?"

Fauna never ever would have thought a few years ago that she'd be sitting voluntarily in a conference room with Bagnold, making jokes about that stupid L.R.E. form that had set off a chain of mad events, but here she was. Trying to prevent Kingstreet from starting a new chain.

There. A question she could definitely answer.

"We do," she said quietly, in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Kingstreet has a history of going after family members and, uh, anyone close to those who have slighted her."

Most major criminals did this, but Kingstreet was managing it from solitary confinement somehow, and her shit list spanned at least a dozen rolls of parchment, and her definition of 'slight' was slight indeed.

"She has no problem killing just to send a message," Fauna paused, a shadow flickering over her face. The Remembering Day murders and all the aftermath. Shahidi with the shoe seemed smaller in scope, but very possible. "So," she spread out her hands and sighed.

Fauna met his eyes, seeing the uncertainty and wariness there. She knew this was a lot to take in. She straightened a bit in her seat and tried to sound more reassuring.

"Look, she could do nothing. There are probably zounds of people higher up on her grievance list, you know? Maybe she plans on sitting and stewing quietly for the next few years, and in that time, Gen could fall off her radar. If she's even on her radar. I hope we're wrong."

One corner of her mouth lifted in a rueful smile-wince.

"But we're watching Kingstreet more closely now and we're going to keep watching her. Roh is doing everything possible to prevent something else from happening. I'm just giving you a head's up because Gamp's trial is later this month. I didn't want you walking into anything blind, or walking around out there," she gestured at the door, "not knowing."

Despite himself, despite the situation, he arched a pointed eyebrow at Blake, turning his head so that he could slant a dry look at the trainee. 

Even.  It wasn't as if he'd been keeping track, but he still snorted.

"Maybe we're even when it comes to the bad decisions, but I still remember savin' your life at least once, Auror Blake," he quipped, cracking a small grin.

He listened silently to the rest as Blake recounted an Introduction to Theodora Kingstreet 101.  Back when the fearsome middle manager had ruled the halls of Level Two with an iron quill, Kurby had been a mere grunt with the Werewolf Capture Unit, kept far from anything involving important paperwork by Theobald Mainwaring, the Unit Head at the time.  He'd never crossed paths with Kingstreet back then, and he doubted that she knew who he was at all, if only possibly because of his grandmother. 

Even so, no one who worked at the Ministry needed a recap of who she was or what she might do if she felt slighted.  He would have fired off a smart-arsed response at the lecture, but Blake was trying.  She didn't have to come here to warn him.  Unfortunately, she was also using the same reassuring tone he'd seen her employ to try and reason with Iain Grant and his family.  The hair-tossing kid who'd given him lip a few years ago was practically a full Auror now, but she was still starry-eyed enough that she brought the same tactics to every conversation. 

In this case, it was unnecessary.  He'd been blindsided by the fact that Gen had apparently been even more idiotic than he'd known at the time, but he didn't need his hand held about it.  Finding out that someone might possibly be trying to murder him wasn't the best news right before rolling into a full moon, but it also put him solidly on familiar ground.

Rather than get offended, he decided to take it as a slightly touching gesture that Blake had gone out of her way to try and reassure him.

"Owl received, then."  He met her gaze steadily, eyebrows raised.  "I'll watch my back."

"Could you tell her to meet me in the usual conference room?" Adrestia left the Lupin Library with a few books in one hand while she shook her dark hair out with the other, chatting to the Librarian at the doorway. A paper cup of coffee floated in the air next to her. "I'm just going to do some paperwork while I wait, thanks."

It was a Thursday, a day  usually spent at the museum.  She had called in sick because one of her mentees was having something of a mental breakdown and needed some emotional support. These breakdowns weren't exactly common, just common enough that her work colleagues knew what was up and were pretty lenient about it. Adrestia was feeling prickly - two days until the Worst time of the month - and she was trying super hard to be chipper for the meeting.

"Coffee coffee coffee," she sang lamely under her breath, tucking the books beneath her arm as she snatched the coffee cup out of the air, "good and brilliant coffeeeee....!!" The tuneless song continued and drifted down the passageway like a dead weight.

The werewolf was headed for the conference room at the end of the passage and clumsily bent at her knees to negotiate the door handle, realising only as it swung inwards that there were people inside. At this time? She thought she'd booked the room!

           "Owl received, then. I'll watch my back."

That was Kurby Bagnold speaking. Tia would recognise that terrible voice anywhere: the only wizard in the world who graduated from childhood straight into being a grumpy old man. You know, if he ever really was a child. She might need photographic evidence to be convinced.

"When are you ever not watching your back?" Adrestia quipped as she stood straight, smart-arse expression turning into one of surprise as soon as she noticed Bagnold's unexpected visitor. Oh. "Fauna!" she brightened, brow crinkled in confusion. "Um. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt... this."

Whatever it was. They both looked super serious.

Bagnold didn't offer any criticism or seem hugely concerned, he just listened.

Fauna took that as a good sign. She couldn't tell what he was thinking, as for a full thirty seconds or so he let her speak, neither rolling his eyes, sighing, grumbling, nor smirking. She'd even caught a grin from him earlier, though it was paired with an emphasis on her Auror title. Soon to be Auror! Almost Auror! She was doing her best. Maybe one of these days she would come up with a smart reply to his reminder that he'd saved her life once.

Maybe one of these days, she'd return the favor, though she hoped he was never in a position where she'd have to.

He'd watch his back. Glad to hear it! Her serious expression was just starting to relax when the door opened and in walked Adrestia Gamp.

Fauna blinked in surprise, struggling to shift gears from Friendly Neighborhood Auror mode to Just Fauna Surprised by her Crush mode. She crossed her legs and brushed her hair back over her shoulder, hoping to Merlin that it looked ok, that she looked ok, while Adrestia looked more than ok, she looked really pretty as always, balancing books and coffee and wearing a smart outfit. Tia must be mentoring in the few days before the full moon.

Her eyes lit up in delayed amusement at her greeting, then darted to Bagnold, then darted back to Tia. Oh shit! Worlds colliding!

"Um, hi!" Fauna rose from her seat, and took a second to straighten her jacket. "Uh no, you're not interrupting. Sorry, did you need this room? We'll just... we'll be on our way. We were just going over a case really quick," she glanced at Bagnold, willing him to not act like an arsehole for another thirty seconds.

The door swung open, and Kurby's gaze flicked immediately over to it.  Adrestia Gamp.  Despite her attempted biting words, she was one of the tame ones, the furry contractors that the Ministry kept around as part of their mentor program to give other werewolves hugs when they needed it.  He regarded her silently, his face expressionless and his eyebrows raised in a wordless challenge.

Except then Gamp noticed Fauna, and the Auror trainee went all goofy:  crossing her legs, fussing with her hair, and trying to sneak a glance at the werewolf who had just cut in on their conversation.

Kurby looked at Blake, looked over at Gamp, and then broke into a lopsided grin.

"I didn't know that you had a type, Blake," he said, grinning widely. 

He pushed himself up from the chair, ceding the conference room to the werewolf.  The conversation was as good as over anyhow, and far be it for him to stand in the way of young love.  The once wide-eyed kid who'd given him headaches as a flouncing teenager was a full-fledged adult now.  If she wanted to walk on the wild side in her off-work hours, it wasn't any of his business besides leveraging it as an opportunity to tease her.

Tia was glad she'd dressed nicely today instead of going with a jumpers-and-leggings combo. Wool blazers made everything look fancy, and she'd thrown a black one over matching jeans and a white tee. The professional look also reassured the kind of mentees who preferred meeting at the Ministry - they liked knowing the Ministry was behind them in some way.

Some of the Ministry anyway. The WCU only kind of counted.

"Oh you don't have to rush off right away!" Adrestia raised her hands, smiling at Fauna and then glancing at that shit-eating grin on Bagnold's face. What did he mean Fauna had a type, anyway? "Well, you can go," she raised her eyebrows pointedly, "The sexy auror can stay a bit."

It felt weird seeing the other witch on level four! Tia wasn't always around so the chances of running into people from the other floors was generally quite low. This was rare! She wanted to appreciate it for a second, even if it meant falling a liiiiitle behind on the paperwork.

"My mentee won't be here for another half hour," she reassured Fauna as she walked over and put her books down on the conference table, "but if you have super spy stuff to do, don't let me stop you," Adrestia added with a grin.

M for swearing in internal panic mode

---

A type? Fauna blinked, then frowned at Bagnold rather sulkily in warning. His second warning of the day. One of those might just save his life if he were careful.

Good, he was leaving! Or at least he was standing up from his seat. Why wasn't he leaving?

Tia didn't seem bothered. She was still smiling and snarking, or at least she was smiling at Fauna and snarking at Bagnold which was the way things should be, and just as Fauna started to smile too, Tia said...

She said...

Oh shit she just said sexy! Did she really think Fauna was sexy? Oh shit she just said it out loud! But did she really think that? She must think it, she just said it. Out loud. In front of Bagnold.

Fuuuuuck!

Fauna's eyes widened, certain doom reflected there. Her eyes darted from Tia, to the direction of Bagnold, and back to Tia. Worlds colliding, worlds destroyed!

"Um." Fauna clapped a hand over her cheek as she felt her entire face heat up.

What was Tia saying now? Something clever about super spy stuff? Why did she have to be so pretty? She knew not what she'd just done!

Fauna focused on the pretty witch, refusing to even glance at Bagnold because she could imagine the amused grin and the bark of laughter and all the really annoying things he did when he was pleased about some poor Auror's misfortune.

A poor, sexy Auror. Who had a type. Who wanted to melt into the walls. Become a wall person.

"Um, I could stay," Fauna managed. "I don't have anything, uh, right this minute. If you want to, er, talk. About super spy stuff."

What was she even saying? She pulled out a chair and then stood there with one hand resting on the chair's back and the other hand still partially covering her face. Her hand slowly slipped off her face, revealing one very embarrassed (sexy) Auror. Fauna crossed an arm in front of her and finally, finally risked a glance at Bagnold.

Warning flashed in her wide eyes. His third warning of the day.

Normally, if a werewolf tried to order him around -- particularly in the days leading up to a full moon -- Kurby would have pushed back hard.  Part of what kept the Capture Unit safe was the air of intimidation, the fact that lycanthropes didn't get away with mouthing off at them or pushing limits in their presence.  Letting the fuzzy beasts feel like they had any sort of power in a confrontation was the first step down a slippery slope of magnified problems, which always became much worse under the light of the full moon.

But he didn't really feel like picking a fight with Blake's latest girlfriend, and then on top of it, Gamp gave him a gift that would probably last at least through Christmas.

"The sexy auror can stay a bit."

Kurby's eyes went wide, and he let out a sputtering, strangled laugh as his gaze flicked over to The Sexy Auror herself.

Blake looked like she was Going. To. Die.  He tried for a second to hold it together, if only because he did owe her for coming to find him.  But then Gamp kept going about 'super secret spy stuff', and The Sexy Auror flashed him another desperate, withering look, and even if he was feeling kindly toward the kid, the combination of pillow-talk-gone-public and Blake's utter chagrin was too much.  He burst out laughing.

"Now we're even," he said brightly, grinning from ear to ear at The Sexy Auror herself.  Cheerfully, he tossed her a salute and turned towards the door. 

"Gamp, make sure your pups know that check-in closes early on Saturday," he informed the werewolf brightly over his shoulder, flashing her a lopsided smile.  "Anybody who shows up after one'll get a citation.  And, uh --" 

Clearing his throat, he made a brave attempt at smothering his grin, but it wasn't going to happen.  "Thanks," he told The Sexy Auror, still grinning.  "I know that you can, uh, take care of yourself with all of this --"  He was going to lose it.  "-- super secret spy stuff, but if you, uh, ever end up in a corner on somethin' like this, you can always give me a shout as an extra wand, Blake."

Right now, the shout would probably be that she wanted to kill him, but he didn't care.  Kurby flashed them both a wolfish grin and headed into the hallway, doing his best to wait until he was at least a few yards away before he burst into laughter again.

Adrestia's smile reached her eyes and, in spite of the looming full moon, she couldn't help but have her spirits lifted by the way the other witch reacted. She was blushing and looking at her and being just perfectly sweet. Very Fauna. What was more, she had time to spare! This definitely made Tia's day! And to think it was gonna be just another boring Thursday.

In fact, she was smitten by the sight that she almost didn't hear Bagnold addressing her.

           "Gamp, make sure your pups know that check-in closes early on Saturday..."

"Yeah yeah," the werewolf rolled her eyes, laughing a little. "I got it covered."Pups. That was cute.... maybe she'd start using that with the younger werewolves, who needed to stop angsting and taking themselves too seriously. Merlin knew she didn't want them to end up like the Head of the WCU.

Arsehole as he might be, Bagnold somehow managed to leave the conference room with that seemed like a really friendly word to Fauna. But what did he mean something like this? Did he mean her, or whatever case they'd been talking about? Tia leaned against the conference table once he was out of earshot and smiled at Fauna.

"I didn't know you were on friendly terms with Bagnold," she raised her eyebrows teasingly, taking a sip of her coffee.  "But I can't imagine someone who wouldn't want to be friendly with you."

She had no idea if Fauna was allowed to discuss level two stuff with her, and she didn't want to make it seem like she was expecting it. Better to stick to flirting. Flirting was harmless, for the most part.