One only had to look at the faces of all of the nervous first year undergraduate students to see that today was the last class meeting of the Michaelmas term.  They filed out from the enormous lecture theatre more slowly than usual, some in groups chatting loudly about their revision plans, others anxiously by themselves, clutching the straps of their book bags.

At the end of the lecture, each of the three graduate students assisting with the course had stood to make announcements to their sections.  Kaia had gone last, running through the regular business.

"And," she'd added at the end, "I'd like for Mr. Schlagenweit to join me in the office after class."

As the theatre emptied out, she'd waited for the blond teenager at the front of the room.  Once he found her, she ignored his questioning look, and merely led him back to the office that she shared with the other Cavendish Astrophysics graduate students.

This late in the day, their small office was usually empty.  There were several computer work stations set up inside, and a small round table with four chairs, which was usually filled with stacks of articles or piles of student assignments.  Today, someone had spread out star charts all across it, with random souvenirs from college life -- a dirty coffee mug, a faded textbook, a ceramic jar full of mismatched pens -- placed in all four corners secured to keep them from rolling up again. 

Kaia checked the office just to be sure that no one had left anything urgent behind, and then locked the door behind them.

"Have a seat," she told Schlagenweit, gesturing at one of the empty chairs near the table.  She took a seat in the rolling chair near her own work station and swiveled it to face her guest.  "So I hear you're thinking about signing on with all of us, eh?"

"What could you have possibly done?" Heather whispered as she nudged Sasha in the side.  "Like, seriously?  I can see Konrad getting called to the headmistress' office, but you?"

From the other side of him, Sasha heard Konrad scoff a "hey!" back in Heather's direction. 

"I'm sure it's nothing," Sasha countered, slipping his laptop into his backpack.  "Probably just another reminder to keep my lab reports succinct."  He was grappling at straws but, since it was the graduate TAs that were tasked with marking those lab reports, it seemed a reasonable guess. 

"The correct answer was 'of course I couldn't see Konrad getting singled out'," Konrad offered as he stepped out into the aisle and waited for Heather to join him.  "Sorry, but paneer masala for lunch today; we'll save you a seat."

Shouldering his bag, Sasha nodded and moved down the steps and followed Arahanga into the graduate students' offices.  He couldn't think of any reason for being in trouble but she provided no clues as she glanced around the office and ... proceeded to lock the door.  "I ... alright," he offered, looking completely bewildered and only slightly alarmed as he took the indicated seat. 

The excuse he'd offered Konrad had been just that: a random excuse.  But, as Arahanga took her own seat, Sasha seized it as the only explanation that made sense.  "I'm really sorry if my lab reports are long-winded.  I have a bad habit of, you know, thinking aloud ... well, on paper.  And, I'm not yet used to -"  he caught himself just before offering confining writing to A4 paper and not measuring reports by length ... in inches and feet.

But, before he could offer that explanation, she took the conversation in a different direction.

"So I hear you're thinking about signing on with all of us, eh?"

Sasha blinked and slowly shook his head.  "I'm sorry?" he asked, his brain frantically trying to find an explanation that made sense.  "I ... um ... I am not just thinking about it.  I was admitted.  Churchill College.  I ... did something go wrong with my application?"  Not a complete impossibility.  Getting the necessary documents - after 7 years of magical education - hadn't been easy, but how did it take this long for a problem to arise? 

And, why was one of the graduate students telling him about it?  Or, even, why it required a locked door.

Kaia listened silently, a bemused expression on her face as Schlagenweit uncomfortably found a seat and then scrambled for an explanation. 

After a year here at Cambridge, she could understand his panic.  Back home, it wasn't so unusual for the mundane and magical to interweave; Victoria University had even had several programs that integrated magical studies, although they were kept quiet from non-magical students.  But here in the United Kingdom, the Ministry of Magic drew a hard line between them, as if they were two entirely separate societies.  That left those who regularly crossed the borders more at risk, both of being discovered and of revealing something that they shouldn't.

"Well, yeah -- you need to edit your reports down a bit," she said, giving a wave of her hand.  That went without saying; whoever ended up grading Schlagenweit's papers inevitably ended up needing a nap or a drink by the end of it.  The boyo could do nothing if not meander his way to the point.

As for her, she preferred getting there much more quickly.  Kaia raised her eyebrows at the first year student.  "I don't mean Churchill College, mate," she said, reaching into her laptop bag. 

Her fingers quickly found something long and slender -- much longer than the pens and pencils that otherwise sank to the bottom of the sack.  She tugged it free, extending a hand momentarily to Sasha so that he could see the telltale object balanced on her palm.

"For a place that's full of secrets, you'd be surprised at how quickly word travels when there's something interesting afoot," she said, giving him a slight smile as she closed her fingers around her wand, tucking it away again.  "I meant the other institution of learning that you're thinking about signing on with."

Sasha blushed, slightly, and offered sheepish grin but refrained from offering a more verbose apology.  Academic and analytical writing had not been considered one of the core learning objectives of the Hogwarts Educational Curriculum and there was only so much of that one could learn through independent correspondence learning.

And, he couldn't exactly offer the explanation of 'Magic is more of a hands on, practical sort of education.'

Except, maybe he could?

"Scheiß, nein!" Sasha breathed, as he pointed at the wand, unnecessarily.  She obviously knew it was currently the center of the topic of conversation; she'd presented it for that very reason.  But, still, Sasha couldn't help himself.  "You're a witch," he tagged on, for good measure. 

From there, it was an easy mental leap to what Arahanga was referencing.  "You mean, the Department of Mysteries.  You work there?"  He opened his mouth, intent upon answering her question when a stray thought stopped him.  "Is this a test of some sort?  I'm not sure I'm supposed to talk about it or if ... there's a way to verify I can talk to you."  He absolutely wouldn't put it past Morgenthau to send someone see if Sasha would slip up and take someone at face value.

She didn't get to do this very often, and Kaia had to admit that there was a little fun in it.  Back in Wellington, most of the magical studies students had known who the others were soon after arriving at university.  Here in the United Kingdom, there was a bit more secrecy about their presence, but there weren't many magical students at Cambridge beyond those working at the Ministry.  Schlagenweit was one of the few she knew of who had entered the university on his own.

Kaia had expected questions after the revelation, but the next round of inquiries wasn't exactly what she had anticipated.  The graduate student blinked, her face screwing up as she first considered Sasha's words, and then peered at him quizzically to see if he were actually serious.

"Yeah nah, bro," she said, giving a bewildered chuckle.  What exactly had Schlagenweit heard about Level Nine?  "You think there's a test to it?  Everyone takes the secrecy bit seriously, but no one goes trying to trip up new trainees or anything.  At least not on that front," she corrected herself with a quick smile. 

There was a bit of hazing, but it was all in good fun.  Well, mostly in good fun.  Even the one annoying new recruit who had gotten "lost" on the way back from the dunny one day around when she'd started had been found in the Labyrinth only a month or two later. 

But Schlagenweit didn't need to know about that.  As long as he didn't go around forcing anyone to read his lab reports, the kid would probably do fine on the social side of things.

"You think there's a test to it?"

Even before she'd finished the question, Sasha nodded decisively to confirm that was exactly his understanding.  Before his interview with Yavin, it would have been easier to dismiss such an idea as silly, especially since he'd known Arahanga for several months and hadn't seen any reason to distrust her. 

For a moment, the combination of her bewilderment and confidence in her response made him question his own interpretation of the interview.  If it hadn't been for Abby's interpretation of the situation, the fear of coming across as foolish might have convinced him to keep his concerns to himself.  At the very least, he accepted the assurance that he could discuss Level Nine with Arahanga at face value.  Either she was honest and he'd be able to discuss his concerns or she wasn't and this was a trick, which would just confirm it would be safer to go it alone. 

"I really want to.  I mean, I pretty much accepted I'd never find a respectable job that would let me use everything I've been learning before this came along.  To be able to work for the Ministry and NASA or the Large Hadron Collider would be ... incredible."

Slowly he shrugged and rubbed his forehead.  "That's exactly what happened in the interview.  I was set up to some secrecy test involving something that wasn't a secret and then warned that employees have gone missing that make mistakes."  Given Level 9's recent history, it wasn't as easy to dismiss the warning as an exaggeration as he'd hoped.

The graduate student wrinkled her nose, studying Sasha with an expression that was somewhere between bemusement and confusion.  If the teenager was really serious about his dream job, then she would have thought he’d be jumping at the chance to work for Level Nine.  In her (albeit limited) experience with British magical society, there were very few places where the boundaries between mundane and extraordinary were blurred with as much intention or frequency as the Department of Mysteries,

“Anything’s dangerous,” she said, giving a shrug.  “Especially when you work so close to the edges of the known world like we do.  But knowledge never comes without at least a little risk.”

That was what drove most of them, after all:  wanting to know, and being willing to take risks in exchange for satisfying their own curiosity.  In their brief interactions in class, she could see a little bit of that same drive in Schlagenweit.  (At the very least, he wanted to know so that he could include all of the details in his lab reports.)  But she had also observed a note of caution in him, a desire to hedge his bets and account for every option.  Perhaps that was what was driving him to be so wary now.

“There’s a blood contract when you sign on, but I’ve never heard of a secrecy test before,” she said, frowning.  “Are you sure Carstairs or one of the others wasn’t pulling your leg, mate?”

Quickly Sasha shook his head, dismissing the reminder that this kind of research was bound to be inherently dangerous.  "Even rabbits can kill you, if it's the right rabbit," he offered, distractedly.  For a moment, he hesitated, not entirely sure how to put any of his thoughts together in a succinct package. 

Thankfully, by now, she'd probably read enough of his reports to know not to expect succinct.  "That's not ... I was ready to go about this all on my own- and still plan to.  I'd already accepted that risk."  Getting started with a team was likely to be less risky than working alone.  The truth was, Sasha didn't have the slightest idea whether Morgenthau - or Virgil - had been pulling his leg.  And, the more time passed, the more he doubted his own interpretation of it.  Slowly, he shrugged.  "It didn't feel like a joke but I don't have the best track record when it comes to reading people.  I -"  He hesitated a moment. 

"Maybe I was just being overly cautious."  He wasn't fully convinced, but his worries were gradually becoming assuaged enough for the benefits to feel like they were outweighing the risks.  "It would certainly open more doors than trying to go independently.  And, it would be nice to be able to put everything I've been working for to good use.  I'd be a fool to not at least try it." 

Especially if, on a day to day basis, he wouldn't be working directly with Morgenthau that much.  Virgil was clearly the Department Head's pet project; maybe that would keep Morgenthau's attention on the former Slytherin and Sasha could fly under his radar.  And, if he spent most of his time working with Arahanga and other wixes of a similar mindset, all the better.

"Are you involved with the ARTEMIS project?" Sasha asked, hopefully.  "Would I get to work with you there?"

It seemed like Schlagenweit needed a moment to think through his concerns out loud.  Kaia waited patiently as he sorted through his thoughts.  She didn't know what had been said to the young man, but apparently it had been enough to set him along a horrible spiral imagining possible deadly outcomes.

His final questions were enough to cause her to chuckle.

"Can't exactly talk about it if I am, can I?" she countered with a grin.  "We're Unspeakables, eh?  Unless this is a secrecy test that someone put you up to trying on me."  She winked at him, to show that she was kidding.

Interesting, though, that young Sasha Schlagenweit knew about ARTEMIS and its connection with Level Nine.  Apparently Morgenthau was serious about recruiting him if he'd dangled that potential project like a carrot.  She liked the Department Head, but he seemed to be collecting young men as potential proteges like weta to an old, fallen log.

"For all the talk about secrecy, it seems like someone has put quite a bit of trust in you already, mate," Kaia pointed out, her tone a mix of curiosity and bemusement.  "I can't talk about anything specific that we're doing, but if you're interested in the kind of work that involves Greek moon goddesses as an acronym, Schlagenweit, then I think you might enjoy your time in the Department of Mysteries."

Reflexively, a flush of color rose in Sasha's cheeks and he quickly his head.  "Ja, nein, I'm sorry."  The apology was habitual but it was paired with a sheepish grin to show he hadn't completely missed the casual social cues.  "Though, sending me as a test would be a good play on their part.  No one expects the spanish inquisition." 

Sasha paused, briefly, giving her point careful consideration.  Had he been too quick to question Morgenthau's motives?  Or, more importantly, Virgil's?  It was entirely possible; he'd always been slow to learn to trust people, even before fates gave him a help serving of reasons to do so.  He didn't remember being suspicious going into the interview with Morgenthau but it had settled in fairly quickly.   Virgil - well, Sasha had always struggled to read him and, as he'd learned, his recent assessment had been entirely off the mark. 

But, Arahanga was right.  Both of them had probably been as open with information as they could have been. 

"Maybe," he conceded, with a slight grin.  "I'm pretty rubbish at reading such things.  Most of what I know is on the muggle side of things; I kind of stumbled into it when they came looking for Dr. Lovecraft, so not exactly Ministry secrets.  But, I ... yes.  I definitely am interested."  Enough so that Sasha had met with Dr. Lovecraft several more times after the presentation.  "No, I'll ... I know I would end up regret walking away from this.  And, chances are slim it would be the stupidest thing I'd ever done."  But, only because he'd set himself a very high benchmark on that front.

Kaia laughed, flashing the undergraduate student a quick smile.  Schlagenweit's version of Level Nine did indeed sound like some sort of medieval horror play, where dangers were lurking and informants waiting at every turn to jump out at you.  The Department of Mysteries was certainly not safe, and there were plenty of Unspeakables with their own competitive agendas, but she'd yet to truly end up on the worse side of office politics.

At least Schlagenweit appeared to be relaxing.  This was more typical of the conversation that she'd expected when she first approached him: getting to share a little of that excited anticipation, the knowledge that soon he too would be inducted into his share of mysteries and wonders.

"Might even turn out to be the most brilliant," she replied, grinning back at him.  "Just don't let your university studies fall by the wayside, Mr Schlagenweit.  We're a bit rare, those of us who wander back and forth."