If there were ever a quiet morning in the Auror Office, this had started as one. Jonas had come into the office half-expecting some sort of elaborate prank to celebrate the Leap Day, but it seemed as all of Level Two was happy to keep their heads down after the strain of January.  He'd taken his time to enjoy a cup of coffee, to catch up a bit with Pratt and Worthington, before he'd meandered over to his desk to begin looking through his files for the day.

February had been mostly quiet, which had given all of them a chance to finally catch up. With the March full moon still a week away, he still had some time to wrap up what he could with other cases before he had to shift over to babysitting Level Four again.

Pratt had handed off this particular casefile to him the day before, with a couple of pointed comments about Muggles and the Cornish that Jonas might have found vaguely offensive if he'd listened too closely. As it was, he'd glanced through the report from the Wix Watchers and filed it away to start fresh with the next morning.  At first look, it had seemed like a relatively simple assignment, which made it the perfect opportunity to drag along one of the new first-year trainees.

It hadn't taken him long to decide which one. Gris Hericho was one of the Auror Office's newest recruits. She was a little less driven than some of the others -- particularly Almasy, who seemed determined to make a name for herself before she closed out her first year -- but Gris was sharper than she might appear at first glance, and she'd done well under Warrington's watch when they'd investigated the incident at the McBoid grave. Even if she didn't always seek them out herself, she could use more experience in the field.

It didn't take long to locate her desk.  Jonas rapped once on the wall of the cubicle to get the girl's attention, arching an eyebrow at the gray-haired trainee.

"Busy, Hericho?" he asked amiably. The trainee was hunched over what appeared to be complicated math equations, quill gripped between two fingers. He didn't keep up with the courses that the Auror trainees were required to take, but that looked like extremely complicated studies for Transfiguration. "If you'd like to stretch your legs a bit, I could use a second set of eyes along on something."

Today had been slow for her, she did want to celebrate that it was the twenty-ninth and that they wouldn't have it for another four years, but she didn't feel like it. She heard that the new Hit-Wix had taken the day off as it was her birthday, that was odd, she wondered if they really got a birthday the other years, does she celebrate it on the twenty-eighth or the first of March? Perhaps it is not for mortals to know. She didn't even know if it was true, she was half asleep and that was yesterday so oops likely meant nothing.

She had finished her paper work for the day, early as usually. Well, technically she hadn't had any paperwork today. she was given that stuff yesterday and she was expected to have worked on it all day today. Not stay overnight until three AM then come into work at nine AM. She did clock in her hours atleast and had the papers ready on the desk. And so far she'd just not been noticed. She managed to get roughly five hours of sleep and had spent some time today resting, she planned to make up for it soon though, tonight she is leaving at a decent time regardless of workload.

Or that was the plan anyway. She had been sitting at her desk, she had nothing to do and wasn't in a spot where she could go catnap, she was getting bored so she started working on Transfiguration Mathematics. She knew most of what she worked on wouldn't work but it was fun to do them, she got some correct for what she wanted to do, namely being some weird things she liked to muck about with. It made it easier to write them down so she could use her book to help with them, although these were typically specific to herself. Aside from one she liked of giving stones legs and making them into stony frogs.

When Auror Nick-Jonas Trevelyan (It was best way to remember his name) arrived at her, she was working on a formula she knew wouldn't work, but it was still fun to do, she knew she couldn't give herself wings and fly, not without dramatically changing her body, that was very obvious, but she still wanted the formula, who knew if having perfectly proportioned wings would be useful later? Maybe for a party? Angels and Demons themed...perhaps she should find a charm for a halo...

She looked up from her book with a somewhat shocked movement, she heard someone coming and knew they were here for her, but still, the voice spooked her.

"Oh, uh, just working on some dumb spells." She said gently, a slight purr under her tone. "Was coming up with a spell that...nevermind. What's the job and why am I your best choice?" She asked as she stood up, she put both hands in the air and joined the fingers as she stretched out, her body leaned to either side. She needed a good stretch after sitting hunched like that for so long, almost as bad as NEWTS.

"I'll do anything to get out of the red robes for a bit."

Jonas raised an eyebrow at the black-clad trainee, but otherwise let the comment pass. If Hericho was already sick of red robes when she was still only a few months into her three-year journey to earn her own set, then she was due for a long and miserable career as an Auror.

"Well, luck's with you then, because we'll need Muggle street clothes for this one," he said dryly.

The young trainee's second question -- Why am I the best choice? -- didn't have a kind answer. But that was part of their duty as Aurors: they had a responsibility to train the next generation. If Hericho had the time to experiment with 'dumb spells' at her desk, then she clearly wasn't being given enough real duties beyond keeping the Level Two coffee pot refreshed.

But he wasn't going to tell her all that.  Better to drag her into the field and let her start gaining experiences for herself.

"We'll be following up on a tip from the Wix Watchers hotline," Jonas said, watching Hericho carefully to see how she took the information in. "There's been reports of Muggle children disappearing near the grounds of Tintagel Castle down in Cornwall. Never for very long -- maybe twelve hours or a day -- but the report says when they appear again, they don't have any memory of where they've been. Hollingbury's crew[1] looked into it, but there's so much residual magic in the background there that they couldn't find much."

Tintagel Castle was one of the spots that had always just seemed like it ought to have some grounding in magic, even without its association to the legend of King Arthur. When he'd been a younger Muggleborn student, Jonas had been delighted to learn that that was the case: magic ran deep in the cliffs there, though it was old and decaying, not like the long-lasting and steady enchantments that were engrained into the foundations of a place like Hogwarts.

He flashed Hericho a lopsided grin as encouragement. "So there's where we come in," he finished cheerfully. "We'll take a look around, see if we can find anything that makes it seem like the disappearances could be connected to dark magic, and then decide if it's worth looking into further or if we want to kick the investigation back to the Improper Use lot."

1.	From the Improper Use of Magic Office

Gris gave a big smile, she could swap out into normal clothes! With a swish of her wand the robes faded away, glittering gold from hem to the top, as if burning away to reveal an outfit underneath. Simply being a set of converses with no socks really visible, a pair of baggy jeans and a grey hoodie that looked to be a men's size up from whatever she was, although she managed well in making sure it wasn't a hinderance to her movement. The glittering light effect was purely for show, she knew how to change outfits faster and less flashy, but why not have a little fun in it?

She quickly pulled a notebook and pen from her hoodie pocket, which since it was a pull over hoodie, she had taken the liberty to enchant to hold extra space, like a kangaroo pouch, although without...the grossness of a kangaroo. It was useful, although of course there was a slight risk someone may take her hoodie but she didn't make it a habit of letting muggles into her flat.

Carefully, Gris took notes on what he said, listing down:

• Tintagel Cornwall,
• Children Missing 12-24H
• Improper took a Look
• Possible Dark Magic

She gave a nod. That was concerned, missing children wasn't something to take lightly, off the top of her head only Hags off the top of her head, which was not something she wanted to consider, if it was a Hag, it was a picky eater and would result in Level Four being all over this. So that was a worrying concern, the other one was around the muggle community, there must be mass hysteria.

"How are the muggles taking it? And the police for that matter, a missing child is a massive deal, let alone multiple vanishing. Mandatory curfew for those under a certain age? Do we know what time they typically disappear around?" She didn't like the other thought either but Vampires could also be a cause if its around dusk, it would be better then a Hag however, a Hag would eat the child, a Vampire would drink and the kid would suffer from blood loss, but they'd live most likely...unless its a really bad Vampire...She just hoped the Vampire community managed to sort out themselves enough that it didn't come to that, neither side wanted that.

She flicked her wand to summon a copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them on her desk along with her transfiguration book. She only wished someone from Level Nine would teach her the Time Skip Spell sometime to allow her to hide her chair, she knew someone would take it and replace it with a terrible one, then she'd be stuck with a wobbly leg or mismatched for several days...

Now with her books she nodded at the older Auror, she was all ready to go.

Hericho at least pulled out a notebook and began to scribble down the information that he had relayed to her, which was a point in her favor. Jonas could remember all too well the incident only a few months before when Eddie Pratt had torn into poor Fauna Blake after she had forgotten to take notes[1] during a conversation with Lawrence Musgrave. The dressing-down had struck him as a little unfair at the time, but at least word of it had seemingly reverberated through the trainee ranks. If nothing else, the young Aurors-to-be went nowhere now without their notebooks.

He couldn't help but give a dry smile at the trainee's rapid fire questions. "That's what we're off to find out, innit?" he asked wryly. "It sounds as though all of the children have come back again before too long, so I'm not sure there's been too much of a reaction. But we'll see if we can't get a read on the situation."

He gave her a quick glance to make sure she was ready to go, but despite her reputation for laziness, Hericho was nothing if not efficient.

"I'll meet you at the lift in two minutes," he told her, as he went to go retrieve the last couple of things from his own desk.

---

The town of Tintagel was a quiet little village by the sea, at least this time of year. The last time that Jonas had visited, it had been with Anna and Gwenna and Artie in the dead of summer, when he and his wife had been on the verge of separating. They'd thought that a week down in Cornwall might help, but it seemed as if every long automobile ride had ended tersely. The crowded main street and the seemingly endless row of souvenir shops, which had set Gwenna begging for hours and hours because she wanted to collect every sword, had not helped.

He and Hericho had apparated into a quiet alleyway behind a restaurant: a brightly-colored place named Camelot Cafe that seemed built to cater to large tour groups, but looked largely empty today. Before long, they were on the street that led up to the castle. The day was windy and gray, and Jonas was glad to have an excuse to wear his black coat and tweed flat cap, rather than the awkwardly-tamed crimson robes that usually marked an Auror excursion.

"So tell me, Hericho," he said, as they began the uphill climb to Tintagel Castle. "How do you reckon we should go about this, then? Dealing with Muggles is a bit trickier for an Auror than wixes. We won't be able to just rush in and start firing off questions."

1.	August 4, 2011 - All Hands on Deck

With a distant crack, the two figures appeared in a blurred swirl into the alley before they moved on. Gris took a few moments to move properly, her head off, she often had this when she travelled long distance by apparating, or going from indoor enviroments to the outside, even if it was an alley. But with a couple of seconds and some blinking it was over and she freely caught up with the senior auror.

She hadn't been to Cornwall much before, she knew it was steeply rooted with magical history, but the place never seemed...interesting to her? There were some beautiful places for sure, but she tended to prefer more conventional attractions. The Eden Project was great however, she'd gone there a few times with her cousins who lived in the county over, perhaps she should visit them sometime, even if they were strange.

Gris couldn't help but have a massive interest in the shops as they went, there were swords! And helmets! She gasped excitably at the sight of a magical store! It had a skull in the window! A SKULL IN THE WINDOW! And Dreamcatchers and! She had to return here sometime! This was far better then she thought it would of been!

Now as they climbing the way to the castle she was calming down, they had gone past the shops, she supposed she was meant to feel the history somewhat of the area, this is supposedly where King Arthur and Merlin where, steeped in magical history, but she didn't feel a huge amount. He asked about what the plan should be with getting questions, she guessed this was a test to see if she was getting it right, she could do that.

"Either, we change clothes into something a little smarter and pretend we are journalists. Or." She gave a playful smirk and leaned towards him a little bit, not close close, but close enough. "I'm your step daughter. We're here as tourists in an attempt to bond after you shacked up with my mother, we get on alright but its a little awkward still. We heard about children going missing. But we're tourists, who do we ask?" She pointed vaguely in the direction of a staff member for the castle with a slight click of her tongue.

"We ask the tour guides, we don't want to just ask the locals do we? That's rude, plus they should be informed on the situation to keep an eye out or else they could be liable for what happens right? So we ask them with concerns: We've heard children have been going missing, has anyone older been taken? What could it mean for the castle? Is there a curfew we don't know about as we're not locals?"

She felt rather happy with her plan, it was simple enough, ask the people who worked around the area, she may not of needed the backstory, but she felt it was a good excuse for why the two were together then just work colleagues. Besides if they said that, they'd get the wrong idea about them being work colleagues.

Jonas cocked an eyebrow at the young trainee. It was a fairly sharp plan, especially considering she'd come up with it at the spur of the moment. If the premise hit a little too on the nose considering the circumstances of his last visit here, that was certainly something he could set aside. Starting with the tour guides stood them a decent chance of getting an idea of the information that might be out there.

"Sounds like a fair place to start," he said, flashing her a lopsided grin. "How familiar are you with Muggles? You're not Muggle-born, are you, Hericho?"

By the look of the clothes she'd conjured up for their excursion, he'd guess that the trainee had at least a decent familiarity. The younger generation starting to enter the Ministry these days seemed far more Muggle-friendly than they had in his youth. Even young pureblood witches and wizards seemed more comfortable wearing Muggle clothes and interacting with Muggle devices than their peers his own age. (Ed Pratt and his misadventures with a Muggle foam[1] stuck out as a major example.)

It didn't really matter what her past experience was. Either way, it would be an opportunity for Hericho to learn. But if she seemed more comfortable with Muggle customs, Jonas was more inclined to let her take the lead on the conversations they'd soon engage in.

1.	"No, it's not a foam number. It's got bloody well nothing to do with foam, Pratt! Phone number. Phone."

"I'm not muggleborn, my parents are unfortunately assho- Wix, sorry." She sighed and stretched out with a groan, he was game for the plan, it was a good plan, she was glad he wanted to go along with it. "My aunt gave up the magical world though, started to live a muggle life. I spent a lot of time with her growing up to stay away from my parents." She shrugged gently and looked at the ground, that was probably a bit too much to say to him and she was aware of it but she figured it was worth a small explanation, either he was going to ask about it or not, she might as well answer now just on the off chance.

She looked over her outfit, she half wondered why he asked if she was muggle born, her outfit perhaps? She just found it comfy, and she wasn't that fond of the typical Wix fashion, the large hats at Hogwarts were terrible, she deliberately never wore them, why would she want something that makes it look like her head is a scoop of gravel flavoured ice cream on a waffle cone?

She mostly just thought her outfit was comfy.

She attempted to lean somewhat onto him as she walked forwards, making it look like they are closer then they really are, even if she's his step daughter, it still made more sense to have a slight lean, she would feel safer closer to him then she did around the others, she looks rather innocent and weak, so it makes sense.

Then she walked up to the tour guide, and gave him a slight wave as she went, approaching softly and gently, timidly, she doesn't think she'd manage stage plays or movies, all acting for those were always more exaggerated then real life, but she can fake emotions. She had to around her parents and when she does pranks.

"O-oh uh...hi there...um..." She scratched the back of her head and looked at her feet. "I've heard...there's been some...people going missing?"

Jonas listened thoughtfully as the Auror trainee groaned and shared about her personal life, carefully keeping his expression schooled. There seemed to be more than a few witches and wizards around his age who had given up on the magical world entirely after the Ministry had fallen. He'd been one of them for almost ten years, until he'd finally worked up the courage to re-enter magical society again.

Either way, it explained Hericho's comfort with Muggle things, and it would serve them well enough on their excursion today. Together, they made their way through the town and up to the castle. As they got closer to the entrance, it was easy to spot the several gargantuan tour buses that loomed in the main car park.

One tour group seemed to be just on the verge of dispersing from their very large bus, which was decorated with a giant blue design shaped like a spiral sun. A tall lanky Black man dressed in a bright blue cagoule was passing out tickets as the passengers exited. His thick, tightly curled hair stuck out a few inches under his matching blue cap, which bore the same sun-like symbol as the side of the tour bus.

Hericho wasted no time as the group dispersed to the entrance. She waited until the last of the chattering tourists had departed, and then pounced.

"O-oh uh...hi there...um..," she said, suddenly affecting a very effective timid look. "I've heard...there's been some...people going missing?"

The tour guide looked up. "Pardon?" he said, squinting at her.

That had perhaps been a little more abrupt than Jonas would have approached it. He quickly stepped over, flashing the tour guide a lopsided smile in the process.

"Sorry, mate," he said in an apologetic tone.  "We didn't mean to pounce on you; I'm sure you want to catch your breath now that you've got everyone on their way.  We'd just heard some rumors that there was a problem with folks going missing around the castle, so we reckoned we'd check with someone who looked like they knew what they were doing before we paid our way in."

The tour guide blinked at him, and then shook his head.  "Not at all, not at all," he said, flashing him a smile in return. "Ah, you know how it is." He paused, glancing between Jonas and the trainee. "Yeah, there's been a couple of kids who've wandered off recently, but I wouldn't say anyone's gone missing, per se. It happens, in a place like this."

Gris caught him off guard, expected as he had just seemed to get off a bus, she couldn't imagine people actually using those for extended periods of time, atleast a train you could wander properly and open windows. A bus was bad, she'd used them, plus they were usually later then trains!

She backed up a little to go behind the senior Auror, trying to keep her look of being slightly nervous younger girl on her. He went off on his questions asking more clearly, which got a reply from the tour guide. while it was true, people did tend to go missing all the time and wander off, this was a good few hours before returning, in an age with smart phones that can always call emergency services, she doubted that was the case.

"Um...sorry. Is there...like anything with the police? Like a curfew?" She added a bit of venom into her tone and glanced up at the senior Auror, shooting daggers at him as if he insisted on her getting home on time. "I really want to go for drinks tonight." She turned back to the guide with a nervous smile.

All the while she put her hands into her hoodie pockets, inside the pockets enchanted for the extra space to store things, she wrote on her notepad blindly, it didn't matter too much, she can clean it up and it was a better way to take notes then being so brazen. She listed down the questions asked and his response to ensure they didn't miss much if anything.

"I...w-well we... Only really heard of like, the wanderings off but not if anything was said like the curfew." She added awkwardly to keep the appearance of being the nervous tourist girl off on a nice little holiday away.

Maybe she should get into movies...

Hericho had gone all in on the acting assignment, and Jonas couldn't help but wonder dryly if she'd missed her calling on the stage. Her prying was perfectly believable, though. His own daughter was still only thirteen, but he could very well imagine her pushing to see if a local curfew would impact her planned night out on holiday. (Although Gwenna would probably be more interested in a local ghost tour or horror show than drinking at a pub.)

The tour guide didn't seem at all phased by it, though. Perhaps he dealt with this sort of question a lot.

"No, no curfew," he replied, giving Hericho a patient smile. "Well, not unless your dad wants to set one. Like I said, it's just been a handful of kids wandering off while they're exploring the ruins. There's all kind of little hidey-holes in there, and you know how kids are. They probably tucked themselves away to hide, fell asleep or whatever, and then got scared that they were going to get in trouble and didn't want to come back out."

Gris gave a relieved sigh, followed by a glare back at the senior Auror. She made sure to raise an eyebrow up at him as if giving a serious question about it towards him.

"Even if you set a curfew I'm crawling down the drainpipe." She said with a smirk, she perhaps was having a bit too much fun with this, but it was hard not to get into it and to get some fun out of the situation. It must of helped somewhat with the talk anyway with her acting like this. "I've fitted through smaller gaps, even my boyfriend could fit through that window." She stuck her tongue out, showing todays current blue tongue piercing.

She turned back to the tour guide and nodded, softly leaning back in her stand with a relaxed sigh leaving her, trying to act as if a weight had escaped her upon hearing the news fully. The man seemed fairly nice about it all, fairly kind also. Her plan was just getting better all the time really.

"That sounds like the usual yeah. Thank you so much!" She said happily as she spread her arms as if offering a hug to the guide!

Hericho had definitely missed her calling -- that, or she'd wrapped herself up in it all too well when she'd found her footing as a rebellious teenager. Jonas barely hid a smile as the tour guide looked her over, and then raised his envelop full of tickets in seeming defense.

"Yeah, no worries, mate," he said, still managing to flash them a friendly smile as he stepped back out of range of the hug.

Still smothering a smile, Jonas put a hand on the Auror trainee's shoulder to guide her away.  "Cheers, Mr Green," he said amiably, with a nod to the tour guide's name tag. "Come on, Gris, let's see if we can't figure out the ticket situation next, yeah?"

It was a short walk along a flat path to the entrance to the historic site. The line for the ticket booth wasn't very long. Jonas used one of his credit cards to pay for it, making sure to fold up the receipt and tuck it into his pocket for later. Level Two didn't really have a good way to cover Muggle expenses that were incurred during investigations, but he'd be damned if he didn't turn it in for reimbursement later.

"Well, it doesn't seem as if anyone's very worried about the disappearances," he remarked under his breath to the Auror trainee, passing her a ticket as they got into the line for entry into the courtyard. "Any thoughts on what we should do next, Hericho?"

She was very happy with herself at how she performed with the man, although she was a little bit disappointed that she hadn't been given a hug by the man, after all she was perfectly cuddly, she was adorable in fact! She gave a deliberate pout at the man before trailing off behind the senior Auror as he led her away, then stayed relatively quiet as they got through the tickets to start entry.

Gris listened gently to what he was saying, she was the one expected to come up with a plan, she had a few, firstly was it was best to just scan for magical elements, find where the most activity is, atleast that seemed the smart way as she tried to come up with a plan, first part would be to avoid the large crowds so that they could speak more openly, it just seemed smart.

"Maybe wait until less people are around to talk." She muttered softly, not in a rude way, never to her superiors, but it seemed the better way to talk after all. "I've an idea, its sort of dumb however." She gave a soft smirk as they got through the line and started to disperse into the courtyard, she made her way to a quieter area more by themselves, she knew that sometimes it was better to discuss in a crowd but she hated the noiser areas.

"Dumbest idea I have is we get an age reduction potion, turn me back into a kid for awhile, its not like the trace will come back on or I'll get kicked out of Hogwarts, I know how to fight and shoot sparks, only harm is some lost money and time." She shrugged, it seemed an easy enough idea to try at the very least, was there really any harm in attempting it?

He had perhaps been giving Hericho a little bit too much freedom, because her second direction for their Cornish investigation was a little more out there than the first. Jonas cocked an eyebrow at her, torn between simply looking bemused and giving her the go-ahead to try it and see what happened.

Unfortunately, if Eddie heard that Auror trainees were reverting to toddlerdom instead of casing a potential crime scene, he'd likely take it out on young Hericho far more than he would Jonas. The thought of Pratt and the trainee shouting at each other was potentially amusing but would probably lead to poor outcomes. Better to head things off now and let Hericho flex her creative muscles a bit later.

"That's an innovative thought, but I reckon we might want to be a bit more methodical than that," he told the young witch, his expression a mixture of poorly disguised mirth and disappointment. "Any thoughts that might be a little more practical? What do we know so far about the disappearing kids?"