Noon had come to play around. Time was of the essence, so they say, and time was now entering a new phase to Altair Gairden's life. After a heart break, a fight more vicious than hippogriffs getting assaulted by naive teenagers, he was ready to open his own, branch out from the Ferris failure and make his own path. No more mister nice guy, no more. He was taking a stand, being honest at all costs, regardless of feelings lost. It was something he had to do, to stand on his own if he was to run his own clinic.

Grand opening was now. His clinic was named: Gray Gairden's Magizoology Clinic. His last was Gairden, which sounded like garden, so he chose a simple, possibly cliche monogram. But it was his place, and he could do that if he wanted.

He was in business, ready for injured animals to heal. It was his time, his job, and he was ready to embrace it.

Niobe trooped up the path to the Gairden Magizoology Clinic, her trusty hip bag hanging from her shoulder bearing her Verbatis note-taking quill and parchment.  She wasn't entirely sure what to expect.  The only things she'd heard about the clinic proprietor and head magizoologist contradicted each other - he was a gentle love of animals or he was off his rocker so steer clear.  Sometimes stories on new business turned out to be stories about business owners - hopefully the controversy surrounding Mr. Gairden would not disappoint.

As she neared the building, the smell of animals began to grow stronger.  Animals, straw, and wet earth.  She rapped on the door and poked her head inside.

"Niobe Thursy, Daily Prophet," she sang out, her Irish alto bold and chipper.  "I believe you're expecting me?"

She looked around the interior, her eyes still adjusting from the noon Hogsmeade sun.  She didn't see the owner.  And she didn't see the snoozing crup she was about to disturb by trodding on both tails!

Sasha raced down the street, hoping he wasn't too horribly late.  He knew he was supposed to be there precisely at noon but he'd forgotten that he'd probably be expected to make his appearance at Sunday mass.  He'd broken away from the fray as soon as he could and had saved time by avoiding changing but even as he raced down the streets of Hogsmeade in his Sunday best, he knew he was still late.  The bag slung over his shoulder contained much more appropriate clothing.

Just outside the clinic, Sasha skidded to a stop and took thirty seconds to brush the dust from his pant legs, straighten his tie and smooth out any wrinkles from his jacket.  After giving his appearance a quick inspection in his reflection in the window, Sasha stepped inside the clinic.

"I'm really sorry, he offered quickly, before noticing the other woman.  "I couldn't get out of mass ... got here as quickly as I ..."  He then noticed the woman and watched her with intense curiosity for a moment. 

He could hear his step-father's critique loudly in the back of his head.  Slothenly, good for nothing ... look like bums but don't even need money.  And, it would have been exactly the type of appearance Jacoba would have been drawn to.  Sometimes just to spite the old man. 

But, within a few, measuring breaths, etiquette caught up with Sasha and he extended a hand to the woman.  "Schlagenweit.  Ssaha Schlagenweit," he offered.

Looking at the door, he could sense people coming soon. He turned to his assistant at the front desk and smiled. "Hand me my jacket, Sophia." She grabbed a neatly folded, cream colored medical jacket from behind the desk and handed it to Altair. "Thank you, doll." Slipping on the jacket, he walked towards the entrance. Just as he was about to open the door, a ruckus from the back caught his attention. His crup and kneazle had gotten into it again.

Quickly checking the scene, he ran to the battle. "Separate now!" He pointed his wand, and the two animals slowly moved away from each other. His crup went to the lobby and settled down while his kneazle jumped onto a counter and settled in. He pet her, nuzzling his nose with her's. "I know, I know, it wasn't your fault."

"I believe you're expecting me?"

Leaning back so he could peer into the doorway, he saw a curly headed woman looking around. With a sly smile, he walked her way. Stopping in front of her, he extended his hand. "Ms. Thursby, so pleased to meet you. I'm Altair Gairden, owner of this clinic and the magizoologist in charge." As he welcomed her, he noticed a boy behind her. "Oh, you must be my intern, Mr. Schl, Shol, Shel, um, may I just call you Sasha?"

"Oh. Hello."  Niobe wasn't entirely sure what the make of the neatly pressed, slightly sweaty youth in front of her.  Had he said 'mass'? A very muggleborn comment, she noted.   Even as she was readying to return the small talk, Mr. Gairden appeared and spoke her name - enough of an introduction. 

She wasn't altogether sure to feel good or bad for the well-dressed boy with the formal bearing by the door - dressed that way to intern at an animal hospital? That shirt would never see true white again and that was a fact.  If Niobe remembered correctly, dragon dung was one of the Un-Scrubable Six, a half-dozen substances that would really never come clean. Magically indelible filth.  Apparently, (if she was remembering correctly) dragon dung had this property for the purpose of permanently marking its territory.  (There was supposedly a village on a rocky tor in Cumberland that still smelled of dragon dung when a north wind blew, long after any dragon had hoarded there.)

Niobe beamed back and shook Altair's hand.  "Thanks for having me - Merlin!" She covered her hands with her mouth as she gazed out the back window.  She'd just this second caught sight of it.

"Is that what I think it is? Oh my - is that allowed!?"  Niobe Thursby's shock was edged with delight, not condemnation.  The creature was marvelous.


^{(Up to you lot what's back there.)}

He shifted his weight from one polished loafer to the other as the lingering effects of the adrenaline from his dash through Hogsmeade eased from his bloodstream.  He flexed the fingers of the empty hand he'd extended to the woman awkwardly before letting it fall back to his side when the woman took Mr. Gairden's hand.  Ms. Thursby, apparently, as Mr. Gairden had identified.  Ms. Thursby?  Sasha's eyes widened - he read the Prophet during the year enough for the name to ring familiar. 

"I ... um, yeah," he said, turning his attention from the reporter to Mr. Gairden.  "It's Schlagenweit, sir, but yes, you can call me Sasha.  I know it's a mouthful." 

Sasha lowered the bag from his shoulder and slipped the zipper open.  "I ... Is there somewhere I could change, sir?  I didn't have time before catching the Knight Bus."  There hadn't been much time to dawdle at all after he'd managed to slip away from his family.  As usual, there was no real way to know how long the trip would take - sometimes they were lucky and it took only a few minutes.  Sometimes it took much longer.  Distance didn't seem to dictate the length of the trip. 

From within the bag, Sasha tugged out a set of old barn clothes but looked up at Thursby's surprise and delight.  He followed her gaze towards the window and stared at the creature for several moments. 

"What's ... what's wrong with it?" he asked, since Thursby's questions seemed to have covered his first two questions. 

With a smile, Altair looked both of them over. One was a top-notch reporter for the Prophet. The other, merely still a child, was his intern for the summer. He didn't really know where to begin, though a tour was well deserved for Ms. Thursby. And Sasha would need one as well, though he'd let him tag along and take notes while the adults talked business for the press.

Shfiting an arm to the desk behind him, he smiled once again. "Ms. Thursby, if I may introduce you, this is my lovely assistant and secretary, Sophia Sanderson. She graduated from Beauxbatons three years ago, is fluent in multiple languages, and makes a fine addition to my clinic." From behind the counter, Sophia smiled and continued doing busy work.

As he was about to start the tour, Niobe noticed his rather odd inhabitant behind the curtain, so to say. Hesitating, he walked over to it and began to explain why it was there. "Ah, yes. This lady right here is a kappa. As you can see, she is a water dweller, therefore I keep her in a giant tank. She belongs to a friend of the family, a Mister Zen-Cho Lee of Japan. For some strange reason, she has been depressed, not in the mood for anything. Her problem has become mine, and I intend to fix it." He covered the scaly monkey, and returned to his guests. "Now, who's ready for the tour?"

Niobe smiled dismissively at the secretary and made a note of her name and credentials.  Niobe didn't quite approve of secretaries.

But when Mr. Gairden got down to business, Niobe found herself scrambling her pack for her Verbatis dictation quill and parchment.  She set the quill right to work.  Niobe's Verbatis quill went to work, scribbling down notes about the kappa and its emotional distress. 

"Lead on!" she said, enthusiastically.  "How exactly does one go about providing kappa therapy? Japan's quite a long way to come - what services do you provide that are so highly sought after all over the world?"

As Ms. Thursby kept keen interest in Altair's explanation for the elusive creature, he kept her moving into more departments of his building. They walked through a hallway, passing a bathroom, a few laboratory rooms, a refreshment station, until finally he'd led her to a stair well. "This, Ms. Thursby, is where I will be keeping the larger creatures whom need sick care. If you would like, I have a set of hippogriffs downstairs that would enjoy a friendly face."

Setting into pace down the slightly lengthy stair well, he began to explain the kappa in length. "Well, I can't particularly say I've any better services than Sean Ferris, but Mr. Lee is a personal friend to my father, so he came to me first. I do a scan of tests to see what is troubling the kappa before taking therapeutic action. Once I've established his diagnosis, I'll create the proper potion to insert into his tank, and hope for the best." He gave her a smile.

They walked around the corner to see two hippogriffs, both female, laying on the floor. One had a bandaged right leg, while the other's wings were somewhat misaligned. "These are two of Hogwarts. Fearfeather is the one with the wing problem. Taletail is the other."

Sasha hesitated a moment, with the clothes in his hands, but quickly shoved them back in the bag as Mr. Gairden moved on, guiding them both on the tour.  Hopefully, he'd be given an opportunity to change before getting into anything that might cause unnecessary (and more importantly - unrepairable) damage to his suit.  While his family was unlikely to notice a missing set of barn clothes, they'd certainly expect an explanation for how he managed to horribly soil his Sunday best at an internship in the Parliament building. 

"Bonjour," he offered in greeting to the assistant with a nod and grin, before quickly hustling after the other two.  He watched the kappa curiously for a few moments before following the progression down the stairs.

Their tour guide seemed to be, primarily, talking to Ms. Thursby, but Sasha followed the pair towards the two hippogriffs and stood, watching the creatures with rapt amazement and respect.  He'd always considered them fantastic creatures and was eager to go up to greet them but resisted temptation and hung back.  "How'd they get injured?" he asked to Mr. Gairden.

Niobe followed after Mr. Gairden and had to admit to herself that she was quite impressed with the facilities.  She'd have to inquire later as to where the clinic got the gold for such an operation. 

She noticed the mincy little intern was tailing them primly.  She made a point to turn and smile at him.  She'd certainly met some odd characters in her life, but there was something about Mr Shlagenweit that just seemed ... off.  She couldn't place it. 

Ah but they'd arrived at the hippogriffs.  Under their penetrating gazes Niobe felt she should do something, or say something.  She wished now she'd taken Care of Magical Creatures in school.   "They're beautiful," she said in a whisper, in a tone much less confident then normal.

"I ... um ... I feel like I should be doing something," she admitted, looking to the two wizards for guidance.  She just felt intensely scrutinized by the reclining beasts.