outfit

Candice had grown bored. Her apartment was clean, the shopping was done, all other errands had been completed, and she needed something to do. And thus, by lunch time she felt like being sociable, and was in the mood to cook- and Candice knew who would be the perfect victim for her latest recipe. It was one her grandmother had passed down to her, but she was trying to tweak it a little to make it perfect.

She had dropped by to visit Kurby's sister, to see if she knew her brother's schedule for the day. Instead she had found herself with the key to his flat that would bypass the enchantments and let her in unscathed. Candice had not been surprised to open the door to a mess. Kurby had a lot of wonderful qualities- it seemed that cleanliness was not among them. Candy put her grocery bags in the kitchen, and decided to surprise her friend with more than just dinner and set about cleaning and re-organizing his apartment... Especially doing something about the piles of laundry lurking in the random corners.

After Candice had done the laundry, put it all away, and reorganized his dresser drawers (really, who kept their underwear in the bottom drawer?) she set about dinner. The beef stew recipe was one that was great for the cold weather. And very hearty. It was something Kurby could store and eat on for a few days, maybe take it to the ministry for lunch. That would be better than a bologna sandwich in a paper bag, and hopefully better than take out. (Candice had something against take out, it seemed.) Plus, Kurby couldn't get too angry if he come home to dinner. (The fact that she was invading his privacy in multiple ways had not really crossed Candy's mind. She just saw it as  a few good deeds done for a friend.)

She had tossed the vegetables in to simmer with the rest of the stew and taken up a spot on the couch with a beer. Candice had the latest Dolly St. James novel in her bag, and opened it up to the place she had left off. It was different to read them now that she personally knew Dolly. In fact, her current shirt and fitting jeans were courtesy of her intervention in her closet. The woman had been right- dressing better had made her feel a lot better about herself, even if it did still feel incredibly awkward to wear something that didn't mask the fact she had a lot more figure than everyone else...

When she heard the door opening, Candy didn't even look up from the book in her hands. "Dinner's almost ready," she called out instead, turning the page and sipping from her beer. "Give it about fifteen more minutes."

He'd known that something was awry as soon as he reached the first floor landing.  Kurby had lived alone ever since he'd graduated from Hogwarts.  His salary from the Ministry didn't pay exceptionally well, but it was enough to survive on, and the usual bonus that he got from being on the WCU made it enough to survive on comfortably without having to worry too much about budgeting. 

The flat that he lived in was barely two rooms and a kitchenette, but it was more than enough considering the small amount of time he spent at home.  Although the monthly rent was a little on the expensive side, Kurby considered it more than worth it in order to not have to worry about Muggle neighbors.  Living in Diagon Alley was much more convenient; no Statute of Secrecy to worry about, no reason not to apparate home when he was too tired to walk at three in the morning.  The two other professionals who rented flats on his floor seemed to share the same philosophy.  He rarely saw them except in passing, and they seemed to have a mutual agreement to keep things quiet within the building.

It had been yet another long day at work.  Kurby had been looking forward to getting home, scrounging up dinner, and then crawling into bed, but the aroma that hit him when he reached the top of the stairs made him stop dead in his tracks.  No one on his floor cooked.  No one in his bleeding building cooked.  Shooting a suspicious look at the two other firmly shut doors that lined the hallway, as if someone had intentionally broken their unspoken treaty, Kurby started for the door to his own flat.

And then stopped again.

The smell was getting stronger.

Warily, he stared at the door, and then gave a careful sniff.  Whatever was being cooked, it was definitely coming from inside his flat.  Had he left a window open?  Carefully, he stepped forward next to the door, looking down at the floor as he listened for anything on the other side.  Nothing.  Not a sound.  Kurby reached for the key that he wore around his neck and began to drop the wards and unlock the door.  If something had gone through all the trouble of breaking into his flat just to kill him, it certainly wouldn't bother trying to cook dinner while it was waiting.

In fact, he thought suspiciously, there were very few individuals who would bother breaking into his flat and cooking dinner.  One in particular came to mind.  And if that individual had gone through all the trouble of dropping his wards and trespassing in his own private space, she had another one coming if she thought that he was going to let the incursion go unanswered.

He opened the door and let it swing open, tensing as if he were preparing to go into battle.

"Dinner's almost ready.  Give it about fifteen more minutes."

"How the hell did you get into my flat?!" Kurby demanded heatedly, ignoring the cheerful greeting as he let the door slam shut behind him for effect and stomped inside.  No - he realized as he quickly scanned the room that Candy hadn't just gotten into his flat.  She had apparently gone to war against it.  The floors were cleaner than they'd probably been in years, and the kitchen was not only in the process of boiling something, but it was sparkling as it did it.  It was like his own living space had turned against him.

"Out.  Now!" he snapped, pointing back towards the door as he glowered at her.  "If I wanted company, I'd bleedin' well invite it over myself!  I'm not dealin' with this tonight, Candice!"

Candice was surprised at the response to her announcement of dinner being almost ready. She folded the page she was on and put her book aside, watching Kurby cautiously. His glower did not intimidate her- anymore. It might have when she was younger, when her friendship with his sister was the only reason they ever interacted. Now Candice thought it safe to consider him to be her friend as well. "Your sister gave me the key," she told him simply, gesturing to where it lay on a coffee table.

But then he was ordering her out. That did surprise her. Candy frowned slightly and stood up, tucking her book back into her bag. "Dealing with what? It's not like I've shown up looking for something, Kurby. I was just trying to do something nice. Not that you'd have any comprehension of the word nice or what it means, would you?" It had hurt her feeling, really, that he didn't seem to want her company. And the way he had said "dealing with this", as though she were a burden to him! Candice was not a burden to anyone. She avoided people when she was depressed just to prevent herself from becoming a burden- because she would be damned before she saw herself turn into her mother.

Candice went into the kitchen and poured out her beer, throwing away the empty can. Then she moved to remove the stew from the heat. "I guess you don't want any Irish beef stew," she told him. "That I made special- just for you. I even found a recipe that uses beer to make it. I'm sure it would have been delicious, you could have even had something to take to lunch that wasn't cruddy take out from the Leaky Cauldron. I swear- you mean are all the same." They were, really. Dante hadn't wanted to appreciate her efforts in making him dinner, either- but at least he had a reason. He barely knew her. Kurby should know better than this, and he should be capable of being thankful she was bestowing her culinary prowess on him.

"And I don't know who got your knickers in a knot, Kurby, but you don't have to take it out on me," she whined- her hurt feelings finally coming through. "I jsut figured for once you'd like to not have to spend your day off doing meaningless chores, and that you'd like to have some real food to eat. I guess I was wrong. So I'll just pack up my stew and be on my way. I'll go home and I'll enjoy it by myself- and you won't get any of it, or any of the pie that I made for dessert."

The answer was hardly surprising.  Kurby had no doubt that his younger sister was perfectly happy to give the key to his flat to any number of individuals who wanted to invite themselves over.  He was, in fact, somewhat surprised that Rosheen hadn't taken it upon herself to invite half of the Ministry over, seeing as how the fact that passing around his flat key like it was a Comet 360 at Hogwarts apparently never struck her as an invasion of her brother's very own personal space that he tried so hard to keep to himself.  No, lending his sister a key had apparently been taken as an open invitation to have over anyone she wished, regardless of the fact that she didn't live there and never had.

"I know exactly what 'nice' means," he snapped at Candice, glowering at the younger woman.  "And nobody's got my bleedin' knickers in a knot!  How the hell would you feel if you got home from work and someone had just up and invaded your flat without askin'?"

Unfortunately, yelling at the psychologist was a bit like hexing a rabbit.  Her threats to take her stew and go didn't exactly phase him, but the guilt was already beginning to creep in.  Candy wasn't someone who was usually good for a fight; when he exploded at her, she usually either took it or burst into tears.  And he knew perfectly well what had happened to her at the Ministry only a few weeks before.  The werewolf hunter hadn't been particularly happy to hear how his younger sister's friend had been treated, but the politics on Level Two weren't something that he normally got himself involved in.

Kurby made a show of rolling his eyes, crossing his arms as he stayed in the doorway to block her exit.  "Oh, get on then," he retorted irritably.  He might feel slightly guilty, but he wasn't going to respond to the whining.  That just encouraged it.  "I wouldn't mind it if you hadn't broken in to do it in the first place!  Is there something wrong with owlin' me at work?  As far as I know, post owls still deliver to the Ministry."

"It would depend on who they were and why they were invading," Candice answered truthfully. If one of her friends had taken over her flat to cook her dinner and clean up a little, she would probably be grateful. Candice was generally the one who took care of everyone else- nobody really took care of her. It would be nice for someone to return the favor once in a while, but she never really made a big fuss about it. You didn't do good things becaues you wanted people to do good things back- that completely voided the purpose of it. "If someone decided to cook me for dinner for a change, or even take me out for dinner, then I wouldn't be complaining very much."

But Kurby was backing down, and she flashed him a bright smile, resituatin the stew and refraining from hugging him. Kurby was not the sort to appreciate any type of physical affection... At least, not from her. What he did on his private time was his business. "I could have owled you," Candice conceded, "but if I had, then it wouldn't have been a surprise, now would it?"

"Besides, you should probably be relieved that I'm actually being sociable." Candice had, in reality, been ignoring everybody since her dismissal. Except for her family, Kurby's sister, and her new friend Dolly. But she was trying to reinsert herself into the world now that she was less depressed and was starting to cope with the situation of having to basically start her life over at this point.

"But I am sorry if I upset you," she offered. "I'll admit I didn't stop to think about you getting mad. I just thought you'd be happy to have a clean home and a nice dinner. I guess that I figured the good would outweigh the bad. But I guess the bright side of this is that I'm not some sort of scary criminal with a deathly agenda. It's just a friendly witch who thought you could use a hearty dinner." Using a spoon, Candy dipped out some of the warm stew and held it out to Kurby. "It's a special recipe I picked out just for you. Wanna taste? Maybe it will make you feel better about having me supposedly break into your home." If she had a key, then Candy didn't consider it breaking and entering.

"If you have a real problem with it, though, you could always talk to the aurors. I'm sure that most of them would have no problems hauling me in on that kind of a charge. They might think I even used dark magic to do it. Most of them have something against me anyway... I'm sure that after they heard about me getting fired they had a little party to celebrate." She sighed heavily, small faltering. "I guess now they won't have to worry about facing their problems. I hope one of them blows up the ministry because they're so stressed they can't handle it anymore," she spat bitterly. 

Any chance he might have had of coming out the victor in this conversation, slim as it had been to begin with, was quickly slipping away.  Kurby sighed, making a face just for posterity's sake, and decided to go along as the witch redefined the terms of this engagement.  At least Candice wasn't the sort to rub it in.  He could not-so-graciously accept her apology, and then make it very clear to Rosheen the next time he saw her of what would happen if she 'forgot' and lent his flat key to another of her friends.

"It's none of my bleedin' business whether you're sociable or not," he grumbled, sighing as he conceded the point and took the spoon.  If Candice had tried to hug him, he was prepared to start the argument all over again, but luckily she seemed to have backed down.  At least the stew was good.

"Tastes grand," he added, setting the spoon down on the counter as he gave the rest of the small flat a suspicious look.  "Let's just be clear that next time, you can ask first.  And not go and reorganize everything in the process," he added sourly, eyeing the corner where he was certain he'd been piling all dirty clothes for the past week.  If she'd gone through his drawers, he was going to rethink not resorting to the Killing Curse.  "It's my flat.  Maybe I keep it this way for a reason."

The mention of the Aurors made him raise his eyebrows as he glanced back at her.  Everyone at the Ministry had to have heard the rumors surrounding her dismissal, and likewise, everyone had known that Candice Stevenson had never gotten along with the hotshots on Level Two.  Kurby usually had enough political drama to deal with at work that he tried to stay clear of others' fights, but if word hadn't gotten out that Dante Ward had had a pointedly worded discussion with one of the Aurors who had been the worst with her, he would have been tempted to crack a few heads together himself.

"Well, I don't think they've been left with much time to think about it," he replied, stepping into the kitchen to turn on the sink.  Cleaning spells were all well and good, but sometimes doing dishes the Muggle way was more satisfying.  "It sounds like Raynor came off the worst in some run-in, and I think the rest have been scramblin' to pick up the pieces.  Not that that leaves them with so much to do that they can't butt in where they're not wanted," he added sourly, thinking of Fox.  That was a headache that he didn't want to have to think about dealing with.  "Soddin' bastards, the lot of 'em.  And they wonder why no one else at the Ministry ever lends a hand."

"Of course it's your business. You have to admit you'd be at least a little bit sad if I decided to hole up in my room and never spoke to you again..." She trailed off as he continued to inspect his flat, taking the spoon from him and putting it away.

She nodded when he insisted that next time she would have to ask first. At least that meant he wasn't telling her to never come back over. "Alright, I'll ask next time. And I won't clean it or reorganize anything. I'll leave it in the gross mess you apparently like to keep it in- for whatever reasons you may have. And I won't go behind your back to your sister to get a way in. I promise."

Candice watched him as he turned on the water, filling up the sink to do dishes. "Well, I wouldn't wish anything bad on Raynor. She has a team to run, and I understand that. I suppose that I did step on her toes when I shouldn't have. I crossed the line- but I don't feel like it called for my getting fired. But I suppose it will be better for me in the long run. I wasn't very happy there. I didn't really have friends there, anyway. I won't really miss anyone. You, Fox, and Mr. Ward were the only people there who were nice to me... That's not so great considering the number of people who work there..."

She sighed, and shrugged, then moved next to Kurby. She pushed him out of the way with her hip, and picked up the last dish he had in his hand. "And what kind of friend comes over and expects you to do the dishes?" she asked. "I made the mess, I'll clean it up. You just sit down and have a beer. And we'll eat in a few minutes."

"And trust me- the aurors don't want anyone to lend them a hand. They are able to do everything on their own if you were to believe them. They can do no wrong, they are invincible, and they don't have souls or hearts. Especially Pratt and Radley. If I ever met two men who needed a rude awakening, it's those two." She might be biased, though, considering they were the two who seemed to give her the hardest time. Candice often thought that Radley didn't mean much by it- but Pratt had always just seemed so cruel. "But even so, sometimes you have to give help to people who refuse to ask for it. To make things work out for everyone in the long run."

"So how's work been, then?" she asked. "Things any crazier than usual? I heard that this month was tougher than usual. And if the Prophet is to be believed, then there is a lot going on in the world of werewolves."

Kurby made a face as she bumped him out of the way, but he conceded the territory, going to grab a bottle of beer instead.  He boosted himself up to sit on the counter, taking advantage of the recently cleared space instead of following his normal procedure of shoving everything out of the way.

"Hark, you're tellin' me," he grumbled, pulling out his wand to Vanish the bottle cap.  Monday's incident was still fresh in his mind; he was lucky that Raynor was still out of the office, or Kurby had no doubt that he would have been called into meeting upon meeting to 'discuss' why he wasn't willing to share any files with Level Two.  "But don't go sparin' Fox from it.  The man's as big a bastard as any of the others."

Even in his opinion, the egos in MLE were ridiculous.  Kurby took a drink from the bottle, and then shrugged in Candy's direction.  "If you listened to him, all it takes is us turnin' him loose and there wouldn't be a single werewolf left," he said sourly, leaning a hand back on the counter for balance.  "Like the rest of us haven't been workin' at that since the days of Merlin.  Fox thinks all he has to do is wave his wand and he'll send them scurryin' back off to their dens, no matter that he's probably never even fought one.  Thank Godric they keep the red robes stuck on Level Two, or the rest of us would never have a job."

At her next question, the werewolf hunter sighed, looking up briefly at the ceiling.  "It's been busy," he said shortly.  Which wasn't a new development - were activity had been growing for months, and he'd classify every full moon since November as 'tougher than usual.'  "It's always a mess, though.  The Prophet doesn't help matters, rilin' people up," he added in a grumble.

He glanced over at her, raising the bottle to take another drink.  The current state of the Werewolf Capture Unit wasn't really something that he wanted to talk about, and it was much simpler to shift the subject than to dive too far into topics regarding work.

"And how've you been, then?  You want me to have a word with Radley and Pratt?" he offered, giving her a slight smirk.  Normally, Kurby tried to stay well away from incurring Level Two's wrath, but recent events had not endeared him.  "I could have one with Ward too while I'm at it," he offered grandly.  "How many potions has he come over to mix since you left the Ministry?"

"Well, Fox was always nice to me," Candy told him. "He didn't make fun of me or be mean or try to avoid any meetings. He was cooperative and he'd drop by to say hello now and again." She was used to people disliking him, though. He had mentioned it on occasion. But whatever Kurby's problem with him was, it was probably very well warranted. "But you aren't the only person who isn't a fan. I can assure you of that."

Candice did agree that the prophet certainly didn't help matters. They exaggerated things and tended to publish stories that really had no business being published. But she figured keeping the wizarding public in the dark was just as bad. "Well, I hope things lighten up on you guys soon. I can't imagaine the job is easy, but everyone needs a break now and again. Judging from the condition of your flat, you haven't had a day off in at least a week- if not two. That's not healthy. You need some time to yourself, Kurby, or you're going to go crazy."

"What you really need is a nice girl," she commented, in a very typical mothering tone. "A sweet girl who could take good care of you and help you from being so grumpy all the time. You'd be a lot happier if you weren't so high strung. You're a handsome guy, you certainly have no shortage of women in your life. Maybe it's time to settle down, hm? So many of you ministry workers think the job outweighs family life. It's good to have a family. Everyone needs their family. I'm lucky my grandparents have been so great- I don't know where I would be without them. And one day, I'm going to have kids of my own and be a wonderful mom and they're going to go to Hogwarts and grow up to be successful witches and wizards. Don't you want a family some day, Kurby?"

When he asked how she was, Candice dropped the comments about his needing a girlfriend. Talking about herself had always been difficult. She'd rather talk about him. Candice figured she'd just make the part about her short and sweet. "I've been alright," she told him. "Bored more than anything. Trying to get out of the funk. It's been a nice change. I'm better off, really I am..." She smiled when she said it, because it was true. She was going to be a lot happier. And her new friendship with Dolly was really helping her to gain some much needed self confidence.

Candice was fairly certain that her face was a deep scarlet when Kurby brought up Dante. She was glad that she was focused on the dishes, and she made it a definite point not to look at him while she answered... Although it did take a very noticeable few seconds for her to regain composure and decide exactly what she wanted to say. She made a show of slowly washing a dish as her lips puckered. "He has not, actually," she said slowly. She had, in fact, been avoiding him since she had gotten fired. "I haven't seen or spoken to Mr. Ward since early January." January the fourth to be exact, ever since the incredibly awkward evening they had spent together at that restaurant opening.

"He's owled me a couple of times," she added. Candice did't want Kurby to think that Dante had just stopped talking to her. She wasn't sure why that mattered, but to her, it did. "But I just... haven't responded." She shrugged and rinsed off another dish, dropping it into the drainer. "I just didn't want to talk about what happened." It was rude, she knew, to cut off communication. Especially since she had given him a dog as a present not even a month ago and convinced him to keep it, completely uprooting his routines. "He hasn't owled in a week or so. I guess he got the hint."

The werewolf hunter didn't bother to hide how he rolled his eyes as Candice went on about having a family.  There were some arguments that weren't even worth having.  As she prattled on about settling down and having children, he focused instead on seeing how much of his beer he could drain before she got tired of talking.  Even deigning to act offended would just encourage her to think that he cared.

Luckily, Candice reached the end of her lecture just about the time that he managed to finish the drink.  "Don't you want a family some day, Kurby?" she asked in conclusion.

"No," he said shortly, hopping down from the counter to rummage for a second drink in the ice box as he left the empty bottle behind.

If the former psychologist hadn't changed the subject, he would have been forced to find other avenues to express his displeasure with her topic choice, but she had happily moved on by the time he'd vanished the second cap.  Kurby leaned back against the wall,  glancing over at her as he took a drink from the new bottle.  Candice, for all of her bubbly over-the-top enthusiasm, avoided dealing with her problems even more than she accused other people of doing the same.  Apparently losing her job had triggered more of the usual.

"Who says you've got to talk about it?" he asked, giving a snort.  "Not everybody has to go discussing things, believe it or not.  Invite him over, snog him, and then both of you can get on your way about it," he suggested nicely, flashing her a smirk.  "I bet he won't even ask you what happened, not so long as you don't give him an opening."

Candice could not believe what Kurby was saying. She turned around, taking the wet, soapy spatula that she had been washing and whacked him in the chest- hard. "That isn't funny!" she protested. Her face was flushing, though. Candice hadn't properly snogged anyone in a few years. But it wasn't something she talked about- and certainly wasn't something that she intended to talk about with Kurby Bagnold. Not knowing his penchant for ruining everyone's lives. She could just see the wheels turning in his head.

It wasn't that she was offended. It was just embarrassing for anyone to associate her with romance. Candice wasn't the girl who went on dates, and she wasn't ready to admit that maybe she had thought that night to that restaurant had been exactly that- a date, a date which had gone horribly, horribly wrong. Because Candice wasn't the sort who got to date normal, successful men. (Not that she really thought that Dante Ward was normal.) Still, she was not going to stand for Kurby saying stuff like that. He was not going to get away with it.

"How about I drag Dante home for a snog, and in the mean time I send Dolly St. James a letter confessing your undying love in your hand, hm?" she threatened. Candy left the dishes then, heading back over to the stove. She spooned out a large bowl, and handed it to him. "Or we can eat this stew and we can talk about something other than the string of failed relationships that both of us have left behind, hm?"

She tossed her hair then, and filled her own bowl, breezing past him to sit down on the couch. (He really ought to do something about the lack of table- and sitting at the counter would have drastically reduced the effectiveness of a dramatic exit.)

Kurby's expression went icy as he yanked the bowl away from her, glowering at the woman with all the venom he could muster.  "Was I the one who broke off an engagement, then?" he snapped, eyes narrowing as he slouched back against the wall, holding the bowl in both hands.  "Because I can't recall a moment of it if I was.  Imagine that, me skippin' over all those years of my life."

There was nothing to dump a bucket of snow over a mood like the mention of one of the individuals that, if he had his way, he'd never have to see again.  If Rosheen had been the one to blab to Stevenson, he'd have his sister's head the next time he saw her.  Mentioning it was like casting an Unforgivable straight at him.  He didn't care what issues the former psychologist was wrestling with, nor did he care what she'd been through after losing her job and struggling to find a new direction in her life.  If she was going to bring up the woman who, as far as he was concerned, could remain forever nameless, than the gloves were coming off.

Kurby glared at the younger woman, any interest in eating the dinner she'd prepared disappeared as thoroughly as if he'd used another Vanishing charm.

"Just because you've got problems that you can't bear to deal with doesn't mean that you can go breakin' into my flat just so that you can put off facin' them," he growled at her, teeth clenched.  "Charm yourself a spine and deal with it on your own then, Stevenson.  If I cared enough to listen to the litany about how you mucked up your life for the thousandth time, I would've sent you a goddamned owl." 

His voice dropped as he glowered at her, the muscles tensing in his jaw.  "And I promise you," he added, low and menacing, "that if you say a bleedin' word to anyone on my behalf, I'll do a hell of a lot worse than just tell Ward that you're cryin' yourself to sleep over him.  I've got plenty to deal with without someone like you makin' it worse."

Candy couldn't believe that he would bring Bradley into this. Though Kurby did not know the whole story, he ought to know enough to bring it up. "Yes- well- I might have broken off an engagement, but at least I was man enough to do it instead of letting him string me along the way you let Dolly St. James string you along! Because I knew when enough was enough!"

And then he kept going on- criticizing her, talking about her problems. And she... she hadn't mucked up her life. And she didn't come over here to complain to him about how things had gotten messed up. Candice had been feeling better about it general.

"Did it ever occur to you, Kurby, that some people are just nice. And intend to do nice things for others because it is... well... nice?" she asked, standing up. "I didn't break into your ruddy apartment. I didn't come here to whine about anything! But if you have such... such a problem, with me and with a clean flat then let me fix that for you!"

Anger was not a usual emotion of Candy's. But she had been bottling so much up, and had been trying so hard to be mature, move on, and be happy about things. But when things did finally break the surface, and it all came to a head- her explosions could be nasty. And if Kurby wanted to push all of her buttons at once, she would let him have it. "Fine, how about I leave everything in the condition I found it in!" With that, Candice dropped her bowl of stew on the floor, wincing as it splattered on the clean floor.

She flicked her wand, summoning all of his clean clothes from where she had put them away. She dropped them back into place they were before she had arrived, and then used another spell to dirty them up again. And after a few more short spells, Kurby's flat was back in the condition she had found it in. "There, things are how they were before I got here. I'm sorry that my coming over and cleaning and cooking makes your life so much worse." Then she walked into the kitchen, flicked her wand to vanish the stew, gathered the few things she had brought with her and made her way to the door.

"You really are an insufferable ass, you know that? How many friends have you got, Kurby? Maybe you should think about that before you go around insulting me. Especially when you know that I didn't deserve it. And don't worry- as far as I'm concerned, my life can move on without any contact from any ministry employees- yourself included." And then- instead of apparating away in true wizarding fashion- Candice left his flat, slamming the door behind her as hard as she could.