Ackerly had not had a good weekend, and today was not going to be a good Monday. His ex-wife, Isabel, whom he was still desperately (albeit secretly) in love with had married her up until yesterday fiance, Joshua Barrington. Josh was nothing more than a muggle businessman- he wasn't what Isabel wanted, Ackerly was sure of it. But, he was also sure of the fact that Josh treated her better than he ever could, and that the man was a better father. So Ackerly had bowed out, and allowed them to wed in peace. He had even attended, just to show his support.

But what Ackerly had not expected was the fact that his two and a half year old daughter- Lucinda- was going to end up becoming his responsibility while his ex wife and her new husband were on their two week honeymoon. Ackerly had never changed a diaper in his life, nor had he dealt directly with the babies. That had been what his wife was for. He came home, spent a few minutes with the kids, slept with his wife (when she was willing) and then went to bed. The auror was not what one would call a family man. It wasn't in his blood for whatever reasons. He loved his wife, he cared about his kids, but the job had always been and probably always would be more important.

He assumed that, at the very least, his mother and father would be able to keep her while he was at work. Ackerly had even decided he would make it a point to come home at a reasonable hour for the next weeks, just to prove to his wife that he was a capable father. Unfortunately for Ackerly, though, it was his mother and father's wedding anniversary. They had taken a holiday. The two of them were not going to be back until Wednesday afternoon. That meant he had three days to deal with the baby by himself all day. Which meant bringing Lucinda into the office if he could not find a suitable sitter.

And bring Lucinda into the office was exactly what he had done today. Ackerly had assumed that the baby would need little attention. A bottle, and a blanket and she should nap fine. He had even brought with them her favorite doll. Ackerly had set up a wooden playpen near his desk and set to his case files.

The baby was being loud, so he shushed her. But she wouldn't shush. The baby had a dirty diaper, so he had changed it, only to find it wet again. There was no way he could focus while the thing was around. Finally, shortly after lunch, the baby had fallen asleep. It was quiet. He could work. But, after about two hours of silence, Ackerly began to wonder why on earth the baby had been quiet for so long. He peered at the playpen, and it took a couple of moments for it to register that the gate was open and baby Lucinda was not in it.

"Damnit," he cursed under his breath, standing up to look around. He caught sight of her heading for the toilets, and jumped up, running after her. Unfortunately for Ackerly, when baby Lucinda saw him coming, she laughed and giggled- and ran in the other direction. Clearly the toddler thought that her daddy was finally going to play a fun game with her. Ackerly, however, was not having fun. "Come back here you little stink!" he snapped loudly, chasing after her- only to be foiled by an unfortunate spot of owl droppings on the floor. The soles of his shoes slipped, and he tumbled to the ground, getting wrapped up in his scarlet robes. Ackerly heard the baby laugh, and muttered as he worked to right his robes and free his head of darkness. "SOMEBODY CATCH THE BABY!" he yelled through the fabric.

They kept him waiting.

They always did, Gwydion knew. It was their little game. Make perfectly clear who was in charge and who had to fall to his knees if he wanted to live a quiet, peaceful life.

Gwydion did not set particular value on quiet and peaceful. He preferred exciting and fun, even if the excitement was tinged with danger and the fun took on a note of Schadenfreude. Not that he was malicious per se – but playing games with the ministry was a pastime Gwydion could never resist. It was only fair, he supposed, that they should take revenge by needlessly calling him in and, when he was there, keeping him waiting for hours.

They never learned.

Letting someone like Gwydion wait longer than fifteen minutes in an uncomfortable little chair on the corridor outside the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office was simply asking for trouble. Really, did they expect him to stay there like a petrified schoolboy? No, they just had to count on him growing impatient, getting up to stretch after the uncomfortable position he had been forced to maintain for too long, and consequently getting distracted by something – anything – that went by.

In this case it had been a trolley with coffee and pumpkin juice and little snacks that a house elf pushed past Gwydion. Quickly checking his pockets and finding a few knuts, Gwydion jumped up and ran after the elf. However, once he had purchased his cinnamon roll, he thought for a second and then shook his head, deciding that since he was here he could just as well have a look around the ministry. Might come in handy one day to know where everything was.

He strolled around for the next twenty minutes, chewing his roll, blissfully undisturbed by anybody. They all seemed to think he belonged here – which, in a sense, was true; Gwydion had been summoned for questioning so often he might as well be assigned his own office. In one office, he saw a man moving heavy plants around, and he stopped for a moment and considered offering his help, but then a young woman, obviously a stranger, addressed him and asked for the way to the Auror Office, and remembering that he had just passed that only a few minutes ago, Gwydion offered to lead her there.

When the woman had disappeared into one of the office doors, Gwydion pondered whether he should get back to the MoMAO, where Hatfield was probably already waiting for him (fuming, probably, thought Gwydion, and the thought brought a delighted smile to his face) – and then he saw the most peculiar thing: a toddler on the run, giggling madly, her brown locks (for it was evident that it was a little girl) bobbing wildly as she stormed down the corridor, her little feet stomping the ground while her diaper-clad behind waggled from side to side and her round baby arms flailed about as if she were trying to swim through the air in order to quicken her escape.

She was heading straight towards him. When Gwydion heard the yell "SOMEBODY CATCH THE BABY!", he had already opened his arms and caught the little girl. In one smooth motion, he lifted her off the ground and swung her around in a circle, thus taking part in her game rather than cutting it short, as he would have done had he simply stopped her.

“I say!” he said, grinning widely at the toddler in his arms. “You are quite young for an Auror, aren´t you? Have you been chasing a criminal?”

He set her down, squatted down next to her and looked her in the eyes.

“What do you think? Shall we go look what is under that pile of robes over there?”

Gently taking her hand, he walked over to the man huddled on the floor and stretched out his free hand to help him up.

“Hey Mister. Man, she really beat you up, eh? Kids nowadays, they´ll knock you down for a lollipop…”
He turned to the little girl.

“Didn´t even get your lollipop, I see. Lucky I got a spare one.”

Reaching into the inner pocket of his cream-coloured suit, Gwydion produced a red-and-white-striped lollipop and handed it to the child with a flourish.

OOC: I can edit anything, of course, just let me know.

Ackerly was glad for the hand up, readjusting his robes and dusting himself off. He had a feeling that he would certainly have a few bruises, but at least his daughter had been stopped and she wasn't heading off for the toilets (again). After finding himself more or less composed, he studied that man who had found his daughter, and when he produced the sucker Ackerly arched an eyebrow.

The Auror was no stranger to this man. He was in and out of the ministry on a regular basis, and although he was known to be a harmless toymaker for the most part- he did not trust any strange man, who had some criminal tendencies, to give his little girl a sucker. Besides, the last thing that Lucinda needed was sugar- given her most recent display. He took the sucker from the toddler, and handed it back to the man. "I appreciate the offer," he said, "but the last thing Lucy needs is a sucker." That was the nice way to go about it. the mean way to go about it would have been to claim the sucker might have been poisoned or dangerous. Ackerly didn't have any fight in him at the moment."

He picked up Lucinda, and held her tightly in his arms. He gave her a very stern look. "You do not run away like that again," he told her. Ackerly was not surprised as the wide eyes and the lip tremble. "And by Rowena Ravenclaw you better not cry." Model father? Ackerly Fox was anything but.

But naturally the toddler ignored him and began to whimper. Ackerly groaned. "I will be so glad when your mother is back. You're driving me crazy!" He couldn't believe that he had ever had children. He was never having anymore. They were annoying. They were dirty, they smelled, they were loud, and they were distracting. He had work to do- and it was hard to get that work done with a screaming baby in the office. If he wasn't careful, he'd get sent home. Ackerly couldn't afford to miss the work. His cases were important.

"I appreciate your catching her. She's faster than I expected. And damned sneaky, too." Ackerly pressed an awkward kiss to her cheek when she whined again, hoping that some display of affection might be comforting. This was what Isabel was for. But she just had to go on her honeymoon and leave him stuck with the baby.

„Ah, too much sugar, I understand.“

Gwydion nodded wisely, as if he really understood. The truth was, he could see no problem with a sugar rush, as long as the child experiencing it wasn´t supposed to go to sleep anytime soon. The thought that anyone would suspect him of poisoning a child never even crossed his mind. He would have been very shocked indeed if he knew that that was what was going through Ackerley´s mind.

He watched the interaction between father and daughter silently, with a growing sense of pity for the small child. Gwydion did not have children (to his knowledge), but he was fond of them. He could spend hours playing hide and seek or have a tea party with dolls. He was a toymaker, after all. An old girlfriend had once asked him why he didn´t have kids of his own, implying that he would be a very good father. Gwydion agreed, he thought he would make a good father indeed, but the problem was that he would also make a bad husband. Not because he didn´t treat women well, but because few women liked a life on the road, even less if they had to drag along a bunch of kids in addition (something that Gwydion himself wouldn´t mind at all). And for him, settling down was not an option. He was far too restless for that.

So he played with his friends´ children, took them on fairs and to the theatre, organized birthday parties and babysat them when their parents needed some time out, and was perfectly content with that.

“You might want to take her outside a little. Hogsmeade is covered in snow, for instance – you can be there and back in half an hour if you apparate, plenty of time to build a snow fort and have a snowball fight. Wouldn´t that be fun? And if that doesn´t make her want to rest for a while, I don´t know what will.”

Gwydion often gave unasked for advice. He just couldn´t help it. It would be silly really to refrain from sharing what he considered a good idea just to spare somebody´s feelings; especially since Gwydion never understood why it would hurt anyone´s feelings to be given a small piece of free advice in the first place. He surely didn´t mind when others did.

Ackerly arched an eyebrow when the strange man suggested that he take Lucinda outside to play. He was her father- he knew how to take care of, and dragging her off to Hogsmeade to pay in the cold, and the snow, was not something that was good for her. If Isabel came back from her honeymoon and their little girl had a cold, she would have his head- and he rather liked his head where it was- on his shoulders.

"The advice is duly noted," he said flatly. "Though in case you have not noticed- I am at work. I cannot just take a play-break to drag my girl to Hogsmeade. I have a lot of work to do. Besides, she needs to learn how to sit down and behave. Her brother was never this rambunctious." Not that Ackerly remembered. Then again, he really only saw Baxter when he was off work, and what Baxter did throughout the day was never his concern. But when he had been home for that year or so when the Ministry fell to darkness, Baxter had been very well behaved.

Then again, Baxter was like a miniature clone of himself. Lucinda had all of her mother's qualities, and Isabel had always been independent and stubborn. Apparently Ackerly was out of practice dealing with those specific behaviors.

"She just woke up from a nap, anyway," he told the stranger. Thank Godric it was only two more days and he could dump her at his parents house while he was at the office. He really needed a baby sitter. Ackerly wondered idly if Georgianne would be up for keeping an eye on his muchkin through the day. Was she good with children? He wasn't sure, but the welcome witch would probably be glad to help him out... If only the shrink was still here. She was definitely the sort who wouldn't mind keeping an eye on an obnoxious toddler.