He was later than he'd expected; grading papers, eating dinner and ripping through his clothing for something that wasn't...well, something that wouldn't get him thrown out had proved useless.

So the stupid white sweater it was, then. He'd managed to find a pair of jeans that didn't have holes worn in them and, with his cloak tucked tightly around his body, he headed into town once he'd locked up the tower.

He hadn't seen Dolly one-on-one in...well, in years. It was still hard to connect her to the books she wrote; until so recently she'd been a girl, a recent Hogwarts graduate. Judy's friendship with the girl had been a long lasting one and he was grateful to Dolly for that; she was one of the few people other than close family to commemorate Judy's death, and even if it was just flowers and a card, it was something.

Snow crunched under his shoes as he made his way through the streets. Georgiana had thrown a tantrum that she wasn't allowed to come along, but he wasn't about to take her to Signature - not to a nightclub.

It felt weird enough that he was go9ing. He wasn't about to have his darling little sister come along too.

He stepped into the enterence hall and immedietly felt out of place as he fumbled and checked his cloak with one of the clerks. The place was fancy - much more so that he'd expected. Bah. Maybe the stupid vest and tie would have been a better idea, but he'd thrown them in the wash.

He realised after trying to orient himself he had no clue where Dolly's private room was, at all - and a quick look around the first floor didn't give him much clue. Wandering back to the front desk, he did his best not to look sheepish and failed.

"I'm, uh, here with Miss St. James," he told the clerk, who looked him up and down in disbelief. Tapendra sighed - as if he didn't feel silly enough. "She has a private room appearently...?" They exchanged blank looks and Tappy sighed again, blushing slightly.

"Will you just tell her Tapendra Trishna is here, please?" he asked, and the young lady shrugged and nodded.

Dolly was entertaining a gaggle of dancers when the front desk girl, Catalina, knocked on the door one of the Signature Girls letting her in after a moment. Dolores lounged on a pile of opulent pillows in shades of crimson, gold, purple, and the richest blue. The room was full of giddy laughter that denoted flowing alcohol and perhaps other substances. She blew on her nails casually as Catalina informed her that she had a guest, or someone pretending to be a guest waiting downstairs. Popping a piece of cheese past her lips she nodded and shooed them all out of the room.

Downstairs Tappy was greeted by a leggy dirty blonde named Sabine; in nothing  a corset, feathers, and heels. She was one of Dolly's favorite and had been gifted the task of ushering the Professor up the winding staircase to Dolly's Suite - giving the novelist just enough time to slip into her dress  and stockings. She flirted outrageously until they arrived at the grand doors of the Arabian Suite, then quickly lead him inside only to leave just as swiftly (giggling as she went). Dolly knew the girls would be atwitter with just what she was getting up to with the dark skinned bearded stranger. They were worse than little old biddies who read about her in Witch Weekly.

When the writer finally emerged from the bedroom she greeted Tapendra with a grand smile and rushed to throw her arms around his neck. It was a heartfelt and exuberant greeting of an old friend - not one many people received from the divine Dolly St. James. She smiled of spice and smoke with just a tinge of perfumed lavender in her hair as she placed a kiss on the smoothest part of Trishna's cheek, "Tappy! Oh it's so good to see you Love. I thought maybe you'd decided to stay in and leave me all on my lonesome". Her voice was warm, playful even against his ear as she hugged his neck tightly. It was hard for her not to give completely over to her memories and the emotion attached to losing his late wife. If Dolly had been any other woman she might have cried, but that just wasn't who Dolores St. James was.

If he wasn't already blushing to the roots of his hair from the giggling of the girls and Sabine's flirting - he was not here on a date, what were they on about? -  way Dolly attached to him and started kissing his cheek sent him blushing the color of his hair. He managed a smile, a nervous one.

"D-don't be silly, Dolly. I wouldn't leave you here without letting you know," he said, entirely too aware she was still clinging to him. He wasn't sure what to do with his arms - but settled for hugging her back, arms looped around her chest and doing his very best to ignore just how soft she was. It was still strange to think of her as...well, this age. She'd been 17 so few years ago, it seemed.

"Sorry for being late," he said, his voice more firm and less nervous sounding - even if the blush was still there. "I got caught up grading papers, and this place is....confusing." He looked around the room curiously, easily able to see over her dark-haired head. "Confusing and opulent. How much money are you spending on this suite?" His smile turned joking - given how much she got from her books she could probably afford to buy the room, let alone rent it. Still, it was probably more than he made in a whole month.

Though she loosed her grip on his neck she didn't let go, simply slid far enough away to get a good look up at his face. The room's golden lighting cast soft shadows over his features, obscuring the color of his cheeks just a bit. She hadn't realized till that moment just how much she missed silly his hairy face. He and Judy had taken care of her at a point when she couldn't take care of herself. It was a memory she blocked out full force except for the kindness and open arms that had waited for her that summer she was 18. Dolly didn't have many people she counted on, that she considered genuinely close friends. Judy had been one, and by extension so had Tappy.

There was a deep rooted fondness for the Professor that Dolly would never admit to in day to day life. It was best not to think about people when it made your heart ache. They were always there though; Judy, Eli, Dominik... they lived in the corners that went untouched. She couldn't let herself dwell on their absence in her life or she would fall apart. Judy had been the one to teach her that, the necessity of compartmentalizing your mind, walling off your heart. Only Daz truly drew close to her now that she was done waiting for Dom. A part of her new inviting Tappy into her physical world was a dangerous choice to make... but looking at him in that moment there was something in her that felt more at ease.

"How are the little Monsters holding up? Rotten business lately, all of it," she gave him a lopsided smile as she finally slipped away from his arms and headed to the room's bar, "Fancy a drink or a smoke? I'm hopeless without one or the other," she laughed a little and dug her cigarette holder from her little black bag as she glanced around the room, "I have no idea anymore. Finn comps me half the time because I bring in such a crowd," lighting her cigarette on the open flame of a lamp she drew in a deep breath, "I'm horrible with managing that sort of thing. S'why I've got two different accountants - just to keep an eye on one another". She kept her voice breezy as she poured herself some fire whiskey and looked for another glass to accommodated Tappy, "Whiskey or would you rather have rum? I'm stocked with a bit of everything". 

He felt a little odd just standing there as she let go of him, and so settled down in one of the orange chairs, crossing his legs at the ankle and stretching out, his long legs ending up jutting under the coffee table.

"The kids? They're..." He trailed off, trying to figure out how to put it. "They're too smart and to stupid for their own good. I try to explain something and half of them want me to get on to the stuff they don't know, and the others don't understand a word I say." Just the mention of it made him sigh and remove his glasses, pinching the bridge of his large nose. "Or they're just outright rebellious - and not the cute 'oh it's just a phase' kind. The 'I have no sense of reality' kind."

He realized he'd gone off a little bit and flushed yet again. "S-sorry. It's been...it's difficult to adjust. But you probably don't want to hear me grumble about the students all night - you'll get that from any other professor you talk to, and Ignan - err, Professor Storm - is better at describing it than I am."

Hesitating when she offered him a drink, he hazarded a polite smile. "Dessert wine would be best, actually, if you have any. I'm, uh, not in a hurry to get really drunk again anytime soon." The only time it was safe to wake up with Ignan was when the older man was just a smashed as you were the night before.

Settling into the chair, he looked around the room some more; it really was quite lovely. "How are things going for you in London?" He asked, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees.

Dolly watched him from half lidded eyes, cigarette left forgotten on the ashtray as she searched for a bottle of wine. She'd go easy on him tonight, but he'd ave to strengthen his tolerance for the hard stuff if they were going to spend any kind of serious time together. She was the sort of woman who was often still drunk when she woke up at noon. Still, maybe it as time to slow down a little. She'd never really had friends who couldn't keep up with her before. Half the time she felt too young to be twenty-five and the rest of the time she just took another shot to avoid thinking about it.

With a glass in either hand she made her way to his chair and perched on the arm, slender legs crossed toward him as she offered up the wine, "Oh to be that young and that stupid again," she grinned a little and shook her head. Sometimes she wondered what would have been different if she went back, if she kept herself from loving Dom so hard for so many years. Then she decided it was pointless to wonder because what was what was and the past couldn't be magically changed. Nudging his knee with her own she ruffled his hair, "I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to know Taps. I promise I'm only half as vapid and self involved as Skeeter and Witch Weekly would have everyone believe".

Tucking a lock of hair behind her ear she gave a vague shrug, smile bemused, "As well as anywhere I suppose, work lets me travel. I like being home in London, it's close to Dazmond and I don't feel so guilty about the hours that Molly and Tabitha have to work for me if we're there. I've fallen absolutely in love with Calavera's in Diagon. I wish you could steal away from the school for my book launch. It's going to be insanely lush". Taking a lengthy sip from her glass she sighed and slumped against him a little, swishing her foot back and forth to some melody in her head, "I do miss traveling though, Paris and Italy; dark skinned men and absolutely scandalous women, London can be a bit dull after all that".

He took the wine and sipped it, not saying anything as she sat on the arm of the chair - but the way he shifted so he was leaning on the opposite arm delayed his quiet discomfort. He'd forgotten how...physical Dolly was.

"I just don't understand it," he said, sipping at the wine again. "Even Cyhiraee does it - I thought I'd raised her better than...well, than that." He looked sulky for a moment; his little princess being a troublemaker was something he hadn't even considered before her first year at Hogwarts. But then again, she was hardly a troublemaker when compared to the other 50% of the school.

He blinked in honest surprise as she ruffled his hair, eyes going half-lidded for a moment before he smiled broadly. "I didn't mean you're vapid, Dolly. You're not - just that, well. Being a professor isn't exactly glamorous - but I suppose you get enough of that, too."

Leaning against the arm again, he casually kicked his shoes off as he spoke, flexing his toes. "It's probably for the best that I can't got o your launch. I'd look silly at one of those parties - I don't know how to behave and I'd look like a beanpole - besides," he gestures to the jeans and sweater he wore, "This is some of the nicest stuff I've got to wear - the other stuff is that damn suit-and-tie I wear for teaching." He looked at her appearance and flushed, considering her dress emphasized her...curves. "I look pretty undressed compared to you here. At your book signing I'd look like I wandered into the wrong building." He frowned down at the wine. "And on top of that...how many of the guests are rich purebloods?" His tone completed the thought for him. "They might throw me out regardless of how well I'm dressed."

She shifted and he adjusted his posture again, this time unconsciously leaning into her leg. "London's not that dull. The muggles have a couple of interesting places." He considered this. "Well, I think they're interesting, anyway."

Dolly's fingers rested on his shoulder as she gave a little laugh, "Oh Tappy, don't tell me you've already forgotten what her mother was like when we were in school - Salazar's knickers! The fact she hasn't broken into the potions pantry and absconded with tres valuable and rare ingredients for her own dark designs is a miracle". Moving her hand in a slow trail across his back she lightly touched his ginger tinted hair again before draining her glass and grinning down at him.

"To be completely fair darling, I doubt people would look at you much - I tend to suck up all the oxygen in a room if you hadn't noticed," she nudged him with her knee again, lightly scratching his scalp with her nails, "of course if you want to look more trendy you should just place yourself in my very capable hands. I like playing dress up," she leaned in close her breath warm and smelling sweetly of wine as she bumped him with her nose, "Twenty minutes with me and you'd be as stylish as any of my former preening peacock boyfriends. I have a serious eye for fashion".

She pulled back a little, lifting her wand from the coffee table and summed the wine bottle. He was so silly thinking one couldn't get very drunk on wine. "You worry too much anyway, if you managed to make it you'd be my special guest and it would take an unfathomable idiot to try and ruin my gala. Just because I never did anything with it doesn't mean I don't still know how to throw a damn strong hex," she grinned down at him a little, her nose wrinkling ever so slightly.

"Of course I understand your hesitation. Besides, it will be a very late night, and I don't think you could stomach me for forty-eight hours straight. I'll be at Hogwarts the next night anyway, doing a signing for the we witchlings," reaching for the bottle of wine the slick material of her dress slid along the arm of the chair and without much effort Dolly found herself in the middle of Trishna's lap, leaving the poor professor with a lap full of lush lady parts to make him blush and sputter even more.

"Judy...Cyhirae hasn't been much like her, so far. I-" he fell silent, realizing he was about to say I'm glad. He...was, really. Judy had been so - he loved her, he really did. But she had been headstrong and difficult to get along with for the other 99% of the world. Underneath her frosty exterior she was a passionate, powerful woman, but...

He didn't want Cyhirae to grow up to be like her. Judy had been an unhappy woman, through and through. He'd done his best to make her happy, to try and help her....but she was always upset about something, always annoyed by someone. He didn't want his daughter to be like that.

The slightly introspective look on his face as he thought was interrupted as Dolly ran her fingers along his neck and the base of his head. He arched his neck in surprise and looked up at her in confusion, but as she kept talking normally, he hesitated and mustered a response. "I, uh, don't think I'd do trendy well, but if you had some advice...?" he hazarded. "And I'd be a good peacock - if I was a woman. Dull and uninteresting is a look I can pull off effortlessly."

He drank deeply from the wine glass, finishing it off. "I just don't....I'm not fond of that crowd. You know that." He smiled at her, his confusion evident in his expression. "You mentioned that  in your letter - what was it you wanted too-" He got cut off as...she arrived in his lap quite suddenly.

"Ah, err," he said, really not sure what to do with his hands - he settled for putting on on her shoulder to steady her. "Are you alright?"

Dolly watched as someting flickered across is face; was it worry or was it guilt? There was no denying that most women would be better off not being like Judy. She had always been good to Dolly - but Dolly had also seen the ugly side of her temper when something got under the other woman's skin. Dolly herself was that way in many regards. If there were people who took a good long hard look at her life Dolly was not a particularly happy or fufilled person in the way... normal women were.

She didn't want children, she didn't coo or fuss over babies, she'd have traded a toddler for a gin and tonic any day of the week. She didn't want a family and home. She wanted to be a free spirit and chase adventures. The difference between Dolly and Judy was Dolly knew from a young age she wouldn't be any good to anyone as a mother - so she'd never settled down long enough to let anyone think about marriage.

Sitting in the middle of his lap, wine bottle in one hand, she laughed, and shook her dark hair from her eyes, "skirt's a bit slippery s'all. I'm rather comfortable but if you want me to move," she laughed again looking over her shoulder at him. He looked too uncomfortable to torture him like that, so she slid from his lap and perched again on the arm of the chair, though this time she did drape her legs over his as she kicked off her heels.

Arching a well sculpted eyebrow at him she tilted her head to one side as she poured him another glass, "Ginger hair, beard, killer complexion and you think you could be a dull and dreary female peacock? I know women who would sell their soul and their first born for that coloring," an amused smile twitched on her lips as she looked at him from behind her glass. "All you need is a little coaching - which I happen to be fabulous at". Dolly did love dress up.

He shifted his legs as she got off him, putting up no protest as she laid her legs across his - in fact he seemed to relax. He happily let her refill his glass, drinking deeply as she spoke. When she finished, he grunted.

"I have a feeling any 'coaching' you gave me would have to involve you standing behind me hitting me with a shock spell whenever I got onto the subject of computers, or...anything science. Or use the wrong slang, or - well." He drank more wine. "It'd be a project, no matter how fabulous you are at it, Dolly."

Placing his glass on the coffee table, he was vaguely aware he was starting to feel a bit warm from the drink. Focusing, he looked back to her. "Anyway. You mentioned in your letter that you had some questions about the dance?"

Draining her glass again she set it aside. Wine worked differently on her than other alcohol. It was slow but when it took hold it made her head swim almost instantly. there was no slipping into a wine drunk. She was sober and then she was drunk; that was how it worked. She reached out again and twirled a finger through his hair, "Such a down trodden tone. I thought men your age gave up the hopeless battle of trying to please people eons ago," she leaned down a little and bumped his cheek with her nose, "Life coaching is about bringing out the best in you; I'm a genius when it comes to framing the best pieces of everyone else".

She giggled a little then and looked down at herself, sitting back just enough to give a little shimmy, "I had lots of practice learning to frame the best parts of myself," she winked at him as she crossed her ankles letting out a long sigh. It was true, she'd learned at an early age which parts of herself were most appealing to people and chose to heighten them to the point it was almost comical, she was Dolly St. James playing at being Dolly St. James. "I don't know so much that it's a question as needing help getting an idea of social navigation. I already have a half formed idea of who to avoid - Reid for one, we had a run in at Bombay's dinner party. Apparently she doesn't like when women kiss her ex-husband hello," Dolly's laugh then was damn near gleeful as she remembered the lovely shade of green Aileen had turned at the dinner table.

Flicking her hair from her eyes she summoned her bag and started digging for a cigarette before offering Tappy one, "Anyway, between my history with Bombay, the way Coma Boy looks down his nose at me, and Aileen shooting daggers at me," again she giggled, just a little around the cigarette between her lips as she dug for a lighter, "what I really need is a tres hunky escort. Someone tall, lanky, wears glasses...kind of beard-y". Her tone was playful as she stopped her fire search long enough to reach out and tug on his whiskers a little, "I don't suppose you know any dashing gentlemen that might fit the bill? Someone who wouldn't tattle on a naughty Slytherin for sneaking nips from a hip flask to keep from strangling haggard looking blondes who teach Ancient Runes?"

He made a faint 'mm,' sound as she threaded her fingers through his hair, his eyes going half-lidded. "Hah! Sadly, I'm the hopelessly optomistic type," he said, slumping further into the chair. "Besides...I don't like when people are upset. It just..." he shrugged. "It gets under my skin, I guess."

The shimmy didn't help his mood, however, aside from his eyes bugging out for a moment as she...jiggled. He seemed realize he was staring, and quickly found something else to look at - her feet became his object of focus. "Professor Reid is a...very capable woman," he hazarded. He didn't know her well, at all; but from what he'd gathered she was strict, good at runes and...strict. He gave Dolly a look for her laugh. "Making people jealous isn't nice, Dolly. You shouldn't do it," he chided, in much the same tone as he'd have told one of his daughters to improve their grades or clean their room. He gave her a strict look for a few seconds before he gave up and grinned.

He shook his head no to the cigarette, but pulled his wand out and lit hers as she spoke. He blinked in surprise as she tugged at his beard, reaching up and drumming his fingers on her lower thigh as he thought. "I don't know, I could do most of that, but I'd fall short on the 'dashing' bit. I'm more in the 'standing still' category." He chuckled, his laugh a deep rumble. "I could do my best, I suppose. Of course, Ignan could always grow a beard and he'd fit your description as well as I do.."

Dolly pouted a little as he chided her, fully bottom lip protruding exaggeratedly, "Taps, you can't get mad at me for making people jealous," she walked her fingers up the center of his chest, leaning closer to him as she grinned playfully, "I do that just walking down the street". The sad thing about her statement was that it was really only half a joke. Dolly had a healthy ego, but it was also well deserved. She played it up for the cameras and the reporters but there were elements of truth to it all.

"Besides, I didn't do it on purpose. Oz and I are very good friends... or we were I don't see much of him anymore," she said it so effortlessly as though it didn't matter. Well, really, it didn't; she knew he used her to keep his name in the paper, to have something to lord over the boys down at the Ministry. There was no hard feelings between them. He'd served his purpose in making Dom jealous and now... well now she didn't much care if Dom was bothered by who she was sleeping with. Of course that might have been because she knew he was most bothered by Kurby. The idea almost made her giggle again, but she contained herself, somehow.

"I believe you sell yourself very short Love. Judy was very picky about everything and that included boys. You had to have done something to wow her," there was a note of teasing to her voice as she slid into his lap again, curling up like a kitten, though she held the hand with the cigarette away from them as her legs folded against the side of the chair, "I think you're far to critical of yourself Taps. Given half the chance you could charm any one of those girls eavesdropping at the door right out of their corset and feathers. There is something to be said for the strong silent type, especially ones with woolly faces," her eyes were a little glassy, the mix of whatever she'd had before he showed up and the wine coursing through her system and making her giddy as she scratched his beard and brushed the tip of his nose with hers. Drunk Dolly had no sense of personal boundaries...then again sober Dolly only had a vague respect for them.

The blush was back. Damn. He was aware he probably looked silly and gawkish, the way he blinked stupidly when she touched him; but he wasn't really able to control his expression around...well, in situations like these.

"Wh-" Tapendra looked at her, even more befuddled, as she plopped into his lap again - her grinning face suddenly pressed against his. His blue eyes swiveled frantically in the their sockets, his mind trying to process what she was doing.

The warm fuzyness of the wine helped, of course, and he decided that since she hadn't kissed him it was...ok. Nice, in fact. She was warm and soft and familiar; he wrapped an arm loosely around her back, following the arm of the chair. He closed his eyes as she mentioned Judy; just the fact he was within 5 feet of Dolly would have been enough to make Judy strangle her young friend.

"Judy and I...we..." It was hard to describe why she'd gone for him; he wasn't sure. He knew why he'd come to love her; she'd represented stability and direction and had been a fortress of strength when his life had fallen into chaos, when he'd been lost and unable to ground himself.

He looked at Dolly again, his expression strangely mixed; melancholy and introspective. "I don't think she picked me for...my looks or anything. It was just..." He sighed. "She was there when no one else could...help me, I guess." He smiled sadly. "And now she's gone."