9pm | Continuing from this thread

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"Professor Trishna, have you some time to join me in the castle kitchens?

Ignan's voice had been quite unexpected and - though Ignan hadn't been able to see it - it had woken Tapendra  up from a light nap. He'd been snoring away at his desk, face plastered on a star catalouge and his arms pushed straight out in front of him.

He woke with a grunt and at first he thought he'd dreamed it. Peeling the book he'd fallen asleep on off his face, he looked around the room, confused; then his stomach decided to remind him he'd skipped dinner.  Suddenly the kitchens sounded like a good idea, dream or no.

His office and tower locked, he traversed the castle to the kitchens, bare feet padding softly on the cold stone. While as a student the kitchens had never been a frequent stop, he'd taken this path often since the beginning of Janurary; waking up at 10am meant he missed breakfast quite often, and so the elves had come to recognise him as the man who wandered in late and poured sugar on everything.

Tickling the pear on the portrait that marked the entrance to the kitchens, he stepped through, rubbing his temple. Hed clearly had a long day; bags under his eyes and his tostled hair gave away his need to - and lack of - sleep. He'd changed into old jeans and a t-shirt so his teaching attire would be clean for tonight's classes.

The kitchens were bright, warm and above all they smelled divine. Stomach fully upset, he looked around and did indeed saw Ignan - and the mustached man from earlier. Surprised Ignan was out of the hut - and actually here - he headed over, feeling a little underdressed yet again.

"Ignan, I thought - Tulojow let you go already?" he asked, head cocked to the side as he considered things - then he smiled. "Or did you give her the slip?"

"Her cooking could kill though - we knew she was only trying to repay us, but -." Ignan stopped short of remembering an incident in Poland with an unfortunate cook who insisted on trying to feed them both in return for a favour. He had spotted the familiar lanky form of his unlikely friend and colleague, Professor Trishna, stumbling through the door in his favoured Muggle attire. Ignan was trying to stop himself from giving the longer, lingering disapproving looks he had previously - especially to Tappy's favoured lack of footwear.

"Ignan, I thought - Tulojow let you go already?" Tapendra asked, head cocked to the side. "Or did you give her the slip?"

"Whatever makes you think I'd do such a dishonest thing?" Ignan asked with a smirk plastered all over his inebriated face. The colour that had drained so quickly from him earlier that afternoon had returned to his naturally pale skin, and now flushed his cheeks ever so slightly with the heat and the drink.

"I believe you have met our new Charms Professor, Georg Kirchlehner earlier?" He gestured to Georg beside him. "Georg, this is Tapendra Trishna, Professor of Astronomy, and perhaps the only member of staff who is able, and does, watch my back.... when I'm not able to." He gave a weird sort of chuckle, both of tiredness and alcohol, but also of old memories resurfacing from his younger days.

"I understand you gave Georg the bottle to bring to the hut. Only we felt bad for drinking it all..." He glanced at Georg, "Or perhaps at least I felt sorry for drinking it all with Georg, but given the circumstances it was entirely appropriate to prevent temporary insanity being cooped up in there. So here, let me return the favour, especially since you didn't leave me bleeding to death out on Hogsmeade's village green."

He picked up the whiskey bottle with his good hand, and bumped it back down on the table as if to emphasize the gesture. There were already a small collection of glasses on the table, beside the plates of food the house elves had brought forth based on their intricate observation of the eating habits of the inhabitants of the castle - only they hadn't got the measure of Georg yet, given his recent arrival, so had quizzed him on his preferences politely.

"Can we expel Winifred for needless hysteria?" Ignan asked, picking up some cheese to eat with his good hand. "Or is that too optimistic?"

Tapendra smiled genuinely, crossing his arms. "Pattern recognition and deductive reasoning," he said, sitting at the table across from the two of them, one leg crossed underneath him.

He and Georg shook hands, and Tapendra was glad to see a name attached to him - he'd just dubbed him Mustache until now. "Well met, sir - call me Tappy or Trishna, either one works," Tapendra said, flashing him a smile. Georg seemed to be politely measuring him up, but the handshake was genuine and so was the lopsided smile.

"Georg Kirchlehner. Just Georg will do, though if you'd like to address me by my full title you could," Georg said, slapping Tappy on the upper arm in a friendly way.  "And that's genuine praise, coming from Ignan," Georg told Tappy, laughing - but his tone was serious. "Not to be taken lightly! Didn't know you'd taken a liking to the bookish, Ignan," he added. Tapendra was too busy being surprised at Ignan's mood to really think about Georg's words.

Seeing the alcohol, Tapendra waved a hand dismissively. "Don't worry! That was the point, when I sent it. I had thought you'd need it more than I would." He laughed, eying the new bottle with a kind of hunger. He was handed a glass by the house elves, who'd come by to give him a plate of food - most of which was sugary in nature.

"Good god, man, how have you still got your teeth?" Georg asked, as he filled his own glass again. Tapendra, who'd grabbed an eclair and was busy eating it as quickly and carefully as he could, shrugged.

"Luck, I think," he said, as he took the bottle from Georg and filled his glass to the brim; then he gulped it all down, draining it in one go. Georg looked impressed, his eyebrows raising.

Tappy was filling his glass again as Ignan mentioned Winnie, and he paused. For some reason, Winnie was hard to stay mad at; he felt a bit sorry for her, now that he'd stepped away from the issue for a bit. Yes, she was hysterical; but the girl clearly needed some sort of help. He just didn't know what. Sighing, he put the bottle aside.

"Expulsion is a bit too extreme," he said. "Even if she did make up a lot of what happened in her head. She seems to have decided that you started the whole lesson just so you could kill all the students, and seems to think that I'm out to get her, too. I can understand a student being scared of you - no offence meant," he added as Georg laughed loudly, "But I...I try to be tolerant and fair and nice and all that." He downed another glass.

"She's going to write off to her Auror uncle. Tell him you and I are horrible murderers."

"Expulsion is a bit too extreme, even if she did make up a lot of what happened in her head. She seems to have decided that you started the whole lesson just so you could kill all the students, and seems to think that I'm out to get her, too. I can understand a student being scared of you - no offense meant," Tappy explained. Georg laughed loudly, beside them both, and Ignan gave an amused 'hurrumph'
"But I...I try to be tolerant and fair and nice and all that."

"Well, one of us has to." Ignan replied as Tappy drank his whiskey like a very thirsty man.

"She's going to write off to her Auror uncle. Tell him you and I are horrible murderers."

"I look forward to the howlers." Ignan responded with humour. He knew in the back of his mind he was going to feel absolutely horrendous the following day, but he didn't really care as he had no more classes to teach until Monday, given tomorrow was Friday. He would try not to have to submit to returning to the hospital hut with Tulojow to keep a beady eye on him... or her eagle, he wasn't sure which was worse for the beady eye watching.

"I tell you I've had some classics - its almost sad they disintegrate so easily after sending their message." He told Georg more than the benefit of Tappy, who had no doubt seen them amongst Ignan's post in the morning from parents who had heard things from their students. The majority of students who felt he treated them unfairly also begged their parents not to write to him to save them from the embarrassment and potential return from their feared Professor.

He shifted his sling around his neck again, still getting used to the dead weight hanging around it, and scowled at his arm, thinking it was taking far too long for his short patience to heal and become fully functional again. It might well be a little time until it did, and then it would be irritatingly prone to misbehaving. Still, it could have been worse, and his wand hand.

"I suspect Noriko Wakahisa has gone to ground." Ignan asked more seriously, "I think I gave her a modicum of praise at not fainting before I splinched, which is rare enough with that girl anyhow, without following it up by leaving her my arm to hold." He shook his head. 

Tappy drained his glass more slowly this time and nodded, glumly. "I can't say I feel the same about my howlers," he said, smiling vaguely. "There's only so many time you can get called racial slurs before it puts you in a bad mood. Yours are probably far more entertaining." He grinned, in slightly nasty way. "Though we could have a contest; see who wins for 'most ignorant parents'."

Next to Ignan, Georg laughed. "I look forward to my own, then," he said. "If what Ignan here has told me, the first years especially need less hand-holding. They're absolutely stunned that magic might be dangerous." He made a odd sound; halfway between a laugh and a scoff. "Finest magic school in the world indeed!"

Tapendra nodded, vaguely; he certainly didn't want his daughter hurt in her classes, but he'd gotten hurt plenty of times during classes as boy - anything from exploding cauldrons full of burning potions and misdirected stunning spells to dropping a crystal ball on his foot.

"I haven't had the time to check on Wakahisa. Morgan took her to the counselor, so I hope she hasn't...well, hasn't dropped dead from terror." Tapendra shrugged. "If she'd not in classes by Tuesday I'll go talk to him. Though I may excuse her from mine - don't think she'd handle the next lesson well."

Refilling his glass again, he blinked twice and then smiled suddenly. "Enough about students! I've had enough of them for the day and I still have to teach Olivier and her bunch tonight. You two know each other, I'm assuming?"

"I haven't had the time to check on Wakahisa." Tapendra explained. "Morgan took her to the counselor, so I hope she hasn't...well, hasn't dropped dead from terror. If she'd not in classes by Tuesday I'll go talk to him. Though I may excuse her from mine - don't think she'd handle the next lesson well."

"I think you've probably done enough for today." Ignan told Tappy thoughtfully, pushing his plate aside and wiping his fingers on the proffered napkin from a house elf, uttering thanks.

"Enough about students! I've had enough of them for the day and I still have to teach Olivier and her bunch tonight. You two know each other, I'm assuming?"

Ignan exchanged a look with Georg.
"You could say that." He told Tapendra and shrugged. "Though we haven't seen each other in, what was it, twenty-two years?" His gaze flicked back to Georg to confirm that was as he said in the hospital hut.
"He's awful and manages to keep his looks, and I'm a grumpy old man." Ignan propped his elbow on the table and rested his chin on his the palm of his good hand.
"We met thirty-two years ago, 1997, in a traveller's hostel in Moscow. There was one you could guarantee everyone would be at if they were going that way on their route. We shared a room, realised we were both going the same way and ended up going the same way for a decade, and then opposite ways for two, typically."

He frowned and turned his gaze from Tapendra back to Georg.
"Have you been back to the old place in the last few years? I heard it had changed hands a couple of times and gone downhill. Pity really. We did always joke about running somewhere like that when we got too old to worry the roads ourselves."

"Aye, two decades. And Ignan's only gotten more grumpy and more bald with the passage of time." Georg figured the younger man didn't need to know details of why their reunion had taken so long.

"And what Ignan says is true!  I think we went in circles for most of it, too - sometimes stopped altogether. How long did we spend in Moscow in total? Got to be more than two years." He turned his michevious grin on Tappy. "You wouldn't believe the things he got up to when he was younger - the skirts just fell off for ol' Iggy Storm." He didn't seem to notice how carefully waxen the Astronomy professor's expression had gone at that, as Tappy tried to imagine this and utterly failed.

He had sat back casually and was picking his teeth as the house elves took their plates away; Tapendra still had his and was finding his eclairs really interesting. "No, I haven't; spent the last 10 years of my travels in Asia. Shall have to go back sometime, however; give the new management a few pointers, perhaps."

Good Merlin! He hadn't heard that nickname applied to himself for an extremely long time. Hearing Georg trip it off his tongue as easily as if it were the eighties again was a bit weird, but Ignan let him - after all, he wasn't in the best of states to argue over small details.

"Mm." Ignan agreed, and nodded, then caught sight of Tappy's face.
"What are you looking so amazed at? I've not always been white haired and single." The older wizard snapped at the younger, a mixture of irritation and a little uncomfortable about talking about his former dating days.

"Besides, I do believe the girls used to quote 'Georg... kissed the girls and made them cry, ' as per the old rhyme." He raised his eyebrows in challenge to Georg.
"I recall a time - oddly it was in Moscow too - where your lady for the night woke up screaming." He looked away to Tappy smugly. "Was partly because I'd transfigured Georg's nose to look like an elephant's trunk while they were sleeping... but only partly."

Tappy flushed under the look Ignan gave him and murmured a weak apology, clutching his eclair in a vaguely defensive stance. Georg was mildly amused to see the tall man was doing his best to appear small, apparently without realizing it.

"Sorry," came the murmur. "Just - just don't know what you looked like when you were young, so-" Tappy cut himself off and wisely shut up, glad when Ignan turned to Georg. He smiled shyly, not sure if it was alright for him to laugh.

"Oh, come off it, Nanners," Georg said to Ignan, and Tappy choked loudly on his dinner. Georg pulled his wand and blasted the younger professor with a air-passage clearing spell, rather non-chalantly. "He doesn't know all of your dirty secrets, it's bound t' surprise him."

"Was partly because I'd transfigured Georg's nose to look like an elephant's trunk while they were sleeping... but only partly."

"What, did you transfigure his, um..." Tappy hated it when his tongue ran ahead of his brain, and he turned bright red - but couldn't hide a slight snicker at the thought. Georg affirmed his assumption with a exaggerated 'hrrmph'.

"Better than the time your lady of the night stole all of your clothes and you woke up wearing only her knickers," was Georg's reply. "At least mine liked me up until then! And we didn't have to chase her down because she'd swiped our money."

"Better than the time your lady of the night stole all of your clothes and you woke up wearing only her knickers," was Georg's reply. "At least mine liked me up until then! And we didn't have to chase her down because she'd swiped our money."

"Merlin, I'd forgotten about that on purpose." Ignan winced. "I wanted to do more than chase her down after that." Then he caught sight of Tappy's face and sought to clarify "I mean in revenge - take your mind out of the bloody gutter Trishna."

The three of them shared an amused snigger.

"Oh dear, and they were pink silk." Ignan recalled out loud, and applied his right hand to his face in shame.
"No, no, we must stop now, otherwise Tapendra will believe we are not half the men we are." Ignan told Georg. The two of them shared a moment, and then, Ignan realising that could be misconstrued as another reference to the size of one's anatomy, spluttered and laughed genuinely, a grin breaking out on his lined face.

"Uh, I need another drink. To hell with how I wake up feeling tomorrow." He gestured for the bottle back from Tappy, and poured another, offering the bottle to Georg after.

"As for imagining us younger, you used to keep a lot of photographs, Georg. I've made painful effort to keep mine well away from inquisitive students. Its for the best, you know."

The mental image was both hilarious and slightly off putting; Tappy carefully shoved his plate aside and gave the bottle up.

"Be careful with drinking too much, Ignan," he said carefully. "After you've given her the slip the last thing you want is to have to throw yourself on Madam Nagde's mercy..."

Still, he did nothing beyond that, and after Georg had topped his glass up, Tappy did the same and put the bottle down.

"As for imagining us younger, you used to keep a lot of photographs, Georg. I've made painful effort to keep mine well away from inquisitive students. Its for the best, you know."

"Did I," Georg said, his tone suspiciously innocent. "I did, I suppose; got rather a lot of them at my sister's - not sure what to do with them, now." A lie, of course, but he fully planned to get those embarrassing pictures of Ignan up before the older man knew it.

"So! Tapendra, tell me," Georg said, to get Ignan off the subject before he remembered Georg had an image of him in the knickers, "Iggy here's given me his rundown on the professors here - why don't you give me yours?"

Tapendra looked surprised for a moment before he put his glass down. "Ah, um - Levartian, Fraiser and Cuthbert are good people, you'd do best to stay on their good sides. Don't piss off Reid, she has a nasty right hook when she needs it - same with Austerlitz. Morgan gets his job done - you're best off not bothering him or the books. O' Morain has no personality besides the broomstick up his arse, Snark is up to something, and Bombay can burn in the seventh circle." List finished, he gulped down the whiskey, his tne oddly light considering what he'd been saying.

"Ah. Good to know," Georg said, with a chuckle. "I'd certainly noticed that with O' Morain...he's a bit young to have taken that stance already, don't you think? Someone gotten to playing with him, yet?"

Tappy grunted. "I'd considered it but, well, you're considerably less likely to get fired than I am, I expect," he said, glancing at the house elves for a moment. "You both are fairly secure in your jobs, I'd imagine."

Georg looked confused. "I was just hired-"

"Yes. As I said, more secure."

Listening to Tapendra's listing of their colleagues was sobering. He wondered how Tapendra would describe he and Georg to others now. Chasing the last few drops of his whiskey around the base of his glass tumbler, Ignan considered his own views on the younger, deputy head.

"Mm, yes, he is a bit arrogant, especially given our Headmistress took leave to organise bigger things. He took up the helm - not that this place really needs someone to tell the Professors what to do - its simple, teach the bloody syllabus and don't kill any of them, so as many of them pass the exams as possible. Job done. Declan makes it out like its some box ticking bureaucratic power trip when he gets going. I mean, I've generally liked Snark enough - she's caused me no trouble, and I'd like to think vice versa, but lately I've felt like I'm entertaining O'Morain's role just to avoid arguing with him before the students. The Governors are not the only people to have a hand in his appointment, I'm sure."

Ignan gave a sigh, the new dose of alcohol, despite the food soaking things up, had wrapped around his nerves, and his eyelids felt a little heavy.

"The way he speaks to Tapendra is not right at all, but you do rather provide the opportunities." He looked from Georg to Tapendra. "Or perhaps I'm just used to how it is at Durmstrang, where its a lot more regimented." The corner of Ignan's mouth curled. "Melanthe told me the other day I'll always be a headmaster's son with my expectations on teaching, though I don't think that's a bad thing."

It was good to be amongst friends again. He'd have to introduce Melanthe and Georg at some point, Georg knew nothing of her - neither did Tappy now he came to think of it, but he forgot he'd known the younger man a month at most. Melanthe had heard of Georg from their time working together in her final year of Durmstrang, where Ignan had mentioned him in recounts of stories, but he wondered if she'd remember.

Drinking the end of the glass he'd been toying with, he put the glass down a little heavily and gave an uncomfortable stretch of his free arm, and rubbed the shoulder of his other gingerly, making a face. Enough. He didn't need carrying places a second time in a day.

Georg couldn't help the slightly nasty smile that crept over his features. "Sounds like a fun man to rile up," he said. "And like the sort who'll be difficult to dislodge even by his appointer, if  what I saw of him is any indication. Still - could be fun to pull loopholes on him, eh? That sort always hates it when you do that, I've found. And if he's doing things without the headmistress's permission..." The smile grew nastier. A quiet retirement had not been Georg's goal.

Across the table, Tapedra looked down at his clothing and flushed at Ignan's comment. "Well, he-he was right about being dressed down in front of students," Tapendra admitted. "I just find the dress robes and vests confining - don't like to wear them if I don't have to..." Thankfully there hadn't been a rule about not wearing shoes. "Besides, I'm used to it - getting talked to like that, that is. I'll fume about it for an hour and get over it - it's when he does it in front of students because he knows I'm not going to stand up to him there, that gets me."

Georg raised an eyebrow at that, but looked at Ignan curiously at the mention of a Melanthe. He was about to ask when Tapendra, who had been echoing Georg's expression, piped up.

"Melanthe...you don't mean Melanthe Grmman, do you?" Tapendra asked.

Ignan propped his chin on his hand again, staving off the feeling of numbness and eventual sleepy feeling that was on its way. The voice in the back of his head wondered if Tapendra would go completely without clothes if he could, which began to form an image that he quickly swept away.

"Yes, that's her. Are you also acquainted?" He asked Tappy curiously. "She was my student at Durmstrang, and we worked very closely in her last year. We've kept in touch since." Turning his gaze to Georg he elaborated, "fantastic mind. I wish I had more students like her - like the favoured few in our day, who were Professor's pets. Its all encouraged there, you see." He turned his attention back to Tappy for the last comment. Favourites were entertained at Hogwarts but not to any extent they had been at Durmstrang.

"Barely - I've just heard the name before...she's friends with Dolly, I think." He sounded mildly surprised at Ignan's tone and praise. "When I'd heard of her, she was one of Dolly's party friends...Judy always described them as Dolly's wh-" he paused, remembered the company he was in, and blushed as he quoted his late wife. "Dolly's whorshipers. Good to hear they're not all...uh, like that." He sighed. "Judy wasn't fond of them."

He cleared his throat nervously. "Anyway. She was your favorite, then?" he asked, politely as possible. "A rare honor, I assume," he added, his voice taking on a very slightly cheeky edge to it.

Georg was smiling as well, in a curious kind of way. "A rare honor from Ignan, but not to him," he told Tapendra. "Being the Headmaster's son can get you places your grades and personality might no t - and favoring the Headmaster's child likewise can reap favor. Especially with a Headmaster like your father," he added to Ignan.

"Still! You'll have to introduce me sometime, Ignan; I've always time to meet brilliant young ladies, as you're well aware," Georg added, raising his glass before finishing it off.