Sat back at a table by the wall, with stools high enough one had to step up to be seated, Johann Storm surveyed the Leaky Cauldron with intrigue. Much in the same way he enjoyed watching the Ministry atrium on a morning for the patterns of conversation and habit people fell into on their way to work, drinkers were equally intriguing. The Leaky Cauldron had people from diverse walks of life, coming in from Charing Cross Road, or in from Diagon, or through the fireplace, or from the lodging rooms upstairs that could be rented. There were those drinking alone with newspapers, couples, friends, regulars propped beside the bar, and the pub hummed with early evening trade, and smelt of a mix of foods and drink. Drink carried by the patrons, as was the way in Britain, and food carried by the few staff the Leaky Cauldron had.

Johann wasn't hungry, despite the smells. He'd invited Colin for a drink, but there'd been some confusion over days - they'd passed each other momentarily in the atrium earlier that day, Colin rushing to attend to a fresh corpse he was excited about, and Johann had been left thinking his first best friend was to stand him up. No matter, he'd dropped by St Mungo's on the way back from his errand to see one of the publishers the DoIMC was working with on a project and accosted his other best friend, Hannah, and twisted her arm into joining him - no wine, just water. He hadn't initially asked her, since she'd been reluctant to drink with any regularity.

So, an evening with Hannah after her shift, where she'd smell of herbs and clean linen and mysterious potions, and hopefully talk about intriguing medical problems that would make Johann baffled and amazed. Then he was looking forward to a bit of work afterwards back at Gabrielle's and then sleep for eight hours as he'd neglected to the night before, and his face was looking a little shadowed again. The little blue bottle of potion he'd swiped from St Mungo's really was doing the trick.

Picking up his beer, eyes keenly observing three wizards in the opposite corner with darts, and a blindfold, he entirely missed the entry of the figure who approached the table.

It had been a good day so far. Breakfast had been quick and delicious, Moxi had been fun on his morning walk with her - even if she'd barked at everything - and best of all, an interesting corpse had come his way. Some Dark Wizard had killed himself out of sheer stupidity, and his body...or rather, remains...were as exciting to Colin as they were messy to everyone else. The man had fit nicely in a bucket, which turned out to come in handy.

He was therefore in a good mood when he turned up in the bar, spotting Johann's mop of messy hair in the crowd and heading over, hands in his pockets. His was dressed better than was usual for this sort of outing, having not bothered to change from his work clothes just yet. Colin in a three piece suit wasn't exactly normal, though the slight reddish tint to the sleeves his otherwise clean white shirt gave a slight hint as to his activities. His long robe was tucked into the storage compartment of his motorcycle.

"Hallo, Johann," he said amiably, sitting down. "Still hitting the sleeping potions, are you? You were a right mess in the Atrium."

"Colin!" Johann exclaimed, a little louder than he'd meant to, due to the surprise. His head was already scrambling for ideas - the prospect of Hannah turning up imminently and finding Colin here, she'd immediately think Johann had put something together to draw the two of them together, and they didn't really see eye to eye, or appreciate Johann trying to make them be friends for his sake.

"Er, what, oh, yes. Hang on, I thought you said you couldn't make tonight?" Johann asked, his confusion visible in his features as his forehead frowned. "Not that I don't enjoy your company, I er..." He cringed, sighed and sat back.

"Oh, it doesn't matter..." He relaxed his face and shrugged. "I'm glad you could come after all. Sorry, started drinking without you." Johann lifted his pint which was already half way through, in the hope that Colin would go buy them both one, and while he was there, Hannah might turn up and he could explain to her - because out of the two of them, she was most likely to take offence and accuse Johann of some sneaky work.

Unlike Hannah, Colin fresh from work smelt of far more unusual things, chemicals and candlewax amongst them. Johann now identified it with Colin's rooms within the Department of Mysteries, but prior to that, the smell always intrigued him, though it still did to a point now.

It had only been a few days since Hannah had returned home to find Johann Storm passed out on her doorstep. She had swiftly brandished her wand, hosed him down with cold water and woke him up from his no doubt potion induced slumber. The curly haired German man, no matter how intelligent he happened to be when it came to intellectual matters, was an idiot when it came to real life common sense and his own health. And particularly in the last couple of weeks, Hannah was losing her patience with it. If Johann wanted to be an idiot, he could be. She had bigger worries right now.

But Hannah had agreed to join Johann in the pub for a drink. This had been simply on the premise that she would not be drinking wine or anything else that was going to land her in his bed again with a sore head and a sensitive stomach. It hadn’t been pleasant the first time and she knew it wasn’t going to improve. No, she was avoiding such things and would tonight be enjoying refreshing glasses of pumpkin juice.

So the healer finished her shift at St Mungo’s, exchanged healer robes for clean black ones with a cream trim and some heeled shoes to offer her height  and departed for the leaky cauldron. Once there she entered, heels clicking on the fall as she glanced around for her friend. The bad influence on her. The one that... Hannah blinked. Her eyes had found Johann sat at a table. That was fine. But he wasn’t alone. He was joined by his friend. The strange, muggle technique loving man from level ten.

Hannah approached slowly with folded arms. “What a...” The young healer allowed her lips to form an obviously fake, strained grin. “lovely surprise!” And with that she began to tug her robes off. “And what made you think of this...lovely idea, Johann?” She looked at him pointedly as she slipped out of the oversized material and hung it on the back of her chair.

Here was Hannah too, looking very smart. Johann felt terrible, it was clear she'd been home and got changed and was perhaps even looking forward to having a drink with Johann, alone...

(Of course, last time she'd kissed him, and had her hands all over him, and she'd woken up in his bed thinking something had happened, and Johann had insinuated later she was disappointed, but she'd claimed she was just relieved... the very odd, and unidentified part of Johann that dictated who he felt attracted to had been surprised at the approach, and had since been trying to work out whether it was disappointed, even if Hannah was not.)

"Hannah!" Johann greeted in much the same way as Colin and smiled at her in his usual boyish way. At least she seemed to be saying, and she hadn't insulted Colin yet, which had been his worst fear on seeing Colin. Raising his hands he gestured towards each of them as he explained.

"I er, look, I may have misunderstood." He admitted, which was humbling, given Johann's arrogance, "I asked Colin out for a drink because we quite often do during the week, but I thought," he turned towards Colin, "I thought you said you couldn't make it when I saw you in the atrium, but clearly you can and because I thought you couldn't come, I thought I'd see if," he turned the other way to Hannah, "if you'd trust me to come out to drink. You're not some second choice, I thought at last minute notice you'd turn me down for sure, but here you are."

He lifted his pint and went to drink from it and thought better to add,
"Its not some irritating attempt to get the two of you out together, honestly. But, recently, you'd be surprised how much you have in common." He made efforts to finish his pint. "One you get all excited over dead people and two you won't stop nagging alive people like me." This time he finished it and landed the glass back down.

"I think its best if I get the first drinks considering the situation. Stay for one, both of you, won't you?"  Stepping down from his stool between the two of them, he confirmed their preferred drink to each of them before taking his empty glass and heading across the room to the bar to wait patiently to be served. Minutes later, having paid, he carried three drinks back across the room between his fingers, taking care not to spill, and rejoined them at the tall table with three equally tall stools, glancing between them to check they hadn't clawed each other's eyes out.

Well, this was...unexpected and unpleasant - Colin's least favorite qualities in social life. Colin honestly believed Johann's excuses. He wasn't the type to try to set up any sort of 'date', friendship-intending or otherwise (though the thought of 'otherwise' was amusing in its insanity). Colin didn't think Johann would know how, anyway, and he was also pretty damn sure he'd given up trying to get Hannah and Colin to see eye to eye. The over-reacting, narrow-minded woman just wasn't Colin's type, anyway. As a man who usually took everything in stride, he found his hackles raised by her quite often.

"Beer, Johann, the good kind, if you would," he said as Johann departed, rather annoyed he didn't have a drink to chug during his time alone with Bombay. As tempting as it was to snipe a little, he'd keep his trap shut for Johann's sake.

He tried to think back to the Atrium encounter - it'd been a passing encounter, and Johann's confusion had been odd at the time. Hm. Maybe that quip about potion was more accurate than he'd thought.

Colin's eyes slid to Hannah again, pondering Johann's words at the Ministry a few days before.

"For a man with a mind like his, you'd think he'd at least buy a book on social life, wouldn't you?" The comment was offhand, but the silence was worse to him than any conversation that might follow.

It appeared that Hannah’s dear friend Johann had invited her out for the evening as a second option because the first, far more interesting, barbaric option had confused him and he’d been under the impression he’d been turned down. Hannah certainly didn’t feel flattered by this. Instead she felt embarrassed for the fact she’d come out. That and suspicious that this wasn’t really some idiotic attempt to cause her and the muggle science loving idiot next to him to see eye to eye and come together as his friends.

"Its not some irritating attempt to get the two of you out together, honestly. But, recently, you'd be surprised how much you have in common."

In common? With Colin Downer? Hannah stared at the German man who tried hopelessly to defend himself. Did he know? He’d randomly blurted out something about Colin not so long ago because of his inability to hold a secret but did he know about Hannah? She pulled the sleeve of her jumper down further, ensuring her arm was covered before she finally sat down in the spare seat.

Johann asked them what they wanted to drink before disappearing, leaving Hannah and Colin alone at the table. The witch sat up straight, looking away from him as she instead glanced around the pub. Hannah didn’t like Colin and she certainly didn’t make a secret of it. Johann had tried and she was under the impression he had given up trying to make them like each other. Apparently not.

The man sat opposite attempted to make conversation and Hannah’s eyes shot across to him, studying him for a moment.
“Or learn when to admit defeat.” Hannah figured she should at least attempt to be friendly enough to the weird man. Her friend did wish for her to be but she was still far from impressed at his manner of carrying it out. Bombay did not like being ambushed. Especially when she was fresh from work and tired. It was a surprise even to herself that she had remained in the leaky cauldron and sat down.

No, they hadn't killed each other. Undoubtedly the one who remained standing should a Downer-Bombay death match take place, would take joy in dissecting the other for analysis, and recruit Johann as their assistant.

"Ooookay." Johann greeted them both, placing the three drinks down and pushing the relevant drink towards each of his two friends, while looking from one to the other.

There was an awkward moment where nobody knew where to look. Johann clapped his hands together and smiled boyishly.

"Fine, I'll prove it." He didn't specify what it meant, but in this case it was his earlier statement that Colin and Hannah were similar.

"You're both my best friends, and you know why, because neither of you are normal. You don't take part in the whole nine to five office run with partner and kids and old Hogwarts housemate quidditch stories in the atrium. You both love your jobs, do them marvellously, even if it creeps the hell out of everyone else. You take your work dead serious, heaven help if anyone tells you you're wrong because you're experts." Johann leaned his elbows on the table as he described and leaned forwards, hands a few inches apart, palms together.

"Neither of you keep regular hours, hell, all three of us don't, we're independent, individual, incredibly clever, and other things that alliterate and begin with the letter I that I can't think of." Johann looked momentarily baffled, firstly at having included himself in the comparison without initially meaning too, and secondly the alliteration.

"Despite denying it, you both possess an evil sense of humour, which I cannot keep up with, see things  in people they don't even know they do, constantly outwit the boss, probably hold a hundred and two secrets, both believe I'm going to kill myself with sleeping potion, aaaand," he was fast running out of bullshitting, "you've both stayed put to listen to me list all that, and have a drink. Which, considering I thought you might both leave in a huff convinced I'd orchestrated this or started a slanging match over being too similar, is impressive."

He paused, eyes wide, hands still between them, elbows resting, and then removed it all, ducking and preparing for one or the other of them to smack him, or throw their drink at him.

"Have I presented enough evidence to confirm the hypothesis, or do you still require acid proof?" Johann asked quietly, bringing his hands in prayer, finger tips resting on his chin as he hunched over slightly, dropping his shoulders and restoring his usual good posture when he thought it was safe.   

Colin, who'd very quickly started to work through the beer Johann brought, shook his head at Johann.

"Put a lot of thought into that, did you?" He asked, amused. "What you haven't considered is that while yes, plenty of those qualities are similar, they are also what makes us clash," he said patiently, sipping his beer during pauses.

"For example, it is true, we are both experts, but our insufferable natures - there's another 'I' word for you - makes us consider the other to be a charlatan. Bombay refuses to believe her techniques might be improved upon, and thus earns my ire - whereas I test and adapt my techniques to fit the situation, without being halted by bigotry and traditionalism. Thus I earn hers."

He sat back on his chair casually. "You happen to be in a field that neither of us are experts in, and thus we cannot comment. Hence why we get along with you."

Hannah’s ‘insufferable’ nature made it impossible for her to take in any of the words Johann uttered and accept them as truth. She was convinced that no similarities happened to exist between her and the man she had secretly dubbed ‘the butcher’.

“Are you calling me a bigot, Downer?” Hannah questioned Colin calmly before she took her pumpkin juice in hand and lifted it to her lips. “Some people don’t have all day to participate in tomfoolery and treat the deceased akin to potions ingredients.” The very fact that Johann thought they were practically the same was highly insulting to a woman that prided herself on being practically perfect. She took a sip of the juice and placed the glass back on the table between the three of them. “Relying on tradition, well used and well proven methods isn’t taking a part in bigotry. I apologise if the barbaric mutilation of a corpse offends me.” They’d been here before. This was why they didn’t and were never going to get along with one another. No matter how important it was to Johann.

“I am not the same as this pugnacious fool, Johann. I posses enough respect for patients and the deceased to not have the repulsive desire to carve wizards up and put pieces of what made them human into jars.” At that, the youngest member of the group looked pointedly at Colin, remembering their first encounter and the horror of the actions he’d wished to perform on the corpse on her table. Jars were to store potions ingredients and food, not human organs and body parts.

The young witch was irritated and right now she didn’t trust for one second that her dear friend had not orchestrated this meeting with plenty of preparation. “Your well rehearsed speech isn’t going to change either of our opinions of each other, Johann. That and your ridiculous addiction to sleeping potion are the only things we agree on.”

In future, Johann decided, as he peered over his glass, if Hannah and Colin are in the same room, I won't be. Then as he placed the glass back down he reconsidered, Alright, so maybe I will be, but not responsible for, or without disguise.

"HA!" Johann exclaimed, enough to make his friends jump, if perhaps they weren't used to his ways. "There we go." He grinned like a Cheshire cat, and placed his palms together, eyes twinkling. "Something!"

To anyone else apart from sleep-deprived Johann, that was the most inconceivably poor proof ever proposed to a hypothesis that two people had something in common - mutual dislike. It was like saying the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty had something in common because they weren't erected in Spain.

"Its not ridiculous. I'm not addicted to sleeping potion at all." He informed Hannah sincerely, and a spark of thought - which he very much regretted later and was furious with himself for - came to light in his head.

"I could give it up tonight." He shrugged, offhandedly.

Colin shot Hannah a dark glare, but Johann's triumphant laugh halted any snappy remark he had surfacing i response to the conservative bint.

Johann's smugness was making him start to wonder, vaguely, if Johann had arranged this. But it was unlikely, really. Johann just wasn't the type. And anyhow, Johann was in trouble with Hannah already. He wasn't stupid enough to dig himself deeper-

Actually he was, but that was beside the point!

Colin echoed Johann's comment with a derisive snort. "No you couldn't, Johann. That's what an addiction means, and you've got one." He drank from his beer pointedly, tone sarcastic. "You're already resorted to nicking the stuff."

"HA!"

Johann jumped with excitement and Colin glared while Hannah took a sip of juice before pursing her lips in disapproval. Something. Johann was animated because he had managed to unite his controversial friends over one topic. Their disapproval of his present problem. And then he proceeded to deny his addiction and state he was more than capable of giving up. A small laugh escaped Hannah’s lips as she shook her head. He was as capable of giving up as she was of going back in time to the start of March and staying well away from St Mungos.

Hannah had been quite prepared to ignore anything that came from Colin Downer’s idiotic mouth but when he accused Johann of ‘nicking’ sleeping potion, Hannah’s eyes shot between each of the men before they fell on Johann. Brows narrowed and her lips pursed momentarily as she surveyed her older friend. He had failed to mention this one. Of course he had failed to mention it. Hannah had little doubt as to where he may have pilfered this potion from.

“You’ve been thieving potions, Johann?” The healer questioned, leaning forwards and resting her elbows on the table. “You’re breaking the law as well as feeding your little addiction?” But Hannah decided not to press this one. She wasn’t going to make herself a hippocrite considering she was breaking the law in a far worse manner by not registering herself. Johann was just getting grabby with potions. That was dangerous, but she’d deal with that later.

“You couldn’t give up if I paid you to, Johann. It’s an addiction.”

Colin disbelieved him entirely and snorted at him, bringing up the fact he'd resorted to stealing some recently. He gave his good friend a sour look for bringing it up. Hannah pounced on it straight away.

"Just the one, I haven't done it again." He claimed in a sing-song sighing tone as if he were five. He shrugged and sipped his drink.

"And I could, I really could give it up." Johann assured them sincerely, a strange courage having risen in him. The reality was he almost certainly couldn't, but his arrogance wouldn't let that be acknowledged.

"Not like you could give up beer," he gestured to Colin, and thought about Hannah, and decided better of supposing anything Hannah could give up if he wanted to live to leave the pub.

The linguist paused and tilted his head. "How much would you pay?"

Colin glanced at Hannah; his expression one of rather dark consideration. So she occasionally had good ideas; who knew?

"For your information, Johann, I have gone without beer for awhile before - several times a year, in fact. I have to whenever I stay at my mother's, she's stickler for that kind of thing. I've gone without longer'n you could."

As if to prove his point, he slammed his beer back and drank it down in e few gulps, slamming the glass back on top the table. "And I can moderate myself. I don't show up at work drunk, usually, unless I get called in at a bad hour."

He too considered the price. "I'd pay you..oh, let's say...15 Galleons?" He smirked. "Odds would be rubbish on your end, though. If you won, you'd get a decent sum. Not that you'd win."