Theta laughed. "He's quite the character! Have you had him long? I'm not really into amphibians but he seems awesome."

Philo gave a half smile, completing the left hand corner. "Found him when I was nine, near an abandoned mine. Mum thinks he's a bad influence. He's not bad if you don't mind your homework getting stuck together." Really, having a potty mouthed amphibian seemed more exciting than the bland toads some sad kids kept as pets. But for all the annoyances (sliminess, getting his homework messy, stowing away in his luggage, popping one off at the wrong time, etc.) Philo honestly liked having Arlaug, as if keeping him prevented Philo from becoming the desk job recluse his family irritatingly joked he would become.

"Gosh you should ask for one of these for Christmas," Theta suggested, indicating the puzzle.

"Depends on how cheap you can get them," Philo muttered. Most of his school equipment had been spared from the trash heap. Using half a set of gobstones as intermediary units of measurement on a brass scale that had the numbers worn off tended to stretch the time it took him to brew potions for class. A friend of dad's had once said the low family finances per member was "Weasly-ish" and all the Falkins were missing was the red hair.

"Really if going out in the countryside snow sculpting for hours at a time is so bad, you should totally get an invite to a Pepper Christmas." Theta continued. "Any friend of Tim's is a friend of ours, and you'd fit right in. We do the snow part, when it does snow, but we live down South where its flat as a pancake and it doesn't often."

"Truly?" Philo asked, down to his last dozen jigsaw pieces. Tim was okay; he and Philo had presented a dual report on Stonehenge for History of Magic. Kinda snotty in his favorite subjects, as if everyone should know what he already knew, but Philo would gladly take him over Eirene any day.

"I'll see if I can!" That will show mum and her talk of him not having many friends. Philo completed the jigsaw. Indeed it was a landscape of a pine forest surrounding a lake, nestled at the foothills of a mountain. The clouds drifted in the sky, grass swayed in the breeze, and the odd stag or owl flew past the scenery.

Late, late, late, late, late.
Crap, damn, frick, frack… truck.

A small red bird flew into the Departments of Mysteries’ tent.

If only I hadn’t taken that joy-flight around the campus, maybe the I would have been on time,

Veronique landed softly onto the ground in a corner out of the sight of most in the tent, and as discreetly as possible transfigured into her human form. Veronique had spent the previous night letting off steam from a long week, and would have most likely missed the fair entirely if she had not run into her old friend and got into a discussion about Hogwarts. She had apparated as close to the school as should could, but had to fly the rest of the way due to the anti-apparition charms. She had managed to transfigure her cloths into something presentable but she hadn’t had time to pull her hair back into its usual bun. This behavior wasn’t like her at all.

She didn’t even understand the point of coming to this thing, she couldn’t really describe any of the specific of the Committee; when she had asked her superior if she could demonstrate any of the new charms for the kids she had received a ten minute lecture on security breaches. He suggested that if she wanted to demonstrate a charm, she show them her bewitched ring dating back to her Hogwarts days. The charm itself was cool: It gave the wearer the abilities to move objects without an incantation or a wand. But a magic ring? It seemed so cliché, like something straight out of Tolkien.  But work was work and she did love her job.

She arrived and collected herself just in time for a small boy to finish one of those infamous jigsaw puzzles, with an enchanted quill scribbling furiously behind him. She had never had the patience for those things, problem solving was tedious enough when there was a light at the end of the tunnel, those things were just exercises in futility. Still, she was impressed that someone that young had managed it.

She walked over to the boy and knelt beside him, “looks like were gunna have to be watching out for you, mister” she said with a big, toothy grin. She had always loved kids.

Something red dashed overhead. Philo looked up but missed it. He finally noticed the quill and scroll of parchment that had been following him since he entered the tent. At once in rolled up, as if it didn't want him to know what was being written about him.

A woman came over, noticing he had completed the jigsaw. "Looks like were gunna have to be watching out for you, mister.”

What was he, 8? Sometimes Philo disliked having a birthday right before school started. If he felt older, why couldn't his age catch up to prove how mature he seemed...petty profanity aside.

Philo's face was pleasant in spite of this mental annoyance. "Hello, I'm Philo. You work for the Department of Mysteries?" Tim had given him a bunch of wild theories about the place, said Theta could back him up because his dad/her uncle worked with Time. Capital T. He always wondered how they felt comfortable telling people information about the Department if it was supposed to be so secretive.

He was distracted by the sight of a student attempting the chess set. A boy had tried to play as fast as possible but he was not quicker than the board. He was beat in less than a dozen moves and the pieces started laughing at him.

"Is it, fun, in the Department?" Philo asked, turning back. "Since, I'm guessing because of the secrecy, they keep you locked up in there all the time."

“Hello, I'm Philo. You work for the Department of Mysteries?"

“It‘s nice to meet you, Philo. I would tell you my name, but then I’d have to kill you” She said dryly. Maybe too dryly for such a young kid. “I work for the Committee on Experimental Charms, we aren’t as clock-and-daggers - uh, secretive as the other guys here.” She smiled brightly at the boy, but it seemed she had lost his attention to a boy playing chess across the table.

Is it, fun, in the Department? Since, I'm guessing because of the secrecy, they keep you locked up in there all the time. She couldn’t help but chuckle at that. Kids say the darnedest things

“Fun might not be the best word for it, more like empowering. We help to make the Wizarding world a better place, it makes you proud” She trailed off, maybe all this self-important nonsense wasn‘t the best approach to take here. “But I am guessing if you like jigsaw puzzles, you’d have a blast! That’s all making a new spell is, taking a bunch of spell pieces, and fitting them together to make something whole. Except it takes a lot longer, and the pieces don’t exactly come in a box. You take them from other spells and research” She had managed to confuse even herself.
 
“It takes a lot of time and trials to find what piece fits where but its worth it when it finally matches up just right.” She stood up and straightened out her clothes “And being locked up isn’t that bad, sometimes they even undo the shackles around our legs and let us out for lunch. Last time, I got all the way to the Leaky Cauldron before the capture unit caught me.”

"Took haf thee unit out before we culd shackle 'er up agin." The small Irishman chuckled as he joined Veronique's side next to the first year. He gave the young boy a wink hoping he caught onto the fact that they were just joking. While Cillian was used to working alone and still had yet to meet everyone that worked within the Department he was taking the opportunity the faire was giving him to get to know as many of the others as he could.

As he had been walking around the tent he had one of the prophecy orbs - an empty one - rolling around his fingers and hands like a magician, to keep himself occupied. It was something he had picked up quickly as his many hours spent keeping watch over the Hall of Prophecies wasn't exactly stimulating work. There were times that he wished he worked with one of the other sections of the Department but he always came back to the same conclusion - he was exactly where he belonged.

He looked to both Philo and Veronique, "Cillian Cuthbert, I usss ta be a Professor here." He nodded to the entrance of the tent to indicate the school, "Now I work in thee Hall o' Prophecies." He figured it wasn't a security breach just to say where he worked and ever since a group of Hogwarts students had broken into the the place before the Second Wizarding War the Hall had become much wider known to the general populace.

"Cillian Cuthbert, I usss ta be a Professor here .Now I work in thee Hall o' Prophecies."

“I didn’t know you worked at Hogwarts,” she said. She knew who Cillian was, but they had only been introduced once, and very hastily. Still, she hadn‘t been particularly impressed with him, but if he had taught at Hogwarts… “I’ve always wanted to teach, you know. Worked my arse off for it too; Practicing charms, potions and  transfiguration. I even became an Animagus. Can’t imagine why you would ever even think about give that up.”

Woops. Her excitement had gotten the better of her, and her social etiquette laid in a pool of it’s own on the floor in defeat. She had always been very good at standing the appropriate distance from someone, and knowing which folk was for the salad, but some of the nuances still eluded her.

She flushed slightly with embarrassment. Desperate for a distraction, she turned to the boy “Hey, why don’t you tell Philo what that thingy is.” she pointed to the orb he had been fidgeting with. “I promise it‘ll be cool.”

She didn’t see if the boy had taken the bait, immediately turning her attention to the other inhabitants of the booth. On one side there was Hufflepuff girl valiantly trying to solve the  jigsaw puzzle, however every time she went to clean her glasses;  across the room, a first year was crying after the chess board and broken his queen in half. Even the enchanted quills were appearing to be unhappy . Apparently, they felt the future applicants weren’t up to par.

Well the tent was certainly becoming full. It appeared everyone was curious as to what the Department of Mysteries actually did - not that the tent gave too much away, other than suggested the employees of the department were of high intellect, good at solving puzzles.

Parchment and quills floated around in the air behind students, scribbling furiously or waiting like expectant and critical teachers peering over the shoulders of their charges. All the information would be fed back, and when the time came, the best of the students could be approached to join the Department.

Veronique and Cillian were with Philo and Theta by the jigsaw puzzles, Cillian turning an empty prophecy ball in his hand. Concluding his chat with Baxter, who seemed perplexed that nothing concrete could be said about the Department still, he left Ambrose with his classmate and greeted Theta.

"I thought you'd be off talking to the Daily Prophet or a broom makers?" He asked his niece, patting her shoulders and smiling at her gently. "Or are you just 'visiting'?"

Seeing that his colleagues were busy talking to Philo he decided not to interrupt, instead asking Theta softly,
"Do we know him?"

While some part of Philo should have been suspicious about the comments of being corralled up in the DoM, the ministry workers stories were enough to unnerve him. Even if you made amazing discoveries, being locked up in an office all day? His parents said he was squandering his childhood, staying inside looking at his brother's old runic textbook or solving puzzles. Did he want to spends years, even beyond school, stuck behind a desk? Well, he had time until he needed to think careers.

The scruffy looking guy, Cilian, was doing something cool with a crystal ball. He thought he had seen him once at the school before and he said he used to be a professor.

Philo stared at the motions of the orb along Cillian's arms for a few moments, scarcely noticing Theta's uncle finish his conversation with Baxter. "What's that for?" Philo asked, pointing to the orb.

Cillian smiled at his younger colleague, they had been briefly introduced once and while he doubted that she would have remembered Cillian still saw the fresh faced girl that had been sorted in Ravenclaw the year he had emerged from his coma just after the second Wizarding war. He kept the knowledge to himself since back then she had been nothing more than a face and a name not much more than she was to him right now.

A soft crimson tint rose to his cheeks when she spoke of him being a Professor. He didn't think it was necessary to tell her that he hadn't wanted the job in the first place and had turned it down three times before finally accepting. Not the mention that he felt he could be doing something more important with his Seer abilities. Working in the Hall of Prophecies made him feel more connected to his abilities than he ever had been before. Although he was a practiced teacher and had been teaching Divination for years before becoming a Professor at Hogwarts, teaching teenagers was something very much out of his league.

He was thankful that she seemed to be embarrassed by her own statement and quickly changed the subject leaving him to not have to explain himself. As the child in front of them was once again made the center of attention Cillian continued to weave the crystal ball over his arms and hands until it came to a stop perfectly balanced on his finger tips.

"This is a prophecy orb. It's usss ta contain a prediction o' thee future." He glanced over his shoulder at Pepper, wondering how much further he could go with his explanation.