The way Alastar seen things were, families were made up of the good, the bad and the plain old disappointments and his second cousin Irvine Copplestone fell comfortably within the latter with no shame of it. The lad was his own worst enemy and the poorest petty thief snaking amongst the rest of the crooks and swindlers in Knockturn Alley. Like many, he had fallen short academically and without much thought to his future, chosen the career path of the dirty and the downtrodden. Yet it perplexed Alastar. For all he had heard, the Copplestones lived in a grand house with a back garden that spanned a quidditch pitch or so. Alastar had to accept that thievery and trickery must be a blood trait and have trickled down somewhere through the lineage until it reached young Irvine.

The only parent was a hardened careerist and couldn’t bare the embarrassment of escorting her only son to his trial, for what of the looks upon the faces of the Ministry officials as they saw a Copplestone on the dock? With the absence of new babies in the family, Brighid had felt a cheek-pinching loyalty to Irvine and had without a better word, blackmailed Alastar into attending the youngster’s date. She had given him the ‘oh but you’re local to central London, sweetpea’ spiel which with his refusal, quickly turned into the ‘I was thinking of renting your room out to dwarves’ threat. Hence, he was sitting rather uncomfortably on the outer part of the Ministry walls, trying to trap a flame to his cigarette with cupped hands.

The Ministry wasn’t somewhere he liked to frequent. Now, why couldn’t I tell my ma that? He felt it appropriate to leave his flamboyant shirts at home and style himself in plain black, with the same old pair of sunglasses he always wore. There was always some fool lurking around to give it the ‘hello Bill’ and give the whole game away when he was trying to tone it down a little. Whilst folks funnelled through the heavily enchanted Ministry doors, Alastar sat casually, taking a deep drag of a pungent roll-up.

Lexus stepped out of the Ministry looking all the part of a proper business woman. Her long legs were left bare under a short hemmed skirt and she wore a beautiful turquoise fitted blouse that had a ruffled collar. Her 5' 8" figure was increased with a simple pair of three inch heels. She had pulled her gold and silver hair back into a high ponytail and had put a coat of turquoise polish over her new hardened and claw like nails. Whilst not lurking around Knockturn Alley looking every bit the feral beast she truly was inside Lexus felt it bes t to look like a proper lady. After all she didn't need anyone from the Alley associating her with frequent trips to the ministry - which Jonas had promised would not happen all that often.

She had been called in today to sign off on some final paperwork outlining the terms and conditions of her probation. She wasn't allowed to leave Britain, she had to report in directly to Level four every full moon, she was to check in daily with her Auror 'probation officer' and she was to let Level Two know everything and anything she was able to gleam from her integration back into the dark and dangerous life of Knockturn.

She turned to continue down the street to head back to her flat, briefly wondering if she would have to leave her place to rent out something more dodgy in the heart of Knockturn when she caught out of the corner of her eye a familiar face. It had actually caused her to do a double take before stopping in her tracks and facing him full on. It definitely was Alastar though he seemed to be a little dressed down from his usual attire. What in the world was he doing sitting outside the Ministry?

She felt the slightest of rages run through her and her gold and blue hers flashed yellow for a moment. In the end it wasn't really Alastar's fault. He had only merely suggested that he could procure wolfsbane for her should her regular supplier be unable to. Lexus had felt it safer not to contact Dazmond considering she knew her to be under surveillance by the Ministry already and she had tried owling Alastar but never got a reply. She had been left to brew her wolfsbane on her own using ingredients she had picked up in Diagon that had apparently been tainted. She couldn't possibly blame him for that could she?

She smirked and pulled a long white cylinder out of a silver case in her purse before approaching the handsome devil, "Got a light?"

The end of the cigarette glimmered brightly as it burned away in the open air clung to by Alastar who was by then drifting away into a daze of sorts. His mind was set upon what to do with the little git after he was released from the courtroom and what precisely Brighid was expecting him to say to the lad to make him rethink his wicked ways. Alastar's mother was old fashioned in the way that she was born of a time when the small Irish town they lived in was still a place were men were men and women reared the children and laid the slippers at their husband's feet at the end of the working day. Deviations from tradition seemed to upset her and she was apparently of the opinion the men of the family were models for the boys of the family. If she only knew of how damn disorientated Alastar was at times, perhaps she wouldn't be asking of him to carve a man from the shell of a spoiled little punk.

The wolfiest brunette he knew appeared before him. Alastar let out his hand in such a well-practised way that Dale could've been a perfect stranger simply asking for a spark. It was fairly straight forward for a witch or wizard to conjure a flame from the tip of their wand but many found it lacked grace and preferred not to jab at their faces with fire. Alastar held a badly scratched and dented zippo to the cigarette, an item which had seen more places than he himself had. Word had it that the gifthorse who bestowed it upon him thought himself quite the playboy. Alastar's grandfather was the 'sit on my knee 'til I tell ya this one' type who may well have been charlatan but could rattle off great stories like he was reciting the gospel.

"Do you want me to say it?" Alastar grinned. "Alright, I'll say it. What are you doing here?" He looked around exaggeratedly with his arms held out in proclamation. In this particular area, the bad men hung outside awaiting their fate and savouring their last cigarette, sending owls to their women and children and the like. It slowly fell on Alastar why she might have been there. "Right. The werewolf thing," he whispered, "I won't tell."

She had a look about her face that hinted she was about to rumble him for something; he saw the same from pretty much every woman in his life be it his mother or Rosmerta. His mind ticked away for another couple of minutes until he gave up on what the surprise might be. It could've just have been her time of the month.

Lexus accepted the light and inhaled the death stick as if they had never met before. Her yellow tinted eyes scanned those moving around them, searching for anyone that may have caused a threat to either one of them. For all intents and purposes they were both criminals, in their own rights, and they were both hanging out around the Ministry - the singular building, the symbol of law and order for the Wizarding world. Both were out of place and both knew it but would either say as much.

She almost chuckled when he asked what she was doing there. Her lips parted in a large grin instead showing that her canines had become more pronounced since the last time they had seen each other. The smile faultered lightly when he mentioned her condition but she soon regained her composure and shrugged non chalantly.

"I'm registered now." She took a long drag of her cigarette, her eyes turning to those around them once again, "I got arrested last month. Made my own wolfsbane, tainted ingredients. They found me rampaging through London." She turned her eyes back to him, her mouth slightly open, the words itching her tongue but she refused to voice them. She wasn't going to blame him for not being there for her. It wasn't her fault and in a way this was better for her. Sure she was now the Auror's new lap dog but she was still alive and she still held some freedoms. As long as she followed along with what they wanted her to do she'd survive.

"So what are you doing here then?"

It wasn’t scandalous, it didn’t cause his spine to give out although picturing Dale rampaging like a French lady on Rogaine made Alastar raise an eyebrow at her confession. It was no secret that the Daily Prophet had a backlog of big, bad wolf attack stories, many of them fabricated, maybe even deliberately submitted by Ministry members themselves. The Ministry was a palace of snakes that he tried to avoid at all costs. Whenever he was there, he used to like to catch the eye of innocent suits walking by and make them uncomfortable with his staring but nowadays, it always seemed sensible to lay low, whether you were guilty of anything or not.

The slight figure before him seemed harmless to look at, like she’d be someone gentle who ran girl scouts and did basket-weaving for charity in her spare time. It was near impossible to imagine her transformation. Gossip and rumours swam through the streets like sewage but Alastar had heard nothing of Dale for months and months; he figured she might have been nabbed by the filth for questioning but recording her every move seemed invasive. He cocked an eyebrow and exhaled, “I’d make a lousy bastard’ werewolf.” He flicked the butt away and explained, “My own mam hasn’t heard from me for months.” He leaned back on his hand and loosely shook his pointing finger at her. “Never let anyone control your life, especially these dirty gits.”

There was an expression on Alastar’s face that was absent of guilt over the wolfsbane situation but he did give her a roundabout excuse. “And never try and get me by owl. Anyone can read those. Besides, those birds don’t like me.” He had gone through no less than seven of the creatures in his lifetime through paranoia and his dislike of birds in general. They weren’t graceful, beautiful examples of nature, just a slightly prettier pigeon that would shit all over your window sill and scare the crap out of you with its beady eyes.

“What I’m doing here is a mixture of babysitting and mentoring.” He removed the garish sunglasses and slipped them into his shirt pocket like some OAP on a Brighton beach holiday. All that were missing were the sandals, socks and a 99 ice cream cone. “My cousin likes to hang around with a gang of little fools and while they’re running away from the fuzz, he stands there like a gawping idiot and ends up here.” The adult guidance could be detrimental to Irvine’s journey to becoming a decent citizen, with Alastar as the guru of the good life. The boy was his fervent pupil indeed.

Lexus let out a soft chuckle before taking another drag of the cigarette. Thankfully she wasn't a heavy smoker but did enjoy it every once in a while. Besides having a smoke or sucking back on a pipe helped her fit in to her new surroundings. She was still unsure of her place in Knockturn but with friends like those she had become accustomed to procurring she supposed it wouldn't be too long before she was accepted amoungst the others and let in on anything light that she could send back to the Aurors.

She tried to imagine Alastar as a werewolf. While the man himself had a raw animal magnetism to him she doubted it was something he would maintain if he were to become afflicted. As tough and gruff as the man was she could easily see him as one of those that simply wasted away under the weight of Lycanthropy. It wasn't an easy thing to deal with by any means. Lexus had survived so long by simply denying what she was. Now that she was finally accepting her fate and her condition she was finding out all sorts of new things about herself.

"I'm still in control." She flashed him a bright smile, showing a set of canines that looked slighter sharper than they rightfully should have. Truth be told for as much freedoms as she did still have she was still just a puppet, to be used by either the Aurors or the Ex Azzies. She was still able to live her normal day to day life and she no longer had to fear being deported but in the end she still had to report back to Level Two.

Lexus laughed again, this time the chortle came out as a surprise more than anything else, "Can't say I've ever met a Wizard that didn't like Owls but I'll keep that in mind." Lexus herself was actually rather fond of Owls, it was the owls that weren't fond of her. She supposed the creatures were able to sense the predator that lurked just under the surface.

Lexus glanced back at the doors she had just come through listening to Alastar's story about his cousin. She tried to picture him babysitting and was thankful the little scamp seemed to be of age, but him as a mentor? She stopped herself from laughing again, "Who in their right mind would make you someone's mentor?"

The statement from Lexus was a juxtaposition of Ministry regulations and control. It didn’t web together, even the way it had sounded when she said it. He didn’t for the smallest moment believe that she wasn’t concerned over how long that road was, although he was a self-confessed conspiracy theorist when it came to the government, but she must have been worried about her own safety. Some people believed the Ministry was trying to protect werewolves and wizardingfolk alike with their policy on furries but there were social implications that only occurred to Alastar then and there; he hadn’t given it a second thought until he happened upon Dale last.

Women were notoriously difficult to read, to some. It would’ve been chauvinistic to assume that Lexus held some underlying grudge against his lack of contact or rather, disappearance, and she may not even feel any ill towards him on the surface, but he knew it was there. She had the benefit of being a wolf by moonlight but he wondered if she was that same problem child that would always present itself when you paid it too much attention and flattered it once too often. She felt antipathetic, she must’ve, even a little. By all rights he should’ve been avoiding her from now. The registering thing seemed like messy business he didn’t want to hear about. The less time spent lurking in view of the fuzz the better.

“Har har, I can see you laughing.” He straightened up, not so well. “I never said I was a role model, that was just what was assumed. If the kid wants to get banged up, so be it. I’m not going to shake my finger at him and tell him I always sat up straight and knew my ‘please’ and ‘thank yous’, no way.” Alastar stood up, stretching out so that the skin over his ribs rippled under his shirt. “However, I appreciate your judgement.”

Like a hurt schoolboy, he folded his warms and looked upon her seriously. “You think I couldn’t be a mentor?” He laughed wickedly. “I’m just kidding. But really, that wolfsbane must taste like sweaty balls. You should’ve come to me.”

Lexus got to her feet only because it felt uncomfortable to have him looking down upon her. She still had a smile on her face and laughed quietly as he spoke. At least he was being honest about the whole situation. She had never seen the sense in lying to younger people simply because they were younger. It may have been due to the fact that she hated when people had done it to her when she was younger or because the only young people she actually knew were exceptionally bright that she felt no reason to lie to them. A swift pang of guilt washed over as she thought about the last time she had seen any of her cousins. She had gotten a little vicious on Ayla and her friend for suggesting she register, now look where it had gotten her?

She laughed louder when he feigned hurt and shook her head, "Mentor perhaps, but a good influence, that's debatable." She gave him a playful wink despite the fact that she meant what she said. Considering what little she knew of Alastar, he wasn't exactly the kind of person you would want to be influencing the younger generation unless your goal was to have them end up just like him - a petty criminal.

She looked slightly disgusted at the comparison of her monthly potion to sweaty balls but quickly washed it away with another smile, "Well I would have if I knew how to find you. Not like I've ever been to your flat before or anything." At the thought her eyes darted over his form and glowed golden for a moment, a primal appreciation of the male form and Alastar was definitely a good example of the male form, tight in all the right places. It made her wonder how long it had actually been since she had any sort of intimate interaction with anyone and how much longer it had been since she had anything more than a one night stand.