This week had been rocky. Very rocky. Between Ignan, St. Mungos, the stupid box, Landis, Darian, blackmail, and the fact he was out of Mars bars, this was a week he wanted to be over and it hadn't even started.

Still, this was...interesting. With all his suspicions about Trevelyan, the redhead's little display had been quite educational. Jonas, as Tappy[1] knew him, was calm, cordial and cunning. As Aileen seemed to know him, he was different...and, potentially, much less dangerous. But the duality was worrying, especially if the Auror wanted his help. He needed to know which side was real, or what drove the Auror to a rage - or why, around Tapendra, he was so calm and helpful compared to his treatment of Aileen.

Admittedly, he couldn't blame the man for getting mad at Reid; he'd gone to school with the girl for 7 years and shared half his classes with her. She wasn't the easiest person to deal with by any stretch of the imagination.

At 9pm, he tracked down to her office anyway. There was no harm in asking, after all.

Tapendra had, however, decided it was worth it to bring a decanter of white wine with him. It'd help keep her calmer, he hoped, and usually some sort of gift helped in these situations. Them both being teachers, the correct gift was liquor, of course. And, well. He'd needed a drink after dealing with the Aurors, so she might need one too.

Her office door was slightly ajar when he arrived. He knocked on the wood, and when he received no answer he stepped inside to find it empty. Curious, and assuming she'd just stepped out, he put the decanter on the desk and looked around.

It was just as messy as his own - though it was larger, he couldn't help but notice. It was also dusty and full of books. The Ravenclaw in him felt instantly at home.

There was a scroll of papyrus on her desk; without thinking, he turned it towards him and read it quickly, his blue eyes flashing over the symbols.

He jumped slightly at a sound from the doorway, half-expecting a suspicious Snark.

1.

Outfit

The trip to the owlery and her quick note to Abby (letting her know she'd be here late) had taken longer than expected. Aileen walked fast, the sound of her heels echoing in the corridor, her thoughts scattered as she went over the day's events in her mind. It was no surprise that Jonas had gotten fed up and confronted her. What angered her and worried her was his complete disregard for the proper time and place to argue. Picking the Great Hall at the end of the career fair all but guaranteed she'd catch flak from Snark, Joao, the lovely folks at the Daily Prophet booth (curse them all), and anyone else who might have overheard or who had reason to poke their nose into her business. The rest of her day had passed quietly. Too quietly.

Granted, she'd remained in her office since 5:00. So unless someone sought her out...

Light spilled from the open doorway. The door she thought she had closed. The door she should have remembered to lock.

Aileen froze, then moved as quietly as she could towards her office, her hand inching for her wand. A tall figure hovered over her desk, inspecting a papyrus scroll. She recognized the glint of spectacles on his nose, the sheen of his vest, and lastly, his bare feet (typical). Her alarm quickly morphed into irritation.

She moved into her office and shut the door, satisfied at seeing him jump.

"Trishna!" She hissed, shaking her head at him in disbelief.

"What is it with you ending up in offices that aren't yours," Aileen shot at him, hoping to embarrass him enough to distract from the hasty piles of things she was making on her desk. Of course, that was if he had any shame. He seemed to find it amusing every time someone mentioned drinking games.

She glanced around, running a hand through her hair as she wondered where to hide the piles of books and papers and notes she'd left out. Aileen rarely let her office get like this. Trevelyan had put her into a work-panic, so it was his fault.

Her eyes narrowed when she noticed the wine decanter on her desk. That was new.

"You brought wine," she stated the obvious after a pause, suspicion clear in her voice.

Well, this was off to a great start. Damn his nosiness.

Still, he wasn't entirely regretting it; the papyrus scroll had said something about a cult, in the few moments he'd seen it. Interesting...but unrelated right now. Still, he couldn't help but wonder if Aileen was spicing up her classes. He'd heard about the Ushabti Incident. Certainly sounded more fun than the classes he'd sat in, students getting thrown out of windows or no.

He crossed his arms loosely, hip cocked. She might be annoyed,but he wasn't going to show any signs of that in return, if he could avoid it. Still, his expression and tone were much more serious than usual, at least dropping the hint he hadn't flounced up here for the hell of it.

"I figured you could use it," He said, simply, stepping back out of her way a bit. "Aurors aren't exactly fun to get confronted with, are they?" Sighing, he rubbed his neck. Honestly, with Aileen Reid, he wasn't sure how to go about this - warm her up to the idea of telling him about Jonas, or just drive right in.

"I'm sorry he came after you out there," he said, instead. "For me, he was nice enough to corner me in the privacy of my classroom. Apparently, he's less polite to ladies." He eyed the wine decanter. "And if you don't want that, hand it over. I could use some."

As Aileen scolded and moved around the office collecting papers, Tapendra seemed unperturbed, though strangely solemn. Her expression darkened at his mention of Aurors. Tapendra was exactly the sort of person who would assume that two seconds of camaraderie at the career fair meant they were good friends who chatted with each other at the end of the day. He was already talking like he understood.

She paused in her move to 'hide all the things!' when he revealed that Auror Trevelyan had cornered him in his classroom. Her eyebrows shot up. Aileen glanced at Tapendra, then at the wine decanter. There couldn't be enough in there to get her sloshed again, could there? Especially if he was having some.

"Don't take that away yet," she chided him, setting the two glasses down and pouring some for both of them. Aileen handed one to Tapendra and half sat, half leaned against the desk, the wine glass cradled in her hands. He'd interfered on her behalf earlier. That counted for something, even if she was too prideful to thank him again.

Aileen also assumed that beneath the sympathetic act and the offer of alcohol, he wanted information. But now, so did she.

"Trevelyan has a knack for making a fool out of himself in public. I'm surprised they let him out of the Auror office to recruit students, though I can't imagine he'd be of much use on the field," she commented dryly, glancing at him.

After Trevelyan's display in the Great Hall, Aileen was feeling especially bitter and spiteful, and didn't care what kind of hot water her insults could put him in at the moment. Chances were slim that Tapendra would take her literally. Slim, but not impossible.

Aileen took a sip of wine and smiled slightly.

She'd poured wine, sort of relaxed, and seemed willing to talk. Good.

He oh-so casually made sure the door was locked, drew his wand, and cast the standard set of wards. He assumed, and hoped, she'd understand. Unlike what Trevelyan had decided to say, this wasn't going to be privy to any student or Auror or staff member that wandered by.

He didn't sit, yet; instead he leaned on the extra chair, redoing his waistcoat's upper buttons as she spoke.

"If that's his idea of subtly or discretion, no, I imagine not," he said with a slight smirk, assuming, as most would, she was referring to skill. Still, it was odd he hadn't bothered with wards. Most likely, however, he simply didn't care who or what overheard. That, from Tapendra's viewpoint, was worrying. He didn't know any details of Aileen's issues, beyond her brother having been arrested, but needless to say - he didn't want his own case being discussed so openly.

Tapendra paused, unsure for a moment how to continue. "He wants my help," he said, finally, with a sigh. "I gathered from the discussion that I overheard he's coercing your help, too." He picked up his own glass, looking at her seriously over the top of it. "I'm assuming your experience hasn't been very... pleasant, or productive." He drank, before adding wryly, "For either of you, from the sound of it."

Aileen shot him an incredulous look when Tapendra bolted the door and casted a silencing ward. She could have taken care of that later, if necessary. This was still her office.

And oh look, he was already making himself at home! He'd better not kick up his bare feet on the table.

"Impressive powers of observation," she smirked back, taking a sip of wine as she tried to judge how much to tell him. Her expression grew pensive.

"No, it hasn't been pleasant. Especially now that he's an Auror," distaste flickered across her face. "You have to wonder how he got the job so quickly. Or returned to it," she raised her eyebrows. Aileen was under the paranoid belief that Trevelyan had never really been a private investigator. That he'd just used it as a cover.

Aileen took another sip of wine and met his eyes, "Has he been hovering around your office for long?" It sounded like it. "Hogwarts just isn't sacred anymore." She blamed Snark and the heightened security around campus.

He kept his expression level, but worry was fully in control of at least part of his brain now. He'd only recently become an Auror? Had got the position suddenly? That sounded just like...it sounded too much like it, and he'd admitted to him he knew things without thinking, shit-

Without much ability to snoop the facts on Trevelyan, it seemed the Auror's choice to corner Aileen was turning out to possibly be a lifesaving mistake for Tapendra. Even as closed up as she was, almost everything Aileen said was helping, to some extent.

Of course, he couldn't take it all at face value; this was Reid, after all. He wondered what she'd been caught doing. Knowing her, it was likely something relatively harmless...in her view.

"Yes, he has, and his friends have," he said, simply. "Since March. Sort of." It was more the threat of it. "And no, it's not. Dumbledore wouldn't have allowed any of this." He smirked. "Mind you, I doubt Dumbledore would've hired either of us, so that's a moot point, really..."

He delicately put the wine glass down, in such a way that if it overturned, it wouldn't ruin any of her papers.

"How has he treated you? He was...pleasant enough to me, honestly. He appealed to my...sympathies." That seemed all the more suspicious now, in retrospect, and his voice was bitter. "Has he kept any promises to you?"

"And Snark is less surprising?" She pointed out, though Greyfriar had actually hired her.

Trevelyan and his friends had been pestering him since March. It had been months. When bitterness laced his voice, she tilted her head curiously, unused to that side of him.

"Yes, he has," she answered in a vague, grudging tone. He had found the dagger for her, and returned it, as promised. He hadn't yet given her up to the Ministry. "But if something goes wrong, something completely out of your control, he won't let you forget it.

"He is pleasant at first," she agreed. "He'll also act quite pleasant to family, when it works in his favor," her eyes narrowed and her own voice turned bitter. Though she didn't know he'd asked Abby about Trevor, it wouldn't surprise her. What pissed her off was that Abby had become attached, and kept mentioning him like he was a lost puppy Aileen had forgotten at the pound.

She shook her head and refocused back on Tapendra. "My advice? Become a little more hard-hearted. That is, if your sympathies are all he has to go on."

One eyebrow shot up a fraction of an inch, questioningly.

He grunted, amused in a kind of bitter way. "Not so surprising in your case, I'd say. Your only strike is that you're young," he said, matter-of-factly. "In mine, well. Given what Woolfolk was up to..." That summed it up, really. Any propensity for muggle-coddling likely shone out as less distressing than throwing slumber parties with the young girls and encouraging them to drink. Again, the amused smirk. "At the time, anyhow. Now..." He trailed off and shrugged hopelessly. 

So he did keep his promises. Good. The visit was the 25th, a fact not far removed for his mind at any time, and hopefully, it wouldn't be a trap. Of course, bringing Ignan was dangerous. He knew that. Questions would get asked, and he couldn't trust his mother to not give everything away the moment the older man came through the door.

Well, truth be told, he couldn't trust her at all. He didn't know her anymore. It was a very depressing thought, and only reminding himself that she didn't know him in return helped. But it didn't help much. She was also supposed to be dead. This raised the trap possibility.

So he was pleasant to family? He'd bloody well better be. If he'd taken the same tone with Cyhirae that he had with Aileen, Tapendra'd help him, alright - right off the Astronomy Tower's upper parapet. Hell, he might do that if he'd taken that tone with Abby, because she didn't deserve it either.

"They're big sympathies," he admitted, guardedly. Decades-old revenge and a massive fear for his life and anyone close to him counted as a sympathy, he figured. He looked at her for a moment, then sighed.

"Bugger it all. You'll hear about it soon enough, I'm sure," he said darkly, "Likely on the same day Snark fires me, I'll bet. He's got my mother. If I help, she might not spend the rest of her life in Azkaban." A lie, yes, but one for both of their sakes. Reid might not exactly be the most deserving, but she really didn't deserve getting added to the hit list.

"But, if he's lying, or if I don't help, I could wind up there myself," he added, and smiled his bitter little smile again.

She sipped at her wine when he told her there were big sympathies, expecting him to hint more at his issue with Trevelyan. Aileen paused, glass to her mouth, as he explained that his mother had a one way ticket to Azkaban. Setting the glass down with care, she blinked at him in surprise.

From what she remembered of her self-absorbed school days, his mother had gotten arrested and his father had been revealed as a muggle. Bombay had paraded the papers around like the house cup. Then some time after graduation, Tapendra's mother had disappeared.

Aileen didn't envy his current conundrum. "I'm sorry about your mother," she offered in a quiet, polite tone. The list of family members (and people in general) that she loved was very low. Tapendra seemed to care enough about his mother to lessen the sentence, where as Aileen was mostly bothered by her older brother's arrest out of pride, family unity, and a niggling fear that she'd end up the same one day.

"I'm sure you know that my brother Trevor is about two steps away from landing in a cell, himself."

She paused, back stiff. Though she was extremely curious about his situation, she got the feeling that she was helping him more than he could help her. Still, knowledge about his situation could be useful. It could be worth the risk. Besides Myrni, she had few allies here.

"I asked Trevelyan for help six months ago," she admitted, letting him assume whatever he wanted about why. "He kept his word. I thought we'd concluded business. Then a few months later he comes knocking on my door, telling me about these... issues, that I couldn't have foreseen, and demanding that I fix it."

Her expression soured, "He conveniently left out the fact that he was working to put my brother away the entire time."

Of course, she was conveniently leaving out a few facts right now. Like the curse. Details!

He smiled slightly; a flash of gratitude. Even a polite sympathy from Aileen was more than he'd expected, honestly. "Don't be. She's fully earned herself a jail sentence - it was a matter of time," he said. "But she's family. And, well..." She was his mother, and there was much more there than someone like Aileen would likely understand, drama and disappearance aside.

Though maybe with Abby, she might eventually understand.

"Yes, I overheard. I'm sorry." His tone was the same as hers; polite, though in his case the sympathy was audible and genuine. He finally sat in her spare chair, having glanced at her for approval. The chair was large and comfortable, and he automatically assumed the lotus position as he settled in. This had the advantage that his bare feet weren't touching anything she owned.

She was actually telling him things, much to his surprise. Fairly candidly, and without having to drain half the wine bottle. He barely hid the surprise from his features, though a suddenly need to take off and clean his glasses had plenty to do with him hiding it.

"So he wasn't an Auror when you hired him?" He asked, finally. "Do you think he took the job just to get to you and Trevor, or...?"  He hadn't asked what the issues were, but the question was there. He quirked an eyebrow at her, ever so politely.

Aileen nodded at his sympathetic statement, both relieved at his lack of judgment and uncomfortable with pity in any form. She noticed the way he sat on the armchair, but pursed her lips and decided not to comment. Tapendra was so odd sometimes.

When he asked her more questions, Aileen sipped at her wine, understanding what he was getting at.

"I don't know," she admitted after a pause. "When I met him, Trevelyan claimed to be a private investigator. Unattached to the Ministry," she scoffed. "The whole set up would have required more brain power than I'd expect from him, but stranger things have happened."

Aileen shook her head. "And Abby trusts far too easily," she murmured. "I came home a few times to find them chatting away like old friends. I doubt he had much trouble getting information until he encountered... issues." Her favorite word!

"Have you noticed his methods lately?" She gave him a meaningful look. "Relying on his friends. Sputtering. Clenching his fists." She rolled her eyes in a fashion very reminiscent of their teen years. "Not exactly impressive, is it?"

"I don't think he lacks in brain power," he said, carefully. "Most of the time, anyway. He seems..." How to put it? "It'd serve his purposes best if people don't think much of him, I'd think. It's probably safer to assume he's a smart little sod under that exterior than it is to assume he's some plodding copper. Better to overestimate than underestimate..." Not that he knew anything about doing that, really. He'd done it once or twice, but that was it.

He kept quiet on Abby, but he didn't doubt for a minute that she'd do that. The girl needed to get out more, that was for sure. Maybe it was just the excitement of having someone of the than Aileen to talk to. Honestly, if told to pick which of the two he'd rather be locked in a house with...

He'd have picked Aileen, because she was the devil he knew, but still.

"His tactics with me have, so far, been more cold and clever than angry," he said. "The first half of our first interview, he let me assume my mother was dead and pressed me on having been hiding any of her activities or what she'd been up to. I assumed the body had finally turned up." He had had very good reasons for assuming her death, too. He doubted Trevelyan knew that. "Then he suddenly sprung that she was alive and pressed me when I was confused." Confused - more like angry, but Aileen didn't need to know that. "He also owled me the week before without saying why an Auror wanted to land on my doorstep. That didn't help at all."

He smirked, slightly playfully. "Maybe it's all these issues that crop up around you that've got him so angry," he suggested cheerfully. "Might be to your advantage."

Aileen nodded when he gave his opinion of Trevelyan, smirking at the 'plodding copper' description, though she understood what he meant. It wasn't that she underestimated the Auror, in her opinion. It was just far too easy to toss insults at Trevelyan when she had a willing audience!

Her expression grew grave when he told her that Trevelyan had allowed Tapendra to believe his mother was dead. That wasn't surprising, considering the far less serious game he'd played with her on February 1st, but it still disturbed her. She shook her head, feeling a slight stab of sympathy.

Of course, Tapendra didn't dwell on it. "You would think," she agreed. "He's so full of hot air I half expect him to float away. Not that I'd complain, since it'd solve all of my issues," she widened her eyes playfully, taking a sip of wine.

All joking aside, Aileen felt a little lost. She supposed she could keep giving him cryptic hints, or continue getting her jabs in at the Aurors. She knew she had information that could help Tapendra if Trevelyan ever threatened to throw him in Azkaban. But there was a delicate balance. If she pushed Jonas over the line or put him in danger, she was certain he'd bring her down along with him. It was exactly what she'd threatened to do to him earlier this afternoon. Everything was hopelessly tangled, and she was far too cautious to simply tell Tapendra what was going on.

"I don't trust him," she commented after a long pause. "Clearly. But things might go easier for you. You haven't given him any reason to blow up, though I'm sure he's not pleased you stepped in today," she said wryly. "You might be alright. Just... hope that nothing goes wrong," Aileen ended on a quiet, pessimistic note.

Tapendra let out a short laugh. "It didn't happen to Graham, so I don't think that solution will pop up. A pity, really." Watching your enemies drift away like balloons would be very satisfying. Especially if, in some cases, you could shoot them down when they were high enough.

He smiled slightly at her advice, sitting back in the chair. "Hope nothing goes wrong, with Aurors peering at me?" Again, he laughed, though it was in a bitter manner. "He says he'll let us in to see my mother in a few days. I'm trying to tell myself it's not entirely a trap, but, well." He sipped his wine. "Come 'round to the Office and stand in this cell' would be a tad ridiculous, but it would save him time if he just slammed the door on me, eh?"

Admittedly, that was a funny mental image. He sighed, leaning back. "If you can't trust him, I really can't, either. I've got too much to lose." Explaining a bit wouldn't hurt, would it? "I've got people after me. They've been known to work through the Aurors before. I'd love to help the Aurors take them down, but if Trevelyan's working for them, I'm dead meat. Literally. I'll be called away on family business and you'll get to read a Prophet article about how, tragically, I went insane, killed my daughter and sister and then killed myself. And that society blames the science, or something."

He shrugged. "Sounds unlikely, I know. But I've seen them do it. It's one of the reasons I'm on their list."