Instead of taking the offered hand, Eha snapped her fingers and pointed at Johann, simulating a lightning bolt of recognition. "I think I've seen you before! You work on the same floor as my father." She beamed at him, pleased with her own cleverness, and turned the point into a handshake. "Eha Farro, soon-to-be-Auror. Pleasure."

Once her hand was free again, she popped a finger sandwich into her mouth whole and swallowed it without pausing for breath. Somewhere in the back of her mind, her mother scolded her to eat more slowly. Eha ignored it, tapping her lips as she swiveled back to Fauna.

"Funny, that - there was a Professor Storm at Durmstrang too, while I was there. A tutor. Interesting fellow - almost knocked a whole tower crooked during my third year. Never took a class with him myself, but I had friends who liked him."

She selected another sandwich from her plate, which was getting a bit bare, and popped it whole into her mouth. This time, though, she kept her mouth closed and chewed it thoroughly, listening intently to the conversation. This was the best part of parties, getting to know people, and she liked to hear what they all had to say.

Ministry events. And given plenty of scannings on the Temporal Tinkering Tracker, it didn't look like anything nasty would go down. Even though such a venture sounded like a waypoint event, you never knew at times. And of course, no one could really say what the DoM was all about, double on TTI. So Sissel was here to people watch mostly. MLE was heading the event, no doubts they would get plenty of new recruits. But maybe there was an open mind out there that could take interdepartmental dealings with the stuff even too weird for wizards, if that were possible.

Sissel was dressed simply, typical work suit and sneakers...and a ritzy silk top hat with orange ribbon and bow way more formal than his current clothing that looked completely ridiculous on him.

He recognized a few familiar faces, Dorian and Francis Pepper talking together. "Francis!" Sissel greeted with a handshake. He caught some of Dorian's explanation of the job to Theta. "Work is like a drug? You haven't switched over to the Potions branch, have you Dorian?"

"There she is, the recent graduate!" Sissel smiled at Theta. "Hey sport! Time flies much too fast, only yesterday I'm seeing pictures of you going off to Hogwarts in your first school jumper." For the next bit he leaned in closer and spoke softer so only Theta could hear. "You're settling well in the workshop, right? I'm sure Francis required much convincing."

She was slightly late, naturally. After work she really had to go home prepare for the great night. Of course she was aware that the party event was inside the Ministry, and was a rather formal, serious one. But still Alethea was excited - and the idea of receiving the young Hogwarts graduates made her remember of how she felt when she was on their places. So that she had that idea of using her house pin and shoes matching - was that too Hufflepuff? Nah, she didn’t really mind.

The Atrium was so beautiful and out of common… but she didn’t really got time to appreciate. Soon Alethea had to start distribute greetings, smiles and waves to some known people. Not that she didn’t like doing that - but when she noticed the unknown faces around she got a lot more interested.

But the first thing she did when she got the chance was reach a cocktail - her liver could take a few of them without any disaster. Besides, that was a good way to warm up for the night.

The girl in the blue dress smiled and shook his hand.

"Right! MLE. I'm Fauna."

He automatically turned his hand to the other girl but she snapped her fingers and pointed at him. Johann paused and raised an eyebrow while this occurred.

"I think I've seen you before! You work on the same floor as my father. Eha Farro, soon-to-be-Auror. Pleasure." Johann's mind hurriedly sought through his colleagues in his memory to try and find family resemblance, but ended up relying on Eha's surname to match her curiously.

"Ah yes, Aleksandar, very good man your father." Johann beamed in return, shaking the hand and then sipping his wine.

"Um, are you related to Professor Storm?" Fauna asked tentatively. Johann was still mid sip as she asked, "He teaches Defense at Hogwarts, and graduated from Durmstrang," Fauna turned the last part to her fellow trainee, who happened to be pushing sandwiches into her mouth.

"Funny, that - there was a Professor Storm at Durmstrang too, while I was there. A tutor. Interesting fellow - almost knocked a whole tower crooked during my third year. Never took a class with him myself, but I had friends who liked him."

Johann chuckled at them both.
"The same one, he jumped ship to Hogwarts last autumn." He referred to Eha more, "and yes, he's my cousin, Fauna. Did you not enjoy his teaching? Surely you came out with the grades you needed though." He smiled broadly.

"You're Durmstrang too? We're infiltrating the British Ministry. What with this Tetra wizard competition that will either be to their advantage, or disadvantage depending on how tied we are as alumni. Would the two of you have considered competing if you were still at school?" Johann asked, regarding Eha and the finger sandwiches with curiosity. He supposed he should be eating something eventually. "I don't think I could have talked my way past a dragon, sadly, so I wouldn't have lasted long."

Work is like a drug? You haven't switched over to the Potions branch, have you Dorian?"

Dorian gave a little sigh, but had to laugh. At least it wasn't the Minister who had overheard him. He turned slightly so that he had Sissel in his field of vision as well.

"Now, Sissel, the only Potions I need are liquors of good quality, you know that. Well, and the odd Felix Felicis, of course...." Dorian gave Sissel a wink.
"What I meant is that wouldn't you also go into a sort of withdrawal if you, oh I don't know, maybe never got to tinker with time ever again?"

Sissel turned to Theta and began talking to her. And after the first line he leaned towards her and Dorian gave a little start of surprise. Sissel couldn't possibly be going for a kiss?
But then he saw he only whispered something to her. Probably some kind of slightly inappropriate joke. Dorian smiled to himself as he took another sip of his drink. If he guessed correctly, the girl would probably blush again at whatever Sissel told her.

Brett looked up when a person addressed her- it was a young woman, who was very pretty. She took the hand that was extended, and smiled. "Brett Abraham," she said, giving her own name. "And yes, just graduated!" she said with a proud smile, chest puffing out slightly.

She looked around at the room, the conversation had become a quiet buzz in the background. It seemed that Fauna had found some people to talk to, and Brett couldn't see the twins anymore, or Grace for that matter. She hoped they were having a good time and not getting into any trouble.

"Looking into joining the Aurors, I am," she said to the new girl, refocusing her attention. "Have always wanted to be one since I was a very little girl. What do you do here at the ministry?" Brett asked. She didn't remember seeing this young woman at the job fair at Hogwarts.

(Outfit)

Luthas and Ishane stepped out of the fireplace and into the well lit atrium.  Things were already getting busy and Luthas grabbed a couple of glasses of champagne for them while Ishane ajdusted her saree. Ishane smiled, wrapping her bare arm around his and took a sip, skimming the crowd for anyone she knew. The two wandered around, stopping every so often to chat with Luthas' collegues, Ishane's former studnets, and their old friends from school.

Ishane spotted one of her former students chatting with a couple of people she didn't recognize. She tugged on Luthas' arm to get his attention. Amused, Luthas excused himself to the group that he had been talking to and allowed Ishane to  lead him over to her former student's group. "Miss Blake, I home I'm not interupting anything." she smiled at everyone else. "Congratulations on being accepted into the Aurors."

She then adressed the rest of the group, "I'm Ishane Blair, the Herbology professor at Hogwarts. This is my husband Luthas, he works in the Ministry's legal archives."

"The same one, he jumped ship to Hogwarts last autumn."

"Did he now?" Eha exchanged her now-empty sandwich place for another glass of the Butterbeer cocktail, swirling it loftily as her eyes glinted with interest. "Can't say I blame him, I reckon spending more than a decade up there where the sun so weak'd give anybody depression."

The mention of the Tetra-wizard tournament sent her eyes glinting brighter and she gestured eagerly with her free hand. "Well of course I would have! Going up against a dragon seems like a hoot to me. And even if I didn't get chosen, I'd still volunteer to go along, just to see what all the foreign schools are like with their teachers and students. Best part of it, I'd think. I've always been interested in the Americas..."

She was about to go on when a tall woman in a lovely printed saree approached them with an intense-looking man in tow. She introduced herself as the Hogwarts Professor of Herbology, and her husband as an archivist. Eha smiled at them both welcomingly. "Certainly a popular little knot, aren't we? Eha Farro's the name. Pleasure to meet you, ma'am."

She extended her hand for a shake but, at that moment, someone trying to get to the hors d'oeuvres table knocked into her from behind, knocking the drink from her hand. It crashed to the floor between them and splashed the honey-colored cocktail all over her slacks, as well as the hem of Ishane Blair's saree.

"Oh, bother!" Eha cursed, snatching her wand from its place tucked into the small of her back. "I am so sorry, Mrs. Blair. Here, let me clean that up for you."

Fauna's stomach grumbled as the two Durmstrang graduates shared a few stories, and she glanced at the sandwiches longingly, wishing she had the dexterity to eat, be social, and be witty. Parties were hard! She couldn't help but wonder what Professor Storm had done to nearly knock over a tower at Durmstrang, and it was as she was thinking this that Johann Storm wondered if she had enjoyed Storm's teaching.

She took a long sip of her drink, nodded even though it sounded like Johann had been teasing, and resisted letting out a sigh of relief as the conversation moved on to the upcoming Tetrawizard tournament. Fauna glanced at Eha, unsurprised but still impressed that she'd jump to volunteer. She opened her mouth, about to offer the much more boring answer of 'probably not', when Professor Blair and her husband greeted them!

"Hi, professor," she smiled nervously. As much as Fauna liked the new Herbology professor, she never quite expected to run into professors outside of Hogwarts. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Blair."

"Thank y-"

Her thanks for congratulations got cut short when Eha's drink got knocked over, splashing on the floor. Fauna stepped back slightly, holding her cocktail closer to her. After she got over her surprise and relief that her own glass hadn't gone flying, she moved forward to gather some napkins for them, holding them out uncertainly as Eha drew her wand and offered to clean up.

"What people will do for those sandwiches..." Fauna made an attempt at a joke, giving Professor Blair and Eha a sympathetic look.

"Oh, hush now! No need for that, ey? Though it IS true…" Dorian winked and smiled, "Talking about experimental, I was wondering if I could borrow some parts from your office and check their reaction to a new spell I'm working on? Maybe I could pop in your office on Monday?"

"Oh?" Francis replied. "Certainly, just come down and let me know which items you require I'll be in from just before nine." Realising they were swiftly falling into talking 'shop' which was only natural given their surroundings, Francis glanced to Theta whose eyes had wandered. She snapped back with her best attempt at integrating.

"Have you worked here long?"

"No, my dear, not really. Well, I have officially been employed here for about a year, but my job makes me travel a lot, so I see relatively little of the Ministry."

"And we see very little of you." Francis said with a sad expression.

"What made you want to study experimental charms?"

Bless her, she was trying. It was the sort of question someone trying to be interested in one's profession would ask. But, Theta would soon be able to see Dorian's work was very interesting indeed.

"Why, the excitement, of course! The thrill of finding either something with a charm or spell that could use improvement, or even, a few times between everything, when the mood of the world and your mind is just right, THEN you come up with something completely new! And let me tell you, that is one of the most amazing feelings I know of…."

Francis gave a gentle cough.

"It's sort of like a drug, actually. But, um, mum's the word about that last part, OK?" Dorian put a to his lips. Typically, it was just at that moment that Sissel arrived.

"Francis!"
"Sissel."

The two of them shook hands firmly.
"Work is like a drug? You haven't switched over to the Potions branch, have you Dorian?" Sissel asked Dorian in his usual enthusiastic way.

"Now, Sissel, the only Potions I need are liquors of good quality, you know that. Well, and the odd Felix Felicis, of course…." Dorian gave Sissel a wink. Francis knew only too well that even a wink could get Sissel's mind working on a tangent it didn't need to go down.

"What I meant is that wouldn't you also go into a sort of withdrawal if you, oh I don't know, maybe never got to tinker with time ever again?" Dorian explained. It seemed to go down well, though Sissel had spotted Theta.

"There she is, the recent graduate! Hey sport! Time flies much too fast, only yesterday I'm seeing pictures of you going off to Hogwarts in your first school jumper."

Francis saw Theta's eyebrows shoot up and her eyes widen. She'd not met Sissel for quite some years so possibly did not remember him. He leant in closely and spoke to her so that Francis and Dorian could not hear.

"So yes, Monday." Francis confirmed to Dorian, watching Sissel. Whatever it was that he had spoken to Theta concerned Francis as she glanced to him as he was referred.

"Don't be giving her any ideas now Sissel. She's here to learn the family trade for the good of the Ministry. Not quite into centennial models just yet." He smiled at Theta, "Plenty of time."

Behind them he spotted Alethea Selwyn, and did his best to catch her eye. As Chairwitch of the Muggle-Worthy Excuse Committee she always had a few interesting tales to tell.

"There she is, the recent graduate!"

Oh my goodness, Theta thought, seeing Sissel's enthusiastic approach. She shrank back slightly towards her uncle. If it hadn't been embarrassing enough trying to think of intelligent questions to ask Dorian when you didn't know if anyone in your department could give you a straight answer, here came a man she vaguely reconised.

"Hey sport! Time flies much too fast, only yesterday I'm seeing pictures of you going off to Hogwarts in your first school jumper."

"Er?" Theta hurriedly tried to place the accent and remembered a name that sounded a bit like sissy. Before she could react, he had leaned in closer and spoke softly.

"You're settling well in the workshop, right? I'm sure Francis required much convincing." Theta glanced at her uncle as he was mentioned.

"Er, well, I haven't really had much time there yet - but I suppose he didn't in the end...." Theta dithered, blushing at the close conversation which she had no idea how to deal with from a man other than one in her family, and her eyes moved from Sissel to Dorian and to Francis, who saved her.

"Don't be giving her any ideas now Sissel. She's here to learn the family trade for the good of the Ministry. Not quite into centennial models just yet. Plenty of time."

"Yes, plenty of time." Theta agreed a little more firmly, gripping her drink. "That's the business we're in after all." She smiled, hoping her mild joke went down well.

"Sissel? OH!" She suddenly remembered. "Sorry, its been quite a few years, I'd quite forgotten." They'd been introduced at some point when Theta had been Ambrose's age. He was the one flying around fetching those doing the wrong things with Time Turners or getting stuck, whereas Francis was the one doing all the fiddly clever work to make them work and fix them.

She couldn't help but think Sissel looked a lot older than he had four years ago.

"Well, perhaps I'll find out a little more with experimental charms soon Dorian." Theta backtracked politely. "I'm all for a few updates to the designs." She smiled and gave a cheeky look to Francis. "That way we'll keep Sissel busy running around after them all."

Popular indeed, Johann agreed.

"You have new company, we'll catch up later. Very well met ladies." He uttered politely to Fauna and Eha. He reached into his pocket and handed Eha a small card. "Do keep in touch, Durmstrang graduates should stick together."

Johann gave Eha and Fauna a wide smile, and nodded politely to Luthas and Ishane before retreating to find another glass of wine.

The Atrium was thoroughly thronging now, and Johann paused a moment on his own to contemplate who best to irritate next.

OOC: you're welcome to irritate me, I'm just opening up some groups to let anyone else join in

Sissel stood there and watched the confusion snarl and unravel around him.

"Now, Sissel, the only Potions I need are liquors of good quality, you know that. Well, and the odd Felix Felicis, of course....What I meant is that wouldn't you also go into a sort of withdrawal if you, oh I don't know, maybe never got to tinker with time ever again?"

"Possibly, then I would go into making a rock band," Sissel quipped to Dorian.

Theta looked confused for a moment."Er, well, I haven't really had much time there yet - but I suppose he didn't in the end...."

Francis spoke up. "Don't be giving her any ideas now Sissel. She's here to learn the family trade for the good of the Ministry. Not quite into centennial models just yet." He smiled at Theta, "Plenty of time."

"Sissel? OH!" That triggered Theta's memory. "Sorry, its been quite a few years, I'd quite forgotten. Well, perhaps I'll find out a little more with experimental charms soon Dorian. I'm all for a few updates to the designs. That way we'll keep Sissel busy running around after them all."

"The apologies should be mine." Especially when he realized that most of the pictures he remembered Theta from were the Pepper family Christmas Letters. "Golly Godric, has it been that long? But friends, let us talk shop when we have the privacy of the Department around us or we'll have all the fresh Auror cadets asking us for TTs as part of their standard operating equipment."

Sissel grabbed a passing drink. "I'd have you over for dinner," he told the Peppers, "but my flat isn't built for parties over four. Have stumbled across a good Italian joint, though, if you ever wanted to catch up."

After a sip he adjusted the hem of his expensive looking top hat. "All right, isn't anyone going to ask 'What's up with the hat?' "

Right after take the first sip of her drink, Alethea’s attention got caught by Francis Pepper and she waved briefly. He was in the company of another Unspeakable, Sissel - who never heard about him? -, a young girl and a tall man she never saw before. Well, that looked pretty much like a little Level 9 reunion and she wondered if Francis’ intentions were really to have her along. At the end she shrugged, that was a mixer after all.

She went next to them just in time to hear Sissel’s comment about his own hat. “It’s a charming hat, indeed, Sissel - what’s up with it?” She asked smiling, before turning to the other three members of the group. “Good evening gentlemen… and young lady. Pepper and Jowd need no introduction, but you both are new faces to me!” And she stated this with a real enthusiasm to Theta and Dorian. “I’m Alethea Selwyn, please call me Alethea!” She offered her hand to them. “I’m a professional liar-- I mean, I work with the Muggle excuses!”

With this she laughed, turning again to Sissel. “But you were about to tell a wonderful history about your hat, dear, I’m sorry for the interruption… please, continue!”

"And we see very little of you." Francis gave Dorian a sad look, but he answered more lightly: "Come now, Francis! I'd think you'd be happy to not have me and my frequently misfiring spells around all the time, quaking up the Department! Home is where you rump rests, ey?" Dorian had said it before remembering he was at a rather more formal gathering than the times he usually said things like that.....

Dorian had to admit it was rather amusing seeing Francis uncomfortable by whatever it was Sissel was whispered into Theta's ear, especially as the few times Dorian saw him elsewhere he looked rather composed and in charge. He stifled his smile with a sip of his drink.

"Well, perhaps I'll find out a little more with experimental charms soon Dorian. I'm all for a few updates to the designs. That way we'll keep Sissel busy running around after them all." Dorian had to admit he was starting to like this girl and how she gave both Francis and Sissel that cheeky kind of look. He knew he was going to like working with this one.
"Yes, I'm sure we'll make quite some impressive magic together. But, my dear, I do believe Sissel won't be needing our help. As long as time is running, Sissel will be running along it." Dorian gave Sissel a sideways glance.

"But friends, let us talk shop when we have the privacy of the Department around us or we'll have all the fresh Auror cadets asking us for TTs as part of their standard operating equipment." Dorian had to smile at the sentiment. He knew about the strict regulations the Ministry set on the use of TTs and that Sissel was authorized to use them, but he bet Sissel even slept with that Turner of his. I mean come on, he thought, you can even see he's wearing it under the fabric of his sleeves right now.

"All right, isn't anyone going to ask 'What's up with the hat?' " You could see that Sissel was slightly upset that he had to bring it up himself. Dorian had seen it before he had seen the rest of Sissel, but he was starting to get used to Sissel's eccentricities, so he just accepted those things.
"Why should we, when you're so obviously eager to do it yourself? Though I'm impressed you managed to wait for so long."
Dorian managed to say it right before a beautiful woman in a lovely saree came walking up their little group, and was a bit more nice to Sissel and his hat. She then turned to Dorian and Theta and introduced herself and offered her hand. Dorian took it lightly, bowed, and kissed it.
"A beautiful name for a beautiful woman, if I may say so. My name is Dorian Lagrange MacCullen, and it is no wonder we don't know each other, after all, it has been a over a decade since I lived in England for a longer period of time. so I'm happy to make your acquaintance, m'lady." All this introduction and smalltalk gave Dorian flashbacks to his formal upbringing, and how his mother had drilled politeness into him. He was grateful for it now, so that at least the start of a conversation wasn't as awkward as it usually became later on.