Running a little early, Ignan realised as he appeared in the botanic gardens as suggested by Tapendra in letters over summer. The last time Ignan had visited, he'd come unexpectedly and been greeted at the door with a gun, in the height of the Vedir angst.

The weather was mild, and in the early twenties, rain had fallen earlier in the morning but had now cleared, and the majority of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood were at work, apart from any children, who roamed back and front gardens and spilled onto streets in brightly coloured clothes, and bicycles.

Amongst them, Ignan Storm almost blended in, was it not for his suspicion of cars, and the wish to kick small children off pavements and into the route of passing vehicles. A gaggle of these larger infants, rather more the size of Hogwarts students, were leering over a smaller child with a bicycle, who rather resembled a first year surrounded by Slytherins.

He was all for walking straight through the group and accidentally kicking a few shins until he realised he couldn't hex the backsides off any of them legitimately. Deciding it was best not to draw attention to himself he set off across the road.

Two paces across the tarmac, he heard one of those car things roar.

Turning abruptly he saw the creature that resided on Tapendra's driveway heading straight for him and roaring, and Tapendra was inside it. Merlin, it was going to attack!

Being on vacation - officially on vacation - was nice and relaxing. It hadn't taken him long to settle into his usual routine at home; after cleaning the place, trimming the hedges, sleeping on the couch and being unable to stop himself from buying a new game, he'd taken to relaxing.

Of course, the girls did the same thing. Gigi had locked herself in her room and was loudly blasting music while using her laptop and Cyhirae was doing basically the same thing. Aside from getting driven to her piano lessons, of course.

He was heading home with a car full of groceries, music thumping and his mind in that zen like state one achieved only when driving down a familiar road while thinking more about the song than their surroundings.

Until a person stepped in front of his car. Tapendra did what any responsible driver would do; looked shocked, jerked the wheel sideways, stomped on the brake and squeezed his eyes shut as the car swerved and slid on the slick roadway.

The car jerked to a stop, and Tapendra's shoulders thumped into the pleather seat. The stereo was still going, but now it was accentuated with thumps and rustling as the groceries fell to the floor.

He looked up from his hunched posture, opening one eye to check that he didn't actually have a person sprayed all over his car. The older gentleman who looked at him wasn't exactly what he was expected, though, and his expression of winced concern turned to pleasant surprise in a fraction of a second.

"Ignan!" he said, though with the music and the car's walls the old man obviously couldn't hear him. He opened the door and hopped out, pausing only when a bag of crisps followed him out, and he had to pick it up and toss it back inside.

"Ignan!" he repeated, leaning around the car door. "What're - you should look both ways," he added, ignoring the fact he was currently blocking traffic. Thankfully there wasn't much of it. "What're you doing here?"

Tapendra pulled it up short, with Ignan's relief. The older wizard had drawn his wand very nearly all the way out of his jacket  ready to defend himself against this enormous metal beast that had swallowed Tapendra.

"Ignan! What're - you should look both ways," Tapendra released himself from the creature and appeared unharmed. Ignan let out a hiss of air he'd been holding, and drew himself straight again.
"What're you doing here?"

"Taking a walk, what do you think?" He asked sarcastically, and upon hearing the sniggers of the teenagers, he slid his wand away hastily.
"Coming to see you of course, I did say I would make the trip over in the week after you got back." The car was still making a roaring noise and Ignan could feel the heat bouncing from the bonnet and also from the engine beneath. Perhaps it was fuelled by dragons...

From behind them there was a sound much like a klaxon and it appeared another of the cars had drawn up behind, and another, unable to traverse the road.

"I will see you there, unless its an inconvenient time?" He asked Tapendra, rounding to continue in the same direction he had been walking in, and glancing back.

"Oh, right," Tapendra said, a tad sheepishly. He'd been about to continue, but jumped at the honk of the horn, and glared over his shoulder at the other driver. Then he leaned inside the car, crawling halfway in so only his feet were visible below the opened door - surprisingly, he had shoes on, though the state of the black and blue sneakers suggested they were either new or unused.

He hit a button, evidently, as yellow lights on sides of the car started to flash and a quiet tick tick tick sound came with them - as did the lowering of the blaring music.

"You don't have to do that," he told Ignan, as the other driver went around the awkwardly stopped Volvo and Tapendra stood back up, leaning with one arm on the door and the other on the windshield. "I can give you a ride. We're still over a mile away, anyway, it'll take you time." He smiled brightly and gestured at the other door. "Hop in."

"In there?" Ignan asked, with some trepidation. "Inside this..." he lowered his voice, the Muggles could still be in earshot, "contraption?"

He looked at Tapendra incredulously. He didn't know where the thing kept its brain, nor how Tapendra tethered it or charmed it. Its blank white eyes stared out, but it glowed yellow in regular rhythm either side of its eyes. Was it angry? It had tried to pounce on him, would it try again now that Tapendra was outside of its belly? Was Tapendra suggesting he get into its stomach with him?

There was a standoff for a moment as Ignan reasoned with his fears of Muggle technology. He'd ridden horses, camels, hippogriffs... Tapendra put his children in this thing. It sat docile in the land outside his house. Another of them was approaching from the rear, so Ignan took a breath and headed to Tapendra's side, assuming that was the normal point of entry.

He was directed (with good humoured amusement he hoped) that there was an entrance on the other side suitable. Ignan cautiously ran a finger over the metal to try and work out how it opened - not to the touch clearly, it did not have skin memory.

After what seemed like many anxious minutes, the door was open and Ignan climbed inside, almost forgetting to shut the door behind him. He sat very awkwardly, legs drawn towards himself, staring around himself - still convinced he was sat in the belly of a beast.

"Is it quite safe?" He asked Tapendra, an edge of worry in his voice still.

Tapendra, sitting in the driver's seat, just looked at Ignan with an expression that didn't communicate much beyond confusion. Then he gave up and laughed, trying and failing to turn it into a coughing fit.

"Yes, it's safe," he said, shaking his head at Ignan's bizarre behavior. "Put on your seat -" he cut himself off, having quickly realized that was just going to get a blank look. He leaned across and grabbed the seat belt on Ignan's side, drawing it across Ignan's chest and buckling it with the air of someone who was far too used to holding an over excited child down while buckling them in.

"It's just a safety measure," he explained quickly, pulling his own on and merging back into traffic before Ignan could protest too much. "So if - well, it's rare. Nothing to worry about." Somehow telling Ignan about flying through the windshield or getting slammed into the dashboard didn't seem like a good idea.

He looked at Ignan again and shook his head. "What's got you so worked up?"

"Worked up?" Ignan asked too quickly, trying to cover the fact he was anxious. "What do you mean rare?" He asked too quickly again, tugging at the restraints Tapendra had placed around him. These seemed to have a little give in but he tested them and they seemed to stick suddenly, as if they were devil's snare.

The thing had gathered pace, rejoining the herd in the road, and Ignan realised Tapendra seemed to be exerting some control, rather like a horse, on a wheel which was tethered to the inside of the creature's head. Occasionally he would flick branches from this protrusion back and forth, and a ticking noise would be emitted.

"I just haven't ever been inside such a form of transport, shall we say." Ignan admitted, "Its a little disconcerting. I don't know all these Muggle things as you do." He added grumpily, not because he wanted to know, but because they were thrust upon him with the assumption he would instinctively know what to do.

"Another reason not for tagging along with your Egypt trip, other than spending a longer period of time trapped with students, that is." He folded his arms, and glowered slightly. "I suppose you're all sunshine and smiles though, as you can't get enough of them?" Ignan smirked. His eyes flickered in front, he'd be only too glad to see Tapendra's house even if it was full of more of the Muggle puzzles, just to be out of this half-living, brain-hidden vessel.

He chuckled, unable to hold it back, and rather pointedly didn't answer Ignan's question. Better to tell him later than have him try to dive out the door. Though he wasn't sure Ignan could get the seat belt undone - but magic and his stereo wasn't exactly a combination he wanted.

"The Egypt trip was mostly...mostly wizarding," he said. "With a few exceptions. Nothing that would have been quite so...disconcerting," he said, his tone doing only a moderate job of hiding his amusement. He turned the stereo back on, turning the knob until the music was audible but didn't drown out conversation or rattle the car with every thump of the bass, which at its previous volume it had been doing.

He smiled brightly at Ignan's last remark. "I've missed them!" he said. "I really wished they worked at Hogwarts. I've got my games and music back though! And the television - you'd never miss it, you know? But when I get bored in the tower I just run out of things to do and I have so many hobbies I'm missing. And the internet, my god, when will wizards get that?"

Tapendra clapped his jaw shut, shook his head, and looked at Ignan as they stopped at a traffic light. "And so on," he said, tone much more deadpan. "How was your summer? It sounded peacefully dull. Aside from the...the house elf."

"In the net?" Ignan asked but quietly, he knew better than to query and get into a discussion about something Muggle.

"Gloriously, blissfully quiet. Though, admittedly for all my wishes to stay well away from students, I found myself rather preferring them to relatives." He folded his arms sulkily, able to distract himself from sitting in the belly of the beast.

"They're all in a flap about the tournament, which everyone is here too, but I could have been rich if I had a sickle for every time someone told me I'd joined the losing team." Ignan sounded even more grumpy by this point, and looked dead ahead through the windscreen. "Which is why I'll be coming back early, to formulate a plan."

A smirk grew across Ignan's face, though he was momentarily distracted by the sight of the traffic light changing colour. Bewitched candles, marvellous.
"Not only because I want to wipe the board... er.. by proving Hogwarts is better of course," not because he wanted to prove he could train up teenagers to a higher degree than Durmstrang after leaving his colleagues mid-Autumn term, "but because Hogwarts deserves my attention. I'm much disliking the fact there is already talk that myself, Hildegard, Tulojow and Juliette are going to be internal spies for our alma mater." He looked to Tapendra with a fairly livid look to his gaze.

"If anything, I'll be using my insider knowledge to undermine the bastards..." He muttered, and looked out the passenger window.
"I would have apparated to where I did last time, only I was told the Ministry's up in arms about statue of secrecy breaches recently, and if a Muggle happened to breathe within fifty feet of me, I'd probably be arrested for being too close while appearing. Hmph. Is it far now?" Ignan pulled at his seatbelt again, uncomfortable and edgy.

"You'll find a way to overcome their suspicions, I'm sure," Tapendra said, cheerfully - meaning it. It was hard to imagine Ignan spying; as much as he and Georg talked up Durmstrang, Ignan didn't seem fond of it from an adult perspective. "Personally, I'm worried worried about the academic challenges - you teach magic, but  I..." His cheerful tone and expression dimmed for a moment. "I'm going to get a lot of blank stares. Want to place bets on when the first student walks out? Maybe the Americans will get it - I hear they actually get taught some more muggle concepts..."

He turned onto the narrow Cavendish Avenue, having to slow considerably as he passed another car - his volvo just slightly larger than its lane. "Not far. Can't blame the Ministry, really, though - I'm glad I don't work there, sometimes. It must be a nightmare right now."

He turned the car into the driveway, pushing one of the buttons on the ceiling to make the garage door open and driving the car into the space before he turned it off, pocketing the key.

"The girls should be home," he said to himself. "Here, make yourself useful," he added, as he undid his seat belt and turned in his seat to start stuffing groceries back into their bags. He wordlessly started handing Ignan the plastic bags.

"Damn," he said, sitting back on his haunches, unmuffling his voice. "Is there a little jog of creamer by your feet?"

"Not far. Can't blame the Ministry, really, though - I'm glad I don't work there, sometimes. It must be a nightmare right now."

"Mm, from what correspondence I have from Johann, it is just that, albeit a slightly more organised one than most."

The car lurched off the road and Ignan instinctively reached to steady himself. Before them was Tapendra's house, which Ignan recognised with some relief. However the front wall of the house was lifting up and revealed a small abyss beyond, into which Tapendra directed his steed. 

"The girls should be home, here, make yourself useful," Tapendra muttered, and he turned in his seat to arrange his purchases from the market, before handing them to Ignan, who was not only held by a seatbelt but also now pinned by shopping bags.

"Damn, Is there a little jog of creamer by your feet?"

Ignan peered down, only to find the restraint would not allow him to lean forward, in his panic with the shopping bags, the belt, the car and the garage, he momentarily wrestled, until it appeared Tapendra remembered Ignan had not been in this form of transport before.

"Yes." Ignan eventually said, released from the belt with help. He fished the creamer out from between his boots and handed it to Tapendra before using his large hands to collect the bags together. He couldn't use magic, given his location, so he supposed it was only fair to help.

Between them, they managed to negotiate Ignan leaving the car, and carrying the shopping into Tapendra's kitchen. Ignan perched, curious as to the packaging and food of Muggles (mostly the same foods, just packaged differently) which got in the way of unpacking and putting the items away in the various cupboards of the kitchen. One Ignan noticed, was a cold store.

"Much as I appreciated the travel, I'll make my own way back later." He smirked at Tapendra, and glanced about. "Strange, I'd have considered your two to be nosy enough to have already made an appearance down here. Or is it because its only me?" He'd see enough of them back at the castle in September.

"How are things progressing with your mother's estate?" Ignan asked more seriously, folding his arms.

The kitchen, which had been clean - well, not clean exactly, but relatively uncluttered - was instantly full of stuff as Tappy went about the process of putting things away. He seemed to be going by habit, as he didn't seem to be putting too much thought into where things went. He did pause to pick up, shake, and chug the remainder of a carton of orange juice before shoving the empty carton in the trash.

"You'd have to," he said with a laugh. "It'd take us hours otherwise. You'd hate the freeway," he said as he arranged things in the crisper drawers. "Pretty sure you can handle Dissapparting from the park across the way - not too many people in it, in a few hours." He looked at the ceiling for a moment, at the mention of the girls; listening. In the relative silence voices could be heard from the rooms above.

"They're probably playing the xBox," he said without seeming inclined to explain, returning to his sorting. "We've all jut been relaxing since we got back - been pretty quiet around here." He didn't mind that; after the rush of the crowds of kids in Egypt, the quiet of home was relaxing as any overseas venture.

He didn't reply to Ignan's more serious query for almost a full minute; instead he shuffled the spice drawer around. Finally, he sighed and slammed the drawer and sighed.

"It's going fine," he said, turning and leaning on the counter, figetting; his eyes settled on some of the clutter and he started to put things away. "The Aurors seem to have finally concluded I'm not the true mastermind behind her crimes, but in Egypt it was..." He shook his head. "Odd. The Aurors there know what she - what the family did. The ones I talked to mentioned it casually. But they don't care."

He slammed a cupboard a bit harder than he'd intended. "The house...well, it's a damn palace. I don't know." He ran a hand through his bangs. "It's - I don't want it, but there's no one else to give it to, really. And...the money's...nice. We won't have any financial troubles." He admitted this last point grudgingly. "There's...a lot of it. I just don't really-"

Upstairs a door slammed suddenly and voices became audible as footsteps thundered towards and then down the stairs. "-my turn. You've had it all day, Daddy said you had to let us use it because it's not yours-"

Tapendra looked at Ignan. "They don't know the extent of it yet," he said quickly. "D-"

The thundering footsteps burst through the kitchen door in the form of Georgiana - Cyhirae behind her. When Georgiana saw Ignan she came to a dead stop in the doorway, eyes bugged out for a moment. Cyhirae ran into her from behind, and both girls stumbled into the kitchen, argument apparently temporarily forgotten.

There was a moment's awkward silence before Georgiana grunted what might have been a greeting and headed for the fridge, waving at Ignan over her shoulder as she rummaged. Cyhirae simply bee lined for her father and grabbed his arm, sending Ignan a suspicious glance before turning to her father with her large blue eyes in full on cute mode.

"Daddy, Gigi's hogging the xbox and won't let me play," she whined. "Tell her to stop!"

Tapendra looked up for a moment - giving Ignan a long-suffering look - before looking back to Cyhirae. "Today was her day with it, Cy," he said, tone gently reasonable. "You've got the Wii, you can play with that," he added, as his daughter sulked and glared at Ignan, as if this decision was his fault.

Georgiana stood up, kicking the fridge shut with a stocking'd foot - carrying salsa, a can of soda, yogurt and, after a grab at the counter, a bag of crisps. "What're you doing here?" She asked Ignan, her tone of despondent apathy failing to disguise her curiosity.

The conversation was shortlived as the two younger inhabitants of the Trishna family tumbled into the kitchen. The elder, Georgiana, regarded Ignan with more surprise than the younger, who was more intent on whining. No difference to term-time.

Ignan kept quiet as the interchange occurred between parent and daughter. Georgiana employed vague hand waving towards Ignan as she examined the cold store, and in return, Ignan raised a hand in silent greeting from his folded arms. It felt both odd and homely to be in a family situation in someone else's home. Tapendra's house was quite far removed from Ignan's habitation. Even the clothes he wore (less formal than the shirts, waistcoats, jackets and cloaks of teaching) made him feel a little strange in himself, in slacks, a shirt without tie and a v-neck jumper. He felt positively underdressed despite the warm weather.

"What're you doing here?"

"A very good -" his eyes flicked to the time "afternoon to you too Georgiana." Ignan greeted. His British accent had slipped a little with being submerged in German conversation for a month or more, but by the end of his visit it would have evened out a little more. 

"Visiting. Don't worry, I won't also be competing for the use of the egg box Cyhirae coverts." He was initially oblivious to the amusement his terminology caused the Trishnas. He would wisely not attempt to elaborate given the fact the other unusual word mentioned sounded like British slang for urine. Utterly bizarre.

"Or whatever the bloody Muggle thing is called." Ignan followed up with an almost humoured sigh and eye raise. "I'm well aware I'll pass no Muggle Studies OWL." A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. He found himself almost unable to be grumpy with the two girls, due to their links with Tapendra, and Azorma. For all their differences, he'd inconveniently become fond of them. Besides, this was their territory, not Hogwarts.

"I'm looking forward to surprise attacks from you in September Cyhirae.  Undoubtedly you won't be wasting that Outstanding OWL grade, Georgiana?" He had a feeling the girls would gladly vanish again as typical teenagers but he would politely entertain their presence in the meantime.

Despite the unusual occurrences during the year, both of Tapendra's charges had achieved outstanding end of year grades, Cyhirae being the only one to scrape into the highest grade in her class despite Ignan's high scrutiny. Which reminded him, he was meaning to ask Tapendra to show him the letters from Antonopoulos regarding that blot on her copybook...

Cyhirae's nose wrinkled in irritation, "But it was her day yesterday. And the day before, and the day before that. It's been her day since we got back. And I wanna play Beautiful Katamari and that's not on the Wii." It was more of a grumble than an actual whine this time, her attention focused on Ignan's unwanted presence.

She did not like the man, but her father's friendship with him and the revelations this past May Cy wasn't certain what to make of him. He was almost family, as disturbing as that thought was, and if she wanted to keep her father happy with her she had to play nice. Or at least vaguely tolerate him.

"Visiting. Don't worry, I won't also be competing for the use of the egg box Cyhirae coverts."

Cy snickered. "It's called the Xbox, Professor Storm," she corrected him smugly. It was petty, but seeing him so out of his element was amusing. Especially when he pretended he was perfectly fine.

"I'm looking forward to surprise attacks from you in September Cyhirae."

"But then they wouldn't be surprise attacks now would they?" Cyhirae smirked. Subconsciously she braced herself for her father's punishment though she couldn't resist getting the last word. "Besides," she continued cockily, "I almost got you."

Georgiana smirked. "Hardly," she said. "And if what Tapendra's papers say is true, you should have raised the grade required for your class this year."

Tapendra, as much as he might try to be on Ignan's side, joined Cyhirae at snickering at Ignan's mistake. He quickly tried to cover it up with a cough, but no one was fooled.

"Ahem," he said, and patted Cyhirae on the head. He was having difficulties here; part of him wanted to discipline his daughter and sister, and the other part was making his chest swell with intense pride. Of course his they had done well! They were his kids, after all, and - even if they sometimes didn't act it - they were wonderful in every way.

Still, the hand he had on Cyhirae's head turned firm. "No fighting your professors, Cy," he said, firmly. "Unless they let you, of course. And even then." He bonked her on the head with his knuckles, affectionately. "And if I recall, one missed spell does not a duel make," he added, with a smirk.

He looked at Ignan, as Georgiana wordlessly clapped Ignan on the shoulder and retreated upstairs, her pigtails swishing over her shoulders. "Do you want to stay for lunch?" He asked, eyebrow quirked.