Catch The Snitch

Nautica had found herself aimlessly wandering after her classes, a bit frustrated at how the history class had gone. Gods, it was so boring. She had wanted to be better at that class than her sister since it had Rhysln's weakness too, but so far she was doing worse. She flopped down on a bench, digging through her bag for chocolate or something sweet to make her feel maybe a little less bitter about the whole thing, but before she could even find it, she spotted something that made her have an even worse bitter taste in her mouth.

"You've got to be joking," she scowled as she spotted her sister walking into the front hall. Immediately, she could feel the slack in her posture, like seeing Rhysln straight back and shoulders back just instantly brought to attention the fact she was not perfect. She stood up from the bench and stomped over towards her, "What are you doing here?" she demanded.

"Nice to see you too," Rhysln gave a snort, smirking at her sister's ire, "I've been sent here to get my training. They believed the Aurors here could be of the best service to that end," she said simply.

"Of all the places in the entirety of the United Kingdom you could have ended up," Nautica scowled, crossing her arms.

"Nautica, you know you make yourself incredibly less likable to others when you've got such a look on your face. Why is my being here such an issue?" Rhysln quirked a brow.

"Because! I thought I finally had a chance to be the only Anderson here and wouldn't be compared to you every day!" she hissed, throwing her hands up, "And not hearing your constant little "lessons"," she did the air quotes motion.

"And here I was unaware there was any kind of competition between us," Rhysln crooned, though that wasn't entirely true, "Well. Seems I've not let the bar fall too low for you just yet, little sister. But make no mistake, I'm not here to play any sort of game. I have my own training and learning to be doing still. Perhaps you'll be lucky enough to find a different outlet for your frustration than on me," she patted Nautica's cheek and the younger swatted her hand away, "Now. If you're going to be so bitter, how about you not do it in the front hall?" she teased.

[Open to All! You can interact with one or both of the sisters! Just placing them somewhere to get them on the board XD]

“There’s no better source of motivation than a bit of sibling rivalry, innit?”

Louis’ voice reached the Anderson sisters even before he did, and he raised a hand in greeting as he approached with his usual casual and relaxed swagger. “Sorry, I hope I’m not interrupting but I could hear y’all talking from way back there,” he said, pointing down the corridor that he had arrived from.

Based on what he had caught from their conversation, the older sister was an Auror-in-training, and he recalled seeing an Auror-in-training on the list of Aurors assigned to guard Hogwarts. “May I presume you are…”—he paused a little as he first tried to recall her name, and then attempted to pronounce it properly—“Rhys-lyn? Did I pronounce your name correctly? I apologise if I got it wrong.” Then, he turned to the younger sister and opened his mouth to speak, as though he also knew her name, only to do a cheeky bait-and-switch at the last second. “I’m sorry, I don’t actually know your name,” he said with a grin that was both impish and rueful at the same time. “You are...?”

“I’m Lou,” he continued, offering his own name. “Was made a full Auror recently, and got assigned here.” His thoughts drifted to the first day of his posting, and what a grand day it had been. “Came back to Hogwarts for the first time in years, expecting things to be quiet and boring. Next thing I know, I’m fighting a massive wildfire that’s spreading across the school grounds and the Forbidden Forest while fending off a boggart.” With that, he shook his head at the bad memory and gave a wry smile. “Don't know about you, but I can’t wait to see what else fate has in store for us.”

The sisters turned their attention toward the new voice. Nautica crossed her arms, looking the guy over, but the scowl on her face didn't quite go away.

Rhysln smiled pleasantly at the male and she nodded, "Indeed, though the easiest way to remember the pronunciation is to think of the grain, they sound the same," she said, meaning rice, "This scowling thing is my younger sister, Nautica. Don't mind the grouchy expression, it's entirely aimed at me," she put her hand to her chest, "I did hear of such things, it does seem things are off to an interesting start. I'm glad things were able to get back under control before the damage was truly irreparable."

"Are you some sort of thrill seeker then?" Nautica scoffed at him earning a bit of a look from her sister, "What? What kind of person looks at something like that and goes, 'Oh goody, can't wait to see what happens next!'?" she said, using a mocking voice, leading Rhysln to shake her head and pinch the bridge of her nose, "Whatever," Nautica turned and grabbed her bag.

"Do try and behave yourself, Nautica. That attitude and tongue of yours are going to be more trouble than you think if you can't check them," Rhysln said, but her sister kept walking, heading out of the entrance hall, "I apologize," she said to Lou, "She's always been a bit of a spitfire, even she burns herself," she sighed a little, "Anyways, it is a pleasure to meet you," she smiled again lightly

The younger of the two sisters regarded Louis with a scowl on her face, but the older one was a lot more amiable. They reminded him of his own sisters: Lorraine had always been the model eldest child, diplomatic and affable, while Leanne was the headstrong and more self-centred youngest child.

Rhysln confirm the way her name was pronounced, and Louis nodded as he committed her tip to memory. He then let out a chuckle when she described her younger sister as ‘this scowling thing’ and how the latter’s unhappiness was directed solely at her; he had been at the receiving end Leanne’s grouchiness too, and it was a funny thing to see the exact same sibling dynamics play out before him.

He was about to elaborate on what had happened during the wildfire when Nautica made a snide remark about him being a thrill seeker. “Challenges are what make life interesting,” he riposted, even though he suspected his words would fall upon deaf ears.

As Nautica grabbed her bag and walked off, Rhysln apologised for her sister’s behaviour. “Don’t worry, that’s what all younger siblings are like,” Louis replied as he waved off her apology. “I have a younger sister too. I love her to bits but she really knows how to test my patience.” While Leanne could be a monster sometimes, ultimately she was and would always be his little monster. And based on that, he guessed that Rhysln probably felt the same way about Nautica.

“The pleasure’s all mine,” he said, once they had properly introduced themselves to each other. “Anyway, how’s everything been for you so far?” he asked, curious about how the trainee Auror was finding the initial stages of her training programme. “If you need any help, feel free to ask any one of us Aurors instead of just your field trainer. We’re a team now, and teammates are supposed to have each other’s backs.”

Rhysln smiled at his understanding of the situation, nodding in agreement to his statement about his younger sister, taking a deep breath. She looked after her sister momentarily before looking back again as he spoke again. She thought for a moment about his question and found herself smiling more at his comment about them being a team.

She gave a hum of thought as she tapped her chin, "I will say things have been about on pace for what I assumed. I suppose I mentally prepared myself a bit before going down this path for what was to come," she said before smirking just a little at his offer for help, "Careful now. I was a Ravenclaw while I was here, I'm ever eager for more information," she laughed just a little, "To be honest, I've not yet met my field trainer. I've only just arrived back in the area. I had to procure a place to stay in Hogsmeade before just galvanting back to my old stomping grounds. And the whole debacle with the Boggart did make the housing situation... precarious. It did delay me just a bit, but luckily I was able to use the time to get some training and learning done in the Ministry itself," she said before looking around, "Do you mind then if I ask you questions concerning said Boggart? If I won't be delaying you from anything that is."

Louis nodded as Rhysln updated him briefly about her training, and how she had mentally prepared herself beforehand. Having just completed his own training recently, he knew firsthand how rigorous it was, and how some of his fellow trainees had dropped out because they hadn’t expected it to be so physically and mentally demanding.

He cracked up when she cautioned him about how, as a Ravenclaw, she was always eager for more information. “Oh, you’re in luck,” he replied without missing a beat. “I was a Hufflepuff, and we’re just as eager to help where we can.” As Rhysln raised the issue of securing a place to stay, his goofy grin faded a little. “Ah, yes, housing…” he said quietly, his abrupt shift in tone hinting at his own struggles when he was looking for a new place to stay after receiving his posting. A friend had very kindly offered to put him up at his flat, but he felt bad about it and ended up renting a cheap place in his hometown of Luton instead. He could only imagine that the wildfire and the boggart’s appearance had made the situation even more difficult for her. “Well, what matters is that you’ve gotten yourself somewhere to stay, and so close to Hogwarts too,” he said, finishing on a positive note as a smile returned to his lips.

True to her earlier statement about always wanting more information, Rhysln had a question about the boggart, and he wasn’t going to renege on his promise. “Sure, fire away,” he said. “I just ended my shift.”

Rhysln couldn't help but smile as he mentioned being a Hufflepuff, though she found herself feeling a bit guilty for taking his smile away when bringing up housing. She felt a bit relieved that he ended up smiling again, and he nodded in agreement with his positive take. She thought of asking if something had happened with his own situation and if there was something she could do to help, but that would probably be weird having just met him and all. She couldn't help but want to use her family's position and money to try and help everyone she could, but she knew that not everyone saw her help as a good thing. So she resisted and focused instead on the current topic of conversation.

She smiled once more as he told her to ask her questions, "Buzzing," she said, clapping her hands together, then made a face realizing this was probably not something she should be so excited to learn about considering what all happened. She cleared her throat, "Shall we find someplace to sit while we talk? I'd hate to make you stand around for however long my mind can come up with questions," she gave a little laugh, motioning towards the bench where Nautica had been sitting just before, "Or since you just ended your shift, were you headed somewhere?"

“I hadn't planned to go anywhere so here’s as good a place as any, unless you prefer somewhere quieter,” Louis replied when Rhysln asked if they should find somewhere to sit down. “Or perhaps somewhere with some food and drinks, in case you have that many questions to ask and I have that much to share,” he added with a laugh. While he wasn't hungry, he was craving a snack for some reason. Kuchisabishii – that was the Japanese word for it, if memory served.

“I’m cool too if you prefer to walk and talk,” he suggested. “The school grounds are beautiful, and I’m guessing you haven’t had a chance to properly explore the school since you cane back.” Nostalgia aside, there were practical reasons for them to reacquaint themselves with Hogwarts Castle. He still hadn’t fully familiarised himself with every aspect of it, particularly the newer enchantments that had been added after the Battle of Hogwarts.

Rhysln put her hand to her chin as the different options were presented, humming a little in thought, "How about we walk and talk our way to the Great Hall?" she suggested, "I'm afraid if we started exploring the school, my attention to the conversation would be torn between learning about the boggart and learning about things I didn't think to notice as a student," she said, being honest, "I wasn't always working to be keen on my surroundings as a student, though considering what transpired here, you would have thought I'd know better," she shook her head.

"Anyways," she turned halfway into the direction they needed to go, giving him a chance to also initiate moving in that direction before she started to speak again, "How long have you been assigned to Hogwarts?" she asked, looking to him, wondering if he had been there the whole time, meaning she should have seen him around if he had been, though again, she hadn't been as attentive as she could have been as a student.

Louis nodded as Rhysln suggested that they could talk on their way to the Great Hall, rather than explore the school grounds lest she got sidetracked. He was just as prone to – if not more – getting distracted by things around him, and he could only imagine where their conversation would have meandered off to. “Hindsight’s twenty-twenty,” he shrugged as he recited the oft quoted adage. “But it’s never too late to do something about that.”

“Well… the first day of my posting was the day the wildfire broke out and the boggart got loose,” he replied with a resigned shake of his head as he recalled the chaos that had unfolded. “Impeccable timing, I must say. A literal trial by fire too, for a new Auror like myself.”

It felt a little weird calling himself a new Auror when he was almost thirty. Pre-empting any questions from Rhysln, he added, “I was a Hit Wizard for quite a while… seven years, I reckon?” While he had taken a huge detour along the way, he didn’t see it as a bad thing: he had learnt much during his career as a Hit Wizard, and he was confident that, out of all the Aurors stationed at Hogwarts, he was among the best at martial magic and combat tactics. “Spent the first two years hunting Death Eaters. Dangerous work.” He cut that sentence short, omitting the part about the comrades he had lost along the way. All of them had known the risks involved, and they had long prepared themselves for what they believed was, due to the dire circumstances, an eventuality. Somehow or another he had been lucky enough to live to see the end the war relatively unscathed, though survivor’s guilt was something that would always stay with him.

“I was there at the Battle of Hogwarts, in case you were wondering. Not a pretty sight.” As with before, there was a lot that he had left unsaid. “Feck, I’ve digressed enough, haven’t I? he said with an embarrassed laugh, hurriedly moving on from the topic that he probably shouldn’t have started. “Didn’t even need to take a gander around Hogwarts for me to get distracted.”

Rhysln's curious nature wanted to ask questions, to dig into the omitted details she knew existed, even if he hadn't admitted to anything of the sort. It was just...obvious in the line of work he admitted to being in that there was pain tucked away, memories that scratched at the surface like a rabid animal, but it was a skill in and of itself to keep the cage door shut. Not necessarily a healthy one, but a skill nonetheless.

She gave a polite laugh as he changed the topics, not going to disrespect his clear desire to not talk about it by doing so, "That's alright," she said, shaking her head, looking back up at the school, "That was around my first year here," she murmured, "I was terrified, but there's a difference in giving into terror and deciding that you don't want to feel it again," she mused, clasping her hands in front of her, "To protect others from that feeling too," she took a deep breath.

"Anyways," she said, realizing she'd done what she didn't want to, "What happened with the boggart exactly? Do you know?" she looked back at him. If he'd gotten here the day it happened, he might not have all the details, but time had passed since then and surely they wouldn't keep each other in the dark if he didn't know before getting involved in stopping it, "It's quite interesting that someone managed to find a boggart and set it off with no one around that could keep it from getting loose to such an extent," she hummed a little.

Another pang of guilt hit Louis hard when Rhysln revealed that she too had been personally affected by the Second Wizarding War, and the slightest narrowing of his eyes and the deepening of the creases on his brow were the only indications of his true feelings. It had been his responsibility to shield the populace from the horrors of the war, and he had clearly failed her – and many others – in that regard. Though Rhysln had learnt to turn the trauma into a source of motivation, it wasn’t quite a silver lining, but more of a rolling with the punches kind of thing.

Still, there was no point dwelling on the past, and he nodded as Rhysln said that there was a difference between giving in to terror and resolving to protect others from experiencing the same fear she had felt. “Aye, there is,” he agreed. “Let’s all do our best so that nobody else would ever go through what we did.”

Rhysln steered their conversation back on topic and asked if he knew what happened to the boggart. “Nobody witnessed the whole thing in its entirety, so what we know was put together from multiple accounts,” he replied in a low voice as he instinctively cast the Muffliato Charm wandlessly and wordlessly to prevent anyone in the vicinity from eavesdropping. “There were three boggart sightings in total, but based on the timings we believe it was the same boggart.” His tone became noticeably more serious now, almost as though he was giving Rhysln a mission briefing. “The first sighting was by the Great Lake, where a student accidentally released a boggart from an old cupboard. Dorian banished it, but it reappeared at the Forbidden Forest where I banished it. And it subsequently reappeared at Hogsmeade where Eth—Professor Forrester banished it for the final time.”.

There were two unanswered questions, which Louis then proceeded to address. “In case you’re wondering about how the wildfire started, the boy’s boggart was his close friend trapped in a fire, so that sparked off the wildfire.” With the less important question out of the way, he came to the more pressing issue. “As for the cupboard, that is a mystery we haven’t solved yet, unfortunately,” he continued as his brow knitted in concern. “We have no conclusive proof, but my hunch is that someone planted it there.”

Rhysln had been looking ahead, not keen on walking into people or walls, but she felt the subtle shift as he implemented the charm. She listened intently, her brows furrowing a bit as she did. A quite persistent boggart. Her mind turned as she processed the information. She crossed her arms and hummed a little, "We're sure that there's not some other one running about?" she murmured, "Would be a terrible surprise to someone to find that out. I mean obviously, the one unleashed and the one vanquished are the same, but the one in the forest.. did it show signs of being the same one?" she glanced around, taking in things around her as she walked, but focusing on the conversation.

She frowned hearing what the boggart was and sighed a little. What a terrible thing to have to see and she couldn't imagine what the boy must have felt knowing what became of it, "That is a logical conclusion," she murmured, meaning his hunch, "There should be no reason a cabinet like that was just out there. Especially there. Why would there be a cupboard at the lake in the first place?" she mused, her brows furrowing, "There should probably be some questioning to try and determine when it got there, which could then help narrow down possible culprits," she mused.

Investigations into the boggart incident were still in their preliminary stages and progress had been agonisingly slow, with too many unanswered questions and too little certainty. Amongst the things that they hadn’t been able to confidently determine was the number of boggarts that had appeared, as Rhysln had rightly pointed out. “None of us can be sure,” Louis replied darkly. “With a dark wizard, you can identify them by their appearance or height or any distinguishing mark. With boggarts, there’s almost no way to tell. Furthermore, none of us had seen the boggart more than once, so we can only rely on each others’ accounts of its behaviour to decide if it was the same boggart.” Since the incident they had scoured Hogwarts and the surrounding areas multiple times and found no traces of another boggart. “We can’t say for sure, but it’s highly unlikely that there’s another boggart out there.”

“Motive, means, opportunity,” he recited, listing down the three indicators of suspicion that they had been using to identify potential culprits. “The Great Lake’s not a place where anyone could casually waltz up to and dump a cupboard. The only people with the opportunity to do so are the residents of Hogsmeade, everyone at Hogwarts, and a few visitors to the area that day. As for the means… it’s not easy for anyone to get their hands on a boggart and restrain it, so that narrows the list down further to the staff and Aurors at Hogwarts, a small handful of Hogsmeade residents, and maybe some of the older students.”

That left the most problematic of the indicators: motive. “I just don’t see how anyone would stand to gain by planting a boggart by the lake and betting on someone else to release it. But I don’t want to dismiss it as a cruel prank by one of the students either.” His mounting frustration at the stalled investigations was creeping into his voice, as much as he tried to keep his negativity in check. “At this rate, we might need to expand the list of suspects instead.”

Rhysln listened as he spoke, noticing his tone, glancing around again as he spoke of dark wizards before looking back over at him, "I know you can't apparate in the school, but what about on the grounds?" she asked, "I never exactly tried, I had other things to be worrying about than testing the rules," she mused with another little hum of thought, "Because if you can apparate onto the campus, or at least to the lake, then that changes things, and opens up to a lot more possibilities as far as a culprit," she took a deep breath, "But besides for just making trouble, what is the purpose?" she shook her head, rubbing at her forehead, "Is the cabinet still there?" she asked, before looking up as she realized they'd reached the dining hall, "If it's still there, I'd like to look at it," she turned to face him.

"Don't get me, I'm not saying that I'm more capable than anyone else that's looked into it, I just always feel a bit better looking closer into things myself. Helps me feel like I have a better sense of the truth," she said, looking up at him, "Though I suppose that could wait until after eating, but I'll be terribly distracted," she laughed a bit.

Despite how many times Louis had left and returned to Hogwarts via Apparition, he had never seen fit to find out the exact boundaries of the area protected by the Anti-Apparition and Disapparition Charms. All the spots he used were the commonly known ones that were easily identifiable thanks to prominent landmarks nearby. “I remember the instructors warning us during Apparition lessons that it would be unwise to Apparate outside the Great Hall because the results could be disastrous,” he said. “But as far as I know, the Anti-Apparition and Disapparition Charms cover the entire school grounds, including the Great Lake, so it’s unlikely that someone could simply Apparate to the exact spot where the cupboard was.” That said, while it was unlikely, it wasn’t impossible. “We’re still gonna have to cast our net wider, though I don’t really know where to start,” he admitted.

Rhysln asked if the cabinet was still where the student had found it, and Louis shook his head. “Nah, it’s in the castle now, under our custody.” The trainee Auror then requested to view the cabinet herself, before clarifying that she wasn’t implying that she was better than her seniors. “Don’t sweat it,” he reassured her with a smile. “An extra pair of eyes is more than welcome. Besides, everyone has different skills and knowledge and stuff. Who knows, maybe you’d spot something that the rest of us missed out?”

At Rhysln’s mention of eating, Louis piped up, “Relax, the cupboard’s not going to run away. Besides, the one thing they don’t teach you during your training is cultivating good eating habits, and trust me when I say you’d be skipping way more meals than you should when things get hectic.” During his time as a Hit Wizard, he had developed quite a few unhealthy habits that affected his job performance, and it took a lot of effort to reverse them. “People in our line of work are notorious for being bad at looking after ourselves,” he advised. “Which is ironic, innit? How could we protect others when we’re in a terrible state ourselves?”

Rhysln listened to him intently, respecting him not just as an older individual but as a senior in the field she hoped to become a part of. She hummed a bit as he mentioned not knowing where to start. If only there was some way to see a magical trace on items like that, to see how it got there... She nodded when he said it was in the castle, glad it was somewhere away from where anyone meddlesome could mess with it or try to hide the evidence.

When he talked about eating and habits, she gave a little laugh, "It's understandable. Getting so caught up on wanting to make sure you've done everything you can for everyone else, you end up falling by the wayside in your own priorities. Probably why they usually don't have too many Aurors working completely alone, right?" she smiled lightly. She looked at the doors to the Great Hall, "Well, I'd be glad for your company for a meal, but I certainly won't monopolize your time if you've other things you need to be doing, so long as you've eaten today. If not, I might drag you in there to sit down and eat," she snorted a little as she looked at him. Being the older sister, she was used to "mother hen"-ing Nautica from time to time when their parents were away, and she never did remember it wasn't necessary with other people. But the words were out of her mouth and there was no sense trying to pretend it hadn't been said.

“Not just for that reason,” Louis replied when Rhysln mentioned how Aurors usually didn’t work alone. “You’ve also got folks who like to go after dark wizards by their lonesome instead of asking for backup because they’d be like, ‘I’m going alone, it’s too dangerous for you to come along.’” He air quoted that sentence to emphasise how stupid it sounded, even though he too had been guilty of doing the exact same thing during his days as a Hit Wizard. “But you’re right: Aurors – and Hit Wizards too, actually – we're bollocks at taking care of ourselves sometimes.”

The way Rhysln said that she’d drag Louis into the Great Hall to eat if he didn’t have any pressing matters to attend to reminded him of his own elder sister. “Yes, Big Sis,” he quipped with a mischievous grin; as a middle child he knew what it was like to have an older sibling fussing over him. “I’ve got nowhere important I need to be,” he continued. “And I could use a bite now too. Might as well eat when there’s time.”

As he looked upon the doors of the Great Hall, an idea occurred to him. “Have you been to the kitchens before?” he asked, the excitement in his voice slowly rising. “We used to sneak into the kitchens for second helpings, or even extra snacks in between meals. That was like one of the best things about being a Hufflepuff,” he reminisced as all the special meals he had gotten came to mind. It had been a while since he last set foot in there, and he hoped that the house elves there would still remember him. Provided, of course, he still remembered how to find the magically concealed entrance.

"I came here with an Auror that said she normally works alone and she did not seem keen to coming here," Rhysln mused as he talked about people who wanted to go alone, "I don't think her going alone was because she thinks it's dangerous to come with her. She seems almost like someone with a death wish," she hummed.

When e called her "Big Sis" she laughed softly, shaking her head, "Apologies," she said, "Habit." When he asked if she'd been to the kitchen, she smirked at the excitement in his voice, "Only once. I did have a Hufflepuff friend or two, but I always felt rather guilty about sneaking in there," she laughed a little again, "I don't remember it much though, are you suggesting we go give it a visit?" she said, clearly amused, turning to face him a bit more fully.

Upon hearing Rhysln’s description of another Auror, Louis shook his head and gave a nonchalant shrug. He couldn’t force anyone to do anything against their will, and if that Auror was truly that adamant about doing things her way, then there was little he could do to convince her otherwise.

Louis laughed as Rhysln apologised for her habit, and his grin broadened when it seemed to him that she was intrigued by his proposition to visit the kitchens instead. “I ain’t just suggesting,” he replied with a gleeful glint in his eyes and the misplaced enthusiasm of a middle child goading their younger sibling into doing something cheeky with them. “I’m saying we should go ahead and do it.”

While it seemed as though Louis only wanted to try his luck to see if they could get something special from the house-elves (and undeniably it was a significant part of his motivation), he had another reason for dropping by at the kitchens. “I presume you’re aware that there ain’t enough house-elves at Hogwarts,” he said. Though he had only been recently posted to Hogwarts, he had already heard about problem from some of the staff and students. “There’s not much I can do to lighten their burdens, but at the very least I could thank them personally for their hard work.”

Rhysln couldn't help but laugh seeing that glint in his eyes, then smiled lightly hearing his motivation for going to the kitchens directly, "Fair enough. The Anderson family members that still have house elves offered to have them come here to support the load, but whether or not they're here or not, I don't actually know," she mused, tapping her chin, "Either way, I will let you, as the senior between us, lead the way," she smiled again before stepping to the side and motioning in the way she remembered the entrance to the kitchens being.

She personally found the idea of owning house elves to be a bit distasteful, a justified servitude, but she knew better than picking a fight with the masses of "privileged" that didn't know how to just hire people to do the job and treat anyone with respect...But she understood this place was long-standing and old-fashioned and not all things could be so easily wiped out.

"I am curious if they've seen anything interesting lately," she hummed just a bit again in thought.

As Rhysln said that she would let Louis lead the way, the older Auror let out a laugh. “I see someone doesn’t know the way,” he teased. “Right. I’ll save you the trouble of poking around in the wrong places and getting doused in vinegar. Follow me.”

[[Continued in the Kitchens]]