| Details for Late Night at C.E.C. |
| Summary: | The Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes has a late night Charms researcher closing up shop for the night. |
| Date: | 1939-07-23 |
| Location: | Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes |
| Related: | — |
| Characters |
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It's late at night at the Ministry and the technicians at observing the crystals seem to be getting tired. It's clear it's nearly 9:30pm and a shift change is in sight. They're zoning out at their crystal balls seeming to be bored from a seemingly quiet night of duty.
It's the light coming from Keith's corner of the office that might raise eyebrows. There are of course papers floating in various stages in the air. They shift here and there as the young wizard seems to be doing some last minute organizing of formal paperwork.
"Ah yes, that goes here… and that goes there…" Keith mutters to himself as a stack of forms floats to the corners of his desk. "Now, where did I place that case file for… oh, what was the name of the project." He sighs clearly winding down for the night and certainly past his normal mealtime departure.
Hugh pads in. He really does move quietly, when the urge is on him, and the pipe is unlit. Quite the wrong part of the Ministry entirely. He simply watches, listening, for now.
"Where is he?" A somewhat angry voice calls out over the various people looking into their crystal balls, the source of the rather loud voice, being a man in a grey suit, with a grey hat, the sleeves rolled up completely to reveal a set of scarred, and bruised heavily muscular arms, that belong to a man who seems to have had a rather rough life. In one hand he seems to be holding a squiring wriggling ratlike creature that seems none too happy about being held upside down. Though moving at good clip the man seems to be taking good care to avoid stepping into anyone's work zones, making a right beeline for Keith's office
Keith's attention is grabbed by the angry voice calling out. A few of his floating papers collide and topple to the ground as the man in the grey suit arrives into sight. When the man arrives close enough to be holding the ratlike creature this is when Keith flinches and looks over at the ajar test lab near his office. "Crap! Sam is going to kill me if there's another complaint this week. Why do they keep escaping!" He then flicks his wand toward the lab door muttering and the door slams a bit harder than he meant. "Um… hello Mister Orwell. Can I help you with something?"
Hugh leans out of his own doorway, and removes his pipe from his pocket, to pop it in his mouth, unlit.
Denny simply holds out the ratlike creature a good arms length in front of him, the small creature squeaking, and panicking as it wiggles about barring it's human teeth. He glares over at Keith, looking down towards the man in his sitting position the kind of glare that says 'the only reason I'm not ripping your head off is because we're at work'.
Hugh gives a little look in that direction, and notes, "And because it causes me a significant amount of paperwork."
Keith stands up near his desk looking all too guilty of letting loose another creature of the labs. He reaches out to take the deformed mouse-looking creature before thinking again. It doesn't appear to be happy and handling it will just make it worse. "Oh… you found another escaped convict…" He tries to playfully smile and with a quick wave of his wand the creature disappears in a small blue cloud of smoke. "I must apologize, I think we have a faulty containment unit…"
There is a polite knock on the door.
Denny turns around at the sound of the knocking, his arms now folded one over the other as he leans against the doorway of the open door to Keith's office. His expression still somewhat stern though not really angry as he offers a quick tip of his hat to whoever's just walked behind him and started knocking, still not really saying a word.
Keith sighs as a knock comes at the door. It's unusual for this office to actually have people knocking, so it must either be a new-comer or a visitor. He tilts his head in consideration before waving it wand toward the door the noise came from. "Hello, welcome to the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. How might we assist in your visit this evening?" It sounds quite mechanical and dry coming from Keith's mouth. Must be a normal greeting for possible visitors or attendants to the department.
In the doorway stands Augustin, holding a small wooden crate loosely wrapped in a towel, so that the ends stick out. The slats are spaced half an inch apart, allowing air in, which is good because there is obviously some kind of animal inside of it. Gus is dressed in light grey robes, and a black mourning band around his left bicep. He's looking rather pale and serious. "Er, hullo," he says. He hefts the crate slightly. "It's my cat," he tells them. "Butler. He's been hexed. Accidentally. Papa was aiming for a garden gnome, but he's got a cold, see?" From within comes a wan, pitiful meow, and a little white paw extends partially through the openings between the boards. There's something odd about the paw, but it's gone again so quickly that it would be hard to pinpoint exactly what.
Hugh removes the pipe from his mouth, and digs around in his pockets, for a tobacco pouch, which he opens, "Right. All going on here."
Denny takes care moving back into the room, his arms still folded one over the other as he makes his way out of the woman's way, only to find himself a completely different spot in the room to lean against a wall, and glare at Keith, for the moment repressing any anger e might have felt towards the man as other matters have come up. He lets out a slow breath of air, rolling the sleeves of his jacket back down to cover over his scarred arms.
Keith, dressed in his appointed blue work robe, looks over Augustin with consideration. It's most certainly classifies as an emergency condition and walk-in consults aren't entirely out of the norm for the department. With a labored sigh Keith rounds Denny looking suddenly all-about business and getting this done for the day. "Well since I haven't officially clocked out for my shift I guess I can extend my assistance." He peers at the box slowly and clearly considering the many options set before him.
"Alright, lets start from the beginning then. Your father was the one that hexed this feline?" Keith seems to have a hint of doubt mixed in his tone. Might the wizard have heard one too many students practicing their hexing around household pets. "Do we know what exact hex was administered? Or might we need to consider much broader terms of spell reversal?"
Hugh pushes the pipe full of tobacco, although indifferent to the others, he doesn't yet light it. "Well, I wouldn't want to keep you from anything vital like this!" And with that, the Auror is heading towards another door.
"It was Papa," Gus says. "He stayed at home to care for Lizette," he explains. "It's really her cat, and she's rather distraught." He rattles off the name of the hex, and then gives Keith an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, but, Papa's nose is stuffed up. He didn't exactly say it right, and… well… you'd best have a look for yourself." Carefully, he sets the box on the table, well clear of any crystal balls, and unwraps the towel.
Through the gaps in the wood, they can peer at the cat, who appears to be losing much of its formerly black-and-white tuxedo-patterned fur. It's skin is now mottled by polka dots in various rainbow hues. Even his claws seem to be multi-hued. Butler meows again and looks pitifully at the wizards around him.
Keith nods slowly stroking his chin as Gus explains the situation. "I see…" He then grimaces at the fact the father mispronounced an often tricky hex in the first place. "So we're dealing with one of them. Wonderful news." It's only when the box is properly uncovered that Keith's evaluation really starts. "Oh wonderful, this is certainly a mixed up spell. It's going to take a counter-hex a bit stronger than normal. Though I can try to do the best I can." With a flick of his wand and a muttering of a counter-hex the appears to be closer to normal. Though still about a fourth of the rainbow patterns remain intact. "Well that closer…"
Gus glances at Denny and gives the man a nervous sort of smile. "Hullo," he says to him, with a little wave. He stands well back when Keith pulls his wand, and stares at poor Butler. The cat shrinks away from the wand, as well, is counter-hexed, and sneezes quite loudly. Green and purple boogies drip down his wee feline face, and he flattens his ears miserably. "Mrrrrowwww," he wails. "Poor little mite!" Gus groans. "He's such a sweet pussy, too!"
Denny does little more but offer another nod sliding a bit further down the wall, and for an instant it looks as if the man has fallen asleep standing upright, before the sneezing causes his attention to shift back over to the crate. "Not to be a bother Keith, but you're mouse did chew through my favorite pair of gloves" He says somewhat coldly, in the wizards direction, still looking rather calm.
"Yes, poor little feline." Keith says, finally showing genuine concern for the cat. "I guess that's not the most effective of counter-hexes. It's entirely possible the mispronounced hex had an effect I wasn't suspecting." He looks over toward Denny with a grin. "Oh, is that so? Please tell me it's one of your less costly pair. I don't want to start racking up the department's bill that I seem to be charging a lot this week. Sam told me if I had too much more small item claims I would have to start opening my own bank." It's clear the wizard is growing tired and the fact he has to deal with this emerging case doesn't help matter. "Do you have any suggestions on the cat? I'd tried the normal counter-hex for the patients reported problem. Though strangely the cure wasn't the expected…"
One of Butler's whiskers falls off, and the kitty carefully lowers himself to the bottom of the crate, now too tired to do much more than eye the humans in a most pitiful manner. "He does look a bit better," Gus offers just a bit timidly. "But the sneezing is new." Some of the spots are faded, indeed. Gus looks between the two men when they talk about the gloves, quite unable to say anything on the matter.
"It was the ones with the brass spikes that pop out when you say the right words" Denny says in a rather disapproving way, looking down towards the cat now more then anything folding his arms back one over the other. A low sigh escaping his lips.
"Damn, those sound more than a minor line item. I can't have that go on my record this week Denny." Keith moans with a clear sign of defeat as he considers his options. "Can you wait a week without them or do you need me to float you the money personally to special order another?" It's only after trying to please Denny that the wizard realizes he should counter-spell the cat once more. "Well thanks for the vote of confidence Denny. Maybe an generic transfiguration reversal?"
And with that he waves and brandishes his wand again, this time reciting a fairly generic transfiguration spell to try to even out the effects. With a bit of effort and some purple haze surrounding the cat for a second, the spell succeeds with only the smallest of bare patches were fur used to be. "Well I think the feline is close to corrected. Granted without an entire team evaluation I can't promise any adverse effects." He looks up at Gus in hopes that the 'customer' is pleased with the possible result of work.
Butler's spots are gone! And so are the boogies, but whether that's from the purple haze or the cat having licked them off is anyone's guess. Carefully Gus lifts the lid off the box and reaches in to pet the cat, who seems quite content to stay there. Butler meows, and Gus breaks into a grin. "Wow, thank you, sir," he says. "Thank you! How much do I owe you?" He starts patting his pockets to find his purse.
Denny lets out a low chuckle, leaning even further on the wall if that was possible in the first place. "Hand me the coins, and I'll grab another pair from my dealer in the alley," He smiles towards the cat, while adding on to the end a rather confident "I was thinking about upgrading them to silver plating anyway, with those werewolves abound,"
Keith finally smiles as he sees that Gus is satisfied with the results. It's clear the wizarding official isn't entirely certain he fixed the underlying issue. Though he does speak up when the boy starts patting down himself. "Oh no, please. We are a public service office. All workings, unless associated with large controlled situations, are part of public service to the greater wizarding world." Not to mention good press for the Ministry for public service and public relations.
Finally less distracted Keith rounds back to Denny with a nod. "I guess you're right, never hurts to be safer around the current atmosphere." He then reaches over at his desk and pulls out a few coins to hand to the hit wizard. "If you need more just let me know, granted I'll be waging war on our subject container cells during lunch for the rest of the week." It's clear by the tone this comes with slight irritation. Might the wizard scientist actually be implying he's going to be skipping lunches to fix the situation?
"Excellent," Gus says, beaming. He replaces the lid and re-wraps the towel, and then picks up the box to tuck it under his arm. "I'll be going, then. You gentlemen have a very nice evening," he tells them happily.
"I'd help you with that, but I've still got to track down the bastard that got away with killing my old partner" Denny says accepting the small stack of coins, and tossing them back into one of the pockets of his grey suit. "Along with everything else on my plate" He then offers a simple nod to the man heading out with his newly dehexed cat.