Euan knew he had been lax in most everything outside of work. Summer was in full swing now and there was change breathing underneath the every day operations. Old aurors were coming out of retirement and new aurors were coming in from abroad. At least his case load seem to be steady, the Philips case seem to be progressing nicely. Child Protective Services had been looking in regularly as well. The Auror Trainee was glad.

The halls of the Minstry were quiet as he made his way to Potter's office. Euan was surprising Mira, promised snacks in hand though he had made a note not to include any chocolate. Shifting his books and other goods in hand, he knocked on the office door, waiting for the soft bid to enter.



"Come in," Mira called distractedly as she tried to focus on the idea spilling from her mind, through the hand quickly scrawling across the parchment in front of her.  She had one paper left and then she'd be done with uni for the summer.  A few more late nights and it'd be off her desk for good and she could focus on the job she'd taken, the reorganization she'd mentioned to Harry, and visiting with her sisters.

Normally she kept the door open as she was in the outer office of Harry's suite, but the last few nights she'd taken to keeping it shut to block out any possible distractions despite the fact that the personnel present in the later evening was much thinned. 

She was vaguely aware of the air shifting as the door opened and a person entering.  "Just a minute," she said, voice distant and soft as she raced to catch her thought before it left her, pen scratching furiously across the page. 

He waited for her to look up, a small smile on his face as he watched her work furiously. "I wouldna be distractin' ya, would I?" Euan asked as he shut the door behind him, his brogue slipping out. It had been a long day and he was tired, both mentally and physically. He was happy just to talk without thinking about it.

"But I thought since I had na kept my word about meetin' ya in th' tea room, I should come here instead." He held up a bag of goodies. "I brought biscuits. Sugar, because I dinna know what you liked, besides dislikin' chocolate."

Finishing with a flourish, Mira looked up with a bright smile.  She loved his accent, and it was especially pronounced at present, effectively pulling her thoughts thoroughly away from the essay she'd been working on. 

Wouldna, she tried in her mind.

"I like sugar," she said though, pushing her chair back and standing.  Rising on tip toes a moment to stretch muscles that hadn't moved in too long, Mira moved around the desk towards Euan, blue eyes bright on him. 

"And it's likely certain that I need a distraction.  I can't remember the last I moved from my desk, and a Scotsman bearing sweet things is never a person to be turned away," she added, gaze atwinkle on his before her eyes flicked to the bag he held, Very Interested, indeed, in its contents. 

If she liked sugar then perhaps he should try and snag some of his Gram's shortbread. He supposed he should, anyhow, considering how he thought of her as a friend. She must be a friend if he was meeting her after hours in her office bearing sweets. A thought crossed his mind. "What if I wasna bringin' sweets?" he asked, "What if I brought somethin' else?" His face flushed slightly as he took another meaning in his statement. "

"But," he continued after only a beat, "iffen canna remember, then its time t' move," he said as he opened the bag and took out a golden biscuit dusted with sugar. He held it out to her. "Biscuit?"

"Please," she said, grinning up at him as she accepted the offering. 

She didn't nibble right away, but tipped her head to the side as she met his gaze, her own eyes twinkling mischievously.  "Being that you yourself are quite sweet for bringing me sustenance, requested though not required in the least, I think it's logical to say that you always bring something sweet when you come to visit," Mira reasoned, smile playing at her lips.  "Though if you had other things in mind, I'm fond of surprises too," she added before taking a small bite of her biscuit.

His eyes widened minutely before he blinked  and mirrored her actions by giving her a smile of his own. "I've a friend, Rose, who demanded tha' I be her personal chef. Sadly, she doesna realize that my skills are quite limited."

"Oh!" Mira's eyes widened.  She'd meant to track Euan down some time ago, but with finals and papers to do, and work, it'd slipped her mind.  "I've met Rose!" she grinned.  "I was going up to visit my Papa at the DIC, and she was heading for Games and Sports.  She mentioned you both were friends and to say hello, but I've been a terrible messenger pigeon," she admitted, a slight tint of pink touching her skin.  "Is she well?"

He cocked his head to the side. "Ya dinna look much like a pigeon," he said, "and I dinna know if she's well, unfortunately. I've been bad all around. Hidin' at my desk. Though I'm supposed to see her play on Saturday. She's playin' in the Cup."

Mira blinked a moment at this information until it dawned on her that he was speaking of the Quidditch Cup.  She'd never been fond of Quidditch in the least, and Chelsea football was all she'd ever followed given that her family had lived in a townhome near the stadium growing up. 

She'd been an avid Muggle football fan for as long as she could remember, and Quidditch had never caught her attention despite that most of her schoolmates were rather obsessed with it.  "You mean the Quidditch Cup.  And it's this weekend," she finally said, nodding.  "I suppose that's very exciting for her," she added, smiling again.  "Wish her luck for me when you see her?"

"Come with me?" he asked. "Rose gave me two tickets and I dinna have anyone else I could go with." Well, he did, but his Pop would understand if he invited someone else. Grams was always on him for getting out more. Hadn't she just said something about how glad she was that he was getting out more with Rose? "Tha' is, if ya'd like to."

Mira's blue eyes twinkled at him as she made a scene of deliberating over his offer.  She was pleased that he'd asked her though.  "Quidditch is dreadfully boring," she replied, smile playing at her lips as a thought occurred to her.  "But if you could consider going to a football match with me in the fall, then I think I could sit through a game this weekend?"

"Than you havena been to the right Qudditch match." He held out a hand. "But it's a deal."

Beaming, Mira slipped her hand into his and shook.  "Deal."

"Shall I meet you at the pitch? Or here?" He took a biscuit for himself and bit into it. After swallowing, he brushed the crumbs away. "And this football match, what's it like, exactly?"

"The pitch," Mira replied, eyes drawn to the bag of biscuits again.  "Cassie and I will find you," she added as she lightly grasped his sleeve and tugged him towards the visitor's chairs, and down into them, even as she tried peering in the bag to see if there were more sweet things. 
"Football is a bit like Quidditch, except there's no flying and the gameplay makes sense."

He wondered who Cassie was. A sister perhaps? Euan's head tilted as he tried to imagine two of Mira. Realizing he was supposed to speak, he grinned. "Quidditch does make sense."

"It doesn't make any good kind of sense," she replied as she moved into his space to peek into the bag he held, retrieving a biscuit a moment later.  "The Seeker is the be all, end all of the game.  Any sport that depends on the actions of a single player to decide the outcome is ..."  She wrinkled her nose, trying to find the right words.  "... it shouldn't even be a team sport," she said finally, nibbling on her biscuit as consolation to her lack of vocabulary. 

"While catchin' th' snitch may end th' game, one has t' watch the chasers and beaters. It is quiet possible to win even without catching it." In fact, Euan had a quaffle in his room from one such game won by the brilliance of the Montrose chasers and keeper, signed by all the players too.

He waved a hand, small bits of biscuits flying in the air. "And if anythin' Rose should be colorful enough t' keep yer attention."

"I'll watch Rose," Mira conceded as she looked up at him dolefully. 

Wrinkling her nose at him, she then smiled and curled in the chair completely.  "Would it be so very terribly rude if I asked you a personal favor?" she asked before nibbling on her biscuit.

"I suppose. I can always refuse, yes?"

Her cheeks tinted slightly, but Mira asked what had been pressing on her the whole of their visit.  "Is it ... 'dinna'?  Did I say it right?" 

"Dinna?" His eyebrows furrowed. "Like did not?"

"Yeah," she nodded, tinting even more pink though her eyes were bright on him.  It was rude of her to ask, but she couldn't help herself.  She was fascinated by his brogue.  Despite that his voice wasn't particularly deep, it still rumbled through the air deliciously.  "But the way you say it, with your brogue," she said, hands fluttering now as she tried to explain what she meant.

"What about it?" Euan asked, suddenly self conscious about the way he grew up speaking.

"I like it," she said, ivory skin rosy now.  She could get poetic about why she liked it, but she was sure she'd been rude enough as it was, and she felt entirely too warm besides from the blush heating her skin.  "I just wanted to try, too."

"Oh." He looked down, taking another bite of biscuit to stop him from saying anything else embarrassing. "Well if ya want t' say it how I do, ya will want t' put more stress on th' first syllable."

Small smile peeking out despite her blush, Mira tried again.  "'Din'na?" 

It sounded mangled even to her ears though, and she smiled suddenly, bringing her hands up to cover the giggle that slipped out.  "I'm abysmal."

"Practice," he advised, relaxing slightly as she laughed at herself with a smile. "Look in th' mirror and practice."

"I suppose I could do that," she acknowledged.  "I have to do it for Latin and Greek, which aren't nearly so pleasing, I don't think." 

Not quite so pink as a few minutes prior, Mira set her elbow to the arm of the chair and propped her chin in her hand, blue eyes sparkling again as she looked up at Euan.  "Then again, you could just say it again, maybe?  I think I need more practical lessons."

"It doesna sound pleasant," Euan agreed. "And dinna? Dinna. Dinna. Dinna. Dinna. Dinna. More?"

Biting her bottom lip, Mira grinned and nodded.  "You .. shouldna' repeat yourself.  Mix it up for learning purposes?" she tried, nose crinkling with her smile at yet another failed attempt to copy him. 

"Perhaps." He shrugged. "But I guess ya'll just have t' listen closer next time." Euan sat back in his seat. "Wha' is yer paper about? Ya were working very hard when I came in."

"Charms," she answered easily.  "Or, charms theory, more specifically.  We spent the quarter going through the research process in developing new charms, using one we'd like to see that doesn't yet exist."  Her lips curled slightly though her eyes were much more focused now considering their subject.  "I've been exploring the extended possibilities of water charms," she added.  "Fire comes naturally to us and the nature of our magic, but water doesn't for some reason," she finished, frown pulling between her brows. 

"But doesna depend on th' person? Like some have green thumbs and others only kill thin's?" Euan paused to consider her trail of thought. "Aguameni always came easy t' me for some reason."

"It does," Mira acknowledged.  "There are still Elementals though they're rare, and some people decedent of one seem to have proclivities, but besides those with an elemental touch in them, like me..."

She grinned at him adding, "I did research of both my Father and Mother's family geneologies.  There was an Elemental on Mother's side, but only by marriage and their blood has no bearing on my own." Tangent complete, her face was intent again.  "But besides those people, the simple charms are masterable, but it is usually still fire that we do first.  Lighting candles is something a lot of us can do before we have a wand in our hands, but water charms don't come until we're well versed in how to go about magic, and even then, where we can create a firestorm, no one has yet to produce a raincloud."

"Tha's because creating a raincloud effects th' weather pattern," Euan said knowledably. "Even if it's a small one it can still have huge effects across th' globe. I think th' call it th' butterfly effect?" He shrugged. He didn't remember his first burst of accidental magic and nobody would, or could, tell him. "But tha's not my area."

Mira considered Euan for a moment before a grin touched her lips again.  "That's true, but every bit of magic we do has some kind of affect.  It's not the natural order of things, but us exerting our will on something.  There's some passive magics, but most of it is active." 

Patting his arm then, she said, "but enough of this.  I still have to write several more pages and I'll have to think on it entirely too much too soon." 

Snatching the last biscuit from the bag, she grinned up at him.  "I think you should tell me a story just now," she added before taking a bite, eyes twinkling.  "I need more lessons."

"A story? Well," Euan sat back, making himself as comfortable as he could in an office chair. "Once upon a time..."


SUMMARY:  Euan goes in search of Mira to bring the promised, but long overdue, sweet sustenance.  They find out they have a friend in common in Rose, and Euan asks Mira if she'd like to go to the League Championship game to watch her.