August 4, 1888 - Scamander Home, Hogsmeade

Eugene Scamander

While it was true that the Fog had done little to affect Lucy, she was ever so grateful when it disappeared. It had been rather a hampering to her social life, and indeed to the social season in its entirety. That alone threatened to disrupt Lucy’s perfectly reasonable plans for this season when it came to her and her friends.To remedy this Lucy made plans to visit one of her dearest friends, Helga in Hogsmeade.

Figuring it was easiest to travel by floo she stepped into the fireplace at a respectable hour and stepped out into the Scamander foyer only moments later, wrinkling her nose. She really wasn’t a fan of the floo network, but her mother was rather worried about lingering effects of the fog and was unwilling to watch her only child apperate to see a friend. So here Lucy was, patting her hair and smoothing her skirts on the mantle of the Scamander home.

Lucy had written ahead to tell Helga of her visit and yet her friend was nowhere in site. In fact the room was rather deserted. Baffled, Lucy looked at the clock to see it was the agreed upon time. Where was Helga?

  

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Thank you MJ for an amazingly Lucy set!

Resuming work was both a relief and a bit of a let down. Though Eugene hadn't exactly considered himself an asset to his expedition group, he supposed had proved some kind of useful in the end. He wasn't so sure he'd be signing up for anything of that nature ever again, unless it specifically dealt with creatures. Most creatures he could handle, with the help of magic, though he'd be second guessing dealing with anymore sphinx in the future.

Not much had changed in the department during his absence. Mrs. Skeeter was still as wonderfully scary as ever, poor Percy was still limping around thanks to the troll attack in Honeydukes and Clinton was, well Clinton, everybody else seemed to be chugging along, same as ever. And so he'd dived right back in, helping to diffuse the little backlog that had piled up while he was gone. It wasn't bad, not at all, but he had some things of his own to finish up and wrap before they could be put away entirely.

Needless to say, he was exhausted. All of this catch up sleep needed to happen sooner rather than later. He apparated home, right onto the doorstep hands at the fasten of his robes near his neck; he wanted into more comfortable clothes and onto the sofa. He swung the door open and stepped in, nearly colliding with an unexpected body in the foyer. He was practically on top of Miss Flint, by the time he realized who it was and he immediately dropped his hands, though he had managed to undo a button or two. "Ah, Miss Flint, so lovely to see you again." He smiled on reflex, stepping back to a more respectable distance to close the door behind him.

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Hearing the front door Lucy stepped down from the mantle and smiling stepped forward. Only to have someone almost run into her. She skipped backward just in time, looking up and realizing it wasn’t Helga. No, it was her handsome, now hero, older brother. A light pink flushed her freckled cheeks at the situation she found herself in, especially as she noticed that the top two buttons of his robes were undone. Clearly he had not expected company.

“Mr. Scamander! It’s so good to see you.” Lucy smiled broadly at Eugene, pushing aside her discomfort. She could be charming no matter her disposition, her upbringing that assured her of that. Especially around her best friend’s brother. “I heard we have you to thank for being able to visit again?”

  

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Thank you MJ for an amazingly Lucy set!

Torn between pretending to ignore the state of his buttons or fix them, Eugene resolutely chose to ignore them. Instead one hand went to scratch the back of his head idly; a telltale sign he was a little embarrassed. Eugene wasn't exactly humble, but he also felt like he didn't deserve a lot of the credit here. "Ah, not really, didn't do much myself. It was mostly my group mates who did the hard parts." Though he had been part of the group to actually solve the problem, he hadn't done much but take Miss Van Helsing to the infirmary and make some bonehead moves in an effort to move things along.

"What brings you by, here to see Helga?" It was a safe assumption and in retrospect a stupid question, but it was too late to take it back now. However, considering he had just walked in the door, he had no idea where his little sister was. She couldn't be far, especially if she was expecting Miss Flint, but who knew with Helga sometimes.

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"I'm sure you did your part." Lucy chirped, "Perhaps one day you might even indulge me in the tale?" After all Lucy loved such stories and she did highly doubt, after what Witch Weekly had said, that he wasn't being modest about the whole situation. "Regardless," She continued, "I'm ever so happy to be able to visit again!" A broad infectious grin spread over her features.

At the mention of Helga Lucy nodded. "Yes, I had written to tell her, but I can't seem to find her." Or anyone for that matter.

  

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Thank you MJ for an amazingly Lucy set!

Shrugging his shoulders sheepishly, Eugene smiled slowly. "I suppose sometime, yes." It really wasn't all that exciting, but he probably should give away most of the details so that people could stop hailing him as something he wasn't. He should at least tell Helga the whole thing to get her to stop making inferences, though she'd likely embellish a little anyway.

"Typical Helga," Eugene chuckled fondly. She was such an exuberant person, but sometimes even more of a scatterbrain than he was. "Ah, I can run upstairs if you like and see if she's there?" He offered, unsure as to whether it was rude to leave her alone? He rather thought it would be inappropriate for him to have her check or for the two of them to go? "Let me uh, show you to the sitting room and I can find her?" He amended, thinking that a better plan. If nothing else he could alert the staff she was here.

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He ceased to argue and simply conceded to her request. A sincere smile spread over Lucy’s lips. “I’d like that.” She admitted genuinely pleased with this promise.

It was certainly not out of character for Helga to have forgotten. Lucy could remember times in school when Helga was so involved in what she was doing she’d forget they had planned to go to supper together, or to go outside and watch the gentleman practice quidditch. Lucy could never fault her for she often found herself equally immersed in what Helga had been doing when she found her.

Mr. Scamander was kind enough to offer to find Helga, almost remembering a full beat later that Helga would still be standing in the entrance of their home. “Yes, thank you. I do hate to be a bother though.” Although there really was little she could do in such a circumstance. “I do think she might remember in a few moments, perhaps simply showing me to the drawing room?”

  

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Thank you MJ for an amazingly Lucy set!

Miss Flint seemed to have far more faith in Helga than Eugene did... Still he wasn't about to argue. Eugene motioned for her to follow him after leaving the rest of his things from work near the door. Someone would surely take care of it... or he'd remember later. Maybe. If, in a few minutes, Helga was still being Helga and hadn't shown up, he could start looking. Or ask one of he maids to do it for him, he supposed.

Well there was an idea, Eugene thought about it while shifting awkwardly from foot to foot. "Should I uh, have someone make some tea?" Was that a thing at this time of day? Eugene was a terrible host, really. With as many sisters as he had, he should have been a little better at things like this, but clearly he wasn't paying attention... Ladies their age didn't drink cocktails did they? Right about now he was thinking he could use one.

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“That would be nice. Thank you Mr. Scamader.” Lucy smiled, having the vague impression that Mr. Scamander really wasn’t sure what to do. To be honest Lucy was honest he hadn’t found himself in this position before, what with Helga’s tendency to forget things.

“How are things at the ministry now that the fog is gone? Calmer, I imagine?” If she were to wait she could at least make some polite chat, perhaps make Mr. Scamander a bit less uncomfortable.

  

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Thank you MJ for an amazingly Lucy set!

Eugene motioned for Miss Flint to take a seat wherever she pleased while he popped his head out of the room to catch the nearest maid. Fortunately that didn't take too long, lest he abandon Miss Flint altogether to search for one and he mentioned that Helga's company was here and so she should probably make an appearance. Oh and they needed tea. With that settled he returned his attention to the other occupant in the sitting room.

"Ah yeah a little bit. My department is rarely quiet, doesn't matter what else is going on." They were still dealing with vampires and werewolves, not to mention the every day idiots who had no idea how to treat creatures properly or with any measure of common sense. "I think that's what I like about it though. There's paperwork of course, but I'm rarely stuck behind my desk." Eugene passed her a genuine smile as he perched himself on the edge of one of the armchairs by the fireplace. "What's been keeping you busy these days? Aside from waiting on Helga." He added with a chuckle.

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Gracefully Lucy took a seat on the couch, sitting primly as her training had taught her despite the number of times she had taken tea in this very room. Mr. Scamander, she couldn't help but think of him as Eugene as that was how Helga mentioned him when she spoke of him, stepped out for a moment but didn't abandon her completely as he came back in.

"Sounds quite adventurous to be sure." Lucy agreed with a smile. "But I can see why that would be appealing." After all a summer with almost nothing to do and Lucy was almost begging for an adventure of any sort. "Honestly, compared to that, very little. The fog kept social visits from happening and really I've hardly had anything to occupy my time. It makes the Ministry seem as if it might be an adventure after all." Not that Lucy had any intention of actually working. After all that would create quite a bit of gossip about herself that she would rather not hear.

  

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Thank you MJ for an amazingly Lucy set!

Eugene nodded along, his own summer in stark contrast to hers; he'd never been busier, even when people went through fads of purchasing weird magical creatures. "The Ministry is always an adventure, don't let anyone tell you otherwise." Their government may look like it had its ducks in a row, but that was hardly ever the case. Then again, he supposed he shouldn't be saying that...

"The fog felled everyone this year, I'm afraid. I'll be glad not to deal with anything like that again-" Eugene started, but was interrupted by the arrival of a maid with tea and the announcement that Helga would be down in just a moment. Ah, saved by the maid. "What timing, I was going to run out of witty repertoire any minute." He joked. As much as he enjoyed Miss Flint's company, he was not nearly as good at this as Hegla was.

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