The mental image was vivid. The beautiful ballerina, her dark sunken eyes, sallow skin under pale make up, her prim coiled bun hairstyle half undone. Uncaring for her increasingly unkempt appearance. One shoulder of her balanchine tutu hanging from her shoulder, the skirts edges frayed and grubby. Her unkempt appearance sitting in stark contrast to the rigid formality of her 5th position pose, even as her face looked frantic and out of phase with her reality.

Chris's mouth snapped shut as he finished his tale, she not had been aware that she had been sitting very literally slack jawed at the story's details. The thought of that wand, the anticipation, the fear, and then the stomach burning disappointment at the wands lack of providence.

'I only hope that I am able to do them justice! she breathed, her eyes a little wide and frantic at the thought of the weight of the undertaking that she would have to undertake in order to fully reflect, in fiction, the wonder and mystery of all that he was recounting to her. 'So do your spend your spare time at the school searching for the castles lost treasures?' Chris asked, her tone breathy and full of enthusism, 'the dashing professor travailing the castle at night in search of adventure! I'm sure the students are enamoured with your stories of daring do!"

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I am my mother's savage daughter, The one who runs barefoot cursing sharp stones

I am my mother's savage daughter, I will not cut my hair, I will not lower my voice
MJ made glory

Gus breathed out a laugh as he leaned forward, his hands folding together on the table. “Well Miss Dempsey, I think if anyone can do it justice, it’s a true writer. Plus I’m always an owl away if you have questions, although I think the story is already forming in your head.” Or at least, he guessed based on the expressions that she was giving as he spoke; it was things like this that made Gus miss his curse breaking years terribly. What was the reason he wasn’t jetting off to be one again… ? Maybe he would. After this school year.

Then he chuckled quietly, and rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment as his cheeks warmed. “Well, I actually used to search the castle a lot as a student because I heard there’s a room that has an item from each of the Founders… I can’t tell you how many detentions I earned for being out of bed at night. Never did that room, but now that I’m a professor I’m determined.” Gus dropped his hands back to the table. “I’ve also heard the Forbidden Forest has some hidden treasures that I’m dying to explore.” His eyes widened as considered that, for the first time, he could go into the Forbidden Forest without repercussions of detention (or expulsion, but Gus never did anything that dumb.)

“I actually am planning to go to Egypt, sometime soon. Maybe near Christmas. Just so I'm not out of practice in case I ever want to go back.” He opened his mouth to invite her, but that would be weird and… seen as something he wasn’t. Miss Dempsey was kind but there wasn’t a single atom in the entire universe that made him want to be anything outside of a potential friend to her. “Outside of writing, what do you do for fun?”

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Chris beamed at what she construed as a compliment. Her writing was just one more thing about herself that she second guessed and was deeply anxious about the reception that her writing would recieve from others. It was why she did not she did not use her own name. That way if the writing was weighed, measured and found wanting - and thusly lampooned by all notable society members she need not assoicate herself with its failure. Especially coming from a family of writers - where talent seemed to to ooze from the pores of so many of her family members. She didn't think family would be anything other than constructively critical but she actually didn't trust herself in that regard. As savage as the Dempseys could be with each other in regards to just about anything else - their art was something they took seriously.

'Perhaps I will take you up on the offer to come face to face with some objects myself!' she laughed, a hand on her chest, a breathless and self anxious expression - unsure that she could trust herself with the decision - daring as it was, she was sure her family would have strong feelings about her getting so very invovled in her reasearch for her art.

'How I wish I could do something like that! Go along on taht sort of adventure!' she said, her voice going dreamy as she lost herself in the depths of her imagination. She supposed she would have to live vicariously through her heroine, perhaps she would give him a companion, a spunky lady, an avatar for their authoress who would be able to do all the things that Christabel wanted to do, go all the places she wished she could - throw off the expectations fo society and family and not give a fig for her reputation as she gallavanted acorss the globe solving ancient mysteries with an iconic hero. A hero would base, at least in part on Mister Lissington.

'You'll laugh' she admitted ruefully, when he asked about her other interests. 'I am part of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn - it's a bunch of muggles who believe they can do magic.' she chuckled at the thought. 'They meet up every few weeks and 'do magic' in London - it's incredibly amusing watching them chant gibberish and wave 'wands' while thinking they are doing spells - especially when you combine it with actual magical knowledge.' This had amused Victor a great deal, the idea of muggles attempting magic and genuinely believing themselves to be in possession of magical power had been rather a bonding moment for them - resulting in the pair of them setting fire to her dress and a neighbours rose bushes.

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I am my mother's savage daughter, The one who runs barefoot cursing sharp stones

I am my mother's savage daughter, I will not cut my hair, I will not lower my voice
MJ made glory

“You can always ask Endymion to accompany you.” Gus grinned at her.  “You can tell him I will solemnly promise not to make him come over to help clean out my Da’s room again.” Not that the other curse breaker had actually minded rooting through a room filled to the brim with objects his father had collected from his years as a curse breaker. (It was fair to assume too, that all the trinkets Gus couldn’t keep at Hogwarts somehow winded up in that room, too.) It felt a bit weird too, inviting a woman over, but it wasn’t like he had ulterior motives other than letting her root through a room of cursed objects – he wasn’t interested, and even if he was Miss Dempsey was upper class and he well, wasn’t.

Endymion would definitely vouch for him that he wasn’t trying to be sly in the matter.

Gus added another sugar cube to the cup before he picked it up, hiding a smile behind it. “It’s a life worth living. But you can find all sorts of adventures here, too.” He flicked his gaze up toward the young woman. A lot of people always thought that adventure was equated to globe trotting – something that Gus agreed with because they were always more exciting – but there were interesting things to find in Hogsmeade too. “You just have to know where to look.”

He blinked at her confession before a wider grin stole across his face. “That sounds pretty interesting. I can’t say I’ve ever heard of them.” Muggles pretending to be magical… it was a true miracle the Ministry hadn’t wiped their minds yet, although that might look more suspicious than just letting them, harmless as it was. “And you take part? With real magic? I’m sure it’s crazy when they think they’ve done something when it was you.” He couldn’t help but laugh at the very thought, imagining someone’s eyes going wide as they tried to use the same wand motion and words again, just to have nothing happen. It must give them some kind of hope that they were magical, and hope was a wonderful thing to have in life. “How in the world did you ever come across it?” Gus had a million questions about that, but he swallowed them. 

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'I think that is an excellent idea!' she beamed at him, 'Please don't be surprised if I reach out to arrange an adventure.' she rather regretted having turned down the oppertunity to examine the box that he had brought with him, perhaps she would get to see that creep cursed ballerina if she went far enough down that road. She didn't think she would end up as an expert in curses or cursed objects, in the way that she knew some writers would end up as much of an expert as some of the curse breakers. It was what she thought Porphyria was likely to do if she ended up writing about something like curses. Merlin it annoyed her, how much her sister lived rent free in her head. Not because Prophyria was cruel or especially mean to her, but because of her own anxieties about her sisters talents relative to her own - especially as a writer.

'Oh it's delightful!' she enthused, thoroughly amused by her rather eccentric group of muggles, that who, although she was there to make fun of them she had a great deal of affection for them. They were so intense, so sincere, and had been incredibyl kind to her. Rather a few of them had spent rather a great deal of time 'teaching' her what the thought were these great secrets of the universe and the order. It was charming in a way. She had a few little paternal figures in the order. It was incredibly endearing having these older muggle gentleman try to 'teach her' about magic, when she had 7 years magical education under her belt and a wand in her pocket. While she could not claim to be the worlds most powerful magical practitioner - she wasn't an animagus, or a legilmens, but she certainly knew more about magic than the grey haired gents with too much time and money, who spent their days in esoteric consideration of ancient egyptian rites and babylonian rituals. All of which were nonsense, and not even remotely related to actual magical practice. She and Victor had joked about letting the muggles try a ritual with some actual magical words just to see what might happen!

'Nothing they do is even remotely related to real magic' she explained, 'Lots of gregorian chanting and incense' she made spooky fingers, laughing. 'I'm rather a low rank in the order, so I mostly just get to watch because the more 'experienced' members of the order do the rituals.' She realised it was an odd situation, that trying to explain why she found it so amusing to watch muggles trying to do magic and condescending to her about their magical knowledge. 'I joined it a few years ago, while I was researching for another book I was working on.' she explained, 'I thought it would just be a passing interest, but honestly it's incredibly interesting to hear what muggles think magic is.' that was true enough, and that fact that she had both muggle and magical friends who also attended with her was just an added benefit. There were also rather a few muggle writers involved in the order, and she enjoyed the close association and friendship she was developing with them. While she had yet to actually write a book for muggle consumption she was considering it. The main question for her was if it would be cheating if she was just to write a rather generic book about something rather normal to wizarding england and pass it off as a work of fiction! The plausible deniability that it would give to wizarding kind was sure to be a good thing right.

'You are welcome to come along some time, perhaps its only for my odd sense of humour, but it can be a most entertaining evening. The Isis-Urania Temple has evenings where the public is allowed to attend if you're ever curious.' she had dragged Fig along once, with some of her more revolutionary friends from Dublin for a ritual meant to communicate with the dead. She had asked a ghost once if the ritual would ever have any affect but the answer had been a resounding no.

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I am my mother's savage daughter, The one who runs barefoot cursing sharp stones

I am my mother's savage daughter, I will not cut my hair, I will not lower my voice
MJ made glory

Gus leaned forward on his hand, enchanted by what Miss Dempsey was saying – how interesting it was that muggles wanted to practice magic in such a manner. He’d witnessed firsthand just how much muggles wanted to believe in magic in different cultures, but he’d never thought to join in on the fun under the facade of being magicless. (The Salem Witch Trials came to mind and that was the last thing Gus wanted to get wrapped up in – it would be just his luck to cause a second go around two hundred years later.) He leaned back as she wiggled her fingers.

It was because he wasn’t sure he could pretend to do magic when all he wanted to do was make people happy with it. A spell here and there to make them look like it worked wouldn’t hurt, but that would probably get him in trouble with the Ministry. “I’d like that a lot, actually. You’ve definitely piqued my curiosity.” Gus wouldn’t be one to turn down that kind of invite; he wasn’t against muggles at all, although he couldn’t help but wonder if a muggleborn child was found to be among them, would they learn about wizards? Not that it was his problem – there was an entire department that dealt with that. “ I just think you’d have to confiscate my wand before we went because I’d probably accidentally cast something just to watch their reaction.” He joked.

The nodded. “My sister mentioned going to something like that a few years ago.” Something about muggles and the dead? He’d warned her that sometimes tombs could be haunted by poltergeists, but she’d reassured him it was nothing like what he’d find; they were muggles, what could possibly go wrong? Blue eyes narrowed before they widened and he laughed quietly. “But what do I have a feeling you already knew that?”

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'Yes!' she exclaimed, 'Figueroa came a good few years ago, I think the muggles were a little much for her!' Chris said with a smile of fond remembrance. 'They can be very intense, and so incredibly sincere about something they actually know very little about' she laughed. *A muggle poet, Yeats and a few of his friends took the thing far too seriously and were turning into something like zealots, and there had been a great deal of tension between among the members in recent months. Chris was too junior to really be in the mix of the worst of the drama but two of the members had been 'bound' in a ceremony last week - that was - that they had been kicked of the order and the remaining members had undertaken a ceremony to 'bind' his 'powers' to stop him from performing any additional magic. It had been ridiclous to watch. The whole thing had started over the offending member using another persons spiriti guide - it was the equivalent of teenage girls arguing over who was who's best friend. It had taken rather a lot of self control not to openly roll her eyes at the carrying on of them.

Chris laughed, 'Sounds like a deal Mister Lissington,' she said with a pronounced, punctuatory nod. 'I can absolutely confiscate your wand and bring you to the Order, on the provision that I might tag along with you to explore your next Egyptian tomb.' she was joking about the latter but she would definitely prevail upon him to explore more of the cursed objects he was able to tell her about.

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*This is true and actually happened- the order had more drama than housewives of beverly hills type show.

  

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I am my mother's savage daughter, The one who runs barefoot cursing sharp stones

I am my mother's savage daughter, I will not cut my hair, I will not lower my voice
MJ made glory

Smiling fondly, Gus nodded. It sounded like it would be too much for his sister, although she was just as adventurous as he was, at least in the ways she could be. She and Edmund gallivanted around the world together tracking mermaid and kelpie migration patterns, and he couldn’t help but wonder if she’d visited more places than he had. It was doubtful because they spent much of their time on a boat or in ports, while he’d spent over a decade jumping around the globe. Gus wasn’t sure there was a place he wanted to visit that he hadn’t.

“Perfect. Just owl me and I’ll see if I can make it work with my work schedule?” He had one free weekend a month to do whatever he pleased, and Gus used every second of it. There were days he just needed to get out of the castle and he saved them for when he felt like he’d claw his eyes out if he had to stay there one more second “I don’t really get to explore tombs as much since I’m not an official curse breaker, but I may be able to pull some strings to get you into an abandoned Gringotts vault. Just let me know, and I’ll see what I can do.” He grinned at her then. Of course the goblins were (kind of) happy to see his face when he poked around the bank looking for extra work – sometimes he did it just for the thrill rather than for being paid. It was like an itch that needed to be scratched.

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