[TTD] Taste the lemons (Edyta)

His job at the Ministry was nothing Sylvain enjoyed. The only good things about it were a steady income and the work hours. He came in at 8 am, had an hour for lunch and finished at 5 pm. He could still make it to the theatre after work - for rehearsals or actual shows - or have dinner with his girlfriend. Besides, he had the weekends off - which meant quality time he could spend with Lyra. Since he wasn’t really into his day job, he could usually forget about it as soon as he stepped out of the Ministry, meaning that he could focus on more pleasant things in his time off of work.

Today, however, he had been assigned a rather annoying task - he was supposed to test some rarely used portkeys for functionality. For one, Sylvain hated travelling by portkey. He preferred the floo network and even apparition was better in his opinion as he could choose the time to leave and not wait for the transportation. However, being one of the lower ranked and youngest Ministry officials, there was no way to get out of this.

He had already tried five different portkeys by the time he reached the Bois de Boulogne where he was supposed to find an old boot that would direct him to the dragon reservation in Romania. He checked his watch, the portkey was scheduled for 4:55 pm which meant that he’d have to work overtime. He frowned. He had promised to cook her a meal tonight. Now he was going to be late for that. Then again, he swallowed hard, the prospect of food did not really appeal to him now. Having taken a few portkeys already today, his face had taken on a slightly unhealthy greenish colour by now.

When the boot began to glow he quickly reached for it. Oh he hated this. His free hand was now covering his mouth. Once he had firm ground below his feet again he felt so sick that he did not even have the chance to look around and just bent over and threw up. Suddenly boots came in sight and he looked up.

“Salut,” he said, momentarily forgetting that he wasn’t in France anymore. “I’ll never get used to travelling by portkey,” he said apologetically, a sheepish smile spreading across his face.

@Edyta Ciesynska

Edyta had been up since dawn observing a female Romanian Longhorn laying a clutch of eggs, and although she was tired, all she could think was how much she loved her job. Not that it as a job, technically, not yet. She was still a trainee dragonologist and her earnings were basically pocket money over and above the room and board she received for working and living on the dragon reservation, but she was happy with that. Always the first to volunteer when someone was needed to work early or late, despite having been awake since 4:30 this morning it hadn't occurred to her to ask someone else to take over for her and greet an arriving magizoologist who was visiting from Newcastle in England. His portkey was scheduled for 5:30pm, but having missed lunch, Edyta couldn't wait any longer for food. She'd grabbed a quick plate of stew and some bread, filled her flask with fresh lemonade, and headed down to the portkey office to wait.

She was halfway through her meal, still with over half an hour to wait, when the telltale glow that preceeded a portkey arrival shimmered in the centre of the room. Right now she was the only one here; the trainees took it in turns to staff the office so this wasn't unusual. She hadn't expected anyone to be arriving though, so she put down her cutlery and stood, assuming that their visitor was arriving early.

Edyta was still slender, but taller than most women and tended to spend most of her time dressed in flying leather. Today was no different; they were the safest thing to wear around dragons anyway, fireproof and easy to clean and, as her visitor arrived, bent over and promptly vomited onto the polished floor she was glad that her boots were made of the same material.

His words were unfamiliar, but she assumed he was speaking English for the moment and thus wasn't concerned. "Welcome to Romanian Dragon reservation. One moment, I cast translation charm" she said in the careful, heavily accented English she had learned from one of the other trainees. So far she couldn't manage more than a few phrases, but it was useful when greeting visitors.  She summoned a chair and placed it next to the visitor so he could sit, seeing his face for the first time and frowning a little in surprise. He was...younger than she had been led to expect. A lot younger. Was he using some sort of anti-aging potion, she wondered?

Another flick of her wand, this one in reality a more careful, measured movement accompanied by the spoken charm and she continued, this time speaking her native tongue, knowing it would be understood "I fear the journey has upset you. Would you like some lemonade before we visit the reservation?" Probably not the best thing to offer, but it was all she had right now.

The young woman in front of him was clad all in leather and looked quite attractive in a way that felt foreign to Sylvain. The first impression he got of her was that she was the entire opposite of his girlfriend. He loved Lyra, he was faithful to her, he actually planned to propose to her but this girl was… interesting. Sylvain felt a little like when he was playing a role on stage and falling in love with another character there. It wasn’t anything real but she was fascinating somehow.

She spoke accented English to him and Sylvain wasn’t quite sure why she was greeting him as though she had expected a visitor. Had the French Ministry really announced that they’d be testing the functionality of the portkeys today? It seemed a little odd to him but he really didn’t know.

She cast a translation charm from whatever her native tongue was to English. Sylvain frowned a little but figured that most people spoke English, he, at least, spoke it fairly well. His French accent was clearly audible but, truth be told, he had never even attempted to get rid of it. He was French. It was perfectly okay that others would be able to figure that out.

“Yeah,” he said, feeling how his cheeks heated a little. He pulled out his wand and vanished the vomit from the floor. “Sorry about that. I’ve taken several portkeys today. It was bound to happen.”

Lemonade.

Sylvain frowned a little. He had never heard that lemonade would cure an upset stomach. However, something to drink sounded appealing. “Thank you, I’d like something to drink,” he said and took the glass from the young woman. It tasted bittersweet.

Although he was just here to test the functionality of the portkey the witch wanted to show him the dragon reservation and he figured that some fresh air would be good before he’d have to travel home.

They stepped out of the building and Sylvain looked around curiously. He had never been to a dragon reservation before and everything looked interesting to him. He had never before been this close to these majestic creatures and he couldn’t deny that he felt a little intimidated.

“What’s this guy doing over there?” he asked, wondering if the young, shady looking man belonged to the reservation or was an intruder. He was stuffing something that looked like a dragon egg into a big rucksack anyway.

The man's voice sounded a little strange...accented, one might have said. Thanks to the translation charm his words were perfectly understandable, but not quite as distinct as she was used to. Maybe he was Scottish rather than English as she had been told? She'd heard that there were a lot of different accents in the British Isles, so perhaps that could account for it.

Or maybe it was just because the poor man had vomited all over the floor. She conjured a clean glass and poured some of her lemonade into it, sending the glass to hover close by his elbow where he quickly accepted it. "Please don't apologise. It sounds like you've had a busy day" she said, though she was slightly confused by his words. Why would he have taken several portkeys? There was a direct link from here to London, so he would have only needed to take two at most, and that was only assuming that he wasn't able to apparate across the country. Come to that, where was his luggage? That was a little strange, but maybe he'd got an extension charm on one of his pockets. Edyta was still working on that but so far she'd only managed to fit a cloak and a spare shirt into hers.

The visitor seemed somewhat restored by the lemonade, so Edyta felt obliged to offer a preliminary tour once they stepped outside the portkey office. "So, the building over there is the study centre, which contains our library. The mountains in front of you naturally are home to most of our Longhorns, except for the two who are first-time mothers. They are just around the back of the building, and one of them...what?" her head spun around in shock, just in time to see a stranger stealing one of the precious newly-laid eggs.

Silently, she cast the levitation charm on the egg, raising it a good ten feet into the air and then, before the man could run, "Petrificus totalus!" How he had managed to get the egg away without alerting the mother dragon was anyone's guess, but that was her first concern.

"Well spotted, Professor Lothtormere" she said, breaking into a run so she could reclaim the egg and return it to the mother.

Nodding, Sylvain took the glass of lemonade that floated towards him. “Thank you,” he said and took a sip. It was bitter-sweet and not quite the right thing for his already upset stomach. However, having something to drink was good. He needed a refreshment of some sort.

He nodded again as the young woman stated that he seemed to have a busy day. That was true. Maybe it wasn’t that terribly busy all things considered - he had basically only travelled back and forth through Europe - but it was clearly busier than it was when he just spent the day at his desk.

Still feeling pretty shaken from all the travelling and the sickness it had induced, Sylvain just followed the young witch around, listening vaguely to what she had to say. He wasn’t quite sure why she chose to show him around but in his current state he didn’t feel like questioning it much. It was probably a polite gesture, a sign that she was quite proud of her work place.

Apparently he had really spotted an intruder. Sylvain watched how his companion handled the situation, feeling no motivation whatsoever to pull out his own wand to help. She was in full control anyway.

“Professor… what?” Sylvain asked but she already ran off to reclaim the egg and give it to the mother dragon.

He waited until she returned to him, unwilling to approach the dragons himself. He knew too little about these gigantic creatures to risk getting any closer to them than he was by being at the reservation.

“Excuse me,” he said, a sheepish grin spreading across his face. “Who do you think I am?”

Edyta pulled dragonhide gloves from her pocket as she knelt beside the egg and began to reach for it, but stopped short. Instead she raised her wand and conjured thin ropes with which she securely bound the prone thief. He stared at her with unblinking eyes; she smiled back coldly. "Don't worry, I'll send someone out to find you later...or maybe tomorrow" she said quietly. In her opinion, egg thieves were the lowest form of criminal, stealing a defenceless creature that had absolutely no chance of defending itself.

Only then did she cast a disillusionment charm on herself and pick up the egg, approaching the nesting dragon's enclosure on silent feet. Her heart was pounding and really, she should take the time to fetch another member of staff in case something went wrong, but she didn't want the egg to be away from the mother for too long.

Luck was on her side. The female was drowsing, still tired from the aftereffects of producing the clutch of seventeen eggs and doubtless the thief had taken advantage of this. As Edyta stood a mere fifteen feet away the dragon shifted position slightly and an egg rolled a couple of feet out from beneath her. This was the young woman's chance - she placed the egg on the ground and rolled it gently back towards the rest, then retreated, nerves subsiding somewhat. Sure enough, the mother dragon nosed the first egg back beneath herself and then spotted the stolen one. She sniffed this one for a little longer but, clearly deciding as was well, reclaimed that as well.

Good. Edyta stepped away and dropped the charm once she was a safe distance away, preparing to resume the tour. She had opened her mouth to speak when the visitor instead surprised her. "Professor Wilburt Lothtormere, from Newcastle...you aren't him, are you? I thought it was a little odd; he's forty seven years old...I figured he just used a lot of potions..." Edyta felt her face colouring in embarrassment. "I'm sorry, what are you doing...I mean, who are y... I mean, can I help you?"

Professor Wilburt Lothtormere from Newcastle.

Sylvain frowned and opened his mouth to say that he wasn’t professor Wilburt Lothtormere but then he thought of it. He was an actor, after all. If she wanted him to be professor Wilburt Lothtormere then he could be him.

“Oh yes,” he said, a charming smile spreading across his face. “I’m sorry. You pronounced my name so charmingly that I didn’t even recognise it at first.” He chuckled softly. “You are right, by the way, I use a lot of potions to keep my youthful appearance. There’s an apothecary in Newcastle that I can recommend. They sell the best anti-aging potions as you can see when you look at me. There’s not a single line on my face, right?”

He figured that he should add something worthy of a real professor for… dragonology? He wasn’t sure what the girl was expecting and he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep this up for long as he knew little to nothing about dragons. However, it was unlikely that he'd see her ever again after today so it didn't really matter if she caught him out.

“I’m sorry that I didn’t introduce myself right away, Miss…?” He said, “I just really don’t like to travel and it’s been a long journey from Newcastle, you know.”

Then he looked towards the female dragon with her many eggs. “I must say, young lady, you did a good job there. You showed a quick reaction and very sensibly approached the dragon. Well done.”

From afar Sylvain saw a middle aged man come out of the building and he knew at once that this was likely the real professor. Maybe he should just make a quick exit before he got into trouble...

[out]

Oh, Merlins's arse! Not only had she made a fool of herself, she'd insulted one of the most respected Dragonologists in England. Edyta really couldn't think how to get out of this situation, because she'd been doing just fine until...what? She'd mispronounced his name so badly that he hadn't actually recognised it? That was kind of embarrassing in itself, because she'd actually practised saying it earlier that day so she could get her tongue around the strange English words. She didn't know what to say, and it was even odder that he'd apologised for not introducing himself bcause she knew he was coming, so that wouldn't really have been necessary.

Maybe the best thing was just to gloss over the last few minutes entirely. After all, he didn't seem to be annoyed with her and she supposed he was actually quite proud of his looks, so maybe the fact that she'd doubted his identity was actually a compliment? She decided not to think about it any more and just accept that some things were awkward. At least he'd approved of her returning of the dragon egg.

"Thank you. I'm still in my first year of training" she admitted "And I'm sorry about...anyway. Would you like me to show you to your quarters now?" She smiled and began leading the way to the residential area, which led past the portkey office. As they walked past the door a middle-aged man carrying a carpet bag and wearing a travelling cloak stepped out, looking slightly confused. "Excuse me?" he called in heavily accented Romanian "I'm Wilburt Lothomere. I was informed someone would be here to greet me..."

[fin]