[thd] [magical accidents] theft at the candy shop. [kendrick]

Walking down the streets of Hogsmeade Nazreen was pleasantly surprised to see so many students out and about. It was nice to not be stuck in the castle or under the dome again and she appreciated every minute she got out in the sun. The quiet witch weaved through traffic like she was a stick figure, barely pressing into people as she cut corners and made her way toward the sweets shop. She wanted to get some of the candy canes for this weeks tea before it was too late and she forgot. She always liked adding unorthodox things to her tea like candies or cajun spice, it was a new spin on an old favorite and she was always willing to experience something new. When she got to the candy store she was assaulted by the sound of a young child screaming louder than any she had ever heard before. It looked like his face was turning blue from the sheer effort of it. She smiled at him with a caring demeanor, hoping whatever it was that was upsetting him would soon pass. She wanted him to be happy too. Other adults and even students near by stuck their nose up at the child and the mother who seemed to be ignoring him when really she was doing exactly what mothers were supposed to do. The child was throwing a fit because he couldn't get all the candy and the mother wasn't going to give in. Nazreen gave her a sympathetic nod, supporting her fully, before taking her place in the line.

It wasn't until she started seeing the wallets of other witches in line floating out of their pockets and toward another child that she really took notice. The other student was older, maybe fourteen, but he had nearly exactly the same facial characteristics of the other boy and their mother, red hair, brown eyes, tanned skin, and a strong bone structure. Nazreen didn't quite pick up on it at first but after pocketing quite a few wallets (hers included) and patting the boy on the back for his wonderfully opportunistic display of underage magic the former Gryffindor started to realize what was happening.

"Hey wait." She said to him with a concerned look but before she could approach him he was running out the door and she was ducking out after him. Her professor skills were kicking in and she planned to help him see the error in his ways but he was long gone before she even got out of the store. When she returned inside Honeydukes the mother and child were gone as well and Nazreen felt like she had been punched in stomach. Had the mother been in on it? Had they all been tricked? "Where did the witch go?" She asked but got nothing but relieved shrugs in return.

Flushed cheeks flaring she left her candy pursuit behind she walked out of Honeydukes and apparated to the Ministry of Magic to file a report of the crime. If it was just an accident maybe she would of let it slide but the lion couldn't let them get away with this crime. She might of been peaceful, passive even, but she was still allergic to injustice. She ventured to the Magical Accidents department even though she wasn't entirely sure if that was the right place to go and hummed to herself as she walked. Nazreen wasn't about to inconvenience the information desk clerk with her issue if she thought she might know where to go.

"Excuse me I'd like to report a theft." She said to the first person she came across.

It had been a quiet morning for Kendrick; three successive sets of people had been sent out and he'd apparently gotten a reprieve that day, which led to him sitting around twiddling his thumbs at his desk, making the paper airplane memos with nothing written inside of them just to watch them zoom around for fun and making frequent trips to get water so he could chat with people. For once he was on top of his paperwork--it was a pity he wasn't in for his annual review with Percy, or maybe he'd be getting a raise for once. Although, probably the small fleet of planes in interesting colors like pink and yellow hovering around him wouldn't help his case at all.

On his fourth consecutive trip to the bathroom, he was suddenly addressed by a woman a little taller than his wife with striking flowing black hair. "Oh, this isn't the right department--you'll want to go over to the DMLE. Want me to show you?" he asked, jumping eagerly at the chance for something interesting to do. Kendrick hated being bored. Walking briskly toward the nearest lift for the second floor, he looked at her again, feeling like hed recognized her. "Were you in Gryffindor at Hogwarts by chance? ...Nazreen?" If this was her, she'd been two years ahead of him, so it had been a solid fifteen years since he'd seen her, but Kendrick had a pretty good memory for faces.

"Am I?" She questioned in the most polite of tones, Nazreen wouldn't argue with the man, surely he knew better than she did. She followed him toward wherever he was leading her and shrugged her shoulders lightly. "I thought perhaps it would be this department since it started as an accident." She really thought that was the truth. It looked like the younger boy had done it by accident but the more she replayed the scene in her mind the more she couldn't be sure. Sometimes the mind played tricks and she was no stranger to that.

"Yes, I was." She exclaimed in her inside voice, a bright smile on her face as she thought back to her times as a student in Hogwarts. Her memories were fading the older she got and the more she added certain magical supplements into her tea and it was no surprise she had a hard time placing his face at first. It wasn't until she recalled a particularly brutal match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff in her last year that she recalled his face.

"It's Kendrick yes?" She questioned as the lift reached their floor and announced itself with a soft tinging bell sound. "Would you mind terribly showing me the way sir?" She asked, respectful as ever.

Kendrick paused to consider, stopping in the middle of the hall. "Well, is anyone trapped or otherwise magically affected, or is there magical damage remaining, or were any Muggles involved? If so, we can take care of it. If you're classifying it as a theft, though, probably DMLE is the way to go." Smiling at her, he added, "I'll just go check in with Shevinsky and you can tell him what happened and we can sort out any distribution of duties that might be necessary, if that's all right with you?"

He was pleased that he had remembered correctly and grinned at her. "I knew I knew you from somewhere! Yeah, it's Kendrick, and please, don't call me sir, it makes me feel old." The thirty-year-old started to laugh, and then made an after-you gesture toward the lift. "It's been a really long time, but it's nice to run into old classmates from time to time. I hope you're doing well?"

Following her in, he saw Mukherjee from the DRCMC with a cage full of huge, colorful butterflies. "Mukherjee, what've you got there?" he asked curiously. The last time he had seen so many butterflies in the same place, they'd been accidentally conjured by a five-year-old complaining about wanting to go to the butterfly garden. It was a nice sign of magic for the parents, but they'd created a huge whirlwind and been a nightmare to deal with. Creature accidents were always the worst. Hopefully these ones weren't quite as excited as that.

"Yes of course, that sounds just fine." She said softly, not wanting to rock the boat. If he thought that was the best way to go about it the quiet witch would of course follow suit. She honestly wasn't sure how to classify it anymore. She tried to recall what had happened exactly, she remembered the small boy crying and the older boy stealing wallets, but who was really behind the magic? Perhaps he could help her figure it out. "Well you see I was at the candy store, Honeydukes, and a little wizard was crying his head off. It was a sad thing, really." She nodded as they entered the lift and began the descent, or ascent, honestly the puzzled witch couldn't be certain.

"And then wallets started floating right out of folks' pockets. It looked like accidental magic, until I noticed another boy collecting them." She was sure if the teenager had been doing the magic the ministry would of been alerted of it. Which made her think of another horrifying option: what if they mother had been a part of the whole thing as well. Families that steal together? What was the world coming to...

She giggled at his request and nodded, of course willing to abide. "If you're old than that makes me even older." She replied with a bit of a smile and tucked some of her fluffy black hair behind her ear. "I am thank you, are you well?" As she always did Nazreen brushed off any questions of her own well being and immediately mirrored them back. She honestly cared for those around her and more than that she hated talking about herself. The butterflies in the cage caught her attention and she smiled at them, cooing a little, before placing her hand near the cage.

Nazreen's slow tendencies were often mistaken for her being cautious or deliberate but that wasn't the case. "Hello there little babies." She said to them warmly as they began to buzz louder and louder and crash into the cage walls with soft ping sounds. She probably should not of put her hand on the cage. Too late now.

Nazreen launched into an explanation right away, so Kendrick tried to remember the way she was saying it. "Hmmm," he said slowly. "Usually, accidental magic from underage wizards typically involves something they want or need. I reckon a kid might pull their mother's wallet toward them, trying to make her pay for some candy they want, but a kid that young usually isn't going to be that aware that all the other people around them have wallets for that as well, and they usually don't want to take from anyone else. So I think it's more likely to be premeditated than not." He shrugged. "And so people left with the wallets, or did people get them back? Since it's a kid, I won't say anything if you tell me nothing was permanently stolen." Kendrick had a soft spot for young people.

He laughed. "Objectively yes, but I think I look a bit older so we're even?" he offered. He wouldn't want to be caught insinuating that a woman was old. They generally didn't appreciate it, in his experience. "I'm doing great. Just got a puppy recently, so he's been a handful to manage. My wife and I are thinking about kids soon, but right now Bo's a bit much." Kendrick grinned, thinking about the puppy and remembering the awkward and poorly timed interjection of his that had brought all of this up in the present tense between him and Jo.

Kendrick started to smile at the way she was acting with the butterflies, until he realized that they were starting to be a little violent. The cage started to rattle, and Mukherjee swore and dropped it, the lock springing open. The butterflies didn't seem to have liked the fall, and suddenly swarmed out in great numbers. There were even more than he had thought at the beginning. They started to make a beeline for Nazreen.

"RUN!," he bellowed, grabbing her hand, protective instincts kicking in. Kendrick's laid-back attitude was immediately kicked to the curb, and once they had moved some distance, he let go and whirled around, pulling out his wand in a fluid motion, clearheaded and unfazed. It was far from the worst situation the Order of the Phoenix member had dbeen put in. "Close the lift!" he yelled to the people still inside, and thankfully, it zoomed off. He conjured a wooden wall in between them and the butterflies, but slightly underestimated the size of the corridor, and they began streaming around the cracks, though the bottleneck slowed them slightly. "Keep going!" he yelled.