Fizzy (Andrei)

Thus far, Andrei C. Kessler had been having an absolutely dismal time at the ball. The party's ambiance that started out as an interesting novelty had long since turned into a trite annoyance. After all, one could only see the same ghost jumping from the same wall in an attempt to scare passersby without growing tired of it. Add this to the fact that the older man found himself inundated with people who wanted to talk with him about things he didn't necessarily want to talk about—poltics did not interest him in the slightest. Suffice to say he was not having a good time as normally Marie would be there to take the brunt of the social interactions, but alas she could not attend, which left Andrei to brave the sea of people alone.

Bowing out of a particularly sticky conversation, the runes professor made his way to the refreshments. Shooing off some second years who thought it would be a good idea to test the restriction charms on the alcohol, he poured himself a tall glass of water. He then retreated to the far side of the room where he could simply watch the going ons of the party itself. Having spent the majority of the evening in the thick of it all he rather liked having a chance to step back and take it all in.

As his eyes danced from face to anonymous face, he came to appreciate the grandeur of the night. While on its surface the party looked to be just that it was, in fact, a fund drive in disguise. The money pledged by the various wealthy partygoers would serve to fuel Hogwarts for years to come. Though, while Andrei could respect the necessity of fundraising it did all strike him as slightly disingenuous. Perhaps it was because he wasn't a businessman? He couldn't be sure nor did he really care to delve too deeply into it, so he once more lost himself in his crowd watching.

Tossing back his head he drained the last of his water and deposited on one of the floating plates going by. It was here that a small figure slipping away from the party caught his attention. Clad in pink the figure stood out like a sore thumb in a sea of mostly black attire. However, more importantly, the kid—for it could only be child given her size—was going down the passage that led to the kitchen, but this passage's use had been expressly forbidden for the evening. Hufflepuffs knew this and took an alternate route, so the girl's pathing was more than a bit suspicious.

Now normally the professor would not have paid the girl in pink any mind and let kids be kids, but the teachers had been given strict instructions to keep the students in line. Thus, in line he would keep them. Weaving his way through the crowd, Andrei went down the same steps the child had gone down a few moments ago.

The stairway wove this way and that until they came out near the kitchen and the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room. Walking down the long hallway he spied the small girl in pink. Sighing to himself, Andrei swept down the hallway after the girl like some kind of bat in his midnight black dress robes.

"Excuse me, but are you lost?"

His voice echoed down the hallway and towards the girl as he drew closer. Students, it seemed, were unable to follow rules. Oh well, at least it got him away from the crowds.

The nine year old stared critically at the picture, wondering if the fruits would move or if they were painted to remain still. A few happy moments were spent imagining the grapes playing hide and seek behind the larger fruits in the bawl (did other fruits slip on banana peels too, or did bananas let their fellow fruit off because of their shared fruitiness?) before the child visibly shook her head, sending her brown curls cascading off her shoulder and down her back. She was here for Elenore. She had to find the Huffingpuff place. She was on a mission.

Leaning forwards, the little witch sniffed at the painting, following the earlier advice of using her nose. no smell permeated her senses, certainly nothing that would smell like a kitchen. But she was certain she was in he right place. This was underground and this certainly was a picture of fruit like the helpful person had told her. Just as she was about to knock on the painting, Mimosa heard an echo-y voice behind her, travelling the length of the long corridor in a weird, distorted way.

Wow, everyone at Hogwarts was really helpful. The girl was really starting to like this place.

"Umm... I don't think so," she offered the best answer she could. She wasn't lost, she knew exactly where she was. She just didn't know where she had to go from here.

"But I could use some help," she admitted, turning to take in the taaaaaalllll figure heading her way. From her perspective, the newcomer looked like a giant, his head almost reached the high ceiling. For a moment, the girl stared, her blue eyes opened wide in surprise. how could someone get that tall? Would she get that tall some day? Mimosa hoped so.

Her face fell as the grown up approached, and became more reasonable sized. Still tall, but nothing like the giant he looked from afar. Still, maybe he could help her. "I'm looking for Huffngpuff, the nice boy upstairs said it was beside the kitchen which was behind a painting," repeating the directions made her cross eyed for a moment. "So if this is the painting, and the kitchen is behind it... then I have to go beside it...?" she asked, looking both left and right to figure out which way to go now.

"Oh, I'm Mimosa," she introduced herself belatedly. "Mim-Oh-Sah," she clarified just in case the first version wasn't clear. "It's very nice to meet you."

Drawing nearer the older man, stopped a respectful distance from the small child. Though his stony expression did not show it in the slightest the small figure before him reminded him vaguely of Helen. Or rather the small girl, who apparently went by the questionable name of Mimosa, reminded him of how Helen used to be. Now Helen wanted nothing to do with him and was probably at that very moment dancing with some boy who Andrei didn’t know. If she were here now he’d have given both her and the imagined boy a stern talking to.

Oh well, such is life I suppose…

The girl in front of him, however, was obviously not Helen, but more importantly she was clearly not a Hufflepuff. Furthermore, while he could not yet claim to know everyone attending Hogwarts he did tend to see the same faces day in and day out—this girl did not attend the school to his knowledge. The runes professor rejoiced internally at these self-evident facts as it would make his job much easier and he could get back to trying to keep an eye on Helen and the boy’s drifting hands.

“Hufflepuff,” he corrected gently with a soft smile. “And unfortunately, Miss Mimosa, only current students and staff are allowed into the common rooms. So, I will have to ask that you make your way back upstairs and enjoy the rest of the party.”
To make his point Andrei stepped to the side and gestured down the passageway he had just come down.

“I believe they’ll be bringing out a new round of deserts quite soon and the broom tours of the grounds will be beginning shortly as well.”

In Andrei’s experience, one should always couple requests of children with some sort of incentive. After all, what kid didn’t like sweets or airborne tours put on by the house teams? Hopefully, the child was nothing like Helen who always threw a tantrum when she didn’t get her way, because that would be, well, unfortunate.

The child gazed up at the man uncomprehendingly, her blue grey eyes colored in obvious confusion as he told her she was not allowed to be in the Hufflepuff - she'd have to remember that, that could be her word of the day - common room. Never had the child been faced with a denial such as this, no matter how gentle. Mimosa was used to not only getting what she wanted but people being happy to give it to her.

Then it dawned on her, this nice man probably misunderstood. "Oh no," she responded, her smile back in place and the confusion wiped clear of her features. "I don't want to stay in the Huffle-Puff common room, I just need to go in there for..." the child closed her eyes for a second, imagining how much time she would need to convince Elenore. Of course the little witch didn't factor in the unknown layout of this new place or how much work she would have to put in to locate the older witch. in her mind, Elenore was waiting on the other side of a door and would happily agree to follow Mimosa to the ball.

"Three minutes," she finished confidently. "I'm just going to fetch my Elenore, and then we can all go up together Mr.... Sir." Belatedly, she realized she hadn't been given a name. Never mind, all old men could be called "Sir" as far as she was aware. Watching him, it then occurred to her that he might think she was trying to cause trouble.

"I promise I'm not trying to do anything bad. You can come with me if you want, I don't know where the common room is so if you can show me the way, we can go up even faster," she suggested with a grin, the plan making perfect sense in her head. "Elenore loves flying so I'm certain she won't want to miss the broom tours." And Mimosa was pretty curious to check out the new round of desserts too, but the girl kept that to herself.

"Please, please, please," she insisted, bringing forth her most angelic smile, the one they coached her to use in front of the camera when she was out on shoots. "It will only be three minutes. and Elenore would be happy with all of us upstairs."

“Kessler, Mr. Kessler,” he injected gently as the girl groped for the proper name.

He never much cared for being called mister as it made him feel old. In fact, it was one of the reasons he rather preferred his time at Oxford to Hogwarts thus far as he could have asked his students to call him Andrei. However, here at Hogwarts such a practice would be wholly inappropriate given the age difference.

“Well, Miss Mimosa,” Andrei’s face hardened slightly as it so often had when dealing with Helen’s unreasonable requests. “Unfortunately, that is three minutes too many. Rules are rules and we can’t go breaking them.”

Were Helen there at the moment she would have undoubtedly told the young Mimosa that any further begging would be in vain. Andrei, despite his generally easygoing nature, was a stickler for the rules especially when said rules were passed down by the people who signed his paychecks. After all, it would be more than a bit imprudent as a new hire to go thinking himself above the rules just yet.

“Instead, how about you fire up one of those gizmos,” Andrei waved his hand lazily in reference to a cell phone. “And get in touch with her that way?”

The wizarding world was always a bit behind the muggle world in technology, but the older wizard had noticed that cell phones seemed to be leaking into the domain of magic bit by bit. Personally, he found it fascinating as it was like watching history repeat itself as witches and wizards became more aware of the muggle world. He liked to think such integration was for the best, but, then again, who was he to say?

Her usual tactic of asking nicely wasn't working it would seem, leaving the child a bit confused and more than a bit disturbed. She had asked for something, and that something was very reasonable by her standards, so why wasn't the man - Mr. Kessler - agreeing to her demands? It was an odd feeling, no one had ever told Mimosa "no" in such certain terms before. He almost made it sound like there was no other option but to go back up without Elenore.

But that couldn't be right, the little witch thought, all the while trying to find a loophole in his conditions. She could have cried, but she didn't really feel like making a mess of her face. And if she screamed, no one would hear her in this long empty hallway. Plus she didn't want to get Mr. Kessler in trouble. The last time she had screamed at a grown man - her agent - he had almost been arrested.

An idea sparkled in her eyes in that instant, making her grin once more. "Are you a current student or staff here?" she asked, using his own words as closely as possible. "If so, can you go into the Huffng- Hufflepuff common room and get my Elenore? I can just wait here." To demonstrate her point, the child promptly dropped to the floor, crossing her legs neatly underneath the ample skirts of her pink dress. The little brunette saw no problem in Mr. Kessler going into the common room and bringing her Elenore out.

He seemed to have other ideas though, as he pointed to the cell phone peeking out of her hidden pocket, her change in position must have dislodged the shiny rectangular device. Luckily it hadn't fallen out. Mimosa merely shook her head at the suggestion though.

"I would but Elenore doesn't have a cell phone. Grandmere and Grandpere don't allow it at home, and she doesn't use it in school either. But if you can fetch her, I'm sure she'll be fine with it. She loves parties, and she likes hanging out with me too." All this was said from her position on the floor, siting cross legged beneath the painting of the giant fruit bowl. Soon her neck might hurt from looking up at him but it was a small price to pay to have Elenore at the party.

“I’m afraid my hands are tied,” the older man held up his hands as if to absolve himself of blame. “I can’t go running errands as I’m needed upstairs.”

Having raised both Nikolai and Helen the father of two knew children could often be unreasonable. It wouldn’t make much sense for him to go in search of a student he might very well not find when his place was supervising the party. No, unfortunately, try as the small girl might she would do little to sway the runes professor’s resolve. Then again, he did not much expect the young partygoer to understand responsibility. Hell, Andrei knew some adults who didn’t understand it.

“Now,” once again he motioned upstairs a bit more vigorously than before. “Shall we? With any luck, your friend will already be upstairs.”

It didn’t take a genius to follow Andrei’s logic. If Mimosa’s friend liked parties and attended Hogwarts then she’d have to be deaf, dumb, and blind to have missed the party now in full swing above their heads. Naturally, if there was even a hint of a student being in danger he would have been in the common room in a flash, but that was not the case and he did not much like to idea of playing messenger.

"But your hands are free," Mimosa pointed out petulantly even as he held them up in front of him. He was already telling her no to something that he could easily have said yes to, and now he was lying. Why did adults always make things harder than hey had to be? He really didn't understand how important it was for Elenore to attend the ball going on upstairs. If he did, he would stop being so difficult and help her.

"She isn't upstairs," the little witch insisted, not moving from her spot on the ground and shaking her head from side to side. For the first time, a true note of sadness was evident in her voice. "I checked... i looked everywhere for her." All the grown ups always liked pretending everything was okay but Mimosa was nine! She knew when something was wrong. And despite being both popular and important, Elenore Clement was nowhere to be seen. Even Jacques hadn't given her a real answer when she'd asked him where his sister was.

"If I'm not allowed to go find her, and you can't do that either, then I'll just wait for her here thanks," she suggested, folding her hands stubbornly across her front. She wasn't harming anyone just siting here, and sit here she would until she spotted Elenore, or someone who could get to Elenore on her behalf. Unless...

"Oh, is there a way to get a message to her?" she asked, the stubbornness from her features erased temporarily in favor of a new idea. "A note... I don't really like writing but since she doesn't have a phone, can i not write her a note and someone could take it to her?" There were so many people outside and upstairs, surely someone would be allowed into the common room, and they'd be all too happy to carry a small note, it wouldn't be heavy at all.

The older man had seen and heard it all before from both Helen and Nikolai. The evasions, the sharp change in reasoning, and even the vain appeals to the absurd—none of it was new to the experienced father. While he would concede that all children had something that made them unique he would also argue that there were many things that made them all alike. In a way, such a self-validated fact acted as a comfort to the aging professor and as a commentary on humanity as a whole.

"I'd imagine there probably is a way, but..." Andrei paused here considering his next words carefully before continuing. "...Is it possible that your friend does not want to go dancing?"

It had occurred to the professor from the onset that this might be the case because he himself had been much the same way during his time at Hogwarts. Though one couldn't have called him popular he had more than a few friends who would always push him to go to dances, sneak out, and generally cause mischief. However, he often took some time for himself despite the entreaties of his friends to do otherwise.

"In any event, I will once again suggest heading back to the party," he quickly changed the subject and actually began walking down the hallway himself. "Careful being down here by yourself though; I seem to recall some rabid cabbages having escaped from the kitchen earlier this evening."

Death by cabbage would surely be rather painful if such things existed.