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Had anyone else mentioned the name Woofer for their dog and Hazel would have pulled a face but somehow it was endearing that Gus had taken a whole month to come up with the absolute worst name for a pet. The story made her smile. “Well,” she said as she pulled out two bottles of beer and set one on the counter in front of Gus. “Next time you’re in need of a name, you come to me. Your furry friends will be in good company with Barkimedes and Clawdia,” she said in a cheery tone. “That’s the cat,” she explained with a playful wink. Pulling her wand out of a hidden pocket in her dress, Hazel uncapped the beer bottles with a gentle flourish of the wrist. “Cheers,” she said, raising her bottle towards his.

Hazel leaned against the kitchen counter facing Gus as Barkimedes seemed to have given up on trying to lap up the spilled beer that he clearly thought smelled like something more exciting. The friendly dog moved a few paces towards Hazel then plopped himself on the tiled floor at her feet. Hazel chuckled. She was looking at the dog but her mind was still stuck on Gus’ old pup. “Woofer,” she said with a laugh and a slight shake of her head. She couldn’t get the name out of her head. It wasn’t all that funny, but she’d had enough to drink that anything mildly amusing was going to stick around for a bit. Like Helley’s insinuations back at the pub, that was laughable. Helley could be insightful when she wanted to be, but she could also be crass and daring and saying that Hazel and Gus had anything but friendly feelings for each other was daring indeed. Sure, Gus was attractive, and funny. Smart. A genuinely nice bloke. Brilliant with children, and knew how to have a good time. Of course there was some level of attraction there, how could there not be? Gus took a sincere interest in things that were important to her and never failed to make her smile. He had such a nice smile, too. The way his eyes crinkled when he laughed and how his smile was always a little higher on one side. That cute little dimple in his chin. So caught up in rationalizing away Helley’s perfectly ridiculous point in her own head, Hazel didn’t realize she’d gone quiet. Taking notice of herself, she realized she’d been staring at Gus’ mouth and without thinking she leaned in and pressed her lips to his.

From the street corner, Hazel followed along the retaining wall until they reached the stone steps that led up to the front garden and eventually the front door. “Watch out for the hydrangea,” she said as the walked the steps up to the porch. “My father hasn’t had a chance to trim it back yet and it’s been getting a little clingy.” She smiled as she skirted out of the plant’s reach, a crawling hydrangea related the typically docile vine plant but with a penchant for grabbing the ankles of passersby and tripping them up. Pulling her keys from a pocket of her dress that was designed to be hidden, Hazel unlocked the front door and opened it carefully, avoiding the squeak that accompanied a fast-moving pull. The inside of the cottage was dark and Hazel flicked her wand toward the lamp that stood near a decorative trunk by the door, dropping her keys on the trunk and ushering Gus inside. She shut the door gently behind him.

The melodic tones of her father’s snoring drifted down the stairs and let Hazel know that her parents were in fact asleep. Snoring of this volume meant they would be harder to wake and thus Hazel and Gus wouldn’t need to act quite as much like teenagers sneaking around as she had originally felt, though there was still a thrill in the air about having brought Gus into her home. “Would you like a drink?” she asked, gesturing toward the kitchen off to one side of the entry way as noises came from the other direction. “Your coat sort of stole the last one,” she smiled but her eyes went wide and she was soon making a shushing noise as she moved toward Gus and then passed him. “Barkimedes, it’s just me. Be a good dog and keep quiet.”

A well-sized border collie had bounded out from the shadows of the living room, giving a warning snarl before recognizing his owner and beginning to pant happily. The large dog jumped on Hazel, putting its front paws up on her stomach and standing on his hind legs, reaching the height of a small adult as he attempted to lick Hazel in a friendly greeting. “Okay, okay. Get down.” Taking the dog’s front paws and pushing them away so that he stood with all four paws on the ground, Hazel laughed. “You’re too big for that, Bark.” Hazel gave the dog a good pat on the head and scratched behind his ears. Turning to face Gus and brush some loose dog hairs from the front of her dress, Hazel smiled. “He’s not as well trained as any of your animals, I’m sure, but we love him.” Gus could probably train a snail to do back-flips if he wanted to, Hazel thought. He was absolutely brilliant with animals, and the most Hazel had done was teach the dog to scratch the door when he needed to go out, and to shake paws when instructed. Total amateur skills. “How about that drink, then?” she asked as Barkimedes began sniffing Gus and his beer soaked jacket.

Lost in her own slightly inappropriate thoughts, Hazel missed whatever it was that had occurred to make Gus choke on his drink. Eyes widening with the sudden panic of momentary shock, Hazel set her glass down hurriedly, though what she expected to do with her free hands as Gus coughed was yet to be determined. “Are you alright?” she asked, the panic easing in her voice as the surprise of his coughing fit began to wear off, a hint of laughter tinging the edges of her words. Amber liquid spilled over the table and in a rush to avoid it spilling onto their laps. “Oh, Merlin!” she exclaimed, and Hazel turned to grab a few napkins from the now empty seat beside her. The remaining stragglers of their once boisterous staff meeting were far and few between, some heading out the door even as Hazel turned back to the spilled beer only to find Gus’ jacket laid on top of it. “What are you doing?!” she asked with a laugh, turning from the spill to Gus, a wide, open smile on her face. He had rendered her measly paper napkins unnecessary but now he was without a jacket and getting back up to the castle was going to be a chilly walk for sure. He gaze fell as she laughed and she caught sight of something that didn’t quite register at first. She looked again then upon realizing what she had seen, she quickly looked away. Pressing her lips together to keep from laughing, Hazel looked away from her friend, not wanting to embarrass him by pointing out the rather impress show he was putting on.

Bright eyes sparkled as Hazel smiled, watching Gus lick the foam from his upper lip and claim it to be delicious. He was such a goof sometimes. Just being in his presence made her in a better mood, as most of her friends’ presence could accomplish, not that she had been in a rubbish mood at any point today. The day had been rather delightful, as had her summer holiday. “Sophie and I went to visit her grandparents in Wales for a bit, before they all ran off on a trip to-” A familiar booing sounded from the seat next to her and Hazel’s eyebrows raised as she looked over at Helley, who was fitting right in with her first staff meeting. “You’re as bad as the students, Helley, honestly.” Hazel kept a good natured smile on her face as she shook her head. Wilhelmina had always been bold and unafraid to speak her mind or any little thought that popped into her head. She had little, if any, brain to mouth filter and Hazel generally thought she was absolutely hysterical. The pair had been friends for so long, Hazel couldn’t remember a time before Helley’s boisterous comments filling any eency bit of silence.

Hazel’s expression shifted quickly from joyful to horrified as Gus explained what hell he (and Stuggin) had just been through. She brought her hand up to her mouth, a barely audible gasp escaping. “Oh my gods, that’s horrible!” She knew Stuggin, he was a good lad but even if he wasn’t, no one deserved to be covered in literal shit. Adolescence was trying enough without being covered in poo in front of your classmates and potential girlfriends. “I do not envy your job in the slightest. Although I have had to send more than one student to the hospital wing after a misused engorgement charm.” Boys and girls alike would decide each year, without fail, to try to enhance some part of their anatomy with magic and their unskilled hands were never successful. It made for an embarrassing owl home to their parents but by this point she practically had the wording down pat. Still, Hazel was prepared to manage a thousand misused engorgio charm if it kept her from having to wash down a poo covered student. “Poor Stuggin,” she said softly to herself, shaking her head. “I’m sure Lenore was pleased as punch to hear about that.” Her tone clearly contradicted her words as she spoke of the Head of Hufflepuff House and having to find out one of her students was tracking dung into her common room.

Hazel was momentarily taken aback by Tristan’s misinterpretation of her words, but as he put two and two together she laughed. How could he have assumed she would be so cavalier about her father attempting suicide? But of course, he wasn’t cavalier at all, he’d been rather perplexed in those brief seconds before realization dawned on him. It hadn’t even been long enough for him to complete his sentence, but it was enough for Hazel to catch, and for her to feel the urge to laugh. She nearly always laughed if the urge arose.

Her parents were getting older, though not so old as most wizards were when they needed support from their children like the Peterses did. Her father had been injured in the war and while magic was able to heal much of the damage and he returned home to his family relatively safely, he was less able to get around the older he became. On several occasions he complained that “that Dumbledore chap is just showing off, running about at his age.” He harbored no ill-will towards Hazel’s employer, really, but when the subject of his mobility was brought up, he became the classic grumpy old man. It was a good thing, however, that no one really spoke of it all too often and Michael Peters was otherwise a lovely, caring wizard with a flare for the arts and a love for his family. Hazel and her brother Edmund were so lucky to have their parents.

Professor Dearborn commented on the niceness of being fussed over and Hazel couldn’t agree more. “It is, isn’t it? I’d like to think myself above most of this sort of thing but some days its just nice to be given something special.” She shook a few more shimmery hearts from her hair. “Maybe not this special,” she added with a laugh.

Gus was a charming fellow, and Hazel had taken a shine to him ever since he’d started at Hogwarts as the Care of Magical Creatures professor. He was kind, funny in a way, and very intelligent. She was saddened for him to hear of his marital troubles and while she couldn’t personally relate, she had often offered an ear should he ever need to chat about anything at all. Hazel knew Gus had a daughter, roughly the same age as her own daughter, but she’d not met the young witch as Gus’ girl went to Beauxbatons. Every year as the summer holidays approached, Hazel would inquire as to everyone’s plans and Gus’ had always been the same; going to France to visit his daughter. She admired him for all the effort he put in with his girl. Alvin had been very much the same and Hazel knew the pair had been quite close while they were in school. Alvin had even talked of Gus on a number of occasions early in their relationship, and he’d been invited to their wedding, but it hadn’t worked out for Gus to attend. Not really knowing him at the time, Hazel wasn’t so much concerned with the declined invitation, but Alvin was rather down about it.

Apparently, Professor Bones had had some sort of trouble in one of his lessons today, but it hadn’t been any of her House, so that was well enough. “Not since I last checked,” she grinned as he mentioned the troublemakers were in Slytherin and Hufflepuff. Sophie was in Hufflepuff, but Gus didn’t leave a long enough lull in the conversation to allow her mind to wander and begin to fret that her own daughter was acting out in some manner. He asked about her joining a staff meeting but she hadn’t heard anything of an upcoming meeting and again, before her mind could leap to unfounded conclusions, Gus was making clear his meaning. Merlin’s beard, he was simply adorable. His boyish mannerisms reminded Hazel of when they had been younger, as if they were sneaking out of their dormitories for a chat in an abandoned classroom instead of having a chat as professors in her office.

The staff meeting was really just a social gathering and a chance for the adults to get a few moments free from all the hormonal teenagers than ran rampant around the castle. “That sounds brilliant, yea. I’d love to tag along.” Gus mentioned Geralina asking Tristan to come along and the matchmaker in Hazel felt a giddy jump for joy. She thought the pair were absolutely adorable together and not knowing that they had a history, Hazel had slyly been trying to get them to spend more time together, talking the other up at meals or whenever she passed one of them in the corridors. In the evenings, when she returned home to her little cottage in Hogsmeade to care for her parents, she would often sit and discuss the day with her mum. On a number of occasions Hazel had noted to her mother that Geralina and Tristan would make gorgeous babies. “Any particular reason for our ‘staff meeting’? Are we celebrating something?” Had she forgotten a birthday? Hazel tried to stay on top of those sorts of things; she had a planner specifically for special dates and everyone who worked at the castle had their birthdate and employee anniversary listed. She was curious now if she’d missed someone or if there was a different reason for their get-together.