"Please after you." Dorcas grabbed the stack of papers from the piano and swung the door open to let Alastor go first and there were her flatmates, even closer to the door than they were before, scrambling to get up. Dorcas stood behind him, her head hung in defeat.
"Hello. All of you." He said nodding to the four of them in turn.
"Hello, sir!"
"Mr. Moody, a true honor."
"Thank you for visiting our home."
"Mr. Moody!"
He turned to Dorcas, again. "Please, remember what I said about Mason."
"Thank you, sir." He smiled a half-smile. He knew that if she called him Alastor, all of the people looking at him now with sparkling, gleaming eyes would collapse right there.
He turned to Heidi.
"These were very nice. Good luck with your bakery and thank you for the gifts."
"And you too, Mr. Moody. When the bakery is up and flying, you can order anything you'd like from the menu anytime for the rest of your life free of charge. I mean until the day you die. It could be ten years from now, twenty.
"Heidi." Brad said.
"A hundred years."
"Heidi." Brad repeated.
"Well, you know what I mean." The expression on her face was unsure if she believed that.
"I understand. Thank you. And you, Lydia is it, I heard you work at the ministry."
Lydia's eyes widened. She looked over his shoulder to Dorcas. Dorcas face remained unmoving and impassive.
"I do work at the ministry." she said looking back at Alastor. He held out his hand and shook hers. "I'm sure you do very important work."
Lydia said nothing. Alastor smiled.
"Well, I'm still just an apprentice but someday soon I hope to not be."
Dorcas had never seen Lydia this nervous about anything. She'd even started to smile in her giddiness.
"If you ever need any information I might have at the ministry, not saying that you don't have that same information or not that you don't know anyone else who can get you that information," she laughed nervously, "but, maybe, if you are in need of," and here her voice started to drop off "a specific type of parchment or a form request, I can help you. I can help you find the right one."
Lydia was as thorough as ever and as she was talking she had not realized she was shaking his hand still. She heard herself not offer the gift of a lifetime of free pastries but instead the opportunity to have someone tell him about forms. The smile started to fade from her face.
"Thank you, Lydia."
"Mh-hm." She said as she forced herself to smile again. She let go of his hand, turned on her heels and walked away.
Alastor for the upteenth time that day, dropped his head to conceal a smile.
"Hi, I'm Stan. Did you get the," he looked at Dorcas still in the doorway whose face had not changed throughout the entirety of this exchange and holding the stack of press clippings.
"I apologize, Stan, I'm not really one for autographs." Dorcas rolled her eyes as Stan wilted. "But, if you keep it to yourselves, please." Alastor pulled a sheet of parchment out from his dark green coat pocket and handed it to Stan who looked at the autograph and clutched it to his chest.
"Thank you so much." He said breathless. "Me and Brad," he pulled Brad up to himself, "we work for the Astronomer's Association of England and North Wales. We plot charts and the like. We don't have much to offer," Brad glanced at Stan, "but we are big fans of your work. Thank you for keeping all of us safe."
"Thank you both for your work." Brad nodded and tilted forward in a small, conspicuous half bow. Stan bowed outright. They shook hands.
"As a matter of security, if you could please keep my visit between yourselves." Stan nodded.
"Of course, I got this from a shop in Diagon Alley." He said.
"Good. And," he motioned, towards the kitchen, "could you also tel-"
"She won't say anything." They all said in perfect unison.
"Good. It was nice meeting all of you." He turned slightly to Dorcas as they all walked to the front door in an awkward, slightly immobile tangle. "I hope to work with you in the field one day soon, Miss Meadowes."
She smiled at him.
"Thank you again, sir."
Stan rushed for the door.
"That won't be necessary." Alastor waved. When the door shut behind him, he couldn't tell you exactly why but when he heard the squealing and cheering, he imagined that they had wrapped themselves around Dorcas and that she stood there, mock pretending that it bothered her but that she was smiling and enjoying the attention. He could not have told you why, even though he knew he had something to do with it, that he mostly didn't, and that they celebrated each other and her and her them and that this might have been any other day of the week and he could have been anyone else and that this, of all of the things that he had witnessed today made him happiest of all and certain that Dorcas was as good an auror as everyone said she was and as great as they said she would someday be.
