There's no way I'm qualified for this

"There needs to be some investigation!"

"My hands are tied. I was told there will be one, but-"

"Then why aren't you apart of it? I'm the last one to suggest corruption or conflicts of interest-"

"Now you're just outright lying-"

"But I almost lost my job for fixing it, and whoever caused it is off scott free-"

Ironically, Kenna McBain was a trapped Scott, having been enjoying a drink with Kip when Jack dropped into the seat next to her and somehow, within a few minutes, incited the dark-haired man into a heated argument. Stuck between them, Kenna bobbed and ducked as they talked over her and buried herself in the tea in front of her, wishing she had chosen a more relaxing drink - by which she meant gin, of course.

"Look," Jack said, hand flattening on the bartop. "It's almost time to send kids home again. No one would blame the Wizengamot for delving into the train fiasco. Come on. Give me something."

Kip let out a long sigh as Kenna plucked up a strand of hair and held it in front of nose, picking at the ends. "I can... perform an audit, of sorts. Into security plans for this year. And we'll be able to use the year before as a baseline. If I privately contract it out, have someone not on the Wizengamot look into it, they can present their findings in a meeting and it'll open it up-"

"So that some annoying member of the public can demand we look further," Jack said, catching on. She looked much happier now. "I can be that annoying member of the public!"

"Lucky for us, you already are," Kip grumbled. Jack glared at him as she pressed on, undeterred. "So... you can't do it?"

"No. And neither can you. Even though I can technically appoint anyone, it'll be better if it's someone who has some audit experience, or legal background."

"Like Kenna?"

Kenna, who had now been quietly wondering whether or not dogs thought in barks, suddenly jerked to attention.

"Wha-?"

"Sure, didn't you do paralegal type work in America?"

"Yeah but-"

"She counts, right Kip?"

Kenna was staring between them. "Uhhhhh..."

"I mean, she does-"

"Then okay, she can go do it."

"Jack, there are other people."

"Please, I know just how quickly the Ministry lawyers move. C'mon. Kenna was just saying she finally had a free weekend..."

And with her free weekend, Kenna found herself loading up her arms with files and heading off for the school. Kip had informed her that Keiran had agreed - though he hadn't told her any of the details, like whether or not Keiran knew it was her that would be conducting the 'interview.'

She was let through the gates by a young man who claimed to be the Caretaker. Though he offered to take her small box of files, she assured him she was fine and chatted with him about his job as he escorted her to the Headmaster's Office. The boy, Ducky, gave the password and Kenna stepped onto the staircase. At the top of the case, she used her elbow to knock on the door, readjusting her grip and hoping beyond hope that Keiran wasn't too irritated by this intrusion.

There was a problem with Kenna arriving in his office, and the problem was this:

The last time Keiran had seen her, they'd drunk more than expected, and he frankly wasn't certain that he remembered everything that had happened. Nothing outrageous, obviously. He knew that much. But what had he said? Too much, right? Probably.

So it was predictable, really, that the kids were running absolutely rampant around the office when she came through the wards, alerting him that someone was coming in. Bloody hell. Muttering a couple of cleaning charms, he started rounding them up and had just managed to get Darcie to stop squirming when Kenna walked in.

His expression went from embarrassed to just plain surprised. And, unfortunately for him, he couldn't hide it. He'd actually missed her, somehow, though he'd not known her an exceptionally long time. But she'd become a friend to some extent, and he didn't see enough of those anymore.

Without a word of explanation, Keiran sent off a patronus message. Then he shifted Darcie a little higher on his side and offered the most put-together smile he could manage. Because, truly, he'd been ruffled as all hell - and not quite in a good mood, either - before she'd arrived.

"Hi," he said, the word quieter than he'd meant it to be. Whatever this was, he didn't want to start it off on the wrong foot by letting his temper carry over and show itself. He'd already insulted a friend of hers, gotten more drunk than he should have, and now he had inadvertently let her see the crazy, unkempt side of his life.

And we all know Keiran desperately tried to appear put-together at all times.

"Come on in. Is there- Did you need something?" He hadn't received an owl or anything, but maybe someone had forgotten to pass on a message.

To make matters even more bizarre, the floo lit up so suddenly it made Kelly jump, the shock bringing tears to her eyes. But out stepped - unbelievably or not - Frank Longbottom with his best mate, Mai. The man blinked at Kenna, lifting an eyebrow, but then crouched down in front of Kelly, immediately bringing an equally surprised smile to her little cheeks.

"A couple hours?" Frank asked. Keiran nodded, but tilted his head in an almost-shrug. He hadn't a clue. Frank didn't mind so much, though. They were little hooligans like their parents - Darcie less than the twins, obviously - but that could be a bit fun in the end. So he took the twins' hands while Keiran handed Darcie off to a weirdly quiet Mai Tierney. Although he gave her an odd look, she still just offered a weak smile to both him and Kenna.

"Thank you," he told them, suddenly trusting Frank far more than the redhead at his side. But it was much safer for them to take the children that way than Frank trying to bring all three with him. So as they turned to collect themselves and head back out, Keiran moved his attention back on Kenna.

One eyebrow tried to lift of its own accord, but he caught it before it got too far. "Sorry. Like I was saying - Is everything alright?"

Was he in trouble with Kip or, Merlin forbid, the French bloke from the Christmas ball? That, to be quite plain, would not help with the discomfort that had him on edge. As it were, he felt about one word away from letting his frustration take over again.

Kenna felt a sick sinking feeling in her stomach at the look of surprise and confusion Keiran gave her when he answered the door - Merlin, Kip hadn't told him she was coming, had he? Surely, though, he knew what this was about?

Then why was he holding his daughter?

Kenna knew Keiran had kids, of course. It had come up, and a few times too. And the night they had gotten thoroughly and properly sloshed, having certainly earned it after the Zabini Christmas ball fiasco, he had made what seemed to be an allusion or two to their mother, though no true explanation had followed as to why he didn't wear a ring or why he had full custody. And she wasn't about to push either. Even if she knew him better and had less of an excuse to remain ignorant about the workings of his past relationships, Kenna wasn't the sort to push. She could wait.

But, somehow, Kenna was pretty sure that Keiran would have made arrangements for his children if he knew the exact reason she was visiting - a semi-investigation into his school's ability to provide safe travels while probing into the failure from the last year wasn't exactly a toddler-friendly situation.

"Hi," she said, her voice apologetic as he shifted the little girl in his arms. She turned her gaze onto the child and said in a chipper voice, "Good morning, dearie."

He finally confirmed what she had feared - he hadn't been expecting her. It was enough to make her want to assure him that they could reschedule, even if it made her the newest target of one Jack Dyllan. But the Floo was lighting up and she felt obligated to step inside, adjusting her grip on the small box, refusing to set it down until she was certain she wasn't completely imposing herself on him.

Frank, a man she knew as one of Kip's mates from his weird club thing, had joined them, but she remained out of the way as Keiran settled things.

Keiran's icy blue eyes fell on her again and she offered that grimacing look of apology. "I guess Kip didn't tell you. I-" The box slipped and she paused. "I'm going to set this down, if that's alright..." She bent down and set the box on the ground, straightening up and cracking her knuckles as she met his gaze again. "Kip was supposed to owl you, this is... his deal. The Wizengamot wanted to um... look into the safety precautions for the summer trip home. I've done some paralegal-type work before so I'm supposed to conduct an... interview of sorts," she explained. "Hence the box full of boring forms."

"No, he-- Yeah, of course. Go ahead."

Keiran couldn't help but feel that he was constantly a step behind Kenna no matter the circumstances. Or maybe he'd just tripped again. He had a habit of actually being relatively clever and prepared as far as other people were concerned. But, if he were being honest, that was undoubtedly because he knew so many people but only spent time with the ones he knew quite well. Millie had been the only exception to that, but he'd made quick work of remedying that problem.

But Kenna was curious. She could be funny or, apparently, quite nervous compared to her previously confident nature. He wasn't sure what to make of her, which was frustrating because he always preferred to be the complicated one. The one who changed often enough that nobody could presume to know every part of him.

His interest quickly turned to surprise and defense as she explained her presence there. Brilliant. A sudden, sharp feeling of frustration caused him to close off his expression. Just when he'd thought he might have- No. Evidently not. That was bloody well good to know before he'd decided they were friends properly.

"Fair enough," he determined, nodding vaguely towards the box. "I did think I'd made myself rather clear as to my intentions, given the start of the year. But if it needs to be done, I obviously won't object or make a fuss."

Turning, he moved around to his chair, pulling over an extra for her on the way over so she could sit across the desk from him. "Spread them out, if you think it'll help," he offered, tone cool despite his best attempts at being polite. "Where do you need me to start?"

Kenna could read people.

Kenna had a lot of weaknesses. She could get horribly distracted, and she had a tendency to develop tunnel vision. She sometimes lacked perspective and she became prey to her own emotions. But for all her vices, she knew that she could, at the least, read people. It was why she was one of the few people who Kip Parsons would call a true friend, who could prod him past his pensieve reservations into admitting weakness. It was why she had so many regulars who felt almost compelled to visit once something new happened in their lives. People sensed that Kenna noticed the tiny transformations within them and would not shy from investigating.

For all she lacked, Kenna McBain made up for it with her ability to read people, and Keiran Hayes was no exception. She might not have known him very long but perhaps that was what made her weirdly more equipped to notice the shift in his expression. She wasn't so willing to accept that his descent into moodiness was inevitable or unshakeable.  

"I don't think it has anything to do with actually doubting you," Kenna explained, bending down to begin shuffling through her box. Irritated by the sheer amount of files, she sighed and hefted the box again, sitting in the offered chair and then balancing the box on her knee.

He spoke again and she tilted her head, looking up at him with an arched eyebrow, blinking once as she let his tone process. Her hands stopped moving and flattened on the edges of the box as she straightened up. "We can do this later, if you'd like."

If they weren't friends, it was obviously expected that he would be his serious, business-first self. Theoretically, it wasn't his normal self. But what did Kenna know, anyway? Not much if she had agreed to this. But then she acted like he had made more of a fuss than he'd meant to, so he softened a bit.

"I didn't mean it like that," he said, trying to suppress his sigh. It only partly worked. "I know the public needs this to happen."

The last thing he needed, after all, was for another wave of parents to come asking him whether or not their children would be swept off by a madwoman and her accomplices. He had neither the patience nor the temperament for it. That didn't, of course, make his ability to deal with this situation any better, either.

Kenna didn't follow him as he'd expected, so when he turned around in time to catch her offer, he just frowned. Halfway into his seat, he stopped and then pushed himself back up.

"Sorry?" he began, eyes narrowing more in confusion than in anger (though that was there, too). "I just sent my children away to make time for this."

Keiran had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from saying what he wanted to. That they didn't see enough of their mother and it wasn't like he was particularly free, either. That if she left, all he'd done was waste the time of a good four or five people, himself included.

An eyebrow lifted as the irony set in. "Have I offended you in some way?"

Kenna had brought a sense of hesitation with her only because she wasn't sure that her reason for being there would be viewed as anything kinder than a slight or invasion. She hoped that they had gotten on well enough for Keiran to give her the benefit of the doubt but she knew that it wasn't a pleasant task and it didn't help that the last time they had hung out had been a bit of a mess - not the sort of thing to inspire 100% confidence in the sentiment of the other person. She might have seemed a little unwilling to come, but it was only because of the nature of the errand.

In truth, she was glad to get a chance to spend some time with the Headmaster again. He struck her as someone who needed the company, and she was always dedicated to the cause of being that company where it was needed. But even beyond that, she did enjoy the time she spent with him. She liked that he sometimes didn't catch that she was teasing and answered her in all seriousness, and it was a treat when he did figure out her tone and teased right on back. It was more than obvious that he was wickedly intelligent, as well, and she had a tendency to flock to those brighter than her so she could soak in all they knew and try to weasel her perspective into their own. And she had seen in his eyes just how important his job was to him, and remembered thinking (however drunkenly) that it must be an absolute treat to see him in his element.

But not like this. Not when it seemed she was subtly challenging his place as Headmaster, even though that was no one's intention.

"Well, I dunno," she said, honest as always. "Just that you seem a little put off. Honestly, I'm not here to make your life difficult. I'd much rather be sneaking you in some whiskey than lugging in these forms, as I'm sure you'd rather be with your kiddos." Here she faltered and softened because, "And I mean, I'm really sorry. I don't know what happened with the owl, you should have known, I feel really bad you sent them off. That's part of why- I'm just saying, we can reschedule so it's less inconvenient, is all."

Palms flat on the top of his desk, Keiran tried to figure out what had happened. Kenna, his almost-drinking-buddy, dance partner and a witty contemporary - she was different, here. Or perhaps just different now. Keiran didn't really understand when the change had set in for either of them, though he could readily accept that he had caused this altercation. So he looked down and took a couple steadying breaths as she replied.

This wasn't her fault, the feeling churning in his stomach. It was just hard to trust people after Millie and people like her. It wasn't that he didn't still respect Melissa or that he hadn't loved her. He would always love that Gryffindor he met all those years ago, but it wasn't the same anymore. Clearly, since she was more or less out of his life now. Not to mention what he'd heard from Theo and others. Predictably, it had cut him more deeply than he was willing to admit.

So, no. It wasn't Kenna's fault. It was his own. But he'd never been very good at admitting things like that.

When he looked up again, it was more with his eyes than with his chin. "I know it isn't your fault, Kenna." He shook his head, then straightened up properly. A hand drifted across the side of his face.

"This," he gestured towards himself, "... it's just -- I've always been like this. Don't worry about it." Keiran gestured towards the chair across from him. "Since you're here and my afternoon's been cleared, we may as well. So, genuinely, .. where do we need to start?"

Keiran was Headmaster of arguably the best school in the wizarding world, a single father, and an excellent mind. She was a bar mistress who had lived with a law student. There was no comparison between them, no true equal ground, not if someone were to coldly measure their merits and values to a civil society. And really, Keiran was the sort that probably could have (maybe should have) been able to clearly see that. He was well connected in blood and occupation, had held very important offices, was highly and widely respected. She was a nobody intruding on his life and throwing all of those qualities into question - and she wasn't even qualified to do so.

But that wasn't at all how he treated her. Though he did seem somehow pained at her presence, she immediately sensed those negative emotions that had needled at her turn inward on himself and she could not understand why.

He tilted his head, his light eyes penetrating past his dark features, somehow hard and vulnerable all at once and Kenna felt a small rush of affection for him. It was hardly a disagreement and yet his words and tone held an almost condemnation for his part in it - and she was the intruder here. She returned his gaze, that small swell of affection not quite subsidizing, and reminded herself of the advice Kip had given her time and time again - you can't just hug people, Kenna.

Her lips pursed, dipped, and then quirked, before she said, "Don't tell me what I can and can't worry about," a tease in her voice to hopefully convey that there was nothing to forgive but that she was on his side and would worry about him if she wanted to.

She settled into the chair and took in a deep breath. "I'll try to make this as painless as possible. I just have to ask some questions, tick some boxes, blah, blah, blah. As you can see, they picked the best mind for the job," she added sardonically, rolling her eyes at herself as she spread out some forms in front of her. "Where's the- oh, mother of Merlin, hang on." She fished her quill out of the box as she squinted at one of the forms, the type so small that she could hardly make it out. She was, of course, prepared, and pulled out the glasses that rarely appeared on her face, and quickly shoved them up the bridge of her nose before settling her hands on the paper. "Right. First thing's first - a general description of the plans to transport students home for this upcoming summer." She tilted her head to look up at him, the glasses already slipping down her nose, quill poised over the form, a bit comical in her sudden attempt at seriousness.

It took a second for him to realize she was sort of kidding, but then one corner of his mouth quirked upwards and he closed his eyes for a moment as he realized what a mess he'd made this into. But she sat down so he settled into his own chair, crossing an ankle over the opposite knee. As she started digging around, Keiran dropped his elbow onto the arm of the chair and his chin against the back of his curled fingers.

Keiran, perhaps unsurprisingly, did not find the change to be funny. Instead, he had a strange, almost out-of-body moment, where he blinked and found himself almost taken aback by this different version of Kenna.

See, there had always been something weirdly charming about the Millie of those early months. It was a large part of why he'd let himself - and, in part, convinced himself to - fall for her. But he had always wished for more. For her. Millie had always been quite clever, though she never used that mind the way she could've. He had no doubt that she was capable but he'd never seen her determined to do so.

The difference, he realized, between Millie and this new acquaintance of his, was that Kenna not only understood him much easier without having to be taught, but she also had to have some ambition in her if this other side existed. She ran a pub, had done legal work and was a friend to someone like Kip.

Granted, so was Keiran. But he'd done naught but obsess over his future and ruin his home life. She'd clearly managed to make something of herself without all of that trouble. His gaze darted down to the hand holding her quill, but he let it continue down to the desk in hopes that she wouldn't notice. Wouldn't notice, that is, that he had never noticed. Had assumed. Which was stupid, considering Christmas, when she hadn't explained away her lack of a date with some reasoning that her significant other was busy.

She'd done everything, by his new assumption, on her own. And that was, frankly, all the more impressive. Millie had been too young, too immature because of her background, to ever face something like that. He didn't know if she'd changed, now, but he hoped she had. If only so that she could prepare herself to come back into the children's lives like she'd wanted to.

He tilted his head, as though he'd been trying to determine where to start. Really, he'd been tampering down the odd series of raised questions brought on by those otherwise innocent glasses.

"In the fall," Keiran began finally, "we had a variety of ways for students to arrive. They apparated, some of them, with parents into Hogsmeade and took the carriages in. I think a great deal of first years did that. Some apparated in with professors. I brought in a few myself, at the request of the parents. But the Ministry also set up a number of floo routes and the Minister himself saw them off. None of those seemed to cause any trouble, so unless there are any qualms with those, I'd planned to just reverse each one to get them back home."