Eskin's Office, Open :: Office :: Hours :: MWF

[Theodore Eskin]

A sign on the doorway to Eskin's office reads:

Professor T. K. Eskin, Linguist.

You can hear a man pacing around inside, and a crackling fire.

[Zane Bryant]

Zane had left the Ministry to deliver a few books to some professor at Hogwarts. Once he left, he apparated just outside of Hogwarts, remembering that there was a spell that protected unwanted apparators from entering Hogwarts. Sometimes, he thought it was kind of a problem for some, but he knew there were perfectly good reasons as to why it was done.

He entered the grounds and walked through the entrance. Zane knew that nothing would be said to him since he was part of the Ministry. People at Hogwarts trusted anyone from the Ministry. At least, most of the time they did. Trust was a hard thing to grasp for some people, and so he knew exactly how some felt when they didn't trust anyone, no matter where they were working.

Zane had to stop and ask a passing student where this Eskin's office was. As he memorized the directions, he marched his way to the office and was glad that he didn't get lost. It had been years since he last roamed the corridors inside Hogwarts, but that memory of being a student was never really gone.

He knocked on the door a couple of times, wondering if anyone was in there. Zane didn't want to interrupt anything, and he definitely didn't want to look like a goober standing in the middle of an empty office, not knowing when the guy was going to return. The books that were being held by his arm, that way he had room for his other hand to knock, were starting to feel a little heavy. So, he situated them into his other arm, leaving the now weakened arm free.

[Theodore Eskin]

The door cracked open. A wave of heat rushed out. The room was obviously much warmer than the outside.

A man of somewhat indeterminate age was in the doorjam.

"What do you want - ah." Theodore Eskin noticed the small pile of books and the quizzical look. He pushed his pince-nex up his nose and looked at the books more closely.

Something blacked out in eskin's glasses and he took them off for a moment, rubbing them, before replacing them on the bridge of his nose.

"Briar, no doubt. You'd better come in." Eskin closed the door after Zane entered.

Inside the room, there was a massive emerald and black flame burning in the center of a cleared space. A series of concentric rings held it in place, and at the center was a large pile of books.

"It's starting to get out of hand."

Strange light was leaving the pile at the center and was repulsed back by the wall of flame. Something was roaring, as though from a distance, directly under the pile.

The rest of the room looked scattered. A salamander was perched on top of another ring on a desk some meters away, spitting blue flame in distress.

The black flame was spilling out of the pile, discoloring the green. Eskin walked over, taking the books Bryant was holding and threw them in.

Another wave of heat shook the room.

"I don't think I can contain it like this for another week. Last night, the spell went completely out of hand. I drew up a ward, but... I'm afraid we're going to have to suppress this completely before I can finish drawing it out."

To the right, and trailing around the series of circles was a small chain of magical lettering. It led to a glass pyramid, surrounded by an even denser series of circles.

Eskin pointed his wand at the flame and it grew a brighter shade of green. Runes flickered around the circle, and a few went out. The fire started... struggling against the circle, and Eskin hurried to redraw it.

"Toss me that bottle of ink by the desk, will you?!"

[Zane Bryant]

Zane watched as the door opened slightly and he saw a man peek through a crack. Before he could answer, the man opened the door all the way and watched as he took a closer look at the books Zane was currently holding. Zane nodded when the guy mentioned Briar. He walked into the office and listened to the door close behind him. The room was very... Flammable, in his opinion. Though, he honestly didn't know if all the flames were true flames. He noted the salamander off in the distance from where he was and made a note to stay away from it. It seemed a little aggitated. At least, that's the vibe he was getting from it.

"Uhh... What's starting to get out of hand?" Zane asked, curiously. If Briar just put him in the middle of something, believe him, he was definitely going to hear a peice of his mind. Unless, well, unless Zane was going to get some fun out of it. Though, he kind of doubted he'd get fun. Oh well, shit happens, right?

He watched as the books were thrown into the flame and felt the rush of heat on his skin. The room was definitely getting too hot for him. Since this wasn't his office, he wasn't about to ask if a window could be opened. The wind was cool outside and he'd rather be there than here.

Instead of questioning the man anymore, he looked around and noticed that this guy really was into this Runes shit. He heard the man ask him to toss him the ink near the desk and Zane sighed. Now, he was going to be everyone's bitch, huh? Not that he'd voice that outloud or anything. He didn't know how these guys can be. Being thirty-two and doing things for others, well, that didn't always go down too well with him, but at least he was smart enough to keep his mouth shut to keep his head on his body. Zane walked over to the desk, grabbed the ink, and threw it to Eskin.

[Theodore Eskin]

Eskin hurriedly extracted deep red ink with his wand, and, waving it, it turned white. Forming letters quickly, the ink attached itself to the circle before turning completely black.

"That'll do for now. Only problem is all this excess heat..."

Aguamenti servatum.

A line of water arranged itself around the circle of fire, and Eskin looked back over his shoulder at Bryant.

"You don't mind helping me here? I need a few more walls. The burnoff energy from this spell dissolution is terrific. It was hard enough transfiguring it into fire." Eskin's voice was real edgy. "Quick, it could blow out the office and half the floor. A lot of valuable stuff is in here, and this crap could have an adverse effect."

It was then that the fire could be heard speaking.

CHAPTER 27: ON CONFIRMING GERUNDS AND NOMINATIVES

Being the first ... one's ability in reading old Norse is dependent upon recognizing certain distinctions between... lingual perimeters that provided much more specific pluralities did not exist prior to the sailing of ...

THE TALE OF BALTHUS AND THE ... VERMIN LORDS OF ...

Voices from the books began to chorus into shouts. A high whine seemed to coalesce from the interior parts of the circle until...

SHOOMMFFFFFF.

The books started bursting into burning scraps.

BACCHANALIA: A STUDY OF RITUAL INTOXICANTS AND OTHER SORDID STORIES ... BY THEODORE ESKIN

"Knew that book would come back to haunt me..." Eskin muttered. He took a quick look at the pyramid, which was forming some kind of mass inside of it.


Author's Note: The contents herein are distinguished by the help of a Miss ... who was so kind as to ... which enriched both my time and this text with her...

"It's breaking down!" Eskin shouted. Better cut it off while he could. That could get embarrassing. Half-written piece of junk. Of course that one made it to the pile.

Luckily he'd set up barriers on the door. Didn't want this one leaking out. Flame and... otherwise.

He increased the flow of water and subsequently waved his wand at the chain linking the pyramid to the pile, which lit up brilliantly at his motion. Light was accelerating from the center of the burn down the line of written runes to the circle surrounding the pyramid. The pile itself had become an amorphous shifting mound of books and the flames coming off them now had a vile scent.

"Could use a damn barrier specialist... What's your name anyway, and how did you come into contact with Briar?"

[Zane Bryant]

Zane watched the man do whatever the hell it was he was doing. So, yeah, he had been in the Ministry for years and has never seen shit like this happen. When he was pretty much asked to help, Zane pulled out his wand and began mimicking what Eskin was doing. As soon as he began hearing voices, his heart skipped a beat. Were those the books? What the hell is going on here?! How the hell did he end up in the middle of this shit? He sighed to himself, not knowing what to say or do at this exact moment. He honestly wanted the hell out of there.

The man kept speaking, but it didn't seem like it was totally directed at him. Well, until he asked how he came into contact with Briar. Yes, Briar, this was all his fault. Instead of answering right away, Zane watched the books and each movement they made. Seriously, this was something he was sure would only happen inside a place where it'd be safe to do. Why was this guy doing it here? In Hogwarts? He's literally putting all the students at risk. Then that made him wonder how many other professors have done things like this. Were there any who risked lives back when he was going to school? Probably.

"I'm Zane Bryant... I work at the Ministry with Briar..." he began. "I just have no idea how the hell I got mixed up in this." Zane added.

((ooc: omg, sooo sorry it's short but I didn't know exactly when you wanted the whole voice thing to happen and stuff. PM on Bryant if you want me to change things, because I soo can. I just need a bit more direction -.-))

[Theodore Eskin]

((no, that's totally fine. I think Eskin will just go on a minirant about his stupid office and stupid library and probably explain things. save the weird lines for later, when you feel like it's appropriate.))

"Well, seeing as you're here, I've been working on a translation for Briar, except - watch out for the microburst - the translation decided that - yowch - it didn't really like me." Eskin lit up a line of runes and the green fire turned golden amber. "It's infected half my library and I ensorcelled my glasses to figure out where the translation is... currently we have the whole set inside that circle..." He trailed off.

"Except for the books you just brought in."

Eskin frowned and made several extremely tight motions with his wand. More ink spilled out and concentrated itself into runes around the pyramid.

((Zane might recognize a few runes, if he does, several of which look disturbingly like the kinds you see when researching the Reverse Spell Effect.))

"That should keep it from corroding so fast. See, I've made it so that certain complex factors inside the spell are observable - hence the corroding nature evident here in the black flame, however..." He was going into lecture again. "...I can't figure out how the translation jumped from book to book. There's something it's keying into, and hopefully... we'll figure out how..."

The rumbling in the pile was getting louder.

The black flames started withdrawing away from the edges of the circle into the very center of the mound... and started turning white.

"Uh oh..." Eskin muttered.

[Zane Bryant]

"Of course it didn't like you. You angered it." Zane sighed. Watching Eskin move about, making the fire turn a golden amber color. Zane couldn't deny that he was interested in what was going on, because he truly was interested in all of this. The only thing he could deny is the fact he knew exactly what was going on. "So, the books Briar asked me to deliver to you were supposed to help in this translation process?" he asked. "Makes sense as to why he made the whole delivery a secret." he added.

Zane saw Eskin move his wand some more and watched the ink spill out and around the pyramid of books. He noticed they took the form of runes, something he never really got into back when he took the class at Hogwarts. It was all alien-looking to him and so he didn't focus on them long enough. Eskin began speaking again and he listened.

"Uh-oh? What do you mean by uh-oh?" Zane asked curiously. That was never a good sign and this meant that Zane might need to take extra precautions while being there in the room.

Zane began stepping away from the pile, hoping it would burst and hit him. That would be the end of his good looks, now wouldn't it? Something he wouldn't let happen. Ever. He heard more noises coming from the pile, sounds that books should never make, hell, books shouldn't make sounds at all! Maybe it was just the fire. He hoped it was.

After a moment, he watched the flame turn white, something he knew was never good. 'White hot' was the saying that crept into his mind. If this was white, it must be getting really really hot and soon... The explosion interrupted his thoughts, throwing him back a little. But that's not the weird part. The weird part came right after.

denique... exercitus... WE ARE THE FINAL ARMY. Zane didn't understand what the voice was saying until the very end. This put Zane into a mini-panic, making him point his wand at the flames where the explosion happened. 'Incendia Tutela' Zane thought, not knowing if it was the best thing to do at that moment, but it was the first thing that came to mind. He just hoped this Eskin character would be able to do better, to keep things from flying out of hand. Not that he was dependent on the guy, it's just, he didn't know exactly what he was dealing with.

[Theodore Eskin]

"No. The books had more of the translation in them." Eskin's mind was ticking now. What did that mean? Was it outside Hogwarts or was it being brought in? What was Briar trying to tell him? Eskin would sigh, but he was concentrating on the breaking of the spell.

The glass pyramid gave off another brilliant surge.

The fire went white at the center.

Everything was silent.

Shit.

Eskin whirled and threw his wand around in a circle covering him and Bryant, and yelled, "PROTEGO EXULTEM!!"

A wild chain of brilliant blue surrounded the pair, cocooning them before it shackled itself to the floor.

The flame blew out in a column of black and white flame that reached the ceiling. Runes were torn off from the circle and flew against the wall, printing themselves on objects. The light shockwaved out the window. Eskin's door shuddered as though under tremendous strain.

The chain shattered, but it seemed as though both of them had survived the explosion.

denique....

exercitus...

Zane's fire sending was sucked into the center of the pile and illuminated a woman obscured in white robes for a moment before the image faded.

Eskin's pyramid was burning red, the runes ripped from the circle, but was otherwise intact. The rest of his office seemed to have become a transfiguration catastrophe. His desk had turned into a flamingo.

"What a mess. Damnation." Eskin muttered. He hadn't seen that coming.

[Zane Bryant]

i am what you made me

As soon as the words Protego Exultem came out of Eskin's mouth, he knew that it was now safe to not be pretty much scared shitless. Wasn't his fault. It was Briar's. He was definitely going to have words with him the next time he saw him. This was something you're suppose to warn a person about. Maybe he didn't expect this Eskin guy to have him help out. Whatever, it just wasn't right.

As he watched the flames from his wand be sucked into the other set of flames, he was shocked at what he saw. A woman in white. How mysterious. What did she have to do with all of this? Better yet, who the hell was she? Though this had caught him off guard, he was starting to wonder if there was anything that Eskin failed to mention to him. There probably was. He's heard of this guy before. He's worked for the Ministry, and the Ministry was full of secrets. This was definitely something that Zane knew all about. He had his whole life to practice, which was one of the things that made him the perfect candidate for working there.

"A mess it is. Good thing we've got magic, otherwise, you'd have a long night in cleaning this all up." he said, looking around at the final product of what had just happened. "That... That woman.. Did you see her?" he asked. Zane wanted to make sure he wasn't going crazy.

Total Blankness is all I have to put here. <3 (But I am sooo sorry it took so long for me to reply!!!)
made by lisha of rcr

[Theodore Eskin]

Eskin stepped gingerly around the room, avoiding the pool of molten... chair... and examining the flamingo closely. Hmm. It was bright green. He would have to do something about that later.

"Yes... quite the mess... what's that? The woman? I saw something in white, but I was more concerned with my pyramid overflowing."

Eskin was keeping a vaguely shaken, yet still even voice. Bryant had seen someone. That meant there was in fact a culprit, a person responsible. This might not be a trap leftover from a war or a little hours-douvre from some dark wizard. That script hadn't been seen in centuries, ages. Showing up now? It belonged in a museum, not a bookstore. Eskin's mind sifted further.
The person who made that thing could easily be connected somehow with students' textbooks. That voice that came out... sounded much more like a proclamation than anything. An attack on Hogwarts hadn't been heard of in decades, almost a century. This could get extremely complicated, legally and personally.

First, he was going to have to look through a few books to confirm it wasn't a leftover.

Regardless...

The pyramid was glowing a deep dark red. Eskin could tell there was some tremendously dark magic involved in that script. He shivered for a moment.

"Looks like it's intact. That was pretty close, if I say so myself."

Neither was this something he was going to handle on his own, dammit. Briar was involved already, and gotten another person from the Mysteries smack in the middle of it too. Eskin was ticking now, his mind sifting through all the facts, arriving at his answer.

He was positive something malicious was going on. Briar was probably in over his head chasing something. Whatever it was, this wasn't something he would leave to the Wizengamot, Briar, or the majority of the ministry. He wasn't even sure he could report this. Something like this didn't get inside the country, let alone Hogwarts without very good connections. This required a much more delicate touch and perhaps even a few behind the scenes checks.

He was going to have to roll out a few old contacts.

"You alright there Bryant?"

[Zane Bryant]

and you made me a monster

"Alright. Well, at least I wasn't the only one who saw it. Whatever it truly was." Zane said looking back at the pyramid. He replaced his wand back into his pocket and took another look around the room. That blast sure did do a number on the room. He was glad that it wasn't his stuff that just got ruined. But, as he pointed out before, magic would clean this mess right up.

"Pretty close? How about a little too close for comfort?" he said, not able to keep this outburst to himself. "I don't know what is going on, but I'm pretty sure we could have gotten killed just then. Or worse... Horribly disfigured." Yeah, that definitely explained Zane's priorities in life. OK, well, he had better priorities than that, but if he doesn't have to worry about the more important things, this is what comes out to be top. "Aren't you in the least bit worried about student's safety? Are you mad for doing this here at Hogwarts? What if it had actually been stronger?" Zane wished he could have stopped talking, but these questions wouldn't stay hidden.

"I'm fine. I just don't think I'd be able to handle another one of those tonight." he answered. "Are you alright?" only logical to return the question, right? Zane was kind of trying to make up for his little outburst, but honestly, he did want those questions answered as well.

"What do you plan on doing now? Or what do you plan on having me do? You gonna have me go back to Briar and let him know what all had happened or something? Because, honestly, I don't know if I'll be able to keep up with being a messenger boy. I'll do it for a little bit, but once I hit my limit, I'm done." Zane said. He caught his breath, because apparently he had been speaking a bit rapidly without really realizing it. He figured now was the perfect time to shut the fuck up and just listen to whatever Eskin had to say.

Zane definitely was having a problem with being in the same room as the pyramid of books. Anything like that was bad news, and he stayed away from bad news. It was bad enough there were weekly explosions in the secret room he worked at in the Ministry. Though, those were more controllable since they were something that they knew they could deal with. This, this was secret stuff, stuff that someone rigged to do whatever the fuck they wanted it to. Something so dangerous that even he didn't want to fuck with it anymore. Not that he chose to do so in the first place.

Total Blankness is all I have to put here. <3
made by lisha of rcr

[Theodore Eskin]

Eskin raised an eyebrow at Bryant's tirade. Not as cool a head as he initially put forward. He would have to choose his words carefully.

"Doing this at Hogwarts? Can you imagine if this was done out in the public? With people standing by? No, here there is less scrutiny, a good deal more protections afforded by the castle, and if you've been paying attention Bryant... this isn't something we want out in the public."

He leveled a gaze.

"Now I understand you feel completely shaken, and believe me, this isn't something I see everyday either, however... given those circumstances it would be wise not to get too worked up about this."

He nodded a look around at the transfiguration catastrophe that had unfolded in the office.

"Seems like there are quite the consequences if one does, don't you think?"

Eskin pursed his lips.

"Unfortunately I'm not asking you to go back to Briar. Quite the opposite. I am going to ask you to mention this to NOBODY AND NO-ONE. The information we do have is less substantial than one might be capable of reporting without severe repercussions to one's... continued performance. I think you understand what that means."

A smile was forming in his face, and he had to suppress it. Oh, this was getting to be like the old days.

"One could be persuaded, however, that there is literature that exists in the Department of Mysteries, volumes of information thought lost to history that would be most invaluable to the discerning individual. Routine research of course, of no consequence and certainly not pertaining to Dark magic thought lost during the Chaldean civilization, wars centered in the Euphrates river valley, or perhaps even... post-Pharonic Egyptian tomb curses. Just some inter-departmental cooperation, that sort of thing."

His tone dropped again into something much more serious.

"Bryant, as of this moment, you're the only man to be trusted to find some very necessary answers. Right here, in this room, everything that passed is between you and me. If you can trust me for that, I hope I can trust you to get some more information. Discretion is absolutely vital."

Eskins dusted off his robe, and went to check his salamander.

"I know it's a lot to ask, but you and I are the only ones aware of this... and containment of information is the best course of action at the present moment. People shouldn't be notified until we have a clearer picture of who or what we're dealing with."

"And most of all... a better way to handle such a situation. I can't go blowing up my office again. It'll make grading papers rather difficult."

He stared at the smoking pile. resting behind the desk.

"I suppose I'll have to curve them," he muttered.

[Zane Bryant]

A Monster Who Defies All

Oy. Zane must be much more clearer when he gives off his little rants. "I didn't mean do it in public. It's not like I suggested doing it in the middle of a park or anything. What I meant is that maybe find a more secluded place. Like maybe... I don't know, a cottage made just for experiments or something. By the way, never ever take things I say the wrong way." Zane sighed.

Now Zane was seriously wrapped up in this. He couldn't tell a damned soul, which wasn't Eskin's exact words, but it's pretty much what he was saying. "OK, I won't go back to Briar and I won't tell anyone else. Just as long as you don't get me mixed up in too much dangerous shit. I didn't join the Department of Mysteries to put my life on the line all the time. No." he said.

Zane looked at the smoking pile of papers and nearly laughed. There had been times where he had wished something like that had happened during his times at Hogwarts, but of course, he just had to be part of it after graduation. Just his luck, he supposed. "Maybe you could give them all an 'O' and tell them that you were feeling generous and that it's a one time thing." he said. "But, you're the professor, so it's obviously your choice." Zane shrugged.

"Anyway, this whole thing has to be kept between us. Got it. My only problem is figuring out what you want or need me to do now. I don't know how helpful I'll be. I'm not experienced in things like this. I only research things, not go blowing up everything because of... What were you trying to do again?" he asked. Zane had been so worried about his life, that almost everything that had happened left his mind.

Total Blankness is all I have to put here. <3
made by lisha of rcr

[Theodore Eskin]

Eskin knew he had to slow down. But it had been a while since he'd had to deal with things like this, and it was giving him a heady feeling. He made an effort to suppress it. That too, was old times though. He momentarily imagined being berated by Valentine.

Looks like some things never change. I think I'm the older man though now...

"You're a smart man Bryant, you know when not to bite off more than you can chew." Eskin ticked through a few things in his head. Hmmm..

"I want you to go back to the ministry, saying nothing about what has occurred - acting normal - and look up a few things for me. Here." Eskin scuffled in his robes, and drew out a little piece of parchment. Quill. Ink. Done.

((mostly just the above stuff, but other things will become apparent when zane hits the ministry. Also, prep James for battle.))

"I know this is a lot to ask, but if you could get this, I doubt we'd have to repeat today's incident, and you'll be home free." Eskin said, hinting of an apology in his voice.

"If you do encounter Briar, just tell him you dropped the books off at my desk and I was busy reading."