Lament (Sebastian Sallow)

Chapter 22: Missed Me, Britain?

Penelope sighed at the leveled confidence of the man and rolled her eyes, "I didn't need an extra hand, Josh. I'm sure I can handle this."

"Can you?" Joshua stopped his pace and turned at her. The broad arms still crossed. "Isn't this like the longest case you've had, record-wise?"

Penelope stood in place, closing her eyes at the truth and whilst doing that, you can see Joshua Rogers fingers grasp over the documents that sat on the office table.

"And look at that, a student passed away — oh, not singular. Students passed away. Plural." Joshua read in a sarcastic surprise, reading about Penelope's searches.

Penelope's brows furrowed at the information Joshua gathered and as she turned, she snatched the papers from him and hid them away.

"Give me that!" Penelope scoffed at him and set the documents aside, "H-How long have you been inside the castle?"

"Enough to know that it's like a fucking maze out here," Joshua snickered, "How do you even do it? I got dizzy after the first floors." He complained, sitting on the office chair by the fireplace and still observing around.

Penelope sighed, watching how comfortable Joshua Rogers got in her own space, "I attended school here, Josh. Common sense."

Joshua played around with Penelope's quill collection, the feathers of the pen wiggling his nose as he kept peeking his eyes everywhere.

"Where's my little moon?"

"Her name is Luna," Penelope corrected at the pet mentioned, "She's in the Vivarium."

"The what?"

"Where are you staying, exactly? Or are you here for a fast trip?" Penelope hoped.

Joshua let go of the quills and shrugged, "Unsure. That headmaster....Weasel...."

"Weasley." Penelope corrected in annoyance, "Headmistress Weasley, Josh."

"Right, right," Joshua smiled, "Well, she gave me this enchanted map to guide me around this annoying maze, but it's still so complicated."

Always a complainer.

Penelope ignored his babbling for a second until Joshua mentioned one particular thing.

"...and then I saw this redhead walking around here nearby and I asked her about you. Considering she was the first adult I saw among these ant children,"

"Redhead?" Penelope reddened at the thought that it could have possibly been the only option she had in her head.

"Yeah, and she happily guided me here," Joshua said, oblivious.

Wanting to ignore any mention of Cecil Greeengrass herself, Penelope placed her hands over her hips and looked down at Joshua sitting in the chair.

"Let me see the map." She extended her arm.

Joshua eyed the woman up and down, the nostalgia of having Penelope Silverthorn boss him around at work in America making him miss the thrill.

"How demanding," Joshua flirted.

"Map." Penelope wiggled her hand to gesture the map.

Joshua Rogers used his wand to make an enchanted map appear in their view.

As Penelope's eyes scanned over the map, you could see Joshua Rogers wiggling his fingers over the wooden chair, not hiding the gaze he had on the face and the body.