She was lost in the runes, submerged in silence, walking happily amongst the squiggles and signs, a little maze she had to navigate. The runes literal translation was not the issue. The spell, an ancient spell from a group of witches at the heart of the Ottoman empire, said to increase a woman's fertility "Oviedum Maximus" was simple enough, yet inflection and wand movements were poorly conveyed. She had gathered the I should be silent melding into a long e the wand moving in something like but not quite an elliptical motion.

She sat back letting the rooms bustle distract her for a moment as she realigned the runes for a new approach, letting her body twist into its natural position inhaling deep as she prepared to submerge once again.

A door banged like a gun, handle rattling as it rebounded off the wall and heads snapped upwards to face them the odd hand heading towards robe pockets, edgy nerves momentarily frayed. The cacophony of sound was shortly followed by a mass of black hair, dark eyes flashing round.

Heads snapped downwards, hand suddenly rooting in drawers as they struggled to evade his steely gaze but Caroline stood firm, knowing what was coming

"Quinn" a jerk of his head and he withdrew from the office and she gave a small snort of exasperation. Who had he pissed off this time?

Nott was alright if you ignored his brutish demeanour to see the good qualities within. He was loyal enough to make dogs look nonchalant and at the very base a fundamentally good person. A lack of common courtesy couldn't change that and she felt if people dealt with Nott instead of avoiding him perhaps he would learn in time. She stepped out ready to talk however no sooner had she shut the door behind her, an arm was thrust under her nose.

"Two things really." He pulled up his left sleeve. "What the hell is this?"

Caroline frowned momentarily intrigued, distracted from her rant as she took his arm in her hand, nose almost touching the tree shaped mark, Gingerly she touched the mark feeling the rough texture of bark under her fingers.

She moved back a small smile on her face hand reaching into her robes for her wand

"That's a beauty" she rolled the wand between her fingers talking half to herself half to the Hit Wizard before her

"i've never seen this hex before but I've heard about it"
she began to run her wand round the arm as if wrapping a bandage

"it comes from the foothills of the Pyrenees, where a couple of early wizarding settlements had a bit of a tiff everyone now and then and used to raid eachother. From what I read it was more for shits and giggles than any particular reason but this was a parting shot used to try and disfigure and weaken one of the raiders."

she tapped the mark 3 times

"wherever it hits it turns your skin to bark and your blood to sap and using the bloodstream spreads throughout the body. The mark is small but, see the little branches above. It has already spread through your smallest arteries and veins. Within 3 nights it is said it spreads through the bloodstream and at that point there is nothing more you can do. Skin and muscle will turn to bark and the limb becomes useless."

A complicated little wave and the mark seemed to peel off the skin like a plaster, a small wooden strip with leaves and roots of glittering green liquid. She carried on talking her voice distant as she studied the undulating tentacles.

"Lucky you were not hit in the heart, they say a heart shot turns the whole body to bark and reports of such a death is not pretty. It is said if you listen to folklore that those that died from a strike to the heart are the origins of cremation, the villagers burned their bodies in the hope their souls may be reunited with their ancestors in the afterlife"

A twist of her wand and the tiny tree vanished as Nott went on as if nothing had happened pulling her in close and she shook her head rolling her eyes

"Second thing-"Frenis hates me, I need these files owled to Spain, this morning." 

He stuffed a bundle of scruffy parchments into her hands and she gave a small laugh, her words coming back to her as she drew herself up to her full height. All 5 foot 3 of her moved towards Nott her chest expanding like a bullfrog, her voice contrite rather than angry

"Perhaps Master Nott, Frenis hates you because of your insistence upon bursting through doorways without knocking, dragging decent folk from their office and bundling extra work on people I might remind you are technically your superior without even a please or a thank you"

she raised an eyebrow at him

"or perhaps, just maybe it's because the last time he did you a favour you made a joke about, I believe your choice words were, his daughter's smackable ass."

she struggled to hide a smirk, eyes glittering as she continued flicking through the files

"now I'll fire your stuff off to spain and teach you a translating spell while I'm at it but I wan't something in return."

she kept on doggedly knowing if she paused for air he would give her two million reasons he was too busy

"People are disappearing from their homes and everyone's feeling the stress of it. I want you, not some numbskull trainee, you George Nott, Hit Wizard and Dueller fucking extraordinary, down here at 5pm to teach our department some basic self defense"

She stopped her voice going quieter as she leaned in

" I know as well as you do it won't make a blind bit of difference in any real trouble but I tell you what.... teach them protego, petrificus totalus, stupefy and a couple of wacky hexes and they'll at least feel a bit more secure in themselves rather than walking around like there is a snatcher around every corner"

her voice became hard again, a low rumbling growl

"I'd have you teach the whole ministry if I could but Thickness doesn't seem to give two shits about the fear running through this place. Either way 5pm Mr Nott or I'll take these to Frenis myself and tell him you tried to get round him. sit back with my butterbeer and watch the show as he makes your cocky little ass squirm."