Closed Another goodbye leads to a new hello

[Sam Mackintosh]

Sam still couldn't believe that she was done with school. Essentially, she had spent her summer moving around from Alex's home to Xavier's, and Zennon's too, at least while he was in New Zealand. But it had taken her a good couple of months for the fact to hit her. She was an adult now, and she had responsibilities officially; now that school was over, she was a full-time mother, as opposed to just part-time. The former Slytherin was trying to come with ways to fill her schedule and routines, most of them did involve her son but what else was there to do, currently. She loved spending time with him, of course, but she was also beginning to miss her social life. Which was why, when she had received the invitation to Aleksandra's farewell party via owl, she had begged her brother and Alexis to take care of Finley for the day. Sam was only going to be out for a few hours, or as much as she could handle it, really. It wasn't going to be easy getting back into the swing of things - it had been a while since she had met new people. She arrived to the front door of Aleks' house, and rang the door bell. Hopefully she wasn't late, but also not the first one there, because that would be awkward.​

 

[Professor Benjamin Kaster II]

For someone who lived and worked in Australia - Ben sure did spend an awful lot of time in New Zealand. He supposed he could blame that on the number of his siblings that lived here currently. Whilst he was the oldest he still lived at home mostly and Alek’s had moved to New Zealand for the last year of her schooling - which she hadn’t actually done. Mostly she’d travelled, but Chrys lived here on breaks, as did Elsa, Jemima and Flynn. So it was really one of those communal homes, though it only had two official bedrooms.​

Because Alek’s was moving out officially, the house was going to be pretty empty for a while, but that was okay - Ben would come visit it now and then and of course the younger siblings would be using it when they weren’t in school so they had been hesitant to sell it. It had been in the family since their Aunt Tess had died, his father’s sister. He supposed in a way his father didn’t have the heart to sell it.​

“Ben that’s the door!” Alek’s shouted at him in Bulgarian from somewhere else in the room. This party already had a couple of people and as the host his sister was flitting about like no one’s business. She had that pretty veela glow about her, the one she got when she was in her element and Ben had to roll his eyes. She was probably the most veela of all of them… well, she and Chrys anyway. Though sometimes he did wonder about his brother.​

Opening the door, Ben looked down at the pretty blonde that his sister practically gushed over that time they’d met last year and he smiled at her. “Oh, hi… Sam right? Come in!” He said, ushering her in. She seemed a little older, world-weary and the like, though he couldn’t imagine why. Alek had prattled in his ear about her a lot the last couple of months but most of it had been highpitched squeals and so he’d missed the majority. “It’s been a while, graduated now, yeah?” He asked, just checking before he dared to offer her a drink. The drinking age was generally in seventh year, but he didn’t like the idea of giving alcohol to school aged kids and he wasn’t much of a drinker himself anyway.​

 

[Sam Mackintosh]

Sam blinked when the door was opened, fully expecting to see Aleksandra. Instead, she found her brother standing there, but she managed a smile as he greeted her. "Hey, yeah, thanks," she said, stepping in the house. She looked around and noticed only a few people were here. "Oh, this is for your sister," she took out a small box that was wrapped in gift paper. She wasn't really sure where Aleks was and didn't exactly feel like wandering around, looking lost. "Yeah, I've just graduated. It's a big relief," she answered simply with a smile. Now that she was facing Ben, she noticed he'd grown a bit, he seemed a little taller and more handsome...Sam felt her cheeks turn pink. She hadn't seen him in a while but for some reason now she seemed to...have a crush on him? Or something. Whatever it was. "So, how have you been?" she asked.​

 

[Professor Benjamin Kaster II]

Ben looked over at Aleks as she moved about the room to entertain others and was going to call her over to come and greet her friend, but something stopped him from doing so and he moved out of the way of others, moving Sam with him, so they weren’t in everyone’s way just chilling by the door. The place wasn’t all that big, but it was big enough to comfortably hold about twenty people and this gathering wasn’t going to be very big he knew. “Thanks! I’m sure she’ll appreciate it,” he said, waving his hand to float the gift over to the small coffee table in the centre of the room. The little pile had grown steadily in size since he looked at it five minutes ago - where had they all even come from?​

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“I can understand the relief for sure,” he said, shaking his head slightly. It wasn’t all that long ago he’d graduated himself and so he definitely got how it could be a relief. He’d enjoyed school for the most part after all, but some things were just best left in school, especially now that the things you did carried massive consequences. “Do you want something to drink then, since you can?” He looked over the options that Aleks had provided, but none of them were really big drinkers. “I think we have some firewhisky in the back too?” He offered.​

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That was usually his go to, other than vodka, because he hated the taste and he knew that once it started tasting good that was when it was time to stop.​

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“Yeah, I’ve been pretty good. Got a bit more training to do back home, but I’m getting there. It’s full on,” he said, thinking about the hours spent in the gym and being hunted or the hunter. It was all fun and games until someone got off an errant spell that hit you in the side or the face. He was a bit unlucky in that regard. “But it’s fun, I like it - and working with my Dad isn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” he laughed, ducking to check if his father was in ear shot anywhere, but he couldn’t see him. “How about you? What are your plans now that you’ve finished?”​

 

[Sam Mackintosh]

Sam smiled, Aleks was literally the biggest sweetheart she had ever met and she couldn't just have shown up here without a gift. "Yeah, it's a lot of pressure, especially OWL and NEWT years," she responded. For her, most of the pressure hadn't even been due to the actual school work, it had been from Finley and her dad, but she wasn't going to mention any of that to Ben. She barely knew him, after all. She chuckled when Ben offered her a drink. He was right, now that she was over seventeen, she was officially an adult in the magical world, which meant real responsibilities. Even though she felt as though her responsibilities had begun a little under a year and a half ago. "Yes please, a drink would be great." Sam had never had firewhisky but there was a first for everything. "Sure, firewhisky sounds just fine, thank you," she said politely. Sam had never had a drink before so she was looking forward to it, but also kind of dreading it. ​

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What would her father think...no, she was not going to think about him right now. She was supposed to be having some 'me time' which included having fun and relaxing. When Ben mentioned his training, it caught Sam's attention. She knew of a lot of people who went into the auror profession, but had never really considered it herself. "How long do you have left?" she asked, referring to his training. She laughed softly with him when he mentioned working with his dad, and tried not to show how sad she felt. "Oh, well, I'm considering going into teaching. I like children so there's a bonus," she told him. She didn't want to mention that she had a son already or who knew what he would think of her. "The only problem is, I have no idea what I'd like to teach."​

 

[Professor Benjamin Kaster II]

Sam didn’t need to remind Ben about the OWL and NEWT years at all. He remembered them only too well. He’d been that student locked in the library until the wee hours just desperately trying to get everything set to rights before the half dead zombie shuffle to the exam rooms with his peers. They’d all pretty much gone their separate ways now though and since he lived in Australia most of the time he hadn’t seen much of his school mates. Well, he’d never been particularly open and friendly in school. He’d been through a lot.​

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No one would have believed it to look at him now. He was friendly, sociable and he knew a lot of people.​

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People changed sometimes and he was no different. It wasn’t like it was a bad thing - just different. He was sure Sam would change to in the next few years, most people did. Being the same person meant you didn’t grow and change; it was important for people as they developed. Being stagnant wasn’t good for anyone in his opinion.​

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“One firewhisky coming right up!” He stepped over to the bar and grabbed the drink, pouring it into a pretty pink tinted glass with a rose on the base. He had no idea why that was the kind of glass Aleks had chosen, but he never did understand much of Aleksandra’s choices. She was a bit of an odd duck in the family. “Here,” he held the glass out to her as he dropped the bottle back into the bar. He didn’t know much about Sam, but she seemed nice. And unlike most of the other people in the room (excluding his family) he actually had met her before. Where Aleks got all these random people he would never know.​

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“Oh, about two years now. I’m half way. It’s tough, but I like it.” The training was intense, and he was tired most of the time (even now he could feel the twinge in his muscles from an intense work out several days ago) but he liked the way it made him feel accomplished.​

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Ben turned his head to appraise her a little as she said she wanted to be a teacher. Without really thinking about it, he walked around her in a little circle out of habit before coming to a stop in front of her. “I think you could totally be a teacher!” He informed her, pleased that it was something she was considering. “I guess the first question is whether you would want to work in the magical world or the muggle world, because that would open or close your options depending on the answer.” He thought muggle teaching would suit her best, privately, but he wasn’t really sure why. She just seemed like she would enjoy something other than the traditional magical education. Something a little more challenging maybe? “What do you think?”​