Coffee Time (Patrick and Essantha)

[Patrick Sean Flannery]

Patrick had just come out of a very long and very boring interview at the press office in the Academy in Germany, apparently they wanted to know his opinion on some medical phenomena here and to be honest it was nothing he had not seen before, the main frustration of the interview was the very German reporter didn't seem to understand his accent and kept asking him to repeat things in standard English.

If Patrick had been a lesser man, the reported would be minus a few teeth right now, but he had held his calm as he often did in professional situations and now he needed something which always perked him up after something like that, and that thing was a delicious cup of coffee. Fortunately for him the Academy seemed to have a little coffee house on it's corner, a new edition he believed and as he stepped inside even the smell and the cool jazz music soothed his irritated nerves.

As soon as he had ordered he made his way to one of the large comfy armchairs and took out his journal, scratching down in his rough scrawl the daily events and his thoughts and breakthroughs when it came to certain things, although the main question of that virus still haunted him and played on his mind, he needed to know the answer! Becoming absorbed in his thoughts he stared at the pages of his journal.

[Essantha Amera]

Essantha had just gotten out of a lecture about psychology when she found that some coffee would be brilliant to get her mind spinning again, maybe sit down with someone at the same lecture to discuss the views the lecturer had had about how important the psyche was to humans functionality.

She walked over to the desk and ordered a coffee, looking around the room. Her eyes landed on a handsome man sitting in one of the comfy chairs. Her eyes then narrowed as she saw that she had seen him before, but... She stopped dead for a second. Patrick Sean Flannery. The Head Healer. Essie wracked her brains, trying to find an excuse to go talk to him. She then kicked herself and took her coffee, walking over to the place.

"Dr. Flannery," she said with a smile, "I must say I'm a huge fan of your work."

[Patrick Sean Flannery]

Patrick jumped a little when he heard someone address him and he immediately blushed a little and placed his book back in his bag after shutting it sharply, after all he didn't want this lady in question to see that he had in fact been noting down something that was far from stereotypically 'masculine'. The fact was he was noting down just how beautiful the lady at the counter had been when he had last looked.

Letting his gaze land on the lady he smiled warmly and tried to conceal his embarrassment, she would be the woman who he had just been writing about wouldn't she? And when she already seemed to know his name and he held out his hand to her, and gestured at the seat open opposite him, he would be glad of someone else to talk to, as long as she didn't ask him to repeat every other word he said.

"Ah, the art of introduction disappears when one becomes famous, but I am glad you enjoy my work, it's nice to meet someone else that does" he joked with a soft smile "Pleased to meet you miss...?"

[Essantha Amera]

Essantha blinked at his reaction, and then figured the book he had been writing in was a journal. She would probably have reacted in the exact same way if someone snuck up on her when she was writing in her own journal.

She couldn't help but smile widely when he started speaking in a thick Irish accent. "Oh, yes, it must be horrible to not have that ace in the hole," she said with a light irony, "The name's Essantha Amera," she said kindly, taking his hand and sitting down opposite him.

"So, what are you doing here in Germany?" she asked curiously, taking a sip from her coffee.

[Patrick Sean Flannery]

Patrick hated to appear rude to anybody, but he really would have cringed if she had seen his description of her and so he had been a little too hasty when he had placed the book back in his satchel at the foot of the coffee table in front of him. With a small apologetic smile he stated;

"My apologies, it was my journal you see, I was startled when you appeared I was so lost in my writing." he laughed a little embarrassed as he rubbed the back of his head.

With a small smirk on his lips he took up his coffee cup and sipped the hot liquid inside of it, relaxing even more into the chair he was glad to have someone else with him, he realised now exactly how removed he was from people while he had been locked away in work.

"Well I like a little mystery sometimes, especially where ladies such as yourself are involved." he grinned, he might be a nerd, but the Irish charm wasn't completely lost on him "Pleased to meet you Essantha, have you been to a talk here at the Academy?"

Upon being asked his business here, he didn't see the harm in telling Essantha;

"I was being interviewed about some of the medical stats that came out this week, some freak phenomena that they wanted clarification on. I think the reporter must have been new." he sighed, recalling the disastrous interview.

[Essantha Amera]

Essantha smiled and nodded. "Don't worry about it. I figured it was a journal or something. Not really something I'd like others to read either. Privacy is underestimated in this society, but I know the value," she said lightly.

Essie let a small chuckle escape her lips. "But if you were any other person I see on the street, do you think I'd walk over to you, not having anything to talk about?" she asked and added: "There's always two sides to one coin."

Essie nodded. "Please, call me Essie, and yes, I have. I was at a psychology lecture. It was pretty interesting, but it wasn't anything I didn't know already," she said with a shrug, "But I work as a councillor at Durmstrang, so it's free for me, and it doesn't hurt to refresh ones memory, now, does it?"

She could feel how he seemed a bit exasperated at the interview when he told her what he was doing here. "I take it the interview didn't go as well as planned then?" she asked softly. She then frowned slightly. "Is it about the virus?" she asked, having studied his work and so many other doctors about the virus she knew almost nothing about, other than the fact that it was paralyzingly dangerous.

[Patrick Sean Flannery]

Patrick was glad that Essantha understood but he felt like he needed to explain his actions to her so that she wouldn't be too offended by what he had done and the way he had acted. She certainly seemed like an intelligent woman and he was glad of that, it would make for a stimulating conversation that was for sure.

"It seems to me that with the internet, things that are private hardly remain so for much longer, so I appreciate your silence." he smiled, his eyes twinkling a little bit "Well when you introduce logic into this then I suppose you're right but, I still prefer the mystery."

Hearing that she worked at Durmstrang, Patrick hummed lightly, he had never been to the school and often wondered what it was like; "I see, how is the school itself, are you enjoying your job and it's surroundings?" he asked, interested in the school, wondering if it was very different to Hogwarts in the way it ran and what it taught.

Laughing lightly he shook his head;

"The interviewer kept asking me to repeat what I said, I know my accent is thick but...it got a little tiresome I have to say." hearing Essie ask about the virus Patrick sighed a little bit his pet peeve was back at the forefront of his mind "Yes, it was about the virus, its spread, there were only cases of it in some British and German cities but now it's in more areas over the two even some cases in France."

[Essantha Amera]

Essantha nodded. That was very true. "The internet is even a hit within the magical world now. I don't really get it, when it's so easy to contact others by means of magic. Then again, it is mostly the young teenagers who cannot perform magic that joins. And I'm guessing it's a high hit for journalists as well, given the gossip," she said with a sigh; internet wasn't good for privacy.

"Logic is overrated, I agree with you," she said with a wink. She thoroughly enjoyed speaking with Patrick. He wasn't what she had expected, she had thought he would've ignored her or asked her rudely to walk away. After all, he must be tired of all the conversations people want to have with him, but no. Here he was, talking so friendly to her.

Essie smiled. "The school is very good, the only thing is that it lacks the cheerful tone that many other schools have. Not the students, they're happy and merry-go-giddy, but the teachers can be a bit uptight. I'm sure you've heard of the Sweeney?" she said.

Essie laughed. "Yes, you have a thick accent, but an interviewer should have a broader understanding of English than me, and I understand you pretty well," she said with a shrug, "And if it helps you, if it were me, I would snap and retaliate." She grinned innocently at him after saying that.

Her grin faltered when she heard the grave news. "I really hope there will be a cure in not too long. I don't know what my students feel about this, but it's pretty awful if one of them should be attacked," she said with a sigh, "They already mean pretty much to me, even though I only started working a year ago."

[Patrick Sean Flannery]

Patrick was going to find out who the guy was who invented the internet and specifically curse them one day, the amount of crap on there was pretty much astounding and the one time he had looked on that thing called FaceBook he had found a group his old medical students had created about him...it was both amusing, and slightly embarrassing.

"Yes, I agree, I suppose it is a way of helping them feel more 'normal' and many of them I suppose will have muggle friends, I know my best friends are non magical, so, it's texts and emails for us." he grinned and sipped at his coffee again.

When Essantha winked at him Patrick felt a heat creeping up his neck and he rubbed the base of his neck slightly, although he didn't know why he had produced such a reaction he certainly knew what it was. Smiling gently, Patrick nodded;

"I certainly have heard of the Sweeney, she's...quite a pistol isn't she?" he laughed "Well I'm sure with you there the atmosphere will brighten considerably, besides, not all the teachers have sticks up their ass do they?" he asked happily.

Although he caught the humour in Essantha's comment, it was the topic of the disease that left his mind wandering so that he didn't respond to it like he would have done otherwise. He felt so passionate about finding how to cure this new strain almost any talk of it set him off.

"Well so far it's only been found in animals, there have been no human cases so far and me and my team are trying to work with growing the virus now but...it's seeming an impossible task." he sighed before rushing his hands through his hair "As you can tell, I'm a bit of a work a holic." he smirked.

[Essantha Amera]

Essantha smiled. "It is an excellent way to keep in touch with your non-magical friends. That's very true. But I was brought up in a very magical area, so I don't really have any muggle friends. Sometimes, that makes me feel as though I'm really missing out on something. And I know I should do something about it. Honestly, it's weird that I haven't," she rambled thoughtfully. She then grinned. "Sorry for rambling," she excused.

She did notice the small amount of redness running up his neck, but she chose to ignore it. No need to make him feel uncomfortable. But she felt somewhat victorious for managing to do that.

Essie laughed. "She most certainly is. I don't think there is a better description for her. And it is a pistol that's always ready to pull the trigger," she said with a soft smile, "But if you find her to be in a good corner, people have said it's pretty cool to talk to her."

Essie's serious face turned even graver when he told her how difficult it was. "I get that," she said, "I hope it doesn't develop further. Honestly, I heard a rumor about the virus having attacked a unicorn, zapping it of all its magical powers, but I'm not sure if it was true or not. Have you heard of anything like that? I'm not even a hundred percent sure what the virus does," she admitted. She smiled a bit and nodded. "I find myself to be a bit of a workaholic myself, so," she said, leaving the sentence hanging in the air.

[Patrick Sean Flannery]

Patrick smiled lightly at Essantha, she seemed to be a very nice woman, with no prejudice when it came to muggles, even though he had been judged upon himself by his friends for being magical at a time, at least one of them had stuck by him enough that they still shared that same strong friendship today. Sometimes he did wonder about the trouble Jack and James had gotten themselves into.

"Well maybe you should go out and try to make some muggle friends one day, but for now I think the magical world has more use for your councilling than the muggle one." he smirked a little, draining the last of his coffee as he did so.

Of course being head healer, Patrick had looked at cases like that of Raven but never so severe, and in some ways he envied Konig Nickel that he had managed somewhat to unravel Raven's psychosis to such a level she is now managing her outbursts. It was a very interesting case.

"I would have liked to have worked professionally with Raven Drake, just to see what her mental condition was really like, of course, I am glad that she had recieved the help she required to become...not as stabby." he grinned.

With a small sigh Patrick nodded his head, he trusted Essantha for some unknown reason and knew she wouldn;t go blabbing to the nearest paper who asked her what they had been talking about, or at least thats what he hoped.

"That is exactly what the virus does, it drains the energy of the person it has become attatched to, it begins with magical energy, and then slowly drains everything else we have found, I examined the unicorn myself, and that is all we have been able to glean from it." he sighed.

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