Ghosts of the Past (Open)

Richard stood at the edge of the old shipyard, trying to avoid looking at the run-down warehouse he was in front of. It was a pointless struggle however. The view of half-sunken ships in calm waters was interesting but it wasn't enough to distract him from why he had felt compelled to come here. To be honest he still wasn't sure why he had come here. It was just a place he went to clear his head and right now his head could do with some clearing.

His mind was almost constantly abuzz with thoughts at the moment and he needed the calm, the dreadful quiet, that this building brought him. Pushing the door open, he moved into the deathly silent warhouse with a small sigh and a conflicted look on his face. Moving over to the only intact object in the room, a single wooden chair, Richard's face tightened as the dark stains all around the chair were illuminated by the moonlight shining through the holes in the roof.

It was old blood, from years ago.

It was his blood.

With everything that was going on in Andrew's head and trying to take back his left it had thrown away to the wolfs all those years ago he had decided to take a trip over to Germany to tie up some loose ends.

He stood on the dock of the shipyard where once he did many a cruel thing all in the name of what was right. It was a hard choice for him, what he believed was right and what was right. It all depended on a person's point of view.

No one knew what exactly Andrew did for the ministry and no one knew what he did for himself and he liked it that way. But there were still people out there that would like nothing more to see him dead.

He had lost track of how long he had actually been on the dock but some movement caught his attention out of the corner of his eye's and turned to follow it. It was late and not many people hung around at this hour so he went to follow the person.

With his years of secret work slipping around without being noticed was an easy task. Someone of course might get the feeling that they were being watch, but very few would actually would know he was. As he got closer to the person he knew right away whom it was. He had a couple of dealing with him, but more so with his wife seeing she was the headmistress when both of his children had gone.

Andrew slowly made his way out, always with his wand at the ready, just in case.

"A little far from home aren't we Professor?" Andrew did wonder what had brought him all this way just to look at a broken chair.

Andrew glanced at the floor and saw what was there, that was either blood he had shed or it was his own. Andrew himself has seen many of those messes before.

Richard knew that someone had been following because they were within range of scent. He could smell them on the air, the breeze carrying their scent to him as it would to a dog. Or a wolf. But he could also smell that it was a familiar scent. One of the hundreds he'd picked up while working for the British Ministry. Not that he had any idea what that meant. They could be friendly or they could be hostile.

Hell he wouldn't put it past the British Ministry, now that it was so close to peace with it's German counterpart, to start considering whether or not to deport him. Like they could. He was too deep in British society now. If they decided to try to deport him they'd never succeed. Not to mention the fact that the Germans didn't want him back. Not even to execute.

Sitting down in the chair he faced the other man with a look of casual interest. He looked the man up and down a few times,

"Depends where you consider home. If it's where you're born then I'm only seven miles away." he told the man with a small shrug, "The question is not why am I here and it's not why you are here either. The question is... why did you feel the need to follow me?"

Andrew was not out looking for anything or anyone other than his own closure. It had just been more of a closer for him, he honestly didn't care one way or another."

Andrew conjured his own chair sitting down on it backwards Andrew caught himself playing with a cigarette he had been contemplating on smoking.

"Well I guess I have always thought of home was where my kids are, but then everyone considers home different." Andrew hated the home he was born in.

"Honestly following you was just something I did out of boredom."

Richard watched the other man sit down on a chair he'd conjured. The Transfiguration professor part of him assessed the sturdiness of the chair and the movements used to make it. Before he was consciously aware of it he'd already graded the effort. If it was meant to be here for a long time (more than a few hours) it was worth an E. If it was temporary then it was worth an O.

Seeing the cigarette the other man was playing with, Richard smiled faintly. Smoking was one of his demons as well. Thankfully he had always remained strong in his determination not to smoke again. He chuckled bitterly,

"At the moment that's a hospital for me..." he muttered before looking up, "But you have me at a disadvantage here. You know my name but yours escapes me. Have we met before? If so I'm terribly sorry for forgetting your name."

He chuckled a little bit before pouting slightly,

"Awwww there's never any good conspiracies anymore." he protested with a smirk, "I used to enjoy all the sleuthing."

Andrew continued to play with the cigarette still debating on whether or not to light it. He had gotten rid of the habit, but since he had given up being drunk all the time he had picked it up again.

"Ahs yes, a hospital is not a good place to have to spend your time. But then sometimes that is better than the alternate place to spend you time."

Andrew sighed as he thought about all the countless hours he had spent at the cemetery over the years.

"We have met in passing I am sure, but its my daughter that you are better acquainted with. In fact she speaks very highly of your wife."

Andrew had a feeling Naomi had told people about him before, especially the Headmistress so he figured that it might get ugly seeing is he hasn't spent the last 6 years being very nice to his daughter.

"Andrew, Andrew Night is the name." He stated calmly "You are correct there has not been any in a long time."

Richard closed his eyes and he was back there in the room with his daughter. Looking so very frail hooked up to magically powered machines designed to slowly give her potions. He closed his eyes tighter before opening them again with a sigh,

"Sure. I'll keep telling myself that but I don't think it'll help much." he replied honestly, "Oh well, I'll just have to try harder."

He raised an eyebrow before chuckling a little bit,

"I'm sure that we have met before." he admitted before chuckling a little bit, "Narrows it down to most of the school to be fair. Always speak highly of the woman in charge, she's less likely to pick your house to take points from."

When he was told the man's name he chuckled a little bit, nodding,

"Oh yes I remember that being mentioned a few times. Your name that is." he told him with a small smirk, "Think we can start one? How about that the British Government is actually riddled with undercover vampires? No?"

Andrew thought about what he must be going through right now, at least he has a chance to fix it. Make things better, Andrew never got the chance.

"I have spent too much time drowning myself in my sorrows at my wife's grave. So it is always best to think of the positive aspects of things, I never got a chance to try." Andrew thought out loud

"Well being a Slytherin I was always at a disadvantage you know, always in trouble before I even did anything. But apparently your wife has been giving my daughter Naomi private dueling lessons." Andrew said with a sigh.

Andrew could not help but smirk at Richard's comment, "I am sure that may not be far from the truth."

Richard shrugged a little bit. He was generally a positive-looking person but right now he was struggling to find anything that was positive with his life at the moment except that Briony was still with him. Merlin knew that with all the hours he was working she could justify a divorce,

"Which is an awful lot easier to do with hindsight." he countered lightly, "Right now? I don't really see the brightside."

He chuckled a little bit and shook his head,

"Such strange traditions in Hogwarts... I will probably never understand them. Durmstrang does not have such things." he replied before smiling a little, "Ah yes I remember now... she is gifted from what I hear."

Richard paused for a moment,

"Now... if it's going to be a popular conspirarcy theory it can't be that then. Only the stupidly rediculous ones get popular."