Orders Given, time for a plan of attack

[Arystar Cory]

Arystar walked back from Knockturn Alley in a slightly unfocused daze. As he had walked he picked up several old copies of the Daily Prophet. As he pushed open the door of the Leaky Cauldron, he spied an abandoned copy of the Prophet; newest edition it looked like and swiped it up and walked directly to his rented room.
Walking into the room he set down the papers on the small desk that the room had and then slipped off his coat. Then he began to sort the papers by date, then clipping only the articles that had ministry information with a severing charm.
He lined up his articles and read them, clipping several reference articles of what was happening with the famous or the newly dead.
He focused on how the Ministry was handling not only murders but the attacks. He picked out the names he could, most of them no longer amongst the living. He committed them to memory.
After he studied the newsprints, he began to jot down a loose plan of how he would use the information. He had to reign in his thoughts, He had a very clear focus, and He had to befriend an Auror, possibly seduce her. He couldn't prattle on like he normally did; he'd have to repress his nerves and his bluntness.
Under such a strong spell he would have no choice but commit to his task. He was getting a very good idea of where and how he would start. The next day would be eventful at least for him.

[Veronica Massey]

Veronica was downstairs in the Leaky Cauldron at that very moment, just relaxing after a hard day of work. Her current assignment was to investigate the Hogsmeade attack, and it was an extremely stressful job. The sheer volume of people involved in the attack showed that it had been a coordinated effort, and it would be next to impossible to round up everyone involved. However, she did have a few leads. Some of the most prominent pureblood families with school-aged kids had mysteriously brought their children home that weekend. The Burkes, the Scotts... the children had all been miraculously untouched by the attack. It was suspicious, to say the least.

But it was her off hours, and Veronica was determined to put all these thoughts out of her mind. To that end, she was sitting at the bar, sipping on a glass of butterbeer.

[Arystar Cory]

Arystar felt a prickle of magic brush across his mind. He left his room and went into the bar area of the pub and he turned and saw a women sitting at the bar sipping a butterbeer. He seemed to know that she was one of the people he had been reading about, the force of the curse he was working under helped his mind make a connection while he would would of waffled at a direction to take and how to handle her in a situation.
He walked toward the bar and caught Tom's eye, he quietly ordered a butterbeer and was served some ready salted peanuts.
"Hello there, Can I get you your next one?" he asked politely to the woman next to him. He knew it was a pretty common practice, to offer to buy someone's next drink, but he had never really done it before. He would of been wary of someone he didn't know sitting next to him, but he had the spell pulling his strings in such a manner that he came off as normal rather than his usual self.

[Veronica Massey]

Veronica's mind had begun to drift into more pleasant thoughts. The last time she had gone out to drink, she had run into a very interesting man, and they had talked and flirted very nicely. It had just been a chat, and there certainly hadn't been any hint of anything else possibly happening between them, but Veronica couldn't quite get Leon Jones out of her mind.

When she heard the voice next to her offering to buy her a drink, there was a split second where she rather hoped it might be Leon. But when she turned, it was someone else. He was tall and thin and quite pale... but not altogether bad-looking.

So she shrugged. "I usually prefer not to accept drinks from men until I know their names. I'm Veronica." She held out her hand to him.

[Arystar Cory]

Arystar smiled and chuckled "Arystar Cory, at your service." he sat up straighter in his bar stool and giving a little bow.
"You seemed to be enjoying your first drink, so I thought it would be courteous to get you another." he said with a smile, " Are you pass through London?" Careful questions dropped into his mind that usually would of been awkward or clumsily delivered, were easy and flowing like a natural conversation. Deep in Arystar's mind, despite the indignation of being under a curse from an evil hell banshee, was little amazement that he could posses a little social grace and perhaps even charm.
"You look familiar. You've been in the Prophet haven't you?" He smiled charmingly, " If it was you in the Prophet you must be a talented witch." he stated smoothly leaning toward the bar and popping another peanut into his mouth.

[Veronica Massey]

Veronica smiled. He was certainly charming. And it wasn't like she was in a relationship with Leon; she had only just met the guy and they'd had a pleasant talk. There wasn't any harm in chatting with the guy, she told herself. But she was, in general, a rather cautious woman, so she would take things slowly.

"Very well," she said. "Just another butterbeer," she told the bartender, who was waiting for her drink order.

She turned back to Arystar. "It's nice to meet you, Arystar," she said in a friendly tone. She was about to comment on his name and ask him what he did for a living, but then he was asking about her. "I... might have been in the Prophet," she replied, blushing lightly. "I work for the Ministry. What about you? What do you do?"

[Arystar Cory]

Arystar smiled when she admitted working for the ministry, This was excellent news, but as any smart woman she deflected most of her answer in another question. It would be best just to answer her and possibly get closer to her, information usually leads to more information.
"My Grandfather was Head Warlock of Herbology in Romania. He spent his life studying rare and dangerous magical plants. Since my parents death was early in my life, I also worked with my Grandfather in his studies. We published our findings on 'man-eating Hellebore' which is actually sweet tempered, if you compliment them or tell them you love them." he blushed slightly, the only real hint of his personality. He probably would of turned beet red and spluttered about how he couldn't really love her having only just met her, but the spell that held him was very strong so it merely held him in line. He waited for her to digest that bit of information, He wondered if he should mention the fire that had destroyed his ancestral home, or that currently that he seeing the world for the first time.
"Ah, but working for the Ministry of Magic! It must be an exciting job! What is it you do there, that is if you don't mind me asking?" he phrased it politely enough. His brain began to work in a different mode altogether, He could get her alone, cast Legilimens on her, then obliviate the encounter and report to the woman. That would serve her means much quicker than a whittle out information approach, however, he wanted to make sure she would have the information he needed.

[Veronica Massey]

Veronica smiled politely, and even let out a tiny little laugh at his explanation of Hellebore. She found him quite charming, of course, but she didn't generally make a habit of flirting with strangers. And her job had taught her well how to always be on her guard. As such, she wasn't entirely comfortable answering too many questions about herself. Instead, she deflected his question.

"Oh, nothing of consequence, really," she said casually. "It's just a job, you know. But tell me more about Hellebore. I was always rubbish at Herbology... I couldn't even keep a cactus alive. However did you figure out that Hellebore would not attack if you told it you loved it?"

[Arystar Cory]

She deflected again, but he merely smiled and explained " My Grandfather started his research on magical plant emotion based on growing mandrake roots. If merely treated as necessary they would grow to maturity at the accepted growth cycle, part of this early study was growing Mandrakes with extra care, they became surly and took much longer to mature. We repeated the experiment on several plants and found violent magical plants that grapple or constrict would be predators responded negatively to movement such as jerking or twisting. Man-eating Hellbore is known for it's pollen, which renders most wizards asleep, which then 'eats' the person or animal. We found if you treat it kindly it won't attack, we further found that talking to most of the plants improves their growth, so as muggles would say, we put two and two together." He could of gone on about the different research techniques the used, and how eventually they had a green house full of the largest specimens of Man-eating Hellbore, which were prized for their pollen, nectar, and stems. It was enough information to solidify his identity and give her enough to chew over in her mind. He wasn't anything more exciting than a Herbologist from a long line of a lot of the same.
"The reason we were not harmed, much, during the early part of the process is because we grew very diminutive hellbore. I very well could of lost a hand to our larger plants." he chuckled and focused his eyes on hers. he really wasn't very good at the spell he thought of using, he dismissed the idea and dropped his gaze. He would have to find a better target, some one easily charmed.
"We made excellent co-works! even if he was my grandfather! you must have more co-workers than I could ever Imagen working with! what is that like?" he dropped another line of baited questions for her, he only hoped now this conversation could give him something worth the while.

[Veronica Massey]

Veronica listened to him talk with great interest. She had always been a good student, but she had to admit that Herbology had quite bored her to tears. Even the practical lessons hadn't gone well for her; she just didn't seem to have a knack for plants. Luckily, it wasn't all that necessary for her job. But as she listened to Arystar speak, she saw a different side to Herbology, and she almost wished she had paid better attention in class.

"That's really interesting," she said genuinely. "You must really miss your grandfather, after having worked with him for so long. I can't imagine working with the same person for so long... I have a partner in my job, and he happens to be my best friend, but I have to be honest, some days, he just drives me crazy."

Veronica enjoyed working with Ted, but these days, it seemed all of his conversations were about Andromeda, and the baby on the way, and plans for the future. Veronica was happy for him, of course, but also just a tiny bit jealous. She wanted what he had--love, a family. All Veronica had was her sister, and things were often strained between her and Joanne. She wanted to know what it was like to fall so desperately in love with someone that she couldn't bear to be apart from him. But being the practical, responsible woman that she was, Veronica was beginning to wonder if it was even possible for her to fall so deeply for another person.