If You Like Pina Coladas ~ Stabler's Office

An Auror's job has always been glorified: using the latest weapons, going off in missions, working undercover, getting to fight the "villains"... All that fun stuff. What was never highlighted, much to Berlynn's annoyance, was the mountain of paperwork that accompanied it. There was literally a mini Mt Everest upon her desk. Admittedly, most of the paperwork was there due to the witch's procrastination... But still!

"Honestly, I'm paid to play dodgeball with any hexes and curses thrown at the Minister. Not worry about blokes who decided to transfigure their brother's faces into stork beaks..." she muttered as she glanced through various case files needing her signature. 

It took about an hour (though between Berlynn and the reader, it has to be said that the Auror cheated and snuck half the files over to her colleague's stack) but eventually her desk was cleared once more, with a few of her files marked to be forwarded to her Father, as Stabler Enterprises often recruited recently released convicts from Azkaban for employment. 

"Gott sei Dank" she breathed out in her mother tongue as she leaned back against her chair, closing her eyes against the headache that threatened to appear. A frown etched itself upon her face at the intrusion though a smile replaced it as she remembered that she had refilled her "secret drawer". While most Auror's had their secret compartments filled with various spare equipment such as trackers, surveillance gear, etc, her's was filled with two simple things: wine and candy. Enough to open her own mini-Bar and Honeyduke's.

"Hello, schatz!" she beamed in excitement as she grabbed a bottle of Jaggermeister along with a package of gummy bears. With a sigh if contentment, she leaned against her chair, propping her feet upon the desk. With a snap of her fingers, she conjured a straw for her bottle and activated the stereo at the corner of the office, activating a loud cadence of "If You Like Pina Coladas" to play. Immediately, the effects could be heard as a few Aurors joined in, singing along to the lyrics loudly though others made their annoyance known.

"Oh, come on! For Merlin's sake, Berlynn, it's not even noon yet!" a particularly uptight colleague complained at the open door to her office. The witch's response was to simply throw a gummy bear at the other Auror, smiling innocently as she flipped through a magazine, taking an occasional sip of her Jaggermeister, and giggling softly at some of the off-key singing of some of the Aurors.

Whoever said the life of an Auror had to be a serious one 24/7?

Vinzent strolled down the corridor a mere five paces behind his daughter, Charisma. Being a rather protective and possessive father, he couldn't help but glare at any other man that so much as even thought about looking at his eldest baby girl. Neither parent or child said much of anything as they walked. Vinzent did, however, notice that his daughter's hair was an even brighter shade of yellow than it was yesterday.

Curiously, the wizard plucked at a few strands of the golden locks, rubbing the tips of the hair between his fingers. It almost felt like his own hair, only softer like her mother's. A brief glance at his unstained fingers told him either she may not have done it as recently as he thought, or she finally took his advice and transfigured it instead of messing around with muggle hair dye. 'Only one way to find out...' he mused, withdrawing his wand. A nonverbal spell upon the piece of hair later, and Vinzent sighed with exasperation.

Charisma tilted her head to pull the canary tresses from his grip. "Will you stop that?! It's my hair for Merlin's sake, and last I looked you were not one to even think about claiming membership with the Hair Police!" she chided, rolling her eyes.

"I told you: if you would just transfigure the color it would-"

"It's more fun to do it the other way!" she replied in a huff.

"Fine, don't listen to me. Just like your bloody mother..."

Charisma attempted to glare backward at her father for mentioning the woman he practically drove away. "Don't you have something official-y to go do?"

"Not to your knowledge," Vinzent retorted. "Unless you have another filthy mudblood boyfriend to try and introduce me to?"

Charisma made a noise of exasperation from the back of her throat and pulled open the door to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement's Auror Office. Almost instantly both sets of ears were assailed with a loud round of 'If You Like Pina Coladas'. Charisma grinned, knowing the source of the music could only be one witch in particular at this time of morning: Berlynn Stabler.

Vinzent, on the other hand, winced slightly. He hadn't been anticipating the auror office being transformed into a brightly-lit nightclub of sorts that operated this early in the morning. Grudgingly, Vinzent allowed Charisma to go where she wished. She was an adult now, after all... The wizard found it almost hard to believe that sixteen years ago he was cradling that bundle of stubbornness he and Diana had created.

Glancing over her shoulder to make sure she had either given her father the slip or he finally let her roam without his overbearing presence, Charisma grinned at her freedom and strolled toward her almost-step-mom-yet-sister-like figure. "Guten Morgen!" she cheered somewhat in time with a part of one of the song's verses. Playfully, the seventeen-year-old witch leaned against Berlynn's chair and nicked a gummy bear from the depths of the packet.

"Hostage situation! Gummy bear held at nail-point!" Charisma continued, resting her thumbnail at the gummy bear's neck in a mock-threatening manner. She kept her voice down so as not to get the other aurors in a tizzy, yet at the same time didn't really care who else was in the room at the moment. "Any suggestions, Stabler?" she asked as seriously as she could, though couldn't resist a giggle. How she wished her father still played around like this with her. It seemed only Symphony and Jonathan had that particular bragging right, now.

At the sound of a young female voice instead of the sharp, older male voice reprimanding her as the Auror anticipated would arrive upon the activation of her music, a smile caressed the face of the witch. "Hallo, Charisma." she greeted warmly as she cast aside the magazine she had been reading.

Sapphire orbs took the moment to scan the young witch before her. Considering the fact that Charisma had school and Berlynn no longer worked for her father, Vinzent, it was a rare treat for her to see the younger witch who she had, over the years began to regard her as a younger sister/adopted daughter-esque person. "Ugh, you're getting so old! Stop growing up! You're making me feel old!" Berlynn teased lightly.

"So are ya finally seventeen yet, or do you still have to keep using a fake ID for me to be able to take you clubbing?" she inquired with a playful raise of her eyebrow, though with a hint of seriousness in the suggestion.

A light laugh escaped Berlynn at Charisma's antics, for it wasn't often in the Auror department that games were played, much to the witch's dismay. "Hmm... Perhaps we should try to negotiate with the kidnapper?" Berlynn replied with a mock air of seriousness about her. "Perhaps if we make a deal with the kidnapper to assist her into creating a giant gummy bear and charming it to follow her Father around the office while singing the Gummy Bear song all day long she will be willing to release our little friend?" Berlynn suggested with a raise of her eyebrow. 

"Speaking about your Father, I have a gift for him, actually. I found this in my desk when I was clearing out space for my secret-secret-secret stash." From a drawer in her desk, Berlynn withdrew a large envelope. From the outside, it looked innocent and no more an a mundane Manila envelope. However, the twinkle of mischief in the witch's eyes revealed that the envelope had much more than what meets the eyes.

Charisma glanced at the magazine that was tossed aside, curious, but didn’t linger on it for very long. Berlynn was much more interesting than a magazine. She laughed at Berlynn’s teasing demand for her to stop growing up. “I’m not that old!” the teen giggled. “And neither are you,” she added, giving the older witch a one-armed hug. “I know the gray hairs you have are likely caused by my father... Can’t possibly be old age...” the teenager teased in return, plucking at a few strands of copper even though there wasn’t a single bit of gray in sight. It was so rare to get a chance to see Berlynn since she had transferred to protecting the Minister. And, what with school coming up just around the bend... Charisma absolutely had to make sure she paid Berlynn a visit before she left for her final year.

A grin stretched itself across Charisma’s face. “Well...” she trailed off, miming an expression of mischievous guilt: a lower-lip bite and a playful glance deliberately not trained on the auror’s face. “The fake ones are more fun, especially when we can get away with it...” The witch’s hand reached into a pocket of her robes and produced a small change purse. She opened it and pulled out a thin ID-shaped card. “But I guess I should start using this newer one for something, huh?” Charisma finished finally, showing off the card now for Berlynn to ‘inspect’.

Raven eyebrows jumped in answer of negotiating with the ‘Gummy Bear Kidnapper’. Charisma tried to keep a straight face, but she was very unlike her father and wasn’t quite able to manage it. “That might just do it...” she replied, giggling at the mere notion of such a scene. “Relaying the offer... Look! He’s free!” Charisma cheered, holding the confection a little differently and miming a sort of bounce-walk for the gummy bear. Then she ate it.

The young woman’s eyes widened with surprise. Berlynn’s gifts were always fun and unique. Her having a gift for Vinzent, though... that was sure to be double if not triple the laughs! “Ooh! What’s in it? Can I look?” Charisma asked excitedly. Then a thought occurred to her. “Or, better yet... he followed me here, actually...” she explained, giving a half exasperated look at the word ‘followed’. Now, however, it seemed that her father’s stalking turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

“Hey Dad! Got a minute?!” Charisma called, snickering. As Vinzent strode toward Berlynn’s domain Charisma burst into giggles. “I can’t wait to see this! I just know it’ll be good!”

Vinzent stood in the doorway to Berlynn’s office, one eyebrow furrowed moreso than the other in an attempt to block out the volume. “Some things never change. Every time you two are in the same room I get the overwhelming feeling the both of you are up to something...” he said, making sure his voice could be heard over the music. The almost sickly-sweet and ‘innocent’ grin from his daughter only seemed to prove his theory.