Out of Country (Open)

Kallie apparated just outside of the leaky cauldron in Diagon alley. She figured with all going on it would not hurt to see how the other countries were dealing with things.

After looking about her briskly she decided the best place to fish for information would be in the pub. After all who didn't like to talk more than drinkers and bar tenders?

Maybe she was sterotyping but she hoped not. After all this had worked for her before.

Of course, she realized as she walked into the dimly lit Leaky Cauldron, she was going to have to deal with the... disorder of the place.

She glanced at the people sitting around nervously, before straightening her shoulders, and heading towards the bar. She could do this, she was the ministry of magic for merlin's sake. Kallie could not let a little change mess with her.

This was a plan and Kallie stuck to plans.

Leaning on the counter she ordered in accented - but correct - english, "A butterbeer please." She couldn't drink on the job.

Eli looked up from the book on bartending to see a woman who looked strangely out of place in the bar, Eli wasn't sure exactly why she did, but there was something about her that seemed very foreign.

His suspicions were confirmed when she ordered a butterbeer with a heavy accent. He smiled at her, relieved she had asked for something simple, "Of course." He handed her the drink, "So, where are you from?"

He was genuinely curious about this woman's story. He did get the occasional foreign customer, but this person seemed to have an aura of importance. Even the way she walked showed that she was full of ambition.

Kallie looked at the man for just a second longer than she possible should have. He was highly attractive.

But Kallie was her on business nothing more, and so as she had always done all her life, she pushed any emotions she may have about any situation back and did what had to be done.

Not that she would have known how to flirt or anything else if she had wanted to.

"Thank you," she nodded taking the drink, but not taking a sip. Instead she placed it on the bar in front of her. "Russia, I live in Russia now, though I grew up in Finland."

She hesitated a moment. Great, she was on a self ordered mission to find things out about England and her social skills were going to ruin it for her. Maybe she should have sent one of the Aurors, or that Archive worker always seemed chatty.

"What were you reading?" she glanced at the book she had interupted him from.

"A Wizard's Guide to Bartending," Eli held up the old book, "I just recently came into ownership of this establishment. Since we're heavily understaffed, I have to work at the bar. The thing is, I really have no idea how to do anything but pour drinks."

He smiled wistfully, "I don't get paid a lot, but it's well worth the effort. Some of the stories I hear..."

"So if you're from Russia, what are you doing over here? And don't tell me you're on a buisness trip, because that's almost never the whole truth."

"I can't imagine it would be so hard, " Kallie said. She did not mean to be rude if it came out that way it was merely the way her brain worked. She took most things quiet seriously, and matter of fact, and once putting those things together, if it wasn't too creative she was realitively good at catching on to it. "You need help then?"

"Stories?" she asked giving a polite smile. This is what she wanted to hear, more or less, she hoped her reserved demeanor wasn't about to ruin it.

It wasn't? Kallie wasn't aware of that. In fact she could hardly think of a trip she had taken in the last few years that wasn't about business. Her whole life was business - business went before everything, she didn't think she knew how to have it any other way.

"But what if that is the truth this time?"

"All right, I'm not one to refuse help when it's offered," Eli gestured to her to join him behind the bar. He opened up his book again and began rifling through the pages. All these recipes looked the same to him. Eli was even a little disappointed in himself. The man was an excellent cook, but for the life of him he couldn't figure this out,

"So I have three orders of something called a Red Dragon. The recipe's right here." He handed her the book, noticing as he did so that the girl was... well, pretty.

"There was this one guy who claimed that he saw a fully-grown Ukrainian Ironbelly flying above London," Eli smiled to himself, "You know, I looked it up, and there hasn't been a sighting of one of those in England in more than fifteen years. At first I didn't believe him, but he managed to take a picture, and sure enough..."

He raised an eyebrow, "Then you work too hard."

Kallie took the gesture and slipped in behind the bar. After a moment she found that the place was suddenly much more tolerable from this side. There was more order... purpose, behind the bar instead of in front of it.

She took the book and stared at the instructions for a long moment reading each step carefully before she started about the bar getting what it said she would need.

"A Ukrainian Ironbelly?" she raised an eyebrow quite surprised. That was one she hadn't heard about. Granted it was in the British territory not her own but still... "And he had a photo?"

She continued making the drink, glancing at the instructions as she measured and poured each part.

"Don't I know it," she gave him a wry little grin and then added as an aside mumbling to herself, "I just don't know any other way."

With a triumphant stir she held up the glass.

"A Red Dragon?"

"It's a species of dragon. There used to be one in Gringotts, but it was released during the second Wizarding War. But it couldn't possibly be the same one." He started cleaning the glasses that the waitress had brought over, "Yeah, a photo. The guy happened to be a photographer for the daily prophet, but apparently the ministry didn't want him to publish it"

Eli leaned in towards her, "Then I'll have to show you how to loosen up sometime."

He watched her make the drink. "That's... perfect! How did you do that?"

"Couldn't dragon's live a lot longer than humans?" she felt as if that sounded right, but for once she had hit upon a topic that she had never really studied before. "I guess the Ministry would not wish people to panic." Although it wasn't her ministry she could completely agree with the decison. Dragons weren't things that they wanted leaking to the public. Even in the magical world they strike a fair bit of fear.

Before she could stop herself, control any of her emotions in, Kallie blushed and began flipping through the book slightly flustered,

"I guess you will." Was what she heard herself mutter.

"I just followed the instructions," Kallie said with a shrug, and began making the other two he said he needed, "I am good at things like that."

Eli thought for a second, "I suppose so, but it still seems extremely unlikely. Then again, I'm just a bartender aren't I?" He laughed.

Giving the drink to the guy that ordered it, he said, "I suppose you are. Listen, I know you're busy and all, but how would you like to be my.... my assistant? Just for tonight. I can teach you how to forget about work for a little while, and you can teach me how to mix drinks. What do you think?"

"Not a bartender," Kallie corrected with a smile, "A bar owner. That has to have be a little more value."

Kallie felt an irrational giggle bubble in the back her throat at the thought of being his assistant. She the minister of magic was going to work behind a bar.

Surprisingly she thought she might enjoy it.

The woman slide the next drink down to him, "I think... that you have yourself a deal Mr..." she trailed off realizing she did not know his name.

"Well, it does pay a little better," he noticed that the warm lights in the pub made her brown eyes almost light up. Weird.

Eli held out his hand, "Eli Patterson, and you are?"

Eli Patterson. That was a nice sounding name, very English, Kallie found herself thinking, before berating herself for irrational thoughts. Names were names, not nice or any other way, and of course it sounded English it was where she was.

"Well then, we have a deal Mr. Patterson," she said taking his hand, and once more hesitating, freezing in her own mind - even if it was only half noticable on the outside.

What was wrong with her? It was a handshake. As a minister she had shaken thosands of hands - there was no way that this one should, or was any different.

Taking her head back after a quick shake she flusterdly patted her hair, checking that it was still in its hold, "I am Kallie Nikkala."

It was curious, this was one of the few women he had met with a firm handshake. He noticed that her hand lingered, and he was surprised to find that he didn't mind all that much.

She nervously began to play with her hair, and he saw that it fell down in golden waves.

"Kallie Nikkala. That's beautiful, it has a sort of ring to it."

"Thank you," she said with a small smile and a nod. "I never thought about it, but I guess it does."

She finished up the last Red Dragon, and then slid it up to the counter. She didn't like the flustered feeling she had been getting so she went for what she did best - business, even if it was of a different kind than she usually did.

"So, what else needs to be made?"

"Five Simison Steaming Stouts, and two Mermaid Kisses, whatever those are..." Eli looked out at the rest of the bar, surveying the crowd. "I love the people that come here. They always seem to go to alcohol for their problems, and they go to me for their alcohol. It's like dysfunctional psychiatry."

"Look over there, in the corner booth," there were a bunch of suspicious-looking people in long cloaks with hoods that kept their faces in shadow, "I wonder what they're talking about."

Kallie couldn't help but give a little smile as she flipped through the book, "One might think that the people who named these drinks sampled a few before they did so, no?"

"Alcohol does make an easy friend," she observed quietly. "It takes great will power to deal with a problem the hardway."

Kallie looked at the people in question for a long moment. They were the exact type of people that she could get information from, of course they wouldn't want to talk to her.

"I wonder indeed," she mumbled to herself as her eyes gazed unseeingly at the book. Her brain was back on business again - so much for a distraction.

He smiled at Kallie, not only was she pretty, but she also had a brain, which was pretty hard to find.

He looked over to the men again, "So Kallie, how good are you at chatting?" He poured a glass of mead and walked over to them, handing it to the one that seemed to be in charge of the meeting, "Compliments of my blonde friend behind the counter." The man looked up and smiled.

Upon returning he started to try and imitate what the woman was doing to mix the drinks, "That should reel at least one of them in. Who knows, get him drunk enough and you might get a good story or two."

He held up what was supposed to be another Red Dragon, "Man, I love this job."

Kallie looked up at the question, her brain not following what he was implying, until he walked over with the group. At least she was able to coach all her expressions of shock except for a blush. Maybe it would be believeable when they looked over at her.

"Eli," she hissed as he walked back, for once in her life her panic getting control of her, "I can't-" she stopped again, reeling in her emotions. This was a business, they could be up to something illegal. She did not have time for an Auror, it was her or nothing.

This was a plan. Kallie did plans.

"I can't believe you did that," she finally settled on, with a slight smile.

Kallie let out a little chuckle, and took his drink appraising it, "Not too bad. You're learning."

She was turning back to the book, and finally trying to figurout what a Mermaid kiss was, when she heard a throat being cleared at the counter. She looked up to see the man Eli had given the drink to.

"'Scuse me Sweets," he gave her a leering smile.

Kallie froze for a moment. Eli had asked if she was good at chatting and she had never had the opportunity to tell him the answer was no. But this was the plan. She could do plans.

Unfreezing she straighted her shoulders and let her accent come out thicker as she spoke, "Can I help you?"

Eli took out his wand and kept it under the table where the man couldn't see it, "Don't worry," he said to Kallie as the man walked over, "Just have fun with it. If anything get's out of hand, well, I've had some experience with things like that."

He smiled and went to pour some firewhiskeys for a couple of customers that had just walked in, but still keeping an eye on the other man. He looked interesting. This was gonna be fun.

"What if I don't know how to have fun," she muttered in Russian as she turned to the man and tried her best to push back any feelings of uncertainty or fear - she hadn't liked the suggestions that 'out of hand' had put in her head - and give the man a charming - flirting? - smile.

"I just wanted to thank you for this drink," he held up the glass, and continued to give her that unnerving look, "And I thought we could have a wee bit of a chat."

Kallie leaned on the bar. That was how people did it, didn't they? She really didn't know what she was doing at all. Men had never been interested in her, she didn't know how to interact with them normally. Or at the very least in a flirtatious manor.

"You Welcome," she said adopting a more sloppy, accented way of speaking, "But I no know if I know how to Chat? Yes? My english very," she adopted a blush and bashfully looked at the table, "how do you say... poor?"

Eli looked over at the girl, impressed. She was a particularly good flirt, especially considering she seemed so serious normally.

But there was something about the man. He was just so... so... Eli just didn't like him one bit. And it wasn't just because he looked extremely untrustworthy.

Someone's jealous, Eli shooed away the thought, and continued to watch Kallie just a little bit more carefully.

"Don't worry 'bout it Sweets," the man responded, leaning on the bar himself so they were only a small space between them now. Kallie had to resist the urge to move away herself. "I can do the talking and you can listen."

Kallie nodded, "Oh thank you - what you do for," she hesitated a moment as if she actually had to search for the word, " what's the word... dollars? Money?"

The man's answer was elusive at first, as Kallie had expected, but after a long conversation of Kallie's evasive attemps of flirting - and quite a few more on the house drinks (She would have to remember to pay Eli back for those) she got something far more interesting.

It seems that her new friend was part of an underground smuggling ring. Dealing with the more unrully things of the magical world.

"Oh my, is that no Danger?" Kallie gasped with fake concern, as her mind thought about how to bring his ring down, "You would want to-"

Her words were lost as the man leaned across the space and roughly place his lips on hers.

Eli clenched his fists when the man leaned in closer towards Kallie.

After a while, Kallie was able to pry an amazing story out of the man. He was surprised how many drinks it took him to loosen up, though. Then the man kissed her.

It took all the strength Eli had not to run over and punch the guy. Instead he quietly cast a confundus charm on him. Immediately, the man backed away from Kallie, flustered. Eli walked over to him, "I think you should go back to you friends, don't you?"

The man nodded and staggered away, mumbling something about having too much to drink. "I am so sorry," he said to her, putting his hand on her shoulder, "I had no idea that would happen. On the plus side, though, you did find out that he was involved in an underground smuggling operation."

He put away his wand, smiling, "I think you're better at this than I am."

Kallie froze, completely and utterly froze. Her mind went blank and she couldn't think of what to do. This wasn't how the plan was supposed to go, this wasn't how-how-

As the man backed away flustered she unconsciously reached up resting her hands on her lips. Her heart pounded and old images flashed across her mind. One face above all clicked into place and a pang that she had been ignoring for years began to throb again.

It was funny how violating something that she use to cherish, that she used to long for and day dream over could be when it wasn't from a person you admired - a person you wanted it from.

Except for the hand, which would not move away, most of this emotion had been pushed deep into her head by the time Eli had turned back to her.

"Its okay, I guess my flirting is better than I thought," she attempted to joke with a thin little smile, "I gave him the wrong intention."

Taking her hand, finally, from her mouth and letting it pull through her hair she took a deep breath, and pushed it back in her mind where emotions were meant to be kept.

"Well, I do not think he would have wished to kiss you."