Mike Ross had not been expecting his day to fall under the category of 'Wierd Shitting Coincidence'. Maybe, he could have predicted the 'Harvey Experienced the Shock Factor' part of his day - maybe, but even then he would not have ever anticipated Jessica Pearson being swept along as well. To be completely honest, he had not been prepared for the amazingly unlikely twist that had greeted him at work either.

He hadn't been late today, having managed to get a full six hours of uninterrrupted sleep, resulting in him waking up on time for once. Mike hadn't had to rush through breakfast or getting dressed, either, which was a bonus, and his ride to work could almost have been described a leisurely. Harvey had been in a good mood the day before, managing a particularly nasty merger between two companies that ended with his client getting a much better deal than any of them had thought possible going in, and in light of Mike's rather significant contribution to the case, he had not reamed him a new one for prioritising Louis' briefs for the next four hours. It had definitely been nice to have both his bosses acting amiable towards him at the same time for once.

Anyway, Mike had rode his bike to work, humming a pop song and only stopping to procure a thankyou coffee for Donna's help in with handling one Derek Seedman the previous day. Then, his day had proceded like normal, with Louis and Harvey stacking work on him and him occasionally dropping by to talk to Harvey, Donna and Rachel. It was just a reguluar, plain, ordinary day.

Until around 2pm, when Harvey came over and yanked his earbuds out.

"Up. We're meeting a potential client in Jessica's office."

Mike immediately dropped the folder he was holding onto his desk and rose, grabbing his messenger bag and recently-collected cup of coffee without looking, "Jessica's office?"

"Simply repeating what I've said makes you sound slow," Harvey said, and Mike decided to ignore that in favour of his own attack.

"Does Jessica not trust you to handle the client by yourself?" He teased.

Harvey didn't miss a beat, "When there's a new and potentially interesting client, Jessica likes to be in the meeting with two of us present. That way she can decide to fob the client onto her unfortunate subordinate without it seeming like they're being downgraded."

"So you admit that you're a downgrade from Jessica?" Mike asked, then frowned, "Hey, wait a minute - is that why you took me to meet-?"

"Yes," the older man glanced at him with his usual smirk. "Don't worry, Mrs Gardner loved working with you. In fact, she's admitted that she wouldn't mind if you were involved in all of her legal matters in the future."

Mike glared, but he didn't say anything as they finally stopped outside the office.

Still smirking, Harvey opened the door and turned his attention to Jessica, Mike trailing in after them.

"Harvey," Mike's boss' boss greeted.

"Jessica," he returned, "I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that we have a meeting with a potential client who is entirely new to this scene. Foreigner or only recently in power?"

"Both, as a matter of fact. He's an heir of some fortune in the UK, but he's young and has decided to bring part of his family's business over here. Other than that, I don't know much about him."

"Which is why I'm here, so you can pass the client off as soon as you figure out some way for him to be annoying to me."

Jessica smiled something sharp, "Precisely."

"Well, I can't say I was surprised."

"I'd be disappointed if you were."

"So, who's the mark?"

Before Jessica could answer, there was the sound of a PA clicking on, and Wendy's voice announced, "Ms Pearson, your 2:15 appointment is here."

"You're about to find out," Jessica replied to Harvey, before moving to the door, while Mike took the opportunity to relieve himself of his bag, taking a final gulp of his coffee so he would be free to shake any hands deemed neccessary. He was just turning around when he heard Jessica introduce the new potential client to Harvey.

"Harvey, I would like you to meet Mr Zabini-"

Mike snort-sprayed his coffee.

Harvey's immediate internal response was to glare at his associate in fury as the kid shot caffiene out his nose, but being the professional that he was, he didn't let that show on his face - not while 'Mr Zabini' was present anyway. (Besides, he knew that Jessica's retribution later on would be far more entertaining.) Outwardly he was, of course, preparing to apologise to the potential client, praying that some part of the meeting was still salvagable. Of course, that plan took a nose dive when Mr Zabini responded first, by glancing in the direction of Mike and doing an honest-to-God double-take.

Mr Zabini and Harvey's associate stared at each other in blatant surprise for one long, confusing moment, before Zabini blinked and got out a shocked, "Mike?"

Harvey stilled. How was his associate known to a foreign heir of a fortune!?

"Blaise?"

And WHY were they one a first name basis!?

"What are you doing here!?" Mike and Zabini both asked, before pausing, apparently recovering from their shock long enough to give small smiles. Mike waved his hand in a go-ahead gesture, and Zabini tilted his head in acceptance. What was going on!?

"Thought I'd expand my influence to America, and Hannah suggested I begin in the- in New York," Zabini caught himself and Harvey wondered what he was going to say - it was something Mike understood, judging by his facial expression. "Of course, if I'm operating in unfamiliar sphere's, then I need to best legal counsel there is to offer and, well, Pearson-Hardman is indeed impressive." As Zabini had explained his presence, his voice and stance had grown smoother and more charming, but he blinked again as he looked back at Mike, "But what are you doing here?"

"I work here."

"You-!?" Zabini began, then paused, looking contemplative, "You know what, improbabilities aside, I'm just going to accept that seeing as it's you."

Mike tilted his head gave an unneccessarily sincere, "Thank you."

Then Mike seemed to sense to gazes of both Harvey and Jessica on him and he looked up like a deer in the headlights. Christ, it was too easy.

"Well, Mr Ross, Mr Zabini, I was just about to introduce you, but it appears that you already know each other," Jessica said smoothely, but Harvey could tell she was just as incredulous as he was.

Mike swallowed, before his eyes darted to Zabini, who seemed to get the memo.

"Please, Ms Pearson, it's Blaise. As for this," he gestured between himself and Mike, "well, I must say I am just as surprised as you are. Mike and I go way back, and I had no idea he was working as a lawyer in America, although I suppose that makes sense."

...Well, that was helpful.

"Mr Ross is one of our most promising associates," Jessica compliemented and, really, today was just getting too weird. "And, please, call me Jessica."

Zabini laughed, "Yes, Mike was always interested in the cultural aspect of school, rather than any of the other acadamia. He managed to get or friends out of quite a bit of trouble over the years..."

Mike made a choked-off noise that Harvey suspected to be a repressed snort. Normally he would have been satisfied that his associate was learning, but right then he was more focused on this... situation.

"That reminds me," Zabini said, turning to face Mike fully. His voice was humourous, but Harvey could hear a prominent note of recrimination, "Hermione and Harry are going to kill you when I tell them I found you. You know, because you haven't written any of us in a year."

"Oh, I forgot to tell you guys I moved," Mike realised aloud.

"Yeah, Mike, you did," Zabini said, but then he grinned, "but my revenge will simply be watching you get attacked by Hannah tonight."

Mike groaned slightly, "Noooo, I don't want to diiieeeeeee."

"And then at Christmas when I drag Neville, Susan, Harry, Hermione, Ron, Luna and... you know what, this year we're doing a Christmas road trip to here, with all of our friends. Your suffering will be long and torturous."

It was a light statement. Humourous, probably, with the added context about those Blaise Zabini mentioned. Something casual and funny among friends, when one friend has made a misstep.

But both Zabini and Mike flinched once it was uttered. Not the kind of flinch that someone gave when a nerve was touched. Something deeper, more visceral and remembered. Maybe not everyone would have picked it up, but both Harvey and Jessica made their living by reading people and they saw it - they saw how both Mike and Zabini stilled in a torrent of dark, present memories. Any other circumstance and Harvey would have said something, made a distraction of some kind, but somehow he knew not to do that here. This was different. There were too many unknowns. What the actual hell was going on!?

But then, like the moment was simply a cloud passing over the sun, Mike recovered, brightening and saving both himself and Zabini from whatever situation had occurred, "Yeah, it definitely will be if you bring Padma. That girl is creative."

Zabini smirked, but Harvey suspected he was grateful for the lifeline, "Well, you would know."

"Shut up."

If Blaise had known, walking into his meeting at Pearson-Hardman, that he was going to run into Mike Ross, he would have brought Hannah. Blaise was good with people and able to use tact rather well, but his girlfriend had always been better at handling those of their friends who were more complicated, especially on such short notice. As it was, Blaise had had a hard time not floundering at the unexpected meeting with one of his oldest friends, which was understandable, although he was definitely kicking himself for the accidental quote of Voldemort.

Because the thing was, he hadn't seen Mike in too damn long, and he was bloody worried about the idiot. Mike had always been too mature, which sometimes translated into him being too distant, and Blaise knew that it had a lot to do with the hardships that Mike had faced while younger, although some of it could probably be attributed to his insane intelligence. Mike often reminded him of Neville and Harry in that way, as well as himself, althought hey had learnt very different types of life lessons at far too young of an age. When Mike, who had grown more quiet and pensive after the war, had suddenly taken off back to America, Blaise hadn't been the only one worried about the genius. How could he be?

The sarcastic scrawny little git who was so non-judgemental, apart from his complete intolerance for xenophobia (a word he had introduced to the Hogwarts' vocabularly), was loved by most of their year, and quite a few of the other ones. He'd been something fo a curiosity at Hogwarts, with his inability to choose magic over technology or British culture over American, and instead doing whatever he had to to shamelessly reconcile the world he was in then and his background, something that Blaise keenly respected. Mike had struck up a good rapport with the majority of the school, including the teachers, and those enemies he did have were often hard-pressed to get any shots in because of it. Mike had been a very different character among the school, even without considering how sharp his mind was.

So for him to steadily grow quieter, brooding when people weren't watching, Blaise had worried - a worry which only grew after his friend moved back to the States and away from all of their friends, friends who knew what he had gone through and who could try to help. He knew Harry in particular, had also been concerned, which hadn't surprised Blaise at all, because as much as the boy hero had to deal with, he owed a lot to Mike, who had saved his ass over the years at school and that one in the war. He had gotten Harry a part of the family he had always wanted, after all, by triggering the events that led to Sirius Black receiving a trial.

Blaise supposed, then, that it made complete sense for Mike to become a lawyer in New York. He'd meant what he'd said about Mike, and he was wickedly smart and he had no doubt that Mike got thrills out of being a lawyer. New York was also his last connection to his family - it was home for him in a way that Hogwarts and England couldn't be - and besides, it contained his Gram. He wasn't even surprised that Mike was living predominantly in the muggle world, since Mike had always preferred the modernity and acceptance of change, and not to mention the variety that the magical world simply didn't have. Hell, Blaise was able to see the charm himself.

"Jessica," Blaise turned to the boss of the firm, taking in the way she was shamelessly watching his interaction with Mike, like a fucking voyeur. He resisted the temptation to smirk at her guts. When he'd done his research on the muggle law firms in New York, he'd decided on Pearson-Hardman because of her. She was a strong, cunning, shark-like, independent woman who he suspected could eat him alive if she wanted to. She reminded him of his mother in that way - taking what she wants and fighting to keep it - although a lot less promiscuous. "I believe I would like to hire the services of your firm."

The woman in question didn't react in surprise, although he supposed she must think him naive to make his decision based simply on loyalty to a friend. That was fine, she would underestimate him if they ever ended up on opposite sides, and she wasn't entirely inaccurate. But Blaise trusted Mike - had since they were kids - and beyond that, he knew what kind of a person Mike Ross was because he had seen him when he was desperate, had fought beside him when he was desperate, and he knew that he was a smart man and a good man, as well as a largely honest one.

"We can draw up a contract now, if you wish."

Blaise nodded, "That suits me. Also, I want everything to go through Mike."

"That can be arranged."

Blaise smiled, turning back to Mike, "Now, why don't you tell me what you've been up to lately."

So, Mike had gone to a boarding school in the UK where he had befriended a rich kid who was now expanding his business to the US and becoming a client of the firm because he was friends with Mike.

Harvey had had stranger days, he supposed.

But still... it was an unusual situation, and rather intriguing. Maybe Harvey had better come to that Christmas that Mike's rich friend was organising for him. He had a feeling that it was not something that one should miss.