Manditory Ministry Staff Meeting

Jack stared at Zada and could tell the woman was taking her age into check, her attitude, and was assuming she was some trainee still learning the ropes. Well, if this woman was really as good as she thought she was, she would have known Jack was so good at what she did she had an elevated role in the department, right below Zada, and was working on things that the Ministry had never even tried to handle. But she could not be as good as she thought she was- no one could be as good as Zada thought herself to be.

"Ah, so the former option. All 300 or so employees of the Ministry for one meeting. Got it. Shall I round them up now? As well as the security guards watching the doors? And the unpaid, volunteer interns that make up another seventy five people or so? I also heard we have I small informal trial going on downstairs. Shall I fetch them, leaving the accussed for a few hours while we enjoy your power trip?" Jack moved to the door, pointing out of it, as though asking if Zada wanted her to go do all she had suggested. She glanced at Zoe and nodded, telling her after this answer, she would relax.

"I do not want you to fetch anyone," Zada said. "Had I wanted you to do so, I would have asked you. I gave your supervisor an option but I don't recall giving it to you. I believe my wording was quite clear in itself. I do believe that I said I would deal individually with those staff members who did not attend, and I will do just that. I suggest you calm yourself. It does appear your supervisor has made her decision. It is all the same to me." And it truly was all the same to her. She rarely gave any unpleasantness a second thought once it was done with. It was, in part, what made her good at her job.

The pushback they were getting had already been calculated, anticipated, and planned for. The Lupins had had their hooks into the wizarding world for a long time, and it was not going to be easy to malign them or get their now 3 generation legacy out of the minds of the wizarding public. That had been calculated in as well, though. And besides that, Gellert had told her she could do what she wanted with those who gave far too much pushback or just did not attend. That had provided her with some satisfaction. she was calm and relaxed. As she saw it, perhaps she and Emof were the only ones in the room without a case of nerves.

She had seen the boy collide with the black marble wall. "Do be careful, Boy," she said. "Those walls have not moved in a long while. You might practice moving for them rather than hoping they will move for you. You should consider resuming your seat beside Potter there before you hurt yourself."

Zoe couldn't help but get a bit frustrated. This woman thought she had a lot more power then was obviously true. As it was... Zoe put her folder aside, and looked up at Zada. "I don't think you understand who you are talking to Ms. Forbes... Ms. Dyllan is my special assistant, and in my books, that ranks her a step above you... you may be friendly with our Minister, but that doesn't give you the power to boss around the people of my Department, they are where they are supposed to be, and if you dare to lay a finger on their heads, I will speak to Grindelwald personally..." Zoe had said this all in a soft whisper, making sure no one else could hear it over the chattings of the other's in her departments, nobody but of course, the people she wanted to hear it.

"You are not the head of my department Ms. Forbes... and if you wish to contact my staff, then you must go through me, and have me present during the interview.." She said curtly, before looking at Jack. "Please sit down Ms. Dyllan... it is obvious she only wishes to pick on our department, seeing as we work with things beyond what she can handle." She said loud enough for everyone to hear. "I'd like to see her tackle some of the Creatures you deal with everyday..." She smirked slightly and looked up at Zada. In her opinion, she was nothing better then the Vampires she hunted nightly, and it was always better to see them laying on the ground with a stake in their hearts.

Looking defeated, Calvin fell down upon his chair once more, unintentionally causing it to rattle and squeak obnoxiously. No longer was there any need for him to fly about the room to rid himself of his exes energy, for the fear of Chase being punished for not attending the meeting had done a fine job of draining Calvin. The "invitation" that remained within one of Calvin's pockets seemed to have gained a ton with the way it had begun to weigh him down.

Calvin extended his gangly legs out in front of himself, and folded his trembling fingers in his lap. He did not dare to look in any other direction that at the door, through which any newcomers would arrive. He was in the presence of many unknown - to Calvin - wizards, who seemed keen to pick fights with one another, and Calvin in no way desired to be made a part of those arguments.

The reactions that people had to power were incredibly strange. Some became subserviant, some rebellious in their own quiet and nondescript way, and some of course settled for the more emotional and loud outbursts, drawing attention to themselves in all the wrong ways and pretty much all for no reason.

Striding out from behind one of the huge flags displaying his own family crest he made his way to Zada's side, placing his hand on her shoulder and nodding to her before pointing at Jack, his eyes narrowing and his mouth set in a firm, thin line.

"You girl," he said, his voice echoing throughout the Atrium and rising above the din of the talking workers. "Be silent or leave at once," he commanded. "And you, Ms Gould, I will trust you to keep your pets on a tighter leash in the future," he added, peering at the Head of Department.

"I will, however," he said, "Answer your question. Yes, I do expect you all to stop your work and come here when a meeting is called. Why? Because I asked you to do so. Trials can wait, creatures can die and productivity can stop altogether. If you have any issues with that... well, you're more than welcome to meet me in my office and we can," he said, pausing for a second to look at Jack once more, "discuss... the matter on a more personal level," he said, resuming his sweep of the crowd once again.

"Now, from now on I expect you all to do exactly as your job requires, if you're unsure as to what that is, just do as you are told. If you cannot do this then you are not doing your job, to be blunt," he told them all, before stepping back so that Zada took the forestage again. "Ms Forbes."

And then... Grindelwald was taking action. Well, at least he had more reason to think himself high and mighty, whereas this woman was a nobody. He took his spot next to Zada, obviously endorsing her and showing off his support in her- Jack hoped he did not think he was being subtle. His movements were all intentional to her.

At his words, she shrugged and began to stand- she was not going to sit through this all and pretend like she had nothing to say. She was not going to sit through Grindelwald spewing terrible things and clamp her mouth shut and smile and nod. She had never been that person, and she was not about to become the kind of person to conform.

But she felt someone reach out and grab her arm, pulling her down. She turned and stared at the figure, seeing that the brave soul was Teddy. His eyes reached her and he tilted his head forward, asking if this was something she really wanted to miss with his eyes. She sighed and pulled her arm away. She dropped her arms into her lap and turned to look at Grindelwald, who had just threatened her. "Leave my intern a message anytime, we can chat," she said, her blood boiling.

It was appropriate and even expected for Jennifer Dent to be late but she never would have imagined having a Greyback Werewolf in tow, let alone one that was claiming to work for the Department of the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Jen didn’t suppose Ms. Gould had hired him for anything other than for his expertise in the Werewolf section. Foul, loathsome beasts though they were, Jen was sure that they would, Ariel in particular, come in handy when the time came to envelope them in the ranks. Jen was still the same as she always was. Just because there was a new Dark Lord Wannabe didn’t mean she was going to change for him. She was still rude, abrasive and, most interestingly, late to everything. She didn’t begrudge Ariel of his aversion towards the staff meeting either because she herself was in a similar pickle. Neither of them wanted to go but both had to -- for fear of the axe man making it so they weren’t only short a job but a head as well.

The marble floors, having been freshly polished that morning, were making the pair slip and slide and so if one was to listen close enough then one would hear the light laughter leaving both of their mouths as they tried to navigate their way across the floor in their shiny shoes. Ariel looked a little worse for wear, tired too. Jen wasn’t privy to the goings on within the department and she certainly wasn’t going to ask the brat where he’d been for what looked like at least a couple of weeks. He was jovial, though his eyes betrayed his fatigue. Jen knew that however much he wanted to collapse into the welcoming sheets of his bed, he couldn’t - not yet at least. She wished she could do the same but she hadn’t been doing nearly as much work as he seemed to have been doing. She just hoped the meeting wasn’t entirely useless and a waste of their time.

Jen couldn’t hide her distaste at the redecorating that had been done in the Atrium. The Ministry was painted in much of the same garb as this beheld but there was a higher concentration of Grindelwald in the Atrium and, as loyal as Jen was to him at present, she hadn’t taken to the splendour of it all as much as others had. In fact, Jen had gone as far as to tear down the flags that they’d placed in her department. She knew eventually that such an act would come back and bite her but currently she cared very little about that. She took it all as an insult, that was the bottom line, and it seemed as if the Wizarding World had grown naive under the false sense of security Voldemort’s death had brought. So much so that they’d forgotten to do their reading; they’d forgotten who Grindelwald was.

Jen glanced at the weary Werewolf by her elbow and allowed a small smirk to fall upon her lips as she swept into the area which had been turned into a meeting area for everyone. With false cheer in her voice, she raised her hand and waved mockingly before exclaiming, “I hate to miss a party. I think Greyback has ‘Pin the Tail on the Dragon’ in his satchel so we can play that after the candles have been blown out. What’s the occasion?” Jen pushed Ariel forward, which was surprisingly easy considering who and what he was. “Gould I think you lost this, picked him up chatting to a pretty little brunette by the fireplaces earlier on. Nice girl, strange smile. Oh, my apologies, please do continue. I believe you were all going to collapse into conflict before we arrived. As you were!”

Stumbling through the fireplace that morning felt fantastic. As he’d done so, his feeble grasp on the strap of his back loosened further and it dropped onto the marble floor, followed not a second later by its owner who had collapsed without further thought as to where he was. It was there that he’d lain himself down, his cheek pressed heavy against the cool marble that smelt heavily of the polish that had no doubt been applied the night before. Ariel took those moments to regain his bearings and to breathe some life into his self once more. It had been a long few months. He hadn’t thought to tell anyone where he was going, or what to do if he didn’t come back. His father knew of course, but somehow Fenrir always knew about his son’s intentions - fatherly instinct, Ariel supposed.

At the time, Ariel had accused Reg of being insane when he’d suggested they try the Black Forest for a Werewolf that had been nought but trouble all around Europe. He’d begged Ariel to go with him and the group of interns he’d intended to take. Ariel had rationalised that it was only one Werewolf and they weren’t trying to catch it as they were more interested in trying to track it. When they’d arrived it quickly became apparent that Reg had underestimated the numbers. Instead of one, there were six and throughout the time they were there the number seemed to get bigger and bigger. It was during one of the full moons, the penultimate of their trip, Ariel remembered, that Ariel came into use. It hadn’t ended badly, per se but just like Red, Ariel had underestimated also and he’d paid for it much more dearly.

Ariel wasn’t short of an arm or a leg but his pride was bruised and so when a quirky brunette peered over the rims of her half-moon glasses at him from where she stood, clutching folders tightly against her chest, Ariel couldn’t help but feel a little bit better. It was there that Jen found him, conversing quietly with the skittish brunette who was eager enough for the both of them. Ariel, broken, weary and just about ready for bed, had expressed his lack of desire to go to the staff meeting as soon as Jen happened upon him. Unfortunately though, she wasn’t going to take no for an answer and so he found himself following her through the Ministry to the Atrium where everyone - or, well, nearly everyone - had gathered.

“Please forgive us for our lateness,” Ariel murmured, his scabbed lips parting to utter the few words needed before he nigh on collapsed into one of the chairs. He thumbed his fingers through his hair, fluffing it slightly before rubbing his eyes and running his thumb across the scabbing cut across his cheekbone. He was hardly the picture of elegance and grace at that point in time but in his defence he’d only been doing his job. They couldn’t ask more than that of him.