Here we go

The day was off to a good start, kind of. Okay well not really. Everything seemed fine when he woke up, he'd gotten out of bed, taken a shower, gotten dressed and everything had seemed fine. Until he got out of the boy's dorms and into the Hufflepuff common room. His sister had thought it was funny to plan a few pranks against him and once he was in there, she cast all sorts of spells; charms and hexes, mostly hexes at him. His clothes ended up soaking wet and his hair and skin had turned different colors. Well, as if he couldn't already do that kind of stuff on his own. Changing his hair color was easy, and though his sister knew that, she thought it was funny to make his hair color change on her own.

his skin color changing was just an accident and Ryo remained that way for a bit before it just wore off. He didn't even fight with his sister about it and that seemed to piss her off. While she was still acting like a little four year old girl, he was actually acting like the grown up both of them were supposed to be. Sometimes he honestly thought that she still thought she was a toddler, which in many ways was bad for him. He'd gotten out of the common room and left the grounds, entering Hogsmeade quickly, before he apparated to the Ministry of Magic. Or to an alley near it was more accurate. He was always cautious when he apparated.

Ryo stood at the entrance for a long moment before he even stepped in. He'd only really been there once and he admitted that he was actually a bit frightened to be back in there. But he'd be going in there a lot more now, after all he was technically working at the Ministry now. He was told to go to the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures - catchy name isn't it? - and that was where he was heading now. He planned to go into that department once he graduated but he wasn't sure as what. He'd probably stay as an intern, but he wanted to be one of the Specialists, he didn't care which type of Specialist, although Being Specialist would probably fit him the best since he was a Vampire.

Jack skimmed the paper on her clipboard, mentally checking off the things that had been done and underlining those yet to be done. Her eyes reached a name, a three letter name followed by a diverse last name. She tossed her clipboard onto her desk and reached up to rub her temples. The day had barely begun and she was already swamped with work.

She stood and left her office, closing it carefully- someone had managed to curse her furniture when she had been careless to lock it. She was sure it had been the act of Robert Lupin himself, however, so he would have had it done, even if she had locked her office permanently. She had learned however.

She walked through the small conference room set aside for her interns. They were toasting Teddy on his success in a successful dragon trade. He would be flying out to Romania for a week in the coming days- which reminded Jack of his replacement, the Ryo boy. And if the kid worked out, he might be permanent.

If he could survive Bernice's scathing mood swings, Carnie's dry humor, and Jack's unpredictable demands.

Jack said, "I'm going to find the new one- don't drink all of the whiskey." She left and walked through the hallways until she reached the main entrance. Interns shuffled and followed busy workers, whilst secretaries got into traffic jams in the entrance of the copy room. Jack cleared her throat. "Ryo Hiroku? Ryo Hiroku."

He wasn't exactly sure where he was supposed to go or what he was supposed to do when he got there. Someone was probably supposed to go get him but until then what? Was he just supposed to stand there wait for the person to show up and take him wherever he was supposed to go? That seemed about right, especially for someone like him that had only been in the Ministry once before now. It's not like he was used to being in there, so he didn't know where anything was really.

The boy leaned against a wall, watching as other interns, workers and secretaries roamed around, trying to get their jobs done. He mostly let his eyes follow the interns who were following the workers, getting them on track with their duties. That was what he was going to be doing most of the time, right? Ryo raised an eyebrow as he sighed and shook his head. It seemed easy enough, if you could handle it. Everything about the Ministry seemed stressful to him, no matter how small the job seemed to be.

Ryo heard his name being called by someone and he looked around a bit, searching for the person who had called him. His gaze fell upon an older girl who was probably the source of the voice and he walked up to her. "That's me." he said, raising his hand slightly, before letting it drop to his side.

Jack heard a tentative response and said, "You'll have to be louder!" in her booming voice, causing most of the other interns and employees to quiet themselves, except for those Jack held in the highest esteem, who knew she would have no trouble talking over them and knew little acts of sucking up would do nothing to impress her. They continued on and Jack looked around.

She saw a limp hand in the air and she walked over to it, taking in a very slight boy. She looked him up and down and crossed her arms. "You'd better have some more enthusiasm and gumption, kid. You're going to be working with dragons, unicorns, and, worst of all, your peers. Are you up for that?"

She knew the boy was a vampire, and she was eager to have a vampire to be a help for his community. But this boy seemed slight, unenthusiastic. She pushed her doubts away and held out a hand to shake. "Jack Dyllan, Head of the Department."

Working with dragons and unicorns and any other type of magical creature was fine. He'd easily be able to handle that, but his peers ... not so much. Ryo was usually one to keep to himself, but he was going to try and change that now that he was here. It was something nessesary if he was going to survive in a place like the Ministry. Everyone usually talked to someone else here, and he might be one of those other people who was going to be spoken too and he couldn't be acting all antisocial around them.

"Aye aye." he said, grinning a bit and making a gesture that was supposed to be a salute. He had to start with her if he was going to get over his antisocial ... ness. She introduced herself as the Head of the Department and he blinked a couple of times. Now that just made him a bit more nervous, he was going to be interning under the Head of the Department ... great. He kept his smile on and shook her hand saying, "Ryo Hiroku. Nice to meet you, Ms. Dyllan." He felt a bit stupid for saying his name after she'd already said it before.

Jack grinned, holding his hand still suddenly as she said, "I said my name is Jack, not Ms." She smirked and released his hand, saying, "Nice to meet you Ryo. I suggest you bring a soda or coffee next time- you can't show up being too relaxed." The interns who always seemed at ease and were not energetic were usually the ones bowled over by a charging hippogriff or her team.

She turned, saying "Follow me." She led him back to her personal conference room and opened the door for him. "Ryo, this is my team. You'll be working with them as well as me. That's Teddy, that's Carnie, and Bernice. Teddy's shipping out to Romania this weekend so you won't be seeing him. This is Ryo."

They all nodded, way more interested in the champagne they had poured. Jack motioned Ryo to follow and she ducked out, leading him towards the beast facilities. "These are the creatures - dragons, griffins, pygmy puffs, kneazles, etcetera. Interns get a chore sheet of feeding and cleaning." She paused, turning and sudden;y asking, "How interested are you in helping vampires?"

Ryo blinked a couple of times, his smile dropping before it came back and he grinned at her. "Right. Jack. Sorry." he said, letting his hand drop to his side as she released it. "Alright, I'll remember to bring something next time." he nodded. Since he didn't drink coffee that much he'd have to take a soda, if he remembered that is. He had a tendency to forget things when he was focused on classes and such.

He followed Jack as she led him to, what he thought was, a conference room and he gave a small smile and nod to each of the people in there as Jack introduced them all. One of them was leaving during the weekend and he assumed that he was to fill his spot until he was back. Maybe, maybe not. It was all good for him anyways. They didn't seem all that interested in him, which caused a small grin to cross his face.

His attention was almost fully drawn to the creatures she started to show him after they'd left the other room. He always had been very fond of these kinds of magical creatures, and he was very happy that he would be able to be around them. His expression seemed to brighten when Jack said that interns get a chore sheet of feeding and cleaning. Most people wouldn't like doing that stuff, but it was with magical creatures, so he was perfectly fine with it.

When she asked him about his interest in helping Vampires, he got a bit more serious. How interested was he? Well considering he was one, he was very interested in it, but he was also interested in Werewolves. It was a bit odd, but he was. "It's something that interests me greatly." he told her. "But ... I'm also interested in what goes on with Werewolves." he said honestly.

So, the young intern was interested in werewolves, and that caused Jack to nod. She herself had joined with an interest in werewolves especially, focusing on them because of, yes, a boy. Now that they were getting on track, she realized she had been vastly ignoring the others. She had focused on poltergeists and werewolves, but nothing had been done at all for the vampires.

As it was, vampires were fairly accepted. Some muggle author had satirized their lives and led to an almost fetish-like acceptance of vampires, but employers still didn't trust them enough to give them jobs.

"We've been doing well with werewolves," Jack said. "We have job placement bureaus and foster families for those that are homeless. We are wary about involving interns- are specialists have rigorous training. We could prepare you to work with them, but you are in a special position to work with vampires. Our main trouble is we don't know what they need. We need to know what needs aren't being fulfilled. We were hoping you could help with that."

If he was understanding everything right, it seemed that they basically had everything but Vampires under control. That was actually understandable to him. People were more willing to accept Vampires than they were Werewolves and while they both needed attention, Werewolves were the ones that seemed to get in the most trouble with the public. He always actually felt bad for them, but a part of him always loathed them because of what they were and what he was.

He brought bis hand up to his face and lowered his gaze to the floor for a moment. When he looked back up at Jack he said, "Well, whatever you need me to do I'll do it." He was there to help after all. And how else could he help if not with his own kind. He knew their needs, worries, pretty much everything cause he's gone through those worries as well as his sister and uncle.

His answer was vague but it was enough of an affirmative to ensure that she thought he might at least try. She nodded and said, "Good." With that, she continued down the hallway, assuming the shy intern would catch on and follow after her. Jack and social grace were two different subjects completely. Anyone who knew her, however vaguely, knew she was not one to cater to the needs of etiquette. If Ryo was going to stay on for any length of time, he would surely catch up.

When he literally caught up to her, she said, "The biggest thing we need is someone to go into the field and actually speak to vampires. We have a few here that are re-cooperating from minor altercations that you can talk with, but start with students. Then you can take another intern into the field to talk to those out in the real world."

She suddenly crossed his path to approach a board full of clipboards. She looked through them and found an untitled one. She picked it up and scrawled Ryo's name on it, before signing the top. She handed him the clipboard and said, "Here. List of domestic duties." She laughed. On it, was check in times and the paddocks and stalls he was assigned to feed and clean on the days he came in.