Departmental Problems

Rivah Trenton let out a loud sigh of frustration. She liked Jack Dyllan, she really did, but the woman hadn't been the best Department Head. Long after she'd taken over the job, Rivah was still finding things that had been let slip, or filed incorrectly, or...oh. Reading the missive clutched in her hand once, and then again, the witch let out a string of curses. "This is what happens when you're not organized, Jack," the woman said through clenched teeth.

Standing abruptly, parchment still in hand, the witch left her office. Irritation was obvious in her stride, as she strode out of her own department. Rivah needed to find the Undersecretary, as soon as possible. Muttering under her breath, the woman strode into the nearest elevator. Two fingers jamming into the button of the floor she assumed the man would be occupying, Rivah took the rest of her time in the empty lift to compose herself.

Strutting out as soon as the magically-run automatic doors opened, the powerful woman began to scan the area for the wizard she needed. Catching a glimpse of him of him walking briskly away from her out of the corner of her eye, Rivah attempted to catch up. After a minute of speed-walking, the Department Head finally caught up to the Undersecretary.

Still walking along side him, the witch attempted to get his attention by saying, "Mr. Shaw." When she was ignored her eyes narrowed. Inwardly she wondered if this man was another one of those idiots who thought that a woman couldn't run a department. "Mr. Shaw, it is imperative that I speak with you," the witch tried again. Once again, Rivah was ignored. "Mr. Shaw, I am the Head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, and I need to speak to you about a matter of the upmost importance," Rivah announced with a bit of bite to her tone.

On his return from his lunch break, Jude tried to get from the atrium to his office as quickly as possible. Everyone seemed to think that on a full stomach, and after a stout tumbler of gin, Jude would just love to hear their suggestions, complaints, and grievances. Really, after lunch, all Jude wanted to do was sneak into his office so he and Elijah Krum could have their daily drinking and griping session. He used to come in with a cheery attitude at this time, until he realized people were intent on getting him on his own to bother him with their problems.

So, today, he was intent on escaping through the atrium and securing himself in the lifts with no guests.

He looked across as he walked and briefly made eye contact with the new Head of the magical creatures department. He narrowed his eyes as though to say 'don't you dare' but dared she did.

So, he gave her the cold shoulder as she walked alongside him. As he jabbed the button on the lift she rattled off some long complaint and he let out a long groan, rolling his head to look at her. "What is it, then?"

As soon as the rude Undersecretary let out a reluctant response, Rivah pounced. "Well, I'm sure you know of our problems involving the Russian Ministry, especially involving creatures and beings, and well, just look at this," the woman rattled out, shoving the papers held in her right hand towards the man.

The writing told of something that was not in any way good news. Of course, there was a small chance that the whole thing just blow over. The true probability of that happening though, was much smaller that Rivah would like to think.

It was at times like this when the woman wondered why she'd ever even accepted her job. She'd been quite happy as the Department's best Spirit Specialist, hadn't she? Wincing slightly as another thought came to her, the woman wondered exactly what the already irritated man's reaction would be to her less than pleasant delivery.

Jude loved his job. He had the power to almost literally give and take life. He could control people's living conditions, their finances, their familial circumstances - everything was at his fingertips if he really chose to put his mind to it. He earned respect just by rattling off his ridiculously long name and almost as long job title, and his stature was revered in the halls of the great Ministry.

But there was one major downside.

His employees expected him to do his job.

He groaned and then smiled as the lift dinged and the doors slid open. It quickly emptied and he stepped inside, turning to the blonde nightmare before him. "Sounds like a tough problem. You seem bright enough to figure it out." He ignored the papers in her hands as the doors began to close...

Rivah was infuriated. Yes, she was very bright. Yes, if this problem was just involving creatures the woman would surely have handled it on her own. However, if Mr. Shaw had bothered to read the damned papers, he would realize that it was possible than England was about to be involved in yet another war!

Shoving her foot in the way of the elevator doors, the sensors caught the movement and began to re-open. She was not letting the Undersecretary get away from her right now. Stepping into the lift and pressing the button to close the doors, she turned to the only other person in the enclosed space.

"Mr. Shaw, whatever your reason for ignoring this problem may be, I am almost certain that it is not nearly as important as Russia practically proclaiming war on us," the witch announced through gritted teeth. Perhaps it would have been easier for her to just go straight to the Minister.

She was very lucky she was good-looking. Annoying and attractive did not always work together. There was a level of attractiveness where the annoying actually reduced how good-looking the girl was. This woman was very lucky. She was just above the line where she was considered attractive in spite of how annoying she was. Besides, if he really tried, he could consider this a good thing. She was probably great at her job. Which meant success.

He turned to look at the blonde, sighing heavily, looking incredibly exasperated at her persistence. "War, huh?" He wanted to stress how trivial it seemed to someone of his great stature. "Let me see those papers, then."

Rivah was not impressed. The man in front of her had hardly changed his facial expression throughout their entire conversation. He was still acting as though their entire talk was of little to no importance. Exactly why such useless posturing was needed, was quite the mystery to the woman.

Handing the papers stiffly to the male, she allowed her irritation to show through her body language. "You'll want the second page," the witch informed Jude simply. The first page was mostly babble, and the last few papers were all facts and numbers. The entire letter was important, but it was the second page that would quickly tell one what they needed to know about the situation.

Jack looked over the papers, looking as though e truly had better things to do than to prevent a silly little war with Russia. He was holding out on the kicker - he knew how to handle the Russian Prime Minister, especially if it had to do with the Department of Magical Creatures, but he figured he had better get the low down in case the guy was actually serious.

He chuckled. There was no threat.

He held out the papers to the blonde and smiled, "Send him a bottle of Vodka and a dragon scale. It'll shut him up. Trust me." Being in his position long enough meant he had learned the tricks to messing with the heads of the most influential men in the world. "He would hate to know that the new Department Head knows he has a bit of a poaching problem. Even worse if she knew it was induced by alcohol." He narrowed his eyes on her, looking like a very tired parent. "Is that all you needed of me? Am I allowed to get back to work now?"

Rivah just watched calmly as the Undersecretary scanned the papers and informed her of what should be done. The woman allowed a bit of a smirk to form at the valuable piece of blackmail Mr. Shaw gave her. The witch knew how to work with that.

She wouldn't go so far to say that it was her forte, but she was certainly good at it. People never quite seemed to expect such things from her. She'd ramble fact upon fact, before hitting them with the blackmail, and continuing with useless statistics. It was a great shock tactic, and she had always enjoyed watching the reactions.

It truly was a shame that this man had such an irritating personality, with looks as attractive as his. "Of course you may Undersecretary Shaw, and thank you," Rivah said, voice as sweet as honey, and face reflecting the same.

He had to say, he was a bit proud of himself. Being able to flaunt his abilities always made him feel a bit excited to know how much power his position really held. Handing over the papers with a certain outcome flooded his mind with self-assuredness. And watching her expression change to a smirk, surely implying that her mind had also changed to the positive, settled him greatly.

Yes, he was very pleased with himself, thank you very much.

She took her papers and the elevator dinged, causing the doors to shutter open for him to exit. He took a step out and lightly rested a finger on the button. He looked her up and down and smirked. "Tone down your voice by an octave. And always wear your hair down like that - it looks good. You'll make it." He hit the button and the doors slid closed.