New places, new faces.

Jemma nodded. On one hand, she wasn't sure about this somewhat unconventional set of duties. On the other, at least he was upfront about it. She did value honesty, and at least he seemed pretty open about the fact lying was needed. Jemma decided she needed to be careful with this, but that she would go along with it, at least for now. She would rather know how corrupt the Ministry was than be oblivious to it. Or she was just being nosy, which people had accused her of being in the past. She couldn't help it when she kept Seeing things and wanting to know what may or may not lead up to them.

Jemma was unsure if he wanted her to go straight to work, if he wanted to question her or what. She hadn't worked for someone specifically in a while, was almost out of touch with employer-employee relations. Jemma looked around Mr. Shaw's office, well, the bit in front of his office. She spotted the filing cabinet, supposedly containing the necessary documents. There weren't many personal artifacts or anything around, though she supposed they would be in his own office. She wondered if the previous secretary had had things around. It was strange, Jemma almost felt like she had replaced someone, not a feeling she had ever had before.

"How long have you worked here?" Jemma asked, curiously, realising that she knew nothing about this man what so ever. He had said to ask any question, though he may have meant job-related, he didn't specify. Plus, it was job-related, just not to hers, she justified in her mind.

Jude was glad to see she seemed unaffected, thus far, by the conversation. He was worried be would have turned her off of the job and would be sifting through potential candidates yet again. He hoped Jemma was as no-nonsense as she had seemed in her file. He wanted someone who would take her work seriously and follow through with any tasks given her. It would be a shame to potentially lose that.

She offered a question that was a bit more personal that he had expected, but it pleased him nonetheless. He was his favorite conversational topic, after all. He took another drink and leaned back, thinking. "I joined the Ministry right out of school, so it's been seven years. I started out as an intern, but moved on to personal assistant, and I've been in nearly every position since, it seems. And now... here I am. I've been in this job for almost a year."

[[OOC: Idk if you want them just to go to work, or if Jude has any jobs for Jemma, or anything. Or to end thread & have something interesting happen another time or whatever. Your call.]]

Jemma nodded, not sure whether it was the right thing to ask or not. She hoped it was though, she liked to get along with people. She had a habit of seeing the best in people, which was good in some ways, but people had taken advantage of it before. Jemma was learning to be more wary of people, but old habits die hard.

"I know the feeling of being moved around." she responded, not sure whether to elaborate or not. Jemma certainly had had her fair share of jobs, plus a few others' shares while she was at it. She often ended up as secretary at the Ministry, had worked for most departments at this point in her life. She liked the fact that Mr. Shaw had worked his way up the Ministry, she valued hard work and got annoyed at people just getting top jobs easily. She had always had to work for what she wanted. And even then it was taken away from her due to reasons out of her control. Jemma always tried to be as fair as possible, but life just didn't work that way.

He grinned. "Oh, I know. I've seen your resume, remember? And your records. That's a great perk. You'll be able to peak into records anytime you wish, by the way. You'll never go on a bad date again." He smirked widely, always glad to brag about the perks of being so high up in the Ministry. He never had qualms about being proud of what he had accomplished. Never.

He clicked his tongue, drummed his fingers on the desk, and then took a drink from his glass. A thought struck him and his features lightened with the idea, quickly swallowing the drink and setting down the glass atop the desk. "Mmm! Actually, I do have a task for you, if you have no qualms about beginning. Once you get all settled in, I'd like you to get some orchids and send them to someone?" He pulled out a scrap of paper and quickly scrawled a name, sliding it over to her.

The name read : Cerelia Avery.

Jemma smiled, though she wasn't sure what to think about this revelation. On one hand, being able to read people's records was a privilege and she was curious as to certain things about certain people. On the other hand, she didn't want to invade people's privacy. She would have to draw a line, she told herself. Jemma wondered what Mr. Shaw's record was, though she assumed she wouldn't have access to it.

"Nope, no qualms." she responded, as he scribbled down something on a piece of paper. Picking it up, she repeated the name aloud.

"Cerelia Avery. Ok, will do." she said, not sure what to make of this somewhat unusual assignment. "Is there any sort of message you would like me to attach to it?" she asked, wondering if there was, and if so, if she really wanted to know much about it.

[[OOC: Would y'like me to tell Cerelia about it, or do you/her have some plot or w/e going on?]]

He thought curiously about, wondering how he should go about getting the message across to Cerelia. He was not meaning this as a romantic gesture, but mostly as an impressive stroke, making sure she had not completely forgotten him. He pulled out another piece of parchment and quickly wrote : Hope this doesn't get lost among the queue of suitors.

He rolled it up and tied it with a piece of twine, handing it to her. "Stick this in the bouquet for me, will you? If you hand deliver it, announce that it's a package from the Deputy Minister. If you owl it, just tuck on of our business cards in the arrangement."

((It's up to you. If you wanted to arrange a thread with Cerelia, that'd be cool. If not, I'll just let her know.))

[[OOC: Just looked her up. Jude is sending flowers to a sixth year student? My oh my xP! Dk how logistically for Jemma to go up to Hogwarts/Cerelia to come down to London. May shoot her a PM & ask.]]

Jemma nodded, taking the message. As curious as to why and who and what was the purpose of the flowers, she was sure that if Mr. Shaw had wanted her to read it, he wouldn't have sealed it. Plus, there was bound to be some form of spell to make sure nobody aside from Cerelia read it, it would be stupid not to, and he didn't seem like the stupid kind of guy.

"Will do. I'll just put it in the flowers. I'll give it to her in person if I can, but I may just have to owl it to her." she responded, scouring the table for a business card. She didn't know who this Cerelia was, but depending on where she was in the country and what she did, hand delivering the bouquet may or may not be possible. She didn't want to let her new boss down on her first assignment though, first impressions were key, as misleading or not as they may be, it was always the way.

"Is there anything else that I need to do, or is that all for now? Aside from settling in, the usual paperwork and such." Jemma asked, not wanting to miss out on anything.

((Yeah, it's a long story. XD She could either deliver it during a Hogsmeade weekend, or something.))

"Either way works," he said,almost grunting his response to his new secretary, as he was quickly growing bored of this conversation as he shuffled the important papers that littered his desk. One that came across it looked rather alarming - a frazzled mother upset because they wanted to expel her werewolf son as he was an obvious threat to those around him. He would need to deal with this.

He looked up. "That is all. Get settled. Send the flowers. Begin reviewing and getting familiar with my schedule, if you please. That will be all for today. Thank you, Jemma."

((Sorry about muse failure. I'd say your next post will probably wrap it up.))

[[OOC: Np, dw. I'm currently plotting for Jemma, wish PA had some older charries. Need some more drama for her! Yeah, this can be last post. We can plot another thread with them doing more interesting stuff if we like.]]

Jemma nodded, moving over towards her new desk.

"Will do, Mr. Shaw." she responded, shortly. He didn't seem like the kind of man who wanted to prolong conversations, and she doubted he liked small talk.

Jemma took her few personal items out of her box, and arranged them around her desk. it was different, having her own mini-room in the Ministry. Part of her liked it, but part of her was never sure what to think about the Ministry. Too much had happened in her past, she wasn't sure if she could ever feel properly settled here. It was a good job, she told herself, which paid the bills and got her out of the house. Which was what she needed most at the moment.

After scanning over the paperwork, she took it all in. She reviewed his schedule, seeing nothing to pressing for the moment. She took the piece of paper with Cerelia's name on it, and wrote underneath it 'orchids, send/deliver, asap'. This was Jemma's first opportunity to look someone up, as Mr. Shaw had told her earlier. She made a mental note to look her up later, wondering who her boss sent flowers to with Ministry resources. She then started to go through all of the documents, familiarizing herself with them all. Jemma wanted to make sure that everything was in order, and didn't want to be out of date on anything. It would take a while, but she was a patient woman.