Desmond likes Professor Shaun Roberts, and he'll defend the man and his work ethic from any who would try to say something mean, but that doesn't stop Desmond from somewhat dreading their weekly appointments to discuss the education overhaul. He'd been so excited about it at first, but by the end of November it's become exhausting and a bit demoralizing. It feels most days like absolutely nothing is going to be getting done education-wise - there are just too many moving parts and too much tradition embedded into both school systems for any change to be possible in twelve months.

Today he's feeling a little more optimistic than usual though, since he'd finally gotten Shaun to budge on changing the Muggle Studies teacher to an actual Muggle, and allowing him or her to revamp the curriculum for the incoming third years. It will ultimately have to result in a change to the OWLs and NEWTs for that year going forward, which in turn will mean a shift in world-wide Muggle Studies curricula, but Desmond thinks it's a worthwhile and logical starting point. Really, it's only one class - he feels like this should feel less like pulling teeth than it has up to this point.

But the budge had been made the week before, so now Desmond is hopeful that today will be spent discussing the logistics of the reformed class material and he'll get to leave feeling like something was actually accomplished this time. When Alex has submitted more proposals in the week he's had a specialization than Desmond has in the three months that he's been working with Shaun, well, it's annoying, to say the least.

But today he'll get to write up a report on the new Muggle Studies work, and who knows? Maybe he'll be able to get something started on universalizing the program too. Probably wishful thinking, but he's in a surprisingly good mood today, so he'll stay optimistic for now.

He and Shaun have moved their weekly meetings to the weekend, so as not to interfere with any of Shaun's teaching or Deputy Headmaster duties, and so it's a Saturday morning when Desmond trots into the Leaky Cauldron and asks Hannah for his usual.

"Shaun might be a bit late today." The blonde woman warns as she pours him some coffee. "A few students were caught out after curfew and apparently they were planning something worse than the usual night time mischief, so he and Headmaster McGonagall  have to deal with them this morning."

"How does the punishment system work? At my school we usually call in the parents, but I imagine that would be difficult at Hogwarts." Desmond muses, and Hannah leans against the side of his table to chat, letting her barmaids handle the rest of the morning customers.

"It is, but they manage. There are emergency owls that can fly any package anywhere within twenty-four hours, and the fireplaces can be adjusted to allow for long-distance calls." She grins lightly. "So it is essentially brining in the parents, it just takes a bit more planning."

"Hence his being late." Desmond concludes. "Fair enough. It's kind of nice to know that some things are consistent no matter what kind of school you go to."

Hannah laughs. "I'll take your word for it - I was homeschooled until I got my Hogwarts letter."

Desmond tilts his head, his mind suddenly lighting up with new ideas. "Is that right? Do magical children usually get homeschooled then?"

Hannah looks at him curiously, and then slides into the seat across from him, a small smile playing around her lips. "I know that look - you've got a new idea, don't you? Well, let's see if I can help." She says cheerfully. "To the best of my knowledge, yes, most magical children who know they're magical are homeschooled. Some will go to Muggle schools until they're eleven, but that's not a very common practice. What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking we make attending Muggle school until eleven a little more common. Maybe not mandatory yet, but it would give them the basics so they're more easily able to move between worlds when they're older." Desmond says, increasingly excited as his mind flicks over the possibilities. "It would also ultimately make integrating math and science into the Hogwarts curriculum a lot easier, since students would be starting from the same place!"

Hannah is watching him talk with mixed amusement and trepidation. "It's a good idea." She agrees, "But maybe ease up there a bit. That sounds like an extremely long-term project - maybe focus on the Muggle Studies stuff for now?"

Desmond blinks and frowns. "Well, yes, of course. But it's good to have long-term goals." He points out, hoping he doesn't sound as petulant as he feels. He's gotten to know the owner of the Leaky Cauldron well over the past few months, and he'd really thought Hannah of everyone would be more onboard with a quicker integration - she's sweet, open-minded, and often scolds Shaun when he shuts down Desmond's bigger ideas too quickly. Heck, it was mostly thanks to her and her impressive ability to patiently talk things through with Shaun that the Deputy Headmaster even agreed to starting a shift in the Muggle Studies curriculum.

She smiles at him kindly. "Of course, and I think long term it's a brilliant idea. I'm just reminding you to focus on one thing at a time - I'd hate for anything to be lost in the cracks when this is such an important part of the Integration process."

Desmond sighs - she's right, and he does tend to get ahead of himself (and, often, statistical possibilities) when he's focused, but it's still frustrating. He only has a year, after all - he wants to walk away in August knowing that things are on the right track and won't be veering off on some unhelpful or even detrimental tangent when he's no longer running things.

Her smile shifts to something sympathetic - Hannah has an uncanny ability to read people's emotions no matter how well they're hidden - and she pats his hand over the table. "You're doing good work. Hard work. You're building a foundation on which everything else is going to rest. Focus on making sure it's stable, yeah?"

He smiles at her in return, tense but honest. "Yeah. Yeah, I know. Thanks Hannah."

"Should I be telling Neville something about this?" An amused voice speaks from beside their table, and Hannah laughs as Desmond jerks his hand away even as hers continues to rest lightly and unashamed in the center of the table.

"Just that he better well be thankful for Hannah." Desmond says, and she laughs and stands up again, gesturing for Shaun to take her seat.

"You flatter me Desmond, I'm just doing my job." She insists. "The usual Shaun?"

"That would be great, thanks Hannah." He agrees, and the blonde hurries off, summoning the coffee pot and refilling a few mugs as she goes, much to the delight of the other patrons.

"Sorry I'm late-" Shaun starts, but Desmond waves him off before he can finish.

"Hannah was just telling me why." He says. "Let's just get started? I brought a few ideas on how the adjustment to the Muggle Studies curriculum could be started."

They work for about half an hour, and though Shaun has shot down a few ideas they've managed to rework most into something that can be started within a relatively short time frame. It's at this point that the Hogwarts consultant drops a bomb out of nowhere and completely screws over all of Desmond's careful planning.

"I think we ought to think about bringing in consultants from the public magical schools. This would affect their curriculum as well." Shaun is frowning as he speaks, not looking up from the charts Desmond had put in front of him. "I was hoping we could use Hogwarts as a test case scenario, but this is too big and too rapid for that. They'll need to change their courses simultaneously and we'll probably need to set up a group to consult over how it is or isn't working."

Desmond blinks, staring at him for a long moment as he processes what Shaun had said.

"There... there are public magic schools? It's not just Hogwarts?"

Shaun shakes his head. "Of course not - the magical population is honestly growing too quickly to house them all at Hogwarts - in the past hundred years we cater to about a quarter of the English magical population, give or take. There are smaller schools set up inside magical neighborhoods where other students go for their magical training at age eleven."

Desmond frowns at the table. "How do you decide who goes to Hogwarts and who doesn't?"

"Oh, we don't. The registry was charmed by Rowena Ravenclaw and letters are sent automatically in June each year." Shaun replies.

Desmond hums, still frowning as his mind races to try and combine this new knowledge with his old presumptions to try and figure out exactly how drastically this will affect his plans. "I... so you have no idea who gets letters and who doesn't?"

Shaun hums. "So far as I can tell, Muggleborns get priority, probably because they obviously have no other access to magic and can't exactly be taking it home with them every day to practice. After them is actually Purebloods - half-bloods seem to be the group least likely to get an acceptance letter." He shrugs. "Though again, I can't confidently say that's absolutely the truth, it's based only on my own limited observations and conclusions."

Desmond chews at the inside of his lip. He can feel himself mentally spiraling, the new information scattering his carefully constructed plans and understandings and leaving chaos and frustration in its wake, and he can't quite seem to get a handle on his own thoughts anymore.

Normally he'd go to Estelle in a situation like this, but she's stopped trying to reach out to him recently - obviously he's screwed that up beyond recovery now (though he's still upset about her following him, so he's not sure how sad he really is about that right this moment).

Shaun at least lets him process, sitting quietly and letting Desmond take his time. Finally, Desmond takes a steadying breath, realizing he hasn't really been breathing, and looks up from the table.

"Right. I think they should be brought in, yeah." He agrees, wincing at his own informality and obvious imbalance. "When exactly would it be possible to arrange that? And we should probably do it elsewhere - the Leaky is nice but it's not really set up to host that sort of meeting."

Shaun hums in agreement. "Let me touch base with them and get them up to speed - that's easy enough to do one-on-one - and then we can see about having a small conference of some sort. We can host at Hogwarts, or in the Initiative offices if that's possible? It might be better to do it that way."

Desmond nods, still somewhat off-kilter as he does. "I can write up a proposal for the leaders and see what they have to say - we'd have to organize around the other consultations." He replies carefully, proud that he's regained some control over his tongue. "I'll give you the response next week?"

Shaun nods easily. "Sounds like a plan. I think we can wrap up here for now then? Unles there's another angle you wanted to try?"

Desmond shakes his head mutely, and they part amicably for the day. Desmond thinks as he walks back to the Ministry, turning over the new information and finding himself increasingly irritated with each step. Every time he thinks that maybe things are starting to look up, or at least clear a path, something new gets flung in the way. At least he does get to write up a report for once, but it's not the one he was hoping for.

He sighs and steps into the entrance lift, trying to shake off some of his mood as he descends, not wanting to bring it back into the offices.

He ends up failing this particular goal miserably - he's barely sat back down at his desk when a frowning Kylee is looking over from her own.

"Are you alright? You seemed so excited about your meeting when you left this morning." She observes, and he sighs and leans back in his chair.

Fergus is the only specialist not present, but Alex is starting determinedly at his own paperwork in a clear attempt to stay disengaged from their conversation, so Desmond turns to fully face Kylee.

"It went well, or as well as it could, I suppose." He groans, leaning back in his seat again. "I guess I'm just sick of Shaun always coming up with one more reason we have to slow everything down. Again."

"Magical people don't like changing - they'll make everything up to and including the laws of physics bend before they do." Alex says snidely, and Desmond surprises them both by laughing.

"Sorry, I know you weren't joking, but I'm a science teacher." He apologizes at Alex's glare. "I might have to use that one at some point."

Kylee hums, also clearly amused. "You're not wrong though." She says after a moment, and it takes both Desmond and Alex a moment to realize she's talking about Alex's comment, and another moment each to actually process her agreement. Kylee can practically feel Alex's defenses slam up when he realizes she'd just agreed with him.

She plows on - she's already opened , may as well follow through on it after all - explaining her thoughts. "It's human, just in general. Think about it - the civil rights movements for women and minorities have been ongoing for literally hundreds of years, and even if there's an increased interest in them these days, it's still really slow going. Societies, cultures, they change slowly. And honestly, that's not a bad thing - if something can be changed overnight, that means it can change back just as easily."

"And with magic being hidden having been built up and ingrained for years, it'll take some time for it to open up again." Desmond sighs, and Kylee offers him a smile.

"But change can happen. Just think about approaching it in bite-sized steps instead of getting too caught up in the bigger picture. It's good to have an outline, but if you don't build a good foundation-"

"You'll lose stuff in the cracks." Desmond interrupts with a tired laugh. "I know, I've actually already gotten this lecture already today, if you can believe it."

Kylee offers him another smile before turning back to her proposal - she'd gotten an owl from Caldwell announcing they're beginning full research into Pepperup alterations for Muggle consumption and she wants to get the details of that to the leaders as quickly as possible. Once's she's finished the write up she promptly hops up and heads towards the leaders' office.

It takes her a moment to realize that she's being followed, and she slows down to glance behind her, expecting Desmond or maybe Landon who sometimes approaches them with questions about their work. Instead she's startled to find Alex standing behind her, shifting uncomfortably under her gaze.

"Um, hi?" She offers after a moment. "Can I help you with something?"

He frowns heavily at their feet for a long moment before huffing out a breath. "How can you be so... calm, I guess, about all this? You're a Squib - you know how awful the magic world is."

She pauses, considering. He's not wrong - she knows the stinging pain of not fitting in, of watching her world turn away from her, feeling like she's no longer a part of it. But... she also knows how it feels to reconnect with that world, but in a way only she can. It took time to get there, of course, and she's honestly still working on taming a lot of old anxieties, but that's not what needs to be said right now.

She tries to find the right words to explain the jumble in her mind, and surprisingly Alex seems to be waiting patiently (if perhaps a bit smugly) for her to recenter herself.

"I know it can be awful. I know the Muggle world can too. Life absolutely is just, well, part of life really." She says slowly, still feeling out the words even as she speaks. "I've found that when you choose to focus on only the negatives, you end up missing out on the positive possibilities when they appear. Plus, being angry all the time is just exhausting, and not really helpful for anyone." She shrugs, feeling like that really wasn't as eloquent as maybe it should have been, but Alex's smugness has faded somewhat into slight confusion.

"...Whatever." He says after a moment, turning to go back to their desks. Kylee watches him walk away for a few moments before returning to her original goal. Hopefully she's at least given him something to think about.

Diana is very rarely late for anything ever, and she prides herself on that fact. Which is making today that much more aggravating - not only is nothing going the way she really needs it to be going, but the mess her day has turned into has made her late for her meeting with Landon and Rose.

Unfortunately she can't just leave her current work - she's on a time crunch and if this isn't solved now it may end up lingering right into the New Year, messing with several other projects in the meantime.

"What I fail to understand Mr. Addams, is why you can't just allow us to observe your training program. We aren't asking you to start training non-Squibs, we merely want to see how your process works so we might be able to more quickly build a retraining program for the hundreds of displaced Ministry employees." She's doing her best to maintain professionalism, but Braylon Addams is wearing at what's left of her nerves rather quickly.

The man in question sniffs. "So you can just steal our carefully built programs and hand them off to the exact group that worked so hard to stop us from creating them in the first place?"

Diana purses her lips, taking a deep, slow breath to stop herself from strangling the man - with her hands, of course. Using magic would just egg him on. "First of all Mr. Addams, you did not create these programs - they were developed by a joint comittee of Squibs and active Wizengamot members nearly fifty years ago, so by your own logic we already own half of the program anyway, seeing as we helped to build it." Some irritation definitely slips into her tone, but she's just about past the point of caring.

Addams (Braylon, he doesn't deserve ther respect of having his last name used - if he's going to act like a child, she'll treat him like a child) scoffs again, crossing his arms defensively and puffing up his chest. "That isn't how this works miss. This program is very important to the Squib Rights Foundation community and we can't just hand it out to any magical person who asks just because they say they have a claim due to actions that took place fourty years ago."

Diana doesn't bother hiding her eye roll this time. "Again, I am not asking you to hand anything over - I merely wish to have a few of our already-hired trainers sit in on a few of your classes so they can get an idea of what they might be able to do as they put together their own programs to help the hundreds of currently and abruptly unemployed workers we're trying to relocate so they can get back to putting food on the table."

Braylon huffs again, his arms somehow getting tighter across his chest. "Well I do feel sorry your people have been so... inconvenienced by recent events," Diana barely suppresses another eye roll at the obvious sarcasm, "but I fail to see how that's my problem. My group have our own things to deal with at the moment, and I feel we're better off focusing our attentions there. Besides, if you all really helped make our programs, then you should already know what they contain. Now if you don't mind, I have other things to attend to today."

"As do I." And they're likely quite a bit more important than yours. She adds mentally, letting the spite wash over her as she strides out of the Squib Rights Foundation offices. Once she closes the door behind her she shakes it off, though. Nothing productive comes from stewing in negativity after all, and she's got other things to do. But still, it's frustrating how close-minded some people can be. Braylon is a good lobbyist and passionate about his work, but he has a terrible habit of assuming that if someone is magical then they must be bad people out to destroy all Squib rights. It's not particularly helpful to his cause, not that Diana thinks he wants to hear it.

Sighing, she presses the lift button for the seventh floor, and hopes Landon and Rose don't mind her tardiness. Hopefully they'll be able to still have their full meeting - they're her last schedule of the day, though she of course has plenty to do in the afternoon as well. It's just paperwork rather than in-person meetings.

She steps off the lift and spots Rose and Landon already sitting inside the meeting room, apparently arguing. She frowns and moves closer, subconsciously softening her steps as she does. She's never seen the political consultants at odds before, and it's both disconcerting and concerning.

She carefully opens the door to the office and immediately is hit by the noise of their fight.

"It's bad enough that you're not doing your work, I don't need you being useless in this too!" Landon spits hotly, and Diana can't see Rose's reaction but she doubts the other woman will take the accusation sitting down, especially as Rose always seems to do plenty during their meetings.

Sure enough, Rose is flinging back her defense only moments later. "Useless? I do plenty in these meetings! Ask Diana when she gets here, she'll agree with me!"

Or don't ask Diana, Diana really doesn't think we have time for this arguing today. Diana thinks wryly, preparing to push open the door fully to announce her presence and hopefully put an end to the fight.

However, Landon has one more thing to say, and it has Diana freezing in spot.

"Oh please, your stupid crush on her makes you utterly unhelpful, even considering you don't do much when she isn't here either. But when she is? You're an absolute disaster - even Petra isn't that bad with Pup!"

Diana doesn't hear what Rose replies with - her brain seems to have momentarily stopped working. When it decides to wake up, she slowly closes the door and walks over to where Noah Travers is chatting with Estelle Kuhara and the other Noah on the Hunter's side of the offices.

Noah looks surprised to see her. "Hey, I thought you'd head straight over to the meeting room since you're late." He says, straight to the point as ever.

Diana shrugs, going for casual even as the word 'crush' continues bouncing around her brain. "Well, I'm already late - it won't hurt anything to say hello on my way over."

Noah definitely notices that she's off balance - honestly they know each other too well for him not to notice - but he doesn't comment, just waves goodbye. Diana is glad for it - if he asked what was wrong she isn't sure she would have an actual answer. Logically there's no reason for her to feel like this.

And yet, when she pushes open the door again, making sure she's plenty loud enough to fully interrupt the still ongoing argument in the meeting room, she feels something uncomfortable twist in her gut as the two consultants turn to look at her.

Rose perks up immediately when she sees Diana, which she always does. Before today Diana had thought it mild hero-worship, or just a part of Rose's extroverted personality. Now the excitement makes her feel rather uneasy.

Crush.

She clears and pushes on a smile. "Apologies for my tardiness, my last appointment ran a bit long."

"Successfully long, or pulling-teeth long?" Rose asks jokingly, and Diana does laugh at that with no extra force needed.

"Pulling teeth, unfortunately. So what progress has been made with approving the Muggle-wizard training protocols?"

Landon sighs and leans back in his chair. "Try next to none - Parliament is reluctant to clear anything unless the Wizengamot approves it, and the Wizengamot doesn't want to push anything unless Parliament is onboard. It's a messy circle that's accomplishing nothing." He sighs. "And I honestly don't know why it's so difficult - creating classes for wizards and Muggles to attend to learn about each other's worlds feels like a pretty obvious first step to me."

"People can be weird about change."

"Also learning about things that aren't what they want to  hear." Rose sighs dramatically. "This is why we need more people like Diana in charge, the world would be a far better place." She accompanies the compliment with a grin and a wink, and ten minutes ago Diana would have just laughed and agreed. Now her stomach rolls uncomfortably as her mind plays back several other moments that Rose had done exactly that, and Diana had failed to realize it was flirting.

Not that it bothers her either way - she's fine with lesbians, fully supports people being allowed to enter into consensual, adult relationships with anyone they like.

And yet Rose's smile is making her feel queasy in a way she doesn't when she's approached by men she's not interested in, so it's not just that she doesn't return Rose's romantic feelings.

The whole thing makes her feel awful, and she ends up cutting the meeting short after only forty minutes, citing another commitment that doesn't actually exist as her excuse. Landon and Rose don't blink, and she feels a bit bad, but she's also thankful as she makes her escape.

Her own reaction plagues her thoughts through the rest of the day, and when she walks out of the Ministry a few hours later she finds herself waiting in front of the doors to the Atrium instead of Apparating straight home, eyes scanning the crowd of fellow Ministry employees leaving in search of three specific faces.

She spots Noah first, and he sees her almost as soon as she's located him. He raises an eyebrow and makes his way over.

"Hey, you feeling alright?"

She shrugs. "Off-kilter. I was hoping we could grab Joe and Bella and get dinner. I want to talk some things through."

He tilts his head in acknowledgement and helps her look for their other two friends, not pressing any further, and she feels a rush of warmth pass through her entire body at the unwavering trust and support he's showing.

Bella ends up finding them, tapping Diana on the shoulder and nearly giving the woman a heart-attack.

"Hey Bels." Noah greets calmly, and Bella tilts her head in return, grinning wickedly as Diana glares at her.

Diana takes a few deep breaths to get her racing heart back down to a normal bpm before also greeting her friend and roommate. "I was thinking we could grab dinner." She says, knowing Bella won't require further explanation than that for now - they live together anyway, so if Diana isn't going to be at home there's no reason for Bella to be either. Bella hums cheerfully.

"Sure, my day was so I could go for food. I vote Joe pays because he's late." She declares, loud as ever. "Seriously though, I have never regretted anything as much as I regret not joining the Hunters - Cat's replacement is a total idiot and I'm about ready to go to the seventh floor and beg her to return."

Diana just smiles slightly and lets Bella's usual endless chatter wash over her as she keeps looking for the fourth member of their friend group. She'd met Noah and Bella all the way back in their first year at Hogwarts, and Joe had joined the group a year later. One might think they'd have outgrown each other, but reality has turned out the exact opposite - they've only gotten closer with age.

Bella is the one to spot Joe, which means she shouts at him from across the room and scares him as much as she had Diana.

"Merlin's sake Bella, I get spooked enough at work." He complains as he walks over to them. "Did I miss an owl? Was this a planned thing?"

"Nah, I need some advice." Diana replies. "If you're free, of course?"

Joe shrugs. "Sure, I've got no plans."

Bella grins, but thankfully Noah elbows her lightly before she can make any snarky comments.

Diana ignores them both. "Great, then I was thinking we could go to the Leaky Cauldron and get our usual booth?"

She lets her friends chat as they walk over, turning over her day in her mind and trying to come up with a way of explaining it to them that doesn't paint her or Rose in a bad light. Though the poor painting of herself may be inevitable - she's only making herself feel worse as she thinks things through.

No one comments on her silence, and she appreciates it. There would have been a time when they were younger that Bella's natural extroversion or Joe's insatiable curiosity would push them to pester her, but time has taught them all that Diana works best when allowed to take situations at her own pace. Noah had always understood that, but it's possibly due to the fact he's much the same - they're both Slytherins, after all.

It takes her until after they reach the pub, sit down, order, and receive their food before she's ready to lay out her concerns.

"Alright, so." She sighs. "I found out today that one of my coworkers, who I thought just admired me as a mentor-type figure, actually has a crush on me. And I guess I don't know how to deal with that?"

"Rose, right?" Noah asks immediately, and Diana snaps her gaze to him, shocked at how genuinely unsurprised he is. "She's pretty obvious about it, and she's not exactly in the closet. I thought you already knew though." He adds mildly, and that just makes Diana feel worse.

"It's normal to feel awkward though, right? I mean, you don't like her back because you and Noah are doing your whole 'will-they-won't-they' shtick." Bella points out after swallowing a large bite of her cottage pie. "Just to clarify, this is Rose Evans, right? Because she's just a notorious flirt in general - there's a good chance it doesn't even mean anything."

"No, it's definitely a crush." Diana groans. "I accidentally overheard her and Landon arguing today and he brought it up in no uncertain terms, and she didn't deny it. I guess I'm more upset at how uncomfortable it made me feel." She doesn't tell them she'd cut the meeting short because of it, but she can tell Noah is putting the pieces together - he'd seen her leaving the offices after all.

Joe and Bella share a look, and then look to Noah, obviously sensing there's more to the story but not having the pieces to put things together. Noah just shakes his head.

"It's one thing to be alright with something conceptually and something entirely different to deal with it first-hand in reality." Noah says after a moment. "You're not going to treat Rose differently now knowing she's biual, will you?"

"Of course not!" Diana says immediately - she's had too many people treat her differently because of her hijabi, she'd never do the same to anyone else.

Noah smiles. "Well there you go. No harm done."

Diana wishes it really were that easy, but she gives him a smile nonetheless and they turn the conversation towards more general topics - namely Bella and Joe competing over who has the more annoying coworkers, which Diana finds ridiculous. If you don't like the people you work with, why work with them?

Joe snorts. "Not everyone gets to pick and choose like you Diana - we're not all in charge of our own projects you know."

Diana just rolls her eyes and keeps eating. Overall it's a good dinner, and she definitely has more to think about as she and Bella head back to their flat that night.

"It's still eating at you, isn't it?" Bella observes when they get home, as Diana is preparing to shower. "The Rose thing."

Diana sighs. "That obvious?" She asks, and Bella shakes her head.

"Nah, I just know you. You're brooding. Why is this bugging you so much?"

Diana hums. "I don't know. I guess I'm just disappointed in myself to some degree."

Bella tilts her head. "Well, you shouldn't be. It's perfectly normal anyway, I doubt Rose would even be upset about it - she's probably had similar experiences in the past before. Just be honest with her. Also you should start dating Noah. I know that's not the topic but I have to say it."

Diana laughs at that, relaxing slightly. She knows Bella is right, but she still can't quite get past her own shame. For someone so insistent on treating everyone equally she's failing miserably to practice what she preaches.

But musing over it endlessly isn't going to fix anything, so she continues her nighttime routine and resolves to figure out what to do in the morning. A good night's rest always helps with problem solving anyway.

With the primary marketing just about wrapped up for the year and Miles and Veena back to doing semi-regular radio and television interviews, Petra has been back on comment duty, and the time away from it actually made it worse to come back to.

And so she's maybe, slightly, possibly, slacking off. Just a little. And regular breaks are good for her mental health, so really it's not slacking, it's self-care.

At least, those are the excuses she gives herself when she takes her fifth break in just two hours, wandering over to the Hunter's side of the offices to lean against Noah's desk.

He grins at her. "Hey."

Estelle rolls her eyes from where she's going through paperwork next to him. "Oh for pity's sake Pup, this is getting ridiculous even by romcom standards. Don't you have an actual job Petra? No offense." She adds, though there's not much conviction in it, and Petra suspects that some offense may indeed be intended.

She frowns. "There's a lull." She says, which isn't true, really, but all the comments she has left to reply too are particularly rude and she just needs a quick positivity boost before addressing them. "And I wanted to hear the rest of that story about your owl." She adds, because that's true.

Estelle rolls her eyes at the other Hunter at the desk - Petra thinks his name might be Tyler? - who just laughs and shrugs.

"I could go for hearing the end of it too!" He declares, and Petra decides she should probably learn his name at some point.

They talk for nearly fifteen minutes before Petra spots Isaac Harrison stepping out of the lift, and she quickly excuses herself. As much as she loves Isaac - he may be her best friend's older brother, but he's been more family to her than her own family has for a long time - he's been acting really weird about her blossoming relationship with Noah, and so she's been trying to tone down how much he sees them together. It's honestly a little annoying, and she may send Piper after him eventually if he keeps up the attitude. Isaac may be tough, but his little sister is worlds tougher - if anyone can get Isaac to back off it's definitely Piper.

For now though, she's hoping Isaac will naturally cool off on his own, without needing the big guns to get involved, and so she scurries back to her work desk and reluctantly unlocks the laptop to once again face down the comments on their Facebook page.

There are fifteen new ones now - a fight seems to have broken out beneath a link to one of Veena and Miles' interviews, when Miles had shown off the Colovaria spell on an enthusiastic audience member, turning the man's hair neon green. Petra frowns despairingly - she'd thought that clip was cute and fun and wouldn't evoke any negative emotion. 

Obviously she had judged that incredibly incorrectly.

She stares as the comment chain continues to lengthen, and then decides to go find someone else to reply to before facing that mess. She composes a few responses to some of the less rage-filled comments when someone comes up behind her.

"Petra? I'd like to have a quick word with you in my office."

Petra spins in her chair, looking up at Mrs. Morgan cautiously. Why would the leader need to talk to her? Did one of her responses not fit the new messaging?

She follows the leader quietly, and is relieved to see that Mrs. Weasley isn't in. If it's just Mrs. Morgan, it's probably not anything too terrible, maybe just misspellings or something along those lines.

Mrs. Morgan closes the door and gestures for Petra to take a seat, which she nervously does. Even if Mrs. Morgan is the nicer leader, she's still stressed. Slightly less so, yes, but stressed all the same.

"Is, um, is everything alright?" She asks as Mrs. Morgan takes her own seat.

The woman hums. "That's my question to you, Ms. Clarke." She replies. "Since you returned as our full-time Social Media Specialist, our Social Media pages have become distinctly quieter, and not because people are no longer engaging, but because you do not seem to be replying. There's a war going on in our comment section right now, has been for nearly half an hour, and you have yet to acknowledge or attempt to control it. That sort of vitriol is not something we want permeating our social media presence. So I'll ask again: are you alright? Are you capable of handling this job? Because if not we would prefer to know now rather than later."

Petra swallows hard and revises her impression of Mrs. Morgan even as panic rapidly wells up in her guts. The leaders had warned them that any further ups would result in being fired... Is Petra about to be fired?

Mrs. Morgan is still watching her sharply, and she drags herself back out of her head and takes a deep breath, building resolve. She can't lose this job - getting fired twice in a row would look terrible on any application. If she leaves, it needs to be on her own terms.

"Yes ma'am, I'm alright. I apologize for my distraction, I'm still getting back into the rhythm of this part of the job. I'll make sure not to allow things like that to occur again." And I'll start bringing calming potions with me. She thinks, mentally adding 'go to the potions shop' to her to-do list for the day.

Mrs. Morgan watches her carefully, and then nods. "Alright then, if you're sure. Don't let it happen again."

Petra swallows again and darts out of the office as soon as she's able to, beelining for her desk and mentally bracing to take on the still-continuing comment war.

Unfortunately someone is standing by her desk. Noah has a nervous smile on, and she gives him a strained one in return.

"Hey, sorry, whatever it is I can't really talk right now." She pauses, takes another breath, and adds, "Actually, I don't think we should talk during work hours at all anymore, unless it's over lunch." She keeps her eyes focused resolutely on her laptop as she sits down and pulls it open. "So, um, yeah. Please leave."

She definitely needs to work on being more assertive, but Noah back off, retreating hesitantly back to the Hunter's half of the office.

Petra resolutely shoves down the urge to run after him and clicks over the the Facebook page. Taking one more steadying breath, she dives into the comment war.

Pup watches her mournfully from where he's returned to his desk, and Estelle can't help but notice - he'd been so excited when he went over to Petra's desk a few minutes before to "ask her out on a proper date."

"Everything go alright?" She asks him carefully, knowing she really isn't the best person to handle emotional stuff if it didn't go well, but Tristan's on a bathroom break so she's all Pup's going to get right now. And he's been patient with her these past few weeks - this is the least she can do.

He frowns. "I... don't know, actually. I didn't get to talk to her, she told me to leave. And to not talk to her anymore." He hunches in on himself. "Did I do something? Did she look upset when she went back to work earlier? Do you think maybe she's sick of me?"

Estelle snorts. "Calm down Romeo, she came over here repeatedly today just to make small talk - she definitely isn't sick of you. She's probably just going through some stuff right now is all - she did get called into the boss's office."

Pup doesn't look convinced, and Estelle represses the urge to groan. "Okay, fine, hypothetically let's say she's mad at you. How could you make up for it?"

He looks over. "I don't know..." He mumbles, and Estelle groans. This is like pulling teeth.

"Seriously Mr. Rom Com expert? Look, why don't you come with me and Miles on our Christmas shopping trip next weekend? You can get her something special and then ask her out while she's a blushing mess over getting a present from you, sound like a plan?"

Honestly she's kind of hoping he'll say yes - he's been a big part of helping her and Miles set all this up anyway, so really it only makes sense for him to join it as well.

And when he looks up at her again he's smiling shyly. "You think so?"

She grins and punches his shoulder lightly. "I know so kid. We're going to have a blast and sweep our respective love interests off their feet with massive piles of pure romance."

Pup laughs and Estelle glances over at Petra, smiling as well. Next weeked is definitely going to be a lot of fun.

Author's Note: So I managed to somehow majorly screw up the timeline on everything, so the month of December is going to get a bit wonky time-wise - I'm still going to label each chapter as a "Week", but some will be longer, some will be shorter, and there is now a chapter in July that all takes place on one day to make up for the wonkiness. So yeah, sorry about that ^^'' On the bright side, Diana finally got a longer POV! I feel bad how short her sections have been up to this point OTL