Landon is exhausted. His holiday break was cut short after the information drop dragged half the Initiative back into the offices, and he and Rose have been working pretty much non stop since then. The appearance of Yurina (or Nina, as she's calling herself now) had only thrown a further wrench into the works and their allies are in a state of panic.

Noah Thompson, or Pup as he's generally called around the office, has been working with them as well, arranging meetings with allies and doing his best to keep Landon and Rose updated on all the latest political moves by the international wizarding community.

"Still nothing from the International Confederation of Wizards." He reports glumly one gray, cold, icy Sunday morning. "I'm willing to bet they're waiting for tomorrow's press conference before they enter the fray in this."

"Not even Ms. Misra? She always seemed more active than the old farts on the rest of the Confederation." Rose asks miserably. If there's one bright spot in all of this it's that Rose has actually had to pull her weight these past few weeks, and Landon hates to admit that seeing her as worn as he feels makes him feel a little bit better about everything. Which is definitely terrible, but he's frankly too tired at the moment to care very much about that. He'll feel bad when the worst of the storm is over.

If it ever is - with each passing day it feels like things are only getting worse, and Landon isn't even sure this is the worst of it. Which is a terrifying and exhausting thought.

"Not even Misra." Pup confirms Rose's fears. "I think her hands are tied though, considering she's the most junior member of the Confederation. We really need Veena and Miles to blow things out of the water tomorrow or we may be screwed."

"If we aren't already." Rose says mournfully. "Yurina is right out in the open and we can't do anything. I hate this."

"We can and have been doing things." Landon snaps back - now is not the time to be giving into cynicism. "We need to keep the politicians open to integration and let Miles and Veena worry about the general populace."

Rose grimaces. "Yeah, but they were barely on board before. Now they're practically salivating to pull out and just keep the world separate. How they even think that would work is beyond me, but you've heard them."

Landon has, but he hates to say Rose is right, especially right now when he's still mad at her, so he doesn't. "Then we just need to work harder and smarter. I thought you were supposed to be good at that."

"You are too!" Rose counters angrily.

Pup looks at them both, wide-eyed and nervous, and Landon pushes down his frustration. Pup hasn't done anything to deserve getting in the middle of this. "Fine, whatever. What's on the schedule for today?"

Pup relaxes slightly, but is still eyeing them both warily as he pulls out a ledger. "There's a small group Floo scheduled for ten thirty with our immediate neighbors France, Spain, Belgium, and Germany to discuss with other Initiatives what the next steps regarding Yurina and the information drop should be. Everyone is still twitchy about us not knowing who did it."

Landon grimaces. That's been bothering him as well, but it's not like there are any leads. Plenty of people who fought in or even just learned about the first war are still alive - anyone could have been the informant. Landon rather doubts they'll ever know who released the information, unless that person comes forward willingly, which he doesn't think is particularly likely.

"Well sometimes we don't know things," Rose declares, sounding more tired than angry, "And we just have to deal with it."

Landon really hopes she doesn't say that in the meeting - they really don't need to piss off their now-tenuous allies any further than they already have (perhaps not by any fault of their own, but the anger is illogically there all the same).

They spend most of the hour they have left until the meeting putting together their presentation and trying to prepare for any possible questions or accusations that could come up. Eventually they run out of time and have to stop the prep and head for the Atrium and the Floo call room.

"So just a reminder on the names." Pup says as he trots along behind them. "Spain's ambassador for the Initiative is Emilia Santiago, France has Gabrielle Delacour - she has the most experience so you'll want to defer to her seniority if needed during the meeting - Belgium is Robin I'm not going to try and pronounce his last name and he doesn't expect you to either, and the Germany has Tobias Brenning-Reinhardt who's going to be the youngest person present and probably won't talk much if past meetings are anything to go by. He's more of the observer type."

Rose is nodding seriously, and Landon files the names away as well. It's very likely this won't be the last time they work with these four. "You seem to know them well." He comments as they approach the meeting room.

Pup shrugs. "We all have the same role in our respective initiatives, so I guess we've gotten familiar." He agrees as they enter the room and engage the safety seals on the door so that the call won't be interrupted by anyone poking their heads in (group Floo calls are annoyingly easy to disconnect). "They're nice enough, anyway, better than this afternoon's crowd."

"Wait who are we-" Rose doesn't get to finish her question as the Floos roar to life around them and all four of the Initiative ambassadors appear. Landon quickly activates their own Floo connection.

"Good morning everyone, and thank you for taking the time to meet with us." He says politely. "We know theses are stressful times for all of us."

"If we can speed through the pleasantries today, that would be great." One of the callers - Landon deduces it must be Robin based on his accent not being German and his speaking so brashly - declares. "I've got a lot of other calls to get through dealing with all this. Have you figured out who did it?"

"We don't know where the information leak came from, no." Pup reports. "I told you last time Robin, we probably won't know for a while, if ever. Our focus right now needs to be on formulating a game plan to make sure this doesn't stop the Initiatives from moving forward."

"Well if we don't find out there might not be a Belgian initiative for much longer." Robin replies grimly, and Landon instinctively shares a worried glance with Rose. That is not what they wanted to hear.

"What do you mean?" One of the women - Emilia, based on her accent - asks, frowning. "You're not shutting down over something that was going to have to happen anyway, are you? Very brave men in Belgium I see."

"Our government is mostly women right now, so ha!" Robin shoots back, and by Pup's eyeroll this is not the first time this argument has happened.

"Gilipollas." Emilia hisses, and the other woman, Gabrielle, raises her hand and everyone immediately falls silent. Landon is impressed.

"Please everyone, now really is not the time for such bickering, we are all on a time limit. Robin, you said there might not be an Initiative much longer? Why?"

Robin takes one last moment to stick his tongue out at Emilia before turning fully to Gabrielle. "The political leaders here believe that the Sinvarita population are never going to agree to peace - already there are demonstrations and accusations. This American Nina has stirred up quite some trouble with her prattling on."

Landon grimaces. "She's not American actually, she's Japanese. As in, from Japan." He says quickly when he gets four exasperated looks at once. "I don't know why she speaks like an American now - practice I guess - but she learned English in England. So really, not American."

"And not Nina either." Rose adds. "Her name is Yurina Nakayashi - honestly I'm not sure why she picked Nina when Rina was right there and also an actual Japanese name but whatever not the point - and she's a wanted fugitive from the second wizarding war."

Emilia scoffs. "You call it such, makes it sound more important that it was. That war never left England - it was not a 'wizarding' war, just an English war."

"Two hundred and seventy eight people died in just one year." Gabrielle cuts in, sharply, and everyone immediately falls silent again. "Do not diminish that reality by saying it was not important. It was very important, and is still very important to many who remember it still. Ms. Evans, tell us more about this Yurina."

Rose hesitates, obviously feeling the tongue-tying effects of Gabrielle's presence for a moment before clearing . "Yurina Nakayashi was part of the inner circle of Lord Voldemort. She was active in the Ministry during the second war and basically had her own reign of terror going on here from what I understand. She was the only major Deatheater to escape the Order's cleanup measures in the years following the war, and some people thought she might have been dead since it had been so long. We also believe she was the one behind the incident in August - she was known for being ruthlessly clever, and there's a pretty good chance everything that's happened so far ties back to her in some way. This is all part of a long game, and disbanding the Initiatives would likely be playing into her hands."

Landon has to admit he's impressed - Rose really is good at her job. When she's actually doing her job, of course, which makes it all the more frustrating that she rarely actually does. For now he keeps to the side and lets her do her thing, keeping an ear on the conversation and staying ready to step in if he's needed, but deciding to conserve his energy for the moment - he still remembers Pup implying they've got something rough coming up in the afternoon, and he wants to be ready for it.

When they leave the conference room two hours later, pretty much nothing has been accomplished other than convincing Robin to try and talk to his superiors and explain the Yurina situation. Things are equally rocky with the other three Initiatives, though Belgium was the only one engaging in talks of shutting down. For now, anyway.

"So what's next?" Landon prompts Pup as they take the lift to the Cafeteria floor.

Pup grimaces. "The Council." He says simply, and Rose's elongated groan of displeasure neatly sums up Landon's feelings on the matter as well.

"Lovely. I'm sure they're just as chipper and open-minded as they were before the break." Rose gripes. "Why hasn't Minister Granger fired their ancient asses yet?"

The Council, formal name the Esteemed Wizarding Elders of the Wizengamot, are a group of the most experienced Wizengamot members who do a vast majority of the rule making and breaking, which means Landon and Rose have been dealing with them since day one. Rarely in person though, and thank goodness for that because they are certainly a challenge to get along with. Landon is definitely glad now that he's saved his energy.

"What time?"

"Two, so we have a little time to prepare." Pup at least sounds apologetic about the whole thing. "And I actually can't make it. Edward - that is, Edward Scot, Head of International Cooperation and my actual boss Edward not Edward from the Hunters Edward -"

"We got it." Landon prompts as gently as he can manage around his sleep-deprivation driven irritation. "Go on."

Pup nods jerkily. "I need to sit in on a meeting with him this afternoon. He said it was non-negotiable, I did check."

Landon sighs. "Well, let's use our prep time wisely then. Any notes from that last meeting that could be helpful?"

They work through lunch, hijaking one of the cafeteria tables to spread out on, and the other Ministry workers give them a wide berth which Landon decides to appreciate instead of question too hard. Pup has to leave after an hour and wishes them luck.

"I'll see you tomorrow - you can leave the notes on my desk and I'll take them home with me tonight." He offers, and Landon nods before the younger man hurries off to the lifts.

And then it's just him and Rose.

"So I figure I can do most of the talking." Rose says after a moment. "I may have been given a few more weeks off from working with the Minister, but I do need to keep my charm sharp!"

Landon frowns. "We'll share the talking." He says firmly. "I'm the one who was doing most of the paperwork after all, the Council knows my name more than yours just from that." He doesn't mean to sound sarcastic about it, but he doesn't really regret it when it comes out that way either. 

Rose glares. "Look, I get you've got something that's crawled up your and died sometime while I was working with the Minister, but this is ridiculous Landon!" She snaps, and several heads turn towards them.

"Inside voice." Landon says tersely. "Look, we're all stressed right now. We'll both just say what we need to say, how about that?"

Rose purses her lips but the subject is dropped like it always is. Landon knows they really do need to address the problem head-on eventually, but right now they definitely have more important things to be doing and he's fine using the excuse for as long as it's available.

Eventually one fourty five rolls around and they pack up and take the lift to the second sub-basement, below the main offices of the Wizengamot but above the Archives.

Rose glances over at Landon, letting him step out of the lift first and then following him. He's continued to be incredibly testy since her break from working with Minister Granger, and while she's definitely figured out why (Landon has never been the sort to talk around a problem to spare anyone's feelings) she's waiting for him to actually formally bring it up. So far that hasn't happened, and frankly if he wants to be stubborn about this she's happy to play. She can out-stubborn anyone - it's one of her many questionable qualities.

She sighs softly as she keeps trailing her partner (supposed to be partner, anyway). She'd thought the Initiative would be a great experience with lots of excitement and intrigue, but in the end all it's really ended up doing was exhausting her mentally and poking at old school-time insecurities that she thought she'd successfully buried ages ago.

The whole thing is making her consider quitting and just taking a Relocation paycheck until Diana gets everyone new jobs, but that would be cowardly and Rose at the moment is pretending she's not a coward.

Still, she ends up letting Landon do most of the talking at the beginning. despite her earlier argument - he's angry and she's tired and this way if the Council continue being grumpy arseholes it's his fault and not hers. And they are grumpy arseholes, to nobody's surprise.

"The Conference given on New Year's Eve was dangerous, and the Undersecretary should have known to consult us on what was to be said - she acted alone and revealed things we are not comfortable with the world knowing." One of the elders declares haughtily about and hour in, and Rose officially has had enough.

"Dangerous? You realize we still don't know who released that information about Whiddy Island, right? Who would you rather be controlling the flow of information that the Muggles get, us or Yurina? Because with all due respect I would rather know what the Muggles are going to be finding out ahead of time instead of being repeatedly blindsided for the rest of the year." She snaps.

Landon is glaring at her, and okay she definitely could have been more diplomatic with that but she's been holding her tongue around these guys for months - sue her for finally reaching the end of her patience with their self-righteous, close-minded bull.

The elder is gasping in the sort of overdramatic insult that Rose used to think only happened in soap operas, and Landon quickly steps in.

"What Rose means, your honors, is that the information seems to be leaking out anyway - wouldn't it be best if we controlled that flow as much as possible?"

The elder clears his throat, obviously still angered, but Rose knows Landon just successfully made her point, even if they both know it's not going to change the windbags' minds.

Sure enough, they leave two hours later with little in the way of progress and another meeting set up for the next week (joy). Landon rounds on her once they're alone in the lift.

"I told you to let me handle it. What the hell was that?"

And Rose has had enough. "That was me telling them the truth! And you know, maybe if you don't want me getting frustrated and snapping like that you should stop treating me like an idiotic five year old who can't do anything right!"

"Then stop acting like an idiotic five year old who can't do anything right!" He doesn't quite shout, but it's as close as she's ever heard him.

Rose blinks, and turns away. Fine then. They won't talk about it.

The rest of the ride to the seventh floor is spent in tense, icy silence, and Rose wonders how hard filling out the Relocation application would be. It's certainly bound to be less painful than this, anyway.

The past week and a half has been nonstop training with Mrs. Weasley, and even though Veena remembers every detail shared she's still nervous when she and Miles head to ten Downing Street the morning of the seventh for their official open Conference for the month. Petra has warned them about the kinds of questions and comments they may be receiving and while Veena is confident she can handle them she's worried about Miles.

For his part, Miles is as excited as ever for the conference. Sure it's a bit more intense than normal, but surely it can't be that bad? At least, that's what he's been telling himself for the past week of preparation. When they actually reach the conference location his stomach erupts with butterflies.

"That's a lot more reporters than normal." He whispers to Veena as they try to edge around the crowd without being spotted. "I didn't think there would be this many."

"The world just got flipped on its head again and we're officially the face of it - it's only natural more people would come today." Veena murmurs back, and Miles' nerves jump that much more when he hears the faintest trace of uncertainty in her voice. If the unflappable Veena is nervous, then this really is a big deal.

When they get to the stage they both stand at the front with their microphones. Mrs. Weasley had been very inisistent that they present a "united front," and having both of them run the conference equally instead of splitting the presentation and question asking between the two of them is step one for that. Miles had been excited to get to help with the opening presentation earlier, but now he just hopes he remembers what to say with his stomach casually trying to use his esophagus like a climbing rope.

Veena purses her lips and glances over at Miles as the crowd falls silence. He's obviously nervous, which is making her more nervous than she already was, but she clears and holds up her microphone in a firm grip.

"Good morning everyone, and thank you for coming - we know it's a cold trek to get anywhere right now."

A few scattered chuckles arise from the group, but most remain stoic, obviously waiting for her to get to the point.

She clears again. "Right, you all of course are aware of the recent reveal that the Whiddy Island disaster was caused by a past overlap between our two worlds that tragically resulted in life lost. We want to assure you all that these sorts of slips are rare, and when they do happen the perpetrators are always brought to justice."

"In this coming month we will begin writing blog posts that are going to openly talk about other tragic overlaps." Miles pipes up, and good, he remembers their debriefing. He honestly wasn't sure he would until he heard Veena speak and it all flooded back to him, pushing down the wall of nerves that had been blanking his mind only moments before.

"It was an oversight to not be open with this from the start, but we're new to this integration as much as anyone else." Veena adds. "We're learning as we go, and we're always open to suggestions - we have a box posted at 10 Downing Street for hand-written suggestions, and our social media pages are monitored every day as well, though comments can get lost there - we would recommend sending private messages instead!"

Petra is going to hate that, Veena thinks, but they need to show that they're really trying. Unfortunately the pressure is on them to step up, not the public to have more realistic expectations.

"Those would definitely be easier to find." Miles agrees, trying to project his usual cheeriness despite the fact that Veena's nerves are still feeding his. "And for magical people, there's a suggestion box at the Ministry that accepts both manual and owl deliveries - we want to hear from everyone!" He takes a quick breath and glances over at Veena, who nods slightly. Question time.

"So as most of our statement was given last week, we will stop talking now so we have more time to address your specific questions and comments. The floor is open." He hasn't even finished saying that when pretty much every hand in the room flies up.

Veena swallows and pointedly selects a man she recognizes as having asked angry, pointed questions in the past. They really do want to hear from everyone, and showing that is going to be more effective than just saying it.

"You say every person has been brought to justice - doesn't that go against what was said in the last conference when Weasley said there was still someone at large?"

Veena nods. "Every person who has enacted magical violence against Muggles." She clarifies, honestly surprised at how tame the question is. "Yurina Nakayashi only ever attacked magical people so far as we are aware - and believe me, if she had surfaced in any way in relation to Muggle disasters like Whiddy magical law enforcement from around the world would have been on her in minutes."

"Seriously - she's been at the top of our Most Wanted list for twenty years." Miles butts in, regaining some of his pep when he comes up with an anecdote to add to the comment. "I used to be an editor for the Prophet - the magical newspaper - and we all saw her face every day coming into work. She's literally everywhere in wizarding England - if she showed up, we'd know."

The man frowns and scribbles a few things down as Miles looks for the next person to call on.

"Um, yes, the lady three rows back with the super chique blazer!" He decides, and it takes her a moment to realize he's talking about her.

"Oh! Oh, well, thank you." She blushes and clears . "Annabel Walker of The Herald. I wanted to know what your reaction to Nina Yamaa's new Initiative in America is?"

Veena quickly raises her microphone - this is a delicate response, since there's no way Yurina isn't watching every one of these conferences around the world, waiting to hear the response to this exact question. And as good as Miles is being so far, they can't take risks on this one.

"From what we've seen so far, she seems to be advocating the same thing we are - we're more than happy to work with her if she would like! The more global cooperation we engage in, the better things will be for everyone after all." She says, a carefully rehearsed line that flows easily enough despite the rock of stress weighing on her chest. "Does that answer your question? The fact is we don't know much about this new Initiative just yet, so we can't say much at the moment."

The woman nods with a smile that eases some of Veena's tension. "It does, thank you! I hope to see you all working together in the future."

Unlikely Veena thinks, but she smiles as well. "I hope so as well. Next question?"

She and Miles keep passing questions back and forth, and she thinks things go well but she's also still so wound up with stress and nerves that she honestly isn't sure. Nothing exploded and no one died, but honestly any disaster of a less overt nature probably would fly over her head at the moment.

Miles shrugs when Veena asks him if he thinks it went well once they've left the conference room and are walking back towards the Ministry. "I mean, yeah? But I'm an optimist and we can't really know until the stories are printed anyway." He's trying to stay upbeat, but he's absolutely wiped - three hours of endless questions is a lot more tiring when he's acutely aware of the fact that one wrong response could very possibly destroy the world. Maybe not even metaphorically - who knows what Yurina's plan is?

Probably not blowing up the world. She lives on the world.

He doesn't notices Veena watching him until she nudges him slightly in the shoulder.

"Hey, you look about how I'm feeling - how do you feel about taking the rest of the day off?" She asks. "Mrs. Morgan said we could if we wanted to - Fergus is still helping Petra out with the comments, so she'll be alright." She smiles slightly. "You can meet my son."

And that isn't something Miles is going to pass up. "Let's do it!"

Veena stops and offers her arm, and Miles is Side-Along Apparated to a shop front that he recognizes immediately.

"Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes? Your son is here? He's so lucky!" He grins, momentarily forgetting his exhaustion in favor of pure joy.

Veena laughs as she watches him dive through the front door - it's good to see Miles lighten up. His face isn't built for frowning.

She follows him in and is greeted by a slightly frazzled Ron Weasley.

"Was that your giant child that just ran through?" He jokes, and Veena grins at him tiredly in reply. She's only met the Minister's husband a few times, but he already treats her like family. Whenever he's on babysitting duty she'll often get owl updates throughout the day of cute things Nico has been doing, which she appreciates quite a bit.

"We just came from the open press conference - I'm just glad he has childlike wonder left in him." She replies wearily, and his bright grin dims to a supportive smile.

"I'm sure it went well - Audrey said you guys were well prepared at lunch yesterday." He encourages her. "Nico is upstairs with George and the other toddlers. I can round up Miles for you if you want to head straight up."

"Thanks Ron, that would be great." She agrees, already walking towards the back room.

"Felicity! Man the front for a few minutes!" Ron yells behind her, and she finds her plastered-on smile growing more genuine by the second.

She takes the secret lift in the back offices up to the second floor, where George and Angelina live with their two children Freddie and Roxanne.

George startles slightly when he sees her, nearly pulling Roxanne's bottle out of (though the grabby infant latches onto it firmly, keeping it in place). "Veena? Hey, I didn't think pickup was for another few hours! Good to see you, how's holding up the entirety of our relationship with the Muggles going for ya?"

Veena gives him a flat smile. "Where's Nico?" She asks instead, and he laughs. 

"Got it. He's in the play pen with Freddie and the twins - I'll be back over in a minute." He turns back to his daughter as Veena heads for the indicated room, pausing when she remembers that Miles is coming up soon as well.

"Hey, I brought company. Maybe you should wait here so you can show him around."

George waggles his eyesbrows. "He, huh? Whatever would your wife say?" He teases, and Veena sighs as she heads for the playroom again.

"Just wait for Miles!" She tells him, ignoring his cackling. She does appreciate George, as he takes the most babysitting shifts of anyone due to his own kids being the right age, but she honestly doesn't know how Angelina puts up with him sometimes.

Freddie looks up as she walks in, and gives her a big smile. He's the oldest of the toddlers at three years old, and he's easily the most social of the bunch. The two-year-old Lovegood twins give her a half-glance before going back to their block puzzle. Nico is watching them with big eyes, occasionally trying to help but he's not quite able to keep a grip on the handles of each puzzle piece.

"Vee!" Freddie shouts. "Up! Fly!"

That gets Nico's attention, and when he sees Veena he releases a squeal of joy and rolls onto his back, sticking one hand in his mouth as he does.

Veena laughs and swoops him, up, much to Freddie's disconcertment.

"Up! Fly!" He repeats, stomping his foot to emphasize his demand.

"Freddie no, we've talked about this. You can't just demand things." George scolds, and Veena startles briefly, having not heard him come in. Miles is bouncing next to him, eyes gleaming with excitement as they lock onto Nico.

"He's so cute!" Miles exclaims when he sees Veena looking at him. "Can I hold him?"

Veena hesitates slightly - Nico has only ever been held by family and the Weasleys, and Miles really doesn't have any child care experience. But she did invite him to come, and she trusts him to be as careful as he possibly can. Plus she's here if anything goes wrong. So she walks over to her partner.

"Okay, but be very careful. You have to support his head like this." She shows Miles how her hand is positioned and his tongue sticks out of his mouth ever so slightly as he attempts to mimic her position. She can't help chuckling. "It's easier when you're actually holding a baby. Here." She passes Nico over carefully, her stomach twisting up slightly at first, but she relaxes when she sees that Miles has a good grip on her son.

"He's so tiny." The man whispers, and both she and George laugh.

"Oh man, I remember feeling like that about Freddie." George muses wistfully, looking over at the toddler who's gone back to zooming tiny toy brooms around, having seemingly resigned himself to not getting to actually fly. "And Roxie, if I'm honest, but it's a bigger shock the first time."

"I'd agree, though I don't have a second time to compare to." Veena chuckles, still keeping a close eye on where Nico is staring curiously up at Miles. It's only a matter of time before one of his hands makes a grab for Miles' nose, and she doesn't know how Miles would react. As it turns out, his reaction is to laugh delightedly.

"He's great!" He tells Veena excitedly, and she beams with pride.

"He is." She agrees. They spend the rest of the afternoon with George and the toddlers, only leaving when Luna Lovegood comes to pick up the twins. The two had quickly imprinted on Miles, who's spinning his own versions of familiar magical fairy tales (though it's possible they're just the American versions) which have utterly entranced the toddlers. Luna ends up sitting down and listening him for a good twenty minutes before regretfully saying she really does need to leave.

"We should as well." Veena admits. "Miles and I are going to have to deal with whatever the fallout of today's conference is in the morning, so we should be well-rested for that."

Luna and Miles end up exchanging information so he can go visit the twins again before they head out with Nico sleeping peacefully in Veena's arms.

"That was fun!" Miles declares happily as they walk down the Alley. "Thanks for inviting me. That was really fun."

Veena smiles over at him. "I'm glad. I think we both deserved a day to relax after this morning."

Miles shuddered. "I guess tomorrow we find out how it went." He sighs, and Veena grimaces slightly.

"We'll worry about it then." She tells him firmly, and he smiles before apparating away.

Back in his own flat, Miles is feeling worn down in both a good an bad way. He loved hanging out with the kids in the joke shop, but the nerves from the Press Conference never really went away, and now without the distraction of Lorcan and Lysander they're rising back to the top of his consciousness.

He sighs and decides to make himself tea. It always seemed to be the go-to for his old coworkers when they were stressed, maybe it will help him as well. At the very least, it will give him something else to think about. There's nothing they can really do at this point, anyway, but wait and see.

Miles has never been great at sitting and waiting, but he'll give it a try now - he doesn't want to screw this up for everyone, not after he just finished making up for last time.

Desmond finds himself with an unexpected free morning when Shaun cancels their regular weekly meeting at the last minute.

"I do apologize, I was hoping to have this cleared up by the weekend." His face says in the back room fireplace of the Leaky Cauldron, which Hannah had been nice enough to let them use. "With recent events being what they are, an unfortunately large number of Muggleborn parents, particularly those of first years, are refusing to send their children back to school, which could be very dangerous - uncontrolled magic can be unintentionally deadly, which is of course why we start teaching it so young."

Desmond frowns. "That's... not great." He admits. "I understand, I'll see you next week?"

"And I'll send and owl if I can meet earlier. Or if I still can't." Shaun sighs. "Thanks for understanding Desmond. Best of luck, I'll see you soon."

Desmond nods, but the fireplace has already returned to normal, so Shaun doesn't see. He sighs and heads back into the main section of the Leaky, nodding a goodbye to Hannah before heading out into the snow for the long, wet walk back to the Ministry, trying to figure out what to do with the rest of his day.

At least things are patched up with Estelle now - or at least, mostly patched up. They're getting lunch almost every day, and she's slowly reintroducing the idea of moving in together into their conversations, something that was in the cards prior to the grand reveal and their unofficial four month break. Desmond isn't sure he's ready for that just yet, but he's also not opposed to it. He'll see how things go.

For now he needs to get a game plan together for the week. Normally his meetings with Shaun directly influence what he focuses on each week, but obviously that's not going to happen this time. He sighs and burrows his nose further into his scarf.

He usually would Floo to the Ministry from the Leaky, but today he thinks a brisk walk will be good for him, both to clear his head and to give him time to rethink his plans. Obviously he can keep tweaking his proposals for altering the general magical curriculum, and he can maybe go borrow a Ministry owl and try reaching out to some of the public magic school headmasters himself - Shaun had given him a list at their last meeting before the holiday break and owls apparently are magically guided to their letter recipients so the names and addresses are all he needs. He isn't sure how the owls actually work - he'll ask Alex when he gets back, since it's a good idea. Shaun says he's having no luck, but Desmond wants to see for himself how bad things are.

Well, he muses somewhat pessimistically as he continues his slushy trudge through London, however bad they were before, they're definitely worse now.

The Media team has been non-stop ever since the holidays, trying desperately to play catch up with the new information that had been dropped, and Desmond will be the first to admit he was horrified by the news. Even as someone who actually knew about the magical world, and even vaguely about the wars, he hadn't realized they had gotten so out of control as to have destroyed Muggle lives as well. It seems like a major oversight to let something like that go unannounced, and Desmond really can't blame the people who are now suspicious of the magical world. He would be too.

Is, maybe. Of the three other people he works with regularly, the only actual wizard doesn't really say anything about himself. It's a quirk of Fergus' that Desmond had noticed early on but hadn't thought much of until the break, assuming the older man was just one of those rare people who likes hearing other people talk. Now Desmond wonders if there are magical secrets being kept even within the Initiative from the non-magical members. Alex has always been suspicious, and Desmond wonders now if the out-of-hand dismissal everyone gave him was a bit too hasty. He for one is feeling a lot more cautious about integration now, and he actually knows a lot of good witches and wizards - is related to two whom he does love, even if they aren't really close and haven't been for a while specifically because of magic - so he can only imagine how panicked others are, and justifiably so.

He doesn't envy the media team.

By the time he gets to the Ministry he hasn't really clarified what he wants to do with his week. If anything, he's even less motivated now than he had been at the start of the walk. There had already been resistance to scholastic updates before all this happened, so even if he tries to pursue the public schools himself he doubts there will be any movement on that front. He can keep working on his new curriculum proposals, but without schools who actually want to implement them, what's the point?

The Initiative has only been going for four months, a third of their allotted time, and things are already falling apart. Can they even get through the next eight months without things getting even worse? Considering how quickly Nina (Yurina, whatever) got everyone on her side, it doesn't look good.

He steps into the entry lift to the Ministry feeling drained and disheartened, so he does his best to turn his thoughts in a more positive direction. Estelle always tells him that he'll fall down spirals if he doesn't catch himself, and more negativity in the offices is the last thing the Initiative needs to deal with right now.

What can he do then? He has a bad habit of losing track of everything else when he has a specific goal, but he thinks he could go for that sort of focus and drive right now, so he rolls several of his scholastic ideas around in his head as the lift descends into the Atrium.

His Muggle studies proposals shouldn't be touched for now, not until Shaun has looked them over, so what then? Maybe he could talk to Landon and Rose and see how viable it would be to get underaged magical children to attend Muggle public schools until they're of age to go to Hogwarts (or a magical public school)? They're always arguing these days though, so they're probably swamped with their own work due to recent events. So that's out.

He's still wracking his mind with increasing franticness when he reaches the Atrium, and he nearly forgets to wave when the greeter welcomes him back.

"Oh, Mr. Edevane! There are some suggestions here from the Muggle suggestion box at Downing Street. They were dropped off half an hour ago - maybe you could take them up?" The young man asks, and Desmond blinks and nods, accepting the basket that's handed to him. He walks over to the lifts and finds himself alone in one on his way up to the seventh floor.

Idly, he flips through a few of the suggestions - one says they should make flying brooms for everyone, though most seem to just be rude comments directed at Mrs. Weasley, Veena, and occasionally Miles, which is surprising. Desmond didn't think it was possible to actually hate Miles the way some of these people seem to.

One suggestion catches his attention, mostly because it seems to be written in crayon.

He awkwardly flips it open with one hand and reads through it, a smile stretching across his face as he does.

Hello Mrs Witch,

My name is Amanda, and I am seven years old. I really want to learn all about magic! Is that posibil possible? Daddy says we dont have any magic in our family, but I still want to learn all about it!

Thank you

Amanda

It's surprisingly formal for a seven year old, despite the one major misspelling and the fact the words are handwritten rather poorly. Desmond smiles slightly, and his mind whirs to life as the lift reaches the seventh floor.

Maybe he's focused on the wrong thing: if the magic schools don't want to budge, then maybe it's time he start looking at the Muggle schools instead. Why can't Amada learn about magic just because she doesn't go to Hogwarts? Maybe if some of the basic classes are incorporated into Muggle schools, it will be easier to then change the magical curriculum to include some basic math and science courses.

He distractedly drops the suggestion basket off with Veena and Miles, hurrying to his desk to start writing down all the ideas flying through his mind.

He sinks into his new project, and lets the rest of the world melt away. Hopefully when he comes back up, things will look a little brighter. And if not, maybe he can at least make Amanda's wish come true.

Author's Note: Press Conference! Hopefully it went well...? We'll have to wait and see! In behind-the-curtain news, I'm still about a month buffered at this point because a chapter I was worried wouldn't hit 5k is now determined to reach 10k just to screw with me so it's taking a while to get through xD BUT I should be able to start double updating by mid-June at the latest if I keep my current pace, which would mean we would actually still end on time despite the hiatus, so that's exciting!