Kylee does get why she's the person designated to work with Fleur on bank matters - Fleur's Veela allure is too distracting to the other four men she works with (even Desmond, for shame) - but sometimes she does resent them for it.

Right now, luckily, is not one of those times. Baylee pretty much has things in hand on the Beasts front and the Beings end is still in flux so their weekly meetings are mostly just chatting and catching up on each other's lives, and Dr. Caldwell has been busy with the Pepperup Potion and hasn't scheduled a meeting since the year started (which is a little disheartening, but Kylee gets that the older woman is busy).

So Kylee gets to enjoy Fleur's unique mix of sweet and sharp without a nagging sense that she really has other things to be doing right now.

Of course, today the woman shows up already frazzled and frustrated, something that Kylee hasn't actually seen from Fleur before, and it's rather disorienting.

"Is everything alright?" She asks once they're settled in the meeting room. "You seem... stressed?"

Fleur sighs. "It was a very long morning. I actually have something new I want to look at today, if that is alright with you? We will have to pause in opening Muggle accounts at Gringotts."

Kylee tilts her head curiously. "Sure, I'm flexible. What did you want to look at?" She prompts. Whatever is upsetting Fleur is going to distract her no matter what they work on, so they may as well let that anger direct their focus.

"The conversion rate." Fleur says simply. "From magical to Muggle money, the rate is absolutely insane! Nothing converts cleanly, and it's causing a lot of messiness for Muggles trying to get involved in the magical world. We need to either start accepting Muggle money, or alter the exchange rate."

Kylee blows out a long breath. "That... that is a big project." She observes after a moment. "On the surface just accepting Muggle money seems easiest, but that really just shifts the conversion complications onto store owners, which could disproportionately and negatively impact smaller mom-and-pop type shops." She purses her lips, thinking. "Changing the conversion though - we'd have to go through the Goblins, wouldn't we? Who even decided on that exchange rate to begin with? It has to have been an independent choice within the magical community considering the worlds were divided."

Fleur purses her lips. "I am unfamiliar with how this went in Britain - in France we merely use the Euro everywhere, so I did not truly consider the implications until recently."

"Well, maybe we should start by figuring out why the conversion rate is the way it is?" Kylee offers after a moment. "Knowing where things come from can often help with directing them where they should go to."

Fleur hums. "How can we find such information though?" She asks after a moment. "I do not even know when the conversion rate was set - it could be somewhere in Gringotts, but the Goblins are not fond of letting people wander about the building."

Kylee thinks for a moment, before she realizes that this might not actually be a dilema at all. She grins over at Fleur. "Actually, we may be able to do something about that today, if you don't have somewhere to be this afternoon? Otherwise we could schedule it for some other day-"

She barely finishes the sentence before Fleur replies. "Oh no! Today is perfectly good. What is this we can do?"

They find Petra at her desk, rifling through several files but looking far less frazzled than Kylee is used to seeing. Her work in the Archives seems to be agreeing with her - she's more energetic these days, and there's a color to her face that had been absent before.

"Hey Petra, do you think we could accompany you today? We were hoping to find some information on the history of Gringotts and the conversion system for Muggle money." Kylee says, and Petra jumps slightly, apparently having not noticed the two other women walk up.

She blinks rapidly, and then tilts her head slightly to the side. "Yeah, sure, I think that would be alright." She decides after a moment. "You'll just have to tell whoever's at the front that you're there, and remember to check out with them when you leave, so they don't go looking for you at closing." She hums, tapping her fingers against the desk thoughtfully before adding, "And I actually might know where a few relevant documents are for you to start. Would anything on the bank be useful, or just money stuff?"

Petra proves to be uncharacteristically talkative as they take the lift down to the Archive level, and Kylee is again struck by how much she's changed just in the past month - it's like a weight has lifted, and Kylee hadn't even realized there was one to begin with.

So maybe it's not uncharacteristic at all, she muses as they part ways at the front of the Archives. Maybe Petra being so quiet to start was uncharacteristic, and now she's seeing the real Petra for the first time.

She's not sure if that's a happy thought or a depressing one, so she opts to ignore it and focus in on finding any and all documents on Gringotts that she can.

They end up locating an entire section of the Archives dedicated exclusively to the bank after about an hour of perusing, and they don't hesitate to dive in, taking notes on anything relevant and chatting about some of the strange and/or questionable things they come across.

"Did you know there were actually seven separate Goblin rebellions? Not just the three violent ones, though those are the ones everyone learns about in school." Kylee announces as she finishes skimming through a scroll. "Also ninety-five percent of these have been horridly racist against Goblins and I'm rather inclined to agree with the Goblins if that's how people were talking about them."

Fleur snorts. "I agree people can be terrible, but as I here of these rebellions many innocent people were slaughtered to make a point. I do not think either side is in the right in this case."

Kylee hums. "I mean, yeah, obviously. It just that things had to get that bad before anyone was willing to actually sit and talk anything through. Heck, Goblins still don't have the same rights as witches and wizards do." She frowns down at the file as she speaks, pausing to process her own comments before exhaling heavily. "Hopefully things have changed, huh?" She muses grimly.

Fleur sighs. "Things always change, but they never do." She says, and it sounds like a quote but Kylee can't think where she's heard it before. "People push back against change - they are taught to be afraid of what is unfamiliar, and to always assume their way is the correct way. Not everyone is like this, of course, less and less in some groups, but it is more and more in others. Fear is a powerful tool. Voldemort used it. Yurina is now using it. What is there that is stronger than fear?"

A melancholic silence stretches out between them for a long, heavy moment before Fleur proceeds to answer her own question.

"Harry knows this. It is love. In magic, no force is greater. If you cast with love, you will overcome a spell cast in fear or hatred. It is difficult to use, though. There is a reason so few accomplish the Patronus - it is pure love and hope."

Kylee lets that settle over her, and marvel slightly at the comment. "Love may be more powerful, but hate and fear are louder." She says after a moment.

Fleur smiles. "Only because we train ourselves to hear the worst. The Initiative has already been battling that - do you not see it? They promote individualism and kindness. I was very impressed - it was why I agreed to continue working with the Initiative even after the original consultant got better."

Kylee startles at that. "Wait, you weren't originally going to be our consultant?" She asks, honestly stunned, but thinking on it for even a moment it does make sense. Fleur's Veela charm makes her difficult to work with - if Kylee hadn't been present, none of the guys would have been able to work with her effectively.

Fleur's laugh is bright and amused, and Kylee flushes slightly. "Ah, non! I was standing in for him as he got terribly sick for a few weeks. And I thought it would perhaps be too much in the family to work with Audrey's group. But here I am, and I do not regret it. Now, we should continue looking for clues about the conversion!"

Kylee takes another moment to study the older woman, only now fully appreciating how lucky she is that things panned out as they did. She can't imagine being able to balance three specialities if Fleur wasn't one of the people she was working with - if she'd been stuck with some stuffy, stereotypical bank manager or a particularly grumpy Goblin she thinks she probably would have just dumped the specialization onto Alex, who probably wouldn't have figured out his own specialization and the meetups wouldn't be happening.

She supposes that maybe things really do happen for a reason. Shaking her head slightly, she turns back to the scrolls, feeling a strange mix of trepidatious and reassured at the same time.

They're probably pushing the limits of the Archives' opening hours when Fleur finds the information they're looking for, and promptly releases a stream of angry-sounding French that Kylee can't help but laugh at.

She covers at Fleur's irritated look. "Sorry, sorry. I imagine most people think you're swearing when you do that? I must say, those are some very uniquely creative insults."

Fleur blinks at her for a moment. "Vous comprenez Francais?" She asks curiously.

Kylee grins. "Oui, et je le parle plus bien aussi." She replies. Living in Canada gave her access to French immersion schools, and though her accent is definitely a bit rustier than it had been when she first graduated, she still remembers the language perfectly well.

She realizes now she probably could have told that to Fleur sooner - the woman is obviously originally French based on her name and accent.

So she makes up for it by having the rest of the conversation in French. It will be good to practice anyway. "Well what did you find? It didn't sound very good."

Fleur sighs and passes Kylee the scroll she'd been reading. "I had been concerned this might be the case," She sighs, "But seeing it written out so clearly is unfortunate, to say the least. We need to change the conversion rate - get magical money properly evaluated according to Muggle rates and adjust the conversion from there. I can speak with my supervisors in order to get the Goblins onboard - considering this, I think they'll be more open to assisting than they might otherwise be."

Kylee lets Fleur finish her sentence before starting to read the scroll - she may be bilingual, but she's not good enough to read in one language while listening to another without getting the two confused. Fleur seems to pick up on this, as she finishes her thought and then leans back to wait for Kylee to read the report.

She's pretty sure she knows exactly which line it was that made Fleur release her earlier stream of pseudo-profanities the moment she reaches it. "They specifically chose a random conversion rate that would negatively impact Muggles' ability to afford anything in the magical world? What the heck. Why even put that down into writing? Why would they think that was a good idea?" She asks, bewildered and angry enough to forget her earlier conviction to speak French.

Fleur sighs. "People are not always so smart when they are blinded by their own biases." She muses, following the switch to English easily. "Likely they were bragging, thinking this was something quite good and would be seen as great in the future. Now we see this is not so much the case."

Kylee nods, skimming through the rest of the missive before handing it back to Fleur. "Well." It all she can really say for a long moment, her mind still spinning with the shock of the blatant hatred she'd just read, written down in an official Ministry legal document. "Well." She repeats. "I suppose that answers the question of why the conversion rates are the way they are. Although," She adds, suddenly amused, "It rather backfired, didn't it? The rates haven't changed at all, but inflation has ended up decreasing the price gap."

"But it has not eliminated it." Fleur says, standing up with a new determination. "So we will bring this up in the court and with the bank - they will see these things must be changed. They should have been changed long ago, but now is better than never."

Kylee nods excitedly. With everything else a bit stalled, now is the perfect time for a job of this magnitude to have cropped up, and she's actually quite excited to start in on it.

"I'm down." She declares firmly. "I can put in with the leaders that I'll be busy for the next week, so let me do that, and then let's get started on this!"

Desmond is glad to see the other specialists doing so well and accomplishing so much - Alex with the meetups, Fergus with his renewed Floo Expansion plans, and now Kylee with the conversion rate battle - but it makes his own job's ongoing stagnation that much more palpably frustrating.

He had gotten some positive responses from non-magical schools in relation to integrating magical history into their curriculums, but he'd quickly run up against the complication of State-Funded versus Independent schools, and now that avenue is pretty much in the same limbo that his magical school proposals are. So he's been spending his days puttering around the office, seeing if he can help anyone else and constantly checking to see if there are any owls arriving for him.

He's gotten so embedded into the routine that he's actually quite startled when, upon asking Kylee if she needs anything, she actually responds in the affirmative.

"I have a Beasts meeting this afternoon, and though Fleur knows I might not be able to work with her then I honestly would prefer to maintain our current momentum? Do you think you'd be able to sit in with Baylee and just take notes on anything that's changed? She honestly has things pretty well in-hand with that stuff, our meetings are just to touch base, so you don't need to have an indepth knowledge of everything we've done up to this point to handle the meeting."

Desmond blinks, needing a moment to process the information just thrown at him in what is a bit of a ramble (which is surprising to hear coming from the usually very precise Kylee. She's obviously pretty stressed about the bank stuff).

"Sure, I can do that." He says after a moment. "What time is it?"

She lights up. "Oh thank you, that really is a huge help. It's at one, so there are a couple hours left. I could have done it, but it really does make life a lot easier."

He smiles at her, unable to resist the pure joy she's emitting despite the fact he's still rather down about his own lack of progress. "Hey, it's no problem at all. We help each other out, right?"

She beams at him again before turning back to her work, and Desmond wanders to the delivery chute to check for owls, though now his mind is whirling.

Beasts and Beings - he can admit he doesn't know much about that division, and even though Kylee said going in with zero knowledge is perfectly acceptable, Desmond doesn't really want to accept it.

He checks the clock, and then makes a decision - instead of continuing his unhelpful pacing, he's going to go study up on Beasts and Beings, so that he's not totally clueless with Baylee today. At the very least, it's something different to do, and maybe he'll feel less incompetent at the end of it.

He's able to retrieve past meeting notes from Kylee, and he settles across from her at his desk in order to start flipping through them, recognizing some of the Beast names that come up but being utterly clueless about quite a few more that he sees. He'd never realized how diverse the magical ecosystem was: on the one hand, it's not so surprising that evolution happens even with magic, but on the other it really is a wonder that this many plants and creatures were successfully hidden for so long.

And still are being hidden, in some cases. He finds the notes for an early December meeting quite interesting, and he slows his skimming down so he can parse through the specific details of the discussion. It seems the ladies have decided that certain Beasts which are particularly dangerous should continue to be kept away from Muggles in order to mitigate preventable deaths. While Desmond can absolutely think of some people who would try to pet a dragon without protection to get Instagram likes, taking away the choice entirely doesn't feel like the right option either. Treating Muggles with baby gloves will be seen as - and honestly is - rather patronizing, and won't be a good look for the magical community long-term.

He puts those particular notes to the side, so he can bring them with him into this afternoon's meeting and see if they can't work out a more long-term sustainable solution: Muggles aren't stupid, and with the rest of magic out in the open, hiding the more dangerous parts will become nigh-on impossible. As is part of their new message, 'better to control the flow of information than react after things go badly.'

He skims the rest of the notes (only two more - meetings seem to have slowed drastically in the New Year) before packing them all into his briefcase and deciding to head out for lunch.

Estelle is waiting for him in the Atrium, looking like she's about to buzz out of her skin. She's been intensely bored since being reassigned, as her new job is "even more stupid paperwork" due to the fact no teams had openings for someone with her particular skillset.

"I'm going insane." She informs him the moment he's in earshot, and Desmond can't help grinning.

"You were always insane, but go on." He teases, and she grins and elbows him before they head over to the Floo hall and take one of the fireplaces to Diagon Alley.

"Seriously though, if something doesn't open up soon I might actually use my vacation days early this year. It would be better to be at home and doing stuff I enjoy than sitting at work being absolutely miserable. What do you think?" She asks as they walk down the Alley towards their favorite lunch place - the same one Estelle had introduced him to back in the autumn before the incident at the bar. He hadn't really appreciated it then, but they'd gone back in early January and he'd found he really did love both the atmosphere and the food, which is a fascinating mix of classic British and also, apparently, traditional magical plates.

The hostess smiles at them as they walk in. "Good afternoon you two - the usual spot?" She asks, and Estelle unashamedly agrees, though Desmond is a bit embarrassed that in just over a month they've already become such recognizable regulars. They should probably find another lunch place at some point.

They settle at the table, with it's double view of the Alley and London, and take time to flip through the menu. Desmond always likes to get new things, and they more often than not try each other's meals as well, so ordering requires a lot of focus.

Once they've settled and ordered, Desmond answers Estelle's earlier question like no time had passed since then. "I'm not sure honestly, I think something like that is really up to you. I mean, I don't even know how the vacation system works for the Ministry - do you get paid? Does it have any impact on your work reviews?" He pauses, frowning. "Do you even have those?"

Estelle laughs. "We do, yeah. Performance evaluation - Aurors have one every four months actually, to make sure we haven't gone crazy from Dark Magic exposure. It's a thing." She says to Desmond's horrified expression. "But don't worry, we get hazard pay, and in the event something does go horrifically wrong the immediately family gets fiscal reparations and a regular paycheck in the post."

Desmond makes a face. "That isn't really what I was worried about." He responds dryly, and she laughs.

"Oh relax, it's a very rare occurrence." Estelle says dismissively, "And it's far more common in Hit-Wizards. Actually, I was considering taking the course to become one when we met, but I ended up passing on it when we started dating."

Desmond is... honestly touched by the revelation. "You didn't want to risk increased exposure because of me?"

She gives him a smile. "Well yeah. Most hit-wizards don't have families you know, Mrs. Seo is an exception to the rule. And we're all pretty sure she's a little crazy and doesn't have a great relationship with her son so. I figured it wouldn't be worth the risk." She leans back in her chair. "But enough about me, how are things in the Initiative? Any movement with the schools?"

Desmond shakes his head, but does tell her about his meeting witih Baylee from Beasts and Beings, and Estelle leans forward again curiously as he explains his concerns and his proposed counters to them.

"Beasts you'll probably be able to change stuff with." She says after a moment. "I mean, assuming Baylee is reasonable - not everyone is in that division, there are some super crazies - think the Muggle world's PETA kind of crazy - but Beasts are flexible. Beings though, that could be harder. Is there a clear distinction made over what kinds of Creatures are remaining hidden?"

"Umm." Desmond frowns, flipping back through the notes in his mind as best he can. "I think it specifically said Beast. I didn't realize there was that much of a difference, considering it's all the same Department."

Estelle chuckles. "Don't let a Goblin hear you say that." She warns. "Beings are technically magical creatures, but they've evolved the same sort of logical minds that humans have. Half-humans like Werewolves and Turned Vampires are classified as Beings - Beasts are more like wild animals, they don't have our level of self-awareness." She shrugs. "That's how we're taught it, anyway.  Though there are some weird exceptions like Mermaids. Mermaids specifically asked to remain classified as Beasts, and no one really wants to argue with a Mermaid so. They're their own thing."

Desmond takes a deep breath. "...I'm going to have to ask questions at the meeting, aren't I?" He sighs, and Estelle laughs.

"Considering the consultant is Kylee's sister? Yeah, she probably left a lot of details she already knew out. I'd say asking is staying on the safe side here."

The wrap up lunch about thirty minutes later and head back to the Ministry. Once Desmond arrives at the Initiative offices he immediately returns to the older notes that he'd skimmed, to check if his new knowledge will change his reading of them.

As it turns out, it doesn't really, but he does definitely notice that Kylee leaves things out at times, so she probably knows everything he'd just learned already. Which means there could definitely be more to all of this than he'd initially thought, and the realization actually makes him quite excited: there's more to learn! And learning new things is infinitely better than being bored.

Baylee arrives about fifteen minutes early, and Desmond immediately hurries her into the conference room.

"Hello?" She says, obviously amused. "I'm guessing you're Desmond. Kylee said you were taking over the meeting today."

He nods quickly "Yes, Desmond Edevane. I'm the education specialist, but I'm at a bit of a stand-still there at the moment, and since Kylee is so busy with the bank I offered to help out for today. I also realized I really don't know much about magical creatures and was hoping we could spend at least a part of the meeting catching me up on the basics of what you've done so far - Kylee tends to leave things out of her notes if she alreadly knows them, but as a Muggle I admit I'm rather clueless on this front."

Baylee's eyes are wide and sparkling. "I must warn you," She says, her tone practically vibrating with excitment, "That once I get started on this we're going to be here for a few hours just going through every painstaking detail. I love this stuff, so I won't be able to stick to just the basics."

Desmond grins. "That sounds excellent."

Four hours later Desmond has decided that he and Baylee should talk more outside of work as well. At length. About everything. Her passion is contagious and he very nearly forgets they're actually supposed to be doing something else since he's so engrossed listening to her explain the intricacies of her job.

Baylee is the one who startles and remembers that they have an actual job to do. "Oh jeez, I've been going on - I'm supposed to update you about the Integration effort!"

Desmond blinks, and laughs. "Well, if you don't mind then I don't, this was fun! Do you have somewhere else to be right now?"

Baylee shakes her head. "Nah, my team is fine without me for an afternoon. I can explain what happened - it's happened to us all at some point or another." She laughs. "Anyway, integration. Honestly, there's not too much to say - we're still slowly introducing the non-dangerous beasts through our coordination with your media team, though that did slow down in the past two months for obvious reasons, and the Beings are still being wishy-washy about what they want to do."

Desmond perks up. "Actually, I had a thought earlier when I was reviewing Kylee's notes. Why are you guys trying to keep hiding the dangerous creatures? People will probably find ways to find them, and isn't it better for us to control that information? With Yurina and her who knows how many operatives out there the location of a dragon's nest might be the next big drop."

Baylee frowns. "That... is a good point, but I'd have to bring it up with my superiors, and they are a bit... intense, about Creature stuff." She grimaces. "We'll need a really solid argument."

"Yurina isn't a solid enough argument?" He asks, only half joking, but Baylee laughs.

"I wish. No, they all seem to have missed the memo on how bad she was - I guess Beasts and Beings wasn't hit too hard with the random torturing." She grimaces, and Desmond is genuinely taken aback. He knew Yurina had been bad, conceptually, but he somehow hadn't quite accepted it was that bad, so hearing it stated so bluntly is startling, to say the least. "So anyway, any ideas?"

Desmond frowns. "Well, I assume people in the magical world know about these dangerous creatures, right? How do they go about not getting killed by them?"

Baylee snorts. "Honestly? Some of them don't. There's a whole Pseudo-occupation known as a Monster Hunter, and people spend their entire life going around and trying to kill or capture these sorts of creatures, usually with very tragic results. You get a few success stories like Gilderoy Lockheart, or more recently Remi Longbottom, but for the most part Monster Hunters die young, broke, and completely unknown. It would be tragic if it wasn't so stupid."

Desmond shakes his head slightly. "People really will be people." He chuckles. "Well, it does sound like that isn't most witches and wizards though, right? So obviously there's some consensus on not chasing down those sorts of Creatures."

Baylee hums. "You said you were the education specialist, right?" She asks after a moment, and Desmond can already see where she's going with this and he is absolutely on board with it. "What if we put together a comprehensive curriculum for how and when Muggle students are taught about magical Beasts? We can model it on the magical methods of doing the same thing, though admittedly depending on your Care of Magical Creatures teacher you can get some very different orders." She shrugs, and then laughs when she looks at Desmond. "Oh man, your face. It's like that's a personal affront."

"I'm writing a proper curriculum for Care of Magical Creatures too." He replies, almost serious but not quite there.

Baylee laughs. "Well Mr. Edevane, I think we have a lot more work ahead of us today. And probably in the coming weeks too. Hope you don't mind hanging with me a bit more."

He grins at her. "Not in the slightest. In fact, I think I'm going to rather enjoy these next few weeks."

Things are definitely looking up.

It had taken time and a lot of schedule coordination, but Diana had finally managed to set up a meeting with the Head of the Improper Use of Magic Offices. Odette Grimmond, as it turns out, is a woman who sticks to her schedules with a rigor and dedication that apparently rivals even the Head of Transportation, who's notorious for his high standards. But this is an extremely important meeting, so Diana is overall looking forward to finally having it.

She arrives ten minutes early just to be on the safe side, and Grimmond's secretary conjures her a seat and some water to sip while she's waiting. Her arrival is announced five minutes after she actually shows up, and another five pass after that before the door swings open and a smiling blonde in her early forties waves for Diana to enter.

"I apologize if you were waiting long, I had several files that needed my signature this morning. With so many Muggleborn students still at home after the holidays there has been a massive uptick in magical misuse incidents." The woman explains. "Diana Shafiq correct? You're with Relocation."

Diana nods and accepts a handshake when Grimmond offers it. "That's correct. Thank you for making the time to meet with me, I can only imagine how hectic your schedule is these days." She replies, settling in an indicated seat facing Grimmond's surprisingly cluttered desk. "I'll endeavor to be as quick as possible, but I do have a rather large request today."

Odette nods. "I read through your meeting request, so I know some of it and I think it's certainly an idea worth pursuing. You said you wish to find positions within our structure here in Improper Use for some of the people in need of relocation?"

Diana smiles as she nods, pleased to hear her missive had actually been read - not many of the people she's been meeting with actually took the time to read her suggestions prior to seeing her. "Precisely. I feels there are many people in my charge who could provide quite a bit to your offices here - after all, they are already trained in a form of magic control."

The basic proposal Diana had sent was one she'd been thinking through for a while now, but had been unsure how to phrase things in the best possible way. The Office of Improper Use of Magic (distinct from Misuse of Magical Artifacts, which she also has a meeting with in a few days) specializes in a number of magical difficulties stemming from magic being used, well, improperly. From underage wizards using their wands at home over school breaks to adults using their magical skills for the purposes of scams or attacking those unable to fight back, the Offices cover a wide range of circumstances, many of which Diana believes former Obliviators and other Relocation members would be able to help quite a bit with, without needed too much additional training. She also has an additional suggestion that she wasn't sure she would get to today, but since Grimmond is obviously on top of things she decides she'll bring it up once they finish talking about her original idea.

"I'm inclined to agree." Grimmond replies. "Of course, they would still need to undergo some additional education on the topics, so many would likely be taking a step down in terms of seniority than they might be used to, which honestly is my biggest concern. It's not easy to lose status after working so hard to get it."

"I think most people would just be happy to have jobs again." Diana points out with a wry smile. "We're going on six months now - people are bored. I think the status cuts, and even the pay cuts, will be less of an issue than it might have been before."

Grimmond tilts her head. "Fair enough." She concedes. "You're the one working with them regularly, so I'll take your word on that. In that case I don't see why the Office can't begin working to allocate funds towards expanding our operations to allow for more employees here."

And Diana really couldn't ask for a more perfect segue than that. "Actually, I did have one additional thought that I wanted to propose today, if we have time?"

Grimmond glances at the clock and nods. "Plenty." She confirms. "I assume this has to do with expanding the offices?"

Diana smiles. Grimmond really is on point with this. "Precisely. As you may have heard, though I admit I'm unsure how common this knowledge is, there is some work being done both inside and out of the Ministry on creating ways for Muggles to potentially use magic, or at least specific spells. I feel that such efforts, and failure of those efforts, would likely end up falling under your Office's jurisdiction."

Grimmond is nodding through the entire sentence. "I had heard of that - Department Head Potter mentioned it as you're correct that it would be monitored by us. So expansion was already in the plans. Am I right in guessing that your Relocation people might be best suited for this new branch of work?"

"It's a possibility. At the very least, since it would be new for everyone, having people already familiar with working with Muggles, even if it was in a different context, may be an ideal move early on. Many of us are already at least somewhat aquainted with how magic affects Muggles, which I imagine could be quite useful for the new Office group."

Grimmond purses her lips, clearly running the proposal through her mind the way she must have done with Diana's request in the earlier letter. Diana stays quiet so at to not interrupt the process, and scans around the room as she does.

Despite Diana's earlier, brief impression of of the room as cluttered, Grimmond's workspace does have a sort of order to it around the dozens of photographs and the several small porcelain figurines dotting the flat surfaces of the room, including a figure skater that has pride of place on her main work desk, sitting beside the piles of folders that Diana has found to be a common staple of Heads' offices. So less cluttered, and more... personal, perhaps. Diana hasn't really seen a Head with this much sentiment before, but based on how efficient Grimmond is she's wondering if more of them ought to try it out.

"We would need to implement a training system, to teach Muggles how to safely use any and all bottled magic, as it were, that ends up released into the world." Grimmond decides after a long moment, and Diana turns back to face her, abandoning her examination of the figurines. "Perhaps some of the Relocation members could help with the setting up and running of it?"

They discuss the topic for another half hour before Grimmond apologetically cites another obligation, and Diana makes her exit from the office, feeling quite proud of her accomplishment in the mere hour she'd had of Grimmond's time. She'll see about setting up a followup meeting once she irons out the details and complications they'd isolated during their discussion, but all in all she thinks she may be able to get a solid chunk of the people under Relocation back to work within the next few months. Which is a solid chunk more than she's managed so far - the meetups are keeping people busy, but they aren't a real job, and Diana is acutely aware that she only has half her timeframe left to work with before everyone under Relocation loses their hazard paychecks and officially become unemployed.

It's a much-needed victory in the stressful lump her life has been recently, and she decides to celebrate by going to find Noah and dragging him out to a victory lunch. It's around the right time for it, anyway, and since he's still waiting for his reassignment she doubts he'll say no.

So she heads down to the second floor, a lightness in her step that she hadn't realized was missing until it returned. Amazing what some actual progress can accomplish - after the meetups were setup she'd felt cheerful, but now a weight is lifted that she hadn't even noticed was present to begin with.

She steps off the lift onto the second floor, and smiles politely at the man sitting at the front desk.

"Excuse me, you wouldn't happen to know where Auror Travers is?" She asks him.

He looks up at her suspiciously. "...I think he's in that meeting with the Minister. Should be out soon." He says after a moment, apparently judging her as not a threat. Diana sighs and takes a seat to wait. Unfortunate how immediately after such a massive success she gets profiled. But it happens enough that she's able to shrug it off and turn her mind towards what she needs to accomplish after lunch, running through the list of things she'd discussed with Grimmond and putting them in order from "quickest" to "most complex" to address.

After about twenty minutes she spots movement coming from further down the hall, and she looks up with a half-smile to see Noah heading towards the lifts - and next to him is Rose Evans.

Diana's smile freezes on her face. She hasn't really seen Rose since... well, since she'd learned the woman apparently was interested in her. And Diana still doesn't know what to do with that, exactly, and it's such an alien sensation for her. Her entire life Diana has always felt like she was in control, of herself if nothing else, so this is a new sensation and one she absolutely hates.

She hates it even more when opens and her brain starts directing her tongue without any apparent input from the logical part of itself.

"Hey Noah. I was thinking, if you're able to take lunch now, that we could go grab something?" She says, which is normal enough. But Rose looks ready to ask if she can come along, and Diana rushes through the rest of the the thought. "Like, as a proper date?"

Rose looks about as startled as Noah does, and Diana is debating whether she should just turn around an leave, never more thankful that her complexion makes it extremely hard to tell when she's blushing.

But then Noah smiles. "You realize our friends will never let us hear the end of this, right? They wanted something grand and preferably in front of them when we finally started actually dating."

All her nerves flood out of her as she laughs breathlessly. "Well, our relationship isn't their business. Besides, I want to see their faces when they realize." She finally turns to Rose, who has a slightly confused smile plastered onto her face. "Also hello, I didn't expect to see you here today Rose."

Understatement of the century, but she actually feels a little better about the younger woman now, so that's something. She'll analyze the feelings involved later - for now she's just going to appreciate it and then go enjoy her first proper date with the man she's been slowly falling in love with since school. "Yeah, I had to come talk with Potter about some stuff for my next meeting with the Minister, and Noah offered to help out on filling in things from the Hunters. Congratulations, by the way?" She adds, a bit more of her usual humor sliding into her voice. "I feel like there's a whole story here that I'm not privy too, but everyone figured there was something between you guys, so I'm glad it's finally worked out, whatever it was."

It's... honestly heartfelt congratulations, Diana realizes, and that is definitely going to make her feel a bit bad later, but she resolutely reminds herself that later is not now. Now is for dates.

She and Noah bid farewell to Rose before taking the lift down to the Atrium.

"So what prompted that?" Noah asks curiously. "Not that I'm upset by any means, but it felt very spontaneous, which isn't the norm for you."

She shrugs. "I'm having a good day, I suppose."

He stares at her expectantly for a long moment, before sighing and nudging her gently. "It had nothing to do with Rose being right there?"

Diana grimaces. The problem with her and Noah working so naturally together is that they both know each other too well.

'Later' may be a lot sooner than she'd hoped it would be.

Author's Note: Well that was fun :D All honesty this was a really chill chapter to write, and I hope seeing some actual progress across the board is appreciated - don't expect that to last xD It's me writing this, after all, and we're not even half through yet - smooth sailing doesn't get to stick around until the endgame ;P Also I have another apply story open now because I am weak xD Feel free to pop over and see if it sounds interesting! I'd love to see everyone :)