Aruna has been doing her best to try and talk more with her coworkers, but it's a slow and honestly exhausting process so she takes days off in between interactions. She'd given herself the entire weekend to work solo after helping Petra and Veena collect stories for Veena's press conference, which she's very proud of herself for, but now that it's Monday she knows she should probably push herself to go speak with people outside her office again. She just honestly isn't sure who she should talk to, or what they would talk about.

She dithers the entire day in her office, filing notices, comparing rulings, and generally avoiding actually going out to talk to anyone and feeling worse and worse about it as the day drags by. She does get work done, which is one positive - even when distracted and not feeling her best she can still accomplish things, which is a big step from where she had been six months ago.

She wonders if she should just call that her victory for the day and worry about socializing tomorrow.

About twenty minutes before the work day ends, however, her dilemma ends up being solved for her, when Mrs. Morgan sweeps into the Initiative offices and stirs up a ruckus that even Aruna can't help peering her head out to check on.

"What's going on?" She asks the nearest person - one of the specialists, though she doesn't recall his name off the top of her head.

He looks surprised to see her, though the expression quickly morphs into a warm smile. "Afternoon Ms. Kandasamy. It seems Mrs. Morgan has succeeded in her secret quest from these past few weeks."

Aruna frowns. "She had a... quest?" She asks uncertainly, and the man laughs.

"Ah, I don't think many people noticed." He says, and Aruna relaxes slightly. So it hadn't been her being completely oblivious to her surroundings, which is good. "Mrs. Morgan has been out of the office quite often for the past few weeks looking for something - I'm guessing by the elation she's found it."

Aruna steps out of her office as the leader calls for everyone to gather and follows the specialist - what was his name this is going to drive her crazy - over to join the other Initiative members clustered around Mrs. Morgan. Aruna opts to keep a few steps back so she can have some breathing room.

"I am pleased to announce," Mrs. Morgan declares once everyone gathers, "That I have found concrete proof that the muggle world was not only warned about the Wizarding wars here in England, but they also turned down magical assistance in several Muggle wars as well!" She brandishes a think folder triumphantly. "We will not be releasing these documents to the public just yet - we don't want to stir up anger towards the Muggle law makers if we can avoid it after all - but I think that this definitely deserves a round of drinks on me!"

Aruna hesitates even as the rest of the room cheers, including a few Hunters. Does she want to go get drinks with everyone? It certainly would be socializing, and maybe she's ready to try that next step? Actually going out with people and chatting outside of a work environment?

But... she doesn't know if she's ready for anything like that yet. Her therapist always says not to push herself to hard, too fast. But she also doesn't want to be stuck in the same place forever just because she's too afraid to even try to take the next step.

"Are you able to come out?" The specialist asks her, tone not presumptive or pressuring, and that's what makes up Aruna's mind for her.

"I could use a night out." She decides. "I may leave early though, since I really do need to be sharp for my work."

"Completely understandable." The specialist says with a grin. "I could never understand the specialized terminology you must be going through every day - Transportation mostly deals with numbers, which I am quite happy with."

The mention of Transportation jars Aruna's memory - this is Fergus Bell, transportation specialist and the only person older than she is on the team (discounting the leaders, of course).

"I'd rather letters than numbers any day." She offers uncertainly, and is quite pleased when Fergus laughs.

"Fair enough! To each their own I suppose. I'm glad to see you getting out of the office more lately, if you don't mind my saying. I think we're able to accomplish a lot more with your expertise readily available."

Aruna flushes, and she's not sure if it's pride or shame. "Well, everyone is contributing." She points out awkwardly, worried she's going to ruin this conversation before it's even started but really having no idea how else she should respond to the compliment.

Fergus takes it in stride though, and Aruna is surprised to find herself conversing with him rather comfortably through the entire walk over to the Leaky Cauldron and into the evening. He proves himself quite an amusing conversationalist, with a sharp wit and dry humor that get Aruna laughing hard enough to hurt despite herself. She tells him about her work with the law, and the difference between a practicing lawyer, which she is not, and a legal consultant, which she is. In turn he shares anecdotes from his time as Head of the Portkey Offices and vents some frustrations about the ongoing attempt to rework the Floo system.

"The system for this sort of massive rework and reboot has actually been in place for twenty years now - the issue is the permissions and getting the magical connection running smoothly and safely in Muggle homes. We don't really have a way to test what an all-Muggle Floo connection would really look like, which is slowing things down drastically." He explains as Aruna nurses her third martini of the evening, sloshing his own beer slightly as he gestures as if to illustrate his point. Aruna giggles a bit - she's definitely starting to feel fuzzy, so she should probably make this her last drink. Fergus is acting absolutely sloshed, though he's not slurring his speech at all, which is a pretty impressive trick.

"Maybe you should set up a volunteer program? Like what medical people do for human testing type stuff - have some people sign up to have their homes used so that you can get more data quicker." She suggests, tripping over her tongue a bit and thinking she definitely could have worded that a lot better than she did.

Fergus tilts his head. "Human testing? I have never heard of that." He muses, more beer spilling onto the luckily-unoccupied seat next to him as he thinks. "If it's medical I can ask Kylee, I bet she would know. She's doing all the medical stuff."

They talk for a few more minutes before Fergus declares that he needs to go home and sleep if he wants to be functional in the morning, and Aruna giggles over it all the way through her farewells. Her humor quickly dims as she realizes that the only person she'd actually be talking to just left, and now she's alone in a bar with coworkers she doesn't really know all that well.

She could just leave now. But... she'd actually been doing really well, and maybe there's someone else she can talk to, who will be surprisingly good company? Maybe getting to know people here will help with reaching out to them at work, too. She definitely thinks talking to Fergus will be a lot easier now that she knows him as a person as well as a colleague.

She looks around the Leaky, hoping to spot someone by themselves, who she can walk over to and... what? Not introduce herself, they all know each other already (well, theoretically they all know each other already - Aruna can't actually come up with names for half the people present, and the ones she does know on sight are the Hunters, who she hadn't even realized were apparently celebrating with them). How do you start conversations with people you already know but aren't actually close to?

At least this isn't a dilemma that's new - Aruna has always been terrible at small talk. But now that lacking skillset means she may have ruined any chances she had at getting to know these people outside of work, unless they approach her first. And it's not like she's been particularly approachable, so the chances of that are incredibly slim. The fact one person talked to her is really a statistical miracle and it's great to know that even if she's supposedly getting better now she's still being screwed by how broken she was before and-

And she needs to leave the bar. She's bordering on hyperventilating and the warm cheer of the room is starting to feel suffocating. She needs fresh air.

She manages to stumble out a side door, air through her nose as quickly and quietly as she can manage so she doesn't ruin the good mood for anyone else, and drops into a crouch against one of the walls of the Leaky, taking shaky breaths in the pattern her therapist had taught her specifically for situations like this one (and boy is she glad he forced her to learn them - she'd been rather stubborn about it when he introduced the idea, still convinced she would just snap back to normal one day when she was done grieving). Her heartbeat pounds in her ears, so she can hear as it slowly lowers itself back to a semi-normal resting rate - maybe a bit high, but she doesn't feel like her lungs are being crushed anymore which is infinitely preferable to where she was before.

She takes another few minutes just to sit and enjoy the cool night air - no longer the freezing temperatures of winter, but not quite warm enough to be comfortable - before slowly standing back up and stretching. She thinks that maybe she'll just head home for now - she did a lot tonight, and pushing farther obviously isn't a good idea. She luckily had thought to bring her purse out with her, so she'll probably just pop back in to say goodbye to the leaders so they know she's heading out and then she can leave.

As she's turning to do exactly that something shoves her back down, and her heartbeat shoots right back up to unhelpful levels of speed. She grips her purse tightly and looks around desperately, rifling around for her pepper spray. What was that? Is she being mugged?

"Muggle , acting like you're good enough to mingle with your magical superiors." A voice spits, and Aruna freezes. What? No. No she's - what?

Her mind can't seem to make sense of the accusation even as her eyes adjust enough to the dim light to register the figure standing further down the alley. His hand is raised, probably holding a weapon, and Aruna is panicking again. He'd called her Muggle, so he's magic, so does pepper spray even work on magicians? Do they have magical pepper spray defenses?

Her brain doesn't seem to be sending these questions to her hands, though, because once she latches onto the bottle she yanks it out, points it towards the figure, and presses the release.

He swears and stumbles backwards, then a blast of air fills the alley and Aruna finds herself engulfed in her own pepper spray. So. Bad tactic.

As she coughs and rubs at her eyes she hears a door slam open and someone start yelling. She still can't see very well because of the spray, but she can hear more yelling and then a thud, and she tries to stumble backwards, away from what her panicked mind is telling her must be a fight.

An indistinct figure appears in front of her, and she jerks back instinctively.

"Woah, it's alright Aruna, it's just me. May I use some magic to clear your eyes?"

The voice is familiar, but it sends a trill of discomfort and nerves through her body. Still, she gives a slow nod, hand still curled around the pepper spray. A word is muttered, to low to make out, and a very strange sensation washes over her. She blinks and stumbles back again, hitting the side wall of the alley as she does. Slowly her vision refocuses and her eyes stop burning, and she realizes the person who had spoken to her - saved her? - is none other than Jack Abbott.

Well, that explains why his voice made her instantly nervous.

"You alright?" He asks. Aruna blinks a few times and looks warily around the alley, quickly spotting a crumpled and magically bound body sitting further up. The bindings are the only thing showing he's probably not dead - the figure isn't moving even slightly.

Jack follows her gaze and grimaces. "He's petrified." He explains. "I noticed you'd been gone for a while and decided to come check if everything was alright, and I'm glad I did." His gaze moves back to her. "You are alright?" He double checks. "I have no idea who that guy is, but we're going to take him in for questioning. Drunken disorderly and attempted assault are more than enough to hold him for a couple days."

Aruna takes a few deep breath, eyes still locked on the figure (mostly so she doesn't have to look at Jack). "I'm fine, yeah. I was... I was going to head home." She stutters out, still refusing to look right at him and internally panicking at how close he still is.

"I can take you, if you like?" ers.

"I'm not ready to date anyone!" She blurts, and he jerks back, eyes widening in surprise.

"I... what?" He says after a long moment, during which Aruna presses further against the wall at her back.

"I'm not... my fiancé... I just I'm not ready to date anyone so-"

"I'm not trying to date you!" He interrupts, and Aruna freezes. He's... not? But... he's attractive and helped her out just now and always seems to be nearby at work, and she's pretty sure that's how romance starts? Right?

"You... don't?" She mumbles out, suddenly feeling very warm despite the cool air surrounding them. "But... why..."

"Did I help? It's sort of my job." He replies, looking slightly put-off. "Look, I'm fine if you want to head home without an - I was offering because it's standard procedure after someone's been attacked. I can take this guy in myself instead of getting one of the other Hunters out here if you feel safe enough to go home alone."

The whole conversation is making her feel absolutely awful. She'd made so many assumptions about their relationship, simply because she had found him attractive and some part of her brain freaked out and saw it as a betrayal of her ex.

She stares at him as all this processes, and he shifts away, back towards the frozen figure behind them. "Look, I'm not sure what's going on here, but I'm glad you're alright. We'll probably want a statement on what exactly happened before I came out here, but we can do that tomorrow. Why don't you head home and sleep - you look like you could use it."

Aruna nods numbly and finally steps away from the wall, turning and walking mechanically out of the Alley and onto Charing Cross Road in front of the Leaky Cauldron.

For what started as such a promising evening, it's all gone rather horribly wrong, and as she heads back to her flat she thinks that maybe she's done socializing for a while.

Fergus is actually feeling pretty good as he pushes back into his apartment after drinks. He hadn't really had much - just nursed one beer the entire time he'd been at the bar - but Aruna had been fantastic company and he'd really enjoyed chatting with her.

Of course, the fact he feels so good almost immediately puts him on alert. He never gets to feel good about things for very long before he's inevitably made to do something horrid again by his handler.

He dithers in the entryway for a moment, wondering if he can put off going to check his parchment and submitting his report, but he really doesn't have anything else pressing to get done, so he reluctantly heads to his study to start writing. He does have a lot to say - in addition to Cadi's discovery, he's finally got information on Aruna, and though he feels kind of slimy about it a job is a job. And he really doesn't have a choice.

He settles at his desk and pulls out the parchment, muttering the reveal spell with some trepidation. However, no message or order shows up, and he wonders if maybe he'll get away with actually having a half-decent evening for once. He spends the next hour detailing everything that had happened that day, including clarifications on Aruna's role and what she's been doing for the past six months, which up to this point has been a bit of a question mark for him. Her work, as it turns out, is fascinating, and he manages to cover the parchment twice over just talking about the anecdotes she'd shared today. He pretends he's sharing them with a friend instead of one of Yurina's goons and it makes him feel slightly less like that literal scum of the Earth, but only slightly.

He sends the message after double-checking he hadn't left anything out, and then leans back and waits for a reply. He doesn't expect to be waiting for too long, since he'd been out late and sent his report later than he normally would, but to his surprise it's nearly two hours before the parchment warms with a response.

He picks it up nervously - a wait time that long probably means something is going down - and he's proven right by the very first sentence on the parchment.

Dearest Tabby,

He frowns. He hates that nickname, but his handler never uses anything else to address him. It's unsurprising really - the reason he hates it is exactly the reason it's such a power move to use. Fergus' patronus is a tabby cat, so by bestowing this particular nickname his handler is clearly showing that they know him personally, and he can literally never trust anybody.

The name is only ever brought up when Fergus is about to be asked to do something underhanded though, and the last time he'd seen it was in December, when he'd been given the instructions to drop off the information that led directly to Yurina's triumphant appearance and total domination of the news cycle. He doubts this instruction will be any less destructive than the last.

Your report is greatly appreciated - the new information on Ms. Kandasamy is excellent. The next line sends a slight shudder through him - he hadn't included Aruna's last name, and considering she's not a public Initiative figure, how would his Handler know what it was? He tries to remember if he'd ever mentioned it in the past, and figures he must have, maybe when first reporting on who was in the team way back in September. It's a testament to how close attention his Handler is paying to every report, which is all the more reason to not leave anything out - whoever is on the other side would probably somehow know and then Fergus would die thanks to his Vow.

The next line is the last one, but it's the exact one he's dreading. I dare say a good many would have kept quiet and thought about keeping on the right side of the Chief.

Translation: we will be giving you information tomorrow along with a drop off time and place. He closes his eyes - this is exactly like December.

Taking a shaky breath, he clears the parchment and reaches for his quill. I'm afraid I'm not much good at that.

Message received, orders accepted. Not like there's any choice in the matter, so why he has to respond with a specific code phrase is beyond him honestly - he could just write "understood" and it would be exactly the same and make him feel less... involved, he supposes. More like he's being forced, less like he's a part of their game with code phrases and secret drop-offs.

He sighs and puts the parchment away. The information will be given to him sometime tomorrow - he should get a good night's rest so he's ready. Or at least, get as much rest as his guilty conscience will allow him to, anyway.

As predicted, he's not particularly well rested when he gets up the next morning, having spent most of the night tossing and turning and utterly unable to sleep. He sleepily sets his breakfast to make itself and takes a long, slighty cooler-than-comfortable shower to try and wake himself up. When he looks in the mirror afterwards he still looks exhausted, but he supposes he can say it's from the drinking the night before. He'd intentionally been acting drunker than he was, after all - people will probably believe him.

Sighing, he goes to the kitchen to find his half-mumbled spell has set his food on fire, and he groans and puts it out, opting to just chug down some milk and call it good enough. He also opts to leave the dishes to wash later instead of setting them to wash themselves - he doesn't want to come home to shattered porcelain all over the floor.

He's definitely twitchy and irritable when he gets to the office, which is not ideal considering last time he'd gotten snappy at his coworkers, so he takes a few deep breaths before going to the lift and heading for the offices. Maybe if he's lucky everyone will be a bit subdued with hangovers and no one will even notice that's he's off his usual game?

When the lift doors slide open it's to a quiet office, and it looks like Fergus is going to get his wish. He heads over to the specialists' desk cluster and musters up a smile for Kylee and Desmond. Alex, as is usual for Sundays, isn't present since he has the meetups to attend.

"Morning guys. Guess we're all feeling a bit fuzzy from last night still." He jokes, only to frown when he doesn't get the expected chuckles. "Guys? Everything alright?"

"Didn't you hear about what happened?" Kylee asks after a moment, and something in Fergus goes cold.

"Something happened?" He asks slowly, looking around. The office looks normal enough, but that doesn't mean much - terrible things can look perfectly normal after all.

"Aruna was attacked by an anti-Muggle wizard outside the Leaky." Kylee says tiredly. "She's fine, don't worry, but... it was a shock for all of us, for an attack to be that blatant. It's not Yurina's style so we weren't expecting anything like it to happen, at least not right now."

Fergus's mind is swirling - there had been an unexpected two hour delay in his response last night. Could that be related to whoever had attacked Aruna? Kylee is right, it's not like Yurina to orchestrate something like that - was it just a rouge ? Or is the structure starting to collapse under it's own weight?

He drops heavily into his desk chair, his head pounding as he tries to process everything he's feeling. If things are cracking, then maybe there's hope yet. Maybe even Yurina, with her two decades of planning and careful build up, isn't as terrifyingly untouchable as they thought.

He frowns abruptly, his momentary hopefulness smashing unceremoniously on the ground of realization. Even if it was unexpected, it's not like she doesn't have a response to it. Fergus is depositing information sometime today, after all, and he somehow is feeling even more awful about that now than he had been last night. Which is fantastic.

"Fergus? You alright?"

"This on top of a hangover isn't a great morning." He replies automatically and Kylee smiles at him sympathetically.

"Well, at least Aruna is okay. She's been given a few days off to recover, and we caught the guy who did it, which is great news. The Aurors are interrogating him as we speak."

Fergus lets out a shaky breath. He knows Kylee is trying to be encouraging, or to offer him so hope, but honestly he only feels worse. If the person they arrested really is part of Yurina's team and had gone rogue, then whatever his drop off is will be equally devastating for the Initiative and the integration as a whole.

He ends up spending the day worrying about what the information could be and gets very little else done. Luckily everyone is a bit harried, so no one calls him out on it, but that's the only small comfort he has in any of this. The worst part is he can't actually work out what the information might be - the Initiative (Petra in particular) have been doing an excellent job releasing all the information on the war on their own terms, and anything he can think of that hasn't yet been shared could probably be effectively counteracted by Cadi's finds from yesterday - finds that his handler of course knows about.

Even sharing the attack might not be enough to counter the information that might be gleaned from the captured blood purist - after all, it's only one attack after 6 months of nothing, and put up against everything the Initiative has been revealing it alone won't be enough to get a majority of Muggles to riot.

Not being able to come up with even a hint of what might be in the information only makes him feel worse, and he's honestly a bit ill by the time work wraps up and he heads back to his flat.

As he approaches the door he spots a package sitting unobtrusively in front of his apartment, a small note attached to the top, and the dread in his guts only rises.

He picks it up and lets himself into his flat, making sure to lock and soundproof the door behind him. He has no idea what this is going to look like, and he doesn't want to tempt fate or notice by not preparing for the worst.

He checks the card first, and is immediately taken off guard when he sees the dropoff location - it's not BBC, or any other news network.

It's the Daily Prophet Head Offices.

Does Yurina have someone in the Prophet on her payroll? No, if she did she wouldn't need him to drop anything off. Of course, it could be a misdirection, so that people don't realize someone in the newspaper is working for her...

He shakes his head firmly. He's not going to think about this, it's only going to make him feel worse. He'll just unwrap the package, set it at the drop point, and not think about it again until he absolutely has to. The more distance he can put between himself and his actions, the easier it will be to face everyone at work in the morning. So he sets the note aside and magically cuts open the box to find a recording orb nestled inside the packaging.

He pockets the orb, resolutely refusing to wonder what could be on it, and heads back out, bringing a back for gorcery shopping as he goes. Rule number one of these sorts of missions - always look like you have an alternative, legitimate reason to be in the dropoff location. Maybe he'll pick up some magical law books for Aruna while he's in the Alley, as a get-well-soon kind of thing. Though which ones would she not have already?

He ponders this question as he walks, for the most part successfully distracting himself from the weight in his pocket. As he passes the Prophet HQ, he glances quickly around to ensure there isn't anyone he recognizes nearby - there isn't - and then slips the orb into a potted plant just in front of the HQ. Bit of an odd drop off point, but he assumes there's logic to the placement. He heads away, beelining for the used bookstore as he'd decided on his walk that it would be more likely to have books not present in the Ministry or Wizengamot libraries, and thus less likely for Aruna to have already read them.

A young girl, maybe nine or ten, is perched behind the counter wearing a bright, nervous smiles. When she sees Fergus her eyes widen uncertainly, and she looks behind her towards a slightly ajar door.

"Um, hello!" She offers after a moment, and then, dropping her voice to a whisper-shout, looks back at the door. "Dad! Someone is here!"

Fergus can't help chuckling as a man appears from the side door, already looking apologetic.

"Good afternoon sir, welcome to Athena's Library - what can we do for you today?"

Fergus explains what he's looking for, and the man hums thoughtfully.

"Well, I can certainly show you to the law section - Mandy, could you keep watching the front for me while I help this gentleman?"

Fergus follows the man back, and they discuss the differences between several of the books they have. Fergus eventually selects two that he thinks Aruna might not have yet, and pays 'Mandy' who looks incredibly proud when she successfully finishes the transaction.

"Have a nice day sir!" She declares as Fergus turns to leave, and he offers her a smile and a wave. He grips his bag and heads back home, pretending that this will somehow make up for whatever nightmare he just released onto the Initiative.

Diana knows she's in for a long day when the Wednesday morning Prophet is dropped off at her window.

MUGGLES SABOTAGING THE INITIATIVE? Blares out at her from the front page. She glances at the author and isn't surprised to see that it's Jamie Peterson, one of Rita Skeeter's protogées. She decides to finish her food before reading, so that she has some glucose in her system and doesn't burn the paper up in a fit of hunger- and righteousness-induced rage.

Once her stomach is settled and the dishes are washing themselves, she picks the paper back up.

With the Muggle Integration Initiative well into its sixth month of operation, questions still abound about what it's doing, and whether what it's doing is really worth putting effort into. However, dear readers, regardless of your stance on this so-called 'integration' effort, this intrepid reporter has uncovered an ugly truth that the Initiative doesn't want you to know: the Muggles don't want to integrate. Indeed, it appears that there is a Muggle working within the Initiative itself seeking to undermine it and subjugate magical people to the will of their Muggle brethren!

For all that most of the opening paragraph is obvious speculation, Diana rapidly feels a pit of dread building up in her stomach. Regardless of the reasons for it, if this reporter really has stumbled across evidence that a Muggle working inside the Initiative is intent on sabotage that's... well, that actually would explain a lot of the recent uproar on the Muggle end of things, and maybe it would be good to actually catch the individual responsible.

However, writing a public article was not the way to handle that information - it should have been quietly submitted to the Aurors to handle. Now? Now there are going to be riots.

Diana reads through the rest of the article, and as expected it devolves entirely into speculation and incendiary commentary, but there's enough apparent evidence present that Diana knows this is going to be a massive problem for the Initiative.

She also knows exactly where the people fired up by this article are going to go, and she makes a Floo call to her boyfriend (and weirdly enough the title doesn't feel weird at all) before she heads for work.

Noah meets her about ten blocks away from the Ministry, smiling tiredly. "Hey Ana, I'm guessing you read the paper too?"

She scoffs. "I'm guessing everyone has, and I'm also guessing that reporter is going to be getting a very intense interrogation by whichever Auror they put on the investigation." She replies tonelessly. "Thanks for meeting up with me - I may not be Initiative, but I am known to work with them, and let's be real people will take out their anger on anyone they don't like, regardless of whether that person is actually relevant to the thing pissing them off or not."

Noah winces. "I'd say I'm happy to be of service, but I hate that any of this is happening to begin with." He sighs, and Diana is inclined to agree.

They walk to the Ministry in a tense silence - not uncomfortable, but more anticipatory. Hopefully Diana was just being overly cautious when she called Noah in to walk with her to work, but she's never had the highest opinion of people and somehow she doubt that this particular incendiary incident is going to prove her wrong.

Sure enough, they start to hear the crowd when they're still three blocks away from the Ministry entrance. The shouting is indistinct at this distance, but the fact it can be heard at all is testament to how many people read and believed every word of Jamie's article.

Diana just sighs and shifts her wand slightly inside her sleeve, so it will be easier to draw should things get ugly. Hopefully it won't come to that - it really shouldn't come to that - but considering the recent attack on Ms. Kandasamy Diana isn't taking any chances with her own safety, thank you very much. Ms. Kandasamy had come out unscathed due to pure dumb luck, and as Diana doesn't believe in luck she figures she'll have to make her own should things turn south.

Noah shuffles slightly beside her, and she knows he's doing the same - they've always been on the same page, which is another reason she'd wanted him beside her, rather than either of her other friends.

Plus, well, walking to work with her boyfriend has a nice ring to it.

When they finally reach the Ministry entrance things are about as messy as Diana had figured they would be. The mob in front of them probably numbers in the dozens, and all of them are yelling slurs and demands at every person who walks past. At least they've been polite enough to actually leave a path to the entry, otherwise quite a few people probably would be late for work.

Diana observes for a minute, before sighing and straightening her posture (not that it does much - she was already standing tall beforehand). "Alright, let's go." She declares firmly. Noah stays right next to her as they walk up to the crowd, and Diana can feel the moment people start to recognize her and Noah.

"Hey! Hey Shafiq, still feel high and mighty in Relocation now? One of you is a traitor!" Someone yells, because apparently someone is an idiot.

Diana rolls her eyes. "Relocation doesn't even have any Muggles." She responds pointedly. "Relocation and the Initiative are entirely separate entities, and the fact you're being such a baby about all this says more about you than it does about me."

"Don't antagonize them please." Noah murmurs lowly, and Diana gives him a look.

"I'm not antagonizing them, I'm telling the truth. They're blocking people's way to work as well - they need to get over themselves and move on with their lives." Diana retorts. "Besides, what exactly do they think they're accomplishing? The Auror department is almost definitely already arranging for an internal investigation - these people aren't doing other than probably slowing things down by being in the way."

Noah doesn't get a chance to respond because the crowd decides it's done waiting for them to finish their conversation. "A baby? The fact you apparently don't think this is a problem says more about you you-"

Diana whirls on the speaker before he can finish. "Do not finish that sentence." She warns, voice low and menacing, and the crowd immediately goes quiet. It's been a while since she's had to intentionally bring out her intimidation factor, so a small part of her is pleased to see that it still works. A much bigger part is seething. The man in front of her isn't just a random protestor - he's one of her her Relocation charges.

"I understand that you're all angry and confused by what is happening, but need I remind you of the kind of crap that was pulled against Muggles and Muggleborns not twenty years ago?" She snaps. "I honestly should hope I don't need to educate any of you on that considering all of you were old enough to have lived it. One Muggle having reservations is not unexpected, and there is no evidence of internal sabotage as of this moment - once the internal investigation is arranged and completed, then you can decide if there's anything to be angry about. But this? This is just pathetic." She shakes her head. "And you of all people should be giving the Initiative the benefit of the doubt - have you forgotten the only reason you have work at all right now is because of them? They're putting their necks out for both worlds - the least we owe them is the benefit of the doubt. If something is dirty, it will be rooted out. Until then, go home. I should hope you all have better things to be doing."

With that she spins on her heel and strides to the entrance, leaving Noah to hurry along behind her.

"Brave words, but they're probably not going to change too many people's minds on this." He warns as they descend into the Atrium.

She scoffs. "Oh, I know. But at the very least some of them will at least think to wait for the internal investigation results before making too big a nuisance of themselves."

"If there is one." Noah points out. "The reporter may just have to retract her statement - Jamie isn't exactly known for her honesty in reporting, and if she saw even the smallest thing that could be juicy news she'll blow it up. It's not the first time we've had this problem with her, you know."

Diana snorts. "Oh, I know. But for all my qualms about Jamie's integrity as a reporter, she's not a blood purist. This isn't something she would just make up to get a front page spot - there's probably something sound underneath all the bull."

Noah sighs. "I hate to agree with that, but I do agree with it." He admits. "There being someone on the inside working against the Initiative makes a lot of sense when put up against some of the issues we've seen in the past six months."

"My thoughts exactly." Diana sighs. The two of them stop as they reach the lifts, stepping aside so they can talk a while longer before going to their separate offices. "I hope they set up the internal investigation sooner rather than later though - this could get even uglier if left to fester for too long."

"Agreed, but setting those up is an incredibly complicated process, especially when we don't hav the original text or item that would spark the need for such an investigation. If Jamie doesn't still have whatever it was that set her to write that article, then it could be a few weeks before we get everything up and running. Not to mention the added complication of the Hunters' presence." He adds, frowning. "Most of the available personnel right now are the displaced Hunters, who most likely aren't going to be eligible to do the II considering their connection to the Initiative."

Diana frowns as well. "They may not have a choice - this isn't something that can be put off until more ideal candidates become available." She points out.

Noah shrugs. "Well, it will be up to whichever senior Auror is put in charge of things - my bet would be Mrs. Shacklebolt, considering the other veteran available is Fiona, and she's definitely too biased to take point."

Diana hums. "If it's Shacklebolt then it will be run well at least, and people will have a much harder time claiming that anything was missed - she's renowned for her investigative capabilities."

They chat for a bit longer before finally going their separate ways. Once Diana is in her office she immediately buckles down. Regardless of the internal investigation, the Wizengamot is going to take notice of the chaos and take the outcry into consideration when making future decisions about the Initiative - and by association about Relocation. For all that her group is its own entity, she can't deny how closely linked she is with the outcome of the Initiative - if things go poorly there, a lot of the people under her may have their jobs back, albeit have a much harder roll to fill.

At least she's familiar enough with the Wizengamot to know exactly what their response will be to something like this, so she can start drafting arguments against it for the inevitable debates. They'll want to literally separate the world into magic and Muggle, isolating the magical community in hidden pockets within cities, not unlike certain Pureblood neighborhoods already do, and Diana knows if they do that then things will only get worse.

She supposes predictability in this case is a good thing, but as she works on her counter-proposals she can't help feeling like this may be a hopeless battle.

Author's Note: Whoops. Welp, that's one cat out of the bag (kind of). I wonder where this will end up going??? Anyway, I have some very exciting news for everyone: as of this week, UFF is going to begin double updates! :D That means in addition to the usual Sunday fare, there will be a new chapter every Wednesday as well~ I'm buffered far enough for it (well, just about anyway, thanks internet issues >~<) so we should have these double updates every week from now until things wrap up!