Estelle knows she's not supposed to bring anyone else in on what she's doing, and she knows Clary will be furious if she ever finds out that Estelle went behind her back on this one, but Estelle really needs the details on what the Internal Investigation is discovering, and since she doesn't want to be seen consulting with Clary too often, she decided to recruit her own informant - one who no one will question her getting weekly lunches with.

Lucky for her, Tristan Morgan is happy to help - too happy, perhaps, but Estelle won't begrudge his being excited about what is technically an undercover operation, something usually only Hit-Wizards get to undertake.

They meet on the weekend more often than not, since it fits easiest into their schedules, and they almost always go to Muggle areas to eat, setting up anti-eavesdropping spells around their table that won't bother the Muggles but will successfully deter anyone following them from listening in.

This week Tristan has some extremely interesting news about one Fergus Bell. Estelle had always liked Fergus, and she knows Desmond looks up to him a lot, so learning he's an unwilling plant by Yurina and her team is extremely disheartening. At least he's come clean now, though she assumes he probably still has to report to whoever his handler is - she doubts Yurina is monitoring him herself.

"Whoever he's reporting to might also be behind all the Dark Magic Users suddenly vanishing - the kingpin for England, as it were." She muses. "Do you know if there's a timeline on that situation or?"

Tristan shakes his head. "Not even, they're still debating what to do - it'll be a while before there can be any movement on that front, I bet." He sighs. "Oh, and this is probably obvious but don't tell anyone? Only the II and the Initiative leaders know about Fergus."

"And he's not the guy you were looking for?" She guesses, and Tristan sighs.

"Nope, most likely not. Yurina wouldn't out her own informant - there probably is a disgruntled Muggle or Squib working to destroy things from the inside. Alex was honestly our primary suspect, but the trail of crumbs doesn't lock him in concretely enough to really know for sure. Doesn't help that the stupid reporter didn't write down everything in the recorded message that she used for the article, so we only have the jotted, messy notes from a Quick Quotes Quill that are pretty much worthless."

Estelle sighs. "So we're both basically still at dead ends." She grumbles. "Excellent, I'm sure Yurina is trembling in her ridiculously fancy boots. At this rate we're screwed - she'll enact her final plan without us having any clue when it's coming or how to stop it."

Tristan sighs again, dropping his head onto the table. "And she's completely untouchable still, too. Have you seen that she has a fanclub now? Because she has a fanclub, it's ridiculous. How someone made of pure evil has a fanclub is beyond me."

"Serial killers have fanclubs, and 'Nina' is portraying herself well - people don't even realize how she's manipulating them." Estelle points out. "By presenting the way she does she's making all other magical people look unreasonable and secretive. At this point she doesn't even have to do anything else - people are already suspicious of magic and now they're going to be looking for things to justify that opinion. It's become a self-feeding, destructive cycle." It's a depressing thought, and they both lapse back into silence for a few moments, brooding.

"What do we even do at this point?" He asks miserably. "If we can't proove Yurina is up to no good, the world looks like it's going to break out into war. Which honestly doesn't even seem like it should be Yurina's goal - World War Three will kill everyone, including her and her dumb cronies. I feel like there's an entire angle to the plan that everyone is completely missing because we're all so scared about the nukes."

Estelle frowns. Tristan has a point - war really won't be good for anyone, and it doesn't seem like Yurina would have overlooked something that obvious in the twenty years she's had to plan all this. "That... is an excellent point. But the world is on the brink of it already - what could she have under her belt that's going to counteract what she's already done?"

"Maybe there's an element we're not seeing?" Tristan suggest uncertainly. "Remember when we were with the Hunters, we kept trying to get info on how Yurina was interacting with the American president, but no one could give us a clear answer? There may be a hidden trick in there that we're unaware of."

Estelle grimaces. "Right, because the fact Yurina is out in plain sight and can still hide her agenda effectively isn't at all terrifying." She groans. "Honestly I'm not sure if that or the end of the world is more intimidating."

"Both." Tristan declares. "Honestly though, the fact neither of us is making any progress doesn't exactly help with anything. We still have no clear idea who the saboteur is, or where the dark magic users have gotten to, and both could strike at any point and literally ruin everything."

Estelle hums, something striking her. "Say, you don't think Yurina might be worried about the Muggle insider too, do you?" She asks, sitting up slightly. "I mean, they could be a wrench in her plans too - a rogue agent that she has no control over and is pushing things too close to war for her taste?"

Tristan frowns, propping his head onto his forearms though staying on the table. "It's definitely possible." He acknowledges after a minute of thinking. "But if she knows who it is, why not just take them out herself? She has insiders who probably could - heck, the fact she knew about them at all is proof of that."

Estelle thinks on it. "Maybe she's turning the Initiative in on itself? They root out the problem, but destabilize themselves in the process without any apparent involvement from her?" She hypothesizes. "Is it possible she didn't know about the mole and had to improvise when she found out?"

"Both possibilities, and both ones Trainer Shacklebolt has told us to keep in mind. We can't rule out anything though - literally all we have is that there definitely is someone on the inside who doesn't like the magical world, which really isn't much of anything when it comes to actually getting things done."

Estelle makes a face. Cases like that are the worst - you spend most of your time looking for clues without any real idea of where they might be or if they're being erased while you're facing some other direction. Suddenly she's not so upset about not making it onto the II team. "That's rough." She says sympathetically, "Though honestly I feel like my work is no different right now - heck, I probably have less to go on, and we don't even have a proper Hit Wizard with us, despite dark wizard location generally being their ballpark. But they're all too old and too high level to properly trust, so we just have to make do I guess."

"It to think a former war hero could be the insider." Tristan says mournfully. "It feels counter intuitive to distrust them - like, they fought these guys twenty years ago, why turncoat now?"

"Maybe whoever it is was just keeping their options open? Working both sides so they'd be well positioned no matter what the outcome was?" Estelle suggests, though the thought makes her feel ill. "If that's the case, I hate to say it but we probably should keep a closer eye on former Slytherins."

Tristan grimaces. "I hate to agree but..." He trails off, frowning. "Wasn't Trainer Shacklebolt a Slytherin?"

Something in Estelle goes cold, before she shakes her head angrily. "Trainer Shacklebolt isn't just leading the II, she's married to the former Minister for Magic - it's not her." She says angrily. "I mean Finn is former Slytherin too, I think, and he definitely didn't do it!"

"The former Minister for Magic is also a former Slytherin. And Diana from Relocation. And Noah who you're working with for all this." Tristan mumbles, then shakes his head and looks up. "I don't think we should think like this - it could just as easily be someone from another House. Fergus was Gryffindor, remember? And Peter Pettigrew too, the guy who resurrected Voldemort in the first place and caused the whole war back then."

Estelle groans. "You're right, you're right, diving further into that thought process is no better than what people do to justify racism. Group think is bad, and we didn't fight a war just to fall back into it." She sighs. "Sure is easier though."

Tristan chuckles. "Unfortunately, yeah." He agrees tiredly. "If it wasn't, humanity wouldn't have such a massive problem with it. Still," He adds, "I doubt we'll be the only people to start watching former snakes more closely that before. Things may be less divided in Hogwarts now, but that doesn't mean people don't still have certain ingrained biases about each House."

Estelle snorts slightly. "Watch the perpetrator be, like, a Hufflepuff or something."

"Or not even from Hogwarts." Tristan grins, and they make themselves feel better by tossing increasingly ridiculous hypotheses over who the secret Handler is, ending on an old Muggle man who dresses as a clown in order to trick people into thinking he's mad, when in reality he's an evil genius who reverse engineered magic years ago and now works with Yurina as her secret lover and future consort to the Queen of the World.

"Do you think that's actually her end game?" Tristan asks once they're done laughing hard enough to bring tears to Estelle's eyes. "To rule the world?"

"I mean, I'd assume so. That's what the Deatheaters wanted, and she's just carrying on that mission, right?"

He shrugs. "Maybe, but should we be assuming that? Maybe she has some other, hidden agenda and we're all assuming she's just Voldemort 2.0 when she actually isn't."

Estelle frowns. "Well, I imagine that's what the Hunters are trying to figure out." She sighs. "It's not really in our area of jurisdiction. You should mention it to Jack or Pup next time you're in there, though. See if it would be a useful angle for them to take."

Tristan hums, and they wrap up their lunch not too long after, splitting the bill as usual (and Estelle gets the joy of lambasting their waiter when he initially assumes that Tristan will be paying the full amount).

Estelle can't say she feels great as they head back for the Ministry to continue stumbling through their respective jobs (his in the open, hers hidden away behind locked and spelled doors) with little hope of progress, but at least she was able to vent a bit. If nothing else, that makes bringing Tristan into the fold secretly completely worth it. She just hopes that Clary never finds out about her back room dealing with Tristan, or things could end up poorly for both of them.

For now, she'll just appreciate that she has such a good friend to lean on during these stressful times, and worry about the rest when it comes.

Diana is honestly no longer certain that the transfer of the magical world into public knowledge is going to be possible, at least without bloodshed. She's been watching Muggle news and reading magical papers, and both sides are frothing at the mouth and eyeing each other with suspicion and mistrust - not exactly the ideal atmosphere to try and build a peaceful integration program into.

Of course, she recognizes that Yurina and her team (network, more likely, considering how much she's managed to accomplish in just a few months) are the primary reason things have gotten so dire, but she's pretty sure that both sides are now jumping at each other's throats and no longer need the external coaxing to get the rest of the way to war. Which is a depressing thought, but certainly where the facts seem to be pointing at the moment. And even if removing Yurina could change anything, the woman has made herself completely untouchable - she's a media darling and being hailed in some circles as 'The Great Mediator' - any move against her would be instantly seen as an attack on peaceful integration and completely ruin all chances of at least short-term cooperation.

Diana would like to stay optimistic and believe the Initiative can turn things around, and on some level she is staying hopeful - after all, England's magical world is still reeling from it's last war, and most witches and wizards, no matter how angry, won't want to enter into another conflict so soon, when most of the population still has vivid memories of the last one. However, countries that have seen more peace in recent years may have far fewer reservations about going to war.

Diana has always found battle rather distasteful herself, and will never understand the surprisingly prevalent idea that it's somehow noble or romantic to go to war. It's just bloody and miserable and causes far more problems than it ever solves.

She observes as much to Noah over lunch one afternoon, when they're both taking an extended hour to eat and catch up after a busy few days of work. He purses his lips thoughtfully.

"I don't know if it's as prevalent as all that, but I do agree that countries that haven't seen war as recently will likely be more willing to start one, simply because their living memory is less likely to recall the worst aspects of conflict." He concurs after a moment. "But shouldn't you actually check with our allies to see if things are that bad? I know news in all worlds tends to dramatize everything, and usually only shows the most extreme parts of public opinion, and those parts usually aren't the majority."

Diana mulls over that as she takes another bite of her food. Noah isn't wrong, but she knows that the news can sometimes pull people to the extremes, even if they weren't necessarily there before - America is a prime example of the press going way too far in both directions and ripping the country in half (and frankly Britain isn't doing a great job on that front either, considering certain recent events). Still, it's worth getting some concrete data that isn't sensationalized - that much Diana can agree on. 

"So how do we get a pulse on the majority? Because I hate to say it, but even the people in Relocation are getting angry, and they're part of the group I'd consider lowest-risk for warmongering." She says dryly. "Half of them are old enough to remember the Second Wizarding War, and they still don't think integrating is a good idea, despite what a failure to do so would obviously lead to. They're already blame-shifting, too, saying if anything bad happens it'll be because the Muggles refuse to cooperate and they'll just be defending themselves. I'm sure the Muggles would say much of the same."

Noah shakes his head. "Well, no offense, but Relocation is also going to be housing some of the most restless and pent up people - they may be more willing to start a fight just to break the boredom of unemployment. I'd be willing to bet the biggest bellyachers are the same people who don't regularly help out at the Initiative's meetups."

Diana has to give him that one, though she doesn't verbally give in, just shoots her boyfriend a look that makes him laugh.

"Why don't you see about talking to Pup? He's the one in charge of communicating with our allies on all this, after all. Maybe he can set something up for you."

Diana blinks. "That's a good idea, actually. Do you think he'll allow it? This isn't exactly work-related, considering it would be more to satisfy my own curiosity more than anything else."

Noah gives her an amused smile, quirking up an eyebrow as he does. "Are you really suggesting you couldn't find a way to make it seem work-related?" He challenges, and she nudges him lightly under their table.

"Of course I can - let me pretend I'm worried about the ethics for a moment so no one can try to guilt me later." She laughs.

She does end up telling Pup it's work related when she goes up to the Initiative offices after lunch, because of course she does - how else could she really have expected to convince him to let her sit in on his next meeting with the other Initiative International Representatives?

"I'm hoping to hear how our allies are handling their publicizing - I'm thinking we may be able to train a few of my relocation people for it, but I'd like to see if there's any precedent for it that I can use as a baseline for my own work."

Pup blinks, eyes wide as he obviously takes a moment to process her intentionally complicated sentence, before nodding uncertainly. "Um, I can just ask them how they're handling their public release stuff? Would that work?"

Diana beams at him. "That would be perfect - I don't want to intrude after all. You said the meeting is tomorrow at eight AM?"

He nods. "You can just meet me in front of the conference room, I think. That would probably be the best spot?" He suggests uncertainly, which is honestly how he's been for the entire conversation, not that Diana blames him - she had somewhat ambushed him after lunch, so he has every right to be feeling a bit disoriented, especially since Diana is intentionally being super nice, which she knows is extremely unsettling for a majority of people. It's all definitely underhanded, but she needs to be in that meeting. If the world is headed for war, she wants to be ready for it.

She arrives the next morning about fifteen minutes early, only to find Pup already at the conference room doors, still looking nervous.

"Oh! You're early." He observes nervously, and she gives him a slightly amused smile.

"I am. It's only polite to arrive to meetings a bit early, so you can start exactly on time." She points out. "Is everything alright?"

He nods quickly. "Yes, it's fine, I got you cleared with my supervisor to sit in, so." He shrugs, and now Diana does feel a bit bad.

"I hope I didn't cause any trouble? I really didn't intend to!" She offers, and Pup waves her off as he unlocks the conference room doors.

"No, it's fine, we trust you." He replies, and wow, way to say the one thing that guaranteed to hit right where it hurts. But Diana still doesn't feel too guilty, considering she's getting what she wants and she isn't hurting anyone in the process. Plus, who knows? Maybe knowing the movements of their allies really will prove useful for her work further down the line - anything is possible, after all.

She keeps to one corner of the room, out of the Floo connection's line of sight, as Pup gets set up for the meeting - she really doesn't intend to speak or otherwise interrupt what Pup would usually do, and hopefully if she stays out of sight her presence won't turn into a distraction for him. It seems to work, as he relaxes slightly as he finishes the prep work and opens the Floo line for the conference call. It's fuzzy at first as they wait for other people to connect, though surprisingly it doesn't take long for another person to join despite the fact there's still ten minutes until the actual meeting is scheduled to start.

"Good morning Noah." The blonde woman (at least, Diana thinks she's probably blonde - she looks too young to have white hair, and she's heard of Floo calls causing discoloration in some projections) greets Pup, who grins in return.

"Morning Gabrielle." He responds. "How are things in France?"

She shrugs. "No better, no worse. Muggles still remember 2015 here, so they are more willing to try and cooperate than some magical higher-ups which is infinitely frustrating." 

Diana is surprised by the use of the term 'Muggles' considering it's not the French term for non-magical people, but she resolutely doesn't comment - this is exactly the kind of information she wanted to know about, and she's not going to ruin her chance over idle curiosity.

Ten minutes later three others sign in who Pup and Gabrielle greet as Robin, Tobias, and Emilia, and the meeting officially begins after a few more minutes of pleasantries, during which Diana learns that Belgium is pretty much ready to start shooting whenever one side makes the first move, Spain is much the same, and Germany is apparently actually doing really well on the Integration front. She'll have to see if Pup has more information on that when this is over - maybe they can borrow some of Germany's tactics to use in the UK since they seem to be working well.

Pup ends up surprising her when he asks that exact thing only a few minutes after she'd thought it, and he gives her a half-glance as he does. So he hasn't forgotten her presence, but obviously he's more comfortable with it now than he was before. She gives him a thankful smile that she's not sure he actually catches before he looks back at the group.

Tobias - the German representative - shrugs slightly at Pup's inquiry. "Honestly, Germany is just really anti-war in general - you have to remember that as far away as the second world war is for some countries, we remind ourselves of it every day to make sure those sorts of atrocities won't happen again. If there's a way to remind Britain of that - you guys did have that magical war, maybe that could be used somehow?" He shrugs again, practically radiating awkwardness through the connection. "I really don't know. Sorry Noah."

"It's alright, just thought I'd ask. Things are getting pretty tense here even with that war still being fresh for the magical world." Noah sighs. "Alright, back to business?"

The meeting wraps up after about an hour and a half, and Diana isn't sure if shes feeling better or worse than she was before about the state of the world. If nothing else, she can definitely see how things are a lot more complicated than they seem on the surface, which, if she wants to be optimistic, means that all-out war is probably still avoidable, at least in some countries. And she decides she would rather be optimistic - if she's not, the alternative is just giving up entirely and letting the world burn, and she's never been much good at doing that.

She heads back to Relocation with her mind whirling - maybe she can do something with her group to help push things in a positive direction, not that any ideas are immediately coming to mind. But she'll keep thinking - after all, she's never been one to give up, and even impossible odds won't stop her from giving everything she has. Especially when the stakes are as dangerously high as these ones are.

Alex is rather confused when Mrs. Morgan asks him to come into the leaders' office one Thursday afternoon. He hasn't done anything wrong, or been particularly rude recently - at least not that he knows of - and he hasn't really had any major forward motion on his projects either thanks to the ramped up tension in both worlds recently. So he really hasn't the slightest clue as to what the leader could possible want with him when he follows her into the office (which is thankfully devoid of the other leader - he has a bit more respect for Weasley now, but that doesn't mean he likes being around her).

"Please take a seat Mr. Zhang." Mrs Morgan says, gesturing to a small chair pushed up against the wall that's obviously intended for guests. Alex settles into it a bit uncomfortably, feeling like a school boy about to get detention but not having any idea what he'd done to deserve it.

Mrs. Morgan watches him for a moment, obviously weighing what she wants to say. Alex shuffles uncomfortably, wondering if he's supposed to be apologizing for something. Finally he can't take the quiet any longer, bristling defensively.

"Look, I don't know what this is about, but I haven't done anything wrong." He snaps, and Mrs. Morgan blinks, looking genuinely surprised at the outburst.

Then she laughs. "Oh gosh, I apologize that I made you feel that way! No, you're not in trouble at all. I actually have... I guess it's a request? A question, at least. And I suppose also a confession." Her mirth dims into something resembling weary contentment. "I was the person who pushed to hire you in August. Mrs. Weasley was rather against the idea, but I convinced her."

Alex frowns, shifting again in his seat. Why is she telling him this? To make him feel bad? He'd semi-intentionally tanked that interview and had been shocked to be hired anyway - it's not like it's a huge revelation that Mrs. Morgan had to fight to get him in. Though it is strange she'd done so at all... He frowns and waits to see what else she has to say.

Mrs. Morgan takes a deep breath. "Very simply I felt that your intense and obvious dislike - hatred, even - of all things magical actually made you an ideal candidate for this program. I thought if we could get you actually working towards integration, then we'd have a much better chance at actually making this successful - you represented what we thought would be one of the biggest challenges to this endeavor." She sighs. "Obviously there are much bigger fish in the frying pan now, but I was hoping you could explain how your views have changed? You're now one of the most active members of the Initiative, and your meetups were one of our most effective programs. I'd like to think that in the past few months you've truly come onboard with our goals here?"

Alex needs a moment to process everything, and then another one to actually ponder her question. Yes, he definitely is pro-integration now, but... it's be a very long process. Mai was a big part of it with her comments on war, of course, but that had only been one straw in the very big pile on the camel of his realization.

It's only after a long minute that he notices something odd in her statement. "Wait, the meetups 'were' one of our most effective programs? What happened to make it past tense?"

Mrs. Morgan sighs. "There was an incident." She explains. "In addition to the number of volunteers dropping drastically recently, there was an incident of a small Muggle group attacking the meetups last weekend. The Auror security stopped things before anyone got hurt, and that group is now in Muggle police custody, but the entire situation proved that the meetups are no longer a safe option for us to continue on." She sighs. "That's honestly the biggest reason I called you in today. Without the meetups, we don't have any more positive, regular contact with the Muggle world, and with things being as precarious as they are right now, this is the time we really need that positive interaction. I guess I was hoping if we knew what changed your mind, we could use it to create another program to replace the meetups."

Alex stares at her for a long moment, stunned. He'd been less consistent attending the meetups, especially knowing his twin might show up and embarrass him, but he hadn't realized things had apparently gotten that bad - it had always seemed busy enough when he did pop by, so he hadn't ever worried about it. Obviously that had been a major oversight on his part, and he feels something like grief knowing that his little program had fallen apart so soon after it had started.

But Mrs. Morgan didn't bring him in so he could engage in a pity party, so he shakes off his disappointment and refocuses on what she'd actually asked him about - how he'd changed his mind.

"I'm not sure I can really be of much help." He admits reluctantly. "It was a really slow process, sort of a mix of exposure and kind of having to accept that working together was a better outcome than the alternative. The idea for the meetups really came out of that." He shrugs. "I'm not sure I really have anything for you that I haven't already used in some way during my work."

Mrs. Morgan nods frowning. "That's alright Alex, I just thought it couldn't hurt to ask. I also apologize that you weren't informed about the meetups - I'd obviously falsely assumed you were present, or had at least been told by volunteers what had occured, but I should have checked."

Alex shakes his head. "It's fine, I should have been there. I've been a bit distracted by the rights groups - they've been less eager to work together recently with, well, everything."

Mrs. Morgan sighs. "Everyone is. Thank you for your time Mr. Zhang, I won't keep you from your work any longer."

He nods and excuses himself, but he can't stop his mind from swirling back to the conversation, turning it over and trying to come up with something new they could maybe do to regain favor but coming up entirely and dishearteningly empty. It's strange that he can remember a time he would have been happy to see the Initiative struggling to avoid a massive crash and burn, but now it just makes him sad and angry.

The next morning he decides that there may be one place he could go to ask questions, where he might be able to get some different perspectives, so he leaves a message with the greeter to give to whichever Initiative leader walks by him next and heads for the Squib Rights Foundation. He's not going to talk to Braylon though - instead, he's going to see about posing Mrs. Morgan's question to the other people working in the Foundation, ones who maybe don't think Yurina is a good thing. They may have their own stories about how they came to want to live and work in the magical world despite being Squibs, ones that could spark new ideas for where to go moving forward.

When he arrives at the Foundation, however, he stumbles into the middle of a massive argument that has him very nearly spinning and heading straight back up to the seventh floor until he realizes he recognizes one of the people in the argument.

Allison from Games and Sports (he should probably learn her last name at some point) is leaning against the front desk of the Foundation, as if attempting to physically intimidate the man behind it despite her rather pixie-esque stature. "I fail to see what the problem is. I set up a meeting and everything through your impossible channels and your frankly bull complicated paperwork so why the hell is Mr. Addams suddenly telling me to get lost? Does he not understand how important this is?" She's demanding angrily, and the man behind the desk actually does looked cowed, to her credit.

"Look, Ms. Meyers, I understand your frustration but-"

"No! No buts! I've been getting buts from you for over a month and I'm done with it! I've followed all your protocols, filled out all your applications, and I did most of it on my own time because I have an acutal job that needs doing during work hours! So you tell Mr. Addams that if he doesn't show up for our meeting that was supposed to happen ten minutes ago he's going to find himself slapped with a surprise inspection to determine what exactly you all are doing with your Ministry grant money that's so important you can't help with the damn integration efforts!"

The man's eyes are wide enough that Alex wouldn't be surprised to see them pop out of his skull entirely, and he scrambles to grab a parchment and quill. "Right Ms. Meyers, I'll get a message to him immediately."

"Thank you." She says, suddenly shrinking back into herself and smiling almost shyly in a direct contrast to the ferocity displayed not minutes earlier.

Alex can only stare, suddenly aware that the room is oddly warm. And also the switch in attitude is... weirdly hot.

There might be a connection there.

Allison turns, and immediately startles when she nearly walks straight into Alex, who had been standing directly behind her. She looks up and is already halfway through an apology when she obviously recognizes him. Turning bright red, she takes a few steps back, ending up leaning against the Foundation's front desk. "Um hi." She offers with a nervous smile. "We really need to stop literally running into each other like this."

He laughs, and she relaxes minutely. "Here to see Mr. Addams?" She asks him after a moment, obviously trying to fill the space between them with something other than awkward silence. "Because if so you'll need to take a number."

He shakes his head. "Nah, I see Braylon plenty. I actually was going to chat with a few of the employees, provided they weren't busy." He pauses, then adds, "If you don't mind me asking, what are you doing down here? I heard something about integration, so I'm surprised I apparently haven't heard about it."

She somehow manages to get even redder at the comment. "Oh, well, it's kind of a side project of mine?" She admits, staring down at her boots as she kicks awkwardly at the floor. "Which is why I have to do a lot of it in my free time. But I had a few friends back home who were Squibs, and I remembered that they could play Quidditch and stuff when we were kids, before they found out. And I thought maybe if we can figure out how that works, we can create brooms that are safe for Muggle use too?"

Alex blinks. She's absolutely right - he used to play Quidditch with his brother and neighbors all the time as a kid. It's one of the biggest things his father focused on during his years in denial over Alex's Squib status. Alex can't believe he'd never even thought about it, but that...

"That's brilliant." He says aloud, and she smiles shyly, still bright red. "I used to play Quidditch as a kid too, so you're right that there's definitely something there." He looks at the man at the desk, who's staring at the parchment and looking increasingly terrified, and Alex comes to a decision.

"Tell you what - I can meet with Braylon easily, so I can bring this up with him next time I stop by. He'll like the idea more if it comes from me anyway. I actually have a bit of a dillema myself and could use your kind of thinking to help - what do you say? I do think you still owe me a lunch."

She looks slightly startled, then confused, and then embarrassed. "I... okay. Yes. I think I would like that." She agrees, turning to the man behind the desk. "Consider yourself lucky. For now." She adds warningly, and he shrinks into his seat.

Yeah. Definitely hot.

They don't talk much as they leave the Foundation and take the Floo to Diagon Alley, so it's rather awkward for the first few minutes before Allison finally breaks the silence.

"So, um, how are things with the Initiative? I've always been really interested in what you're all doing over there, but my aunt said to wait before applying since I might lose my current position and then be unemployed next year. Later this year." She blinks. "Wow, it's nearly May now... weird how time flies when you're busy."

Alex hums. "Yeah, well, things are choppy. Can't really say more than that." He says vaguely, glancing around as he does. After the last leak they're all still wary about talking about their job in public, or at least outside the walls of the Ministry, which feel weirdly safe. They probably aren't, logically, but it's still more nerve-wracking to talk about things here in the middle of a mostly-deserted Alley that it was back in the Foundation offices in front of the man at the desk who could obviously hear every word of their conversation. And now he's wondering how exactly he plans to ask her about how to fix their current problems if they can't talk about the job in public. This was really badly planned.

Allison frowns, and then her eyes widen. "Oh! Oh right, that makes sense. So um, how about your job after this? Since the Initiative is only a year long?"

Alex is surprised how quickly she realized the problem and changed topics. "I'll probably go back to what I was doing before." He says. "My bosses like me, so they'll give me my spot back no problem."

"You're not worried the position won't be open?" Allison inquires, and Alex shrugs. He's not ashamed of the fact he's a bartender, but somehow admitting the high turnover rate of his usual profession is making him a bit self-conscious under Allison's curious gaze.

"Nah, it'll be fine. I'm uniquely qualified." He answers vaguely, and she looks awed.

"I wish I was that skilled." Allison says sadly. "I can get coffee and file papers. Not very impressive."

Alex shakes his head immediately. "I wouldn't say so. Your whole side project is really cool, and definitely not something other people would have thought of. So, yeah." He feels his neck warming, and he rubs at it uncertainly. How the heck do other people do this so easily? Talking to strangers is difficult.

Allison is slightly red again. "Oh, well. Thanks." And she graces him with a warm smile he can feel in his bones.

They eventually pick a small place on the far end of the Alley, and Allison does something fancy with her wand. Alex frowns at her in confusion, and she immediately look apologetic.

"Um, I put up a silencing charm, so people can't hear us? So we can talk about that thing you needed help with? Sorry, I just assumed-"

"No, no, that's great actually. I wasn't sure how this was going to work, actually. Magic can be kind of useful, huh?" He observes, and she giggles.

"Kind of, yeah." She agrees. "So explain the situation to me?"

Alex does, though he keeps to the broad - they may supposedly be protected by magic, but he doesn't want to rely on that too heavily, especially since everyone around them can use magic too - and Allison purses her lips in thought.

"That is tough." She finally says. "I mean, once we get some convenience-magic like brooms and cleaning spells mass-produced for Muggle use I think that will go a long way, but even the stuff I'm looking at that will take at least another year to get working properly so. Hm."

Her nose wrinkles when she thinking hard. It's adorable. Alex finds himself staring, unintentionally giving her time to think through the issue without interruption, and she finally blinks and refocuses on him after a long few moments.

"I guess you could maybe try to find evidence of magical people helping Muggles in the past? That would go a long way to showing Muggles that there really have always been magical people trying to help Muggles in whatever ways they can, right? I don't know if it would help with the magical side, though maybe reminding them of the same thing wouldn't hurt either?"

Alex frowns. It's a good idea, but still doesn't feel immediate enough. Still, it's a better idea than the fat lot of nothing he'd managed to come up with.

"That could work. I'll talk to some people and see if we can look into that." He offers, and Allison beams.

They chat about other things for the rest of lunch - Allison tells him a bit more about her broom idea which sounds better and better the more she explains her thoughts on the matter - and Alex finds himself actually relaxing and having some fun. They walk back together as well, and she tells him all about Ilvermorny and how the US magical world differs from the British one. They take the lift up to the seventh floor together, and part ways to go to their respective offices, and Alex honestly hopes he'll see her again sometime.

But now he's back and work, which means getting back down to business. He needs to figure out how he can implement Allison's suggestion - if it's even possible.

Author's Note: So. Some good, some bad, some average. All in all things seem tense but precariously balanced, at least for the moment! Here's hoping the Initiativve gets a bit more breathing room in the next few weeks as well!