Diana knows she really should just be glad that she's managing to get any work done within Relocation considering the absolute chaos the entire universe has perpetually been in since last September, but she still can't help being a bit miffed by how slowly the process is going. She'd hoped that at the halfway point of the year she'd be at least, well, halfway through relocating her charges.

As it stands she's a month past halfway and she's only gotten a quarter resettled, thanks in very large part to Odette Grimmond and the Improper Use of Magic Offices, which is the new employer for most of that quarter. Obviously Diana is thrilled that partnership had worked out so well, but it doesn't change her frustration over the general lack of movement overall.

She has her final meeting with Grimmond to iron out a few final details on the transfer of personnel, but then that entire section of her work is closed and Diana has no idea what to do next.

So she decides to call in the cavalry, and by that she of course means her boyfriend.

It's not uncommon for her and Noah to get lunch, so he's not too surprised when she shows up at the Auror offices to drag him off to one. It's not like he has much of anything else going on, anyway, so Diana doesn't feel bad about hijacking him for an hour or so - he'll probably be getting more accomplished with her than he would have been at his desk, anyway.

They don't go further than the Ministry cafeteria - Noah notes that he tends to get called in for random side projects and to assist with whatever small things need doing around the office, so he doesn't want to go too far and Diana figures that's fair enough considering how last minute this lunch was. So they settle at a side table and put up muffling charms to keep their conversation at least somewhat private despite the busy room.

"So what's going on? This sort of spontaneity only occurs when you want to celebrate or when you're stuck." Noah observes with no small amount of amusement. "Which is it this time."

Diana smiles at him wryly. "Am I so predictable? And it's a bit of the former, more of the latter." She quickly explains her dilemma, and he hums thoughtfully.

"That is a tight spot to be stuck in." He agrees. "Honestly I'm not sure if anything really can be done right now, though - things are still a mess in terms of integration - worse, even, than they were before."

Diana huffs. "Really not the answer I was looking for Noah." She says pointedly, and he shrugs semi-apologetically.

"You came for the truth, and that's what the truth unfortunately is right now. I suppose we could try to expand the Law Enforcement Department to include investigation into Muggle crimes suspected of being magically-based, but we kind of already do that. It's not a specific group, but the Hit-Wizards all have rotations in the Muggle world for exactly that."

Diana frowns. "I think it's certainly something worth pursuing, but as things stand right now it probably wouldn't go over well. I'd need to wait for things to calm down before Department Head Potter would entertain the idea - I was lucky enough to catch Grimmond at a good time."

Noah smiles sympathetically. "You'll figure something out." He states, "You always do. There's a reason you were put in charge of all this."

"Would have been nice to have a couple other people to help out though, if we're being honest." Diana sighs. "Doing all this alone is exhausting. I'd rather be with the Initiative, despite the mess they're dealing with right now."

Noah his lips slightly when she mentions the Initiative, and Diana immediately zeros in on the tell. "Noah? Is everything alright with the Initiative?"

He glances around the increasingly crowded cafeteria, and then shakes his head. "Not here. I'll come over tonight and we can keep talking about this - maybe we can come up with a few more ideas for your next steps at the same time."

Diana frowns, but she accepts that whatever information Noah has probably isn't supposed to leave the Aurors and thus can't be shared in a busy communal cafeteria. That doesn't stop her from lingering on it for the rest of the day since she's not getting her actual work done anyway (not like she has any actual work to get done, anyway). She knows things are a bit rough in the Initiative right now, though she admittedly knows that more because of the news and through hearsay than because she's actually been herself anytime recently - she hasn't had a reason to stop by in a while (and it definitely has nothing to do with Rose and is just how things are playing out).

She clocks out from work at five o'clock that day, earning herself a slightly surprised look from the Atrium greeter, but she pointedly ignores him. She may have a usual schedule, but she doesn't have to follow it all the time, and frankly it's a bit odd that he seems to know it. She supposes, though, that there isn't much else to do as the Atrium greeter, and the kid looks like he's barely 18 - makes sense he'd try to alleviate boredom however he can think to.

Maybe it's flattering, then, that he picked her out to pay special attention to. That or she's easy to spot, which is equally (if not more) likely.

Diana gets home in record time and decides to make dinner for herself and Noah. She's glad now she'd done a grocery run the night before, as she may be able to turn this unexpected visit into something of a mini date night, assuming whatever secret information Noah will be sharing doesn't entirely kill any chance of setting up a semi-romantic mood.

He arrives about an hour later, when Diana is just starting to debate if she should plate their dinner and put it in the fridge for later.

"Oh, food!" He says appreciatively, and she grins and hands him his plate.

"Not fresh off the stove, but pretty close. I figure we can talk over dinner and then maybe put on a match - Quidditch season's end is coming up so there are some really intense games on right now. I think the Wasps are playing tonight."

"Best team." Noah says immediately before taking his first bite of the food. "As always this is fantastic. I hope you don't mind if I have a bit more before we get into why I'm here? It was a long day."

Diana waves him off and they eat in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Noah takes a deep breath and clears his throat.

"Right, so, I should give you a bit of context before getting into anything else." He sighs. "You've probably heard some whispering about the Internal Investigation?"

Diana frowns. "Here and there, but you know I don't pay much attention to gossip, and with something like that the rumors are going to be about as wild and unreliable as they come."

Noah hums. "Fair enough. Well, what do you know?"

"That it's not going anywhere." She responds flatly, and he laughs, a bit sadly.

"That's pretty much the gist of things, yeah." He admits. "Clary is planning to expand the investigation to include the Hunters, but she's not optimistic about finding whoever this person is. There's whispers saying that putting the Initiative on hiatus is being discussed as a possibility for the short-term. The argument is that they've ultimately caused more damage than good at this point, and with how things have gone recently I'm not too optimistic about their chances."

Diana has completely abandoned her food in favor of staring at her boyfriend incredulously. "Are they drunk?" She demands after a moment. "They can't shut down the Initiative! That's basically giving up on integration and accepting a world war - are they insane?"

"It would be a hiatus, just to let things cool down. I don't like it either, trust me, but the thought behind it seems to be that removing them for a short period will help people calm down and also highlight if they are important in terms of furthering integration, or if there are alternative paths that could be pursued."

Diana makes a face. "And if they are important, then putting them on hiatus would have been a really stupid idea. Good lord, no offense, I respect Shacklebolt as much as the next person, but seriously is she drunk? She took the demotion from Head of Law Enforcement willingly, right? Why would she do something this stupid?"

Noah shrugs a bit awkwardly. "Honestly I think it might be the best move right now?" He admits. "Hear me out, okay?" He adds quickly, and Diana raises an unimpressed eyebrow at him. "You're right that they're important, and pausing for even a bit could turn out very poorly. But we have no idea who the mole is, and everyone is pissed at them right now - they'll all realize how important the Initiative was as well. And it also gives everyone working there a chance to relax a bit and de-stress."

Diana looks at him balefully. "Right, because knowing your incredibly important, world-saving job isn't being done is incredibly relaxing." She drawls sarcastically. "Are you kidding me right now Noah? The hiatus is a bad idea. End of sentence."

They don't end up watching the Quidditch game, and Diana is left that night alone and with a foreboding sense hanging over her that she can't shake off enough to sleep.

Kylee is a little bit ready to go feral. While it's not a surprise, really, that the bank proposals have been stalled, that doesn't make it any less infuriating. Everything feels like it's at a standstill right now, which has only made Kylee that much more cognizant of time slipping away They're only a few days away from June, which will make them officially three-quarters of the way through the Initiative's run., and it feels like they've accomplished nothing. Negative nothing, even.

Baylee is the only person she still meets with semi-regularly, and they've long since given up on pretending they're getting any work done, instead spending their hour long meetings chatting about the state of the world and what they think is going to happen. The most recent news has Kylee extremely pessimistic about their odds, though she's been feeling rather cynical about everything for a while now.

"Did you see the news?" She asks the moment Baylee closes the door, and her twin grimaces immediately.

"About the attack in the United Arab Emirates? Yeah, I think everyone has." She confirms. "It's getting worse - they're claiming it was entirely unprovoked."

"Yurina called it a terror attack on live television this morning." Kylee groans, slumping further into her seat. "I don't know how we'll recover from this - Mrs. Weasley said that information wasn't supposed to be released at all, but no one can trace back to an original leak - we have no idea how this got out. It's concerning." And isn't that the understatement of the century? 'Concerning' doesn't even begin to cover the absolute nightmare that this new, untraceable leak could cause.

Baylee frowns. "Who could have covered something like that up?" She asks incredulously. "With Yurina's past attacks we've always known at least what station reported it first, right?"

"Not this time." Kylee sighs. "While obviously it was Yurina who coordinated that attack, the reveal does deviate from her normal routine. Still, I don't doubt she's still somehow involved in all this, even if less directly than normal. I swear every time we think we might be in the clear something new and worse happens to throw everything off balance again. It's exhausting."

Baylee pats her hand lightly. "I can only imagine. Want to hear about the total nonsense Jarvis got up to last week in his meeting with the centaurs?"

Kylee smiles tiredly. "Yes please."

And this is why she keeps up these meetings regardless of their incredibly minimal impact on the larger picture - she still gets to feel like she is accomplishing something, and with the rest of the world seeming like it's falling to pieces around them this one hour a week, every week, is single-handedly keeping Kylee somewhat sane. Which when looking at the big picture really isn't a great omen, but Kylee can't bring herself to care, for fear of ruining the one good thing in her life right now.

They chat for the entire hour, at which point Baylee regretfully says her goodbyes and Kylee follows her out of the meeting room, waiting until the lift doors have closed behind her twin before heading over to the Specialists' desks to fill out a short report on what Baylee had told her. Fergus greets her with a strained smile.

"How are things going?" She asks him, and gets a wry shrug in response.

"Nowhere." He responds. "It's disheartening - this is the most stalled we've ever been, and the recent revelations certainly don't seem like they'll be helping that change in any positive ways."

Kylee groans. "Tell me about it. Thank goodness for Baylee and the Beasts still doing something or I might follow Des' lead and defect to the Hunters."

Fergus snorts. "What does he do over there all day, I wonder?" He muses, and Kylee shrugs as she pulls out a parchment and pen to start jotting out her report.

"Who even knows. He's working with Edward, right? So probably Muggle stuff? Frankly I'm not sure what the Hunters could even be doing in this climate - they're probably pretty stuck too right now." She thinks aloud even as she begins scratching out the beginning of her report. "Then again, I was never totally sure what they did, so maybe none of this affects them at all. Who knows?"

"At the very least, they seem to have something to do, even if it's small." Fergus sighs. "I'm beginning to talk with a few other transportation departments, though I have learned that the person covering for me at the Port Key office is a complete and total moron, so it will be fun fixing his mess in September."

Kylee winces. "Fun indeed. But it's weird, isn't it? How close that actually is now. It doesn't feel like it's almost June - it doesn't feel like we've accomplished enough for it to almost be June. Yet here we are."

"Here we are." Fergus echoes. They lapse into silence after that, and Kylee focuses in on making her report as detailed as possible in a bid to kill some of the time left before five o'clock arrives and she can justify calling it a day and heading home.

The bid doesn't really work - there's still an hour and a half left when she's done the report, and she sighs and slumps back into her chair.

"This is ridiculous. There must be something else we can do." She frowns. "Where's Alex right now? He obviously has something to do, maybe we can help him somehow."

Fergus hums. "He's down in the Archives with Petra right now - they usually spend the afternoon there."

Kylee blinks, having not actually known that. The casual way in which Fergus says it suggests its common knowledge, though, so maybe she really was too busy to notice whenever that started happening. "Oh. I had no idea."

"It's ramped up recently." Fergus offers. "They used to only go a few times a week, but I think Alex had a fight with the Squib Rights head over something so he's on outs with them at the moment."

Kylee raises an eyebrow. "Really? I always thought he loved them. Though I guess he has changed quite a bit this year - it's possible his relationship with Addams soured because of that. I'd count it as a good thing, the guy is an and I have no idea what anyone was thinking having him take over for the last Foundation leader."

Fergus raises an eyebrow. "You're familiar with him?" He asks, sounding genuinely curious, and Kylee shrugs.

"We worked with them a bit back when I was a kid, and the leader then was Hazel something-or-other - I can't remember her last name. She was a witch but she was also really awesome. When I got back this year and met the new guy I can't say I was thrilled. Addams is... very opinionated, I guess is a good way of putting it." She shrugs. "Worked out though - because I knew I didn't want to volunteer with the Foundation I ended up applying here instead. Slow as it is now I'd definitely rather be doing this."

Fergus smiles slightly, but its the smile he gets when he disagrees with a statement rather than a genuine one. "Well that's good. I admit, considering how slow things are right now I wouldn't mind being back in the Port Key Offices."

Kylee tilts her head. "Why did you apply for the Initiative Fergus? If you don't mind my asking." She prods curiously, and he gives a half-shrug.

"Honestly? I'm not sure anymore. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but I'm looking forward to going back to my actual job in September - if nothing else, this confirms that I was definitely in the right career before." He jokes, and Kylee laughs.

"Well that's one positive I suppose!"

They end up chatting easily for the rest of the hour before five rolls around and they both immediately pack up. Kylee can admit that even if he seems regretful, she's glad Fergus is here - he makes days like this one a lot less unbearable with his friendly nature and willingness to talk about pretty much anything. Even if all this ends up being for nothing, at least she met some interesting people through it.

Fergus ends up staying later than her, citing a want to discuss something with the leaders which Kylee doesn't question - she knows that he's friends with Mrs. Weasley from even before the Initiative so it's not exactly odd for him to stay late to talk with her. So she heads down the lift by herself, and decides rather spontaneously to walk home instead of taking the Floo like she normally does. Her family's home is in the magical part of London, which is a bit of a hike, but it's early enough in the day that Kylee thinks a bit of fresh (or at least outdoor - London air can't really be called "fresh") air and exercise would be good for getting her spirits back up. Plus, today is a rare day of May sunshine - may as well enjoy it while it lasts.

She takes the Muggle exit (and wonders, not for the first time, if they should change the name of that exit) and heads out into London, sliding into the crowd easily and letting herself vanish into it, one face among many. The anonymity is almost comforting as she wanders down the bank of the Thames - there are no expectations, no judgements. She's just another stranger walking through the city who no one cares about. She can't imagine what it must be like for Veena and Mies - no way they could go this long without anyone recognizing them.

Kylee of course knows that there is some risk of her being called out as an Initiative member - she's been involved in two press conferences now, so her face is one that's better known than some of her colleagues', but she doesn't think she's really recognizable in the way the two media specialists are. She's not stand-out pretty like Veena, and she doesn't demand a second look simply through her raw likability the way Miles does. Sometimes she envies them their confidence, but in moments like this she's glad to be forgettable.

She takes her time - her parent's house is a good fourty-five minute walk away when moving quickly, but she doesn't really need to be back until dinner, which is always at seven o'clock. So she takes her time, looks out at the scenery and just appreciates the world for a while. She thinks it's important to remind herself of the good, considering how they're forced to focus on thd bad at work all day. Things can seem bleak when you only take one perspective after all - looking out over the river, seeing couples giggling together and grandparents walking alongside the younger generation is a strong reminder of why they're struggling on each and every day. This is what they're protecting, and this, Kylee is certain, is the majority of the world. And it's well worth the stress the Initiative is fighting through right now if it means this can continue on for generations to come.

She eventually has to turn away from the Thames and wanders through a series of side streets filled with curio shops and half-renovated apartments. Kylee watches as kids chase each other up and down the sidewalks, watched closely by parents who shout at them whenever their play gets too close to the street, despite how quiet the roads are. It's homey and warm, and Kylee is feeling rather optimistic as she draws closer to her parents' magical neighborhood. Maybe she should think about renting around here - it's close to home and seems to have a wonderfully warm atmosphere.

She's about ten minutes from home when she passes by an electronics store that has a surprisingly large crowd gathered around its front window. Kylee checks her watch - she still has half an hour until dinner - and decides to join the group. Maybe this will be something that could be useful for work?

There's a brand new television sitting in the display window of the store, and it's turned to BBC news. There's no sound, but the subtitles have been so Kylee strains to try and read them over the heads of the other people gathered. It takes a minute or so to properly figure out what the report is on, but when she realizes all her energy and optimism drain in a heartbeat.

It's another tell-all on what the magical world has been up to in the past - and the headline this time is particularly attention grabbing: UNTRACEABLE SERIAL KILLERS ACTUALLY WIZARDS?

From the subtitles that Kylee can make out, the current focus seems to be the Zodiac killer and the apparent discovery that he was a rouge wizard hunting and torturing Muggles for sport. More importantly it's said that the magical world knew about the killings but didn't do anything to stop them (that part Kylee is confident is untrue - magical police work can take just as much time as Muggle investigations do, so it's likely the criminal really did avoid both sides of law enforcement while he was active). The crowd around her is muttering angrily, and Kylee slowly begins inching away, suddenly very aware of the possibility that despite being less known that Miles or Veena she could still be recognized. And she really doesn't want this crowd noticing her considering the angry muttering and curses that are increasingly being thrown out as the report continues.

Once she's clear of the group she picks up her pace and finishes the last part of her walk home as quickly as possible, relaxing substantially once she's safely behind the magical veil between her neighborhood and the Muggles. She feels a bit guilty over that relief, yes, but there's relief nonetheless. Still, it's a temporary escape from the fallout, and she knows it. Tomorrow morning is going to be a nightmare.

At least they'll have something to do again.

Rose is told about two minutes after she gets into the office that she'll be working with the Minister for the entire day, despite coming in with the expectation that she'd be assisting Landon with the ongoing chaos that is dealing with Muggle Parliament (on the condition he's been helping her with coordinating her weekly Council presentations so they're as palatable to old white guys as is possible). She honstly can't say she's too happy about the switch up, but hopefully since it's Mrs. Weasley giving her the order Landon will understand.

The two of them have managed to maintain a fragile peace since their talk the month before, but Rose is still pretty much terrified she's going to it up eventually since that's always what she does. So she's nervous when she approaches Landon.

"Hey, what did the boss want?" He asks, which is good - he saw her talking to Mrs. Weasley, so he'll know she really was called away by the leaders. She just hopes he believes her when she says she had no clue it was going to happen.

"I'm with the Minister today." She explains awkwardly. "It probably has to do with that stupid serial killer report from last night."

Landon groans slightly. "The speculating on that is already out of control and that report was less that a day ago, and entirely unsubstantiated, too." He grumbles. "This on top of the UAE reveal, I'm not surprised the Minister needs you - she's down her Senior Undersecretary already after all, so she'll need all the help she can get."

Rose relaxes and smiles at her partner. "Yeah, you're probably right about that. Can't say I'm thrilled by the idea, but that's the job." She grins. "Maybe we can still grab lunch later? You can keep me up to date on what you're doing so I can jump back in tomorrow, assuming I'm not being permanently shifted back to Minister duty for the foreseeable future."

"You can tell me if that's the case at lunch." Landon agrees, and Rose beams at him. Good, this is good, she's not screwing up yet. She'll show Landon she was worth taking a chance on.

Rose takes the lift back down to the first level and trots over to the Minister's office, trying to exude a confidence that she isn't at all feeling. She may be trying to be better, but she also still has her image to think about - people like her image, so she still tries to keep it up outside of the offices.

To her surprise, one of the two desks in front of the Minister's office is actually occupied - Liam Danforth, the Junior Undersecretary to the Minister, is usually busy with the Wizengamot so it's rare that Rose sees him at his actual desk. The fact he's here speaks volumes to how serious the situation actually is, and Rose feels her semi-faked smile sliding off her face as her brow furrows in concern.

"Liam?" She asks, catching his attention. She tilts her head in a silent question, and he grimaces in a silent answer. So yeah, it's bad. Excellent.

"I'll just head in?" She checks, and gets a nod in return, followed by a quick 'good luck' that makes her even more nervous. She knows the serial killer thing is bad, but... this seems bigger than that. It could be the fact it's doubled up again the UAE attacks (which are being reported on inaccurately but they haven't been able to get the actual facts to be picked up by mainstream news sources, which is extremely annoying and also very suspicious).

Rose still knocks twice to make sure the Minister knows she's coming in before pushing open the heavy wooden door and peering inside the massive office beyond it.

"Um, Minister Granger? Undersecretary Weasley said you requested me this morning?"

Minister Granger doesn't even glance up from her desk, just gives a frazzled half wave for Rose to come in. "Yes I did, thank you for coming. I know you were supposed to be free from helping me for another couple days, but this is a bit of an emergency situation."

"I saw Liam was called in too, so I sort of assumed." Rose observes wryly, and then internally winces at the informality before a chuckle from the Minister assures her that the comment wasn't taken as an insult.

"Fair enough." She sighs. "Pull up a seat - I've got Liam basically running my usual workflow so we can focus on this. I want to have a solid idea of our next steps with this before the end of the day."

Rose nods nervously and does as instructed, settling in and leaning over the desk to try and read some of the Minister's files upside down. "So this feels like there's more to it than just the reports that started up yesterday."

Granger sighs. "It's related to that. And the UAE attacks being made public, and we're still trying to figure out how that happened. The biggest problem right now is the fact that last night people began attacking known magical locations in retaliation."

Rose can only stare at her in shock for a long moment, trying to fully process what's just been said. "There were... what? Like, actual, violent attacks?" She asks, hoping that somehow she'd heard that incorrectly.

"People were hurt." Granger says grimly. "I think this time pretty words aren't going to do the trick - we need action, and we need it now. We cannot allow this to stand. The Initiative leaders are going to arrange a press conference for two days from now so Veena and Miles can keep everyone updated about the situation and give our official response to it."

"Which is?" Rose asks, and Granger gives her a tired look.

"Which is what you and I need to come up with by looking back through everything in the past year."

Rose takes a deep breath to try and calm her nerves. "Sounds like fun. Where do we start?"

She ends up with a stack of incident reports to read and organize based on severity and effectiveness of the response, which is dry but she also understands why it needs doing. She ends up adding an extra criteria - similarity to the current situation - when organizing them as well. Unfortunately not many even come close to filling that final category, due to how unique everything Initiative-related is simply by the nature of the situation. It's a bit disheartening, but Rose plows through, knowing that just quitting now isn't even remotely an option. There must be something in here that will help them fix this, or at least start fixing this. Rose knows better than anyone that the other option is war, and like any sane person she refuses to acknowledge that as an actual option. Unfortunately there don't seem to be many sane people in positions of power right now, which means they need to find a solution to this quickly in order to stave off any stupid decisions by their allies.

After two hours of non-stop reading Rose has eye strain and a building headache, but doesn't feel like they're any closer to a solution. But she keeps pushing until the words are blurring together and her brain had pretty much forgotten how the English language works, at which point she closes her eyes and drops her head onto the table.

"Lunch break?" She asks the wood hopefully, unsure if her voice is even clear enough to be heard by the Minister, who's been just as silent and focused as Rose has been all morning.

Minister Granger sighs. "In a moment. I think I might have our best option, but I don't think you're going to like it very much."

Rose frowns. "I mean, what is it? If it's the best option then that's the most important thing, right?"

Minister Granger sighs again. "Well... about a week ago Clary Shacklebolt gave me her official recommendation on how to handle the internal leak in the Initiative."

Rose blinks - she'd actually forgotten about the Internal Investigation in the midst of her own problems. If she had thought about it she probably would have assumed it had already finished and concluded that the 'leak' was just a ruse to try and knock things off balance in the magical world. That's always what she thought the leak was, anyway. Apparently she was wrong though, if Shacklebolt had an actual recommendation relating to it - one she apparently won't like very much. She doesn't say anything though, just waits for the Minister to continue.

"Shacklebolt believes that it may be in everyone's best interest to temporarily close the Initiative - just for a week or so, until things calm down. So long as there's a target on their back they won't be able to do anything. I think by removing that easy target people will be forced to look at the bigger picture, and more importantly be forced to realize the good that the Initiative was bringing to the table."

Rose can feel her frown deepening with each word out of Granger's mouth. "You're right, I don't like that." She states flatly, and the Minister chuckles tiredly.

"Trust me Rose, neither do I. But nothing else seems like it would be any more effective. And perhaps some time off to relax and recover will be good for everyone on the team - I can only imagine how exhausting all this has been for you all."

Rose makes a face. "Everything is exhausting." She points out. "Isn't this worth it?" She probably shouldn't be contradicting the Minister for Magic, but this entire conversation just feels wrong. Surely there's something else that can be done?

Granger shrugs. "Perhaps, but perhaps being exhausted when your work is this vital isn't actually the best case scenario - the break may help everyone clear their minds as well, take a step back and reorganize their thoughts."

Rose can tell that the Minister has already made up her mind, and any further attempts at arguing aren't going to help.

She tries anyway. 

"With all due respect Minister, I'd imagine not doing our jobs would actually be more stressful than doing them. It's still exhausting, but now nothing would be getting done." She points out.

Granger just sighs. "Be that as it may, this is my decision. I'll discuss with Audrey over lunch - you're dissmissed until this afternoon."

Rose purses her lips but bites down on any further argumentation - it won't do any good, and it's unprofessional. She's trying to not be unprofessional anymore.

She exits the office a bit numbly, nodding distractedly to Liam before beelining for the lift. She needs to talk to Landon.

He's just finishing whatever file he was going through when she arrives, which is rather fortuitous timing. "Hey, lunch?" She asks, feeling like she's going to vibrate out of her skin from stress if she has to wait any longer. "Just to the cafeteria, I don't feel like putting up all the wards we'd need if we went anywhere public."

Landon frowns. "What happened with the Minister?"

Rose bites her lip. "It's... not good. Maybe not bad? I don't know, I want your thoughts." She admits. "So lunch?" She repeats hopefully, and he nods slowly.

"Yeah, lunch." He finally agrees, packing up and grabbing his bag.

They go to the cafeteria and Rose puts up the anti-eavesdropping and silence spells as quickly as she can without being sloppy before dropping heavily into the seat across from Landon.

"The Initiative is being put on hiatus." She reveals bluntly, unsure of how to broach the topic any more tactfully and honestly just wanting to get to the point.

Landon stares at her for nearly a full minute, clearly processing that. "Wait... what? We're in the middle of the most delicate period of integration and the Minister is putting us on hiatus? Why? What's even the logic there? For how long?"

Rose shrugs miserably. "Trust me, I disagreed too." She tells him. "But Minister Granger says it's the best option right now, and she's obviously made her mind up. I don't know how long it's going to be for - she's talking to Mrs. Weasley right now to probably figure that out." She sighs. "I did try to suggest other options, but everything is equally terrible right now. She says a break could be good for our nerves?"

Landon scoffs. "Right, I doubt that." She mutters, and Rose agrees quietly. But what can they do? Unless Mrs. Weasley can convince the Minister before their lunch break is over, they may all be out of a job starting tomorrow.

Rose really hopes Mrs. Weasley can change the Minister's mind - even if she's not really holding her breath on that.

Author's Note: Welp. TBF everyone is stressed, so not everyone is thinking super clearly, but still. This probably isn't good >~<