Landon has, since they tentatively mended their rift, generally given Rose the benefit of the doubt when it comes to her work. Though he doesn't always understand her methods, he knows that, so long as she's focused, Rose is good at what she does. But right now? Right now he's about ready to kill her and he'll only feel a little bit bad about it.

The hearing starts in fifteen minutes, and Rose isn't here yet. Of all the days to be late, this was hands down, unquestionably the worst one.

Beside him, Mrs. Weasley and Mrs. Morgan look equally unhappy with the situation, though Mrs. Weasley had told them on her arrival that Rose mentioned she might be delayed. Still, despite the heads up Landon hates the idea of starting the hearing without Rose by his side. Whatever she's doing better be world-changing or he's 100% hexing her. No one would convict him.

Mrs. Morgan sighs. "Looks like she won't make it for the first half." She finally admits, eyes still trained on the hallway as if Rose will miraculously appear at the end of it. "She's just lucky we don't present until after the lunch break, but it's still not going to look good for us that one of our presenters isn't present for the opponent's arguments."

Landon groans. He hasn't seen much of Rose recently due to her being down in the Archives, apparently chasing some new lead, but he now wishes he'd taken the time to hunt her down yesterday to remind her why appearing professional today of all days is vital. This is going to start them off on the wrong foot before they even get a chance to start.

Mrs. Weasley shakes her head. "Nothing to be done now - hopefully whatever she's looking for will prove to be worth the tardiness. For now we should go back over our key points - and maybe decide who will cover Rose's sections should she not arrive." She adds with a sigh. "Landon, you're still good to open?"

Landon nods. "I'm just going to rehash a lot of what I've already told them, and what we've pushed over the past year in the Muggle public." He confirms. "I got permission from Celine to use her article as part of the evidence if we need it." He adds, wondering only after he's finished the sentence if he should have used her name so casually, if that gives away too much about their relationship.

If it does, neither leader notices. Mrs. Morgan is nodding. "Good, good, I'm glad Veena managed to talk to her in time." She murmurs. "Right, well after that Audrey, you'll cover the counterarguments to whatever the prosecution shares this morning, and then, assuming she's here, Rose needs to talk about the actions taken by the magical community to emphasize the fact we don't want to start a war."

"I can also assist in that portion, or cover it entirely should the need arise." Mrs. Weasley says briskly. "I can provide concrete reminders of what war actually causes, and the sort of fallout that would occur from a failure to even try and integrate."

"Maybe without sounding like you're making a threat." Mrs. Morgan replies dryly. "But yes, that would be good - of the four of us you're the only one with direct experience with the war." She takes a quick breath. "And then I'll close us out showing the files that prove the magical world always kept the Muggle leaders apprised of situations. Hopefully that will force them to at least acknowledge that some of the problems are on their end of things." She sighs.

"It's not nearly enough." Mrs. Weasley mutters, almost too low for Landon to hear, and he doesn't reply. The three of them stand there for a long moment - Landon isn't sure whether he's soaking in the last moments before facing the Parliament or desperately hoping that Rose will finally show, but then Mrs. Weasley is ushering them both through the double doors onto the lower floor of the hall and just like that they've begun. No more time to breath, no more time for last minute adjustments - this is officially the end game, and Landon just hopes his stomach stays put. He's not normally the type to get sick from stress, but he's also never been this stressed, and he'd hate to discover that about himself right now.

It's a rather strange sensation seeing the Parliamentary room from this angle - Landon is normally seated above the proceedings, not right in the middle of them, and he's acutely aware of the eyes staring judgmentally down at him as their trio settles into the defendants' box. Landon glances over at the prosecutor's section and finds a very bland, suited man gazing back smugly, the picture of the stereotypical Hollywood corrupt lawyer. Ideally he'll be as bad at his job as those guys are, too.

It takes another ten minutes to get everyone settled down and quiet, at which point Boris Johnson calls the session to order. Landon instinctively tunes out slightly during the opening remarks from the Prime Minister, used to ignoring the man during his past observations of the Parliament, but he quickly catches himself and wrests his attention back to the floor just in time for the prosecutor to stand smoothly from his place and sweep onto the floor in front of the gathered politicians.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to begin my presentation with a question: why do we require licenses for handguns?" He asks, and Landon somehow hates him even more than he had just ten second prior. "To make sure we know where the deadly weapons are! Now there are people capable of all variety of instant and extremely dangerous attacks - all I wish to suggest is that, like with handguns, we know where they are and what they're capable of. This is, as I'm sure my opponents would agree, a matter of human rights. Specifically, the right to feel safe walking down the street."

Landon grits his teeth. It's an old argument by now, but still one of the most effective ones against proper integration as they haven't come up with an effective or long-lasting counter argument to it yet. These people can't seem to realize that witches and wizards are people, not sentient weapons. He takes a few deep breaths, forcing himself to keep listening and reminding himself that it's Mrs. Weasley who needs to worry most about countering these accusations - he need to keep a cool head for his own presentation. No matter how difficult this arse of a lawyer is making it.

The man goes for a few minutes longer with his opening statement, mostly variations on his opening theme, before he brings out the evidence to support his bull. Landon tenses as the first exhibit is brought out - they have no idea what the other side may have found or been hiding from them (after all, they have a few surprises up their sleeves), so they need to be prepared for anything.

But by some of luck the man doesn't bring up anything that isn't already public knowledge. He talks about the wars and their horrific loss of life for Muggles caught in the crossfire of something they didn't even know was happening, brings up the serial killers, and ends with another leading question.

"For hundreds of years magic has known about us even as they've kept themselves hidden away - hundreds. Think about that, for just a moment. What has happened, in the past hundred years? How many world wars, how many genocides, how much destruction have they watched unfold with nary a single attempt to step up? How many lives did they sacrifice simply so they could, what? Keep their magic all to themselves? What exactly was the long term plan?" He lets the question hang for a moment, before shrugging. "I doubt we'll ever know for certain. But I'll conclude by urging the Parliament to keep the safety of their citizens in mind when making their decision on this matter, and remember what the magical world has - and hasn't - done to us in the past. Thank you for your attention." He shoots their group a smug grin as he returns to his own box, and Landon grits his teeth. Level head, level head, level head. He reminds himself firmly. Punching the prosecutor really isn't going to help their case, no matter how much the stereotypical slimeball deserves it.

Johnson is nodding sagely when Landon turns back to look at him, and that is definitely a bad sign. But there's a reason they requested going second - they can hopefully recover from this and turn the tables again their opponents, at least enough to prevent a worst case scenario.

The Prime Minister glaces at the clock, and raises his eyebrow in slight surprise. "It seems we still have a few minutes before our break - would the opposing counsel like to make any statements now?"

Landon tenses - as the person handling the opening statements he's honestly not at all ready to go right now - but Mrs. Weasley stands before he can so much as twitch.

"We would." She confirms, and Landon starts to slightly panic before she steps out of the box and he realizes that she's decided to go out of order - he won't be talking until after the break, as agreed upon. "I would like to conclude this first half by directly addressing Council Roberts' final point, so the Parliament are able to consider both sides over lunch.

"He speaks of our hiding, and suggests we only did so out of greed, that we stood by and did nothing while Muggles suffered simply for our own benefit. However, if I may pose my own question - what happened in the middle ages? What of the great witch hunts, when even the smallest hint a person could be magical led to a brutal and agonizing death by fire? Although we had been slowly separating from the nonmagical world ever since the church declared all magic heretical, it was those trials, that slew of killings, which fully sent our world into hiding. You speak as though we are monsters lurking in the shadows, when we only sit there for fear that should we step out again we'll only be greeted with those same burning horrors.

"Knowing this, I put to the people of this Parliament - what would you do? If you knew that people simply knowing you existed could be a death sentence? If we are truly the horrific weapons we have been painted as by our opponents, including those in this court today, why would we be the ones in hiding? Hundreds of years." She takes a breath, lets her words settle over the gathered politicians before continuing. "We had hundreds of years, and we spent it keeping out of the way of those people who history reminded us saw our existing as a killable offense. If we are truly weapons, why have we stayed peacefully separate? Why not follow the Deatheaters on their quest to subjugate all nonmagical people, why instead risk life and limb to keep that group at bay, to remove such elitist and hateful thought from our societies? I am not asking you to see us as saints, for we are certainly not, but I am asking you to consider the entirety of those hundreds of years - not just the parts that best fit one half of this narrative."

She gives the smallest of bows to the assembled Parliament, tilts her head towards the opposing counsel - who Landon is surprised to find looks more thoughtful than enraged - and then returns to their box.

"That is all, Prime Minister." She adds once seated, and Boris Johnson startles slightly before clearing his throat and nodding.

"Yes, well, if that's all, I suppose we can break for lunch. This hearing reconvenes in one hour. Dismissed!"

Landon follows the two Initiative leaders out of the room and finds that he's actually shaking slightly. Mrs. Morgan turns to Mrs. Weasley with a broad smile as soon as the trio is clear of the meeting room.

"That was brilliant Audrey! With that as our grounding point, I'd say all out other arguments are going to be a lot harder to dismiss outright - if they come down too harshly now it will appear they're completely ignoring half the story, which will be bad for public image." She says with a grin. "I've worked with this lot for quite a while - they're all about presenting as 'on the people's side', and that's going to end up working against them now. If they write off what was done to witches and wizards before and keep calling them weapons instead of people, it's going to look bad for their intended image."

Mrs. Weasley hums. "One can only hope." She allows. "But I've found Muggle politicians in this age to be rather disgustingly hypocritical - hopefully they will think it through in those terms, rather than digging into their own delusions further."

Landon grimaces at that - she's not wrong. "Hopefully we at least force them to actually think." He offers. "Enough are on the fence that I'm pretty sure they'll hear both sides out, so even if the stubborn jerks don't budge, the undecided will be stewing over what you said through lunch, and we may be able to finally pull some of them onto our side."

"It would certainly help if Rose were here though." Mrs. Weasley grumbles. "She's the only one who can fully speak to the Council situation right now - all I know is that they're a lot more on the fence themselves than I would have ever expected them to be. If things go well here, they'll likely be onboard with whatever move we decide to make next."

Landon hums. "I can probably talk about that?" He offers. "Rose has kept me up to date on it, though obviously it would be better if she were-"

As if the thought had summoned her, the doors at the far end of the hall abruptly slam open and Rose Evans herself comes charging through, hand held aloft in victory and trailed by a very strange collection of people, all scrambling to keep up with her. Edward seems the least hassled of the group - though his being there at all seems strange - while Alex and Petra are both clearly out of breath. All four are carrying parchments, and Rose is beaming hard enough that Landon is legitimately concerned that her smile is going to start tearing through her skin.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I apologize for the delay," She declares boldly once the group has skidded to a stop in front of the trio, "But I think you'll agree that it was well worth it. We've found something that's going to win us this debate!"

Rose knows she probably shouldn't be doing this, but when she'd gotten an owl from Petra the morning of the Parliamentary hearing saying they'd had a massive breakthrough in the Archives she has to check it out. She does owl Mrs. Weasley that she might be a bit late, just to cover her bases, but she knows that really won't be enough if this turns out to be nothing but another dead end.

Still, Rose trusts that Petra wouldn't call her in unless her old roommate is certain this is important - Petra has never been the type to hype things up unless she's confident. So Rose had dressed, sent her owl, and is now on the lift down to the Archives, foot tapping nervously on the floor as her internal monologue screams about professionalism and how utterly furious Landon is going to be about this.

This breakthrough really better be worth it.

To her surprise it isn't Petra that greets her at the Archive entrances, but instead Alex, who looks somewhat annoyed. Rose purses her lips and strides straight over to him.

"You're with Petra?" She guesses, and he nods tensely.

"Keep up, you took long enough getting here." He says gruffly, and Rose rolls her eyes even as she bites her tongue on the retort that she really shouldn't have come at all and he has no room to be snippy at her over her timing. They're all stressed right now, and she decides to let Alex be grumpy - it won't help anything to snap at him, anyway, no matter how gratifying it might be in the moment.

Alex leads her deep into the Archives, filling her in on the situation as they go.

"A couple days ago Edward and Noah teamed up to start cross-referencing records from Muggle files and Archive ones to see if they could find anything indicating overlap." He says briskly, walking quickly and forcing Rose and her much shorter legs to start trotting in order to keep up. "Of course the focus was on the World Wars, and then yesterday Petra suggested looking at the military registries and comparing them to magical people in England at the time, to see if we could prove some witches and wizards did help with the war effort. Any hint would have been scrubbed from the magical records, but the Muggles wouldn't know to remove the names from their registry."

Rose can't help interrupting, seeing where this is going and finding herself too excited about the prospect to let Alex reach the conclusion at his own pace. "And you've found something? Proof that magic helped during the two world wars?" She asks hopefully, and immediately deflates when he doesn't instantly give her an affirmative. If they had found concrete proof that would be worth being late for, but if that's not what this is...

"We've found a lot of overlap, but we're still working to figure out which names are actually magic and which are just, you know, two people with the same name."

Rose in a careful breath, and then nods. "Right. We've got maybe three hours before I have to book it to Parliament - let's get this done so we can shove those close-minded pricks' biases right back in their faces." She declares, and is startled when Alex actually chuckles at the comment.

"Sounds good to me." He agrees as they finally come up on a group of people sitting on the floor flicking through an absolute snowstorm of files. Petra is the first - and only - person to look up from the work, and she smiles brightly when she sees Rose.

"You came!" She exclaims happily, wriggling up and picking her way carefully across the war zone of paper that is the Archive floor. "I wasn't sure you would, and I swear I wouldn't have asked you to come if I didn't think we really had something here."

"I know you wouldn't," Rose assures her with a smile, "Which is why I'm here. How can I help?"

Petra quickly ushers Rose over to where the one person Rose doesn't recognize is seated (the other two people besides Petra and Alex are Edward and Pup from the Hunters). The woman looks up with a smile, and Rose can feel her cheeks heating up because wow this woman is unfairly attractive.

"Farrah, this is Rose Evans, the woman presenting to Parliament today." Petra says as they sit down. "Rose, this is Farrah Krychelle Parker, an expert genealogist who was kind enough to provide an initial check on the names so we can get at least a partial list of people to send you off with for this afternoon."

Farrah holds out a hand, and Rose quickly accepts the shake. "Good to meet you, and happy to help. I've already experienced prejudice and violence more than enough in my life - I'm only too happy to try and help you prevent any more from coming down on the rest of the world."

Rose blinks, and then nods solemnly as she retrieves her hand. "I'll do my very best to ensure a continued peaceful integration." She promises, and Farrah smiles again.

It's not quick work, but it's steady, and every half hour produces several new names that Rose and Farrah painstakingly look through. Most are too common to be able to easily tell without a more thorough examination, a long process they don't have the time for, but enough are unique that they're able to slowly compile an impressive list of names over the course of the morning. At one point Alex vanishes, only to return with several Mungo's reports that he and Pup then use to develop further evidence that the witches and wizards in question had indeed suffered injuries consistent with having been to war. When Petra suddenly yelps and jumps up, shouting that they're out of time, Rose is actually feeling confident.

They may have just found the very thing to crack this wide open.

"Alright, Farrah and Pup, do you guys mind following up on all this? Getting a confirmed list of names?" She asks as they all stand and being gathering the relevant files for the case. "It would be awesome if we could send that to our allies in MACUSA for their hearing tomorrow - if I've picked up anything from Landon it's that the current British Parliament likes taking cues from the American one these days, especially on big decisions like this one. The rest of you I'd like to come with me, in case something comes up during questioning that you could answer better, considering I've only been here for the last few hours of all this."

Pup and Farrah nod firmly, and Rose leads the rest of them out of the Archives, up the lift, and down the street to Westminster Hall, papers gripped proudly in one hand and feet increasing in speed as the bells of Big Ben announce the twelfth hour. She feels light, hopeful in a way she hasn't for so long, and she knows that no matter how bad things might have looked that morning, she's holding the answers in her fist.

Their triumphant race is somewhat slowed by the fact they have to go through quite a bit of security, and by the time they're all through it's very nearly time for the break to be over, and Rose takes off running down the hall towards the Parliamentary meeting room, only vaguely aware of the other three scrambling to keep up.

She can't miss this, she can't miss this, she can't-

And then she's skidding around a corner, finds herself in front of the double doors that lead to the entry hall, and unceremoniously kicks them open and races through, skidding to a halt in front of Landon, Mrs. Weasley, and Mrs. Morgan. The three stare at her with varying levels of surprise and annoyance, but she's far too excited to let it affect her as she s the documents into their air victoriously.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I apologize for the delay," She pants out, "But I think you'll agree that it was well worth it. We've found something that's going to win us this debate!"

Landon looks unimpressed, but for the first time in months the expression doesn't sent a jolt of nerves and uncertainty down Rose's spine. Instead, she just grins at him directly, lowering her arm as the other three catch up.

"You said you wanted me as your partner." She tells Landon firmly. "Trust me on this one?"

He blinks, and then sighs, lips turning up ever so slightly. "I suppose I do. What did you find?"

So Rose fills them in, handing her list over to the leaders for them to read while she and the other three explain the entire process of the past few days. By the end, Landon is smiling.

"I apologize for doubting you - this could actually be huge. One of the biggest arguments against integration has been that magic just sat back and let the horrible things of the past hundred years happen - this shows that we didn't. Heck, this shows that people got involved specifically because they knew it was the right thing to do, not because of a draft or necessity: magical people had every reason to stay hidden, but these guys forged entire Muggle identities just to fight with the Allies."

Rose beams. "So am I forgiven for the tardiness?" She asks, sweetly, and Landon laughs and punches her arm lightly.

"Yeah yeah, you're good. Are these guys planning to talk? Because if so we'll need to regroup on our presentation plans." He observes.

"No, we're just going to watch." Petra says quickly. "And maybe help answer questions."

"Actually," Edward interrupts, surprisingly calm despite the fact he'd been running with them from the Ministry, "I'd like to say a few words if it would be possible. In my observation of our records I found some files that confirm the British politicians and law enforcement agencies were made fully aware of the situation in the magical world up until the Ministry fell into Deatheater hands. This no only legitimizes Mrs. Morgan's arguments, but also shows that the Deatheaters had no interest in a peaceful or transparent integration."

"Add to that the fact we can definitely connect the name 'Nina Yamaa' to 'Yurina Nakayashi' and we can almost definitely get her testimony flagged as unreliable." Petra adds excitedly. "Noah managed to hunt down her birth certificate, and 'Nakayashi' was Yurina's mother's maiden name, and I found out her nickname in the Deatheaters was 'Nina'. We're sending that and the finalized list of magical folk who helped in the wars over to MACUSA tonight."

Mrs. Weasley is actually smiling when Rose looks over at her, and the young political specialist feels herself swelling with pride. Good. This is good. She'd done something right, and now...

Now things may actually turn out okay.

They head back into the Parliamentary room as a fivesome (Petra and Alex retreat to the observation box), and they earn a few annoyed looks from their opponent and politicians alike, but Rose doesn't let them bother her. She made the right call, and now all those people glaring right now will be forced to admit that things aren't nearly as black-and-white as they were hoping.

Landon is standing closest to the edge of their box, carefully regulating his own breathing and obviously nervous. He's their opening speaker, after all, setting the stage for everything else they have to say. Rose doesn't blame him for being nervous.

"Hey, you've got this." She tells him firmly, inching closer so she can keep her voice low. "You got me to stop being such an absolute , right? So there's concrete evidence that you're pretty dang awesome at choosing words that force people to actually stop and listen."

Landon smiles, stil a bit tensely, at the comment, and Rose nudges him gentley.

"We're all on your side here - just breath and do your thing. We'll take it from there."

It's not long after that Boris Johnson waddles back into the room and calls the hearing to order. Rose quickly returns to her seat between the two Initiative leaders as Landon stands and moves to the center of the room, steps measured in a way that tells Rose he's still a bit nervous but is maintaining his control. She tries to mentally send him strength, but knows that whatever happens now, there's nothing more to be done. They're going to put out everything they have, and they just have to hope it's enough.

"Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. While I'm sure most of you know me by now, I'm Landon Colvin, one of the political representatives working with the Muggle Integration Initiative. The past ten months have been, I think we can all agree, a lot."

There are a few chuckles amongst the gathered politicians, and even one from the opponent's box which is surprising to Rose - she'd assumed whoever was defending the opposite side would be some hateful prick incapable of humor. Out front, Landon is relaxing slightly as he continues to speak.

"History may not agree on very much, but one constant is definitely that culture clash and societal changes are messy, complex things, and there's never an easy solution, and our culture clash is no different. This past year we've seen some ugly moments, but we've risen above them together, and I hope that today's hearing will allow us to continue that rise, so the world can see that Britain is open and willing to work with other groups. And we all know how annoyed that would make the EU."

More laughter, and Prime Minister Johnson is perking up now, focused on the speech in a way he hadn't been moment before. Rose grins.

Damn right, that's my partner. She thinks smugly, pride flowing through her. With this opening, winning this hearing will be a piece of cake.

Or... they'll get the outcome they want? If she's honest Rose isn't one hundred percent sure what exactly they're accomplishing with this hearing, other than making the Muggle politicians like them. And something about sanctions.

It's possible she's been a little too distracted by nerves during their meetings about this.

Landon is wrapping up his opening statements when she tunes back in, and a glance up at the crowd shows them mostly smiling and nodding, a few looking thoughtful, and of course a few looking angry (because Merlin forbid they actually get everyone on their side with just the opener). Landon thanks them for listening, and then passes things off to Mrs. Weasley.

"I've already spoken quite a bit of my piece," She says, and Rose is disappointed to hear it - she'd been looking forward to seeing the legendary Senior Undersecretary in action in her natural environment. "But I will take a moment to speak to Council Roberts' opening commentary - this idea that magical people are just the same as guns, and must be regulated and restricted as much as possible. These suggestions give the impression that we are currently unbound by any laws or limitations, that we simply exist everywhere, hiding in the shadows like a child's monster under the bed, waiting for a moment to strike. However, as you all will see shortly, the magical world is already highly regulated and recorded - every witch or wizard around the world has their name on a list, ones we would be happy to provide as needed.

"We have full societies, systems of government and justice, rules and regulations that have kept order not only for our world but also in many ways for yours. The current false narrative is that we are some new species that must be reigned in and civilized, but the simple facts are that we already are - indeed, we're civilized in just the same way Muggle England is, as we've grown up alongside the rest of the island. All that needs to be done here is determining the best direction in which to ease integration of our worlds so as to cause as little upset for the general populace as we can. With that said, I'd now like to invite my colleague Rose Evans to speak."

Rose hops up, her lips and taking a quick, deep breath as she steps out of the box and gives Mrs. Weasley a nod. The short commentary perfectly leads into her discussion, and she appreciates the introduction as well. She slips on her most confident, charming smile and then sweeps into the center of the room, head held high and making eye contact with every person in the room as she passes them.

"Good afternoon everyone! As Undersecretary Weasley said, I'm Rose Evans. I'm sort of Landon's equal-but-opposite within the Initiative, which is to say while he chats with all you lovely people, I'm chatting with our magical governing bodies! We call our version of Parliament the Council, and our version of the courts is the Wizengamot! And they're as eager as we are to work with you all in order to smooth over this entire process."

She's practiced this speech for hours every day in front of a mirror, and it rolls off her tongue effortlessly as she continues to beam at the gathered Muggle politicians. She shares some amusing anecdotes from her work, discusses the laws proposed and discussed by the Council and the Wizengamot, shares some of the ones that are being removed or adjusted to properly fit the new situation. Her focus, as the leaders had emphasized time and again during their meetings on this, is to show that magical politics is a modern, active, and effective system to be worked with, not subjugated.

"If this integration is going to work, the governments need to cooperate, not compete." Undersecretary Weasley had said firmly, and Rose has woven that sentiment into every aspect of her speech. Though she never outright says it, the idea that the two groups are really just halves of a large whole is implied throughout, and she's feeling quite confident as she wraps up and passes things along to Mrs. Morgan. Landon gives her a grin and a low "good job" as she slides past him to get back to her seat, and something warm eases through her entire being at the compliment. She just flashes him a return smile and settles back in to listen to the other leader.

Mrs. Morgan is the first of them to produce concrete evidence for the Parliament to peruse (Rose hasn't yet spoken about the wars - they'd decided she'll take the closing statement and produce the files then as a solid final thought before deliberations commence) - the files revealing that the magical government had, in fact, been actively involved with keeping the Muggle government in the know about all magical activity in the Muggle world.

"Of course, Prime Minister Johnson is already aware of the branch of our government set up to address these situations - I myself was head of it before moving to work with the Initiative this past year." Mrs. Morgan tilts her head in apparent deference to the Prime Minister, who looks uncomfortable at being called out. "For the most part, of course, much of our work was done separately from the rest of the government - however, we have extremely clear instructions and actions to be taken in the case of an emergency or threat to the safety of the populace. Included within the provided evidence are these procedures, dating all the way back to the eighteen nineties after fear arose that Jack the Ripper could be somehow connected to the magical world. If he was he wasn't caught by magical police either, unfortunately." She adds with a grimace, "But ever since then both sides have made sure to maintain continuous, open communication with each other, in order to be prepared for any and all eventualities, whether it be war or something like last year's incident."

She hums thoughtfully. "But you needn't only take my word for this - after all, it is certainly conceivable that only members of my department ever got word of these magical situations and the rest of the government was truly left in the dark, even in dangerous cases. So I would like to invite up Agent Edward Clark, who has been kind enough to provide further evidence to this point."

Rose has to shuffle backwards a bit to allow Mrs. Morgan and Edward to pass her, and then proceeds to watch the politicians rather than really listen to Edward speaking - she already knows about the files he'd found while searching through past draft records, so she's more curious to see how their audience is taking all the new information.

She's happy to see that a majority of them are listening raptly, clearly drinking in every new reveal. Some of course look irritated, and other are checked out entirely, having obviously already made up their minds with no intention of budging. Rose internally makes a face but externally keeps up her professional smile. Edward keeps his discussion rather brief, and then it's Rose's turn again.

She has no speech this time, just a simple, handwritten list of names, but although Landon's thumbs up is accompanied by a nervous smile Rose is feeling completely calm.

"Hi again!" She says brightly as she retakes the floor. "So some of you may have noticed that I was unable to attend the first half of this meeting. The reason for that is this." She holds up the list of names, and then offers it to the nearest politician, who frowns but accepts the parchment. "Apologies for not having anything fancier, but we only just finished with that copy. Being passed around is a list of names - a list of witches and wizards, specifically. These are people who we have, in the past few days, been able to confirm enlisted in the British army during the Second World War. And this is the short list - we have to run more in depth background checks on several dozen other names, and of course there's the First World War to consider as well. But what you are holding is your concrete proof that we weren't hiding away, leaving the Muggle world to suffer alone. Rather, all these people, ones who could have easily dodged the draft, who were actively breaking the most important law in the magical world, decided to forge Muggle identities so they could sign up to help."

She pauses to look around, tracking the progress of the paper and noting that people seem a lot more interested in it now than they had when she first offered it to the Parliament. She grins. "And those are only the ones we could quickly confirm because their families had engaged in a past genealogical search - like I said, there are quite a few more. So I guess what I'm hoping to show you is that despite the fact we've had to keep ourselves separate for so long, the magical world has always been watching the Muggle one - warning you when our nonsense might spill over, and risking imprisonment and life in order to help when you guys seem like you need it.

"So to conclude, I guess the big thing to remember is that at the end of the day? We're all Brits. Some of us have magic, some of us are math geniuses, some of us think girls are cute - but we all love this country, and we're all just folks trying to get through whatever life throws at as as best we can." She gives a half-curtsey, half-bow. "And I suppose that's all I have to say. You can keep the list - we have a more complete copy being checked over right now."

With that she heads back over to the box, and after a bit more time where the list is passed around, Prime Minister Johnson finally calls the meeting to end, and the five of them, plus Petra, Alex, and their opponent, all have to leave the room so the Parliament can debate.

"Very impressive." The opponent says to Rose once the double doors have closed behind them He offers a hand. "Senior Prosecutor Miles Roberts - I've worked in these sorts of hearings for a while and you took a pretty unique tack. A bit informal, though - if you're planning to stick with the politics you'll want to polish that a bit."

Rose tilts her head, debating for a moment if he's mocking her or not, before deciding he looks honest enough and accepts the handshake. "I'll keep that in mind - I'm used to working with magical politicians on the day-to-day, and it really is a bit less formal there outside of really serious trials. Like, murder or attacking a Muggle levels of serious."

"Council Roberts, if you don't mind we need to speak with our full team." Undersecretary Weasley interrupts, and the man acquiesces easily, heading off to a different part of the waiting room.

Rose hums. "He seems unexpectedly level-headed." She observes, "Though I didn't hear his arguments so I suppose I can't really say one way or the other if I have a poor reading on that."

"He's not quite what I was expecting." Is all the Undersecretary says as she leads Rose over to where the rest of the group is sitting, chatting quietly but tensely. "Alright, I think that went as well as it was going to. Mrs. Morgan is going to fill us in on what the process is from this point forward, at which point you all will be free to leave if you so desire."

Mrs. Morgan clears slightly. "Right, this won't take too long. Obviously they've opted out of a questioning period, which considering how non-standard a lot of the rest of this has been is unsurprising. From here out they're going to debate a number of possible sanctions to vote into law, and we're just waiting to hear what they decide."

"They've already put most of the proposals on the table." Landon adds, glancing at Mrs. Morgan to ensure he's not interrupting. When she nods, he continues, "So the next few hours are just going to be them deciding which proposals to push through."

Mrs. Morgan hums. "That's... one possibility." She agrees, and everyone turns to look at her questioningly. She gives a faint smile. "They may also have to make some alterations to the current plans in light of the new evidence. I've a hunch that this may take quite a while, which is why it's fine if you need to leave - Mrs. Weasley and I will wait to hear the results."

A few people do head out, and soon it's just Rose, Landon, and the Initiative leaders (as well as Roberts) sitting in the waiting room. It takes hours, as Mrs. Morgan had warned, and Rose isn't ashamed to admit she absolutely nods off after a while as the tense atmosphere of the room doesn't lend itself well to idle chatter, and without that distraction Rose is decidedly bored. She blinks awake some time later, and as her rising had been entirely natural she assumes nothing has happened still.

"Did I miss anything?" She checks with Landon, just to make sure, but he shakes his head.

"They're still deliberating." He sighs. "I'm honestly ready to head home myself - at this rate they aren't going to make a decision, as I doubt any of them wants to stay past eleven."

Rose looks around for a clock and realizes that it's nearly ten already. She'd been out for a while. "Jeez. I guess this is a good sign though? They aren't just taking what they already had, which hopefully means they're leaning into higher leniency."

"Or arguing over whether to wait for tomorrow." Mrs. Morgan supplies, sounding sleepy. On looking around, Rose realizes that Undersecretary Weasley has left entirely, and Landon is already standing - Rose might have accidentally interrupted his departure without noticing. "After all, the American Supreme Court has their own hearing then."

"That likely will be the case." Roberts supplies from across the room, smiling blandly as the trio looks over at him. "Otherwise they would have finished this hours ago. You'll have to hope that whatever the Supreme Court decides fares well for you."

Mrs. Morgan purses her lips. "Indeed." She says gravely, and that's when Rose remembers - she'd never told them about everything else they'd found in the past few days. Petra had filled her in, but with the focus on finishing the list everything else had slipped to the wayside.

"Actually, it may go better than you expect." She grins at the three pairs of eyes that turn towards her. "Pup and Farrah weren't only finalizing the list I gave Parliament today - they also have some things that are going to severely damange a certain Nina Yamaa's credibility." Her grins widens at the looks she's getting. "By tomorrow morning, everyone is going to know that Nina is Yurina Nakayashi, and they're going to know what she was really doing here twenty years ago."

The twin looks of excitement she gets are almost certainly mirrored on her own face.

Things are looking good.

Author's Note: :D And with that we conclude what I consider to be the main section of this story! The next 5 chapters are all part of the Conclusion, and will be the last time we see these characters ;; Crazy how close we are to the ending now!