Rose comes awake slowly, taking time to yawn and stretch as the world comes into focus around her. She tosses a bleary glance over at her alarm clock - and then bolts straight up in bed and starts swearing.

She overslept.

She flings back her sheets and leaps up, still swearing. She has an hour until she needs to be at the Ministry for her first day in her new job, and being late on day one isn't the first impression she wants to make.

It would be an accurate first impression though. Her mind supplies, sounding suspiciously like her older brother.

"Oh shut up Oliver." She grumbles aloud, grabbing the first pair of jeans she sees and struggling into them with one hand as she uses the other to try and find a somewhat nice-looking shirt to pair it with. Once clothes are picked out and put on she races to the kitchen, sliding across the last meter of floor space and grabbing her mostly-gone bread to make some toast, which she eats dry as she pulls on her boots and hurries out the door, fumbling her wand out of her pocket to lock up.

She doesn't live too far from the Ministry, so she opts to cover the distance at a light jog rather than risk Apparating while frantic (something her best friend as Apparation Office employee has warned her time and again is the biggest cause of Splinching among adult witches and wizards). Besides, a little exercise will be a good way to burn off the last of her sleepiness, which is still clinging to the edges of her vision.

Ten minutes later, and still five minutes early, she reaches the Ministry entrance and huries through, waving to the security guard on duty as she does.

The letter had said the Initiative has been given the seventh floor to serve as their offices, so she takes the lift up and arrives just before their first meeting is supposed to start. Rose grins at the group that turns to stare at her and gives a jaunty wave. She's not late.

"Sorry, my alarm didn't go off. I'll figure out what went wrong tonight so I won't cut it this close again." She says in greeting. "Have I missed anything?" As she speaks she tries to see if she recognizes anyone in the room. Obviously Audrey Weasley is a known face - aside from the woman having been the person who interviewed her, she's been the Senior Undersecretary to the Minister for Magic for over a decade now. No one who works in the Ministry doesn't at least know of her.

Surprisingly, Rose actually does recognize one other person in the room, and, grinning brightly, she makes her way over. "Petra?" She asks incredulously, grabbing the open seat next to the other girl. "I haven't seen you since school! You vanished after graduation, what happened?" She maintains her smile as she speaks so the quiet girl knows she isn't mad. The Petra she remembers could be pretty sensitive.

Petra returns the smile with a hesitant one of her own. "Yes, well, I did still keep in touch with Piper." She offers as Rose gets comfortable. "I moved to the Muggle world though, so it was hard to keep contact with the magical one."

Rose pouts. "Still, you could have made a little more effort." She whines, pouting until Petra giggles, and then grinning herself. "I want updates! How's life? Is it weird living in the Muggle world? Did you meet a hot Muggle man?" She asks, waggling her eyebrows and making Petra blush heavily.

"No! I had to get a GED and ended up going to university, actually." She says quickly. "No time for men. What about you? Did anything ever pan out with William? Or is there a special lady in your life?" She adds as an obvious afterthought.

Rose gags. "Nah, I'm well over Will, we're just friends. So alas, there no significant gents or ladies in my life at the moment. I was hoping to live vicariously through you." The gets Petra to outright laugh, and Rose congratulates herself for the achievement. "Anyway, you said you went to Muggle University? What's that even like?"

Petra had never been one to talk much in school, and that obviously hasn't changed in the five years since their graduation, but Rose manages to get her chatting a bit about her life before Audrey stands up and clears loudly enough to get everyone's attention.

"Alright, it seems our last member is running late, so we'll go ahead and get started." She says, shooting a look at the woman next to her that Rose can't read, but recognizes as significant.

The other woman grimaces and stands up, quickly shifting from disappointed to professional as she rises. "So about half of you already met me, but my name is Cadi Morgan and I'll be co-leading this Initiative alongside Mrs. Weasley." She nods to Weasley, who tilts her head to the group in silent greeting. "I'm a Squib, though I didn't learn that for quite some time as I grew up fully Muggle with my mother and younger brother, and I've been the Head of the Magical Liaison offices for the Prime Minister of England for the past five years." She tilts her head to Mrs. Weasley, who quickly picks up speaking.

"Audrey Weasley, as most of you know." She introduces herself. "I'm the Senior Undersecretary to the Minister for Magic. Before we begin, if each of you could provide your name and occupation as well. We all will have to work with each other quite a bit in the next year so it's best for us to learn names now." She looks at the man seated to her left, who she'd been speaking with prior to starting the meeting. "Fergus, if you don't mind starting?"

The brunette shrugs amicably. "Not at all." He replies easily. "Is it fine if I stay seated?"

Audrey nods, though she remains standing. Fergus clears his throat.

"Well, like Audrey said I'm Fergus Bell. I'm Head of the Portkey Offices in the Department of Magical Transportation, and I look forward to working with you all."

The boy next to him jumps in without prompting once it's clear Fergus has finished speaking. "Hi everyone! I'm Miles Taylor and I was an editor at the Daily Prophet! I'm super stoked to be working here." He beams at Audrey and Cadi, the latter of whom offers a smile in return.

The next woman waits for acknowledgement before speaking. "Aruna Kandasamy, legal advisor." She says simply.

"This feels like kindergarten." Rose whispers to Petra, who bites back a smile. The man on Rose's other side chuckles as well, then startles when he realizes the group is staring at him.

"Oh, right, I'm next!" He laughs. "Landon Colvin. I used to work for the Invisibility Task Force but obviously I won't be working there any longer." He jokes, earning a few smiles and chuckles from the group.

"Yo same." Rose grins, offering a high five that Landon gives. "I'm Rose Evans, former employee for the Muggle-worthy Excuse Committee, and also recently jobless."

"I wonder if we ever worked the same case?" Landon wonders, but Cadi quickly cuts in before they can start comparing (which Rose was one hundred percent down for).

"You two can get to know each other more later, for now we'd like to get through this quickly so we can give out official roles and get started." She says, and Rose gives a lopsided salute, still grinning.

"Yes ma'am, apologies." She offers, and nudges Petra. "Your turn!"

"Oh, I'm Petranella Clarke." She says, a bit quietly but that isn't surprising. "I prefer Petra though. I used to work in Marketing for a Muggle finance company, though, um, I'm here now." She finishes awkwardly, flushing slightly, and Rose slings an arm around her supportively.

"Veena Harris." The next woman chimes in easily. "Part time Muggle fantasy author, full-time Potions Brewer for J. Pippin's Potions."

"Ooh I love that place! Your headache remedies are great." Rose can't help saying, and beams when Veena gives her a warm smile despite the interruption.

"Thanks! We do our best."

"Moving on?" Audrey prompts, and the man next to Veena clears his throat.

"I'm Desmond Edevane, and I teach mathematics and physics at the Halley Academy in Greenwich. I'm looking forward to working with you all, and maybe getting some science into the Hogwarts curriculum."

Rose opens to say something, slightly confused since, based on his profession, she'd assumed Desmond was Muggle, but the final person in the circle speaks before Rose can.

"And I'm Kylee Danson. I actually haven't worked anywhere yet? I was taking a gap year before med school and then all this happened and I thought, well, I have a year anyway."

Audrey is about to start talking again when the lift dings open and a young man stumbles out, grumbling under his breath.

"Oh, decided to join us have you." Audrey states flatly, pointing at the one remaining empty chair next to Kylee. "Come talk to me after the meeting is over. For now, introduce yourself."

The boy grimaces and moves to the indicated chair. "Alex Zhang." He says shortly, then sits down, glaring distantly.

Alex hadn't meant to be late, but traffic had been killer and his new motorcycle had decided to blow a tire halfway here so he'd had to call his friend for a pickup and a tow company to get it fixed. He's definitely charging his stupid brother for the damages - Alden obviously has no idea what a quality bike actually looks like. All that had taken a solid hour, and now his new boss is acting like he'd done it on purpose.

He really wishes he hadn't gotten the damn job. Then he could have kept his extra money and new bike from Alden without having to deal with all this bull for the next year.

The lady who'd spoken to him (he doesn't recognize her - the other woman had been the one to interview him) continues talking as if he hadn't just interrupted the meeting. "With that out of the way we'll be assigning you to your groups for the moment, though obviously these could change over the course of the year. Mrs. Morgan will meet with each group individually to discuss both short-term and long-term goals."

The circle of people remain silently attentive, and the woman Alex has mentally termed 'The ' continues speaking.

"For the PR team we have Veena, Miles, and Petra. Rose and Landon you're the Political Representatives."

The two people Alex assumes must be Rose and Landon grin at each other, while the girl next to Rose (Veena or Petra?) looks nervous.

"Ms. Kandasamy, you unfortunately will be working alone most of the time, but Aurors from the Hunter team as well as Willow Kiddell from the Wizengamot have volunteered to assist you in analyzing the laws of both worlds." says apologetically, and the woman two seats over from her nods quietly in acceptance.

"Everyone else will be part of the Integration team - so Fergus, Desmond, Kylee, and Alex. You four have some of the more complex goals so Cadi will speak with you last. For now, take the rest of the time until lunch to get to know your group better." She stands, and the group follows suit, everyone hurrying to find their partners.

looks directly at Alex. "You can join your group in a moment." She gestures to three people who must be Fergus, Desmond, and Kylee, all of whom are looking over at him. "First a quick word."

"Whatever." He grumbles, standing up and following her to one of the few enclosed offices on the floor. She settles behind the desk and gestures for him to take the seat across from her. "Mr. Zhang. I want to make very clear to you that I was not inclined to hire you onto this team, but Mrs. Morgan had some excellent points about what you may be able to provide the effort." She pauses, clearly weighing her words, not that Alex really cares if she's trying to be diplomatic - she's obviously a witch, so it's no surprise she was against hiring him and the Squib had to step in in defense. "I truly hope to be proven wrong about you, and that you'll honestly try to help this cause. But I'm warning you now - if you continue to show a disinterest and dismissiveness towards this team I won't hesitate to remove you from it." She sighs. "That's all. You may go join your group."

Alex rolls his eyes and lets himself out of the office. Entitled witch. He scans for the group she'd pointed out earlier and sees them talking with Mrs. Morgan in the far corner of the room.

"Oh Alex! Welcome, I was just going over exactly what your roles in the Initiative are going to be." She greets with a smile. "But first why don't you all quickly reintroduce yourselves, since Alex came late?"

"Fergus Bell." The oldest male offers easily. "I'll probably be working with the expansion and adjustment of Transportation methods since I'm the current Head of the Portkey office."

"Oh are we claiming sections already?" The other man jokes. "Cool then. I'm Desmond, and I'll be working on changing school curriculum in light of all this. I'm particularly hoping to get some math and science into Hogwarts because it's honestly ridiculous they don't teach those."

"Probably add Muggle history in there as well." The woman, who's yet to give her name but must, by process of elimination, be Kylee, agrees. "Make them suffer the way we did."

"You never had Binns as a professor, you don't get to decide we didn't suffer." Fergus quips, and Mrs. Morgan laughs outright.

"I heard complaints about him from my brother." She recalls fondly. "Anyway, Kylee?"

"Right, I'm Kylee Danson, and I guess I'll probably be working with Mungo's in some way? I'm in my gap year before med school and I'm really interested in studying the difference between magical and Muggle physiology, so that would make sense." The last line sounds more like a question, and Alex internally sighs. Two men who want to focus on specific areas and a girl who's obviously indecisive at best.

"Alex?" Mrs. Morgan prompts, and he clears his throat.

"Alex Zhang, I don't really have a specialty beyond knowing how ty the magical world is going to be about all this." He drawls lazily, and immediately all three of the others - and Mrs. Morgan - look uncomfortable. Good, now they won't bug him with nonsense while he fights to get Muggles the respect the magical world won't want to give them.

"Alright then. Like I was saying before, your group's main goal for this week is to put together a list of anybody you think you'll need to talk to in the coming year - consultants, if you will. For example Fergus will need a list of transportation experts, Desmond would probably want someone from Hogwarts, etcetera. Try to think outside the box as to what industries and other areas are going to be impacted - we want this to be as comprehensive as possible. Sound good?"

"Sounds like a plan." Fergus says easily. "We'll get you the list by Saturday then?"

"Oh, just to make sure though," Desmond quickly cuts in, "We don't need to give specific names, right? Just industries, and then you and Mrs. Weasley will find consultants for us to work with?"

Mrs. Morgan nods. "Exactly. And Saturday or Sunday works fine Fergus, thank you." She stands up with one last sweeping smile. "I'll leave you to it then! Good luck."

Alex slouches down into his chair and eyes the other three, trying to gauge how they feel about all this. Most likely they're all magical, though Desmond and Kylee's comments about science and med school do make him wonder if they have some Muggle connections. At the very least, they probably all think this is going to be easy-peasy and will probably fall apart when things get tough. Kylee especially.

"So Kylee, you already mentioned getting a consultant from Mungo's and I agree that that's definitely something important." Fergus says, pulling out a wand and conjuring up a quill and parchment. "And someone from Hogwarts for Desmond, plus Lindberg for me. Or anyone from the Floo Authority I suppose, though he'd be best as the Head." He muses aloud. "Alex, anything in particular you want to make sure we cover?"

Alex shrugs noncommittally, staying silent. He can think of a few Muggle establishments they should talk to, but it's not like any of the others would actually want Muggle input.

"How about someone from Beasts and Beings?" Kylee offers after a moment of silence. "My sister works there, and she was saying last night how laws involving magical creature protections will probably have to be changed since Muggles know about magic now."

Fergus nods and writes it down. "Good point. Any other ideas?"

They throw around a few more suggestions, eventually adding Gringotts to the list, but Alex mostly tunes them out. They can consult with as many people as they like, it won't change the fact that the worlds won't want to merge.

"Good morning baby, how are we today?" Veena coos at her son Nico as she pulls him out of his crib and heads for the kitchen, where her wife is already up and cooking. "Smells amazing in here." She compliments, settling Nico in his high chair and pulling out the baby food. "How long have you been up?"

"Only a few hours." Catriona replies, checking the oven. "Finn sent an owl this morning and I couldn't get back to sleep afterwards." She explains, carefully pulling out the breakfast casserole and setting it onto the stovetop. "We're officially moving into the office today, so I'll be seeing you at work."

Veena beams as she spoon feeds Nico. "That's amazing! Do you know if you'll get a chance to introduce yourselves? I'd love for you to meet Miles, he's a lot of fun to work with so far."

"No idea." Cat admits, pulling off the oven mitts and hanging them back up before going to grab two plates for them. "No one's seen much of Finn this week so we haven't been able to ask, and Investigator McKay has been busy reassigning her cases to other Investigators so she knows about as much as we do."

"Which one is McKay again?" Veena asks, narrowing dodging a fistful of mash Nico had managed to grab off the spoon. "I know Finn is leading the Hunters since he came closest to catching her fifteen years ago, but McKay...?"

"Is just a top Investigator and friends with Finn." Cat fills in, plating the casserole and amusedly watching her wife struggle to feed their son. "Would you like some help, love?"

"Please." Veena sighs. "I swear he likes you more."

"Someone should." Cat says idly, and Veena is immediately concerned. It's rare Cat makes self-deprecating jokes (it's rare Cat jokes at all, really), and when they're about her tough aura it usually means something happened at work.

"Is everything alright with the Hunters? Other than Finn and McKay being busy?" She prompts lightly, leaning against the counter next to Nico's high chair so she can look straight at Cat.

Cat sighs. "It's fine, really. The representative from International Cooperation came by yesterday and he hunted down Demelza instead of just talking to me." She admits. "He tried not to be obvious about it, but I couldn't help noticing."

"He's probably just awkward Cat - how old did he look?"

"Young." Her wife admits. "I'm just on such good terms with most of the Hunters, I was looking forward to having a comfortable work environment for at least a few months."

Veena laughs. "Well that was never going to happen Cat." She says. "It's day three today and already we've got tension. This one kid, Alex, he's relentlessly moody, and Petra is constantly freaking out about doing things wrong. Plus, don't you guys have a Muggle coming in to consult with you? There's always the chance you won't get along with him. Her?"

"Him." Cat confirms. "Edward Clarke. We actually met him yesterday when he came by to introduce himself, and he seems nice overall. Clearly still getting used to things, but I doubt we'll have any problems."

"Well that's good then!" Veena encourages. "Besides, worst case you can come distract Miles while I help Petra with setting up the social media accounts. Goodness knows we'll probably move faster if we don't have to explain what a URL is to him." She laughs fondly. Miles really is a character.

Cat smiles, finally finishing with Nico and moving to the table, Veena following close behind. "Maybe not today though. Don't you and Miles have your first major Press Conference this morning?"

Veena grins. "Yep! I think it should go well, it's just to introduce the Initiative to the press, and I think it will be fun. We'll have both magical and Muggle reporters present so it will be the first official interaction between our worlds since the Incident."

They talk a bit more about work as they eat, then Veena says her goodbyes, gives both Cat and Nico a kiss, and heads to work.

The office is already buzzing with activity when she walks in - Mrs. Weasley and Fergus are off to one side talking intently, while Mrs. Morgan converses with Desmond. Alex is standing nearby, apparently staring at nothing but close enough to be able to listen to Mrs. Morgan and Desmond's conversation. He hasn't been late since the first day, but Veena still doesn't have a great impression of the teen.

Kylee is present as well, standing over Petra and apparently making suggestions as the other woman types away on her phone. Landon and Rose are nowhere in sight, but Veena knows that it doesn't necessarily mean they aren't present - the day before they'd requested a meeting with the Wizengamot to discuss strategy and they could well be there.

Veena makes her way over to Kylee and Petra, clearing so they'll hear her coming.

"Working on the Facebook page still?" She guesses, and Petra sighs.

"Yep. This looked way easier when other people were doing it."

"It doesn't help that we have to use our phones." Kylee points out, waving hers in the air in emphasis. "When did Mrs. Morgan say they'd get the Internet in here?"

"Sometime within the month." Petra replies robotically. "I work at home some as well." She adds, almost defensively.

Veena gives her an encouraging smile. "That's great! I'm sure they'll figure it out as soon as they can."

"Yo! We talking about the Internet again? I can't wait to see it!" Miles appears seemingly out of nowhere, as is standard for him. Veena is just about used to it after two solid days of exposure, but both Kylee and Petra jump.

"You'll get to eventually, but for now I want to run talking points for the conference." Veena quickly intervenes. Miles very easily loses track of what's important if not kept focused, which isn't difficult to do now that she's aware of it.

"Sure thing! See you later Petra! Bye Kylee!" Miles waves at the two and cheerfully follows Veena to one of the closed-off offices that Mrs. Weasley had designated for their use. "Man, one hour to the big PC! Are you excited? I can't wait to meet the Muggles!"

Veena can't help smiling at the enthusiasm she's quickly come to learn is a central feature of Miles. "You've met Desmond and Aruna." She points out, as she always does. "And remember, we're representing the entire Initiative, so best foot forward and don't ask any questions today - we'll set up a different time for that. Also don't call it PC, that means something else to Muggles and it upsets some of the more sensitive ones."

Miles pouts. "I know I know. We've got this." He quickly cheers up again. "And we'll get to do some talkshow appearances, right? So I can ask questions then!"

Veena just shrugs, still grinning slightly. "We'll need to be invited, but Mrs. Morgan is working on that." She says, not wanting to commit but hoping for Miles' sake they do manage to get on some Muggle television shows. She doesn't have too much experience with them, but the few she has been on she can see Miles enjoying quite a bit.

"Alright you two, we're ready to go." Mrs. Morgan is walking over, two press badges in hand. "We don't want to be late after all, and I'd like to do some networking beforehand if possible so we can learn more about the reporters assigned to this."

"Won't they change during the year?" Veena asks as the three make their way out of the building and over to a taxi (which Miles is very excited about). 

Mrs. Morgan hums. "Some will, certainly, but a lot of papers are setting specific individuals to cover the attempted integration over the course of the year, so we want to make a good first impression."

"Is that not normal for Muggles?" Miles asks, nearly vibrating in his seat as he stares curiously out the window as Mrs. Morgan gives the driver directions. "Magical reporters usually pick one story and stick with it to the end, and other writers in the paper can't have the same story."

"I mean, that does happen." Veena acknowledges. "I guess I assumed, since this is so big, there would be a huge amount of people wanting to write about it." She grins slightly. "I also usually get my news from the Internet, so I'm not too well versed in journalistic etiquette."

They arrive at their destination about ten minutes later, and Miles thanks the driver extensively and gives him five Sickles in tip, which the man looks rather confused by.

"Sorry, he's new to the non-magical world." Veena explains. "That'll exchange for about a pound fourty-five at Gringotts - tune in to the news tonight, they'll be covering it!"

The man looks less than thrilled, which does send a slight shot of unease through Veena, but she shakes it off. It's only one person after all - most Muggles will probably be quite excited to learn more about the magical world. Her books wouldn't sell so well if they didn't have a healthy fascination with the extraordinary.

She hurries to catch up with Mrs. Morgan and Miles, the latter of whom is eagerly looking around Downing Street with all the wide-eyed curiosity of a child. Veena can't help but grin at his interest, and begins pointing out historical sights and explaining what each of the buildings is. Miles listens eagerly, occasionally interjecting with questions about Muggles terms and events Veena would have never thought to clarify otherwise.

"Alright, wrap up the history lesson." Mrs. Morgan instructs as they near the steps of Parliament, where a small group has already begun to congregate around a makeshift platform outfitted with two microphones and several loudspeakers. "Miles stay with me, Veena, feel free to do some networking before joining us on the stage in five minutes."

Veena nods, returns Miles' grin, and heads into the lake of reporters.

A few recognize her, but she spends most of the five minutes making introductions and shaking hands. One young woman - a splash of color in a sea of mostly white men - catches her attention, but she doesn't get the chance to talk to her before Mrs. Morgan waves her over from the stage.

"Thank you all for coming on such short notice." Mrs. Morgan is quick to get things started once Veena joins her and Miles. "I know this is a confusing time for everyone, and we wanted to make clear as quickly as possible that we're working to get everything under control. I'll now pass the microphone on to my two colleagues to explain what we're doing."

Veena steps up and accepts the offered mic, and Miles comes up next to her, bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet.

"Good morning everyone! Like my boss said, we're very thankful you all took time out of your schedules to be here with us today, and we promise not to keep you for too long. Before we get into the heart of this meeting though, we'd like to quickly introduce ourselves. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Veena Harris, and I'm the author of the Arkane series of fantasy YA novels. I'm also a witch - a literal one." She jokes, earning chuckles from most of the audience. She offers the microphone to Miles, who looks thrilled as he takes it, examining it for a moment before making his own introduction.

"Hi everyone! I'm Miles, and I'm a wizard. I've never really had a chance to interact with Muggles before, so bear with me if I make some silly mistakes in the coming year - and please tell me if I do! I'm really excited to get to learn about your culture!" He beams and hands the mic back to Veena - they'd agreed she would do most of the talking at this first conference, though looking out at the crowd most of them seem charmed by Miles and his clumsy enthusiasm, rather than insulted by his lack of knowledge and tact.

"So as Miles alluded to, we're part of a one year task-force put together by the Minister for Magic that hopes to ease the integration of our two worlds in light of the recent Incident. This Initiative will be focusing on areas such as education and legislation, and making sure any and all changes that come from this are as painless for all people involved as possible. Miles and I will make sure to give monthly updates at conferences such as these as to the progress and projects being undertaken by the group."

"We also hope to keep interacting with everyone in between the conferences too!" Miles obviously can't help himself when he interjects, but Veena just lowers her mic to let him talk, so he beams at her and continues. "We want to hear your thoughts on what we can be doing better, and what you'd like to see us tackle! Also, another one of our coworkers is going to be putting together an online and social media presence so you can reach out to us that way too!" He looks over at Mrs. Morgan, and she tilts her head with a small smile. He'd stuck to the script perfectly, and honestly Veena is pretty proud. Despite only having known him for two days, she's already figured out that staying on target like that is tough for Miles, especially when he's excited.

She wraps up with a few more comments, and then opens the floor for questions. The young woman she'd spotted earlier but hadn't gotten to meet manages to get her hand up first, and Veena smiles and nods for her to speak..

"Celine Yang of The Telegraph. You mentioned an online and social media presence - is there going to be something equivalent for the magical people?" She asks curiously.

Veena smiles. "That's an excellent question. The magical world unfortunately does not use much modern technology, so the majority of our communication with them will be through the written news outlets like the Daily Prophet or the Quibbler."

"So Muggles have more ability to communicate with the Initiative then?" An older woman with a mass of blonde curls on her head and a quill in hand demands, not bothering to raise her hand before interjecting.

Veena frowns. "Of course not Mrs...?"

"Skeeter, Rita Skeeter of the Daily Prophet. And it's Ms." The woman says grandly, with a touch of insult. Obviously she's not used to having to introduce herself.

"Ms. Skeeter then." Veena says, pulling on her best promotional smile. "Our windows will also be open to any and all owls the magical world wishes to send, and we of course will be more than happy to work with the newspapers if and when they feel they need more information. That all will be in addition to the monthly open press conferences which we already discussed."

"Hmm." Skeeter sniffs, but doesn't have any follow-up questions.

One of the Muggles does though. "Richard Shane, Evening Times." He says, raising his hand as he speaks, and Veena makes a mental note to be a bit stricter about waiting for acknowledgement to talk at the next one of these. "I saw on the briefing that this is called the, quote, Muggle Integration Initiative, unquote, correct?"

Veena frowns, unsure of where this is going. "That is correct Mr. Shane. Is there a problem with the name?"

"I just feel." He blusters on, "That it certainly makes it sound like your lot is expecting us to do all the changing. And what does Muggle even mean? Sounds pretty discriminatory to me."

Veena frowns. She knew this wouldn't be easy of course, but she'd hoped the hostility would at least wait until the second press conference to rear its head. Obviously they aren't so lucky.

"I can answer that one." Miles pipes up. "If you don't mind?" He adds to Veena, who nods a bit hesitantly. Miles did grow up exclusively within the magical world, but considering it was the American one, she isn't sure if he really knows the answer. 

"I grew up very entrenched in the magical world." Miles begins. "So I can tell you that Muggle is probably an extremely old term dating back to some word no one even uses anymore. Maybe it was insulting at one point, but these days it really just means you don't have magic. Muggle, witch, wizard - they're just labels attached to magical capability, that's all!" He beams. "And of course you guys don't have to do anything! We have to do most of it, since it's our world that has to come out into yours. There are more of you that of us."

Veena sees Mrs. Morgan flinch at that, and she agrees. Saying there are more Muggles than magical folk isn't something they wanted to get out. Time to step back in before Miles' mouth keeps talking ahead of his brain.

"Are there any further questions?" She quickly asks, and Miles frowns slightly, lowering his mic and clearly unaware of his mistake.

Celine Yang's hand goes up again, and Veena feels a rush of relief. "Yes, Ms. Yang."

Celine offers a small smile - obviously she's picked up on their discomfort. "May I ask who is on this initiative? Obviously not names, but the sorts of people working on this?"

Veena huffs out a small breath. Good, that's a great question, and it hopefully will calm some of the angrily muttering reporters and the far too gleeful Skeeter, who's obviously also picked up on Miles' stumble.

"We have a mixed bag of people - there's a Muggle lawyer and a Muggle teacher both working to understand the magical ends of their work in order to help with possible future integration, as well as members of the magical community, like myself and Miles, who are doing the same but inverted. Our leaders, Mrs. Morgan and Mrs. Weasley," She nods to the woman at the side of the stage when she mentions her, "Made sure to hire from both worlds in order to ascertain we had input from everyone. Certain members of our team are also putting together a list of consultants to work with during the year, so there will be even more input from them during this process."

There are a few more questions after that, but the major dissenters seem to have quieted down. After they wrap up, Veena excuses herself to quickly speak with Celine, to thank her for her questions, but the other woman seems to have already left, much to Veena's disappointment.

They take another cab back to the Ministry, and Miles spends the whole trip asking about how the machine works. Veena answers vaguely, but she's still a bit miffed about his off-script admission on the stage.

When they arrive, they head straight to Mrs. Weasley's office, though Veena is thrilled to note that there are several unfamiliar faces on their floor when they step off the lift, which means the Hunters have officially moved in. She'll have to go find Cat after their debrief.

"How did it go?" Mrs. Weasley asks as soon as the door closes.

"Overall well. Miles let slip our community is smaller than the Muggle one though, so that will be everywhere by this evening."

Mrs. Weasley runs a hand down her face. "Miles, we don't want to be written as a minority from day one." She sighs. "But what's done is done - I'll see if we can use this to get contacts within activist groups on both sides, turn it to our favor somehow. Other than that, it went well?"

"Only a few aggressive questions." Veena confirms. "Generally people seem hesitant about all this, but willing to wait and see where it goes."

Mrs. Weasley nods. "Good, good. We got word about an hour ago that the American conference didn't go so well, so I'm glad people here seem to be less quick to jump to conclusions."

"We should wait until we see the official coverage before we make that assumption." Mrs. Morgan points out with a wry smile. "But I would say overall it seemed to go well."

Mrs. Weasley nods. "We'll talk again in the morning, after the broadcast and morning papers are sent out." She agrees. "Thank you, you may go meet the Hunters."

Veena flushes, wondering if she had been too obvious in her glances towards the door while the leaders were speaking, but eagerly taking the out anyway.

She finds her wife talking with an Asian woman as they set up one of the desks.

"Veena! Estelle, this is my wife, Veena Harris. Veena, this is Estelle Kuhara, one of the other members of the team." Cat introduces them quickly, and Estelle smiles and offers her hand.

"Good to meet you! I applied for the Initiative too, and I guess I get to work with you all anyway." Estelle says as Veena takes the handshake. "So if you ever need anything from us don't hesitate to ask me!"

"Noted." Veena says, releasing the woman's hand and turning back to Cat to tell her about the press conference.

Estelle decides to let the two speak in private and makes her way over to the other Hunters to see if any of them need help. She knows of most of her coworkers, but she hasn't directly worked with many of them before, so she figures getting to know them now would be a good call.

She's just decided to head over to Isaac Harrison's desk when the lift dings open again and another figure steps out. Estelle looks up to see who it is, and immediately freezes.

Desmond stares back at her, just as stunned. Of course she'd known he was at work a lot these days, but she'd assumed that work was Muggle high school not...

This wasn't how she wanted her boyfriend to find out she was a witch.

She only has a moment to panic when another familiar face hops out of the lift behind Desmond and lights up upon seeing her.

"Estelle! Oh my gosh it's a Gryffindor girls reunion - Petra is here too! Now we just need Piper and Wendy and we'd have the whole dorm!"

Any other time Estelle would be glad to see Rose Evans, but right now she's a bit too wound up to appreciate the other woman's presence.

"Hi Rose, not a great time." She says in greeting, and Rose shrugs.

"Alrighty then, but we're getting drinks at some point." She warns, and Estelle does give a slight smile at that.

"Deal." She agrees. She really is glad to see Rose - they hadn't been best friends in school the way Estelle had been with Wendy, but they'd gotten along well and Rose was always up for a fun time, which meant they had quite a few after-curfew adventures during their teenage years. "I'll bring Wendy - we live together now."

"Awesome! I'll persuade Petra to bring Piper too." Rose grins. "Anyway, I'll quit holding you up Ms. Overwork." She teases, "I should go talk to my partner anyway. See you later!"

Estelle gives her a half-wave before turning back to where Desmond had been standing, only to realize he'd left during her brief interaction with Rose. Shoot - she needs to talk to him, and preferably now before he starts cooking up reasons in that ever-whirling brain of his (and normally she loves that he never stops thinking and analyzing everything around him, but right now she doesn't want to give him time to get the wrong idea about why she'd hidden this).

Estelle and Desmond had met a couple years prior, and while Estelle wouldn't call it love and first sight - she's not one to put much stock in that sort of nonsense - there was definitely an interest on both sides that had eventually developed into a relationship. And honestly Estelle had intended to tell Desmond about her being a witch soon, Incident or not - she'd just been trying to figure out the best way to do it considering the Statute of Secrecy was still a thing when they first got together. And then the Incident happened and while the Statute was no longer a problem, actually seeing each other became one. Estelle and the whole Auror department had been caught up in clean up and attempts to hunt down the perpetrators, who they've taken to calling the New World Order.

The last time she'd actually seen her boyfriend in person had been weeks ago, when she'd bolted out of his home in the middle of their date to go help her team protect the Muggles from the NWO. Since then they've both been too busy to meet up, though Desmond had reached out to her a few times to try and set up a lunch date.

Boy is she kicking herself now for declining those - he probably had wanted to tell her he'd applied for the Initiative.

She shakes her head and turns back to the Hunter's side of the room. She'd had good reason to turn him down - it was all hands on deck the past two weeks, trying to track the cloaked figures, interrogating the one that had been caught only for him to somehow commit suicide (they're still trying to figure out how he managed it while restrained under tight guard and without a wand, but that's Jarvis's team's job, not hers), and organizing new protective patrols in Muggles areas, so she really didn't have the time to meet up.

Still, this is a less than optimal outcome for the situation.

"Everything alright Estelle?" A voice breaks into her musings, and she glances over at her fellow Hunter with a shrug.

"Fine, probably." She says, deciding not to elaborate on the situation. "Do you need anything Mrs. Seo?"

Minerva Seo arches an eyebrow. "Good, then we need you to help Tristan and Noah with going over all the reports from the past teams sent to apprehend Yurina." Seo says briskly, gesturing towards where the two men were already hunched over one of the larger desks.

"Yes ma'am." Estelle quickly agrees, hurrying over to the other two without complaint (though she knows Seo is aware how much she loathes paperwork). "Hey guys, the cavalry has arrived."

Of the two, Estelle knows Tristan Morgan better than Noah Travers since they'd trained at the same time, but she's had contact with both of them, and as the three youngest members of the team they're usually put together on the jobs no one else wants.

Tristan grins over at her and kicks the chair next to him out a bit so she can sit. "Hey Ellie, welcome to team headache, hope you like decoding terrible Auror handwriting!" He chirps, cheery sarcasm dripping off every syllable.

Estelle laughs and takes the offered seat. "I assume you two have been at this a while?" She asks, grabbing a pile of reports as she does.

Noah nods, looking far less irritated than Tristan, who's always had about the same level of patience as Estelle does for sloppy reports. "Maybe two hours? The help is welcome, thanks for joining."

"When Seo tells you to do something you don't talk back." Estelle replies solemnly, and all three of them share a grin before diving back into the work.

It is, as expected, utterly mind-numbing for the most part, which means it's a terrible distraction from the continued knawing in her gut worrying over Desmond and his reaction to seeing her here.

Noah notices her distraction before Tristan, but he doesn't comment, just gives her a knowing look. She gives him a pointed one in turn and he shrugs and goes back to sorting.

When he does clue in, Tristan isn't quite as subtle. "What's got your knickers in a twist?"

"Language." Cadi Morgan calls from across the office, and Tristan groans and bangs his head on the table.

"Why did I think working in a group on the same floor as my mom was a good idea?" He groans pitifully, and Estelle kicks his shin lightly under the table.

"Because you're real dumb for a Ravenclaw." She sing-songs, an old taunt from training that gets Tristan to look up and stick his tongue out at her.

"This is why we get the crap work you know." Noah observes without looking up from his own pile. "Acting like children doesn't exactly inspire confidence."

"Oh shush you. Seriously Ellie, what's up?" Tristan prompts, sitting up and propping his chin on a fist, the other one resting absently on his own pile of reports to keep them from scattering.

Estelle sighs. Tristan won't let it go if she doesn't tell him, and maybe it would be good to get some outside opinions. Namely Noah's, since Tristan has all the romantic experience of a pickle.

"So you know I've got that Muggle boyfriend?"

Tristan tilts his head and hums an affirmative, and though Noah keeps working his eyes flick over briefly, indicating he's listening as well.

"Well he apparently works for the Initiative now. And I didn't exactly get a chance to tell him I'm a witch in between the Incident and, well, five minutes ago."

Tristan frowns. "Would he be upset by that? I mean, you were under the Statute until recently." He points out, and Estelle knows that, and she normally wouldn't be worried except Des had looked way more upset at seeing her than she would have expected him to.

"I know, but he saw me just now and... ugh, I should text him. They got data set up in here, right?"

Noah nods. "Three days ago. They're working on getting Internet too for the PR team to use, but that's a lot more complicated and apparently the ambient magic is interfering more with that than it did with the cell signals."

Estelle hums, fumbling her phone out of her pocket. "That's actually really interesting - do they have any spell creationists trying to figure out the mechanics on that?" She asks as she unlocks the screen and checks if she has service. Three bars - not the worst she's had. She begins working on a message as Noah replies.

"Presumably, yeah. I only heard about it second-hand, Tristan's mom would know more than I do." He says, somewhat distractedly. "Hey, this sounds like it could be of use. Listen: 'Despite all evidence that she was lying low in Bulgaria, when we raided the store house suspected to be her bunker, the entire area was empty. However, it had clearly been recently evacuated. I recommend an internal investigation - no one outside of my team and our direct superiors should have known about the raid.' Do we know if that II was ever conducted?"

"I'll check!" Estelle volunteers, sending the message and shoving her phone back into her pocket. Hopefully this will be more interesting (and more distracting) than continuing to trudge through the files.

Tristan grumbles as Estelle grabs the file out of Noah's hand and bounces up, heading over to Finn and Fiona's office. Maybe she can stop and ask Tristan's mom about the Internet as well while she's up - it really does sound interesting, and knowing how magic and technology interact (or don't) could definitely be useful knowledge to have later on.

She knocks lightly on the closed door of the offices, and waits to be called in before pushing it open.

"Oh, Estelle! Did you find something in the reports?" Fiona McKay asks, brushing her forever-uncontrolled curls out of her face. Finn (no one ever refers to him by his last name - it's way too long) looks up as well, curious.

Estelle holds up the file. "Maybe? Noah found this one and wanted to know if the recommended II was carried out." She says, and Finn sits up and accepts the paperwork from her, skimming through it quickly.

"Which Noah?" Fiona asks jokingly as her co-leader flicks through the offered file.

Estelle grins. "Our Noah - the kid from International Cooperation isn't starting full-time until next week. We should come up with a way to separate them."

"Our Noah can be Noah, other kid is the new guy so he gets the new name." Fiona declares, and Estelle laughs.

"I remember this one." Finn announces, interrupting the banter, lips quirking downwards. "I was one of the people who helped plan the raid, though I wasn't actually on the team. I think they put Clary on point for the Investigation?" He looks over at Fiona, who shrugs.

"It's possible - by the date on this thing I was still on recovery leave." She says, and Estelle forces herself not to react. She understands, of course, that the recovery leave granted to the Muggleborn Aurors after the Second Wizarding War was a very important mental health legislation that's been lauded for it's progressiveness, but if she's honest Estelle has never really understood the thought process behind it. In a time when the Ministry was in desperate need for all hands on deck, letting a not-insubstantial part of the workforce stay home while still being paid has always seemed illogical to her.

But she bites her tongue on those thoughts - she's gotten in trouble enough times trying to debate it in the past, and she definitely doesn't want to anger her direct superiors and risk being kicked out of the Hunters.

Still, it would be nice if anyone could explain it in a way that wasn't rooted in personal bias and emotion.

"Actually, why don't you head over to the training rooms now? Clary should be there with the first year recruits." Finn suggests, breaking into Estelle's thoughts, and she quickly refocuses on the situation.

"Ah, sure! No problem!" She agrees quickly, feeling some excitement building up. Clary Shacklebolt is a bit of a legend in the Auror department, and a personal hero of Estelle's due to her impressive list of accomplishments. Getting to meet her in person is a dream come true.

Estelle spots Desmond as she heads back towards the lift, and some of her mood instantly drops again. He's rather determinedly not looking at her, and a glance at her phone shows he hasn't even read the text she sent him. Sighing, she grips the file to her stomach and calls the lift. She'll take this to Trainer Shacklebolt, meet her hero, ask her questions, and then she'll worry about Desmond.

The job comes first.

It isn't until Friday that Aruna finally meets the Wizengamot consultant that Mrs. Weasley had promised would help with decoding the massive, dense, and often incomprehensible magical laws that Aruna has been sorting through all week. She thinks she has a handle on the basic laws - no killing, no stealing, no using magic in Muggle areas - but a lot of the terminology used is legalese that she's entirely unfamiliar with, not that she's surprised in the slightest by that. Law has always had it's own language - it's not shocking that magical law developed its own as well.

Willow Kiddell arrives exactly at nine o'clock, sharing the lift with Aruna, though the Muggle law consultant doesn't realize who the other woman is until they both exit on the seventh floor.

"Willow! Thanks again for coming, especially after you took time already to help us set the Initiative up." Mrs. Weasley greets the other woman, and Aruna looks over at her lift mate with a newly critical eye. Willow is about average height, with dark hair tugged into a loose bun and sharply angled features that give her an overall intimidating aura. While Aruna has never been one to enjoy working in groups, Willow at least looks like she'll pull her weight. It eases some of the tension that has been present in Aruna's chest the entire week, but only slightly.

She really would rather work by herself.

"Willow, this is Aruna Kandasamy." Mrs. Weasley has walked over to them as Aruna had been examining Willow. "Aruna, this is our friend Willow Kiddell from the Wizengamot."

"I look forward to working with you." Willow says, offering a handshake which Aruna automatically accepts, though she drops it quickly.

"I do as well." She says, a beat too late, though Willow either doesn't notice or doesn't point it out if she does.

"Aruna got one of the private offices." Mrs. Weasley points towards where Aruna has been spending every workday buried in documents. "We're just over there if you need us for any reason."

"Sounds good, thanks Audrey." Willow confirms, turning fully to Aruna. "So what have you gone through so far, and do you have any particular laws you'd like to focus on?"

Aruna clears as she leads the other woman to her office. She'd been expecting the question and already has an answer prepared.

"Obviously our main focus should be the laws which refer to or are the result of the Statute of Secrecy, as those and any other rulings based from that precedent ought to be considered defunct. From there we can begin to work through the rest of the laws to see what's impacted, what has to be changed, and what can remain static."

Willow nods briskly, taking the seat meant for visitors while Aruna settles in her usual chair after closing the office door. "Sounds like a plan. How do you have everything organized here?"

Surprisingly, Willow being in the office isn't as invasive or oppressive as Aruna had feared it might be. The other woman mostly stays quiet as she sorts through the laws, occasionally changing the filing of a few based on how Aruna had been separating them and explaining why, but otherwise the office is barely noisier than it normally would be, and Aruna is quickly deciding that she's probably going to be fine working with Willow over the year, especially as the woman won't be a daily presence.

After about an hour Aruna starts asking questions of her own, pertaining to the unfamiliar terminology of magical law as well as the precedent implementation methods, all of which Willow clearly explains, making Aruna feel a lot better about how effective she'll be able to be in this role.

Mrs. Weasley stops by around noon to remind them to go eat, and though Aruna has packed her own lunch Willow does excuse herself to go to the cafeteria.

"My husband and I get lunch together on Saturdays, otherwise I would just eat here." She explains, and Aruna forces on an understanding smile even as her stomach begins churning and closes up. She holds it together until Willow leaves, at which point she pulls her feet up onto her chair and rests her forehead against her knees, breathing slowly and focusing on the expanding and deflating of her lungs to ward off the way the room is threatening to spin.

Aruna's therapist had warned her that she likely had trigger words or phrases, the therapist says that's normal in cases of PTSD. Aruna knew this would likely happen, but husband? Such a common word, and she swears she's heard it before without falling apart like this, and yet just now, when Willow had said she was getting lunch with her husband, something like a rock had slammed down through Aruna's internal organs and her mind had begun overflowing with images of him. Of Christopher.

It's been nearly two years since his death - two years since Aruna stepped out of the restaurant they were supposed to meet at for a romantic anniversary dinner, two years since she saw that truck fail to swerve. Two years since her world had fallen apart.

She had started seeing her therapist about a month ago, and when the woman said she had post traumatic stress disorder Aruna hadn't believed it - that was something people in wars or abusive relationships had, not her. Plenty of people lost loved ones and didn't develop trauma from it, and Aruna has always been exceptional so really she should have been even better at handling what had happened.

Though confronting a year and a half of daily crying, lack of motivation, and general loss of interest in living did eventually force her to admit the therapist had a point. She'd just thought she was grieving, that everyone had to take their own time and their own methods to cope with loss, but even her ever supportive mother had begun to get worried after she'd barely reacted to getting fired from her od job after not showing up to work for two weeks straight with no excuse.

She'd thought she was better though - she's been dressing herself, making herself breakfast (cereal counts), and even has a job again that she's shown up to every single day so far. And yet the commonplace word 'husband' is making her want to run back home and climb under the covers and pretend the world outside doesn't exist.

She doesn't know how long she sits there going through the breathing exercises her therapist had taught her, but thankfully Willow's lunch break goes longer so Aruna isn't caught in the middle of her pathetic little breakdown. She pulls out her sandwich and forces it down despite not being hungry - not eating will catch up with her later, and if Willow is still around she'll likely think it odd that Aruna hadn't eaten during lunch. Thankfully everything stays down despite how quickly she'd eaten (and how her stomach definitely wasn't interested in food at the moment), and she tries to look like she's focusing on the law books in front of her for when Willow returns.

If the other woman does notice anything when she steps back into the office she doesn't comment, and eventually Aruna gets enough of a handle on her mind to actually read the book in front of her. It's one that Mrs. Weasley had dropped on her desk earlier in the week, an introductory text all Wizengamot representatives need to learn, and Aruna is reminded of her time in law school as she slowly works through the dense text.

Willow does end up leaving earlier than Aruna does, citing a need to pick up her son from his babysitter and saying she won't be able to come by again for another week. Aruna thanks her and waits for the door to close before she drops the book on her desk and wonders if she should head home as well. Today was absolutely exhausting, and she thinks she could use an early night.

Ultimately she decides against it - she's only been here for less than a week - she can't take time off now. She needs to show that she's fine, that she can handle this.

Everything will work out.

Author's Note: I literally almost forgot I had an update tonight - this week has been solid chaos OTL But I remembered and I edited and here we are! The first official chapter~ It's about 10k words long and probably (hopefully OTL) one of the longer chapters of the story - most will probably range between 5-10k on average! This little adventure is officially kicking into high gear and I hope you're all buckled up for a wild ride, because it just gets bumpier from here on out >:)