Desmond is the first person in the specialization team to successfully organize a meeting with one of his requested consultants, and much to his relief the man requests they meet at the Leaky Cauldron for lunch rather than in the offices.

"I just can't stand the Ministry." Shaun Roberts explains after they place their orders."It's got too many bad memories for a lot of Muggleborns." Shaun is a comfortably middle-aged black man with a softer presence than Desmond had been expecting. He'd introduced himself as the Deputy Headmaster for Hogwarts School, though he'd grinningly confessed that he's still getting used to the title when they sat down, as it's only his third year with it after the retirement of the former Deputy Headmistress and Herbology teacher Pomona Sprout.

Desmond has heard bits and pieces about the war, but he honestly still isn't quite sure what exactly had happened twenty years ago, and based on Shaun's expression he decides not to press. "Fair enough, I find it stifling myself." He offers, and Shaun laughs.

"Right then, let's talk school! I imagine you'll need an overview of how Hogwarts works?"

It's a perfectly fair assumption, but Desmond shakes his head. "Actually, my brothers are both wizards, though it seems to have skipped over me." He says wryly. It hurts less now than it did growing up, but there's still the familiar sting of being left out.

Shaun hums. "Well considering you ended up in the sciences, I'd say you didn't miss out." He offers. "The only math-based classes we have are Transfiguration and Arithmancy, neither of which is really comparable."

Desmond offers a crooked smile. "Well I was thinking that's probably something that should change now." He points out. "If the worlds aren't separate, students should have the best education for both worlds." His smile falters when he sees Shaun grimace, but before he can inquire as to the reason their food arrives, carried by someone who is decidedly not the same person who took their order.

"I thought that was you Shaun!" The woman exclaims with a smile. She's probably in her thirties, with blonde curls and green eyes that shine warmly as she regards them. "Who's your friend? You aren't planning to give my job away, are you?"

Shaun laughs. "Wouldn't dream of it Hannah. This is Desmond Edevane from the Integration Initiative, we're discussing if the curriculum should be changed at Hogwarts in light of the recent coming out. Desmond, this is Hannah Longbottom, wife of one of the faculty and future Matron of Hogwarts. Or nurse, in Muggle terms." He adds.

Desmond smiles and accepts Hannah's offered handshake, though his mind is sticking on what Shaun had said. 'If' the curriculum should be changed? Desmond is certain that it has to be changed, but Shaun is apparently not on the same page as him, and this might be harder than he'd initiatially been anticipating. He'd really thought they'd at least agree that something has to shift.

"Well best of luck to you all, we're all rooting for an uneventful integration." Hannah is saying when Desmond tunes back into the present. He blinks and offers a smile.

"We are as well." He agrees, though he thinks they probably have differing reasons and thoughts on the word 'uneventful' and what it means. Desmond wants things to go smoothly and the magical world to adapt to the non-magical one without road bumps, but based on Shauns' comment the magical world is hoping it won't have to change at all.

"I'll see you at the Faculty brunch this weekend then?" Hannah says to Shaun. "I don't want to keep you from your discussion."

Shaun smiles. "Absolutely. Take care Hannah."

"It was nice to meet you." Desmond tacks on, and Hannah turns that beaming smile onto him.

"You feel free to drop by whenever you like." She says. "We'll be happy to see you. Enjoy!" With that she hurries back towards the kitchens.

Shaun is grinning. "She's an absolute treasure and a good half of the faculty is jealous of Neville for snagging her first." He laughs. "Anyway, you were saying Hogwarts should increase our curriculum."

Desmond feels the warmth of the previous few minutes begin leeching away again. "Well, yes. It makes sense, doesn't it? Students shouldn't be deprived of a Muggle education just because they have magic."

Shaun hums, drumming his fingers on the desk and clearly weighing his next words. "Do you remember how much summer work your brothers had?" He finally asks, and Desmond frowns.

Honestly he'd been too upset to really pay attention - whenever magic or Hogwarts came up at home he'd make himself scarce. But he nods anyway because he does recall his parents asking his brothers if they'd finished their homework in August.

"Then you know how much work magical students already have without the addition of Muggle schooling. In fact, the Hogwarts curriculum is so vast that students have to start specializing their classes in third year through their electives, and most drop classes after fifth year to ease the massive workload. Do you see why it would be unfair to just make magical schools change to fit Muggle ones?"

Desmond frowns, hurt and defensiveness curling in his gut, though he resolutely pushes them down. "I understand the concern, but if students are that overwhelmed already, wouldn't that indicate it's time for a change anyway?" He argues, and Shaun sighs.

"You want to fully overhaul a system that's been in place longer then England has been a sovereign nation." He says flatly. "Look, I get that we'll have to make sacrifices - like your spokesperson said, we are a minority group, and believe me I know it's always the minorites that have to make the compromises." He waves vaguely at himself, and Desmond shifts awkwardly, suddenly hyper aware of his own pale skin and wanting to maybe find a way to crawl out of it before they continue this conversation. "But you understand that it's a massive undertaking, and one that will probably hurt a lot of students if done incorrectly. I need you to understand that this isn't just a matter of slapping a half-dozen more classes on already overwhelmed students and calling it a day - we need a comprehensive plan for steady changes that could take a few years to fully implement - and of course, we need to consider how the Muggle school system would need to change as well."

Desmond chews his lip. He really thought this meeting would go differently, but Shaun has good points, ones Desmond hadn't even been considering when he'd walked in twenty minutes ago.

"Sorry to be such a downer, but I wanted to make clear where I stood on all this before you had too much time to work on this." Shaun says, sounding genuinely apologetic. "You seem like a smart kid, so I think you'll be up to the challenge of at least getting all this started." He glances at the clock on the wall and grimaces. "Well, enough about that. I only have a few minutes before I need to head back to Hogwarts - I have an Arithmancy class in an hour."

"That's one of the math classes?" Demond asks, hoping to crush his own awkwardness and growing sense of shame under discussions of magical mathematics.

It somewhat works - Shaun explains some of the basics of Arithmancy as they finish their food and pay, but Desmond doesn't comprehend enough of it for it to be an effective distractor when Shaun heads for the fireplace and Desmond heads for the door.

At least his shame is good for one thing - he's nearly at the Ministry Visitor's entrance (they should really make an official Muggle employee entrance) when he remembers why he was so glad to get out of the office in the first place.

Estelle.

He loves her, he does, and that hasn't changed, but finding out she's a witch? Over a year into their relationship? It's been a lot to process, and he honestly just feels awkward around her these days. She's texted him a few times, but he honestly isn't sure what to say - she had weeks after the Incident to tell him about her magic, and yet it took him running into her at the Ministry of Magic to find out. He just isn't sure what to think of it.

Estelle is a lot of things, but a liar has never really been one of them, and she's definitely not the type to be nervous about telling him something like this - heck, Estelle isn't really the type to get nervous about anything for the most part, and it's something he's always admired. Now though, what it means is there must be some other reason she didn't tell him right away about her magic. Heck, she hadn't even tried to set up a date after she'd run out on their last one - he'd been the one reaching out to her!

What is he supposed to make of that?

He stands in the lift with his hand hovering over the button for the seventh floor far longer than he probably should, but eventually he presses it. If he's lucky, she won't even be present when he gets there, and he can go back to thinking about how to change the school systems using the new information he'd gotten from the meeting.

But luck has only rarely been his friend, and Estelle is the first thing he sees when he steps through the doors. Thankfully she's caught up laughing about something with the two men she's always working with (does she know them? Should he be worried? Are they the reason she didn't contact him after the Incident?) and he manages to dart over to the Initiative's side of the offices without her spotting him.

He slouches at his desk and prepares to completely overhaul his notes when another Initiative member comes over and takes the open seat next to his desk.

Desmond glances up, and smiles when he recognizes one of his team members. "Hey Fergus, how's your morning been going?"

Fergus Bell gives a half-shrug. "Spent most of it on Alex duty." He says, gesturing to where the teenager is pretending to look over reports. "How about you though? You had the first official consultation, what was it like? Did things go well?"

Desmond's smile falters slightly. "I guess? I think I was being a little too optimistic about how straightforward the education overhaul would be. I didn't realize how much work magical students have."

Fergus grins and pats his shoulder reassuringly. "Well that's what the Initiative is for! I don't think anyone expects us to fix everything at once, but we can certainly get the process started!"

Desmond smiles, and this one feels a little more real than the others he's been forcing out today. "You're right, as usual." He admits. "Want to help me start completely redoing the plans I spent all weekend preparing?"

Fergus laughs. "Let me get Alex, I'm sure he'd love to have more things to complain about." His eyes glint teasingly and Desmond laughs as well.

"Sounds like a plan." He agrees.

Across the room, Edward Clarke eyes the three suspiciously. It's only been a week of course, but so far he's been trapped behind a desk under the watchful eyes of Finn Lopatkina-Paluch, which means he hasn't really been able to do his true job yet.

Which is annoying. The magical world isn't going to prove it houses dangerous, untrustworthy criminals on its own after all: they've spent years hiding their crimes against Muggles and they won't stop now just because they've been exposed.

Edward continues to watch the three talk, wondering if he can come up with an excuse for why he needs to go over to the Initiative's side of the room so he can properly eavesdrop on the conversation. Maybe he can offer food? He is on his lunch break after all.

Before he can determine if he has enough food for the offer to share to make sense, Fiona McKay appears in front of his desk, blocking his view of the trio entirely.

"Hey, I know you're on break, but could you look some stuff over for us?" She asks, and Edward quickly schools his expression. Moments like this is why he takes lunch in the office, after all, and McKay knows that full well. She's only phrasing it as a question to be polite.

"Of course." He says easily, rising from his seat in a fluid motion. "What did you need?"

He doesn't hate working with the Hunters, since really you can often find the shadiest people among justice authorities, but as the only Muggle on the team he's kept rather busy, leaving almost no time for him to suss out their dirty little secrets.

But it's only the first week, and right now (as his teammates have reminded him time and again when he complains to them during the evening debriefs) his main goal is to ingratiate himself to the team, so they'll be more likely to slip, or leave him unwatched around sensitive files.

Minerva Seo is hunched over her desk grumbling to herself as they pass, and Edward makes a mental note to check with her when this meeting is done to see if she needs any help. The answer will be no, of course, Minerva only takes help from Finn and Fiona (fellow magic users), but the gesture is what's important in this early phase of infiltration.

McKay kicks open Lopatkina-Paluch's door, and Edward marvels, definitely not for the first time, how informal the leaders are in these two groups, using first names and inviting themselves into each other's offices when they have ideas. If anything, it's further proof of their disrespectful and arrogant natures.

The overall leader looks up from his desk with a detatched amusement. "Fiona, Mr. Clarke. To what do I own the intrusion?"

Lopatkina-Paluch is the worst kind of wizard in Edward's opinion - a smart one. Too smart frankly - the rumors about him that Edward has managed to pick up from his new coworkers range from impressive to downright unbelievable, and of course it's Edward's luck he'd end up working under the one person alive who absolutely could catch him in the act because some dust is out of place. If even half the rumors are true, Finn Lopatkina-Paluch is basically a living, breathing Sherlock Holmes for the modern day.

"Raid proofing for our Egyptian friends." McKay announces. "They think they've got a lock on a possible hideout for some of the New Order, and they contacted Noah to see if we'd be down to look things over."

"We get asked that a lot." Edward notes, raising an eyebrow. He doesn't phrase it or intonate it like a complaint, but it's absolutely a complaint - he just won't let them know that.

McKay grins. "Well between you and Finn, we've got the best Hunter team in the world right now. Can't blame our allies for wanting to take advantage of that where possible."

Edward raises an eyebrow. "Considering you've worked with me for just over a week, isn't putting me on the same level as  Investigator Lopatkina-Paluch a bit much?" He points out. Show some casual deference, a recognition of the man's skills, and maybe Lopatkina-Paluch will eventually let his reputation do more work than he does, giving Edward time to snoop. It's worked with far better men after all.

Lopatkina-Paluch grins dangerously. "I'd be inclined to agree, but I believe Fiona meant that you're able to provide an otherwise unavailable Muggle perspective. And how many times will I need to tell you to at least say Investigator Finn? My last name is a mouthful"

Edward shrugs. He'd feel weird using the man's first name - this is a professional setting, regardless of how unprofessional the people running it are. "Several dozen I presume, considering we have a full year together."

Finn just chuckles. "Alright then, let's take a look at this raid outline."

Edward can admit that this part of the job is actually interesting, and even useful - he gets to learn the different tactics the magical justice system uses and report back to his superiors so that they can begin preparing countermeasures in case all this goes belly up (and it will. Edward knows what these people are truly like - time will reveal their true colors). So he settles in and focuses, offering insights when asked but generally staying quiet (he wants to take their methods without giving away his own after all). Overall they agree the raid is well-planned, though Lopatkina-Paluch suggests a clever alteration that would essentially route any aggressors through a single exit point where they could then be ambushed - a ruthless and underhanded tactic and one Edward isn't surprised to learn that Lopatkina-Paluch would employ.

When they finish, McKay grabs the files and heads back out. "I'll give these back to Noah then for transit."

Edward moves to follow her, but Lopatkina-Paluch shuts the door with a flick of his wand, and something in Edward goes cold. He can't have been found out yet - he hasn't even done anything yet!

"Edward." Lopatkina-Paluch says, gesturing to the chair Edward has half-risen out of. Slowly Edward lowers back down, grimacing at the casual use of his first name. They aren't friends.

"I was hoping we could talk a bit before you go back to your lunch." Lopatkina-Paluch at least has the decency to sound like he's sorry about the inconvenience, not that Edward buys it.

Edward tilts his head, mentally noting that it doesn't really matter what he wants - Lopatkina-Paluch has magic and could force him to stay regardless of Edward's thoughts on the matter. He keeps those thoughts to himself.

"I just wanted to make sure you're settling in alright." Lopatkina-Paluch keeps talking, obviously unconcerned by Edward's lack of response. "I know how disorienting stepping into the magical world without any prior experience can be." He offers a grin, softer than his usual ones, and it takes Edward a moment to realize what he's implying.

"You're Muggleborn?" He asks, honestly surprised and momentarily unable to retain his usual facade of indifference.

Lopatkina-Paluch chuckles at the response. "Maybe. I was adopted by Muggles though, so I was raised fully Muggle up until I got my Hogwarts letter. Now obviously I've been in this world for quite a while now, but I still remember how overwhelming it was back then. So if you ever need a breather feel free to drop in - I'll kick anyone who's here out."

Edward nods, a bit numb. Is this an attempt to make him feel safe? Let down his guard? Definitely it's a push to make him sympathetic to their cause and actions, so he'll be biased in favor of them, so when they inevitably do something questionable he won't question it. It won't work, but obviously Finn - Lopatkina-Paluch, , Edward will really need to stay aware of that - already sees him as a possible threat and is working to neutralize it. The man really is brilliant.

"I'm doing alright so far sir." He says aloud after taking a moment to recenter. "I'll keep that in mind though for the future, the gesture is appreciated."

Lopatkina-Paluch gestures to the door. "Glad to hear it. Now I think I've kept you long enough - go ahead and take the next hour for lunch, you've more than earned it this past week."

Edward offers a polite smile and stands, letting himself out of the room as his mind whirls over the new information he'd just gotten. He'll have to sort through his own actions to see what exactly gave him away, if anything. Lopatkina-Paluch might just be covering all his bases, and with a mind like his Edward wouldn't put that past him.

He sighs and makes his way back to his own desk, stopping by Seo's desk and being turned away as expected, and his abandoned lunch, only to find two of the other Hunters already there, chatting with each other. It takes him a moment to place them, but his mind eventually supplies their names as Demelza Robins and Jack Abbott.

Abbott notices him first and grins. "Hey Clarke! We saw you got interrupted during lunch again and figured we'd offer to drag you down to the cafeteria so you can actually finish your food in peace for once. If you like." He adds quickly, lazy grin still in place. Demelza doesn't say anything, but she's smiling openly and invitingly as well.

Edward can't discount this as another tactic to indoctrinate him, but he also wouldn't mind getting away from Lopatkina-Paluch's watchful eyes right about now either. And getting to know his coworkers will certainly help with phase one.

So he offers a small grin of his own. "Sure, sounds like a plan. You'll have to lead the way though, I have no idea where anything is in here."

Robinsemelza grins and Abbott laughs, and Edward thinks he might be able to get what he needs after all - he just has to have a little patience and play his cards right. He'll show the world that magic can't be trusted before the year is up.

Diana Shafiq intends to drop in on the Initiative in its first week, but her own job ends up keeping her a lot busier than she'd initially anticipated. The Incident had displaced over three hundred Ministry employees, which honestly was over double the number she was expecting and meant a lot more up-front paperwork to file.

Not that Diana is complaining - being put in charge of the task force entrusted with the relocation and retraining of all those employees is an honor, and one Diana knows a lot of older (and whiter and more Christian) Ministry members think she isn't cut out for. But Diana Shafiq was hand-picked by Minister Granger, and she's going to show everyone that she's the best person for the job.

And a week and a half in she's still certain that's the case as she makes her way down the crowded halls to the lifts, and takes one up to the seventh floor.

She waves to her best friend Noah Travers where he's seated with two other Hunters, and he flicks a hand back in greeting, but neither of them pause in their work.

"Good morning Ms. Shafiq, next time make an appointment." Audrey Weasley greets her tiredly as Diana lets herself into the Initiative's Head Office. The other woman in the room - presumably the Squib leader from the Muggles - grins and stands up from her desk.

"Good to finally meet you Diana, I'm Cadi Morgan. I was disappointed we couldn't hire you for the Initiative." She introduces herself, offering a handshake that Diana returns firmly.

"Regretfully I was needed elsewhere, but I'm sure your team will do just fine." Diana replies briskly as they both drop their hands. "However, I was hoping to borrow a few of your members for consultation on the Relocation Effort."

Undersecretary Weasley raises an eyebrow, setting down the paperwork she'd been perusing to look at Diana directly. "In what capacity would they be consulting, and how often? You must understand we are highly understaffed as is due to the limited budget and time allocated to this effort. Losing even one person could damage our final results."

Diana nods. "Of course ma'am, I understand completely. However, I feel a partnership could be valuable to both our causes." She'd been planning this speech all weekend, knowing she'd have to make her points clearly and effectively in order to sway the Senior Undersecretary - the woman is a legend of bureaucracy for a reason. "The people I'm representing have a working knowledge of the Muggle world, and your group is trying to find a way to overlap our two worlds as comfortably as possible. I propose that combining our findings may reveal new ways of doing so that might not be self-evident otherwise."

Mrs. Weasley tilts her head. "In what ways?" She challenges, and Mrs. Morgan looks over at her with an unreadable expression. Diana had expected the challenge though - would expect nothing less from the longest serving Undersecretary to the Minister for Magic (and wife to the only Junior Undersecretary to be retained through four different administrations - the entire family are legends, really).

Diana nods firmly. "For one thing we work exclusively within the laws directly relating to the execution of the Statute, so we can help your Muggle lawyer quite a bit, as well as your team in charge of dealing with the political figures. In addition-"

But Mrs. Weasley raises a hand, a faint smile on her face, and Diana immediately clamps down on her further arguments about how their familiarity with how magic and Muggle can overlap and where the easiest points of convergence would be. If Mrs. Weasley wants to hear them then she'll ask.

"I see your points, and I can tell you have more, but I don't think I'm the person to tell." She says simple. "Cadi, are Rose and Landon back from their meeting with Ms. Misra?"

Mrs. Morgan glance out the office window and nods. "Looks like. Shall I call them in?"

"Please." Mrs. Weasley confirms, and Mrs. Morgan vanishes out the door, leaving Diana alone with one of the most influential women in wizarding history. She forces down her urge to ask about how legislation was handled post-war and how they determined ways of limiting possible corruption like what had happened during the war, but she does hope one day she can ask about it - it's always been something she was fascinated by, and thought the process could be reworked and applied elsewhere if she knew the basics.

She likely wouldn't have had time to ask her questions anyway, as Mrs. Morgan returns with two younger people only a minute or so later. "Rose, Landon, this is Ms. Diana Shafiq. Diana,  these are Rose Evans and Landon Colvin." She points to the female and male respectively, as if it would be possible to confuse who was who.

Landon smiles professionally, but Rose has taken on a look that's not unfamiliar to Diana - one of excited awe.

"Such an honor to meet you!" Rose says quickly, ing out a hand and blushing slightly when Diana takes the offered handshake. "I'm a big fan of the work you used to do with the Obliviators. I actually worked on the excuses team for the Devon school fire!"

Diana smiles politely as she drops Rose's hand. Hero worship isn't new, though usually it's the men getting this excited about meeting her. Still, it's not offensive, so she treats it as normal and turns to the other half of the pair she'll aparently be working with.

"Landon Colvin." He reiterates his name, giving Rose a slight side-eye as he does. His accent marks him as American, but he doesn't seem hostile so Diana accepts the handshake, which is firm but not strangling. Good, he's probably not one of the USA's many religious bigots. "What can we help you with Ms. Shafiq?"

"Diana is fine." She says - from the looks of them they're all probably around the same age. "Undersecretary Weasley seems to think you may be able to help me with a proposal I had for the Initiative."

"And you can propose it at their desks." Mrs. Weasley adds, fingers sliding over the documents she'd been working on when Diana had come in earlier. Diana quickly acquiesces to the demand, as do Rose and Landon, who take the lead over to two of the corner desks in the room.

"We don't get our own private office since we're sharing with the Hunters." Rose sighs, "So sorry about that. But what did you need us to help with?"

Diana likens the woman to a puppy with how eager she is, but considering the likely hero worship happening it's to be expected. She just hopes Rose will get over it sooner rather than later - Diana's request will require full attention.

"Very simply, I think our departments can help each other." She begins.

Landon does listen as Diana speaks, and he actually really likes her proposal of utilizing the knowledge of the people currently in the limbo of Relocation to target their political approach, but he can't help being slightly distracted by Rose and her out-of-character flusteredness. The Rose he's been working with up to this point is cheerful, curious, and most importantly focused, but right now she's like a lovesick puppy.

"That all sounds really interesting." He says when Diana finishes talking. "Maybe we could arrange a more formal meeting for later this week? Rose and I have a massive pile of forms to fill out to get full access to the Muggle Parliament sessions which need to be finished today, plus I think Aruna could benefit from this as well so we'd need to talk to her."

Diana tilts her head consideringly. "That's fair, I did come unannounced today." She concedes. "How does Friday at eleven work for you?"

"It's perfect!" Rose blurts, and Landon shoots her a look that she completely misses as she stares hopefully at Diana, who mostly just seems distantly amused (thank goodness). "We'll see you then!"

Diana nods to them both in farewell, and then surprises Landon when she doesn't leave, but rather heads over to the Hunter's side of the room to start talking with one of their members.

"What was that about?" He immediately asks Rose in a low hiss, so Diana can't hear him.

Rose blinks, shakes her head, and then falls dramatically back into her desk chair. "Landon. Landon that was Diana Shafiq. The Diana Shafiq. She's a legend, she's amazing, and she's so gorgeous in person aaaaaaagh." She throws a hand dramatically over her face and spins in her chair.

Landon shifts uncomfortably on his feet before slowly lowering down into his own chair. "So this is like, a crush thing?" He guesses awkwardly. He's completely for gay rights and was as happy as the next person by the results of the 2015 Supreme Court Case that legalized gay marriage, but actually seeing a girl gushing over another girl is an entirely new experience for him and he's not quite sure what to do with it.

Rose whines. "This is way more than a crush but also yes." She mumbles into her palm. "I'm going to die everytime we work with her, just be warned. AGH she's so pretty and confident and-" She buries her face in her hands and spins her chair around rapidly before planting her feet to abruptly stop herself. "Okay, okay, I'm good. I'm fine. I'm dying, but I'm fine. What are we doing?"

Landon just stares at her for a long moment before slowly picking up the files he'd dropped on his desk when Mrs. Morgan had called them in and pushes Rose's pile over to her. "We fill these out, remember?"

Rose huffs out a breath, slaps her cheeks lightly, and nods. "Right, more endless paperwork. My favorite thing."

Landon lets his breath out slowly as Rose gets to work, complaining every few moments about the ridiculous details demanded by the forms. His partner seems to be back to normal, but he really hopes this won't happen every time Diana comes around. He'd prefer for Rose to be in top form like she usually is at all times - it's what they need after all.

When Mrs. Morgan had explained his and Rose's role in the Initiative, he'd admittedly been a bit intimidated. The two of them alone somehow have to help mediate conversation and compromise between two separate governmental bodies, with the goal of fully peaceful cooperation by the end of their one-year run. It's a lot to do in a tiny amount of time, but when she's not being a schoolgirl with a puppy crush Rose is a solid partner to work with. She's clever and well-spoken, but she never assumes she knows things, often checking her understanding against Landon's and always open to hearing his thoughts and opinions on their work. Really, if not for just now he'd think she was just about perfect as far as professional partners go.

"Hey, hey, do you know what a National Insurance Number is?" Rose pipes up, drawing Landon out of his thoughts. He blinks and looks over at the section she's pointing at, frowning.

"No idea, must be a Muggle thing. Next time Mrs. Morgan comes out we can ask her about it - just skip it for now."

Rose nods and turns back to her forms, and Landon finally starts in on his. There are a lot of forms to fill out after all, and only so much daylight left. No sense wasting it fretting over what may well not be a problem at all.

Petra is practically asleep at her desk, which is far from an uncommon occurence these days. With Internet still not in and week two nearly over, she's doing most of her job at home, resulting in long nights and early mornings, a combination that's almost worse than her last job.

Almost. She still prefers this to that awful manager.

She's alone at her desk, staring blankly at her phone as she waits for her bars to pick up again. Mrs. Morgan is kindly supplementing her pay for this month to cover the extra data charges she's racking up for work, but that means Petra just feels that much more pressure to actually do work on her phone. Which can't happen if she can't access her data.

"Bad connection again?" Veena's voice startles her - Petra must have been dozing more heavily than she'd realized.

She shakes her head violently, as if she can physically dislodge her exhaustion, and sits up. "Yeah, it's happening more and more often this week." She says with a sigh. "I feel more useless than usual."

Veena pats her shoulder comfortingly, but Petra shrugs it off. Veena has a tendency to mother her and Miles, and while the other boy doesn't seem to mind it Veena is only a year older than Petra - it kind of feels patronizing, especially at times like this. "Is everything going well with you and Miles?" She asks, hoping to divert the topic away from herself.

Veena blinks, then nods. "We've got an interview tomorrow with Jeremey Vine, which will be interesting. He's nice enough, and I don't think he'll make any rude comments, but he's still an old white Anglican and I'm a gay black millenial." She sighs. "I'm thinking of letting Miles take point on this one honestly, he'll probably be more relatable anyway."

"How would he be more relatable? He didn't know what a cellphone was until last week." Petra points out, and Veena smiles fondly.

"True, but he's learning fast, and he looks like them. I did the research and eighty-five percent of England is Caucasian. Even if they aren't racists, which you and I both know a non-negligible number are, people are naturally biased towards those who look like them or their family members. It's basic psychology."

Petra just shrugs awkwardly. She honestly can't say if Veena is right or not - her degree is in Marketing. "Still, I'm sure it will go fine. Didn't Vine take a voluntary pay cut over the outrage about the gap between male and female presenter's pay earlier this year? Old doesn't mean unable to learn."

Veena smiles. "I know, I think I get too in my head sometimes about this stuff. Oh, and just so you know it's lunch time, so you don't have to be over here staring at your desk - that's what I originally wanted to tell you."

Petra blinks and looks around the office, suddenly realizing how quiet it is. She had somehow completely missed everyone heading out on their lunch break. Flushing, she shoves her phone into her pocket and stands up. "Thanks." She mutters, hurrying past Veena to the lift and aware of the other woman following her. just before she presses the button she notices that she wasn't the only person to miss that they're on break - on the Hunter's side of the room the representative from International Cooperation is still buried in files, reading intently and apparently unaware of the outside world.

Petra hesitates. If she's honest, she's been staring at the representative every since he'd come in for the first time earlier that week - he's exactly her type with his dark eyes and messy brown hair, and she'd be lying if she said she hadn't been trying to think up excuses to go talk to him.

And now seems like a perfect excuse, even if the idea of walking over and initiating a conversation is making her stomach do terrified flips.

"Um, I'll catch up." She says to Veena quickly, making the decision before her brain and her nerves can talk her out of it, and she awkwardly wanders over to the man and clears .

To her horror he doesn't hear her, and now her guts have joined her stomach in its dance of terror and maybe this was a bad idea and she can just turn around and he won't be any wiser that she attempted something this awkward and stupid-

And he's looking at her. She hadn't noticed through her second-guessing when he'd looked up, but she knows she needs to say something now or she'll just look awkward and stupid.

"It's lunch." She blurts, and immediately blushes. Very eloquent, great job Petra.

He looks around the room (and son of a cheese she hadn't even figured out his name yet and she's just standing here like an absolute loser) and then puts down his files. "Oh, I hadn't even noticed. Thanks, um?" He trails off, and it takes her a moment to realize - he doesn't know her name either.

"Um, Petra. I'm the Initiative's Social Media specialist." She says, entirely too formally but it's what her brain is capable of spitting out at the moment. She's just glad they were actual words - she's done much worse in front of crushes before.

"Noah Thompson, though everyone keeps calling me Pup." He says, grimacing. Petra frowns, momentarily distracted from her nerves.

"Why? You obviously don't like the nickname." She observes, and he gives a half shrug and a flat half smile.

"One of the Aurors on the Team is Noah Travers. Since we're both Noah T, Investigator McKay started calling me 'Pup', and it's ended up sticking. I'll get used to it." He finally finishes sorting his files and stands up. "So, um, lunch?" He offeres, and Petra startles and nods.

The lift ride down to the cafeteria level is thankfully short, but unfortunately charged with awkward silence. Petra tugs at her necklace as the metal frame rattled down the floors before sliding open again, trying to think of anything to say but coming up completely blank.

When the door clicks open it's to an extremely busy cafeteria, and Petra shrinks back slightly, already regretting not going on a grocery run the day before (she'd been tired and figured one day in the cafeteria wouldn't kill her, but oh boy is she regretting that decision).

Noah seems to notice her discomfort. "First time here?" He guesses. "It's pretty overwhelming. Here, follow me, I can show you the least crowded areas if you like."

Petra meekly follows him, feeling herself blushing horribly. Great first impression - he probably thinks she's a weirdo loser idiot.

"Any preferences?" Noah's voice breaks into her thoughts. "I'm vegetarian, so I usually go to the salad bar, but I know where the meat and stuff is, I could point it out."

Petra quickly shakes her head. "No, um, salad is fine." She says quickly, at which point her brain decides to stop sending signals to her tongue and the conversation falls flat again.

They get their food and Petra awkwardly follows Noah to one of the tables since it's so crowded and she really doesn't want to sit with strangers (ignoring the fact Noah is a total stranger and this isn't going at all how she wanted it to). They eat in silence for a bit, before Petra finally comes up with something to say, and blurts it out before she can think the better of it.

"So you eat in here a lot?" Is that a stupid question? It feels like a stupid question, but it's already out in the air and she can't take it back. Why is she so bad at talking to boys who aren't gay or her best friend's brother?

"Yeah, my usual job is Secretary to Edward Scot, the Head of International Cooperation." Noah says, not sounding insulted or bored which Petra takes as a good thing. "So being too far from the office is usually not a great call, especially this summer with World Cup organization happening."

Petra winced. "Oh yeah, you guys probably have to do a lot for that, don't you?" It's not something she's really thought about, she was never too big into Quidditch and honestly she would have forgotten this year was the Cup if not for Piper's insistence she come listen to the game.

"Even when we aren't hosting, yeah." Noah confirms. "Our job this year was mostly to coordinate with Transportation to make sure all British witches and wizards who wanted to attend would make it safely to Bulgaria and back, so not as bad as some past incidents."

"1998." Petra guesses with a small grin, and Noah groans.

"The ninety-eight cup is legendary, and every four years it's all anyone talks about in the department. 'Shacklebolt did this' and 'Slughorn did that' and on and on and it's like, of course we can't pull off the same things they did, we aren't in the same kind of crisis!"

"Slughorn? Like the Potions teacher?" Petra can't help asking. She never heard that the teachers did anything at the Ministry after the war, but it wouldn't surprise her to learn that they had. 

"Nah, IC member, his nephew I think? Guy retired when he inherited and is travelling the world with his wife last I heard." Noah clarifies, and they fall into silence again. Petra racks her brain for another topic, before looking over at Noah and realizing that maybe he isn't actually interested in talking to her. She had made a terrible first impression after all, and interrupted his work, and just because they share office space it's not like they're really coworkers so he has no obligation to be nice to her or get to know her or-

"Heya Noah! Oh, and hello to you." A man suddenly appeared behind Noah, grinning confidently at Petra over the other's shoulder. "Brother dear, won't you introduce me to your lovely lady companion?"

Noah grimaces. "Petra, this is my brother Jacob. Jacob, this is Petra from the Initiative."

"Social Media specialist." Petra fills in automatically (she's maybe been running conference rehearsals with Veena too often, but what else can she do?).

"Very fun! Getting to be online all day." Jacob grins, and something in Petra shifts uncomfortably. Jacob is exactly the kind of confident that always makes her feel especially nervous. Rose is that level of confident too, but Rose is also a girl and not possibly flirting with Petra when they talk. Piper double-checked that for her back in fifth year when Rose first came out to them all as biual.

"The Internet hasn't been set up yet." She mumbles to be polite, keeping her eyes glued to her food and hoping Jacob will hurry up and leave.

Instead he takes the open seat next to Noah, grinning widely and slinging an arm around his brother's shoulders. Noah glares at his food but otherwise doesn't comment, and Petra frowns, something defensive bubbling up inside her. Earlier Noah had said he didn't like the nickname 'Pup', but he'd pretty clearly resigned himself to it - obviously he's used to his preferences and comfort being ignored, and the scene in front of her is dropping hints that Jacob might be the reason behind that behavior.

"I'm sorry, but we were having a private conversation. If you didn't need anything we'd appreciate it if you would leave." She says, putting all her school-day confidence lessons with Rose and Piper into those two sentences and hoping they work because that's about all the confidence she has at the moment after nearly twenty minutes of awkwardness with Noah.

Luckily, Jacob does stand up, looking more amused than anything. "Alright, I got it. Consider it message received little miss." He confirms lazily. "See you around Noah, have a good lunch." He gives his brother a wink before heading off, presumably to bother someone else.

"I don't like him." Petra mumbles, then immediately turns bright red when she realizes she'd just said that aloud.

However, Noah outright laughs, sounding almost breathless. "Honestly? You'd be the only one. Everyone loves my brother. That was kind of awesome what you just did."

Petra is still blushing, but for entirely different reasons now. "Oh, well, thanks?" She manages to stumble out. "You just looked uncomfortable so." She trails off, staring hard at her food in a vain attempt to hide how warm she's getting.

Noah is flushing now, and he pushes his salad around his plate a bit. "Um, thanks then." He mumbles. After a long moment of silence, he speaks again. "So, social media specialist? Are you a Muggle then?"

Somehow the rest of lunch goes by with no more awkward silence, and what had beed a distant fancy before has morphed into a full-blown crush on Noah Thompson before they finish their food. They keep chatting on the lift ride up, and only part when one of the Hunters shouts for Noah to come look at something.

"I'll see you around the offices then?" Noah checks, and Petra practically beams.

"Definitely." She confirms, and practically floats back to her desk. Great first impression achieved.

"Well you certainly look cheerful." Mrs. Morgan comments, and Petra jumps, a bit of shame weaving back into her chest when she realizes she'd probably stayed at lunch too long - why else would one of the leaders be leaning against her desk?

"I'm sorry I-" She starts, but Mrs. Morgan talks over her, probably missing the stumbled opening attempt at an apology.

"We've successfully managed to override the magical interference issues we were dealing with." She announces with a grin. "So boot 'er up and let's get you set up online!"

Petra's mouth was still open from her interrupted apology, and it drops further when Mrs. Morgan steps aside and reveals a gorgeous new laptop set on Petra's desk. "This... this is the newest Apple model!" She exclaims, dropping into her seat and opening it reverantly. "These things cost an insane amount! How much do I owe you?"

"Business expenses, you don't owe a thing. And it will be staying here anyway, at least until the end of our mandate." Mrs. Morgan waves her off. "Go on, try it out, spend the afternoon getting used to it, and come talk to me if you have any trouble."

Petra nods distractedly, already messing around with her new tech. She's so focused she doesn't notice another presence sneaking up behind her until Miles physically jumps onto her desk and sits cross-legged atop it, making her jump and yank the laptop away from his shoes.

"Miles! Off!" Veena scolds, and Miles complies, though he keeps hanging over Petra's shoulder.

"Is that the Internet? Can you show me it?" He begs.

"Sorry, he's really excited about this." Veena says, but for once Petra doesn't find Miles' enthusiasm to be overwhelming.

She grins brightly at the two. "Honestly? So am I. Pull up a chair Miles, let me show you how this works."

All in all, it's a great day. And it's made better knowing she'll get a great sleep tonight.

Author's Note: You didn't really think Yurina would be the only problem the Initiative would have to deal with, did you? >:) There will be more of Edward next chapter - he's a great way to info dump on the Hunters without it feeling forced or superflouous xD You all probably noticed as well that the middle section was pretty short - that'll happen sometimes. I've decided officially for this story not to worry about wordcount per chapter or even per POV (sorry Landon xD) - I'm just going to write until whatever information I needed to share has been included~ ALSO school/TA work is officially up most of my time, so comment responses may take a while and be shorter than I like and I'm really sorry about that ;; Hopefully things will ease up next month! Hopefully...