Fleur Weasley is possibly the single most gorgeous creature Rose has ever had the honor of seeing in her entire life, and it's a complete mystery to her how Kylee is managing to hold a completely normal conversation with the woman without tripping over her tongue even once.

"It's witchcraft." She mutters to Landon as they stare across the room at the pair, pretending to do work but both entirely too distracted to actually manage anything substantial. "How is she not entranced?"

"I mean, she's not into girls, so that might help." Landon offers, but it's distracted as his eyes keep flitting over to the Gringotts consultant.

Rose hums idly. "I hope she comes by a lot. I mean, there's probably lots of money stuff that needs to get done, right?"

"Also lots of other things." A voice drawls from above them, and fear of Audrey Weasley proves greater than the lure of her sister-in-law as they both jump and look up guiltily. "I understand that Veela charm is at play, but I'd hoped for more professionalism from you two."

"Sorry ma'am." Landon says immediately, and Rose puts on her best sheepish expression.

"First time exposure effect?" She suggets, and Audrey sighs.

"Fair enough, but I'm ending this distracted staring now. Get back to work." Mrs. Weasley says shortly, and Rose salutes while Landon verbally agrees, still a bit red at being caught.

"Well that was humiliating." He sighs. "But she's right, we really need to finish this stuff."

"Ugh, but pretty girls are way more interesting than boring paperwork." Rose whines, but she does hold her quill more firmly and pulls one of the form closer to her. "So which one was this again?"

Landon sighs and she passes it over to him with a sheepish grin. Honestly Rose understood most of the form she'd had, but it's just so tedious filling out what is essentially the same form over and over. They may have developed separately, but the magical and Muggle political systems parallel each other in a lot of ways. She'd never had to do this much work with the Muggle-worthy Excuse Committee - heck, paperwork was the reason she dropped out of the Auror program! And now she's stuck with this lame job for a whole year before she can do something else.

The one upside is definitely being partnered with Landon. When she really doesn't feel like doing much, she's always able to get him to do at least half of her work for her through asking clarifying questions or playing dumb about how certain things work.

Plus, in addition to being all too eager to share his opinion and take charge of things, Landon is just genuinely fun to work with. They're both extroverts, which means even when Rose does have to drag herself through the tedium of their endless piles of paperwork, there's usually a good conversation to accompany the boring work.

"So hey, do you think we could get the Ministry to sign off on buying all of us Muggle phones as a business expense?"

Landon gives a startled snort of laughter, looking up from where he's halfway through Rose's form. "What? Probably not."

Rose groans and flicks through a few more forms, skimming them to see if any looks less dumb than the others. "But it's to communicate with each other! And stay up to date on the Muggle response!"

"That's Petra's job." Landon points out. "You'd need a more convincing argument than that - from Petra's reaction to her new laptop I'd be willing to bet that phones are probably pretty expensive."

"Technology in general." Rose agrees. "I actually went out to get myself a phone this week and the prices are nuts. The saleslady was going on and on about different features and how than affects the pricing but I honestly didn't know the difference between any of it."

Landon shrugs. "I mean, I wouldn't either." He points out. "Nor would Undersecretary Weasley I imagine. Or half this office."

Rose shrugs. "All the more reason we should learn though, right?" She pushes. "Come on we could totally make a case for this."

Landon finally looks up from his work with a smirk. "You definitely could." He concedes. "You've got a way of twisting words."

Rose sticks her tongue out. "I'm taking that as a compliment. And you've got yourself a way of talking to authorities, don't think I didn't notice what you pulled with the Parliamentary Secretary last week." She points out teasingly.

"That is playing politics, and it's a perfectly respectable skillset to have." Landon says, adopting a stuffy tone that's directly reminiscent of the secretary from the week before, and they both dissolve into giggles only moments later.

"Man that guy was an absolute tosser. People like that shouldn't get customer service jobs." Rose declares.

"People like that usually can't get any other kind of jobs." Landon grins, and Rose high fives him before reluctantly turning back to her work.

"Seriously though, cellphones. Help me with the pitch meeting." She wheedles as they keep working, and finally Landon gives in.

It's as entertaining as always, and Rose manages to pawn a few more documents into Landon's pile of work over the course of the next two hours, at which point they decide to call it for a lunch break.

Rose grabs Kylee as they head out, intent on hearing more about the gorgeous Weasley from Gringotts once they're out of earshot of said woman's sister-in-law.

"So how was the meeting?" She asks the moment the lift door closes. Kylee takes a moment to speak, but that doesn't surprise Rose - the younger girl is generally pretty careful with her words.

"It went well I think? Like most of our first consultations it's more about laying out expectations and ideas for the groundwork than really doing anything. Fleur is really nice though, though I don't understand why none of the guys wanted to take on the banks." She frowns. "I'm already covering two other areas - Alex isn't specializing in even one yet."

Landon tilts his head. "Haven't there only been three consultations so far? How do you already have three areas?" He asks. Personally Rose hadn't been paying attention to the consultants, but she assumes her partner knows what he's talking about, so she nods along.

Kylee flushes slightly. "Oh, well, I volunteered to take Mungo's and Beast and Beings since I'm at least partly familiar with both those areas." She explains. "And then Alex was supposed to take Gringotts but he bailed, and Fergus and Desmond both couldn't get their tongues in order." She grows more irritated as she speaks, some of the nerves dropping away to be replaced with frustration.

"I mean, Fleur is pretty tongue-tying." Rose grins dreamily.

"She's part Veela according to the Senior Undersecretary." Landon adds, giving Rose a look that's amused but still clearly indicates she's not being helpful. "So anyone attracted to women would find her distracting."

Kylee hums. "Oh, I didn't know that." She pauses, then, sheepish, adds, "What's a Veela?"

Rose gapes. "You're handling Beasts and Beings and you don't know what a Veela is?" She can't help blurting out, and Kylee flushes bright red. Rose instantly feels bad - the other girl is a Squib, it's not like she learned this in school.

Landon gives her another look. "They're a sort of Beast that can charm mortals into doing their bidding." He says. "Usually men, since Veelas are generally female, though that isn't always the case. You should probably get a book or something." He adds as the lift reaches the main entrance and the three head out into Diagon Alley for lunch, Kylee seeming to have accepted her fate for the hour.

"Probably." Kylee sighs, then gives a small, shy smile. "Though I guess I'm getting less of a break from school than I was expecting." She jokes, and Rose laughs.

"Well there are worse things." She suggests, happy that her thoughtless comment didn't upset the other girl for too long. "Hey, you'd know about cellphones better than Landon and I - help us figure out how to convince the boss ladies to buy them for us!"

Landon groans, but he's grinning, and Kylee grins as well.

Lunch goes pretty well after that, and Rose even gets Kylee to spill more on Fleur Weasley, who apparently has two daughters around their age, though one is in a serious relationship already. Landon is obviously on to what she's doing, but doesn't comment - and frankly he seems interested in hearing more about Dominique as well so if he had tried to call her out she would have happily pointed out his hypocrisy.

They make their way back a little late - Rose had been more than happy to orchestrate that by insisting that a quick visit to Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes wouldn't take too much time and that it was a must see for Kylee. Landon is obviously a little annoyed, but Kylee seems happy with her new pet Puffskein that Rose had helped her get at a discount, so Rose is counting it overall as a win.

They get a look from Mrs. Weasley when they step out of the lift, but she doesn't say anything and they all hurry back to their respective desks.

"I'm never listening to you on time ever again." Landon grumbles as they both start back in on their piles of documents. "You were late on the first day."

"Almost late, and I fixed my alarm clock." Rose points out.

"Used the wrong alarm clock." Landon retorts, but he's grinning slightly.

Rose sighs dramatically. "You'll never let me live that down, will you? Mistaking the Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes surprise alarm for my real one is a totally understandable mistake! You just have sky high expectations." She looks down at the paper she's working on, decides it looks repetitive and tedious, and asks Landon if he can explain a few parts to her, which will inevitably get him to do the entire sheet himself.

He'll catch on eventually, she knows, Landon is smart, but for now Rose appreciates not having to drag herself through too much paperwork during the day, and she's going to take advantage of whatever she can to keep it that way.

Across the room Edward watches her pass off the file and rolls his eyes. Lazy and stupid, that's all the magical folks have proven themselves to be so far.

"She's avoiding work." He says out loud, drawing the attention of Tristan Morgan, who Edward has been assigned to work with today. Or more accurately, been assigned to train - Finn had said the more people understood Muggle methods the more efficient they can be, which makes sense but also implies that he'd noticed Edward had been withholding on sharing his methodology the past couple weeks.

It's infuriating, really, how Finn is so cleverly (annoyingly) observant in some situations, and yet the hunt for Yurina, something he's supposed to be the best at, is a disorganized mess as far as Edward can tell.

"Who's avoiding work?" Morgan asks, startling Edward out of his thought. He clears his throat and jerks his head towards where the two Initiative members are chatting. "The girl there. Keeps giving her papers to the other guy, who hasn't caught on."

Morgan laughs. "Aw, that's just Rose, she's probably only asking for help." He says. "We were in the same year at school, she does that a lot. But she's a good person at the center of all the pranks and partying."

Making excuses for each other. Typical. Edward doesn't say anything further, instead gestures at the textbook he'd handed Morgan to look over. "Are you finished?"

Morgan shakes his head. "Not yet, but it's really interesting how Muggles have compensated for not having magical means to track people! The entire section on DNA trace evidence is really interesting - it reminds me of how we can sometimes use magical signatures to narrow down possible suspects!"

Edward raises an eyebrow. "People have unique magical signatures?" He prompts. The longer he can keep Morgan rambling, the longer it will be before he needs to actually give him something to do again, and he's rather quickly learned that letting Morgan run off with theories will keep him occupied for a while.

While the younger Hunter rambles on, he refocuses his thoughts. The hunt for Yurina, so far as he can currently tell, seems rather slapdash - a mess of international calls and chasing after paper thin "leads" that rarely turn anything up. For an investigation that has been international and ongoing for twenty years, the state of it either proves that the magical justice system is severely broken or has somehow been corrupted on every level across every country in the world. And though the myth that's been built around Yurina would have you believe that the latter explanation is exactly what's happened, Edward doesn't really buy it. A network that large would collapse under its own weight within only a few years - his time studying and tracking down terrorist organizations have shown him that time and time again. When spread that thin, only one screw needs to be out of place, one person with a higher morality or deeper greed than the rest.

No, Edward is pretty sure the wizards are just organizationally disastrous. Honestly he isn't surprised that in twenty years they've only come close to nabbing the elusive criminal once, about sixteen years before, with a team led by none other than the much younger Finn Lopatkina-Paluch. Edward has already heard the story twelve seperate times in the past week since he started asking around about Lopatkina-Paluch to try and pinpoint weaknesses to be exploited - the man is a living legend, rivaled only by the "Boy-Who-Lived" Harry Potter (whom Edward has yet to meet despite having heard the man is Lopatkina-Paluch's direct superior).

As the story goes (at least the bare bones of it - each version had unique elaborations that had obviously been added in over the years as the tale gained notoriety), Lopatkina-Paluch and a small team of elite Aurors, heroes of the second war, had managed to track Yurina to an area on the coast where several Muggle vessels were rotting away. Edward assumes they probably mean Purton Hulks, though he can't imagine an area swarming with archaeologists and preservationists would be a good place to lie low (further throwing doubt onto the idea that Yurina is some genius chessmaster). They ended up engaged in a fight with Yurina's team, but in the end Yurina herself had used the skirmish to get away once again, though Lopatkina-Paluch and his group managed to take in several conspirators. Nothing was ever extracted from Yurina's crew, and most of them found ways to off themselves before they could be interrogated anyway. 

Somehow, despite the whole thing ultimately being a massive failure, Lopatkina-Paluch has managed to scrape together an impressive reputation stemming from it.

Edward sighs quietly and looks over towards the door leading to the leaders' office. While based on the stories he can understand Lopatkina-Paluch being placed in charge of all this, he can't quite determine why McKay is the other leader - in his opinion Minerva Seo would have been a better selection. The Asian seems more experienced, organized, and professional than McKay does, though Edward supposes that in and of itself might have been a factor in her demotion to field leader rather than full leader - she's a rather intimidating presence. Edward has heard the whispers from the younger Hunters, and he knows Seo isn't particularly popular. McKay may have less experience, having spent only a little under a decade as an Investigator, but she's unceasingly amiable.

Still, Edward thinks there was probably some bias on Lopatkina-Paluch's part as well - he and McKay were in the same year at school, after all.

The rest of the Hunters, so far as Edward can tell, aren't anything particularly special. Heck, most of them are in their twenties with little to no field experience to their names. What Lopatkina-Paluch was thinking when choosing who to hire is anyone's guess, but Edward bets he was biased by his own exploits in youth and ended up picking people who reminded him of himself in his twenties.

Edward personally thinks the selection is pitiful - Morgan, for example, is all about theory with little in the way of practical experience, while members like Isaac Harrison and Estelle Kuhara are far too focused on the action and less on the paperwork and planning. Noah Travers and Catriona Wolff at least try to strike a balance, but they each obviously lack the experience of someone older. Jack Abbot, Seo's partner and one of only two "hit-wizards" (a type of Auror that seems to parallel Edward's own rank as special forces), and Demelza Robins are the only other two who seem like logical choices for the team, though Edward has noticed that both of them tend to be followers more than leaders, executing orders without question.

All in all, it's not the team Edward would have picked, that much is certain, and he fails to see the logical process Lopatkina-Paluch used when making his choices. Of course, McKay could have had a hand in hiring as well, which would actually clear up a lot of things for Edward if that were the case - she seems the type to prioritize enthuiasm over capability.

"And because of all that, it's imprecise. DNA seems a little more conclusive." Morgan is just wrapping up his rambling when Edward tunes him back in, humming an acknowledgement to pretend he was listening.

"It can be, though sometimes DNA can be planted as well, so it's still not guarateed." He says, and Morgan grins wryly.

"Nothing ever seems to be." He observes, and Edward lets himself crack a smile in response - that at least is something he can agree with.

"Back to work, I think that was procrastination enough." He prompts, pointing to the abandoned textbook still lying open on the desk, and Morgan flushes and quickly ducks his head back down to get back to reading, letting Edward return to his surveillance of the offices.

While he still hasn't quite figured out the Hunters (or how to avoid the seemingly all-seeing eye of Lopatkina-Paluch), he's turned this week's focus over to the Initiative that they're sharing the space with. The week before he'd established some repore with the more reputable Hunters, and he hopes to pinpoint a few Initiative members to also develop some level of comfort with. After all, if they trust him, they're more likely to slip up.

So far he's pegged Fergus Bell as a possible target - the man obviously already has a relationship with the witch in charge of the Initiative and generally seems to be on good terms with everyone else on the team - but the rest seem to fall into the same trap as the younger Hunters: they're too inexperienced to probably have access to any useful information.

It's frustrating, and Edward is quickly coming to the conclusion that he'll probably have to find a way to access the information directly via the Ministry Archives, which he's heard about in passing as the younger recruits complain about the massive number of old Auror reports they have to sift through. However, he also knows one needs special permissions to go to the archives, and that the Record Keepers - or the Archive secretaries - are apparently some of the most observant people in the Ministry, able to spot missing or misplaced files with near perfect accuracy.

Not that Edward buys into that - no one's mind is that perfect, and the whole thing sounds like it's been made up to scare kids away from trying any pranks - but it is possible that they have some magical system in place that can tell if things have been moved without proper authorization. Unfortunately Edward hasn't yet worked out how he could even begin trying to get around those sorts of defenses, hence the need to make friends with some gullible but high-ranking witch or wizard. Based on his observations so far, McKay might be his best bet, but it's likely she'd report back to Lopatkina-Paluch due to their shared role as leaders, making him less optimistic about her usefulness.

He sighs and drums his fingers on the desk. All in all, this placement is far more tedious than he had initially anticipated when he was first given the assignment. After years of swearing revenge on the people that had murdered his parents (and gotten away scott-free) but struggling to find a way to break into the hyper secretive world of magic, the Incident had felt like all his dreams being dropped into his lap gift-wrapped from God. Now though, he's realizing that getting in was only step one, and the magical world is rather resistant to his getting started on step two.

But Edward has never been one to let tough situations stop him from pursuing justice, and this won't be any different. Once he finds his angle in, the magical world is going to be exposed for the cesspool of crime and hatred he knows it houses - he just has to wait for his shot.

Kylee gets why Mrs. Morgan wants Alex to sit in on Kylee's first meeting with the Beast and Beings Consultant - the teenager still isn't heading any of the specialist divisions and so they're exposing him to as many as possible in hopes something will catch his fancy. That doesn't mean she's particularly happy about the arrangement. Up to this point she's mostly managed to steer clear of Alex and his ading negativity that always drags down her mood as well whenever she's in his vicinity, and she'd really been hoping to keep up her streak.

But she's nothing if not accommodating, especially as this was a favor called in by her boss, so here she is, sitting across from Alex in the meeting room as they wait for the B&B Consultant to arrive.

"So, um, which consultant was your favorite so far?" She asks uncertainly, buckling under the oppressive weight of the silence that had been growing between the two of them for the better part of five minutes. She may not like Alex, but she doesn't want him to think badly of her either, and this is one of their first interactions (something that, in retrospect, probably makes her look bad anyway).

Alex gives her a look scathing enough to discourage her from trying to engage him again. As it turns out, silence is less stressful than Alex's moods.

Thankfully the consultant doesn't take much longer to arrive, stepping out of the lift and waving at her cheerfully, and Kylee would have sworn if she hadn't been carefully removing those words from her vocabulary for the past year.

"Baylee?" She asks, genuinely stunned to see her twin trotting across the offices. "Why didn't you tell me you were the consultant from the Beasts and Beings Division?"

Baylee's smile is unrepentant. "Surprise!" She says, half-shouting and drawing the attention of a few of the other people in the room, one of whom starts slightly when he spots the newcomer.

"Yo Danson, haven't you invaded enough areas?" Tristan Morgan calls from across the room, but he's grinning in a way that tells Kylee she's probably missing an inside joke. Something inside her cools slightly at the reminder of the massive gap in life experience between herself and her twin - Baylee had gone to Hogwarts. Kylee is a dud.

She shakes her head and misses what Baylee shouts back, but Tristan is miming a faint and Baylee is laughing so Kylee decides not to comment on the exchange. She doesn't want to taint it.

Baylee makes it the rest of the way over without any further interruptions, and she pulls Kylee into a hug once she reaches the desk.

"Surprise." She says again, then looks over at Alex and startles slightly. "Oh my gosh, Alden? I didn't know you were part of the Initiative! How are you? It's been way too long." She's grinning brightly, and Kylee is wondering if her sister might be high on something.

Alex is glaring viciously. "I'm not Alden." He snaps, the fury in the words catching Kylee's attention. That much rage doesn't come from a simple mistaken identity (though maybe it could for Alex - he is pretty pissy). Whoever 'Alden' is, Alex seems to hate him.

Baylee looks just as taken aback as Kylee is feeling for a moment, before her expression melts into something understanding. "Oh. You must be Alex." She looks over at Kylee, and chuckles slightly. "Well what are the chances of that? Sorry, you really do look exactly like your twin."

And that catches Kylee's attention even more than Alex's response. He's an identical twin? More specifically, he's a Squib identical twin to a brother with magical capabilities? Kylee has to shove down the urge to start pestering him with questions - what are the chances she'd find another pair of identical twins exactly like her sister and herself? One magical and one not? With the Incident unveiling magic, her hopes of studying the physiological differences bewteen magical and non-magical people seems far more plausible these days, and here she already has a second ideal test case.

She wonders if 'Alden' would agree to share some DNA. When she has access to a lab, of course.

Baylee punching her shoulder lightly pulls Kylee out of her mental plotting. "I see your thinking face and I can tell you now Alden will be onboard with it." She proclaims. "But for now, I believe we've got a consultation to get to?" She prompts cheerfully, and Kylee closes the door of the private office that one of the Hunters had vacated to be used as a consultation meeting room - apparently Fleur Weasley had caused too much distraction earlier in the week and both groups' leaders wanted to avoid a repeat of that, hence the magically warded new meeting room.

"Alright, so far these initial meetings are mostly to get to know each other and lay out some rough ideas of what we want to try and accomplish this year." Kylee says, the practiced words feeling a bit stiff and formal considering it's her twin sister sitting across from her, but it's her routine and she'd feel more awkward if she didn't say it, or said something else instead.

Baylee grins, leaning back in her seat. "Cool, I figured as much." She nods. "So obviously the number one thing to do is make sure that the areas where the most dangerous magical creatures live remain fully sealed off from Muggles."

Alex bristles. "Why? Don't think someone without magic could handle themselves?" He challenges bitterly, and Kylee startles slightly. From what she's heard from Fergus and Des, Alex usually is content to sulk in a corner during consultations, so she hadn't really expected him to speak up at all during this meeting. He must be more shaken up by the mention of his brother than she'd thought.

It's kind of sad, really. Maybe she should try talking to him later - one Squib twin to another. After all, she knows all too well how isolating and awful it feels being the odd one out, and based on his reactions Alex probably didn't even have a supportive family to help him through the worst of it like she did. His reaction to hearing his twin's name says that much.

Baylee is frowning at Alex. "These beasts can't be handled by anyone except some of the most experienced and cautious monster hunters, and even they usually end up dead young from one wrong move. I've seen Instagram and all the stupid people pull for ten seconds of Internet fame. So no, I don't trust Muggles to not be stupid and get themselves needlessly killed. I don't trust anyone not to do that - it's why I have the job I do."

It says a lot about how far Baylee has come in reigning in her legendary temper that only the faintest trace of irritation escapes into her tone - not three years ago she probably would have decked Alex for his attitude alone.

Alex grumbles but doesn't say anything else, and Baylee turns back to Kylee, taking measured breaths.

Kylee takes a moment to realize her sister is waiting to hear her thoughts on the proposal, and she blinks and gives a jerky nod. "That's a really good point - this early on we probably should keep the more dangerous Beasts separated where possible." She agrees. "What about Beings? I imagine we probably should ask them their thoughts on all this?"

Baylee nods. "We actually have a team on that already - Roderick Jarvis from the Beings Division is leading it, and he's one of the best."

"Wasn't he your mentor when you first started out? You might be a little biased on that front." Kylee can't help teasing, and Baylee laughs.

"So sue me. But really, he did a lot of work with them right after the war when he was only starting out, so he can probably have at least some of the major groups' thoughts on the matter within a few months."

"Long time for someone who's supposed to be the best." Alex grumbles, and Kylee rolls her eyes and settles back to let her sister enter her rant about the pig-headed stubbornness of certain groups of Beings.

"Have you ever tried talking to a centaur?" She demands, and Kylee grins even as she half tunes out of the speech. She's heard this time and time again whenever someone dares to suggest to Baylee that working in the Beasts Division over the Beings Division is less fulfilling or interesting.

She gives her sister three minutes before cutting in and saving an increasingly overwhelmed Alex from any further berating.

"I think he's got it Bay." She grins. "We've only got an hour for this, so we should probably get started."

Baylee hums, gives Alex one final warning look, and then pulls out a giant stack of papers from the messenger bag she has slung over her shoulder.

"Fair enough, and we've got a lot to cover." She agrees as Kylee gawks at the massive pile of paperwork. She knew there were a lot of Beasts, but honestly she hadn't been prepared for this many.

Baylee laughs at her expression. "And these are just the ones I think can be safely introduced into a blended society." She teases. "Really Ky, you studied biology in university, you of all people should know how diverse the animal kingdom is!" Her eyes sparkle slightly. "Hey, I bet you could study where the first magical beings split off from the non-magical ones!" She suggests eagerly, and Kylee shakes her head with a grin.

"I'd put money on convergent evolution." She shoots back confidently (she's already thought about this after all - she is a biology major). "Cats for example must be relatively recent magical creatures evolutionarily speaking since their larger counterparts posses no magical abilities, so it suggests that, like homosapiens, other animals develop magic independently and at random."

"Probably not at random." Baylee sing-songs, an old debate that Kylee forces herself to table for now. They're at work.

"So I assume this giant pile has a purpose?" She prompts, and Baylee gets the memo, settling down and quickly dividing the stack into four smaller ones.

"I've already begun isolating which creatures are safest to reveal and release, and I figure we can begin a program of some sort to slowly introduce them to the Muggles and Muggle habitats." She explains briskly. "Pets like Puffskeins, Kneazles, and Crups are easy enough to bring over with little difficulty I'd imagine, given their similarities to common Muggle household pets. After that some of the harmless wild creatures can be explained, though obviously we won't be moving them from their natural habitats."

Kylee listens attentively to her sister's proposals, and overall it's well thought-through and comprehensive. Not that she'd expect anything less from Baylee, particularly concerning magical creatures, which have always been a strong passion for both of them.

"Sounds great, can we go now?" Alex asks when Baylee finishes what was obviously a heavily-rehearsed presentation. "Just do that, it sounded fine."

Kylee frowns at him. "I believe what my colleague meant to say was that the proposal seems sounds at the moment - we could bring in our two media representatives and see how they'd feel about introducing a couple pets during one of their interviews - it could be a cute and approachable way of starting the transition on this front."

Baylee nods, ignoring Alex entirely to focus on Kylee. "That could work super well! I know a Kneazle breeder who just had the cutest litter, and we could get a Puffskein from WWW."

"World wide web?" Alex frowns, a mistake Kylee had made the day before as well when she'd been out to lunch with Rose and Landon (she still isn't sure how that ended up being a thing, but she's not complaining. Her new Puffskein Chou is adorable and she's already pretty sure she'd kill a man to keep him safe).

"Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes." She corrects before Baylee can. "It's a really popular joke shop in Diagon Alley run by one of Mrs. Weasley's brothers-in-law. Nice guy actually, I met him yesterday." She turns to her sister. "And actually, I adopted a Puffskein, so Veena and Miles could use him."

Baylee instantly falls out of professional mode, and Kylee decides to let her, They only  have about five minutes left in the meeting anyway. "You got a Puffskein? Why wasn't I informed of this? I demand to meet him tonight!"

Kylee laughs. "You were at work until after dinner yesterday, otherwise I would have told you." She promises, ignoring Alex as he slips out of the room. The meeting is over so she doesn't need to be in charge of him, and she doesn't think right now is the ideal time to talk to him about the struggles of being a Squib - he'd been twitchy and on edge the entire meeting. She'll give him some time to cool off.

Alex slinks back to his desk, head bowed to avoid accidentally making eye contact - he has zero interest in talking to anyone right now. Bad enough he'd had to sit through a meeting he had no interest in, the stupid consultant just had to know his stupid twin. This day couldn't get any worse.

Except of course it does - his desk isn't empty. Instead, Desmond is leaning against it, obviously waiting for him, and Alex stops in his tracks, debating if he can make a run for the lifts to go get coffee or something from the staff lounge before the other man sees him, but his hesitation costs him - Desmond looks up and makes eye contact before waving him over. Alex reluctantly complies.

"Hey, meeting go well?" Desmond asks, obviously trying to keep up the stupidly cheery facade he's always got going. Alex slumps into his chair and spins a few times before replying.

"Yeah, went fine." Not for him, but no one cares about that. Objectively and in terms of what the Initiative wants to accomplish, it went fine.

Desmond raises an eyebrow but his smile stays stuck firmly on. "Well that's good to hear! So I've got another meeting with the Hogwarts Deputy Headmaster tomorrow, and I was hoping you'd be willing to sit in with us. You've had a more recent experience actually going through school so we thought your input would be really useful!"

Translation: my turn to babysit you tomorrow since no one on this team actually trusts Alex to be able to accomplish anything himself, despite his only being a few years younger than most of the team.

Alex doesn't respond - it's not like he really has a choice anyway since he'll be shoved into the meeting room by Weasley regardless of his opinion come time for the consultation.

But Desmond doesn't leave now that his message has been given. Instead, he tilts his head, still with that stupid smile, apparently actually expecting Alex to give an answer.

Alex huffs out a breath. Why is it he can never just be left alone? "Fine, whatever." He snaps. "Is that all?"

Desmond's smile flickers slightly, but doesn't die completely. Pity. "I suppose so. Everything alright?"

Alex resists slamming his head onto the desk - it would be childish and also admitting that Desmond is getting under his skin. So he grits his teeth and presses the palm of his right hand into the edge of the desk, the pressure helping him center himself before replying. "Everything is fine, the meeting went well and I'll see you tomorrow." He says, enunciating each syllable pointedly.

Desmond nods. "Well, alright, if you're sure. Fergus and I are grabbing some coffee if you want anything?"

Alex glares and Desmond finally leaves him alone, at which point Alex gives in to the urge to drop his head onto his desk. Stupid Desmond. Stupid Kylee and other girl (, he'd never registered her name, he'll have to fix that). Stupid Alden.

How did Kylee's sister (twin, obviously they're twins too, which is a weird coincidence) even know his brother? Well enough to have instant recall? They're at least five years apart, so they only would have had three years overlap at Hogwarts at all, so the last time she could have even seen Alden he would have been fourteen at the most. It's infuriating and also giving him a headache to think about, but he can't help it. There's no way he'll be able to get out of future Beast consultations, not when he hasn't picked a specialization yet, and he's certain Kylee and her twin won't just leave him be. The two are obviously close and probably think every family needs to get along - Kylee probably never had any problems at all in her happy little home, and he's sure Alden spun some woe-begotten tale to bewitch the other twin into taking his side.

Things are looking like they're going to get even worse from here on out, and once again it's all Alden's fault. This is why he never listens to his brother - nothing good ever comes of it.

But a job is a job, and Alex is no quitter, so miserable or not he's in this for the long haul. He's already pretty sure he'll be regretting that in no time at all, but at least it's only a year. He can survive that much. And then he never has to see any of these people or his brother ever again if he doesn't want to.

That, at least, is a comforting thought.

Celine had emailed her supervisor within hours of the Incident, all but begging to be allowed to cover the unfolding story. She'd been ready to explain her entire life story (well, an edited version of it, at least) to try and justify her being placed in charge, but none of that had been necessary - Mrs. Young had approved her request within the hour, with no further questions. She hadn't even requested Celine take a partner on the job, which was odd. Usually something this massive would require at least two reporters covering it, but Celine isn't going to question her good luck.

The Initiative is hosting another short Press Conference today that intends to allow for more question time and elaborate on the exact steps they'll be taking, which means Celine gets to the office about two hours earlier than normal so she can gather her supplies and triple-check her question list before heading for the meeting point. She barely has time to say hello to her desk mate when he comes in as she rushes out the door.

Though she hasn't been a full-time journalist for long, Celine already knows that this story is going to be the most important one of her career, and not just because of the massive social implications of the two worlds coming together. For Celine, all this is far more personal that she's dared to let on to any of her friends.

Though she's spent her whole life living as a Muggle, Celine Yang is a Squib, and she has a vested interest in seeing this story play out towards a happy ending. And yeah, it's journalistically questionable for her to be handling this story because of her obvious bias, but after a lifetime of her mother keeping her away from her magical heritage, Celine can't bear to let this opportunity escape. So while she's doing her best to keep her coverage as objective as possible, she knows there's really only so much she can do.

The daughter of a Muggle woman and a half-blood Wizard, Celine might have never known about magic had it not been for her Godfather. Her father had been killed in the second wizarding war, and her mother, who had already been wary of magic, attempted to shut it out of their lives entirely. However, Amanda Yang hadn't had the heart to close out her daughter's godfather Richard Collins, and so magic slipped back in through the cracks - or through the window, in the form of letter-bearing owls and late-night patronuses sent to keep Celine company in those early days after her father's death. Eventually Amanda had to accept that her daughter likely would develop magic as well, and tentatively allowed Richard to share stories of the magical world with a young Celine.

Celine sometimes wonders if her mother was happy when her eleventh birthday came and went with no Hogwarts acceptance letter. At the very least, it had marked the end of her magic lessons with Uncle Richard, much to her devastation. Of course, she knows now that those lessons would have never amounted to anything - she has no magical abilities. But at the time she hadn't understood, and had been hurt and angry with her mother.

Overall her pre-teen into the teen years had been ugly, and seen a lot of fights with her mother and running away to her godfather's house through the Floo system that Amanda had never disconnected. Celine regrets that now, knows how hard her mother worked and how much she suffered as a single mother, but the past is the past. She's doing her best now to make up for the terrible teens.

And part of that probably should have involved steering clear of the Initiative and its deep connections to the magical world that Amanda is so wary of, but for all that she understands her mother's caution Celine can't help but be drawn in. She never lost her fascination with magic and the secret world surrounding it, and the opportunity to finally be involved, in whatever small way, was too good to pass up.

Of course, she'd ended up jumping the gun a bit since getting the story meant she couldn't then apply for the Initiative, which had been a massive disappointment, but Celine hadn't realized they'd be asking non-magical people to help. It went against everything she'd learned about the wizarding world since she was small.

Still, she does get to be ahead of the news on the situation, which is better than nothing. That didn't stop her disappointment when her godfather had told her they were hiring non-magical members and she had to turn him down. It especially hurt when Uncle Richard had said her father would be proud of her joining the Initiative. For all she never really knew him, Matthew Yang was still a prominent and dominant part of Celine's life growing up. The shadow of his death infiltrated every choice her mother made, and the echoes of his life colored how Uncle Richard treated her. To a degree, Celine has always felt like her life was deeply dictated by her father's death, and in her darker, angrier years she hated him for it. But he'd died a hero and she thinks that alone makes her resentment somewhat petty and pointless. So she's let it go for the most part, though if she were to be entirely honest with herself, she's hoping that she can maybe learn more about the war as well as she covers this story for the next year - hoping that maybe it will finally help her understand the decisions her father made to leave his wife and infant daughter, knowing he might not come back.

Uncle Richard has talked about the war a little bit, but he tends to gloss over a lot of the details. When she was younger Celine always thought he was trying to protect her from the ugly details - now that she's an adult and he still remains vague when the topic comes up, she thinks he's more likely protecting himself.

He had lost his best friend, after all. Talking about the war is probably just as painful for him as it is for her mother.

She sighs and rolls the thoughts around in her mind as she tips the cabbie and walks up to where several other reporters are already gathered in front of the Parliament. She recognizes a few from the last meeting a few weeks ago and ends up pulled into a discussion with some of the other younger reporters, most from no-name publications who aren't shy about trying to get information on how to be hired by the bigger name news sites, but a few of whom are geuniely curious about the magical world. Celine plays dumb about her own knowledge - if her supervisor gets even a whiff of her possibly being emotionally compromised she'll be pulled off the story before you can say "ethical conflict" - which means she mostly gets to listen to the others speculate about the magical world, which is pretty amusing if she's honest.

One guy is pretty intense about Greek myths and other ancient religions, insisting that magic must have played at least a part in the creation of the stories. Most of the others seem to be politely tolerating his rambling, but Celine thinks he probably has a point and says as much when he pauses to take a breath.

"Our history is filled with stories of magic and mystics - who's to say they aren't at least based in some truth? Now that we know there is really magic, it's not out of the realm of possibility." She points out, and the group begins chattering again, arguing about how long magic has been around and if it was secret why it would have inspired stories.

"And if magic has been around for so long, why wouldn't they help out in our wars?" One woman asks, slightly irritated. "They'd have to be awful people to just sit back during the Holocaust - they must have only developed recently!"

Celine frowns. It's a good point, and one that grates a bit since she knows full well that magic has existed as long as written language has - magic really did just stand by during the non-magical world's worst conflicts.

Celine adds a question to her list and hopes she gets to it before somone else can turn it into an accusation.

Veena and Miles arrive not long after that, the former smiling politely while the latter happily attempts to engage in conversation with everyone they pass as he's steered onto the stage, and Celine can't help grinning at the sight. The pair have gone on two talk shows so far, and already Miles is a media darling ,with his enthusiasm and curiosity charming almost everyone he meets. Celine gets it honestly - he's cute and friendly, the ideal combination of traits for the average audience. And next to Veena, who's always ready to answer the harder questions and thus direct a lot of the discontent onto herself, Miles ends up seeming less controversial by comparison, and has ended up building himself quite a fanbase among Muggle viewers both in and out of the UK.

The group of reporters begins settling down, and Celine tries to squirm her way closer to the stage, with unfortunately minimal success - the group she'd been talking with had congregated at the back of the gathering and most of the other reporters are bulky males unwilling to move. She's just lucky she's relatively tall - she might not have been able to see the stage at all otherwise.

Veena clears as she and Miles grab their microphones, and any remaining chatter instantly falls silent. Celine takes note that their boss isn't present today - most likely Veena and Miles will be handling these press conferences solo from here on out then.

"Hello all! Like last time, my colleague and I don't intend to keep you here for long, so we only have a few announcements ourselves before we'll be opening the floor for questions." Veena immediately gets started, and Celine quickly pulls out her notebook and pen, flipping to the clean page behind her list of questions.

"First off, and most importantly, the Initiative has officially had first meetings with all the major groups we will be consulting with during this year, including ones on education and financial situations. Secondly, Miles and I are going to be holding monthly press conferences like this one exclusively to keep all of you updated on the Initiative's progress." She nods briskly. "We will now be taking questions for the next twenty minutes."

Celine blinks and quickly flips her page back over. That really was fast - presumably though they'll give more details in the first official monthly press conference though.

Someone else gets their hand up first, and Celine grimaces, clipping her pen to the spirals of her notebook and preparing to launch her own hand up as quickly as possible when Veena finishes answering.

"Will you be giving more information on those meetings during the monthly press conferences?" The man calls, and Celine nods slightly in agreement. A good first question at least - sometimes the toxic ones get thrown out first and sour the entire meeting afterwards.

Veena smiles professionally. "We will. The first one is in only two weeks, and as more consultations will have happened in that time we felt it best to leave details to that meeting." She explains, and immediately Celine's hand is moving upwards. Veena catches her eye, and Celine doesn't think she mistakes the look of excitement in the other woman's expression. "Ms. Yang! Good to see you again."

Celine smiles brightly. "Great to be here. I was wondering-"

When the conference peters out thirty minutes later (Miles had gotten a bit caught up chatting with one of the reporters on the merits of magical pets), Celine hasn't gotten all her questions answered, but she knows she has plenty of time left to find what she's seeking.

For now, she's got an article to write, and she knows just what she's going to say.

Author's Note: It's a Celine! I was very happy to finally get to dig into her a little here, though it's a lot of info dumping (this whole chapter was a lot of info dumping I'm sorry OTL) ^^'' But it had to be done, so everyone knows where she's coming from in all this. Also more Edward because THERE SHALL ALWAYS BE MORE EDWARD. You think I'm joking but he'll be back in the next chapter xD OTL Once again school has decided that basically the rest of the month is going to be solid stress and chaos so while as usual I'll try to reply to comments in a timely manner, that... probably won't happen OTL Blame the guy I'm TAing for ;;