On the left hand side of the corridor there is a gigantic bookshelf. It is jam packed with books from international magazines to cookbooks. There is fiction and non fiction books in amongst all the books as well. You can find pretty much anything here, you just have to look. On either side of the bookcase there are two huge chairs, that if you choose to sit down and read for a bit you'll sink right in. Although they are armchairs they are big enough for a few people to occupy. So sit back, have a pleasant conversation about what is happening around the world, or what you are going to cook for supper that night.


OOC: All Ministry of Magic employees, regardless of their assigned department, are welcome to create their own roleplay in this thread.

Pandora was taking a break from what she had been doing... she needed five minutes to herself to clear her head. She browsed along the bookshelves, looking for a reference book on South America. Finding it, she sank into one of the arm chairs and sighed.

She was pale and tired and had lost her 'pregnant lady' glow. Her eyes were puffy, as though she was losing sleep.

Antigone hummed a little Muggle tune as she walked down the level five corridor, searching for the book shelves she had heard so much about... she was too lazy to venture out to a library, so why not check them out?!

Her heels clicked against the floor as she went. She smooth out the front of her pencil skirt and blew a strand of hair from her face as she went.

Noticing Pandora sitting there she smiled, not even she could bring her down... not after all the fun she had been having with a certain special someone. "Allo, Pandora. Lovely day, isn't it?" she said as she stepped up to the bookshelves looking for a book on Muggle plant care... her daisies were drooping and she needed to stop that.

Pandora was vaguely aware that someone was walking towards her. She looked up when the person spoke and realised that it was Antigone. So much for five minutes to myself, she thought.

"Is it? I haven't been outside." She said quietly. She looked downwards and then caught sight of Antigone's shoes. "Oh they are beautiful shoes Antigone, really lovely!" She enthused.

KICK!

"Ooh!" She frowned, shifting as one of the twins kicks particularly hard. "There was no need for that!" She murmured, rubbing the spot on her side where the kick had landed.

Antigone frowned... how could someone not be outside at all on a lovely May day??!! *cough* "Well, it is quite lovely, great day for a walk through London" she smiled as she spoke.

Showing off her shoes a bit she grinned and said, "Ah, thank you! Christian Louboutin... aren't they something." She giggled and leaned over a little closer and said, "I have a shoe collection nearly as big as my closet itself, it is my weakness, it is"

Furrowing her brow she thought it odd that the woman was already chiding her children and they hadn't even been born yet.. but whatever. "Sooo... have you been well?" she inquired.

Pandora smiled in a slightly forced way. "Maybe later. I need to pick up a few things." She was planning on buying some baby things for Silas, his children where growing so fast. She bit her lip, trying not to think about Dora.

"A Laboutin weakness is perfectly understandable. I have a few pairs myself." Not that she could wear them at the moment... but that wouldn't last long. "I also have a Patrick Cox weakness, a Manolo Blahnik weakness and a Red or Dead weakness." She winked.

"Oh I'm well, thanks. I've been meaning to get in touch. The party we were going to have has been postponed. Indefinitely." She said this in a serious, grave voice but did not want to say why. She still didn't believe it was true.

Antigone felt like she was in a shoe induced state of elation when she nodded fervently. "I have so many pairs of Manolo's I feel bad for the man that ever tries to move into my house... he won't ever have any closet space," she said with a girlish giggle.

Furrowing her brow she tried to shake the urge to ask her what was wrongbut she couldn't help it... it came out before she could stop herself. "Pandora, is everything okay? Has something happened... I am sorry for being so invasive... but that tone on your voice, it speaks volumes, dear," she said. She had the urge to pat her on the arm or something but she didn't dare...s he didn't like most people enough to touch them... besides, people were germy and whatnot.

Pandora nodded when Antigone commented on the size of her shoes collection. "My friend Malachi once told me about an ex of his. She had them displayed on the walls in cases, as works of art. I suppose it's one way to solve the storage problems."

Pandora looked at the woman, a woman who she complained to Dora about, as the pain of losing her best friend flooded into her chest. She managed to keep some kind of control over things, but her grief would overwhelm her at unexpected moments. "My friend... my best friend, she died. Having her twins. A party just doesn't feel appropriate right now." Her voice was choked and faint and a single tear rolled rebelliously down her cheek. She took a handkerchief, which bore Ronan's initials, out of a pocket and wiped her eyes. "I'm sorry, I don't want to burden you... I hardly know you." She could not meet Antigone's striking eyes for fear of what she would see there.

Oh bugger... that wasn't what she had been expecting. Completely ignoring the previous comment about Malachi... or better yet, choosing not to speak on it... I wonder if she means Malachi Brown? Because I used to keep my shoes on display in Fiji... because I mostly went barefoot there.. Oh good Merlin! She knows Malachi! she thought to herself.

Antigone squatted down beside the woman and placed her hand on her leg and said, "Oh my Merlin, I am so sorry to hear that, Pandora. Are you talking about Nymphadora? That is just terrible. How are the children... Oh Merlin, I am sorry for the barage of questions.... I can leave you to your thoughts if you'd like... but I am also here if you need to talk to someone."

Pandora was startled when Antigone put her hand on her leg. She moved as quickly as she could out of the other woman's grasp, thankful that the chair she had chosen was so huge.

"Did you know Dora?" Pandora was almost sure that Antigone was older than she was and since Dora had been younger, it was unlikely that the two had met at school. Antigone didn't really seem like Dora's kind of person, but neither did Pandora, not on the surface at least. "Or are people talking about it?" The thought of Dora being reduced to idle gossip repulsed Pandora to the point where she felt physically ill. She put her hand over her mouth for a moment and waited for the sensation to pass.

When it had, she said, "The babies... they're so beautiful. They were a early so they are tiny but they're doing really well." She swallowed hard. "What's the point of magic if we can't stop a young woman who was so... vibrant dying when she's having her babies?" She took a handkerchief, which had RJC embroidered in one corner, and wiped away the tears in her eyes.

"Dora would tell me off for not having the party. In fact, she'd probably demand that we have an even more extravagant one, but I can't. Perhaps after my babies are here and I know that they're okay..." She was still avoiding Antigone's eyes. "She and I weren't speaking... we had a terrible argument. I just wish... " But she couldn't say what she wished, she couldn't admit it out loud. Wishing that she could take Dora's place was terrible but it was what she wanted at times.

Antigone averted her eyes and withdrew her hand, placing it on the arm of the chair instead of her leg... She had only known Dora through the letters... she was a good woman... looking out for a total strangers feelings that way as well as her friend's, but Tiggy daren't tell her that was how she knew everything that she knew about Pandora and Ronan. She didn't answer her at all actually.

"Magic can't fix everything... sometimes terrible things happen that we can't stop even with the strongest magic," she said softly. She had not had much experience with death, but what she did know was magic and there was none known that could stop death... without serious consequences anyway and Dora hadn't seemed that way.

"I read her obituary in the Daily Prophet actually, it was lovely. She strikes me as the type of woman that would want everyone to celebrate her life and those children's lives rather than mourn her death. You should take that into account. When my Gram died I threw the biggest party I could and when I spoke to her portrait later that month she was so happy that she cried," Antigone told her in a warm voice... well as warm as Antigone could manage. Her Irish lilt came through stronger when she got nostalgic about her family and she said, "That is what me family has alweeys done. YOu celebrate their lives, darling... not their deaths."

Pandora merely sobbed when Antigone talked about the limitations of magic. "She was younger than me... too young to have died."

Her eyes snapped to Antigone when she mentioned reading about Dora in the paper. "There was an obituary? Who..? Silas hasn't been in any fit state. He can hardly bare to take his eyes away from Imogen and Gabriel. Do you still have the paper?" Pandora was aware that this was unlikely, but she wanted to see it for herself.

"I just feel like I would be rubbing salt in Silas' wounds. It just feels wrong right now. Maybe in a few months when things are less... raw."

She looked at Antigone and realised that her Irish accent had become stronger. Again she thought that Ronan would have been better off with the other woman and a powerful wave of jealousy washed over her. She wrapped her arm protectively around her bump, her posture stiffening against the woman. It was an irrational thought but she didn't care. She and Ronan had been through too much, his father, the accident, Dora's disapproval...

Dora had hated Ronan long before he had hurt Pandora... and Antigone had found out about the two of them... and she had dodged Pandora's question about knowing Dora... Several things clunked jarringly in to place. She eyed Antigone with suspicion "She told you, didn't she? She was the one who wrote to you and told you that Ronan had asked me on a date. It was Dora... wasn't it?" She studied Antigone's face closely, waiting for her reaction.

Antigone stood up and averted her eyes as Pandora cried. She wanted to comfort the woman but she wouldn't let her. She turned back to face her as she asked about the paper. "I don't have it but I am sure that the obituary was written by her parents because there was barely mention of her life with Silas... just that they had married and that she had passed away during the birth of their twin babies," she explained.

"Maybe it would be just what hte man needed, Pandora. You never know. He might be able to get some sort of closure from the party as well. I will not impose on your goodwill for anyy party, Pandora... I know you don't like me and you only invited me because you felt awkward or thought that you should. But I am okay with you not liking me, really," she said indifferently to the woman who tensed in front of her. What the hell did she think Antigone was going to do? Steal her husband? Her children? What the crap... SHe was really a nutter, she thought.

Immediately shutting down all facial emotion and keeping a level voice Antigone said, "That's nonsense, don't you think. SHe was your best friend, I hardly think she would have done that." SHe hardly wanted to sully her friend's memory with any sort of betrayal. She stood her ground and looked Pandora directly in the eye, not giving her any indication that she was lying.

When Antigone said she suspected that it was Dora's parents had written the obituary, Pandora let out a small huff. "Well, it wouldn't have been her sister. That... woman is pure poison." She thought about Alexandra and the letters that she had received from the poor child. She had wanted to go to the school and see her, but she as had no legal right to do so she felt that it would be best left until the holidays.

When Antigone suggested that Silas would be able to get closure from a party, Pandora shook her head. "I can barely get Silas to leave the house. He's totally destroyed. A party is the last thing he or I need right now."

When the woman who looked so much like her started to proclaim that wasn't bothered
about Pandora not liking her, Pandora almost laughed. "Oh please! You've loathed me from the second that I fell over in the Leaky. It's never been a question of me disliking you. In fact I do like you. I haven't had many female friends in my life, I find most women pathetic but not you. You strike me as strong and you clearly don't stand any nonsense."

Except now Antigone was dishing out the nonsense. Pandora shook her head. "Like you said, she was my best friend. If Dora thought that she was protecting me, she'd do anything. Absolutely anything." There was a deadly serious quality to her voice. "She told me to leave Ronan long before he asked me to marry him. So you can say what you like Antigone, but I can smell rubbish when someone serves it up to me with sugar on." She snapped her book shut and heaved herself out of the chair.

"Have a good afternoon." She looked at the woman with regret. "I had hoped that we might be able to be friends, but I can see that it just can't be that way." She could no longer sweep imperiously away, but she did her best not to waddle as she strode back towards the door to her department.

"Well, honey I am just trying to help," she said with a shrug as she took the book she wanted from the shelf and hugged it to herself. Then the hormonal woman started to snap...

Good Merlin! Antigone immediately narrowed her eyes and steeled herself. "Darling, it seems that YOU are the only one who still cares about the past here. I do not dislike you anymore and I am not speaking rubbish. You are determined to NOT like me and that is is RUBBISH," she spoke through her teeth.

Antigone was not shocked that the woman figured she knew better than what Antigone was saying. she groung her teeth together and said, "Oh my Merlin, you're an insufferable little brat, Pandora. YOu don't hear what you want and you storm off... that's really mature." Watching the woman attempt to not waddle she smirked evilly. If the woman wanted to be enemies then she would be.

The intention had been to investigate the 'library' of the Ministry, see if it was a real library. No music books, no library. It was as simple as that. However, how much of a library the area wasn't did not come from the single bookshelf or the two chairs (an obvious lack of furniture for any proper reading space), but more of the loud noise of argument and dispute.

Blinking with rather wide eyes at the verbal battle before him, Torio held his violin case close to his chest, almost hugging it in reassurance. He wasn't sure if it was fortune's favor, or not, that he knew both of the women involved; Pandora and Antigone. Their encounter in Diagon Alley had been similar. And like that time, he had walked in on the end of it.

Tapping his fingers lightly against the case, he chewed on his bottom lip, debating what the best course of action would be. As he was standing right next to the door Pandora was heading for, he figured it would be best not to be rude. Releasing one hand from the violin case he took hold of the door handle he held it open for her with a gentle smile, giving her a small nod before turning his eyes over to Antigone.

Antigone spotted Torio as she followed the evil woman with her eyes. "Oh Torio! She is so awful to me," Tiggy pouted as she made grabby hands at him... clearly needing a big brother hug.

Ooh dear. Definetly a repeat of the infamous Diagon Alley incident.

Giving Pandora another small smile, he let go of the door when he was sure she was safely through and turned his attention back to Antigone.

A small sigh left him as he shook his head a little, making his way over to her. "You would say she is living up to her name then, yes?" He stopped in front of her, reaching out and tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "Just how was she awful to you, Tiggy?"

*cure little sad eyes* Looking at Torio she huffed and threw herself on him, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Oh T... I was trying to be nice and she said mean things to me and made me snap at her... she makes me SO angry!" she said in an innocent voice and she snugged her friend closely.

Another sigh left Torio in more of a strangled gasp as he was glomped. Shaking his head a little he released another breath and walked her backwards gently, one hand on her lower back to make sure she wouldn't fall over, and placed the violin case on the chair.

With both hands free, he was able to give her a proper hug, rubbing her back a little. "She made you snap at her. Or you chose to snap at her?"

Antigone walked backward, head on Torio's shoulder as he set his violin case down. "T... she makes me crazy... I was really trying... she was upset about her friend passing and I was listening and being nice and she just goes off about stupid Ronan... I don't care about him!" she sniffled as she snuggled into his shoulder.

"Apparently, you still do." He responded quietly, gently, giving her back another rub. "Would you get so upset when she talked about him if you didn't care?"

Antigone stiffened in his arms. She really didn't care about the man anymore. SHe was torn between her feelings for Torio and Ethan... and another unnamed party had recently written to her saying he was about to visit.... But Ronan... nothing.

"I get angry when she looks at me like I am about to steal her life from her. I don't give a damn about that man, Torio. I have no desire to be her, or have her life. She thinks I am a sick, husband stealing hussy I guess," she sniffled to him softly. That really did sting a bit.

"Well," Torio mused quietly, "You know you are not. So, perhaps it is time to let her see that." Very gently, he parted from her, keeping one hand wrapped around her waist while his other reached up to soothe her hair back. "People often see the emotions others are displaying and take them personally, reflect them. In this case, Pandora is afraid because she knows that you and Ronan used to be close. So she expresses that fear. You get defensive and angry because you know its not true. But that simply causes her to get defensive of her life; she sees your emotions as fueling her fear that she could lose everything to you. And so it goes in a vicious circle."

A small smile touched his lips as he tucked a few strands back into place. "It hurts yes, to be accussed of such things Tiggy, but you have to take a step back. See her fear and insecurity, see that she is taking what you say deeply to heart and fearing even more. Once you can see that she is not intentionally meaning to hurt you, nor you her, you can react in a way that will not increase her fear, but give comfort to it. And in doing so, you will find comfort in knowing, and giving power to the knowledge, that you do not carry further emotions for Ronan."

Antigone bit her bottom lip as she listened to Torio. She nodded slowly and began to silently weep. "I don't want to try anymore T... she doesn't want my friendship and she is too damn stubborn to see that I am not here to hurt her or him," she said in a sad little voice.