It felt nice that Dorian cared enough to try and reassure her and actually made her see that she wasn’t bad at taking care of pets even if she had been at school. What you did at school didn’t dictate how you were or acted as an adult. Shooting him an appreciative smile Tasha murmured "Thanks. I do take care of Pandora and Rufus well I just started to think about school and well not everything was a walk in the park there. Sorry."

Dorian's comment about the howler's brought Tasha's thoughts back onto her mother which made the smile fade away all together and be replaced with something she didn’t know what to call it. The relationship with her mother was frosty and well bad most of the time and Izzy didn’t have it any better. Wesley probably knew but not many other’s but this wasn’t the time or the place to talk about her mother. Tasha sensed that Dorian understood that a dog was buried there but he didn’t push it which very was glad for. Taking his arm she gave it a little squeeze of thanks before she let him lead her back to the ministry and up to level 2. They didn’t talk much on the way over there. If she had Tasha would have just let out all her worries, fears and jumped to conclusions.

Sitting down in the seat Dorian lead her too, she watched him send a patronus to Wesley. Tasha focused on staring on the opposite wall as they waited. "Louisa usually watches the twins when Wes and Izzy work." She supplied. Before she could say anything else Wesley arrived with his wand in hand. Standing up Tasha asked tentatively. "Wesley, how is Izzy? I, we just got your patronus. Is she as bad as Kensi was at the festivities?" Worry etched across her face Tasha did her best to stand still and not take up the feather in her purse to have something to fiddle with.

On a desk in the lobby of level 2, prominently displayed in an open display rack, were 10 brand new shiny wands just sitting there... unguarded.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nordic Witch

It felt nice that Dorian cared enough to try and reassure her and actually made her see that she wasn’t bad at taking care of pets even if she had been at school. What you did at school didn’t dictate how you were or acted as an adult. Shooting him an appreciative smile Tasha murmured "Thanks. I do take care of Pandora and Rufus well I just started to think about school and well not everything was a walk in the park there. Sorry."

Dorian's comment about the howler's brought Tasha's thoughts back onto her mother which made the smile fade away all together and be replaced with something she didn’t know what to call it. The relationship with her mother was frosty and well bad most of the time and Izzy didn’t have it any better. Wesley probably knew but not many other’s but this wasn’t the time or the place to talk about her mother. Tasha sensed that Dorian understood that a dog was buried there but he didn’t push it which very was glad for. Taking his arm she gave it a little squeeze of thanks before she let him lead her back to the ministry and up to level 2. They didn’t talk much on the way over there. If she had Tasha would have just let out all her worries, fears and jumped to conclusions.

Sitting down in the seat Dorian lead her too, she watched him send a patronus to Wesley. Tasha focused on staring on the opposite wall as they waited. "Louisa usually watches the twins when Wes and Izzy work." She supplied. Before she could say anything else Wesley arrived with his wand in hand. Standing up Tasha asked tentatively. "Wesley, how is Izzy? I, we just got your patronus. Is she as bad as Kensi was at the festivities?" Worry etched across her face Tasha did her best to stand still and not take up the feather in her purse to have something to fiddle with.

Tasha looked worried, and if Wes were one to comment on such things, he might have reassured her that Izzy was okay. But he was a man, a one with the emotional range of roughly a teaspoon, and so he did nothing but give his sister-in-law a nod.

"She's... not as bad as Kensi," he said carefully, first, "but I will need someone to watch the boys tonight. Think you're up for it, Tasha? I know Louisa usually does but I think Izzy would feel better knowing that someone...who's aware of the situation...was with them."

If she got his drift. He shook his head and glanced down at his hands for a moment. "Izzy's been drooling a lot, and we had to-- er-- forcefully take a sample from her, but other than that she's all right. None of the other infected people in quarantine should be armed, anyway. So she should be okay tonight."

And maybe tomorrow they'd have a cure? "How are you guys though?" Wes looked back up. "Dorian, were you in the cafeteria?" He'd been so worried about his wife that he had no idea how scattered his department was now.

Rupert stumbled along in the lobby of level two, drool dribbling from his mouth. He stared up at the ceiling as he walked, and suddenly ran into a wall, making him fall down. He shook his head and slowly stood back up and noticed something out of the corner of his eye.

A whole bunch of shiiiiny wands. Sitting on a display rack.

An open display rack.

He made his way over to them, and picked one up and eyed it for a minute before biting on it.

NOM NOM NOM.

He then swallowed the whole wand and looked at the display rack. That looked quite yummy too. He began gnawing on the display rack, and more and more drool fell from his mouth, creating a small puddle of it on the ground.

Demetrius did not know why he was on level two. But here he was and bumping into a wall. After the bump he sees a open display case of wands. He was beginning to have a fascination with wands. But he did not know the reason for it.

They were just so shiny and awesome. That must be it.

He walked over to the display case drooling. The wands were looking really good. He saw somebody else already there eating a wand and gnawing on the display rack. Which looked like a good idea.

Demetrius went next to the person and took a wand. He then started to bite on it with drool coming out of his mouth. He did not care, he just stood in place chewing.

YUM!.

Having decided to go for a coffee before trying to get ahold of Skander, Roxanne left the holding cell area after Wes. She knew she was risking seeing Dorian, since Wes had just received his patronus (the shape of which had gotten a raised brow). But she could feel her energy being sapped already, and she didn't feel like she could handle one more zombie without a cup. Especially not one that she actually knew, even though she didn't know him that well. She wasn't prepared for what she saw when she got to the reception area, however. Okay, who was that woman and why was she with Dorian. Was he seeing her?! As if she wasn't having a bad enough time already. She tried to hide the hurt look on her face but couldn't quite manage it. But she did, at least keep the words on her tongue from spilling out of her mouth. However, she did sigh a little and he did get a brief glance before she wrapped her arms around herself and duck her head before starting towards the door again.....

........only something caught her eye. Movement by the receptionist's desk. She turned to look and realized that it was a zombie. Eating some wands. "OH FOR CRYING OUTLOUD! WHAT IS IT WITH YOU ZOMBIES AND WOOD!" Okay, the yelling probably wasn't necessary, but she didn't really care right then. She cast the same spell that Aron had used on the British-hating one from the food court and walked over to see if it had worked.

But, before she could do that, in came another. She turned briefly to her boss and certain others. "Uh a little help here.....?"

Having stopped at A&C to retrieve some empty memory vials, Jade head to MLE. To her shock and slight amazement, there were much more zombies in the reception area than when she was last there.

Seeing that Roxanne needed help with them as they were trying to gnaw on the wands that had been foolishly left in a open display, Jade wandlessly vanished the memory vials she had been holding and rushed to her aid.

She grabbed the nearest zombie and started to try and pull the wand away from him but he was much too strong for her.

"Roxanne, what is that spell that Aron used in the Cafeteria?" She said out of breath trying to stop the zombie from snacking on the wand.

This was definitely a case where magic was needed.

"How are we going to get them to the quarantine holding area?" She wondered out loud.

Apparently he hadn't quit emanaged to distract Natasha long enough. The reassurance about her pets had worked temporarily, but Dorian hadn't missed the expression when it came to her family and Howlers, and then everything had gotten caught up in Wes' patronus and heading back to the Ministry. And it had gone back to trying to get her to think clearly, while they'd waited for Wes to arrive. He had nodded encouraginly as she had answered his question about the twins' usual babysitter, even as he realized she likely wasn't even paying attention to his movements. The nod had stopped midway as Wes had arrived anyhow, and he'd turned to his boss and friend, ready to answer the abrupt question before Natasha had spoken up again. Essentially beating him to the punch as he'd been about to say that his own message had just been to let him know she was there to speak with him. His expression had turned a bit wary as he heard her say 'we', however, and his grey eyes had gone to the department head to see if he'd picked up on that. That wasn't going to be awkward to explain, at all. If he had, but instead Wes had merely answered the question about Izzy before repeating the request for her to watch his children that night.

He had been half-tempted to suggest he escort her out again, just in case there were any zombies who hadn't been quarantined yet, when the words had stopped at the question directed to both of them and then him specifically. Had Wes figured out where he had been? He wasn't going to go into that out in the open, in any case. "Not right now," obviously. "I had been down there before I'd left for the night, though." He hadn't been not doing his job, even if he still felt a bit separate from true evidence retrieval. When he wasn't literally falling into it. He hadn't seen how his location prior to this exact moment was relevant to Izzy's situation anyhow, and in his wariness to avoid questions, he had neglected to notice Roxanne's arrival, her sigh, or the brief and upset look she had sent his way. Or the two wood-eaters as they had arrived and gone after wands he most certainly hadn't seen when he had arrived with Natasha. His head had snapped around at the exasperated cry from the Wizengamot prosecutor-turned-zombie-catcher, though, and he'd almost unconsiously stepped slightly in front of Natasha to block her from the crazed zombies, taking his secondary wand out of the ankle holster that had taken the place of his usual boots. Or possibly Roxanne herself, although he could always hope the A&C employee who had arrived and jumped into the fray would distract her. Either way, he wasn't letting any zombies anywhere near his personal wand or Natasha. And he waited to either find out about this spell of Aron's or just go after other ways of containing the two zombie men. Plus, he'd made note of the wood fetish since it could assist in finding the cure, or possibly the cause depending on everything collected from teh food court.

"Oh, right," Wes nodded to Dorian. Of course he had had to leave work at some point today; clearly, the bossman's tiredness was showing if he didn't even know what time of day it was anymore.

Just then, likely as he'd been about to comment on something to Dorian!Tasha, a loud ruckus broke out in the reception area. Wes whirled on the spot, his wand still in his hand, and pointed it at the .... MADNESS going on. His eyes widened as he saw a man swallow a wand whole.

"What the----" the frazzled MLE head exclaimed, moving over to the pile of wands and the two well, ZOMBIES, for lack of a better word. They didn't look harmless - for now - but they were a rather disturbing sight nonetheless.

"Incarcerous," Wes murmured, pointing his wand at one drooler, and then again, "Incarcerous," he cast on the other. "Looks like we're going to have to physically drag these two to quarantine, Roxanne..." He gave the level 3 lady a nod. "Thanks for the help, by the way." Merlin, these two were everywhere they needed to be. Props to them.

Thankfully (for her own sanity), she was too distracted to notice much else but who helped and who hadn't. And she really didn't have time to comment on it either. So, she filed this little bit away for later. Right now, she focused on the zombies.

Before she could answer Jade's question, Wes did it for her. Or kind of. "That," she replied reaching down to pull up the zombie nearest her, "only with some kind of variation." She hadn't quite been able to figure it out, though, no matter how hard she tried. So, she had given up and made a note to ask him about it later. Only now she realized that she probably should've asked him right then. But hindsight was always twenty/twenty.

"Right after you, boss," she replied, pushing her zombie in front of her. Thank you bunches, Jade. You've been a massive help." And she would be vouching to her boss to give her a raise, yep. Right as soon as that time in the Ministry came up again. Dorian however, he got a disgusted look, made more intense once she had realized what he had done. Forget him. she thought. If he was more worried about some woman that was never even in danger than his coworker who could've been potentially in danger, than that was someone she needn't waste time on.

Seeing that the MLE'ers had the two zombies under the control, Jade stopped where she was standing and bent down to rest her hands on her knees. That was tough trying to stop an out of control zombie who really didn't want to be stopped at all.

She gained new respect for the MLE'ers who did this on a daily basis. She most definitely didn't have the stamina to do it.

As she stopped to take a breath, she looked down at her wand and recalled their almost crazed determination to get a hold of the wooden wands. And Mr. Frenchie also had an obsession with eating the table leg which if Jade recalled correctly had been made of wood. She made a mental note to look for memories relating to wood in the infected. It could be a lead.

Addressing Mr. Ferguson and Rosanne since she knew them, Jade said, "I'll come with you to the quarantine area-- I need to start retrieving memories from the infected who are already there."

That one day Derek decided to go to MLE to see if he found Saul. He should update his mate on the whole '''''zombie''''' thing, as they had said they'd do.

Not that he had found out a lot more about the craziness anyway, but still. Saul was one of the few people in the Ministry whose company Derek enjoyed, so he could even see if his friends was on a brea-

What was going on there?

Derek stopped on his tracks when he saw the Ferguson man roping some people in the middle of the Reception Area. The former Gryffindor raised his eyebrows and closed the distance between them all. "What just happened?" It might have been something serious, otherwise why would the Head of MLE have roped.. Demetrius! And... some other random person he didn't know.

They were now talking about taking the infected people to the quaratine area then? Roped? That sounded harsh. To rope someone. But Ferguson might have had a good reason to do so, he was the MLE Head, after all. "Um, I can help, if needed." He said to no one in particular, but eyeing the woman pushing one of the drooling men. Was it safe to touch them like that? Derek was bitten by a '''''zombie''''' before. Not that it caused him any harm, but that meant they bit and could still do it to anyone.

"I don't know where these wands came from, or why," Wes frowned at the pile and then cast a nonverbal shield charm over them, "but they apparently pulled these two out of the woodwork, no pun intended." He gestured toward the tied-up zombies with his wand and the flicked it at the first of the two to get that one bobbing toward the quarantine room.

Much easier than dragging. "Thanks for the help though, Level 3... people." He nodded toward Derek, was it? and the reminiscinator however that is spelled. He hadn't forgotten about her. "I suspect you'll have some interesting memories to sort through shortly..."

Wes led the way toward the quarantine room, then remembered his guests he'd sorta left behind. "Dorian, Tasha--- you can come to the viewing area, if you'd like." If they still wanted to see Izzy or whatever.

Jade smirked as she saw her co-worker, Derek, walk causally into the MLE reception area. "About time you showed up," she grinned and winked at him as she straightened up. She didn't like showing a weakness to him because Derek was sure to tease her about it later at some point. "How is the sample testing going?"

Noticing the wands in the display case as well as the discarded one with clear chew marks on it, Jade headed over to it. She conjured up a small cloth and used that to pick it up. Looking over to Derek she said, "I think that I have another sample of drool for you. Where is Aron when you need him?"

Seeing that the other MLE'ers were a little pre-occupied she conjured a small plastic bag and put the wand into it.

Grinning a little sheepishly as she realized that she might have just done something that she shouldn't have, she asked out loud to no one particular, "Now what do I do with this?"

Suddenly, Rupert was hit by a spell and was being grabbed and being pushed away from the shiny wands. What was going on? Noooooo... he needed those shiny wands...

Demetrius did not care that he was hit by the spell and ropes sprang around him. As long as he got to continue chewing on the wand and drooling. He was content. He did not even need a push. He continued to drool as he was lead to wherever they wanted him to go.

He was lucky the wand was in his mouth, when the spell hit him. He was enjoying this wand.

Merlin, between herself, Wes, Jade, the two zombies and Dorian and his little girlfriend, things were about to get crowded in the quarantine area. Oi. She could see the need for Jade and her coworker, after all, it would be useful to have a peak at the infected people's memories to see if they would pinpoint what happened, but were the other two really needed? Really? But if Wes had invited them, then she really couldn't say anything. So if they could just realize it on their own, that would be great.

"That's actually a good idea," she said to Jade, "might help to figure out what exactly happened to make them like this." Not to mention that that was probably what she had been told to do, anyway. And one of her coworkers wanted to help? "Sure, the more the merrier," she told the guy giving him an encouraging smile. Another one for her raise-lobbying list. Speaking of that list, she raised her wand sent her alley cat patronus to Aron, wherever he was. Because he really did need to take samples. "I've just called for Aron, so just wait for him to show up."

Turning back to her zombie (Rupert-Grint-Fan), she started started pulling him along to the quarantine room, not saying anything.

Tasha kept her eye's on Wesley as she waited for the real news. Patronus messages had a tendency to be inaccurate. In this unfortunately it was accurate. She would have wanted to get a hug or well to get to hug him when she understood the seriousness of her sister’s symptoms. But Wesley wasn’t a hug-type of brother-in-law. The only consolation was that Izzy wasn’t as bad off as Kensi. "I'll watch the boys tonight. We can have an auntie sleepover in my flat. Just let me know if you need them to sleep over more than one night. I guess they'll have questions about where their parents are and I’m better qualified to answer that then Lousia." She reassured Wesley with a faint nod. Figuring that she was here and soon would get to see Izzy even if it would be through a glass wall.

"That’s good. I er guess she didn’t like being sampled?" Even if her sister was dazed and drooling Tasha had a feeling that she wouldn’t have agreed to either turning her wand over or giving a sample if Wesley hadn’t done it. She felt for him she really did. It couldn’t be easy to have his wife in quarantine for nobody knew how long until a cure was found.

And then he asked about her well-being. Stealing a glance over in Dorian’s direction she replied. "I'm okay. I was in Diagon when I got your patronus about Izzy." On a date with Dorian, but it wasn’t the right time to spill such news even if Wesley could have already figured it out since they arrived together.

Tasha didn’t have time to blink before two zombies walked in and started to eat up the wand stand which caused a commotion to ensue.

O.o

Why were they eating wood? And on their tail Roxanne arrived; Roxanne who for some reason had taken an instant dislike to her. There was no time to speculate on why as Dorian stepped in front of her to protect her against the zombies. Tasha was reaching for her wand as Wesley took charge of the situation and roped the zombies up so they could be moved to quarantine. In the middle of the mayhem Derek and Jade her level 3 colleagues had arrived to help out.

When the zombies were escorted out of the room Tasha turned to Dorian. "I'm glad Wesley reacted so quickly." Eyeing the door she asked. "Are you coming with me to see Izzy?"

They just couldn't get enough of them now could they?

Aron had been knee deep in work analyzing all these drool and vomit samples when Roxanne's patronus had shown up and he had had just enough time to grab his kit before heading over. All this drool collecting was really starting to get old, truth be told. It was worse than collecting sap from a Argentine Bleeding Maple.

Arriving at the scene, twirling a cotton swab in his hand, Aron glanced around and saw Roxanne leading a Drooler out of the waiting area. "Another one?"

Jade nodded at Roxanne and called out to her as she was leaving, "As soon as Aron comes, I'll come to the quarantine area."

Minutes later, Aron came strolling into the reception area twirling a cotton swab in his hand. Jade walked up to him still holding the plastic bag with the chewed wand. "Here, this is for you. For some reason they are rabid for wood mostly wand wood." She handed him the bag.

Smiling at him, she continued, "I'm just on my way to the quarantine to collect the memories. I'll let you know what I've found as soon as possible."

Knowing Aron, she didn't wait for his reply-- it was much more important that she start collecting those memories. Jade gave Derek a brisk nod as she left for the quarantine area, knowing that he would either go with Aron or join her when he was done here.

Derek found it weird when Ferguson thanked them - him included - for the help. He hadn't really done anything yet... shrug.

What, Jade? About time he showed up? >___> Derek chose to ignore her comment and shrugged again when she asked about the samples. It was going alright, but not as well as he wished. More drool? Alright. He could always use some more anyway. The 25 year old was about to conjure stuff to collect it when Aron showed up and showed interest - and equipment - to do so, so Derek turned his attention to something else.

Why were those wands there, anyway? To whom did they belong? The MLE Head didn't know anything about the wands, but maybe someone else did? "Does anyone know..." He trailed off as people started to do different things. Merlin, there were a lot of people there. "Does anyone know anything about these wands?" Like... why are they here? Where are their owners and this kind of thing? Anyone? The former Gryffindor glanced around at the other people, expecting any one of them to say something. Anything, really.

Derek eyed Jade as she nodded at him and left to the quarantine room. He couldn't see how he would be useful there, so he decided to stay a bit longer and check out those odd wands.

Approaching the display where the wooden sticks were, Derek took a close look at the area. There were... eight wands now. And drool all over. Bite marks on the rack as well. The young man frowned as he walked around the desk, taking mental notes of every single detail.

There was a reason she never really gave a second glance to this level. Although now, she found herself walking into it's waiting room, small little hand sized white box in hand with a red and gold ribbon on it, giving glances to the lady at the desk. Well, this place looked...clean.

And bright.

A far cry from what her department looked like.

Adjusting to the surroundings, Evelyn took a quick check of the time before sitting down in one of the, surprisingly, comfortable chairs. Who knew? If all went well, she wouldn't have to wait long for that certain someone to show up anyhow and the lady at the desk, well, Evelyn wasn't up for conversation. Honestly though, this was a little exciting.

So...this is where Josh worked.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pinkphoenix

Minutes later, Aron came strolling into the reception area twirling a cotton swab in his hand. Jade walked up to him still holding the plastic bag with the chewed wand. "Here, this is for you. For some reason they are rabid for wood mostly wand wood." She handed him the bag.

Smiling at him, she continued, "I'm just on my way to the quarantine to collect the memories. I'll let you know what I've found as soon as possible."

Knowing Aron, she didn't wait for his reply-- it was much more important that she start collecting those memories. Jade gave Derek a brisk nod as she left for the quarantine area, knowing that he would either go with Aron or join her when he was done here.

No sooner had he arrive was there a bag of...wands? Wait, what? Accepting the bag from Jade, Aron raised an eyebrow and lifted it up to his eye level and sort of inspected it in disbelief. Rapid for wand wood? So these people were a bunch of rapid drooling zombie beavers?

"Oh, um, right," he nodded. "I'll go add these to the rest of the evidence in the lab." Come to think of it, hadn't that one French bloke been going on about wands and...he had been gnawing on a piece of table. Another little piece of evidence that he had back in the lab as well.

So...off to the lab it was then...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roselyn

There was a reason she never really gave a second glance to this level. Although now, she found herself walking into it's waiting room, small little hand sized white box in hand with a red and gold ribbon on it, giving glances to the lady at the desk. Well, this place looked...clean.

And bright.

A far cry from what her department looked like.

Adjusting to the surroundings, Evelyn took a quick check of the time before sitting down in one of the, surprisingly, comfortable chairs. Who knew? If all went well, she wouldn't have to wait long for that certain someone to show up anyhow and the lady at the desk, well, Evelyn wasn't up for conversation. Honestly though, this was a little exciting.

So...this is where Josh worked.

Catching someone else entering the area out of the corner of his eye, Aron turned and faced the young woman who had just arrived. No one from this department. He made it his business to know who everyone was. "Can I help you?" Looked as though she were waiting for someone.

Perhaps the receptionist lady she didn't want to talk to, but the man whom now had her attention, she didn't mind. He looked all important anyhow talking to these people. She shifted in her seat a little to face his way. "Yes, actually. Do you know when the next auror shift ends?"

Jade led the two women out off the lift into the Magical Law Enforcement department's reception area. It was really noisy at the moment what with Aurors bringing in wizards and people running in and out.

Gesturing to the two women to come and stand out of the way, she shouted, "So this is the MLE. We," pointing to herself and Gia, "work the most with them, especially the Aurors. So you will get to know this floor very well. This is basically the place where they interrogate wizards who have broken Wizarding law. Any questions?"

Jade looked at her watch and almost groaned at the time- it was almost half past nine. The tour had taken up more time then she thought. It was a good thing that the next level was their own department which Jade had saved for last.