It seemed his revelation or clue to on the case to assist fell on completely deaf ears from all those in the room. Or most of those in the room, not that Simon knew that. And then with the added drama of another interruption that turned out to be an infected ministry worker silenced any further comment that might have come. Couldn't people see it was getting worse and needed to be fixed...soon?!

At least they were finally being dismissed to do something, orders given out to various groups of people across the department. Emily really hadn't needed to add her own command, Simon had already been moving to his feet once he heard his title and the task assigned to it. Time to get to work and do his part and for once it wasn't guarding DeTalone almost needlessly. So the YATI simply nodded and quietly moved to follow his fellow auror out of the conference room.

Saul was about to protest once more to how Roxanne was attempting to carry Dmitri, but decided it was best to just let the woman deal with his friend as an inanimate object and tell him about it later. "I'll watch De Talone." Saul said somewhat unenthusiastically. He didn't have much else to do today aside for a few more papers. But guarding someone seemed a bit more useful then paperwork. He gathered his notepad and readjusted his glasses before leaving the Conference Room.

Crazy women...

Josh just raised his eyebrows and stared as two women were being not so friendly towards him. Even one, Carter woman, snapped at him. Seriously? He was not allowed to speak up just because he had not been closely involved with the zombie infected people? It was not like he was commenting about how they worked in their lab or something, was it? He just wanted to point out that they needed to act the Burton man like a human being as he indeed was a human being. The young man did not say anything though. He had no intention of arguing with any of the women.

Instead, he just remained his silence and listened to the bossman when he finally started to speak. Yeah...end this meeting already...please. Simply because it had turned into something weird in which women liked to attack each other and sometimes men. He let out a silent sigh when he was told to carry the Burton man. Not that he had any objections. He just did not want to listen to the Carter woman's snappings at him as he did the job. He lazily stood up just after the bossman left and went to the Carter woman. Eh...they had the same last name, did not they? Maybe she could be friendlier this time.

He simply approached and eyed the unconscious man. ''That was seriously unnecessary.'' he meant using magic on him like this. ''What is done is done though.'' he watched the woman take the man's shoulders. ''Wait...um...Ms Carter. I think that part is heavier. Always it is. You take the legs....please...'' please just in case she would feel like snapping at him if he might not sound kind enough. ''...i can deal with the rest and we can get him safely out of here.'' He was a strong young man who had been working out for ages, after all.

Then he looked up when Emily...almost called him. He gave her a look that said 'Sorry. Busy with the Burton man' but then...he was about to ask if he could join them after he was done with this but Emily was already gone.

"Well, don't talk to me about it," Roxanne said calmly, matter of fact. "I was just fine with using the ropes." She felt that it was needless to point out just exactly who it was that had decided to use the body-bind, lest that start a whole 'nother argument. Which was the last thing she wanted right now. "Okay, here." She waited for Josh to grab his shoulders, then moved around to the feet. "Lift on three. One, two, three." Lifting the feet, she moved towards the door.

OOC: Next post in Quarantine Room!

Tyler just listened everyone as they seemed to fight and heatedly discuss things between them. Did Ministry work always turn Law Enforcers on each other? *gasp* what if thats what the one responsible for this wanted to do? Well he would try to make sure they worked things out between them, all too soon Mr Bossman had given orders to them. Tyler gave a nod to say he understood that, he turned to look at Emily "Sure! sounds good!" he watched her get up and walk out of the conference room, well that was it.. time to do some work and find out who was responsible for this. "See you all around" he said as he walked out of the conference room too. This was so exciting! thats why he loved Law Enforcement work, never a dull moment in this department!

The Ministry was re-opened and Wes was ready to get down to business. He had taken the liberties of hauling all the files on de Talone to the conference room, so as to give the Wizengamot people some space to work. Then he himself started reading over the files, with a hot cup of coffee in hand so that he didn't start to doze.

This was dull stuff, this reading.

After having a nice break while the Ministry was closed Skander wasn't exactly looking forward to returning to work. Still, he was no longer zombified, which was a relief, and he was looking forward to moving forward on the prosecution of de Talone, so starting back couldn't be that bad. He'd still had two cups of coffee before he came into work, and was on his third as he walked into the conference room for his meeting with Wes and the new prosecutor.

"Morning," he said, as he took a seat at the table, noticing his boss was already there and reading, what he assumed must be, files on de Talone, an example he was quick to follow.

"Hey Skander," Wes greeted the prosecutor as he heard him come in. He looked over the top of the file he was reading and gave the other man a nod, and after a pause, a slight smile. "You look well. Did you have a nice break?"

It was really good to see him not looking so... eh.... sickly, shall we say? Wes went back to reading his file after this observation. He knew they'd have a lot to explain to the new guy.

Vic strolled into the conference room with a copy of the daily prophets under his arm and a cup of steaming cappuccino in his hand. "Good day, gentlemen." So, like, what was the system around here? Handshaking? Nodding? Hopefully no one was a hugger. He raised his cup and nodded, greeting Mr. Ferguson then the other man.

"Ludovicus Bones. I was told this would be where the debriefing will take place." The man was the other prosecutor, right? Vic didn't just walk in some classified meeting...? Oh well.

"It wasn't bad. It was nice to just be able to relax without worrying about anything," Skander replied, taking a sip of his coffee before setting it back down on the desk. "You?" he asked politely just before another man walked into the room.

"Hello," he replied, smiling slightly at the other man in greeting. "I'm Skander Beckett," he said after a moment, having looked the other man over while he introduced himself, in what could be described as a friendly tone. He seemed like a decent sort, based purely on appearances sake, and as it was safe to presume that this man was the new prosecutor, it would probably be best all round if they could be civil, or strike up a rapport early on. Especially since they were likely going to have to work closely together on this case.

As the winter break was now over, and as his family emergency trip to his home in Cordova, Spain was over, Rodrigo was finally back from his leave in the Ministry of Magic. It had been a long while since he entered the second level Department of Magical Law Enforcement. And as he entered the conference room, clutching a rapidly cooling cup of espresso, he was not in the slightest bit surprised that there were coworkers of whom he had never met. Take a rather large gulp of the still-too-bitter coffee, he first gave a nod to his boss, Wesley Ferguson.
"Buenos días, Wesley," Rodrigo said, his Spanish accent slightly thicker after having been home for almost a year.

He turned to the two male employees whom he had never met. He smiled his goofy grin.
"Hello," he said before taking another sip of his drink. "I am Rodrigo De Lacerda. Wizengamot stenographer." He moved forward to shake both of their hands.

"Yeah, that is a nice feeling," Wes agreed with Skander, closing the file for a second time when the new guy walked in. Oh, and Rodrigo was back! Excellent. So now that everyone was here... Wes stood up and made the necessary handshakes.

"Bones, Beckett, erm... Rodrigo," he wasn't even going to attempt pronouncing THAT last name, "let's get down to it. And yes, you're in the right place," he added with a wink toward the new prosecutor.

Wes passed out copies of the same file he had been reading and let them start looking them over. It contained numerous sworn witness testimonies, including that of several Hogwarts students and professors, expert testimony from a former Department of Mysteries employee, photographs, evidence logs, interrogations and statements from de Talone herself, and more.

"What we have here is a complicated case of thievery and an unusual bit of mild dark magic. And I say mild only because no one, to my knowledge, directly died due to De Talone's actions. Are you familiar with her story at all, Bones? Rodrigo?" Skander, he was assuming, knew things since he had been here for a while. But Wes only paused for a fraction of a moment for an answer before moving on.

"She started stealing time hundreds of years ago back when she was a student at Hogwarts. I'm not sure of the specifics of HOW she stole time, but it looks like some potions and possibly incantations from the Book of Mysteria were involved. Where we come into the story is in about three years ago, in January of 2078. De Talone had apparently enchanted a little crystal orb," he pointed to page of the file, where there was a photograph of the smashed orb, "to freeze people who touched it. The victims had no memory of freezing, as apparently the orb put them in some sort of suspended state of consciousness. Meanwhile, de Talone used the time they were frozen to keep herself from aging."

Complicated, and weird, stuff. "She was caught when the school Healer, a Cecelia Tillstorm, smashed the orb thus unfreezing all her victims. Additionally, a locket from de Talone's school days was found with her photograph and initials in it." Wes pointed to another image in the file. "After some research I guess, the connection was made that the same de Talone who had stolen an entire year of her classmates' lives back in her Hogwarts days was the de Talone who owned a bookshop in Hogsmeade village. When the students of Hogwarts confronted her about her thievery, two more students drank a tea that froze them while de Talone made her escape.

"She was caught a few months later in Diagon Alley, by Hit Witch Aubrie Hampson and myself. De Talone was apparently en route to withdraw all her money from Gringotts, no doubt to make another great escape. She's been held here on Level Two ever since while we have gone over her bookshop and hidden potions lab within with a fine-tooth comb. Her lawyer, Sydney Edgecombe, recently popped up before the holiday break, trying to make things messy for us and obscure some evidence no doubt, but I think we're ready to head to trial regardless." Wes finally took a breath. He should have brought himself a bottle of water in addition to the coffee, shoooooot.

"Questions?"

Nodding politely at the man who introduced himself as the stenographer Skander determined that he'd really have to get to know people he was in the same division with a bit better. He'd never even seen the man before. Still, now wasn't the time to worry about that, and when Wes handed them all a copy of the file he concentrated on looking through it.

Skander nodded along with what Wes was saying, already familiar with some of the facts as he was in the Ministry at the time everything was being investigated, although there was obviously a lot he didn't know, considering the fact that he hadn't been involved in the investigation much.

"Do we know exactly how many people she's done this to and if she was tried when she was found doing this in her Hogwarts days? That would probably work in our favour in getting her a harsher sentence. Also, what do we know about Edgecombe and the tactics he might try to use, or has used to affect some evidence? Because that will most likely affect the way we want to run the trial, and if he's done anything illegal to obtain evidence in his favour, or to tamper with what we have, we could attempt to have him removed as counsel, or at least get some of the evidence he may claim to have, thrown out of court," Skander asked once Wes made it clear that he was open to questions.

After taking her time making her way over to Level Two, Roxanne had first stopped by Wes' office. But he didn't seem to be in there, so she figured the next best place to look would be the conference room. And it turned out she was right, because the closer she got to the room, the more clearly she could hear his voice. Peaking into the room, she saw that he was in a meeting with Skander, Rodrigo and some other guy. Talking about the De Talone case, which meant that Wes had finally found her replacement. Quite nice looking, too, but she wasn't here for that. Knocking on the door, she decided to throw her two cents in about Edgeworth. "Yeah, that guy is a real piece of work. I wouldn't put anything past him. Wes, a moment?"

Shaking hands, whew, no huggers. Very good. Oh but their bossman seemed to like winking. Hmm. Vic's mouth hitched up in a small smirk before dropping his daily prophet and then himself on the seat next to the other prosecutor. More handshaking with the stenographer and then finally settling back for WORK.

He'd heard about this incident in Hogwarts, in the daily prophet mainly so not much really. He didn't have anyone in school to worry about at the time so the story pretty much flew over his head. But now, it sounded more serious than he fathomed. Vic flipped through the file as Wes talked, looking at the smashed orb's picture, cool move from their healer by the way but too impulsive. Then came the woman's face staring back at him. Oh, the stealing age was working well for her, he had to admit that, pretty despicable though.

Yes, the questions Beckett had voiced were important. They needed to corner this woman from every possible direction, choke her lawyer too, figuratively speaking of course. The sort of thieving she attempted was one of a kind, not sure he had heard of an age-stealing thief. "So it's dark magic, thievery, and violation of underage wizards and witches' rights. I'm sure her lawyer can't be that good to trespass all those." If he was, Vic was going to consider him as a mentor. Heh heh, jk jk

... oh. A lady interrupting their debriefing. Okay. Vic sank back into the case's file, reading.

Rodrigo sipped some more of his espresso as Wes handed him the file on the de Talone case. He skimmed it as Wes debriefed everyone on what had happened. So this crazy woman stole people's age. He had never heard of such a crime. Being in Spain the past year, he had heard of some events occurring in the British Ministry, but he had never heard enough to be familiar with this case. Seemed like a perfect time for him to return to Britain. This would be quite a case to stenograph.

He drained the rest of his coffee and set it on a nearby table as Wes asked if any of them had questions. He waited as Skander and Vic spoke. The Spaniard looked over at Wes when they had finished, for he too had a question.
"Yes, I agree with both of them," he said, not remembering their names even though he had just heard Wes say them moments before. "Are we in contact with any of these victims? You said they were unaware of being frozen via de Talone's orb, but can they help give us testimonies to further accentuate the extent of de Talone's actons?" He wished he had another cup of coffee. And was about to make a dash to go get more, when someone knocked on the door and entered the room. He paused, lowering his case file and turning to the woman asking for Wes. He redirected his gaze to his Department Head before looking down at the file and flipping through the pages.

"She wasn't discovered doing this during her Hogwarts days. It wasn't until history seemed to be repeating itself a few years ago that Hogwarts realized this had happened before," Wes hopefully explained better. "I believe there were eighteen victims total, who touched the orb? Twenty if you count the tea drinkers?"

He glanced at a page in the file to double-check that. He sort of shrugged at the question about Edgecombe, though. "We don't know much about him, except that he's been de Talone's representation in all legal matters since... Merlin knows how long." He had the impression that that was quite a while, though. "As for the tactic he's taking with the trial...." Wes' guess was as good, or worse than, theirs, likely. He had a background as a hit wizard, not a prosecutor.

And speaking of prosecutors... there was one of his former stars now. "You just can't stay away from Level Two, can ya," he joked at Roxanne, though his face remained quite impassive. "One moment guys." Wes followed her outside the door and shut it behind him.

"Something wrong?"

"You know me," Roxanne volleyed back. Though it really did seem like she was up here just as much as when she had been an employee. "The lab down on Level Three just exploded. Aron thinks it was a security breach. I'm actually surprised you guys didn't hear it, because I could hear it all the way from my office." And had gone to help, which had been a mistake. Seriously, what had he expected? Her to just sit in her office while stuff was exploding?! Had Aron forgotten everything from his time in the MLE? "Everyone's fine, but the lab looks like a complete loss."

Quote:

Originally Posted by lazykitty

"You know me," Roxanne volleyed back. Though it really did seem like she was up here just as much as when she had been an employee. "The lab down on Level Three just exploded. Aron thinks it was a security breach. I'm actually surprised you guys didn't hear it, because I could hear it all the way from my office." And had gone to help, which had been a mistake. Seriously, what had he expected? Her to just sit in her office while stuff was exploding?! Had Aron forgotten everything from his time in the MLE? "Everyone's fine, but the lab looks like a complete loss."

That got a slight grin out of Wes, though it disappeared just as quickly. "A security breach of what? He doesn't think it was just some stray chemicals?" His first day on the job as a department head, and his old employee just had to go blow up the Ministry's one other lab.

"I guess that means A&C will be trickling up here to use ours..." he muttered to himself, crossing his arms as he did. "Conference room's soundproof," he reminded Roxanne. "That's probably why I didn't hear it, anyway. What does Aron want us to do? Is anyone injured?"

See, this is why she'd come to Wes first. Thinking person. "Have no idea. Honestly, I thought of stray chemicals or someone just being careless and leaving something out over the whole holiday." But then again, Aron's snap judgement was probably made out of stress. Though, she wasn't one to talk about snap judgements right now.

Oh, right. She'd forgotten that little detail. "He didn't say. He just wanted me to come tell you." And thanks for that, Aron. A little more details would've been nice. "No injuries. It didn't seem like there was anyone in there, as everyone was running towards the lab when I arrived."

"Right..." That was the same way he'd thought. Hmm. Curious. A small frown etched its way to Wes' face as he thought this one out. Well... Roxanne's message had been delivered so he supposed he should get back to his meeting with the Wizengamot.

"I'll send a message to security, to have them check it out," he finally decided with a sigh. "Thanks, Roxanne." Weird that she was being Aron's lackey though. You'd think he'd have sent a person from his own level, or just a patronus instead.

"No problem," Roxanne replied with a slight shrug. Honestly, it wasn't like she doing anything anyway, except helping Aron put out a fire no one had seen. And Wes didn't know it, but his confusion was showing on his face. Not to mention that she was starting to feel a little foolish about becoming Aron's lackey in the first place. Wait a minute. Was this why Dorian and him had never quite seen eye to eye? Damn it. She really didn't want to admit that he'd seen something she didn't right then.

Anyway, she had better get back to what was turning out to be an eventful day. "I'd get back, make sure one of plants hasn't eaten an employee," she said with a laugh before turning to leave.

Feeling that one cup of espresso was not enough to keep him awake, the Rodrigo pocketed the file on the de Talone case and went back to refill his cup. He returned a few minutes later, sipping the too-hot coffee and reading the last page of the file. He looked back towards the door, for Wes was still speaking with Roxanne.

He could tell something was up, but didn't want to be a meddlesome employee; he knew all too well what could happen if he put himself in business he wasn't meant to be in. But having finished reading the file, Rodrigo was bored of waiting around for Wes to come back. He looked over at Skander, trying his best to smile, as he was still waking up.
"So, which division do you work for?" he asked. Having been out of office for almost a year, and also since he hadn't been on the job for very long prior to that, he did not quite remember who worked where, let alone the employees he had not even met yet. The Spaniard made a mental note to double check the employee filing records before smiling again at Skander.

Emma was only a few minutes late, surely they couldn't have gotten that far into the meeting, right? She opened the door to the conference room with her coffee in her hand. She let a small smile out, "Sorry I am late." Yeah next time she was going to wake up at the right time and you know not wake up her little kids and her husband in the process of trying to leave the home. She took sip of her black coffee before sitting down. They hadn't been talking when she entered, had they stopped for a random reason? Hearing a person she looked over to the person he had spoken to...Maybe she was the reason no one was talking.

Looking up from the file that he was re-examining, to see if he could think of any other questions, Skander looked over to Rodrigo as he sat back down and spoke to him. He thought that the answer would be kind of obvious since he'd been talking about how certain information would help with the prosecution of the case. Then again the guy did look half-asleep and in MLE, and within his other experiences at the ministry, he'd learnt that you shouldn't just assume things, maybe that was what Rodrigo was doing.

"I work for the Wizengamot as one of the prosecutors," he replied with a smile. "I'm also the liaison for level two," he informed him, quieting when he noticed a woman looking over at him. He didn't know who she was, and was therefore assuming that she was new, but he shot her a smile nonetheless.

"Don't worry too much, we were just discussing the case when Roxanne came in and needed to speak to Wes, I'm sure he won't mind too much," he told her, giving her a polite smile.