Madison jumped as she didn't realize the walking man was now standing next to her...and speaking. Her eyes shifted from one side of the desk, to the other, to him, back to one side of her desk, until she spoke up with a smile. "Ah, I'm Madison...Myers," she blinked a couple of times until she finally got up enough nerve to look the man in the face. With a couple more blinks, she finally gasped slightly as she looked into his eyes, but still, it had been years since she had seen him. She had to act normal.

"C-Can I help you with something?" she asked politely as her head snapped back towards the lame book she had opened at the moment. She quickly closed the cover...that didn't help either.

"Oh, then this saves me from having to walk around the office," he smiled lightly as he took another deep breath and watched her. "Uhm, yeah...you can help me. Uh, I was wondering where I could get a good book on..." he looked around her desk for a book, his eyes settling on the one in her hand. "...ping pong?" He looked at her questioningly before shrugging. "Yeah, ping pong."

His eyes looked over her desk again as they landed on a photo on her desk. It was the two of them. The photo he had found days ago. The only other photo that he had been carrying around with him since he found it. "Nice picture," he commented suddenly, not thinking.

Her eyes once again moved from him to the book in her hand, back to him, to the book once more, this time her head was snapping between each movement. "You want a book on...ping pong?" she asked rather slowly with a questionable look on her face. Was he for real? Maybe this was his desk before she moved in a few days back. "Umm, you can have this one," she spoke as she had to get another glance towards this man standing at her desk.

She knew it had to be him, there was no questioning herself once more. Just gather the nerve to ask him, Madi. What could hurt? No harm in asking. Her eyes looked from the book in her hand up to him once more. This time she gazed at him, looking at his facial features until she finally came to his eyes and there, she found what she needed.

"Neo?" she whispered as her eyes squinted a bit until they became normal once more. "Is that you?"

"Yeah...you know, ping pong. It's the newest craze around here. Just trying to keep up with the times," he reached his hand out for the book, but knew that he wasn't going to get it. She was observing him.

He watched her as she looked all around his face; the feeling of being observed rivaled that of an xray, but he stood still and let her do what she wanted. Most people who saw people that they hadn't seen for years tended to be a little observational.

And then she came to eyes. Neo quickly blinked and looked at the floor, closing his eyes as he realized he hadn't been fast enough. He bit the inside of his mouth as he raised his head slowly to lift his closed eyes and slowly, but surely, he nodded his head.

A gasp then a slap could be heard from Madison as she gasped for air and slapped her hands to her face in shock. She had just witnessed the man shaking his head to her question that she asked but, there was still the one question she had to ask. Her eyes stayed locked on him, but he seemed to keep his eyes closed for some reason. Why? She slowly took in a couple of deep breaths still realizing that her hands were still grasping her face.

She couldn't get past the fact that he stated that he was Neo. He was here, but why looking for a book? She was smarter than that and wanted to know the real reason of how he got here and she had to ask questions, any questions to find out.

"How did you-Where do you-But how-You still want this book?," she hesitated holding the book up and pressing her lips together before finally getting all of one question out, not the question she had to ask but, it was one of many to come. Her eyes glanced from the book to him, still trying her best to deal with the breathing part on her end.

With his eyes closed, he heard a gasp, a slap, and LOTS of incomplete questions...with the exception of one. There also appeared to be a lack of breathing in the air. He knew he had a lot of explaining to do...it's just that he needed well formulated and complete questions to answer.

He finally opened his eyes back up to see a shocked looking Madison holding the ping pong book up for him to take. He lifted a hand of his own and pushed the hand with the book down, "Not now. Perhaps later though, when we're through our reunion."

Constantine hands were returned back to the pockets on his robes; he knew the questions were going to come, there was just one question he didn't want to have to answer: why.

"So, uhm, how have you been?"

Madison felt his hand push not only the book back down but her hand as well. She blinked a couple of times, still watching him, before she removed her eyes, remembering to breathe once more. "Reunion," she repeated softly, thinking that it was just her conscience speaking, but instead, it was her own voice.

She looked at her desk momentarily, gripping the front of it with her hands as it was Constantine's turn to ask a question. "Fine," her voice squeaked. She cleared her throat, looked up at him and smiled faintly as she was a bit embarrassed from the squeaking of her voice. Let's try this again!

"Umm," she paused once more to clear her throat. Her eyes going back and forth between the desk and him. "How are you?" She finally grasped the nerve to place her eyes on one thing, him.

"I'm..I'm fine," he said softly, his eyes kind of diverting away from hers as she managed to look at him again. "You know...just been doing this and that..and those things...so you work in the ministry? That's cool...you..ah...like your work?"

Her smile dimmed as Constantine continued to look away every time her eyes diverted upwards. It was more than clear to her that this was just small talk. Maybe he felt guilty for making eye contact and felt the need to come and...make small talk, she thought to herself as she sighed, giving into the fact that there was no way this was done on purpose. It was all just an accident, pure and simple.

"Oh, here?" Madison asked as she looked down to the desk and began playing with a quill that all of a sudden appeared out of no where, or at least she thought it did. "Well, I just started actually and...umm..." she paused as she looked around the room at the different people doing absolutely nothing at the moment. "As you can see, we get a lot of things done around here." A hint of sarcasm could be heard from her voice as she was starting to become more like her normal self.

"So what department are you in?" she asked as she began twirling the quill in her hand as it flipped up into the air by accident. Startled, the quill landed on her desk as she used her hand to smack it down to keep it in place.

Constantine's eyes shot over to the sound of her hand smacking the desk, before taking them on a stroll around the office. "Oh yeah," he replied with the same sarcasm, "you're a bunch of busy bees." His eyes returned back to staring at the quill...or more like her hands, but mostly the quill. "Oh, I don't work here." Constantine shook his head, before frowning slightly. "I'm the groundskeeper at Cooper's School of Magic," he said in a slightly bitter voice.

Her head snapped as a loud gasp could be heard. The chair slide back by the push of her legs as Madison stood up, grabbing a handful of Constantine's robs. "You.mean.to.tell.me.you.work.with.my.brother, " she paused between each word as she spoke through her teeth. Maybe this would get his attention at the moment and he would look at her for a change.

Constantine's eyes widened in shock as Madison was on her feet within seconds and had a good chunk of his robes tightly clenched in her hand. He couldn't tell if she was angry...or shocked...or a nice, balanced mixture of both. He was definitely looking at her now, but not the way he would have liked. It was more like watching her and making sure he could prevent loss of life. The life, of course, being his own.

"I might."

Madison realized with wide eyes that she now pawned a portion of Constantine's robes in her hand. Casually and calmly, as any dear friend would do, she released her grip, ironing out the wrinkles she placed in them with her palm of her hand. "Sorry," she forced a half smiled as she was patting the front of his robes.

"I mean, it would have been nice to hear at least from Caleum that you two were together, before the simple fact that the owlery will not deliver to and from the school anymore." She sighed as she looked around the room, making sure that no one really was paying attention at the moment.

"Maybe this is not the place to...converse," she spoke with shifty eyes as she realized at that moment, one thing. Ding dong! "If you are supposed to be at school, umm, what brings you...here?" she asked as now she possessed the same raised brow that came from her brother of course.

"It's...ah..no problem," he said softly, still eyeing her carefully as she smoothed out the front of her robes. What the heck was that smirk for? Was there a hole he didn't know about? GREAT. Now, he would have to inspect the robe when he got home...

Constatine opened his mouth to state why they hadn't written, but shut his mouth as she stated it for him and pointed out them saying something BEFORE the owlrey was closed. Oh, she's good. "We were going to...but things got in the way." Like procrastination! and an intervention.

Oh blah, he knew that look. It was the exact same one Caleum gave him when Neo had completely denied having any feelings for Madison. "Why am I here?" He chuckled lightly, stroking his chin," Oh Madison...that is a very good question...with a VERY complicated answer. A slightly amusing one, but complicated all the same." His smile faded a little, as he watched her cautiously.

Keeping the same facial expression of one eyebrow raised, Madison knew it was time to talk. "No one confesses like that and doesn't have more to say, Constantine Masterson," she stated as a matter of fact. It was more than clear that this was not the spot intended for talking with others and neither of them were the type to spill things over in public.

"Come with me. We're getting out of here," she said as she straightened her robes and headed for the door once again, but not without taking him along with her.

"Confessing? Who's confessing? Not me, no ma'am..." Constantine felt himself being dragged out of the deparment. "Where are you taking me?" He was looking at her suspiciously before adding, "and since when do you call me by my full first AND my last name at the same time?" Strange..., he thought as he was finally pulled out of the room.

Okay, now was not the time to feel nervous, or reluctant. Winter pushed the door open to his new workplace... Or at least the place that he ran now. It smelt funny. Probably of Floo powder. Smart. Woah, everything looked so new, possibly because it was all new. Dang he did think stupid things sometimes. He walked over to the desk that had his name recently imprinted on it and sat down on the chair behind it. Blimey, something was certaintly going to make him smile here. And that was the windows...

Don't ask.

This was absolutely crazy! No one really seemed to care at the moment what happened in the department and Madison was more than fed up with the slowness of things. This was not what she came here for. She stood up from her desk and moved towards anywhere but here.

Winter's eyes flicked up as somebody moved. He watched the woman for a few moments, then looked back down at the seemingly endless bits of paper. Deciding that he wasn't going to get anything done by just staring at them, he pulled a quill out and began to write quickly.
Although he'd rather not be filling in things, he'd rather be doing things.

Lorraine decided to drop into the Floo Network next, as that had her second newest Division Head. Only difference was that Winter wasn't new to the department, just the division. The moment she entered the division though, she was quite sure the employees were bored as Mr Caster was sitting there drumming his thumbs apparently and Ms Myers looked as though she wanted to jump out a window.

Coughing quietly to grasp their attention, she waited for their eyes to reach her before speaking. "Mr Caster. Ms Myers." Lorraine began coolly. "Just coming down to the division and see how things are doing, as well as inform you of a departmental meeting this afternoon, directly following lunch."

Madison heard another voice enter the room which coincidently sent her jumping in her chair. "Oh," she exclaimed with a hand clamped to her chest. Things are a bit boring at the moment. "Everything is...fine," she said as her eyes scanned the lifeless room. "Well, just a tad boring actually." Oh why did she always have to speak the truth when it came to things like this.

"Oh a meeting? I will be there promptly, thank you." She smiled, first smile of the day. Maybe this was going to be something that would keep her mind off of things...or someone.

Lorraine normally would have just left now that at least one employee heard her little memo and could pass it onto her colleagues, except this particular witch seemed rather distraught. Whether is was boredom or something deeper, Lorraine was determined to find out, as the woman jumped in her chair.

"A tad boring?" she asked, raising a brow. "Well it is a good thing that there are some important tasks needed of the Floo Network to prepare for the upcoming ministry convention." She wasn't sure how long the tasks would take her employees, nor how many would attend the meeting, but it never hurt to be optimistic.

Then Madison smiled at her, after what seemed like a great effort for her. Sort of. "Is everything alright, Ms Myers? You seem... distraught."

Her mind started to clutter with different things at one time but she was rather excited about upcoming work for the Ministry convention. "Thank you for the information." Madison breathed sigh of relief as she was thrilled to hear about work to be done.

Oh and then the inevitable question was asked. Was it that obvious? She closed her eyes for a second, sighed and then opened them with another forced smile. "Umm, yes ma'am. Everything is...fine." That didn't sound very encouraging, Madison.

Lorraine nodded again, as Madison did seem quite eager about the upcoming task. This would be good; just the breath of fresh air she needed to get things moving.

In most cases, Lorraine was not quite the nosy type. But when an employee looked downright miserable, she needed to intervene. Especially when the woman is in such obvious distress that she is denying it. Frowning it, she sighed, not believing the young woman's words one bit. "You sure?" she asked, raising one brow as she opened and closed her eyes. "It isn't relationship troubles, is it?"

While the department head had little experience of her own with relationships, there was one thing that she knew. When a woman, or a man, was quiet and didn't want to really talk about something or just said things like 'it's fine'... 99% of the time, it wasn't fine. Lorraine was determined to get to the bottom of this.

Relationship? Gulp! Madison's eyes widened to that word as she looked innocently at her Head of the Department at the moment. "Well, I'm not in a relationship," she sighed as it did have to deal with a male but, there was no relationship there. What was she supposed to say to a complete stranger? Sometimes they were easier to talk to than a friend because they didn't have a side to choose. She sighed as she really wanted to run to the bathroom and hide but, that wouldn't look very good to the boss lady at the moment.

She hung her head low. "But it is a male," she finally forced out with another sigh.