Melanie sighed resigned, he was making it so hard to talk to him, always looking down, away, short straight answers, and he was obviously paying her no attention.. she felt like pouting, but got over it.

She crossed her arms on her chest " We'll I'll go to my desk and leave you to your work then.." she said, a bit resentful as she walked to her desk. When she got there she had a parchment on her desk with some updates regarding the cup, so she opened the first page to read them.

Torquil nodded briefly at Melanie as she spoke and he went back to his work, attempting to concentrate on the papers in front of him. But all he could smell was her perfume, and it made him sigh and drop his head to the desk briefly, before he stood up. "I need some water.." He said curtly as he stalked out of the room.

Melanie frowned at Torquil's figure and even got up to follow him, but she scowled herself and sat again. Her face was confused, what was wrong with him?

She sighed and tried to concentrate on her papers until he came back, without success.

Torquil walked back into the office, quietly once again. Barely making a sound as he crossed the room and seated himself at his desk once more. He had been gone for over twenty minutes, just stalking up and down the corridor trying to get his feelings under control. He liked and was attracted to a very very beautiful woman, who was his boss, had a boyfriend and was pregnant.. Goodness he was sick.

He sighed, ran his hand once more through his hair and moved his eyes back to his paperwork. He needed to get out more, find more girls, have a good time, instead of being here, slowly falling for his boss.. He ground his teeth and tried to concentrate once more.

Melanie's eyes darted up immediately when she heard Torquil's chair. She analysed his face carefully, he looked worried. She tilted her head to the side. What was he worried about? He was just fine then he almost ran off the office for apparently no reason.

She sighed heavily and got up, walking on his direction. She hesitated a little by his desk before pulling a chair nearby and sitting opposite from him. " hm... I don't want to pry or anything but... is everything ok with you?" she asked him ready to flinch when he told her to butt out.

Dora had apparently dozed off for a moment because the sounds of Mel and Torquil's voices brought her back to the present. Looking up she smiled weakly and said, "I am so sorry for that Mel! I didn't get alot of sleep last night. How are you feeling this morning?" She then turned to Torquil, "Good morning." she gave him a stiff nod and then covered her mouth with her had and stifled a yawn. "So, what are we getting into today?" she asked Mel.She then heard a bit of the conversation and felt as though she were intruding on a [personal conversation and said,"Umm.. I think I'll go see if Abby is here somewhere. I'll... uh... be back afterwhile. And then got up and made to leave the room.

Torquil looked up at Melanie as she spoke and sighed a little, leaning back in his chair as he looked at her. Did she know what she did to him? Probably not.. Play it cool Torq.. He thought as he gave her a small smile, trying to look like he was alright. "Yes, Everything is fine with me." He said looking at her, his eyes drinking in everything he saw.. What he wouldn't give to... Stop it!! She isn't yours, she never can be.. so just knock it off.. His mind screamed at him as he blinked a little.

"I was wondering, if anything is being done about finding my replacement? If not, perhaps I could get Andi to come back in for awhile, She knows all about this stuff.." He said waving his hand around the office. The sooner he could get away, the sooner he could try to forget her. The sooner he could try to forget how she made him feel.

Mel was startled by Dora's voice, had she been there all this time?! " I'm fine darling, were you with Edward sweetie? " she asked her tenderly. She really like Dora, she was such a good person. But then she left, looking a bit embarrassed, and she was again alone with Torquil. She looked at him again "You want to leave so soon?" she asked him puzzled, it was ok if he did.. really, but it wasn't because of her right? She hadn't scared him away hadn't she?

She felt the intensity of his gaze and blushed a little, she pretended to be scratching her chin and ended up covering her mouth with her hand. She thought for a moment and then answered him " I'm afraid we can't let you go right now, as you see, with the Quidditch World Cup arriving we need all hands on deck " she joked with a smile. It was true.

Torquil had been afraid of that.. He sighed and looked at her. "Yes, I did want to leave so soon.. however since you have stated that you need me, I shall remain here, and help with the world Cup. I suppose after the World Cup, I will be able to go?" He asked looking over at her.

A little smile lit up his eyes as he saw her blush, and at that moment he wanted to grab her and kiss her. He didn't however, and he looked away for a moment, before looking back at her. A small twinkle in his eyes.

Melanie tilted her head at him, what's the rush ? she thought " Yes I suppose you will" she said softly playing with a quill on his table. When she looked up again his eyes were twinkling and she smiled.

"Your family's eyes are very peculiar... purple eyes, who would have known.. though Piper's were lighter " she said analysing him. When she realised what she was doing she looked away and got up. What's happening?!

She decided to go to business again... or in this case, work " Have you thought of any spells that can be used to protect the field for the players and or the audience?" she asked him remembering what she had heard from Ben. " Ben's idea, Mr. Cobblesten the Department Head" she introduced " was something that could avoid the players to get hurt during the game, for eg, if they were falling, something like a invisible gigantic pillow would be under... spells like them... I think I.." she took her wand from her wrist holder and shook it delicatly and a HUGE file box came and landed on Torquil's desk " we had something like that in this box" she said pointing to the label To further study.

She pulled her hair away from her face and tied on a ponytail on the top of her head. " We can both dig in here, but of course we'll have to make our own spells... but we can use one of these as base." she looked at him, glowing with excitement.

Dora tiptoed back into the room trying not to disturb Mel and Torquil. That had been AWKWARD earlier. She took a seat and waited to see if Abby would be coming in or if Mel could think of anything she should be working on for the Invisibility Task Force. She sighed and then said ina small voice, "Do you think I should wait to see if anyone else from the Invisibility task Force arrives or do you have some ideas for me to be working on?" Dora was still a bit embarassed by interrupting Mel and Torquil's conversation earlier.

"Yes I guess I will have too.." He said with a sigh as he leaned back and looked at the ceiling for a moment, absentmindedly ran a hand over his beardless chin, scratching at the slight stubble there.

But then he heard her remark about his family's eyes and he smiled. "Yes, it is a Snow trait to have these eyes, everyone in my family has them, cept for my mother of course. As she married into it, and wasn't born into them. I have the darkest ones, Piper has violet eyes, Aurora has lavender ones, Andrina and my Father have the brightest purple eyes you can imagine, and my older brother Skye, he had light purple, like the color of the sky before dawn.. that cold light purple.." He smiled, he liked talking about his family. All my cousins and aunts, uncles, grandparents have them too.."

He blinked as a huge box fell onto his desk, "Well we could use the cushioning Charm, spongify, but maybe tweak it a bit in order for it to cover a wider surface, Perhaps we should try pillowfy.. It might work.." He suggested as he looked at the box and started to paw through it. "How about we make the entire field like a giant bouncing mattress?" He asked looking up at her.

"Join us!" Melanie said, relieved that Dora had decided to return, she waved her wand again and another chair pulled itself to Torquil's table " Let's all think of some spells to make the game run smoothly and to keep the players from getting hurt!" she was almost jumping in her seat with excitment, making spells was something she loved, she used to make loads of them back at Hogwarts.

She heard Torquil's suggestions and nibbled on her nails for a bit "That's not bad" she ended up saying and wrote down:

cushioning Charm
larger spongify
pillowfy
make the field into a gigantic boucing mattress

She was so happy she was glowing "More more more!" she sang " we could perhaps protect the audience from the balls with glassify, you know, to produce a invisible flexible glass that could bounce the balls away " she said looking at a file with that spell. She looked down at her paper and noticed she had been righting in purple ink. She gazed at it admired, then up at Torq.

Dora thought momentarily about joining them at Torquil's table and shook her head. She then pulled up a chair at the table next to them and explained, "I have to admit my workstation tends to get a bit messy, I'll have a seat over here." She then summoned some of the files over to look through. "The cushioning charm would be an obvious choice.... But I agree we should try to invent something else. Perhaps a bit stronger and a bit more fun. What Ben said about them falling and perhaps bouncing as if on a trampoline was quite interesting." She laughed a bit at Mel's excitement and sighed. She wishes she could get as excited about Charms. "I like the idea about plexiglass, but how about a bludger/quaffle repelling charm cast low over the crowd, that way it wouldn't affect the match. Or something of that nature." Honestly Dora had never really gotten into inventing charms, she was more interested in DADA in school and Transfiguration....

Torquil rolled his eyes slightly as Dora re-entered the room, really.. She was starting to be bothersome, super bothersome.. Interrupting, and being so dang bouncy.. another reason why he wanted to get out of here.

He smiled widely as Melanie started to Glow.. he hated to put a damper on it, when she mentioned glassify.. "I don't know how well that would work, unless it conformed to each member of the audience, it would interrupt the quidditch play.." He informed her, it was a good idea, but not very practical.. He knew.. having been on the Quidditch team. He smiled down at her, "It is a good idea, perhaps not for this though?" He said looking at her.

Melanie frowned a bit as Dora sat alone, she couldn't get the two of them to get along it seemed.
"I think you're right, but I the spell would be cast only in the grandstand and those aren't exactly inside Quidditch field borders I think... But, Dora's right, maybe a bludger,quaffle repellent" she wrote down

bludger/quaffle repellent spell

"About the trampolin, I like that as well.." she tapped her fingers on the sheet of paper " God we'll have a ton of work to do to prefect all these spells.." she blew some of the hair that had escaped from her ponytail away from her face " remember how I suggested to make a little list of spells to be cast on the tents and the camping ground to prevent major accidents? how about those? maybe something that acts like muggle sprinklers to avoid fire?" she was so motivated. She kept checking on Torq with the corner of her eye, she had liked to watch him talk about his family, she could tell he loved them very much, just like Craig loved his. It made her heart feel so warm so watch happy families... maybe because her's was a mess.. she sighed.

Torquil tried not to sigh with annoyance as Dora repeated exactly what he had just said. He ground his teeth together in frustration as he looked at Melanie, "No, trampolines won't work, Remember I played Quidditch, a trampoline, while soft, will just keep bouncing the player up, and could possibly bounce him into the crowd. A large mattress would work well though, or possibly making the ground a feather bed, that would work as well." He said smiling.

He could see Melanie kept looking at him, out of the corner of her eye and he grinned at her. "How about we just fireproof the tents? Wouldn't that be easier?" He asked her arching an eyebrow at her.

Dora could here Torquil's teeth grind together and the hint of annoyance as he refuted what she had said. He obviously had a problem with her and she wasn't going to stand for being spoken over and made to feel foolish. "Well, I played Quidditch as well and if you knew anything about Muggle toys such as trapolines you would know that they don't keep bouncing FOREVER. But since you seem to have all of the bloody answers to the problems we are facing, why don't you take the lead on the mission." Dora exploded. Then turning back her hair and eyes turning bright red again, "I believe I will wait for Abby and the rest of the Task Force, I cannot work with this insufferable man!! Perhaps I will see if I can be useful somewhere else considering that Mr. Perfect here can solve all your problems." And with that Dora shot sparks from her wand with anger catching her parchment on fire she cried "Aguamenti" and turned on the spot and disappeared before Mel could say anything to convince her otherwise.

"Fire proof tents work of course, but the danger of fire isn't only on the inside, it's also on the outside, there might be wizards trying to play the muggle and set a fire outside.. and if we remember the last Cup..." she made a disgust noise. She was enjoying this talk, things seemed to run smoothly and she preferred to talk to Torq normally like this than to have to stare into his purplelish eyes all the time.

Dora's angry speech and actions left Melanie shocked. She wanted to say something, but Dora didn't give her the chance. She wanted to make both of them to talk like two civilized people but she couldn't either.

She looked in the direction where Dora had disappeared shocked, her mouth slightly open " What on earth?" she said, she didn't hear the meaningful tone behind Torq's words, she hadn't been paying attention. She wasn't really sure what to do next.... she looked at him, her eyes wide. " That..." she breathed heavily " just killed my buzz..." sat back on her chair, annoyed. The protuberance on her belly was getting clearer everyday, like a small bump. Her hair hang on her back bouncing from side to side " Maybe you should go talk to her, apologize, say that she got you wrong... I don't want people fighting in my division" she said, innocently, really believing he didn't mean any harm.

Torquil was honestly shocked at Dora's outburst. There hadn't been any tone in his voice towards her, he had kept it inside, and there was no way she could have heard him grind his teeth together, he had only done it once, and silently. So unless she could read his mind.. Which he doubted, what was her big problem?

He turned toward Melanie, confusion in his eyes. "What was that all about? There was no tone, and I do not think I know it all.. And I know how trampolines work.. but if you are dropping from a high distance, they could very well bounce you right into the crowd.." He sighed a bit.

"I am sorry that killed your buzz, I didn't do anything." He said looking at the door. Goodness.. Women!! They were insane... Except for Melanie of course..

Melanie was about to answer when she felt something weird inside. Like she had a fireball in her stomach. She was beginning to sweat, and her eyes were watering. Was there something wrong with her? Her heart started racing, her hands flew to her belly trying to protect the baby, but she knew it was happening inside of her.

"Is it full moon?!" she asked breathing heavily looking at Torq, her eyes opaque "I think I need to go to my appartment" she said with her voice trembling, she tried to get up, but her legs failed her, it must be full moon, the baby is big enough to feel it's effects " I need to go to Craig" she murmured and slid to the ground, fainting.

Silas poked his head into the experimental charms and invisibility somethingorother office, he couldn't quite remember the full name, to see what the ruckus was about.

"Everything alright in here? I heard some..."

"...oh dear." Silas's sentence had been interuppted by Melanie slumping to the ground after muttering about the moon and some bloke named Craig. "Oi!" he called to the large man he hadn't met yet, "what's wrong with her?" Silas made his way into the room and refused to take his eyes off Melanie. Her skin looked damp with perspiration and he'd just watched her drop to the floor in front of him. People who were well just didn't do that. "Did she say what was wrong? Should I get someone?"

An owl came soaring in with a ripped up parchment and dropped in on Melanie's head.

Silas watched the owl come in and drop a note down on Melanie's head. Silas felt a single bead of perspiration drip down his face. Being closest to Melanie, he reached down and opened the paper.

If there had been any color in Silas' face to begin with, it would have all drained in that instant. His bottom jaw dropped open. "Could... these be connected," he wondered aloud, before stuffing the parchment in his pocket. He wanted to keep Craig's privacy -- whoever he was.

Taking his wand from his holster, Silas summoned some parchment and a quill.

Charming the parchment to fold itself and seek out Dora if she was still in the building, Silas sent the note on its way, praying it found its recipient. Silas didn't know who else to get or who else to trust.

Dora landed a bit off balance and the sight of Melanie on the floor made her fall. She turned to Silas and frantically said, "When did this happen? We need a Healer immediately!! She' pregnant!" With that Dora scooted over to where Melanie lie on the floor and grabbed her hand. Praying to Merlin they could get her help quickly enough.