A break. She needed...a definite break. However much she loved animals and helping out as much as she could, everyone needed a break once in awhile.

Which was why she was standing in the almost empty corridor where it was actually somewhat quiet. Except for the few ghosts and little creatures that ran around. They didn't bother her much though. Taking a deep breathe, Lilah leaned against the wall, closing her icy blue eyes and just took a few moments for herself.

Dominic walked down the fourth floor corridor with enthusiasm, why, he didn’t know why. He worked on the eighth floor, and that was far from here. He saw a woman leaning against the wall ahead of him, and she looked surprisingly calm next to all of these creatures running around. He got closer, and noticed that she was very pretty. He hadn’t had a girlfriend in a long time.. ‘Quit it, Dom! What are you thinking!’ He repeated to himself. ‘You don’t even know her!’ It was true, Dominic was going through romantic distress since the day his wife mysteriously disappeared.

Taking one last deep breathe, Lilah hung her head forward and just relaxed. It felt nice to get out and away from most of the commotion for once, and...get some lotion. She really needed some lotion. Badly.

Opening her eyes, she looked around, maybe hoping to spot somebody walking by with some, or...some would just automatically appeared, but alas. Nothing. Just a few animals and, a man staring at her. Did she step in something? Leaned against something that wasn't supposed to be?

Checking everywhere, she didn't find anything out of the ordinary. "Hello." she said uncertainly, waving at he man before smiling. Maybe she had something on her face...

"Hello." He broke his gaze and blushed. He looked down at his shirt and stopped in frnt of her. "Um, i'm from level eight, but I decided to walk around the ministry. It gets kind of boring staying in one level all the time."
He gave a twich of a smile. He hoped she thought he wasn't staring at her. "Sorry for not formally introducing myself," He said, taking out his hand. "My name's Dominic Everdeen. What's yours?"

Hmm, level eight? "Well, it's never boring down on this level." she laughed a little, ducking under and owl that was flying by. What in the world did level eight deal with again? Ugh, if only she could remember when she did that education task race thing.

"Lilah Burwell." she said, reaching out to shake his hand. "It's nice to meet you Mr. Everdeen. Forgive me for asking though. I'm still a little new around here and haven't gotten the chance to explore as of yet, but level eight...that is the..." What, level?

He knew she was having trouble. "Department of Magical law enforcement." He said, releasing his hand and smiling. "So, what do you do in your department?" He asked, glancing around. "And why are animals running around everywhere?"

"Law enforcement." she said, raising her eyebrows in surprise. She didn't really see him as that before, but now that she thought about it, yes he seemed like the type of guy to be working there. Nothing bad about that of course.

Giggling slightly, she looked around, noticing the slight mess of the corridor. "Well, you just so happened to stumble upon the Magical Creatures level." The best level EVER of course! "I work in the Werewolf Registry and Capture Unit. Thankfully there hasn't been that much work lately." Well, that was a good and bad thing. Less work, is bad. But it was also good since no one really needed to be registered...or captured for that matter.

However, Lilah just couldn't resist asking! "So what's it like?" she asked, standing up straight with a slight bounce in her step. "Working in law enforcement?"

Dominic smiled and was glad she wasinterested in his department. "Well, we make sure everything is working properly, even with the Muggle police. That's all I can say becuse Today is my second day on the job." He felt embarassed. "Werewolves?" he asked. " How do you handle them? I mean, are they regular men?" He asked confused.

Second day on the job? Oh, he must be even more new than her! Well, at least he'd probably lived here all his life right? It would be rather strange if he came from the States like she did. "That must be hard. Trying to make sure everything is working properly in two worlds. Would be too stressful for me." Even now her meter on the stress level was rising slowly.

"Well, yes, they are people just like you and me." she nodded, but frowned slightly. "Sometimes though, they don't really enjoy the fact that they need to be registered so, there could be a few dangerous temper tantrums every now and then. Especially if one is registering close to a full moon." Granted, she hadn't been the victim of one of those outbreaks, but she definitely heard them going on.

Occ: I've had this job for a year but never really posted there.
"Whoa, you must be really tough then," He said, eye's getting bigger. "I know they are regular men that have an unlucky fate, but it kind of creeps me out."
He shuddered. Just thinking about hadling full grown men and seeing them go through pain.. "We have to deal with all of the criminals. I wanted to work in the department of mysteries, but.." He trailed off. Her blue eyes were just hard to miss. He shook it off, not wanting to creep her out. He guessed she wasn't somene who was really interested in him. His blonde hair fluttered onto his face, and he continuosly brushed it off, getting embarassed.

Growing up around guys, of course she was tough! She wasn't going to cry because her nail broke or anything. Pfft.

"It is kinda creepy isn't it." Just like ghosts. Those were creepy as well. Especially when some pretend to drink something. "Department of Mysteries?" Wasn't that where Ryan worked? Yes, she thought it was. She hadn't seen him in awhile since she had been busy with other things, thank Merlin for that, but than again, that was such a bad thing. She hadn't been keeping tabs on him or anything! Her plan...was going down in the dumps! And she feared she may have let down...

No. No time to get all emotional right now. "What is in the Department of Mysteries anyway? It's just so...mysterious." Yea, fail of words at the moment. That's what she gets for listening to that kneazle meow for hours on end. Watching him continuously move his blond hair away from his face, Lilah held in another giggle. That would be...highly inappropriate. Giggling. Pssh.

He finally got that annoying little strand of hair out of his face, so he started focusing on Lilah. It was hard focusing on her, so he tried looking at his feet again. Nothing was working! This was not how he had planned! Wait, he planned this? He looked into her face again and gave a half smile. "Yep, I guess nobody knows except if you work there, unless your really adventurous and you sneak in, or your date works there and tells you all about it.." He trailed off, realizing she was holding back a giggle. Agh! What was he doing wrong? He had never been good around women, not even his own mother- ok, scratch that-

Dominic was frusturated because he wanted to impress Lilah, yes, that was it, it's the only way.. The blushing, staring at his feet, and looking into those bright blue eyes. Yep, he needed to change the subject.

"Um, what do you like to do?" He asked. "I'm not really a sports guy, I like to read books. I keep my kids well involved, you know, sports, gymnastics." He said.

"I'm not that adventurous." she chuckled, rubbing her arms slightly. Should've brought a sweater or something. "And I'd rather keep my job for that matter." Otherwise she'd have to move back to the states. Eep! That couldn't happen. Especially when she was getting close to finishing her plan. Sorta.

What...did she like to do? The abrupt change in subject did slightly confuse her, however she decided to not pay much attention to it. Innocent question right? Listening to him name off some things he himself liked to do, a small smile crept onto her lips when he mentioned kids. "You are married?" she asked, a hint of jealousy in her voice, but nothing all that detectable. "Well, personally, I can do without sports. I only really pay attention to quidditch when a certain team is playing." And hopefully she didn't make a huge fool of herself at the World Cup. Even though she missed it, she still knew who won! That was enough to celebrate.

"And...I love to read too, actually. Though, it's more studying than anything? Trying to learn as much as I can on creatures, both magical and not. I can't imagine a life without them." Just look at her house. It was starting to look like a zoo now. "Apart from that though...I'm a big fan of gardening. And...I think I actually might be getting the hang of it. One of my flowers actually lasted a full month." she laughed, shaking her head slightly. It was better than the few days her flowers usually lasted.

"Used to be married," He said. "My wife left me right after we got married. I've never seen her again." His head rolled down but he forced himself not to do that again. "Yeah, you should see the greenhouses my daughter keeps in the backyard." He said, smiling. He noticed she was cold so he cautiosly took off his jacket and handed it to her. "It is chilly in here." He grinned.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." she said in slight guilt. Probably wasn't the best thing to bring up, but how was she supposed to know?

On a lighter note however, the talk of his daughter having a greenhouse in their backyard did put a small smile back onto her face. "Sounds like she's really serious about it. Could probably give me a few pointers." she with a light laugh. "How old is she?"

Noticing him taking off his jacket, her expression turned to one of confusion for a moment. Why would he take it off? It was cold in the corridor! That is, until she realized he was offering it to her. To her? She, had been trying to get her arms warmed up. Would it be alright if she accepted it? That wouldn't be weird right? People did that for others. "Thank you." she said quietly, taking the jacket and wrapping it around her shoulders and arms. Soooo much better.

Dominic stifled a laugh, he knew she was confused about the jacket. "Oh, she's fifteen, and she loves anything to do with muggles, smarts, and gardening. I don't go into the greenhouses anymore because i've had some incidents with her foreign plants... So my son waters them and such. I think the trick is playing them music. Rue made the family sit down once and watch a video about giving plants music to flourish. It was amazing! It turns out hard rock is the best kind of music for greenbean plants." He said, remembering turning on the cd player and covering his ears when Rue wanted to show them how it was done.

"So you like gardening, I know there must be something else." He said, glancing at the clock on the wall. Break was almost over.

Incidents with her...foreign plants? Well, Lilah didn't have any of those and by the sounds of it, she probably won't. It as best to just stick with roses and daisies in her opinion and safety. "Playing them music?" However skeptical she was about that, she laughed anyways. "I'll have to give it a try sometime then. I don't grow...any green-beans though unfortunately."

Snuggling herself into the jacket, she didn't miss the glance at the clock the man made though, and even took a little peak herself. Oops! She was supposed to be back inside two minutes ago! But... "I'm a beach kind of person." she confessed, not really knowing why she was saying all this to him. "But, since I've moved here, I haven't really been able to travel and visit one, so I've settled on parks. They have a peculiar way of calming one down that I haven't realized before until now. I mostly find myself wandering around there...or the bookshop across the street from the Ministry which has fulfilled my appetite of reading books. "

Smiling, she glanced at the clock once more before taking off the jacket and handing it to him. "I think I'm out of time right now, but perhaps I'll see you around either of those during a weekend or something?" hehe

"Yes, maybe we can meet again. Would you like to meet somewhere? He asked, trying not to make it obvious.

Meet somewhere? That's...what she had been asking. Hehe. But perhaps she had not made herself clear enough. Which of course would happen for someone like her. Not making herself clear...as always. "That would be nice." she said, a shy smile replacing the happy one on her face.

However, she didn't know where. She had already suggested the park or bookshop, neither which he would be interested in probably. Seriously, what person who works in Law Enforcement would want to meet at a bookshop?

"The bookshop sounds nice," He said, probably suprising her yet again. "I can meet you there whenever you have a break. Don't worry, I love reading. It keeps my mind off things and interests me." He gave her a smile that was more confident than he had expected.

The bookshop? Well, what do you know. Taken by surprise for a moment, Lilah nodded and smiled once more before glancing back up at the clock. "Alright then." she said, taking off his jacket and holding it out for him to take back before a small quiet laugh escaped her. "It seems we have the same break so that shouldn't be a problem. Thank you...for letting me use your jacket by the way."

“No problem,” He said, reaching for the coat, their hands touching for a moment. He pulled the jacket back on and waved, giving a friendly smile. “See you in the bookshop.” He said, turning away.

It was busy days like this that made Armen wish there were mini-cafeterias on each floor. Technically there were Breakrooms spaced out amongst the various levels of the Ministry building, but the Department Head hadn't brought anythign from home so if he chose that option he would be eating someone else's food. So chosing the path that didn't involve common lunch theft, Armen made his way down the corridor on Level Four, his mission the Ministry-wide Cafeteria.

He hadn't been on this floor that often since the remodel as was a bit worried he would get lost. There were so many doors leading off of the main hall and why were there no signs pointing to the food?! Ok he was lost now. Someone help!

Damien was strolling along humming to himself... a tuneless sort of tune it was... THEN he spotted the lost looking guy. Not that he could be of much help or anything... he was rather new to the place and well... he had spent more time in Muggleville than in the MoM lately. Stupid interns and such.

"Hey, what's up?" he called out to the man as he approached. He kind of stopped beside the dude and began to peer around as he was. He wondered what his take on interns was.

Erica had decided it was time for a break. Her employees were working well and quite frankly she needed some time out of that office to reflect on what she had been doing. So the Magical Creatures Head, walked out of her oak door and began wondering the fourth floor, walking straight down the middle of the corridor. There wasn't a lot exactly to see, mostly just walls and...more walls. But it was still pleasant to explore for a little while. She probably wouldn't get the opportunity to later.

The Blonde 31 year old, stopped momentarily at the end of the stretch. She wasn't entirely familiar with this place considering her previosu careers had all been within other Countries and their Ministry's or actually out with Magical Creatures.

Left or Right?