She wasn't lost. Heck. No she -- Who was she trying to kid, she'd been lost for about an hour. She'd only jumped in the lift, and got out of it, not in the right place, obviously. She ran a hand through her brown hair, and sighed as she headed down the corridor she found. There had to be atleast someone around for her to ask for directions. She needed to get back to her own department, blimey!

Hands hastily holding her bag and a cup of hot chocolate, Tatelyn wandered, and wandered, and wandered. Down. The. Corri--PERSON!

"Excuuuuuse meeeee? Excuuuusee meee, lovely?" Help? Please? She called for the person walking towards her, and quickened her pace just a little bit, to catch them.

She. Knew. This. Person. She did. SHE DID.

"Erica Radley? What the bloomin' heck you doing here?" Last she had heard, Erica had been off doing something with something else. Not here.

Wow.

Well what was this way then?

Erica looked down the left exit, wandering what else was on the level she worked upon. Okay so her visits to the Ministry had been limited. Though this place was amazing and she felt honoured to be working here, let alone run a whole department by herself. She wandered along, alone, there seemed to be no one else out here, it was quiet. Kind o peaceful if you thought about....

Her head snapped up as she heard a voice calling out. Well if they were lost there was NO way she could exactly help them. She'd end up getting lost herself. But the thirty year old one smiled anyway, but it wasn't until she had got closer that she truly recognised who it was.

"Tatelyn?" the woman blinked a few times. Goodness she hadn't seen her in years. This was so strange. Back in their school days, both had been Hufflepuff girls, both in the same year.

"I got a job here, as the Department Head for Magical Creatures" she informed her. "What about you?" she asked. Hadn't she been abroad for some time? At least that was what she had heard.

As IF?!

As if getting lost wasn't bad enough, she was stuck... WITHOUT HER WAND TOO! Oh, Merlin. It wasn't her fault exactly. She'd just needed to run to get a coffee, and had decided she didn't necessarily need her wand. Now, perhaps this person was EVIL?! Her karate skills wouldn't do much for her if they were wanded.

MEEEEP.

"Tate. It's Tate, more now. I suppose I outgrew Tatelyn again." Like she had when she first moved to the UK with her father. She had again now. It was normal, wasn't it? She supposed it was. Supposed it was, incredibly.

Ah, Magical Creatures. Tate knew Erica had enjoyed that part of their education. More loved than enjoyed. The woman nodded with a smile, and chuckled. "Just got a job as Department Head for Magical Education." So, they were both Department Head's, wasn't that just... ironic, in a way.

"Well I didn't think I'd be seeing you here..." Nope. Not ever.

Erica couldn't help but grin. It was so strange seeing someone you hadn't seen in quite some time suddenly stood in front of you. It had been years... Maybe even a decade. Both of the woman had to be 31 now and to not have seen each other since their Hogwarts days, it was so unexpected to suddenly meet each other now.

"Oh I'm sorry" the Blonde woman winked and laughed to herself. "I thought you might have wanted some kind of formal address or something along those lines" she was joking, but it was true. Some people preferred to keep full names once they had aged slightly. And especially regarding that they were in the Ministry now, most people had called her Miss Radley when she first met them in her office, which felt strange for the thirty-one year old seeing as she had never been called that on her previous jobs. Erica was her name and that was what she would stick to.

"Well isn't that ironic?" she asked, her pearly whites shining through her permanent smile. "So we should expect to see a lot more of each other then?" she asked, and that was a good thing, they needed a good catch up, Hufflepuffs always stuck together right?

That grin. Tate remembered that grin, from around school, in their classes and from their common room and dorm. She'd actually missed someone being there, grinning like that, she didn't get that now-a-days, unless it was Odette, and that didn't count so much.

The brunette laughed lightly, and nodded. "Now, was formality ever my strong point, Ms. Radley?" Along with her words, she adopted a posh accent, and burst into a fit of giggles as she ended. Sure, she was mature when she wasn't with someone she knew. Heh.

A nod came with her head, and Tate smiled again. "Very." Very ironic, that was. Completely utterly ironic, actually. "I suppose it does, Eri. -- Erica. Sorry." What had posessed Tatelyn to called Erica 'Eri', she couldn't quite pinpoint. She knew she'd called her it sometimes in school. But... now?!

Drago led the woman out to the corridor, continuing in a polite manner. "So, my dear, what brings you to the Ministry?"

"Drago?" Iris asked taken aback. She thought Drango was an odd name, but she was mistaken, she had heard wrong; but still Drago was odd. "Interesting name." She commented as they walked. "Sorry for the slowness, my joints are really achy lately." She explained, "It took me forever just to get up here in the first place!" She exclaimed with a chuckle.

Iris turned to look up at Drago, and gave him a smile, she liked this kid too. He was polite and respectful towards his elders! "Well, I decided I needed to get out and do something with the rest of my life." Iris started. "I was hesitant to come to the Ministry." Iris told Drago carefully, "I've never worked a day in my seventy two years of life." She stated nodding her head.

Iris wanted a change of subject, she didn't want to answer anymore questions, she wanted to be the one asking questions. "I didn't catch her name, back there. What was it?" Iris stated, "What a nice woman, I really do want to have coffee with her." Iris rambled.

"Drago is a traditional Italian name. It's more fitting in that context. But no, around here it is rather unusual, as foreign names often are."

"Her name is Erica Radley, I believe. She is the new head of our department. She's a very nice young lady. Orderly, organized, mind incredibly on her work. But not quite 'all work no play.' Rather impressive. She also has a true passion for magical creatures, which is more than I can say about myself. However, the Ministry does not have a department for magical flora." He gave her a bit of a playful smile.

"Ah, well you see Drake, I don't know hardly anything about Italian." Iris told, Drago who was just now named Drake by Iris without her even knowing it. "I do know a lot about Indian names of course, having spent several years of my life there, but I've never been to Italy." Iris explained.

"Erin...Got it." Iris said nodding her head a couple of times, though she'd forget it in mere minutes. "Yes, she seems to have a very leveled head on her shoulders." Iris agreed. "You know Drake, Erin reminds me of a neighbor I once had when I lived in Scotland. Though she was very nosy, she did work very hard at her job, even for a Muggle I give her props for how hard she worked. I never could understand her field of profession, something to do with the teeth, and putting metal on them to supposedly fix them. Though I think they'd mess them up, I mean who puts metal on teeth?!" Iris rambled, almost beginning to confuse herself.

"Dentist, I believe you are talking about, though I may be mistaken. There are a few professions muggles have regarding teeth. I do not think I would participate in muggle dentistry, they..." He paused in his speech momentarily to gather the thought. "Muggles do the best they can with what they have. They do not have magic or potions, technically, to be able to do what we do. We can fix a good many things, almost instinctively. But muggles do not have that ability. It pushes them to find alternate methods. They use science and technology instead. And with it, they have done many things."

It was still hard for him to say. Muggles were not his favorite, thanks to his past, but through Slade he had learned quite a bit more about them, and he had to admit he was impressed. Then in being in the encampment, he learned just how much they could do. "Imagine... they cannot portkey, or apparate, or floo. So they build machines which depend on ignitable fluids to cause a small explosion within something called an 'engine' in order to get around. Motorcycles, automobiles... aeroplanes."

Iris rolled her eyes and shook her head twice. Oh how she disliked muggles. "Quite frankly I don't care what they're called. I'd be more concerned that they put metal in a child's mouth. What a cruel and unusual punishment!" Iris exclaimed, though she had listened to her neighbor explain it Iris just could never understand why in Merlin's name someone would want metal in their mouth.

Iris looked around as they walked, blocking out most of Drakes mumbo jumbo about muggles. She had dealt enough with them in the last few years, she didn't want to talk about them when she was supposed to be working on her first day at work.

"Are we getting close?" She asked, looking up at Drake. She squeezed his arm slightly and stopped. "Sorry, can't do too much walking or my joints tense up something bad." She explained. "Tell me, how long have you been here?" She asked as she started walking again, still holding on to Drake's arm. "You seem a bit young to me, did you come to the Ministry right out of school?" She questioned. "Can you believe I've never worked a day in my life?" She asked him. "I only came out to try it because I was getting vastly bored sitting at home all day every day doing the same thing over and over and over again." Iris explained to him. "I've got enough money to last me fie lifetimes, so it's not the money." She told him making sure he knew she wasn't in need of any money.