Melanie saw a woman in a rush with a empty tea pot pushing her way through the crowd. When the woman got to her, Melanie was almost pushed over by her. "Oops, I'm so sorry." Melanie apologized though she knew the woman should have apologized to her, she didn't say it aloud.

She must have been in a rush to get tea from the Tea Shop and it was true that the strike had blocked up the sidewalk and some of the roads which was blocking some cars to pass. Nevertheless, Melanie kept waving her sign angrily shouting "DOWN WITH BORR! HE SHOULD WORK NO MOOOOOORRRRRRE!!!!"

"Which is exactly what I'm doing. Leaving that is," Roxi replied, turning around. She wasn't going to stand as part of this anymore. If that woman kept up all the yelling at people, she'd spark a riot! Which was something Roxi no part of. "Oh, and somebody should warn your fearless leader that she's about to spark a riot," Roxi added. She had seen it happen before. Accusations fly, then fists (or in this case, spells), next thing you know, boom riot. Which could expose the whole wizarding world to the muggles. Roxi continued on her way out of the crowd.

Hawk Ebon had been studying the crowd of protestors carefully, looking to see if he recognized the woman he was searching for. He hadn't seen her yet, and the noise was growing rather loud.

Then he saw a man approaching him and he turned to look at him fully. Oh, he recongnized him as a MLE, having seen him at the "party" when the newbies had joined. He stood up and replied "Oh, you see, I was looking for someone, I'm not actually part of this protest."

Thalia stood in the crowd holding her own sign, sure, she had been working fairly productively but if there was a chance to protest against Lord Borr, she'd take it without hesitation... which may have been how she found herself here in the first place! Allowing herself to fall back, she fell to sit on her bag to take a break whilst getting a snack. She knew they'd possibly be here for quite a while!

Leo laughed. That's what was wrong? Did she ahllucinate often? Of course he was here. "Nope, I'm really here," he chuckled. She really was simply adorable.

He glanced over at Holli, and flashed her a brief smile, thanking her for not punching him, or whatever it was she wanted to do to prove to Maine he was real. She also loked very angry with him. What had he done? Walked past, noticed an upset Maine, and come over to ask her what was wrong? How had this all turned into Leo-the-jerk-is-a-hallucination? He wasn't trying to be a jerk if that's how it was coming across to anybody.

What was he doing here? Leo had thought that plain enough. "I came down to see what was going on, maybe take some pictures, for posterity. You looked upset. Are you okay?" At this point, he wasn't sure. She seemed...sort of out of it. Confused?

Maybe she was under the impression that his job was more important than her? Granted, if Armen came down, Leo would fully and honestly explain the situation, and that he did not support the protest, but right now Maine needed him. So who cared what anybody else thought?

"THEN RIOT WE WILL!!" Esteban yelled back at her. He would rather be part of a riot then work the lazy no good lord what's his face. He was a useless man. Esteban raised his fist into the air and pumped it several times.

He was hoping that everyone would get the message. They needed the might of the ministry workers out here to bring fairness back into the ministry. "BUT IF YOU ARE TOO BIG OF A COWARD THEN RUN...FLEE BACK TO THE MINISTRY WHERE YOU BELONG!!!!

Emerald had heard about this strike...but had never imagined it to be so serious and tense. She, herself was familiar with the...unfair and unjust treatment of Lord Borr to the Ministry staff. She too, would like to join this strike, for the sake of the Ministry and the whole Wizarding World.

But for the start, she wasn't sure what to do. The crowd was jeering with protests and signs...Emmy was a bit uncomfortable in the noisy crowd...

IF YOU WANT TO RIOT, THEN HAVE FUN IN MUGGLE PRISON! BECAUSE IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED, YOU'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF MUGGLE LONDON!" Roxi screamed back, hoping she got through to the man. Roxi, for her part, had been there done that, didn't want to go back.

OH, SO I'M A COWARD JUST BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO BE INVOLVED IN THIS ANYMORE! I've BEEN PERFECTLY REASONABLE AND CIVIL WITH YOU AND YOUR CALLING ME NAMES? WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH WITH THAT? Roxi yelled. She lowered her voice and continued, "Think about what you are saying, before you say it. That's all I'm saying." And this time, Roxi really did leave. She was about to lose her cool, which wouldn't have been pretty. If these people wanted to risk being arrested, that was fine with her. She just didn't want to be a part of it anymore.

Things were certainly getting heated quickly. Especially towards the few MLE members that had trickled into the mess. Hot and sticky was a good way to describe it, and Sabel couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt that a good deal of the heat towards his co-workers was because he was there. No. Strike that. It wasn't his choice how the crowd reacted; he wasn't about to start blaming himself for something he had no control over.

What he could control was what he could do. And that was to stay or to leave. And given the situation, given he knew sparks would fly if any of the protesters met hostility, he decided to back off and follow Isobel. Of course, he couldn't really help but to pause and offer a deep bow to the woman that had called him a coward.

"I would be honored to pass your word along and give him such a report that will make him shake in his slippers." Because surely Borr was the type of man that wore slippers.

Straightening, he gave the woman and the man that had come up beside her a brief glance. "Stay wise enough to live long enough to watch the seats of power change." Taking a step back he considered the group before turning and starting off again. He could only hope that they wouldn't gain mob mentality and do something rash. There were too many people; too many lives at risk. If they did something like that, they would never win.

....Oh dearie me. Hadn't she just told her that she was with her? This woman would clearly only listen to her if she stayed and joined her picket line, which Isobel was not going to do at all. "Actually....we have our licenses back now. And even when we didn't have them we didn't go on a stupid strike." Because Isobel did think that it was pretty stupid. There were many ways to get a point across that didn't involve striking, and Izzy knew that it probably wasn't going to help. But instead get Borr even more annoyed. Isobel decided that she wasn't even going to bother talking to this woman anymore, she knew she wouldn't get through to them, or her. "Come on Sabel." Isobel smiled at the young YATI before heading back into the ministry.

Maine relaxed a little before turning to Holli.

"Hols, stop it." she frowned. Holli tended to overdo things.

Facing Leo, she smiled a little. "I'm fine... I'm just tired. Gabby's owl was bugging me all of last night and I hardly got sleep."

That should explain the headache. Waving her banner a little, she put it down. Her arms ached. Blech.

Holli held her hands up in defeat. 'Hey, I didn't do anything!' she said quickly, wondering what she'd done. Been angry at Leo, sure, but that wasn't her fault. He just... Knew how to annoy her without meaning to?

"You can pass anything along to him. I don't care... But do you know what the definition of insanity is? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. If we don't do anything about Borr, he'll stay in the seat of power. Rex and I may be the only Ministry Department heads not afraid of getting the boot for standing up for what's right." Oh Yeah. Gina was determined.

"Yeah, you went to idiotic classes, led by someone younger than all of you who didn't teach you anything new. You didn't stand up and fight for what you believed in... INSTEAD you bowed down to Borr's power and let HIM tell you what you were worth..." She shook her head and sighed. "I thought our Aurors were better than that... I guess I was wrong. They are just mindless sheep."

Well, at least she'd finally come to the conclusion that he was not an illusion. Tired! That made so much more sense. Leo smiled gently. "She have something that she needed you to see right away?" That would explain her owl freaking out. Usually they knew when the content they were carrying was urgent. Smart birds.

"So, what's this protest about exactly?"

He understood that they were protesting Borr, but what about him? What exactly was the problem? He didn't mean the question to be cruel or attacking, just a legitimate question.

Lights closed her eyes briefly, then opened them with a smile. "I'm fine," she lied. She could be a good liar at times. "Just ... I have to go. I'm not making you go, Ethan, because I know how much you want to do this. I want Borr out too. But there are Aurors here. I don't want to have to tell the kids I lost my job." They wouldn't understand, of course, but they'd realise something was wrong and that would make them scared. Lights didn't want Zek and Bella to be scared. She wanted to keep them in a protective bubble away from all the hurt and fear and general bad things in the world. Losing her job would pop the bubble. Lights looked at Ethan, hoping he'd understand, and hoping he didn't feel like he had to go too.

Ethan looked rather indifferently at his wife. "Ok then," he said, wrapping his arm around her waist, "Let's go." He led Lights out of the crowd, wand held out in front of him in case anything happened. Before heading off towards the park, he yelled back, "Screw you, Borr! Ok, now that's out of my system. Let's just go sit in the quiet for a while, shall we? Maybe listen to the sweet sounds of revolt in the background? Come on, I wanna go back to where we got married." He pleaded at Lights with his shiny brown eyes, trying to make them look like Bella's when she wanted something.

Lights laughed. "You failed the cute eyes, Ethan. This is how you do it." And she turned on the Salamander secret weapon, passed down from mother to daughter for generations - the cute eyes. Her mother Seren and her sister Eleri had perfected it before they'd turned 6, Lights had been a late bloomer at 11, but Bella was definitely the earliest to have control over it. It was actually pretty easy if you knew the technique.
Lights was relieved to be away from the crowd, but couldn't resist shouting back at them, "DOWN WITH BORR!!!" Yes they were walking away, but not giving up.

Rupert sighed and walked to the crowd that seemed to be growing larger and larger. He looked over the heads of people and noticed Holli, his girlfriend. He walked up to her, his DOWN WITH BORR! sign in his hand. "Hey beautiful. Come here often?" he said with a chuckle.

Maine nodded, smiling. Sure she didn't.

Maine smiled. "Exactly. Apparently she's coming over to stay in my apartment tomorrow." So that Gran-mere wouldn't ship her off to Maine's terrible fate. Gabby was too alive to be tied down by anyone.

"Well, it's obviously Anti-Borr." Maine smirked. Of course it was. "The cult of Walpurgis is an organization that plans to take down the statute of secrecy," she explained.

"Armen and Borr are huge supporters of the movement, but most of us are perfectly happy keeping the Muggles in the dark about our existence." she said, softly. "It's worked so far!"

Becky twisted her ring round nervously. They were in the middle of muggle London setting off fireworks and shouting. That couldn't be the best idea. No, it definetly wasn't. She stopped setting off fireworks and didn't hold her sign up. Becky really didn't want Borr to stay, but she even less wanted to land herself in muggle prison. Get on with it Borr, she thought. As soon as he gave in, they could get home, or work, or wherever.

Joseph grinned. He picked up a sign and began shouting. "Down with Borr-dom!" He saw Becky, standing quietly. "Not joining in?" he called out. She wasn't a Borr-lover. Was she?

Holli heard a voice in her ear and a smile reached her face. 'RUPERT!' she exclaimed, kissing him lightly. 'I've been her AGES, you missed the drama with the MLE's!' she nodded, remembering it.
Holli overheard this and gaped. She hadn't heard about that. 'WHAT!?' she exclaimed. Were they really that stupid!? Armen and Borr!? 'Dear Lord, what is this world coming to.' she whispered, feeling slightly dizzy. That was big news. Big BAD news.

"Well, I just noticed were in the middle of muggle London, setting off fireworks. What if the muggle police send us to muggle prison?" she asked timidly, making her point. Surely someone else would've noticed the obvious. Everyone was screaming their pretty little dumb heads off.

Esteban sighed we the lady walked away. She had a point, and Esteban was embarassed for attacking her in such away. She really didn't deserve that. Maybe he was starting to get out of hand....maybe he really should return to the ministry and carry on his work.

Esteban lowered his arm form the air but did not retreat. He wasn't ready to complety give up on Gina, but something in his mind was different.

Joseph laughed. "I'm sure they've got charms all over the place, making it invisible and soundless for muggles," he said, reasuringly. They would, wouldn't they?