wtf?

Dan was confused out of his mind here, and this Challenge was stupid. What did finding a prophesy have to do with anything? And who cared about planets?

The only thing going for this was that the Head was hot.

"Um, excuse me, but I don't really get the planets thing." Great, this hot woman might think he's stupid now. "I mean I don't get how picking a planet number helps me choose a prophesy. Or whatever I'm supposed to do here."

It all seemed rather pointless and irrelevant to him.

Jade continued to bit her lip as she thought it all out. Looking back to the two prophecies, she carefully dissected each in her mind. Thinking about what she did know of the Minister and what she had heard, she nodded and looked back to Becca. "I think I have it. If my reasoning is correct, I'll have to say that it is...." she said with some confidence.

He entered the area cautiously. It was fairly dark in there, but shining through the darkness were beams of light casted over a series of parchments. Upon closer inspection, Claudian could see that they each had something written upon them.

Claudian approached the take up one of the parchments for study, when Becky Lee jumped out into the light like a ninja. He inhaled sharply and clutched at his rapidly beating heart, which he tried to play off casually, though not very convincingly.

Right. Find Minister Taylor's prophecy. Simple enough. He took out his specs and began to read from the parchments pausing when he reached the one about romance. He, personally couldn't see Reagan Taylor settling for marriage anytime soon. He placed that one down and moved on to the next before raising an eyebrow at it's rather ambiguous message. Paw-prints in the sand? It made him think that somewhere some witch's mascotty krup was slated to pass on soon. The thought that someone could've possibly prophecized about this amused him slightly as he moved on to another parchment.

It sounded far more like Taylor and her current predicament. Great! That must've been it.

Claudian lumbered his way over to the planet diagram and looked it over. Yup! He had decided upon his answers. He could almost hear Secretary Carltons' high heeled shoes clicking upon the corridor floors now.

When another man spoke up, Becca turned to him and then looked up at the planets. "If you look at the planets, some of them look different on the bottom parchment." She would show him, but that would defeat the object of the task "And once you've got two planets, you need to get their numbers and pick up the two prophecies with the same number. The planets are only there to guide you." she smiled warmly at him "Does that make sense?" she asked unsurely, wondering about her explaining skills.

Turning to Jade, Becca smiled widely and handed her a key. "Well done, Jade!" she nodded impressedly "Great work and good luck!" she wished her. "See you soon." she smiled, knowing she'd drop into the Time Room to see how things were working out.

Giggling at Claudian's reaction to her, Becca walked over to him and patted him on the back gently "Sorry Claudian." she grinned. Watching his facial expressions, she smiled amusedly and nodded to him when he moved over to the planet diagram.

Jade smiled as she took the key. She had her doubts but in the end she was correct about her instincts. "Thank you, Becca." she smiled brightly as she held the key tightly. "Looking forward to seeing you soon," she added as she made her way to the exit.

"It's alright, Becca." He smiled shyly. "I forgive you. Just this once." He was kidding, of course and he winked subtly to indicate before going back to thinking about his conclusion.

"Alright. I think I've got it. Now, judging by the prophecies, none of them sound like they're likely to be about Minister Taylor, save one. She doesn't own a krup, she couldn't be getting married, he couldn't say she lived her life dishonestly and definitely doesn't do any tangos with any dark lords. So, therefore, by process of elimination, the fifth prophecy must be about Minister Taylor. Also evident in the sequences of the planets numbers." Was he even close? He used to be good at Divination, so he was hoping it would have given him a leg up on this challenge.

"No problem. See ya!" she waved, smiling at the woman as she left with a smile on her face.

She grinned and nodded "Thanks Claudian." How kind of him to forgive her! Haha, of course she knew he was joking.

Oh, back to serious work stuff. Smiling, she shook her head and started to explain again. "When you look at the planets, some of them look different on the bottom parchment. And once you've got two planets, you need to get their numbers and pick up the two prophecies with the same number. The planets are only there to guide you, but once you've got your planets, you have to interpret the prophecies." she smiled.

Claudian entertained, for a moment dropping to his knees and just begging Becca Lee for the key. This was going to be more sweat than he thought.

Claudian released a little snort-chuckle. "I knew that." He didn't. But, now he did and it all made sense now. He couldn't have had the planets wrong, or at least, he didn't think he could've. It was the prophecy that needed reconsidering. Reagan F. Taylor did not have a pet krup...as far as he knew and so that left but one strange prediction. "No. It's not...? Is it?" he said, pointing towards the prophecy he'd changed his mind on seconds ago and looking rather shocked.

"HMM, so either three or four," Amaria thinks, "Well it could be number three but four seems more like it." She says to the lady.

OOC: I PMed You

When Claudian half snorted/half chuckled, Becca grinned amusedly and nodded "Of course" she leant against the wall again, watching as Claudian kept trying to work it out. When he pointed towards a prophecy, Becca looked at it and grinned "Nice one!" she handed over the key "Well done" she grinned at him and looked at the prophecy again "Good luck."

Handing over a key to the woman with a smile, Becca nodded and looked down at the parchment "Well done! And good luck."

Oh, okay. That made more sense now even though he still wasn't sure what the point of it was. The woman was lucky she was hot.

"That makes sense," he said with a nod as he looked down at the chart. So now which planets were different?

Smiling when he said it made sense, she leant against the wall again "Just ask for help if you need it." she nodded before leaning her head back and looking up at the ceiling.

Malachi Brown strode into the room, having vanished his net from the previous task. Catching a glimpse of the room, he blink several times and then smiled. There was only really one department that this task could be...

He listened to the department head and nodded. He waited until it was clear enough for him to step forward, and then read each parchment carefully. The first prophecy was about a man and he seemed to remember that the minister was a woman, although he had hardly been back in the country long enough to catch up on current affairs...

Two seemed a poor fit as well. The Dark Lord... Malachi shuddered. No, that didn't fit at all.

The other three stumped him. This was really quite tough. He smiled at the department head. "Hello, this is certainly a great challenge. Very, umm, mysterious?" He winked and pushed his hair out of his eyes... Must get a hair cut... Maybe Esme would... Focus!

He cleared his throat. "Umm, yes, I think I have it narrowed down to either four or five... but I'm afraid after that I'm going to need a little direction."

"Hello." she smiled at the man and grinned as he said it was a great challenge. When he winked, she smiled and looked down at her feet, wondering how many people were going to come through the door. When he spoke, she smiled and moved over to stand next to him "Dismantle the prophecy line by line." Yep. That was the best idea. "And then relate it to the Minister. See if it fits in." she grinned.

"Right..." Malachi had been hoping for perhaps a little more specific help than that... What were the planets about if not to help? Oh well.

He re-read the two possible pieces of parchment again.

Quote:

Fourth piece of parchment
This is the one who lives a condemned life. The love of the condemned one will be an inspiration to all who know. But paw-prints in the sand must fade one day and that day will be a dark day indeed.

Hmmm... Many muggles felt that their politicans were born liars... but he really couldn't see that kind of approach working in the wizarding world. And paw prints? That sounded more like himself...

Quote:

Fifth piece of parchment
The one who served her time will be searched for by many. Solitude is a foe of this successful woman. Console her not, but ask probe into her life to find the answers you seek.

This one actually mentioned a woman... that was a start. Malachi scratched the back of his head distractedly. After a few minutes of thought he turned to the department head once more. "I think it's five... I'm almost sure that it is. Unless the Minister is a deceitful crup owner that is." He gave her a wry smile to show that he was joking.

When he turned to her once more, she grinned and handed over a key. "Strangely enough, I don't think she's got a Crup" she grinned, joking along with him. "Well done. And good luck!"

Malachi chuckled a little. "Well I didn't think so somehow! thank you!" He made his way out of the challenge.

Dan studied the planets carefully, trying to see which two looked different between both drawings. There had to be two that seemed different...

And then he saw them clearly. He was pretty sure he knew which two it had to be between. Only thing was that he was rubbish at this kind of thing. But he still wanted to beat this because he was Daniel McDean, and he did not fail.

He took a guess as to the answer.

"No problem" Becca waved goodbye to the man "Good luck!" she called after him again, smiling.

Now turning to the man who'd taken a guess, Becca grinned "Yeah, you got it!" she smiled widely "Here's your key" she handed over the key. "Well done, and good luck!" Everyone would need good luck to finish these challenges.

Edward walks into the room and takes everything in. Oh this is going to be another fun one like the security department. Give me a devious dark wizard to hunt down. Now that is what I call a fun time. All the same lets get this game over with as quickly and painlessly as possible. Edward studies the prophecies. After reading them, he wishes he had paid more attention to the Minister's life. There is one you can definitely rule out. Harry Potter already lived that prophecy. One sounds like it would apply to Albus Dumbledore and the way his life ended. One of them seems to fit Remus Lupin and Nymphandora Tonks- a tragic love story if there ever was one. This is torture. The one I would say should apply to the Minister does not seem to correspond to the numbers for the planets.

Of course the planets are another matter. One is easy to detect. The other one could be any of the other four. There are subtle differences in all of them. Edward doesn't know what to do. Go with his gut instinct even though that might not match one of the two planets, or eliminate it in favor of the two he thinks correspond with the right planets. Edward opts for choice number three. He walks over to where Ms. Lee is standing. "Excuse me Ms. Lee, I'm Edward Lestrange. I'm having some trouble with the planets. Do I understand correctly that you have a question with two planets mentioned? Will it help narrow down the two planets we need?"

Looking at the man who approached her and introduced himself, Becca smiled kindly "Mr. Lestrange." she acknowledged him. Trouble? Seems as though a simple planet had an auror stumped. "Of course, that's what it's intended to do." Looking around the room at the other people who were still working, she smiled a little before looking back to Edward "Earth is the colour of calm, but Mars is the colour of love. That's the sentence, see if you can make anything of it." That was all the help she could give to him without giving away the answer.

Edward smiles at Ms. Lee. "Love is an emotion that seems to always elude me. The sentence does point to the planet I thought was one of them. I wish I could say it gave me more information, but then prophecies are after all a riddle to be solved on its own. Hardly something an auror would use in an investigation. From what I know of the Minister, she is a workaholic like I am. She had to be to keep Brennan Cooper straight for as long as she did. I believe this prophecy applies to her." Edward points to the orb he believes holds the correct prophecy.

Smiling at his words, she said nothing, but nodded as he said it wasn't really something an Auror would use. She used to be in that department, she knew all about Auror's thoughts of Prophecies. When he pointed to the prophecy he thought it was, she shook her head, but listened to his reasoning. "You're wrong. And you really think it's a Tonks and Lupin prophecy?" she hinted towards the correct answer.

"I have done a great deal of research into the life of Nymphadora Tonks in my work as an instructor at the academy. She was a most successful auror. Her cases have made excellent study tools. Yes one of them reminds me of Remus and her love story. Although I think determination was the over riding factor in Tonks winning him over. She was a very determined person. Minister Taylor is a very capable person, but she lacks the determination that Tonks had. I will have to consider your suggestions." Edward reads the prophecies again. "You're right about the one I chose. It reminds me of Sirius Black. The man lived his whole life under a unlucky sign. I know nothing about Minister Taylor's personal life. I tend to spend too much time buried within my work. Can't get hurt if you don't creep out of the office. I imagine that's why I'm so lousy at love. In a way this prophecy fits Tonks and Remus's story." Edward points to the prophecy. Of course, I could always be wrong. At least I will reduce the number of possibilities to three with this quess."

Nodding as Edward explained he'd looked into Tonk's life, Becca smiled and then tilted her head to the side and looked at Edward "You think Minister Taylor lacks determination?" She thought Minister Taylor was very determined. Determined to show Cooper that change was good and determined to prove herself to the world. "Mhmm" Sirius Black, he was a legend in the Wizard World. Not saying anything at Edward's remarks about him being lousy at love, she played with her ring dreamily and smiled slightly, thinking how lucky she was to have such an amazing husband. "Mmm..yes" she answered, looking at the prophecy he'd chosen. Handing over a key, she kept playing with her ring happily "Well done.. and good luck Mr. Lestrange. You need to hurry." she nodded to the door.