Hearing yet another unfamiliar voice Antigone smiled and stuck her head back out the door. "Come on in... Erm... can I grab something for you, you have a load there," Antigone said to the jolly ole fella outside of her office.

"I've got it." Claudian replied mellowly as he used the levitating charm to carry in the bushel. As he entered the bushel clearly were revealed to be a flower arrangement. The tall, brown-skinned wizards expression changed slightly, brightening as he realized he was not the only person in the office that day. Not by a long shot! He smiled at the others present then looked to the new Department head holding out the small Honeydukes style box of sweeties.

"I know I'm a bit late, but on behalf of the Ministers office, welcome to the Ministry of Magic." He said also offering the floral arrangement with a warm smile.

"I'm Claudian, by the way. Junior Assistant to Minister Taylor. I'm not a Liaison, per se, but if you should ever need anything and the Minister and Undersecretary are not available, please don't hesitate to call." He introduced himself to the new Department head for Education.

Antigone watched as the man, Claudian she soon learned, entered with a bushel. She was curious as to what was inside to say the least... Awwww...

She felt her cheeks redden as the man presented the candies and flowers. Taking them from him she smiled widely and said, "Well, this is just the nicest thing! Thank you so much!" Turning back to her desk she conjured a vase, filled it with water and set the flowers inside. *Sigh* She LOVED flowers! And candy wasn't bad either!

"Claudian, it is a pleasure to meet you. I am Antigone McArdle, as I am sure you know since you knew I was the new Head. I appreciate the warm welcome more than you know! OH HEY! Could you tell us how exactly to get to the Minister's office? Wes and I here are utterly bamboozled as to how to navigate this place, it seems," she said to Claudian as she motioned toward the yummy yummy Wes.

OH where were her manners?! "Would either of you care to have a seat?" she asked as she conjured two more chairs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Miss Lissy Lou

"Erm, no, I'm not," Wes said, walking into the office. Oh great, he had interrupted a meeting with someon else! Bloody fantastic. How fast could word travel across the Ministry that the Level Three Department Head had NO idea where the Minister's office was?

"I was actually wondering if you could point me in the direction of the Minister's office? I've been away from the Ministry for a while and, to be honest...I can't remember which bloody direction it's in," he said with a small chuckle.

Claudians eyes followed to the other faces in the room until he landed at another young wizard.

"Wes? Are you Wes?" He said, taking a guess. There were a lot of new faces here, but that wasn't a bad thing. It gave the ministry the benefit of their fresh ideas. Even if it did make keeping track of everyone a bit more challenging.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pink Ninja

Antigone watched as the man, Claudian she soon learned, entered with a bushel. She was curious as to what was inside to say the least... Awwww...

She felt her cheeks redden as the man presented the candies and flowers. Taking them from him she smiled widely and said, "Well, this is just the nicest thing! Thank you so much!" Turning back to her desk she conjured a vase, filled it with water and set the flowers inside. *Sigh* She LOVED flowers! And candy wasn't bad either!

"Claudian, it is a pleasure to meet you. I am Antigone McArdle, as I am sure you know since you knew I was the new Head. I appreciate the warm welcome more than you know! OH HEY! Could you tell us how exactly to get to the Minister's office? Wes and I here are utterly bamboozled as to how to navigate this place, it seems," she said to Claudian as she motioned toward the yummy yummy Wes.

OH where were her manners?! "Would either of you care to have a seat?" she asked as she conjured two more chairs.

Claudian gladly took the offer, placing a hand on the back of a nearby unoccupied seat and scooping it beneath him causing it to creak with some manner of protest at the 23 stone or so of wizard on top of it.
"Nice to meet you, Antigone." He extended a hand forward to shake. "And, I'd be happy to. Take him there if he'd like. It's on level one...or is it the lifts that are giving the trouble?" He wondered outloud remembering that once or twice he'd waited what must've been an hour for the lift to arrive at the correct floor.

Herod knoecked on the deparment head's door, ready with his burning question. He was anxious and held his papers in his hand.

Antigone took Claudian's outstretched hand on her own and gave it a quick shake before heading around the desk to seat herself. She couldn't help but chuckle nervously. "Um, aren't we on the first level? To be honest this whole place is new to me... I have only been on the eigth level and here and I was accompanied by someone then," she said to the man. Hmmm, maybe she needed a tour guide of sorts to show her around. Maybe one of the dishy men could show her around. Teehee.

And.... another visitor. *SQUEE MOMENT* First looking to everyone in the room she said, "Do excuse me, I seem to be in high demand today." After a good little chuckle Antigone called out, "Do come in and join the party!"

Uh-oh! Had it been a long day for him? Apparently so, if Claudian had begun telling people to go to the level they were on. He smiled recognizing his error. "It is. It is Level One. My apologies. Though, I'd still be happy to show him down the corridors to the Ministers Office. I've got to head back there myself, after we're done here anyway." He held his breath a moment as if afraid he'd made another mistake, but exhaled when he realized he had not.

Claudian sat quietly while Ms. McArdle addressed the newcomers and waited to see if 'Wes' wanted to follow him back to the Ministers office.

Chloe simple smiled and nodded in complete agreement with what Antigone was saying. "Why, thank you ma'am. I am thrilled to be a part of this time. I don't have any more questions at this moment, but if there is anything else you would like me to do, just let me know." Chloe hated to cut the conversation so short, but this office was getting incredibly crowded and the day was almost over, and she had a date with Asher to get ice cream tonight. She wouldn't miss that for the world. Standing up she gave her new boss a polite nod and then nodded at... everyone else in the office as she exited.

"Oh, sorry to disturb. I see we have a positive tea party in here!" he said, chuckling.

He sat down, fiddled with his papers and said, "Hello. I'm Herod. I have my animargus papers here. I have taken all necessary tutorials and have perfected my technique, but i need to register and I am not quite sure where to do that. but this department did occur to me." he said, looking at the women resolutly. He handed her the papers to look over and continued, "These are my forms and the pamplet I picked up. What should I do next?" he asked, slightly embarassed that he didn't know. He usually prided himself on always knowing about the topic at hand.

Antigone shook her head and smiled. "Hey, I am lucky if I don't run into people that are standing still, no apology necessary for a mistake!" Antigone said to Claudian. He was a great presence to have a round, he made everything seem light and breezy!

Antigone nodded at Chloe and said, "That is all I need for now, Chloe, but I really do appreciate your take on things. Feel free to stop by anytime you want or need to, dear. As I said, once everyone has chocen a file there should be some left over and I will give some more out, okay." SHe was thoroughly impressed with her employee thus far and was sure there would be more great work to come from that one!

Antigone was momentarily at a loss on the question... Where woudl one go to register. She tapped her desk as she thought. AHA! "Actually the Improper Use of Magic Division is what you want. You need to report to them and tell them what animal you turn into, your markings and whatnot. Good for you for mastering such a difficult form of magic!" Antigone said. She was a little offended that the man just walked right in and sat himself down without being invited to do that, but she was in a good mood so she wouldn't say anything.. this time.

Claudian gave the newcomer a warm smile and took interest in what the man was saying. "Congratulations." He said, echoing Ms. McArdles thoughts. "Oh, what is your animagus form?" He asked out of excitement.

Herod was much calmer now that he knew what to do. He sat back in his chair and said, "Thank you so much madame. I apreciate the advise and will do just that. "Good day," he said, turningto leave.

On his way out, he heard a congrats and a question. "Thank you" he said, turning around. "I become a White Bengal Tiger." He smiled and chose to dive deeper into conversation, sincerly hoping that the department head would not mind. "How about you? Ever wanted to become an animargus?" he asked, pausing at the threshold.

Antigone was thoroughly impressed as well as shocked. "Well that certainly is an impressive feat of magic! A white Bengal tiger... how did you come up with the idea of becoming that?" Antigone asked with a quirked eyebrow as she looked at the man in her doorway.

"Oh, nice!" He commented thinking it quite a good thing to be able to say bengel tiger and not, ya know, guppy or some other such thing. Truth be told, Claudian was properly afraid of being an animagus. He'd heard you couldn't really control it and he had a feeling that he was the sort of wizard who would end up with something like a guppy, or if he was lucky, a dung beetle.
"Me? Oh, no, no, I...I think that there are only very few who can truly endure the sort of discipline it takes and I'm far too used to my comforts, I'm afraid." He drummed his fingers once across his own knee and hoped he wasn't keeping the wizard or Ms. McArdle for that matter from their work. But as the conversation was flowing, he figured not.
That was when Ms. McArdle asked a very interesting question of the animagus wizard herself. Claudian took that moment to hush-up and wait for the answer.

This office was getting crowded like WHOAAAA. Wes looked around as another visitor came into the office...this one said he was from the Minister's office. Perfect!

"Yes, I'm Wes. Wes Kutcher," he explained, holding out a hand for him to shake. "I was just wondering where the Minister's office was so I could pop in and just say hi...Taylor used to be in the same force as me," he explained with a smile. Back before he like, fled the country and stuff. "Plus it wouldn't hurt to introduce myself to the people in there, right? Being a new Department Head and everything," he added.

Claudian took the mans hand and gave it a firm, friendly shake. "Welcome to the Ministry, Mr. Kutcher." The force? He'd always known that you could fit into an uncharmed thimble what he knew of the Minister, but it hit him harder everytime someone mentioned something else about Minister Taylor.
"Not at all. And they'll be eager to meet you. Why don't we start on our way down there?" He said standing and shooting an apologetic smile towards Ms. McArdle and the animagus bloke.

"Sure thing," Wes said with a smile. He turned to the woman--whose last name was apparently McArdle, he hadn't caught the first name--and grinned at her. "Looks like we'll have to cut our meeting short. It was nice to meet you!"

He turned back to the man from the Minister's office. "Lead the way!" he said wth a chuckle.

Briony stood outside her new bosses office and knocked twice. She waited patiently for the okay to come in. She hadn't exactly met her boss yet but had heard her name floating around the office. But today the women came carrying important news that made her grin and hold her head higher at the same time.

Antigone probably knew from the Minister she was the new Division Head for the Inspection Committee but it never hurt to get acquainted with her new boss and find out her priorities as this new Head.

Ethan had to do it, he had to meet with his new boss in his new line of work. If anything it was to make a good impression but other, he enjoyed working as long as everyone around him was in good working spirits. As soon as he got to the outside of the door, there were other people in line as well. A part of himself wanted to leave and come back at another time, but he was here on a mission and his mission was to see where help was needed the most, even though he had to read up on this Professor Vindictus as soon as possible.

Antigone watched on and smiled as Claudian and Wes decided to walk together to the Minister's Office. She nodded her head and said, "Yes, if you will excuse me I have some business to attend to. It was fabulous meeting you both, and you Herod. Glad to be of some help to you."

Getting up she went and peeked her head out the door and couldn't helo but smile when she spotted the woman she hoped to give the division head position to and the yummy Ethan dude. Oh my he made her heart flutter... Again with the Ministry and these yummy men...

Smiling warmly she said to them both, "Come on in you two." Then turned and walked back to her desk and plopped down in her chair, pulling her feet up underneath her.

Ethan looked up as soon as he caught the beautiful voice of his lovely lady boss. His dark eyes glanced down as if something captured his attention and slow raised as Antigone, his bosssssss, called not only himself but the other employee waiting to speak as well.

"Why thank you for the invitation," he smartly stated with a half grin as he walked into her office. If there was one thing..."Well, Mrssss. McArdle, you do keep a tidy office space." Their introductions were so short and simple before and well, he just didn't catch if she were a single lady or a taken lady. It would be nice to know if flirting would be allowed but either way, what did it matter? Dating the boss was a complete NO on his list, so flirting was definitely in.

Oh my... those eyes on this man! she thought to herself. Good thing she was sitting down now or else she would have to grab ahold of something to steady herself. Smiling crookedly she corrected him, "Actually, it is Miss McArdle. No rings for me." She held out both hands and wiggled her fingers to show no hardware on those hands. "And I find that a tidy workspace keeps things productive and flowing freely. Clutter is a no-no in my life. Oh where are my manners? Please have a seat in one of the many chairs I have conjured for comapny today. Who knew I would be in such high demand?" she said with a wink.

Ethan carefully inspected her fingers, not that every single male didn't scope the ring fingers out first. Nope! Nada! Okay, well maybe, but still, she was now stating the she was a single lady. "Well, I must say that I love a woman with power," he chuckled lightly and took a seat in a chair that was offered.

"Oh, Miss McArdle, your manners are more than appreciative and well respected," he charmed his way into settling in his chair. "I would like to apologize myself for not connecting with you more as you made your majestic appearance in the office of examinations." Charming? He knew it and he knew he was rather laying it on thick but, it was in his nature to nurture the beauty of women who were more than deserving.

"You, umm, skipped off a little faster than I planned." He cleared his throat, cupping his fingers together to cover his mouth. "Pardon my intrusion but do you," he cleared his throat once more. "...have anything to drink?" Might be a simple reason to keep himself here a little longer.

Antigone's cheeks flushed slightly at his remark about loving women in power. SHe was too smitten to look the man in the eyes just yet, so she busied herself with a file on her desk.

Oh my... a charmer, this one. *Swoon*. Finally risking a look in his direction she was mesmorized by his intense dark eyes and manly features. "Um... yes, my manners... erm... Thanks," was all she managed to mutter, stupidly. Even as he lay it on thickly she couldn't help but smile crookedly at the man. Finally getting her wits about herself she said, "Majestic, you say. Are you sure you are talking about me and not some phoenix or something of the like?" She giggled to herself and averted her eyes. Damn, she said idiotic things in the presence of men in this ministry.

She nodded her head and reached under her desk to the mini fridge that was hidden and grabbed a bottle of water. Tossing across the desk to the man she said, "Think fast!"

She cocked her head to one side and wondered why the other employee in the hall had not entered the office yet... not that she was complaining... Not at all. THat just meant she had more time with Hotty McHottyton here.

"Thank you, Miss McArdle." Claudian said leading the way out of the office.