March 26th, 1888 - Office of the Minister

Ross had a sinking sense in his chest ever since reading yesterday's Prophet.  This was very much not something that should have become a problem - veela weren't native to England, and usually had the good sense to lie low when they were here. Especially if they were pretending to be muggles. And yet here he was, 8:30 A.M. on a Monday, looking at a week-agenda that was going to at any moment be upended by the fucking veela issue. Veela Strikes London. And of course this was a Ministerial issue, because they could not have veela running around nearly setting magic streets on fire, and Ross was going to have to pull a lawyer in to draft a policy on this before it became even more of a problem. He already had the starts of a headache.

(The one consolation was that, of all the Pettigrews, it was at least not the one who had sponsored his campaign. That would have required personal and professional involvement, but luckily Albert Pettigrew wasn't really on Ross' radar.)

He sat at the Minister's desk with folders of current veela policy spread out in front of him. With nothing else on the calendar until 9:20, this at least gave him a start on the issue - in theory. The sound of a knock on the door caused Ross' eyebrows to raise.

"Come in," he announced, because anyone up here before 9 certainly wanted something from him, and he might as well engage them in person lest they wait outside to ambush him.

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   Bella Scrimgeour, Reuben Crouch, Roberto Devine

Gwen had made the decision to go and see the minister after reading the stories of the vela attack, and discovering that there was more than one passing herself off in society as a real woman. Her own attack by that horrid vela creature in the music shop hadn’t made the news, and not one to let the chance of a dramatic entrance pass her by, she had decided that the minister himself needed to hear the story and act!

When Gwen heard the deep voice bid enter, she glanced at the secretary who manned the outer office, and the woman opened the door, and the Countess stepped into the room, with all the drama and gravitas that a lifetime of public life had imbued her with. Her very large, bright crimson hat, festooned with feathers and organza, by the house of Lyton, filled the doorway, a colour she knew suited her pale skin and dark hair very well.

’Minister Ross,’ she greeted offering a white gloved hand to the Minister of Magic, her parasol gripped in the other. ’Thank you ever so much for meeting with me so early, your secretary said you had no other appointments and I rather insisted, let it not be said that public servants and ladies are not abed at 9.’ she greeted with a warm smile, she had a charity breakfast at 9:30, and was keen to have something scandalous to discuss at the affair.

  

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MJ is queen
Gwen is referred to as Countess of Adinbury by others, but as Lady Adinbury when you are speaking to her

Ross made a mental note to tell his secretary that, going forward, non-Ministerial rich people shouldn't be told to just invite themselves into his office. Instead of saying this, he smiled and gestured at the chair across from him, "Go right ahead and take a seat, Lady Adinbury."

"What would you like to discuss?"

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Eugene was not the kind who liked to interrupt anyone, for any reason, but when his head office sent him straight to the minister's office with a specific directive, he did not argue. Upon arriving at the Minister's secretary's desk, he balked once told the Minister was in a meeting. Frankly, though she was a sweet woman, Mrs. Skeeter terrified him and he was not about to cross her either; or fail in what she'd asked him to do.

Actually if he were being honest, Eugene was far more terrified of Morwenna than he was of Mr. Ross.

And so he and the secretary hemmed and hawed about interrupting, but in the end, decided that he probably should, since the meeting in progress wasn't exactly scheduled. Hesitantly he knocked on the door and waited.

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Gwen had already begun to move towards one of the chairs in the room, before he offered her an invitation to sit. Those little courtesies, were all but a given by a man in his position and the Countess seated herself with as much grace and austere dignity as she could muster. ’Minister, I’m sure you have seen the paper recently, and all of this Veela unpleasantness’ she said with a highly mortified air, and unrolled the paper with the headline announcing the ongoing veela problem. ’As one of the victims’ she gave a slightly dramatic pause, ’of these creatures, I am here to beg that you not lift the sanctions against them.’, from the centre of the newspaper she plucked a well placed white handkerchief, only slightly smudged with ink from the paper that hadn’t quite adhered to the paper, but didn’t at all affect Gwens ability to wring the kerchief between her gloved fingers.



’All of the married women of England fear for the sanctity of their marriages, and the safety of the magical community.’ she explained in a plaintive voice, very much believing her own dramatic anxiety. ’I myself was threatened and harranged by one of these creatures pretending to be a woman in a muggle music shop’. she emphasised the word. ’She made all sorts of horrid threats to me right then and there, and I fear that were it not for my own tremulous disposition, and shock that she might have transformed there and then and hurt goodness knows how many muggles!’. She gave a dramatic sniff, and help the kerchief to her lip dramatically.

She had been waiting for some sort of responce when there was a light knock at the door.

  

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MJ is queen
Gwen is referred to as Countess of Adinbury by others, but as Lady Adinbury when you are speaking to her

If there was anything that Ross had learned from the Wizengamot, it was mechanisms for pretending to be interested in very long rants. He was waiting for a beat in which to interject - and hopefully to get Lady Adinbury out of his office - when the end of her story coincided with a knock on the door.

"My apologies, Lady Adinbury," Ross said, "This may be an emergency."

Raising his voice, he called, "Come in!"

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   Ophelia Devine

Eugene had been holding his breath and hadn't realized it until Mr. Ross had admitted him to the office. Hesitantly he pushed open the door and peered around it before stepping in fully. "I beg your pardon sir, I didn't mean to interrupt," He gave the woman seated in the Minister's office a deep nod of acknowledgement before continuing.

"But Mrs. Skeeter sent this and you know how she is." Oh, he probably shouldn't have phrased it like that; he was talking to his boss's boss about his boss, but honestly, Mrs. Skeeter could be downright terrifying if she wanted to be! Most of the time she was awfully sweet, until you screwed up, which Eugene had done a time or two in his tenure in the department.

Crossing the office he passed the folded memo to the Minister and stepped back, out of the way. He was supposed to wait for an answer and Merlin he hoped he didn't have to be here long. It wasn't often her felt awkward, but interrupting a meeting of the minister hadn't been high on his list of things to do today.

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The young man who had entered was about her own age, and she thought she recognised him from her own year at Hogwarts -not her own house, and she only vaguely remembered his name - it was unlikely she would have entertained his society much, given he was clearly a man who was required to work and despite their being the same age, he still very much looked like a boy.

Still - social nicities must be observed. 'Mister Scamander?' she greeted with an inclination of her head, a gracious and well practised gesture that Gwen had mastered at 12, a way of appearing both cordial and demure. 'It has been such a long time since I last saw you.'

She rose from the seat, having said her piece to the Minister - and having procurred not one, but two sufficiently good stories to regale the ladies at the charity breakfast she was rather sated with her time in the office of the minister. 'thank you for you time Minister Ross' she addressed him with her most charming smile, 'Lord Adinbury would be most delighted to recieve you and your lovely lady wife for dinner very soon.' The heavy silk tafetta of her gown rustled as she moved towards the door. 'Good day to you too Mister Scamander, Good day gentlmen, I leave you to the busy work of running the country.' With a last nod to each she swept out into the hallway

  

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MJ is queen
Gwen is referred to as Countess of Adinbury by others, but as Lady Adinbury when you are speaking to her

"Good day, Lady Adinbury," Ross said cheerfully, "I look forward to hearing from you again." He watched the taffeta-gowned peer depart and, once his office door was shut behind her, raised his eyebrows at Mr. Scamander.

"No need to beg pardon," Ross said, "Ministerial matters always take precedence. I suppose this has to do with the veela?"

If it had to do with werewolves, they had another fucking thing entirely coming.

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Eugene flushed a little, feeling guilty for having interrupted, but it seemed Lady Adinbury had said her peace and swept out the door before he could truly stammer another word, even at her apparent recognition of him.  Fortunately Mr. Ross seemed rather cordial about the whole thing and perhaps a bit... relieved?

"I believe so, sir. Mrs. Skeeter did not exactly enlighten me on the message." He'd been in the department long enough that his boss was alright with him, so far as he could tell, but she was kind of hard to read sometimes. So far as Eugene knew, though werewolves were a hot button issue as well, this was not related directly.

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   Justin Ross

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Ross waved for Mr. Scamander to sit down across from him. "Can I see the message?" he asked, because it had to be important if Mrs. Skeeter was mailing him before nine in the morning, with a person attached. "And while I read it, tell me what you think of the veela situation, Mr. Scamander," Ross said. He grinned. "No tricks. I'm curious."

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"Right sir, of course." Eugene passed over the folded memo before taking the offered seat. "I don't honestly don't know sir, I've been dispatched with other creatures as of late, haven't dealt with any veela personally. " It must have been some kind of important message if Mrs. Skeeter had sent him on foot, instead of just sending the memo itself; otherwise she was just trying to get rid of him, which was also known to happen.

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Ross read the memo. "Mrs. Skeeter informs me that your department is officially swamped with letters about the veela yesterday," he said mildly. "On a practical level - I agree with you. I've never met a veela. Regardless, we're going to need some sort of policy."

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Well that hadn't quite been what Eugene had been expecting. That didn't seem like something he'd needed to walk over, but then again, maybe Mrs. Skeeter had needed to be shot of him for a little while. Wasn't the first time. He and a co-worker had been having a spirited discussion about nifflers before he'd been sent out.

Scratching the back of his head in thought, Eugene hadn't given the veela too much thought, but supposed he could have. He didn't really know anyone else's thoughts on the matter, but since he was now being directly asked, and by the minister no less, he should probably have an answer. "Personally, the thought of them makes me uncomfortable. The powers a veela have over a man are akin to the imperius curse, in my honest opinion." They could convince you to do just about anything they wanted you to if they worked a man right.

"I'm not sure of a solution though." He hesitated to make any concrete suggestions, but pushed on. Making them register with the Ministry would be a step in the right direction, I suppose, as well as any offspring they have." Because a half-veela was almost as potentially dangerous. "But it seems unlikely that they would even bother so how does the ministry follow through?"  

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Ross listened patiently to Mr. Scamander. It was the sort of tentative argument he would have conjured when he was about twenty-five and relatively new to the Ministry bureaucracy. This was more or less what he'd expected, as Mr. Scamander was about twenty-five and relatively new to the Ministry bureaucracy. It was not a bad argument, either, and Ross nodded his way through it. Just because something was not definitive legislation did not make it bad.

"Well-reasoned, Mr. Scamander," Ross said, "A veela walking into this room could have significant - if temporary - control over Wizarding Britain, with only a little exertion on her part. But most of them live in the wilderness, and do not live here - it's when they enter society that there are problems."

And society was, to some extent, self policing.

"If we over-regulate we have another half-breed ban - over-reaching, and punishing children for the decisions of their parents," he continued, "If we under-regulate - well, we have women throwing fireballs in muggle London. So we do what we can."

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Eugene found himself nodding along as the Minister explained his thoughts. It was true they didn't often have to deal with them, as they normally preferred the wilderness, except for the few that found civilized living far more comfortable or entertaining, whichever it was.

"Understandable Sir, it's a fine line." And Eugene for one, was glad that he was not completely responsible for dealing with it. He supposed technically in the division that would respond to a veela problem, though they weren't really beasts? Anyway, he highly suspect that if his division had to take care of anything, one his female co-workers would be sent to deal with that, perhaps even Mrs. Skeeter herself. Nobody crossed that woman.

"It's difficult to set a precedence, I suppose. Every situation is different nowadays." Eugene reasoned, though hadn't really meant to do so aloud.

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