December 10th, 1893 - Ross Household

The question surprised Juliana not the slightest bit. If anything, she was more surprised that Ross had managed to wait until he'd poured his cup of tea before asking it.

"I no longer need to escort him to meetings to prevent him from getting lost in the hallways," Juliana said, tone matter-of-fact; as if she were delivering a report, not passing judgement. The transition had certainly had its turbulent moments, but she wanted this Minister to succeed as much as she'd wanted Ross to. He'd endorsed Dempsey; she'd recommended her husband vote for him. If he fell on his face, it reflected poorly on both their judgement, and would tarnish Ross' legacy retroactively.

"The Committee for Voting Reform is on track to begin work in January," she continued, as she applied a healthy serving of sugar to her tea and stirred. This was a good sign, but it wouldn't actually matter unless he'd put the right people on the committee to make change happen — and they wouldn't know that for some time yet.

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Juliana shrugged, not to imply she didn't have an answer or wasn't interested in talking about it, but rather because she didn't have a complete or definitive answer. "I know he's asked Lestrange for a few recommendations to include. Most likely to smooth feathers down the line, but it's playing with fire, a bit, isn't it? He's —" she paused, holding her tea cup in front of her faint frown as she tried to find the right phrase to describe the current Minister. The steam rose for a moment. "— not the sort to back down from anything," she concluded eventually. Her tone implied she did not consider this a wholly positive trait.

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"No," Juliana answered with a sharp shake of her head. She was only vaguely aware of the Minister's reputation in society, from hearing other people talk about him and not from any actual interactions she'd had with him herself, but she could guess what Ross meant by familial drama and could honestly say it hadn't touched the office. "His mother has come by a few times trying to drop things off she says he'd forgotten at home, but I think she mainly means to tease him. She never stays long so it isn't much of a distraction. And his wife hasn't been in yet," she continued. With a thoughtful shrug, she added, "He does stay late sometimes, so I suppose he might be avoiding her. But no problems."

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Juliana blinked and frowned slightly. She had not expected to be asked any questions about herself. It was also not a question she had put much thought into; the suitability of her work environment hardly factored into her decision to stay on in the position. In fact, the less tolerable it became the more determined she would have been to stay, in order to protect the legacy of the work she had done with Minister Ross.

"I would have stayed on regardless," she pointed out. She stirred her tea so that she did not have to meet his eyes when she said it, on the feeling that eye contact might make the sentiment feel too earnest. "But I haven't had to expend much energy on thwarting imbecilic policy decisions yet, which I find quite acceptable."

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"Oh, no, that sounds like far too much work," Juliana said with a shake of her head, though she was smiling. The comment was mostly a joke about it being Minister Ross' 'retirement', in a way — but she was touched by the offer. When she'd been initially making the career switch away from the House of Lytton she would have taken anything that would hire her; it was only a day-job, and only meant to finance her own research. Now that she was married she didn't really have to work, and if she did she might as well follow the people she liked, rather than sticking with one office... but the truth was she had become rather more invested in being close to the Minister of Magic than she would have liked to admit. It would have been hard to step away now — though if she were to do it, it would have been to follow Ross. "I do need to leave myself time for all my hobbies, you know."

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Juliana laughed. "I'm sure your wife could give you some suggestions," she joked. Mrs. Ross had never seemed to care as much about the business of being the Minister's wife as she had about her gardening, so surely she could give Ross some tips about how to take a step back now that he was no longer Minister. "If you're really strapped for ideas, I could send you some reading suggestions." Though she wasn't sure that her chief hobby, writing secret critiques of Picardy's work, was especially relaxing.

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