14 September 1893 — Ministry of Magic

Oz had been surprised when Ross mentioned him — so much so that he had nearly wondered if there was some other fellow named Dempsey who worked at the Ministry, of no relation but coincidentally sharing a last name. But he'd even tasked Wright, who was about as far removed from Ministry employment as Oz was, so it wasn't a mistake. It was frankly a little alarming — he took it as a sure sign of how dire the situation was, if Minister Ross was relying on him to go coordinate things, even as one of half a dozen. In any case, he was not going to let his task be the one that went uncompleted, and have that be the only thing that anyone talked about for the rest of the campaign. He might not even know who ran this department, but he was certainly going to marshal them as instructed.

"Alright, who's in charge here?" he asked (after having surreptitiously checked the sign on the wall to ensure that this was in fact the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes — he would not have recognized it without the helpful label, so it was a good thing the sign was so prominently displayed). A man walking purposefully into midst of the office and demanding to know who was in charge had at least gotten people's attention, but before anyone could answer Oz had decided it wasn't actually a pertinent question. "Nevermind — you'll do," he said, picking out a person at random who looked like they might have the capacity to take charge. "What's the fastest way to contact everyone in your department? We need them all reassigned."

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Invitational: Edric Umbridge Lyall McCarthy Rowan Yaxley Royal Pyrites Dorian Fisk; in theory also open to other Ministry employees/visitors with reason to be in the DMA&C late in the workday

The following 1 user Likes Ozymandias Dempsey's post:1 user Likes Ozymandias Dempsey's post
   Irene Crawley

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MJ is the light of my life <3

Edric had intended to be at the Ministerial debate, but like most things in life, it was derailed by an incident at work. It had been a small one—a potioneer from Yorkshire had accidentally forgotten to renew the magical enchantments on their home, leading to a half a dozen muggles bearing witness to the plumes of colorful smoke leaking from the doors, roofs, and attic, and Edric had been forced to track down three obliviators who had already left for the evening on top of one of his employees to assist in the renewal of a newer, stronger protective enchantment. He thought it would be the worst pressure he'd have to deal with that evening, but just as he was preparing to leave, in strolled... Ozymandias Dempsey?

"I'm in cha—" He was cut off before he could even complete his sentence, and his brow creased in immediate distaste. He wasn't used to people cutting his off mid-sentence, let alone bossing him around in his own department. Except Dempsey's following words gave him pause, because, first, the entire department needed reassignment? And why was he here anyways, when he was supposed to be, you know, debating?

"The multiplying memos," he explained, reaching into his coat to pull out a little pad of parchment. They'd come up with the idea when he first started as a way to communicate to everyone at once. One memo would be written, and with a single incantation it would seemingly fly away in the air, only to multiply whenever it passed someone wearing a Ministry badge within its vicinity. "What's wrong? What's happened?"

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— set by MJ! —

Oh, good, they already had a solution for this that seemed more advanced than just asking a secretary to scribble out a dozen owls. He had been rather concerned on his way over here that he would end up standing at some woman's desk tapping his fingers impatiently while she copied down explanation after explanation — which would have been doubly inconvenient because they would have had to choose between accuracy of the context provided and the speed at which someone could write. This was much cleverer — had there not been an emergency on he would have been curious to look at the pad the man whipped out a little closer, to exactly what kind of magic they'd used on it. Unfortunately, they did not really have the time for pursuing curiosities.

"Dragons are loose in London," he explained. "The dragon restraint division and the obliviators are already en route, but obviously there will be — damages to manage."

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MJ is the light of my life <3

Edric automatically began to copy down the words which Dempsey spoke, only for his handwriting to slow as the enormity of the catastrophe dawned on him. He'd dealt with situations of similar magnitude, but rarely around muggles, and never dragons. He took a breath, pushing the bubble of emotions down until he once again wore a mask of complete calm.

Finishing his note, he ripped it off the pad, and placed it in his hand. With the speed of someone who used the spell on the daily, Edric muttered the incantation, causing the loose piece of parchment to float into the air and begin its journey down the corridor, almost immediately duplicating and began following an employee who crossed a nearby corridor. It disappeared down the hall with little fanfare, and Edric knew it would be less than three minutes before the entire floor was being pestered with persistent pieces of parchment.

"I'll summon the ones who've left for the day," he explained, and without a word tapped the tip of his wand to the little Magical Accidentals and Catastrophes market on his Ministry badge, enchanted to notify every other employee by causing their badge to emit a loud screeching noise that would wake even the deepest sleeper (and their entire household, probably).

"Did the Minister send you?" he asked, already assuming it was the case. They'd all been at the debate. "What does he have you doing after this?"

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— set by MJ! —

Well, that was efficient. Oz was rather impressed by the fact that they not only had procedures in place for this, but that they seemed to work just fine. He'd been rather predisposed to assume that everything the Ministry did was ineffective and mired in red tape. Probably an easy assumption to make given that his primary points of contact with them were semi-regular visits to the Ludicrous Patents Office and his badgering them for a month when they had failed to locate his kidnapped wife.

"Helping evacuate the streets," Oz said, answering the former question about who had sent him with nothing more than a nod. Since he didn't have the faintest idea how to start with that one (and since it had seemed a bit like busy-work besides — any task shared with Miss Whitledge coudl not have been of the utmost importance), he was not especially keen to dash off to it. "But if there's anything else you need to get your team mobilized — ?"

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MJ is the light of my life <3

Edric nodded and motioned for Dempsey to walk with him. He began heading down the main hall of the department, glacing into each office space as he passed. He could already feel the department coming back to life after it had started to wind down for the day, the rustle of papers being stashed in folders and belongings being gathered. The familiar sizzle of floo sounded and continued steadily even as they reached his office.

"We have a protocol in place to warn witches and wizards to keep inside their home. It's a spell, sort of like a howler but doesn't require a physical letter be sent. The only issue is that it's usually reserved for much smaller areas," he explained moving to his desk to grab his coat, a little sack which was charmed to carry more than it appeared it could. It was an emergency pack, one that every department member was given when they were employed. He rustled around in a box off to the side of his desk until he found another one, which he promptly tossed in Dempsey's direction.

"If we're going to clear streets, we need to keep people inside who might be inclined to flee their homes or try to get a look at what's going on. You're skilled with charms and magic." It wasn't a question; he knew Dempsey invented spells. Almost anyone who could think of inventing spells was reasonably talented with already-existing ones. "Do you think you could help me expand it to cover larger ground? I'm good with magic, but the theory of expanding a spell's reach isn't something I have the mind to do in a time crunch."

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— set by MJ! —

Ozymandias had no idea what he was being tossed, but was grateful to have caught it for no other reason than it would have wounded his pride to be seen scrambling to pick it up from the floor. Some sort of bag—? He did not understand the relevance, but had learned from his time in society that if one didn't understand something it was often best to keep quiet and pretend to, and wait for someone else to make a fool of themselves to illustrate it. Hopefully the same philosophy that Oz applied to inside jokes with members of the club could be used for mysterious Ministry bags. Hopefully he figured out what it was for before he came into contact with any dragons.

At the request he visibly perked up. "Yes," he said, moving forward with barely contained relish. Getting messages to Ministry departments or helping clear the streets were tasks he supposed he could do, in a pinch; this was something he might actually be good at. He was always eager to flaunt his skills when given the opportunity, and if one presented itself that also happened to keep him away from danger and uncertainty a few more minutes, all the better. "Does it impact only magical families, or Muggle ones too?" he asked. "If it's everyone it'll be a much simpler expansion." And more work for the obliviators, too, he supposed — but that was probably the lesser of two evils, if the alternative was that the Muggles left their house and ended up maimed or dead.

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MJ is the light of my life <3

Edric shook his head. "I'm not sure. It's only been used on smaller scales—Diagon Alley, most recntly. We used it at the auror department's request during a raid earlier this year, and it worked as intended," he explained. "But any life saved—magic or muggle—is worth using it. If it doesn't keep the muggles in, we'll figure something out." We'll because he was assuming Dempsey would be heading down towards the disaster site like him, and he intended to invite him along if only to have a second pair of hands and eyes to help.

"I don't have the patent on me, but I can explain how it works." A request, he thought, that he didn't think the ministerial candidate was in any position to turn down. Not that he thought he would anyways, from the look on his face.

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— set by MJ! —

"Just the incantation," he said eagerly. An explanation of how it worked wasn't particularly necessary for someone who understood magical theory well enough to dissect the parts of a spell and determine their purpose on its own, unless the spell used conventions from another branch of magical origins other than the traditional Latin. "And any artifacts it required, if it does," he added, thinking of the paper that Umbridge had used when starting the memo spell. He couldn't think of anything that would be integral to a spell like this, but he also hadn't seen it in action yet, so there was no telling.

(It occurred to him that it might be just as effective to cast it multiple times, neighborhood by neighborhood, rather than reinventing the wheel with a new spell... but that wasn't nearly as fun, or as likely to bring him positive press after the fact).

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MJ is the light of my life <3

Without another word, Edric explained the incantation to him, separately showing him the wand movement. He explained how intention was a key point in the magic, and that the spell would follow the path the caster needed it to take as long as they had a clear idea of the path it would take. "Which is why large scale operations can get difficult," he said, motioning for Dempsey to follow him out of the office. They'd need to think on the way there—there was no time to be standing around the office debating magic theory. "If we can make the spell predictive, or even work within a larger barrier, we could get to everyone within it without having to worry about every street in London."

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— set by MJ! —

"Mmhm," Oz nodded eagerly. Apparition was another location-based type of magic that worked on intention; it had nothing to do with the incantation or wandwork and everything to do with how viscerally someone was able to picture themselves in the new location they wanted to be. But one did not try to apparate to all of London — at least, not with any degree of success.

"It's using a mental map of the area it affects," Ozymandias surmised. "The best thing to do would be to direct it through a physical map instead. I assume you have one around," he said, glancing around the office they were walking through. Umbridge had already pulled out a good number of things with no explanation of what they were or why he had them; at this point Oz assumed the office had everything, squirreled away somewhere or other. "Then we don't have to restructure the spell's scope or change the underlying magical process."

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MJ is the light of my life <3