Late November, 1893 — Ministry of Magic

Approaching someone who just worked at the Ministry while he was the Minister of Magic felt oddly predatory, so for the first month of his tenure Oz had spent much of his time at the Ministry locked away in his office, except for the meetings that Mrs. Ainsworth put on his calendar and then dutifully dragged him to (ostensibly she was at all of these meetings to take notes and minutes, but he suspected at least part of her purpose was to make sure he didn't make a fool of himself or get lost in the hallway on the way to the meeting). An unfortunate side effect of this was that he did not tend to brush shoulders with many of them, and so when it came to putting their names down as potential committee members, he was at something of a loss.

Any of them would probably do, he'd told himself, but he hadn't managed to convince himself of that at all. Not everyone who worked in the Ministry understood the way government was intended to operate, and not everyone had useful opinions when it came to voting reform, and he wasn't going to add anyone to the committee whose presence would only serve to bog it down. They had to be at least baseline useful, even if he didn't agree with any of their opinions. In fact, he needed a few more names who were capable of being loudly wrong — because if the committee came to a decision too early or too easily, no one would trust it.

He'd asked Mrs. Ainsworth to help him find someone suitable, and then to arrange for a meeting that seemed serendipidous — but of course it had not happened by chance, because Ozymandias Dempsey did not have leisure time that he spent in any of the Ministry's various break rooms. This was coordinated with an efficiency that would have impressed the auror teams; it was an ambush.

He'd played the part of a serendipitous encounter, exchanging greetings and making small talk until he felt it wouldn't be too conspicuous to move on. "I'm putting together a committee," he said. "I'm not sure whether you've heard."

---

For this! invitational to one of: Evander Darrow Cassian Valenduris Ivy Sandow (or someone not in the thread yet but who fits the bill!)

  

---

MJ is the light of my life <3

Was Evander pleased to be conversing with the new Minister of Magic? Not at all.

He had liked Ross, and he had even largely trusted Ross’ judgement in government, which was something of a miracle – but still not far enough to trust his endorsement of Mr. Outrageously-Named Dempsey, not by any measure.

Evander had voted Crouch, clearly, but always known the next Minister would be some puffed-up glory-seeker. Hadn’t he told that to everyone who would listen? (So if there was one consolation for the election result, it was that he, obviously, had been right.)

But he was rigid enough in his principles that he wouldn’t allow himself to be swayed by the new Minister now, however facetious or charming his small talk proved, and he was still furtively searching for a good excuse to escape this conversation when Minister Dempsey brought up his committee.

“On voting reform?” Evander answered, mostly toneless. “Yes, indeed, I’ve heard.” Who hadn’t? There was plenty of talk of it, and Dempsey had been shouting about it since before he was made Minister, and every new statesman had his little pet projects to begin with, of course. Evander fully expected such things to fall by the wayside by the first half-year mark, as things did.

Was he supposed to congratulate the man on it so prematurely as this? Reform so often doubled up as a term for change at any cost, when no change was needed, that he scarcely trusted the word. Change, you see, was often intended to make things better, but in practice it could just as well make things worse. “And are you making much progress?” He asked, not unkindly. (Well, not intending to be unkind about it, anyway.)

---

  

---

Mr. Darrow's demeanor had so far not impressed Oz, not if he was seeking out the sort of person who would be loudly wrong. The man did not seem particularly loud about anything, but he had to assume that Mrs. Ainsworth had added his name to the list of potentials for a reason. He owed it to her to at least see this conversation through long enough to see what the reason was. (He felt mildly indebted to Mrs. Ainsworth for having managed not to giggle at him during his first week in office, when she had been escorting him to every meeting room so that he didn't take a wrong turn and end up lost in the endless halls of the Ministry). But anyway, if Darrow had opinions on voting reform he had not made them evident yet in his expression. If he had opinions on anything, he had not made them evident yet.

Well, Oz had a long history of being tactfully antagonistic. He could scare up a reaction from Darrow, if anyone could. He'd take it as a challenge. "As well as I had any right to expect, I think," he began, with a wolfish smile that seemed to hint at something — something which could be interpreted as given how sluggishly the Ministry accomplishes anything at all or given how wildly inexperienced I am, as no one failed to point out during the election, or given what a monumental and serious task this is, or anything in between. He would leave that part unsaid and let Darrow fill in his own blanks. This wasn't the bit that he thought would get a reaction; that was upcoming.

"I've just confirmed Mrs. Laurel Potts' seat," he said, watching Darrow's expression carefully. "And Chief Warlock Lestrange has been delightfully cooperative with his recommendations." There, one of those was bound to be shocking — now it was only a matter of watching to see which. Laurel Potts had a number of qualifications that Oz liked for the committee, but from the vantage of the old guard politicians, those who preferred the status quo, she was a married woman who spent most of her time gardening and looking after daughters with dirty fingernails; there was a lot to alarm. And obviously she, like Oz, had no particular prior experience with politics. Even less than he did: she had never been able to vote, or attend the men's clubs and salons and whatnot where political issues were primarily discussed. She couldn't even read the news properly at the moment, with the Prophet still using Forsythe's ink for the more salacious articles.

On the other hand, for the progressive types, Laurel Potts was a sensible choice, while Lucius Lestrange was the devil incarnate; a symbol of everything they railed against, and likely incapable of cooperating with anyone on anything that did not personally profit him. The idea that Oz was consulting him on the makeup of the committee at all would have been grounds to dismiss the whole procedure, in some people's minds. (Oz rather thought that their minds would change when they were — hopefully — granted the vote by this effort, but time would tell).

---

  

---

MJ is the light of my life <3