January 4th, 1891 - Ministry Break Room

The Wizengamot break room was flooded by some magical mishap. Beth could have eaten in the courtroom, but she was not keen on that either - what if one of the Wizengamot members walked in and saw her? That was a nightmare. For a moment she considered skipping lunch and eating at home, but her stomach was already growling faintly, and she had not eaten much for breakfast. So she had to go somewhere else, but where?

She spent a few moments writing in the backpage of her notepad, thinking on paper as to the Ministerial secretaries. It didn't take her long to decide - Miss Jones was the MG&S secretary, and while the department itself was faintly frightening, Miss Jones had always been pleasant. So. She would have to go up there.

Beth had already rescued her sandwich in the early parts of the flood; it was now in the satchel hanging on the side of her wheelchair. She headed out of the courtrooms and towards the lift. In the elevator on the way up to Magical Games & Sports, her pulse was a little quick - what was she going to do if Miss Jones said no? She would have to figure out a whole other place to be, and it would be horribly awkward.

But it was too late to back out now; the lift doors were opening.

"Miss Jones," Beth said, rolling her wheelchair towards the secretary's desk. "Would it be possible for me to join you up here for lunch? My break room is flooding."

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Josie Jones

  

Josie hadn't even realised the time. As Miss Vane entered the office, it hadn't even occurred to her that it could be time for dinner. Though, once she thought about it, she was actually quite hungry.

"Of course! I haven't eaten either, I'll join you." Josie replied, enthusiastically welcoming the arrival to the office. "I'll get the kettle on!" she announced, as she shot up and headed over the tea facilities.

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the beauty is of course, MJ's

Beth blew out a little breath of relieved air; she should have known that Miss Jones wouldn't send her on her way. "Great, thanks so much," she said; she pushed her wheelchair to follow Miss Jones, hoping to get out of the way of the main office before any of Miss Jones' coworkers could see and talk to her.

"How's work been for you today?"

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"Work has been good today!" Josie replied as she opened the door to the breakroom and held it open for Miss Vane.

As she entered the breakroom, Josie headed past the various seats to get them both a drink. "What about you?" she asked, "How have they been treating you down at the Wizengamot? Just the idea of being down there with them makes me feel sick."

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the beauty is of course, MJ's

Beth followed Miss Jones in her wheelchair, smiling at the other woman's questions. "They're all right," she said. Around the secretaries, she didn't have to pretend that the Wizengamot members didn't freak her out. "I think that they don't really notice me. Does that make sense?"

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"I suppose you're not wrong are you," Josie replied. "There are people who have come into this office every week for years who still don't know my name. I'm Welsh and called Jones, you could probably take a wild guess and get it right." - Josie gave a sincere chuckle, as she never took offence. In fact, fading into the background was what she wanted every second of every day. "But, they're terrifying in the Wizengamot. If I see them walking down a corridor, I can't even make eye contact with them!"

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the beauty is of course, MJ's

Beth smiled. "You sort of get used to it, I think," she said, "And I wouldn't even begin to know how to handle Quidditch players." Quidditch players seemed very loud and adventurous and chaotic; the Wizengamot members were famous and therefor terrifying, but they could not be described as chaotic.

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Josie laughed. "I can handle adventurous and chaotic. They do the talking, and I do the listening. More often than not, they're friendly and nice. They don't give me much grief. Meanwhile I feel like every time a Wizengamot member looks my way they immediately think I'm useless and poor, and I can't do my job. I feel very judged."

Perhaps that was just her anxiety talking.*

*It was definitely just her anxiety talking.

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the beauty is of course, MJ's

"I just don't think they spend enough time thinking about me to actually form an opinion," Beth said, with her own little laugh and shrug, "I don't know what I would do if they all started talking to me." People came to Josie because they needed things; Beth just had to write down everything at the trials.

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"That's true," Josie replied, "I'm sure Quidditch players don't have much an opinion on me really. My mum always tells me that people don't think about me as much as I think they do. But I still feel it right here-" Josie held her hand over her chest, "That people are judging me."

Josie tried to heed her mother's words. She tried to not freak out every time anyone looked at her funny, or if she did anything mildly embarrassing. But, her subconscious seemed to have other ideas.

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the beauty is of course, MJ's

"It's hard not to feel that way," Beth said, "Like people are talking about you as soon as you leave." She knew people talked about her, was the thing - maybe nor once they got used to her, but until they did, they were certainly talking about her.

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Josie smiled and nodded her head gently. "I think me and you are very similar Miss Vane," Josie replied with a small laugh "I feel like that all the time." It was nice to speak with someone who understood her anxiety about interaction with other human beings. When she spoke to people who were confident and suave and understood how to charm people with their winning personalities, it just made Josie feel totally inept.

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the beauty is of course, MJ's

Beth grinned; it was one thing to speak with someone and have them understand, and another to have them say that they empathized and were similar. Miss Jones thought they were similar! Because they felt weird about talking to people! This was practically a revelation. "I'm glad it's not just me," she said, cheerfully.

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Josie grinned. It felt good to meet a like minded person. Too often she felt like she was the only person who felt that way. Josie liked Miss Vane. She was a good egg.

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the beauty is of course, MJ's