Year/Job
Auror In Exile
Break your back to earn your pay, and don't forget to grovel. |
Travis
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Post by Dane Caspar on Jan 21, 2024 1:08:41 GMT -8
Dane sighed as he leafed through pages of Ministry documents. He'd been cooped up in the dark, lonely corners of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement basement for five months now, stripped of all cases and special assignments when he insisted that he didn't know anything about his father's murder. The intention was to force him out of the Ministry entirely, but Dane was too stubborn to relent. He would push their papers and be the absolute best at it.
And Dane was really good at it, as much as he hated how dull it was. He could lock in to one assignment for hours and find the day quickly passing, replaying old Quidditch matches he'd seen with his father in his head.
On this day, however, Dane was pulled from his busy work fugue by the loud sound of the heavy basement door sliding open followed by the patter of footsteps. He looked up curiously. It wasn't often that Dane had company down here.
Rosemary Carter
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Year/Job
Wizengamot Admin. Services
Steph
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Post by Rosemary Carter on Jan 21, 2024 1:14:50 GMT -8
Romy was buried deep in paperwork, but at least she had made the choice to do this. Sometimes when she was tasked with collecting and sorting parchments, she would daydream about what she'd be doing if she had taken a gap year like she had originally planned. She imagined herself somewhere in the Mediterranean, sipping on a cold drink while looking out into the clear blue waters of whatever port city of her choosing that day. And then she'd hear the grating high pitched voice of her supervisor throwing out another order. With a deep sigh, she had to come back to reality.
Today, she had to go into the basement to drop off a pile that was missing signatures and pick up another for a different case. The only other time Romy had been down here was her first week and it had creeped her out so much that she often found a way out of having to go back. However, everyone was so busy with all the new cases popping up that she absolutely could not get out of it.
Romy tried knocking once, very softly, and there was no response. She flicked her wand to open the door but nothing happened, so she had to use all her might to open the heavy metal doors. Needless to say, with the long walk and opening the door manually, she was already tired from this adventure. She stepped into the room and into the awful fluorescent light. A long stack of paperwork followed, floating right behind her. The room still looked like a scene from a horror film and no matter how quiet she tried to be, the clicking of her heels on the polished floor gave her away.
A man poked his head up from behind a desk and Romy jumped back, she'd been too busy looking around to notice him at first. "Oh, sweet Merlin," she whispered to herself, placing a hand to her chest. This was another reason to not come down here again. "I'm sorry, I didn't see you there. Uh, I was told to bring these back. They're missing some information and we can't send it out like this."
She turned to face the mountain of paperwork following her, leading it to the top of his desk with her wand and it slammed down on the surface, covering whatever he was already working on. She hardly noticed because she was already looking around again.
"Are you like serving a sentence or something? This place looks like a prison."
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Year/Job
Auror In Exile
Break your back to earn your pay, and don't forget to grovel. |
Travis
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Post by Dane Caspar on Jan 21, 2024 1:18:04 GMT -8
Dane hadn't had the choice of a gap year, or really any choice at all about where he was now. He joined the Ministry for his father, and now that Michael was gone he was completely trapped. There isn't a lot of legitimate work you can do when you're a Darling, even when he'd given the Ministry four years or honest police work. They still didn't trust him.
It wasn't all that bad. The dim, flickering lighting of the old basement created an appropriate mood for brooding, which was Dane's favorite pass time these days. No one was ever down in the basement. It was just Dane, his papers, though he'd occasionally work on one of his Quidditch stadiums in bottles which he collected in his office back home.
He looked at Romy, having trouble making out the details of her face in the dark light. "I guess it's a kind of sentence," Dane said. "But if you think about it, aren't we all serving some kind of sentence?"
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Year/Job
Wizengamot Admin. Services
Steph
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Post by Rosemary Carter on Jan 21, 2024 1:23:02 GMT -8
Romy turned her attention back to him, trying to place a name to the face, but the lighting was really bad in here. Plus, she was sure she hadn’t seen his face in the four months she’d been working at the Ministry. Something about him seemed familiar, though, she just couldn’t quite place her finger on it.
“Okaaay,” she dragged out the word, unsure of how to respond to him. It seemed that someone had forgotten to put some sugar in their morning coffee. Whoever this was was sure in a mood. The environment was probably not helping either. Her eyes studied him for a second before looking around his desk, noticing the stacks of paperwork. Despite the considerable amount of papers, they were stacked in neat piles. Apart from the mess she had dropped onto him.
“Oh, Wimbourne Stadium!” She called out, noticing the bottle and tools near the edge of his desk. Her older brother had been a big fan and she couldn’t even remember how many times she’d been there. But even half way built in the bottle, she could tell what it was.
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Year/Job
Auror In Exile
Break your back to earn your pay, and don't forget to grovel. |
Travis
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Post by Dane Caspar on Jan 21, 2024 1:24:35 GMT -8
If Dane was going to be exiled to the Ministry basement for his entire career, he wanted to accept his fate in peace. If there was anything he liked about the work, it was that he could be alone with his thoughts. Thoughts that often drifted from work to his family, from his family to his future. The truth was that Dane didn't have one.
"Sorry," Dane said, punching the bridge of his nose. "I don't usually have company down here. Can I help you?"
But Romy was already spying his model Wimborne Stadium in a bottle. He hadn't expected her to catch it.
"Yes!" He sat up. "I've been to all the stadiums in the league, but I'm partial to Wimborne. They were my team growing up."
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Year/Job
Wizengamot Admin. Services
Steph
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Post by Rosemary Carter on Jan 21, 2024 1:26:25 GMT -8
Romy brushed off his apology, since there was no actual need for it. She didn’t know him and she, hopefully, would never have to come down here again. Instead of acknowledging his question, she focused on the miniature stadium. She leaned in, her hair falling forward over her shoulders, and she shook her head in amazement. It took too much patience to sit there and build something this small and fragile, patience she would never have herself.
“My older brother was obsessed with Wimbourne,” she said, then let out a light laugh. “I’m sure he would have loved the wasp motifs they added around the stadium during the renovation.. so you’re a fellow Quidditch lover?”
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Year/Job
Auror In Exile
Break your back to earn your pay, and don't forget to grovel. |
Travis
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Post by Dane Caspar on Jan 21, 2024 1:29:47 GMT -8
Dane bristled, suddenly aware that he had stepped into sensitive territory with this stranger. But the young woman seemed more interested in the stadium in the bottle than discussing why her brother was past tense.
"Of course," Dane said. "I won the Quidditch cup with Gryffindor and almost went pro except for...well, my calling was here."
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Year/Job
Wizengamot Admin. Services
Steph
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Post by Rosemary Carter on Jan 21, 2024 1:36:03 GMT -8
Romy rarely talked about Clark, he’d been gone so long and there was no use crying over it now. Every once in a while, though, she did like to think about the positive things in his life. Like his love of Quidditch.
She straightened up, looking at Dane again.
“Slytherin house cup… that must have been a while back.” While Slytherin was a good squad during Romy’s time, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw were competing at the top. She was a little baffled by this man. What was he doing down here if he had been good enough to play professionally?
“Your calling was… the gloomy basement of the Auror offices?”
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Year/Job
Auror In Exile
Break your back to earn your pay, and don't forget to grovel. |
Travis
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Post by Dane Caspar on Jan 21, 2024 1:37:11 GMT -8
It occurred to Dane how crazy he sounded talking about how he could have gone pro, but he knew that he could stand confidently on his Quidditch career at Hogwarts.
"Five years ago," Dane said. "I played seeker for four years. I'm actually an Auror, I'm just on...special assignment down here."
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Year/Job
Wizengamot Admin. Services
Steph
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Post by Rosemary Carter on Jan 21, 2024 9:41:22 GMT -8
Five years ago… Romy would have been a third year, already really into Quidditch, but she couldn’t remember him. It wasn’t strange, her life revolved around her friends and even though some of the older kids were really good players, she didn’t know them personally.
“What sort of assignment? I can’t imagine you get a lot of action down here.”
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Year/Job
Auror In Exile
Break your back to earn your pay, and don't forget to grovel. |
Travis
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Post by Dane Caspar on Jan 21, 2024 9:50:54 GMT -8
At Hogwarts Dane lived and breathed Quidditch. It was the one thing that he had outside of the family. Michael never cared much for Dane's interest in Quidditch, and in that way succeeding on the pitch became his first rebellion. Even as he neared graduation he held onto the small hope that someone would offer him a contract, but his father made sure that wouldn't happen. Dane's whole life had been decided for him before it even started.
"I'm helping build a database to keep better track of the records down here. I'm cataloging each individual record into the Wiznet."
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Year/Job
Wizengamot Admin. Services
Steph
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Post by Rosemary Carter on Jan 21, 2024 10:01:14 GMT -8
Romy's life had always been planned out by her father as well. And even though she tried to fight it and swore she'd never ever do what they wanted, she did end up working at the Ministry in the end. Sure, she wasn't at the International Confederations working under Clark Sr., but it still seemed like he got his way. When she sat down and really thought about it... was it all a waste of time? She even gave up Quidditch to make sure she could do whatever she wanted after graduation.
She looked around once more, at the dreary lighting and the mountains of paper, and then back at him. Was she looking at her future? Was she also going to try to convince herself that this was fine?
At the mention of the Wiznet, Romy kinda forgot she was in the middle of an existential crisis.
"The Ministry is finally trying to join this century?" she asked, a little impressed. Without asking, she walked around to join him behind his desk, then decided that was rude. "May I see?"
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Year/Job
Auror In Exile
Break your back to earn your pay, and don't forget to grovel. |
Travis
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Post by Dane Caspar on Jan 21, 2024 11:30:10 GMT -8
In the months since Dane's reassignment, he'd gotten used to living down there by himself in the basement. The Department's goal was to hide him away where he could cause the least damage without a lawsuit, and so far it was working. There weren't many Darlings who would simply accept a fate like this, but Dane was very good at it.
Romy was spoiling Dane's self-pity time, and his instinct told him to shoo her away. But when Romy moved around to his side of the desk, he found himself accepting that fate as well. "Sure," he said with a little smile, gesturing over the stack of papers. "Take a look at whatever you like. It's all declassified. They don't trust me with the spooky stuff."
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Year/Job
Wizengamot Admin. Services
Steph
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Post by Rosemary Carter on Jan 21, 2024 11:51:40 GMT -8
No, of course they wouldn’t, she thought as she looked at this sad man. She wouldn’t give him access to anything classified either. It wasn’t hard to tell that he was deep in a slump, in his own little depression room.
Romy grabbed the ParchPortal from his desk. She tapped her wand to the Portal and started looking through the Dane’s work. It seemed simple enough, but she wasn’t sure how useful the older generation working at the Ministry would find it. They always seemed to push back whenever the younger generation tried to implement something new like this.
“Are you only doing this for your department? We could really use this in mine.”
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Year/Job
Auror In Exile
Break your back to earn your pay, and don't forget to grovel. |
Travis
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Post by Dane Caspar on Jan 21, 2024 11:54:33 GMT -8
Dane wasn't used to anybody showing interest in his work. That was a different story when Dane was doing actual case work. Members of the Wizengamot loved Aurors at parties because they had all the best stories. Dane had once enjoyed these parties because it gave him the chance to schmooze with the kind of person he aspired to be one day, but down here in the basement it was hard to imagine a future in the Wizaengamot now. Gone were the days of hunting dark wizards and investigating Quidditch crimes, a future as empty as his own father's.
"I'm just doing it for my department," Dane said. "But the goal is to put all records on the platform and I imagine they'll have trouble finding people from each department to do it." Dane looked over the stack of papers with a long sigh. "This is my legacy."
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