Reagan clenched her teeth together so she wouldn't respond with an impolite comment that would surely ruin all relations between the United States and Britain forevermore. Forcing a smile upon her face, Reagan replied, "I do apologize, Ms. Road. I hate to rush you upon the stage, but I know you must have such a busy schedule, a woman of your importance surely doesn't have much time to waste. I thought it best that we get the opening ceremonies started so that we can all get to work here together. The chair on the end closest to the podium has been reserved for you and there is a table of food for you all to enjoy. Please indulge yourself with some food and have a seat."

Oh! This one was even worse! Telling me how to do my own job! She was the Minister for Norway, not Britain, so she better back up! And maybe if these Ministers could follow a simple request, I wouldn't have needed to be louder to get their attention.

Reagan put the most sympathetic look upon her face and explained, "I apologize for the volume. It is just that when I made my first announcement, I think my voice was lost in the crowd because no one responded. So I raised it a bit, but perhaps I spoke the second time just as a hush came over the room, so it seemed louder." Because I can honestly say, it was not that loud. But, of course, I won't be honest with you, because you'd bite my head off. Because you're worse than a combination of Clara and Brennan together!

Of course, Reagan didn't say her thoughts out loud, but she'd heard about this woman's reputation and Reagan wasn't so sure she would like her much. But maybe the woman would prove her wrong. Until then, Reagan finished with, "The third chair from the end of the table closest to the podium has been reserved for you and there is a table of food for you all to enjoy. Please indulge yourself with some food and have a seat."

Reagan's face broke into a true smile. Finally! Someone nice and polite who didn't speak to her with condescension! Reagan replied cheerily, "Oh, no need to apologize. It is rather loud in here amongst the crowd. We have a great turnout. I think they're all rather anxious to see you all up close, and to see the entertainment we've planned. We'll be getting started in just a moment. The very first chair, on the end farthest from the podium, has been reserved for you and there is a table of food for you all to enjoy. Please indulge yourself with some food and have a seat."

As the other Ministers made their way to the stage, Reagan pointed them to their chairs, which went in roughly alphabetical order, with the exception of Brennan who was placed nearer the center of the table in the 6th chair from the end farthest the podium. She explained, "We'll be getting started with the entertainment in just a moment. Minister Cooper will open the ceremonies first and then the acts will come on. There is a table of food for you all to enjoy. Please indulge yourself with some food and have a seat." Wow, that line was getting extremely repetitive.

Chiara was in the wings, hidden, watching the audience. She was in charge of the entertainment troupes... and as soon and dreamy Minister Cooper made his speech, she was on. A little nervous of seeing him again, Chiara kept an eye on all entrances...

The man was not only handsome, but soooo powerful. He really deserved better than that Belle woman. She was horribly annoying and loud. He needed a woman that would stay by his side and be his arm candy... Like Chiara would... she'd be his accessory. While that Belle woman... she wanted to be center of attention... take the focus away from him. She didn't deserve him...

Abby's eyes went wide... "Aint no need to grovel Sugah..." Abby said patting her hand. She began walking back and forth on the stage waving like she did when she was Miss Georgia, and then passed by Reagan. "Ah hope you have Sweet Potahto Pah! There aint no indulgin happenin if there aint none Sugah..." She looked the girl up and down and then added. "Darlin, you need to fahnd yourself a mayn and stop bein so... tense!" She said and went to the food table.

Brennan Cooper managed through luck to somehow find his way to the right room and even the right podium after he wandered off from his Auror escort. "Ah. Taylor! Where is my seat?"

Breathing a sigh of relief, Reagan spotted Brennan approaching the stage and met him at the stairs. Taking him lightly at the elbow, Reagan guided the Minister toward the podium and explained, "Your seat is the fifth from the end closest to the podium. You'll be sitting next to the Ministers from India and Japan, but before you get comfortable, you have to make your speech. You know, welcome everyone for coming - the visiting Ministers, the guests - and explain your hopes for this conference. Be your charming self and you should have no problems.

"Go ahead and have a seat. I'll introduce you first and then you can come up to the podium. Don't worry about the food. I'll get you a plate while you're making your speech and it'll be at your place when the entertainment starts." Gosh, I am becoming more and more like his keeper every day. Between practically running this Ministry for him and now basically running the daily aspects of his life, it is no wonder I have no time for a personal life of my own. With a sigh, Reagan guided the Minister to his chair and before departing to get things started, whispered in his ear, "And you may want to fix your tie and your hair, sir. You look like your just woke up from a nap." 'Cause you probably did, you lazy little man.

"Hm?" Brennan smoothed his hair and then ruffled it back up again. "Taylor, is my speech on the podium? And I want to sit in the most important seat. My seat looks just the same as everyone else's. My SISTER has a gorgeous chair whenever they have a feast, and she simply leads a tiny school. I lead a country! I need a bigger chair." He straightened his tie.

Reagan's eyes nearly bugged out of her head. She told him more than once that he needed to prepare his own speech and now he's asking her if his speech is on the podium?!? It is bad enough he expected her to plan and organize this entire conference, contacting each and every Department Head to enlist their help, but now he expected her to have his speech written too? The nerve!

Reagan had nearly had enough. This job was beginning to not seem worth it anymore. If it wasn't for her determination to one day be Minister of Magic herself, she would have walked away by now. But she knew Brennan would have to retire some day in the future, and when that day came, she hoped to replace him. And it was this desire that kept her where she was, overworked and without a life of her own, and handling each and every one of Cooper's bungles.

She explained to the Minister, "Sir, I informed you days ago that you would need to have your own speech written, so unless you placed it on the podium before this moment, it won't be there. You'll just have to wing it. Best to keep it short, in that case. And as for your chair, I'll take care of it. But you should know, these people on the stage are your colleagues, international leaders of equal ranking, who may not like it so much if you treat yourself better than them. But if you'd like a bigger chair, your wish is my command." And with a flick of her wand, Cooper's chair was enlarged to be a few inches taller and wider than those surrounding it. I suppose if the other Ministers ask why he's being treated better, I'll have to lie and say it is something to do with a medical condition or something equally lame. Claustophobia, perhaps?

Brennan shrugged. They'd like whatever he had to say, and he had a general idea what needed to be said. He approved of his new chair and with that, he headed to his seat to gloat over being slightly higher and more important than everyone else.

"Why thank you very much" Kaylee replied returning the woman's smile. "You have done a fantastic job setting this whole thing up for us" Kaylee regarded the woman a little more closely. She seemed to be an extremely efficient and capable young woman, Kaylee could certainly do with someone like her back home. "Say...have you ever thought about coming to Australia?" she queried. This trip might turn out worthwhile after all, a little poaching never went astray.

Reagan's cheeks turned a bit pink. It wasn't often that she was complimented on her work - Brennan hardly took notice enough to care. Reagan smiled and replied, "Thank you, Ms. Whittaker. It was my pleasure and I'm glad you like it." A bit caught off guard by Kaylee's next question, Reagan responded, "I've thought about taking a vacation there, but I have to admit, I don't often have time enough for vacation with work. So I probably won't get there anytime soon." Reagan laughed lightly and then caught a glimpse of the clock in the back of the auditorium.

"Oh, it is time to begin. Ms. Whittaker, pardon me but I must address the group now so that we may get started. Please have a seat and enjoy your evening."

Once Reagan was satisfied that the ten Ministers were seated comfortably, Reagan approached the podium, pointed her wand to her throat and in a loud, but not too loud for indoors, voice, she addressed the crowd, "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to this year's International Wizarding Conference. As I stated before, my name is Reagan Taylor and I will be serving as your Mistress of Ceremonies for the evening. And it will be quite the entertaining evening, so please sit back, relax and enjoy.

"The tradition of the International Wizarding Conference began many years ago, when the world's leaders of their time thought it would be prudent to convene together and determine strategies to improve the magical community. It is this same noble desire that brings these ten distinguished individuals, sitting beside me on stage, to our Ministry this year. Each of these men and women are dedicated to the wizards and witches of their countries and of the world as a whole. They are truly remarkable people. And it is my honor to introduce them all to you. Ministers, if you could please stand as I call your name.

"I will proceed in alphabetical order: Kaylee Whittaker, Minister of Magic Australia; Valeria Nikolvna, Minister of Magic Bulgaria; Bao Li, Minister of Magic China; Luc Benoit, Minister of Magic France; Bhanuprasad Balasubramanium, Minister of Magic India; Yoshi Ishikawa, Minister of Magic Japan; Svetlana Jespersen, Minister of Magic Norway; Jose Espinosa, Minister of Magic Peru; Abigail Road, Minister of Magic United States; and last, but certainly not least, the man who I have the honor and pleasure of working with everyday right here in this Ministry, and who would like to address you and our guests personally, our very own Minister of Magic - Brennan Cooper."

Reagan was proud that she hadn't mispronounced anyone's name, especially that chap from India. Boy, that was quite a mouthful! Before the applause died down, Reagan gestured toward Brennan, giving him his cue to rise from his chair and come to the podium to make his speech.

Bao Li stood and gave a slight nod of the head to the crowd when his name was called, but he was offended. His seat was not as impressive as the one he had in China plus the absence of yellow made him nervous. No yellow meant that the local ministry was powerless. "Why no yellow?" he whispered loudly as he sat back down on the flimsy cushion that was supposed to make his hard chair comfortable. "This chair insulting. And no footrest." He glanced around and saw the blonde who was speaking, and made a motion for her to come speak to him.

Brennan stood and waved at his people, giving a little bow and his trademark smile. They really did love him, and he hoped to give them a night to remember. If everything went smoothly, he'd go down in history. If it didn't, he'd blame it on Taylor. It was a win-win situation.

He stood at the podium and raised his arms dramatically, his head thrown back. "Good evening, Wizards and Witches! I am here this evening to welcome you to this wonderful event. I'm proud to bring you entertainment and to prove that the Ministry of Magic in the United Kingdom can put on a good show and prove our absolute power and influence. I welcome my esteemed colleagues and hope to you all enjoy your stay in our beautiful country."

He bowed his head and waited for the clapping to stop.

Kaylee clapped her hands in a bored fashion after the Minister's speech. He really thinks a lot of himself that one she thought. She looked over to his assistant, no doubt she was the one who had done all the work. Kaylee gave herself a mental note to talk to Ms. Taylor later.

Yoshi Ishikawa would much rather be sitting next to anyone other than this man. He eyed the chair the British Minister sat in and listened carefully to to the man's clearly unprepared speech.

Yoshi understood now; the conference was lacking because this poor Ministry had a leader that was lacking. Lacking subtlety for one thing. With the barest motion, Yoshi flicked his wand a tiny bit under his robes, each of the other Ministers' chairs increasing in size by the merest fraction. Every few minutes he did this, until after a short while Minister Cooper's chair was actually the tiniest bit smaller than those of the visiting Ministers.

Deadpan, Yoshi Ishikawa, Minister of Magic for Japan, threw a wink at the audience and waited with interest for Cooper to notice his seat was no longer the most impressive in the room. He, for one, certainly did hope that the Ministry of Magic in the United Kingdom would put on a good show.

The man was GENIOUS! Chiara thought as she leaned against the wall of the wings listening to Cooper... Why did he have to marry that snake in the grass Belle! That's it, she'd have to do something about it. She needed him to be all hers! She needed to come up with a plan...

She watched the silly little secretary and waited for her to introduce the entertainment... then she's show him what a great job she did, and he'd fall in love with her for sure!

Bao Li stood up as the British Minister spoke and pulled out his wand. With a few swift flicks, he transfigured his simple wooden chair into a large ornate one that was covered in gold and had rich yellow silk upholstery. Tucking his wand away, the Chinese Minister sat back down and grinned. Oh, this seat much better. He blinked once at the man speaking and was wondering if the man himself was the entertainment for the night. If not, I make him entertainment for night. The mere thought made him giggle.

To be quite and perfectly honest, Jespersen did not pay attention to the little speech the Reagan woman had given her as an explanation for being so ridiculously loud. The reason why this happened, was because Svetlana's ears had the tendency to tune out the words that came out of the mouth of people that was not important--like the woman, for instance. She, like many other people, was not worth of Jespersen's precious time.

The third chair from the end of the table closest to the podium has been reserved for you and...

Needless to say, those were the only words that Jespersen actually payed attention to. Because obviously, that's all she wanted to know; the place where her seat was. But no, Taylor Reagan --or whatever her name was-- just had to start to ramble about such meaningless affairs like the sound of her voice; Svetlana knew it had been loud, and obviously, nothing would convince her of the opposite.

Making her way with superior walk, the fairly short woman made her her way graciously towards her seat, and sat down swiftly, just as Cooper decided to honour them with his presence.

Blinking her large turquoise eyes at the man's speech, Svetlana's thin and pale eyebrows jerked up at his speech. That was it? Was this the man in charge of running a country? No wonder why everything was so perfectly average around this Ministry. No wonder why the decorations were so mundane. Her petite and pointed nose wrinkled at the entire thing, before one of he hands brushed a strand of platinum her off her shoulder.

Valeria blinked at the man when his speech was over with. Their absolute power and influence! Ha! And then the man didn't have the common courtesy to at least introduce the other countries. What kind of man was he? He was not the only Minister here, and if this dismal display of British finery was their best he certainly wasn't the wealthiest Minister.

Valeria hitched a smile on her face, she didn't want to embarrass her countrymen by being rude. She would leave that to Minister Cooper. She clapped her hands slowly and only twice. She noticed the Japanese Minster raising their chairs up a few inches. She smiled and nodded her head at him. Thank you, she mouthed to him.

Reagan had to battle gravity and sheer shock to keep her jaw from dropping to the floor in horror at Cooper's speech. 'Absolute power and influence'?!? Is he insane?! Maybe the man's been enchanted, or worse, cursed. Why else would he be acting so ... so... idiotic!?!

Hurrying to the podium in an attempt to minimize the damage that Cooper may have done, Reagan announced, "Uh, thank you Minister Cooper." Ok, Reagan, focus on the strengths of his speech. Like there were many. Here we go. "I think you're quite right, Minister, about our country being able to provide an excellent show for our esteemed guests. So why don't we go on with that excellent show, yes? So now, without further ado, please enjoy 'Flowering Nations' performed by Chiara Quarra and The Quarra International Troupe." Reagan began clapping her hands to welcome the group.

Chiara took center stage, her eyes fixed on Minister Cooper. She smiled at him and gave him, and ONLY him a deep bow. With a flourish her wand was in her hands and she began to move it as an orchestra Maestro would direct his musicians. Trumpets sounded, though none were seen. And then a flag from each of the countries represented flew around in a circle. Then all the flags lined up in a line in the order the entertanment was going to happen: France, Australia, China, Bulgaria, India, Norway, USA, Japan, Peru, England. Finally all flags rose up to the ceiling, ever present.

Flags

The French Flag then, came down, appeared at center stage and grew large, covering everyone, including Chiara. Finally it opened like a curtain, Revealing a troupe in French colors.

Chiara was now in the wings waiting to make sure the french entertainment went as planned.

Minister Beniot clapped politely as the French entertainment troupe appeared onstage, smiling. The British Ministry really was quite a nice, organized place-- of course, he still preferred his own ministry in Paris, but as a place to visit on occasion, it was very pleasant. Wondering idly what it looked like when there wasn't a large event going on, as the only times he'd really been there were to officiate the Minister's wedding and now, he leaned his intricately carved cane against the table and settled back to watch the entertainment.

Bao Li frowned. Wasn't the entertainment supposed to be in alphabetical order? The last time he checked, A came before F. But from the absurdity of the British Minister's speech, nothing surprised him anymore. And the room reeked of mothballs. Thus he sat there on his magnificent golden throne (which was bigger than that of the host) and drummed his fingers on the yellow satin padded armrests as he stared at the entertainment in sheer boredom.

As the French flag parted, a pale mist appeared and began to swirl. The mist faded as the curtain fully opened to reveal four french performers standing in front of some slightly startled looking wood nymphs. The four flicked their wands and disappeared as the nymphs began to sing in a complicated nine-part counter harmony. If you listened to it carefully, you'd catch that it was sung in nine different languages- representing all the languages spoken by the visiting Ministers as well as some that were not.

Creeping up around the floor, the mist returned, the entire effect eerily beautiful. Tiny pinpoints of light flickered briefly and the mist swirled into columns. The choir of wood nymphs began to build to a crescendo, each language somehow adding to the next without obscuring the words of the last. The mist fell back to reveal solid columns made of thousands of tiny prisms, twinkling in concert with the singing nymphs.

Almost imperceptibly, the beautiful sound of the nymphs began to fade until quite suddenly the stage was completely silent. Just as the audience was able to process this silence, the still twinkling pillars shattered; each tiny prism floating out above the heads of the audience and twinkling like fireflies. So close to the heads of those in the crowd that it would be a simple thing to pluck one from the air; the prisms began to flash images. Each image showing a moment of Wizarding history with a focus on unity and beauty.

The mist began to creep over the stage once again, parting to reveal the two wizards and two witches with their wands pointing at the crowds. In unison, jets of light shot out of their wands and as the light hit each prism they dissolved into powder; and a fine silvery dust rained down on the crowd. With a sweep of their wands the four on the stage bowed low, once at the crowd, once at the ministers on the stage before the mist once again claimed them and the performance area was bare.

Reagan had managed to make Minister Cooper a plate of assorted foods just before the entertainment began. Sitting in her chair behind him, she watched in awe of the beauty, first of the song, then of the crystals. But her favorite thing, her absolute favorite thing, was the flashing images of moments throughout history. Reagan had a respect for the lessons that history taught each generation that followed and seeing them all above her filled her eyes with proud tears - not enough for them to flow from her eyes, but just enough to well them up. She'd never felt prouder to be a witch and to be surrounded by some of the most amazing minds of her time. She smiled without thinking as she waited for the next act.