Emma trudged silently in, pushing the door forward, walking directly toward the coffee urn like an automaton. Her disheveled hair did nothing to dispel the notion that she looked confunded. She grabbed the first empty cup that she saw and quickly transfigured it into a large mug. She really needed a large amount of caffeine to lift this fog that was hanging inside her head.

After adding one lump of sugar and some cream, she took the first available seat and plunked down. Plopping her purse on the table, she plucked her agenda book out and opened it to today's date. She knew she had something to do today, but couldn't recall what it was. Her eyes traveled quickly down the rows of dates, finally stopping at today's date. Her brows knitted together as she saw that nothing was written down. Blast it!, she thought furiously. She knew that something had to be done today and she hadn't written it down for some obscure reason. Drats!

This morning wasn't shaping up to be anything but irksome. She really shouldn't have read that book on wizard mercantile routes of the Orient. What had seemed like a dry read, had turned into a fascinating exploration of the different ways wizards had adapted their sales missions around muggle territories. Some techniques were quite clever and rather daring. Avoiding detection was the name of the game, and some wizards had come up with unheard of slights of hand.

But today, she paid the price for her curiosity... lack of sleep and the grey 'fuzzies' in her head. Taking another gulp of coffee to stay alert, she suddenly saw her boss across the room. Half sputtering her coffee she had been trying to swallow, she quickly clamped her hand over her mouth, trying to avoid letting people see the brownish liquid dribbling down her chin. Scrambling back to the counter, she grabbed the first napkin from the teetering pile that was there, and briskly wiped her mouth and chin. She only hoped that Mr Serio hadn't noticed her absolutely mortifying manners.