Ryu was comfortably sitting to where he was when suddenly a man introduced himself to him. Rafael Belmonte... Ahhhh, the department head of the office...

0__0... Department head?!

Ryu stood up quickly when he realized the man who introduced himself was the man who hire him. He gave a rather low bow as a respect to the man. Of course, he shook the man's hand.

"Pleasure Mr. Belmonte" Ryu said. Was it obvious that he felt panicky? He tried to look and sound as casual as the rest.

Where were his manner??? "My name is Ryu Takahashi Junior Habitat Manager" Ryu introduced himself as well.

Rafael wondered if his apparent intimidation was a good thing or not. He wasn't one to ever use force or fear to get anything accomplished, and never had to with his employees, so all this jumping up to attention when he came around or was recognized as the department head was new.

Maybe it was a British ministry thing.

"Rafael." Sigh. He was saying that a lot today. "Glad to meet you, Ryu." Taking the man's hand, he gave it a healthy shake before motioning to the door that lead to the corridor. "Your division is in the corridor working with a few other divisions. Report to Rain, he'll fill you in with what's going on."

She smiled. "Oh, i see..." It seems she was talking to the one she was looking for after all....and he wanted to be just called by his first name. "all right then...Rafael." Camellia said with such a soft and gentle tone, even though she did feel a little off, having to call the department head by just his name. Still, it was his wishes and it is to be respected. "I'm Camellia Walden...I was told I'd be a junior ranger." It said so in the letter she received...and was even more confirmed by a certain man heading that subdepartment she was placed in on a very unexpected encounter with him at the park, which yielded some....misunderstood conversations...about weddings.

Rufin nodded. "Yes, I'll go and do that now." he smiled at his new boss then pushed his chair in behind his desk, just managing to avoid knocking it over. Nerves... this was new. Usually he was graceful and elegant in his movements, clumsiness was a new thing to him. he took a deep breath and smiled to himself, right, here goes.

"And you may call me Rafael." No formality needed amongst them, mainly because he'd learned in the past that 'Mr. Belmonte' grew old reeeeeal fast. "You are to get straight to work. Head to the break room, and Kasihu will tell you what they're doing." He inclined his head towards the room.

"Your division, as well as a few others, are in the break room. Head there and report to Kasihu, who will fill you in." He responded to the woman. He would probably head there soon as well to check on their progress.

Fantastic! She'll start working now, and this put a smile on her face. she had been so ecstatic to start working and meet her division. She bowed her head to Rafael. "thank you." she said and headed towards the break room.

No, she won't get lost, not really. Even though she's new around, she will find the break room.

He watched this one go too, and briefly wondered if he should put more signs on the doors before deciding against it. They would get it eventually. Slipping his hand into his pocket, he left the work room and headed back to his greenhouses.

Marina walked into the room with a steaming mocha cup in her hand. Her mugglish dad made that for her, not convinced that the drink might be not so common where she worked. She took her knitted cap off, her scarf and hung her bag on the chair before taking a seat and a sip from the hot drink.

She had to go through the archive files she was determined to study in order to improve the recycling methods. She picked a random file from the pile before her and started with a deep breath. She was never made for paperwork but the sight of Enrique behind those papers and books made the idea acceptable. Not that she'd sink in those papers for more than two hours.. but it was a start, right? She did have some work to do in the office too.

Work. Ugh. He was both thrilled, because it's his first job at the ministry, and exhausted. Who decide to start work so early, let people have a life. People aren't supposed to work their whole live. But he had to deal with it, neither he likes it or not. He was really not bothered to work right now.

He entered the room, with his car keys in one hand and a copy of the Daily Prophet in the other hand. The room was empty, except from this other woman, which seemed to be already working. How could she be able to work so early in the morning, she's probably some sort of work freak. He sighed and continued to his desk. He sat on the wooden chair and tried as slowly as he could to be comfortable, so he could less paperwork. Lazy man.

He started, with hate, at the small pile of papers, at least he didn't have as much paperwork as the woman next him. After a minute of hesitation, if he should do the paper work or 'accidentally' get a paper-cut, he unwillingly decided to the paperwork. After the first three papers, he cursed the job as quiet as he could so there wouldn't be any... awkward moments.

Ugh. This paperwork is like hell for him, every piece of paper was like another, sack of hundreds of potatoes on his back. As he took a small break from his work, but didn't move from his position, he turned his head to the woman at the other desk and said, "Hello... I'm Oliver, but you can call me Leon, and I'm new here, so I..." his words got stuck in his throat, he didn't know what to say. Rather awkward. He sighed and tried to get back to work.

...hmm, wasn't this paper attached to something else? Marina frowned slightly at it and started looking in the pile before her for the file.. when someone suddenly talked. She glanced up at the man sitting nearby and took her a moment to understand what he'd said.

Then he suddenly stopped. She smiled broadly at him, "Hey Leon. I'm Marina Stewart. I am new here as well. Nice to meet you." Yep, she hadn't met many people from her Department yet. Except for Rafael and that hairdo freak, Kay person. "You seem a little tired. Are you all right?" They can talk while working, can't they? Marina was good at multitasking, if he wasn't then he could ask her to be silence. She kept her eyes on him as she continued to look for the file.

At least she didn't laugh at him, that he couldn't finish the sentence. "Hey Mariana, and it's nice to meet you too," he said taking one the useless blank papers which somehow got into his pile, and turned the paper into a paper ball in a second. He got up from the chair, aimed the ball to the dustbin and threw it. The ball landed perfectly into the dustbin, "Yes," he said with a proud-like smirk on his face. "So Mariana, enjoying the job?" he asked, sitting down again, hearing that she's also new, continuing, with his paper work.

"Well I am tired, because I hate mornings and I hate working at mornings, so after eleven or twelve, I guess I'll be okay," Leon said, scratching his head, looking cautiously at the problem written in the paper, ugh. Why were there stupid people messing, with illegal transportation of plants. Those people are so selfish, can't they understand that people like him are forced to try and find a solution for their problems. Stupid morons. "Ugh. People are so stupid in these days," he said sighing, rubbing his fingers on one of his many keys from his bazaar collection . "Why can't the law enforcement or the international cooperation department deal with this?" he continued.

Leon suddenly felt a bit awkward. He felt like he asked Mariana the question, which could make a bad impression, and that's not recommended, he didn't like making bad impressions, because they make him feel neglected by those people. "Ummm... Mariana do you have a watch? I forgot mine in my car." Hopefully it was close to eleven, he really wanted a break even though he already got here. Wait when was the break actually?

Mariana..? Who's Mar- "Mar-i-na." She corrected him with a soft chuckle. He sure was tired, she listened to him and managed to smile at him as he gracefully got rid of the paper, "You're not an early riser then. I guess you'll get used to it, though. You're still new." Besides, mornings were great. She loved them! Working or not, she'd always wake up early.

However, he was right about the paperwork. She wouldn't call people idiots though, nope, because that would involve Enrique and THAT was impossible. "I don't like paperwork either, but I guess they're inevitable in every Department." She shrugged her shoulders, "I wanted to check some old files so.." Aha! She found it! Marina tucked the paper into the right file and started reading another one while listening to Leon speaking.

Law Enforcement? She chuckled once again, "I think they have other things to mind," And she was only saying that because it was Enrique's department. "It's ten thirty. You got here an hour ago, I think." She nodded, staring down at the file and folded it moving on to another, "You can wait for me till I'm done and we'll take a walk down by the fountain if you like." Nothing wrong with cheering her coworkers, right?

Wow! Leon really was tired, he should probably stop spending so much time in that pub in Knockturn Alley. "Oops," he said biting his lower lip, he felt so ashamed of himself. He's usually good with names. He's getting older. EEEEEPPP! "Yeah, in mornings it's very hard to tell the difference if I'm awake, asleep or both," he said smiling, looking at her for a split second.

"I think everyone hates paperwork," looking at the papers on the desk. "I don't hate them..." he added, and continued saying, "I loathe them!" He chuckled, stapling three sheets of paper together and placed in a file.

As she chuckled again, he looked again at the paperwork with a few complicated problems, written in them. He liked his department, but he hated(-ish) what he had to do, it is annoying but challenging, and Leon loves challenges. While reading the problem again he noticed that he only needed to sign, the paper, to make sure the plants are illegal to transport from one place to another. "Yeah, but someone needs to take these from here so they could sign this too. I'm not sure if it needs to be the Law Enforcement but someone needs to take these papers from here, " he said, placing all the paperwork dealing with this problem into a file so someone could take them."So which division are you?" he asked, ripping another useless paper and throw it away.

"Are you serious," he said looking shocked, "another bloody hour," time goes so slow at mornings especially when working. Good thing, he made a friend. Hopefully, she saw him as a friend too.He stapled a few more papers, and placed them into a file. "Okay, that would be nice," he said, glad that she invited him to the fountain. He'll probably finish in about ten to twenty minutes, hopefully she'll also finish earlier, so they could leave as early as possible.

It didn't take her long to see that Leon was fun to be around with. At this time, she could use some fun. Make that a lot of fun. "I'm in the Three R's Committee. Recycle, Reduce and Reuse. You?" She paused in her work and looked at him expectantly.

And she nodded at him when he mentioned signing or something like that. Good thing her work doesn't involve signing anything. She was just going through archive files. Going back to browsing the files scattered on her desk, she smiled, "Okay. It's a deal then." About having a break at the fountain. She loved fountains... she loved water in general, actually and the Ministry's fountain was a masterpiece so might as well consider it her favorite hang-out place around here.

"So, were you working before taking on this job?" Get-To-Know-You questions. If they were working at the same Department and having such close desks, they better become friends than just staring at each other blankly. Right?

"Oh..." he said impressed, raising his eyebrows, "cool." Leon knew that she was looking at him, he could feel it. The man smiled and continued working but made sure that he could see her, with the corner of his eye. "I work at the Export and Import office," he turned to Marina with a small friendly but a bit mischief, smile, "as you can see I need to make sure everything that comes and leaves this country, is legal." This major problem with this job is that there is TOO MUCH PAPERWORK!!! "Are you going to go on a vacation this summer, or stay here and continue working?" he asked out of interest. Well, Leon asks every new person he meets many questions, because he doesn't like not knowing the person he's talking too, if he doesn't, the person he's talking to and him don't usually get along.

"It's a deal," he said returning back to work. Leon signed another two more papers and again stapled them together. Seriously, why doesn't he just put them in files and forget about them. Why does he always staple the papers together, he needs to be less concerned that the papers will get lost, and more concerned to finish this as quickly as possible, like he usually is.

Now she was asking him questions, maybe there more alike than he thought. "Ermmm... I used to have muggle job, I worked in a bank," he felt a bit weird, sharing that information, maybe she is pure-blood that doesn't even know what it means, and then she'll laugh at him. He finished stapling the last bunch of papers together, and stretched his hands and back, by raising his hands and arching his back. "Finally," he added. "So Marina, are ready to go?" he asked getting walking towards the exit, with his hands in his pockets.

She stared perplexedly at him for a second before getting his mischievous smile, and she responded with a chuckle, "Why am I feeling you're not the quite legal type of a person?" She joked hoping that he wouldn't take it personally or anything. She didn't want that impression to be delivered. So soon.

Oooh. Summer! Marina actually let the file open as she stared dreamily forward. It'd be great if Enrique asked her to go to Spain this summer to meet his family. He did promise her to take her there, in one of their first meetings. Other than this, she'd never go anywhere else, "I don't really know. My fr-.." Uh Uh wrong word, "..-boyfriend might take me to Spain this summer. We didn't really decide yet. What about you?"

Going back to her pile, she'd noticed that she finished quite a lot. Getting up from the desk, she levitated the pile with her wand and placed them in a specific order in a high shelf stuck to one the walls. Then he announced his work being done, she went over to his table and nodded smiling, "I am ready. We shall go." That should be fun!

"You're right, I'm just a wicked man, which does wicked things. But now I'm just working a normal job" he said. Hopefully, she understood he meant the cool wicked and not the evil wicked. Leon never did something illegal in his life, but he did a few cunning actions through out his live.

"Spain," he said impressed. He was surprised that she has boyfriend, and he began to wonder, if he's one of those stubborn men. If he is than, he's not going to like the fact that they are hanging out. "I'm going with my son to Denmark with our friends," Leon added after she answered his question.

Leon walked towards the door, "Come on, lets go," he said gladly making sure he took everything. He shouldn't think that the Ministry is the safest place in the world, even here things can get stolen.

Rufin dragged himself into the work room and sat at his desk. Before settling down to do his paperwork he used his left hand to search through his pockets... AHA! Dittany, Aloe Vera and Victoria Amazonica! The best mixture for burns. He put a couple of drops onto the large red mark on the back of his right hand, wincing a little as it sealed the wound. It soothed the pain and he re-stoppered the mixture, putting it on the corner of his desk.

He looked at his in-tray; not much going on at the moment... He filed through the top layers of applications. Everything seemed quite easy... Two Draconias, a Devil's Snare, a Manducare - that didn't even need removing, he could calm that down. He sat back in his seat and wished there was something more exciting to deal with... staring at the unfinished reports of his last couple of removals. He picked up his quill and pulled the first one towards him...

Sauntering out of the greenhouses, Rafa's dark eyes scanned the work rooms for one of his employees... and settling on Rufin. Ah. He would do, and maybe a few others as well. Hm.

"Rufin," He made his way over to the man, eyeing the paper work. "Hold off on the paper work for now, I have another task for you. The transportation department is building a koi pond and is in need of supplies. I'd like you to gather some wood, stones of all sizes, and some moss for them to retrieve." He inclined his head towards the storage room. "You should be able to find all of those things in the storage. And you'll probably need some help with this..." Idly, he glanced around the room. Hm.

Rufin glanced up from a report on what had been a particularly difficult sprig of parsley (Why people charmed herbs to sing he'd never know, when they can sing they can also bite...) to see his boss. He had to admit he was rather relieved that he didn't have to finish this right now. "'Course, shall I take it down for them or are they sending anyone to help?" he asked, he could always charm it so he didn't have to carry it but help would be nice... and he would like to see what the other departments looked like...

He stood up and looked around the room for help... it seemed pretty deserted. "I guess everyone else is out, if anyone turns up I'll hijack them on the way in and get them to give me a hand."

"Any news on our decorating yet? Are we allowed to put the fountain in?" he smiled, referring to the corridor; he'd been looking forward to putting charmed frogs in the fountain... and all the other pretty things...

As he said this he picked up his burn potion from the desk, unstoppered it and tended - again - to the red wheal on his hand. It was healing quite fast, however, it was unusual for a Draconia of that size to have such a potent flame... As he rubbed in the solution the wound became even less noticeable and the red began to fade, but he wasn't paying much attention to it; just an every day injury, he'd had worse. He stoppered the phial and put it into his pocket

"They will be coming to retrieve the supplies soon." Hadn't he said that? "Lets worry about their decorating task right now, then we'll worry about our own." He waved his hand towards the door and let the man lead the way towards the storage, not bothering to ask about the burn paste. A normal part of the job. And as for other employees helping them...

"Anyone who'd like to help, just follow us in here." He called over his shoulder as he headed into the storage, leaving the door open.

Marina was strolling back into the work area when she heard Rafael calling over his shoulder. She spotted another employee walking along with him. With a quick glance over the desk and the paper pile she left, the woman followed behind them quickly...

Kaishu sauntered into the work room with his briefcase in one hand and, as always, his guitar slung over his shoulder so that it hung on his back. Honestly, was there any other way to conduct a meeting than with music? Kaishu certainly didn't seem to think so and with the prospect of being able to perform sometime in the near future on the horizon, Kaishu was rediscovering just how much he loved the craft. Of course, it was already obvious that he loved it as much as he loved his hair, and THAT was saying something. This probably explained his overly generous attitude towards being outside all day planting trees and flowers. Then again, he had come up with a new concoction to protect his hair and had bought a brand new spiffy hat to make sure his perfect locks remained undamaged.

Kaishu set his briefcase on the table and crossed his arms as he looked at the blackboard in front of him. Removing his wand, he gave it a few flicks, casting a silent spell, and words appeared on the board.

Quote:

Originally Posted by blackboard

BEAUTIFYING DIAGON ALLEY

North End Locations:

• Street Vendors
• Fountain
• North End of the Street

Middle Section Locations:

• Cafe with Coloured Umbrellas
• Middle of the Street
• Corner of Knockturn and Diagon Alley

South End Locations:

• Sound End of the Street
• Park Bench
• Rubbish Bin

Plants to be used:
aconite
amaryllis
asphodel
belladonna
bluebell
camellia
chrysanthemum
daffodil
daisy
flutterby bush
fluxweed
hellebore
knotgrass
lovage
rose
sneezewort

Trees to be planted:

• apple
• cherry
• elm
• holly
• hornbeam
• magnolia
• mahogany
• maple
• oak
• rosewood
• willow
• yew

Stepping to admire his work, Kaishu nodded his head and then pulled his guitar around so that he could play a song he had been working on over the past few days. After a few more moments, Kaishu returned his attention to his briefcase and pulled out two stacks of posters. He then pulled out his list of young minds that would soon be coming to him for instructions and began thinking about how best to divide up the work

It would be best to come early for the meeting, thought Camellia but then again, she was just really excited to work. Planting in Diagon Alley seemed really fun to do so and for a moment there, she thought she was being like Heather who always thought everything seems fun to do.

checking if her pony tail was all right and that she was in utmost comfort with her outfit (composing of a blouse, jeans and sneakers.) she entered the workroom and saw her boss, Kaishu. She smiled at him. "Good day..." what to call him? She can't call him...not that word. "..Mr. Shiradou." names work best, she guessed.

and her eyes traveled to the board and she scanned everything listed in there. For a moment, she stopped, seeing a familiar word. She thought she was seeing her own name written there, but she quickly realized that it was referring to the flower she was named after.

her real mother's and her favorite flower. Her smile was more bright than usual. She'd really enjoy this project, no doubt about it.

Kaishu looked up from the copies of the staff profiles he had been given and his eyes began to sparkle a bit when he saw Camellia standing before him. Ah yes, there she was. This would be the perfect opportunity for him to see what flowers went best with her complexion. At first, he had been thinking a summer wedding was best- seeing as the heat seemed fitting for Ryoma's hot head - but spring was beginning to look even better and better.

"Good day, Camellia," he beamed as he gestured for her to take a seat while they waited for the others. "I am assigning you to the North End of the Street." He winked. Yep, North End right around where the Leaky Cauldron was. Camellia could even deliver the posters to him directly. His plan was perfect.

Kaishu had decided to put his little misses and misters into pairs. Two of them working in each section should be more than enough for them to get the job done. Of course, Kaishu would be checking their progress on a muggle bicycle he had found while rummaging through the recycling.