Elizabeth stepped into the lift carefully and waited for the other two to get on.

Rupert walked into the lift slowly and looked around. "Real neat!" he exclaimed.

Elizabeth laughed and pressed the button to his level. She grabbed onto a strap. "Better hold on!"

Rupert watched as Elizabeth pressed the button. "Hold on...right." he said, almost flying back but saving himself by taking hold of the strap. "Blimey, that was a close one!" he said laughing.

Elizabeth laughed and smiled. "Are you ok?"

Joey step onto the lift grab the pulley.she was holding her tummy with a muggle pillow.Hello Rupert and Mother she said with a smile.

Elizabeth nodded, "Hello joey dear." She smiled.

"Hello!" he said warmly.

The arrival of the lift to the atrium level meant lots of things at the same time to Josh. Good and bad. Good; it meant now he was closer to exit the ministry and finally get some food at this cafe. Bad; Evelyn was not hugging him anymore. Weighing those two he wished they could stay for a bit more time in the lift but the young woman was already stepping out of it.

Oh well.

Sighing inwardly, Josh followed after her and looked around before taking her hand. This level always seemed crowded. And it was a kind of crowd that Josh did not really like...for some reason. Hopefully, Evelyn distracted him from it. He gave her a wide grin when she asked the question...questions. ''Plan something for what?'' he said ''For your birthday? Why would i bother?''

*grin*

''Why would i care about your birthday anyway?''

Hahaha.

Evelyn smirked as she turned to see just where she was going. Running into people was not her favorite thing to do in the world. It was inevitable though. "Oh, I don't know..." She shrugged her shoulders as she gave a particularly dramatic sigh.

"I was thinking maybe something out of the country anyway. Like last year." Last year was awesome. Quite frankly, Evelyn would do it again, but really, if she were going to invite people, she wouldn't want to bore them with the same thing over again. Then again, it was her birthday....eh...

No place in France then!

She...did not take that seriously, right? Riiight? It did not look she did when she was smiling but he had started to doubt it when he saw the sigh. Noo. ''I was kidding.'' So he said quickly. He, of course, cared about everything about her but she already knew that, right?

''All right...'' he was going to admit then ''...i thought of planning something but i don't want to end up with something you would not like.''

Planning something out of the country was not something he could do, unfortunately. He would still try but...he could not see how he could rent somewhere out of the country.

''Any other options? I mean, other than the one like last year?''

She couldn't help the laugh, though stopped it quick enough as the smirk reappeared in full. Evelyn knew he was kidding. Not to mention amused that he was concerned she wouldn't like whatever he planned. "I'm sure whatever birthday bash you plan will be amazing." Otherwise, he wasn't Joshua Carter. It was in his nature to have fun every chance he got.

Looking towards him, there was a moments pause before she shrugged her shoulders again. "I don't know. This is the first time I really thought about it." And last years was just what came to mind. "I mean, I guess we could stay here, though I don't want to be stuck in just one place all day, you know?"

That's where the doing something 'fun and exciting' came into play!

Her laugh warmed him up. It also meant that there was no trouble at all. Nothing was taken wrong. He happily grinned at her laugh and when she said his birthday plan would be amazing, so not a failure, he started to feel smug. Of course, it would be amazing because it was his work.

But the 'out of the country' part was still a little trouble. She did not say directly that it could be something else but her criterias for the birthday part; not being to stuck to one place all day, was something he believed he could deal with. He gave her a playful and mischievous look. ''Do you really think i can get stuck to one place all day and not get bored?''

She knew the answer for that. Yes?

''And if i get bored, why would i plan something that is boring?'' Unless the person he was planning the birthday party was a boring person and liked boring things. He could not even imagine Evelyn being boring. ''I will...-would try to make it something worthy of you. Which means it has to be perfect in everyway...like you. But um...'' he had to pause for a moment. ''Since i am not that perfect, not as much as you are anyway, something i plan can't be that perfect but i would try to make it the best.''

...

That was true. "I see you're point." she said, smirk still on her face as she glanced to him out of the corner of her eye. His ramblings had her hanging her head a little and shaking it. Good Merlin, it sounded as if he was already stressing.

"You don't have to plan anything, you know." He really didn't. Taking a quick peek at him, her eyebrow quirked up at him as she dodged yet another person. Thank Merlin, the exit was in sight. Evelyn rather hated this part of the Ministry.

He did not have to plan anything?

Upon hearing that he stopped or a moment and stared at her. Looking at her, her beauty and everything that makes her Evelyn Flores, he actually felt like he had to do something. Maybe not exactly planning the whole birthday party for he was not sure if whatever he could do would be enough for her but he felt like he had to do something, at least to try, to make her happy.

''It's not that. It's because i want to.''

He knew it was not going to be easy work for him with all the stressing about whether she would like it but he knew himself. He was not the guy for the easy jobs either. All his life he dealt with challenging stuff.

He shifted his gaze to the exit which was now, finally, in sight.

Challenging stuff like exiting this place in this crowd. A smile appeared on his face and his grip on her hand tightened a bit. ''Let's move.'' And with faster steps, he led her to the exit.

Elizabeth smiled at the lady. She was unsure whether the lady wanted to be called by her first name or last name so she went with the more respectful one. "Pleasure meeting you, Ms. Dacosta." She twisted her wedding ring, "I am Elizabeth Lupin, African Ambassador." She stepped onto the lift, "Thank you." She didnt have a bag or even a briefcase with her. Her wand was up her sleeve, like always. She fixed her curls up in a bun. "How long have you been working here?" She smiled at the lady.

Layla nodded. Hadn't she made a resolution to meet more coworkers? She was quite sure she did but as usual she got caught up in her own world and completely forgot about that."Same here." Her eyes went to the wedding ring on the woman's finger and she sighed inwardly. Everyone at this ministry was either married or way too young.

"Don't mention it really." Hmm? How long had she been working at the ministry? It had been quite a while now. "I think about five years or a bit over actually."

Elizabeth smiled, "That is a long time. I was the Magcial Countries Ambassador for two years before taking last year off." She aughed and looked at her, "Were you always in your departmet?" She shifted a little bit and glanced up to see what floor they were on.

Layla smiled and shook her head."Nah it's not such a long time actually. Oh, a whole year from work. Quite frankly I would probably get bored the first week. I barely managed the work vacation." And the lift was off."Oh no I actually started in magical transportation. I got promoted from there."

Seeing as Cora didn't have any questions, Jade turned and headed in the direction of the lifts to the other levels.

On the way there, she pointed out the different areas on the Atrium floor: "Over there, is the MoM food court which is a god send when you only have 30 minutes for a lunch break and you didn't bring any lunch from home. Trust me-- you'll be grateful."

She continued as they passed the Specialty area, "Those are the MoM daycare and the magical maintenance offices. You probably don't need them do you?"

They passed the MLE Security Check Point and office on their way to the lifts as well but Jade figured that Cora knew what they were so she didn't mention them although It did remind her about something about the phone booth and floo network.

"Oh and a word of advice, on Mondays, the floo network and the phone booths take ages so you would be wise to add about another 15 minutes-20 minutes to your schedule if you're in a hurry for a meeting on Mondays. It is packed. Trust me on that."

She stopped as she reached the lifts and turned to Cora, "So any questions? If not we will continue on to level 9, the department of Mysteries."

"Yeah... worse idea ever." She laughed, "I was bored to tears after the first month and I started to go a little crazy toward the end of it." Elizabeth gave a half smile, "But with marrying and being pregnant along with moving, it was needed. I am just happy to be back." She chuckled, "Oh really? That is good. Congrats on the promotion."

Cora beamed as she looked over at all the places Jade pointed out. The food court looked so awesome! She couldn't wait to try out some of the food they had there. And she giggled when the day care was mentioned but Jade assumed she didn't need that. "Oh no, I don't need that yet." She didn't have a boyfriend at the moment, and she'd broken up with her last one a couple years before, so she certainly didn't have a baby with her or anything. And she didn't want one yet either. It was enough having to deal with as many siblings as she had over the years. No need to add a baby to the mix, especially when she was alone now.

She listened intently to the advice Jade was giving her and nodded as she mentally noted it so she would remember. "Thanks for telling me," she replied genuinely. That would definitely be helpful. Didn't want to be late to any meetings after all. That'd be bad.

As for questions...she couldn't think of any. So she shook her head. "No questions for right now," she answered. "Just excited to see the next level." Especially considering the name. Department of Mysteries sounded so...mysterious. Hehe.

As they were waiting for the lifts, Jade heard her name being called. She looked around and say that there was a young woman running up to her. Noticing that the young woman was out of breath and holding the message that Jade had put up by the fountain, Jade said. "Ah, You must be Ms. Barbieri. Nice to meet you. This here is Cora Greenwell. You have arrived just in time for the tour to start."

The lift pinged and its doors opened. Jade led the other two inside instructing them to hold on tightly. Then she pressed the button for level nine.

Emily stood, waiting, patiently, for people to move and for there to be space in the lifts. She had contemplated taking the stairs, because it seemed to be so much quicker... but instead she opted to practice patience and enjoy the experience of taking the lift, with her fellow Ministry workers.

Rocking back and forth on the ball of her feet, her satchel slung over her shoulder, hands in her pockets, Emily waited. Mmhhmm. Patiently. Because she was such a morning person.

In a place like this, he should have known that there would be no such thing as an empty lift. People, everywhere he went had people. The only safe place was probably his level but he wasn't there yet now was he? He should have been to work earlier, it might have looked a little less cramped. Anything exceeding three people was cramped.

With a heavy sigh he stepped onto the lift, ending up being squished between some man he didn't know and some woman he didn't know. Wasn't this just the perfect way to start the morning.

"Excuse me Sir, do you mind moving, I need more room." He turned his attention next to woman. "You too. I need room for breathing and being me." That took A LOT of room that he wasn't getting right now. She could squish herself against the wall if she wanted. He wouldn't have complained so long as he got the space.