O______________________________O

Ashley had been sorting through paper work at her desk when she heard it. The blonde fell right out of her chair and when she'd finally regained her composure, she took off towards the sound.

Blink.

Oh. MY. MERLIN.

...The. Lab. Was. Ruined.

O__O

Ashley just stared in horror. And wrinkled her nose. And covered both her nose and mouth with her hand. This was really bad. The worst.

"WHATTHEHECKHAPPENED?" She managed through her hand, not wanting to breath in any fumes. She cast a sideways glance at Derek and felt most bad for him. This place was like his baby, practically.

Meep.

Roxanne had heard the explosion all the way from her office on Level Four. At first, she had thought that one of the creatures from MC had somehow escaped it's cage, broken the door she'd had installed and was running rampant in the workroom. But the moment she'd stepped out of her office, she realized that wasn't the case at all. So, she'd decided to check on the two labs in the Ministry. Lo and behold, it seemed that the explosion had come from the first one she'd checked.

"What happened?!" she asked, choking on the fumes slightly. Waving her hand in front of her face, she looked around to see who else was in the now destroyed lab. Derek, Ashley and Natasha. Okay, she was pretty sure Derek and Ashley knew how to not cause a lab to explode, so her slightly narrowed gaze landed on Natasha.

Also, had anyone alerted Aron yet? Though, she was pretty sure that if she had heard the explosion from her office, he was sure to have heard it.

Aron had been on his way to the conference room for the level wide meeting, paperwork and assignments in hand, when he had heard the explosion. Holy holly did this really have to happen? On his FIRST day as Department Head? Althea was going to kill him. Especially after those kind words she had said about him in the Daily Prophet. Oh yeah, GREEEEEEAT first impression to the wizarding world here. He takes over. The department explodes.

He may as well turn himself into the shrivelfig Seren kept insisting he was when he refused to get those midnight cravings because he needed sleep.

Following the smoke, Aron cast a Bubble Head Charm on himself as he approached the lab and.... "WHAT IN MERLIN'S NAME IS GOING ON AROUND HERE?!" he asked, glaring at anyone and everyone. Was Derek doing some sort of ridiculous experimentation in here and....wait, probably not. The bloke seemed as though he were about ready to pass out. And not just because of the fumes.

"And WHY don't any of you have Bubble Head Charms cast on yourself? You don't know whether or not those fumes are hazardous or not." Honestly people. Did he need to go over contamination protocol with them all? They SHOULD know better.

That was an order, by the way.

"Someone hold Derek. He looks like he is about to faint. I need someone to help me get the lab's ventilation system open so we can remove these fumes. Someone else get to cleaning up those spills and broken glass. Everyone check for fires. If you see any throw sand on them. There should be some in that cabinet," he said as he pointed his wand towards one without a door on it.

Bloody brilliant. Bloooooooooooooooooody brilliant.

Everything was all fine and then suddenly LASDKALSDAALKALSKDA EXPLOSION. Wide eyed, Cora immediately ran towards the lab since that sounded like where it had come from - and was where several other coworkers and the pretty new Department Head was running. So the labs seemed a logical destination.

And turned out it really was logical!

But it was also sad that it was because that meant the lab actually had EXPLODED. And that wasn't good.

A nonverbal Bubble-Head Charm was quickly cast, and then she looked over to the DH who was barking orders now. Eh, nah, she wasn't gonna hold Derek. Not when there were far more interesting and spell-requiring tasks to do instead. "I can help you with the vents," she offered. And fires. She'd keep an eye out for those.

His lab...... destroyed...... everything.... completely gone....

Derek's head was spinning 100 miles per hour and he was pretty sure his knees were going to give in any time now. He could hear some other people speaking from a distance as he squinted his eyes to try and see better. The sight of his precious lab totally torn apart and broken and simply.... awfully... gone. All of his experiments.... gone. The equipments.... all gone. Even the furniture was almost non existent now...

His thoughts were everywhere and he wondered if it had been done by magic, otherwise they would be able to reverse and fix evertyhing with spells and whatnot. But if it had been magic... then it was hopeless. It wouldn't be that easy to fix.... his lab... his....... lab........

Good thing there was a wall right next to him, so he was able to lean on it some and keep himself relatively steady for now, even though he was still shaking like a leaf.

Derek didn't even realise when his new boss showed up and started giving orders around. Too busy trying to stand up. And he still couldn't stop staring at the awful scenery. His eyes was starting to burn from all of the fume, but he didn't attempt to wave it off in any way.

He was petrified... and completely destroyed inside... just like his lab.

Ashley was there all of 2.5 seconds before more people arrived, one being the new department head. The blonde was so startled from the explosion that she didn't even respond, just absently cast the bubble head charm over herself and focused her attention on Derek. Homeboy looked like he was about to pass out right there on the floor and she couldn't exactly allow that to happen. The guy had tried to protect her from a bear before. She sort of owed him. Sort of.

Casting a nonverbal bubble head charm on him, she stood behind him and sort of just hovered there in case he fell. She was on fire watch as well, for reasons but yeah, she had Derek duty covered.

Bubble Head Charm! Why hadn't she thought of that?! Van, Wes, and Elinor would've had her hide they found about this! After all, all MLEers had been taught to be ready for anything and anything right now included toxic fumes. Roxanne quickly cast the aforementioned charm on herself, then headed towards the cabinet Aron had indicated. Sure enough, there was enough sand in there for several fires. She scanned the room then for any flames and spotted some near a charred..... well, whatever it had been. Casting a silent cutting spell across the top, she hefted the bag up and quickly smothered the small fire with it. "Anyone see any other flames?" Because that information was important.

Throwing on some protective equipment, Aron gave EYES to the others to do the same. Seemed like his agenda at his meeting was about to change drastically. And for the love of tulips Derek, pull yourself together.

He was just about to get to work when it registered that Roxanne was here. He hadn't noticed in all the chaos. "Roxanne, what are you doing here?" he asked in a judgemental tone. "Look, you aren't trained to work in this lab environment nor have the authorization to just walk in here, so I would appreciate if you would leave this to my employees and myself. You would be of greater use if you would go inform Wes and the Minister that we may have a breach of security on Level 3."

Because none of his employees would be this careless. And if they were, well, they were being fed to a snargaluff. Seren had plenty of those.

That off his chest, he turned his attention to Cora. "You check the vents on that side and I'll do this one." And good, Ashley had Derek. "Cast a Bubble Head on Derek while you've got him there, will you?"

Tone noted. Well, excuse her for running to check on things when she'd heard the explosion. "Could hear the explosion all the way from my office," she said by way of explanation. Because she wasn't going to stoop to starting another fight. And she still wasn't sure that the explosion hadn't been caused by someone in this room, but yeah, she'd go alert Wes and the Minister. Roxanne turned and sauntered towards the exit, not seeing the need to rush anymore, thanks to actual lab people and Aron being there now.

Tasha was sniffing in the air indecisively standing on the threshold to the lab when Derek ran straight past her. "WAIT! You can't go in there. There might be another explosion." She shouted after the disappearing man.

Shaking her head Tasha quickly conjured up some protective gear that she had just suited up in when Ashley arrived by her side to peek in at the disaster zone. Giving her colleague a sideways glance she responded. "Something must have exploded. Do we have anything in the lab that is highly explosive?" she wondered out loud. Tasha felt really sorry for Derek. The lab was almost like his baby. He spent more time in there than anyone else did.

The next person to arrive at the entrance to the lab was the last person Tasha wanted to see on level 3; Roxanne. The narrowed glance Roxanne shot Tasha was unexplainable. Rather than asking why the glance the blond just decided to ignore the other woman for now. There were bigger things to focus on then starting a quarrel with Roxanne.

Resolutely turning her back on the other woman as her new department head; Aron arrived Tasha quickly casted a bubblehead charm on herself, before she said to Aron. "I'll start cleaning up the spills and broken glass."

With her wand in her hand the blond woman ducked into the lab and cautiously started to clean up the spills of chemicals from off the floor along with the broken glass whilst looking out for fires. Tasha saw with relief that Ashley was hovering by Derek that looked like he was going to pass out any minute from the shock.

Working swiftly but with a steady hand Tasha disposed off all the spills and broken glass that she saw along with putting out the fires she spotted here and there. Coming back to where Aron was opening up the vents together with Cora she asked "What else do you need me to do, Sir?" It was irrelevant that she usually didn’t spend much time at all in the lab. In a crisis everyone pitched in.

Now Howard, already nervous about his first day in Accidents and Catastrophes, was finding it hard to control his breathing as he made his way through the ministry towards what would be his new home for goodness knows how long. He was rehearsing what he was going to say to his manager and to the other staff over and over in his head to make sure he wouldn't babble out any old thing when he got there, which was often the case when he was having anattackofthenerves.

What he wasn't expecting, was to be greeted by an ear shattering explosion as he made towards the department.

Shocked facial spasms prevail..

The thirty-two year old jumped. Literally. A hand flying to his heart which had begun to thump hard against his ribcage. The fright, however, had the reverse effect to what you might think, and Howard was jolted to his senses. Nerves temporarily forgotten, for some reason he continued towards the lab where the explosion had come from and didn't turn on his heel and leave the building.

The stench and smoke was something awful. Howard coughed and wafted at the air in front of him then reached into his pocket for his handkerchief and covered his nose and mouth.

The clouded scene that greeted was a destroyed lab and the tail end of an angry boss barking orders.

..Uh-oh. Someone was in BIG trouble for this..

He came to halt beside some of the other staff, one of which looked like he was about to keel over at any given moment.

It appeared that although the nerves had dissipated somewhat in the explosion, Howard's awkwardness had not and he just sort of hovered there uselessly, seemingly suffering from a severe case of Cat Got Tongue Syndrome.

Jade had just sat down at her desk to go over some paperwork when the explosion knocked her out of her chair. "Oof! What was that?!"

She could smell some strong smells coming from the Lab and her fellow A&Cs were as stunned as she was.

Something happened in the Lab! DEREK! was her first thought. She quickly got up off the floor after taking the time to check that she was alright.

Running over to the labs, she quickly did some protection spells (Bubble Head Charms, etc) on herself so that she wouldn't be affected and see how she could help out.

The first thing that she saw was a relatively uninjured Derek who looked like his whole world had come crushing down on him at once which Jade guessed that it sort of did.

A few of her fellow employees, including the super hot Aron were already going through the place.

She walked up to Derek and petted him a little on the shoulder in sympathy--she knew how much he cared about his lab before turning to Aron,

"What can I do to help, Sir?"

The sound of faint scurrying could be heard near one of the ventilation shafts. If people were not talking so much that is. However, the sound of another vial being knocked off the table and a glimpse of small pinkish movement over by one of the broken magical analysis machines certainly were noticeable to anyone close by.

As more people arrived and all of them started talking to each other and well... cleaning up the lab, Derek just stood there by the wall. He didn't notice when Ashley cast the spell on him or that she was standing behing him just in case. The sight of the lab was still too terrible for him to take his eyes off.

When someone came and tapped his shoulder, he was slightly awaken from the shock. He slowly stood up a little straigther - but still kept a hand on the wall - and slowly started to walk. He didn't pull out his wand or did any mention of getting any cleaning material to help out. Derek simply drifted through the lab at such a slow pace as if he were in a funeral.

Why? ...Why his lab? How could that have happened? He took such good care of it! Even during holidays he wanted to just stay there, yet he knew he couldn't. Maybe now he would be able to convince his boss that someone should stay in there through the holidays as well to make sure nothing went wron--

As Derek walked pass a table that was still there somehow, he caught a glimpse of a vial being knocked off and moved like a ninja to retrieve it. MERLIN! HE HAD SAVED IT!! Widening his eyes, he quickly looked around. There was still hope!?! This vial that was now on his hand was intact!

???????????????????????????????????????

It was still happening?? While they were there!!? Derek's brain was still messed up, but he was trying his best to make sense of things. Though he was pretty sure that small pinkish movement he saw was completely in his mind. "What..." He absently mumbled as he looked around some more to see if there were more things untouched.

She'd done that already, cast the charm on Derek, so she simply nodded her head at Aron and watched Derek carefully. He was bigger than her so if he did happen to pass out, it was going to be a heck of a job keeping him upright. She'd need to just levitate him right out of here, probably. Probably not such a bad thing considering the look of utter shock and horror on his face right now. Poor guy. He might be weird but Derek was brilliant and she knew how attached he was to this place. Ash understood he was probably feeling broken about this.

And then more orders were being barked and more employees were there, old and new. The blonde remained calm, quickly putting on some gloves and watching as Derek was brought out of his shock. She followed his path at a good distance, watching for fires and wanting to be there in case he got faint again.

She heard the vial but didn't see whatever had moved it and when Derek caught it, she turned in his direction and blinked. "What was...that?" That had knocked it over, that is? At least he'd saved it.

Aron didn't really have anything to say back to Roxanne. If she had been concerned the least she could have done was stop by his office first. But all was well. The honking daffodil was on her way to tell the proper authorities about a potential security breach. Vital information was in this lab. Maybe someone had a personal vendetta against the department?

Holy holly what had he signed up for? Not to mention he was positive that the Minister was probably hitting himself for giving him this opportunity. Just, you know, don't mind us over here. Just going to BLOW UP part of the department and cause a scene and make a grand entrance.

UG.

Cleaning up some messes as he went, Aron managed to flip the switch on the vent and noticed that parts appeared to be...melted? That seemed a bit off considering the proximity from the estimated explosion location. At least from what he could see and the radius of the damages.

He turned back towards his employees just as Ashley and Derek were...looking at something? "I think we've done all we can for now," he said as he looked at his watch and then back towards Jade and Tasha. "I'll need a team of you in here later to see what is salvageable and to figure out just what happened. Derek? You think you can pull yourself together by then? I would like you to head up the investigation." Or was he going to need someone with him to continually hold him up?

Derek didn't realise Ashley was keeping an eye on him or anything. He was still looking around to see if there was anything else that had been saved, but he couldn't spot anything. Sad...

The former Gryffindor looked down at the vial he was holding and stared at it, only to be slightly startled when his boss' voice called his name. He looked up at Aron with a blank expression. If he could pull himself together by when? What? Aron would like him to head up the investigation?

Oh. Derek nodded his head as a response. Investigation... explosion... magic? His brain started to work quite randomly, but well, at least it was working. He was pretty sure none of his experiments had blown up by itself, he was sure of that.

Jade just nodded at Aron's order and replied, "Yes Sir." She turned her attention back towards Derek and Ashley and what they were looking at. That was very suspicious...something was happening and Jade definitely didn't like it not one bit.

But there were urgent more pressing things to think about, "Derek? Are you okay?" She worried about him. Sure they had an annoying brother-sister relationship and well she did her best to get on his nerves but she did care about him and the lab was his baby.

Thinking that, Jade turned to Aron, "Um, if you don't mind Sir," she was trying her utmost to appear professional, "I'll help Derek with whatever he needs if that is okay with you of course!"

Giving the lab another look over, Aron mentally groaned. He could just FEEL the migraine coming already. Not to mention all the paperwork he was going to have to fill out about this. He ventured a glance at Derek again. Seemed awfully out of character for Derek to allow one of his experiments to go BOOM or to leave the lab in a condition where there could be potential BOOMage.

He was going to take that head nod as an okay. Assuming that Derek had actually heard what he had said. Quick reminder in the meeting that they were now all late too was a must.

"Unless Derek objects, consider yourself part of the investigation team," he said to Jade with a firm nod. "Until then, I'll close the lab and no one is to enter without my permission, understood?" That went for everyone - especially nosy Department Heads from other departments.

Conjuring up a sign, Aron lead everyone out of the lab and then locked the doors. The sign went riiiiiiiiiiiiight across it and read.

CLOSED

Frantically scurrying, the pinkish mass began clawing at the floor, desks, stools, walls, anything it could get its unnaturally long fingers on as it searched for an exit. It began to gnaw on one of the stools with its gleaming yellow teeth and gnawed right through the leg, causing it to collapse to the ground as it was unable to stand on just three legs. The noise frightened the creature and thus it scurried off, seeking refuge in the darkness of one corner of the room.

Derek's thoughts were still not very clear as he made his way back to the destroyed lab. For a fraction of a second he hoped everything would be perfectly fine just like he had left it all. But no. He reopened the lab door and he felt his inside sink again.

The young man stopped at the door again and simply looked at the mess... again. He didn't even hate on himself for having such stupid reaction; he actually didn't even think about anything else but about how terrible all of that was.

Too busy being miserable to notice the marks of claws all over the furniture and any sort of movement that could be possible going on inside his precious lab right now, excuse him.

SIGH.

Temperance made her way to the lab. Knowing she was expected she pushed open the door and surveyed the mess in the room. This was going to take awhile she thought. She glanced around the room again, this time looking for people.

To the only person in the room she said, "Are you Derek? I've been asked to come and assist you with your investigation into what happened in here."

Jade tried to get back to the lab before Derek but she wasn't successful and she found him there standing just sadly staring at the pink mess. A woman was standing close to him, looking a bit lost.

Jade knew that under normal circumstances, Derek wouldn't be one to introduce himself and everything. Under these special circumstances? She knew that he didn't see anything much other then the destruction of his beloved lab.

So she came up to the woman and smiled, "Hello, I don't believe that we've met. I'm Jade and one of the team that our head assigned to investigate the explosion."

It wasn't like Derek wanted to lock himself in the destroyed lab - well, alright, it was -, but the presence of more people in there made him feel worse, as if they were make a bigger mess instead of helping him at all.

But orders were orders. And his boss wanted a team working together, so there wasn't much he could do but accept and... see how things would go. The former Gryffindor turned around to look at the unknown newcomer, but Jade appeared and spoke before he could formulate any sort of answer.

Women...

But whatever; yeah, he was Derek. He hoped the unknown woman would take his short nod as a good enough answer. No need for any further introductions now.

Derek decided to wander a bit around the lab; there was no plan yet, so he didn't say anything at all to any of the women there. Besides, walking around would make him get more used to the idea... He might just accept the sad truth; that way he would be able to pull himself together sooner than later and start working on... a plan or something alike. Or whatever. He just wanted his lab back to normal.

He walked over to a knocked down stool and absentmindedly tried to put it up. The thing almost fell over again, which made him move fast to grab it before it did so. What in the name of Damocles...? Derek held the stool upside-down and noticed the marks of... "Teeth?" He said in a relatively low tone, but since there weren't many people talking at the moment, it was pretty audible.

Almost as audible as... that creepy sound that Derek was able to hear now, although he had no idea were it was coming from. He looked around holding the stool with one hand and the vial with the other. What in the world...?

Following the others back to the lab, Cora was briefly tempted to cast a Bubble-Head Charm just as a precaution in case all the fumes and things hadn't gone out the vents yet, but as the others walked in easily, she decided the vents must've fully done their jobs. Good! This would be a lot easier not having to worry about that being a problem.

She noticed Jade introducing herself to the woman that had interrupted their meeting and figured she could quickly do the same before getting to work. "I'm Cora! Nice to have another person helping out." They could use all the help they could get, she supposed.

The young woman wandered around on the side of the lab opposite of Derek, eyes scanning over every detail she could find, wondering if anything would stick out or indicate what had happened...

Did Derek say something?

"What's that?" she asked, looking up from the table she was examining and over in his direction.