"How did it go!?!?" Calla could hardly keep herself from yelling. Judging by the look in Mel's eyes, it had gone pretty well. She looked around the office, which she thought looked better. It was still a bit of a mess, but every object she could fix had been reapired, and were sitting on the floor around the office. Most of the papers were all picked up, and everything taht couldn't be reapired were piled in the corner. Calla was currently trying to figure out what to do with all the burnt papers.

Mel continued smiling from ear to ear " It went very well, I told him I accepted and he kissed me, we spent the rest of our lunch talking and being together, it was great"
she walked ballerina steps over to the piles of broken-beyond-repair wood and started making them vanish with her wand, still smiled.

She was still thinking about her lunch with Craig and because of that time flew quicker when she looked at her watch again, it was already time to leave.

"Uuuff!" she said, making her wand spin in the air and them putting it away in her sleeve again. " that shall do it for now.. I'm going now because I have a date tonight" she said, half singing to Calla. She giggled and dressed her cloak. "See you tomorrow Calla, lovely talking to you" she blew her a kiss and went away.

ooc: I'll RP the day right away feel free to tag along with me xD is just to speed up the time a bit, so only Merlin nows how long we could stay here cleaning before the Maintenance crew arrives

****


Mel walked in accompanied by Olivia, the crew member from the Maintenance Department. She took some careful steps in. The smell of smoke was still in the air but now a light shadow of what it had been. The ground was burnt on the place the explosion occurred and there were exploding marks going to the walls and ceiling. Some papers were organized at a corner, work proudly done by Calla and Mel, there were also two chairs and table, fully repaired. But on the other corner a huge pile of broken wood, burnt papers, retorted plastic...

"Well, here we are" she said, looking at Olivia " Tell me if I can do anything to help"


She looked at her bag and the memo from the day before was peeking out. She sighed "If you'll excuse me" she said, having and idea "I have to go up to level six in a quick run... some business to attend to.. I'll be back in a minute" and she left the office in a quick pace.

ooc: I merged this post with my other one, so I wouldn't double post

Olivia stopped alongside the woman,whose name she still didn't know,and listened as she explained what she knew. "Exploding flowers?" That was a new one on her.So far her duties had only stretched to cleaning the fireplaces and fixing some water damage when the weather system went haywire.Right so fire damage,water damage,broken furniture....a cinch! She pushed open the door as she spoke..."Thank you for informing me,I hope I can do a......" she stopped dead in her tracks,and mid sentence as she surveyed the scene in front of her.

"Holy....Merlin!" Her eyes widened as she saw the amount of damage the explosion had caused.There were scorch marks covering a large area,wood that used to be chairs,so many things that needed fixing.Good job I bought a large bottle of cleaning potion,those marks won't be easy to get off.
Walking round the room she judged what she would need to do.Certainly repair work,and cleaning.Holding up a broken piece of wood she turned round. "I assume this used to be part of a chair? This could take awhile," she sighed,clicking her tongue on the roof of her mouth.Making her way back towards the door,Olivia smiled at the woman. "If you do have a couple of minutes spare I would appreciate if you could help me sort the broken furniture in piles,you know 'table bits' 'chair bits'.Would help when it comes to fixing them," she smiled warmly."Thank you for the offer...uhhh I don't think I caught your name."


Olivia started clearing away the things from around the explosion site,turning as she heard the other woman speak again. "Oh of course! Go ahead,I was just going to start cleaning the scorch marks anyway,and thank you again."

Mel returned to the office after a few minutes a little upset but she managed to cover it from her face nicely. What in Merlin's name had just happened with Craig.. When she entered she saw that the woman was cleaning the scorch marks. She coughed a little at the smell of the product she was using.

"So tell me, what can I do?" she asked her, taking off her jacket and pulling her sleeves up " I'll be more than glad to help" and take my mind off of other stuff, she mentally added. She took her want out ready to do whatever this woman told her to do. "Oh by the way, my name is Melanie, I don't think I've introduced myself to you" and she gave a little apologetic laugh.

With her sleeves up round her elbows and her hair tied in a bun at the back of her head,Olivia was busy on her hands and knees cleaning away the marks off the carpet.There were probably easier,more magical ways,to do it,but the muggle in her wanted to do it this way.The smell of the potion was particularly strong,used only when there was really stubborn stains.Wiping some sweat off of her forehead,she looked up as she door opened,and the woman returned. "Oooh! Yes,nice to meet you Melanie," she smiled,blowing a strand of stray hair out of her face. "Would you mind sorting out the broken furniture for me? What's table and what's chair? I was going to start fixing them next.Nearly done with these marks here,and I need a break from being on my knees!"

Laughing she gave the marks one final scrub,sending foamy potion flying across the floor.Taking off her gloves,Olivia picked up her wand and began drawing it in a circular motion over the spot covered in foam,muttering under her breath.Slowly it started to disappear and a clean carpet emerged underneath.Happy with the effort she stood up and stowed her wand away,picking up the near empty potion bottle at the same time,and placing it by the wall out the way.She'd need it again for the walls."There," she smiled,looking over at Melanie, "what do you think? OK? Clean enough?"

Melanie nodded and started going through all the broken pieces of wood. It was almost a guessing game, some pieces were burnt beyond recognition. She tarted dividing the pile slowly. " Doing that without magic must be really hard. I mean, your job is maybe one of the worst here, you have to clean up all these excentric messes we come up with..." she knelled down on the floor to be closer to the pieces.

When she spoke Mel looked her way with a rather big piece of wood in her hand " Oooh, very nicely done, it looks very good to me" she said approvingly, throwing that specific piece of wood to the table pile and giving the thumbs up to her partner in the cleaning areas.

Ben hurried back into the Experimental Charms office, happy to see that the employee from Maintenance had found the place alright, and Melanie had shown her where to go while he was wrapped up with Bella, and then with the new Liasion in his office.

"Oh, wonderful! You've found the place...and gotten right to work, I see," he added with a grin. "Do you need any more help?" he asked.

Olivia laughed lightly at Melanie's comment. "Yeah it is.The muggle part of me can't help it,though,when I clean things I like using a bit of elbow grease! But I have to say that an exploding flowerpot is the most excentric thing I've had to clean up after,so far anyway," she winked.
Smiling she walked over to the now growing pile of wood that Melanie was sorting through.Sifting through a few of the pieces,Olivia "hhmmm-ed" and bit her bottom lip. "Yeah some of this is too far gone,I'd say.I may be able to do something with the broken bits,magical glue,some sanding,but the charred bits.....Hmmm." Bending down she gathered up a seat of a chair and six pieces of wood that used to be the legs.Moving to an open space of the office she laid them out trying to get a picture of what it originally looked like.

As she was scratching her chin there was a noise from behind her.The Department Head had arrived and also offered help,what a nice man.Standing back up Olivia smoothed her robes and greeted him. "Mr Cobbleston? Nice to meet you,Sir.Yes Melanie showed me the way,and explained what she knew.I thought I'd get started,with a little help," she smiled,gesturing to Melanie. "You're more than welcome to help if you wish.We were sorting through the furniture,and I was just about to start re-building that chair," she said,pointing to the pieces she had laid out. "First I have to pop back to the supply room on level eight and pick up some more cleaning potion.The scorch marks on the floor took up most of it,and I still have the walls to go.Would you excuse me for a moment?"
Nodding her head to both of them,Olivia shot out the room and off towards the lift as quickly as she could.

Mel laughed " The muggle part of you likes big work!". She felt good talking to Olivia, it made her ease up her bad mood. " I can't believe an exploding flowerpot has been the most eccentric, I thought these departments had all kinds of mess... seriously, this one in particular !" Mel continued sorting the pieces of wood, but it was getting harder, the pieces were getting rather small and difficult to guess to what they belonged.. " I understand what you mean, I can't figure out if this is a chair, a table or even a piece of wooden floor" she had a eyebrow raised at the piece and looked at it with a certain disbelief in her eyes.


Melanie heard Olivia speaking and looked back as well, brushing some hair off of her face. Mr. Cobbleston had arrived, she gave him a head nod, to acknowledge his presence and hear to Olivia speaking. "Sure sure" she said to her as she hurried outside of the office to get some more potion. " This looks much better than when I got here at first" she said to Mr. Cobbleston " was it a rather big explosion?" she asked him, getting up.

Katy made her way to the Experimental Charms division, she felt that the required the most attention before she visited the other divisions of that department. She opened the door and found the place had been put back together by magical maintenance, however the smell of smoke still faintly lingered in the air.

She walked up to a group of people in the office, "Hello! I'm Katy Weston, I'm the new liason between the minister and your department! I just wanted to introduce myself! I heard you guys had a bit of trouble in this department with an exploding flower pot! I'm glad everyone is ok now, I heard it was quite a fiasco!"

The door opened itself again but against what Mel was waiting, it wasn't Olivia, it was another woman. Mel looked at her and greeted her " Pleasure to meet you Katy, I'm Melanie Hale" she said, introducing herself.

She heard what she spoke and nodded " I'm not sure it was a fiasco, I don't know the entire story, but the plant was supposed to do something else other than exploding." she said shrugging " maybe it was something sent with that purpose..." that thought hadn't occurred to her yet. Her eyes widened a little "What if it really was sent to explode ?" if it had been on purpose, it was very serious business.

Olivia made her way back into the Charms office,out of breath after practically running to level eight and back.Bent over she tried to catch her breath as she looked at the new person in the room. "Hello!" she smiled,"I'm Olivia from the Maintenance department.Don't mind the mess,Melanie and I are in the process of rebuilding chairs!"
Walking over to the side of the room she placed the new bottle of 'Extra Strength Magical Mark Remover' by the wall that would need it later.She then went back to what she had been doing previously....mending a fractured chair.Taking her wand out from it's holder,Olivia carefully drew around the edge of the two pieces of chair leg,holding them tightly together as she worked.Muttering the "Adhaero" spell quietly she fused them,made sure they were well and truely stuck before starting on the next one.

Mel nodded at Olivia, they were now partners in cleaning. She watched as she carefully repaired the the chair. She was done with the sorting, there were now four piles. One for the bits of chair, another for the bits of table, another for the bits of shelves and finally one of unknown and probably too small to be repaired bits of something.

She rubbed her hands together "txaraaan! I'm all done " she said to Olivia " anything else?" she asked as she brushed herself from wood powder and bits.

Katy smiled at the other two, glad that the mess was all under control, " It's very nice to meet you both! Thanks alot for your help with this! And, Melanie, I was considering the exact same thing. I will try to get to the bottom of this flower pot situation, or alert proper authorities if needed. But it was really nice, to meet you and I look forward to working with you in the future!!"

Olivia had just finished the last chair leg,attaching it to the seat and back,when Melanie spoke.Looking up Olivia beamed at her. "Oh that's wonderful,thank you! It will make the job of repairing them much easier.I've finished this chair,so at least one person will be able to sit down!" she laughed.

Brushing herself down as well,she walked over to the pile of wood that used to be a table.Luckily it seemed to only have been blasted into a few pieces,but it was still amazing how something as small as a flowerpot could cause so much damage. "Actually you know what," she began,in response to Mel asking if there was anything else she needed her to do. "Could you help me hold these two bits of table together while I repair them? The chair was smaller and easier.It's just I need the bits pushed together as tightly as possible for the fusing to hold in place,and that's not easy with one pair of hands."

Olivia smiled over at the new woman in the room.She still didn't know her name,but it was nice to meet her too,and she said so. "Well nice to meet you! And please do try and find out what happened,I'm a little intrigued myself! Probably because I'm so nosy!" Laughing,she bent down and picked up the two bits of table she was just about to start on.

Mel laughed with Olivia. "Yep at least one person will be able to sit, but we might end up having to do some kind of chair game to see who ends up sitting" she laughed again. As Olivia explained how she could help more, she nodded, happy to do something useful " I'm all over it " she said, grabbing the two bits together as tightly as she could.

She too said goodbye to Katy as she prepared herself to leave "It was nice meeting you too Katy, maybe will bump into each other again, under nicer circumstances I hope." she said smiling nicely.

"Oh yes,musical chairs! I used to love that game as a kid." She stood reminicing about her childhood for a few seconds before snapping back to reality,and the task at hand.
"Fantasic!" Olivia exclaimed as Mel grabbed the two pieces for her.Putting her wand closely against the large crack in the wood,Olivia once more began tracing over it,the join visibly closing and sealing as she did so.Wiping her hand over the finished product,she smiled with satifaction and took it out of Mels' hands,placing it bottom up on the floor ready for the attachment of the legs. "Thank you so much,it would have taken ages without your help," she grinned at her fixing buddy."Now," she said,looking around at the rest. "I think we can salvage maybe one more table and a couple of chairs,and get that dent out of the filing cabinet," she added,gesturing to the tall metal object by the wall. "Then the scorch marks on the wall,a bit of a tidy up and brush up and think that will be it." Smiling she turned,hands on hips,to face the pile of wood that was no longer recognisable as anything. "This,however,will have to be thrown away and replaced with new stuff."

Grabbing the legs to the table,Olivia carefully held them in place and fixed them back on,shaking each one to make sure it was on firmly.Turning the table over she nodded with approval and set about fixing the remaining chairs.It was shame she couldn't do more with the furniture,but what had been around the blast site was now so splintered even the best witch in the world would have problems fixing them.
Lining everything up once she had finished,she was pleased to see there was at least 2 tables and 4 chairs that the Charms office could get on with.Glancing over at Mel she laughed. "Well,I'm afraid some of you may need to share,as I think that's all we're getting from that lot."

Mel gestured Olivia's Thank you away with her hand " Really, no need for that, I'm glad I did something, since the office was all blown up, I couldn't have worked, at least now it's habitable!" she said. She then observed how Olivia repaired the remaining furniture, she had studied various levels of Charms but she had never really got into the repairing.

"It's a great work! I think no one could have done it better" Mel said nodding to the 2 tables and 4 chairs " The rest I think the department can afford to buy.." and she looked at the scorch marks " time to get that done? Maybe a little magic on the way...?"

Olivia smiled at Mel's reaction to her thank you. "I know you couldn't work,but it's really nice of you to help,you could have just gone to cafeteria and waited," she laughed again, "after all you don't get paid to do this...." she smiled,looking around at what now resembled a proper working room once more.

Olivia blushed slightly at Mel's compliment.She wasn't used to people saying things like that.Usually she just did the job,got a thank you,and was off somewhere else.It was really nice for someone to voice their appreciation of her work....well their work.
"Yes I think they can!" she giggled at the comment on buying the rest.Olivia looked over at the wall Mel was pointing to. "Yes thats the last thing on the list,apart from a little tidying.And I may stretch to making the cloth do all the work," she winked.

Walking over to the bottle of cleaner,Olivia picked it up,removed the lid,and poured some on a fresh rag.With a flick of her wand the cloth shot over to the wall and began rubbing itself over the scorch marks,creating the same foam as it had when she'd done the floor.The fact she wasn't doing the work direct meant she could get on with tidying.
Bending down she retrieved a couple of the expandable bags used for rubbish and chucked one to Mel. "Here,this is for the rubbish.They're charmed to hold as much as you want to put in them,while not becoming heavy.Cool huh?" she chuckled.Sometimes magic still amazed her,and her mum would love some of those things. "Just put in anything you think you guys can't use anymore and I'll deal with these shards of wood,then I'll get the broom out and do the floor again," she smiled,reaching down and placing the splinters into the bag she had.

Once she had finished doing her part,Olivia went back over to the wall to see how the scorch marks were coming along.Foam had now completely covered the area and she was pleased to see it was soaking in well.Removing the cloth,she took her wand and,just as she did with the floor,created a circular motion over the top of the foam,melting it away.Underneath was clear wall just as good as new.
Satisfied that everything she could do had been done,she turned to Mel and grinned. "Well I think I'm all done with repairs and cleaning,how is the clearing up coming on over there?"

Mel shrugged " I could have gone to the cafeteria, you're right, but my boyfriend is working as well, my other co-worker.. didn't come today so I'd be all alone there. I rather be up here, doing something useful and talking to you!" she said smiling at her " It's been really nice, despite all the work " and she smiled.

Mel held the bag, it was light as a feather " Magic does some wicked things " she agreed nodding and going around the office picking um stuff totally burnt, mainly one of the piles that Calla had separated. Then she went around the office picking up various trash.


Mel, that had been bending down while supporting herself on the wall, looked up with hair in front of her eyes " I'm done I think, this was the last bit of... unknown junk" she said waving it at Olivia and throwing it to the bag, that was still light as a feather, she tied a knot and gave it to Olivia.
"Well is this goodbye?" she asked. It had been a well spent day, she was tired but she was also happy with the result, a total stranger couldn't tell that something as awful as an explosion had happened there, and someone that had seen how it was before.. would think that they had entered a different room.

"You know,it has been nice.Hard work as you say,but nice," Olivia agreed. "Usually I do my work on my own,so it's been great having you here to talk to,made it go faster and with fun!" She had suddenly,in the last few days anyway,not been nervous talking to people so much.And the fact she was getting on so well with Mel meant that was a good choice.

"Unknown junk? That's a good term for it.I'll be damned if I could work out what half of that stuff was!" Laughing,Olivia took the bag from Mel and slung them both over her shoulder,bending down to pick up her remaining equipment. "I think we did a good job,though!"

"I suppose it is goodbye," she sighed.Why did she have to go? She was enjoying herself doing work for the first time in ages. "We could always meet up for lunch somewhere sometime,though," she grinned, "if you want to," she smiled,looking at Mel apprehensively.

Mel felt a little sad to see Olivia gone, they were having such a nice time. Then she spoke about lunch and Mel's face lit up again "That'll be great! Anytime you want, lunch or just a sip of coffee, you know where my department is..." she half-smiled "and you'll probably be coming here often" and she laughed a little. "It was great meeting you!"

***
ooc: no double posting so, I'm just adding here something.


Mel re-entered the office the next morning after spending some time in the cafeteria with Craig. The place hardly looked the same, she could see the soft pattern of the carpet and the colours of the walls, and that pestilent smoke scent was completely gone from the air. At least now it's breathable here, she though.

She looked around for a little while, there was still only four chairs and two tables. She frowned a little, then taking her wand out of her sleeve, she enchanted them and placed them in the center of the room, two chairs in each table, facing each other. She tilted her head a little. It wasn't too bad, and she sat on one of them, going over some slightly burnt papers on a pile, wondering were Calla was.

Three large owls came swooping into the division. One carrying a large basket of assorted chocolates, another with balloons, and the last with a bouquet of Australian flowers and note reading:

Mel had been working on those burnt papers for quite a while when the owls came flying. She eyed them with surprise, "I wasn't expecting anything.." she murmured taking from the owls a box of chocolates, a bouquet of flowers, some balloons and a note. She read it all, smiling at Craig's handwriting. How did he now? she wondered. She hadn't told him yet, he had just talked to Ben on her way up. Apparently he was very impressed by her dedication, and since they were in need of a Division Head, he gave her the job.

She thought about thanking Craig for the flowers... I'll get to him later, she ended up deciding. Then held the flowers to her nose, they were beautiful. She gave a few owl biscuit to to them and set them free.

She searched the basket of chocolates and took little red box out. As she opened it she discovered it was little heart shaped ones, with caramel cream inside.

Piper slowly entered the room and looked around, it actually looked decent in here. From what her sister had told her, she had expected a charred hole in the wall, not a nice looking office, though there was not enough desks or chairs in the place. Hmmmm...

Piper sighed and looked around for the Division head that had replaced her sister. "Hello?" She called as she spotted someone sitting at a desk. "Hello? I'm Piper Snow.. I'm new here.." She said nervously as she adjusted her long black hair which was pulled back into a bun. Her bright violet eyes were wide and scared looking, her black pencil skirt, and violet silk blouse looked nice, though a little old for her nineteen years of age. There was only one thing missing from her outfit. Heels, her feet were ensconced in black ballet flats.

At least she hadn't tripped through the door, she had managed to make it here on her two feet.. but she wouldn't make it through the day standing, that she knew. Ever since her 6th year in Hogwarts, she had gotten clumsier..
Piper sighed more, a sad look coming into her eyes, she wasn't going to think about him.. not now. He had left...