Hearing a new voice, Melina decided to jump into conversation."Yes, it is. Mine's been great. And yours? Oh, I'm Melina, by the way, Melina Moretti-Papadakis." Melina held out her hand, glad to have someone to talk to. "It's nice to meet you."

Rose liked the girl's attitude so she smiled at her and said "Hi Gabs...so you are having a nice time?".Rose turned at Sophia Vivaldi and asked Gabs "Did you like our new Head? I felt that she is a really wonderful person from her speech eventhough I haven't talked to her even once."

Selene strolled into the break room, stretching her arms above her head. All the ticking in the time room was kind of hypnotic, and was making her feel tired. So, she figured it would be best to get a cup of coffee and give herself a bit of a boost before returning to work.

After surveying the room for a few moments, she spotted a couple of familiar faces: Melinda and Atkins, her colleague and supervisor respectively. For a second, she thought she should go over and say hello. But, they looked like they were too busy talking to other people, and she didn't want to interrupt them.

After pouring herself a steaming cup of black coffee, she grabbed a seat at an empty table in the corner of the room. Just the way she liked it. She could see everything going on in the room, and no one could sneak up on her. As she surveyed the room, she took a sip from her mug, nearly burning her tongue on the scalding liquid.

Seeing her new collegue enter the room, Melina smiled as a greeting. It was nice to interact with others in her Room and in others. Melina had knew that this was her chance at making some new friends.

Out of the corner of her eye, Selene managed to see Melina smiling at her. She returned the smile shyly. Making friends was not her forte. But, that isn't to say she didn't want friends. She just wasn't good at it is all.

Even back at Hogwarts, she didn't have very many friends. The only people she had really managed to bond with were her roommates. But, they weren't here now, so it looked like Selene needed to get new friends.

It would be nice to have someone to talk with within the office.

Marina's sparkling blue eyes turned towards Melina. "Mine has been fine, too," she said genially. The truth was, it had not been fine - quite a disturbing one, actually - but the last thing Marina wanted to do was to ruin a conversation by thinking of the way that Veil was freaking her out.

Melina Moretti-Papadakis? Wow, difficult surname, there. "Marina Effron," she introduced herself, with a tiny but definitely warm smile as she shook Melina's hand. "Isn't it nice that we both have names starting with an M? Ending with an A, too." Now that had been..... really, really random.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Selene

Selene strolled into the break room, stretching her arms above her head. All the ticking in the time room was kind of hypnotic, and was making her feel tired. So, she figured it would be best to get a cup of coffee and give herself a bit of a boost before returning to work.

After pouring herself a steaming cup of black coffee, she grabbed a seat at an empty table in the corner of the room. Just the way she liked it. She could see everything going on in the room, and no one could sneak up on her. As she surveyed the room, she took a sip from her mug, nearly burning her tongue on the scalding liquid.

Spotting a rather pleasant-looking new arrival, Marina gave her a nod. "Good day," she greeted. "I see you're enjoying the coffee." Black coffee was definitely one of Marina's likes.

"Oh, yes, it is," she agreed, a bit caught off-guard that someone would just come out of the blue and start small-talk with her. Not that she found it unpleasant. She actually thought it was rather kind of the woman. After all, Selene was not one to extend the hand of friendship first. No, she was much too introverted to approach someone like that.

The subject of coffee, always sure to bring a smile to her face, instantly endeared the woman to her. "Indeed I am. That's the only reason I took a job at this blasted place: the coffee," she joked. "Please, take a seat. I'm Selene Ashbury. And, you are?"

Marina brushed light-brown bangs out of her eyes, taking a seat near Selene. "It's not a blasted place," she said laughingly, a twinkle in her voice. "I rather like it - it's not everywhere you can ask a vending machine for your favourite type of coffee, you know." Cue sparkling eyes.

Of course, it was heartening to know that someone besides Marina herself liked black coffee. Her family considered it such a no-no. "I'm glad to meet another coffee-lover," she said genially. "My parents have a special dislike for it." Even Raylon had considered it bearable in small doses, only....

"I'm Marina Effron, by the way," she went on, realizing that she had not introduced herself yet. "And might I mention that it's a pleasure, meeting you?"

"I know, I know. I was only kidding. Actually, I consider myself quite lucky to have gotten hired here so soon out of Hogwarts, especially with my N.E.W.T scores. If I would have known they had such excellent coffee here, I would have put in more effort on my exams. Honestly, these are the sort of things they should tell you during career counseling," she grinned.

Ah, a kindred spirit. "I share your pain," she said, with a sympathetic nod. "My parents consider it the foulest liquid ever devised, and the both of them have tasted polyjuice potion."

"It's a pleasure meeting you, as well. Since I'm incredibly new here, you'll have to forgive my ignorance if we're not allowed to speak of it, but...Which room do you work in?"

Kidding? Marina was sure that, no matter how often people around her said that word, she would not get used to it. The kind of English she had learned - and it was her second language, definitely not her first - had always entailed the usage of the word "joking."

She had to grin at Selene's words, though. "Well, I don't blame you for not putting in more effort," she laughed. "I never took my NEWT's - I dropped out, halfway through the term." Even thought it was not something she regretted, Marina sometimes wished she had not. NEWT grades were, after all, something to flaunt. "I worked pretty hard after that, though," she went on, with a friendly smile. "I guess that's why I'm here, today."

"Have they really tasted polyjuice potion?" she asked, referring to Selene's parents. "That sounds interesting." The 'twinkle' was back in her voice. "Mine are both muggles, so they haven't, but they've definitely tasted coffee, and I'm afraid they both dislike it." Extremely.

"I work in the Death Chamber," she went on. "I think I'm allowed to tell you, because we both work in the same department. Of course, I can't speak of the nature of my work." Sometimes, being an Unspeakable was really tough. Not that she had, herself, been around long. "The truth is, I'm relatively new here, too."

"Well, that just goes to show that hard work pays off," she said approvingly. She had always believed that if you wanted something bad enough, you could attain it if you put in enough effort.

"Indeed they have. I've got a cousin starting Hogwarts nest term, and she's a half-and-half. My muggle uncle and my aunt were going away for Halloween last year, and they asked my parents and I if we could take Artemis trick-or-treating, it's a cute muggle custom that involves dressing in costume and asking for candy. Naturally, we agreed. My parents decided to go as the other, and got me to whip up the potion for them. It was quite funny, actually. Artemis didn't figure it out until the end of the night."

"Right. Just wanted to be sure of that. Didn't want to accidentally say the wrong thing and bring the Aurors dropping in on us from above. I work in the time chamber."

"Out of curiosity, what house were you?"

'Yeah,the department of mysteries ceirtainly is the best place for me.It's cool.The new head is very nice.I like her a lot.',Gabriella said.Rose seemed quite smart.

'Hey Marina' Gabriella said , looking at the head of the death chamber.

"Hard work is indeed the key," Marina agreed cheerfully, before pausing to listen to Selene's little story. Which, incidentally, turned out to be pretty awesome. "Trick-or-treating sounds great," she laughed. "Plus, what your parents did is..." Amusing would be the correct word, but Marina decided to forgo it. "Really sweet."

Aurors dropping in? That actually sounded funny. "Don't worry, you'll get used to having to bottle up," she told Selene. "I'm pretty new here too, but I was sort of prepared for this beforehand. I thought it all through before applying at the Ministry, you see." Planned, organized and friendly - that was Marina Effron for you.

When Selene asked her house, Marina's response was pretty much automatic. "Ravenclaw," she said, with a warm laugh. "Supposed to be the intelligent ones, us, though I'm not sure if I'm quite up-to-the-mark. The sorting hat considered placing me in Gryffindor for a while, but it decided Eagles in the end." She smiled slightly, before asking, "What about you?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hermione345

'Hey Marina' Gabriella said , looking at the head of the death chamber.

Gabs was greeting her, oh good. "Hey," Marina said, giving Gabriella a brief but warm smile. "How are you? Enjoying a break from all the work?" Marina, for one, was. Sometimes, one just needed to break away from routine - even though working at the Ministry had yet to become a "routine" for the twenty-something year old.

Stacey-Ann looked about the room and saw that everyone else was chatting nicely with each other and she had nobody to chat to and she wished to get some friends in her own department, Stacey-Ann sighed to herself and continued to drink her coffee

Marina's sparkling, blue eyes landed on a woman who seemed to be quite.... alone. Naaaaah. Who, in the name of Merlin's purple toe, was alone when with a mug of coffee? Still, more company would be nice.

"Would you like to join us?" she asked Stacey-Anna politely.

Stacey-Ann looked over at the woman and said "Sure i would love to join you" Stacey-Ann was feeling a bit shy but it was still a good chance to chat to some of her fellow collegues

"Great," Marina said brightly, pulling up a chair for Stacey-Ann. "I'm Marina Effron, by the way," she went on, extending a hand as she introduced herself. Better get the formalities out of the way, eh? "What about you?"

Melina laughed," Yes, that's a very funny coinsadence. I don't think I would've noticed." Melina confessed. "I don't think very creativly, though I find it most interesting, listening to other people spurt out fun ideas and thoughts."

"Yeah, my parents are rather sweet when it comes to Artemis. Our mothers were twins sisters, you see. And since Artemis was born so long after me, we do tend to spoil her more than we should. The three of us would have gone with her again this year, but this October she'll be at Hogwarts. Oh well, at least we got to do it once." It was so easy to ramble once there was a conversation going. If you could manage to get Selene talking and had enough patience, you could get Selene's whole life story out of her.

"Ah, I know what you mean. It's so hard knowing who you can talk to about what. I suppose you can only talk safely with people who work in the same room you do." Selene laughed at Melina's story, knowing she had pretty much done the opposite. "Oh, I didn't plan for it at all. A few weeks after graduating, I just thought 'I want to work in the Department of Mysteries', and came in and applied."

"Me? I was a Slytherin, through-and-through. Took the Sorting hat the better part of twenty seconds to decide, too. It was considering Ravenclaw for about five seconds--always quick with a comeback, I am--but, the hat and I both knew that I belonged in Slytherin."

She turned to the other woman who had just approached them. "Oh, yes. Please join us. I'm Selene Ashbury, Time Room."

Well, she was just making friends all over the place, wasn't she? Why couldn't it have been like this at Hogwarts.

Alice jumped slightly as she was addressed by someone else...but was quickly recovered as she realized it was only another employee. Hmpf, annoying habit. Honestly, she wasn't to sure, what she'd been expecting... some sort of monster?

Ack. She needed coffee.

The division head smiled at him warmly as she introduced herself. "No...I don't think we have. Pleased to meet you, Alice Sumner, Division Head of the Brain Room." she replied, the words coming out easily.

"So...Uhh...How are you, Mr. Atkins?" she asked, making an attempt at small talk. Not a very creative attempt but an attempt nonetheless.

Alice glanced up as she heard yet another one of the Level Nine workers addressing her, a woman this time. Thankfully, she wasn't nearly as surprised this time.

"Yep...real nice..." she answered, smiling softly at her. "Mine's been good so far, a anyway. You?" Alice asked, politely, raising an eyebrow inquisitively. "You can call me Alice by the way...Alice Sumner. Pleasure to meet your Acquaintance. And...You might be?" she added, deciding it would be best to introduce themselves than sit there speaking as strangers.

DH walked slowly in the Breakroom. He had never realized that this division have this much employee. He then looked around to find one of his one employees and saw that his newest one is now well settled and mingling with the others.

He then walked towards the buffet and grabbed a butterbeer and sat at his favorite spot, near the supposedly window. He looked across the room and had a glance of the whole lot in the party, and then saw the Department Head with the boys. Well, she was enjoying! he thought.

Marina smiled slightly at Melina's friendly confession. "I'm not sure if I'm very creative myself," she said with a tinkling laugh. Creativity and Marina Effron went hand-in-hand only as long as they both revolved around an artistic photoshoot. "But I think I might be. Noticing the coincidence wasn't exactly my creativity, though - I just realized that our names almost rhyme when you say them out loud."

Marina, Melina, Marina, Melina. That's what you call rhythm, see? Well, sort of. A bit sort of.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Selene

"Yeah, my parents are rather sweet when it comes to Artemis. Our mothers were twins sisters, you see. And since Artemis was born so long after me, we do tend to spoil her more than we should. The three of us would have gone with her again this year, but this October she'll be at Hogwarts. Oh well, at least we got to do it once." It was so easy to ramble once there was a conversation going. If you could manage to get Selene talking and had enough patience, you could get Selene's whole life story out of her.

"Ah, I know what you mean. It's so hard knowing who you can talk to about what. I suppose you can only talk safely with people who work in the same room you do." Selene laughed at Melina's story, knowing she had pretty much done the opposite. "Oh, I didn't plan for it at all. A few weeks after graduating, I just thought 'I want to work in the Department of Mysteries', and came in and applied."

"Me? I was a Slytherin, through-and-through. Took the Sorting hat the better part of twenty seconds to decide, too. It was considering Ravenclaw for about five seconds--always quick with a comeback, I am--but, the hat and I both knew that I belonged in Slytherin."

Twin sisters? That sounded awesome! "I wish I had a twin," Marina laughed. The wish was, might I tell, a direct result of reading that not-so-deep muggle series, Sweet Valley, too much. Of course Marina loved those oft-featured, Wakefield twins from that series!

"It's good for you that you knew this was your calling, the moment you graduated," Marina went on cheerfully. "Me, I'm muggle-born, always had an awesome love for beauty." Not that that last thing had anything to do with being muggle-born. "I always knew I wanted to be a professional model - In fact, I have been a professional model for quite a good while! But," she continued, now with a shake of her head. "That's not what my parents wanted me to do. They're so glad I'm a witch - they think that's special, you see - and they wanted me to pursue a "magical" career."

Of course, all those years of post-school study had rubbed off on her, too. Marina had a curious mind, and she loved delving into things. She was also an excellent potioneer, something that made up for many of her faults. No wonder she had a place in the Department of Mysteries, today!

"Slytherin is good. Actually, all four houses are that. Good, I mean. One of my closest friends was a Slytherin. You know...." she paused, suddenly thinking of something else. "Where I was brought up, we didn't have a lot of things you guys have here." Such as Halloween, or the kind of "Cake Day" some of her cousins celebrated. "Even after all these years, I'm still learning about them." Indeed, she had never gone trick-or-treating.

Quote:

Originally Posted by moonyroxs

Alice glanced up as she heard yet another one of the Level Nine workers addressing her, a woman this time. Thankfully, she wasn't nearly as surprised this time.

"Yep...real nice..." she answered, smiling softly at her. "Mine's been good so far, a anyway. You?" Alice asked, politely, raising an eyebrow inquisitively. "You can call me Alice by the way...Alice Sumner. Pleasure to meet your Acquaintance. And...You might be?" she added, deciding it would be best to introduce themselves than sit there speaking as strangers.

"It's been alright," Marina said, with something like a smile curving her lips. She didn't need to tell everyone the truth, did she, now? "Alice Sumner...." Marina frowned slightly, as if thinking. Alice Sumner. Marina was sure she had heard that name before....

"Oh, you must be one of the Division Heads. Pleasure meeting you; and I'm Marina Effron." With these words, the young woman extended a hand.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dan arjay

DH walked slowly in the Breakroom. He had never realized that this division have this much employee. He then looked around to find one of his one employees and saw that his newest one is now well settled and mingling with the others.

He then walked towards the buffet and grabbed a butterbeer and sat at his favorite spot, near the supposedly window. He looked across the room and had a glance of the whole lot in the party, and then saw the Department Head with the boys. Well, she was enjoying! he thought.

More people? Oh good! Marina gave the guy a small, polite smile, before turning her attention back to all the ladies she was conversing with.

"Oh, I still wish I had one as well. School would have been so much easier if I had an older twin brother there to look after me. It's quite hard being an only child. Rather lonely, you know. I suppose having Artemis is what having a little sister is like, but I suppose I'll never truly know, will I?" she thought out loud.

"It was nothing like that," she disagreed, shaking her head. "My mum was getting on my case to find a job. So, I just thought 'Mmm. Department of Mysteries. Yeah, I'd like to work there'. It was quite a spontaneous decision on my part. No planning involved." She rose her eyebrows at Melina's announcement. "A model? Fascinating. I could never do that. Much too short. Cheers, though."

"Really? That's a terrible shame, that is. If you want, I can take you trick-or-treating," she offered. "It's great fun. Going door-to-door, in costume, asking the Muggles for candy, and if you don't get as much as you had wanted, just a quick bit of magic, and you'll have all the Muggle candy you want."

Melina nodded, smiling. "Yes I see it. Marina, Melina, Marina, Melina. It does ryhme." Melina was very amused at the chatter between herself and Marina. Funny conversation, but interesting all the less. "So, where do you work? Well, obviously the Department of Mysteries because you wouldn't be here having this conversation with me had you not, but more specifically. I'm iin the Time Room. Quite interesting really. Well, I imagine no one's job in this Department is boringbut." said Melina who blushed slightly knowing that she had started rambling, which she tended to do when she had just met a person.

"Yeah, it is lonely," Marina said, sort of uncomfortably. She did not like speaking of loneliness and siblings at the same time. She had been so close she to her brother, Raylon....

"You could always wear heels," she said, trying to laugh as the conversation returned to modelling. "I'm only about 5'8'' myself. Guess that's not such a bad height, but it made me feel small sometimes, because some of my co-models were 5'11'', or even six feet."

Oh wow, a trick-or-treating offer! "I would love it!" Marina agreed, laughing. "We really should go out together, sometime. I can't wait for Halloween, now." This sounded so awesome, you know!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mrs_Molly_Weasley

"So, where do you work? Well, obviously the Department of Mysteries because you wouldn't be here having this conversation with me had you not, but more specifically. I'm iin the Time Room. Quite interesting really. Well, I imagine no one's job in this Department is boringbut." said Melina who blushed slightly knowing that she had started rambling, which she tended to do when she had just met a person.

"Death chamber," Marina replied, with a smile. "I head the Death Chamber. And of course," she went on, with another bit of warm smile. "No one really has a boring job, here - it's all too exciting. Dangerous, sometimes, but definitely most enticing."