Melanie entered the office pale an tired, she had been away for a long weekend, taking care of some personal affairs. She sighed as she walked and let her bag hit her table rather loudly.

She then sat behind it, waiting for someone to come, so she could hear the news and what had happened while she was away.

Dora sauntered into the office quite bubbly! She was sporting a blonde and electric blue bob today and was grinning from ear to ear. "Hey Mel!! I have been wondering where you were! Is everything okay?" Dora asked walking over to her and giving her a hug and kiss on the cheek.

"Hei Dora" Melanie greeted , hugging her back. She pushed some papers away " Everything's fine, I'm just tired..." she sighed and pulled a lose strand of hair out of her face " You look dashing, what's up with you?" she asked amused by Dora's electric appearance.

"I'm really glad everything is okay!I am so stoked because....Edward is coming to visit soon!!" Dora exclaimed. "I am not sure what the next step is. Whether he is moving here or not, but at least I get to see him for a bit." Dora was practically glowing she was excited. "We will all haveto get together and hang out while he is here." Dora started thinking about all the posibilities of Edward being here....

Piper walked into the room, slowly and silently, she noticed Melanie and Dora were around, and so she tip toed around them, and settled in her desk. She had had a terrible night, another dream about Luke.. More dreams came about him lately.. She put her head down on her desk and sighed Get out of my head, quit haunting me... She thought as she closed her eyes, only to see not only Luke's but Wes's image dance before her eyes. Tears started to come, and she bit her lip.. Until one of them came back.. she would be a mess, and if they never did.. welll.....

Dora notuced Piper walk in looking rather sulky. She frowned a bit at this, Piper always looked sad about something. "|Hey Piper, how are you today?" Dora called over to her. She really hoped that whatever was bothering her would get better, Dora hated to see people so gloomy.

Melanie gave Dora a wide smile, she was so happy that things had worked out between the two of them, she hated to see her friend gloomy the other day " That's wonderful, I'm so happy for you! Of course we'll hang together, I really want to meet him, after all he's your boyfriend!" she even clapped a little, excited of the idea of maybe a double date with Dora and Edward, Craig and her.

She too noticed Piper entering the room quietly, what was wrong with this girl, she was always so sad.. should she do something about it? She might not be in a sharing mood, but wasn't she supposed to do something about her employee's well being? She heard Dora's question to her, and decided to join her " Yes, is everything ok Piper, you look... well I'm sorry, but awful " she frowned a little, she really wanted to help this girl.

"Oh yes, that would be lovely!!" Dora said to Mel, still eyeballing Piper a bit.

She sighed heavily, it was too bad for someone to be so sad all the time. "|You know that you can talk to us about your problems if you need us, that is. I don't want to pry, just know I'm here if you need me, I am here" Dora said to Piper.

Piper looked at Dora and Melanie as they spoke to her, and she hesitated a little. Should she really tell them what was wrong? Should she tell them that she got her heart broken twice last year? That she was just barely old enough to be in the ministry and technically she should still be in Hogwarts? Should she tell them that she is haunted by two boys, both of whom she loved and still missed terribly? Should she tell them that she didn't sleep much now, and working was the only way to get her mind off of last year? Should she tell them she was just existing, surviving... and not living? Should she tell them how empty she felt inside and how it was eating her up???.....

No..

Piper just smiled a little at the two of them and shook her head, "Thanks, for both of your concern, but I just didn't get enough sleep last night, that is all. I am fine really.." She said with a half smile.

Dora wasn't buying Piper's excuse, but she wouldn't pry,Well, if you're sure...but remember, if there is ANYTHING i can help you with let me know. We are a team here, and I think of everyone as a family. I'm here for you." Dora gave her a reasurring smile.

Melanie sighed a little, she let it slide, this time. She got to her feet, stretching her back slowly. Maybe she should start doing exercise with the pregnancy and all.

She made a few more stretching exercises but quickly gave up, sitting again in her desk, pulling out of her bag, a box of snacks Craig had given her. " Anyone want one?" she asked to the office.

Piper smiled and nodded at Dora, "I am sure, but thank you for caring." Piper said, a real smile on her face this time as she looked at Dora. Her eyes swiveled to Melanie as she got up and stretched.. She had heard she was pregnant.. She smiled a bit, she remembered when her sister was pregnant.. "Sure I will take one.." She said softly, as she got up. "How far along are you?" She asked curiously.

"Not that much, that's why you can't tell, I'm nearly two months, but I already feel like I was four or something... not that I could tell the difference, that's just what the Healer told me it would happen..." she nibbled the snack " Craig, my boyfriend, and the father, is half-werewolf, and apparently, babies with were-wolf blood tend to make their mothers feel pregnancy symptoms much stronger..." she rolled her eyes a little remembering her mood swings from last night " that's why I discovered so early..".

The day hadn't started the best way, but she was getting rather chatty as the time passed, seeing that pregnancy interested Piper she decided to catch that opportunity " You like babies? " such an easy talk, babies, almost everyone loved them, there was no chance this could make her unhappy.

Piper tilted her head a little as she listened to Melanie speak. "Two months? i remember when my sister found out she was pregnant, she was nearly three months along, it was an emotional time for her, which is why she didn't find out til so late." She smiled a bit. "Half-were wolf.. That should be interesting.."

"Yes, I babies, I just adore my nephew Auberon, I was there when he was born, as the father wasn't." Piper smiled fondly, Auberon was the only thing that made her even slightly happy lately.

"I bit it will, I'm still not sure how the birth will be... which scares me a little" a little wrinkle appeared between her eyes as she thought about it. See, little Piper can talk! " Piper... how old are you?" she asked her, she looked so young.

"No problem hon!" Dora returned her smile and hoped she'd loosen up and talk to us eventually.


"Thanks but no thanks on the snack, I'm trying to keep up my girlish figure," Dora giggled and posed a bit. "I'm so excited for you Mel! I adore children, probably because I'm still a BIG kid! Have you thought up any names?" Dora loved kiddos and couldn't wait to play with Mel and Craig's child!! She was basically bouncing with excitement

Piper smiled a little, "Don't worry, I was there with my sister when she gave birth, it is scary and painful, but the result is so worth it. I would love to have a child, really I would." She said softly as she thought of Auberon.

At the age question however Piper fell quiet for a moment. How could she say that she was barely 17? That she had pretty much lied about her age to get into the ministry.."I am 19.." She said finally, it was what was on her application.. her sister had put it..

Abigail had stayed up late last night trying to decide a good way to write up a summary of the mission that was going to have to be handed to Ben later on. 'Later on' meaning as soon as she got it written up. But, she was going to need up from her employees if she was going to get this thing done with.

Miss Weather walked into her office with a coffee cup in her right hand. "Good day everyone," she greeted her/Mel's employees in the room. Walking over to her desk, she sat down and after sitting her coffee cup down on the desk, she pulled out a sheet of parchment and a pen.

"Okay, guys. I'm going to be the one writing up the summary of the mission for Ben. Would you guys just give me some things that I can write down?" She asked the people in the office. She looked around, waiting for someone to speak up.

"Well he already knows that she botched the Polyjuice Potion, right?" Dora asked. "Well, Mel lifted the Dissilusionment charm and then we brainstormed about ways to reverse the potion," Dora recounted. She was actually still a bit disgruntled about being so useless in the situation... but Potion Master, she was not.... "Do we remember what some of the suggestions were?" Dora started to think back...

Quote:

Originally Posted by ginny37

"Well he already knows that she botched the Polyjuice Potion, right?" Dora asked. "Well, Mel lifted the Dissilusionment charm and then we brainstormed about ways to reverse the potion," Dora recounted. She was actually still a bit disgruntled about being so useless in the situation... but Potion Master, she was not.... "Do we remember what some of the suggestions were?" Dora started to think back...

Polyjuice Potion. Right! Abigail scribbled some words on her parchment as Dora began to talk. "Dillus-iooon-meeeeent," she slowly repeated as she wrote that long word on the parchment. The only time that her pen wasn't writing something on the parchment was when Dora asked what some of the suggestions were that were given.

Hmmmmmm.

"I remember Silas saying that maybe giving the woman a well-made batch of Polyjuice potion would help her," she replied. "Yet, fixing Polyjuice potion takes months. That's why we didn't do that idea." As she stopped talking, she began to write more on her paper. "Then, Silas got the idea of Mandrake Draught and that's what we used," she added. "I don't think there were anymore ideas."

"The reason the potion was botched is b/c she left out the Fluxweed. That's right Silas did suggest those options. I basically got together a bunch of books... I think Silas found the Mandrake Draught idea in one of them." Dora remembered going to C.C.'s home and retrieving the spare vial of potion...

Melanie tilted her head to the side at Piper's visible hesitation, but let it slide as Abigail entered. She was about to speak, but Dora quickly answered her questions, Melanie nodded in approval. She didn't have the opportunity to stay there until the end of the process but she had heard that they were successful in their attempts, and now CC didn't have to put up with Serena anymore.

"At first I gave the idea of decomposing the potion, but it turned out not to be useful I think" she added, talking to Abigail.

"We used the SpeRevelio incantation to reveal the ingredients of the potion. That's when we saw that the Fluxweed was omitted." Dora nodded.

"That makes sense" she said in approval " I was so sad I had to leave before they fixed her problem, she was a rather nice girl, in a very bad situation... and that Serena person... you know " she gesticulated " the other head " she made a sound from the back of her throat in disapproval " what a piece of work". She nodded as Dora spoke, it had been a smart step to make " that's the problem with this inexperienced potion makers, they don't give the ingredients their proper attention, and sometimes things go wrong, for instance, here at our department, many times we receive what could be a very good new potion, but when we try it out, it ends up being a complete mess for missing something like an bat's eye or whatever..." she took a strand of her hair and tucked it behind her ear.

"I used to think I was pretty decent at potions until that situation arose and I couldn't remember anything from Potions class!!" Dora shrugged and looked exasperated. "I am really glad we got it sorted out too, Idon't know what I would have done if I were in her shoes. That had to have been a horrible predicament to get yourself into" Dora began to make silly faces at Melanie and changed her eyes into the shape of a cats and made her nose grow to the size of beak. Dora began to laugh heartily, "I know I'll never take for granted the art of potion brewing again! Who wold want to be stuck looking a mess?" Dora screwed her face up and turned it back to normal.