"I honestly don't know where the woman has gone," Ben said when Dan mentioned possibly visiting Maddie. "Perhaps to Germany, to be with the rest of her family. Who knows? But don't fret, I'm sure we'll hear from her eventually. She isn't one to keep her mouth shut for very long."

As he straightened out the neck on his new flexible desk lamp, he spoke again. "I've heard a lot of employees from all around the Ministry are quitting. I wonder what's going on?" he said aloud, even though he didn't mean to.

Jake's head was spinning as he made his way to the new Department Head's office. Jake hadn't even met the guy, and here he was walking into his office to ask for a leave of abscene, one in which he didn't even know how long he'd be gone. "Yeah that will go over wonderfully" Jake sighed to himself.

He couldn't think about that now though, he had more pressing matters on his mind as he knocked on the door.

"Come in!" Ben called as someone knocked on the door. Hmm, that made a total of three employees hanging out in his office...he felt like he should make tea for them or something.

Jake entered the office and was thrown off to see a man sitting behind the desk. Of course he knew Madeline had left, but it hadn't set in for him until he actually saw the new face staring back at him.

"Erm..." Jake began, this was definitely a strange day. Jake was never lost for words, yet here he was trying to gather his thoughts. "I see you're busy sir, but if you just have a moment. Jake Reilly sir, Division Head of the Accidental Magical Reversal Squad." Jake said as he quickly introduced himself, "I'm sorry to meet under these circumstances, but I just received an urgent interdepartment memo . . . something about a family member in grave danger." Jake said with a worried look, he could feel his heart racing and his head pounding as the endless thoughts raced through his mind about what could be happening. He did his best to surpress them. He needed to focus. "I'm sorry I can't be more specific sir, I wish I had further details myself, unfortunately because these bloody memos are monitored," Jake huffed, "I don't even have any other information. All I know is that I need to ask your permission for an indefinite leave of absence sir, at least until this is all sorted out."

Ben almost dropped the stack of folders he was holding when this man told him what was going on. "Oh, of course! Take as much time off as you need!" he told him. Madeline had informed him of something like this before he left. "Don't worry, your divison will be in good hands, I'm sure we have someone who can step up for you..." he muttered, shuffling through a bunch of papers and making more of a mess than actual progress.

Jake noticed the man nearly drop his folders as he broke the news. "I'm sorry, I know this is sudden and I'm just as shocked as you are, if not more so." Jake said, muttering the last part to himself. "Believe me sir, I never expected to be leaving my division. It tears me apart to do so, I hand picked every one of those employees. They're like family to me, but my own family must come first. I only hope I can make it in time." Jake said as he turned on his heel to leave.

"Oh!" Jake quickly turned back, shaking his head once again. "Forgive me, I have no idea where my head is at today. I assure you this is not like me at all. Anyway sir, shall I tell the employees? Or will you be breaking the news to them?"

"I'll tell them, don't worry about it," Ben assured him employee. Mental note: Look up his name in the files. "You just go wherever you need to go and take care of what you need to get done," he told him.

"Thank you very much sir." Jake said, unsure of what else to say. He could say it's been a pleasure working with him, but it was the man's first day, he didn't even know the guy. "Good day." Is all Jake managed to think of saying, as he turned and headed out of the office to find the nearest floo network.

"Accidental Magic Reversal Squad" She said smiling and nodded to show that she had understood what he had said about the former department head. "Can you tell me where i can find the Division head?" She asked politely. Her smile hadn't faultered since she had entered the room. Everyone she knew outside the magical world used to slander her about her apperance, but now people just talked to her like a normal person.

Another knock sounded upon the door, causing Ben to almost drop his picture frame again. Setting it down gently on his desk, he went to open the door. "Hello there," he said with a grin. "How might I help you today?" he asked her politely.

Edith smiled. "Hi, I'm Edith Griffiths. The Liaison for the Department. I'm supposed to brief you about what's going on with the Internation Conference thingy, that's happening soon," she said, rather awkwardly. Smooth Edie. Well done! she mentally slapped herself across the head.

Conference thing? Hmmm, Maddie must have left him a memo somewhere about that. "Nice to meet you Edith, I'm Ben Cobblesten," he said with a smile, holding his hand out for a handshake. "Why don't you come in and have a cup of tea while you brief me on this conference," he suggested, pointing to a vacant chair for her to sit down in.

Ben took the flyer from her and read it through a few times. Hmmmm, he had heard whispers about this around the Ministry, but nothing more than a few rumors. This helped clear things up a bit. "Yes, I understand, please continue. And are you sure you'd like no refreshments?" he asked, waving his wand to pour himself a glass of tea.

Edith almost gagged when he asked if she wanted a cup of tea. Food and drink made her queasy at the moment. "I'm fine, thank you love. Okay, well," she said, turning back to her notes. "We need to gather up as much information on the lax in Muggle Protection in Peru. Dragon sightings are on the rise and their excuses getting lamer and lamer. The Muggles are starting to get suspicious. We need to develop solutions to their slackness and they need to be presented at the Conference, and also we need to make up a whole heap of good excuses they can use for Muggles who have seen dragons. Am I going too fast?" she asked. She just wanted to get this done. She was actually rather nervous. It was her first assignment as Liaison and she was petrified.

Ben nodded and leaned back in his chair slightly as Edith told him what was going on. "Well, naturally, I'd have my Muggle Worthy Excuse Committee on that one. I've just met our Head of that division, Mona something or another, and she was quite a fierce employee--I'm sure that under her watch that department could come up with some excellent excuses," he told her. With that, he held out his hand in a "please continue" sort of way, to let her know that he understood everything she was saying so far.

Edith sighed heavily, her nerves were building up. She was absolutely terrified. For some odd reason, cool, calm and collected Edith Griffiths was losing it.
"Okay," she said after taking a very deep breath. "Last thing. In Bulgaria, Muggles have been clearing woodlands and disturbing the centaurs living in those areas. Their land is being decreased, so naturally, they are unhappy. Not to mention that if a Muggle sees a centaur, they could end up cutting off a limb instead of a tree and that would be much more difficult to fix. We don't want it to get to that point, so we need to develop a gameplan. We need to come up with a variety of solutions to relay to the Bulgarian Minister to avoid the Muggles and appease the centaurs. Okay, I think that's it," she said, looking down at her notes, breathing heavily. "Yep, that's it. Well that's it for now. Who knows, I could have completely different instructions tomorrow," she laughed.

Picking up a quill, Ben began to scribble down notes of everything that Edith had covered. He was already working out a plan to get his Invisiblity Task Force on the job about protecting the centaurs, and he had a number of other ideas floating around in his head, which he'd have to concentrate on later. Making the final touches on his notes, he turned back to his visitor. "Well, thank you very much for that briefing. I'll be sure to consult all my employees about these issues, and we'll be waiting if you come back with further instructions," he told her with a smile.

Edith smiled happily, trying to hide discomfort as her stomach churned. What was wrong with her.
"That's fine. I hope everything goes well. If you have any questions, send me a memo. Well, I've got to go. It was lovely to meet you, Ben," she smiled, standing up, shaking his hand and walking from the room.

"Come in," Ben called. He was seated at his desk, reviewing the employee list for his divisions and comparing them with the records of employees that he had received. My goodness, a ton of people were leaving!

Ben nodded, listening intently to what Ivan had to say before taking the files from him and leafing through them. He caught a few things about muggles being dressed up as horses, balloons, and a lot of other things that he doubted would make sense unless he read the whole thing. "Hmmm, sounds like you've all certainly put a lot of time and effort into this--thank you very much! If you could kindly put these in my inbox, please, I'll be able to review them completely once I have finished up with this," he said, pointing at his employee list as he handed back the reports. "Again, very nice job, Mr. Callistus...did you know you're the first division to even give me an update as to where they stand so far with this assignment?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.