Public Toilets

The most common point of entry into the Ministry of Magic, these toilets don't actually function... as toilets. Typically, witches and wizards would be asked to drop in their token, and they would be magically transported into the Ministry of Magic.

Currently, however, the toilets just seem to overflow, spilling water constantly out toward the street. Something is very wrong with this entrance to the Ministry.

Cynthia de la Rosa did not have a job requiring fieldwork, but she thought it would improve her understanding of the current problem. So on her lunch break, at 11:53, she entered the ladies' bathroom, going down the stairs with a hand on the rail. Such an odd choice of an entrance for the Ministry.
The bathroom was old and dirty, probably not ever entered by muggles. She slipped into one of the seven stalls, and the hinges creaked as if the door might fall. Cynthia rummaged in her rather large pockets for what she was looking for until she found it. She dropped the golden token in, then another one for good measure. The toilet gurgled in an unhappy manner.
Cynthia supposed she'd have to step in. She was a little afraid, though she knew that was silly. She gingerly picked up the hems of beige robes and plopped in. Surprisingly enough, she was still dry, which felt weird to her. The toilet hissed as it was flushed and spurted water everywhere in sight. When it hit Cynthia it instantly evaporated, still refusing to get her wet.
"Ugh," the witch groaned, surveying the aftermath. Then she heard footsteps and froze. Turn around slowly, she thought and her body obeyed. There was a muggle.
"What's happening?" it asked.
Cynthia searched for a reasonable answer. "Um...I...I fell in."
"You know, I'm just gonna...go away, I think..." But the muggle woman didn't just yet. Cynthia was in trouble. The Ministry's problem was worse than she'd thought.

Charles had wanted to check the public toilets so he could report back the condition of them if he was asked. They were working on trying to get back into the Ministry, too. But he noticed his coworker, Cynthia, entering the ladies too. Frowning, he decided after a few minutes to go after her. Whether there was a muggle down there or not. When he reached the toilet level, he found Cynthia trying to come up with an excuse. "Oh, there you are. Come on. We need you to take your medicine." Charles coaxed gently, giving Cynthia a look of 'go with it and come with me'.

Being insane was the only reasonable explanation to a muggle for someone to be standing in a toilet.

As she cautiously stepped over all of the water that had come out of the overflowing toilets, Meredith glanced at her surroundings. She had been wary of using her magic all day, the constant worry of muggles accidentally seeing something magical related was on her mind these past few days.

She stepped into the ladies toilet area, wanting to examine them for any possible ways of regaining access into the Ministry, and saw two of her co-workers, one which was standing in a toilet, and...a muggle? What muggle, or any person in general, would walk into public toilets which were so obviously overflowing with water? She shook her head. "Ma'am, these toilets seem to be broken." She said to the muggle woman, a polite smile on her face. "Perhaps I could help you find another? There were some just down the street." She added, trying to get the woman to leave the area, just in case anything happened. The poor, bewildered lady continued to look on at Cynthia though. "Ma'am?" Mere said once again.

The woman couldn't have seen that much, they could just pass Cynthia off as insane at this point, right? She crossed her fingers that Charles' plan would work...

Cynthia was a little puzzled as to why Charles was in the ladies' bathroom, but she was just grateful for the help. She was terrified. What if they exposed wizards? Instead, she gave a crazy smile and shook a bit for the insane effect.
"Ok!" She bumbled out of the toilet toward Charles and Meredith, quietly mumbling, "pineapples." She tilted her head at the muggle woman.
The lady shook her head sadly as if she felt sorry for the wizards.
"It's fine. No really, I understand. I just heard some commotion in here and- wait, how is she not wet?"

Harmony had remembered to wear her wellies for this occasion and was currently standing just outside of the public toilets, toes tapping along to the tune she was humming, dipped in the puddle of toilet water by her feet. To any passersby, she might look a bit crazy but that was for the best. Meant no one would ask her any questions, yes? Perhaps that had been her plan all along.

Now where were her fellow department heads? The red head glanced to the left and then the right, noting there was still no sign of them. Oh well, one had to respect their personal clock. She'd just occupy her time with some sound healing. It created an amazing amount of positive energy in the body, humming did. Perhaps they could utilize this positive energy for their mission.

With every step he took, Gavin had to remind himself that this would be for the good of the Ministry. How many people had he heard complaining about coming out with nothing but wet feet when they attempted entry through the toilets? He didn't want to be added to that number but had no choice in the matter.

There was no need for any kinda of water protection that would only serve to make him look even sillier than he most certainly already would for trying to go down a toilet that wasn't working to begin with. No. Impervius worked just as well and believe him when he said he'd impervius-ed everywhere. Toilet water to the face was a big 'NO'. Do you know the things that could break out on his face after?? He'd be ruined and wasn't prepared for that at all.

"Harmony." He said with a nod of acknowledgement as he approached the woman. A part of him wanted to ask what she was doing -- the humming and foot tapping etc -- but then something else told him he might not like to know? "Any word from Mariel?"

Whether or not she was a pureblood witch didn't matter much to Mariel right now because even though she knew that people used these toilets to access the Ministry in normal circumstances, to her, toilets served only one purpose. And that had nothing to do with stepping foot inside of one.

Nope, she flooed to work when the Ministry was accessible, thank you very much. But she was also tired of her airplane hangar and if she could help the cause with a couple of her colleagues, then she would deal with the toilets. No matter how disgusting the thought. But maybe one of the others could actually test it out.. Gavin, perhaps?

Of course, Imperviusing her clothing would be a given, though she already did that every morning. No matter how much she and her employees had cleaned that hangar, it always seemed to still have a layer of filth and, as determined as she was to retain her impeccable dress even in the most deplorable of conditions, that particular spell was a daily staple. But at least she made sure her footwear was nothing open-toed today.

As she neared the public toilets, the brunette spotted the other two, smiling slightly to herself to see that they were on time. Good.. she hated wasted time, noting to herself that they could start right away. "Oh I have plenty of words," she grinned in amusement as she came up behind Gavin, hearing his words. "Which would you like to hear?" How she wasn't stepping foot into the toilet, but maybe he could?

She threw a smile in Harmony's direction before adding, "So have either of you actually tried anything yet?" Or had they just gotten here? Or maybe one of them had an idea of what they should try that another hadn't.. Mariel eyed the puddle of water on the floor before looking up at them both again.

"Ah Gavin, nice to see you again." Harmony paused in her rhythmic toe tapping to give the man a serene smile, happy to have the company. The creatures enthusiast was about to share that she had not yet heard from Mariel but that she was sure the last part of their trio would be along shortly when said department head walked up behind the man. "Lovely timing," Harmony mused, giving Mariel a smile. Gang was all here now, yes? Time to get to work.

Lowering her voice, the red head stepped closer to the other two so that they wouldn't be overheard. "I haven't tried anything yet but I've been thinking about how toilets can get clogged. Perhaps there is a magical clog of sorts going on. Too much trying to go in and not enough magic to support it." Harmony's eyebrows were knotted together and her head was tilted to the side. "Thoughts?" And was there some kind of magical plunger they could use? Questions, Harmony had many questions about this.

Being an observer, he did hear foot steps coming up behind him but he didn't think to think much of them until he heard the voice that accompanied the steps. The third in their party. Excellent. Gavin turned, taking in her grin. At least one of them was amused by this whole situation, or maybe she was just as good at hiding it as Harmony.

Would he like to hear her words? The ones she had? Seemed he had choices, like the kind that he wanted to hear first? Easy enough to answer. "We can start with you being oh so eager to give this a go first, then move into the plans you made on the way here and if we're still here by the time we've exhausted them all you can get to those words on explosions...if I don't get there first." It was official, Emily had rubbed off on him. Things were bad when he started advocating explosions.

Much like Harmony, he hadn't tried anything either. "Nothing." He said with a shrug. He wouldn't even pretend he was the team player type that simply couldn't bear the thought of starting without her. Nope. It was too obvious. There was a toilet he was waiting for someone else to step into.

"Hmmm..." Gavin rolled around Harmony's idea in his head for a moment. A magical clog. Did it work that way...? "Possible. The real question is how we'll find out what might be causing the clog." Merlin, don't tell him something died down there.

He. Could. Not.

Cora had headed off as soon as she'd seen the memo Aron had sent out. The public toilets certainly weren't her first choice, but she knew enough to know that it probably wouldn't be anyone else's either - but someone had to do it. And it shouldn't be too bad, even if things went wrong, so long as your spellwork was up to par. And hers was definitely that, so she was sure she'd be fine.

So she made her way down there and discovered a few of the other department heads were there. Well, good, at least she wasn't alone. "Hey, I'm Cora. Aron sent me down here to help out." Introductions were best short and sweet, yes? That way they could get straight to work.

So what were they trying first? She was ready to listen.

The water was surprisingly clean considering it was flowing out of the toilets. Vic's first observation as he stepped inside the toilets to find four people already there. He recognized two of them, he gave a polite nod and a smile. "Excuse me. Ludovicus Bones from the Wizengamot, I'm here to assist." So formal in the beginning, mhmmm, he had a reputation to maintain hehehe.

Did Mariel mention how glad she was that she had been assigned to work with Gavin? Toilets aside, now she could be entertained while they all got down to business. The brunette found his attempts at being clever to be quite amusing and she so appreciated the effort. Amused smile still in place, she simply listened while she waited for him to take a breath. "Well.. it sounds like you're putting me in charge, Mr. Senior Undersecretary. Perfect!" How delightful. "Would that be the consensus?" She looked to Harmony for her thoughts before looking back to Gavin. Of course they needed a leader or else things might get all disorganized and how she loved to lead.

"Unfortunately I don't have much experience using these things as transportation," she said, lowering her voice slightly and frowning a bit as her eyes fell on the puddle again. And she wasn't one of those plumbers either. "Though I wouldn't be so opposed to exploding one," she added as she tilted her head to visually assess the situation. "Of course, if that doesn't work and we're left with no other options because it's been destroyed, you know who's going to get blamed." That's right... her. She gave him a very pointed look at this. That was probably his plan all along - put her in charge then let her take the blame when it fails.

But Harmony seemed to have another idea and Mariel turned green eyes on the other woman as she stepped a little closer. A magical clog.. that wasn't a bad assumption, though she couldn't help the small wrinkle of her nose at the thought. She wasn't sure she wanted to know what could be causing that. "Perhaps.." she murmured as she mulled over the thought. "Though all points of entry and means of getting in have failed, not just the toilets... so logically maybe we should think of what they all have in common." It might make sense that they were all affected by the same affliction, but she didn't know what.

She stared at the ever-growing puddle for a moment, thinking this over when she heard one, then two voices joining them. Mariel turned, then gave them both a light smile as they introduced themselves. "Hello, Cora.. I'm Mariel." Good employee, she was. Mariel vaguely wondered where her own might be, though she did give them the option of locations. As long as they were somewhere. "And Mr. Bones, hello.. Nice to see you." At least this was under better circumstances.. though she found it amusing to call unclogging a magical toilet a better circumstance. And no, she wasn't about to comment on the last time she had seen his face. "Thank you both for coming."

"I do think we should at least attempt to clear a clog, provide there is indeed one," she turned back to both Department Heads, though she was including the other two in this conversation as well. They'd get the gist, she was certain. And they would at least rule it out if it didn't work. "I suppose an Anapneo might work.." she mused, her eyes wandering to the toilet. "Want to try that?" she asked Harmony. "We can have a lookout for Muggles... unless you'd like to stick your hand inside and fish around?" she added to Gavin, turning her eyes on him.

Harmony was not pleased with the mention of explosions but she kept a positive attitude. Any ideas were to be considered at this point given they'd been locked out for so long. As for Mariel being in charge, Harmony merely smiled and shrugged. "I don't have a problem with that as long as you're up for it." The woman's aura was glowing orangey-red which gave Harmony confidence that she could handle leading whatever team they assembled to remedy the problem so she was happy to go with the flow.

What did all the entry points have in common? Well, magic. They all used magic in some way or another from what Harmony knew about them so perhaps the issue was a more of a magical blockage on the whole ministry, not just the toilets here. She kept her comments to herself for now, though. Letting her thoughts marinate until she had something more helpful to offer. She'd been meditating on the subject this morning and was confident something would come to her soon.

Oh look, they had company. "Harmony Skylark, Creatures." The red head pointed to herself and gave the two new arrivals a welcoming smile. "Happy to have you with us." How lovely to see different departments coming out for the same cause. It was enough to make Harmony's heart swell with pride for the ministry. Such good people working there, she thought.

Anapneo? "That's a creative suggestion." Harmony was thinking some sort of plunger, actually, but that could work too. "Yes, of course. I'd be happy to give that a try. No need for Gavin to get his hands dirty." BEAM! "Now if you'll just keep an eye out..."

The creatures head inched towards the toilet nearest and smiled to herself. This was so exciting! Then pointing her wand, she said clearly, "Anapneo!"

Jose arrived to see that other people were there including his department head and others he hasn't met before.. he was told to come here and he came right away.. anything to get them back into their "home". Jose hasn't had the pleasure of seeing it but everyone seemed eager to get back…

"Harmony…. " he said for she seemed to be doing something.. "do you need my help with anything?" everyone seemed to try to help he wondered if anything was working.

Alex received the memo about the attempted break-in and headed towards the public toilets first. Because that was one of the main points for most workers to get to work, so if they could figure out why it wasn't working ... plus, who wanted to work with toilets? Probably not most people.

Oops. Was she late? Spotting four or five people already there (most of whom she recognized! Former co-worker Gavin, Mariel, level-sharer Harmony, the guy who showed her around MLE - Vic?, yup, she knew pretty much everyone), Alex was surprised to see so many willing to help un-clog a toilet.

"Hey, I'm here to help! What can I do?" Because she was totally up for anything ... even if she didn't have the super cool wellies on like Harmony.

If there was one thing he'd noticed about Mariel from the moment they had the run in at the dessert bar, it was that she possessed a healthy sense of humour. It was coming out again, almost tangible in form but his first response to her question was a sarcastically sweet smile. "Not exactly but you're on the right track." She couldn't be in charge if he was. Where was her logic today? Did she leave it back at the hanger? "I like to think of it as delegating. There's a clogged toilet and I see your potential here." So he wouldn't agree with Harmony on it being fine and they could now move on...

To her admitting she knew nothing about unclogging toilets. The potential he saw was quickly fading. He shook his head. "Blame is easily negated, this is in the interest of the Ministry and my aren't we thinking a bit selfishly today?" There were traces of an amused smirk on his face. In all this, she could only see herself taking the heat, admirable but not necessary.

Mariel went on about things he was meant to be listening to but clearly wasn't due to his preoccupation with the approaching company. They each got a nod and an appreciative smile for coming. Given the choice...he wouldn't be at the public toilet. Not at all. Kudos to them before his attention was quickly grabbed by Ms. Wants To Be Incharge But Isn't. She wanted him to stick his hand WHERE??? Gavin's eyes widened and for a moment he just STARED. His hands....that toilet...NO. His expression only relaxed when Harmony--bless her--offered to try the spell so he wouldn't get his hands dirty.

Gavin waited...and waited...then waited a little more before concluding nothing was happening. Right there. "As some of us are opposed to explosions," eyes on a certain Games and Sports lady, "does anyone have any idea what we might try?" Please don't have anything to do with going in THERE themselves.

A few more people were arriving, and they got smiles, as did the other two ladies who introduced themselves as well. And then it seemed they were getting down to business to defeat the huns to try "unclogging" the toilet, so Cora stayed silent to observe. Would it work?

.....Apparently not?

Hmmmm.

"Could there be runes or something hindering the spells that're supposed to be there? So we'd need to reverse them or somehow get them off?" Runes were never her best subject, so they shouldn't ask her to do it if that was the case, and she could be completely wrong anyway, but it was just a suggestion. Still, she was certain she remembered Aron suggesting they try to work with Gringotts Curse-breakers as well if they could, and they dealt with runes and things, right? So perhaps this was similar to what they did.

She was still processing the situation and trying to come up with some other solution though, because chances were the runes suggestion wasn't the right one.

Vic grinned at the Department Heads but didn't add anything to the greetings they offered, they were discussing clogged up toilets, that ought to be fun. He crossed his arms and leaned on one of the stall's walls, watching as Skylark tried a spell... and failed. Two more people joined in, Vic offered a nod to each one of them then returned to the flooding toilet.

"Have you checked if those toilets have their magical properties intact?" He asked after Greenwell, who gave a fairly good guess about runes. "Instead of being clogged up, maybe they lost their transportation... essence. By runes as miss Greenwell suggested, or any other method. Why aren't there anyone from transportation here with us?"

Why did Saul choose to go to the Toilets, he wasn't an expert plumber. Has anyone here even tried conventional Muggle methods, like a plunger, or a plumber's snake? He scratched the back of his neck, then adjusted his glasses "I'm with the Rune Idea." He piped up,"Check to see if the Runes are hidden, if you can't see them." Right, right? He would, but he wasn't one for pushing past a crowd to get to a Toilet unless he REALLY needed to use one. So he just hung back, and adjusted his glasses again.

Hidden runes on a toilet....? Who came up with these things--on the off chance that were actually it of course. Walking into a public toilet to carve runes? He wouldn't rule it out on the merit that some people truly had nothing better to do with their lives and Emily had been thinking that it might have been sabatoge from external sources.

"Could be it." He said, with a contemplative nod toward Cora before thinking over what Vic had said.

That might have been it too. With a toilet you just never knew and if it were in fact rendered magic-less then nothing they did would get them back inside. "Would that be something you can determine?" He asked her. Accidents and Castrophes entailed charm work. She could detect the absence of magic yes? Like they'd done when the memos stopped working. This of course, got him wondering the same thing as Vic. Why was no one from transportation present.

For now the consensus seemed to be the runes. "We'll take a crack at the runes then, if that's a dud we'll have to find a way to somehow...er...diagnose the toilet." Was he the only one finding it hard to take this line of conversation seriously? No? Just him? Okay.

"SpeRevelio." And a whole bunch of squinting. "Er....anyone see anything....?" He didn't and wasn't planning to get on all fours just to take a closer look. A magic-less entrance then? Great.

It was a bit sad that anapneo hadn't worked but it had been worth a try and so Harmony simply shrugged off the failed attempt and smiled encouragingly at the others. What fun would this be if their first attempt at fixing the problem worked? And yes, Harmony considered this fun. Ministry bonding was her idea of a good time, even if the venue was as...odd as this one.

"Hello hello! Welcome! Thank you for coming" Harmony was pleased to see more arrivals and each one got a brilliant smile and peace sign in greeting. The more the merrier, yeah? "We're just brainstorming right now. If you have any suggestions as to how we can get this entrance working, please do share your thoughts." And how lovely, Gavin was being encouraging too! Harmony approved!

Oh yes, runes. Harmony furrowed her brow and considered this, clearly lost in her own thoughts. She'd seen a rune tattoo on a man once while she was on safari in Africa. He'd been a terribly grumpy fellow whose aura was a murky pink and the mention of the symbols brought her back to that place, causing her own aura to dim slightly. No...no. no. no. Think happy thoughts, Harmony. Yes. Dolphins..dolphins...dolphins.

Ah, that was better.

And what was also nice was that Gavin seemed to be trying his luck at revealing the runes. The red head glided forward, ankle bracelets jingling as she did and she bent down to inspect the porcelain. "Nothing on this side though I must say the toilets are quite clean considering how dingy this stall is!"

Oh and another thing.

"Does anyone have tokens on them so that when we do think we're on to something, we can test out the entrance?"

Her potential for unclogging toilets? Right. This remark from Gavin got a chuckle. "Certainly you're not confusing me with Anthony?" Maintenance was his expertise, was it not? Of course they were both fabulous dressers, but that was about where similarities ended. "Might do us well to have someone from his department though." She didn't comment on his 'not exactly' though. Men always seemed to think that they were in charge when reality was simple. It was always a woman allowing a man to think that, when women were the ones actually pulling the strings. She simply smiled at Gavin sweetly before giving Harmony an inconspicuous knowing wink. She knew what was up.

So Harmony was on board with her initial idea. Even if Gavin's expression got another chuckle - totally worth it - she was rather interested if there might be a clog there magically cleared. As the Creatures Head set to work on that, Mariel turned and looked for anyone, particularly Muggles, approaching as she answered Gavin distractedly. "Sure, sure.. I'll let you share in the blame then." Far be it from her to be accused of being selfish. See.. here she was being selfless.

No Muggles yet, though more people approached, all of whom she recognized at least vaguely as Ministry workers or they introduced themselves as such. But the growing crowd of 6 or 8 poking around a toilet would certainly appear to be off to someone not in the know. "Cora.. how is your Muggle Repelling Charm?" she asked, looking in the woman's direction. She said Aron sent her which Mariel took to meant she was from Accident and Catastrophes, and they were supposed to be experts with that sort of thing, no? Give her something to do anyway.

And back to the toilet. The spell didn't work? But did anyone actually try it out to see? Mariel didn't see anyone step in, but she did want to know why Gavin was looking at her like that regarding explosions. "I never said I was opposed to explosions.." In fact those were her very words - that she was not opposed to explosions. Sigh. Leave it to a man to hear only what he wanted.

Er.. runes? Did someone actually, purposely, put runes on a toilet to keep them out of the Ministry? Mariel thought this was doubtful, but a couple of them were eager to try something in that regards so the brunette took a giant step backwards. She knew only slightly more about runes than she did about maintenance on toilets so she'd let the experts take care of that.

Meanwhile, she glanced at Vic as he piped up. "I think that's a very good point, Mr. Bones," she said as she vaguely watched Gavin doing something. Where was Transportation? ALL of these places they were trying were essentially under their jurisdiction, they should have at least one representative at each spot. But more so, as she had said to Harmony, what did they all have in common? Perhaps there was a problem with the magic.. that is what made it function as transportation, did it not?

"A magic revealing charm or maybe a probity probe would work to detect some sort of magical properties.." she offered as her fellow Department Head mentioned diagnosing. Or the absence thereof.. She threw a glance in the direction of the MLE people. Did they have probity probes in their department? Because Games and Sports certainly didn't. And no, she didn't see runes or anything else from where she was standing at least. Maybe one of the experts could.

Ludovicus had a good suggestion too. The transportation magic gone...had they not checked that yet? Back when they first found out they didn't work anymore? It seemed like that would've been one of the first things someone would check, but then again, she hadn't thought of it at first, so she supposed she couldn't really judge.

Was it something she could determine? "Quite possibly," Cora replied with a slight nod, already trying to wrack her brain for spells that would work. Surely she knew some...though having some people from Transportation would definitely help. These things were really more their specialty, but she figured there would be something she could do anyway. Like...probity probes. Yes, that was a very good suggestion. She'd forgotten about those. Hopefully someone here had one? Or could quickly get one? Where did you get one of those anyway?

And no, she didn't see any runes un(?)fortunately, and she also didn't have any tokens with her either, but before she could answer, her attention was diverted to Mariel as she asked her about a Muggle Repelling Charm. "It's pretty good," she answered. And she'd assumed it had already been cast before she got here, but she figured that question indicated it hadn't and was also probably a request of sorts to do that. "I'll get right on that."

She took a few steps back to get away from the crowd and a better angle on the whole area before glancing around. No Muggles around watching them at the moment thankfully. So this would be simple. "Repello Muggletum." Transparent waves spread around and over the whole area around the public toilets. Excellent.

No runes? No luck there it seemed. The longer they all stood in this Bathroom throwing around ideas the faster Saul was becoming impatient. So he pushed his way up looking directly a Toilet. He eyed the woman who said she wasn't opposed to Explosions (emjay). Then spoke up, "That'd be counter-productive" He said annoyance in his tone "Blowing up the toilet won't create a hole to the Ministry. You'd just be blowing up a toilet." Unless she had some weird passion for doing so, she can go blow up her Toilet at home.

"Let me give this a go. If Runes didn't show maybe something else is hidden." He didn't carry Probity Probes with him, but he did know the spell for revealing secrets. Hopefully everyone did. Oh he should probably say who he was, didn't need them thinking he was just some random wizard passing by. "Saul Primeaux The Tenth, MLE's Improper Use of Magic Office Division Head" Right well that out of the way. "Anyways, let's just check each stall for hidden secrets. We may get some kind of Message, or if we're lucky something else. Yeah?" That might do it, just a simple Aprecium to each Stall, and they could either come up with Something or Nothing