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The Evidence and Pensieve rooms are only accessible by employees of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and even then, permission must be sought and granted before an employee makes use of these facilities. The evidence room is a large room with plenty of shelves, on which evidence is securely stored, charmed for safe keeping, and labelled according to the date and divisions involved in the associated investigation. There are two registers on the wall, one for recording your visit and one for recording any evidence you handle or remove from the room.

Just inside the door is access to the Pensieve room, which as you might guess is a room where memories about cases can be reviewed.

Members of the general public are not permitted in these rooms.

You are here.

The first thing she noticed upon entering the next area, was that the room WAS NOT SECURED! ........ Circe help them all.

Not waiting for the others to poke around, Emily pushed herself forward and entered the space, going straight for the pensieve room. Casting detection spells around the place, her fears set into place. There was no magic here. And without magic, the memories were left to perish. Perish......

With any luck, maybe some of them could be salvaged, her eyes narrowed on some of the vials, the ones that weren't empty, the ones that had contained memories through organic human matter appeared to be ill-preserved, but perhaps still salvageable. Here's to hoping.

"How are the evidences?" she called out, having moved straight passed them on her way in.

Cosmetic damage was one thing. The dust could be cleaned...the chewing fixed...and the spells recast into place. But their stored evidence, their bottled memories from both witnesses and victims and suspects were another entirety all together. And that wasn't even counting the fact that should the news on the unsecurity of such reach outside the ministry and especially people from the Daily Prophet, they would be in trouble worse than what he and Jorge had caused.

As Emily headed past them and towards the penseive room, Simon moved to look over the files that were stored there. "They're probably going to take a good looking over to see whether everything is here or missing," he answered, not absolutely certain from the first glances. "Or chewed." They were compromised that was one thing to be sure of and would require a great deal of work to savage what they could.

Oh goody.

Following in the group from the reception area, he got a second round of chills as he entered the evidence room. The sensation of absolutely no magic was weird. It was as if he'd walked in a hollow cave and if he spoke he'd hear the echos of his voice. Of course, that wasn't the case here, but still.

From where he stood he noticed more than enough vials were empty, something Boss would like, no doubt. Well, the entire department and Ministry.

Just like the reception area, whatever had gone around and spread it's chaos had done so here. Glancing at the vials that were't empty, then at Emily, he wondered aloud, "Whatever is going on, do you think we can secure those for examination later?" Save what they had and all.

If it was the mutants then they could still use magic to secure stuff. If it wasn't then...whatever it was... Was it draining magic?

Letting an annoyed sigh out of his nose, Josh walked in the evidence room only to find Emily, Simon and Kennedy looking around. Of course, this place was a mess as well. Precious information lost and who knew what else was lost while there was no magic to secure anything.

See? That's what happens if you rely on magic for everything. Of course, this was nothing that happened frequently however....it still happened and proved that magic did not ensure 100% safety at all. Moving his dark brown gaze away from the empty memory vials, Josh walked towards another bitten surface moving his fingers on the marks. He seemed to be thoughtful.

Was he supposed to greet his boss and co-workers? Eh...he right he was so annoyed and distracted for that. They saw him everyday anyway and got his greetings normally. "I think before we start to fix anything..." he began while still guiding his fingers over teeth marks trying to figure out what kind of creature these teeth marks belonged to. "...we should collect everything we have and compare it to the evidence records. If anything is lost, have been taken - and if that evidence belongs to some case that has not been closed yet- we will know if any person was involved in this, not only creatures with sharp teeth."

And he hoped that A PERSON was involved in this. Simply because when he would find them, he could take out all his anger and annoyance on that person. That was why he wanted to check out if anything was missing asap. Yet, of course, being the boss Emily would know better and would probably have better ideas. So, the auror looked at his boss.

Was she still annoyed and disappointed at him?

He hoped not.

Kennedy probably said it best with his strong expression -- or was that just his face? and his silence. It was all SO depressing. Could she go home and crack open a firewhiskey now? She had a nice vintage she'd been saving for a special occasion. But of course she wouldn't, there was work that needed doing, and like a Captain at the helm, she wasn't going to jump ship, no, she'd go down in a blazing glory if she had to... a very chewed and dusty blazing glory.

Bennett, and more eloquently put Carter -- wait, he could use his words like that? Go him! -- were on the right track though. "Agreed, see if anythings been taken, and note anything that's beyond repair..." which she hoped for their sake was not much, "have everything requiring restoration boxed up." And on that note, Emily turned to Elinor, who'd remained fairly silent, until now.

"How are you with evidence restoration?" she asked. The woman did have the right technology in the lab, no? Speaking of... that ought to be their next destination for this search. The meager offices could wait.

This room wasn't her forte. Elinor had rarely ever stepped foot in here, and so had hung back when the search party advanced. As she lingered, taking in the destruction, the woman compulsively pulled the pair of gloves she had stashed from the travel box slung over her shoulder. With a few quiet SNAPs of elastic, she had them on, and cautiously stooped over some of the damaged evidence, but did not touch anything just yet.

She looked up at her boss, whom she had always done her best to keep happy. At this exact moment, however, taken aback by the situation, she made a face that betrayed her and looked away again. "I can try," she said, with some small shakes of her head. "But this... this is... ludicrous." Elinor was very good at what she did. But some things were frankly impossible. "I have my own records of any piece of evidence that's come through the lab," she said, standing back up. "Even if there's anything that can't be repaired, there's a record of it. Anything else, maybe the records can help me figure out how to fix it. Little repairs are usually no trouble, but..."

She looked around her, gesturing helplessly at the room, and she could see nothing at the moment that would call for a "little repair". It looked like bombs had gone off. Bombs with teeth. And dust. "You know I'll try," she offered again, much more confident this time, with a firm nod of her head. Elinor liked her job. She was good at her job. She always tried to put in 100%. So this time would not be different. She still held concerns about her lab, but said nothing more, still dazed by the lack of order. Even a semblance of order.

Legend remained silent as he walked around the room. It was unsettling to say the least. All that information that could possibly be gone. It didn't even annoy him that it had happened. What was annoying was the fact that they had no backups, no duplicates in place. This room was the heart of all their cases, and it was like all the blood vessels had just been severed.

Josh did have a point though.

Scratching his head, Legend let out a sigh. "While we're gathering all the evidence to be restored should we maybe try to restore the magic wards?" Or was it pointless now?

And try was all she'd ask. "Thank you," Emily replied with a solemn nod, content that they could progress from, this. Of course records were useful, but if those records turned out to be anything like these... Merlin help them all, and frankly, from her observations so far, it wasn't looking good. "We'll need to check on those too, but anything we can repair and preserve will be most useful." That much was decided. Emily was about to suggest they break up and move off, Elinor would need a look at her lab if she was going to get started on the task any time soon, but then Chosen hit the nail on the head.

It was a given that they needed to re-secure what they had, the fact that all wards were down and blatantly non-existent in the area was a worry. "I'll get you to start on that, Chosen, select an accomplice to help you... the rest of us should continue."

All thoughts and conversation being expressed made sense. Josh with his talk of fixing the remnants that remained in the room they stood in, Emily's talk of evidence restoration with Elinor and Legend's mention of restoring wards. Simon was open with assisting whereever he was needed and even going elsewhere in the department if that was the case. Though with Legend designated by Emily for this room and the tasks at hand, Simon figured to move on with the rest. He doubted his fellow auror would select him and if he did, it reeked of him getting locked somewhere. Again. Nope, he would continue in another area.

"I think I'll head down to the atrium..." he mused if anyone cared where he'd be. The man thinking on the departmental holdings there and his second job hat rather then offices both the aurors and security shared. "Check on things and try to start resecuring the area," he added heading out. Josh and the crew he had come into the Ministry with had gotten in through there and no doubt now that they were back in, that would be the main entrance once more.

Elinor gave a nod to her boss and looked at Legend, agreeing that repairing wands would be... most helpful. She listened to Simon's declared plans, and decided to voice her thoughts. "We ought to be careful poking around," she said before anyone left, making sure they heard her. Whatever, or whoever did this, might still be around somewhere."

It sounded dramatic and unlikely, but she would have rather her coworkers be careful than have to rush to someone's aid. With that said, she took her leave of the room, mentioning: "I'm heading down to see how the lab's holding up." Elinor then started down with haste, an ominous feeling coming over her. She knew it was destroyed. She knew it. But she could hold out hope, right?

Good. Yeah. It seemed Emily agreed on checking everything and she did not snap or glare at him or something. Maybe she had forgotten about his behaviour. Eh...no. He doubted she would forget it. Apparently with everything being a mess, it was not her priority to make him pay for his bad behaviour right now. She would be on it when there was a proper time with everything being in order again. Yeah, she would.

Josh silently nodded at everyone's words as his eyes kept staring at the bites and clawing. Could this creature, whatever it was or they were, repel or block magic somehow? Or was the magic blocked to get the creature in? On what purpose though? No employee was harmed everyone having been kept out. It was about the building.

"Tell me if i am being paranoid..." he began when he finally snapped out of his thoughts and considered Legend's suggestion of restoring the magic wards. It, indeed, was a good point to start since they couldn't afford losing any more evidence than this as it was already bad enough. Yet... "...because i have my doubts but we don't know what made the magic vanish, do we? What if the effect still lingers about? Then our magic wouldn't work at all but worse...what if it triggers our magic to cause some kind of unexpected reaction?"

He didn't fully trust magic.

Yeah...now that he voiced the idea out, it sounded to him like pure paranoia. He looked after Simon and Lab Lady for a bit as he left before returning his gaze at Emily and Legend.

She hadn't expected Bennett to stick around, not when it'd mean leaving him with Chosen. No she hadn't forgotten their interactions prior to the Aurors departure for fieldwork... but it still amused her today.

"Keep me posted, I'd like a status report at your earliest convenience." She didn't need to spell these things out anymore. He'd know to cover everything. Bennett was a good egg like that.



Emily was amused. Amused at Elinor's concerns, though they weren't entirely necessary. "Level one and two are clear as far as detection goes... so I don't think we ought to worry too much, but by all means, keep your wits about you," she rattled off to those that were present.

It didn't surprise her the woman wanted to see her lab, it was only fitting, and the sooner she was back in a work-conducive environment, the better. There was little point in waiting and wasting time... there was work to be done, now more than ever. "I'll be with you shortly," she added as Elinor took her leave.



If ever she expected to hear an original thought, one that either made sense or didn't, it would come from Carter - and the man didn't disappoint. "I think perhaps you are a little paranoid," she agreed with a nod of her head, taking a few paces about the room as she made a few more observations. "I think whatever this is, it's benign.. after all, we experienced the magic malfunctions prior to the lockout and there were no ramifications to restoring or using magic then." So in theory, this was simply an effect greater than what they had first witnessed. "My guess is, whatever it was before, wasn't resolved before the break as we'd thought... and in that time, well, with nobody to intervene, it shut things down." Like the lifts before hand, the ones she had avoided like the plague simply because she didn't fancy getting herself caught in one.

"On the off chance it does trigger something unexpected, I think we ought to consider ourselves lucky, because that might give us a clue as to what it is and how to fix it."

And on that note, she really needed to keep moving.

"Can I count on you two to take care of this?" she asked, peering between Carter and Chosen.

Select an accomplice? Legend shifted, slightly in uncomfortable. Normally Sabel would have been his right hand man but he was still away. He didn't really know Kenndy, considering the fact that Legend had left soon after the other man had joined the force. And so that left Josh and Simon- and of course that had to be Simons cue to leave. Clearly his fellow Gryffindor still didn't trust him...which sort of made sense, but that whose incident between then had happened SO long ago. What were the odds of something like that happening again. Legend smirked. "I'm good with whoever helping."

Sooo that meant Josh? Yeah! Josh was cool.

His slightly paranoid mind was strange.... but Josh was cool. "I agree with Emily." Although he didn't know what was wrong with the place before. "And we can't just leave this place unprotected so- it's kind of a risk we'd have to take anyways." Clapping Josh on the back Legend grinned at both of them. "You can count on us, we'll we done within the hour." LESS than that even.

Quietly, Josh listened to Emily and Legend's comments on his question and worries. Well...yeah. It looked like he was being paranoid. Emily said "a little" though. A little paranoid, not so much and Legend agreed. That was a relief. He was ready to take whatever risk was needed yet he just didn't want to ruin the left over evidences that had already been damaged.

"I understand." he said with a nod at Emily's explanation. Well...what she said sounded reasonable so perhaps he could try not to be paranoid about everything. Eh...he would still always tell his boss and co-workers whatever he had in his mind anyway. "Well...yeah. If something reacts we can find out what it is." And he wanted to. He wanted to find who was responsible if it was a person...or not.

Josh grinned back at Legend when he clapped his back and nodded his confirmation to the fellow Auror's words. "It will be much better and more secure than it always used to be."

*griiin*

Exaggeration? Perhaps he did that but whoever walked past Josh Carter's security measures was awarded a face re-shaping punch.

"Considering the fact that we don't know who put up the original wars in the first place- I'd say you are completely right." If they didn't KNOW more at least they were cooler and so that did something right? It had to. Cooler people doing spells obviously meant stronger spells.

Legend moved over to the back of the room his wand drawn. "How about you cover the this room cover and I cover pensive room and we'll meet upcast a series of charms around and on actual evidence just in case for next time." That sounded good to him. Split up and conquer! That was a saying...right? maybe it was decide an conquer....multiple and conquer? Legend knew it was around those lines. "And both of us yell at the top of our lungs if we see a creepy large mouth eating creature thing."

Josh's grin widened when Legend expressed his agreement to his statement. Of course, of course. True or not, as they didn't know who casted the magic before, it was encouraging to think that way and Josh needed that bit of encouragement to do such a boring task. Well...kind of boring for him because it didn't involve any kind of physical action. Just waving wands and yelling magic words.

The Auror pulled his wand from its holster and looked at Legend as he offered an idea about how they would share the task. Josh nodded his confirmation. "That's cool with me." and unable to help it, he chuckled at the part about the big-mouthed creature. "Actually, i hope i would see one of those." then the task would not be so boring.

"Let's get to work then. And once we can have a break, i would like to have a few words with you." he shot the fellow Auror a half smirk and went to the part of the room Legend had told that he would be working at. And raising his wand, he started to cast the protective spells.

Hope to see one of those? Uh. Legend thought for a moment. "Good luck with that mate." Heh. Maybe once upon a time he would have said the same thing. But there was a difference between defending yourself in the face of danger and purposely looking for danger to defend yourself in. And by hoping to find a creature like that, Josh really sounded like he believed in the latter.

....Legend did too.

He just wouldn't say it out loud.

The blond raised a brow, slightly curious as to what Josh wanted to talk to him about. It was a good note to end with considering that his curiosity would probably push him to work better and faster. Turning Legend made his way into the Pensieve room. There wasn't much too it. A bit of decorations here and there that were now covered in dust and a pensieve smack dab in the middle. It was a room used for reviewing memories. Walking over to the Pensieve Legend stared inside. Luckly it handn't been chewed up or anything but it was extremely filthy. Pointing his wand Legend muttered a cleaning charm at the bowl, and at other areas where dust covered the room before turning back to the real task at hand.

Wards.

A series of enchantments left his mouth, his wand hand quickly making a series of hard gestures that went along with the respected enchantment. After what seemed like forever, although it could not have been more than 10 minutes, Legend's brain had begun to run to of spells. "Protego Maxima. Fianto Duri. Repello Inimicum." Legend finished lazily. Unable to think of any more spells that could possible offer protection.

This place was more protected than a room full of Aurors. He was sure of it.

It did need cleaning however, and that was not his forte.

Sighing out of relief, Legend made his way back to the main room. "Hey Josh- I think we should put a Disillusionment Charm on the actual memories. This way if anyone breaks in next time at least they won't be able to find what they are looking for right away." By the time they realized the memories did have a Disillusionment Charm on them someone from the MLE hopefully would have already noticed the break in.

While you go about your work, you might notice some movement out of the corner of your eye. Shaking it off, you get back to what you were doing only to notice it again a few minutes later. Was that something moving?

CHIZPURFLES!!!

Tons of the teeny-tiny crab-like creatures have come out to play and are finding all the spells and enchantments you have placed on the space more delicious than cauldron cakes and hot cocoa! YUM YUM YUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMY! BYE BYE MAGIC!

Looks like you’re in need of some pest control. Better work fast, these little creatures are starved for magic and hungry for wands.

Josh smiled at Legend's good luck wishes as he worked on casting his spells to secure the area. As he performed his spells, if he ever saw any object that was too dusty for its own good, the Auror did a tiny bit cleaning too. He could very well start to clean the whole place yet he didn't think he could waste time with that while there was a more important task at hand.

As he waved his wand casting the spells with a determined expression, the Auror could hear Legend working on securing the pensieve room. The fellow Auror's voice reminded him of one incantation that he had not casted yet and he quickly started to work on that as well.

Until he felt like there was something...odd with the magic he had casted before. He went to where he had started to complete his task with the last magic he was reminded by Legend yet...there was something weird with his magic. It was...as if it was not cast properly. Weaker and...odd. He thought he had casted that spell as perfectly as he could now...what was this?

He stood blinking trying to figure the problem out and Legend coming back to the room and talking to him snapped him out of his puzzled state. Wand in hand, he turned to the fellow Auror. "Yeah. That'd would be useful. And make sure they are kept safe so no one would spill them accidentally."

Spilling memories accidentally? That sounded kind of stupid right after he had said it yet his mind was off pondering about something else. The odd problem kept poking his brain and he looked at nowhere in particular, standing still, as he started to ponder again. "Legend..." then he said "There's something odd with the magic i have casted." he said and he went to the exact point to show Legend where the magic was weakening.

Merlin...it was almost fading now. "The magic i have casted are dissappearing."

Oh yeah! Someone could knock them over! "Smart man!" Legend commented, twirling his wand in his hand. That thought had not occurred to him, which was a bit of a disappointment. It was an obvious thing. He could not let little things slip like that again.

Looking around the room, Legend felt kind of strange.

Josh was suppose to be putting wards up right? "Yeah?" Turning to the other man Legend walked closer. "Odd? What do you-" He was cut off when Josh demonstrated. The magic basically vanishing. Uhhhhhhh- "Hold on!"

Ruining back into the Pensieve room, Legend threw a few spells around and-nothing.

All the magic and enchantments he had casted were gone. Shaking his head the blond exited the room once more."The magic I casted....is already gone?" He blinked. How could that be? Even if his spells were weak which they weren't they could not disappear so quickly! "Something...must still be in here that's getting rid of our magic." It was....weird!!!! Legend looked around and shook his head once more. "I'm going to see if any of the others are having this problem you try to....see if you can spot what's causing this i'll be right back okay?" With a stiff nod, Legend quickly made his way out of the room.

Smart man?

Looking at Legend, Josh blinked a bit. Since he had many people around him who considered him thick headed, he was surprised to be called smart. But then...if Legend thought that was smart then perhaps he was being too hard on himself, thinking his ideas might be stupid, having gotten used to be called and treated as a thick headed person. Brawns with no brains, they thought of him. So, it was not true...maybe.

Anyway, the auror snapped out of his thoughts when Legend checked the magic around as well confirming his doubts about the magic. Josh waited as the fellow auror went back to the pensieve room to check his own spells. The result was the same. Josh scratched his head. He was not pleased by this...one bit. He hated finding himself at the starting to point all over again after putting his effort on something. It was like trying to find your way in the Department of Mysteries.

"Whatever it is, i really started to dislike it." yep. Definitely not enjoying it at all. When Legend told him that he was going to check others, Josh nodded and frowned at the empty spot he had casted his magic before.

Then...he thought he saw something moving near one of the desks and frowned.

What?

Legend hadn't been gone long. Maybe 30 minutes.....alright an hour at most, but that wasn't his fault! It had taken him a while to figure out what was going on, and he could only really do something when Emily posted the announcement.

.....Also he had stopped by the cafeteria to get a sandwich.

Taking the last bite of the chicken sandwich, with gloves on and two bottles in hand, Legend made his way back into the Evidence room. " 'eEEere duttth taffke one." With a mouth full of food the blond threw one of the bottles at Josh. He paused to pull out a pair of gloves out of his pocket and threw those at him as well. "Uuurns ooot w haff-" He swallowed the food. "-A Chizpurfle infestation. They eat magic and what not.....probably wood too maybe?" Which explained all the bitten up furniture as well as the missing magic. "We gotta spray this place out and also-" Legend paused, reaching into his OTHER pocket to pull out another sandwich "-you hungry?"

The last time he could remember entering the pensieve room was when all the poop had hit the fan. Which really was unacceptable when you thought about it. But Legend couldn't help it. He avoided it as much as he could, it gave him a bit of the creeps. Tapping on one of the memories in a vial he sighed. Pulling out his wand he quickly sent a patronus to the first helpful person he could think of.

Genevieve James hadn't been back on the job for more than a few hours since her return from her honeymoon, and already the great big man in charge was demanding her attendance. SIGH. She slipped into the room, pulling back her long hair and trying to look helpful.

What did helpful look like anyway?

"Chosen. What are we doing in here? You just missed me that much, didn't you?"