Slade nodded to her. "Good morning, Miss Anders."

He watched as others filed in and took note of each one. He didn't know all of their names, but he was certain he would learn soon enough. He greeted each one, though did not introduce himself. Doing so repeatedly would have grated on his nerves. He hated repeating himself. If he was lucky, they would have a chance to introduce themselves at this meeting. If not, then he would get to know them later.

Breaking off another smile piece of the muffin, Addison smiled warmly at Slade, "Oh, please just Addison or Addi is fine." No need for the Miss Anders. She liked to keep things calm and friendly in this department. By the end of this gathering she hoped the new employees would feel as if they fit in and were comfortable.

"Good morning, Sam," Addi greeted finally popping that piece of muffin into her mouth, chewing and swallowing before speaking again. "Finally I have another lady joining me among all these men," she laughed jokingly. Their department was a fair deal of men but that didn't mean anything to her. Each and every one of them here was like her family since they were all together so much.

With the arrival of yet another one of her newest employees, Addison smiled again. "Morning, Brighton." Normally she would speak to people a bit more but she didn't know him all that well just yet.

Cypress. His arrival made the blonde laugh softly. "Hello to you too, Cypress. Nice to see you joining us so soon," she joked gently. By now they both knew he tended to run a bit late so him being on time meant she was allowed to tease him just a tad, yes?

Lifting her eyes to check a clock on the wall and seeing it was just about time to start she took one more sip of her coffee. "Good morning everyone. I hope you're all doing well and having a decent morning so far?" They all were here so this was a plus. Well most of them were here. Anyone else arriving best hope they didn't miss anything to important. "Alright, so the main point of this meeting is to go over a few things for this year. First and most importantly on direct orders from our Minister someone will be coming in to speak with all of us on how to handle certain student situations." Yes, yes she knew their department didn't deal with children but after helping out Hogwarts and the way things went this was what was happening.

"The way we as a department handled things there didn't go over so well. Once I know who will be coming in and when I will let everyone know." The department head stopped speaking to let that piece of information sink in and allow any questions anyone had to be asked.

After the fiasco that Emeric had at the fountain this morning he was surprised he had made it to the meeting at all. By the look of it, the meeting had already begun, but he slide in the back quietly hopefully without notice and he would just have to explain to the Department head what had happened afterward. Dear Merlin, Emeric flushed pink at the very thought. Ugh ... he needed a cup of coffee STAT! He was never going to survive here.

Emeric was seriously beginning to doubt why he had come back to London at all. But none the less, he was determined to make this a good place to be! He was listening when her heard something about children. And that's when he loss all color in his face completely. He had been a teacher's aid at the American school and hated it. Merlin's Beard ... please ... not kids ... Emeric had imaged himself as a dad some day, but not now ... "There aren't going to be kids in the department ... are there." Emeric asked at what seemed like an appropriate time. There was nothing in his job description about children.

”Vhat?” Adam asked teasingly walking in as Addison was talking. “Is Vrong vith men?” For a change, Adam wasn’t missing an eyebrow, his hair was actually black (no pink streaks), and he didn’t smell like a Hawaiian BBQ.
He snagged a muffin and slid into the chair next to fellow potion dude Cypress. “Hallo,” he said brightly as he swiveled in his chair like an eight year old. Something about swivel chairs brought out his ADD and he always had a hard time sitting still. In truth, the German preferred standing – it was less likely people would notice his fidgeting that way. He swiveled towards Cyrpress who was fidgeting with his hat. Excellent! Someone else in there that didn’t like to sit still!! Adam leaned over and whispered conspiratorially, “Tilt it a bit to the left…”
Adam shifted away from Cypress started chomping on his muffin, getting crumbs all over his black jacket. Why wasn’t he surprised that they were going to get talked to? Most of the adults at Hogmorts – or whatever it was called had been straight up jerks to the people who had responded. A good portion of the kids had talked back and countered directions from his colleagues. Not to mention the fact that he had especially felt ostracized due to some of the Hogmortians reactions to his accent.

Furthermore, he had felt that the school could have contacted them earlier to help deal with the situation, but they hadn’t. And as such, the department had been tossed into something without any real background into what was happening or why. It was times like this that Adam was particularly happy that his job revolved around potions. The worst he had to usually deal with was a potion going poof! Instead of sizzle and the occasional missing eyebrow.
Adam found himself nodding along with Emeric’s question. If there suddenly were, he might have to consider moving along in his career path. He wasn’t sure how much work he’d actually get done if he had to babysit while trying to measure out potions ingredients and plan star charts for optimal brewing times.

The department head really liked how comfortable her team was with one another. The way they could all openly talk and even joke around at times was comforting and certainly was very much like a family away from her family at home. Adam was this mornings teaser it seemed and the smile on Addison's face showed she knew he was kidding around. "Oh, not a thing most of you are very wonderful to be around but us ladies like to stick together too," she answered laughing softly. She had a husband and two boys at home so having a problem with men wouldn't work well for her.

Addison looked between her colleagues waiting on any questions and as expected one did come and very quickly at that. She knew a few of them had children but she also knew that many of them...did not. So therefore the question wasn't any sort of surprise to her and she lifted her mug taking a sip of her coffee before answering. "From my understand, no. As I understand it there will just be someone coming in to speak with the entire department...myself included." This had been on her. The way things were handled back at Hogwarts was on her and she would take full responsibility for that.

"It may be just this one meeting or it could be some type of lesson on how to deal with different situations involving children. I will find this out once I know who and when they will be arriving." The main specifics were still being figured out but she didn't want to keep anything from her team here. As she found things out so would all of them.

"Does anyone else have anymore questions on this matter before I move on to something a bit more...pleasant?" Pleasant as in not involving Hogwarts of children.

He was halfway through his coffee when the meeting actually started, though the muffin remained untouched. His eyebrows rose, pointedly, at Anders' words and then twisted into a frown.

Children.

Being a Durmstrang alumn and having spent the previous year in Hong Kong, the man had very little idea of what exactly the Department of Mysteries had done with the Hogwarts children. Though his three sisters attended said school, the twenty-four year old was mostly out of touch with the happenings; all he knew that something bad had happened (or almost had happened) and everyone had moved along with their lives. Which seemed to be the norm with how Hogwarts things went, was his understanding; something always seemed to be brewing in that castle.

"Pardon," Spoke the man from his spot, "Would it be possible to get some background information on this? For those of us who are new." It didn't occur to him that perhaps he was the only new one mostly because it made little difference to him. If he was to be questioned by anyone--though he rather hoped not--Brighton would prefer not to be so utterly lost.

A man spoke up about wanting to know what had happened. Slade was grateful that he had spoken up first. He was slightly worried about asking the question himself, thinking it would be best if he merely went through old records to find out what had happened himself, but if this was a matter that may come up again, and there were others that didn't know, perhaps this would save all of them the trouble of having to research independently and perhaps miss some detail which could only come from a personal standpoint.

"I must agree," he intoned. "I think a few of us have little idea of the situation that had happened with Hogwarts, and it might be good for those of us who are new to know what happened, before the situation can possibly be remedied."

Riiiiight, Miss DH had noticed his timely arrival. Don't get used to it, all right? Cypress was a man of non-commitment, ALL RIGHT? Having this job was the most he had committed to in awhile, and his recently girlfriend acquirement? New new NEW. Super new. Elise was probably chilling right now, too, and he had work all the time. Potions, at least, was fun. Interesting, and COOL.

People asking what had happened...Merlin, it had been all over the prophet. Did people not read? But the Durmstrang alum stayed quiet. "Hey, if kids ARE involved, I say bring it on. I'm ready," he grinned, swiveling his chair to follow Adam's lead. His potions mate was pretty cool and chill. "I think we can handle it." Team Unspeakables UNITE.

He gave Adam a thumbs up and shifted his beanie to the left and scratched his head in that spot before pushing his glasses more up his nose.

*SWIIIIIVVVEEEELLL*

Questions. Questions. Addison knew they were coming and so she waited patiently to see who had anything to say. What she had gotten wasn't entirely a question but more that a confirmation and it made her smile. "Is that so Cypress? Have you ever been around a group of children?" She was simply curious now. "I do agree that as a team we can handle anything that is sent our way, however that isn't the problem. The problem is how we handle things outside of this department." Whether is was with students, other adults or just a situation. How they handled these things always reflected back upon them as a whole.

Addison was somewhat a little surprised that she was being asked to explain what had happened at Hogwarts. Didn't everyone know what had happened? She had to remember that just because it had been a very big thing that not all the details had been given out. "Hogwarts had some form of a portal appear in one of their corridors. A creature or even a monster if you will was coming through and several of the students had been trapped inside the portal. From my understand it was like Hogwarts only things were reversed...meaning what was on the left was on the right and what was on the right was on the left. It was dark, damp, and covered in some type of ash." She paused to allow this to sink in a moment before continuing. "We were finally called in to help assess the situation, study the ash and anything else found on the students clothing. Speak with those that had been through the portal."

"As it seems there have been complaints with how the students were dealt with that day." The situation had of course been a very delicate one indeed but that didn't give the students to be rude and disobey what they were saying as well. There had been a great deal of miscommunication between Hogwarts and their department.

Adam swiveled to look at Cypress upon his exclamation about being happy to work with kids. The look was kind of blank, as he was trying to hide his unease at the prospect of working with children, until Adam noticed something about the other male’s body language as Cypress continued to swivel. Shrugging slightly, Adam came to the conclusion that his colleague was putting on a bold front. He swiveled back the other direction as Addison spoke up about what happened at the school.

Adam nodded along as Addison spoke. For the most part, he had been Addison’s shadow at the school. He had taken notes and collected a few samples which he had experimented on upon returning to the Ministry. Most of his findings had been that the spores and flakes and slime and other things had a near-if-not complete counter effect on potions. Every one of his experiments had resulted in the potions being nulled or almost a complete loss of potency. It had been a fun experiment.

Addison finished talking but her last statement caused a small flair of irritation for Adam. He raised a hand. “Question.” He stopped swiveling and put his hand down. “Vhat exactly, vere ze complaints?” Because, frankly, he had a few complaints himself about the situation and the people at Hogmorts. One of which included xenophobia. His swiveling became a wee bit more aggressive as it started it up again.

A hand raising instantly into the air nearly made the women laugh had it not been for the topic they were currently discussing. There was a look of irritation on her colleagues face and Addison couldn't say she blamed Adam for feeling the way he did. "The main problem seemed to be that our team didn't handle the students with as much care, respect and understanding as we should have. The fact that I had asked to speak with the children that had returned through the portal was said to be bad judgement..." However no one had seemed to take notice there that she HAD said she would like to speak to them 'when they were comfortable, willing and able to speak with her', she had not demanded it to be that very moment. "There was also a fuss about how a student felt ignored by us in the corridor and how I had asked Airey to go with their Healer to collect the students belongings, as he knew some of the children." Mainly what it all came down to was how she herself had handled things that day...and being a mother herself wasn't making things look good.

"Should we have to have a class or anything the ministry sees fit for us in dealing with children, we will do it. I have no doubt that our level can accomplish whatever may be sent our way and that we will come out stronger as a group." Addison sipped her coffee taking a good look at each of them. She had the utmost faith in them all.

Taking another bite of her muffin and washing it down with another sip of coffee she than continued. "If there are no more questions on this topic I'd like to move on. I know out level isn't the easiest to bring us all together but I would like to hold a few things for our department. Does anyone have any ideas on what we could do as a team or just anything you might like to see around here?" General thoughts and ideas were always welcome.

Sam was pretty quiet through the first topic... Yes she had been there at a point, but it was very brief. She also wanted to hear how it was spoken of by Addison, so as to help her try to wrap her head around it better.

Sam listened to the questions about the children, and her mind filled with flashbacks of the confusion and panic that had encapsulated Hogwarts. She would much rather be in her Chamber working on the subconscious, thank you very much.

Through her thoughts, Sam was brought back to the conference room by Addison's question. Hmmm... Sam wasn't used to having much interaction with others, even in her department. Everyone kept to themselves in the past... What would be worth trying? She looked around the room, wondering if anyone had immediate suggestions.

Emeric wasn't sure what to say. He was so very thankful that he was not part of the Department when they had to actually go to Hogwarts and talk to students. Ugh, that would have been a nightmare. He wasn't necessarily afraid of children, no after all they are just small people right. But he just couldn't interact with them. He wasn't good at interacting with kids when he was a kid, let alone as an adult! Whew.. he dodge a bullet on that situation. But it worried him that something of the sorts could happen again.

"Did they ever figure out how or why the portal was opened?" Emeric was thinking of a rather strange star and planet aliment that he had seen over the pass year. He wondered if he correlation would have anything to do with the Portal. Maybe he could ask Addison for a time line later.


But then the subject was moved on to what seemed like a happier one. But as to what she was asking about, Emeric had no ideas.

Swivel, swivel, ALL DAY LONG.

SWIVEL SWIVEL ALL DAAAAAY LOOONG.

Cypress cleared his throat and was a super adult in this moment. as they moved on. Adam had an accent, did he know? Cypress heard his buddy speak every day, and every day, he made note of it in his head. It was soothing, a bit, to his ears. Like, it made him feel ultra relaxed, and Cypress liked the guy's voice. Hmm.

"Well, we're Unspeakables. We're used to not talking to people in other departments about work, so that makes it extra hard for us to socialize with other people. MY IDEA IS...." he grinned boyishly. "We have a friend auction. We can call it... "Adopt an Unspeakable." They have to pay to hang out with us....as friends, you know, and THAT way we can stop feeling so isolated from everyone." Maybe only Cypress felt this way, but whatever. "We could also hold an UNSPEAKABLE COMPETITION and use it to raise awareness for...something we're all passionate about down here. And basically, it's just a quiet game, you know? Everyone can be quiet one day at work. Imagine the chaos that can ensue from THAT."

They were awful ideas, honesty, Cypress, please.

Val was sitting here, drinking his coffee attempting to make sense of what was going on. His quiet behavior was normal among the veterans. So they were considered insensitive to the disaster of the portals that was at the Hogwarts school. That he got. He didn't quite how else they would've been able to do their job in finding out exactly what was going on in the portals to determine how they ended up there and how to solve it. But kids could be cruel and from what he heard even the staff were shaken up enough to be upset with the main department they had called for help.

Zis has sensitivity training classes vritten all over.. Val thought as he sipped more of his cup at the Q&A presenting itself. Nearly choking at the latest suggestion. He stared at Cypress. He was an alright bloke, but at this moment Val thought he could exercise his job at being unspeakable.. Still though, an odd idea always begun new thoughts which he couldn't deny. "I don't zink we need to be adopted like pets.. But I agree with Cypress on the lack of exposure we have. Students do not know what ve are capable of and perhaps we should allow some access into howz we vork. In a limited way, of course." Not too open though, they did need to keep top secret on things.

Addison shifted her bright blue eyes over each and every member of her team. If anyone had any questions or concerns now would be the time to address them. Should anything come up after this meeting they knew to come to her, she was always available to them should anyone need to talk.

"They did," she replied in response to Emeric, folding her hands in front of her. "It seems there was an over abundance of energy due to the arrival of new poltergeist there at the school. Two of newest poltergeist went through the portal closing it up." It sounded simple now that it was looked back upon but at the time it made sense that Hogwarts staff didn't connect the activity to the arrival of a young poltergeist the term or two before the arrival of the portal.

Onto a little more happier note she listened to what both Cypress and Val had to say. Truthfully the idea of friend auction wasn't to bad but she wasn't sure how to go about carrying something like that out here in the ministry. As for a competition in being quiet well...no. That just wasn't the best idea for a department such as theirs. "While that thought of a quiet day here is interesting I'm not sure it's a smart thing to do should something disastrous happen here." Things happened...especially in Mysteries. She knew this first hand and sorry but she wouldn't be taking any chances.

As for what Val was saying...this made sense. "I agree with getting what we do known... of course we must be careful with what we revile but I don't see why we can't have some sort of tour maybe or a lesson or two held here in the department for older students maybe. The more other departments, students and just those around us in general understand what we do the easier our interactions might become." This was something she would think on and see what could be done.

"Is there anything else anyone has to add or wants to make known...if not we can all get back to work and I will keep you all updated on when our visitor will be arriving for our meeting about the children." As she found things out so did the rest of the department.