It had been a long weekend. A weekend full of work and a weekend full of fighting with Chris. Krel was every so happy she was able to escape Chris by coming into work. She liked Christ, but she loved her job.

With a sigh, Krel tossed her breifbag onto her chair and slowly started unbuttoning her over cloak which she hung up on a nearby peg on the wall. She spared a brief moment to look into the mirror hanging next to the peg, to straighten her tie and tuck a loose piece of hair behind her ear. She hadn’t, however heard back from her contact/friend in Germany which had been a low point in her weekend. Onithn usually did such a great job of coming through for her.

She picked up her briefbag and set it down on the floor under her desk and then scooted her chair in pulling a book out of the pile to leaf through. There has to be something from an international conference that disallows this sort of embargo.

ooc. this is not directed towards you if I come off cross, just your character :P
 

Lili had just sent off her letter to her sister when someone else walked into the office. It being someone that she had never seen before she looked at the girl with a slightly suspisious look on her face.

Walking over to the door she said, "And who are you?" She didn't mean to come across as mean, but at this moment, she really just wanted to meet her employees. Looking at the girls briefcase and the face that she had hung her coat up Lili said, "Oh, never mind, can you just please tell me your name?" She waited for a minute before continuing. "I'm Liliana Hayman, and I'm your new division head. You may call me either call me Liliana or Ms. Hayman." She took a breath then continued, "What is that you have been working on in here previously, only personally."

She spun around taking her wand out as she turned. She thought she heard something, but maybe she was still jittery from her previous job. Turning to the rest of her employees she said curiously, "Tell me, what are your favourite colors?"

ooc. I'll be gone until Sunday afternoon, I'll reply to posts then

Krel jumped, knocking her book onto the floor. Holly jumping crickets! she exclaimed mentally. She was certain that her facial expressions weren’t professional looking. In fact, she was trying to straighten her face back into the polite placid smile she usually wore.
“I’m ah-sell,” she shook her head trying to process the onslaught of questions by the slightly irate person. “Krel- Krel Ansell. I work here.” She paused, hands pressed against her stomach as if they had been frozen mid-process of smoothing out her suit coat. “I’ve been researching the international conference and laws on impromptu embargos…trying to figure out how to get the embargo on French imports and exports lifted. Perhaps if,” she started to calm down a bit as she talked. “The other countries that France is not restricting any other countries, we can use the international laws and treaties to entice other countries to help us by inflicting trade impediments upon France them…”[/color]
The woman spun around on her mid-explanation. “Selves.” She finished. She held in a sigh and tugged her suit coat down. “What difference does it make what my favorite colors are?” This round of questioning was getting a bit intrusive. What did it matter what colors she liked? It wasn’t like her office was suddenly going to get a coat of maroon paint with silver trim.

Camila poked her head outside her cubicle as she heard voices, "Hey Krel!" She greeted Krel, "Had a nice weekend?" She asked her smiling. She heard Ms.Hayman ask them about their favorite colours. "Yellow!" She answered enthusiastically.

ooc: :hello:, see ya

Lili smiled, she really was sorry about the bluntness, but it was her way of letting the girl know who she was, and also finding out what she had been working on right away.

"It doesn't really make a difference," Lili said shortly. "But all the same, if I'm going to be in charge of this office, I need to make it a little less, formal, in some areas, so I'd really appreciate an answer."

She turned to Camila and said, "Thanks, I'll remember that." She wasn't going to do anything about it right now, she would wait until the girls were immersed in their work.

Lili thought about it for a second then said, "Why don't you make a duplicate copy of your letter, or a few actually. And then you can send the original by owl, and then if that doesn't work, try sending one by muggle post. If you don't know how to do that, I can explain it to you."

And if all that fails she thought, well, we'll just have to come up with something else.

A little less formal? Krel thought quietly as she looked at the woman in front of her. This is the International Law office. It couldn’t get any more formal if one wanted! Informal? HA!! She tried her best to keep her face straight and non-reactive; a trait she would, in later life, be quite good at. Very well, if the woman wanted an answer, she'd receive one, no matter how ridiculous or intrusive it was. “It’s maroon, silver, and gray.” She replied undoing the button on her coat so it wouldn’t wrinkle when she sat down at her desk (if she ever got the chance to).
“Hello Camila,” she said with a wave as the young and much more enthusiastically naive girl poked her head around corner. “I’ll have a pot of tea ready in a moment if you care for a cup.” Tea was one of Krel’s vices and there was always a pot brewing on her desk. Today she had the most fabulous blend, made special by her friends’ house elves in Germany. Which reminded her...

“Say, Camila,” she asked having noticed that her supervisor’s attention had drifted elsewhere (if only momentarily). “No owl post came today or last night did it?” She was still awaiting a response from Onithn.

Lili smiled before she started to explain, "First you are going to need an enevlope. I brought some up earlier when I came, they're in a drawer at the front of the room. Next you'll need to place the letter inside and then write the address in which you want it to go to on the front. This needs to be more detailed then if you're sending it by owl. Finally you'll need a stamp, which you'll need to pay for, there's a little bit of muggle money in that drawer as well, just some of it, and put what you don't use back. You can mail it and buy the stamp down the road at the post office. Just one more thing Camila, I'd like to see any responses you get back."



Lili said nothing as various emotions ran across the girls face. She made a mental note of the colors and then said, "For now, since we're dealing with a crisis in transportaion to France I would like you to see if it is still possible to drive into France. See if you can use a muggle car, and also one that has been altered by magic."



She watched them both get to work, and then went back over to her little office, she was still waiting on Kaitlynns reply. She must be busy. When she was sure that no one was watching her she took out her wand and preformed a tricky little spell that her mom had taught her, making her employees cubicles the color that they said was their favourite, but only on the inside. These colors would only be visible to employees of this office.

"Tea, would be welcome." Camila smiled, she would go back to Krel as soon as she finished sending her letter. "No post 'till now." She answered her.

"Wow, that's complicated." Camila commented on how muggles send their letters, she walked to the drawer that Ms.Hayman had mentioned and took out the money and the envelope, she wrote what she knew of her Aunt's address hoping it was enough. She walked back to her cubicle to take her bag to go to the muggle post office, she noticed that the inside of her cubicle turned to a comforting yellow colour. "Woah.." She said, it was emmitting a strange comforting glow. Walking out of her cubilce towards Ms.Hayman's office. "Did you make that colour appear?, It's lovely thank you so much." Camila said honestly. Their new head seemed to be really nice. "I'll be of to send the letter." She said and waited for the ok.

Lili just smiled and nodded at Camila to answer her question. "It's only visible to you, me, and the rest of the employees in this division," she told her. "Let me know your response to your letter please."

"Cool." Camila said looking at the inside of her cubicle. "Ofcourse Ms.Hayman." She smiled and went to the drawer that Ms.Hayman had indicated earlier and took out stamps and an envelope she wrote her aunt's address and added her street number and the house number too. She walked out of the room and headed to the lifts to send the letter.

Lili smiled as she watched the girl get to work and then looked back down at her desk and read over the letter she had just gotten from her sister. She seemed to be having a good time, she'd even met someone. But more importantly her letter said that she had been able to get of her friend. She'd inclosed the compact so that Lili would be able to get ahold of her.

She knew the girl would be in her own classes right now, so she decided to wait till later to talk to the girl. After all Kaitlynn had told her to be expecting Lili to contact her sometime after supper.

While she waited, she got to work on composing a letter for Evaline about what she knew already. "Miss Ansell, how is your information coming along?" She asked, raising her voice slightly so she'd be heard.

sorry it's been a long time, my internet plays me tricks...
 

Diana almost gulped. "I'm Diana, Diana Saenz, nice to meet you ma'am...." She said with a slight bow of her head to her boss, her new boss.

She thought about a way to get to France without using magic. Muggle traveling, it was. A co-worker mentioned the Muggle post, that worked as efficient as a visit as well. "Umm...we can get to their Ministry by Muggle transportation, I suppose. Surely, there would be no trouble with their Muggle law officers in getting into the country with the secrecy status we have to their world." She said and walked towards her desk.

She picked up a directory of numbers, which included transportation agencies that could take you to France. She held it up and smiled. "Here it is, I can call to get a bus, cab, practically anything to France and inside the country to travel and get to the French Ministry of Magic for a meeting I suppose. With the letter from Camila, we can send a solicitude to get to talk to them in person and solve this to work it both ways." She told Ms. Hayman.

"That's a good idea, Diana, I'll expect you to give me a report on that when you are finished." She smiled at her employee and watched as she set to work looking through the directory. It really was a brilliant thing to have in the office. "One more question, Diana, what is your favourite color?"

While she waited for the womens answer she picked up her quill again and got back to work on writing a letter for Evaline.

"Right away, ma'am..." Diana said with a smile to Iliana. She started to search those travel agencies, when she heard the question that might have seen weird for her. No one, ever had asked her that question. "Err...I guess it is lilac..." She told her boss with a smile.

After then, she got back to work to her desk and continued to search and maybe make a little call or two.

Liliana flicked her wand in the direction of the cubicle that Diana had went to. The inside of the cubicle was now her favourite color, and would emit a warm welcoming glow like it did with the other employyees. "Thank you, Diana," she said to her.

Getting up she walked down between the cubicles looking in her employees. "How is everything going?" she asked. She needed to get her report to Evaline soon.

Whoa...now her cubicle was surrouded by lilac. She smiled to Ms. Hayman. "Thank you..." She told her and smiled.

One, two, three calls were made. Diana was a little bit tired, yet expectful to find something cheap and eficient to go to France without going through much trouble. Finally, a call came. Yes. Someone had accepted the offer she had made of Muggle money. "I have people who can drive us...now. It is just a matter of the letter to be sent, then we arrange the date for the meeting." Diana said to Ms. Hayman.

It had been a few days since she had received her assignment to try and ‘drive’ into France. Despite the slightly presumptuous assumption that knew how to drive a car, Krel had managed to arrange transportation into France. There hadn’t been any word on Muggle news stations reporting a shut down on muggle transportation, but to be honest, how many wizards and witches drove places?

Thankfully, there hadn’t been any problem with her sitting in the back seat of a taxi as they drove across the boarder between France and Germany. Krel had imagined some magical barrio set up to repel wizarding kind from the country. Thankfully, no adverse affects had happened.

In the mean time, her trip had allowed her time to contact her associate in Germany, Onithn Udy. He, like usual, had managed to come through for her.

Krel had a rather poised smile on her face as she walked into her superior’s office, with two reports bound in silver and blue report holders.

“The Embargo Act of 1683.” She said tapping the report cover with her finger as she held it up for Hayman to see. “I knew I’d find it, it was just a matter of locating the correct document.” She handed it over. “Oh, and my report on driving into France.” She handed over the second report cover which was much thinner the Embargo Act file.

This matter with France was begining to frustrate her. But at least now they were getting somewhere. Turning to look at Diana first she said, "Okay, well that sounds like a great idea. I've been in contact with my sister, who used to go to school in France and she had a way to keep in contact with her friend there. She's willing to hand her method of contact over to the minister of magic there. Her parents work there. We can set up a time, and we can record it in the report that I'll had to Mrs. Bass."

Lili took the report from Krell and began looking it over as she stood there, just scanning it now, and she would look through it completely so she could add it to her report. "The Embargo Act of 1683?" she asked with a curious look on her face. It sounded familiar, she just couldn't place it.

She looked towards Camilla and asked, "When do you think you'll get a reply back from that letter?" She may be able to add it on at the end of the report, or place it in the middle.

"If any of you need me, or think of anything else, I'll be over in the corner," she said, pointing to her desk, "I need to finish up this report."

Ha, this was fun to come up with.
 

“The Embargo Act of 1683,” Krel replied as she followed her superior over to her corner desk. Krel clasped her hands together behind her back and clapped her heels together like Judy Garland in Wizard of Oz. Her head tilted back just ever so slightly as she put her nearly photographic memory to work.

“On June 21, 1683, a little known event took place that set in motion a rather interesting chain of events. German wizards fired hexes upon and then abandoned an Italian Muggles’ traveling show near Wusrzberg, Germany. Three of the muggles were killed and 18 sustained serious after effects. The Italian Ministry became outraged and demanded immediate action; consequently, Turkey's Ministry intervened preventing a disaster and this lead to Italy issuing a proclamation ordering all Germans out of Italy and Italian waters. This later led to the Embargo Act and would eventually be one of the reasons for the summit meeting of the International Confederation of Wizards that would create the The International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy in 1692.”

Krel paused to take a deep breath. “In 1709, the Embargo act was lifted, but the after affects of the entire fiasco caused major uproar not only between muggles, but between Wizarding Governments and people. It devastated international-related industries, and wrecked existing markets. Smuggling was widely endorsed by the German and Italian wizarding populous, which viewed the embargo as a violation of their rights.”

“More importantly, it led to the Non-Intercourse Act which meant that wizards staying in a country for extended periods of time had to register with the corresponding wizarding government. And it also meant,” She paused to take another breath and to build a dramatic pause. “Embargoes, prohibitions, and restrictions like the ones France are currently emanating, are illegal under International Confederation of Wizarding treaties.”

An interdepartmental memo swooped into Liliana Hayman’s office and landed softly on the desk.

Lili listened intently as Krell went over the Embargo act. When she was done, Liliana smiled in amazement. "Wow," she told her, "I didn't know any of that. But it is really a good thing to know. The Non-Intercourse Act makes sense. Does England have one as well? Okay, so I'll add what you've just told me to the report, and finish it up today and hand it in to Mrs. Bass. Have you heard from Camille lately?"

She pulled a piece of parchment out of her desk and grabbed a quill. Dipping it in the ink bottle she began to get to work writing out a report for Evaline.

Once she was finished, she folded up the parchment and sealed it. She was just about to go take it to Evaline, when she noticed the memo on her desk. She read it over quickly before jotting down a reply quickly. She'd drop it off after she talked to Evaline.