Quote:

Originally Posted by Jack Mannequin

Ronan looked up to Leo and raised his cup to him. "As good as I can be." he replied and sipped at the drink again. Why did he have to hate the taste of coffee when it offered a lot more caffeine than this tea contained. Course all that was in the house right now was the herbal and fruit stuff that Pandora was addicted to.

Sigh.

"I hope you are well though, sir."

Aw. It seemed Ronan had indeed been a dedicated father yet again. His children were blessed to have him. "Hang in there, Mr Cavanaugh." Leo smiled. "Yeees, I am quite well, thankyou." He was lying down and taking it easy. It was nice.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hermione03

Colman Dunne showed up in the conference room after seeing the message from his boss. His stomach growled and he chided himself for not grabbing something to eat before he had rolled out of bed that morning.

But the quicker he got out of the house the better. No need to wake up his sister who was most certainly sleeping til the crack of noon like she always did. Oh what a dream, not having to work anymore. But he had to work to keep his side of the rent up.

Sitting down at the table, Colman looked up to his boss wondering what they were going to be talking about today. Seemed like they did a lot of planning.

And...there was this noise? Hehe.
"Mr Dunne! Hope you're having a good day? Feel free to take something to bite...over there." Point.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kavik0917

"Yup, that's right! Hello, Leo! Or do you prefer Sir De La Buena? So, what is happening so far in this engaging-looking conference? Or are we just beginning?" Jamie replied cheerfully. She was now very excited about her new job, and couldn't wait to get started. She only wished she had not been late to the conference! What a bad first impression to make...
Oh, well! She would just have to make it up during future events.

"Oh, no, Leo is quite allright." He nodded as well as he could nod while lying down. "We are just beginning, so you haven't missed anything." Finally, Leo decided to stand up and walk over to the young woman, extending his hand out to her.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hermione J. Granger

Oliver turned around to see Leo finally get off the floor and couldn't help but laughing. "Have a good nap" asked Oliver jokingly. He also noticed two new employees walking into the room. "Hello there, I'm Oliver. It's nice to meet you" he said extending his hand to both of them.

He grinned at the young man. "Yes. Thankyou." Hehehe. And aw, he was being all polite. Gosh he liked his colleagues. "I hope you had a good night's sleep aswell?" Hehehe.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kavik0917

Jamie reached out to grasp and shake Oliver's hand. "Nice to meet you, as well, Oliver," she said politely. "If I may ask, what where you doing on the ground, Sir De La Buena?"

"Oh, just admiring the ceiling..." Nod nod nod. And then he looked up at it again. "See the wonderful white color?" It was nice, yes.


Hehehe.

Well well well, Gerard waas indeed happy to see that someone was feeling cheerful like he was today. "It's great to meet you too, sir. I'm very happy to be here." He said brightly and almost stuck out his hand for the guy to shake. But, er.. it looked like he was having a good old sit down on the floor first. Well at least he felt a lot more comfortable in this department already. He smiled and nodded, taking a quick glance back at the refreshments table.

Jamie shook Leo's hand, then looked up herself at the ceiling. It was a really wonderful color! "Oh, yes! The ceiling does look brilliant!" she said enthusiastically, before taking a seat at the conference table, where the people where starting to gather.

''I guess i am fine thanks'' Ryan replied trying to ignore how tired he was feeling today. If one could ignore a fact enough, it would not be a fact anymore, would it be? Everything started and ended in our brains and if one was concentrated enough to refuse a negative affect enter our brains, no negative effect would be present in out moods. Or at least Ryan thought that way.

And lying down there it looked like no negavite thoughts could affect Mr Buena now since he thought everything was wonderful. Great then! Smiling down at his boss the blond man looked up at the ceiling once the question was adressed to him. ''Hmmm...'' he thought over the idea carefully observing the ceiling ''A blue Abraxan would look beautiful there, i think.''

"Wonderful" said Oliver. "I did, although I might sleep here tonight seeing how well you slept makes me want to try it out" laughed Oliver. "Plus I won't have to worry about being late for work, since I'll be here already" said Oliver with a grin.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cullendiggory

Well well well, Gerard waas indeed happy to see that someone was feeling cheerful like he was today. "It's great to meet you too, sir. I'm very happy to be here." He said brightly and almost stuck out his hand for the guy to shake. But, er.. it looked like he was having a good old sit down on the floor first. Well at least he felt a lot more comfortable in this department already. He smiled and nodded, taking a quick glance back at the refreshments table.

Aw, happy employees READY to help the young witches and wizarrrds!
"Well we are happy to have you!" Yes he was!
He noticed Gerard glancing at the fooooooooooooood and grinned. "Feel free to grab something to eat. There's everything and anything you want...if there isn't, we can make it appear." Hehehe.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kavik0917

Jamie shook Leo's hand, then looked up herself at the ceiling. It was a really wonderful color! "Oh, yes! The ceiling does look brilliant!" she said enthusiastically, before taking a seat at the conference table, where the people where starting to gather.

Aha! AWESOME PEOPLE! See, the ceiling was indeed wonderful. Hehe. "I'm glad you agree!" HEHEHE. "Please, help yourself to some snacks aswell." He smiled and gestured towards the foooood.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lara_the_Firelady

''I guess i am fine thanks'' Ryan replied trying to ignore how tired he was feeling today. If one could ignore a fact enough, it would not be a fact anymore, would it be? Everything started and ended in our brains and if one was concentrated enough to refuse a negative affect enter our brains, no negative effect would be present in out moods. Or at least Ryan thought that way.

And lying down there it looked like no negavite thoughts could affect Mr Buena now since he thought everything was wonderful. Great then! Smiling down at his boss the blond man looked up at the ceiling once the question was adressed to him. ''Hmmm...'' he thought over the idea carefully observing the ceiling ''A blue Abraxan would look beautiful there, i think.''

He guessed?
If a man couldn't really tell if he was well or not, then there was something...curious about that. But Ryan seemed okay, and Leo had often let them all know he was there if they needed to vent. Hehe.

A blue ABRAXAN! Leo gasped and let his jaw hang for a moment. "Exellent idea! That would indeed look VERY beautiful." Totally! Next department teambuilding excersise? Hehehe.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hermione J. Granger

"Wonderful" said Oliver. "I did, although I might sleep here tonight seeing how well you slept makes me want to try it out" laughed Oliver. "Plus I won't have to worry about being late for work, since I'll be here already" said Oliver with a grin.

Leo chuckled and shook his head. "Mr Granger, I was not sleeping...just merely staring up at the ceiling." He looked seriously at the young man, "The floor was a bit too hard for a nap..." and then he smirked at Oliver in a jesting way.


Now that he was up and people were here, the mexican decided it was time to start this leetle party. "Well then! I am so very glad you are all here, awake, beautiful and creative." Grin. "As you might remember," he hoped they did...ofcourse, the new people wouldn't. "We discussed a way to unite the students at Hogwarts a bit more, and how we could find other ways to teach them about discipline and get their learning experiences to boost." Yes....that was it!

"What I would like us to do now is to start talking and planning and forming how these excersises could work." He looked at everyone around the room. "What do you think would be good to have the students do?" Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?

"Oh, thanks! And, I couldn't help but overhear you were thinking of painting a blue Abraxan on the ceiling? Well, I was thinking, since the round table was, like, a gift from Merlin and all that, and there's a round table in here, you could also paint some sort of, like, I dunno, something that reminds people of him?" Jamie fidgeted nervously. "Of course, an Abraxan would look amazing as well..."

Oliver thought about it for a minute and said "I think what we have the students do should depend on what year they are currently in at Hogwarts. For example we could have 1st and 2nd years paired together and have them do pretty basic magic and tasks, 3rd and 4th years paired together and have them review what they have already learned as well as some more challenging exercises. 5th and 6th years paired together and have them do more complex magic since they are either in their OWL year or about to be NEWT students. And finally the 7th years would be asked to do the more advanced magic and to test them on how much they learned at Hogwarts over the last seven years. And of course everyone will have to do some bits of writing about what they have learned at Hogwarts so far, no matter what year at Hogwarts they happen to be in" said Oliver. "It's not perfect, but do you think it is a good idea?" asked Oliver to his fellow employees.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kavik0917

"Oh, thanks! And, I couldn't help but overhear you were thinking of painting a blue Abraxan on the ceiling? Well, I was thinking, since the round table was, like, a gift from Merlin and all that, and there's a round table in here, you could also paint some sort of, like, I dunno, something that reminds people of him?" Jamie fidgeted nervously. "Of course, an Abraxan would look amazing as well..."

Hm?
Leo raised his eyebrows as Jamie spoke up about the ceiling. "Oooh..." A sort of Merlin-ish 'we-are-all-equal-'kind of painting. "I like it!" Hehe. "I like your thinking, sir." Nod nod. "I will think about that. Maybe you can all help me with it, si?" Weeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hermione J. Granger

Oliver thought about it for a minute and said "I think what we have the students do should depend on what year they are currently in at Hogwarts. For example we could have 1st and 2nd years paired together and have them do pretty basic magic and tasks, 3rd and 4th years paired together and have them review what they have already learned as well as some more challenging exercises. 5th and 6th years paired together and have them do more complex magic since they are either in their OWL year or about to be NEWT students. And finally the 7th years would be asked to do the more advanced magic and to test them on how much they learned at Hogwarts over the last seven years. And of course everyone will have to do some bits of writing about what they have learned at Hogwarts so far, no matter what year at Hogwarts they happen to be in" said Oliver. "It's not perfect, but do you think it is a good idea?" asked Oliver to his fellow employees.

Aha! Oliver, always the one thinking smart things. "Yes, that sounds great, Oliver." He smiled crookedly and nodded. Hm, let's rewind a little. "But do you all think that every year should participate? Or just the older students? Or maybe make two different scavenger hunts - one for the younger kiddos and another for the more experienced ones?" He took a moment to look around the room, waiting to hear their responses.

"And also, I would think it best to have a group of students helping eachother out. Maybe...one from each year, so that would be seven students in one group from different houses. It would get uneven, yes, but..." Hmmm... "But, the point I'm trying to make is that...would it be best for the older students to sort of get that responsibility of HELPING and making sure the younger ones don't get hurt?" Look around the room again.

Ronan smiled to Leo as he gave positive feedback to him and settled in to listen to the conversation.

'Oh Merlin, more talk of painting.' he thought and chuckled. Their department head sure liked to paint a lot of things. But now it was time to get down to business and he glanced to the young man Oliver, who was talking with Leo over the scavenger hunt that he had mentioned at the last conference of their department.

"I do agree with your grouping Leo, and I do think that the older students should help the younger students, but at the same time, I don't think it's ultimately fair to hold them back if they're trying to complete a task and thinking about saving a younger student's life at the same time." Ronan spoke up.

Still looking around, Leo was hoooping someone had a few things to say. He was already standing, so he could walk around the round table instead of just standing there.

When no-one said anything, Leo swinged his upper body around, to speak anew, but he did so rather abruptly and grimaced. Ouch. A pain in his right lower back made him stand still for a second, but he hoped no one had noticed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jack Mannequin

Ronan smiled to Leo as he gave positive feedback to him and settled in to listen to the conversation.

'Oh Merlin, more talk of painting.' he thought and chuckled. Their department head sure liked to paint a lot of things. But now it was time to get down to business and he glanced to the young man Oliver, who was talking with Leo over the scavenger hunt that he had mentioned at the last conference of their department.

"I do agree with your grouping Leo, and I do think that the older students should help the younger students, but at the same time, I don't think it's ultimately fair to hold them back if they're trying to complete a task and thinking about saving a younger student's life at the same time." Ronan spoke up.

Fortunately...
Leo smiled as he heard Ronan's voice and turned his head slowly to look at the young man. Ah... "Yes, that is indeed a tricky thing. But, wouldn't it be a good thing for them to have another challenge?" Hm? "Say, the younger students might even find someone to look up to if they see how hard and well the older students work." Or, maybe not?

"It wouldn't mean that the older stundents are held back," he took a step but... Ow... Deep breath. "If a task is too hard, then the older students might be the only one's who can lead the group to proceed. But I do think even the youngest of witches and wizards could add something to benefit the group?" He was almost talking through clenched teeth. He needed to get to his office and call a healer or something.


"Uhm... I'm going to go get something in my office..." Yes... "Why don't you continue discussing... Mr Cavanaugh and Mr Chambers, you could lead the discussions?" He hoped he wasn't putting them on the spot, but they did have a great amount of ideas and opinions that would be great for the discussion. "I will be right back." With a nod and a smile, he walked off towards his office.

Oliver considered what Leo just said. "You make a good point" he said. "I certainly think that every year should participate because I don't want to make any students feel left out, maybe for the students in their third year and younger we could have some of the professors monitor them to make sure none of them get hurt" he said. "I also agree that having groups is a good idea, maybe we could split people up depending on what year they are in at Hogwarts. So 1st years have 4 or 5 groups, and 2nd years have 4 or 5 groups and so on. The only thing I think might turn into a problem is having the older students help out the younger ones because it will distract them if they are competing in their own hunt" said Oliver hoping his response was satisfactory.

As he listened to other's ideas Ryan put the large pile of books he had been carrying around on a nearby desk. Phew! Since he was now free of the heavy books he could pay more attention to the metting. About that Scavenger Hunt, Ryan thought it was a good idea since it was both going to help students learn new thnigs and enjoy the class at the same time.

But of course there was this younger and older students case they were discussing any yes it would not be so fair if they expected same thnigs from those categories. Thinking about it non-stop, the man nodded at his boss when he said that he was leaving leading to his office. Okay.

''Indeed grouping is a good idea'' then he said looking at his co-workers ''And i also think that idea of splitting students according to their years is a good idea as well. Buuut what about giving a single older leader to the groups of younger students to help them within the process?''

Colman Dunne hadn't spoken up until this point because he hadn't really known what they had been speaking about. Still being new to the department, it was hard to catch up for him.

Right so a Scavenger Hunt they seemed to be having? That was all well and good but what sort of challenges were they going to be doing? Shouldn't they worry about that before they even think of all the grouping that was supposed to be going on?

"Excuse me," he spoke up, raising a hand slightly to grab everyone's attention. "I don't mean to be rude or anything, but we don't even know what the challenges are. Wouldn't that be helpful to think about first before we start thinking of all the pairings? I mean, that way we could figure out how to make the pairings of the students work where the older students can still be challenged as much as the young students."

Or was that wrong?

Ronan furrowed his brow as Leo went off to his office. He seemed to be in some sort of pain. But listening to what he had to offer, the young man thought over how they could figure out this problem because it seemed like they were actually hitting a point of disagreement.

"Another tricky thing is matching up the students. We don't want to have mutiny happen within the groups that are formed." Ronan added thinking that there might be some high strung students at Hogwarts who might not like to work with certain others.

"Do you think we could get groups together, of students that would want to work side by side and that way, we can also rely on the fact that the older students will want to look out for the younger students?" The young man glanced around the room for a yay or nay from the other employees.

"I certainly don't think that we'd make the challenges so hard that the students wouldn't get incredibly hurt. I'm just suggesting that if they were to duel other students in the challenges or perhaps try to battle a magical creature that wasn't in their level, the older students would be there to help them along." Ronan explained his thoughts.

"Professors will certainly want to be present because it is their job to make sure that the students of Hogwarts are safe." he also added. "I would really like to stick with the seven people per group theory as well. It'll make planning the events much more easier."

"I wouldn't want to put the responsibility of looking after younger students to be endowed on one person Ryan." Ronan said looking to his fellow division head. "In my head that doesn't seem fair." But he seemed to be doing a lot of talking, and he wanted feedback.

Oh someone else speaking up. Hmm he did seemed to have a point there.

"Well thank you Mister Dunne for your input. Perhaps you, along with the rest of the employees would like to come up with a few suggestions of what some of the challenges we could have the students do might be?" Ronan suggested with a soft smile.

Yes, that would get the creative juices flowing nicely.

Emmalee listened intently, jotting down notes here and there, a question gnawing at the back of her mind.

Should she mention it? She looked around at all the other people... older. more knowledgeable. Intimidating.

Hesitatingly, she chimed in. "Um, excuse me? But are we just limited to the Hogwarts grounds or could the students go into Hogsmeade, as well?

Because THAT was an area she knew well.

Ronan looked over to Emmalee and smiled kindly. He knew from the first time that they had spoken to one another that she was a little timid and shy and maybe even a little frightened.

The young man thought of her as a little doe; he would just have to step cautiously around her so that she would get to trust him.

"Well to be honest, we would have to wait until Leo returns back from his office to see what his opinion of that might be. Considering that only students from years three and up are allowed into the town on a regular basis, there might be some conflict." Ronan explained.

"But that is an excellent suggestion." he smiled once more and turned to see if anyone else had suggestions of activities for the students.

Right. And she would have known that if her aunt had ever let her out of the house on a Hogsmeade weekend. Her cheeks flushed slightly, realizing her mistake.

"I only mentioned it because I grew up in the village and still stay there, so if they could, I could maybe talk to some people or suggest places for things." The words tumbled out hurriedly, her eyes darting back down to her notes, determined to think of something they could discuss.

"Maybe a challenge on the lake?"

"Oh well it's good that we'll have the connections with people that can help us out with all of this." Ronan said brightly and jotted down that idea on his pad before looking up once more as she suggested the lake for a challenge.

"The lake would be an excellent place for a challenge as well." he said smiling to Emmalee and jotted down that idea as well, his head spinning for what the students could do.

"How about anyone else, do we have suggestions?"

Oliver thought for a minute and said "Well for the older students there could a station in the scavenger hunt that is a bit like an obstacle course" said Oliver. "Instead of facing one difficult challenge they would have to make their way through performing simple tasks and spells. And we could have someone time them to see how fast they could through it as well as how successful they were in all of the tasks" said Oliver.

Gerard nodded and smiled. Yay, a friendly department head. Oh, snap. He noticed Gerard's interest of the food table. Ahem. "Thanks very much, sir." And with that, he slowly stepped backwards, towards the table and smuggled a cookie.

Moments of mindless nibbling had passed, and Gerard, being his lazy self, hadn't even began to join in with the discussion. In his defense, this WAS his first day on the job. But maybe he should put down these cookies and give his input.

"When you say 'unite the students', do you mean by their houses, or their age?" Well, from the sound of the conversation, everyone seemed to focuss on the age of the students. But in Gerard's mind, it was the houses that needed a bit of unity. "I mean, coming from my own experience at Hogwarts, I know that most groups of pals were from the same houses and often plotted against the others."

So maybe these gosh-darn houses shouldn't be so emphasised.

"Perhaps.... in these activities that we're discussing, the students could be put into groups, involving students from all the houses AND from all the year groups. Ohh, I don't know, activities that need a lot of thought and teamwork?" Kids these days were so competitive, it would SO work.

"Or maybe.." He said thoughtfully, "..one of the older students could be assigned a younger student." Perhaps not a 7th year paired with a 1st year. Because the older ones would obviously start picking on the younger ones or something. "I'm sure the older students would appreciate that kind of responsibility."

There. Wam bam. Two suggestions. Gerard had no idea whether any of them would mean anything to everyone else. But at least he was speaking now.

"Obstacle course, yes." Ronan said, jotting down Oliver's idea on his pad and then looking up to the young man. "Now what sort of obstacle course are you referring to? When I picture such a course I see what Muggles use in their army training. It will be strictly magic, right?"

Sure, Sophia hadn't been part of the ministry for a long time, but she had been part of the muggle world, and houses didn't mean anything to them!

"Hang on, it wouldn't be so bad if some of the obstacles didn't require magic. To bring the houses together we'd have to make them work with one another, there in it wouldn't be too bad if we had a couple of muggle obstacles! A couple of things to with logic, a few with bravery, something to do with being sly and a chance for the Hufflepuffs to show that they aren't just wimps. They can prove their loyalty in some of these obstacles, but if we made it all magical, the pure-bloods would have a upper hand, a lot of the muggle training courses are filled with determination and perseverance... plus teamwork. Personally, something that will challenge all of the houses, forcing them to rely on one another to get through it!" she was hoping the other people saw the logic in this.

Sophia sent a hopeful glance towards Gerard and Oliver, out of all the people here she thought them the more likely to understand where she was coming from!

Ronan looked over to Gerard and was about to speak up when he asked about whether it was more about houses or age. And then he began to speak up with suggestions, some already mentioned, but suggestions nonetheless.

"Yes, well we planned on doing what you said already; with the students from all houses and all ages." Ronan explained as he started to doodle a little bit on the pad he was writing on.

"And yes, I think we already decided that we are going to be asking older students to help along the younger students as well. We just want to make everything fair." he further said and added in, "Now, do you have any suggestions for certain challenges that they could do?"


Ronan turned to a new employee who seemed to appear out of no where.

"A good point there. After all, I am sure that there will be first years that are Muggleborn and therefore do not know a total lot about magic as compared to Pureblood." he said. "Perhaps a combination of both would be fairer." Ronan jotted the idea down and looked up at the woman.

He paused when she described how the Hufflepuff house would prove their worth. "Now miss, certainly you aren't suggesting that Hufflepuffs are wimps, right?" The young man was put off by that description because his mother had been a Hufflepuff.

"If you're so against the strictly magical obstacle course, then what sort of activities specifically do you suggest for us to do in its stead?" Ronan asked, a bit excited that they were actually having a debate about things now.

"I'm not implying that they are wimps, it's just the perspective other houses see them in, if you went to Hogwarts you must surely remember that, or have you already forgotten?" Sophia was offended, plainly and simply offended. "Most of my friends were Hufflepuffs, so I definitely know of their loyalty... the problem is most people don't!" yup, her friends would be happy if they were here!

"And for that second part, what we could we make them do... well in camp at the muggle schools they often made challenges were only one person could speak at times, then there's a game I once played with my friends, I forget what it was called but in it some people were blindfolded and weren't allowed to speak though could use their arms, others were allowed to speak and not use their arms. So those who could speak would guide those who couldn't see to but a bucket into a sort of circle that one wasn't allowed to step in."

She paused for a moment to think of something else... "Oh... and then there's an activity which I played when I was little, people have to walk over 3 planks of wood and attempt to get from point 'a' to point 'b' before the other group does, but if they touch the ground they have to go back to the start, so they have to work as a team to move the planks that they're standing on to get to different places..."

"Mine field is probably another good one, but we'd have to wait until they started to trust one another more or until all of them realized that teamwork was important and didn't want anyone to get injured!" now she just had to wait for a reaction.