Katy pet the dog that came walking over to her, she loved dogs! Mostly smaller ones, but as long as the big ones were friendly she liked them too. She shook Frida's handand replied, "It's nice to meet you! Yes, I am pretty new, I just started working here about a month ago. I've been making my way around the department introducing myself since I'm sure I'll be seeing alot of you all in the coming years! Is this your dog? He's so nice!"

"Well only a brief memory. Nothing that would have affected him badly" Richard replied looking down at Webster. He ran a hand over his chin. "Animal memories....extremely difficult area. Have you yourself ever had experience with animal memories before?".

"I see." Frida said and filled a glass of water for herself with a tiny flick of her wand. "I've only been at the ministry for a year, and I still find myself getting turned around sometimes." She took a sip and watched Katy and the dog interact.
"Mine? Oh no, I'm afraid not. I found him as a stray on one of my shopping trips and took him in for a while. But since he was so badly scarred mentally, I couldn't just throw him into a shelter could I?" The woman stroked the animal's fur a bit and took another drink out of her glass.

"I've named him, Webster." She said and wrote a few more marks on her notepad, "And once the lot of us are through with altering his memory and making him more comfortable around every type of person I'll be trying to find him a home, since I have far too many animals as it is. Well...Blaze has a couple as well, but they're all in the same home still."
Realizing that she must have gone off on a ramble, Frida smiled politely, or as politely as she could since her stomach was doing flips.
"Me?" Frida asked in some sort of stupid voice, forgetting that she wasn't five years old for a moment. "Oh, well, yes...once or twice before." She continued and took another sip of her water. "I had to do some research in my old summer school, as well as do some demonstrations in order to get my credits. It is a difficult area. Mainly because animals tend to remember and function differently than humans. Nevertheless, I think it's a good act to practice, especially when the time comes for us to deal with some rather difficult situations. There's always a chance that the lot of us will have to work with a person who's mind has been altered so drastically that they are unable to tell reality from dreams, or recognize certain things as common, or even remember relatives that have been with them their entire lives."
Taking her quill, Frida finished off a final sentence in her notes.

[QUOTE=EquestrianGal88;8535340]"I see." Frida said and filled a glass of water for herself with a tiny flick of her wand. "I've only been at the ministry for a year, and I still find myself getting turned around sometimes." She took a sip and watched Katy and the dog interact.
"Mine? Oh no, I'm afraid not. I found him as a stray on one of my shopping trips and took him in for a while. But since he was so badly scarred mentally, I couldn't just throw him into a shelter could I?" The woman stroked the animal's fur a bit and took another drink out of her glass.

"I've named him, Webster." She said and wrote a few more marks on her notepad, "And once the lot of us are through with altering his memory and making him more comfortable around every type of person I'll be trying to find him a home, since I have far too many animals as it is. Well...Blaze has a couple as well, but they're all in the same home still."
Realizing that she must have gone off on a ramble, Frida smiled politely, or as politely as she could since her stomach was doing flips.
QUOTE]

Katy smiled at Frida, "That's very nice of you, helping out this poor dog. If you need a home for him, I could talk to my husband, we were sort of thinking about adopting a puppy before we get into anything too complex...you know like children. But if you had a home already in mind, it's alright! Well it was very nice to meet you Frida, I look forward in working with you in the future!"

At the mention of kids, Frida's eyes started to swell with tears for a moment. 'Stop being emotional!' She told herself mentally and looked down at her notepad until her eyes had dried.
"Oh no, I've not found him a home yet." Frida said and watched Webster, who had started to walk in circles nearby and glanced longingly at his swishing tail. "He hasn't been well until now."

Facing Katy again with a small smile, Frida nodded. "It was very nice to meet you as well. And don't worry, the Ministry isn't terribly complicated."

Katy hoped she didn't say something wrong, for Frida's tone sounded a bit off, however she smiled a bit uncertainly, and replied,"Thanks alot. I'll be seeing you around I'm sure! Have a good rest of the day!" She waved slightly and walked out of the office, on her way back to the liason desks.

Nath watched the encounter between the two. It was interesting to say the least. When Katy turned to leave he waved after her then walked over to Frida, Nath almost tripped over Webster as he approached, he was trying to lick his hand or something. Nath crouched and scratched behind Websters beautiful ears, Nath looked at Frida and started, She looked if she was crying!

"Are you alright? Has something happened? is it to do with your illness?"

Nath didn't mean to ask so many questions but he had to, she was his friend, and if something was wrong then Nath was sure he could help.

Sniffing slightly, Frida flipped to a new page in her notepad. "I'm fine." She said, though her voice was quiet. "Just a cold or something." Frida rubbed her eyes and watched Webster spin around in circles on the floor as he tried to grab his tail.
"You're such a dork." Frida said lovingly as she watched the canine patiently. It wouldn't be a bad thing if she found Webster a new home, especially if it would make an easier load for Frida to deal with.

She turned to Nath, "I think you've both done well with modifying Webster's memory...so let's try something else." Frida tore a piece of parchment from her sheet and slid the paper across her desk, pulling out another quill as well. 'Quill.' Frida thought to herself and thought of her boyfriend's owl. Of course it was the crazy owl who seemed to have a bad mind and no manners whatsoever, but that made little difference.
Frida shook her head, her brain was spinning and processing too quickly to keep up. "Let's try this." She said to the two employees and eyed the spare piece of paper. "How about you each give me a solution once I've given you a possible scenario...okay? It's not difficult, but I want to see how you each would approach certain situations."

Frida lifted her own quill and wrote out on her piece of parchment,
'A wizarding family lives among several muggle households in a small town. The neighbors get along with one another, but the muggles are unaware of the 'special' inhabitants.
One night just as everyone has gone inside for the night, the wizarding family's home is blasted off of the map by an exploding cauldron. Magical flames fly off in all directions and twist into unexplainable shapes as several muggles watch from their windows. The blast awakens every person within four miles. Windows nearby are shattered and vehicles are in disrepair. Calls are also being made to the police.

In this situation, what divisions in the Ministry would you need to contact? Which neighbors are you most likely going to have to charm as far as their memories go? How would you explain to the others (muggles) what happened to their (now deceased) wizarding neighbors? And how would you deal with the muggle police and possible attempts of news crews who are trying to gain access to the scene?'

"Well I at first would contact every body in this department, and get their combined resources on the job. I would arrange the explosion to look like a gas leak and a very large explosion, caused by the witch when she tried to stat the propane heater...to contain the news and police make it appear that there is still a large gas leak that could spread into a giant explosion.

When we take the people away from the scene and get it sealed off, let the obliviators loose on anyone that might have seen the suspicious explosion and modify the memories into those experienced by a survivor of a large explosion..."

Richard listened to Nathan's explanation and agreed with the idea of a gas explosion. "Well Miss Bok" he said thinking about it, "I think we'd have to get the accidental magic reversal squad and definitly contact the muggle worthy excuse committee on something as large a scale as that. When we got to the scene we'd have to fake ID passes to convince the police to get us through the barriers they would have set up". He knew how difficult some muggle policemen could be."You know, make ourselves out to be specialist investigators...which in a way we already would be. Those who are posing as specialist investigators would be able to modify the memory of the police. Others could pose as policemen and visit the neighbours with the excuse of briefing them on the situation. At one point they would have their memory modified to believe the family were on holiday at that point and had left the gas on. Grief is a difficult thing to change in someone's mind I know but it'd be best all round really. As for the wizarding neighbours I don't think theres much to be done for them really".
Richard paused thinking as to whether there were any remaining difficulties. Then he remembered the news crews, "well, that leaves the muggle reporters. I know they would pass it off as a freak accident and forget about it in a few weeks but to be on the safe side people from the muggle worthy excuse committee need to act as spokespersons from a fire department or something along those lines. I'm sure they'd be able to think of a sound explanation".
Richard had witnessed an entire village burning because of dark wizards and their dragon and it had not been easy to forget. In fact it felt awful when he had to fill the remaining survivor's memories with lies about how their family and friends had perished. "I know it's a bundle of lies Miss Bok but that's what I think we'd have to do" he added apologetically yet firmly.

Frida nodded, "Both responses were good, though you are forgetting a couple of facts." She tapped her desk with one of her fingers as she spoke, not of impatience, but because she simply needed something to do other than talk.

"First off, we have to take into consideration others who may have known the family, mainly muggles in this case. We simply cannot state that the entire family was away from home because they would begin to question where the family had gone to and for how long, and why they never bothered to return to the scene afterwards. Outside of the town there are possibly dozens of others who knew the wizarding family, so in this case it is best that the memories of the muggles nearby knew that their dear neighbors and friends did not survive." She reached down and pat Webster on the head. The dog simply responded with a tail wag and layed his head down on Frida's lap.
"There is also the damage that has to be dealt with. We cannot expect the muggles nearby to pay for the costs, since it was a wizarding accident. Therefore we would have some of our Ministry's members tend to the damages posing as contracting and repair specialists, that way the muggles do not have to deal with insurance, court dates, that sort of thing." Webster whined a little bit and Frida scratched him behind the ears.

"In an incident such as this, we are most likely going to be the first to arrive because of notification. If that is the case then we are able to obliviate the muggle officers into believing that there has been a break in a gas pipe and that the area needs to be evacuated. That will also take care of news crews, and will give the Ministry workers plenty of time to offer explainations and obliviate the muggles as they are escorted away from the scene. Though, even if we weren't the first on the scene, the police would be...and we can easily deal with them." Frida smiled a bit and reached into her desk drawer, pulling out a small box of assorted candies. "You may each help yourselves if you'd like." She unwrapped a chocolate and popped it into her mouth.

"And Richard, as far as our job and being referred to as 'professional liars', I'm afraid that it what must be done. Some things are better off not being known...though in some cases we must tell the truth, or at the very least twist situations in a way that will may it easier for others to understand." She started to arrange the candies in color categories. "The fact that some individuals will not handle the shock well must not change the way we operate. Of course we could obliviate the minds so that certain muggles will not remember them, but what of the others that we are not aware of who remember them? No. It's best in this scenario to leave things be."

Frida's eyes flicked towards, Nath. "And before we let the obliviators loose on the muggles, we must first come up with a scenario that flows and will not result in different stories. Imagine if each of us changed the memories and had fifty muggles with different thoughts? Not a good thing."

"Yes madam, my apologies"

Nath took one of the candies offered him, and awaited further instructions

"No need to apologize, Nath." Frida said and ate another chocolate piece. "That is the purpose of these practice scenarios...to learn. I might seem to know the answer to everything, but when times get very difficult, I'm sure that my mind is going to crack. That's why there is always more than one to a division. So that there is always backup, and enough sense to go around." She smiled a bit and looked to her workers thoughtfully.

"Now, what about the actual process of obliviating a person's mind? What dangers do you think are involved in any situation?"

"That you obliviate too much!"

Nath thought for a second...

"I believe there was a case about this in our history books, some famous actor or something tried to attack a kid in Hogwarts, his mind was destroyed by the spell....sorry we didn't study Hogwarts history much at Durmstrang."

"That's right." Frida said with a small nod and started to write a few notes on the parchment that was in front of her still. "And don't worry about remembering everything about that situation, this is not history class after all, I won't hold it against you." She grinned a little bit as a whoozy feeling came over her for a moment. It left quickly, and Frida continued as though nothing had even happened.

"In any situation there is the danger of modifying a person's mind too much. What are some other dangers that you are both aware of? For instance...what if a person's mind was destroyed beyond repair? What could the effects of that be?"

"I believe that here would be extreme Dementia, such as forgetting who you are. While these memories may eventually be recovered, the brain is a fragile thing, and it could have much more long term effects, such as short term memory loss."

Nath racked his brain for more details

Frida nodded. "Yes, that's right. Also, in very extreme and rare cases the individual may appear to be a walking shell, such as the case would be if there soul was removed. When a mind is modified to the extreme, with repeated intrusions and changes and even contradicting memories, the body will seem to go into a state of shock."

She unwrapped another wrapper and popped the red candy into her mouth.
"When this happens, the brain has been so tainted, that the body appears to reject it and will treat it although it is dysfunctional, and it may resort to using the mind only as a power source, not for retaining any memory. So the body and brain will function for the purpose of continuing life, but in a way the soul and memories are destroyed." Looking over at her employees, Frida brightened up a bit. "But don't worry, we shouldn't see anything like that. This most often occurs with torture and sometimes self experimentation. Was it easy enough to understand?"

Lifting the lid that was set on her desktop, Frida closed the candy box and set it aside so that her workers could help themselves if they wanted.

"Yes I get it, thank you for the explanation, is there anything else I could do?"

"You are very welcome." Frida said with a small smile and tore a final bit of paper from her notepad.
"Actually, there is something you can do for me. We could both use some more practice." Her pale eyes looked towards the other side of the room and the woman raised her wand. With a flick of her wrist a series of filing cabinets opened up and tabs on the top that each listed the first name of a surname appeared.

"There are over a hundred of names in that filing cabinet over there. Each individual was subject to a series of obliviator charms, and in some cases they practiced on themselves with a terrible outcome. I would like for you to choose one name out of that filing cabinet and then come to me with it. I will read off the name and what that person was treated for, and then you will tell me how you would correct, or how you would have prevented the incident from happening." She tilted her head over a bit so that she was leaning on her own shoulder and was looking at the room at a different angle.

Something occured to her after a moment, however. "You do not have any family that experienced a disaster with this sort of magic do you?"


Even as she waited, a small envelope landed softly on the woman's desk. "Oh...". Frida tore open the top and read the message to herself before speaking up to the others in the room. "Looks like we are needed in the conference room."
She stood up and tucked her notepad into her bag as she prepared to leave. "It shouldn't take long...I hope."

It had been an awfully long day, and Frida entered the office again after attending a rather long floor meeting about future duties. 'Now...this is going to be a bit of a chore.' She thought to herself as she took a seat at her desk.

The woman still wasn't feeling very well. Her stomach kept doing flips, and there was a frequent feeling of nausea. Not to mention her vision swirled every so often.
'Just a cold.' Frida told herself and pulled out her notepad from her bag.

"Now...a scenario, and a replacement for a prophecy...hmm...". The lady took a quill from her drawer and scribbled a few notes on her notepad.

Richard pushed the door open and entered the office. He was sure that as much fun they would have this would drain them no end. He spotted his head of division looking a little rundown.
"Are you feeling alright Miss Bok?" he asked picking up a piece of parchment from his desk and walking over to her.

"Yes." Frida said politely, "As I've said before, I'm fine." She wrote a bit more on her piece of parchment and looked up at Richard.
"Now." The woman continued to say and scribbled again on her paper. "What do you think would be a nice replacement for the seer's vision? I was thinking along the lines of a nightmare...or even make them 'remember' that they have forgotten something very important. A family reunion perhaps."

She thought things over for a moment and allowed time for other ideas to surface.
"You can have a seat if you'd like." Frida said and swept her hand through the air, causing a chair to land in front of her desk. A second seat soon followed, "Once, Nath arrives, then we can all brainstorm together and figure this out and come to an agreement."

Nath walked through the door right as Frida finished talking about him.

"So sorry miss Bok, I was writing a letter to my cousins that just started Hogwarts....." Nath took the seat offered to him and awaited what Frida was to say. She still wasn't looking that well....it worried Nath

"That's perfectly fine." Frida replied cheerfully and waited until the man had sat down. Her stomach did another random flip, but quickly left.
"Family should come first after all. I hope all goes well for your cousins...school was always a lot of fun." 'Except for people harassing you for no reason...and mean professors, and stupid boyfriends.' She smiled and continued.
"So, Nath, what do you think would be a reasonable memory for this seer? We must all remember that we should not have the replacement link to the Quidditch cup in any way. Just to make sure that the vision does not return. So the memory must be something completely different." She made a note on her parchment, "As I mentioned before you arrived, I think a nightmare of some sort might work, or perhaps a false realization of a family reunion."

Yes. That was it. Completely different.

"They will do fine, I am sure."

he considered the plans that had been laid out, and

"I think that a sudden family reunion would be a good idea, but it would cause great confusion when the muggles suddenly appear at a relatives house claiming that there would be a reunion, it is better however as a nightmare, it might cause them to return to investigate shier nightmares and they might find others that had their same nightmares....I really don't know, Richard what do you think?" Nath turned and looked at Richard