At the bottom of everything there is always Cheesecake

David took the small nod of her head as an acceptance of his invitation, and he gave a small smile. He turned his broom and headed for the ground below, hoping that she wouldn’t just scarper and leave him feeling stupid. But luckily his insecurities were relieved as she followed behind. With their feet on solid ground, he shrunk his broom so that it would fit inside his jacket pocket and shoved his goggles in another.

“I know a lovely place that will be open at this time of night,” he said offering her his arm. He then apparated them to the doorstep of a small cafe of a quaint little village, there were few streetlights and it seemed to be the place that had very little trouble. “Here we are.”

He rummaged around inside his pockets and pulled out a bunch of keys, wiggling the key slightly in the lock it gave a small click and he opened and the door flinching as the bell above jingled gently. He drew his wand and whispered a small silencing charm and held open the door for Ursula.

The sweet smell of the freshly baked cakes was a constant reminder of home for David, and this place reminded him of his childhood so much. He tried to make his way to the back of the room to switch the lights on but stumbled on a chair sending it clattering to the floor. He let out a sigh of relief when he realised that he had already placed a protective charm on the room.

He flicked the switch, the lights illuminated a couple of sets of chairs and tables and a small counter at the back that was already stocked with a variety of cakes ready for the next day.

“So I couldn’t tempt you to a slice could I?” he waved Ursula over, and stepped behind the counter bending down looking for a couple of plates, still with his head in a cupboard he asked, “And what would you like to drink? You name it, I could probably find it.”

As she followed David downwards to the ground, she wondered what his agenda was. If they were heading to his house- she did a little unharacteristic flail thinking of this- she would probably explode. Then again, why would the Minister for Magic take her of all people to his house? There were so many other people that would only ever see his door knocker if they came to his residence.

I mean, he's always come across as a very private man..

Ursula was thinking about this as she disapparated side-along with him. Blinking mechanically to get her balance back, she looked at what building she was facing. This definitely wasn't a house.
It was a cheesecake bakery.

"Are you thinking of breaking in and getting me a sympathy cake, Mr Minister?" she said, deadpan. However, her slight worry that that indeed was what he was going to do were diminished when he brought out keys on a chain. Unless he was a big shot swag bagger and had a key here to steal a few cakes after every woman he "conveniently" flew into, she was sure he was the owner of the establishment somehow. Or just very trusting. Or just wily.

Stepping in and grinning at the smell of her familiar pastry favourites, she admired the classic decoration, the sconces. This definitely wasn't David's choice.

Code:

"So I couldn't tempt you to a slice could I?"

Ursula smiled wryly. Temptation was a very good word to put between them, she thought.

"I think that if you wanted to make a go of it and impressed me with some virtuosso magic, I'd probably take two slices," she said with a twinkle in her eyes. She felt much more at home now. The bravado had come back and the oddity of today fresh on her mind had dissipated.

"I think milk always goes well with cheesecake, but for the sake of my sanity today, I think a brandy will have to do, Mr Minister," she added seriously.

Just as David was about to poke his head above the counter she spoke and suddenly David was feeling rather nervous himself. He had just brought a woman he barely new for cheesecake and a drink, did that make this a date? Had he inadvertently asked her out? He shook his head. No this was just an apology, for his stupidity in the air earlier.
He suddenly realised that he had his head in the cupboard for quite a while longer than was normal, but as he quickly moved back he banged his head on the top edge.

“Bugger. That’ll bruise later I think," he mumbled and placed a couple of plates on the counter along with a couple of forks. He gave a small smile as he rubbed the top of his head standing up. “Well let’s say you can have as many slices as you want then shall we? Oh and I think you’ll enjoy this one, it’s one of my favourites and popular around here.” He cut them a slice each and then carried the plates over to a table in the middle of the room, pulling one of the chairs out a bit so that Ursula could sit.

“Milk is always a good option,” he grinned and returned behind the counter, “but I think you are right, something a bit stronger would be rather nice tonight, or should I say this morning. Right I know my father probably has a bottle of it around here somewhere...” he trailed off and began searching through a couple of cupboards; he then slapped himself on the forehead and drew his wand.

“Accio Brandy,” there was a slight knocking in one of the cupboards and then a bottle knocked the door opened and a bottle flew out into his hand. He grabbed two glasses and poured them both, “Although I’ve been in the magical world since I was eleven I often forget about the simpler things magic can help you with.”

Taking a glass in each hand he then sat at the table, offering the woman a glass. He tried to keep his hands steady because no matter how he tried to reason it in his head. This was looking more and more like a date to him. He couldn’t even justify it with the ‘just friends’ comment, because it just wouldn’t work. He didn’t know if it was due to the incident that had occurred several weeks ago, or if it was just his usual nervousness around beautiful woman, he didn’t know.

“So,” he ate a piece of cake and a small smile played on his face, “May I ask what you were doing flying around at this time of the morning?”

Ursula detested tapping, but found herself tapping both her feet and her fingers on the table. Gingham. Tsk. There must have been some sort of design collapse in the creator of this quaint little shop. A rare find, the villagers must say, but awful taste in tableware.

As David rooted around the far end of the shop for the delicacies, she got more and more into her tapping: alternating between feet and hands. The effect was quite distracting. Quite fanciful. No, wait, that didn't make sense.

The woman smirked at David's inherant clumsiness. She found that quite intruging, not only because the only way she moved was with ease (and she knew it) but that he did, however bumbling he did seem at conferences and the like (Ursula did admit she did find that quite endearing), however nervous he seemed, he did always seem quite collected. She supposed, trying to think of it logically that he must be used to structure.

There wasn't much structured about this chance meeting, nor the chance cheesecake that followed swiftly after it.

As David spoke to her- the texture to his soft voice always made her hide a smirk- she realised that the tapping had turned into a -granted, quite nice- tune, and stopped instantly, replying to him. "So that makes this your father's establishment."

It wasn't a question, more a statement. Propping one arm on the table, she sat and watched him go through the cupboards, a muggle mile an hour. He really was endearing.

Her grin only reappeared, however, when the cheesecake materialised, albeit with the help of David's waitering skills in front of her. Coyly picking up her fork and tucking in, she looked up almost out of a trance when he next spoke.

Code:

"May I ask what you were doing flying around at this time of the morning?"

Deciding to answer only what was asked, Ursula returned him with this, "I was with the all inclusive package at the Wizard Touring Hotel. You know, the multiplex. Shows you all around Stonehenge, tells you a bit about the Muggle tourist attractions in London and then shows you the dragons hiding under the Giant's courseway. All very interesting, I thought. I'd love to ask you the same thing, but I know my place."

And it's with the brandy, for now.
She took a sip and leant back in her chair.

Had that been a question? Or was it just a statement? If he answered it as if it was a question and it wasn’t then it would make him seem stupid. But if he ignored her if it was a question then he would seem rude. David snapped himself out of it. He was usually fine talking in public so why now did he have to focus on the little details?

“Well he would like to think so,” he nodded his head, “but my mother would have it know differently. This is her project since they both retired, my father may have bought the property but he doesn’t really have any say in how it is run. The only thing my mother let him do was pick out the table cloths and look at where that got him. He is now only allowed to be my mother’s guinea pig for new flavours but he doesn’t seem to complain there.”

His muggle parents were probably still fast asleep upstairs, non the wiser that their son was eating cheesecake downstairs. It made him slightly sad that it had been a while since he visited home and the time that he does, he wouldn’t even be seeing them. He wouldn’t wake them up at this hour, so would just leave a message for them or send them an owl in the morning.

“I see. The multiplex. Well sounds like a good chance to get away,” he said between mouthfuls, “I’ll be honest I haven’t been able to get away and have some time to myself in a long time. I know I should have taken a week or so out last year when everything seemed to be calm and quiet.”


However David knew that he wouldn’t be able to relax while on a holiday. He like to know what was going on and although the Deputy Minister was perfectly capable of keeping things under control for a couple of days while he would be away, David would be owling in and checking up almost every hour of the day. He was too attached to his job some would say, but it was just that David had worked too hard to get to where he was he didn’t want anything to go wrong and ruin it all for him.

“But I guess all I can manage is a late night or rather early morning escape to the skies.” He thought it only fair that he answer her question. “In fact it has become quite a habit for me to take a small trip in the air on my broom. Like I said earlier it has been rather chaotic at the Ministry, it seems that trouble is rearing its ugly head, and giving several departments a bit of grief. I’m sorry you probably don’t care about my troubles, no need to offload them onto you. I’ll be quiet.”

So she had gotten the father to thank for the acquired taste of table furnishings. Figures.
"If this is their little place they've got running, where are they? Are they out of the country? At a press conference discussing your first broomstick galivant, no doubt?" she teased. Journalists always seemed to forget that people had schedueles and that they worked alongside day and night. The journalists she saw milling about London's Kings Cross every now and again always seemed to push the paper so far up their nose that they probably didn't notice the sky fade to black. But that was just her thought.

Ursula left a few bites left for in case she needed to resort to them later. She always did, just in case there was a silence that was so very awkward. That way, not only did it get her jaw moving, it gave her a four second advantage to think of something to say or do. Only this time she thought showing people how to correctly transfigure a teacup wasn't exactly going to be a winner. Instead, she just took in everything David said. Another thing that reminded her of watching his broadcasts. He always seemed to be saying things with more than one meaning. Only, she wasn't so sure it was intentional. It just made her think of other things, or other things it could mean when he spoke other than the obvious.

"Do you mean to say that you think your job is getting you down? Or clogged up your gears one too many?"
She didn't think that was the answer. Somehow, David didn't seem to be the type to see a job as something that tied you down. More, set you free. It was her ethic. Above anything, she liked having responsibility. She always had. It put years on you if you didn't see to the responsibility, but teaching was always going to be a tense relationship.
"Maybe you do need some time away," she said softly, with eyes serious. Ursula patted his wrist and then returned to her earlier position, sighing with both hands propping up her face.

Ursula didn't believe he'd ever be the person to get some peace and quiet. He either screamed out-of-place, or something would get purposefully in his way to trip him up. Then again, his looks might have had something to do with it too, but that was a given, sort of.

"A habitual flier, eh? To soothe? If that's the answer then you must be alien," she said jokingly. "I can't think of a more awkward experience. Honestly, the only thing they're good for is to clean the cinders off the fireplace, not to insult your interest in it of course," she said with a face that was close to winking.

Care about his troubles? Well, she'd decide that later.
"You don't need to be quiet. Reason tells me if you're quiet Mr Oswald that the universe will try and put you in balance and make you fall headfirst into a tower of glass tumblers."

He laughed slightly at Ursula’s suggestions for the whereabouts of his parents, “Oh that brings back memories. When I had first reached the position of Minister and even during the run up to the election my parents were bombarded by a multitude of journalists from all over the country and not just the daily prophet.

“I remember there was this rather short stocky journalist that had thought it acceptable to break into my mother’s car and sit and wait for her while she was shopping. Just so that when she got back he could interrogate her about her me.

“I had had to release an official warning to the press, that if anyone was to go near my parents again they would have a lot of trouble looming over their heads. Now I don’t usually get, but I do like to keep my private life private, and with the thought of journalists and photographers on the edge of every street, trying to catch a glimpse not only into my life but that of my family too, I had to do something. Any way what difference does it make if I eat toast or cereal on a morning, or what colour my toothbrush is, or even whether I prefer to have a bath or a shower?

“But no. I doubt they are answering any questions right now because I’m assuming as there is fresh cakes already set up for this morning, I’m guessing upstairs,” he added a small gesture to the ceiling and a small cheeky grin on his face, “I’ll leave them a note when I leave.”

David thought about her other question before answering, it had become habit over the years to think things through before he spoke, you had to be careful, a slight slip of the tongue and you could be married to an Indonesian woman with 3 children when all you had meant to say was that you like tai food.

“No I wouldn’t say that it was getting me down, it is just hard work, which to be honest is rather refreshing,” he waited to see if she would pull a face at this rather strange thought, “I mean, most people would recoil at the thought of hard work, but over the past year there has been nothing to challenge me, not really. So now this, it’s hard work, yes, but it is something I can get my teeth stuck into. But it seems that I’m a bit like a savage dog in that aspect, once I have my teeth stuck in I don’t want to let go. So I sometimes struggle to sleep at night if I have thoughts racing through my head, that’s why you found me trying to clear my head, just so that I could get a few hours of sleep.”

She then reached out and touched his wrist; it was a gentle touch that made him stop breathing. His mind went blank for a second until she pulled away and he tried to relax again, swallowing the lump in his throat.

“Um, er, oh yeh, get away,” he stammered but then regained his composure, “I don’t think I could, a bit too attached I think. My mother sometimes thinks I may as well be married to my job.”
He wouldn’t say as well that she often worried that he would never find a girl to marry. Whenever he would visit she would ask him if there was anyone new in his life, but the answer was usually always no. He didn’t know how he would find anyone, he was always busy with work, and Martha, his secretary, well he knew she had several cats, and well, David had already told her that he was allergic. Plus there was the fact that David had always struggled to talk to girls throughout Hogwarts and that same shy awkwardness had stayed with him his whole life.

“So not a lover of the sport then I see? Well each to their own, I have always loved flying, ever since the time I picked up a broom in first year. So I guess I’m going to have to accept that I’m an alien, and you are going to have to believe that I am not here to invade merely learn about your planet,” he chuckled with a small smile, “But joking aside, I think if I didn’t decide to follow the path that I did that put me in the position that I am. Then I may have chosen to play professionally, I had been asked by a couple of scouts in my second year if I wanted to play for their teams but I had to turn them down.”

Ursula's eyes felt fat as they bulged. That boundary crossed by the journalists tailing David actually frightened her. She'd hate the idea of someone knowing everything about her and yet she know nothing in return. Not to mention it wouldn't be anything interesting. Or true.

"I suppose I see where they're coming from. In a way," she advocated. "I like to know thing like that. Little details. They all add up to the big picture, do they not? Then again, the ergonomic and aesthetic properties of your toothbrush probably won't amount to any good reveals about you. Unless you were deliberate in your toothbrush choice, of course," she added, whispering.

Oh, so the parents were upstairs. Now that was the sort of the little detail she likes. Or rather, the idea of them. Ursula wondered acutely whether they were anything like him.
But just a note? A note? Somehow David didn't seem like that type of person. She supposed that it might be because he was so busy and all, but still. writing a note to your own parents... it sounded a little harsh.

But his next words gave her a lot to respond to, and she grinned eagerly, shifting her ankles and crossing them. "Oh, I can only agree with you there. I like to work. I like being so far deep in it that's all you ever focus on. I need a lot of motivation, so I suppose that's how I carry on in my days."

Ursula had never had the problem, however of having problems sleeping due to her odd work schedule- not that you could call being a Professor at Hogwarts difficult to work around. She did have other things she did in her time. But yes, all of her things that she did in the day seemed to only spur her sleep on further. It took a lot of willpower that she usually didn't have to get out of bed at a reasonable time in the morning. Most of the time it was barely reasonable, but it'd have to do.

Code:

"My mother thinks I'm married to my job.

As opposed to someone who'd slip you a love potion..

It seemed harsh of fate all of a sudden that this was the person to whom she was sharing a brandy and a slice of cheesecake with: cherry, it had transpired. But Ursula had learnt that not only was fate harsh, it was fair.

She gasped a little and smiled. "I couldn't disagree more. I don't know how you could step on a broom, fly up into the sky and still feel at home. I like being grounded in more than one sense of the word. Keep my thoughts well away from the clouds, you know?"
Because to be fair, when there were men like David (not that she'd ever pigeon hole him to his own category) her thoughts were far from crystalline anyway.

He smiled slightly at the woman’s reaction to his story, he had only told a couple of people and all their reactions had been pretty much the same. That of utter bafflement at what people would do just to get a story about someone. It also shocked him at what information could be used to sell a story.

“You do?” he raised an eyebrow at her statement, “Why would anyone like to know the ins and outs of my life, I mean it’s not that interesting I wake up, go to work, come home, just like any other normal person. In fact I think the homeless man that lives just on the outskirts of Diagon Alley has a more interesting life than I do. Have you seen his collections of doormats?”

He liked that he was the only one that was enthusiastic to work, at Hogwarts he had always tried to work hard and make sure that he was doing his best. Not only because his parents had high hopes for him but he had high hopes for himself too, he didn’t like to fail at anything and didn’t want to let them down. It’s not as if they were the pushy kind of parents, to be honest he was sure that they would be happy with whatever he did, but he just had a feeling that he needed to impress someone.

“That’s great, there are many people now a days that just survive through their work, not taking any interest in it what so ever,” he leant back in his chair after finishing of his cake and picked up his glass, swirling the liquid around, “How is work and life at Hogwarts? I was meant to be starting work there over the past year, but it had to be put on hold. I’m not sure what’s going to happen this year, but if things work out the way that I had planned for them to happen, then you may be seeing more of me around Hogwarts, and it won’t just be an inspection.”

He finished his drink and placed the glass on the table, “So I’m assuming you have a life outside of Hogwarts, well I mean. Seeing as you were out tonight it just proves that you do, but tell me Miss Sparrow. Other than showing kids how to turn dormice into teapots, what do you do?” He felt that he had been talking about himself the whole time but it was just easier for him but he thought it only fair that he found out a bit about the woman that he had collided with.

"Maybe not your life in particular."
Well, actually, yes in particular, but not for the reasons David was thinking of. Against her past behaviour with saying his title rather than the name he was born with, Ursula had no problem with seeing him as the man rather than the Minister. Although she did think it a little decent enough to use manners to the person who had the most authority in the United Kingdom. Ursula in her time had met a couple of people with intimidating titles and found it so much easier to see past it and act like there wasn't a title in their way at all. It only ever intimidated and confused.

Maybe not your life in particular for that reason.
"Maybe not for that reason, anyway. I like knowing the small qualities to people I know. But most of the time you can figure it out just with being in their company. other things you can't be there for. You have to rely on little birds telling you," she said smirking.

David's eyes glazed over a little with a faraway look and she grinned. She would have thought about something at that point too to avoid any awkwardness only she seemed to have blanched her mind by thinking about having to think. Ursula shook her head slightly to rid her thoughts of thoughts of thoughts. It was confusing her.

"Well, first, work is Hogwarts. And then after that, it's just brilliant. Been there for years now. Yonks, really. Feel at home. Feels grounding, How long have you been in office again?" she asked, suddenly realising she hadn't even that fact memorised. After all, she had been quite a fan of his life for some time now, even before he came into office.

"Oh, I dabble," she said with bravado, not feeling up to the challenge. Feeling that her answer was less than satisfying, she added, "I dabble in anything but sewing, cooking and broomstick joy riding. Keeping myself grounded, eating cheesecake, sharing a brandy with men of titles and questionable parents. You know, the usual."
That sounded better.

Ursula pouted in thought. Seeing more of him in Hogwarts? Oh, fate was such a temptress.

“Oh I see,” this woman intrigued David; she didn’t seem to be like the others. Now he didn’t mean to group the rest of the women in the entire universe together, but of those he had experience Ursula Sparrow seemed to be different, she didn’t seem to care about his title or his job; she genuinely seemed to be interested in David, which began to make him slightly uncomfortable, he folded his hands one way, then reshuffled and crossed them the next. “Well, I guess you are right, many people can find out the big things about a person, but sometimes it is the smaller things that no one else knows, that can make the difference, I suppose.”
He smiled as Ursula talked about Hogwarts, it was one place that linked so many people in the wizarding world together, it had remained the best of the all the schools for young witches and wizards to be taught at. It was somewhere that they could all relate to.

“I understand. I sometimes miss it, Hogwarts, you know. Seven whole years growing up there, going from a small naive child that didn’t have a clue about this fantastic new world that you were just stepping into, to finally leaving at the end of it all to go out and face the world. That had been one of the scariest things, leaving Hogwarts. Hogwarts had been a bit like a bubble, a safe sanctuary, yes they prepared you with spells and teaching, but living on your own out in the world had seemed very daunting,” he smiled at the thought of some memories but tried not to get carried away, “Um, office? This will be my fifth year now. Wow, those years have gone fast.”

“Oh the usual,” he shrugged nonchalantly and grinned, “I’m sure you do a lot more than just the usual, you don’t seem like the usual at all. I don’t think any usual person would agree to join me at this time of night for cheesecake and a drink, but it seems that you have.”

He watched her expression change slightly and a pout appear on her face, he gave her a curious look, “What are you thinking about?”

"You see?" she repeated, not expecting an answer. Although she wondered as to what sweeping statement he was making a sweeping reply to. But that didn't really bother her. It told her a little something about him the way he said oh I see anyway. Very accepting of knowledge he didn't have, and Ursula had to say, with taking on classes at Hogwarts- and especially Transfiguration, a misunderstood lesson in which students mostly came in defeatist expecting to be defeated- telling people things they didn't neccessarily know and didn't want to be known to not know (you know?) was a very hard thing. Even harder to do it politely, especially if you weren't patient. Ursula wasn't pushing the patience of a saint.

Ursula nodded, and then felt a small lump in her throat. While luckily she was a lot more closer than a lot of people to the wizarding school she turned into a finished person at, she was just that. A finished person, a grown up, an adult, and not exactly a young one either. While getting oddly further into her work she became more carefree, she couldn't help but feel a touch of melancholy when watching the children. Well, they weren't children, more like people needing finishing...

An odd way to see it, she supposed. Quite fanciful.
Her eyes did a slight flicker as he finished his sentence and she swallowed. "Yes..." she said quietly, gathering her thoughts.

"Well, you probably don't hang around with any 'usual' people then," she said cheekily. "Who else spends their christmas in the office? My sisters friend Russell Turkey bloody does. You might know him, he's part of the team of Obliviators. Manages to spit a lot more than he talks, ends up having to do most of the paperwork, and up until obscene hours to. Not that he minds," she added quickly, "he asks for the extra shifts."

She looked a little sheepish as he picked up on her slight change of expression. Another thing to add to the catalogue of what she knew about him.
"And where do you think you'd fit in at Hogwarts? Are you here to say you're my replacement? It wouldn't bloody surprise me," she grumbled.

David had found himself in his office too this year. He had received a message of an emergency and had to leave his parents half way through his Christmas dinner to turn up at his office to find that someone had thought it jolly to fill it with snow. Now David was not particularly fond of cold weather especially snow and although, yes, it was a great inconvenience he was sure that someone else could have dealt with it while he enjoyed a day off.

“Ah yes Russell,” David nodded knowing perfectly well who she was talking about, it was true that he did spend Christmas in the office and did work late shifts, “I do tend to keep my distance when he has things that he needs to explain, it’s when he starts to rant or get excited about something that you need to be extra careful and try and make an escape. A lovely man, I’ll give him that, always happy to help even if it has nothing to do with him or his department.”

He smiled as she thought that he was there to get rid of her, it wouldn’t have been fair for him to do it like this and anyway. It would have been easier for him to find her during the day, in her office or at her home to inform her rather than during the middle of the night on a broom up in the vast skies that spread across the country.

“Why is there a reason for you to be replaced? Transfigured a child into a wardrobe or something?” he chuckled and then shook his head. “No I’m not here to tell you to pack your bags and leave, although your office is a lot nicer than mine. I’m going to hopefully be setting up a duelling club for the students, I know it seems odd that there is no need in this current age, but I believe you always have to be prepared, if students graduate Hogwarts not knowing how to handle their wand in the heat of a battle, then there is no hope for the future if it is needed.”

David thought about it, with the strange things that were starting to take place, he was becoming more and more cautious himself. He had been receiving abusive owls for no other reason that he was the Minister of Magic and they thought that by going straight to the top they would be heard. He had even received a couple of howlers venting to him about something or other, he was starting to think that he would just let his secretary deal with all his owls, but she had other things to deal with, and David preferred to keep his mail private.

“Can I be honest with you?” it was more of a rhetorical question, but his eyes asked that she would keep it just between the two of them, “I’m starting to worry a little, everything has been going rather well over the past couple of years, I haven’t had anything too drastic to deal with and the country has been relatively safe, except for that incident with the escaped boggarts, but that was dealt with quickly. But now-” he leant back in his chair closed his eyes and ran a hand roughly through his hair, he just sat and thought for a couple of seconds and then opened his eyes and met the eyes of the woman sat opposite him once again. “I think something’s coming Ursula, I don’t know what and I don’t know when, but I have a strange feeling that all these small disturbances are part of something bigger, it’s like that smell in the wind before the storm arrives.”

The poor man. He obviously wasn't suited to the backlash of the angry public, then again, who exactly was? A heartless idiot no doubt. And they weren't going to be handed the Minister of Magic title were they? It was folk like David that got it, and rightfully so.

As David asked if he could be honest, Ursula straightened her back. As he went on, his tone got a little chilling. He wasn't scaring her or anything, it was more... she wasn't sure. More like the thing that frightened was that what he was speaking of seemed to frighten him.

She swallowed the spittle in her throat and looked up at David. Ursula slapped his cheek lightly. Bring him to his senses.
To keep on the brave affront, "poppycock, David. There is no way anything could go wrong with you in office. You're only expecting there to be something wrong because it's been going so well."

And the rest of David's words replayed in her mind.
"Wait. Disturbances?"

David had been in somewhat otherworld as he relayed what he had on his mind, but as Ursula slapped him across the cheek he was soon brought back to reality. Although her words were reassuring he didn’t know how true they really were. Oh he knew that he was good at what he did, he wasn’t stupid, he got where he was through hard work and success but there was still a niggling bit of doubt in the back of his mind.

“There is always something that can go wrong; it’s just how I deal with it that is the problem. Our parents lived through the war, and although we know about what happened and have put measures in to try and make sure nothing like that happens again, I don’t know what will happen if it does.”

He finished the rest of his drink and summoned the bottle to the table so that he could pour another; he offered to fill Ursula’s glass too.

“Yes. I mean they have ranged from the usual to the downright weird, but they are becoming more regular. We have had a lot of reports that people who have herds of magical creatures are losing their animals, I even got a message from Hogwarts the other day saying that the Thestrals have gone, there are no signs of them and so normal horses have been acquired to pull the carriages for the students when the go back.

“There is disruption in the community of the goblins, which has meant trouble at Gringotts, I cannot allow Gringotts to fall, it would mean utter distress for the country, and I can only imagine chaos. Things have been going missing from the faults, and the goblins pride themselves on their integrity and are not pleased at all by the accusations of theft.

“Then there are the missing people, we have been doing our best to hunt them down, keeping in good contact with the families, but we aren’t getting very far with the leads. All the occurrences seem to be individual; we can’t find a connection between the victims. We have been able to find one person, but it seems that whoever had taken her left her with no memories; she was found wandering the streets of a town near Sheffield.

“There are rumours of trade on a ‘black market’, now don’t think me naive, I know that there are going to be things passed underhand from person to person, and we have teams working on the usual stuff. But this is different; we have received anonymous owls claiming that people, creatures and important artefacts are being crossed across the borders both to and from Britain. We have been trying to track down where these owls are coming from but it seems they are being posted from random owl post offices all over the country. I don’t want to believe them, and didn’t think anything of the first one, but they are coming more and more frequent and yet the information is dubious and there are no details. I have set up a team that is now in charge of trying to find information on this matter, while keeping it out of the news and tabloids, we don’t need the public knowing anything yet, hell, we don’t really know anything yet.”

He sighed and took a drink from his glass, “I’m sorry, you probably didn’t need to know all that, but there is something about you Ursula Sparrow that I trust. I don’t know what it is.”

"There is something that could go wrong in any situation or career," she tried to say diplomatically, "there isn't any need to dwell on it. Surely the more you think about something the more real it becomes? You know, seeping into reality and all that?"
Because it sure as hell seemed to be how it was when David came by. Real, and tangiable, and proddable. Just to check if he was there.

She nodded to indicate another brandy, but did not touch it. David began to speak and she was glad she didn't take a mouthful. It would have been a hard pill to swallow, literally.

"This... has all been happening?" she said slowly. That was a lot more than she had expected. If there were anything big she thought the Ministry or indeed the Tabloids would have announced it. But no, these sounded subtle. Quiet.

"And you- sorry," she coughed, clearing her throat, now clutching her hands around the glass. "and now you think that some of these could really add up to something?" Ursula bites down on her lip. Saying it like that doesn't give the gravity of the situation anything. People missing, and what sounded like disruption at Gringotts. And where there was a problem with money, there will always be problems erupting surely elsewhere.

"Sounds like you're attacking the problem wrong to me," she muttered, the glass supporting her hands.

She didn't think her ideas would have been any better, and she most certainly didn't have them fully fledged enough to pitch, but there must be another way than how it had been approached already.
Then again, he's the Minister for a reason.

Ursula realises, at this point, how hard it is to govern a country.

"Me?" she says incredulously. "Isn't this the woman who poisoned you into loving her? The woman who just assaulted you on broom in a desolate field? How can that be trusting?"

Really, the man hadn't thought it through. "I don't either," she says quietly.

David listened to her as she explained to him and he nodded his head slightly and shrugged his shoulders, “I guess you are right, the more you worry about something the worse it seems and the worse the problem will probably get. But I think that this is real, it’s as if our peaceful world has been smashed with a hammer and there are cracks spreading out all over it, there are bad things that are breaking through the small cracks, seeping in, but soon it’s going to be too much and it’s going to shatter the world as we know it and send it into chaos.”

He realised that although he had been speaking to her all this time, Ursula probably knew nothing of what was going on, well obviously they had kept the papers happy and busy with the other business of the country, the usual stuff like money disputes, problems in the health care, owls going on strike. But this stuff, a lot of it had been swept under the doormat, kept out of the tabloids so as not to cause trouble, if things did somehow manage to leak out then a cover story would quickly be fed to the reporters and the public would be none the wiser. They would go about believe the crap that they are fed, sometimes it worried David how naive some people were. They would believe anything that was written in a newspaper, some had lost the ability to question and think for themselves.

“Yes, I’m afraid it has,” he wasn’t at all surprised by her reaction, it would come as a shock to anyone, and he knew that as soon as they told the public there would be those that wouldn’t believe it, and claim that the Ministry was lying to them, people didn’t like to believe in the bad and would rather deny it than accept the truth, “I think that all these events can’t be just coincidence, there has to be something or someone behind it, and with the nature of these events, I don’t think that it’s the tooth fairy.”

No it definitely wasn’t the tooth fairy, not the tooth fairy on his own anyway, for something like this there would have to be a group, an organised group with an intelligent and powerful leader. Someone capable of controlling the organisation and making sure none of them squealed, or at least most of them, there was the anonymous writer that had been sending them owls. He heard her mutter something, but it was too quiet and muffled for him to understand, he wasn’t going to ask either because if she had wanted him to hear then she would have spoke up and he didn’t want to seem like he was interrogating her. He was here just having some cheesecake and a drink, well that’s how it had started anyway.

“I’ve already told you, that mishap has been forgotten about, and you shouldn’t worry about it, I’m sorry for making you look the fool, and I don’t think it was you that was doing the assaulting, I was being reckless and assuming that there would be no one else up there,” he shrugged, “I don’t trust many people, I have to many walls that I keep up, but I guess I keep bumping into you and I have a feeling that it won’t be the last time we bump into each other either.”

"Is this your wibbly wobbly timey whimy way of saying you believe in fate, Mr Oswald?" asked Ursula almost coquettishly. "Because, now you maybe mention it, I suppose this all makes sense too."
Ursula didn't really want to interrupt David when he explained a few things going awry that he had heard of, but now felt like a time to mention. "I mean. There are a few things that I think aren't exacted. A few things that don't add up. First and foremost. That- love potion." Her cheeks were reddening now and her hands were wringing her mug. "It's not something I would do. I know me. Inside and out. If I-" she says the next word in a whisper "liked someone- I wouldn't beat around the bush. I'd approach them and accidentally bump into them. I wouldn't commit a felony. Is it a felony? I think it's a felony. But yes. I don't think I would do that. I'm not saying I didn't send you a potion, because I did. It was supposed to be just a blend- a tonic for the nerves and such. It just sounds stupid to say that it had been spiked before I left it. I don't know," she looks away, thinking how stupid it sounds dredging this all back to the present, "it just niggles at me."

And there were other things, too. But Ursula felt that rather than just say, she had better show. That could wait for later, however. Maybe this was an excuse to see him again.

"Before you came and spruced a few things up, in the Ministry, I can be honest and say what I saw was quiet a lot of corruption. I had a friend in the newspaper business and she said she could buy Ministry Workers so easily. I didn't like her of course, bribing to get a good story but that's not the point." A loose end, but it did need to be said.

"Do you think things are getting a little... dark, David?" she said his name softly, feeling genuine worry for her family- even Ariel- and friends. Mostly Emily, really. Small Emily. "I feel like it's my job to know, you know? And if you need anyone anyone to do a job, get a hold of me, and I'll do it. No questions."
She nods insistently at him, and she feels her heart beat fast. It was a big thing to say in such a small moment. Words too big for Ursula Sparrow.

“I think there are times, when there is no way of explaining things through magical or scientific means, that the only answer is fate. Sometimes coincidence is just not enough, that there has to be something, something behind it that is pointing and guiding you in the right direction, and I guess I could call that fate.”

David scowled slightly, he trusted that Ursula’s potion making skills were perfectly fine, and she wouldn’t have been able to make a love potion if she hadn’t been trying to anyway, it was far to complicated a concoction for it to happen by accident. Which could only mean a couple of things, either she was lying, which he highly doubted, or someone had switched the potion somehow. He shrugged and just shook his head brushing off the problem, no harm, no foul, no one had really been hurt in the whole incident so there was no need to get worried about it. Not really, not now, when there were other bigger things going on that he could worry about.

“I know,” David knew that there was always going to be corruption within the ministry, there was always corruption within any organisation but he had tried to weed out the worst culprits throughout his time in his position, “I think it’s a great shame that people can be bought so easily, the world is run on money and power and greed is a green eyed monster that always rears its ugly head and poisons people with its influence.”...

David didn’t like to admit it, but he couldn’t help feeling that yes, things were getting rather dark. He didn’t want to make her worry by agreeing, but he didn’t like to lie either. So he just nodded his head meekly.

“Yes, I think things are heading that way, I don’t like to admit it, and don’t feel the need to inform the public just yet, but the state of emergency within the ministry has moved from white to amber,” David was trying to sort this out himself before things got too bad, get things resolved before they got too out of hand that it would be necessary to inform the tabloids and in turn the public. “You? To do a job? I’m not sure that would be a great idea.”

But he cut himself off short; he didn’t want her to think that he didn’t appreciate her offer of help, or that he thought her inferior, it was just that, well he didn’t really know why he wouldn’t want to involve her. She would be perfectly capable if needed, although she was a transfiguration professor she would have had to do well in her other subjects at school to receive the position. She was teaching the next generation of witches and wizards so who was he to tell her that it wasn’t a good idea.

“I’m sorry, that was unfair of me to say,” he gave a small smile and continued, “I appreciate the offer and will keep it in mind, you never know when we will need the extra help and to have someone outside of the ministry, it may come in handy.”

David remembered some of the stories he had read about the Order of the Phoenix and how it had comprised of witches and wizards from all walks of life, a lot of them had been professors at Hogwarts alongside members of the Ministry.

He glanced down at his watch that his father had given him on leaving Hogwarts, dawn was quickly approaching and he would have to atleast get a couple of hours sleep in before he started another day at work. He liked to be refreshed, ready and prepared to face another day and to do that he needed at least some sleep and he was sure that Ursula would need some too.

“I think that I have kept you long enough, the birds will soon be singing and I think we both need to get some rest,” he stood up from his seat and collected the plates and cups, carrying them out the back and placing them in the sink. He returned to the front and fiddled with the keys in his pocket, “I’m going to have to pop upstairs and say hello, I think my mother would kill me herself, if she found out I had been here and not popped my head in to at least say hi. Would you like me to make sure you get home?”

David was sure that Ursula was a rather independent woman and wouldn’t need him to make sure that she got home safe, but he felt that it was only polite.

Ursula bit on her lip as David dismissed the potion. She wasn't sure, but it was almost as if David was missing something. Or maybe Ursula hadn't mentioned? Did she need to?
The minister doesn't need to know I've got a blank drawn for the hours before I made the potion..

Infact, that wasn't the thing that was disturbing her, making her face become slowly more incredulous. "David. I have a child to look after. And they tampered with that potion! I have a child to look-" Ursula's voice broke and she looked down. This was getting stupid. There was no need getting haughty, but it had to be said, "if you're not going to do something about it David, then I will. I'll get me and the whole sodding Order involved."

She narrowed her eyes at him. Perhaps it was just in the heat of the moment but she was feeling agitated. Almost like she was pushing herself into the corner. "It sounds like you're more bothered about the big picture, but- you know. The whole jigsaw analogy. One piece can finish the puzzle? You're going to have to focus on the smaller details to find the bigger picture. I- nevermind."

Ursula was most definitely rambling. She needed to collect her thoughts. Never before had she been so happy she was away from home. That hotel bed really needed the cold bed dance.

"I think I've outstayed my welcome here," she says in a sad voice, cleaning her plate and mug with an episkey.

When David offers her by means of a way home, Ursula shakes her head a little more than is needed. She offers a small smile, and squeezes his shoulder on the way to the cupboards to put the plate and mug away; without magic so to prevent any noise.

"Say hello to your parents," she urged, picking up her suitcase once again, along with the stupid bloody broom. That was getting binned the minute she reached the hotel.
"See you soon, Mr. Oswald," Ursula said clearly, with finality as she waved and left the coffee shop.

What a mess.