Private message to Lana Sandoval

[alt_rachel]

Lana --

I'm sure you saw the news about Protectorate Affairs in the papers. Do you know Corax Mulciber at all? I'm the lucky Auror from MEU who got assigned to help him shake the trees for more traitors. (If there are any up there who haven't fled. I've been going through the list of staff people and not surprisingly they've seen a lot of turnover since Selwyn's execution. If they really expected us to find anything, perhaps they should have sent us in sooner? Well, no doubt SOMETHING will turn up. It just may not be anything very impressive.)

Anyway. I know Auror Mulciber, of course (though not particularly well) but I'd never met Director Mulciber. He strikes me as a little temperamental and thoroughly unpredictable, so if you've met him -- on the Council, or anywhere else, really -- and have advice for staying on his good side, I'm all ears. Also -- frankly, he doesn't seem to know all that much about Protectorate Affairs. Would you say that's accurate? Do you know if he's likely to be a quick study, or if he'll probably require hand-holding for a while yet? (The hand-holding isn't MY job, thank goodness. I don't envy the poor bastard they've given it to.)

How's your internship year going? Nisha Desai is utterly brilliant -- I imagine you're getting to do some rather fascinating work. Like that business with the empty houses -- I assume you haven't turned up any explanations that would involve my department, or I'd have heard about it. Any news on those?

--Rachel

Comments

[alt_lana]

Rachel,

We should go for drinks. It's been forever. Only, things here are so mad--well, you know, it seems every nutter and six of his besties have crawled out from under their rocks to take advantage since Selwyn's treachery. Desai says that whenever one person makes a mad attempt, then others jump in to try their hand at whatever they can, hoping that in the chaos of the first thing, they'll have cover for their bit of mayhem.

We're still investigating those abandoned sites--houses, campsites, a system of caves. Some evidence there, but we're still finding them and still sifting through what we've found. You're right, though: nothing in it for Malfeasance Elimination yet.

So you've got sent over to the Other Side? I suppose that's what your lot do, though. Only, I wouldn't want to embed on the civil side--too much quill sharpening and memo managing for my taste. I expect it's a brilliant moment to dig into your investigation, though, while everyone's wrong-footed and shifting to accommodate new protocols and personalities at the top.

I can only tell you what I've heard about your Mulciber--you know he worked in MLE for a while during the time when Our Lord was purging the Ministry of traitors. Started in Interrogation, though I hear he didn't have the touch for it. And then he was one of the hit wizards they sent after the muggle aristocrats and royal family, but I've heard he was more interested in hunting than investigating, so he went the 'consulting' route rather than settling down in the department the way his brother did. Lots of them did that, you know. Members of the Council, I mean.

People say he runs hot and cold and can go from one to the other at the flick of a wrist, and they say he's not... very methodical? Desai and Travers were talking about him the other day. Desai says his mind's not the most organised, but that he's intuitive and sometimes jumps ahead and knows the answer to a puzzle before a systematic thinker could work out the solution. She says he can be 'keen' to a disconcerting degree. And that sometimes when he gets hold of an idea you can't make him let go.

Except when you can, apparently. Travers says he as likely to drop a thought and can be maddening to work with because he's distractible and forgets what you've told him. Desai told Travers not to count on it because whatever it is you think he's forgotten, he's likely to remember just when you wish he wouldn't.

Not sure how much that helps. How's it been, working with him?

I admit I was surprised by the news he'd got the post. I'd heard Yaxley was likely to be the one tapped for it. Or Rowle. (You can guess which I hoped.)

[alt_rachel]

Drinks would be brilliant, but I certainly understand if you don't have time right now. Who was it who used to growl, 'chaos breeds chaos'? We've certainly been seeing that lately. Any particularly fun stories? (Using the Auror definition of 'fun,' of course.)

You're only too right about the quill sharpening and memo managing. The job still manages to be quite interesting, at least, although there's a fine line between 'wrong footed and shifting' and 'cowering under their desks.' I think probably last week they were wrong footed; this week they're mostly cowering. At least no one's likely to get in my way?

That's good to know about Director Mulciber and that's pretty much what I've seen, the hot and cold and the disorganisation. He went off on a tear today about chairs. (Really.) I think Yaxley would have been ... more predictable.

[alt_lana]

Ugh.

If Yaxley would be more predictable, that says a lot. About the hot and cold element, too.

Speaking of which. I hear there was a bit of Crucio Theatre over there yesterday. Was that really over chairs? (Flashbacks to training, no?)

Well. That side's had a soft go of it all this time; they can jolly well learn to take their lumps as well as we have. I bet they don't like it any too well, though.

[alt_rachel]

It does say a lot, doesn't it?

Crucio Theatre, yes, that's definitely one way to put it. I wasn't nearby when it happened and came back to panicked feverish whispered gossip.

Apparently the last time Dominic Selwyn cruciated someone in the office, it was because they'd leaked sensitive information out of the journals and it wound up in some gossip magazine. I do believe this was over pilfered quills. So you can imagine how shocked everyone was.

I heard Director Mulciber wanted his assistant (or 'Senior Adjutant') to do the discipline, and then cruciated him when he failed, or maybe because he didn't give it a proper try. Poor bloke, I don't think he much fancies being on EITHER end of the wand for that one.

[alt_lana]

Well. Sounds as if the new Director made a point.

I suppose most administrative hacks haven't the stomach for strong spells. If they did, they'd do something more substantial than process parchment, order supplies, and count time on the clock. (Don't tell Ned I said that, but really...)

We had a bit of fun here this afternoon. Apparently MLE are getting ready to train enforcers, so there was an anteroom full of painfully eager faces. There's really nothing more amusing than watching people sit around all day with a roomful of other people competing for the same few slots. I suppose they mean to start in August.

[alt_rachel]

He certainly did make a point.

And no, you're right about administrative hacks. How is Ned, by the way?

Were the would-be enforcers tripping each other up going through the door? Casting Confundus on anyone foolish enough to turn his back?

[alt_lana]

They pulled all the tricks we used and then some.

I heard one of them whingeing about an itching jinx, and I was in the loo with one of the witches when she looked in the mirror and realised she'd been hexed to come out in rather hideous spots. Apparently she'd no idea while she was in the interview. It wasn't pretty.

[alt_rachel]

Well, anyone 'interviewing' for a job with MLE who isn't clever enough to realise the duel starts before you're even through the door, doesn't deserve to work here.

[alt_lana]

Truth.

[alt_rachel]

Or technically 'there,' I suppose, since I'm stuck off in Protectorate Affairs for the moment.

[alt_lana]

Yes. How long do you think you're going to be stuck there--languishing in the outer darkness with all the weeping and gnashing of teeth?

Maybe they'll settle down now they've seen what's what.

[alt_rachel]

I'll see what things are like on Monday, when everyone comes back in.

In the meantime, it's sort of odd the information people have been slipping under my door, whispering in my ear, pressing into my hands... practically everyone here would urgently like to point my attentions elsewhere. Funny, that.

[alt_lana]

Hilarious.

Also useful, one hopes.