Midnight Meeting

David glanced around at the faces of the people sat at the table, the shadowed and unfocused eyes of many showed the long nights that they had been working were starting to take a toll. He knew that people needed a rest, and he had even insisted on them going home to get at least a few hours sleep, but every single one of them had refused.

They were just waiting for the last person to arrive and the meeting could get under way. What was to be discussed was still unclear to the members in the room and to be honest David wasn’t entirely sure what he was going to say either. A large clock sat in the room and the ticking seemed to drum straight through David’s thoughts, everyone was so quiet and everyone was waiting for him to speak.

As the final woman entered the room and took a seat around the circular table David shuffled through the pieces of parchment in front of him. He had waited a couple of days to receive a reply from Ursula but when nothing had come he assumed that she no longer wished to speak with him, he would give her a little time and would get back to her later but would still take her advice and take a closer look at the smaller things that were going on.

“Right, thank you all for joining me,” David addressed the small group of people, they were just a select few, a handpicked group of workers from the ministry, people he knew he could trust, “I know it’s late and I insist that after we finish this meeting that you go home, spend time with your families and get some well deserved rest. If not I will have to get security to force you to leave because you will no longer have a job.” David chuckled at his last comment, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to fire these people, they had done too much for him, the ministry and the country but it was just a little bit of humour to lighten the mood a little.

“Right, so who would like to start?” he looked around the table, “I know we all have a few things to share.”

Jake stared off into space with his head resting in one hand, he was trying to keep focus on what was going on, but the late hour and the hours of work he had been doing where making his brain fuzzy and making it even more difficult to understand the string of sounds that were coming out of the minister’s mouth.

He nearly jumped out of his skin as the door to the small meeting room slammed shut and glanced up at the woman who entered and rolled his eyes. She always seemed to turn up to these meetings late and it was getting tiring in the least. If it was any of his juniors then they would have had a good slap around the head and several pointless jobs to do.

He ran a hand over his face and looked down again at the notes and information he had brought with him to the meeting. He waited to see if anyone else was going to pipe up and chip in but everyone else seemed to hold their tongue and keep quiet. He let silence stretch out for a little bit longer before he took a breath and sat himself up a bit straighter.

“I’ll start then shall I?” he looked around the table before glancing down at his pieces of parchment, “I guess so. To put it to you straight, things aren’t looking up. In fact, things seem to be sliding down a slippery slope. “

He continued to tell them about the escalating troubles of his department, from the escalating rumours of werewolf sightings to the increased reports of abnormal behaviour in creatures all over the country.

He knew that pretty much everyone else sat at the table didn’t think he should be sat there, that the problems in his department were not related to the rest of the troubles growing in the country but the minister had taken an interest and that is why Jake now sat in the red backed seat that he did.

Reuben shrugged slightly to himself as he himself rose up. No one else was speaking, so he supposed it would be his turn to 'take the floor' in the proverbial sense of course, he didn't fancy trying to drag a floor behind him, why would he even need a floor anyway? He knocked those thoughts from his head before speaking.

"The obliviators have been... On much higher alert recently, the fact that many more Muggles do or come too close to finding out about us is worry enough, and then from adding the fact that more and more Witches and Wizards seem to be flaunting the Statute of Secrecy means we become more and more at risk of being discovered."

"There is also the fact that certain cults seem to be taking interest in finding some sources of new power, of which these are we have not been able to discern. We have however, been able to get into their bases and obliviate them with the assistance of other offices, but I doubt it can go on for too long before we need to take other actions against them." He said clearly, without pausing much for breath, before sitting down. He was fairly new to the Ministry after all, so was never sure on how long or short he should be when talking.

He twiddled his thumbs childishly. He wondered who was going to speak next, and hoped it was someone soon, because otherwise he'd be feeling quite the fool. He glanced around again, looking at everyone and trying to figure out who would stand up next. Perhaps it would be Conor, that would definetely ease his mind seeing as he could focus on his speech then.

David ran a hand over his face and through his hair, trying to rub the tiredness out of his eyes. But it didn’t seem to help, the only thing that would help was sleep, and he didn’t seem to be getting much of that as of late.

He kept quiet as the other members sat around the table and just listened to what they had to say, and with each passing sentence he couldn’t help but feel the dread build up inside him. With each word a little bit more darkness was eating at the light of hope.

Things needed to be done, more people needed to be put on the case, but David knew of the corruption that always came within a corporation and the Ministry was no different. There was always people that he couldn’t trust and although he had made an effort to weed out those when he had first come into office, he was sure that corruption was brewing and it wouldn’t be long until newspapers were buying ministry officials for anything from a small story to an elaborate lie.

David nodded in thanks to Jake Reeves, he was a man that got things done although his means were not always ‘acceptable’. But David knew that the man’s heart was in the right place and he loved his work although it was rather draining for them all at the moment.
The increase in Muggle obliviations was a major worry, you didn’t have to be a genius to know what would happen if the wizarding world became public knowledge amongst the muggle community. The witch hunts of the 16th century were particularly harsh, and the muggles had not become any less cruel over the years, and with the invention of all their muggle weapons he was sure there would be massacres.

“Please keep me posted on everything,” David implored, “We need to keep these down, we can’t be sending people out all over the country to deal with the growing problem, soon we will run out of men. We need to find the culprits and show them the inside of Azkaban, I’m sure then where their blabbering mouths will get them.”

Although David was kind at heart and understanding, he would not shy away from dishing out the appropriate punishment where needed. The safety and security of the magical world was his main priority and although a couple of extra obliviations didn’t seem that much of a problem to deal with now, he didn’t need it getting out of hand.

He nodded his thanks to Reuben and waited for anyone else to speak. This was only their first meeting so he didn’t want to keep everybody waiting long, but it was their chance to show their cards to the table and let the rest of the team know what they were dealing with.

A couple more people spoke up and told of there own problems within the department and David listened quietly. He didn't really have much more to say himself, he had other things playing on his mind and it was all starting to become a jumbled mess. He just needed to get some sleep, things always seemed to attempt to sort themselves out when he slept, things were always clearer in the morning.

"Thank you everyone," he addressed the table with a tired sigh, "that'll do for tonight. Now it's time we all got home and got some rest, because I'm sure you will all be very busy over the next couple of days."

He gathered the few pieces of parchment he had on his desk and stood, bidding farewell to people as they left. Rubbing his tired eye's he made his way back to his office before heading off home for the night.