(Ministry) Ms. Van Dort's Office

[Ashlee Van Dort]

<sup>Ashlee entered her office with a smug smile on her face. Her left hand carried her french vanilla cappuccino and in the right was the Daily Prophet. She sipped her cappuccino as she stared at the list of new teachers, along with headshot of each of them. She skimmed through the names and made some notes in her head about those to watch carefully.

Ashlee took a seat when she came across a face that was too familiar to her. The new Wandless Magic Professor stared at her from the paper with lips that barely formed a smile. Ashlee set the paper down and smiled, "I've got you now, Leigh Addis," she said putting her feet up on her desk. She knew far too well that Leigh would be the one she needed to watch very closely, along with his students.</sup>

[Herbert Thyme]

News had reached Thymes ears that there was a new head of Improper use of magic and due to his department working close to there’s he thought it bets to make himself known to them, anything to help his own progression in the ministry. But rumour had it that the new head was a female and a young one at that. With a shudder at the mere thought of a female being in control of many people he was pleased he did not have to obey her orders.

As he reached her office, he could not help but sneer at the sign on the door as the rumours were correct and it was indeed a female, and as he pushed open the door he was even more disgusted to see that she did not look old enough to be able to legally cast magic outside of school. And it also seemed she was far to interest in reading the paper then to see who had entered her office.
With a cold sneer and a proud tone Thyme decided to address the woman, even if she was younger then him it would not stop him from trying to benefit from knowing her, even if it meant a few extra gallons in his back pocket he would be happy.

“Good morning Miss Van Dort, I thought I would make my presence known to you. I am Herbert Thyme of Magical accidents and Catastrophes. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

He dropt into a low bow but kept his eyes fixed upon the young girl waiting to see her reaction. The one thing that Thyme could not work out was how she manged to get such a post as he was lumped with spotty teenagers on summer wok experience.

[Ashlee Van Dort]

<sup>Ashlee looked up at the man who entered her office and smiled as he introduced himself. She neatly folded the Daily Prophet, placed it into the top drawer of her desk and gracefully stood up. She held her hand out as a greeting, "Hello, Herbert Thyme. The pleasure's mine, I assure you," she said politely, "And please, call me Ashlee."

Ashlee smiled and waited for Mr. Thyme to reply before she questioned his reasons for being here.</sup>

[Herbert Thyme]

As she stood up Thyme made sure to note what she was looking at in the paper, he saw the page of head shots of the teachers of Hogwarts, his eye narrowing as he wondered why she would be looking at such a page. But before he could expand on the matter she was on her feet holding out her hand for him to shake in greeting. With a small sneer Thyme reached out with his gloved hand and gently taking hold of her hand he gave it a small shake before walking taking a step back so he could survey the girl over.

“Thank you Miss Van Dort but unless I intended to form a close bond with you I would rather keep things formal. And with that being the case I would expect you to do the same thing with me.”

Thyme’s voice held little emotion, he did not feel the need ever to express true feelings as it always caused problems when he showed straight away that he did not like a person, and here was a person he was already coming to dislike, she was far to nice. With one last look over her Thyme looked over his shoulder and spotted a chair and decided that he would sit down rather then put to much pressure on his feet. Summoning the chair over with a flick over his long thin wand he sat down, slipping off his gloves and draping them over his knee.

[Ashlee Van Dort]

<sup>Ashlee wondered why the man continuously questioned her personality. She gave him a curious look before nodding in agreement, "I understand, Mr. Thyme," she said with a small smirk on her face.

Ashlee reoccupied her chair as she watched Herbert Thyme summon the chair that stood in the corner of her office. She placed her hands on her desk and looked at the man, "Now, Mr. Thyme, is there a specific reason as to why you are here, in my office?" she questioned.</sup>

[Herbert Thyme]

Thyme looked at the girl and gave her a small nod as she went straight onto business, at least that was one good mark towards her, and it also put him slightly on the spot. To explain his true reasons would only reveal too much about his motives and put him in an unsuitable position. However his natural cold manor of greeting always made light conversation impossible and so the nice approach never worked.
So with a small sneer Thyme reached inside his pocket and pulled out a small slip or paper which was a cutting from a newspaper. Unfolding it slowly the face of Thom Moan shone up at him with a cheesy grin that he had come to loath from the simple picture. Not wanting to look at the boy for longer then possible Thyme reached out and slid the cutting across the table before making his point clear.

“As I am sure you are aware that many deaths have been happening in the grounds of Hogwarts, this boy being the latest. Seeing as both him and many others all seem to have been hit by the killing curse then I believe it is in your area, but sadly it is also counted as an ‘accident’ and so I to have to deal with it. So really I am here to urge you and your department to do more about it. I truly hate having to inform family that a loved one has been on the wrong end of a spell.”

At the last sentence a cruel smile briefly passed across his face. In Thymes opinion it was the perck of he job, to see the faces break into tears and hearts crumble gave him a sense of pleasure and in essence he did not want to lose that part of his job but if something was not done about these death, which for some reason all seemed to be Hufflepuffs, he would be in danger of having a pay cut and he could not have that.

[Ashlee Van Dort]

<sup>Ashlee looked down at the face of the boy with saddened eyes, "Yes, I'm aware of what's happening and I do plan to do something about it," she said looking up at Herbert, "But it's not easy tracking down every single person that uses magic illegally and I assure you that I am doing my very best to locate them."

Ashlee pushed the paper back at Mr. Thyme, "I've already made notes of students and faculty that will be watched closely. Adults, however, are harder to watch than those that work or attend hogwarts. I know I have a task ahead of me but I'm willing to do whatever it is I have to do to stop these "accidents," as you call them," Ashlee remarked.</sup>

[Herbert Thyme]

Thyme watched and listened to Ashlee closely as she explained her plans for her department. He did not expect her to give them to him in full detail, particularly not when he did not work for her, and in a way he respected her for that but he almost felt compelled to hit the point home once more.
Shuffling slightly in his chair Thyme gave a small cough before continuing in the same icy tone as he had done since the start of their encounter.

“Miss Van Dort I respect what you are saying but we have killers on the lose and I think it is our priority that we get this sorted out. I am only thinking about the children at the school.” He gave a sickly sweet smile when he mentioned the children, filthy creatures the lot of them and he would not mind if they were all killed but yet agin his job and money would be at stake. “We know from witness who killed Mr Moen and there are rumours about who killed Professor Addis. The sooner these men are behind bars the better it is for everyone.”

Thyme stopped and picked up the newspaper cutting, snarling slightly as yet again the photo of the boy beamed up at him. There was a bounty on the head of Nicholas McNiven and it would be a nice addition to his Gringotts vault, so he continued with his plan by addressing the girl once again.

“So with two killers on the lose I say we split the work load. My department will take on the killing of the boy, while you deal with the much stranger circumstance of the late Professor Addis death. Your team is not only bigger but are more skilled then my lonely department, it would be better on a highly sensitive case such as this.”

[Ashlee Van Dort]

^{Ashlee looked at him with eyes full of anger, he wants me to take the case of Leigh's death? What an Arse! she thought to herself, remembering all the pain his death brought her in the first place. Ashlee sighed and nodded, "Consider the death of Professor Addis dealt with," she said, looking at him with an annoyed expression.}


((ooc: srry so short, afraid I've come down with a bit of writer's block for this thread.... ))