open → i've run campaigns against the light;

[scinlac]

a → the ministry

( the time deviants registration department is open for business, and true to its nature as the unholy lovechild of the dmle and the dmac, its main defining trait appears to be 'ruthless efficiency'. well, that and being a little bit understaffed, considering that some parts of the registration seem to be held not just by your betters, but by your way betters.

like bellatrix, yours truly, who completely missed the seminar on work-life-balance, but definitely attended the one on dedication to the cause several times over. she can be found just about anywhere – maybe she just got done snapping at some poor sod, maybe you're unfortunate enough to share an elevator with her, maybe you're sitting across from her at one of the registration desks and looked at her a little funny, maybe you're someone who knows her well enough to be able to tell that she's been on her feet for forty-eight hours and counting –– or maybe you have an actual magical accident to report. whatever the case, she is going to be there, sharp and all cool politeness: )

And what would your problem be?

( and better make it a good one, because getting the trace only really hurts if you annoy her. )

b → wizarding london

( sooner or later, even she will be done professionally oppressing people for a living she doesn't even need too make –– and what better to do with all this fortune than spend it? odds are the actual purchase was made in knockturn alley, but maybe she is en route to some other shop. can't live off of dark artefacts alone now, can you.

anyway, as fate will have it, she manages to walk straight into you, or vice versa, and the newly-acquired item, an especially cursed manuscript wrapped carefully in spell-woven cloth, does as things do when affected by the basic law that is gravity: it goes tumbling. and since bella can't tell if the thoroughly warded cloth is still sitting snug in all the right places, all while being in no position to be involved in someone's rather public maybe-death... )

You mustn't touch it, unless you have a death wish.

( her tone all but implies you do, regardless of whether she was the one to cause the accident or not. )

Comments

a.

[roblet]

[ one of the lifts would be the case for this young man's encounter with miss black. gellert grindelwald is practically cherubic in looks as he stands next to her, rocking on his heels with a hum with his hands clasped behind his back. he's politely leaving her be until she speaks but then he smiles and tips his head to look at her, head canting aside. when he speaks, there's something about his accent that's not british. ]

I am on my way to register.

[ he seems oddly at peace with the idea - but he also looks so young that he's probably used to having the trace on him as it is already. ] May I ask how long this has been happening? I find the whole situation fascinating. [ perhaps it's strangest that he's unperturbed by the whole thing. no worries about getting home. ] Though certainly a mess for your Ministry and an unfortunate one at that.

[ a beat. ]

I apologize, you asked what my problem was. Simply finding where exactly I'm going.

[ a lie, but an innocuous one. ]

[scinlac]

( before he even speaks, something about him is strikingly familiar. her first instinct is to place him as the son of a coworker, someone who might have been at some ministry event that happened to coincide with a school holiday or other, or someone who just happens to take after one parent in particular. then, of course, it's september first – making it quite unlikely that a boy his age just wanders around, unless ––

and there's when he speaks and she has her confirmation. polished, but with an accent that, on such short notice, leaves her with either central or northern europe. )

The first recorded incident took place last winter. ( and, evidently, hasn't been an isolated one. she does take note: the politeness, the acknowledgement of the implications this has for the ministry, how entirely unfazed he is by all this, which, as someone who spent a great deal of her own teenage years pretending to be nothing if not perfectly bored and passive, strikes her as genuine. or at least he lacks all the tells lucius and she had. certainly, it means he now has her interest.

oh, and the lie, never forget that, though she makes no point in mentioning it. he seems well-spoken enough, she doubts he would have had any struggle reading the signs, but there has been no harm done, and there is no need at all in provoking him to lose that cooperative air. )

You may follow me. ( the elevator comes to a halt and ever so kindly announces that they have indeed arrived on the correct floor ) May I ask your name?

[roblet]

[ it's all because gellert isn't pretending to be unfazed. he'd been annoyed at first, certainly, but he's fallen into this as routine and in all honesty, there runs a risk in him of becoming preoccupied with the whole thing. imagine, so many people brought through time and space unprovoked.

he wasn't joking when he said it was fascinating.

he doesn't dislike this woman, he decides - or, well, it isn't as though he's going to like her either, perhaps fortunately for them both, but she intrigues him a little and he smiles, nodding slightly. ] Winter? Then to have so many in so short a time... Confounding, the magic behind it.

[ he still sounds calm and placid even now. when she asks him his name he smiles wider before moving to trail after her. ] Thank you, of course. My name is Gellert Grindelwald. May I ask yours?