What It Takes

What it took for Astoria Greengrass to realize that even a Malfoy can change.

Astoria Greengrass flopped gracelessly into the last empty chair at the table. "That kind of a day, huh?" Maisie Jones, one of her fellow undersecretaries, asked as Astoria crossed her arms on the table and buried her face in the crook of her elbow. She patted Astoria's shoulder but it only elicited a disagreeable grumble from her friend.

The three other women at the table made sympathetic noises. Astoria, technically senior to all of the rest, got the dubious pleasure of dealing with their boss on a daily basis. Mr. Chapman, the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, was admittedly fair and only had justice in mind, but he also had an annoying habit of disregarding anything said by young women. Even though he only employed the five women at Astoria's table, he had a tendency to ignore anything that they said that could possibly come across as an opinion.

"Remind me why I'm working this job again?" Astoria mumbled.

"Because getting married and popping out babies isn't your idea of fun?" Megan Brown said. "Or maybe you're just masochistic."

Astoria sat up straight and glared moodily at the offensive broad-leafed plant behind Megan's head. It looked like it was mocking her, all cheerful and green and plant-like. "I swear, I am this close to up and quitting."

The four women again made sympathetic noises. "Maybe you should," Maisie said.

Astoria turned her moody look on her closest friend. "Hear me out," Maisie protested, hands raised. "Seriously. You're always going on about wanting to push through new legislation and we all know you've got some really good ideas, but you're never going to get anywhere working for Mr. Sexist Pig."

"And how will being unemployed help me?" She flagged down a waiter and he placed a glass of chilled water at her elbow.

"It won't. But maybe being part of the new Department Of Magical Legislation might." With a decidedly un-Maisie-like coy smile, she pulled a purple pamphlet out of her pocket and handed it to Astoria. "Frankly, I'm amazed you haven't already heard about it."

Astoria took the proffered pamphlet and flipped it open.

In scrawling silver script, it read out what felt like her destiny. 'As per order of Minister of Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt, the Department of Magical Legislation will be established by December of 2004. The members of the new Department may schedule interviews with the pro tempore Head of Department Susan Bones.'

Astoria didn't even finish reading the pamphlet before she was out of her chair and heading towards the door.

"You're welcome!" Maisie called after her.

Megan stole Astoria's abandoned glass of water and grinned. "I'll be sad to see her go, since that means I'll be senior, but at the same time, she's going to kick so much ass there."

"If she gets hired," Emily Baghaus said. She'd been deep in a crossword; talking about work during non-work hours was not something she partook in. "She doesn't have any experience."

"That's not true." Megan glanced around at the group. "She's been an undersecretary to the Chief Warlock for, what, two years? That's two years of trials and research. I'm sure she'll get it without a problem."

The Atrium was thankfully mostly empty when Astoria A pparated in, because in her excitement she overshot the Apparation safety zone by over four feet. It was a mistake no trained witch should make, but Astoria didn't care enough to even pretend to be embarrassed. She caught an elevator going down and looked at the pamphlet to see where it was she needed to go.

The Department's temporary headquarters were located on the second floor, which made sense since Susan's office was also on the second floor. As the door opened she caught Susan walking towards the lift and Astoria waved her down. "Susan!"

Susan took one look at the pamphlet in Astoria's hand and smiled. "I was wondering when you were going to show up." She turned back towards her office and Astoria fell into step with her. "We don't have many openings right at the moment, but we also don't have many qualified applicants, so there you go. Have a seat, the interview process won't take long."

"I hope you weren't on your way home or anything," Astoria said apologetically. "When Maisie showed me the pamphlet I got here just as soon as I could."

"It's not a problem. Like I said, I knew you'd be showing up soon enough."

"Why's that?" Astoria took the clipboard Susan clipped several pages to and began to skim it. It was a basic job application; experience, hours available, contact information.

"Several members of the Wizengamot have put your name in to the Minister for a position in the Department. They seem to think you'd do well here."

Astoria suppressed a manic grin. Not even half an hour prior, she was wondering if there was any way to ever get to where she wanted to be in life, and here it was practically falling into her lap.

"Basically, we don't have a set structure yet for how the Department will operate, since there's no precedent for one consolidated department for handling legislation. Previously, as you probably know, regulations and laws were passed by the individual departments, so there's a lot of conflicting and outdated regulations on the books because there's nobody reviewing and updating and handling it. That's part of why the wizarding world was so…backwards, up until Harry Potter defeated Voldemort. Shacklebolt wants to make sure nothing like that can happen again, and he's doing that in part by creating this department."

"What would my job be, should I get a position?" Astoria borrowed a quill from the holder on Susan's cluttered desk and produced her favorite blue ink from an inner pocket in her robes.

Susan smiled and leaned back in her chair, amused. "You'll start out reviewing every piece of legislation currently on the books. We first need to get rid of everything superfluous and outdated. Then, we'll begin by updating what we can and redoing what needs overhauling. After that, your day job will be reviewing new legislation. For the time being, I believe we'll be using the Wizengamot as the review board for passing legislation. You'll probably need to get supporters for bills because no doubt people will be fighting everything just because this is new and they don't like it, but you're essentially going to be the person making sure the various Departments' regulations are fair and necessary, on top of helping the Minister revamp what parts of the wizarding world need it. That's a really broad description, but once we really get rolling, it'll all make more sense."

Astoria returned the clipboard then realized exactly what Susan said. "I will start out?" she questioned, confused. "If you don't mind explaining-"

Susan cut her off with a wave of her hand. "I was simply waiting for you to come to me," she said. "Technically I'm supposed to be impartial and should not ask individuals if they want to join the Department, but the Minister has already informed me that should you decide to come to an interview, you were to be hired on the spot. Congratulations!" She held out her hand and, dazed, Astoria shook it. "We're still trying to figure out where to settle the Department but in the meantime, I think I'll put you in one of the empty offices on this floor. When can you start?"

"When can you get me an office?"

"How about this Monday," Susan said. "Take a few days off, and get ready for an onslaught of mindless reading for the next few months. I can't guarantee this job will be interesting in the least until we get through the old stuff, but it will keep you busy and it'll pay well."

"I completely forgot about wages," Astoria laughed. "I was too busy imagining myself surrounded by stuffy old books with ink all over my hands and a really stupid smile on my face."

"That there will be plenty of." Susan stood and Astoria followed suit. "I'm glad to have you on my team."

"I'm glad you're willing to have me on your team."