First day back

It was a very warm afternoon, the end of summer and warmer then ever here in England. France was too hot so Gabrielle was used to sweating and cooling during summer. For the past few months she was in France with her family, the kids spent their summer holidays there. No one saw her and she saw no one on her extended vacation. She did quit so nobody had any reason to demote her although they were incredulous about someone resigning from Head of Department for Magical Law Enforcement.

Did she regret it at some point? Yes and no. Yes because she felt like she managed to put some order, no because this break was very valuable to her. She was in the atrium checking herself in for the first time. Right under her name she saw Jemma Tiquelle, Secretary of the Minister she read out loud. Interesting, she would never imagine to find her working here.

Instead of her department, she went straight to Minister's office, it was early anway, barely a live soul in the corridors. It was not hard to find Jemma's desk, it was empty. She took a seat while she scouted for the changes here since the last time she was here. Jemma should be arriving in a minute, they were both known as earlyrisers in the mornings. It was hard to imagine Jemma behind the desk outside of Hogwarts.

Jemma walked into the Ministry, signing herself in absent mindedly. She was on autopilot now, she'd done this so many times. Walk in, sign in, find desk, sit at desk, answer phone, take messages, etc. etc.. It wasn't that Jemma didn't like being a secretary. Well, she didn't like it, but she had held jobs she'd disliked even more in the past, it was the monotony of it that was getting to her. And she'd only been here a couple of weeks! She was a at least fairly intelligent witch, a Seer, a credited artist in the Muggle world and she was now a Ministry drone. She needed a job though, and at least it was in the magical world. A magical drone was better than a muggle drone.

As she walked up to her desk, she noticed someone else was sitting near it. Someone new. Well maybe not new, but someone who wasn't usually there. She was usually one of the first to arrive her, she had her routine down and so did her colleagues. As she continued towards her desk, she recognised the familiar face. At least she thought she did. She took another glance at the woman. Was it really her? It was!

"Gabrielle!" Jemma exclaimed, going over to the witch.

"What are you doing here? I haven't seen you in...gosh, when was the last time, I can't remember. It's been way too long. How are you doing?" She asked a million questions at once, shocked to see Gabrielle.

Even though she knew she shouldn't, Gabrielle got bored at some point and started reading a report on some plague. The number of deaths shocked her and the number of deseased almost corresponded the entire magical community in England. How did this desease manage to spread in such a short notice. There was something fishy about all this.

There she sat lost in her thoughts when she finally heard familiar footsteps stopping and continuing further. It was Jemma naturally just as she predicted, she didn't change much not even in the waste. For a 60 year old she looked very slim and radiant. She stood up and made a step forward. Jemma walked fast so she right then stood in front of her.

"Hi Jemz long time no see." she replied with the same excitement. The number of questions she dropped of her in short notice was amazing. "That's one set of a lot of questions. Which one would you like me to answer first?" she asked laughing trying to follow Jemma's first words and all she could destinguish was that she was asking every single question that would fit in half an hour's conversations.

Jemma smiled, happy to see Gabrielle. It really had been too long since she'd seen the woman.

"Yeah, sorry about al the questions, I was just so surprised to see you. I still am, even. So hi, how have you been recently and what brings you to the Ministry today?"

Jemma asked Gabrielle a question more slowly this time, and forced herself not to add another milion questions. She hadn't seen Gabrielle in so long, it was natural to ask questions as to her whereabouts, what she had been doing and why she was in the Ministry at the moment. The general public didn't really wonder the Ministry for the majority of the time.

Jemma peered over her shoulder to see what she was reading. The plague, she saw. Jemma knew all about it. She heard rumours in the Ministry, and she had got it all confirmed to her a few days ago. Nobody seemed to have any idea as to how it happened, or what to do about it. She hoped the Healers worked quickly, or it could be catastrophic.

Gabrielle rolled her eyes quick enough for hopefully Jemma not to see her. This question sounded a bit too formal. Even though she was used to formalitty, it still didn't kick back in when Jemma and her had talked like that.

"Well i guess you're going to see one hell more lot of me here from now on. For the minister's secretary, you're extremly uninformed. They recieved me back into auror ranks few days ago and I just started working again." she replied smiling. For someone who was so serious before, she surely smiled a lot. That would probably change in the course of the couple of weeks.

She drew one of the empty chairs close to Jemma's desk and leaned in the back relaxed crossing her fingers. "So i assume you don't ask old friends that barge in literally out of nowhere for a tea while you give her the account of the recent news." she said looking significantly at her old brow with just one grimace of sneaky. "While she ofcourse gives you an account of her news at the same time." she added quickly. This talking about herself in third person was kind of different and interesting.

Jemma listened to Gabrielle reeling off a list of recent events. Of course, the Aurors had been hiring recently and Gabrielle would of course be one of their top choices for the job after her stint as Department Head.

"Oh of course, I remember they were hiring. I just don't pay that much attention to staff sheets of all departments. My main job is to assist the Minister, keeping track of everything in all departments would be way too overwhelming." Jemma explained to Gabrielle, not wanting her to think that she was uninformed or not keeping on top of her job. Even though she disliked it, she believed in working hard for her money and not slacking off.

Then Gabrielle started talking about herself in third person, which she thought was a bit odd, but laughed at her comment about asking her for a tea.

"Come on then, we may as well have a good catch up now. It's pretty quiet around here this early. Tea or coffee? I've got some biscuits down here too." Jemma offered, reaching into her bottom drawer and taking out a packet of biscuits along with two mugs. One thing that was nice about being the Minister's secretary was that she had an office, even if she had to share it with his personal assistant. Most secretaries would have a corner in the office of the person they worked for, or a random desk somewhere in the Ministry. See, it could be worse, she told herself, as she walked over to the side of the office and put the kettle on.

Gabrielle saw Jemma's less surprised look. Yeah she would know something like huge auror job hiring. Funny, not everyone was supposed to be informed about everything. The fact that she kept track on everything happening wasn't a regular state.

"It still comes in handy here and there. I remember the short time i had to replace the minister it took forever to my assistant to get information i needed." she replied lost in thoughts. That was the period of her life she remembered like through myst, probably because it lasted short, it started without warning and ended just the same when the order took over the ministry. It was the last time she ever lead aurors to something.

Back to the drinks. "Tea please. Another coffee would keep me awake untill tommorow." she smiled thinking of the fact she drank two coffees this morning only because she forgot about the first untill she already drank the second. "When excatly did you come back from wherever you were? I had no signs of you when i left months ago?" she asked being her turn to ask something and she remembered that Jemma was like missing in action for the past months or a year or even more.

Jemma smiled at Gabrielle, happy that after all this time apart she had managed to run into her friend again. She poured Gabrielle a tea, and made a coffee for herself. She'd had a cup already this morning, but thought she'd need another one to get her through the rest of the day, since the first hadn't had quite the effect she so desired.

"There you go. Milk and sugar is here if you want it." She directed Gabrielle. "And yes, it is useful to have information, the problem is there is always so much information and you never know what is going to turn out to be useful." She added to her first answer.

"Yes, I have been rather, err, out of everything up until quite recently, I've only been working here a couple of weeks as of now. I've been living in Muggle London for most of the past year." Jemma started to briefly explain her leave of absence from everywhere.

"You've been to my apartment before, haven't you? Well, I was living there and doing some paintings to get extra money. After the battle I got a strong feeling Death Eaters were after me, I thought it best to go under the radar. Since I had no job or anything, it was relatively easy." She finished off, not wanting to go into too much detail, especially at the Ministry. She knew it was supposedly safe, but she never liked to talk about things in too much detail in public, especially here given Death Eaters had worked in the Ministry in the past.

"What have you been up to in the past year then?"

Gabrielle took a teaspoon of sugar and mixed her tea absently. "Just sugar for me. Remember I am still from France and we don't drink tea with milk." she said not really paying much attention to her words. It was just odd to make a silent atmosphere after so much time.

It was really odd to say this, but Gabrielle was a pro for odd so she was formulating the right combination of words in her head. "The number of information in your head defines the speed you do your job. So you simply sort them into something you could use in a snap of a second and the other you have enough time to get without anything or anyone being affected by the period you require to get them." she said trying to keep it simple, but she wasn't sure if she managed in that and if Jemma would be offended by the lecture.

"Don't forget i sat behind the desk for a long time. I made mistakes at start, people died because auror department in France in that period was crazy. I did not send an auror on time and the man died. I shouldn't probably scare you the minister could fire me, but it's an advise." she added after winning the confrontation in her mind about saying this. She didn't look serious, but she sure was talking serious.

Ah death eaters ofcourse. "We all have the same problem. Why would they put a price on your head? You're not a greater threat then any other order member or are you?" she asked confused. Death eaters never hunted anyone anless they had a good reason to do so. She could not think of anything big enough that would make them go after Jemma. "I was in northern france. French minister is still not accepting my resignation so i was helping him with .. something." she said cutting in the middle of the sentence. Giving away information from the French ministry of magic was probably a really bad idea.

Jemma listened to Gabrielle in silence. She thought she knew what she was getting at. It was always good to have all the information, and then just use it when necessary, as often if you knew something before, you would remember it again if need be. Gabrielle had worked behind a desk before, as she just reminded Jemma, so her advice was always useful. She was a good witch and it was nice to be able to talk to her about things again, Jemma thought.

"Thanks, I know what you mean. I haven't been working here that long. I don't plan on staying as secretary for too long to be honest, I've been waiting for an opening somewhere interesting in the Ministry, like the Department of Mysteries or something, but until then I'll just watch the desk here." she told Gabrielle, not sure if she should advertise too much the fact that she was looking for another job. It wasn't like she wanted to leave the Ministry though, so it wasn't like leaving them. Just a promotion to something in which she could use all of her skills and not answer messages all day long.

"And at the time it was rumoured that the Death Eaters wanted a Seer on their side. I suppose they thought they could get a Seer to tell them about future visions to aid them in ways. I'm not quite sure exactly what, but I was the only Seer in the Order at the time I believe, and a fairly well known Seer, teaching at Hogwarts and all, so I guess I would come to their minds first. At least, that's what I assume. I'm not certain, but I had a vision of sorts that they would look for me, so I thought it safest to go into hiding." Jemma tried to explain to Gabrielle. She hadn't told this story to anyone yet, so wasn't sure if she left anything out or anything.

"Ah of course, France, that makes sense. I'm sure you were a great worker, I wouldn't want to let you go if I was the French Minister!" Jemma said, smiling at her friend.