New places, new faces.

Jemma stepped out of the elevator and walked down the corridor. She didn't come up here much, she had had no need before. Only people working closely with the Minister tended to come up here, and secretaries weren't really of that much importance to him. She'd been asked to move from a general departmental secretary in the Department of Mysteries to work for a Mr. Jude Shaw, Undersecretary to the Minister. It was no doubt a promotion, but Jemma would certainly miss the air of uncertainty around the department. A lot of people felt uneasy, but Jemma was really drawn to it. It was probably because she was a Seer, but she longed to explore the department, and she now felt like she'd missed her chance.

As she strolled down the corridor, she saw a door labelled Mr. Shaw. Jemma looked around and couldn't see anywhere obvious for a secretary to sit, so she had to assume it was in here. Even if it wasn't, she needed to introduce herself and she could ask him where she was supposed to be. Jemma knocked on the door, then opened it with her left hand, her right one being preoccupied with ensuring her box of personal belongings was following her.

"Hello, Mr. Shaw?" she asked, as she entered the room, "I'm Miss Jemma Tiquelle, your new secretary." she introduced herself, assuming he'd been informed of his change in staff.

Jude was actually pretty pleased to have Jemma Tiquelle on as his secretary. True, he typically liked younger women, but not when he actually wanted them to get their work done - a young, perky figure did not need to actually do their job to be considered good at what they did. And he did not mind subscribing to such chauvinistic ideals.

He was aware of Jemma's place in the past - prominent member of society, and once supporter of the Order of the Phoenix. Where she stood now was for him to discover, and was part of the reason he had requested her when he saw her name on potential secretaries ready for promotion.

When she arrived, he stood and moved out of his office into the little waiting area between his office and the hall - this would be her space. He opened the door and smiled genially at her. "Welcome! Come in, love, get comfortable. This is your space, after all. Take a seat and get comfortable. I'll pour us some drinks and we can discuss my expectations of you. What would you like?"

Jemma could tell this promotion would change things, she didn't need a Seer to be able to see that. She was becoming more involved in the Ministry. She had meant the secretary job to be temporary, but it had been over a year now since she started and nothing else had come up. She had only been back in the magical world for a few years now, she hadn't returned to the Order or been paying that much attention to the news. A secretary didn't really need to know what was going on, just who needed to see which employee. The higher up you got in the Ministry, the more you needed to know about politics and news of the wizarding world, including the right view on it. Jemma decided to try and push that feeling aside and just get on with her work.


Jemma was glad Mr. Shaw was in. He seemed quite nice, though thought it odd at him calling her 'love'. She guessed that was just something he did. Or something young people did. Maybe she was just out of touch with younger people nowadays. He did offer her a drink though, instead of making her get it, which a lot of secretaries seemed to have to do. She was glad it looked like her entire job wouldn't be fetching drinks.

"Nice to meet you Mr. Shaw." she responded, sending her box of things towards her new desk. "I'll just have some water, thank you."

Jemma hoped to make a good impression and was curious as to her 'expectations', as Mr. Shaw put it. She hoped it would be more interesting than referring people to others all day long. She sat down at her new desk, as he'd asked. She remembered working for Majere when he was headmaster, and how much she hated it, and had vowed to always try and get along with any boss, because they could make your life a living hell if they wanted.

She was very polite in her address to him. Boo. He hoped she would break out the sass one of these days. Of course, not to him - his precious ego was much to smug to appreciate any real sass directed to him. But he liked to have a secretary with enough impudence to keep away the vultures of government. His personal assistant, while hardworking (and a little creepily obsessed) was simply not strong enough to ward off idiots.

"Water," he confirmed. He went back into his office to his minibar and quickly prepared her a glass of ice water and gave himself a glass of scotch. He came back into the main room and sat across the table from her, sliding the water towards her.

"So... Tell me a bit about yourself, Jemma. It is okay if I call you Jemma, right?"

"Thank you." she said as a glass of water slid across the table towards her. Jemma thought it was best not to drink at work. She didn't exactly have a high tolerance for alcohol to say the least, and a drunk did not a good secretary make. Especially after she'd just received a promotion.

Jemma was slightly surprised to be asked about herself, as opposed to being a run down of her expected duties. It could only be a good thing, she thought. She had wondered what this promotion would entail. She had foreseen a change in work for her, so wasn't surprised when she was asked to relocate. Not many big things surprised her, being a Seer and all.

"Yes, Jemma is fine." she responded. She wondered what to tell him. There were many things she could tell him. She was a hardworker, but she assumed that being promoted would make that obvious. She had been in the Order, but she never knew whether to divulge that. She had taught at Hogwarts, but that brought up Divination and her being a Seer, which always had mixed reactions. Jemma wondered why her life was so complicated, though if it wasn't she'd probably wonder why it was so boring.

"I've been working at the Ministry for a year or two now as a secretary for the Department of Mysteries." Jemma told him, deciding work history was safe. "I did a small stint at St. Mungo's before that, but I'm not a healer so it was only for six months. I worked at Hogwarts years ago too. I guess I've changed jobs and such a fair amount." she continued, which made herself wonder about her job changes. She partly wished she'd never left Hogwarts, she did like it there. Her eye had been on the Department of Mysteries recently, but she had been relocated now and she decided to take it as a sign that it wasn't meant to be.

Jude got comfortable in his seat and regarded his new secretary with a patient interest, only wishing she were a bit younger so he could engage in another employee-with-benefits scheme that he had shared with his last secretary. However, that was not exactly ideal for a secretary, because then they felt entitled to less work and more equality, and Jude simply could not allow that.

She spoke and he nodded. He had hoped for the meat and potatoes, not her resume. Was she pureblood? What sort of family did she come from? What was she looking for from the Ministry? What place did she have in the wizarding war? Who were her connections?

Ah well. He supposed those answers and more would have to come with time. It was early, after all.

"Great," he said. "I'm excited to be working with you. Now, before I give you your duties and expectations, I'll need you to sign this Document of Nondisclosure. As you can imagine, my job is a high profile one, so you will be handling sensitive information. I need to know I can ask you to do anything for me, and I will not read about it the next day in the Daily Prophet." He summoned a document, quill, and inkwell and slid it to her.

Jemma was glad he didn't ask any more questions. She didn't mind answering them, she just never seemed to be good at answering generic questions. She tended to ramble and not give the answer that the other person tended to want.

"Glad to be working with you too." she responded, only half-lying. It was better than being a general secretary, but it still wasn't like when she was at Hogwarts. She felt like she could do more than this, but at the moment she wasn't quite sure where.

Jemma took the document of nondisclosure and read it through. She had had a wide variety of experiences with the Ministry in the past, and didn't want to sign her soul away or anything. She looked over the document, not seeing anything too outrageous, just the standard don't tell the Prophet and the like. It was then Jemma remembered Susan, who was the editor of the Prophet. She had met the woman a while back and she seemed a nice lady. They were both single mothers and ex-Hufflepuffs and got along well. Jemma made a mental note to contact Susan. She didn't have that many close friends and she didn't want to pass up the opportunity at another. She took the quill and signed the document and gave it back to Mr. Shaw.

"There, done." she said. Jemma wouldn't be stupid enough to tell the Prophet confidential information really, but she assumed it was a formality. Either that or they hired idiots in the past.

She took the document and began to read it over, while Jude took the opportunity to sit back a bit, relax, and take a long drink of his scotch. He didn't like to work too hard at work. There was no reason too. The more he did, the less that was left for the interns that actually wanted to do some work. Of course, he left the hard work to the male interns and the ugly female interns. The attractive girls received the jobs such as helping him pick between ties, read him the transcripts from meetings he missed, and give him massages when he was exhausted.

And it was hard work avoiding work. So he was usually exhausted.

She finally signed and he clapped his hands together jovially. “Wonderful.” He waved his wand and the document disappeared. He folded his hands and leaned forward, smiling. “Isn’t it nice to get all of that silly bureaucratic stuff out of the way?”

He sat up straight. “Right. So mostly, it’s basic stuff. Managing my schedule, managing owls and memos, the usual. I do, however, have a running list of people I do not want contacting me, and you will be the gatekeeper. And, on occasion, I do have less honest tasks for you. Lies and recovery.” His voice had darkened but now he smiled. “But enough of that for now. Any questions?”

Jemma was glad Mr. Shaw didn't seem to be a fan of paperwork, since she wasn't either. There was always too much of it in the Ministry, she found. Especially as a secretary, doing nothing but paperwork some days was one of the most boring things she could think of.

As he reeled off a list of jobs, she nodded. It seemed pretty standard. Schedule, letters, memos, blocking unwanted people. Until he mentioned 'less honest' tasks as he called them, involving 'lies and recovery'. She wasn't sure what to make of that, especially since he's voice seemed to alter, into a more sinister tone when he said it. Jemma made a mental note to be wary of things. She strongly believed in trust, honesty and loyalty. She wanted to keep her job, but didn't want to stray too far from what she believed to be right. She had been hearing rumours about the running of the Ministry. She had always defended the Ministry in the past, but that one sentence made her begin to question things in her mind. Whatever it meant, Jemma had a feeling that things were bound to get more complicated.

"Nothing I can think of this second." she answered, but then thought of something as soon as she said it. "Oh, actually just one thing, is there anything left from your past secretary, notes or anything like that?" Jemma wanted to be organised and knowing if there were any systems or anything in place would be helpful. Plus, she was kind of curious as to why his previous secretary was no longer with him.

If the new secretary was at all displeased with his requests, there was no real, substantial change in her demeanor - though he could sense a brief moment of hesitation in her. Still, she said nothing. If she had any qualms, now was the time to say it. He smiled. "Of course, you will be in no trouble for any tasks I ask you to do. There was a clause in that document protecting you - naturally."

Protect your secretaries and they protected you.

She posed a question and he nodded mildly. "Yes. In your desk is a filing cabinet with any documents you still need. And the last secretary left my schedule for you, so you'll be able to jump right in. It has weekly duties recorded - such as picking up my Friday dry cleaning, etcetera."