9 AM Meeting

Ana’s fourth trip to the Hogwarts grounds had arrived, the idea of the weekend calling to her. It was only Friday, and Ana had to hope that the students would be at least slightly grateful for getting out of classes if nothing else. As experience had shown her – though she wasn’t at all surprised at this point, people were generally pleased to attend the meetings, regardless of who their match ended up to be. Even the few that had been massively pleased with their partner had disliked the idea of the meeting.

After making her way up to the second floor, Ana let herself into the ‘Guidance Office’ and shut the door behind her. The office was starting to look more familiar than her office at the Ministry, and the idea made her already bad mood become even darker. She had far too many meetings that day for her own liking, but there was no getting out of it at that point. She only had a few more days of starting meetings left, before she could check in on those who needed to be re-matched or those the Ministry was concerned about.

After the meetings were over, Ana supposed she would have to go back to her usual position as an Unspeakable or spend more time with the Wizengamot. As it were, she had no idea what would come next besides keeping an eye on those who had petitioned for their preferred partner or those who had agreed to wed.

Of the ones who had already gone through with their weddings, Ana felt that some were probably doing better than others. But by the time everyone had been matched and put together was up and married things would feel less drawn out and hectic, she hoped. Glancing at the time, she sighed and accepted the fact that she had a long day ahead of her. At least the first two were about to show up – well, they were supposed to anyway – and she could get the day started.

Toby walked into Hogwarts with a wry smile painted upon his face. He'd missed it; the building, the atmosphere, the people. Then again, he could do without the people, considering that he was going to have to marry one of them. The werewolf had been tempted, so very tempted, to run away. He'd been kicked out of Hogwarts due to his monthly transformation, and the very thought of marrying some girl made him want to gag.

He wouldn't though. Toby had run away from home once, and it had practically destroyed his family. The teenager couldn't bring himself to do that to them again, especially not now. Hallie had already been matched and married. While neither had exactly been happy about it, they seemed a decent enough pair. Not a perfect pair, far from a perfect pair, no one was good enough for his sister. But Hallie had lost one of her legs too, and it was destroying her and their mother both. No parent should ever be forced into making a call like that, between crippling their child or risking their death.

Toby paused outside the door to the guidance office. Despite having missed the castle dearly, there was no place he wanted to be less. The knowledge that his match was a Hogwarts student and not some old bint should have been reassuring, but the teenager couldn't find it in himself to be reassured by anything, mind stuck on unpleasantness of the situation.

He was gay for Merlin's sake! The Ministry could marry him off to anyone they wished, but it would hardly make him any more interested in intercourse with girls. Taking a steadying breath, Toby pushed the office door open and stepped inside. Taking a seat, relieved that his match had yet to arrive and that he'd have a few more moments of freedom, the werewolf released a long-suffering sigh.

She'd been hoping that she could somehow get out of having to comply with the marriage law. Maybe her father could have done something to keep her out of it, but she knew that wasn't possible when she had found out that her father had secretly gotten married to Zada to keep himself from having to marry some other halfblood or mudblood woman.

She didn't blame him for doing that, and she was at least a little bit glad that Zada was the woman her father had married. She preferred her to anyone else really. But what she wasn't that happy about was that there were going to be more d'Eath siblings for her and the many others that were already there.

When she had gotten her letter, Raine had threw a fit. She didn't know how to react to what the letter said and she definitely didn't know what to do about the person she was supposed to marry who she didn't even know. Her first thought was to at least find out who she was matched with. But that didn't mean she would willingly comply with the law.

There was also the fact that she had been thrown out of Hogwarts that would make her less than likely to comply with anything. She was in a way hurt that she had been thrown out of the school. Even though she knew it had been happening to all Half-breeds, she hated that it had happened to her. She had always liked being a Vampire, even if she was only half, but now she almost loathed it.

She sighed and walked up to the Guidance Office after arriving on the school grounds. She knocked on the door before quickly entering and glancing about the room, her eyes landing on Mrs. Levski before they fixed themselves on the boy who she assumed was her match. She already didn't like him, his scent was like that of a Werewolf and Raine didn't like it at all. If he was a Werewolf, there was no way she would marry him.

"Good morning.." she muttered before taking a seat next to the boy, moving the chair away from him slightly.

(OOC: This turned way too Jane Austen. I apologize.)

Affection is often times a shy flower that takes time to bloom.

Ana wasn’t so sure she believed that of everyone, but if all else failed she could drop the line of inspiration as an attempt at assuring whoever walked through the door. The words had been true for herself and for Pavel, but at the same time, their had also faded and dwindled into dislike and the misfortune of being unable to separate without repercussions for the both of them. Her thoughts were thus distracted as she waited, but the ponderings were torn from her as the door opened and one of the two she expected entered the office.

While he didn’t speak, he at least wasn’t fighting her already; many others had immediately taken up arguing with her upon their arrival, where the boy she assumed was Mr. Cooper had managed to keep all sound save a sigh from falling. The woman had nearly opened her mouth to offer a greeting, if only vaguely, when a young Slytherin girl opened the door. Her knock had alerted Ana to her presence, but it wasn’t until Raine walked in that the Ministry employee turned her attentions from the boy and her paperwork to the doorway.

Thanks to the padding of the office’s floor, the girl’s chair made no sound as she moved it away from Toby, but the action did not go without Ana’s noticing it. Perhaps this meeting would be more difficult than previously anticipated. Pursing her lips, Ana nodded to the Slytherin. “Morning, Miss D’Eath. Raine, this is Toby Cooper. Toby, Raine D’Eath.”

She was loathe indeed to forget introductions as she had previously. As of her recent meetings, she had learned failings on such counts made things more awkward and stressful for everyone involved. “Now, onto the matter at hand. Here is how your next month is going to go: You’ll be given two weeks to get to know each other before you need to set a date for the wedding. By that time if you have any questions, you’re welcome to request a second meeting with myself or another from the Ministry’s law department. By the end of four weeks, you’ll need to have officiated the marriage and filed with the Ministry. It doesn’t need to be a big ceremony if you’d rather just have a civil union instead.”

Taking a moment to eye the two sitting across the desk from her, Ana did her best to read their expressions and body language. Rather than asking about questions, Ana decided to settle back into her chair and wait for whatever reaction they chose to offer in reply.

Toby was determined to keep his temper. Yelling and screaming wasn't going to help anything, and nor would getting mad. He knew this, he did, and so his mental pep talk had simply been the words "just keep your head on, just keep your head on" repeated over and over and over until the werewolf was almost in a trance.

But then a vampire had walked in. Well, not a full vampire, but the girl had to be at least part. And suddenly Toby didn't think he'd be keeping very calm at all. A girl was one thing. He wouldn't be interested in her, but at least they could be friends. A vampire though, nope. Not happening.

Toby wasn't usually prejudiced. He knew what it was like to be on the other end of cruel words and crueler gazes. But this, this was different. Werewolves and vampires had never gotten along well. Of course, times were changing, and it was now rare but not impossible to find a werewolf with a vampire friend. Toby was not one of those wolves, however. His Pack had been attacked by a group of vampires once, simply because they could, and while Toby knew that not all vampires were savage killers, he still couldn't bring himself to trust one. Marrying one? That was so out of the question it wasn't even funny.

"The point of this is to have kids, right?" Toby queried bluntly, avoiding looking at Raine as much as possible, "she's a vampire, and I'm a werewolf, how the hell do you think that's supposed to work? The baby will probably destroy itself from the inside before it's even born! And that's only if the two of us don't kill each other first." Toby tugged a hand roughly through his hair, jaw clenching and unclenching as he did so.

"And just when I thought this couldn't get any worse," the teenager said, words muffled into his palms, "the Ministry has to go and prove me wrong. Congratulations on finding the one person I would rather die than marry." Toby decided in that moment that he was going out that night. He was going to go out, and maybe gat drunk, and hopefully snog an attractive guy, and forget all about this.

Little did he know just what those plans would put in motion.

Ana’s frown merely grew at the Gryffindor’s reaction, ignoring the fact that he was trying not to yell. “Allow me to enlighten you, Mr. Cooper.” She began, voice low and eyes disapproving. “I do not, in fact, make the matches here. I simply hold the meetings. If you have a problem, you can bring it up with the Ministry.”

Offering a shrug to show how very little she cared about his problems, Ana let out a sarcastic sigh. When people chose to be rude to her, she was not one to put up with it. “I’ll warn you, though, that not complying with the tests required at this meeting will undoubtedly not endear you to the Ministry employees who take the petitions. It would be in your best interest to go through with what is required of you today and then petition them as soon as possible.”

Glancing over at the particularly quiet Slytherin seated next to Toby, Ana lifted an eyebrow, as if waiting for a reaction to everything. Glancing down at her files, Ana looked over Raine’s for a moment before looking back at the pair of them. “It says here that she is half; at least she’s not a full one, right, Mr. Cooper?” She asked sarcastically, leaning back in her chair and leveling an annoyed glare in his direction.

Closing the files with a snap, she paused for a moment before adding, “Well. Shall we get on with the tests, then?” At the very least, she could get her job done, have the report written, and leave the rest of it to the students.