Planning!

Matt unlocked his office with a flick of his wand and flicked on his lights with a snap of his fingers. He took of his robe to reveal a Muggle suit, black was the colour today. This way it looked like Robes anyway. He placed his coffee from Sparks on the table and hung his robes up. He took a seat at his desk and leaned back, he yawned and stretched. He was still going on a week of around five hours of sleep. He really needed some rest, but now wasn't the time. He knew Khaat was coming today and they were going to discuss some motives. No longer would be be the idiot that some guy appointed as Minister. He would be the best damn minister in all of Ministry history, well...maybe not THE best. He straightened up and drank his coffee, waiting for Khaat to show up.

Khaat had gotten a cup of french roast on the way to Matt's office. She had chosen an amazing looking spring silk dress. It was white with hand painted English garden flowers. It was one of her favorites. It was classy. She wore low white heels. She hadn't given up heels altogether, despite what her father said to her. She blew him off fairly easily if he asked her to do something she didn't want to do.

She knocked on the door, trying to gather her thoughts. She did have some ideas about how to help make Matt appear more powerful and assertive. She didn't know how well it would work, but it was worth a try. She had made some notes and wanted to at least express her thoughts on how to help him. She knew what the ministry had been in the past, and where she didn't want to see it go. She knew where she wanted to see it go, and she knew what a joke most of the past ministers had been. She was utterly refusing to see that happen to someone she loved as much as Matt.

Matt heard a knock on his door and his eyes darted open, he had dozed off. He waved his wand and the door opened, it was Khaat right on time. "Hello Khaat," he said yawning and stretching again. "How are you this morning?" he asked her. He took another drink of his coffee and looked at her own cup. Of course it was just like Khaat to have coffee with her 24/7. He smiled weakly at her and he opened a drawer on his desk and pulled out a pad of lined paper, a Muggle thing. And two eagle feather quills, one for himself, and one for Khaat. He had written a list of things on here, ideas, laws, phone numbers, a whole lot of crap.

"Good morning," she smiled, "I'm fine. How are you?" She went in and waved the door shut. She looked at her coffee cup and then his and laughed. "Some things never change," she said. "But if you don't mind me saying, you do look like its been awhile since you slept--I mean, really slept. I know you have a lot on your plate, but even vampires have to rest sometime. When's the last time you had a full night's sleep?" She sat down opposite his desk. "If you decide you want me to help you with that, just let me know."

She moved onto the next subject, not wanting to appear to lecture him. It was just that she cared, and he was looking worn. "I see you've been making some notes. So have I. So, you're the minister. Tell me what your idea is for the Minister. How would you like the Wizarding world to see this office? Not necessarily you, in particular, but how would you like them to view whoever is the Minister? And, secondly, how would you like them to view the Ministry of Magic?"

He grinned at Khaat, she was always prepared. And she was smart to boot, which was an added bonus to have her as a friend. And Matt was glad he did, she was helping him when he needed it most. "Well my main idea is to pretty much show everyone the Ministry isn't the dump it was before. Now that I'm in power, I'm going to make my own changes. I'm not running it by anyone except for you Khaat, not Jess not the Prophet not anyone!" he told her confidently. "Basically is I'm going to try to make the world brighter, make it easier for people to live in. It's times like these when we MUST rely on eachother!" he told her. "Right well, I want to start small within the Ministry. Like adding some elevator music, maybe changing up the scenery a bit."

"Well, I agree. Small changes are best. If we make large scale political changes, it gives completely false and unreasonable impressions. It shows that you either intend to try to make promises you can't keep, or that you're power hungry. And you don't need either of those problems.

"So perhaps, what we need to do is to think about how we can make the Ministry more approachable by the Wizarding public. Maybe what we need to do, besides perhaps some lightening up and making the ministry more user friendly, is to do some problem solving. Not the top things on the list--those chronic unsolveable things. But perhaps some of the little irritants that have been chronically ignored by previous administrations that really are, for all practical purposes, cost free. Perhaps that would help build your strength base and your popularity before you take on the bigger battles. I think you need to build up a solid support base first. And besides, those enormous, chronic unsolvable problems will take loads of time to solve and the situations with those change almost daily--like solving the problems with the Death Eaters. That won't be solved overnight. But perhaps how comfortable the public feels to come to the Ministry and use it, is something you can change. I'm sure we can make a list of things you can change very quickly so that it shows that you are not anywhere near in the same catagory of your predecessors. What do you think?"

"Exactly!" he said smiling. Start small, that was always the best way to work. Then you gradually move up until you're respected, and he was tired of not being respected. Eventually he was going to have to finally make some big decisions, he was never actually good with those!

"Well, concerning the Death Eaters," he began. "The Order can take care of them, I'm not allowing any of my aurors to get near them! Right now anyway, Gabrielle is being strong headed and if I'm going to lay down the law for her. Her methods are terrible, sending the aurors into the ranks of the Death Eaters!" he told her. He leaned back in his chair and clapped his hands together and closed his eyes as though thinking. "I'm going to add more lights to the place, it's so dark here! Plus some music, and hold more balls and such! Maybe put some sort of place where Wizards can go and get information and such! The prophet can only go so far,"

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"Good start. I think we need to do something about all the black in this building. It looks so unfriendly and imposing. Perhaps transfigure the black stone to either white or white marble with black streaks, something lighter. Perhaps something living like some plants or something that is more friendly to the common wizard.

"As for Gabrielle, I like her, personally. I like her a lot. But you're right. She is very strongwilled. She does want the best for the ministry, but she seems to lack some experience with strategic planning. And that could be dangerous for the ministry if she overuses her power. Even a poker player knows you don't tip off how much you have in your hand the moment the cards are dealt. She needs to be more careful about wielding too much power too soon. We don't always, for example, need thousands of dementors to handle our problems. Massive decisions like that should never happen unless they have your clearance first because you will get the blame for them if it doesn't work well. Gabrielle can easily just fall back on the fact that she works for you. I don't know if she'd do that or not, actually. She seems to usually be able to take credit or blame well, either way. But ultimately, in the eyes of the public they will see it as your decision to either do something like that or to let someone in your ranks run around like a loose canon. Besides that, the most effective governments are the ones that never let anyone know everything they are capable of. People need to have that imminent threat in their minds that perhaps, just perhaps, the ministry has more up its sleeve than it has ever let on.

"You also need to think also about your own image. How do you want to be seen? Seriously, or not so much? Fudge, for example, always dressed like a pompous, out of date, stuffed shirt. I'm definately not in favor of that. But not the most expensive suits off the rack either. Shows financial recklessness. Sharply tailored, mid range priced suits at work. Make yourself look sharp. Shows intelligence, sound fiscal management skills and that you keep up on current events. You dont have to follow fads, but keep the styles current. In fact, I would not follow any fashion fads. Your own casual stuff works on your own time. But right now you have an image to build.

"Make your own choices. Advisors are good, so long as you don't have too many of them. Its sort of like too many cooks. Spoils everything. And personally, I love the Order. You know I do, but until they get more under control, you can't use them as your primary force. They're too disorganized and completely undisciplined right now. Sirius and Remus would be taking them to task if either of them were here to do it, and you know it. Jess has done some wonderful things, but he lets the meeting get totally out of hand and does not exert control when he needs to. And all that causes is for them to become ineffective as a formidible force in the wizarding world. And I hate to say that because you know I love Jess. You need to develop your own, very effective and formidible forces. Make the ministry self sustaining. That's my vote. Does that help any further?"