Wands and Warframes

Goodbye

"Thank you for the advice." Pandora grinds out of a rather fixed grin.

"Don't mention it. Right, I need you to fill out these forms and both of you. Mr Lovegood, please don't play with the spitting tulips. Both of you sign. Mr Lovegood, that doesn't mean play with the Darting Daffodils either. Pandora can you corral your husband please?"

"Xeno, I know you haven't seen these flowers for a while, but I need you to pay attention."

Xeno wanders over, "Yes dear. We need to go to the farmers market before we leave."

"And we will, but we need to finish registering Xeno junior so that he can go to Hogwarts when he's older."

"Oh yes, I have his tuition here." Xeno pulls out a chunk of Gold the size of his fist.

Pandora puts her hand over his, "No Xeno, this is the Births, Deaths and Marriages department. We're going to the Department for Education next. Sorry about that, do you have those forms?"

The clerk snaps their eyes up from the massive chunk of wealth. He has a good idea of what the adorable thing was now, "Yes, yes, right here."

As soon as they finish signing the forms and leave, the clerk is already off gossiping about how the Lovegood's found a gold mine last year and Pandora hid her pregnancy to avoid any awkward questions.

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The visit to the Department of Education with the freshly signed birth certificate was simple enough, even if the googly eyes they made at the lump of gold made Pandora have to hold her laughter. If only they realised just how common the metal actually was. Now though came the hard part. Resolutely she made her way down the stairs to the Department of Mysteries after sending Xeno off to pack up his printing press.

She has to pause at the randomiser room to marvel at the simplicity, and stupidity, of the first line of defence for the Department of Mysteries. Anyone with any sort of decent sensors is not going to be more than momentarily inconvenienced. It's clear as day where each door leads, and it seems that it would be clear in UV light too, as she can see some writing in invisible ink on each door. Heading through the door to the death room she makes her way to the Veil of Death, and again pauses as her sensors tell her it's actually a stable portal to the void. Most everyone should be able to survive a short while on the other side, though only Tenno and apparently post owls have been shown to be able to navigate it without aid. She's almost tempted to go through herself, but she chooses not to as she doesn't have the equipment needed to transit back if she can't find the portal on the other side. As she makes her way to Croaker's office she considers the fact that this was reportedly stolen from a Fairy mound by Merlin, and what it would mean for legends of the fae. When she reaches the office she knocks politely and waits.

"Enter."

Walking in Pandora conjures a table and puts Xeno Jr on it before taking a seat at the desk. Croaker looks up from his work with no visible reaction, though Pandora notes the minute tightening of muscles in his face as he hides his surprise.

"Pandora, did you have a good vacation with your family?"

"I did, I did indeed."

"Good, you're here for your next assignment then I assume?"

"Actually, no. I've come to tender my resignation."

"I see, I hope it's not because of your new arrival, as we will pay you regardless of how long it takes you to complete your assignment."

"No, nothing of the sort. We found a new place to live with masses of research opportunities and I don't think it's fair to treat the DoM as an afterthought with my research. I'd also feel bad drawing a wage and not actually contributing anything for years at a time because I was focused on my personal research projects.