Edwin drew a hand over what remained of his hair as he checked it in the hall mirror. He was sure he’d lost a bit of weight recently, his round face not quite so round, but his nose just as strong and his ears just as large. There had been plenty to do, and plenty of things to keep him on his feet.

Edwin had been trying his best to keep his hands clean. Shufflebottom had mercifully kept his mouth shut about the deal with Musgrave and Gamp to move on dementors, and provide some to Gamp for study, and now he was away in Azkaban for the foreseeable future. Mrs Shufflebottom just thought he had called by once to enquire about blast-ended skrewts, and would barely remember him at best.

Mortimer Gamp’s actions had caught him rather off-guard. He’d introduced Mortimer to Ira Almasy, pleased that they all seemed to share a certain wish to stir the pot of late, but was irritated. Not only had Gamp and Almasy worked together on something, as far as he knew, but they had excluded him, and Gamp had been incredibly lazy on the cleanup. It was little wonder he had been committed in the wake, rather than sent to Azkaban too. Such a brilliant mind had turned so terribly in February. Edwin had even tried to warn him, cryptically, when the students had burst into Level 2, but to no avail. As for the whereabouts of Mrs Gamp, she seemed as elusive as Mortimer’s sanity.

Another proving elusive was Musgrave. Edwin had expected to come home and find Lawrence had dragged himself into the house like a stray cat, half dead, as he had last November, but the house was undisturbed now. The dementors had stopped their pattern of targeted attacks, and were grouping lazily in places, feeding indiscriminately, but rather less ferociously. Edwin did not want to believe that his fellow Ministerial candidate, Miranda Storm, and her aged husband could have finished Musgrave. He had nine lives, but few friends.

With them gone, Edwin had nobody standing in his way…. Short of Miranda and Ignatius, anyhow.

There was a knock at the front door.

“You’ve got this, Minister.” Edwin told his reflection, chest swelling with pride. He pulled open the front door of his house[1] with a warm smile.

“Miss Flint, hello. How lovely to see you. Do come in.” He reached to shake her hand, and then stood aside to invite her in, sweeping his eyes up and down her appearance. “Do you drink coffee?” He asked, closing the front door behind them, "I just put some on, do go through to the living room.”

1.	Description of the House

Josie felt proud. She knocked on Mr Glass' door. Tonight she was going to interview him. He could be the minister next month! She wanted to write it up well and try and sell it. Sometimes people did not want her to interview them because she did not work for a paper. She could say she worked for Witch Weekly now. Sandy would not be able to stop her. Lawrence Musgrave had told her stories about Edwin when he was younger. He was posh. Josie had looked up some other articles on him before coming. Perm told her that Edwin was a bit of a flirt at work. Josie did not mind if it meant he told her more interesting facts.
"Hello Mr Glass. Yes please." Josie said when she went into his house. He had a nice house. Josie did not think there was a Mrs Glass but she would ask him later. "Thank you for agreeing to talk to me." She walked into the living room. It was a big room and looked on the gardens at the back. The kitchen was part of the same room. It was quite modern for a wizard. "Have you lived here long?" She asked. "Do you live alone?"

“Thank you for agreeing to talk to me.” Miss Flint said as she walked along the hallway in front of Edwin. He managed to look her up and down from behind. Shorter, stocky, young. He might even have called her jolly. She didn’t write for a particular paper, but he might end up published in somewhere he might not consider alone. He gestured to the sofas, and headed into the kitchen to pour some coffee.

“Have you lived here long? Do you live alone?” Edwin set two mugs out on the side.
“I bought it after I became a Department Head, so a while now. It’s handy, not too far from London, good neighbours. They don’t know I’m a wizard of course. Milk, sugar?” Edwin asked, avoiding the do you live alone side of question. It must have been obvious enough from the appearance of the place, and any prior research.

Edwin carried both cups over to the low coffee table set before the two sofas at right angles to each other.
“How did you want to conduct this then, Miss Flint? Have you prepared questions, or would you prefer to chat and see where we go?” Edwin settled on the other sofa and looked attentively at the young journalist.

"Yes please." Josie said. She drank a bit. Mr Glass made nice coffee. She wondered if it was expensive. His house looked posh. He sounded posh too. "I have some questions Mr Glass. But if we get onto an interesting subject I will ask follow up questions. If you do not want to answer a question it is up to you." Josie put a long roll of parchment on his coffee table. She got out a notes quill and set it up. "So Mr Glass. Can I call you Edwin?" Josie began. "Tell me a bit about yourself? Where did your story begin?"

“You can,” Edwin agreed, partly out of ease that hearing ‘Mr Glass’ for the next hour might get tiring from one voice.

“In Cambridge,” he answered, “I was born in the last few hours of the forties. My father is a herbologist, and mother an author, and I’ve two younger sisters. Sorted into Slytherin at Hogwarts, then trained to be an obliviator in the late sixties.” Edwin smiled, nostalgically considering those early days. “I was one of those who remained in the Ministry when Voldemort occupied it, trying to do what we could to undermine, regain control. A precarious position at best, and my parents went into hiding, what with my mother being a Muggle.” His smile had dropped away at this. “I consider myself very lucky when so many were not,” he added and shifted slightly on the sofa. He had survived by playing on his house, by cooperating where he knew he would keep his life and sticking close to pureblood friends. It wasn’t entirely admirable, but it had worked. Nobody was really proud of what war had forced them to do to survive. Josie looked too young to really know.

“Then after, I helped rebuild the Ministry under Shacklebolt. I didn’t become Deputy Head of the department until several years later, but became heat in 2002. Sadly, my predecessor passed in an accident of his own creation at home. Since then I have strengthened the Department under several different Ministers. We have always been there to repair what has been broken, to keep the Statute. The beauty of our Department is that the less you notice our, the better job we are doing."

"Your mother is a Muggle?" Josie asked. "Is that how you have a car?" Monty had told her about flying Edwin's car. Josie wished she had seen it happen. "Has it flown again?" She smiled at Edwin. She did not mean any harm. "Would you legalise flying cars if you became Minister?"

“Yes, and yes in a way it its.” Edwin nodded kindly to Josie. His smile waned a little when the young reporter brought up the flight of his car. He was back on speaking terms with Octavius but it was a sore point between them. Catherine Pepper, long suffering muggle wife of Octavius, was a lot more keen for Octavius to remain friends with Edwin, because she felt he’d curb matters.

“I took a Muggle driving test, many years ago. It is very important to understand Muggle life as well as our own when you deal with the two mixing together. It’s quite pleasurable to drive. Do you drive?” Edwin might have been making an assumption based on what he knew of Josie, but she seemed quite at home with Muggle society.

“It hasn’t flown again, and I welcome appropriate dialogue on the matter.” Edwin added, politely answering her question rather than avoiding it. “It isn’t one of my core policies… Josie. Upholding our laws, and holding ourselves to account is.” He prodded her gently towards a safer topic. Probably futile, she was a journalist, she wanted a readable, fun story.

Mr Glass did not want to speak about the car. Josie thought it made a fun story.
"I can." Josie said. "So I can put that you are open to the idea of flying cars?" She gave him a cheeky grin. "We can talk about something else." She nodded. "You were friends with Mr Gamp. How are your core policies going to stop another crazy department head?"

Edwin gave Josie a warning look. This interview had to remain civil and goodnatured so she would write him up favourably, but she was choosing a very controversial tact.
“Gamp acted alone.” Edwin told her calmly. “His health has come into considerable question with regards to the events. I would like to see regular checks for all staff with St Mungo’s, especially the unspeakables. They have jobs of considerable risk, and the stress of secret-keeping is not particularly healthy for them. It is a necessary job to be done, but we should help protect them, and the public, from the strains as far as possible. Gamp, regrettably, was not of sound mind, but appeared outwardly to be as sane as you or I. He would have been hard to diagnose.”

Edwin did not necessarily agree that Mortimer was insane as had been told to the press to explain his St Mungo’s incarceration rather than Azkaban. He certainly wasn’t completely sane by normal measures, but Edwin very much doubted Mortimer had not been in full control of his plans to research and use the students. It was exactly the chaotic plans that Ira Almasy enjoyed. They had been a fruitful, but very brief partnership. Edwin rather more feared for the knowledge Mortimer had obtained, and the progress he had made with his experiments that February weekend. And feared for where or what had become of Lyra Gamp. A very clever, capable woman, former unspeakable, and a metamorphmagus, Edwin could not help but draw parallels between her and Almasy.

Glass did not like that question. Josie thought his answer was good though. It showed he had thought about it. He was not going to say Gamp was a one off.
"Good at hiding his crazy then?" Josie asked. "Maybe we are all a bit crazy." She grinned. "What about the dementors then. What are you going to do about them?"

“What about the dementors then. What are you going to do about them?” Josie asked a very open question. Edwin sat forward and rested his elbows on his knees.
“Minister Zephyr took the steps to form I.D.R.E.A.D,” Edwin began easily, "but under my leadership, I would like us to take a more proactive, than reactive stance. Dementor levels are an increasingly common hazard for our population, and we have observed the adverse affects on the Muggle population too. It is our responsibility, much as it is to prevent dragons indiscriminately feasting, to regulate and control these risks as far as possible.”

He reached for his coffee, taking the moment to consider where he might further elaborate given Josie’s very wide query. Instead, he decided to show compassion towards the younger witch.
“Have you had the misfortune to encounter them, Josie? How is your patronus?”

Josie smiled. She pretended to check the quill. Yes she had encountered dementors. They were all around Sandy's house because of Lawrence. She was not going to tell Mr Glass that. She decided quickly to lie.
"I am very lucky Edwin. Only because of my job." Josie said. It was a half truth. They were better than full lies. "I need to practice my patronus. Do you cast yours a lot? Do all the people at the Ministry?"

It might have been Edwin’s imagination (though it was not prone to elaborate activity) but Miss Flint looked to be avoiding the question. As a result, the Department Head did not believe her. Then again, he thought to himself in that short moment, what journalist was ever honest? Not even fresh-faced, rosy-cheeked independent ones like Josie Flint.

“We have plenty of advice and guidance. I’d be happy to arrange someone to owl you some literature to help.” Edwin replied cordially. “Less of late. The IDREAD taskforce has become ever more efficient, so the numbers deployed have reduced. I do attend all major incidents. As a Department Head I am always on call. It is strongly encouraged that Ministry employees are up to speed with their patronus - and certainly everyone on the taskforce has proven their ability. It has become a job requirement for many workers this year, and we have supported them to achieve it.”

Edwin’s coffee was still in his hand and he lifted it again to sip, watching Josie carefully.
“It is unsustainable to keep deploying the taskforce without integrating it into my own department officially and assigning a regular budget to it. However, it will be hard to find anyone happy to do that job full time. It’s a reactive stance, and as I mentioned previously, I would prefer proactive. We need to cull the dementors or at the very least bring them into some order to influence their location and intent.”

"You say influence their location Mr Glass. Where do you mean? Because I thought dementors need to feed on people? Would you send them to Azkaban again?" Josie sat on the edge of her seat. Edwin Glass said interesting things. She had to find a good headline. Nobody wanted dementors. Nobody had a big plan for them either.

“Dementors do feed on human happiness, yes, but the amount they need to feed is negligible.” Edwin explained, “they are amortal, they survive without birth or death. They can feed, but they can also starve, and if amortal, neither is required of them to simply be.” He was perhaps not explaining this in the best of ways, but he hoped that Josie, and her potential readers, would understand what he meant.

“So given that, and our duty to Clause 73 - that is, to conceal, care and control all magical beasts, beings and spirits dwelling within our territory’s borders, to make sure nothing of our world causes harm to our draws notice of the Muggle community, we must move dementors away from habitation.” Edwin, as Head of the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, knew the statute well as he had to uphold and mop up after any incidents which broke it.

“As to Azkaban,” Edwin added in a softer tone, “it is one of many options the Ministry must consider when relocating dementors. Though I doubt it will be popular.”