Odd talk has been occasionally spoken in the hallways, not picked up by many but some have claimed to have seen a Centaur in the Ministry, of course this was likely nonsense, they care little for the humans of course. However the people swear they saw it, no mistaking it. It wasn't an outrageous rumour but its just...how? Why? As far as is known Centaurs as said do not care much for the humans, preferring their colonies. So why come here unless they want something, the only thing that is likely of course is if they want to be seen as Creatures of Human Intelligence, but they aren't likely to, as known they are a very proud people and would never want to sully their name by sharing a place with creatures such as Vampires.

And of course how did they get in? There is always the Floo network of course, but that entrance requires a fireplace and Floo powder. Even if a centaur found a wizards house and said to go, how would they fit inside the fireplace without some very delicate magic to change its size. There are indeed the ones in London aswell. But those are for workers. The visitors entrance perhaps? How could a centaur fit in a phone box? And how would they get about without being seen? A Portkey would always work but they need access to the Ministry somehow in the first place to set up the network. Then, even if they did somehow get inside, how would they get about? The elevators are too small to take a centaur, unless again someone made them larger for them. But then more people would of seen them most likely.

There are a few other sort of questions based around the rumour, firstly is what they look like, in which most replied. "They look like a horse, but with a human on top." Which usually ended in the others not believing they saw a centaur. Others reply. "She was like a beautiful maiden but where her legs should be was the body of a horse." Which usually led to a few jokes about the person not being interested in humans romantically. Of course as with all rumours it died down after awhile, with no more apparent sightings of them since the morning.

However on Level 4, throughout the day there has been an annoying noise reverberating in the chambers, of course this can be any old creature, as this is of course Magical Creatures, anything could be moved through those halls. But this one has been lasting all day. It sounds as if halves of a coconut are being clamped together in some area's. But the closer you get the more and more it sounds like a horse. There is a musty smell from where the noise must of been, smelling of woodlands and giving a fresh sense of the rural countryside air.

Finally a room in the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures is opened, one barely used by people and quite often is joked about as where you go to get fired. After all no one of the proud species would visit and no one ever has, leaving it as a fairly low use room and section of Level 4. The door would be to the Centaur Liaison Office. And as it opened a very real looking Centaur stood there, standing with a fine and glossy chestnut hoarse coat with black socks and black tail, a muscular upper body and large looking chest, covered only by long flowing messy but clean looking hair down her back. A pair of bright green eyes staring forwards as she stands at the door. "This is the Centaur Liaison Office yes?" The woman would ask in a gentle and serene voice.

The Head of the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, Quill Som, carried a long scroll wrapped around a clipboard stacked with forms. She leafed through them as she walked, accomplishing both in a calm, clear deliberation. Her ochre robes were put-together, her black hair gathered back in an infastidious bun.

She came to a stop in a corridor she had a hard time remembering she'd ever been in. The Ministry was labyrinthine and it's floor plans couldn't be relied on, but she had spent a few decades working here, so an unfamiliar turn was rare. But here she was. And the room number matched.

She checked the incident report again, just to be sure. This was the right place. Quill then tucked her files under her arm and drew her wand. She rapped on the door.

"Hello in there? Is everything all right?"

Tia couldn't tell if they were playing a prank on her, or not.

She spent relatively little time on level 4 as part of her duties as a Werewolf Mentor. Today she had taken the day off from archiving at the Museum so that she could meet with one of her mentees, who wasn't feeling too well about their imminent transformation this weekend. It was only after the meeting that everyone she bumped into kept asking if she had also seen a centaur on her way in earlier.

Which was... silly, right? A centaur in the Ministry? But Tia knew a thing or two about Beasts Division, from what cousin Ceph told her, and she wouldn't put it past them.

There wasn't any harm in checking. She had never seen a centaur before and she also wanted to know if the Centaur Liaison Office was an actual room or just a running joke about getting fired. Where else would a centaur go, in the Ministry? Tia had to ask Lanningham where it was but when she got there, someone had obviously beat her to it!

"Hey," she joined Quill Som with a smile - not recognising who the witch was - and glanced at the door. "Is it really in there?? A centaur?"

Quill turned to look sharply at the witch who'd approached, someone young she didn't know.

"A centaur? Who told you that?"

It was exactly what the report had said. She thought it had to be inaccurate, by design or freak accident.

"How would one even get down here?"

And why would one ever want to come, she asked herself turning again to the closed door.

Somewhere along the corridor outside of the Centaur Liaison Office, Balfour Spectre came to a stop and reached into his pocket to procure a shiny galleon coin. He looked at Cepheus with an expression that was equal parts apologetic and impish. Technically this came under Beasts so there should only be the one of them here. But the only Centaur interactions he ever had tended to end in explosive arguments about why the hell they found it so difficult to be classed amongst vampires.

So, here they were, about to tackle what was either the first ever Centaur intrusion on level four or simply the first one in a very long time. Either way.... typical day on this floor. Mrs Lanningham hadn't even blinked when someone popped into their Division bullpen to inform them.

"Heads, I go." Balfour held up the coin to Cepheus and glanced further down the corridor where a pair of witches were attempting to enter the firing office, "Tails and it's you."

Cepheus eyed the galleon thoughtfully, his hands in both pockets. Centaurs had elected to become beasts rather than share categorisation with vampires, and as such their liaison office existed in the Beast Division. It was slang for getting the sack it was so criminally underused. Any centaur dealings tended to be around keeping their habitats secure and protected from Muggles, and discouraging wizards from bothering them.

Still, it wasn’t as if they had a hard and fast boundary in how they might deal with this situation, if it ever occurred, and it was occurring right now.
“Alright,” the Being Division Head agreed with the Beast Division Head.

He let Balfour flip, but his eyes didn’t blink as the golden galleon flipped in the air and came down to be slammed beneath Balfour’s hands. When they parted, both wizards leaned in over the hand to see. Cepheus let out a click of mock disappointment at the result. “Heads… sorry mate.” He shook his head and lifted a hand to Balfour’s shoulder in sympathy. “Not my Division, you see.”

He gave a humoured smirk for just a second before it all fell from his face. “No, in seriousness, Balfour, if you want me to assist, I will. Or consult later. But better not leave our client waiting, or Carter will be all over this and we’ll be in worse than one of Penny’s day-long intervention courses.” He clapped Balfour once on the shoulder before removing his hand entirely and gesturing an invitation to the door.

Well, shit. Balfour slipped the coin back into his pocket as he grimly considered the task ahead of him. It was kind of Cepheus to offer help - this literally wasn't the other man's division but it wasn't exactly up his alley either. He couldn't even remember the last time he had to meet with a colony to sort out habitat safeguards - surely the sort of thing relegated to somebody who would rather deal with hooves than dragon teeth.

"I might need you to assist. Stay close behind," the Scotsman shot his friend a worried look before taking in a deep breath and continuing down the passage towards the door - the two witches there possibly just as bemused as he felt.

He recognised Quill Som and the other witch.... one of the werewolf mentors. Balfour excused himself past them, to enter the office, where a fully grown Centaur woman appeared to have made herself quite at home. What a sight! Almost as odd as that one time they couldn't get a Phoenix to come out of the rafters above the handler desks.

"Hello," Balfour addressed their guest with a friendly smile. "Welcome to level four. I'm the head of Beasts Division, Balfour Spectre. How might we assist you?"

At least when Sphinxes spoke, you knew more or less how to reply. Balfour wasn't sure about centaurs. He felt that they were more easily offended than those actual beasts endowed with speech. She might smell and look like a beast but Marida was definitely more a being. One who did quite a lot of muttering! Still, he patiently waited for her to figure out what she was going to say - glancing around only to smile reassuringly at both Tia and Quill Som.

            "...with. I would like to work with your kind."

Ah. The Scotsman crossed his arms, looking at Marida like she was something to puzzle out. "I... see. In any particular capacity?" his brow wrinkled with concern. "As a liaison to your colony, maybe? Or a-" an idea occurred to him, "- diplomatic exchange of knowledge between our peoples?"

A liaison meant he'd be stuck centaur-sitting, with or without Ceph's help. But maybe he could share the burden of interaction with the Ministry Librarians, if there was something else to be offered. They were a fairly inoffensive lot. And the Library was big enough for a centaur to walk around.

“… Stay close behind.” Cepheus nodded to his fellow Division Head and friend as they approached. Quill and Tia were lingering, unsure if they should assist. Quill outranked both of them, but it wasn’t her Department, let alone her Division. Cepheus gave her an appreciative nod as they passed by into the office, Balfour leading.

A centaur inside their offices just emphasised their height and size. You could expect to come up to a shoulder of a horse with your head, but a centaur was waist, torso, shoulders and head above you after that. It wasn’t quite like dealing with giants, but those really didn’t fit into the Ministry in any sense. Cepheus and Balfour were looking up the moment they stepped in. Ordinarily this sort of encounter was outside, in a forest, in walking boots and a raincoat rather than office attire. Cepheus tried to read her expression which meant he had no chance to look like he was gawping inappropriately as Balfour introduced himself.

Without a response, the centaur moved and then knelt and rolled her hindquarters down so she was laying on the floor, reducing the height differences. There was a strong smell of horse, mixed with a scent that wasn’t quite human, but smelled a quidditch locker room after a very long hot match. As she rearranged herself, he did his best to keep his gaze up, apart from to consider if there was any obstructions to her descent.

“Hello Mr Spectre. I am Marida.” Her voice was deep than the average human female voice, and a little rougher maybe, but it was hard to judge on a sentence. Cepheus maintained a neutral expression, straightening his dark blue tie over his shirt before resting his hands on the back of his hips. His wand wasn’t far away, but not in his hand. He did not think he’d need to use it in defence.

“I would… study…” Cepheus tilted his head a little as he tried to understand the message, but kept quiet to let Marida speak. “… associate? Alliance? No… work with,” she settled on the phrase, “I would like to work with your kind.”

“I see,” Balfour said hesitantly, “… any particular capacity? … liaison to your colony maybe?” Ceph looked supportive of the suggestion, glancing to Balfour, “.. diplomatic exchange of knowledge between our peoples?” All sounded good.

“Forgive us, Marida,” Cepheus addressed quietly, then realised he hadn’t introduced himself, “Cepheus Gamp, Head of Being Division.” He extended his hand to shake, but gave her a polite nod of the head to cover if she didn’t accept, “You are the first Centaur in the 200 year history of the office[1] to actually address it in person. It is us who come to centaur territory to converse, ordinarily.”

1.

Wiki ref

The centaur seemed quite determined in her purpose, unusual as it was. Balfour was grateful for Cepheus' attempts at communication - it made matters more clear to their guest, who didn't seem to be very knowledgeable about colonies outside of her own. That gave him uncertain feelings about how useful she could be. But it was better to know something about at least one of these settlements than none of them at all, so he hardly put down her intentions.

"Alright then. Well, I'll send my secretary and some trainees down to help sort this office out. Charms to make it bigger if we must. " Bal made a thoughtful sound as he glanced around the dusty room. "You'll need to figure out how to correspond with your colony, by owl or in-person. See if we can come to a mutual agreement. And maybe you'll acquiesce to being sent as a visitor to other colonies, to extend... um, diplomatic relations?"

He looked at Cepheus, willing him to realise that Balfour didn't know what the bloody hell we was doing. And then he quickly turned his attention back to their new liaison. Apparently they had a Centaur now. Carter was going to love this. "Welcome to level four, Marida."

Balfour tilted his head slightly to the side. Did she think she was going to be living here? They really needed to get her a trainee to serve as personal assistant - gods be with the poor person who drew that short straw. He reached into his pocket to check the time on his pocket watch. Couldn't spend all day babysitting someone, they had work to do.

"Plenty of animals, none you can hunt." Bal shut the pocket watch, glanced up to smile at the Centaur. "We are the department for magical creatures like yourself, and we are here to protect them to the best of our abilities. Now, one of the trainees will furnish you with some details of wizarding life as it appears you might.... need a refresher course."

Just as he would need to take out a book or two on the behaviour of Marida's species. The Centaurs Balfour had met in the past were older and wiser than this; or they were at least less awkward. Maybe because they weren't trying to squeeze themselves into a human sized office.

"And I'm sure they'll help you to find a place of temporary residence until you can be permanently housed." Or barned. Balfour slipped the watch back into his pocket and glanced around, at the other wixes. Well, the show was over. They'd all gotten a good look but the world had to keep turning.

He held his hand out once more for Marida to shake, in farewell. "It was nice meeting you, aye? Someone will be down shortly to help."