Morgenthau's Office, 1100 hours.


Lounging at one of the three window sills in an unusually muted sweater, Yavin looked out at the evening desert and felt the cool breeze sweep into his stark white office. It was beautiful night out there - and a late morning here in the Ministry, where he was waiting for the head of level three to attend upon him for an appointment. Now that they could more or less confirm the date of the object's arrival[1], Yav was prepared to speak with Quill Som about their Space Chamber situation.

He wasn't keen on letting the Obliviators and enforcement officers anywhere near the point of impact, at least not after the estimated landing hour. They would need to take precautions. And he didn't have enough wix-power to do all that without her department.

The double doors across his desk swung inwards. Yavin turned away from the desert, dusting sand out of his peppered hair as he smiled at the witch. One of the three skeletons standing around the room turned its head towards her as well, sunglasses dropping down to cover eye sockets.

Their last meeting wasn't what anyone would call a rousing success - she'd interrogated him about Musgrave - but it was no skin off his back either. Yav knew what he could and couldn't keep confidential; he played it close to the bone on either side. "Good morning, Quill," the wizard gestured at the sill across from him, which overlooked a quiet alleyway. "Please, ah, please join me."

1.	22nd Nov - When the Blazing Sun is Gone

Quill Som hadn't had time to worry about Yavin Morgenthau since they last met one-on-one, face-to-face.[1] He was by Quill's estimation an irreverent, erratic wizard which likely made him perfect for his job. His effectiveness was hard to judge, seeing as how paperwork seemed to stop at the Department of Obscurity.

At Morgenthau's bizarre, extravagant office, Quill took a few steps into the room but declined to post up by the false windows.  She crossed her arm across her chest propping up her other elbow. Her wrap-style robes were gold-colored  with roomy bat-wing sleeves. A large medallion hung from a thin patina'd chain around her neck.

In the interest of professionalism, she offered a flat, close-lipped smile. "What can I do for you, Yavin?"

1.	Sept 15 - More Answers from Mysteries

            "What can I do for you, Yavin?"

"For me personally?" he laughed as he turned his back to the view of the desert, facing Quill with folded arms and legs crossed at the ankle. "I'm a, aha, a wizard of few needs. For my department, however..." Yav trailed off and gestured at his large blackwood desk. It was clear of its usual clutter and strange apparatus. Instead, rolled out across its length, was a great map of Scotland; severed from the English border as if though the south of this island had been taken by the sea.

A bright red pin marked out Loch Monar in the highlands: it stood out against the rolling green of the countryside, the clustered grey and brown of surrounding towns.

Yavin moved to the table, gesticulating for Quill to approach so that he could explain in full. "A foreign object is due to penetrate our, hm, our atmosphere in early December. We estimate its landing point to be hereabouts," his fingers wiggled vaguely around the area of the loch itself.

As it was, a mountainous and not particularly habitable area. If it weren't for those, Merlin forgive him, meddling no-maj communities. They just had to plunder every one of their damned resources. Couldn't leave the odd lake or reserve in peace and quiet. Yavin leaned forward, hands on his desk.

"Not populous but it's a, um, a functioning dam," he explained with a wry smile at Quill, "and part of a hiking route. Not that I, hah, imagine there'd be many hikers in the middle of the winter." But there very well could be: it was a lot of area to cover for a small possibility of a few no-maj witnesses.

Ideally they would have no no-maj witnesses whatsover. And he was going to try his utmost.

"We'd need to temporarily shut down the dam," Yav continued, gaze turning serious, "especially, ah, if the object lands in the loch. No-maj dam staff need to be, that is, need to be handled. I'm told that bothies might be a problem as well," he fiddled with the red pin and looked back up. "In summary: your department's services are, hm, are required."

Quill followed Yavin to the desk, her way of moving in clear contrast to his. His languid winding ease, her efficient grace. She looked in turn to her colleague and down on the carefully marked map, at the snake-shaped lake far in the north.  Just as Yavin had seen, Quill understood the scale and imprecision of this operation. It was a vast area, and even without asking Quill suspected Yavin might not be able to be more specific than 'early December'.

She turned her head, relaxing into the curiosity of a logistics problem ready to be sorted. The dam, the hiking trails, the cabins. It was miles from any village, which was rather tidy of the 'foreign object'. Her default irritation with Morgenthau seemed to have been tabled for the moment in favor of getting something done; this was her element.

"We've been understaffed for months," she said, but seemed unconcerned, like it was a fact of the weather. "We'll use everybody. Use every minute until it arrives to scout as much of this as possible. Broomsticks could work for a great deal of this.  Here, through here," she pointed with a long ringed finger, lightly touching the map.

She straightened up. "Are the muggles aware? My network hasn't picked up any talk."

The astronomical data of the muggles was astonishing in its scope and detail. Ignorant as they were to a great deal of what they were measuring, they knew every inch of their skies.

            "Are the muggles aware? My network hasn't picked up any talk."

He stood half-leaning forward against the table, palms resting splayed against the turbulent north sea. Yavin could picture the wixes of level three, darting here and there on their broomsticks and getting an eyeful of the highlands - as well as of the preparations his own department would be making.

"If they were ever aware, they, ahah, they aren't now," he replied without looking up, seamlessly falling back into the more logistical half of their conversation. "I need the immediate area of the loch and the, um, the shore to be clean for Unspeakables. Not even, ah, not even your bunch without us vetting them first."

A handful of level three, that was probably all he was comfortable to have in proximity to the point of impact. Enough to keep an eye on. The idea of three outnumbering nine was not a happy one.

"How far ahead of time do you, hm, do you think it could be cleared?" Yavin finally glanced up, serious behind the spectacles in spite of his pleasant half-smile. "Estimated arrival is around the 10th."

He could be more precise. It would be more helpful to Quill - first, however, he was interested in seeing how helpful Quill was going to be to them.

Level Three glanced up at Level Nine. Quill didn't love Yavin's people doing their own muggle work, but at least he cleaned up after himself and there'd be no scientists and space cults showing up en masse.

"Oh, we'll be starting right away," said the head of Level Three. Quill's department did their very best work unnoticed. Indeed, their emergency response was the most exciting work and the riskiest and the most visible; it was highly necessary and was what earned them accolades and admonishment. But it was their preventative work that rarely saw sunshine.

"We'll start at the loch itself and work outward." They had time. They could be thorough and would have the space to be surreptitious and blend in. "No promises, but we can have a perimeter isolated, oh, by the fifth?"

She set back on her heels and tapped her chin, thinking. "Yes, I think so."

Say what one might about the Obliviators - Quill Som clearly seemed to get the job done. Of course, if she didn't, wizarding and muggle society wouldn't last on peaceful terms for very long after all. He didn't envy the work but he could see the beauty in it, in maintaining an ever-shifting equilibrium.

"The fifth works," Yavin rounded the desk to pluck a quill that was stuck between the teeth of another skeleton, "or it will, hah, it will have to, won't it?"

Five working days to set up. Rosier could work within that, surely, if not less. Now that they had a date of arrival, their preparations were split between different groups figuring out how to retrieve the object; one group on land solutions, another group for underwater solutions. The odds and trajectory favoured a loch landing.

He dipped the quill in an open pot of red ink and scribbled Quill's estimate date next to the pin on the map. "Might be, ah, might be merfolk in the loch," his mouth did something complicated, a smile and frown at the same time, "if you want to get in touch with level four."

It wouldn't be the meteor's fault if it landed right on top of a quaint village of merpeople - it was their job, stopping that from happening. He sighed and tapped the enchanted map, causing the area of the loch to suddenly expand as their view zoomed in. Yavin stood back thoughtfully.

"Object is going to be thirty by, um, bythirty feet wide, minimum. Morning hours," he gave Quill a meaningful look, "that's going to make a lot of, that is, sound, among other things. Boom, flash, bang."

The skeleton with the shades chattered its teeth, "Boom! Flash! BANG!"

And now the event itself. It was going to be Quill's next line of questions, what happened after. Yavin seemed confident he had the muggle sky-watchers covered since he hadn't asked her to work her network, but a massive object crashing to earth was going to draw stares. Amateur observers. Even with the miles-wide safe area Quill intended to secure, it might be hard to predict the reach of the actual event. Light, sound - she cringed in the middle of the thought. What were those damned skeletons even for.

"I'll leave Level Four to you." She was going to be busy enough and merfolk were not in her jurisdiction. If Nine wanted Four, Nine could fetch Four. Yavin would have the information anyway. But moving on.

"We'll be standing by for the landfall. I can set the squib network monitoring muggle communications and we'll have the Excuse Committee on standby with plausible explanations. Some suggestions based on your predictions ahead of time would help. Lacking that we'll manage." They really were very creative down there. They hadn't done a meteor before - actually they'd used 'meteor' before. Very helpful for lights in the sky. Had worked for a flock of rogue bludgers set loose in protest of a Falmouth Falcons loss.

She clasped her hands behind her back. "So. What do you think it is? Why is Mysteries interested. My understanding is the sky is teeming with 'foreign objects'."

Oh, good, a reason to send Unspeakables to four. The two floors were on good terms - or they were historically - but Yavin had yet to call in any favours from the respective divisions. There was, he guessed, no better expedient than necessity herself. He used the quill to add that note to a blank corner of the map: the number 4, followed by the symbol for a paper aeroplane.

"There's going to be a, ah, land tremor, a lot of displaced water. Heat, too, hah, therefore meteorological ramifications," he shrugged as he looked back up, picturing the scene in his mind's eye. "Around dawn. Flash of light is going to be, hm, to be regrettably noticeable. But it will be quick, on account of its oblong shape."

The shape was also the reason it wasn't going to displace a hell lot of water.  It was.... convenient. That worried Yavin the most. All of this was too convenient. Shape, speed, location, timing. Someone or something wanted to land here and it's possible that they wanted it to land unnoticed if they didn't know the extent to which this civilisation observed its heavens.

But that was all speculation.

             "So. What do you think it is?"

"Question of the, ahah, of the hour isn't it?" Yav laughed, scratching his scruff thoughtfully as he smiled at Quill. "We're banking on it being.... purposeful. Not, mm, not a fluke. Merlin knows what we'll find," he glanced down at the map with the faintest trace of concern. "But I don't want to take chances."

In addition to Rosier's investigative team, he had put together a second group to stay behind. Understudies. Just in case something happened to the first Unspeakables at the point of impact.

Quill almost smiled, and shifted her weight. Cosmic intent. Heavenly purpose. Quill Som's whole life had been about making order out of chaos, Chaos being her Opportunity. But the Department of Mysteries had managed to pluck Order from the Cosmos ready-made. Perhaps. Maybe. Could be. Chaos and order, they danced and dissolved on Level Nine.

And purpose didn't always mean organized. But just the same, it was significant.

"Well, that's interesting. Very interesting." She took a wandering step to the side

Quill actually smiled at Yavin then, she hoped in a comforting way. "I don't take chances either."

She took a few more steps, thinking, "You will need time to extract it. How are you planning to transport it back to London? Portkey? Apparition? The Hogwarts Express?"

             "I don't take chances either."

That was probably the best thing he'd heard all day. In Virgil's words, it indicated that three and nine could deal favourably in times to come. Risk was always a factor. Yavin simply preferred calculated risks when lives were hanging in the balance: every one person had to be careful to avoid affecting another participant's safety. You don't keep secrets to protect yourself, you keep them to protect a network.

"Depending on what we find," he sat on the edge of his desk, arms crossed over his chest, "we will need, hm, a day to four or five, to transport. We prefer apparition -" it had the lowest chance of being interfered with "- but if it lands in the, ah, in the loch, extraction and preliminary study will be done onsite. Secondary transport option will be physical. Train or, um, or similar."

Compromising results was out of the question. They had one chance to do this. At least, once chance sort of the Time Room pulling one of its miracles. He sighed, giving Quill one of his lopsided frowns.

"You will be kept current," Yavin promised, "but all estimates are, aha, are vague now. Too much depends on the nature of the, I mean, of the object."

Quill frowned. Not in disapproval but at the real barrier the understaffing in her ranks would be. If Mysteries would need to stay with the object on site for some time, following the possible attention of a fireworks show, it seemed like clearing the massive area in preparation would be the easy part.

Rolling twenty-four hour shifts indefinitely would be difficult to sustain. But they would. She'd do it herself if she had to. Muggle curiosity was more dangerous to the secret magical world than muggle paranoia or fear. Quill turned her head just so.

"We can managed on estimations. It's better than what we usually work with."

She moved back towards him. "I hope you will keep me current, Mr. Morgenthau, and duly informed. I am not your adversary. I know the reputation of my department is one of obstruction but we're here to protect you."

He was building, in his mind. Building the scene of the arrival - every person a bee in their hive, with purpose and drive and the singular intent of accomplishing an overall goal. They would have to work together as well as the sacred pollinators of the natural world. Quill seemed equally committed to this cohesive function.

            "... I know the reputation of my department is one of obstruction but we're here to protect you."

"And to protect them," Yavin added with a less comforting smile, gesturing with his long fingers at the map. "At risk of sounded paternalistic, the no-maj are, aha, are ill equipped for the more fantastic possibilities of our, hm, of our visitor from outer space. Animate or inanimate."

Centuries of science fiction, while entertaining, had nurtured a no-maj atmosphere that would provoke a highly emotional response to extraterrestrial interference. Above all: fear. Fear in masses was a powerful and terrible thing. In the individual it was a better tool, a wiser one.

Yavin bowed his head at Quill. "I think that about, ah, covers it? I'll send you some encrypted, that is, encrypted documents with relevant information."

"Indeed," Quill replied. Morgenthau was right - muggles benefited in many ways to the intricate lies of her Department. It was not easy to hold that high ground. The ethical implications of this whole thing could crumble quickly if too closely inspected. But the alternative was, in Quill's mind, far more immediately worse than ethical discomfort.

She appreciated Yavin sharing his opinion, though. It was good to know where the Head of Mysteries stood, so wily was he.

Quill took a deep breath and returned Yavin's nod.

"I think it does. I am looking forward to this operation. Nothing like a December holiday in Scotland," she added dryly.

"We'll be in touch. Good day, Yavin."