She felt as if she missed out. Maybe it was nonsense, but it has been two months, and some things do change in two months, especially around the office. Demetra hated missing out - it wasn’t just the current affairs (if any), it was all the little office gossip she would usually try to be on top of. When she came to work on Level two she was certain she won’t be sent around the continent to solve various errands anymore. That, she thought, was something reserved for the employees of the International magical cooperation. Alas, she was sent to Bucharest, foolishly hoping that her job will be resolved in a matter of one week or so. Well, it wasn’t the first time Demetra Crouch was very wrong.

It was frustrating as well - all the work she put in this job, it probably won’t be recognized here. No one will know what she went through and the Prophet would never write a single line about it. It wasn’t the most important thing ever, but Demetra adored positive feedback. It was time for the press to make her a bit more known and hopefully help her advance career-wise.

At a first glance Level two was exactly the same as she left it. London was exactly the same as well. Her flat hasn’t changed a bit, the only new thing was a thick layer of dust covering every item she possessed. With a slight frown on her face, she walked though the Ministry carrying a stack of heavy folders wondering if there are any leftover interns who would do this for her. As random people greeted her with not-too-much enthusiasm, the blonde witch barely formed a sour smile and advanced to the place where she remembered her small office was.

The door wasn’t even locked! What was the point of having an office then? Frustrated, she chucked the folders on the dusty desk (covered with even more dusty folders), Demetra realized something wasn’t right. There were random boxes filled with scrolls of parchment and countless files and folders all over her tiny office. And they sure as anything didn’t belong to Demetra Crouch. Fuming inside, she wondered who authorized that her office can be turned into a temporary storage! Even the paintings on the wall (resembling unicorns) were a bit crooked!

Not wanting to look at the mess created within her “holy sanctuary”, she opened the door angrily and stared at the corridor ahead of her, looking for the first person (victim) who could explain and of course, apologize for this heresy.

(((OOC: Since both chars went to Durmstrang at approximately the same time, I’m assuming they recognize each other.  If that’s an issue, let me know and I’ll change it)))

James was, in one word, lost.  Unfortunately for James, he wasn’t just lost, he was stuck in a labyrinth of a ministry.  He could have sworn he pressed level seven when he was in the lift.  He idly wondered if someone had ran an experiment today that changed the entire ministry into a maze, complete with minotaurs.  He had come here on some bureaucratic quidditch league nonsense, and he even had his form filled out.  He was going to mail it, but decided that an impromptu tour of the ministry might be interesting since he never had any cause to go there before.  ‘Next time,’ James thought, ‘I’ll just mail the %!@#$@ piece of parchment.’  As James continued to wander the halls he wondered how he got turned around so badly.  He had the parchment tucked under his arm, ready to be dropped off to whatever bureaucrat required it. 

He wandered around for a while, and was going to ask someone for directions, but everyone seemed to be in some sort of hurry or have some pretext for blowing him off.  He wondered if these egos were normally like this, or if he just came at the wrong time..

Not really watching where he was going, James finally saw someone in an office.  He was about to start with ‘excuse me’ when he saw her eyes.  He had seen those blue green eyes before, but where?  He tried to recall it, and it brought memories of his school days.  He then remembered that entire incident with Karkaroff, Krum, and the Tri-wizard tournament.  ‘Crouch!’ he thought.  He could not remember if the lady in front of him was related to that family or not.

  ‘Demetra Crouch!’ his eyes sparkled at the realization.  He had not really known her that well in school; though almost everyone in Durmstrang knew each other even if they were not friendly.  He was debating or not whether to greet her by name.  He decided not to, instead he opted for a less familiar approach.

“Long time no see.  I do not see many other graduates from Durmstrang around here.  How have you been?” he asked with a smile.   

He then noticed the state of the office.  It looked like a minor tornado had swept through the area, displacing paper, and boxes all over the place.  James decided not to comment on it though, since he had not seen Demetra in years. 

What was this? This stuff certainly did not belong to her! She wasn’t sure what to do with it at the moment, but one thing was certain - it was going out of her office. However, first things first - it was time to fix the crooked paintings on the wall. She won’t be able to concentrate otherwise. Then she will have to find the person responsible for this. Actually, it didn’t matter, she will blame the first person she finds suitable and hopefully create hell in his or her boring, miserable life.

But the state of her precious office! She didn’t even want to think who stepped inside while she was gone. Annoyed, she started looking at the nearest box loaded with all sorts of folders and office memos. Maybe she should just burn all this useless stuff…No one seemed to want it anyway. But she wasn’t that sort of a person - she liked to organize the documents, even if they weren’t hers. Some things just needed to be done, no matter how dreadful they were. Of course, she will not sort this matter on her own - there were always perfect substitutes for such lowly work around here.

Grabbing a box of what seemed to be a stack of almost-ancient parchments, she decided to take it to the nearest intern, just to fill up his time. Just as she was getting out of the office, someone appeared at the door. Perfect! However, before she had time to even apprehend who he was, the man spoke.

“Long time no see.  I do not see many other graduates from Durmstrang around here.  How have you been?”

A bit startled, Demetra blinked and took several seconds to observe the person in front of her. Well, he was right, there weren’t many Durmstrang graduates here, not on Level two at least. However, she couldn’t quite place this bloke, but she of course wouldn’t admit that. Demetra met more people in a month than most people probably met in a lifetime, but she still wanted to appear as if she is perfectly familiar with each and every one of them. So instead of awkwardly inquiring about who he actually is, Demetra decided to play along and hopefully find out enough to figure out who he was.

“Oh my goodness!” she said, acting pleasantly surprised, forming a microscopic smile. “Merlin’s beard, you are right! Durmstrang graduates are a real rarity over here. I’m presuming you’re not working on Level two, otherwise we would have met before, no?” She was quite good at this, but then again, all good lawyers were. 

  “Oh my goodness!” [Demetra] said, acting pleasantly surprised, forming a microscopic smile. “Merlin’s beard, you are right! Durmstrang graduates are a real rarity over here. I’m presuming you’re not working on Level two, otherwise we would have met before, no?”

James was happy that she was glad to see him, and not so happy that she couldn’t remember who he was.  ‘I bet this never happens to Krum,’ he bitterly thought.  James knew he should not be so surprised, especially since they did not have classes together, and she was three years his senior.  It still got to him a little though.  James kept the smile on his face though, because he was happy to see an old school mate, even if they were a few years apart.

“In case you do not remember, I am James Forrester.  We have not seen each other in almost a decade now, and I was a bit smaller when you last saw me.  To answer your question though, I am just here to drop off some paperwork to the Dept. of Magical Games & Sports.   I am actually lost though.  I honestly did not even know what level I was on until you told me.  I knew I got turned around, but I did not even realize that I had changed floors,” James said with a nervous laugh.  Being this lost was embarrassing to James.

He then wondered what level two actually did.  He tried to bring it to the top of his mind, but couldn’t remember.  He thought it might have something to do with magical recuperation?  He was torn between that and the department of controlling regurgitation of magical creatures.  If it did not involve quidditch, James did not know about the department.  He wondered what else the ministry did besides sanction aurors and quidditch matches.  He decided not to strain his mental muscles and just ask her.  He did not even know where he was, let alone what floors did what.

“I am not familiar with the ministry or level two.  Since you work here, what do you do?” James asked, somewhat curious.  James decided that talking to a fellow Durmstrang alumnus was more important than a piece of parchment anyways.  He could always owl it tomorrow.  After today, he would probably try to have all of his correspondence with the ministry by owl.  There was no need for him to get this completely lost anywhere, even if it did come with a free tour of the ministry.

Demetra felt a relief when he decided to introduce himself. It meant there would be no need for her to guess and pretend any longer. However, it seemed Forrester saw right through her façade. She must be out of practice! All that time abroad did no good to her character, after all. She could have slapped herself. But at least she now knew who this man is. In Durmstrang, there were two types of people - the ones who worshiped Viktor Krum and the ones who pretended to be oblivious of his existence. Three guesses to which group Demetra used to belong…

James was quite right though. She could barely recognize him, and while she didn’t think she changed a lot physically since her school days, this guy looked like an entirely different person. But she could definitely remember who he was now - there weren’t that many people from Britain up in Durmstrang at that time, so she could clearly remember the names of the ones who were. “No, I do remember you,” she said with a smile. When he mentioned the Department of Magical games and sports, she assumed he was probably still into Quidditch. Not that she knew anything about that sport.

Putting the box she was holding down on the floor, she smirked to herself. “Lost, huh? You can say that again. I think you missed it by about…six floors!” Amused, she wondered why he failed to follow the instructions because he was actually tragically lost. Oh well, but he was lucky he stumbled upon her, rather than someone of the likes of her boss, or some silly intern. 

But she was slightly surprised he didn’t know what Level two was all about. Everyone knew that! No wonder he got so pathetically lost…”Level two is Law Enforcement,” she explained brushing the dust from her robes. The office will certainly need some thorough cleaning. “I’m a defense attorney,” she smiled, but then remembered the state of her office and the smile evaporated instantly. “I apologize for the state of this place…I just returned from Romania and…well it needs to be sorted out.” She shrugged not really wanting to go into details.   

As James listened to her say, “NO I remember you now,” he felt slightly better.  That lasted for a brief moment until she answered his other queries.  As she continued to speak, he felt like a bigger and bigger fool.  ‘I should really read up on the ministry basics sometime,’ James thought to himself.  He knew he was lost, but he did not realize he was off by six floors.  After Demetra declared her profession and apologized for the state of her office, James surveyed it one more time.  He honestly did not think an office could get that messy without someone intentionally making it so.  After seeing his manager’s office the other day during practice, that was saying something.  Still, it really was not any of his business one way or the other.

“A defense attorney – most impressive,” James commented.  James knew he was nowhere near as smart as the witch in front of him.  His focus had been flight in school, and admittedly he had been in the league for several years now and would have to retire eventually.  She could probably be an attorney for a long time.

“Hopefully I will never be one of your clients –no offense.  Still, your profession sounds fascinating.  Would you tell me a little bit about it?” James asked with a slight smile on his face.  James would talk about quidditch, but he did not recall Demetra being a large fan of the sport.   ‘And it isn’t like I’ve been in the paper recently,’ James bitterly thought to himself.  James wondered if he should make a move to get more publicity without acting like a fool.  While he did want more publicity, he did not want the Tornadoes to end up like the Falcons. 

He cleared his head.  He needed to focus on the present.  As he took another look at Demetra, he wondered if there were other Durmstrang graduates hanging around the ministry.  He also hoped that he would not bump into them in such an embarrassing manner.  Still, James was happy to see any old classmates, maybe he should set up a get together sometime with all of the Durmstrang alumni?  He wondered if anyone would be there besides Demetra and himself though.