November 2, 2008
11am

Niobe had been in hot water all summer with Level Two.  Her coverage of the events of Remembering Day had not at all made lovey-love with the Aurors, who were already predisposed to dislike her as a Daily Prophet reporter.  But the relationship was vital for them both.  Niobe needed them and they, she claimed, needed her.  Now they didn't neither of them have to like it, but they had to bear it or face ineptitude and irrelevance.

Her articles about the Knockturn Ally explosion had been as much a peace offering to Level Two as it had been to protect her friend Margaret Groust.  She hoped the olive branch had been noticed.

"Morning, Silas," she said with a smile and nod to the intake associate near the front of Level Two.  He was appropriately cold to her, but she didn't let it fluff her feathers - Silas was always very appropriate with his frigid manners.

She had no particular mission in mind, that is to say she had a score and a half of things she'd have loved to accomplish, but which of them she achieved would depend on who she could get to talk to her.  She'd proven to Level Two that she could play by their rules.  And she'd proven to herself she could do it without the Extendable Ears. 

She stood just outside of the perimeter of the first round of cubicles and looked around with out looking around.  She could see maps spangled with push pins, scowling mug shots, and stacks of leafy file folders.  Niobe bit her lip: she'd have killed for just ten minutes unhindered in here.  Of course most of it was mundane, boring and irrelevant; but there would also be real stuff in there.

Like what had ever happened to Colonel Kabir's assassin? That floo had shut up tight on her.  And what about the Remembering Day Murderer - was he in the wind? Had the Aurors been given any orders as far as investigating the teenage werewolf's expulsion? Could they link that to the recent werewolf sightings? Were they cooperating at all with Vane Hendric, who'd recruited one of their own for his strange swat team?  And who the hell was running the place anyway? There was no Head of this Department.

She was being patently ignored by most of the people in the room.  But she'd stand there until someone came over to accept her olive branch, or tried to shoo her away.

Ahmed spotted Niobe as he emerged from Adon Eleor’s cubicle. He froze as he recognized her. Making himself available to Thursby had been much resented on Level Two; though once his colleagues saw that he hadn’t told her her anything except what was common knowledge, he had been forgiven. After all when it came to dealings with reporters, Colonel Kabir was no novice. The Border Security Force got a lot of bad press; and he had often been called upon to serve as spokesman. If he suspected that some of his BSF colleagues...and others more highly placed...deserved all that was said about them, he had not said so. At least, not yet...

When Niobe tracked him down at Tulo’s, he had more or less promised he would talk to her again. He supposed this was as good a time as any; but he didn’t want it to be in plain sight of Raynor. In his mind at least, for all intents and purposes she was head of the department, and he knew she didn’t approve of Thursby. However by now Ahmed had read a number of Niobe’s articles; and he felt that as reporters go, she wasn’t a bad sort. However, having just recently got himself back into Raynor’s and Eleor’s good graces, he had no desire to wave a red flag in front of them.

“Hello, Miss Thursby,” he said with a smile. Though he was not in uniform he was more formally dressed than the last time she had seen him...barefoot, in a red flannel robe. Today he was wearing a yellow-orange kirta, a beige Afghan cap, khaki trousers and black running shoes. She likes coffee, he reminded himself.

“May I offer you an espresso, at the Atrium Café?”

He hoped the café would provide better service than it had when he invited Claudia Vespucciano for coffee...

Niobe smiled genuinely at the sight of Kabir Ahmed.  They'd had a pleasent time at the Hogwarts Healer's hut and she'd been delighted to break his story.  However, the tap had gone ice cold since then.  She wasn't surprised.  The Colonel and his duties seemed a far throw above her pay grade.  It made sense that they'd tuck him away as soon as they could and as thoroughly. 

But he'd been nice.

And he was still being nice.

"Colonel!" she greeted, standing away from the cubicle wall against which she'd been leaning.  She reached to shake his hand.

"I've never seen you looking so well. You look as if no one's ever tried to kill you with a poison dart.  Nuts to those who tried, eh?"

He'd offered her coffee from the Atrium.  It wasn't bad coffee at all down there.  The Ministry's facilities were really quite nice and you were always assured to bump into one dignitary or another taking respite from the gloomy reaches of Ministry offices.

But it was the gloomy reaches she was here for.  She couldn't give up on the Aurors so easily, could she.  She gave Colonel Kabir a pained expression.

"Oh, I can't retreat just yet, Colonel.  Got to mend things up with the lads."  She spoke that last sentence loudly; a broadcast to the Aurors who were still ignoring her.

"Colonel! I've never seen you looking so well. You look as if no one's ever tried to kill you with a poison dart.  Nuts to those who tried, eh?"

“It will take more than a bee-sting to get rid of me,” said Ahmed. He grinned and took her hand. He was glad to see Niobe. Vlad had told him it was time for him to stop being such a hermit, and start dating again. In fact he was making rather broad hints about his own daughter, Gabrielle Murray-Harker. But so far...with the exception of Claudia Vespucciani...Ahmed’s attempts to connect with young ladies in London had met with dismal failure.

He had run into Candace Peterson in Diagon Alley and was favorably impressed; but when he sought her out at the Halloween Party, she ignored him in favor of Dante Ward. Then there was Desdemona Vonderheide, who he had met outside Fortescue’s when he slipped on the ice cream she spilled. He fell, hit his head on the bench, and was momentarily dazed. Desdemona ran off supposedly to get an icepack, and never returned. As for Claudia, she was just a friend, but at least she seemed to enjoy his company...

Ahmed and Auror Eleor had agreed on what would be appropriate to tell Niobe; which was, basically, no more than what was in the public record. However there was more of that available than what had actually been written up in the Daily Prophet. For instance Adon and Ahmed were first on the scene when Gawain Robards was killed. It was them who had gently convinced Aberdeen Spence to surrender rather than going on to kill both of them. Which, being obviously Imperiused and not in touch with reality, she might easily have done. Particularly since both of them hesitated to use force on her... 

"Oh, I can't retreat just yet, Colonel.  Got to mend things up with the lads."

“What particular lad would you like to make amends with?” asked Ahmed, grinning again. He was bored. It might liven things up to sic Niobe on somebody...