Alastor shook his head. "It's not their fault. Times changed. Training changed. Ask Potter to tell you what the last twenty-six years have been like in the Wizarding World. It's a surreal experience to hear him tell it."
He huffed none too softly at the idea of shrink visits. "Times have changed. The bureaucracy has gotten worse." And it had never been difficult to give the shrink the words they needed to hear to clear a person. Not that he particularly wanted to talk about Vaisey right then, either. "We should have waited for back-up. That was my fuck up. But, if we had, we would have lost the shot and getting the bastard. It shouldn't have happened. But, it did. Life goes on...or at least we try to keep it going."
Chuckling, Alastor turned his attention to his own food, finally. "As long as you wear the wedges and not the stillettos, my toes will survive," he teased. "Potter will listen. I think vance was actually disappointed to learn how much he's willing to listen to alternate viewpoints. That doesn't mean he'll necessarily agree. But, he'll listen. He's more likely to listen to someone who knows the old way of doing things, as well. You're nearly as good as I am for the information he needs."
And for once, Alastor only meant the difference to be in the four years extra he'd had in the field after her death, not their natural talents.
At her sigh, he nodded. It was important to him. "I need people I can trust, both in general and to be able to do the job being asked of them. And Potter needs someone else he can give those things you don't want me doing to. As I said, it would be a waste not to have you on the hunt for Voldemort and if things do overlap, we will need to know how to deal with you and I interacting in that capacity. But, you also just pointed out an avenue we don't have the man-power to cover -- infiltration. Undercover is your strong suit and your record there is on a par with my field record. Potter's made plenty of unpopular decisions that have been necessary to one degree or another, including but not limited to giving me the case in the first place. It's not protocol, but maybe the answer is to put you in charge of something, too. We'd be putting ourselves back on more equal footing and Potter gets a new position to attack from."