Narrative Who: Theodore Nott and Padma Patil When: May 23, 2000 Where: Outside the Ministry of Magic, The Maharaja Restaurant Rating: PG Status: In progress Summary: Padma meets up with Theodore to discuss his party plans over curry.
Padma did her best to be on time as promised, and as it was, she was barely two minutes late. It seemed there had been some witch or wizard to get on or off on every floor between her Department and the ground level of the Ministry. Her heels (the thankfully reinforced pair) clicked rapidly as she rushed through the atrium, bobbing and weaving in and out between all the other witches and wizards rushing out on a Friday afternoon. Of course the public entrance was jam packed at this time of day, and she had to wait in line behind several other Ministry workers heading out into London.
She wondered at times what the Ministry thought to enforce by putting holds on transportation between the Muggle and Magical world. Sure, portkeys were harder to obtain, and floo connections had been closed - and you weren't supposed to just pop in and out on a whim - but they couldn't very well close down the public entrance to the Ministry without giving the public access to the private workers entrance of the Ministry, and there was the rub. The public entrance lead straight into Muggle London, so how was the Ministry really holding travel at all? Padma was beginning to believe they really were daft, the lot of them. She finally appeared in the phoone booth on the ground level outside the Ministry and instantly looked about for Theodore. She checked her watch once more - only five minutes late. She did hope he'd been able to make it.