InsaneJournal

Who: Astoria and Percy
What: Delivering Penny's Cat
Where: Obliviator's office to start, then Percy's office
When: 10 am, Thursday, Nov. 13
Rating: Work Safe



Astoria had arrived at work at 8am and quickly found out she was going into the field. At first, she was excited, but then she was informed that they were just joining some hit-wizards at Penelope Clearwater's residence for when her family came to collect her things. Since they were muggles, there may be things there that they weren't supposed to know about, and in that case and Obliviator would have to take care of that situation. It wasn't nearly as interesting as she hoped it would be, but any field work was better than being stuck doing paper work in the office all day, and basically being an overpaid secretary.

When they got to the place, it was still a bit of a mess, and Astoria was really glad she hadn't been there when it was made a mess, like Ron Weasley had apparently been. She didn't know if she completely believed what the Prophet had said about him, she didn't know him. But she had a feeling that if he was a full Auror, then he probably wasn't incompitent, after all, he'd survived the encounter, hadn't he?

The family arrived at the flat shortly after they did, and Astoria's morning went from bad to worse. They were completely distraught, and she felt awful. She wished there was something she could say to make them feel better, but she knew there wasn't. Plus she hadn't even known Penelope, so she just felt completely awkward being there, intruding on their sorrow and loss. They collected the things of hers that they could take, and allowed the hit-wizards to go through her things to determine what they couldn't take, which meant that her presence wasn't even really necessary. She just stood in the middle of the room silently, trying to avert her eyes so she didn't feel like she was right in the middle of everything.

Close to the end of the encounter, something rubbed against Astoria's leg, making her jump a little. She looked down and found a black cat twining itself between her legs and purring loudly. Astoria leaned down and picked the cat up. It continued to pur, and even bumped its head against her chin, which made her laugh a little. She immediately felt bad though, as everyone turned to see what she was so happy about. Her face burned under the blush, but the cat didn't seem to notice everyone's attention and used its paws to demand further petting. One of the hit-wizards told the family that the cat had some magical tendencies and aspects to it, so they unfortunately wouldn't be able to take it with them. The family suggested that it could go to Percy Weasley, who had been close with their daughter according to them. Of course Astoria knew that name, though she had never met the man herself. Soon enough they were all leaving the apartment, and Astoria was heading back to the Ministry, cat in tow. Back at their office, her boss and her handler debated what to do with the cat, and decided that perhaps sending it to the Undersecretary was the best course of action, since it complied with the family's wishes. Astoria was then nominated to carry out the task, since the cat had taken to her. She didn't get a say in the matter, but agreed, because she wasn't allowed to say no, or risk extending her "training" even longer.

Astoria craddled the cat, who the family had told her was named Obsidian, as she headed to the elevators. A few people glanced at her as she passed, but much stranger things had been carried around the Ministry, so it didn't draw much attention. She got off at the Undersecretary's floor and headed to the door to his office. She was nervous, what would he think? Some Obliviator bringing him a cat, that couldn't happen ever day. Plus she knew next to nothing about him. He was pretty quiet from what she'd heard, kept to himself, did his work far better than he should be allowed to, and basically was a bit of a mystery. She just hoped he wouldn't be angry or the kind of person to yell. Or the kind of person who hated cats, because Astoria couldn't take Obsidian home. Her mother would flip.

After taking a deep breath she knocked on the door confidently and waited. She wondered quickly before the door opened if her clothes were completely disheveled and covered in cat fur, and she guessed they were at least covered. What a perfect first impression to make on one of the most important people in the Ministry. When the door was opened, Astoria put on a confident smile as if she knew exactly what she was doing, and this wasn't strange at all. "Hello, Mr. Undersecretary. I'm Astoria Greengrass, from the Obliviator office. I've brought you a cat."