ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ

WHERE:  Team bonding night / Michael’s welcome party / The Three Sheets

WHEN: 17th October, 2008

“Sorry I’m late!”

Padma slid into an open seat setting down her bag and looking towards her coworkers. She’d made a stop between work and the team outing dropping some things off with Parv and making sure her sister was eating meals that included all five members of the food pyramid. It hadn’t been an excuse exactly but Padma couldn’t say she wasn’t looking forward to the few minutes it would knock out of the outing tonight. Their department was vast and diverse which often meant a lot of awkward small talk and arguing whenever all of them were forced to sit together and decide on anything like food, drinks, team bonding activities, where the cameras all went. She wasn’t sure who actually looked forward to things, though she was sure someone had to if they kept partaking in these outings. Or maybe someone just wanted them to all suffer together.

Not letting her hopes up, she ordered a drink and then turned to the people sitting closest to her. “Have I missed the karaoke yet?”

WHERE:  Michael’s desk, the Spirit Division

WHEN: 13th October, 2008

It was a bit odd working with Michael. Going to school with him had already been bad enough with the endless annoyance he’d been every time they came across each other. And even when they’d been working is separate departments he’d found a way to become an almost daily nuisance to her, it had gotten marginally worse when he’d been transferred. Most of Michael’s energy had been focused on the anger of being shoved into some background Department most had seen as a punishment, Padma not included, and therefore she’d given him a bit of space. His anger would fizzle out eventually, maybe, possibly. 

In the meantime she felt a bit of sympathy for Anthony and Terry who were certainly getting the brunt of his complaints. Maybe it was time for her to share the burden.

WHO: @gentlcs​​ / Padma Patil WHERE:  Office of the Spirit Division, Level Four, Ministry of Magic, Whitehall, London. WHEN: 2nd October, 2008

“Padma?”

Roger doesn’t exactly remember wedging himself underneath his desk, a long night spent surveilling activities for the case currently papering his desk (an unfortunate hazard of the profession was that their subjects quite frequently only revealed themselves at night) had left him yawning through his morning. Perhaps he had fallen asleep without meaning to? Staring up at the intricate symbols carved with pen-knife precision into the underside of his desk he blinked, once, then twice and called again, “Padma? Do we still have that—”

Dennis always had a camera on him, but Dennis had been assigned to follow Draco around until he stopped scowling at everything that moved. 

Wriggling awkwardly towards freedom like a rained-out earthworm, he frowned. He was sure Padma had been in the office when .. well, she’d been here before. “Camera,” he huffed out as he managed to shuffle his head out from beneath the shadow to blink up into the dripping ceiling. It was freezing in here today. “Either someone’s been messing around with my desk or we’ve got a hitchhiker in here.”

Roger supposed he probably shouldn’t sound quite so delighted about that.

It wasn’t exactly rare for Padma to find her colleagues in odd situations or compromising positions, in fact she found that fairly normal here in the Spirit Division of the Ministry. At least Roger was rather nice about it. Padma often found herself coming across a mumbling and cursing Michael and then having to calm down said Michael before he unleashed his fury on their unknowing coworkers. She could understand why her friend was angry but it didn’t make for the best work environment.

“There’s bound to be one around here. I believe I lent the one I was holding onto to Percy after someone nicked his.” Percy wasn’t the friendliest of coworkers but Padma did trust him with a camera that was lent out in her name. She knew the most rigid of the Weasley siblings would return it to her, in working condition. Not the same could be said about everyone around here. “Maybe Astoria has one? Or Penelope?”