Every new beginning ...

[mira_caliga]

She'd been putting it off, but Mira was a bit loathe to tell Harry that things were going to change. He'd been looking especially stressed of late, thoughts even more distant and seemingly concerned than normal. She was sure the line between his brows would etch itself there forever it he wasn't careful.

The skirt of her dress swished against her legs as she padded down the darkened corridor of the MLE, hot tea in hand, and she felt a bit nostalgic. Her days were numbered here.

Sighing softly, she turned the corner into the Director's outer offices, past her desk and into Harry's where his mess of dark hair was bent over whatever parchment currently held his attention. She replaced his cup with the steaming one she held before going about his desk and picking up files and putting away this and that. It was mostly dark but for his lamp, but she knew where everything was and where it went.

"Did you know that we're going through two-hundred quills a month?" Harry asked, aware that Mira had entered his office but not fully pulled from what he'd been doing. "That has to be wrong. I know we do a lot of reports, but that seems a bit ridiculous. Two-hundred a month."

"Actually, it's averaged out to two-hundred twenty-two," she said as she came around to his left and opened the bottom drawer of his desk. His personal files were crammed there and she began to put away what he'd pulled out that day.

"Still, that's a ridiculous number of quills to go through. Someone has to be nicking them." Sitting back in his chair, Harry pulled his glasses from his face and rubbed his hand over his eyes. He knew it was late, late enough that everyone else had likely gone home already, but he'd been keeping a closer eye on things since his meeting with the Department heads. He didn't want anything else to go by unnoticed.

"Mmm. There's a hardened criminal in our midst," she replied absently, fingers skimming over the files until she found the last one she was looking for and put away the parchment in hand. "Snatcher of quills. They sound quite fearsome," she added, as she closed the drawer and smiled up at him.

"It's the little things that I get yelled at for. Trying to explain the loss of two-hundred quills in a month might make the higher-ups a little more mad at me than they already are. If that's still possible..."

"The Minister cares about how many quills we go through?" she asked, doubt tinting her features as she stood, now looking down at him. "Or maybe, it's other Department heads that aren't playing very nicely? Papa was a bit ... perturbed the other day when I went to visit Falcon Court."

"Well, it's a little more than just them not playing nicely. Things have been a little tense since the last meeting. Some people weren't happy with the way things went."

"The vote, you mean?" She glanced back at him after she filed something in the heavy wooden drawers along the wall. "That came up in the Wizenmagot? I heard that wasn't planned on the original docket."

Harry nodded, sitting forward, resting his elbows as he looked over at her. The small pool of light from the lamp on the edge of his desk cast the corners of his office in shadow, but he was able to make out her general shape. He'd been staring at the papers in front of him for so long that small lines still swam in his vision. "I think there was a lot of things that happened in that meeting that wasn't planned."

Shutting the drawer, Mira's gaze shifted to the open door. The outer office door was open as well, and though there were few people in the Ministry at this hour, it still wasn't wise to speak of such things where a person might hear undetected. Turning about, she padded back to Harry's desk, blue eyes finding his green ones. "You know, I think even though we didn't plan to eat, it's probably best. We're several hours over at this point and I'm starving. Mexican this time, yeah?"

Eyebrows rising, Harry opened his mouth to protest, but tried to remember what he'd had for lunch. His stomach promptly told him that he hadn't had anything and he was starving as well. "I could eat."

"Mmhmm. I'll get my things," she chirped, already moving for the door. Her eyes went to the darkened hallway, and though she knew there wouldn't be anyone there to see, it didn't mean that someone hadn't been there.

Harry joined her momentarily and they made their way down to the Atrium, and only when they were out on the London street, surrounded by Muggles, did Mira link her arm through his and glance up. "You know, boss, that you should be a little more careful about talking about what goes on behind the closed doors of departmental meetings when not only your office door is open, but mine was, too."

"I think people need to worry less about what is said behind closed doors and worry more about their jobs as public servants," Harry said, face darkening. "The cloak and dagger routine that's going on at the Ministry is stupid. Politics or not, when you tell the public you're going to do something, you do it like you said you would."

He looked down at her, his frown lightening slightly. "Besides, it's not like anyone would be surprised to find out I didn't like the politics part of the politics."

"Well, no," Mira ventured, unsure of the darkness that had shuttered his features. "But it is what it is, and sometimes it's just best to be cautious."

Harry sighed, the end turning into a small laugh. "I don't think I have that ability. I think I might have been close to getting it at one point at Hogwarts, but then something happened and I lost it."

Mira nodded, blue eyes tracking back up to him as they walked. She wanted to ask what had happened, but wasn't sure if she'd dredge up some bad memory. Harry seemed to have a lot of those. "That's where you can at least be smart about the people you have around you. You don't have to do everything, you know. There's others that can help you with the politics and bits you don't like, or don't want to learn."

"So there's someone that can sit at that desk and do everything for me? Where is this person and I have I not heard about them sooner?" Harry was only half-kidding, but managed to look down at her with a smile.

Mira gave him a look, but dropped her gaze. Now was probably as good a time as any. "Speaking of someone doing things for you," she said, nerves jumping beneath her skin now. She didn't want to let him down, especially as things were heating up around him at the Ministry, but it was better now than later. "I'm afraid you're going to have to find a replacement for me." Mira glanced back up, rushing to add, "I got accepted into the Experimental Charms Committee."

Steps slowing, forcing her to slow as well as she was wrapped around his arm, Harry blinked at her behind his glasses. "You're leaving?"

"Well, technically I'll just be a few floors up," she said, warmth rushing into her cheeks. "It's not for a few months yet, and I'll train whoever it is you decided to take on. I'll be relentless and exacting, even." She hadn't meant to drop it on him like this, though she supposed it'd have had rather the same effect regardless of how she'd told him.

Nodding, Harry turned his gaze in front of them, working hard to keep the frown off his face, though the corner of his mouth still turned downward. He wanted to ask if it was something he did, but he knew it was a stupid question. She was smart, graduating from school, and a simple secretary position would never be where she ended up. This had just been a place to stay until things were in order elsewhere. He understood that.

"They're lucky to have you," he said after a few quiet moments, decidedly not pointing out that no one replacing her would be as good as she'd been, even if she did train them thoroughly.

Her eyes were on the pavement and she worried at her bottom lip. Part of her was glad, in a way, that Harry wasn't enthused about this turn of events - it meant that she had done a good job - but a larger part was almost guilty for leaving him. She knew he needed someone to look after him. Even though she'd posed it as a joke, she would be relentless and exacting on whomever took her spot. He would have the best.

"My Mum and sister are there," she offered, "and they're interested in my research. They're willing to give me a grant to continue, as well as a seat on the committee. I ... I couldn't pass it up."

"Of course not. I'd be mad if you did," he offered, looking over at her with a small, wan smile. "It's what you've worked for, gone to school for. You should be able to do what you were meant to do, Mira, and that was definitely not taking care of me. Though, if you were able to write up a curriculum to teach the next one, maybe she'll manage to last more than a few months before I drive her off."

The restaurant he assumed she'd been leading them was just ahead, and he reached out to open the door for her. He had been starving before, but just then he wasn't feeling particularly hungry.

They slipped through the door and were seated shortly after, but when the waiter left with their drink order, Mira found Harry's gaze across the table and reached out to pat his hand. "Harry, you're not as scary as you think. A little disorganized, maybe, but you're a pleasure to work with. I think the difficulty will be finding someone who's not enraptured by who your are, more than anything," she offered with a small smile.

"I've had two friends as my secretary, friends, and even they couldn't put up with me. The other one was poisoned, though I don't really think that had anything to do with me. I wouldn't exactly call me a 'pleasure' to work with." Reaching for a chip, he dipped it into the salsa, chewing sullenly as he looked down at the festive tablecloth.

"Hmm. I suppose you're right," she said, though her blue eyes were bright now. "I recall raising my voice at you more than once. Perhaps when I write up the expectations, I should add 'vast wells of patience' as a requirement."

Harry glared softly across the table at her. "As long as you put in 'able to stare down veteran Aurors when needed'," he said, hint of a smile playing at his lips.

"Steely gaze. Check." She couldn't really help the grin that started to curl her lips. "Anything else?"

"'Able to ascertain when tea is necessary without needing to be asked'... 'penchant for humming under breath while writing correspondences'... Oh, you'll probably want to put something in there about needed to know your filing system. It still baffles me."

"It's alphabetized," she pointed out, grin now quite apparent despite the barest pink tint to her cheeks. "But I'll make sure it's in there" She bit at her lip a moment before asking, "do I really hum?"

"Yeah," Harry replied, grinning at the rose color staining her face. "Though you stop for a little bit when you're focused really hard or trying to get across a point." It was a silly thing, but he'd found himself pulled from work quite a few times when the sound had found its way through his open door and into his office. It wasn't distracting as much as it was... pleasant. Soothing.

"Yeah, well you mutter at your paperwork when you don't like it." Her skin was positively hot now, but a smile still lit her features. She hadn't known Harry had been paying such close attention to her silly habits. "I don't know what it ever did to you."

"It exists," Harry said, shrugging his shoulders. Hermione had been forced to flee from the library several times when he'd started growling at his homework under his breath. It wasn't a conscious thing, he didn't think, and it did somehow make him feel a bit better.

"That doesn't bode well for the rest of us," she replied, eyes bright as she set her chin in her hands and rested her arms on the table.

Harry snorted. "I've yet to mutter at you or about you."

"There's a first time for everything." She leaned back then as their drinks were set before them. Orders were placed, and when the waiter left, Mira shifted her attention back to Harry. "You were saying back at the office that something happened in that departmental meeting that wasn't planned? Papa was frustrated when I visited him and Mother, but he didn't say a whole lot."

Taking a long drink from his Corona, Harry nodded. "There were some..." he struggled to find the right word, "...disagreements regarding the amount being paid by those fined with reparations."

"My Mum makes sure the Rosier estate pays every sickle," Mira said, nodding. She knew all about the reparations, both from her mother's expressed disapproval of the whole thing, and from her Papa's steady, rational voice that it was one small way to do good where so much wrong had been done. He'd been rather peeved about whatever Harry was alluding to, however, and she couldn't really even guess at what had happened.

"She won't have to fairly soon," Harry said, taking another drink of the amber liquid.

"No?" Mira tipped her head slightly, and paused from taking a sip to set the beer bottle down.

"The Wizengamot has voted that posthumous reparations paid by the family of a known death eater, who were never convicted themselves, are no longer responsible to pay for crimes which they did not commit or condone," Harry said, reciting what he knew the public would be told soon enough.

Mira's brows went up. That was definitely a surprise. "Well, I suppose that's fair, though it won't really affect the Rosier estate. Uncle Hunter is still in Azkaban," she told him. It wasn't something she talked of often - she didn't even really know her uncle Hunter - but it was what it was and she didn't shy away from the truth of her family. It was a matter of public record anyways.

"But Papa wouldn't have been upset about that," she said, more to herself than anything as her brow furrowed slightly. "It sounds just and fair."

"The decision was prompted by the knowledge that not all the funds from the reparations were going to the charities they were supposed to be going to," he clarified, green eyes darkening at the memory of the shock of that information. It wasn't public knowledge, and he would do everything he could to keep it that way, but this was Mira. He trusted her.

He sat back against the wood of the booth, sighing. "We've put someone in place to make sure it doesn't happen with the regular reparations from here on out. A lot of the people at the meeting were surprised. Some weren't."

Mira blinked. It sounded as if things had been very ... underhanded. No wonder her Papa had been so miffed, and that Harry had been in something of a poor mood the last several weeks. She usually heard about such decisions by now given her position, but apparently the higher-ups were trying to keep it all as low-key as possible. It wouldn't last, of course, but she was impressed such a tight lid had been kept on the whole matter thus far.

"Is that ... is it illegal? There were bills and measures that prescribed the specific uses of the funds collected, wasn't there?"

"No bills, just what was passed down by the Wizengamot. Apparently some of them knew that the funds were being misappropriated, and others didn't. When it all came to light, however, they were overwhelmingly against any future funds being used for anything but what they'd originally been intended for. Like I said, we've people in place to make sure the reparations still in place go to where they're meant to."

Harry didn't like the idea that if he'd never learned of what was going on, he would still be one-hundred percent behind the reparations, posthumous or not. Now, though... he didn't like the idea that something he'd believed in, had faith in, had been wrong. Not because he didn't enjoy being proved wrong; he'd been proved wrong time and time again. No, he didn't like it because he didn't like wondering if he was in the shadows now when he'd striven so hard to stay in the light.

"If we get a hint that a single knut is going anyplace but where it's supposed to be, there will be further investigations. I'm not sure the Ministry would enjoy a heavy internal look into everything."

"Certainly not," Mira agreed. She knew a little about politics, though most of it had to do with social politics and how people interacted than actual bureaucratic politics, but she couldn't see such a big organization as the Ministry or Magic wanting to be probed or audited. She liked to believe it was an upstanding place - something her Papa had always believed wholeheartedly - but she was not unaware there were skeletons in everyone's closet. "Especially after the truth of the reparation funds coming to light."

Her brow furrowed slightly and she went quiet for several moments as their food was placed before them, but after the waiter had left, Mira leaned forward again. "So ... where did the funds go then? It was misappropriated, but where?"

"Lots of places. New floos in the atrium. The new offices in the MLE for the Aurors and Hit Wizards. Almost every department has benefitted from the reparations."

Mira nodded, though something still wasn't quite sitting right. It didn't fit all the way. "I ... still." She pursed her lips and tried to find the right words for her busy thoughts. "It still ... doesn't quite fit. That takes money, but there's a lot of money there, Harry. Do you have any idea how much the families actually pay? Most of them are old money, like Uncle Hunter, and the sums are rather large. If the orphanages are still getting what they always were allotted, there'd be a lot left even after new offices and new floos."

Her words tossed about in his head. He'd never taken a good look at the amount most of the reparations consisted of, but when Mira pointed it out, he did start to wonder where most of that money was going, if it wasn't going to the charities. Even with all the repairs that had been made at the Ministry, there was a leak somewhere.

"I'll have our man on the inside take a look at things, see if he can find out where the funds are going, then," Harry said, nodding. If the head of the Unspeakables department had someone in place, then they'd find out. The Unspeakables knew how to find things out.

Mira nodded, tiny frown of concentration still pulling between her brow. All of this was just a bit beyond her. She knew how things worked in the most general of terms, but she'd never had reason to play the kind of politics that Harry was finding himself in. In the scheme of things, she'd always been a bit player and that wasn't likely to change, but Harry had always played in bigger ponds. It was easy to forget sometimes, despite his past and current occupation, because much of time she just saw absent-minded, slightly rumpled and completely endearing Harry.

"I suppose that's good," she said slowly, nodding. Her lips twitched when she met his eyes again. "It all sounds very Mission Impossible. Having 'men on the inside' and such."

Harry rose an eyebrow in Mira's direction. "It keeps surprising me that you know muggle films."

"Well, not that many. A boy took me to see that one at a moovee theater first year in uni." She took a sip of her Corona then before adding, "There was a lot of action and it was very thrilling. I don't really remember the others I've seen though."

Laughing, Harry finished his beer, setting the empty bottle at the end of the table. "He probably thought he'd won the lottery, you agreeing to see that movie with him."

A tiny smile curled her lips at Harry's laughter - a rare enough thing - but her expression was that of confusion and her cheeks tinted pink.

Harry stared into his food. He didn't eat Mexican often, mainly because it was one of the only foods that wasn't readily deliverable in London to the Ministry, but he did love it. When things were quiet for a few moments, Harry looked up at Mira, smiling. "How's your sister?"

"Which one?" she asked, grin lighting her eyes. "Alexa's in Paris as much as London these days, Abs is just about to get out of school for the summer and Cassiopeia's been making the rounds of garden parties with Mother while I slave away to finish my thesis."

"I suppose the only one I've met so far," Harry said, shrugging his shoulders. He couldn't imagine growing up having sisters. Even growing up around the Weasley's, Ginny had never been a girl... until one day she was and a lot of things had changed. But, whenever he asked Ron what it was like to grow up with a sister, he'd shrugged his shoulders. Ginny was more like one of the boys than anything, but Mira had three sisters, and was a girl herself, so it had to have been different. "What does Alexa do in Paris?"

"She's works in charms like the rest of us, but she decided to go into cosmetic research. She works for ..." Mira paused, dismissing the idea of even telling Harry the exact company Alexa worked for. He wouldn't know anything about cosmetics. "... well, she works for the biggest cosmetic company in the wizarding world and she's doing really well, so they have her overseeing some of the research and testing being done in the Paris offices as well."

"That's impressive," Harry said, actually knowing nothing about cosmetics, but if they were willing to move her to live in Paris, that meant she was good at it. "Do you have plans to follow in her footsteps?"

"To cosmetics?" Mira asked, brows rising slightly before she wrinkled her nose in distaste and shook her head. "I want to ... experiment in other things, make a difference. I know the forms charm I'm working on isn't that staggering, but ... it got me to a place where I can maybe do some good, you know?"

"I'm sure your sister would say that cosmetic research is useful as well," Harry said, smiling again. He was all for Mira making things better with her charms. If her triplicate charm meant he only had to sign his name once for each requisition, he'd be ecstatic and fund her research himself, "but I think I like your ideas better."

Pink tinted her cheeks again at the small praise and she dropped her gaze to her food which she pushed around with her fork. "Alex thinks she does plenty of good making women beautiful. It's just not what I was hoping to change the world with."

Mira set her cheek in her hand then and raised blue eyes back to Harry. "What about you? I know you don't get out of the office that much, but you've got ... Hermione and Ron, right? And..." she looked doubtful and a bit unsure before adding, "... and the Weasleys?"

Harry looked down at his food. He'd been horrible about keeping up with Hermione and Ron, throwing himself into being a department head, knowing that everyone expected him to fail. He hadn't really spoken to Hermione since she'd quit being his secretary, and he'd only gone out for a pint with Ron once or twice in the last six months.

He'd received more owls from Mrs. Weasley, making sure he was alright and healthy, than he'd received from his two best friends. Of course, he hadn't done much in the way of reaching out, either. It was hard, going from seeing each other practically every day for seven years to hardly talking to them at all.

"I haven't seen them in a while, but they're fine," he said, shrugging slightly. "Ron's in training and Hermione is working with the Census department."

His smile had receded at her questions and Mira was sad to see it gone. "Does that mean when I move upstairs, that I'll not see you much anymore either?"

Frowning, Harry focused on his food for a few seconds. "People get busy," he said, pushing around his rice.

"Does ..." Mira sat back in the booth, food forgotten as she watched him. "... I'll ... I'll come say hello. You're my friend, too, boss," she said, trying for humor despite the worry in her voice. The thought of not seeing Harry much at all after her move to the Experimental Charms Committee didn't sit right with her. At all. What that meant, she really wasn't entirely sure. "Will... that be alright?"

"Of course." Harry looked up at Mira, then, his frown still in place. "You won't be that far away. Besides, if you don't take care of me, who will, right?"

A tiny smile curled her lips again, blue eyes once more bright as she met his gaze. "Yeah... yeah, exactly."

SUMMARY: Harry tells Mira about the misappropriated funds from the reparation payments and she tells him that her days as his secretary are numbered.