Magic Doesn't Halt the Faults

"Mama why it not moving?" Karolin asked.  Zoe drew her daughter closer to her side.  The times her clinging three year old said anything were rare these days but the question bothered her all the same. "I really don't know," she replied.  If the lifts here were anything like the ones in the British Ministry it should have began moving by now.  "Third floor please?" she said yet again in her very careful French.   Maybe it was her mixed English/German accent which confused it. Buttons would have been useful on such occasions like the ones her Godmother claimed were on muggle lifts.

The door opened as another person stepped in.  Karolin shyly moved back behind her mother.  "Do you know how to get this lift to move?" Zoe asked the new arrival. "I'm trying to get up to the third floor."  She sincerely hoped so or she was never going to be able to report her faulty fireplace with its dodgy floo connection.    Her owl certainly hadn't appeared to gotten through to the Ministry. She knew from past experience that governments were notoriously slow but an entire month with not knowing if her floo was going to work or not at any given time was beyond the joke.

Serah had just dropped Wynter off at school and it was time for work. She knew she was being a little dramatic when she said she said she disliked her job, but she meant it. Another Obliviator had retired, and while she was happy for him, she was not happy the the Ministry had refused to replace him, but instead just given all the Charms' workers slight raises and double the work. It was ridiculous, but it was what it was. Serah was needed up in the Department of Magical Movement and Transportation in an hour and she'd be there.

She stepped onto the lift and saw a woman and a little girl. Serah wasn't expecting to be spoken to, so she was surprised. "Oh! Yes!" Serah answered with a slight smile. "What school did you go to? This is a relevant question, I promise. It just seems silly."

There had been a Muggle breach in the Department of Mysteries a few months back (the problem with it not being underground like most Ministry-owned buildings), so these lifts had to be redesigned for protection. For starters, the lifts no longer opened on Sub Floor Two. You had to walk up two floors from the sixth floor library. And secondly, there had to be a wand in the lift. It was inconvenient, but she supposed it was good enough protection. A Muggle would not have one, for sure, and if they had stolen one, they wouldn't be able to channel anything through it.

Then, they had been given a lecture. It's every witch and Wizard's job to protect our  way of life! she remembered the Minister saying. She distinctly remembered laughing when they were told that they needed to challenge anyone looking out of place. There were always visitors and Serah helped people several times a day. She at least tried to have fun with it.

"Hogwarts," Zoe replied with one raised eyebrow. Seems silly? It sounded extremely silly. "You're not trying to tell me it only works for Beauxbatons graduates are you?" Merlin's beard, she hoped not or that was really going to get irritating every time she needed to visit the Ministry. Everyone she knew had either attended Hogwarts or Durmstrang. Not even the nanny had gone to Beauxbatons and so she would have been just as useless in this situation if this were the case. She lifted her daughter up into her arms. "Well now that you're here I hope you are able to get this thing moving."

Serah laughed. "I'd be out of luck then, too. I graduated elsewhere, as well. It's just to make sure you're a witch and not an intruder in the building. You just have to have a wand with you," she explained. "It's for security."

Serah pulled her wand out of her blazer pocket. "What floor are you going to?" she asked happily. She was trying to remain positive about going to a department she didn't know as well. It would make the day a little more bearable if she had a good attitude.

She smiled and waved at the girl in the other witch's arms with her free hand. Most kids (and some adults) were at least a little bit frightened by her. Bright hair, as well as a strange accent tended to be off-putting to children. She had scared even her own stepdaughter at first meeting.

"You've had muggles enter the building?" Zoe asked in shock. What sort of Ministry was this place if the wards were faulty?  "I do have my wand on me but not out.  Do you mean to say I have to use it to get this lift moving?"  Now it was getting beyond ridiculous.  Never in any Ministry throughout Europe had she encountered a problem like this.

"Third floor," she said tightly.  Zoe had said it before. It was right at the beginning of their conversation but she was not feeling generous enough to consider that a good enough excuse for not having retained that information.  All she wanted was to get her floo fixed so she could easily transport three children to wherever she wanted to go.

Karolin hid her face in her mother's shoulder at the woman's friendly overture. "She's a little shy," Zoe offered up.  A trait which had shown up in her daughter only after the death of her husband.