She stood off to one side of the Atrium. She knew that she shouldn't be here. Even with her hood up she was still likely to be seen, and then what. This was a terrible idea...but nonetheless here she was.

She stood in the shadows under one of the grand archways that surrounded the Atrium. There were people everywhere, coming and going in such a rush. There were familiar faces, mixed in with people that she had long ago determined that she never wanted to see again. She wasn't exactly sure why she had come. She had wanted to get away from the monotony of her everyday life, but this was just plain ridiculous. She had always been clever, calculated, and determined. Today she was none of those things. Today she had been reckless, and stupid. 
    
She gathered the hood of her cloak tighter around her face as she made to step out of the shadows and out of the Ministry all together. What was she thinking? What if someone had recognized her? 

This morning, he was heading into the Ministry a bit later than usual. It was unfortunate, obviously, but the only one that could be blamed for the occurrence was his wife. Although it was… convenient to use her depression about the loss of their daughter as a way to garter sympathy and the support of his people, it certainly got irksome. On this day in particular, Isaiah had woken up to find his wife in a right state, and he hadn’t seen fit to leave her alone immediately. Obviously, though, he had a hell of a lot to do, and there weren’t enough hours in the day for all of the people that he had to talk to, situations that he had to resolve, and the like. He had a wizarding world to run, after all. So, he had Owled his assistant to come and babysit his wife, really, there was no other way of putting it, and that had sorted out the situation. Now, he was running aggravatingly behind schedule, and he would have to find Elena immediately and see what could be done to rectify the situation.

The moment that he Flooed into the Atrium, he headed off in the direction of his office. He didn’t have time to waste, and what he found was particularly useful about being minister, was that everyone had a tendency of getting the hell out of his way. Sometimes, clearly, he had the misfortunate of being stopped several times because someone had something that was just that damn important for them to say, but it didn’t look like today was going to be one of those days. Perhaps it was clear to everyone that he didn’t have time to be stopped, which was excellent, because he really didn’t. there was too much going on, and he had too much to do to deal with whatever problem that they wanted on the top of his to-do list. However, he had made it particularly through the Atrium when a figure caught his eye. Someone in a cloak, which wasn’t necessarily rare as it was getting colder, but they were standing to the side, hiding nearly, and the hood was drawn up around them as if they were trying to prevent themselves from being noticed. Well, that just won’t do, he mused, heading promptly over to the individual in question. No one loitered about the Ministry. Everyone that had a purpose there had too much to do to do such a thing. Anyone that was meandering about had no business there. As he got closer, Isaiah realized that the person in question was a woman. When he reached her, he realized just what woman he was dealing with. “Narcissa Malfoy,” he commented, with a raised eyebrow. “Just what brings you to the Ministry today?” Isaiah asked, politely, keeping his face neutral as they were in public and he wasn’t going to come across as anything other than professional, even in the presence of the scum of society.

"Merlin help me..." she muttered under her breath. She had been so close to escaping, and she had known that this was a terrible idea, but she had gotten herself into this mess, and it was up to her to get herself out of it. She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. If there was ever a time for her icy mask to be firmly set in place it was now.

"You stupid, reckless girl..." Her mother's voice echoed in the back of her mind, but she brushed it aside and set her mouth in a firm, tight lipped smile. "Minister." She nodded her head to him. "I'm afraid that I'm not entirely sure. I had planned on simply stepping out to get some air this morning and my feet have found their way here." She paused and sized him up with her eyes. For as insufferable as the man may be something was clearly bothering him this morning, he looked like he wished he could be just about anywhere else in the world.

"Don't mind me." She had to try and hide her smirk. Obviously being in charge of their existence wasn't exactly turning out as he had planned. "I was just on my way out." And with a curt nod she stepped to one side to move around him.

Isaiah found it important, at all times, to know just who was in his Ministry that shouldn’t be. It was easy for him to tell who belonged and who didn’t. Granted, that was a loaded thought, nearly, because there were a hell of a lot of people that he wanted out of a job and the Ministry as soon as possible. But he would have to be patient on that score. The head of the aurors’ office, for instance—that was someone that would take time to get rid of. But then there were the easier ones to deal with, and sort out. Like the fact that the very moment he noticed a suspicious character lurking about the Atrium, he knew that the individual in question shouldn’t be there. In fact, he might have to have a damn word with the aurors’ office about their lack of ability to secure a very important building from letting in outsiders without doing a damn thing to prevent it or regulate it. Damn idiots, he thought, as he wondered just who was the stupider person—the aurors that didn’t know how to secure a building, or whatever idiot thought it wise to hover about the Ministry as if they wouldn’t get caught. At this point, he was contemplating if it was just a draw.

He raised his eyebrows at the woman as she spoke. When he had walked over here, the last person that he had been expecting to see was Narcissa Malfoy. Hell, even her husband would have been a shocking site. The Malfoys had been surprisingly… under the radar as of late, which could only mean that they were planning something. Dark witches and wizards like them didn’t just look the other way in any situation—they were evil through and through, and the type that needed a close eye kept on them. It had been easy to do, as of late, because it hadn’t seemed like either of the elder Malfoys even left their residence. In fact, he was nearly aggravated that she had made it this far without him being alerted to it. “Quite an interesting idea of ‘getting some air’ your feet must have.” He commented, incredulously, amused by her nonchalance about how she had managed to find herself in just about the last place that the death eater scum should ever be. “Not so fast,” he added, taking a step to the side to block her exit. “You can’t have come all the way here only to turn tail and run.” Isaiah goaded, keeping his voice light, though the challenge in his eyes was clear. He wondered just what her purpose actually was here today.

His movements were the mirror image of hers as she tried to step around him. Somehow she had known that it wasn't going to be that easy to escape him, he far was too clever for that. If he wasn't so arrogant about it she would have told him that he would have made a fine Slytherin. She hid her smirk as she bit her tongue. That wasn't a comment that he would appreciate. Narcissa had always prized herself on her sharp tongue and her cool wit, but there was something in the back of her mind telling her that now was most definitely not the time. Resisting the urge to drop her hood and show everyone just whom the Minister had willingly approached and chosen to speak to she took a deep breath, he was still waiting for her answer.

One thing for certain was that she wasn't going to be telling him the truth. No way was she going to tell him why she was in the Ministry. That was for her to know and him never to find out. She wasn't turning tail and running. She was a Black, and even after everything that pureblood society had gone through there was no way that she would stand for running away from her problems. How was it possible that he couldn't see he had given her exactly what she was after? He had taken the bait, hook, line and sinker. She took a small step back from him and dared to let her smirk show for only a fraction of a second. "Who said I was running?" She looked up at him raising one perfectly manicured eyebrow, she was a full half a foot shorter than he, even in her heels. "I'm simply leaving. It's not considered running unless you're willing to give chase..."

There were obviously still purebloods at the Ministry. Isaiah couldn’t do much about that at the current time—there were purebloods working in the aurors’ office, in nearly every department, really, and that was something that would be done away with in the future. But for now, he had to be patient. Discrimination against the evil witches and wizards of this world wouldn’t happen overnight, but it was getting more effective by the day. Soon, no one would trust a pureblood in a position of power… they would just want them all in the work camp along with the Death Eaters. Just because there wasn’t yet proof of their evildoings didn’t make them innocent in any means. No, it just meant that they were better at hiding whatever it was that they had done. It was something that no one was falling for anymore, hopefully, but just something that was going to take some time to get where he needed it to be. Until then, he liked to focus the majority of his attention on the Death Eaters that were too stupid to remain concealed… making the work camp as dreadful and torturous as possible, making sure that they couldn’t get work outside of that… keeping up to date with just how awful the housing was in Knockturn Alley and continuing to make it hard for the criminals to even pay rent. They were lucky to have avoided Azkaban anyhow.

The Malfoys though… they had avoided punishment, which was unacceptable. They deserved to all still be slaving away in the work camp, slowly dying every day when they stepped through the doors and handed their wands over to the guards. Instead, they were walking about like this, still pompous and thinking that they were somehow better than everyone else. Frankly, he was certainly glad that they had lost all of their money, that they had lost their precious manor that was now empty and decaying. It was a start, but there was a lot more to go as far as that particular family was concerned. Outwardly though, he would remain professional and diplomatic. He was trying to help everyone—trying to redeem criminals in the work camp, trying to make the wizarding world a safer place. It did him no good to react negatively to a woman that was just innocently stopping into the Atrium. Obviously, Isaiah knew that she was up to something, but he would still actual casual and polite… he could find someone to trail her later and see just what she was actually up to. “Your actions did,” he said, in amusement, a smirk forming on his lips. “The moment you’re spotted you conveniently decide to leave—chase or no chase, you’re still scaring off quite easily.” Isaiah didn’t know what had possessed her to come here, but it was for something, that much was clear. He didn’t expect anything less of Death Eater scum than to be up to something… luckily, if he figured it out, he could just bring her into custody. Putting her through an interrogation would be incredibly amusing, after all.

Narcissa knew that she was dealing with the devil. His disguise was not so great that she didn't recognize the danger, she simply no longer cared. She was the Ice Queen and she was playing with fire. She knew that for one brief moment she could have the upper hand, he had to remain diplomatic, professional, she did not. No one expected the arrogant Malfoy matriarch to hold her tongue, mainly because no one expected to see her at all. Narcissa knew that she needed to get out of the Ministry, that what she had come for in the first place would simply have to wait. There were too many eyes, but a snake was a patient creature, and the grass was tall. She would go back to work, bide her time, wait for another opportunity to be presented. Too much was changing for this to have been a single shot in the dark.

The Minister had stepped in front of her and so she took another step in the opposite direction as she moved to walk around him again. If he wanted to stop her he was going to have to side step and the Minister "dancing" with a cloaked figure in the shadows of the Atrium was bound to catch attention, something she was sure he would want to avoid. She could hear the smirk in her words as she spoke. "Actions can be misinterpreted. Are you so sure that I'm the one who's scared?"

There were two kinds of trash in this world, when it came to purebloods and their ilk—the kinds that were successfully being trampled down and realized just what their stations were in life, and those that were irritatingly refusing to lose that arrogance that they no longer deserved. The ones that still thought that they were something special… as if they hadn’t lost anything… as if they weren’t irrelevant and entirely useless. Narcissa Malfoy was already proving to be one of those people. She was no longer of any manner of importance to the magical world. She, and her entire family, were irrelevant—tossed aside like the trash that they were. They had lost their prestigious manor, their money, and any bit of respect that they might have mustered up over the years. They were nothing… as was deserved. Of course, Isaiah was still agitated that they weren’t in the work camp, but he would take what he could get at. Sooner or later, they would get what was coming to them; it was only a matter of time.

It was funny how they tended to forget that… the fact that they were nothing. The bit of fight that he was sensing in Narcissa needed to be exterminated entirely. It might not happen overnight, but he could ensure that it happened eventually. But he wouldn’t allow her to act as though she had any kind of advantage in this situation. As always, he had the power to do whatever he wanted. He was the Minister, after all. He could make up a… reasonably viable excuse to take her into be questioned by the aurors’ office—could make her life sufficiently uncomfortable, at best, and unbearable at worse. He smirked as she took another step, grabbing her arm lightly to stop her from moving any further. Isaiah wasn’t going to chase her around the ministry… but if she really wanted to make a scene about him grabbing her arm, she would find that to quickly be a mistake. He could only assume that she didn’t want to do this the hard way.

“I’m not quite done with you yet,” he commented, his face still remaining outwardly pleasant. “You wouldn’t want to cause a scene in the middle of the Atrium, would you? I’m unsure that your family’s reputation could use another hit.” Isaiah added, his eyebrows rising in challenge as he spoke. His amused smirk only grew at her words, but he knew that this arrogance needed to be crushed immediately. However, Narcissa Malfoy was hardly on the top of his list of people to deal with. She wasn’t nearly important enough. But it didn’t stop this conversation from bringing him amusement. “Asks the person running… intriguing turn-around.” He commented, finding it incredibly amusing that she thought that she was somehow anyone to fear. It was the remainder of her arrogance still showing, and he would ensure that it would be suppressed before too long… but not yet. For now, this was still entertaining.

Causing a scene was the last thing she had planned on doing, but when the challenge fell from his lips Narcissa almost gave in to the idea. But she knew better, there was a time and place, and taking the bait now was not in her best interests. In fact, a disillusionment charm before this whole debacle started would have been in her best interest, but it was a little late for that now. When Durant had grabbed her arm her first thought had been to immediately throw him off, but the quieter side of her brain, the side that had pulled strings and manipulated people for longer than he had been alive, knew to do just the opposite. Instead of throwing him off she had stopped. Not frozen exactly, but she didn't pull away from him. She didn't even flinch.

"I wouldn't take a swing at my family's reputation at all if I were you. There's so little of it left you might miss, and then what would happen? We can't have our esteemed Minister falling on his face from a bad punch." She knew that it was cheeky, but she found that she didn't care. There was nothing in her statement that could be taken as a threat, it was just a bit of light hearted advice. She knew that if she wasn't careful he would have someone tailing her morning. noon and night, that was if he didn't already, but honestly accept for showing up here this morning she had done absolutely nothing that could be considered a threat. It would appear, to everyone else, that she was inconsequential, insignificant and unimportant, and right now, she could live with that. Right now she didn't need to be a rattlesnake, she didn't need to be seen, or heard, right now she could be a Tiger snake, deadly, but quiet, hidden in the shadows of the tall grass.

If he had been in charge when the Malfoy family had gone to trial, they certainly wouldn’t have gotten it as easy as they had. For whatever damn reason Potter had come to their defense, as if they deserved it, though that had helped him to pave the way for the idea he’d helped the public for that the boy-who-lived was bloody mental. Causing him, and Shacklebolt, to lose some of their creditability had been entirely helpful for his case. Now, he had full power over the wizarding world, as he had always wanted from the moment he realized just how poorly they would all be doing otherwise. It was all a process; change wouldn’t happen overnight, after all, but he was making progress as every day went by. He made sure to focus the majority of his efforts on his two major issues in the wizarding world: purebloods and Death Eaters, and then werewolves. Over the years, he had made this blights in the wizarding world his problems that needed to be solved, and he was well on his way to doing just that. The work camp was very effective, and he was glad for any time that he heard that Death Eater had dropped dead due to the treatment that he had in place there… it was covered up in nice little ways, but it was all frankly due to purposeful mistreatment—there were no accidents, no illnesses that were unrelated to what was happening intentionally there. His guards had been well hired, after all, and they all knew just how to push at a Death Eater… they couldn’t push back, clearly, and if they did, then that was their death sentence in and of itself. It worked out quite well, though it could always be better—they could always be doing more. It was quite the process, and one that he got a particular amount of enjoyment out of.

Then, there were bloody werewolves… they were a blight on society if there had ever been one. For him, it had been an easy decision to fire everyone that had been in the beast division, because he had his own ideas for the office. Now, while he might not be able to singlehandedly hire everyone in that entire division, he was certainly very purposeful in who joined the werewolf capture unit. Everyone in that unit could be trusted—they were the ones involved in the experiments, and he found those to be quite important. With how dangerous werewolves were, it was crucial to see how they ticked… how they differed from humans, since they clearly were not human. He was also just a bit of a sadist, he could admit—it was amusing to think about the painful experiments that they got subjected to. Of course, absolutely no one knew what was going on inside that unit except those that could be explicitly trusted.

But not everything could go his way right off the bat, he knew, and that was why it was bloody aggravating that the Malfoys had gotten off as easily as they had. He was glad that they didn’t have their prestige—didn’t have their money, or their big house anymore… it was progress in the right direction, but clearly not enough to kick their arrogance entirely. Something to work on, clearly. Isaiah chuckled darkly at Narcissa’s comment, not at all impressed by it. “Oh, I never miss—you can be sure of that.” He replied, a smug smirk forming on his lips. Years of experience had proven that to him. He was good at what he did, and there would be no stopping that at this point. She might like to talk as if she was something more than she quite frankly was, but at the end of the day, Isaiah was quite sure that she realized she was nothing.