Little Bit Gypsy
Outfit | Beckett Archibald Graves

Taking a job in the Department of Magical Games and Sports had been an easy choice when she had first gotten out of school. It was something that she was interested in, it was something that she enjoyed, and really that was all that mattered. Working for the Ministry came with it's own set of challenges, that was for certain. She didn't think that she had ever considered the amount of thought and planning that went into running three different Quidditch Leagues in the same country. The fact that the World Cup took years to get to the point of needing a lot of work was a good thing, but they still had to make sure that everything went off without a hitch in the meantime. It was lucky really that the League Teams were the ones that played the European Cup and there weren't all that many extra teams to try and keep track of. She had learned when she had first joined the Department that Mr. Graves had a particular interest in the Tornados, and after working as his assistant since the previous one had vacated her post last fall, Ireland had realized that it wasn't really him at all. It was Ms. Drake that had a particular fondness for them. The fact that they had won the European Cup over the weekend was enough to have a positive atmosphere in the air today. 

Just because the Cup was technically over didn't mean that the Department had any sort of break though. Regular League Cup games didn't start until the first Sunday of June, but the preseason games were this month. One of them was in exactly five days, and Ireland had to hope that everything was set up and ready to go so that Mr. Graves could give the go ahead, and there were no real hold ups. Trade deadlines weren't for awhile yet, and so there was always the possibility of team rosters changing between these two weeks of early games and then the actual League itself, but the rosters for this weekend and next weekend were due to the Department Head by the end of the week, and really that meant that they were due to Ireland. She was the one that put them in order and checked them over first, and then he made the final reviews, he made the final yes or no decisions. There were some things though that she really didn't think even needed to hit his desk. The requests for some of the things that some of the stadiums wanted was ridiculous. They didn't need the Ministry to pay for some of those things, and she sent them letters back saying just that. That every other stadium paid for their things themselves and that she wasn't presenting their requests to Mr. Graves at all. 

Some of the things that came across her desks were simply ridiculous, but today had been a fairly calm day. There were no games at all until Friday, and even then Argentina was playing Japan and Cambodia was playing Austria. England didn't play again until March according to the board on the wall. She though that she might have to find the time to actually go to that match, but she would see. She loved Quidditch after all, and it was easy enough to stumble across a couple of tickets, she thought that Logan might appreciate going, and Quidditch was a halfway decent sibling bonding activity... Collecting the files that had hit her desk today though she tucked a loose piece of hair behind her ear and stood up. These had to have Mr. Graves' signature anyway before the rosters were officially approved for preseason, and she knew that he was alone right now. She was halfway surprised that she hadn't seen Ms. Drake today, seeing as it was Valentine's Day and all of that, but she didn't dwell on it as she made her way out from behind her own desk, and cross the few steps to his door. Knocking lightly on the frame she looked over at him, "Mr. Graves?" 

Little Bit Gypsy
Outfit

This department wasn’t always action-packed throughout every single week of the year. It had its off periods… sometimes, but there was usually plenty to do. Before the league season, there was preparing for it, and then preparing for the European Cup, and throughout dealing with all of that, there was the world cup. There were matters not relating to Quidditch, but that didn’t take up much time—and it wouldn’t, not unless the Triwizard Tournament was coming to Hogwarts anytime soon, because that had been the biggest protect that their department had to manage in years that didn’t have anything to do with Quidditch. Past that… it was mostly Quidditch all the time, with some other minor concerns that he usually didn’t focus much attention on. Right now it was Quidditch. That was how he preferred it. The European Cup had just ended—with a Tornados victory no less, which he was rather pleased about, preseason matches for the league season were coming up soon, and world cup qualifying matches were continuing on as usual. It was the time of year where there was plenty to do, which was exactly how he liked it. He didn’t like the quiet months, the ones where his employees had too much downtime. He liked hectic, and busy, because there was a certain kind of order in having that much to do. Organized chaos… kind, but it was a good kind of chaos.

Everything ran much smoothly in this department now that he was the head of it, after all. It had been a mess when Bagman had been in charge of it, clearly. This place was never the strictest or most organized department in the Ministry, and it worked like that, but it had hit new lows under Bagman’s control, and Beckett being his right hand had been the only reason that the place had run even slightly successfully, in his opinion at least. He wasn’t given the job immediately upon Bagman’s departure, but then next one hadn’t lasted all that long either. He had been… fine at the job, but nothing spectacular and it hadn’t been too long until Beck had gotten to replace him. Since then, this place ran without a hitch. He was damn good at his job. He could be impatient with employees, but it was still a more laidback department than anywhere else in the Ministry. It just didn’t mean that they didn’t work as hard, it didn’t mean that shit didn’t get done, the way it hadn’t when Bagman had been in charge. And right now, they were busy, but on top of it as always. Preseason games were coming up, and he was looking forward to them. He knew that he and Liv wouldn’t miss a Tutshill match, since they hadn’t since he’d bought the team, and Anderson had gotten the Quidditch bug as well—though he knew they more than likely wouldn’t be taking him to every match.

The fact that they’d won the European Cup, and the league season before that, would mean their matches would more than likely all be sold out, especially if they continued performing as well as they had been. He was looking forward to a good season, but he also had to remain mostly unbiased when it came to his actual work. There was plenty to be done for all the teams, to make sure that everything was prepared for the start of the preseason matches. It was going to be a busy couple of weeks but he wouldn’t have it any other way. He still left in time to be home for dinner, which was just really not up for discussion in his opinion—at least not with Anderson still at home. When he was off to school, if he and Liv were both busy, he could see them getting distracted and one of them eventually realizing how late it was and showing up with takeout in the other’s office… more than likely him showing up in her office because he knew how she got when she was working. But for now, he always tried to be out of the Ministry by mostly the same time. If there was ever a time that it was more up to debate, it would be further into the league season, or closer to the world cup if any of their teams made the cup—which seemed quite likely. England was clearly doing well, and Scotland’s points had been surging as of late. If they kept that up, they could be a contender. It was really only Ireland that was up in the air, because the difference in points between teams was quite slim. For now he thought they all still had a chance, which meant their work for world cup games would more than likely continue. He glanced up when he heard the knock and saw his assistant standing there. “Yes, Ireland?” He knew that she would only bother him if she had something important to say, because she was someone who actually knew what she was doing.

Ireland liked what they did here, she liked working in the Ministry, and she liked working as an assistant. She got to see what went on most of the time in this department, and she thought that it was interesting to compare it to everything else that went on in this building. Things were a little less strict here, there was no sense in trying to get quidditch players, and coaches, and even some owners to try and adhere to certain guidelines, and manners when all they wanted to do was head into the conference room and yell and gripe at one another until things were resolved. It wasn’t often that they had them in here at all, but sometimes there were contract negotiations between players and the clubs that ended up making it all the way to this office. It was funny really, that the players, some of the best players in the world, were the same age that she was. It was a career path for the young and the able. You had to have the right mindset to work in this department and Ireland had seemed to fall in love with it here from the start. Her father worked elsewhere in the Ministry, and she knew that he understood what she meant when she said that the takeover had done good.

There were plenty of people that probably would have thought that she was insane for thinking something like that, but it was the truth. She thought that it was needed, it had turned out for the best really. The Death Eaters weren’t all that bad to work for, and they were the ones that were going to figure all of this out in the end, they were the ones in charge. So she thought that it was best really to listen to them. Mr. Graves was a Death Eater, and that was about all the influence this department needed. They handled themselves pretty well, they didn’t need all that much interference from elsewhere, though the fact that the ambassadors from different countries often made their ways in here during the heart of the World Cup season was par for the course. It was something that they had all gotten used to, and so long as they weren’t all on top of one another all of the time it wounded out fine. Between the ambassadors that wanted to talk about the stats and the standings, and the dozens of owls that came in every day about things that she wasn’t sure were even in their jurisdiction at all, Ireland was never lacking for something to do.

The rosters though were something that had to be done before the weekend, and she knew that he was going to want to see them. It was some tradition or something, to see what they were like now as compared to what they would be like in the weeks before regular season began in June. There was plenty of time for trades before then, and the trade deadline was still midway through the season. There was a point though, once the Championship Bracket play started, that they couldn’t trade anymore at all… Smiling softly she tipped the papers in her hand towards him as she stepped through the open door. “I have the rosters from Ballycastle, Kenmare, Puddlemere, and,” she flicked through them to the last one in her hand, “Wimbourne. They swear that they are the final ones before preseason this weekend, and so they need your approval.” Ireland stepped forward and extended the four rosters towards him, there were some things on them that had surprised her, Puddlemere had fired their head coach at the end of last season, and the wizard that they had chosen to replace him would not have been Ireland’s first choice, but she suspected no one really cared about her opinion. Least of all the people running the Puddlemere United quidditch team.

Dealing with everything going on for the World Cup always kept them busy enough, and they were only on qualifying matches. They were taking place all over the world, and he didn’t think that anyone really realized just how much work that was on a massive scale, especially when the Ministry of Magic had to deal with the whole of Great Britain—which meant four teams, England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. They would have far more work to deal with if any of them went far, and onto the matches that started next year, and as of now, there seemed to be a good chance of at least England and Wales going the distance. Scotland had been doing better this year as well, so he wouldn’t rule them out. The only team that he didn’t think would make it past qualifying matches was Ireland, and there was still a chance for that to chance. When they found out who made it onto the next round, that was when they would really find out just how much more work they would have to do. It would be… hectic, to say the least, but he had always enjoyed when they had plenty of work to do. And the World Cup was exciting, there was no denying that. But there was plenty more to do as well.

Now that the preseason was starting up for the league, they would be kept plenty busy as well. Rosters would come in, and then they would have to keep up to date with all of the trades that he was sure would continue to happen. It was important to keep ahead of all of that, and keep organized. This was a more laidback department than most, even with him being a Death Eater and being in charge—there were some people that were afraid of him, but he had always considered himself to be decently charming and so the atmosphere in the department hadn’t really changed when everyone had found out who he was. He had lost an assistant, but that was fine, because the one he had now was better than the past one had been anyway. He found that she knew more about the sport than the other one had, and her opinion on certain matters was sometimes better than some of his employees. She also knew not to bother him unless she had something worth his time to tell him or bring to his attention, which was why he knew that she wouldn’t have come in unless she had something that he needed—which was clear from the papers in her hand. With what time of year it was, he wasn’t surprised at all by what it was.

He knew that for the most part, they would be dealing with rosters this week. That meant dealing with plenty of teams that promised this was their final version when handing them off to the Ministry, only for them to change it a few days later and send it their way. It was a frustrating week, to say the least, which was why he had made sure that the Tornados would not be sending any rosters until they were sure it was final. He was not going to let his own team do something that annoyed him, because that didn’t set a very good example whatsoever. He nodded as she told him the teams that had sent their rosters, before taking them from her and glancing at them. “What do you think?” He was sure that she had looked at them, and while it wasn’t as if it mattered to them what the rosters looked like as long as they were complete and made sense, there were still always some interesting changes, to say the least. Some good, some bad, some intriguing, and since she had more than likely already looked at them, he was curious what she thought about some of the changes that he was sure some teams had made. He knew that Puddlemere had lost their seeker, so they would be new undoubtedly, but he was sure there were some unexpected changes as well.

Her father had worked in the Ministry her entire life, and Ireland knew that surviving three changes in Minister the way that he had was something that not a lot of people could say around here. She knew that Mr. Graves and his fiancée had both been around that long too, that they had all worked for Fudge… And they had all worked for Durant. She didn’t know what to think about that really, because she had worked for Durant for almost five years too, but that didn’t change the fact that she hadn’t agreed with him. It was clear, obviously that her boss didn’t agree with him either, but there was something about Mr. Graves that Ireland just liked. Their department didn’t need all that much interaction from anyone else, and Ireland much preferred it that way. There was nothing about this department that needed outside interference, because there was nothing that they couldn’t handle. Anything and everything that came through here they could handle, because if they couldn’t then what good were they at their jobs anyway? Ireland thought that that was the only thing that they needed to worry about. Making sure that they were good at their jobs, because so long as they didn’t have to deal with the Minister, and all of the rest of those that thought just because they sat in fancier offices meant that what they did in this one wasn’t important, then Ireland thought that was for the best. They had enough to deal with with all of the quidditch players, former players, coaches, owners, managers… They had to deal with all of them day in and day out, they didn’t need the Ministry officials that knew next to nothing about Quidditch in the first place sticking their noses where they didn’t belong.

There were enough things to keep them all busy that didn’t have anything to do with little old them. There were other things that they needed to focus on, and this week this department was focusing on preseason, and on rosters, and players, and trades and deals. The trade deadline for quidditch teams wasn’t until a few weeks before the play offs started, and that would be months from now, seeing as the regular season didn’t even start until the first week of June, but that just meant that they were all up in arms now over something that wasn’t going to matter after the next two weeks. They had who they had for preseason, and Ireland, along with everyone else that knew anything about quidditch, knew that there was a good chance that the rosters that they saw now were not going to be anything like the rosters that they saw come the end of May. Everything would have changed between now and then, and Ireland thought that honestly having preseason so far ahead of time really didn’t do them any good at all, but that was how it worked. They played two games now, and then no one saw anyone else play again until June… The whole summer was full of Quidditch, which was nice, but challenging at the same time. They had a few months here and there throughout the year where there was nothing going on, though this year they had had the European Cup to handle as well. She was glad that an English team had won, and the fact that it was Mr. Graves’ team had only made matters that much better.

She was an Arrows fan, she always had been, but she could support the Tornados. They were good, and everyone knew it, but they hadn’t sent their roster in yet, and she had a feeling she knew why. If it wasn’t one hundred percent the way that they wanted it to be when it got there, and Mr. Graves approved it, and then they went to change it, that wouldn’t look good on him, or on them, or on anyone. There had to be pluses and minuses to having the Head of the Department as an owner, but she was sure that they had figured out a way to make it work. There were sure to be people that thought that they were biased… That they spun things in Tutshill’s favor, but they didn’t. If anything it seemed like Mr. Graves was toughest on Tuthill to make sure that things were done right the first time. At his question though she paused, and then she shook her head, “Honestly? I think that Puddlemre has lost their minds… First they traded away their seeker, and now they’ve fired Dixon, and replaced him with someone that no one expected, and they some how think that’s going to make them better. They need a stronger coaching staff before they even think about recruiting heavy hitters to try and get themselves back in the standings this season…” That was probably more than he had really expected her to say when he had asked, but he had asked…

He always found this part of the year to be particularly interesting. There was nothing better than when the league season started up, of course—and there was months to go until it would really get rolling, but he found the days before preseason to be very telling of how the reason of the season was going to go. Beck liked looking at the rosters, seeing the changes from the year before, and being able to tell sometimes just how a team was going to do based on that. After working in this department for as long as he had, it wasn’t difficult for him to do—but it was always interesting. He liked to see how the season played out, how team’s choices affected their standing in the cup, and he particularly enjoyed seeing the differences between the teams in the preseason, and when the actual league season started up. This was a good way of making sure that everything on the team was working without a fault, it was the time to make changes that would benefit them later on. Beck was always curious to see what those changes were, and how they worked out for the team—though he could admit, he was a little biased. He always wanted the Tornados to do well, after all.

But he couldn’t let that carry over to work. He knew that there were people that found it more than a little… unfair, perhaps, that the head of the department of magical games and sports was also the owner of the Tornados. Beck supposed he could understand why they would be concerned, but he thought that it would be rather idiotic for him to ever try to favor the team that he owned. There would have been ways to go that route, if he’d really wanted to. He could have been a private owner… it could have been kept out of the public eye that he was the owner of the team, and then he would have been able to favor the Tornados, and no one would have known. But he hadn’t done that. People knew that he owned the team, which meant that it would be completely foolish to ever try to do anything to make things easier on his team. People would notice, and it would lose him his job and his credibility. Really, it was ridiculous for anyone to even worry about something like that. He held the team to even higher standards simply because he wanted to prove that they weren’t getting anything simply because of his position in the Ministry. They had earned it all, because they were damn good players and did a damn good job.

It was important to Beck that they acted and performed up to standards, and they always did. He was proud of what they had done so far, and he knew that they would continue to do damn good this season. Or at least, he was decently sure of it. Winning the European Cup had been proof of how good they were, because it had definitely been a while since the same team had won both the league cup, and then the European Cup, in the same year. He thought that they would be able to keep it up. For now, though, they had to get through preseason, and that would mean a hell of a lot of work. But he wouldn’t have it any other way. This sort of thing was incredibly interesting to him, which was why he was curious what his assistant had to say about it. She’d proven herself to be rather knowledge when it came to the sport, not that he’d expected anything less since she worked in this department, after all. But her insight had proven to be quite informative in the past, and he was always curious about what he had to say. That wasn’t true about all people… there were people in this department that were a bit idiotic, a bit too much like Bagman for his tastes, but she wasn’t one of them. He nodded contemplatively as she spoke. “Puddlemere isn’t making great choices—and when they were so close to winning the league last year, it’s not exactly the time for them to lose the progress they’d made.” They had gotten good fast, and then they had fallen fast and their choices this year seemed to be following on that downward trend.

The lull between the end of the season and the start of preseason was something that Ireland thought that they had to take advantage of in the moments that they could. They had to get everything ready for the upcoming league season, but the European Cup being in the down time was nice. She was glad that the English Teams had done themselves justice. The Arrows had never been good enough for her to really think that there was a shot, but having Mr. Graves’ Tornados do well was something that they could all be happy for. She really didn’t know what would happen if they lost… The Tornados were the Tornados for a reason, there was a reason that they were one of the most popular teams in the league. They didn’t lose, hardly ever, and Ireland thought that the last person that she would want to be trapped in a room with if they did was Olivia Drake. Mr. Graves’ fiancée was the reason that he owned the team to begin with, and Ireland didn’t think that she knew a bigger Quidditch fan that Ms. Drake. It was interesting to see the difference between what the end of the year entailed, and what they thought at the beginning off the new season. There were always noticeable differences. Things that they were going to try and change from one year to the next and this year there were some that she didn’t think that she quite understood.

Ireland thought that some of the teams were going to need some more help than others, but that wasn’t really her place. She couldn’t just go about saying what she thought of everything or she was likely to get herself fired. It wasn’t like she really had all that much say in anything. The extent of Ireland’s say went as far as telling someone that they couldn’t have a meeting with Mr. Graves for whatever reason it was that they wanted to see him, and sending back their rosters when they sent them in and they weren’t complete yet. It wasn’t really that difficult to do things right the first time, but there were a couple of the teams that she thought needed some new directions. Some of them coaches, some of them just needed to be bought out and start over. New ownership would do some of the clubs good. They needed new blood, and the owners were all a little different, but some of them knew a good deal more than others. There were some that, personally, Ireland wondered why they even owned a Quidditch team at all. If they were going to manage them that poorly they could just give them to her, she would accept them, as a gift or something, they could do better… There were so many of them that could do better if they would pay more attention to anything other than their bottom line. The money was important, and she understood that, but you couldn’t make money with a losing club, you had to spend galleons to make galleons, and she thought that was true when it came to signing players to a roster.

Of course, when it came to anyone actually asking her for her opinion she wasn’t going to go into that much detail, but she though that they would be just fine this year. The Tornados had won both the League Cup and the European Cup in the same season, but the rest of the teams didn’t seem to be taking note all that well of what was to come. They were going to all fall a little short if the trajectory of all the teams continued in the way that they were currently going. The trends in the teams were all up and down, it was always in constant flux, but this seemed to be something that they just couldn’t wrap their heads around, and Ireland didn’t understand it. The teams were usually pretty good about not poaching from one another, and there were decent enough rookies every year, it wasn’t like anyone was floundering for people to fill their rosters, but no one seemed to be able to make all of the pieces of their organizations click together like that… She thought that they could all take some lessons from the Tornados if they wanted to truly make something work. “There are a few of them that aren’t making the best of decisions this preseason. Hopefully they can turn it around, otherwise Ms. Drake’s Tornados are going to beat everyone all over again this season.”

When it came to the weeks right before the preseason, it was always intriguing to see what teams were going to do. It was interesting to see what they decided to change—the teams that had done well the year before, did they keep everything the same in hopes of having the same results, or did they make changes to try to ensure that their upcoming season wasn’t just as good as it had been the year before, but better? Did teams that did poorly the last season make major changes? Or did they try for more minor fixes, in order to avoid trying to do too much? How many players were traded, how many stayed where they were… it was all rather interesting to him. He wondered who the real competition was going to be for the Tornados this year. Puddlemere had done damn well the season before—for their seeker being a Mudblood, at least, but now they had a new seeker, and there was no way of telling what that was going to do for them this season. Losing good players and a good connection between teammates could be pretty damn detrimental, after all. They would have to see how they faired in the preseason. Beckett would be curious to see how it went, and he knew that he would be attending as many matches as possible.

It wasn’t just because it was his job to make sure that everything went well, though that was definitely part of it. He also did want to see who the Tornados’ main competition was going to be this year. They had their rivals, of course, and the Falcons always put out a good team, but there were always other teams to worry about as well. He wanted to see who that would be this year, and that meant seeing how the preseason started off. It wasn’t always a good indicator, since plenty could change before the regular season matches began, but it was a decent jumping off point to see who was going to cause the Tornados problems this year. He had some good guesses, he thought he knew who was going to do well and who didn’t, but there were always a few teams that managed to surprise him. It meant that he was always curious about these rosters when they came in. It was a good way to see what was going on with each team, by seeing the sort of players that they had starting. When they started to roll in, and then changes started to be made, he was always unsurprised. He made sure that the Tornados did not put out a roster until it was ready, because he knew how irritating it was when change after change was made.

Other teams didn’t think of that though, and so he watched as rosters came in, and then new ones came in, and at this point he just knew that was how it worked. That was how it had gone every year that he’d worked here, and he had been in this department for a damn long time. He knew how it worked around here these days, and he didn’t expect teams to ever get their acts together before the preseason—not until the last possible second. But he was glad that he had a department equipped to handle that. He knew that this department was more relaxed than others, but they got their jobs done. They worked far more efficiently under him than they had with Bagman, or the nobody who’d had the job briefly in between the pair of them. The assistant he’d had had promptly quit—or switched departments, honestly he wasn’t sure, when it had come out that he was a Death Eater. That had been amusing, but he hadn’t cared, because the replacement that he’d gotten was even better at the job than she’d been. So really, it all worked out quite nicely. He chuckled at her mention of Olivia’s Tornados. The team might have been in his name, but anyone that knew anything in this department knew that they were hers, not his. “I’d be willing to wager that they’ll beat everyone regardless, actually.” He answered, with an easy grin. He was a little biased, he supposed, but he thought the season was likely to end the way the last one had.