Looking Too Closely

Griffith knew that overseeing everything that was getting accomplished here today didn't have to fall on him, but he wasn't opposed to it either. He knew that there were going to be some hiccups here and there, and he was prepared for that. All in all, he thought that it was going well enough. He thought that it was somewhat surprising that there hadn't been more issues, but most of the mudbloods that were student aged were more stunned than anything when they went to move them. He supposed that they had all been expecting that this was a hoax. That there had been no school at all. But that wasn't the case. In fact, most of them were going to find that they were actually going to do better here, and he didn't quite know what to think of that. But this was not his choice. This was Andi's choice, and Lady Bulstrode's choice, and Lady Parkinson's choice. They had decided that this was to be a school, and a place of learning. What they were actually teaching them was not for him to worry about. He was going to worry about the transfer, and then the guards that were stationed in the school. 

The rest of it was for someone else to deal with. He thought that it was rather amusing that they were going to want something for all of this. That they were going to want them all to change more. He didn't think that the fact that nothing had happened in all this time was something to get used to. They were vigilant. He kept an eye out for all of them, and he knew that he wasn't the only one. He knew that he was watching his own wife, and he was watching his cousin, and he was watching Andromeda. The latter he watched incredibly closely. He had been the one that suggest that they get her an undercover agent to follow her when she went out in public, but that had been shot down. He still wasn't sure that it was the worst idea, but until he could convince someone else of it, he knew that they weren't going to go for it. Today she was not his concern, and he knew that Davina and Ava Blair were safe at home. He knew that everything that he normally worried about was taken care of, and so he could focus on this. 

They were, none of them, going to be able to relax until this place had gone a couple of weeks up and running. There were sure to be glitches in the system that they hadn't worked out yet. Things that they were going to have to try and control. He knew that the kids themselves were likely to be the biggest factor in that, but he didn't think that they were going to get away with too much. Nothing that they couldn't put a stop to anyway. Griffith was confident in those that worked for him. He knew that he had been handed his position in a rather broad show of nepotism, but in all honesty, he thought that he was enough of a Death Eater, that he was allied enough with all of this, that they weren't going to question it. He was family to the Lestranges. He was one of those that had fallen in battle, healed, and been sent to the camp. He had survived that. He had come out stronger for it in some ways. He wasn't afraid of much, and he knew that his weaknesses were protected right now. There was only one that he didn't have tabs on, and he trusted her to take care of herself. 

Standing in the middle of the three buildings that made up the main part of the campus Griffith let his gaze wander over the place. Surveying everything that was to be Lady Parkinson's domain. She was his sister's best friend, and he trusted that she would do what she had been put here to do. Just like the rest of them. They all had their parts to play in this little game, because he knew as well as anyone that that was what this was. They were all pieces on a giant chess board, to be moved at will... But it wasn't their own will by any means. He didn't think that there was anything wrong with that, it was just... What it was... Shaking his head he tugged on his tie a little bit and turned to look in the other direction slowly. They were all going to just have to get used to the new normal all over again. He thought that if there was one thing about kids though, they bounced back at a surprising rate...

LOOKING TOO CLOSELY

OUTFIT

Isolde wasn’t quite sure how she felt about Pyxis, yet. A strange concept, but one that was a step in the right direction, she supposed. It was far better than sending the children to work mundane jobs for the rest of their lives. Education was of the utmost importance in her mind (discounting her daughter, of course). It was the reason that she was a lawyer. With education came knowledge and with knowledge came the ability to challenge the status quo and make informed decisions.

The woman had never agreed with the Death Eaters and their sympathizers. Similarly, she wasn’t quite sure how she felt about the current regime. But what she did know was that she was able to provide an unbiased, often blunt opinion on how she felt about all political matters. Andromeda Lestrange was kind enough to hear her out and, on occasion, heed her words, which made Isolde feel as if everything was worth it. It made her feel as if the Ministry wasn’t all lost after all, as so many had thought when Durant had fallen and Wentzell had taken up the helm. No, Isolde believed that they still had a chance to turn everything around. She believed that they could find a happy medium — that change would create a better Wizarding World. And she was going to help.

As she walked onto Pyxis’ campus, Isolde was struck by the beauty of the three buildings. They seemed to create a sort of symmetry that agreed with Isolde. But she shook her head, pushing forward. She wasn’t here to dwell on the beautiful of mere buildings — she was here to check in on the Minister’s investment and make sure everything was going according to plan. Isolde strolled forward, catching sight of a familiar face watching over the children that were hurrying around campus. It couldn’t hurt to check in with the head of the auror department, she thought as she approached Griffith.

“Good morning, Lord Yaxley,” Isolde said, stopping next to him, her eyes wandering over the school yard in front of them both. Students were busy unpacking things and they didn’t look entirely thrilled, but Isolde knew this was a step in the right direction. They were changing things at the Ministry. They were trying to right the wrongs of the previous regime and take back some of their own agency. It wouldn’t be an easy process. In fact, it would be a very slow, and tumultuous process that fought them every step of the way. But that was what it was like taking hold of the government. Every turnover brought the repeal of previous acts and decrees. At least they were trying. “I trust move-in has been going smoothly?”

Griffith knew that moving all of the kids into a school was just a step. Something that Andi had settled on that made them all look a little less like monsters. Whether or not it worked would be a different story, but he thought that right now it looked like it was working out. They were doing what they were told, and he thought that really that was all that he could ask for right now. There were several aurors here, and there was the Pyxis security staff as well, nothing was going to go wrong. And yet, he thought that so long as they were still in this transition he was going to keep an eye on it. There didn’t need to be any hiccups that came with this. It was the first thing that had really happened since the take over, and they couldn’t afford anything not going smoothly. If the children were taken care of, then they were less likely to rebel in the first place, though he thought that if they were going to rebel, they would have done it by now. Unlike last time, things had been relatively quiet, and he thought that there were a couple of factors to thank for that.

No one was trying to kill one individual person this time around. There was nothing for them to fixate on, no one for them to rally around. And they way that they had done it, it wasn’t just the Death Eaters that they would have had to rebel against. It was the Death Eaters, the pureblood, and anyone else that believed that the mudbloods were a burden on society. They were out numbered, and they knew it. There was no one for the, to rally behind, and Griffith thought that the fact that they all had things, people, that mattered to them now changed things. Having children had made their side want to fight harder, and it had the other side backing off. Worrying about what would happen to their children if they did something rebellious now. There were plenty of them that he still would have liked to haul in, but that was a debate for another day. The Potter witch was still on his list, and he was planning on finding her, one of these days. What he did once he found her though… That was complicated.

Because part of him just wanted to kill her and be done with it. But he knew that if he killed her, without hesitation, without so much as blinking an eye, then he was done for. Andi would never forgive him that choice. But he couldn’t let her walk free either. The Potters were a complicated situation, and he didn’t think that he would be thanking Rodolphus for jumping ship and leaving him to deal with that one. It would have had to have been a little easier before she was the Minister. Before she had really had any pull when it came to who lived and died. But he knew that she had that pull now. And he knew that it was his call. Him, and then his uncle, and then her. She was the top of the food chain, and he was going to be eaten alive if he made the wrong choice. The problem was that they were all the wrong choices, for so many reasons. There wasn’t a way to make the right choice there, and they all knew it. They knew that they were in a spot that they found it was easier to not being up unless they had to.

The same thing applied to other aspects of their lives as well, and he knew that, but Griff was sure that they were going to have to deal with it later on. Not right now. Right now they were dealing with the school, and all of the students moving into their new dormitories. They were going to settle in, and they were going to be fine. He had to trust that his sister’s friend knew what she was doing here, and that even if she didn’t, Eleanor would. Andi might have been the Minister, she might have funded this place, but Griff knew that it was Eleanor Bulstrode that Donna was going to have to report to, and her track record was pretty good. Griff looked over when he felt someone stop next to him and he nodded to her in greeting. “Lady Macmillan.” Andi’s advisor, the one that didn’t always just agree with her. What she was doing here, he didn’t know. Her question had him wondering if she had come to check on them all, “It is. Right now I’m thankful for the smoothness. We don’t need any hold ups.” They had had enough problems to deal with without that being added to the list.

There were days when she felt as if everyone was watching her — watching them. The Ministry was under a lot of scrutinies right now. Everyone was watching their every move, observing their every change, and waiting for every misstep. That was the reason Isolde felt it so important that she was on their team. As an Advisor to the Minister, she was able to make sure that they looked at all sides of the legality of every issue. She was able to pull past cases, examine studies, and come into meetings with a different point of view. While the other Advisors were perhaps more experienced in all things political, Isolde was experienced with the world of law and reason.

Sometimes she struggled with her own personal beliefs. Isolde had never sided publicly with any of the political spectra. She preferred to leave her opinions insider of her flat in London. But her daughter knew — after she had consumed a whole bottle of Pinot Grigio — that Isolde believed in the light of this Wizarding World. But if her new position had taught her anything, it was that the world wasn’t as black and white as she had once believed. There were so many shades in-between. The trick was finding the one that was most balanced.

She was still getting to know a majority of people at the Ministry. Everyone was kind enough, more cordial than anything. The Heads of the Departments were the ones with which she was most familiar, though she wouldn’t go as far to say that she was friends with them. No, Isolde was much closer with the Lawyers on her team and the Lufkin staff then she was with the Ministry employees. Still, perhaps now was as good a time as any to get to know them.

“Absolutely,” Isolde agreed, pulling out her notebook and making a small indication next to her notes from a few days ago. Andromeda would be pleased to know that things were in order so far. She hadn’t been sent to check on the school, but come of her own free will. Isolde couldn’t help but be a little curious as to how it would all go. Would there be an uproar? Would everything go off without a hitch? There were so many variables that she had thought it best to come to observe for herself. “Everyone seems in well enough spirits, thankfully. And the guards said they haven’t seen anything suspicious. I’d call it a tentative success.”

She smiled before bringing her heels together and turning to look at Griffith. “It’s my first time on campus. I don’t suppose you have time for a short tour? I'm supposed to meet with Donna in thirty minutes.”

Looking To Closely

TAG: @ isolde Griffith's Outfit 785

He didn’t pretend to understand what went on in the top office of the building, and he didn’t pretend to understand what it was that went on in Andromeda’s head. If he had tried that he would have found himself dizzy and confused a long time ago. He didn’t think that that was worth it. He didn’t think that any of them thought that that was worth it. There were things that he could try and deduce for himself, and then there were things that he could just try and let go, and most of what was happening around him fell into the second category. Griffith wasn’t entirely sure why he had thought that taking the job that Rodolphus had just handed him was a good idea. Mainly because no one had asked, Rodolphus had just told him the desk was his, and he had left. And that was that. Except that that wasn’t that, because that desk came with a lot of paperwork, and he wasn’t particularly sure that he was any good at any of it. But no one had called him up to their office to yell at him yet, so he thought that they were doing okay. And he supposed that if anyone was going to start yelling at him for it, it was going to be his uncle. Or Madam Graves. And the later was probably a bit scarier than the first to be honest. Because the first was his uncle. And even if Corban Yaxley was a hard ass, he thought that he would cut him a little slack for not knowing what he was doing at all. The red headed witch with the corner office on the other end of the floor. Not so much. He thought that she took her job quite a bit more seriously than he did, and Griffith wasn’t about to get on Olivia Graves’ bad side. That seemed like the kind of place that you wanted to be when you were willing to admit defeat and let her slaughter you. Two things that he very much did not want to happen. Right now, though, he thought that they were doing okay enough that they weren’t going to make that mistake again. Nothing was going to go wrong, and no one was going to end up on anyone’s bad side. That would keep them all alive, and hopefully sane. Griffith was keenly aware fo the fact that everything that they did was watched, and scrutinized, and he didn’t know how many times he had to try and convince Andromeda to keep an auror or two around for protection. Every Minister that he had ever seen had traveled with a couple of aurors, even Ares had had an auror or two around somewhere. It was just her. And her stubbornness, that hadn’t thought that that was a necessary thing to do. And so, he had done it anyway. They were stationed in places around the Ministry that they could get to her quickly. If she was going somewhere out in public, and he knew about it, he had made sure that there were aurors there too. If she had thought that she was going to come here today, he would have had them shadow her, and dealt with her wrath himself. Because he wasn’t going to lose her too. He didn’t think that their family could handle that. And maybe it was him being paranoid, or something, but he was worried about it, and he was worried about the fact that she didn’t seem particularly worried about it. She was not invincible, and he was worried that she knew that all too well and was still refusing protection. It made him question her motives a little bit there when it came to play with those risks. Trying to put it out of his mind, he focused instead on the witch that was standing there with him now. “Hopefully. All we can hope for in the end is for things to run smoothly enough that no one gets hurt.” No one on their end especially, but even when it came to the mudbloods, they didn’t need the PR nightmare that would come from someone getting hurt on their end either today. Today, everything had to go as smoothly as could be. Today, everything had to be perfect. “Of course.” He smiled at her, and he offered her his elbow. If there was one thing that he had been raised with, it was manners, and he was just as much Lord as she was Lady. He could escort her around the campus if she wanted to see it. “Have you seen any of it at all yet?”

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