Paper Trails

25th October 2000

 It was a surprise when for the third time that week Potter had not only turned up on time, but also stayed the full working day. He looked a mess, and was wearing the same robes he had on yesterday, but at least he was doing his job.

Or appeared to be.

Potter had been wandering in and out of the stacks for the past hour with the same dazed expression on his face, an ancient scroll clutched in his hands. He hadn't even bothered to open it.

It was when Theo found him stood at a junction looking lost that he put his foot down.

"Potter, are you seriously that incompetent that you get lost in your own office?" He snapped.

"Uh, Oh sorry Nott." Potter said with a small smile "I didn't realise, was lost in thought a bit."

"Well go get some actual work done, before we both get written up for slacking." Theo snapped, stepping around the useless idiot and marching off down the isle. He could hear the shuffling of feet behind him and hoped that Potter was actually going to do something useful for a change.

Sighing to himself Theo turned back to the missive he had received from the ministry archives in Italy. They had heard about his work on love potions and wanted him to share his findings so they could use it to help build some new legislation they were trying to enact.

It was more than the British ministry were doing.

Unfortunately the Italian ministry did not have the personnel spare to put to work on the project, so were offering the use of their archives in the Vatican in exchange for a full report and recommendations when Theo had finished his research.

It was a generous offer, though he was not permitted access to the Vatican archives, that honour was reserved for only the highest ranked researchers in the Italian ministry. Theo wasn't quite sure how this arrangement would work – how could he find texts that he didn't know existed if they did not have the staff to find them for him – but he would take advantage of the privilege while he could.

Leaning back in his chair, Theo scanned through the second roll of parchment that outlined the sections of the archives available to him and the loan conditions for each.

There were several titles on the list that would be useful, both for the love potion project and for his own extra-curricular reading. Leaning over to grab a quill and a fresh piece of parchment, he began jotting down a list. Noting the titles that interested him, as well as possible books he had heard of that may be in the sections he was allowed to access. He could write it up in a proper request letter tomorrow. For now he had an internal request to deal with.

The maintenance department had once again gone on strike by applying weather charms to the Department of Magical Transport. Unfortunately, whichever idiot had cast the spell had neglected to see if there was a counter charm for it. The entirety of level seven had been suffering from severe rain storms for the past three days. It was now apparently Theo's job to figure out a counter charm for the mess.

Sighing to himself, Theo pulled volume one of Wielding the Weather and flicked through to the section on rain charms. The problem with weather magic was it not only required a spell, but also intent. Figuring out the counter charm relied on knowledge of both.

The report stated that Hastings, Prichard and Rowley had placed the charm after the DMT had filed six successive complaints that the sun in the enchanted windows was too dull. It was a long standing tradition of the maintenance department to go on strike in such a way, but the trio had for some unknown reason neglected to choose a spell from the pre-approved list of spells for strike action.

Cursing the maintenance department for their trigger happy Union, Theo conjured a small box and set about inscribing runes to contain any magic cast within it. Wielding the Weather had proven to not be specific in detailing the method of dispersing unwanted weather magic. A trial and error approach was going to be needed.

Really this should be a job for the Unspeakables. It was their role to investigate any unusual or unwieldy magic. A non-stop rainstorm flooding an entire level of the ministry fell straight into that category. Unfortunately last month the Maintenance Department had refused to fix the leaking toilets outside the front entrance of the Department of Mysteries, claiming that it was too close to the time chamber and thus a health risk – no one wanted to get trapped in a time loop with sewage – The Unspeakables had retaliated by refusing to work with the Maintenance department until the toilets were fixed.

So now the Weather Charms were Theo's problem.

Test box sufficiently warded, Theo cast the charm, focusing on all his spite over ridiculous departmental politics, the closest he could get to what he imagined the maintenance crew were feeling. As the tip tapping of rain was heard from the little box, he sighed, lifting his wand to start casting the first of an endless list of counter-charms.

It was going to be a long day.