[Café] The Tempering Heat of Experience (Emma, Jonathan)

WEDNESDAY, 3 JULY 2002, 11:29 AM

“Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. It may not be difficult to store up in the mind a vast quantity of facts within a comparatively short time, but the ability to form judgments requires the severe discipline of hard work and the tempering heat of experience and maturity.” @Emma Hennings
― Calvin Coolidge

Ministry Munchies was insufficient for a true business lunch, and Jonathan Gardner had a lot to talk about with his junior assistant, some of which did not need to be aired to the throng that normally gathered around the little coffee and snack stand in the Atrium. So he had arranged that they would have an 11:30 meal out in Diagon Alley, and he had selected one of the several open-air cafés called The Old Trumpet as their destination so they could enjoy the beautiful summer weather. The frequenters of this café were generally quite elderly witches and wizards, and many of them were hard of hearing. Furthermore, Jonathan's was of the opinion that the Trumpet's Lancashire hotpot was to die for, and given the month they were all about to have in Magical Games and Sports with the first of the British & Irish Cup playoffs happening in three days' time, he wanted to spoil himself.

Of course, it wasn't just the BIL Playoffs Jonathan had to worry about, but the World Cup as well. Thank goodness he was just an associate member of the ICW Quidditch Committee and wasn't "in charge," but he'd made his contributions to the brainstorming after the German Ministry's complete and abysmal failure to prevent the targeted, almost narrative, crash of a meteorite into the World Cup stadium they had spent so much time, effort, and money to build. Jonathan was still not feeling very charitable toward German ex-Minister Mayer or really even interim Minister Jäger (try as he might to be fair toward her), and on the flipside was supremely impressed with the Brazilian, Swedish, and Japanese ministries. He wished he could have offered more tangible support on behalf of his own Ministry, but Shacklebolt's hands and those of the Finance Department were tied with the remaining fallout from the Hogwarts repairs, plus the extremely recent fallout between the British and Swedish Ministries regarding Gaius Purcell. He just didn't have budget or resources that he could spare.

Sighing, and then immediately realising he had done so, he straightened his spine and smiling looked across the café table at Emma Hennings, one of his most hard-working employees and a pleasant presence around the department since Day One. Once she had placed her order after his, and the waiter went to deliver said order to the kitchens, he put his clasped hands on the table and opened their conversation with the first of several bits of - presumably - good news.

"Miss Hennings, as you already know, the Brazilian Ministry has promised a stadium to be ready for the World Cup, so those playoffs will remain on schedule. As a member of the Quidditch Committee I've been given ten free tickets to the World Cup; two of them are yours, as one of my direct reporting assistants. I hope your schedule is clear on the twenty-fourth of August," he joked, already knowing full well that Emma had been eager to have at least a listen-in of the final championship game if she couldn't be there herself.

As she weaved her way through the crowd of people milling about Diagon Alley, Emma couldn’t help feeling simultaneously excited and apprehensive. She was en route to The Old Trumpet to meet her boss for an early lunch at his request; and two things made this an odd occurrence. Firstly, that it was an early lunch – if anything, it was usually a late one. Secondly, they were leaving the Ministry for it. Both of them tended to air on the side of workaholic during business hours, and so stepping away from the desk for such an extended period of time (and, for Emma, not eating at her desk while she worked) felt almost foreign. Especially with the meteorite fiasco so fresh in their minds, the scramble to find a new host and stadium, and even more chaos to come with the quickly-approaching BIL playoffs… In short, whatever this was about, it had to be important. And she wasn’t quite sure how to interpret it.

She wasn’t complaining, though. The midday July sunshine felt wonderful, and as she neared her destination her heart gave a happy leap when she saw the place had open-air seating. She was early, but unsurprisingly Mr. Gardner was already there at one of the small round tables.

“‘Morning, Sir,” she greeted brightly, taking the seat opposite him. “I never knew this place was here!”

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Everything on the menu looked so good that she had a difficult time deciding what she’d have. At the sound of a sigh from across the table Emma glanced up, hoping it wasn’t one of masked disapproval at her deliberation (highly unlikely, but she tended to consider all possibilities). Fortunately it did not seem to be, and she reflexively returned the smile that had been offered her. They both gave their orders to the waitress, and before Emma could decide on a conversation-starter her boss plunged straight into it.

The brunette nodded along to his first statement. Yes, they’d solidified the plans with Brazil only in the past week or two, which had been a substantial relief. But it took her a few moments to process his second sentence; and when she did, her cerulean-blue eyes went round.

“Two—? I— yes, thank you!”
Suddenly, it felt like just yesterday (and not seven months ago) that she had been joking with Quinn about how she’d hoped there’d be extra Ministry tickets available for the match. Emma hadn’t actually dared to believe she’d be bequeathed any (sometimes Dad was able to get them and sometimes he wasn’t), but it was a pleasant thought nonetheless. She hadn’t forgotten the Seeker’s kind offer to pull some strings on her behalf, but now this left more opportunity for Quinn’s family or close friends to attend.

She leaned forward slightly, her lightly-freckled features alight with excitement.
“Really, Sir, I can’t thank you enough. What exactly will my responsibilities entail?”
The final itself wouldn’t take place for another seven weeks and three days (yes, she was counting), but she was eager to prepare as much in advance as possible. It was a dream opportunity for her and she wasn’t about to give it anything short of her best effort.


[[ @Jonathan Gardner sorry for the delay! let me know if anything needs changed <33 ]]

Jonathan waved off Emma's exuberant thank-yous with a pleased smile. His junior assistant was reacting exactly as he had hoped, with gratitude and excitement. Having the youth of the wizarding world working in his department kept him young, or so he insisted. And in truth Emma wasn't that young; she was no fresh-faced Hogwarts graduate, but a delightful and productive young lady with a strong work ethic and several years of experience packed into the few years she had worked for Jonathan.

Others would disagree but Jonathan personally felt that the Department of Magical Games and Sports was one of the most difficult departments of the Ministry to work for, given the non-stop demands of multiple team scheduling and special events, plus cooperation with other Ministry's Games Departments that fell outside the purview of the Department of International Magical Cooperation. For her to still be so bright-eyed and eager after this time was a testament to Emma Hennings' character, and was exactly why he had selected her for this next bit of news.

Before he could deliver the news, however, she leaned forward and asked a question he never expected somebody to ask about being given free tickets to the world's biggest sporting event: What will my responsibilities entail?

Momentarily lost for words, Jonathan's mouth hung slightly agape before he lightly shook his head and regained his senses. "Responsibilities, Miss Hennings? The World Cup is not your job, dear girl. It is your vacation. The tickets are a gift as a way to thank you for the service you have already rendered to me in making my work with the International Quidditch Committee go smoothly. Between you and Fletcher, I didn't have to worry about any problems with our British Ministry's direct unders, and I was able to deal with the... incident with the German stadium," he scowled slightly before once again returning to his complacent, controlled demeanour.

"But that does bring me to another point, and I suppose since you're asking for responsibilities I can make this a... 'condition' of giving you these tickets," Jonathan smiled more broadly to indicate it was sort of a joke to Emma. "You see... well to put it bluntly Fletcher is retiring, and you're not only the most logical person to take his place but in fact the only person I would consider. I am offering you the position of Senior Assistant to the Department Head. A bigger desk, a 10% raise though generally 15% more headaches, some other details we can go over when we're not enjoying a meal out in this divine weather."

He lightly rapped on the table once and then leaned back in his chair with a satisfied grin. "Will you accept the position or will you leave me in the lurch, Miss Hennings?"

[[ @Emma Hennings my turn xDD ]]