Owing to time constraints (they were short-staffed without John, and Dominic was starting to worry that they’d taken on a task far too great for the numbers he’d started with) he was treating this as a single task, even though, by rights, there were two very, very different scenarios. Hermione Granger, of course, was a unique situation in her own right, a situation he’d not yet had to deal with and had not been looking forward to dealing with. The other situation was more normal — they were short-staffed and needed to replace Quigley, and better sooner than later.
He liked to take them out to lunch for their first meetings on the team, for a couple of reasons. Number one was that they technically weren’t yet cleared to know where the office was. Number two was that he got sick of bagels.
Dominic didn’t know Hermione Granger personally, but he knew her by reputation— she would be on time, if not outrageously early, and he knew that Alex Regan was smart enough to also show up on time. That meant he had to be early to their engagement— very early, if he wanted to be
sure. He’d dragged
@Mary Hunt along too, as backup— she was sitting incognito a bit away, with the extravagant meal she knew the office would pay for (Jesus Christ.)
To overcompensate for her imprudence, he’d eaten his way through a free breadbasket and a lot of olive oil by the time the first of them turned up— he wasn’t starting without them both there, though, so he simply pushed his second breadbasket across the table to share.
It was a Muggle restaurant, so that anybody who was eavesdropping would just be confused; even so, he’d taken the precaution of getting a table in the back, and setting up a small ward against ill-wishers. Confidentiality was so key— which was why, once they’d both gotten there, his second order of business was to warn them about confidentiality.
His first, though, was to introduce everybody— not that Hermione Granger would need introduction. “Glad to see you both,” he said. “I’d normally have done this one at a time, but my office doesn’t have the luxury right now of time. So. Alex, you’ll know Hermione Granger— and this is Auror Alex Regan.” They both knew his name already.
Second: “This is just a disclaimer, but if either of you decides not to take this offer, I legally have to Obliviate you before you leave. Safety measure, I’m sure you understand.” This was why Mary was there.
Third: “I represent an office in MLE tasked with finding and exposing corruption within the Ministry. Espionage, fraud, bribery, cover-ups, anything… along those lines.” It sounded much cooler in his spiel than it ever ended up being— particularly for newer sorts, who tended to be saddled investigating suspicious donations or Quidditch gambling. “The Minister formed our task force right after the war, in 1998, and since then we’ve been going— sort of slowly— through the Ministry, just trying to undo some of the centuries of corruption in the British Ministry.”
“If you agree to this offer, I’ll start moving things in place for your first assignments— set up training, and the like— but I can’t give you any other information on your colleagues or the other things we’re investigating until your first month is over, as a precaution, so don’t ask. Do… either of you have questions?”
@Alex Regan @Hermione Granger [ooc: permission to mention mary as above]
