When Marie originally decided to be an Auror, she didn't think it would mean having to do so much paperwork.

The inside of the office building was starting to feel like a prison cell, the plain walls and the large piles of paper felt like they were looming around her as she sat at her desk. She sighed as she finished another case and tapped the folder with her wand and it disappeared.

Had she known that she would be sitting behind a desk doing paperwork, she would have reconsidered her career choice. She wanted to be out in the field like she had been, but the truth was that there wasn't a whole lot of work for her to do right now. So they stuck her with a desk job, which made her want to curse the next person who crossed her path.

She pushed her chair out and stretched her pale arms over her head, pulling her hair out of her face as well and she stared idly at the ceiling for a moment. She had done too much paperwork, what happened to being out, hunting down Death Eaters and all that? Did they all just drop off the face of the earth?

Marie blinked quickly and got out of her chair.

Forget this. she thought, I've been working non-stop since 8 am, I deserve a break.

She stood up and began to walk, she wasn't sure where she was going, but right now, she just didn't want to be sitting in a cramped little office.

Alex usually didn’t find herself at the Ministry of Magic, but she was in London check out some information on a case and decided that stopping in to see her husband; a little surprise couldn’t hurt. She had stopped in his office but she was informed that he had just left and was going down to the lunchroom to grab something to eat and that she could most probably catch up to him there. “Hi there Alex, what are you doing here?” the slightly fat and balding man asked Alexandra. “I came to surprise that husband of mine. Is he in?” he smiled, he could remember when his wife used to do those things, now if she made him lunch for work it was a miracle. “Sorry love you just missed him, but you can try the lunchroom. I heard him say something about grabbing a bite.” She smiled sweetly “Thank you Henry,” she said with a smile and left.

Lunchroom…lunchroom, where was that darned lunch room again, she thought as she walked down the hall to the lift. She remembered it was about two floors down, but couldn’t remember where to go from there. She’d just have to figure it out. She reached the lifts and stood outside it waiting for it to reach her floor, when it did she got in and pressed the button for the floor two down. The lift was empty; most of the Ministry workers seemed to be their offices as she recalled hearing a lot of talking on her way up.

She disembarked two floors down and looked around…nothing looked familiar. Where was she supposed to go? She spotted a woman walking up the hall and decided to ask her directions. Unlike some men, who would butt about for a while trying to find it on their own, Alex had to qualms about asking a question. “Excuse me?” she said walking quickly after the woman. “Excuse me?” she repeated to get her attention.

Marie had passed a few other offices when she heard the woman's voice, but for some reason she really didn't register the fact that she was the only one to be seen. She kept walking, but when the voice called again she stopped.

At first she felt a bit annoyed, why of all people was she the one to get stopped? What had she done, absolutely nothing except try to get away and just relax. She was about to spin around and start shouting at the poor woman, but stopped herself. Lately she had been letting her temper get the better of her, but she wasn't going to allow that right now.

She took a breath, turned around and walked back to the woman, who looked a little lost.

"D'you need some help?" Marie asked, calming down a bit more.

The woman didn't look completely bewildered like some of the people who got lost in the Ministry did, so she assumed that she might just need a little direction.

Alex was walking after the other woman as quickly as she could, but she didn’t seem to be stopping. Hadn’t she heard her? She tried to catch up, at least if she didn’t hear her at her previous distance she would hear her if she got a little closer. However, Alex needn’t have bothered because a few moments later the woman came to a halt and looked around at her…Alex having now caught up to her.

She smiled at her pleasantly, “Oh, I’m sorry to bother you, but I could use a little direction,” she admitted. “I am trying to find the lunchroom,” she continued. “I know it is somewhere on this floor but I can’t remember where. If you could just tell me where to go I can find my way.” She didn’t want to inconvenience the woman, she was probably on her way to do something and Alex was holding her up.

The woman had to be about her age, mid-twenties, not older. Alex had been in this building a few times, and she was always meeting new people, however she knew everyone by name who worked in her husband’s department. The Ministry was too large to know everyone else so seeing a new face was nothing she didn’t expect.

Marie smiled at the woman, she was at least being polite about asking for directions. Some people would strut into the ministry and start bossing you around, demanding that you take them to a certain place or something like you had nothing better to do. Marie was very thankful that this visitor was friendly.

"Oh, I was actually just taking a quick break myself." she said, cracking her knuckles idly, "Um, it's this way...follow me."

She began to walk again, much slower this time, so she was right next to the woman. She didn't have much time to meet many new people with being busy with work, so she took advantage of all the chances she got to meet people.

"I'm Marie by the way, Marie Richards," she smiled back at the woman, wondering whether or not the woman worked in the ministry.

“Oh,” Alex said with a smile as the woman informed her that she was on a break and offered to show her to the lunchroom, “Thank you,” she said politely. She walked beside her, their pace easy. “I guess I was lucky to find you on a break,” she said with a slight laugh. It would be much faster finding where she was going with a guide instead of taking the directions and hoping she was going the correct way. That was one thing about the Ministry offices; they corridors all seemed to look the same.

“Alexandra,” she said with a smile and offered her hand in greeting, “Alexandra DeSota. Nice to meet you.” It wasn’t often Alex got to meet new people, actually since she had taken up her current case she hadn’t had time to do anything she really liked far less being able to meet knew people.

“I’m looking for my husband,” she told her, making conversation, “He works in the Magical Relations department,” she added. “You’re in what department?” she asked politely trying to make conversation as they walked.

"It's very nice to meet you," Marie said, shaking Alex's hand, "I'm sure you wouldn't have much trouble finding the break room, someone is always wandering around here. I do it rather regularly."

True she often worked hard as she could then suddenly stopped and disappeared for an hour, but her boss never complained, especially when all she had was paper work. Her stomach turned at the thought of returning to her office and those awfully boring piles of paper.

"I'm an Auror, department of magical law enforcement," she explained, "though it's quite boring right now because there's mostly just paperwork to do."

She rolled her eyes, annoyed even thinking about the idea. It was a touchy issue with her, the fact that she didn't get to go out into the field like she was supposed to.

"Who's your husband?" she asked, wondering maybe she knew him, although she had never heard the name Desota before.

“Well I found you, so I guess you’re right,” she said with a smile. She really didn’t have the time to butting around the place, she had to get back to work in an hour or so, so it would have been wasted time searching on her own. With Marie’s help she should be able to find the lunchroom and Robbie in no time.

Alex wished she had time to take a break from work, but at the moment that wasn’t possible. She ate her meals at her desk or in the conference room while she mulled over different documents with Maggie. Sometimes she was there till after eleven, on her own working and then would leave for home around midnight. It was terrible, the most time she had ever spent away from Robbie. She was gone before he woke up, she never took a day off and she was always coming back after he was in bed. It wasn’t much but this was her little way of making up for all the time they weren’t getting to spend together, at least it was a beginning.

“An Auror, that impressive,” Alex replied when Marie told her she belonged to eh Magical Law Enforcement department. Alex didn’t have it in her to be an Auror, Law suited her fine however. She did admire Auror’s, they had a tough job sometimes, but lately things were somewhat quiet, from what Marie said.

“My husband? His name is Robert DeSota. Do you know him?” she asked, though she doubted she would, Magical Relations and Law Enforcement where a bit far off from each other, it wasn’t likely that they would have met during work except maybe in passing.

Marie smiled at Alex's comment about being an Auror being impressive. Looking at her job, she knew it was something that not everyone could do. There were days when Marie had come home and just wanted to pass out and had been able to, but that was when Alexander had been around. She was slightly grateful for work being slow, which meant she could actually do stuff when she came home, but it didn't help other situations in her life.

"I don't think I've met your husband," Marie said as they turning off the main corridor into a smaller one, "Course all the faces around here can blend together after a while. I've probably ran into him once or twice, but never actually caught his name."

Truth be told there were alot of people in the ministry that Marie met and forgot their names, which was really a problem when they were names she was supposed to remember.

"So what d'you do Alex?"

“I’m not surprised,” Alex said with a smile as Marie told her that she didn’t think she had ever met Robbie. “I didn’t think you would have but I asked anyway,” she said as she turned the corner with Marie. “Working in Magical Law Enforcement is a ways from Magical Relations. I pretty much know everyone in that department; you are the first I have met who isn’t in Magical Relations.”

Alex knew everyone in her office, everyone in her building, by name. It was her curse; she had a good memory which helped her in being a lawyer. She looked at the plain walls of the Ministry, and wondered why they couldn’t have made them more interesting. I have to get to the Richmond building by three; the museum by three-thirty, Alex repeated in her head, some of the things she had to do when she left here, trying to work out exactly how much time she had to spare.

Alex smiled, “I’m a lawyer. I work for the Law Firm of Quiggley, Hart and Moorehouse here in London,” she told her. “It’s a private firm, we take special cases,” she explained. Quiggley, Hart and Moorehouse took high priority cases, no matter where they were located, but Alex brought a special touch to firm, she liked cases that most didn’t want to touch, such as her current case. She liked the firm, the people and their principals, everything about the place made her proud to be associated with it.

"A lawyer, now that's impressive," Marie said sincerely.

She never did have the mind for law, in fact she had a hard time with it as an Auror. Admittedly, the two fields were slightly similar, but Marie would rather have someone hand her evidence than have to figure it out and present it in front of a court room full of people. That just scared the hell out of her in general.

They walked down a few steps and reached a short hallway, that dead end with a plain wooden door with a glad window set in the middle of the top half. Marie stopped for a moment, considering going to the cafe across the street rather than the break room, but after searching her pocket she came up empty.

"That's the break room," Marie stated, sounding rather stupid, of course it was the break room, "It shouldn't be too crowded, most people go out for lunch."

Well...those of us who aren't broke and just lost nearly half of everything to their ex-fiancee Marie thought bitterly.

Alex smiled, “Thank you,” she said kindly. She didn’t think her job that impressive compared to an Auror, but she accepted the compliment graciously, that was just her way. Some people might pretend, and say that it wasn’t as stellar a job as an Auror, when really they were flattered by the compliment. Alex was a sincere person; she didn’t say things she didn’t mean.

Alex loved the rush of a trial, and the even greater thrill when she won, and Alex always won. To date she hadn’t lost a case, that was why her current firm had been so anxious to get her, and she hadn’t let them down. Very few could imagine the 5’ 7” pixie faced woman arguing her point to a court, but that was what she did. you could call it her way of faking out the opposition, they always looked at her face and her age and thought they had her pegged, that she would be a push over…they were always wrong.

They took a short flight of stairs down and turned onto a short hallway with a plain door at the end. Alex looked at the door, she really hadn’t remembered coming this way before. She gave Marie a smile, “Thanks for your help.” She started to the door and then stopped, “Are you going in?” she asked.

"Yeah, I suppose I should, I haven't eaten all day," Marie said, moving to the door and pushing it open.

The room inside was pretty boring in her opinion. There were a few square tables with plain, straight back chairs setting at them. There was a coffee pot, some empty mugs and a large refridgerator and a large platter that had all sorts of sandwiches on it. Marie immediately walked over and helped herself to a large sandwich as well as a coffee mug that she filled with espresso from her wand.

She pulled a chair out and sat down, pulling up a copy of the daily prophet. It wasn't that Marie was antisocial, she just took her breaktime to catch up on news. Plus, she assumed Alex would be busy seeing her husband.

Alex gave a smile as Marie said she was going, and then held the knob on the door and entered the lunchroom after Marie.

Boring. That was the first word that came to Alex’s mind. The room, like the halls, was bland and needed some colour, some life to it. Not even the chairs and tables held your interest, they were simply functionary, there was not decorative in the least. The room reminded her of watered down version of a school cafeteria.

Marie walked over to the table and grabbed a sandwich, Alex however looked around for Robbie, but he didn’t seem to be in there. I thought he said he was in here, she thought as her eyes surveyed the room. Maybe he had stopped off somewhere and would be along shortly. She put her bag in the nearest chair and figured it couldn’t help to get a cup of coffee. She flashed Marie as smile as she went back to her seat.

She sat there sipping her coffee and waiting to see when Robbie would arrive.