Ever since Esmeralda Mynk had been given the position of Keeper of Prophecies at the Ministry, she had enjoyed her job. As a Seer, she of course picked up upon visions of things to come. And while not all of it was pleasant, due to the many years of peace in the Wizarding World, she had never seen anything chaotic or predicting certain doom. This was certainly good for Mynk as behind her eccentricities, which some she knew perceived as being a bit dark due to her being a Seer, she was a good and noble witch who enjoyed a peaceful life, albeit with just her black cat Medusa.

The cat now sat near her in her office in the Department of Mysteries. It was just a normal day. Nothing special had happened to her as Keeper of Prophecies in a good long time, good or bad. Mynk was enjoying her tea and sandwiches and Medusa was having a little dinner of his own. She looked over at her feline companion and smiled.

"We will be allowed a Holiday soon, da Medusa?" she said in her pleasant Romanian accent. "Where shall we go? Perhaps back home to visit cousin Ionela and her husband, though I know you are not that fond of their work with dragons." Mynk laughed a bit as Medusa simply meowed at that. "We will enjoy ourselves wherever we go, I assure you."

She had barely finished speaking of enjoying themselves when it hit. It was the briefest of flashes, but enough to send chills down her spine. At first there was a collection of dark figures who she couldn't recognize in the shadows. Around the, the Wizarding World and its populace were suffering greatly from... something. And for a split second a bolt of lightning flashed and she saw some of the faces. Not the leader's, but some of the others. And one of them looked like... no... it couldn't be her.

Her eyes wide with shock, Mynk apparated outside the office of the Minister, not knowing Draco was out for lunch at the time.

"Minister Malfoy!" she gasped. "Please... I must speak with him at once!"

MORGAINE ETTE DELUNA HERMIONE JEAN WEASLEY

Words: 447 Outfit: Here SHIN OF ADOX

The Wizengamot Luncheon had been pushed three days further into the week. Presumably, the aim had been to be more accommodating to stir up additional attendees as the early returns of RSVP's had been sparse, likely because the dockets had been similarly so for months. However, Hermione knew that a few days accommodation was going to do very little to drum up interest for a business lunch with no business - a social function more for show than actual function, particularly when the average Wizengamot member was pushing ninety and lived practically on perpetual holiday these days. For them, coming into the Ministry of Magic for anything other than an actual hearing was too much like actual work to be bothered with. Where this had been particularly inconvenient for her was that it required shifting around agenda items from later in the week to earlier, or now, which had required her to take her lunches in her office which was an offshoot of the parlor from the much grander and expansive office that belonged to her boss, the Minister of Magic, one Draco Malfoy. Pouring over various department reports spread out on her rich black walnut desk, formerly belonging to Kingsley Shacklebolt which Draco had gifted her upon her appointment, Hermione picked disinterestedly at the pallid squares of cucumber sandwich she'd had sent up for her midday meal. She wasn't terribly hungry, but knew that she ought to eat something. The trouble was that this particular something no longer felt very appetizing. She was just about to force herself to take a bite while mulling over a multi-page document from the ODCCDSPO on the increased circulation of bad luck bedbug bite repellent - which was rubbish stuff given that bad luck bedbugs didn't even exist - when there came an alarmed and very urgent knocking at the door to the officials' parlor. No... on closer inspection the banging was coming from inside the parlor and upon the Minister's door at that. "Esmeralda?" she asked as she stepped out into the parlor. The seer's eyes were wide with alarm, the sort of expression that set off a slight alert among Hermione's senses. "The Minister is taking his lunch out today. Are you... alright? Is something the matter? You look as though you've just seen a ghost." There was no denying that something in the pit of Hermione's stomach dug with a sense of foreboding. Esmeralda Mynk was not one who was easily unnerved; one didn't ascend to the position of Keeper of Prophecies with such a shortcoming. But when said Keeper of Prophecies came banging about in such a state of distress, it was almost assuredly never good. @mera MORGAINE ETTE DELUNA

Mera had to calm herself, especially in the Office of the Minister. She was allowed a great responsibility at the Ministry and had to be professional, even if she was in a state of near panic. She couldn't help herself. When one suddenly sees what she saw after decades of peace in the Wizarding World, one had every right to be in a panic. And the news of the recent disappearance of Ollivander didn't really help to soothe that panic.

Mera was a tad bit upset to hear that Minister Malfoy wasn't available. He needed to know what she saw as soon as possible. If it were true, as pretty much every vision Mera ever had was, there would need to be preparations made and immediately. However, Mera was very glad to have run into Hermione Weasley, in part because she was Senior Undersecretary and of course had a lot of say in what went on in the Ministry. However, Mynk was especially glad because... well this was Hermione Weasley. Hermione had been there in the thick of one of the most devastating battles in history, and in general played a very significant role in the Second Wizarding War. If anyone could sit and listened to Mera, and know the importance of what the Seer saw, it was Hermione.

"Not a ghost, Senior Undersecretary," she said. "But something perhaps far worse. I.... I need to sit down." Mera made her way to a chair in the office and seated herself. She closed her eyes for a moment, gathered herself, then opened them and looked at Hermione. "What I saw was terrible... frightening. Many dark figures, all standing in the shadows. Around them... chaos and destruction... death. It was as it was when... HE was alive." She knew she didn't have to tell Hermione of all people who "HE" was.

HERMIONE JEAN WEASLEY

Morgaine had only returned from lunch a few minutes prior to Esmeralda Mynk's flurried arrival. She was pushing her quill lazily across some documents that needed her approval and recommendations, and she sneered as she concentrated. That ridiculous foreigner was a poor choice for the Ministry, she thought, but at least she was in a relatively harmless department. A true Seer could be a problem, but Morgaine had always doubted anyone who professed the Second Sight. In truth she had very little understanding of such abilities - they were not tangible like wandless magic or animal communication - but that only made the hairs rise all the quicker on her neck when she overheard Mynk and the Weasley girl talking. 

It didn't take a genius to make the connection between the Dark Lord in the past, and the rumoured Dark Lady rising in the near future. Morgaine took a moment to steady herself. Her nerves must not betray her, not now when the first moment among the hundreds she'd anticipated was arrived. She went to the door and poked her head out, a convincing look of concern on her aristocratic features.

"Esmeralda? Merlin's beard, are you alright? Here, come into my office and have a glass of water." She shot a worrieded look at Hermione. Inside she seethed a little. "I'm sure we can get ahold of the Minister shortly, but in the meantime, you should tell us what you saw, slowly. Take your time." She smiled reassuringly, gesturing for both women to come into her office.

HERMIONE JEAN WEASLEY @mera

Words: 426 Outfit: Here SHIN OF ADOX

It was the way that Esmeralda said 'He' that made Hermione's skin crawl. There could be no mistaking to whom she was referring. Hermione hadn't been in that graveyard in Little Hangeton with Harry, at the foot of the headstone of Tom Riddle Sr., to see those hooded figures as they arrived to answer the call of the scars on their arms, but she'd seen her own fair share of visages shrouded by Death Eater masks and cowls in her time, including in this very Ministry. "Well surely you can't..." she blurted reflexively, "... I mean..." And her voice trailed off momentarily while her mind juggled a multitude of logical chainsaws. Esmeralda was her own junior by nearly seven years, so even if she had gained the ability to use her Inner Eye at younger age than most - 'when had Pavarti started to really find hers... fifth or sixth year?' - she was far too young to have firsthand sight of what Hermione had seen with her own two eyes. No... perhaps she had witnessed Death Eaters firsthand in her native Romania; it wasn't as though Death Eaters had limited themselves to Britain or that You-Know-Who himself hadn't ventured on his own into Romania specifically. There had to be some logical explanation for what the seer had seen than what the surface suggested. There just had to be. Hermione drew in a deep, resolute breath as she helped usher the Keeper of Secrets into Morgana's office. "Esmeralda, yes. Please do sit. Gather yourself and, in your own time, tell us what you've seen. I understand it may be difficult, but details and specifics are of the utmost importance. I will summon Drac... the Minister after." She wasn't explicitly certain where Draco had gone to take his lunch, but he was - like so many men - a creature of habit, so he could certainly be ferreted out and notified via Patronus - this wasn't the sort of business that Hermione was prepared to entrust to an owl. it was important to glean everything they could from Mynk now, while it was fresh in her memory. There was a part of her that wanted to send for Ron and Harry, but she was reminded they had no jurisdiction in this, as no magical law had been broken - or so yet she knew. If what Esmeralda was saying proved true, there would be time enough to speak of this with them later, though Hermione found herself silently desperate that there would be no necessity for it. @mera MORGAINE ETTE DELUNA

To Morgaine:

When Morgaine arrived, Mera froze up a bit. She tried her best not to show it, as she didn't want to make a scene and cause any trouble to occur. For the fact was, one of the figures she saw in her vision when the lightning struck oh so briefly was... The Advisor to the Minister herself. But could it have been her. The vision was all too brief. It could have been someone who favored her, perhaps even a relative of hers. Mera hoped so. If the very Advisor to the Minister had dark intentions, the entire Ministry could be in for a great deal of trouble.

Finally Mera nodded and agreed to go into the office. She accepted the glass of water as well, though wondered if she should have on the possibility that who she saw WAS Morgaine.

To Hermione:

Mynk had not witnessed much of anything of what Voldemort had done in the Wizarding World, but he she been told the stories and read about them as well. It was those horrors she was exposed to in that manner that she thought of when she had the visions.

"In my homeland, I read a great deal about what the Dark Lord had done here, and as one does when one reads, I formed certain images in my mind of what it must have been like," she said. "What I saw just a short time ago reminded me of those."

Once she had collected herself and sat down, she closed her eyes and tried to recollect the vision again. As a Seer, visions often came to her suddenly, and some only remained in her head for a short time.

"I saw the magical part of London, the Ministry," she said. "I also saw Hogwarts, all at the same time. There was a frightening storm. People- wizards and witches, young and old, were being attacked and screaming as if tortured. At the center of it all were several figures hidden in the shadows. Lightning flashed and for mere seconds I could see them." She glanced over at Morgaine for a moment, then quickly turned her eyes back to Hermione. "I... do not remember what all of them looked like... but the leader was a woman... a Dark Witch."

MORGAINE ETTE DELUNA HERMIONE JEAN WEASLEY