My French is not at the point where I'd feel comfortable writing entire conversations in it. Plus this entire thing has been in English and I believe the majority of my readers are English as well. So while everything will be written out in English, unless indicated otherwise, assume everything spoken as being in French.
Chapter 16 Maintenance
While the magical government of the United Kingdom had their main location underground, the French Ministry was the opposite. Their building was above ground, ten stories tall and despite its older look, having been in its location since the early 1900's, was only accessible through large security doors.
"I'm a bloody maintenance man," Harry murmured in English, looking at his Ministry ID card as he waited for the lift to arrive.
Rick had come through on his declaration of Harry getting his acceptance to a job in the French Ministry. Harry was the newest member of the building's maintenance crew. His job was to maintain the enchantments, charms, runes, and transfigurations that kept the building looking and feeling like it did. While definitely not work for weaker and/or stupid witches and wizards, the stereotypes that went with being a maintenance man were known by all.
It made sense, in that it would allow him access to almost every room in the building without rousing too much suspicion. That didn't mean he had to like it.
He was joined in the wait for the lift by several others, whose various colored robes indicated the various departments they worked for. That was what the French Ministry did; they color coded everything. It seemed like such a French thing to do. Harry wore brown robes because despite Maintenance not being part of any department, they deserved their own color robes, and that color would be the color of shit.
"Bonjour."
Harry mentally shook his head. He forgot he was in France and was supposed to be a French citizen. It was custom for everyone at work to say hi to everyone else, and generally greet each other by shaking hands, or doing that rather silly, at least in his opinion, double cheek kiss thing. On top of that, slipping into English wouldn't be acceptable like his earlier slip of the tongue. He needed his mind to hear French like it was English, and speak French like it was English.
"Hello," Harry responded, slipping into the French tongue.
He turned to see a pretty blond wearing green robes smiling at him. His own smile popped onto his face.
"Are you new here? I have never seen you before."
"Today is my first day," Harry answered. "I'm a little nervous."
He hoped the latter sentence would be enough to excuse his perceived rudeness at not greeting those who stood around him.
"Elise," she greeted, sticking out her hand.
"Alexandre," he replied, grasping her hand lightly and shaking it.
He was going to have to remember to greet everyone properly. He might find it weird as an Englishman, but it was the French thing to do.
"Maintenance?" she questioned, indicating his robe.
Harry looked down and fought to keep the blush from his face. Damn Rick for getting him a job in maintenance.
"I've always been curious about charms and enchantments, and their effects on things. After my Charms apprenticeship ended, I figured I'd do this for a bit to see how all the charms applied here interacted with the large amount of other magics that take place daily before moving onto my runes apprenticeship," Harry answered with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders.
Elise looked at him with an impressed expression. Being qualified for an apprenticeship meant that you had to be one of the best at something. Harry couldn't remember if getting an apprenticeship in charms was in the resume that Rick had created for his persona, and if it wasn't, he would have the man add it. Damn if he was going to look like a fool in front of this pretty French girl.
The lift door dinged, and Harry made his way in with the crowd. He had been given directions on how to reach the maintenance office to meet with the handful of witches and wizards who worked in the department. They were on the fourth floor; a floor mostly dedicated to the French equivalent to the Department of Accidents and Catastrophes.
He found himself pressed into a back corner, Elise taking the spot right next to him. The witches and wizards piled in, and the lift expanded to fit everyone comfortably. He wished to continue his conversation with Elise but she worked on the second floor, and it was only a score of seconds after the door closed before they opened again and Elise, as well as every other green robe wearing employee in the elevator, made their ways through the lift doors.
As she walked away from him, Elise turned to look over her shoulders. Harry gave her a small wave of goodbye. She in turn gave him a small wave of her own. The door closed again, and the elevator started its descent upwards.
Soon Harry found himself standing in an average size square room with multiple cubicles. He looked around, wondering if he would be able to spot the supervisor from his location, or if he would have to walk around in order to find the woman. As he walked into the office two men with bags under their eyes walked out. No doubt they were the night shift and were heading home for some much needed sleep.
"You must be my new recruit, Alexandre Labell."
The woman that approached him looked to be middle aged, somewhere in her sixties Harry would guess. She had brown hair that was starting to thin and wrinkles sat at the corner of her eyes and mouth.
"Yes ma'am, pleasure to meet you," Harry said, holding out his hand.
"You can call me Saddie," she said as she shook his hand. "Before we get into it, lets introduce you to the rest of your coworkers."
There were a few men and another woman who worked the day shift for maintenance. They seemed like a nice enough bunch, all of them older than him by at least two decades or so. He shook hands and introduced himself as they were, in turn, introduced to him. He made note of their body language; the way they talked with him and Saddie.
Eventually he found himself sitting in Saddie's cubicle, which was twice the size of all the other ones he had passed. She took her desk chair and indicated for Harry to sit in the spare seat she had next to her desk. A quick glance saw photos of people he assumed were family and friends, unless Sadie was the kind who went around taking photos of strangers to hang at her desk.
"During the day we'll get a dozen memos for problems that arise throughout the building. Most times it from a charm gone awry, nothing too serious. We do a sweep of each department every week to make sure everything is working as it should, but magic is a fickle thing so no matter how much we keep up on it, things are going to fail.
"The evening and night shifts have only two on because the evening and night shifts for the other departments are minimal as well, so there is less chance of something going wrong. You might get asked to work one of the later shifts to cover for someone so be prepared for that. Those time period are mostly dead, but a few memos will come in.
"To be honest, we haven't hired anyone new in probably a decade. However, your resume was the best I've seen in ages. Why you want to work maintenance, I don't know but I'm not going to pass on an opportunity to get as talented a young wizard as yourself working for me. Normally there is a training period but I don't think you'll need it. Instead, I'll pair you with one of the others for the week just so you see how things work. Any questions?"
Harry racked his brain. He honestly couldn't think of anything at the moment.
"I can't think of any right now, although I'm sure some will arise throughout the day."
Saddie nodded her head. "Understandable. Any questions you think of later, you can either save them for me or ask the person I'll be assigning you with."
"Sounds good."
Saddie wrote a quick note on a piece of parchment and tapped it with her wand. The parchment folded itself into a small paper airplane and shot from the desk. Harry tracked it over the cubicle wall before it disappeared from his sight. It was only a moment later that a balding man with a bit of a gut, probably in his early forties, came into view. If Harry remembered correctly, his name was Max.
"Max will show you the ropes for today," Saddie said.
Harry stood up and shook hands with Max again. He turned and nodded his head to Saddie before he was led off by Max.
"They cleaned out your cubicle yesterday. It was used to just hold odds and ends since it has been empty for the last six years, after the last guy retired," Max explained.
They arrived at a empty cubicle on the end of one of the rows. He would have to decorate it, but he couldn't exactly use pictures of family and friends. Having a picture of his actual parents, or Sirius, or Ron and Hermione would be a dead giveaway. Maybe some small Quidditch posters or something would do. What teams were there in France?
Max was looking at Harry expectantly. Harry wondered if they thought he'd bring personal effects with him on his first day. Was that usual?
"I'll have to bring some things in tomorrow so it doesn't look so bland," Harry murmured.
Max nodded his head, before waving Harry to follow after him. They walked over to the other side of cubicles, to one in the middle. It was filled with photos, Quidditch posters and posters with those motivational phrases on them.
"You'll probably spend half of your time at your desk. Unfortunately, every job in the government comes with a lot of paperwork." Mac opened one of the drawers on his desk and pulled out a stack of parchment. "Each time you do a repair you need to write down the details; where the problem was, what the problem was, what you did to resolve the problem. You'll have to make sure to write down the spell, its incantation, its etymology and the proper wand movement that were all used. It is rather tedious writing it all down but you get used to it. When we do our standard weekly check, it's something similar."
Harry blinked owlishly at the mention of all the paperwork he would need to do. Couldn't he just wave his wand, solve the problem and then go eat some eclairs or something? Is this what being an adult was all about? Paperwork?
Max laughed at Harry's expression. "Nothing too complicated. Like I said, it's just tedious. You're desk will have its own stack for your use."
Nodding his head, Harry looked around. "So outside of the paperwork, what do we do?"
"We each get assigned a department for the week. Our job is to thoroughly inspect every charm, enchantment, rune and whatever other pieces of magic they have layered on that department to make it work and function the way it does. Though I guess I should say, the actual wards themselves are not our business. We do it in two shifts. For one week I'll be assigned morning, which means I do my inspection in the morning for about two and a half hours before heading back here to fill out the paperwork. Come afternoon, I'm on repair duties. If you're lucky enough, nothing needs fixing and you have three and a half hours of sitting around reading a book or something. The next day, I pick up where I left off on my inspection the day before. Repeat the process the entire week, hand in all your paperwork and then repeat the process again the next week."
Harry nodded his head. It seemed easy enough to him. The only part he'd probably need help on would be the filling out of the paperwork, and that was only because he had no idea what was required for them to be completed properly yet.
"What department do you have this week?" Harry asked.
"Department for the Concealment and Containment of Magical Creatures," Max stated.
Harry felt a smile make its way onto his face.
"What are you smiling at?"
Harry shook his head. "Nothing."
They stepped out of the lift and into a large open area. There was a desk at the very front for a receptionist, and then behind the desk looked to be a kind of common area for people to congregate and discuss things. Hallways branched off for each division, and Harry was sure those broke off into the various subdivisions from there.
"I myself take it one division at a time, going through subdivision by subdivision. I save this common area for the last day. If you find another way works best for you, feel free to go with it when Saddie thinks you're ready to go off on your own."
"Your way sounds simplest," Harry stated with a shrug of his shoulders.
They walked by the receptionist, who smiled at them as they past.
"Hello Max!" the bubbly brunette greeted.
"Hey Madeline. This is our new guy Alexandre."
"Pleasure to meet you Alexandre," she exclaimed, smiling at him.
"And you as well Madeline," Harry returned.
As they were about to head down the corridor labeled Beast Division, Harry heard someone shout his name; his fake name that is. He turned to see Elise waving at him from where she stood with a coworker. He returned her wave with one of his own, the smile making its way back to his face.
"That's why you were smiling earlier! You got yourself a dame!" Max laughed, patting Harry on the back.
"Dame? Who talks like that anymore?" Harry asked, a small blush making its way onto his face.
"Don't change the subject. Are you two dating?"
"I just met her this morning," Harry admitted.
"Oh ho, Alexandre you move quickly you sly dog."
Harry indicated the air in front of them. "Can we get started? You're supposed to be teaching me things, in case you forgot."
Max waved his hand nonchalantly as he started walking again. "It's all rather simple really. At least for anyone who has their AME in Charms and Runes. Which I would assume you would, otherwise you wouldn't have this job. We'll start with the farthest office."
Max knocked on the door, and was called in by one of the two men sitting at the desk. Introductions were made, not that Harry would find himself remembering their names in the future. He learned they were the two members of the Centaur Liaison office, which appeared just as sterling a job as the one in the British Ministry. After a minute of small talk, Max erected a silencing ward around the two of them so as not to disturb the men in their work.
"Do you know the magi-revealing spells?" Max asked.
In response, Harry withdrew his wand from its holster and proceeded to wave it about the room. Everything that was influenced by magic, whether it be the self-inking quills on the desk, or the walls that had been bewitched to show a forest rather than the bland white walls the majority of the building was made of, began to glow vibrant colors. The two workers at their desk glanced up briefly as everything started glowing, but this kind of thing happened once a week for them, so their attention was returned quickly to the paperwork on their desk.
"What about the diagnostic spells?" Max asked.
For Harry, it was unnecessary to cast the diagnostic spells though, or even the magi-revealing spells. Harry didn't have magi-sight, that was true. He could not see magic as it really was without the use of spells, but that did not mean he couldn't feel the magic. He reached out with his own magic, his eyes shut. It brushed against all of the magical objects in the room, carefully caressing over each one as it searched for flaws in the magic wrapped around each object..
Harry opened his eyes. "Besides that self-inking quill," Harry indicated a quill that was currently in use, "becoming a regular quill by the end of the day, all other magics in this room are as they should be. No tampering, no failing."
Max looked at him skeptically. The man had felt a shift of the magic in the air for a brief time, but how could the new kid be so sure.
"You didn't even do anything," Max pointed out. "You just stood there with your eyes closed for five minutes."
Harry shook his head. "I can feel magic. Check for yourself and you'll see I'm not wrong."
It took ten minutes to do what Harry had done in a little over four. Max nodded his head in agreement with Harry's assessment.
"Could be a lucky guess," Max pointed out. "You have a higher chance of nothing being wrong, than something being wrong."
"Even the quill?" Harry asked, his eyebrow raised.
Max shot the quill with a spell, causing the man holding it to drop it in surprise. He looked up long enough to shoot a quick glare at Max before picking the quill back up and getting back to his work.
"You're correct," Max said surprised. "The magic on it will fail by the end of the day."
Harry tried not to look too smug.
"Let's go see how good you really are at this."
A little over three hours later found Harry following Max to the cafeteria for lunch. The only problems they had run into were the magics on some of the enchantments failing, and needing to be either recast or re-energized. Harry had been able to detect all of it, leaving Max a firm believer in his abilities.
"You'll be done with your department inspections a day early given how quick you were able to do things," Max stated.
"Should I slow down?" Harry asked, uncertainly.
Max shrugged his shoulders. "We'll speak with Saddie about it and see what she recommends."
The cafeteria was not exactly like Harry had envisioned when he heard the word. He had recalled lunch when he was in primary school; the line he would wait on where he would be served his food for the day before shuffling off to one of the long tables where the children all ate; him usually by himself. The room was quite large, as it had to sit several hundred witches and wizards, and filled with circular tables that fit up to ten people apiece.
Harry could see some people brought their own lunches, while others ordered off of a menu that sat at the center of the table; the food appearing not even a minute later, ready to eat. That bit reminded Harry of the Yule Ball during his fourth year. He wondered if that was standard in the magical world.
Max made his way over to a table where the few other maintenance workers were already gathered, making small talk with others along the way. Harry went to follow but stopped as, again, his fake name was called.
He turned to see Elise sitting at a table with a group of other young Ministry workers. There was another green robed witch, and a green robed wizard. There was a red robed wizard from the Department of Magical Secrecy, the French equivalent of the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. Two witches wore yellow robes, indicating their working for the Department of International Cooperation.
Then there was a wizard wearing blue robes with gold stripes on the sleeves of his robes. He was an Enforcer, a French Hit-Wizard. He was currently glaring at Harry, as Harry made his way over to the table. First day on the job and he already had someone who didn't like him. Was that just to be expected?
"This is who you couldn't stop talking about? He's maintenance," Harry heard the Enforcer mutter as he approached.
"Would you like to join us?" Elise asked, smiling prettily at him and ignoring the Enforcer.
Harry glanced at the table where the rest of his maintenance coworkers were sitting and eating.
"I would love to Elise, but I'd feel remiss if I don't join my direct co-workers, at least for this first day on the job," Harry replied with a smile of his own.
"Tomorrow then?" she asked.
"Of course."
Harry tilted his head in thanks, and made his way over to the maintenance lunch table. He ignored whatever comments Elise's friends made about him as soon as his back was turned, as if not facing them meant he was suddenly deaf to them.
As he sat at the table with the other maintenance workers, Max nodded his head at the table Harry had just walked from, a grin on his face.
"Don't let us keep you from your girlfriend Alexandre."
Harry sighed. "She's not my girlfriend Max. Now is my lunch free or what?"
Max chuckled. "The government already gives us a paid lunch hour. Having them pay for the lunch is pushing it. Just press your Ministry ID to the menu and say what you want. The prices are listed on the menu, and at the end of the week your ordered meals come out of your paycheck."
Harry grabbed at the ID pinned to the front of his robe as he looked over the menu. Merlin he forgot pretending to be a Frenchmen would mean eating French food on the regular. He had only eaten French cuisine a few times, and hoped he didn't order something only to realize as he took his first bite that he hated the taste of it. He picked something that sounded good, and hoped for the best.
As Harry found himself drawn into the general conversation around him, his mind was elsewhere. He needed to gather genealogy on every Ministry worker; find out who was a pureblood, who was a half-blood, and who was muggle-born. There was a little over a thousand Ministry workers, if he could eliminate a few hundred of them for being muggle-borns, things would be a lot easier.
His best bet would be to find anyone with a familial connection to known or suspected Death Eaters from the United Kingdom, or those who themselves had been, or currently were, suspected Death Eaters. Those would be the first people he would look into. Next he would cross reference Ministry workers with those verified or suspected of being on the Dragon Mafia payroll. If those two failed, then looking into the voting history of the members of Le Counseil de la Magie would follow.
If none of those three yielded the results he was looking for, than he would have to look for some other way to identify possible Death Eaters in the French Ministry. He could always ask around about hard-leaning purebloods, or those who seemed to be hardcore bigots. He was worried that would bring too much attention onto himself though.
He mentally shook his head. His first three options would return results, he was sure of it. He would see if Rick could get the personal files stored for each Ministry employee. If not, he would have to do it himself, and that alone would take a day or two to copy everything and several days to sort through it all. That record room would more than likely be under lock and key. It wouldn't be anything he could just stroll into, and even then he wouldn't want their to be any kind of record of him being in that room to begin with.
Harry carefully closed the door behind him and removed his invisibility cloak. He stuffed the cloak into the front pocket of the bottomless satchel that hung from his side. He had spent the last week learning a copying charm that allowed him to cast it on multiple items at once. After finishing the week with Max, he had been ok'd to start working by himself. He had done as much work as he possibly could in the first day, enough for a day and a half worth being done if he had been moving at Max's speed. This allowed him to sneak away on his second day to the location he currently found himself in, thanks to his invisibility cloak and a silencing spell on his feet.
He had originally hoped to just do it while being assigned to check the spells in the record and storage part of the Ministry, but the records room had no enchantments on it whatsoever. No enchantments needing to be maintained, meant no need for maintenance to be down there at all. That little tidbit of information had definitely put a billywig in his wizard hat.
Ministry personal records. Every active Ministry member had a file located in this room. It listed things like immediate family members, basic physical descriptions and other such things. It also listed blood type, both in regards to red blood cells and lineage. That was what he was looking for. The biggest issue was, that it wasn't just active Ministry workers who had files in the room. It was inactive ones as well.
He had to figure out the Ministry filing system. There were several score of filing cabinets throughout the room, making several rows. Did they have active employees in one section before moving them to another one when they retired or died? Did they organize it alphabetically? Or perhaps maybe they filed it chronologically, filing each employee based on the day they started work.
Or maybe it was somehow a mixture of different ways? If Harry had learned one thing when it came to the magical world, is that a lot of times they did things in abnormal ways, with the only reason being, at least in Harry's opinion, to appear different than the normally logical muggle way.
He looked at the nearest filing cabinet. It listed the year 1980 and the letters A – M. He opened up the first file and looked at what they were basing it off of. He saw Year Employment Ended and Last Name as the means of organizing it. That meant there was a section devoted strictly to active employees.
It took him a moment to find it but find it he did. It was nine filing cabinets, four draws each. He moved to the first drawer and pulled it open. Anywhere from twenty-five to thirty folders, each one labeled with a last name and first initial, sat in the drawer. Harry reached into the satchel and pulled out stacks of parchment, placing a stack on each cabinet. The copying charm he had researched was meant for copying things that had been written down en masse but in order for it to work, he needed something to copy it on to. Hence why the satchel was filled with close to three thousand pieces of parchment.
Taking out his wand, he focused all his attention as he waved his wand in a complicated motion before dragging it against the top of each of the folders, then tapping one of the stacks of parchment. A please smile worked its way onto his face when writing started to appeared on the pieces of parchment. He flicked his wand, popping open all of the top drawers. He repeated the process, moving from drawer to drawer; first the top row, then the second.
He just started the fourth row when he stopped mid-motion, his eyes widening briefly. He grabbed the bag hanging from his shoulder, and opened it up. He summoned the stacks of parchment he had placed on each cabinet, directing it into the bag. Once he was done, he closed the open file cabinet drawers and pulled his cloak out.
He covered himself as the door was thrown open and two Enforcers came into the room, wands out. Harry made his way around the file cabinets as the two Enforcers took a few steps forward, each one looking about. He gripped his wand tightly as he shuffled forward. There was probably wards to detect magic usage in all of the record rooms. He should have checked the room. Stupid mistake to make. Any unauthorized magic popping up on the wards would send a signal to the people monitoring them. They'd check to see if maybe they would have missed someone scheduling to be down there, and once confirming they missed nothing, would contact the law enforcement department to send people to check it out. Enforcers, like Hit-Wizards, worked in teams of four. Two to check out the room and two to keep an eye on the only exit, in case someone tries slipping around them.
If they were competent, they would be casting the hominid revealing spell in the next few seconds. The silencing spell was still on his feet and he used it to his advantage as he quickened his pace. As one of the Enforcer's arms starting to move in the familiar motion of the revealing spell, Harry knew he was not going to make it out of the room in time.
His mind shifted gears, his left hand diving into his spare wand holster and pulling out his secondary wand. Dual casting took a lot of effort and reduced the power behind each spell, but he didn't need power. As the revealing spell was completed and his outline glowed a faint blue, Harry dropped low so he could stick the end of the wands out from underneath the edge of the cloak as it scraped against the ground. The twin jets of red light traveled a mere foot before colliding with the two Enforcers, who were in the process of shifting their aim down toward his crouched figure, their wand tips glowing.
As the two collapsed to the ground, Harry dispelled the revealing spell and made his way to the door. He glanced out and saw two Enforcers blocking his only way to the lift and staircase, where the security guard he had passed was probably standing, pissed he had let someone slip by. Both of them had their wands drawn and pointed at the door frame.
Harry knew he needed to act soon. No communication with the two who had entered the records room would lead to backup being called. He tapped the hallway floor with his wand and a fresh coat of wax appeared. Scooting out into the hallway, Harry put himself in a sitting position and aimed his wand behind him. He sent a silent prayer of thanks up to his father for the invisibility cloak as a burst of magic propelled him forward at a surprising speed.
He didn't have a time to aim properly before he was barreling into the legs of the two Enforcers. Both toppled to the ground face first, as Harry momentum carried him past them. He was on his feet in a flash, running forward. The Enforcers shouted behind him, as they scrambled sloppily to their feet on the slick floor.
The security guard came into Harry's view, his eyes narrowed as he tried to see what was going on. Harry didn't bother with his wand, instead bring back his fist and punching the man square in the jaw as he ran by, knocking him off his feet.
He slammed into the staircase door, throwing it open and into the wall, where it hit with a bang. He raced up the stairs, and threw open the door to the ground floor. However, he didn't go through it, and instead continued upward. He made it to the landing on the sixth floor, where he quickly and quietly opened it enough to slide himself through. No one was in the hallway, a lucky break.
Slipping his way around the reception desk, he made it into a bathroom near the subdivision he had been working on yesterday. Once he was safely in a stall, Harry took off the invisibility cloak and shoved it into the satchel around his shoulder. He shrunk the satchel and placed it into his pocket, before taking a deep breath and making his way out of the stall. He made his way to the sink in order to wash his hands.
Another employee came into the bathroom, who Harry greeted. The man returned his greeting before moving off to one of the stalls. With a deep breath, Harry walked out of the bathroom and toward an office he knew he hadn't worked on yesterday. Hopefully, the Enforcers bought his ruse and thought he had ran out into the main lobby, and from there had escaped the building.
He needed to focus on his work, and catch up on the hour he had missed. The folders he had just copied, even if it was only a little over three-quarters of everything he needed, would have to wait until later. Besides, he still needed to cover his tracks. If the investigation of who had broken into the record room was turned inward, toward the employees themselves, a recent hire who was missing for an hour during the time of the break in would be a prime suspect. People needed to remember him being in their offices when he wasn't there. It couldn't be anything too noticeable, just a slight alteration in their perception of time during the past few hours.