Reaching the lifts once more, Minerva considered as she waited. When the doors opened for the next car to arrive, she took her place in the crowd and said, "Minister's office."
Behind her, there was a hush. Every witch and wizard in the lift with her had been her student; they all took in the scene of a clearly irritated Minerva McGonagall and swallowed hard at her pronouncement. Whispers took up rapidly as she stepped into the richly appointed hallways leading to the Minister of Magic's office. Hearing them, she lightly shook her head with a slight smile. The Ministry never changed and was, as at Hogwarts, a hotbed of gossip. In no time, everyone who might care, and even those who wouldn't, would know that she was headed to visit the minister. She did not miss the rumor mill. It had always gotten in the way of her work. At least the rumor mill at Hogwarts helped her to keep an eye on her young charges.
"Professor?" The minister's assistant welcomed her.
"Merielle, good evening," Minerva said.
"Good evening. How may I help you, ma'am?"
"I wish to speak with the minister."
The assistant looked down at the schedule on her desk and bit her lip.
"I do not have an appointment; this is a rather sudden visit," the older woman told her. "If you would, please ask her if she has a moment."
"No need, please come in," the minister said from her office doorway. "Merielle, Head Auror Crouch will be here shortly; please let me know when he arrives."
With that, she stepped back to allow the professor to pass her by, then stepped into the office and closed the door. Minerva took in her surroundings. The wall to the left when entering was covered in small portraits of each of the previous ministers; much like the head's office at Hogwarts, the portraits were in a variety of states, some awake, some asleep, some seemed to be reading, and still, other frames were empty. In front of the portraits sat a long oak conference table surrounded by at least ten chairs. The fireplace to the right was lit, but the flame was low. Minerva knew this became the Floo that connected directly to the Muggle prime minister's office, the only one that did so, and the portrait that communicated with the prime minister was directly above it, much as, she had been told, it did in the Muggle counterpart's office.
"Why don't you sit down, and you can explain why you're visiting?" The minister suggested, gesturing to the empty seat in front of her desk and taking her seat directly in front of the enchanted window on the wall behind the desk that was currently looking out over the coast near St. Andrews; the curtains around the window matched the visitors' chairs. The burgundy velvet brought out shades of red in the walls of the room. It was then that Minerva also noticed that the frames of all of the portraits were a dark burnished gold. The room looked much cozier than it had when Milicent Bagnold had taken office. Then it was a starkly utilitarian office.
"I assume Bartemis has contacted you," Minerva began.
"Yes, but I would like to hear what you have to say before he arrives."
"Well, Minister-"
"Please, Professor, call me by name," the minister requested.
"That would not be appropriate, particularly when you address me formally," McGonagall pointed out.
"Well then, Minerva, please call me by name. Hardly anyone ever does, and I quite miss our talks."
The older woman smiled softly. "I do too, Milicent."
"Millie, please."
"Even in front of Bartemis?"
"Certainly," Milicent replied. "He needs someone to remove the stick from his... well, I suppose it's inappropriate for me to say that."
Minerva stifled a chuckle. "Quite. I have been sending him letters all week for an appointment. I wanted to ask about Sirius Black. I understand he is incredibly busy right now, but I received no reply from him, so I came today to meet with him in person whenever he could spare just a few moments."
"You know you could have written to me directly." Milicent put in. "I would have gladly helped you."
"I will not take advantage of an old friendship. Besides, I do believe it is better to follow the chain of command whenever possible to avoid stirring up the hornet's nest, as it were."
Milicent nodded. "Understood and appreciated. What has Barty so fired up?"
"He was bothered just to find me in his office. Clearly, he does not want to speak to me. Then he misconstrued something I said-"
"Minister," Merielle said from the doorway. "Head Auror Crouch is here."
Milicent looked to Minerva. When the older woman nodded, she sighed quietly and then responded. "Please send him in."
The head Auror stomped into the room and stopped dead when he saw McGonagall. "Whatever she's told you," he began stridently.
Minerva drew a breath. Milicent stood quickly and said, "What in Merlin's name do you think she might have said that would be a problem?"
"She thinks I'm not fit for my job!" He snapped.
"I never said such a thing," Minerva protested. "I simply said that due to your situation currently-"
"Leave my son out of this!" Barty shouted.
"Interesting that you leaped to that assumption," McGonagall replied. "I was simply referring to how busy your office is trying to round up all of the suspected Death Eaters. You didn't have even a single moment to send back a response to any of the five letters I owled you; being that busy is the situation I was referring to."
He huffed in disbelief.
"Though now that you bring it up, Barty," the Minister said, "it is obviously on your mind, and perhaps you should be taking a break from your department."
"I would never," he insisted, looking aghast at the suggestion.
"I'll take your word for it, for now," Millicent replied. "However, the instant I see even the slightest sign that your family situation is impeding your work, you will be placed on administrative leave."
"But-"
"No buts, Bartemis," she said firmly.
"Now, you will sit here and explain why you couldn't find the time to respond to Minerva's letters or have another Auror respond for you."
"If I took the time to respond to every citizen who sent me letters, I'd get nothing done; no one in the department would get anything done," he scoffed.
"Then why didn't you delegate that to one of your Aurors, an administrative assistant in the department, or if they're all too busy, contact another department to get assistance?" the Minister asked.
"The other departments are just as busy right now as we deal with the aftermath of You Know Who's defeat."
Minerva bit her tongue and looked knowingly at the minister.
Milicent gave a barely imperceptible nod and said. "You've spoken with the other department heads, then."
The Head Auror paused before replying. "I didn't need to; I know how busy they are."
"Do you have a screening system in place for the letters that are arriving? A filter?" she inquired.
"What would we need that for?" he demanded.
"You are receiving an inordinate amount of correspondence," Milicent stated, "more than you and your Aurors can address currently. I presume you would want to sort out letters that might contain valid leads to Deatheaters in hiding."
"We've had that in place for years."
"Excellent," she beamed at him. "Now, I will send a few of the administrative assistants down to handle the rest of your correspondence. In the meantime, you can answer Professor McGonagall's question, and we can each get back to our business." Not waiting for a response, Milicent stepped to her desk and began to write on a piece of parchment.
The man, face red, turned to the seated woman. "What did you want to know?" he inquired through clenched teeth.
"Has Sirius Black's trial been scheduled?" Minerva asked.
"No."
"Ah, well, you have been inordinately busy this past week. I'm sure that will be rectified in the coming weeks," she said graciously. "Has he been questioned?"
"No."
"Has he been charged?"
"No."
"It is my understanding he is at Azkaban," Minerva said. "I know I have been at Hogwarts for quite a while, but has the procedure changed since I worked here at the Ministry? Are all those suspected of crimes held at Azkaban now, rather than here in the holding cells?"
"He killed twelve Muggles and one wizard," the Head Auror snapped. "He does not belong in the holding cells. He is where he belongs and where he will stay."
Minerva considered. "So he confessed to his crimes then."
"No."
"He didn't?"
"No."
Milicent stepped between the other two and turned to the head of her law enforcement department. "To be completely clear, you have incarcerated a man suspected of a crime without charging him, without questioning him, without trial, and with no plans for a trial."
"He was found at the scene of the crime and was the only wizard present," Barty snarled. "We need no more proof than that."
"Are you absolutely certain that you need no proof beyond the fact that he was present at the scene of the crime?" the Minister asked, enunciating each word clearly.
Minerva sat stiffly waiting to see if the man realized just how thin the ice was upon which he tread.
"He's guilty!" Barty pronounced.
"And you are relieved of duty," Milicent responded.
The man began to splutter. "You can't."
"Oh, but I can. You are hereby suspended with pay until such time as an investigation can be completed into the manner in which you have chosen to run the Auror department. The Department of Magical Law Enforcement must be above reproach. Your statements on this case are highly concerning," she said.
He continued to splutter and protest vehemently and loudly, not noticing when Merielle slipped into the room, spoke to the Minister, and slipped back out.
Finally, after he had ranted for several minutes, Milicent pulled out her wand and held it in his line of sight. "Stop now, or I shall be forced to cast a Silencing spell on you," she warned. "We can handle this one of two ways, Bartemis. I can silence you and have you escorted from this building, in ropes or chains if necessary, which will no doubt cause quite a stir even at this late hour and will surely wind up in the pages of tomorrow's Daily Prophet with a host of unsubstantiated claims and straight-up rumors about the reason. Your other option is to go now and leave quietly and quickly. Go home. It's up to you, but you have only five seconds to decide."
"I will not-"
"Five," Milicent said with complete calm.
"You can not seriously expect me to-"
"Four."
"My Aurors will not-"
"Three."
"I'll see you out of this job!" He yelled.
"Two," she counted, holding her wand a touch higher and making eye contact with the wizard now standing in her office doorway.
Bartemis stopped talking and just stood watching the Minister.
"One," she said, staring right back at him.
Finally, he nodded and spun on his heel, only to stop still when he saw the man in Unspeakables' robes in the office doorway. Minerva could see him pale slightly before he continued walking out the door.
"Terrence, please follow him at a respectable distance and be sure he leaves the building," Milicent instructed. "As soon as he does, revoke his permission to enter at will."
"Yes, Ma'am."