Paragraph 7 - 43 : Bureaucratic Magic

The following morning, Judith was in a recess in the Hall of the Ministry of Magic. Through trial and error, she quickly became proficient at the 'Moveren' spell : while casting it, she should direct her wand at the mouth of somebody, then move the wand till it would face towards her. She noticed that she would hear much more easily if, in the final position, the wand was close to her ears. She would have looked stupid doing this if anyone had paid attention to her, therefore she tried to refine her technique so as to look gracious when moving her wand from the starting to the ending position needed for the spell. Since she was in a recess, only people whose gaze would have been perpendicular to the Hall's main direction, and who would thus have decided to turn around at ninety degrees in her direction exactly when they were going past her, would be able to spot her shenanigans. Even if this were to happen and to cap it all, the person reported her, she was anyway abiding by her contract, therefore she wouldn't be in much trouble. Whenever she had heard something, she would sit down on the Hall's cold floor, and scribble on a parchment what had been said by the Moveren spell's target. She still had her blue dress with white collar, but had let her Hogwarts tie at home, for the accessory would have made her more noticeable. At the end of the day, she was exhausted, hungry, her buttocks hurt, and her parchments' contents looked like this :

Mrs. Prooves is incompetent. Mr. Hourry got promoted because he was a friend at Hogwarts of the current Head of Cooperation With Intelligent Creatures. The Head of Cooperation With Intelligent Creatures is incompetent. The Department Of Apparition needs to promote its Smart Drive For a Safe Travel initiative, since people are inexplicably unaware of it. Mrs. Bogato should stop petitioning about alleged illegal activities by Bispeel Inc. The Minister of Magic is fond of her three-year old nephew, although it's natural since the kid is so cute. The French counterparts of the members of the Department of Magical Cooperation are idiots, because they always want to tax exportations of British broomsticks. An unknown wizard has bet three Galleons that the Chudley Cannons would finish last this year. Mrs. Bogato is a nut. The American quasi-monopoly on dragon heart-string drives the cost of wands up. The Aurors have raided a house the owner of which had a three thousand litre store of contraband Butterbeer. Rita Skeeter epitomises the modern witch. Kate Mertish, 24, is still to be found. The Department of Law Enforcement is too lenient with Pure-Blood wizards and witches. The latest exhibition sponsored by Mr. Hexler was excellent. An unknown witch's son has forgotten a doodle in her mother's office. The Head of the Committee awarding grants for American and Peruvian colleges of magic is an amazing witch. The thickness of cauldrons' bottom is a permanent issue, and requires standardisation, but surprisingly no one has found anybody to write a report about it. The Aurors are working on a big score in Liverpool. The new scams to accrue magical powers lead to loss of human form, or to body decomposition. Mr. And Mrs. Omphrey are suspected of having teamed up to embezzle money from the Fund instated to pay compensation for victims of broomstick crashes, because they wanted to go on a honeymoon in Vietnam. Mrs. Bogato is a pain in the back. The Minister of Magic spends too much on her robes, which attracts criticism and makes it difficult to pass reforms. The Buttercoffee machines on levels minus two and minus eleven are broken, which is a pity, because they were cheaper than average, and now people from these levels go higher or lower, which creates bigger jams than ever at the floors where Buttercoffee is cheap. Underground magic music is underfunded. Constituents complain that the Ministry should not have allocated monies to tracking unregistered Animagi, because wizards and witches should have the liberty of choosing under which guise they wish to appear. The Vice-Head of the Department of Magical Creation used his connections to help his daughter succeed in the field of photography, at the expense of more skilled young wizards and witches. The safety at the Department of Mysteries is lax. The initiative consisting in giving free second-hand broomsticks to modest households was a great success when it came to boosting sports practice, however there are whispers that there has been embezzlement going on within this initiative. Switching from inter-departmental memos delivery by owl to delivery by flying spells allowed for an economy of more than two thousand Galleons. Mr. Wouls will most likely be voted most handsome wizard of the Ministry. Hogwarts' Professors get paid too much, but the son of the wizard who said that will be Prefect. Mrs. Deedoss left early, as usual. The Department of Magical Cooperation is working towards reinstating the Triwizard Tournament, but the French are too demanding, they don't want to be hosts because it would be expensive. A wizard left a viper in the drawer of Mrs. Chocks, who is rumoured to be a Parselmouth, however the wizard doesn't know whether the snake will be able to survive in the drawer till the following morning

At dinner, Judith showed her compilation to her father, who told her calmly but firmly that she wouldn't have the opportunity to go back to the Ministry to use this 'Moveren' spell, because he had heard complaints from people who had been entering or leaving the hall that they had had to repeat things, which was probably due to some magical dysfunction. And Judith's father suspected the 'Moveren' spell to have been the cause behind this disturbance. Therefore, she would have to make do with her spoils of the day. He nevertheless thanked her for indirectly warning him that Mrs. Chocks was about to be the victim of a regrettable prank. The following morning, Judith studied her notes that now included the gossip extracted in the Hall of the Ministry of Magic, but couldn't make progress. She wondered whether the three others were busy. If they were bored, having nothing special to do during the holidays, they might find taking part in her investigation enjoyable. Since Judith was not any longer on the case out of vanity, but out of genuine empathy, it would be easier for her to convey the heartfelt need behind a request for help. Therefore, she retrieved her Hogwarts tie, put it around her neck, and sent a copper-coloured message :

If you wish to help me with the investigation, I could copy my notes and send them to you by owl

Ann replied first :

I will read them and do my best, but you know that study is not my forte

Judith thought that it would be sufficient to justify making at least one copy of her notes. She was in the middle of this task when she felt letters carving themselves beneath the tie. She turned the tie over, and read in gold :

I guess it will be an interesting read

Judith resumed the production of her first copy, for Ann, then went on with the version intended for Sigismond, sent the first set of notes to Ann by owl, and warned the three others :

Ann's package is en route. Waiting for my owl to go back to send to Sigismond his

She then lied down on her bed, again trying to piece together the elements she now had, wondering whether she had the right ones. After all, she had collected only a part of one day's worth of rumours in the Hall of the Ministry. The Perklus case was still pending according to the Daily Prophet, and she had expected it would be hot news at the Ministry, thus she was slightly surprised and disappointed at the same time by the fact that none of the overly chatty employees and visitors whose conversations she had captured had made a direct mention about the Perklus case. As she was pondering this, Eleanor, a bit late to the party, wrote back :

I am in

Judith went back to her desk in her bedroom, and proceeded to duplicate for the final time her notes. She then had to manage the logistics of having an owl delivering a parcel, having to rest, getting something to eat and drink, then going away for the third time. In the middle of one of the family's owl's journeys, she had dinner, and around midnight, Ann, Sigismond and Eleanor, in that order, had all been able to delve into Judith's written work. After bringing food and drink again to the owl, Judith undressed, letting her Hogwarts tie to lie on her bed-table, put on her pajamas, and went to sleep.