the h o u r s (open)

[imadecoy]

Levi yawned and looked up at the clock above the mantel of the fireplace. One thirteen in the morning, and he had been there since six that morning. Even though it was only his second day at work, it was as if he had been there as long as the dude in his department that started working there at sixteen in 1957. His mother, bless her heart, had sent him lunch and supper by way of owl, to make sure he ate. Levi appreciated it, but as for now he was getting tired. Hopefully mum isn't waiting up for me, thought Levi as he turned the page.

So far his work was mostly reading about the issues involving runes from all corners of the world. Most of them had to deal with Gringotts, warnings about curses on different treasures that their specialists couldn't decipher. Levi would have to pay a visit to their headquarters in Egypt next week. There was a knock at the door. "Come in," Levi said without looking up from his work. In walked his secretary, Roseanne. She set a cup of coffee on a patch of desk not covered by papers.

"I'm heading home for the night, thought you might like some coffee to keep you going." said Rosanne. Levi looked up from his work and smiled at her, she really was a sweet old woman. "Thanks Mrs. Shelton." said Levi. He called her this out of respect for her age, even if he outranked her in the workplace. Roseanne smiled and then left his office, gently closing the door behind her. Levi chugged the coffee, burning his tongue a bit, and then returned to work. Not even ten minutes had passed before there was a knock at the door again. "It's open," Levi said, eyes still buried in work.

[broadway]

It was Raychel. She smiled upon entering, carrying a warm thermos, filled to the brim with hot coffee. "Good morning love." she said softly, coming across to his desk. She leaned over and pecked him lightly on the lips. She set the thermos down on a nearby coffeetable then made herself snug in one of the leather armchairs. "Just finished up a hunt and thought I would stop by to see how the job is going." she replied with a smile. Looking around the room momentarily, she stretched. "Beautiful office."

[imadecoy]

"I guess if you don't mind the clutter all over the desk and rubbish parchment on the floor," said Levi with a smile, finally laying down what he was working on. When did they expect he was going to sleep? One thirty in the morning and he was supposed to be back here at six? He might as well sleep in his office and clean up in the bathrooms. A purple paper airplane zoomed into the room and landed on his desk. "Are you serious?" Levi said quietly, unfolding it and reading the contents. Apparently there was a case of a curse in a tomb in New Zealand, but in reading it, he figured it would take more priority over Egypt.

[broadway]

Raychel smiled, stifling a sigh. "Aww, poor baby." she cooed, her voice genuine. She stood and grinned, walking up to the desk. She sorted the papers into piles based on assignments, whistling a bit. "There, all clean." she replied with a musical laugh. She looked at Levi. "Oh darling, you look beat." she replied, swooping down to plant a kiss on his forehead.

[imadecoy]

"Well, yeah, if you've only taken twenty minutes total for breaks and been at it since six o'clock this morning." said Levi and allowed himself a yawn. He smiled at his newly organized desk, no doubt it would be back to the state it had been in a few hours. Most of the stuff was just dealing with people that didn't know the first thing about runes; the kind of thick-heads that tried to read Japanese runes from left to right. "I'll be leaving for New Zealand this coming afternoon," said Levi. "Would you like to come? We'll be down in an underground tomb,"

[igloogirl]

Walking through the darkened hallways, Gabriella became aware that it was quite late; the Ministry was nearly empty. But yet she, the Auror-in-Training, was the one still there, looking through old things to try and get a clue at where the Death Eaters were. The office was a bit of a mess and she was missing a piece of paper said to contain the runes of some ancient prophecy that concerned present times.

Heading toward the Runes office, she remember vaguely that Leviticus, her cousin and Raychel's boyfriend, was the Head Expert there now. Hearing voices from a bit aware, Gabriella smiled, hearing that both Levi and Raychel were in his office, though it was past one in the morning. Stepping inside, she smiled at the both of them. "Hi Levi, hi Raychel," she said, glad that they were here. For a while, she had begun to think that she was the only person still working.

[broadway]

"I would love to Levi." Raychel replied softly. She would probably have to Apparate back in order to arrange her parents funeral for later this month, but that didn't bother her. With the sound of Gabby's voice, she turned and smiled. "Hello Gabs." she replied cheerfully. "How's the Auror-in-training gig holding?" Raychel asked.

[igloogirl]

Gabriella smiled back at Raychel. "Besides the office being a complete train wreck, the job's going pretty well," Gabriella replied cheerfully for someone who was a bit overworked. "I was just wondering if you had record of that ancient prophecy, Levi. Apparently Aurors aren't all that great at keeping their paperwork straight."

[imadecoy]

"Ancient prophecy," Levi said to himself under his breath, then changed his tone to a more audible one. "Which one? There are about fifty million, give or take, last I checked. Levi got out of his chair and opened the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet. Since it had been bewitched, the drawer came out six feet from the cabinet itself, to hold the countless things needed for the department.

[broadway]

Raychel smiled, laughing a bit. "Seems like all the jobs here are excrutiatingly messy." she replied. Raychel watched Levi start to search and she proceeded to shuffle through the papers on his desk. Who knew where it would be, considering how many ancient prophecies there probably were. Coming up empty handed, she began to help Levi shuffle through the files.

[imadecoy]

"Do you have any information on it?" asked Levi, not looking up from the files. He flicked his wand in direction of the desk, summoning any papers that had to deal with the Aurors from his desk. Levi abandoned the cabinet and began looking through those. He came up with three ancient prophecies they sent him, and then slid them across the desk to Gabriella. "Are any of those what you're looking for?" said Levi.

[igloogirl]

Gabriella skimmed the three papers and found the one that she had been looking for. "Yeah, this is it," she replied, picking the paper up. Pulling out her wand, she hastily made a copy by magic and then handed Levi his copy once more. "Thanks a bunch, Levi." Gabriella folded the paper in half and stowed it neatly in the pocket of her robes. "So, how long have you been here?" she asked with a slight smile.

[imadecoy]

"Yeah, no problem," Levi said, and then allowed himself a hearty yawn, he was probably going to call it a night shortly, and then take Floo Powder home, he didn't trust himself to apparate while being this tired. "Been here since six this morning," responded Levi to his cousin's question. "I think I'll give myself a bit of a lie-in tomorrow before head-head-heading to New Zealand."

[igloogirl]

Gabriella nodded sympathetically. "That would probably be a good idea," she replied, feeling bad that Levi was working such long hours, especially since he was human and his body couldn't handle it like hers could. Gabriella had been in the building since after her afternoon Quidditch practice on Tuesday. As of about an hour ago, it was now Thursday. She didn't mind so much, though, she was more mentally tired than anything else. And she would be leaving as soon as she filed away the prophecy. It would be nice to go back to the apartment that she and Raychel were living in. It seemed like ages since she had been there.

[imadecoy]

"Yeah, at times I think they expect me to just live here," Levi said with a frown as he began straightening stacks of papers, finally recovering some space on his desk. He took the stacks of things he had managed to get done to file them away in their appropriate folders in the magical filing cabinet. Yet another purple paper airplane zoomed into his office and landed neatly on his desk. Levi sighed, and unfolded it. After reading he could see the problem straightaway. Japanese runes are read from right to left, see if it makes sense then. Levi wrote on a piece of paper, transfigured it to one of the purple memos and sent it off again.