Taking’ Care of Business

[Morwenna Skeeter]

Morwenna credited herself with being as diligent about her work as she was about her life. Nothing was put off till tomorrow that could be dealt with that very day and as a result she performed her duties with the sort of efficiency she hoped would be noted by the Minister when it came to promotion to the Head of Department. It wasn’t something she intended to make the leap to just yet, but it never hurt to be seen as a solid, safe pair of hands when the time came. Also to her advantage, Morwenna thought smugly, was that there were no others that were really viable options.

With Max off indefinitely there was no one that could come near her for experience and the only head of division she considered a viable candidate was Mr Slughorn, over whom she had the advantage of age. Miss Perkins would hardly be promoted over her – which was a shame in a way but not for her purposes – and Mr Podmore, well Mr Podmore was-

Exactly where he oughtn’t to be but somehow Morwenna wasn’t remotely surprised to see him there. She sighed deeply and rolled her eyes to the heaven’s as she heard Miss Tennison’s giggle from where she was hidden behind Mr Podmore’s stance leaning on the desk.

“Mr Podmore! My office please. If you can spare the time.”

@'Clinton Podmore'
@'Emmeline Woodcroft'

  

[Clinton Podmore]

Clinton was typically a rather hardworker, he really was. He was an ambitious man with his sights set rather high. One day he'd be the head of the whole department. He'd prove to those who thought him to be a one track minded man that he was so much more. Of course, there were always a few distractions along the way but they were never really serious distractions. Who would blame him for wanting to make pretty young ladies smile and giggle on occasion. Truly, if they were smart, they'd quit hiring such cute secretaries.

Apparently they hadn't caught on yet and so he'd been thoroughly distracted by Miss Tennison's batting lashes when he'd been on his way to turn in some reports to Mrs. Skeeter. He'd had to stop and flirt with the girl. It meant nothing, both of them knew that, but it was a fun little charade they had going between them. Unfortunately, it stopped much quicker when he heard the voice of his superior and the woman he'd been intending to see to begin with.

The hairs on the back of his neck quickly raised and he straightened up from his leaning position of the cute secretary's desk. With a deer in the headlight looks and a strained smile given to her, he turned away with his papers and nodded to Mrs. Skeeter. His features, however, had relaxed in that brief moment it took him to turn around and face her. "I would always spare the time for you, Mrs. Skeeter," he said, now flashing that charming grin of his with the dimples and all as he walked toward her to head into her office.

  

[Morwenna Skeeter]

Resisting the urge to rolls her eyes again – she refused to be seen displaying such juvenile behaviour in front of a subordinate and a secretary – Morwenna instead turned to allow him to walk past her into the office. Having a well-behaved department was a necessity as far as she was concerned and though she had never been an especially hard task-master, or at least she had never thought of herself as being such, there were limits to what she would allow during working hours.

If Mr Podmore wanted to flirt with pretty young secretaries that he happened to bump into on the street then he was more than welcome to do so. She had been partial to a little light flirtation in her youth when her widowhood and young child had made her a safe woman for them to talk to: she was neither likely to lose her head and far too focussed on her job, but she had been rather attractive back then.

She even possessed a soft spot for Mr Podmore in her way. He was rather personable but still, work was work and Miss Tennison had a job to do. She would just have to ignore the charming presence of a handsome young man until five o’clock came around.

“You surprise me,” she replied as she shut the door and crossed to her desk, taking her seat. “I would have thought from your lurking out there that you were trying to avoid me,” and Merlin help her, she couldn’t help the small twitch of her lips as she spoke and waved him into the visitor’s chair.

  

[Clinton Podmore]

With that smile still in place, Clint easily took the seat Mrs. Skeeter had motioned to. He thought he caught a glimmer of a smile from her but wasn't about to comment on it in the off chance he was wrong. It wouldn't stop him, however, from continuing with the same charming air he'd had just moments before. It didn't matter if Mrs. Skeeter was his superior in the department and quite a deal older than him. Truly, Clint probably didn't know how to not be charming. It was just something that came naturally and he quite enjoyed it even if it often left string of broken hearts in his wake.

"I would never," he said, sounding just slightly appalled at the notion. Whether it was for jest or not, he'd never say. "I was actually on my way here to give you these reports," he said as he leaned forward and slid them onto her desk, "Miss Tennison was just having a slight difficulty in deciphering Mr. Spence's scribbles. I couldn't very well leave her in such a mess could I?" He was still grinning at his boss even as he finished, that little twinkle in his blue eyes still very much evident as well.

  

[Morwenna Skeeter]

If she had tried Morwenna didn’t think she could bring herself to be properly angry with Mr Podmore for the rakish way he interacted with more or less every young woman at the Ministry but she had to put on a reasonable show for the sake of her seniority. She almost wished she could pretend he reminded her of Edison and explain her spark of fondness that way but her husband had been much more introverted, not at all the flirt that Mr Podmore was, and she grudgingly put it down to the fact that Edison had barely been older than him when he’d died. She had never seen him grow old and miserable like Max was increasingly becoming and because she never would she supposed she was feeling nostalgic for her youth.

Still, propriety dictated certain comments being made.

“Well Mr Spence might as well be writing in Swahili sometimes for all the sense it makes,” she said as she took the report and glanced at it with little interest, placing it on top of her in-tray to be dealt with later. Much later if she had her way. “But I’m sure she would have managed well enough in the end. Women do have this marvellous ability to read that we seem to have picked up without men even noticing apparently.”

  

[Clinton Podmore]

Clint couldn't help but to laugh at Mrs. Skeeter's description of Mr. Spence's writing. She had a very valid point and sometimes he had to wonder if the other man was writing in a different language just to spite those that had to read his reports. It made him feel awfully sorry for those that did even if he technically was the main one that needed to read the man's reports. More often than not, however, Clint put them in a pile with other reports from his division to hand off to the very woman before him.

He was still smiling even as she made the comment of women having learned to read. "I don't doubt that in the slightest," he said, dimpled grin still present, "And I'm sure there are several of you even smarter than us men. We have to get our intelligence from somewhere after all and we wouldn't be here if it weren't for all of you lovely women. But what kind of gentleman would I be if I didn't at least help a damsel in need?" Because clearly all women who needed any amount of help, no matter how minuscule, were damsels in Clint's mind.

  

[Morwenna Skeeter]

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes Mowenna instead took a deep, soothing breath and opted to focus on the work in hard. The saving grace of Mr Podmore’s endless charm was that the man was at least very capable at his job – when he wasn’t distracted flirting with secretaries of course – and if she focussed on that then it would stem any annoyance she might feel. Marginally. At least if he was flirting he wasn’t eying her seat with his ambitious intentions: she was in little doubt that he wanted her job, but she could hardly blame him when she had been calculating how long it would take her to become the Head of Department since she had taken on this job.

Perhaps there was something to think about there? Working together might be a possibility though she expected Mr Podmore, much more amiable though he was, would be inclined to work alongside Mr Flint. In her experience at the Ministry men did have a tendency to close rank the moment it looked like a woman might be rising through the ranks and the old boys club of society was the worst for it.

“On behalf of womankind I can assure you that not every last one of us are damsels though I imagine a considerable amount are in distress if those lines are your idea of flattery,” she quipped with a sardonic twist of her lips she couldn’t resist, paying precisely zero attention to the work in hand as she had tried to make herself do.

  

[Clinton Podmore]

Clint's attentions never left Mrs. Skeeter. He knew she wasn't exactly one of his biggest fans and probably deemed him an empty headed flirt most of the time but he was a gentleman that was good at his job. He worked hard and ran a tight ship of his portion of the department. He liked to think that he was just very efficient in what he did, allowing for his random times of flirting with the secretaries around the office. He had a feeling that one day though, they'd replace the young secretaries with an older, no fuss type of woman. He wouldn't be able to flirt near as much then but it wouldn't stop him entirely, as was apparent by his interactions with Mrs. Skeeter.

"You wound me," he said with a mock gasp and clutch to his chest, "My lines work quite well if I must say so myself. I make many a young lady smile and laugh. Though, with those of more prestigious air like yourself, I clearly need to work on my game."

  

[Morwenna Skeeter]

That he could make a young lady smile was far from a surprise to Morwenna, having had to regulate her mood more times than she would admit to when around the younger man. He was rather refreshing in the department, that much she would admit, but as she had long since gone passed the days when she could be charmed by a handsome face and idle flattery. More or less.

“Your game?” She replied with sardonic amusement. Mr Podmore was easily the most charismatic of all her underlings – apart possibly from Miss Tennison when she had partaken of the sherry at the Christmas party they held for the women of the Ministry – and he certainly kept her entertained in his own way.

“I daresay you’ve practiced quite enough over the years,” she quipped with an arched eyebrow, unable to resist responding in the same tone. He was rather handsome after all, and she was only human. Plus Morwenna didn’t think it seriously likely that he would ever be a threat professionally, so he was mostly harmless really. It couldn’t hurt.