She's American (Finn)

[taylor renée jackson]

May 28, 2029

Red phone booths—or phone "boxes"—were so emblematic of London in Taylor's American mind that she found it sort of funny that the guest entrance to the British Ministry of Magic was hidden in plain sight in one. She had arrived in London via Portkey late the previous night, so her first order of business was to go to the Ministry so that she could get the credentials she needed to start working on the Azkaban situation. Having received instructions from her supervisor, the process wasn't difficult, but waiting around for a group of tourists to get finished snapping selfies in the phone booth was a little frustrating.

Once she was sure that the coast was clear, Taylor stepped inside the booth herself and followed the instructions she had been given. After providing her name and why she was there, the coin return popped out a name badge for her, which she pinned to the front of her very No-Maj street clothes.

Going down into the Atrium at the Ministry of Magic made her feel like a rookie straight out of Auror training. It wasn't that much different from the Woolworth Building, where MACUSA was housed, but she was out of her element. She knew the magical government of the United States like the back of her hand and while she wasn't oblivious to the other magical governments of the world, she wasn't a diplomat.

Just as she went to go find the security desk to sign in after having gotten her temporary visitor's badge, Taylor saw someone she actually recognized amidst all the people who were clearly just trying to get to work.

"Nottingham!" she called out, practically running over to the other young woman relative to the office workers shuffling in. It had been a long time since she had actually worked alongside Finn Nottingham, but they were still technically colleagues, albeit separated by an ocean. "Hey!"

finn kylie nottingham

[finn kylie nottingham]

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Finn could feel her eyes roll back in dry flicker as she yawned. Once again, she had stayed up way too late on a Sunday. It was to the point now where her dog, Bruce, a still rather energetic husky for his age, frequently grew tired of waiting for her to call it a night and put himself to bed on time. That should have been a sign weeks ago, but she’d gotten rather sucked into a new video game she had picked up in the last month or so and couldn’t stop thinking about it day in and day out. In a way, it was sort of funny to be mulling over her options for how she wanted to proceed with her adventure once she got home all day long, but it wasn’t like she had anyone else to talk to about it whilst at work. Even her colleagues that were more in-tune with no-maj were hard to describe her latest obsession to. Despite their entire lives being consumed by magic use, most had extreme difficulty understanding what video games were and how playing in a digital fantasy world was entertaining. Finn simply shrugged it off. No one had truly ever got her back in New York either, and that was part of the reason she left in the first place.

Somehow, she had managed to wake up on time, mostly because Bruce had woken her up with his whining to be let out. The mad dash from that point until now had been less than an hour. The dog and owl were watered, taken care of, and she was inside the Ministry building with coffee. She may have had the same pants on the day before, but no one would really care. Unless for some reason she was paired up with Slater on a job. She’d sus it out instantly. Mainly because there was a perfectly placed hot sauce stain on her right thigh from the burrito she ate for lunch the day before. That was beside the point though.

Sipping on her too-hot coffee, Finn made a disgusted motion with the now-burned tip of her tongue. Through the crowd of depressed and over-caffeinated Ministry drones, of which she was most certainly one, she heard her last name being called. Her first thought that it was Claire, but only because she’d just had the woman on her mind. The voice was too happy, though. Too American as well. Sleepily looking up, she instantly believed she had to still be asleep, and this was all a dream. Why was Taylor Jackson walking towards her? Wasn’t she supposed to be in New York?

The gentle bump of another Ministry worker pushing past her from behind her made Finn realize that she was indeed awake (unless her dream was trying to convince her that the physical contact wasn’t actually her dog trying to wake her up so he could be taken outside to use the bathroom). ”H-Hey!” Finn answered, though still skeptical if this was reality or not. ”You’re not here for work, are you?” she asked. ”They didn’t tell me anyone else was being sent over.” They being the MACUSA auror supervisors that were still loitering around at the Ministry, much like herself. It was nice not to have too much work to do.

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[taylor renée jackson]

May 28, 2029

Finn Nottingham appeared a little confused at first but returned her greeting all the same. "H-Hey!" she replied. "You're not here for work, are you? They didn't tell me anyone else was being sent over."

"Yeah," Taylor explained with a laugh. Bringing over MACUSA Aurors to help the Ministry of Magic wasn't as pressing as it had been, but she wasn't sure what she would have been doing there at the Ministry otherwise. She didn't know if they offered tours, although that was a possibility. The reality, though, was pretty straightforward. "I'm here while Hernandez's on leave, so I'll be here for the rest of the summer." With one MACUSA Auror on family leave, they had needed another to fill in. She had gotten lucky that way, though she supposed she was an ideal option: competent and without dependents.

"…Surprise?" Taylor grinned as she stopped to stand opposite Finn, who had been her housemate but in the year below her at Ilvermorny. It had been a few years.

finn kylie nottingham

[finn kylie nottingham]

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The sluggishness, while still seeping into her bones, momentarily lifted. Seeing an old face out of place was like getting a jolt of caffeine injected straight into her veins. Occasionally it happened while working here at the Ministry. The odd MACUSA Auror or government worker she once brushed shoulders with had to come here for a brief stint of work. And from the sound of it, that was why Taylor was here too. Filling in for Hernandez until fall. Merlin, that was an easy job to take over. All Hernandez did was paperwork these days, and occasionally chastised Finn for being a little too rough around the edges. Their relationship had been the same way back in New York when she was a rookie, so it was basically like being back home again. Some things never changed no matter where they were in the world.

”Right! That started today?” Her fogginess was starting to come back. Maybe there had been a mention of that the week prior. Like when Hernandez’s desk was cleaned off on Friday to get it prepped for the new person being sent. Once she walked out of the office Friday evening, her brain went into shut-down mode until her first cup of coffee at her desk Monday morning. Which obviously hadn’t happened yet.

As for it being a surprise, it absolutely was. It was so weird that her supervisor hadn’t mentioned it, since they knew how close she and Taylor had been back in the day. All that Wampus energy, or whatever. ”Yeah, no, definitely is a surprise. Glad to see you again,” she said, fighting through her sleepiness. ”Umm…have you checked in and all that? If not, I can walk you up to where you need to go? Catch you up on everything that’s been going on here?” That happened to be nothing, since life had gotten boring for Aurors after Hogwarts was lit on fire. Most saw that as a good thing. Not Finn though.

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[taylor renée jackson]

May 28, 2029

"Right! That started today?"

Taylor didn't say anything, but she certainly hoped that Hernandez's leave had started that day. Otherwise, it was possible that she was on the wrong continent, and that would be a great one to have to explain to her supervisors with an otherwise clean record. The likelihood that she had gotten the dates mixed up was pretty small, but it was still theoretically possible. With the way that people in just about every other country in the world formatted their dates, she had made sure to check things over. Luckily, it was late enough in the month that it would be harder to transpose May 28th. There wasn't a twenty-eighth month.

"Yeah, no, definitely is a surprise. Glad to see you again," Finn continued in spite of her confusion. She then asked if she had checked in, offering to walk her over to where she needed to go and catch her up on everything in the meantime.

"Thanks. I was just about to do that," Taylor answered her, looking at her surroundings so far. "I kind of feel like I'm an exchange student or something," she admitted. It was like MACUSA, only not.

finn kylie nottingham

[finn kylie nottingham]

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”Yeah…it definitely gives off that vibe sometimes,” Finn admitted as Taylor accurately described the atmosphere of the Ministry. There was a big enough contingency of international witches and wizards that worked here, mostly as ambassadors for their own governments, but outside of the Aurors, there were very few representatives from MACUSA. Finn had sort of chalked it up to the fact that the US was just far enough away to make it difficult to constantly be sending people, as well as there being very little for the two governments to disagree on. Outside of an obnoxious figurehead MACUSA had sent, the next highest official was the Auror supervisor here. And then everything went by rank.

But first, Taylor needed to find the check in desk. Which Finn could easily bring her to. ”So the place you’re looking for should be right over here…” Finn pointed behind her colleague to a desk that was manned by an incredibly large quarter-giant man. ”Oh good. Doesn’t look like there’s a line yet,” she said as she started walking towards the desk. They would have to make sure Taylor was indeed supposed to be here, and then provide her with a guest badge until she got up to the MACUSA Auror office for her official one. There was also some nonsense about wand measurement and registration and all that fun stuff. Things had changed since Finn rejoined the force, especially over the last few years. Everything was so much more…rigid.

Speaking of rigid, the ginormous man was about as stiff as stiff could be, standing behind his tiny check-in desk. His chair even looked too small for him to sit in. ”Morning Hans. Think you could get my friend here all signed in?” she asked, and received a grunt of a ‘yes’ in response. ”He’s a tad quiet,” Finn added, quieter, to Taylor as she stepped to the side to let everything proceed.

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[taylor renée jackson]

May 28, 2029

Finn agreed with her assessment of the Ministry of Magic's making her feel as though she were there as an exchange student. Fortunately, as the "new kid" on her first day, she wasn't going to be totally lost, and Finn indicated the desk that she needed to visit. She also added that there wasn't a line yet, which was apparently not always the case.

The man working behind the desk was Hans, who looked as though he could have picked up one of them in each hand as though they were dolls. If not for the fact that they were Aurors, it would have been more intimidating; Finn asked him if he could get her signed in, and he gave a grunt in response. "He's a tad quiet," Finn added to her. That was fine by Taylor, just as long as he didn't give her any trouble.

Athough the process was understandably lengthy for security reasons, it went well. In addition to the name badge that she had gotten out of the phone booth on her way down, she got her wand weighed, and everything seemed to have checked out. Hans didn't react with force or call the Ministry Aurors on her, so that was a step in the right direction.

"Well, thank you very much, Hans," Taylor addressed him, and then she looked over to Finn. "Which way to the department?"

finn kylie nottingham

[finn kylie nottingham]

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Watching Hans process Taylor in was like having a front-row seat at a comedy show. Everything, from quills to sheets of paper that she had to sign, was miniscule in his gigantic hands. His proportions were cartoonish, and she wondered if he had a bucket or two worth of giant’s blood in him. Humans didn’t normally turn out this large unless they had some of that. Or they drank their milk as a kid. Finn had followed the ‘Got Milk’ campaign as a child. All she got out of it was a dislike for the stuff and narrowly missing giving herself lactose intolerance. Which would have been catastrophic to her heart, her love of pizza superseding all else (though her diet and doctor would love her if she stopped eating it).

Not needing to be anywhere else, nor wanting to be, Finn found a seat next to Hans’s desk and patiently waited, occasionally slapping herself awake with the hairband around her wrist. Her superiors, if they could even be considered that, wouldn’t chastise her for helping Taylor out. It wasn’t like the MACUSA crew had anything pressing to deal with right now anyways. They were merely here to assist when asked. And they were never asked to do anything of importance. Acting as extra wands at rowdy Quidditch matches was the height of excitement these days.

The sound of Taylor’s voice cut through her daydreaming, and Finn popped up out of her chair. ”Up to the second floor and over six corridors,” she answered cheerfully, ready to be on the move again. Anything to keep herself awake at this point.

”We could take the stairs, but since today is your first day we’ll go up the lift. It’s pretty entertaining,” Finn explained as she led the way. They were nothing like no-maj elevators, and far more maddening to be in. As they approached, a new arrival emptied out and Finn rushed towards it so that they could both squeeze in on time. ”You’re not claustrophobic, are you?” she asked Taylor as she squeezed herself in and tried to make room for her friend too.

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