a kind of magic | harper

[addilyn elara slater]

The waiting seems eternity

The day will dawn of sanity

August 10, 2026
@harper

It was not glamorous work. Not that Addy had expected anything else, but she really hadn’t known what to expect. Addy had opted to start her internship as soon as possible over the summer. The only other option had been to stay at home with her parents, but Claire and Grey didn’t live there anymore, so it was just her. Having that much extra time only let her mind wander into the new things in her life that now worried her. Cheese had moved to London and begun his work at the Prophet while Brigh was probably off in Egypt by now beginning her training as a Cursebreaker. Addy had asked Claire if she knew any Cursebreakers and hopefully helped Brigh get assigned with a trainer who knew what they were doing.

All of that seemed so exciting, and Addy had gotten to work on a phone the previous week, and it had felt so natural. Much like when she had disassembled her own phone just to see what was inside. Today, however, was a slow day. Well, it was slow for Addy. The department was small, and a lot of grunt work was pushed to the interns while the rest of the employees handled requests and interfaced with the IT department. Addy still hadn’t talked to IT, and she had about a million questions for them. She blinked a few times as the numbers written on the old parchment began to blur together. Each week, there was a portion of time where they helped IT and Human Resources with some backlog work. Graduates with a knack for the new technology greatly increased the speed at which old documentation was digitized.

Addy had spent about an hour that first day of data entry (about a few weeks into her internship) trying to devise a charm or combination of charms to speed up the process. Much like how one might charm several items in a home to help clean quickly. But the issue was reading and interpreting the words on the parchment and getting it into the computer. One of the other interns, a muggle-born who had been in Hufflepuff, explained that this is how Muggles did similar work. Mentally, Addy made a mental note to invent a charm or some kind of spell at some point—surely it was worth an Order of Merlin to not sit here and read a few words and press the keys on the keyboard as she searched for the letters. Unfortunately, even with her knack for such gadgets, typing appeared the be the new enemy of Wizarding Society. She let out a sigh as she rolled up this parchment and walked back into the main offices to grab a few more. She walked toward Harper’s desk, seeing that Scorpius had stepped away. ”Hey Harper—do you know where Scorpius put the rest of the scrolls?”

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The click-clacking of keyboards in the department had only grown in size since the school year ended and new interns were brought in. Technically they were the first class to be recruited, as everyone that had occupied the department since last year had basically acted like the test run to see if this would all work. They were still few in numbers, to the point where it went from under ten employees during all of the work to close to two dozen. A few transfers had come in when they realized how interesting the work was, though they were basically on par with learning about everything as the interns were. If anything, they were less likely to be inclined to do paperwork than the interns. Teaching new recruits how to Ministry and department worked was easy enough. Rewiring the brains of those that had already been doing the whole government thing for a few years were a lot harder.

Now that the technology was a proven thing that worked inside magical zones though, they needed all the help they could get. More and more departments and organizations wanted phones and computers – which had been in demand since day one – but they also needed documents digitized. That was the tricky part. And that was where the department was currently stuck, trying to play a game of catch-up with centuries worth of paperwork. Literally. Once everyone else got used to typing and searching (and maybe that was presumptuous of her to think that), then her team wouldn’t have to be doing that anymore. But unfortunately that was how things were going to be for the time being. Her own group of interns was a mix of data entry and practical application, dedicating a couple hours per day into each. This morning was certainly going slow though.

As she tapped a particularly dull scroll’s worth of information from IT into her computer, she heard her name called. Blinking a few times to lubricate her eyes after staring at her screen for so long, she saw Addy, one of the interns, standing at her desk. “Errm…didn’t he bring them over already?” she asked, looking towards the desk that Malfoy inhabited next to her. She had been glued to her work all morning and hadn’t even realized he wasn’t sitting there currently. “Actually, which set did you just finish? We might be able to jump to something less…boring.”

addilyn elara slater ● 403 ● Georgia by Phoebe Bridgers

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[addilyn elara slater]

The waiting seems eternity

The day will dawn of sanity

August 10, 2026
@harper

It frustrated Addy to type on the keyboard, it was different than the screen on her phone, and she had almost memorized the placement of the letters. But as she watched some like Scorpius, and then the IT employee’s fingers fly over the keys—Addy wasn’t convinced they hadn’t used some kind of charm or something to help them along. But she was determined to master this, just as she had mastered things in the past and prove herself the best intern. Merlin knew they were all working overtime for it. However, the technology was interesting, so at least Addy was grateful for that.

”No, I just finished the last of the ones he brought. I’m not sure where he went.” Addy looked around. Maybe she had missed the distinctive blonde head walking around. Addy paused a moment, wondering if she should go and retrieve the scrolls, but she remembered what they were regardless. ”They were old records for confiscated cauldrons.” Addy had skimmed a few of them and then skimmed them again, wondering why in the world there was a report for this. ”The cauldron bottoms didn’t fit the specifications or something.” It was one hundred percent in the realm of topics that Addy never thought she would read about while working at the Ministry of Magic. It wasn’t as if the cauldrons were cursed or anything. Addy looked at Harper, hoping very much for something less boring to do.

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“Thank Merlin those are finally done.” A long wind of exasperation left her body with it. Talk about absolutely useless paperwork. And the fact that these things had been mass produced because they were going to be ‘the next hot item for Christmas!’ Yeah. 1956 was a weird year for sure. Numbering and categorizing all of these files was beyond time consuming. They really should have been scanning all of this in, except that they hadn’t managed to figure out how to get scanners to work with scrolls yet. There had to be a way to do it, and she was positive they could have it sorted by the end of the year. Then all they had to do was zip scrolls and documents through an army of computers and be on their way. The only typing needed at that point would be setting of the documents for search purposes.

Finishing up the cauldron bottom reports didn’t find out where Scorpius was for them though, and now Harper was sort of interested in finding him. “He is here today, right? I’ve literally been staring at my screen all day and don’t remember if we’ve spoken at all…” Her eyes were dry from the glow of the screen. Day in and day out of this was starting to add up a bit, and she wasn’t used to the constant staring. A yawn accompanied the tired blinks she forced on her eyes to moisten them up again. “I need a coffee. That’s the only way I’m getting through the next set before the end of the day.” They still needed to fetch said set of scrolls, since Scorpius slipped somewhere stealthily. “Up for a walk? I know a place in Horizont that’s cheap.” The two of them could leave and be back at their desks in a matter of ten minutes thanks to disapparation. Their supervisor wouldn’t even know they were gone. And fresh air absolutely would help right now.

addilyn elara slater ● 328 ● Song by Artist

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[addilyn elara slater]

The waiting seems eternity

The day will dawn of sanity

August 10, 2026
@harper

Harper seemed just as relieved as Addy was. The department was small, something she had noted on her first day. She imagined that there must have been a lot more work in those early days. The mundane work had allowed Addy’s mind to try and find a way through possible solutions. Possible ways to make this all more efficient, but many unknowns stopped her. Unfortunately, Addy did not know much about the new office tech she had been shown. The phone was the main item she had tinkered with during school, but she’d never owned a computer, printer, or the bigger version of the printer that had the bright light when you opened the lid.

It also frustrated Addy that the names kept slipping her mind. She wasn’t one to usually forget things—she had to focus. ”Yes, but now that you’ve mentioned it, I haven’t seen him since this morning after he gave me instructions.” These new hours and workloads had a tendency to mess with one’s mind—all the days felt the same sometimes. Addy wasn’t also convinced there wasn’t some enchantment in the offices to make one not worry about time. Cheese thought it was a ridiculous idea, but his job thus far was right up his ally while hers was grunt work.

But Harper offered a reprieve from the office, and Addy quickly accepted. ”Is it the new American place I’ve heard about?” Addy had overheard a conversation near the coffee station when she was making tea. There was a stubbornness in her soul that didn’t want to immediately switch to coffee. But, slowly, she was heading in that direction—but the Ministry coffee had the consistency of mud they had worked with during Herbology class. ”I could use a break.” Sitting all day was the exact opposite of a seventh year filled with running to class and Quidditch practice. She needed to stretch her legs.

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Harper found it interesting that Scorpius had sort of disappeared on them the way he had. That didn’t mean he wasn’t working though – if anything, he had been snagged by an older employee in a different department and was being forced to fix something that wasn’t in his area of expertise. That had happened a few times to her already since the grand integration of technology had begun, and sometimes it took literal days of work to explain how things actually functioned. Using the magical words ‘like magic’ in how the internet functioned sort of helped speed things along, until they started asking what the spells were behind it. Then it really got tricky. One couldn’t simply will internet in with a charm like most assumed. Trying to explain the layers of charms and fixes to the phones and computers was even more complicated, especially to those that ever thought about magic as more than one or two spells on top of one another at a time. The job they had before them was going to be long and arduous, which is exactly why she wouldn’t have been surprised if Scorpius showed up again at the end of the workday looking haggard and braindead.

She simply shrugged about their other coworker though. There wasn’t much more she could add to that conversation right now without hot bean juice coursing through her body. Caffeine was calling. “Spellbucks? Yeah that could work. It’s actually closer than the place I was thinking of.” The Pi Patisserie was where she had been intending to go, but the new chain coffee shop was just as good. The coffee was the same anyway, and going to the bakery would make her want to buy cookies.

Standing up and actually moving from the threshold of their department hurt immensely. Being glued to her chair or following the same path between coworkers’ desks all day had made everything stiffen into place. She hadn’t realized how much she needed to move around until now. Getting to where they were allowed to disapparate, Harper shot over to Diagon and waited for Addy there. She wasn’t exactly sure where Spellbucks was located, but it probably wouldn’t take too long. All they’d have to do was look for the ridiculously long line. Everyone seemed to be talking about it these days.

addilyn elara slater ● 389 ● The Weather by Pond

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[addilyn elara slater]

The waiting seems eternity

The day will dawn of sanity

August 10, 2026
@harper

This was not the first time Scorpius had disappeared like this. But it was never for the same reasons people typically disappeared from work. Addy had noted several interns in other departments slacking, and she could only shake her head and the audacity. Though really, Addy wondered if they were slacking because their work was that simple, yet here she was spending hours of overtime to keep up and learn. That sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach and her brain telling her that perhaps she just couldn’t keep up. But then again, it only took a clueless and seasoned Ministry employee frustrated with their phone or computer to remind Addy of how much she knew.

The Mystery of the Missing Malfoy didn’t seem all that important to Harper at the moment, so Addy didn’t push it. Addy glanced back at her desk and the stack of other scrolls she still had to go through, but they weren’t cauldrons. As they proceeded through items in alphabetical order, she internally groaned at the thought of what scrolls on disappearing ink dictograph incidents might entail. Yes, coffee would be useful. Addy was far more exhausted than she’d ever been in school, and that was when her studies were accompanied by Quidditch, conflicting feelings about a boy, extra defensive magic practice, and chess.

Not that she’d ever say it aloud. ”Have you been there before?” Addy was uncharacteristically unfamiliar with the menu items. Spellbucks was the new topic on the forefront of everybody’s mind. The line out the door became a gathering place for Americans in London. Addy apparated a second after Harper, appearing almost next to her. But it wasn’t difficult to apparate into Diagon or Horizont Alley. A place that many students could walk through blindfolded and get to where they needed to be. ”Should we bring something for Scorpius?” It wasn’t that Addy was totally selfless. However, she noted how this department was almost drowning in centuries of old parchment to be digitized alongside the new product development. But she knew something could be gained by making those connections, and they could begin by chance, at the coffee station or perhaps a magical macchiato.

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