WHO: Sarah Darcy and Brier Stebbins
WHAT: She might get deported!
WHERE: Ministry!
WHEN: Today!



Panic panic panic. Try not to panic!

Sarah couldn't force herself to stop thinking about the anxiety she was facing and fidgeted nervously at the front desk of the law offices of the Ministry. She'd only been here once before, and she'd nearly had an asthma attack at the hustle and bustle and the flying paper airplanes and now with the anxiety of her bosses' deaths---poor Edgar and Gilly poor little Emilie! Sarah didn't know if she could handle such a crazy place---okay, it wasn't that she wasn't used to magic, she was a witch, after all, but she was from Wisconsin. There was nothing in Wisconsin to get nervous and frantic about! Moving to England had been a big, big adjustment, and Sarah hadn't actually done any adjusting. She'd found a nice place in Hogsmeade and loved it there, nice and quiet. Her trips to London were panic-inducing and scary, so that only happened when she had an audition and---

Well, she hadn't had an audition in a long time, so...this was just not turning out to be her day.

"Excuse me!" she squeaked, leaning over the counter to wave her hand at the secretary who was completely ignoring her. She really needed to talk to someone! Her visa was up, soon! Then she would have to go home! But--she couldn't! "Is there anyone here that can help me?"

Brier looked up from his desk - he had requested the door not be replaced in his office, if he needed client privacy he could activate the secrecy bubble on the whole room, but after all the earthquakes and stuff he was feeling a bit paranoid and wanted to be able to escape easier - and saw someone at the front desk. Noting that there was a secretary there he went back to his work, until he heard her call out.

Initial client intake usually wasn't his thing, but a glance at his calendar noted that Brady and both assistants were involved in something, he slipped out of his office with a folder (to look like he was doing something and just happened to see a person standing there rather than...well coming out to help her, that might seem too eager or something). Brier glanced at the secretary who was busy arguing with someone's floo call and turned to the lady with a little wave, "Uh, you need help? What kind?"

"HI!" Sarah let out, finding herself nearly exhausted from stress she was putting on herself. "Hi! Hello! Okay, I need---well," Her hands went up gesturing toward her mouth as if it wasn't making her look like a complete nut job, "I'm not--a citizen, I've got a work visa and it's about to run out but I keep getting sent everywhere except where I need to be, so I don't know if I need to be here or if I'm on the completely wrong side of the Ministry---the elevators here are crazy! I got lost for a good twenty minutes before and---"

She stopped, realizing she'd reached a higher pitch of voice than she would have liked. Sarah's hands moved to push the imaginary stress she'd created, and put her hand out to the man, "Hi, I'm Sarah and I'm very easily stressed out."

Hopefully he'd appreciate her humor, because it was the only way she was going to make it through this without having an anxiety attack.

Brier was usually okay with the first blurt - there was always a blurt. You sat a client down and asked what was going on and they just let out a torrent of words that usually meant more to them than it did to him, they just needed to get it off their chest and then you could point them in the direction they needed to go with their story with questions - but this one sort of caught him a little off guard. It must have been her accent.

"Hi Sarah, I'm Brier. I'm a lawyer here, so I can answer some questions for you," he pulled out a piece of parchment and a pen from his pocket (they were easier to carry around and were less likely to stab toddlers who liked to grab at things) and made a few notes. "Have you gotten a letter? Like from the ministry? Either magical or muggle. Because if its muggle we can take care of that too, but if its this ministry," he said motioning to the building around him, "then they take care of that as well for you. But uh if you have a letter I could take a look at it. Do you have the paperwork? And yeah you're on the wrong side and wrong floor, but it's really not that difficult to fill out," he said looking under the counter to see if they had some forms. "The elevators take time and if you get lost just don't ask any portraits, they tell you where to go in even more confusing directions," Brier said sheepishly, "If they tell you the right ones at all."

She nodded furiously, reaching into her bag and pulling out the nearly crumbled up piece of parchment. Sarah winced and tried to flatten it out on the counter, but it still had creases and maybe even a little tear. Oh, they were definitely going to deport her. She ran a hand over her face and tried to breathe, because really, if the lawyer didn't seem too panicked, then why should she? Unless of course, he was trained to be calm so that his clients would think all was well, but in reality he was thinking 'Oh, you're so fucked.'

Sarah huffed, "I guess if it's--not that big of an issue, you could just send me up there, or...down there. Or---sideways, whatever it is."

Being able to stay out of people's personal space had never been one of her fortes, so Sarah pushed toward Brier, nearly shoving shoulders with him as she held out the parchment, "Okay, so, this is what I got, I'm just scared that it's not going to be as simple as the first time. Do I have to prove anything, or---should I just become a citizen, or---?"

"Uh huh," Brier said, skimming his eyes over the letter once and then going back over it for a more thorough read, tugging at the corner of his lip as he did so. "Well, the good news is that you aren't being deported. Just yet anyway. You've got a little window to get you squared away before we ship you back to the colonies," Brier said, giving her what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

He didn't mind the lack of personal space, he had a three year old and Brady was fond of getting into his space in hopes of intimidating him (it only worked some of the time now) but usually he was at a table with the client across from him. "I've got the forms here," he said, pulling out a large roll of parchment. "It's a little long," Brier shrugged, rolling out the top, "but its not as bad as you think. It's in triplicate. But here, let me write you a checklist," he said, getting out a scrap piece of parchment and trying to write as neatly as he could (his handwriting was pretty much crap, Bess yelled at him all the time about it). "You need proof of your living situation. So like a letter from a landlord or if you're in a muggle area a utility bill but make sure its clear what your name and address is some of these witches have no idea what they're looking at. And you need proof of your job, there's some forms you fill out in here and just have your boss sign it. If you don't have a job, well you should enroll in school then."

Brier scratched his head a little at her last question, "You could become a citizen, but the United States government both magical and muggle don't allow dual citizenship, so it's kind of complicated. You could, but I would just stick to the visa stuff right now."

Sarah nodded automatically as Brier continued to check off what she needed to do. Oh, she was so happy she'd run into a nice, young bloke instead of some nasty old wizard who couldn't remember his name or something ridiculous like that. Why couldn't everyone be as helpful as Brier, hm? It would make everyone's lives a lot easier, and there would be much less fighting. When he finished listing off what she needed to get done, Sarah took the parchment and examined it carefully, trying to memorize everything but knowing she wouldn't. It didn't seem like too much, but who knew---maybe it was stressful, and that's why people messed it up. Sarah was already stressed and she had just gotten this list!

"Thanks so much for this, I really---they probably would've chucked me into the ocean or something," she said with a laugh, knowing that her brother would just love the idea of her getting sent back home after all the fuss she'd put up. "If you're ever at the Three Broomsticks, I could probably swing a free butterbeer or two for you." But would that be dishonoring the Bones' memory? No, no, Edgar would have winked at her and agreed and---

"Here don't forget your forms and oh," Brier said, handing her the stack of paper and then patting his robes and checking his pockets to find a business card. Wizards didn't usually use these, but Brier had some made for when he had to work with the muggles for witches and wizards that got caught on that side of the law. "Um this is my card. It has my name and here's my work floo and address so you can owl me questions or something. And I dunno if you are familiar with muggle telephones, but if you are this is the number to my flat. I live with my little brother who doesn't really know how to work it so if you get disconnected, just call back and yeah." Brier shrugged, blushing a little because he was doing that rambling thing with having trouble stopping. "But yeah, I give it out to clients who might get in trouble in the muggle world but you can have it too," he said, shrugging a little. "And yeah, that sounds good. But not in return for this, because that's kind of against the rules. Just because."