Owl Postal Service Main Branch & HQ - Nothing Changes

[Vortimer P. Mould]

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Looking for the Post Office General? Well, he is a busy chap and may not always be found in the head office branch of the Owl Post Office. If you do require a private chat for business purposes or what not, then do send him or his personal assistant Thomas Parsons an owl to arrange a meeting.

Located a few doors down from Gringott's was another large building that stuck out quite a bit in the tightly packed Magical hub, otherwise known as Diagon Alley. This building was concerned with the Owl Postal Service. It served as the administrative office for the key service and also housed the main branch for the United Kingdom, and also a few key sites worldwide. The building itself housed a large internal owlery, sorting room, the Owl Postmaster General and other administrative offices, patents/ideas lab amongst other things.

On the outside you would think such a large building that housed this service would therefore have a over the top decorated front like the bank, but it had no warning engraved on stone about taking what didn't belong to you, and had no fancy stone pillar work. Instead it somewhat understated, save for a large black door and a matching sign above with the owl post symbol, and silver painted letters stating rather simply, ‘Owl Postal Service’. Of course on the inside it was a somewhat different matter, it was after all on the inside where the magic happened.

Inside there was a large main hall with its tall vaulted ceiling, members of the public would cross the white marbled floor to reach a long gleaming counter, made of black agate, that ran the entire width of the hall. The counter was broken up in measured sections and each section was manned by a member of postal staff. The business and private clients of the Owl Post office would be ushered into a room that was just off the main hall. Of course, some of these clients were taken up to the second floor in order to have their appointment with the Owl Postmaster General.

Of course the main spectacle, aside from the bronze owl statue in the middle of the hall, was the wall directly behind the counter. The wall was covered with pigeon holes or rather owl shaped holes. Every single one of the cubby holes was occupied by an owl, of varying shape, size and colour, (it was mainly for show rather than for actual practicality as the rest of the owls were up on the first floor in the dispatch gallery). Overall despite the owls (though the noise, and smell was subdued due to various cleaning and sound charms), the entire place was clean, tidy and oozed efficiency, without being so fussy that it was an uncomfortable unfeeling place to go to.

More Information about the Owl Post Office Services: [ Click for OOC Comment ]

Owl Postal Service Information
Opening Hours
Monday – Friday: 9am – 6pm
Saturday – 10am – 5pm
Sunday – Closed
Public Holidays – Closed

Services Offered:

• Magical to Muggle Mail transfers
• Sending Mail within the UK & Overseas via Owl
• Private Courier Services via Post Courier Flyer
• Mail redirection & Collection
• Post Box Holding
• Bespoke Services offered to Business - Dispatching of products etc.

Brief Overview of Other Branch Locations - UK:
Hogsmeade, Waddlestone, Godric's Hollow, Manchester, Dublin, Cardiff, etc....Please enquire in branch for a more comprehensive list.

Overseas Branches & Key Sorting Depo's - Usually found close to Ministry of Magic locations
Washington, Paris, Germany, St. Petersburg, Rome

[Vortimer P. Mould]

The thing was if you really wanted to see the Owl Postmaster General you didn’t really have to look to far, as most days he could be found down on the main floor, as far away from his office as he could possibly get without leaving the building entirely. He loved to serve, after all he started off as general staff, before he worked his way up the ranks to get the position he had today. Most Postmaster’s did, part from the odd one that was placed there and therefore hadn’t a clue how to serve a customer.

Sure there were plenty of staff on hand that he didn’t have to pitch in, but he couldn’t help it, he got itchy feet, and usually when he was down on main floor he came up with his best patent ideas, or came up with a new postal service. Sure he felt sorry for his number two who constantly had to try and coax him back upstairs for appointment or to go through the latest dispatches, paperwork and more. It was just thankful that Tom had a sense of humour otherwise it would have sent the kid loopy.

At that moment though he was in the middle of the expanse of marble floor looking at the bronze statue of an owl, well not any old owl it was Flynn V. In his hand was a soft yellow cloth and he was just giving it a quick dust.

[Judas Strong]

The young ten year old boy had wandered in to the Postal Service on the sunny day. He had many letters in hand, and it wasn't that he couldn't go and make his owl take them to his father, he wanted it to be a bit more, official with all the stamps and stuff. Perhaps more of a child's dream. And of course the reason he was walking in alone was because he was encouraged to be a very independent young man, and because of this encouragement he ultimately was. Letting out a soft sigh, he looked around and noticed a man dusting the owl in the center and he walked up to him.

He cleared his throat, trying to look serious and authoritative though it might have looked silly on a child. "Sir, I want to send these letters to my dad." He spoke, and looked down at his little stack of letters he was holding, each one was fatter than the next and one could easily blame that on the amount of drawings Jude had.

[Vortimer P. Mould]

It took a bit of a whip round before he twigged the voice came from below rather than at his eye level. There standing before him, not quite coming up to his chest was a small boy. This was not unusual, children often came into the post office and often Vortimer interacted with them.

"You've certainly come to the right place" he concluded, eyes falling on the small stack that the boy was holding, "that's quite a few letters too. Why don't you follow me lad to the counter and see if we can't have a look at them."

Vortimer slipped the duster into one of his pockets and rubbed his hands together, turned on his heel and gestured for the kid to follow, "on your own?" he asked, "or are your parents about?"

[Judas Strong]

Jude nodded, he tried to look serious though he soon lightened and eased up on everything, the man seemed nice enough. He could just be himself, or act like himself. He cleared his throat and walked to the desk in silence, and then placed all of his letters on top, and smiled up at the man. "My grandparents are with me." He answered, "My dad is a Professor at Hogwarts, and I don't get to see him very often during the school year, so sometimes I send him letters! But I'm going to Hogwarts in September, so that's okay, because then I'll be able to see him all the time." Jude looked excited talking about Hogwarts and his father.

[Vortimer P. Mould]

Somewhere in the back of Vortimer's mind a little flag was waving, why did that story seem familiar, but from a completely different angle. He just couldn't think at that moment why it would be the case. So he instead carried on leading the boy across the wide expanse of marble to the equally long length of counter. Customers were already being served, but there were a few sections of the counter not in use. Vortimer ducked under and popped up the other side, spun on his heel quickly and turned to face the lad, that just about came up to the top of the counter.

"Right lad, let's take a look at that far stack of post you have there" said Ivor holding his hand out.

[Judas Strong]

With little hesitance, Jude handed over the very large stack of letters he had to Vortimer. He was standing on his tip-toes so he could make proper eye contact with the man, or at least try to, it seemed that he had gotten his father's short gene, though he still had time to grow, perhaps he would in the future. Regardless, he smiled, quite proud in handing his letters over as they had very nice hand-writing on them to make sure they got to the right place. All of them were being sent to Benjamin Strong, from Judas Strong. Though, Jude would tell anyone he didn't like his "formal" name Judas, and instead much preferred Jude.

[Vortimer P. Mould]

“It’s okay, I’ve handed thousands of letters and I treat each of them with utter care, except ones that are marked as bills...” it was probably a comment that went over the boys head for the most part, but it made him chuckle.

He carefully took the stack from the lad, and looked over the address, “very nice handwriting” he commented, and it was, especially for a boy in fact it was better than some adults too.

“Ah, well now...would you look at that” he said as he finished reading the address, “Professor Strong’s lad, I know your father” he said, peering down at the boy. Now that explained his earlier feeling of 'I know you'.

[Judas Strong]

The comment about the bills did go over his head, he really did not understand the idea of bills and while he had seen his grandparents deal with them now and again he didn't really understand why would anyone need to pay for things they already owned or did. It was kind of a strange thing to Jude to grasp, but he didn't question it too much.

When the man commented on his handwriting, Jude smiled. Puffing his chest up a bit as he felt very proud of his own handwriting, having tried very hard to get it to be nice. Not that his normal hand writing was awful, he just wanted to make sure this time it was perfect. "Thank you..." He nodded, before the man suddenly commented about his father and how he knew him.

"You do? Oh. Well then.." He felt famous, almost. As famous as a ten year old from a normal family could. "How?" He asked, trying to keep his tone of voice as polite as possible.

[Vortimer P. Mould]

Of course the question of how would be asked, and Vortimer smiled, “well funnily enough not so long ago I met him in Hogsmeade, but we do in a way go back further than that, to Hogwart’s when we were lads. Your dad rather liked my Great Dane” he was smiling still, “so that’s how I come to know him. Small world.”

[Judas Strong]

Jude agreed and nodded, "Really small world." He smiled, and looked around. "You have a Great Dane?" There was a hint of excitement in Jude's tone, as if he wanted to meet this giant dog, he was quite in love with animals though perhaps not to the exact degree that his father was. His father was easily obsessed. Jude much preferred drawing them on his notepads and in sketchbooks.

[Vortimer P. Mould]

"I certainly do, names Scriptor," Vortimer glanced down, slid his sleeve back and glanced at his multi-handed watch, "and at about this time he's in the staffroom waiting for someone to drop a biscuit."

"Tell you what your dad was going to swing by during the holiday's with you and either myself or my right hand man was going to give you a show round, but I don't see why we don't do it now. You can see what happens when you get us to deliver your mail for you. How does that sound?" Vortimer was leaning on the counter and peering down at the kid.

[Judas Strong]

Scriptor, upon further thought Jude mentally approved of the name and smiled even a bit in show of his internal approval. That was certainly a creative name, not like his owl Tiny, which really wouldn't even be able to carry all of these letters that he had for his father. Which was exactly why he was here, to send his letters by a bigger owl or something.

Regardless, when the man offered up a bit of a tour, Jude's eyes widened. He loved to learn, and this certainly sounded like the right thing for him, and he nodded eagerly. "I would love to see what happens! It would be very wonderful!" The youth really did look excited, almost abnormally so for a kid who was just about to see how the Postal Service worked.

[Vortimer P. Mould]

“Excellent” commented Vortimer, it was of course the only thing he could say, but he gathered up the letters again and handed them back to Judas, “well now, you take hold of them again we are going to see them posted.”

He moved away from the counter, moved down a bit and lifted up a section, then gestured to Judas, “step this way kid, you’re going places few ever get to see.”

[Judas Strong]

Jude looked very exceptionally excited, taking his letters back he held them close to his chest as if to protect them from being lost or messed up, and stepped through to follow the man when he gestured to do so. "This is really very nice of you, sir." Jude commented, with a smile. Taking a deep breath, he rocked back and forth on his toes for a moment. "I really enjoy learning, and this is a wonderful opportunity."

[Vortimer P. Mould]

Vortimer lowered the section of the counter and turned back to the kid, "call me Vortimer, or Vort, and really its no trouble at all. He had to say the kid really was a spit of his father, even in the way he spoke.

"Well this is the side of the counter that few get to look at, and as you can see its just as tidy as out front. The large owl display we have, is just small section of the several thousands' of owls that the Owl Post network looks after. Most of them up here" he gestured to the large 'pidgeon' holes that took up a vast expanse of wall. Nearly every hole had an owl perched in it, in all the various shapes, sizes and colours.

"Most of these are heading towards retirement, they like it because it's an easy gig."

[Judas Strong]

When the man insisted that he called him Vort or Vortimer, the boy nodded. "If you would like Mister Vortimer." He smiled, and looked at the counter, looking at curiously more than anything. Nodding in approval of the tidiness he looked up to the man, "It is certainly very good you keep it nice and clean."

Then to the owls, he looked over to the small display nodding though when the man said that this was a small display. "I understand, it would be impossible to fulfill all of these peoples requests with just a few owls. I would love to see more of them though." Jude smiled wider, he loved animals just about as much as his father.

[Vortimer P. Mould]

Vortimer was going to correct the kid again about using a title but he dropped it; mister after all wasn't too formal. He nodded his head, "thank you, we keep the place spotless, the staff as much as I do take pride in having a clean work area."

He moved forward dodging the odd worker as he did, wouldn't do to get in the way of his busy staff.

"You will in due time, but first we are going to pick up Scriptor, the dog could do with a stretch of his legs," even if it was a tour of the building.

[Judas Strong]

Jude nodded and followed along the with the man, looking around eagerly. Everything was different and new back here, he didn't think he would ever get to see this area of the postal office, and he felt very lucky that his father had decided to meet up with this man randomly, so not he got to learn about the things back here. Certainly something Jude would brag about to his friends later.

Along with all of this, the mention of getting the dog Scriptor, sounded like a blast. Jude loved animals, and he would love to meet this dog. Simply because, well it was a dog and an animal so he would like to play with him.

[Vortimer P. Mould]

Vortimer led Judas to the end of the room, and from a distance it looked as though they were going to walk right into a wall. Of course he wasn’t going to do such a thing, it wasn’t like the wall at King’s Cross, it was simply a door hidden to look like the rest of the wall. He press the panel and the door swung inwards. He wasn’t sure why the door had to be hidden, and it was often something he dwelled on when he wasn’t thinking about work in general.

Inside was fairly comfortable sized room which was scattered with sofa’s, chair’s, at one end was a long kitchen table with chairs around it, this was in the section was a kitchen area. Several people were sat at it eating, drinking tea or just reading the paper. They glanced to Vortimer and nodded their head.

Vortimer returned the gesture and immediately glanced round the room, and sure enough there was Scriptor, his Great Dane. The dappy thing was curled up at the foot of a sofa, evidence of biscuit crumbs dotted his fur.

“Scriptor..” this was followed by a low whistle, and the dog immediately sprung to life, all limbs than anything else as it bounded over to Vortimer in somewhat of a hurry.

“There’s a good boy” he said doing his best to then calm the dog down, he glanced to Judas, “he gets somewhat excited, acting like he’s not seen me for years.”

[Judas Strong]

Following in, he found that this door was made in quite the clever fashion, though perhaps not in the most creative of ways, Judas could think of a million ways to make that very wall/door more aesthetically pleasing, though he wasn't about to comment on it after all, it was not at all his place.

When his gaze fell upon the giant dog, Jude seized up in excitement as the man called and whistled and the dog walked over in great excitement. The young boy couldn't help a childish giggle, as he reached out almost immediately to let the dog sniff him before petting and jumping on the dog with almost equal excitement as to what the dog had to his owner.

"Scriptor is a really nice name!" Jude smiled up to the man, he had learned from his father that complimenting always made people feel good and he did so often, and often looked for positive traits in people to compliment.

[Vortimer P. Mould]

It took a little bit of time and a dog biscuit extracted from one of his pockets to get Scriptor to calm down to the usual placid dog. His hand not having to reach down all that far to scratch the dog behind the ears, his eyes flicking to the young boy, "thank you, sort of suited him from the moment I got him. Well he sort of responded to it early on so it's stuck. Although like with any pet, he'd answer to anything if it meant they got a biscuit out of it. Ain't that right boy..." his head glancing down to the soppy Great Dane that gave him a look of 'what?'

[Judas Strong]

Jude was excited, and looked up to the man after a little while of being preoccupied with the dog and petting on him, once he finally did look up he smiled to the man and put his hands on his hips trying to appear important. "Thank you for doing this, sir. I had no idea that I would get such a chance."

[Vortimer P. Mould]

"Right, well this room is a perhaps a little dull for you, it's merely were the staff can take a moment out and have a break. But at the far end is a door that leads to pretty much the hub of the operations." Without further ado, Vortimer led the way, Scriptor fallen into step but only after a moments hesitation when the boy moved too.

Where Vortimer was leading Judas was to the sorting room, which really was as he had said the heart of the place. Upon reaching a rather non-de-script looking door he grasped the handle turned it and pushed the door open. Immediately the sounds of industry washed over them.

The room, well hall was big, like most buildings in the magical community it was bigger on the inside. What dominated the room was three long sorting benches, each one about 15 metres in length by one and a half metres wide. Substantial enough to take the various types of mail that came through. Each bench had on average thoughout the day and some of the night, 15-20 employees otherwise known as the 'Sorters'. So needless to say it was noisy.

"Welcome to the sorting room, you'll get to the noise eventually."

As you looked up you could see the first floor, which had a gallery style view into the room the Owl Post Master General was standing. It was an open gallery and generally what happened was owls would fly into the room above, it would then drop off mail if any, which then a worker would drop into a chute that went down into the sorting hall. It was all rather noisy.

[Judas Strong]

Judas smiled, "Oh no this is quite nice," He wasn't about to insult the man and tell him he found this place boring, this room was very humble and warm and he enjoyed its atmosphere by all means. Sticking hands into his pockets, he kept his smile up to the older man, "I don't find this boring at all.." He laughed lightly, before finally Vortimer seemed to lead him to a door, and Jude followed along closely not wanting to get lost.

Once they entered the sorting room, Jude's eyes went wide and his jaw practically dropped in awe. He didn't think that there was this much that went on behind the scenes when he just came in and handed his letters, he never figured such a thing. He literally thought it was just the owls dropping letters off and then people putting them in little mail-boxes or something of that sort, he didn't think that such a room could ever exist.

Once he snapped out of his dazed staring, he was wondering what genius had invented this way of working through the mail.