Owl Postal Service Main Branch & HQ - Nothing Changes

[Vortimer P. Mould]

Vortimer glanced over the scene, it was one he had seen everyday since he came to work in the main branch, his eyes though soon dropped down to look at Judas. The slow warm smile spreading on his face as he caught sight of the dazed look, "it can take a while to absorb everything going on. You see not all small business can handle owling out a lot of post to customers and especially to overseas so that accounts for a lot of this mail. Then you have the mail that has to be collected from the muggle world for those families that don't own an owl and so on and so forth. So there is a lot that comes through here."

[Judas Strong]

Jude nodded, this all started to come together and make sense, though he had never really sent letters to anyone but his father at Hogwarts, he now knew that his being sent were the easiest of them all in comparison to overseas or something like that. He knew he had family somewhere else, quite further off in another country in Europe, but he had never sent owls to them. He had never even met them!

But his dad and grandmother had told him about it all so he was just fascinated about the possibilities, he then looked up to Vortimer with a sudden rather bright idea in his own head. "So, if I don't have an address, or anything like that, can I still send letters..?" He asked, looking around the owls seemed to be smart enough for that.

[Vortimer P. Mould]

"Of course you can!" said Vort cheerfully, "you see, Owl's aren't tied to fixed addresses, they don't get the concept really. The letters merely provide the instructions so if you said on the letter Tom Parson's second floor of the Post Office, which isn't really a properly written address it would still get delivered."

[Judas Strong]

Jude scratched his head a bit, the concept was a bit mind-boggling, but after a little bit he nodded feeling that this was an okay concept after that is, he fully grasped it. "Hmm, so that means I could send letters to just random people, that I know the name of.. In other countries and stuff, right?" Jude looked up to the man, with hope glimmering in his eyes.

[Vortimer P. Mould]

Vortimer laughed, "well yes, that could mean that. But owls' aren't daft really, and to be honest I generally wouldn't recommend it. People can take offence to having random mail in the post. Even if it was well meaning, there are charms you see my lad to track where things have come from."

[Judas Strong]

Jude looked in shock when the other told him that he shouldn't send things to random people, that was what he had said but that wasn't what he had meant and almost instantly did Jude take a defensive stance against what he had just said, he shook his head and bit his lower lip. "O-Oh! No I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that, that would be awful!" He pouted, and looked down at the ground ashamed of himself, "I meant, if I had family and I didn't know where they were... That's all.."

[Vortimer P. Mould]

Vortimer looked a bit sheepish, "Oh now I get you, sorry lad misunderstood you there,.." his hand reaching up to rub the side of his neck, "if its to relative and you don't know the address, then yes there are ways of doing that."

He glanced to the men at work, then back to the boy, "come on, lets show you the rest of this place" he said turning on his heel and gesturing to Judas to follow. All the while Scriptor followed after them, briefly stopping to sniff something he wasn't sure he had sniffed before.

[Judas Strong]

Jude almost immediately brightened up when the man said there was a way of doing that, and this was an exciting thing that meant he could ask his father about the family very far away, basically on the other side of Europe for that matter! Regardless, Jude nodded and followed along with Vortimer with a bit of a bounce in his step now that he knew such things were possible, he felt that his day had been rather properly made.

[Vortimer P. Mould]

Vortimer led the lad round the edge of the room, making sure not to get in the way of people or post, eventually arriving at the bottom of a set of spiral stairs. Vortimer didn't wait long before heading up them, they were wider than the average spiral staircases so that even Scriptor didn't have an issue heading up them.

Eventually they came to an end and they found themselves on what was more like a gallery, it was half the width of the hall below, but equally as noisy. This was where the owls arrived, through a large window at one end, in they swooped dropping off parcels into the mouthpieces of the chutes that dropped the packages to the sorters before. Owls that dropped of post then either then stopped to be fed, watered or rested in a designated area on this floor, or waited to be supplied mail from other workers who worked on benches opposite to those who dropped of mail. It was a cycle between the gallery and the main floor.

"Here we are lad, another busy area of operations, this is where the mail comes in and eventually goes back out," he gestured at the right moment as an owl came swooping in, well several actually expertly dropping the mail into the chute, "takes us several months to perfect their aim."

[Judas Strong]

In moments Judas was eagerly following, he fell behind a little as the dog decided to get ahead of both of them and so instead he held onto the rail and just followed right behind Vortimer, smiling happily, it seemed that his interest had yet to die as another child's would have by now, for someone of his age, Jude really had an exceptional kind of attention span. He had a bit of a bounce in his step as he walked up the stairs, and then of course, the rooms kept getting more amazing, his eyes went wide at the sight of owls swooping in and dropping mail.

"This is fantastic." He wanted to pet some of the owls, but he knew how animals could react so he did his best to resist, his gaze turning to the older male, "That's really great, takes a lot of patience I bet.." Jude smiled up at the man, before his smile turned into a wide grin as he thought of something he believed as rather hilarious, "The rooms keep getting better and better.. I bet the next room is candy-land themed isn't it..? Everything is made out of candy..?" Jude asked hopefully, though of course he was joking.

[Vortimer P. Mould]

Vort couldn't help but laugh at the comment, "now that would certainly be a selling point for the post office but I think it might be a little bit of a distraction. Especially for me, I have a bit of a sweet tooth." Vortimer was grinning as he said this, he liked this kids imagination it was refreshing.

[Judas Strong]

"I think it would be a distraction for anyone, not just someone with a sweet-tooth." Jude smiled back at the man, as he folded his arms for a moment, as if to assume a more professional position, though he didn't really know what that meant in all reality, "Though it would certainly attract many more people in here, you might even convince them to send letters.. Enchanted candy maybe..." Jude was going off, ideas firing off in his head like fireworks.

[Vortimer P. Mould]

Vortimer reached his hand out and ruffled the kids hair, "certainly got quite the creative mind on you kid, you'll go far. I'll bear it in mind the next time I am doing a brain storm for promoting the Post Office. Of course, sometimes the best thing needs to stay secret. All part of the charm, that draws people back." His hand by now, had long since dropped back down to his side.

[Judas Strong]

Jude was very proud to have been told by an adult that he would go far, that was certainly someone his age wanted to hear, and so he nodded and showed his gratitude. "Thank you," And while he wasn't particularly fond of the man ruffling his hair he didn't say anything in that manner at all. "Maybe you can send me a letter and I'll give you a few ideas." Jude suggested.

[Vortimer P. Mould]

Vortimer looked at Judas with one of those knowing smiles, "2ell now that your starting to get an understanding of how the system works, you'll be able to send me one. We have branches up and down the country, and key sites around the world. Wherever you are, you'll be able to tap into the network, so to speak."

[Judas Strong]

Jude bounced in a bit of excitement, "That will be great! I'll be more then excited to do that, maybe I can get my owl to send you a letter.. Maybe.. He's really small and so he has a hard time carrying much other then maybe a few letters, certainly not any parcels.." Jude nodded, drifting off into deep thought.

[Vortimer P. Mould]

Vortimer smiled at the boy, it was great to see such enthusiasm in the kid it reminded him of himself when he was the kid's age, he was already working for the Owl Post office, unofficially of course.

"Absolutely and I will look forward to receiving it. Don't be so disheartened, he might be small but there are ways round it, perhaps you can get your dad or someone to reduce the size or weight. There are charms for most things. We do that if we use scoops owls, they are fast but the loads can cause them issues. We also reduce the weight for the private couriers too."

[Judas Strong]

Jude tapped his lower lip at such a suggestion, "Oh hmm.. I didn't know that," Of course, he knew that there were different kinds of spells but he never jumped to conclusions whether there was a spell for this or that, and now that he knew there was a spell for lightening up loads well that was wonderful and fantastic in every way. "Guess I'll have to ask my dad," Jude smiled brightly, rocking back and forth now from his heels to his toes as if attempting to jump around from his sheer excitement over all of this.

"You have a really great job Mr. Mould." Jude nodded, before realizing that the man had not wanted to be referred to this way and so he shook his head, "Mr. Vortimer!" That still wasn't exactly right, but Jude figured it was close enough.

[Vortimer P. Mould]

"It's the sort of thing you'll learn at school, but as your not quite able to do the spells yourself it's easier to get someone else to do the work for you" said Vortimer with a wink, "make the most of it."

"Thank you, I am rather proud of it" said with a smile, he let the kid off at the name slip up.

He looked up wistfully, before glancing back down to Judas, "the floor above is general administration offices, not terribly exciting after this and the previous floor, but I can get my assistant to whip up a honey dukes hot chocolate and maybe crack out the nice biscuits?"

[Judas Strong]

Jude nodded, "I see. Well I suppose I'll wait to learn it in school, I can be pretty patient." He said, and while he could be that didn't mean he wasn't like every kid and wanted to get to things as quickly as possible. School was one of those. He wanted to go so very bad.

"Hot chocolate? Ooh~" Jude brightened up, despite the boring office, he didn't care hot chocolate certainly did cling to his interest very quickly, and he was more then happy to drink some right at this very moment. "Yes please!"

[Vortimer P. Mould]

"I thought that might swing it" said Vortimer with a grin, he gestured to Judas to follow him once more. Scriptor all the while had laid down on the floor and fallen asleep, dribbling as he did so. At Vort moving, however, Scriptor opened one of his eyes and peered at his master, he was clearly weighing up the pros and cons of getting up.

"Stay where you are boy, you don't want a biscuit" said Vort in a nonchalant manner as he began to walk off. At the mention of biscuit had the desired affect Scriptor got to his feet quickly. Vortimer could hear the scrabbling of paws and chuckled as he led the way to another set of stairs.

[Judas Strong]

Jude laughed, "I dunno I think he may want one or two.." The boy mentioned as he also heard the scrambling of the paws across the floor trying to quickly get up and follow the two. He was quite excited to be receiving hot chocolate, even if it wasn't the coldest of days, it was still nice and he would absolutely never say no to such a wonderful thing.

As they walked up another set of stairs Jude grinned, "You know there sure are a lot of stairs around here, do you ever get tired?" He inquired, raising an eyebrow ever so slightly.

[Vortimer P. Mould]

Up the stairs Vortimer ventured, Judas and Scriptor hot on his tails.

"There certainly are my boy, but you know you don't really notice it. And the way I see its a good bit of free exercise for you. Though I'll admit there are times when I wouldn't mind training the owls to come and pick me up and deliver me about the building, but the trainers would object."

[Judas Strong]

Jude laughed, believing that the image of owls carrying the other man around was rather hilarious, "I think they would refuse, because that sounds like torture... Though I suppose a flock or cloud of owls around your feet, would be rather amusing and quite the sight to see." He couldn't stop giggling at the very idea, as he continued on.

[Vortimer P. Mould]

Vortimer's eyebrows rose sharply at the kids remark, now any other adult might have pulled him out on that one but he didn't because having been around the kid for little while now he knew he wasn't giving a cheeky comment.

"Well yes, a flock of owls around my feet would rather be a sight to be seen. Not sure the staff would appreciate it too much."

Vort carried on leading the way, at the top of the stairs was a simple enough landing, albeit there were portraits and pictures of owls and past workers around the walls, there were a number of doors up and down the landing leading to storage rooms, toilets and another staff room. There was only one double set of doors and these were the ones that Vortimer led the mirror trio over to. The doors opened as soon as he neared them, and at once there were sounds of industrious activity, typing, rustling paper, people talking, whoosing sounds of notes flying over ahead.

"This is the administrative hub, without it well the Network wouldn't be as quite as slick as it should be. Its' not just the owls that keep the network going."

It was clearly not unusual for the administrative workers to see their boss with a kid or Scriptor in tow as Vort was proud of the Owl Post Office and liked to give people the tour, it was either that or paperwork.

"We'll leave them too it, but across this way is my office" he led the way across the vast floor, weaving past people and desks, Vortimer ducking occasionally to avoid having a note lodged in his head, "did you know that it was the Owl Post office that created the first flying interdepartmental note, got the patent to prove it, the Ministry eventually adopted the practice when they realised that having owls flying around an office wasn't practical or hygienic at times."