You're An Employee, Harry

Harold was already late for the meeting. He had decided to take it slow today, have a nice cup of coffee at the café near work. As usual though, he got caught up in his head and ended up savouring the coffee for far too long.

"Damn my good taste," he cursed himself under his breath as he relished in the memory of the delicious Brazilian coffee that tantalized his mouth only moments before.

He rushed to the elevator and pushed his floor, 23. He sighed and realized he would be late for the meeting if he waited for the elevator. He saw the number hovering at 69. "Nice," he thought to himself before he hurried to the stairwell.

He took out some thyme and spread it around his feet after he was sure he was alone in the stairwell. Then he muttered the enchantment under his breath. His eyes glazed over and he noticed no one was in the toilet closest to the meeting room 'MR23F'.

Nodding to himself and after a deep breath, he took out his wand that also served as a laser pointer, pen, and self-defense stick and projected a portal on the wall. He entered it quickly and came out to the bathroom on the 23rd floor nearest to MR23F. He locked the door quickly, and only a second later the handle shook.

"Come in!" he quipped and he heard footsteps hurry away. He exhaled and took a look in the mirror, all ready for the meeting. He nodded, closed the portal and headed to the meeting room, only one minute late.

"Harold, just in time, we are getting started," his boss acknowledged his presence and he sat himself next to Brigitte, who made no effort whatsoever to give him some space. The meeting began and his boss droned on about some recent changes in the upper echelons of management, changes to restructuring, and so on and so forth. Eager to please people who weren't there, libations were distributed to faceless people who weren't even aware of this congregation that fulfilled it's purpose to waste time of everyone there. The true essence of the meeting, the discussion of the potential takeover that loomed over their heads auspiciously, was not being addressed. Harold sighed and lost his patience with everything. He knew there were more pressing matters.

From his pocket he took two guarana seeds and rubbed them, whispering the incantation under his breath. Suddenly, everyone in the room froze, their eyes glazed over as they were suspended in time. Harold then waved his pen, whispered another spell and then undid the freezing.

"Where was I?" his boss continued "Oh yes. So, regarding the meeting today, there was a hostile takeover by Prude Lude and McGude and 50% of the workforce will be fired," and a split second after his boss spoke those words, the entire room burst into a cacophony of complaints. The fear of his boss' face was tangible, as her eyes widened to the realization of the words she said that came out without the corporate filter. Some stood up and shouted, one woman cried, and a few discussed among themselves what the next course of action would be.

Harold was disappointed of course. The position as a project manager here allowed him a great deal of freedom to keep up his beekeeping on the side, as well as the Junior Wizard Program on weekends. Now he would have to find another job as a front, and that could take weeks. He took out his phone as the orchestra of complaints continued around him and whipped up and email to the CEO of the company. It simply stated "Harold can keep his job" followed by a connection of emojis that, when written in the exact way he had done it, would make whoever read it follow the content of the email. Naturally, I would love to share with you this emoji concoction that could help so, so many people, but to avoid abuse I am afraid it cannot be disclosed. For now.

Harold pressed send and noticed with amusement that his boss had already abandoned ship, with a few people following her in outrage. Harold slapped the table, "Right, gotta go," and headed off to his desk. He was alone at his desk that was an open space, but at least it was his desk. His self-filling coffee cup filled up and was just the right temperature as he arrived and he sat down to read through his emails and get through the workday. It would be a calm week, he reckoned. Just a Monday, after all.

He moved his ergonomic mouse back and forth, only to realize it had no charge left. Sighing he tipped it with his magical pen, and it was recharged anew. Cautiously, he did so with his wireless keyboard as well, just to be sure. He looked around and noticed no one, so he tipped the keyboard once again with his pen and had it do the work for him for a moment. No one was around, what was the risk? He took a sip of his coffee and nearly spit it all out when he heard a voice behind him.

"Wow, Harold, you can type and drink?" Harold spun around and noticed that Regina was there, hiding behind the desk partition. He frantically turned around, tipped the keyboard with his pen and laughed "Haha, yeah, just one handed. Words with lots of vowels, you know?"

Regina smiled at him, her wide eyes accentuated by her big glasses, her hair in a dutt and her smile wide. "Amazing! You really have many talents, Harold," she complimented him. He nodded and thanked her and turned around, urging himself to be more careful.

Regina slouched back to her desk and smiled again, to herself a cheeky smile. She tapped her mug with her pen and it filled up with fresh, hot tea yet again. She considered telling Harold that she was a part of the Witches World Following, but some Wizards were still very old fashioned in their thinking. Harold was one of them. If only Harold knew.