Accidentally Predestined

A/N: As always reviews are welcomed especially constructive criticism. Don't flame me because writing isn't my forte and I am trying to improve, and flames don't help me to improve. Celeste is a character of my own creation but all others belong to the HP universe and therefore JK.

Percy Weasly stepped off the lift on the first level of the Ministry heading for his little office at the end of the hall which was situated adjoining Minister Shakelbolts' office. It had taken the better part of a year for the surviving Ministry employees to be screened and given their proper positions within the Ministry. Now that it was done life within the Ministry had gotten back to normal, well almost. The workload had been heavy from the start, missing people to declare dead, laws being contested, and changed for what the Wizarding World hoped was for the better, and ensuring that a Wizard like Voldemort would never come to such great a power again. Percy sighed as he entered his office and looked at the stack of papers still left on his desk, the futility of it all was not lost on him. Being the official secretary to the Minister had it's career perks, but the workload was bordering on insane. Percy sat down and began to leaf through the papers once more and began to sort out what each memo pertained to in the proper pile.

He had been working for little more than an hour when he decided that delivering the papers to their proper places was needed to clean off his desk, if only a little. Under normal circumstances he would have been able to flick his wand and the papers would be wizzing to their destinations but the Minister had started a policy of non-magic use within most areas of the Ministry. An extra security measure which while inconvenient was most necessary in order to ensure the upmost security. So he stood and filed the papers into folders and headed out into the halls. His first stop being Wizengamot Administration Services with a list of the weeks important meetings mostly about repealing some laws regarding the Regulation and control of Magical Creatures. Everybody agreed that the area was severely lacking in justice and needed to be completely redone to ensure a certain measure of sympathy and understanding to those creatures with intelligence. He hadn't made it far down the hall when someone rather rudely bumped into him.

"OOmph!"

"Oh I am so sorry! I should have been looking where I was going and not in my apointment book! I wish I could help you pick up your papers but I am running incredibly late!"

Percy looked around at his scattered papers and realized that it would take him forever to pick them up and sort them...again. He was about to become very irate with the person who bumped into him until he looked up at her and lost all thought of speech. She was pretty, very very pretty at least he thought so. She was thin but not overly thin, had long red hair swept up into a ponytail and lovely green eyes. She helped him up and dusted him off.

"I insist on taking you out to lunch to make up for bumping into you which was so rude of me. I won't take no for an answer."

"Really...it's...erm fine..."

"No I won't hear of a refusal. Please? I'll feel better if you let me take you to lunch as a better apology. Say 12:30 at the Leaky Cauldron? Great I'll see you there!"

With that she took up a speedy gait away from him and off to whatever appointment that she had been late to leaving a still dumbfounded Percy in her wake to pick up his scattered papers. He sat down in the middle of the floor with a sigh, and began to place the papers back into their proper folders wondering what in the world had just happened to him.

Percy had decided that after delivering his papers that lunch sounded good and if it was free he may as well take the stranger up on her offer. They had failed to get to the most basic of introductions and this was his chance to get the name of the woman who had so rudely knocked the papers out of his hands without helping him pick them up. His first reaction was to be angry but when he had see her all words left his head angry or otherwise. So here he was now entering the Leaky Cauldron for the first time in years looking for a complete stranger to sit down and have lunch with. It didn't take him long to see her waving at him from the middle of the room where she was seated at a less than clean table. He headed over to her with a meek smile.

"Erm, hello. I guess I should introduce myself. I'm Percy Weasly." He held his hand out to her and shook it before sitting down.

"I'm Celeste Stansfeild, nice to meet you. Again I am so sorry for bumping into you. I hope it didn't take you too long to pick up your papers. I took the liberty of getting us drinks but wasn't sure of your tastes so I didn't order us anything to eat."

She seemed friendly enough and over the course of several hours got to know a little about her. She was funny and smart and 20 years old hoping to go into some form of Magical Law Enforcement. Which he assumed was why she was at the Ministry that day. Their was a vacuum of manpower in all sectors of the Ministry and while the government had slowed to a crawl their were plenty of good jobs available for those who needed them.

They had an easy to maintain comfortable conversation and Percy was shocked when he finally got back to the Ministry and it was already late in the afternoon. Ordinarily he would have never taken such a long break from his work but he had lost track of time. He hoped that nobody had noticed his overlong absence and he sat down to work rather hurriedly trying to catch up on the work he should have been doing while he was at lunch. He had a hard time concentrating for reasons he was not yet ready to explore yet. Except for at Hogwarts Percy had never had a date with anyone and romance was the last thing he needed on his mind right now. He was just too busy to worry about a social life, he had his career in the Ministry to think of.