Chapter One: The New Girl

Percy Weasley was sitting in his cluttered office waiting for his new assistant to arrive. Apparently the minister needed his help now more than ever and there wouldn't be enough hours in a day for Percy to get everything done anymore. He had gone through his assistant's file a few hours ago and was now awaiting a girl named Audrey. Her last name wasn't printed in the file. He discovered that she was an American Half Blood, her mother being Muggle born, her father being Pure Blood.

Percy checked his watch again. She was late. Audrey should have been there twenty minutes ago. He sighed loudly and was about to go find the minister to request a more dependable assistant, when a brown headed girl slowly opened the door and entered the office.

"I was told this is where I'm supposed to be?" she half said half asked. "Are you Percy Weasley?" She acted like she was afraid he was going to take her head off.

Percy glared at her a moment and then his expression softened. Audrey really was quite the looker. She was average height, she had shoulder length brown hair, and bright auburn eyes.

"Yes, I guess you would be Audrey then?" he asked emotionless.

"Yes sir. I'm really sorry I'm late. I had trouble finding your office. This ministry isn't small you know," she said once she realized he wasn't going to hex her.

"It is hard to navigate, but from now on that's no excuse for being late," he said, looking at her over his horn rimmed glasses. He pointed to the couch he a recently cleared off.

"Have a seat there and we'll get started." He glanced at the clipboard of notes in front of him. Audrey sat and discarded her bag in the floor beside her.

"This place is a mess. Do you ever go home?" Audrey asked pointing at the pillows and blanket he'd attempted to hide. He found himself sighing again and looked at his desk. He hated that he'd abandoned his family, but it was too late to turn back now.

"No, I don't. That's not why you're here though." Audrey nodded her head.

"Alright boss, why am I here?" she smiled.

"You're here because I'm not going to be able to get all my work done. Minister Scrimegeor needs my help more than before with the thought of He Who Shall Not Be Named threatening to take over." He passed the clip board to Audrey. "This is my schedule for today, as well as yours. I have a meeting in ten minutes. While I'm at the meeting, you'll be here sorting thorough and filing this stack of paperwork for me." He pointed to the large stack of papers on his desk. He only expected her to be half way through by the time the meeting was over. "All details are on the clip board. If you need me at any time, here's the stack of memo parchment. Feel free to send me a question."

"My goodness, you are a busy person," Audrey said as she looked over the day's schedule.

"Yes, and again, that's why you're here. I had half that amount of work to do before He Who Shall Not Be Named returned."
"Why don't you just call him You Know Who? That's less words to say and it saves you from wasting your breath." She rolled her eyes.

"You Know Who isn't professional."

"Yes, because You Know Who deserves a professional title." She said sarcastically.

"It doesn't matter who they are, everyone here at the ministry has to talk professionally about anyone." Audrey sighed out loud, but laughed on the inside. "This guy's getting so worked up over a professional name" she thought.

"Well, I must be off. I'll be back in an hour when the meetings over." Percy stood up and grabbed his cloak.

"See you around boss," Audrey said unenthusiastically as she watched Percy leave the room.

When he was gone, she looked at the paper she'd been given, and then at the stack of papers on his desk. There was a lot to get through, but she figured she could have it finished before he returned.

~HP~HP~HP~

Percy walked into his office an hour and ten minutes later to ask himself if he had picked the right office to walk into. There were still pictures of his family smiling and waving about on the desk. Surely this was his office. Audrey was lounging on the couch drawing.

"What have you done?" he asked, taking in the cleanliness of his usually untidy office.

"Well, sorting and organizing the papers didn't take but forty-five minutes, so I decided to clean up everything else too." She shrugged her shoulders like it was no big deal. "You weren't lying when you said you didn't go home," she stated.

"I don't usually lie. It's not professional." He said irritated that all his stuff had been moved. He sat down at his desk and easily found the stack of papers she'd sorted.

"I could put everything back if you're unhappy," Audrey said sitting upright and looking at him. "I just thought it looked better this way. It's more organized too," she noticed his irritation and thought she'd already upset him once by being late.

"No, just tell me where everything is and I'll be okay. For the moment, what's next on the schedule?" Audrey glanced at the clipboard.

"We're supposed to go through the stack of now organized papers and make a chart to compare the similarities and differences of the information," she read.

"That sounds about right. I guess we should get started," Percy replied.

~HP~HP~HP~

It was several hours later before they were done, because Percy wanted to make sure that everything was correct before moving on. Audrey would have had it done in half an hour if he wasn't so picky. Audrey had taken a moment to excuse herself to the loo and realized how hungry she was. She informed Percy that lunch was three hours ago. Percy checked his watch and saw that it was almost four.

"I'm really sorry about that. I tend to lose myself in my work," he said. Audrey scoffed. "If you want, the minister won't mind if we leave for a few hours and go have lunch."

"Do you ever eat?" she asked.

"Yes, just not as often as I should. Would you like to eat?" he stood up from his desk.

"I am hungry," she replied, avoiding a direct answer.

"I'll just go tell the minister we're leaving and then we'll be off," he left the office leaving Audrey on her own, yet again. There was something about him that intrigued her more than she felt she should be intrigued. She picked up her bag from the floor and fixed her hair before Percy returned.

"We've got one hour before we need to be back. He's got some things that he needs me to go over when we return." Audrey smiled happy to get out of this office.

"Alright boss, let's go," she almost skipped past him but quickly decided it was "unprofessional" to skip. "Where are we going?" She asked once she was in the hall

"The Leaky Cauldron is where most of us go, but there are other places in London to go if you'd like," he replied wondering where the sudden burst of happiness came from.

"That's fine with me. Actually, anywhere that has food is fine with me," she smiled.

Authors Note:

Since this is a three part Fic (before the war, during the war, after the war) if you're reading (for example) chapter 19, it may not necessarily be chapter 19, it may be chapter 3 part two. I'll try to be sure to clarify when i change parts :)

Enjoy!