How to Play Nice by WeasleyForMe
Bill finds out that his new work assignment has him paired with Hermione. Can he learn how to play nice with her? Bill/Hermione
"Weasley, meeting in my office at two o'clock," barked Ned Barbary.
Bill nodded his head toward the door to let his boss know he had heard him. As the top ranked curse breaker in the Gringotts arsenal, Bill had become rather used to these impromptu meetings with the department head. He had a great reputation and loved working hard every day. But now, nearly five years after the demise of Voldemort, he was starting to see his workload dwindle.
The bank was no longer receiving daily job requests for a high level curse breaker to tend to valuable objects containing dark spells. In fact, the last high profile job he had worked on was releasing a curse at the Riddle estate, and that had been over a year ago. Right now, his desk was completely clear of work, and he hadn't been given a new assignment in a week. Surely that must be what the meeting with his boss would entail.
"I hope they send me someplace sunny," he muttered, pushing a loose strand of his ginger hair roughly behind his ear. He made his way to Ned's office and was startled to find every other curse breaker employed by Gringotts had already been crammed into the office.
Before Bill could protest, Ned raised his hand, silencing the group. "Now before we begin, I must admit this is not the direction in which I imagined this department would be heading, but this is where we find ourselves. I have an envelope for each of you containing your next work assignment."
Bill's imagination took over as he hoped for something in, say, Aruba or perhaps Barbados. White sand beaches, girls in bathing suits, delicious foods….
"You'll probably be quite surprised by your assignments, but as we've all been seeing recently, the need for curse breakers has started to lessen. I'm just happy that I am going to be able to keep all of you on staff," Ned added with a sigh of exhaustion. "If you have any questions, feel free to ask me any time this week. Just don't expect me to be able to change your assignments. I barely got enough for each of you to work on as is."
Suddenly Bill didn't think he would end up on a beach any time soon. He started to get nervous; he hated being nervous. It wasn't something he often felt.
Ned started to call out names and envelopes were passed around the small room. One by one, his coworkers opened them, and with looks ranging from annoyance to disgust, they filed out of the office. Bill took his envelope last and quickly tore into it. He skimmed halfway down the page before pausing to read.
Bill Weasley, senior curse breaker, temporary reassignment:
At the request of the Muggle Security Department at the Ministry of Magic, a senior level curse breaker (Mr. William Weasley) will be assigned to work as the assistant to the Muggle and Magical Alliance Officer (Ms. Hermione Granger) on several projects. Please report to the Ministry of Magic for all assignments until further notice.
"What the devil is this?" he asked once he had read the note through three times.
Ned Barbary glanced up from his desk, surprised to find one of his employees had lingered after being dismissed.
"Why?" Bill demanded. "Why am I being sent to work under the Ministry? This makes no sense."
Ned took pity on his best worker and calmly explained the facts. "You are well aware, I'm sure, that the Ministry has been keeping a close eye on Gringotts since the end of the war. They don't trust the Goblins, so they don't trust any of us. Now, I had to agree to send a senior level curse breaker to help them with their projects. I put you on the assignment, because believe it or not, this is one of the best jobs that I just handed out."
"But it's a complete waste of my time. I could be doing so much more," Bill stated bluntly. "What are they going to have me working on? Removing singing toilets from the Muggle Underground stations? Sticking corks in talking wine bottles? Or something even more pointless than that?"
"Look, I'm hoping this will only be temporary. And on the bright side, at least you're paired up with a dame, right?"
"Hermione Granger? Yeah, right," Bill laughed sarcastically, his expression darkening even further. He turned and walked out of the office, accepting his crummy fate. He would be working as Hermione Granger's bloody lap dog. Her errand boy.
He snarled. This was the same Hermione Granger his baby brother had been in love with for some twelve years. The bushy haired know-it-all who would never rest until everyone in the United Kingdom accepted that she was always right. The buck-toothed child who would surely be making it her goal to drive him to drink!
After storming down the hallway, Bill dropped into his desk chair, glaring at the photo of himself and several coworkers he had pinned on the wall. What he wouldn't give to be able to go back to Egypt, Japan or Tasmania again. He watched the people in the photo lined up outside of the great Pyramid, holding up the artifacts they had retrieved.
He'd be lucky if he ever got another assignment outside of London. Quickly, he packed his bag and went home. Tomorrow he would report to the Ministry and his new supervisor.
Hermione was completely swamped at work. She could barely keep up with the residual issues that seemed to pop up each day concerning Muggle wellbeing in London and the surrounding countryside.
At least her curse breaker would arrive today. She was hoping they would send someone quiet and agreeable. That way she could keep on track with her work rather than have to cater to a nosy novice or a loudmouthed fool.
"Hermione, please sign these pages to release the story about the exploding fire hydrants to the Muggle news stations," said Dennis Creevey, her assistant for the last six months. She scribbled her name on the parchment, and Dennis vanished from sight. He was the perfect assistant, one who never stuck around long enough to annoy her.
Several minutes later, he poked his head through her door. "Your curse breaker has arrived."
"Send them in, Dennis," she replied, her eyes never leaving her notepad as she wrote down her agenda for the remainder of the week.
Hermione heard someone enter her office, and she tried to finish jotting down her plans for Friday afternoon before pausing to greet them. But, after a moment a familiar, rich baritone voice announced the impatient presence of the Gringotts curse breaker she had been assigned.
"Oh yes, it's lovely to see you too, Miss Granger. I'm sure we'll work together splendidly."
Her eyes shot up to find Bill Weasley sneering down at her with his well muscled arms crossed over his broad chest and an unhappy glint in his eye.
I just felt the need for a chaptered Bill/Hermione story! Thanks for reading. Don't forget to review!