Interim
by: cheesekakke
Disclaimer: I own nothing, not the reality of the wizarding world or the lovely characters. Jo's playground, my story.
Chapter 1: Desk job much? Not for long.
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It had been a year since the war was over. A lot had changed in a year.
Or maybe it was two years. Or three. She wasn't really counting. The past was the past.
Hermione still-Granger was working in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures and she enjoyed it, thank-you-very much. She had pushed for the name to be changed to The Department for the Communication between Magical Creatures and Wizards, but that had been shot down by her uppity superiors.
Or rather, her superior – in the singular. Amos Diggory, her boss, and my-son-was-the-first-casualty-in-the-war, made her life a living hell and demanded that she as the best negotiator in the office push the papers and let other greenies do the fieldwork.
So who was to blame her when she took regular breaks from the stuffy, on floor -3 office to catch some sunlight and a cup of coffee around the street at a Muggle establishment?
I am indeed a Muggle and need to respect that heritage. Hermione stabbed angrily with a quill the latest reports from the groups investigating the goblin uprising in Cambridge. She was just counting the minutes until her lunch hour and regular cup of coffee.
Finally! She set the papers aside and threw the quill in her drawer and her coat on as she swept eagerly towards the door.
"Bye, Granger." Kirk, the morose secretary said to the banging door as she left.
Hermione set a brisk pace around the numerous edifices around the street to reach her destination in order to try and grab some of the bagels left over from breakfast – given for free of course. tazas, spelled purposely without a capital 't', had the best coffee in East London as well as some of the best service and pastries. No wonder Hermione like so much to flirt with the cute waiters while gaining weight at an alarming rate.
She took her customary table near the window and ordered a cappuccino with an extra shot, go easy on the cream. As the flirtatious waiter delivered and Hermione considered a blueberry scone, she saw a flash of ginger and heard the tinkle that accompanied the opening of the door.
"Ginny!" Hermione stood as her best female friend approached the table with a lopsided, its-good-to-be-here smile on her face.
"Hermione! Fancy seeing you here at this place which you only mention, oh, five times a day?" Hermione grinned as Ginny took a seat opposite her and ordered a plain coffee, heavy on the cream, no sugar.
There was a silence as both women sipped their drinks glancing around the café, a comfortable atmosphere between them.
"So, Ginny, do you know yet?" Ginny set her coffee down and chuckled under her breath, touching her stomach self-consciously.
"No. Harry and I have picked out the names already. If it's a boy then he's going to be James Sirius, if a girl then Lily Nymphadora." Hermione laughed. Children were such a wonderful conundrum.
"And you Hermione? Are you in the market or waiting for my brother to pop the question?" Hermione shook her head.
"Officially out of the market. And not really waiting for your brother to pull his head out of his arse either. Though you can tell him if he ever comes around with a rock on a ring my answer is yes."
"He's so incredibly thick-headed isn't he? Thinks the love of his life will wait forever while he's out finding himself."
"Where's he finding himself now, America? California or New York? Neither of which, might I add, have any lack of beautiful women." Hermione raised her cup in a sort of mock toast then drank. Ginny watched her friend with a sober expression on her face. Her hard-working and very dedicated friend needed someone, regardless of what she said.
"If you ever want to appear back on the dating scene, let me remind you that of all of us you were the oldest and now are one of the last to be either married or engaged. Ron, doesn't count, of course."
"Of course." Hermione finished her coffee then glanced at her wrist and noticed with some alarm that she had 146 seconds to be back at the office, her watch timed exactly with Diggory's clock on his desk.
"Shit, Ginny, I've got to go." She threw down a couple of coins on the table and pecked Ginny on the cheek. "Give Harry and those brothers of yours my love!"
Hermione Apparated with alarming speed to the front hall, all the offices having wards around them. She threw her wand hastily at the clerk who checked it hurriedly noting her anxious expression. Grabbing it she sprinted to the elevated punching -3 rapidly as if it would get her there faster. She sprinted to her desk and landed in her chair with 14 seconds to spare. And Diggory walked out of his adjoining office. Perfect timing.
"Miss Granger, our goblin trackers were able to seize some of the funding the goblins have been acquiring. We gave the serial numbers of the Galleons to Gringotts and they said it originated from this account number" Diggory placed a piece of parchment with 9 numbers on Hermione's desk. Most accounts had 10 numbers, which signified that the funding was coming from a very old account indeed.
"Well, who does the account belong to?" Diggory shrugged.
"I was hoping you could tell me that. You're the one with the copies of the Department of Finances database." Hermione growled a low growl in the back of her throat, Just like Diggory, more grunt work. She got up to her massive file cabinet and pulled out a drawer and began rifling through it looking for account numbers.
4583456867, 458345688, 458345689…here it was. Hermione's jaw threatened to drop when the saw the name next to the number.
Malfoy Estates. Current holder: Draco Malfoy. Previous holder: Lucious Malfoy. Future holder: unknown.
"Ummmm, I mean sir, the account. It's Draco Malfoy's." Diggory frowned behind her.
"The ex-Death Eater chap? The crazy loony who was going to kill Dumbledore? It figures. He was in school with you, wasn't he? Good for nothing aristocrat bastards."
Hermione was still staring at the piece of parchment, her name fixed on Malfoy's. True he was a Death Eater in his past life, or whatever he liked to call it, but he had kept his nose clean for years now, the perfect model of upper-class society.
The last time Hermione had seen him was at his trial – acquitted, of course -. As he passed the three of them sitting on the witness bench he had hissed angrily to Hermione.
"Why?" Hermione had turned to look at Harry and Ron who kept their faces forward, not looking at Malfoy, just listening to the closing statements.
"Because…" Hermione paused, "if Harry could find it in his heart to forgive Snape, then you weren't all that far behind. Besides, we know you're not all that bad. Just tortured." Malfoy snorted as he walked out the door, not acknowledging Hermione's response.
"-and Granger, you'll be scheduling a meeting with Mr. Malfoy as soon as possible, I want this entire thing wrapped up quickly and with little legal mess as possible." The mention of her name brought Hermione back to the present.
"But sir?! Why me? I haven't been assigned a job outside the office in 18 months! Not that I'm counting. Sir, why this one?" Hermione hadn't mean to come off as whiny, but it was Malfoy for crying out loud. Hermione would rather run with the bulls than see him again. Diggory snorted disdainfully.
"It's about time you saw the light of the day. Try and see if you could schedule a meeting tomorrow." Hermione nodded with her head bent, feeling the blood rush up to her head. Before she knew what was happening she dropped the account file and keeled over backwards, blacked out completely.
"Miss Granger!"
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A/N: In the first draft Miss Granger had only 145 seconds to be back at the office. She's welcome for the extra one .
And I would be very thankful for any reviews given. This is my first story in a long time, and I do intend to finish it. (shouts of LIAR!)
Okay, okay. My track record has been miserable. But I intend to finish this…with all my heart.
The next chapter has in fact been written, I just want to see the feedback and if anything needs to be changed or altered.