Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author.
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Chapter 1: Divorce
The walls of the room were a pale blue with a white skirting around the bottom, and a high white ceiling also. It was supposed to be a soothing colour, which was often why the attorney's preferred to hold all of their client meetings in it. The man already sitting in the room that day was staring at the bottom left-hand corner of it, where a spider web that had been missed during the cleaning was slowly growing larger – as was the spider in it. He wasn't sure how many times he had asked the janitors to make sure they didn't miss that corner, because from his seat at the table he could always see it.
He sighed. Perhaps it was time he had the old staff replaced. Just as he was getting up to make a pot of coffee at the cabinet in the opposite corner to the web, the door opened and at tall, slender woman with long legs, and silky curls that were pulled back in a knot at the nape of her neck walked in. She was wearing classic black dress robes with a high-collared white blouse and grey pencil skirt beneath. She was the classiest and most attractive client he had ever had in his reasonably long career.
'Good morning councilor,' she greeted, placing her briefcase in the chair that would be hers for the proceedings of the day.
He nodded briefly. 'Good morning, Ms. Granger. I trust that you are prepared for today's finalizations?' he replied, scooping some ground coffee into the bottom of the plunger before adding hot water.
'I have been ready for this divorce to be finalized for over a year now, Mr. Hetherington,' Hermione Granger replied crisply, brushing non-existent lint from her robes. 'I've been paying you to have this done quickly, and yet there have been far too many problems as far as I am concerned.'
Hetherington cleared his throat softly and pressed down slowly on the plunging device, before carrying it over on a tray with cups, saucers and a plate of biscuits. 'Yes, well, it has been made rather difficult by your former husband's dear lawyer, Miss Grey,' he said sheepishly.
'I don't care about that woman. I just want this over today – and you will be ensuring that nothing happens to come up,' she stated curtly, accepting the coffee he poured for her and adding sugar and milk on her own before taking a sip and sighing in relief. She had yet to consume a decent cuppa all day.
'Better?' Hetherington asked at the look of relief on her face.
'Much better, thank you,' she replied, taking another mouthful, managing to do it in such a way that still allowed her to drink gracefully. 'I apologise – as you know I am rather unpleasant in the mornings until I've had a coffee.'
'That was why I made it, Madam,' he answered with a nod.
He looked at his watch and saw that it was already a quarter past nine. Ms. Granger's ex was late, not to mention his council. Tapping his foot a little impatiently as he took a sip from his own cup, he reached for a biscuit. At the rate his morning was going, he could end up being there all day. Five minutes later, however, the door opened once more and in walked Miss Grey and her client, Michael Williamson. The man was only slightly taller than Ms. Granger herself was, and was of athletic build, wearing his Auror's work robes with his dark blonde hair swept back from his forehead.
He was a reasonably handsome man who was gainfully employed by the Ministry of Magic, who seemed to be rather the friendly sort, which was what had always confused Hetherington about the divorce. What on earth drove Hermione Granger to divorce her husband of five years, and even put herself through the one year of meetings, discussions and papers as she had? Why would any witch divorce her husband in the first place? If he had been in Mr. Williams place he would likely have fought and postponed the divorce the whole way too.
'Thank you for finally showing up,' Hermione said in greeting.
She was feeling extremely frustrated with Michael by this point. She had married him when she was twenty-two and fresh out of Healer's training, and he had been twenty-nine. At twenty-seven years of age, she was ready to be out of her sham of a marriage and move on with her life. And yet all he wanted to do was make amends and try and keep their marriage going. Hermione was unsure as to whether it was because he truly felt for her, of because he just didn't want to be single again.
She was confident that it was the second.
Their marriage had been one after a whirlwind romance over a summer, a quick marriage in a small ceremony, and a honeymoon that had been intended to last a week, but only lasted two days because he was called away on a mission. She was fairly sure that the first year had been okay, but after that, they had stayed together purely because they were comfortable with each other. She provided him with the social security he desired, and he gave her someone to take to the occasional function.
'We apologise for our lateness,' Michael said with a slight frown at the coldness of her tone. 'By the time we arrived at the building it was surrounded by reporters, so as you can imagine with or without magic it was a struggle to get inside.'
Hermione almost rolled her eyes. Michael, despite his protestations, loved media attention. He liked the spotlight and the fame, and being known. She knew the moment he had mentioned that there were reporters that he had likely given them a little something to tide them through until the end of the proceedings to keep them interested in the outcome. That was one of her pet hates when it came to him. She was still unsure what had driven her to marry him in the first place. He didn't even read books nor have the same interests as she did!
'Forget about that, and lets just get on with this,' she said finally, impatience edging her tone. 'Some of us are actually going to work today and may possibly even have to save people's lives.'
Sensing an argument, Hetherington decided to intercept and do his job. After all, Ms. Granger was his client, and he was getting paid to do that kind of thing. 'Ah, yes we will just need to have the finalized papers signed to sell your house and for the fifty-fifty split of everything you own,' he said, pulling out a thick stack of papers from his briefcase. 'And then all that will be left are the legally binding pages for the separation and you will no longer be married.'
Michael chose at the moment to open his mouth once more. 'I'm not sure I like how this is going down,' he objected, his councilor nodding to him when he turned to look at her. 'I think this should be thought about a little… okay maybe not.'
He had suddenly changed tact the moment Hermione drew her wand and pointed it at him right between his eyes. He knew exactly what she was capable of when she was getting pissed of, and he had no wish to be on the receiving end of it again. She sat back down once he stopped talking and pushed the stack of papers towards him, glaring him down until he finally picked up a quill and began signing. His Lawyer was rather quiet that day, and was now simply pointing to where he needed to sign.
When he was finished, she signed the bottom of the final document as well before sliding it back across the table. 'I apologise for all of the delays,' she said quietly, tucking a lock of her short, mousy hair behind her ears. 'Good luck in the future, Ms. Granger.'
Hetherington gathered the papers together and looked them all over quickly, before having Hermione sign the pages she needed to, before signing the last page as a witness of the divorce. Pleased with the swiftness of the meeting, Hermione nodded at her ex-husband and his councilor, who took that as a dismissal and left the room with their briefcases promptly. With a small relieved smile and a heavy sigh, she then sat back in her seat, allowing herself to slump a little.
'Thank Merlin that's over,' she said softly, rubbing her temples with her thumbs. 'A year later and I'm back to being Hermione Granger.'
'I really do apologise for the delays, Ms. Granger. I would have kept it within six months, but it's difficult when facing an excellent councilor like Miss Grey,' Hetherington stammered.
Hermione waved him of and stood from her chair, picking up her briefcase. 'Thank you for all of your help, Mr. Hetherington. I expect you shall be receiving your final payment via direct wire to your vault at Gringotts,' she told him with a nod, before exiting through the door she entered.
She walked up down the hall to the front door, where there would undoubtedly be a hoard of reporters all lined up ready to ask her a million questions about her side of the story. It wouldn't do them any good, however. She was an expert at declining to comment, and had been through enough press rubbish in her younger years after the defeat of Voldemort to last her an entire lifetime. Steeling herself, she finally pushed the front door open and walked out into the throng of flashing camera's and loud people shouting questions at her.
'Ms. Granger, is it true that you forced your husband to sign your divorce papers at wand point?' asked a short blonde witch after she had pushed past the camera's, holding a notebook in hand.
Hermione kept her lips sealed shut and just shook her head, pushing against the crowd that was insistently trying to hold her back. She pointed her wand at her throat and amplified her voice just loud enough to talk over all of them. 'My husband and I are divorced, and that is all that I have left to say,' she said briskly, before casting the charm to return her voice to normal, and moving on again.
When they refused to move out of her way, Hermione drew her wand once more and pointed it directly at the people in front of her. 'If you will not move out of my way voluntarily, I will clear a path with my wand,' she said in a low, threatening voice, which instantly had people parting to create a path for her.
She pushed her wand back into the inner pocket of her robes, before continuing on her way and heading to the nearest Apparation point. She reappeared inside the lobby at St. Mungo's and headed off in the direction of the lift to go up to her office on the Fourth Floor. She had been working in the Long-term ward for two years and had been put in charge of an entire ward. As soon as the lift doors opened, she was inside, and not too long after, was walking out of it on her floor.
'Good morning, Healer Granger,' greeted her apprentice; a rather enthusiastic young woman by the name Sophia Hargrove. 'Did you ah – have trouble getting here this morning?'
Hermione sighed as she unlocked her office door and walked in, placing her briefcase on her desk. 'I had a little trouble, but nothing so severe,' she answered, shrugging out of her dress robes and hanging them on the ornate coat stand in the corner. She grabbed her navy Healer's robes from the stand then also, and slipped it on, buttoning the top-most buttons as usual.
'I suppose we can expect to read all about it in the Evening Prophet then,' Sophia murmured as she handed her boss patient files and a clipboard.
Hermione nodded, walking back out of the office and down the hall, pausing at the end to look back at her short Apprentice, with her ice blonde hair and the pink highlights through it. 'Your hair – is that new?' she asked.
'Ummm, yes it is,' she answered a little nervously. 'I read the hospital policy and it didn't say anything about hair apart from making sure it is pulled back appropriately during work hours. Was I wrong?'
Hermione shook her head no. 'There is no rule against colouring your hair,' she replied with a small smile. 'I was just going to say that it looks good on you.'
A relieved smile broke out on the younger witch's face. Hermione rolled her eyes and gestured for her to go ahead, following behind her into the first patient's room for their morning check-up.
Meanwhile, in a rickety house in the Scottish Highlands, a woman was staring out the window, watching as the rain poured down outside. 'Evan?' she asked softly, tracing a long blood-red nail over the glass.
'Yes, my lady?' the man named Evan asked.
'Did you get the story about Granger's divorce on the front page of the paper for the next week as I asked?' she asked him seriously.
'Yes, ma'am, it has all been arranged.'
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A/N – Ok so I will not be continuing with the sequel for the Headmaster just yet, and decided to start another story in the meantime. This hopefully won't be too long, just something to fill in the time. PLEASE REVIEW!!!
