No, thank you
Chapter One
"-that is why we have to let you go."
Silence enveloped the room.
Hermione clicked her pen twice and looked up at the middle-aged balding man in robes that were two sizes too small.
"Look, Miss Granger, I know you probably don't have enough experience with this particular subject and I have a wealth of knowledge. My friends and associates will always do business with me."
She arched a manicured eyebrow slowly and his bumbling words.
"I believe, as an ex-employee, your opinion on this matter is moot. Evidence is held that you have lined your pocket with more galleons than the accounts you have ruined. You have yet to suggest otherwise and your apparent friends, actually like me more." She paused to allow the magnitude of the situation sink in to the man before her.
"Your desk is clear, goodbye Mister Pembroke."
"Hermione, I love you but you're a stone cold witch."
Ginny Weasley was perched carefully on the opposing bar stool as she took a sip of her whiskey.
"Gin, I'm a business woman in charge of all Ministry business reform within England. If they're not performing, or they're taking bribes, I will not have it. What's wrong with being strict?"
"Your bedside manner is worse than Ron."
Hermione snorted into her gin and tonic. Raking her hands through her long chestnut curls. She had had to grow it out in order to weigh down the once unruly curls into something manageable.
It had been a long day for her. Her pantsuit was crumbled from hunching over her unnecessarily large desk.
She had removed several members of her department within the Ministry based on her self-initiated audit on the integrity. Most of the older males had objected to a twenty-nine year old becoming their boss and standard slurs of her gender and age drained her emotionally.
The frustration was that they were so surprised that she wasn't a bleeding heart. Sob stories popped up that she had already disproven by reading their files. Hermione never really meant to sound cold or condescending, it couldn't be helped that some people didn't get how to conduct themselves. It didn't really help that her reputation of the 'smartest witch of her generation' wasn't an exaggeration.
Rumours were flying around the office if even Ginny, the liaison to the Head of International Sporting and Recreation Relations, to have taken her out after work for a drink at a dingy pub.
"I'm just saying that you're making changes and people have an aversion to change. This isn't just changing your shampoo or applying make up like you have - you're taking away their easy income. Remember for most non-muggle families, they rely on one income."
"-Which is totally medieval! People would struggle rather than have precious wifey get a job! Why is it still the woman's job to stay and be a housewife? Most even have house elves so what do they do all day?!"
"Mi, shut up." Her red haired friend knew when she was about to go into a rant. Most of her closest friends knew to either run or to manage to cut her off before she went full 'SPEW rage' they called it.
Both women sat in silence, nursing their drinks solemnly to reflect.
Ginny Weasley found that her rapier wit best suited negotiating with international politicians. Five brothers would turn the shyest of girls into a force to be reckoned with. Harry and she found that childhood romances couldn't hold together without growing.
So the youngest Weasley was in Italy fighting for the Quidditch World Cup location when she ran into Theodore Nott and Blaise Zabini. Theo swept her off her feet and now they share a flat together for the better part of three years.
Hermione had predictably removed herself from Ron and the only person that was devastated was his mother, Molly.
He wasn't a bad man, however at times the sluggishness of conversation left her craving something, fun.
Hermione threw herself into work, as everyone expected her to, they were expecting a cat or two more than her current count of none though.
She rose through the ranks as an annihilator. Coming into units within the ministry and making them more efficient. This usually meant making more than half of the unit redundant and making employees quiver in their robes when she sets up on their floor.
"Mi, you're about as approachable as Devils Snare and you're a dateless wonder. You're a year away from thirty, Harry and Ron have found their happily ever after's with Luna and Lee respectively. I'm not saying you have to settle down, but at least go on dates."
Hermione felt a familiar twitch under her left eye. It was often a sore point for her that she was hassled from all aspects of her life to get into a relationship.
"Why, does society think I need a partner to be happy?"
"It's not that Mi, so don't sprinkle that bullshit tangent in front of me to get me to stop. That'll work with the guys, but I know you better than that." Ginny flagged the barkeeper down for another round; she turned to Hermione after tipping heavily.
"I want you to have someone to balance you out. Right now, you plow through officials who are woefully unarmed intellectually. It's almost like you're begging for a hypothetical, all out literary fuck."
Hermione choked on her drink and matched it with an ungrateful snort. "I hardly think doing my job well is an indication of needing to be fucked."
"No, it's not. And I'm not meaning physical sex, granted you also need that; however I'm talking about a proper debate with someone who can at least keep up with you. You crave that stimulating conversation and you get your rocks off having to think quickly for counter arguments or puzzles to be solved. An adrenaline junkie perhaps."
Ginny paused mid-analysis to take a sip and shift her seat position. "The fact is, you're bored, so you can focus on one thing where you feel intellectually dominant to the point where you flaunt it for a power trip."
Hermione passively studied the bottom of her glass, she couldn't tell if it was the condensation of the drink, or her palms were unnaturally sweaty but she felt uncomfortable at her friend's conclusions.
"I am not an adrenaline junkie or some pubescent teen wanting to be the biggest bully on the school yard. I hate the idea of wasting money and I hate people who have no work ethic. It's a job someone has to do." She skid a few galleons on the table and hopped up from her chair. "It's late and if I continue drinking like we are, I won't be able to apparate home."
Both women said their goodbyes, exchanging promises to catch up some other time and left the bar.
—-
Hermione kept a rather comfortable house in the suburbs. She infused muggle and magical technology into every aspect of her life: sensor-automated lights, magical knives and other kitchen equipment that started preparing meals at the swish of a wand. Her life was a series of schedules and it was exactly how she liked it.
She thought of Ginny's words tonight, quite quickly dismissing most of the terms used. As she prepared for her day tomorrow, the observations weighed heavily on the muggleborns mind.
A headache had set in by the time she stepped into the shower.
Usually she'd just grab a toy and take the edge off, however it wasn't enough tonight. More frequently than she was willing to admit, it was becoming less about getting off physically.
Perhaps should consider Ginny's words a little more.
After all, what were best friends for?
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