Day One
Hermione Granger stared at herself in the mirror to check that she looked her best for her first day of work. The Minister for Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt, had offered her a job at the Ministry in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures a few months previously after she had received all of her qualifications and abolished the law that said house elves weren't allowed to use wands. She was wearing her best blouse, a pinstriped suit and skirt and heels that she could just barely walk in. She stepped out of the door of her new farmhouse, beaded bag in hand (made sure her crup, Leontes, was in his cage and that her cat, Crookshanks, was well away from her pigmy puff, Zelda, and the owl, Pigwidgeon) along with her fiancé, Ron, they kissed and apparated to where they needed to be, Ron, to his brothers joke shop, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, and Hermione, to the entrance of the Ministry of Magic.
She walked into the public toilets that had one sign on the door that said: Ladies, and another one that said: Out of Order. She lined up behind the other Ministry witches waiting until she could get into a cubicle. Finally, her turn arrived and she stepped into the cubicle and stared at the surprisingly clean toilet and placed one foot within it, she did the same with the other foot so that she stood within the toilet, then she pulled the chain and flushed herself down.
Hermione appeared in a fireplace in a swirl of bright, green flames, she saw other people arrive the same way beside her and other people leave through fireplaces in the opposite wall. She stepped out onto the gleaming floor, allowing other people to arrive behind her, she walked along with the crowd that contained every different kind of witch and wizard imaginable, she soaked in her surroundings, feeling slightly overwhelmed by it all and noting that this was the first time that she was in the Ministry whilst being allowed in. She noticed the rebuilt fountain of the golden witch, wizard, house elf, goblin and centaur with water coming out of anything pointed (The witch's and wizard's wands, the elf's ears, the goblin's hat and the centaur's arrow).
Hermione walked on until something caught her eye, a plump woman holding a sign that said: Hermione Granger on it. She walked up to the woman,
"Um, hello," she said, trying to maintain the illusion of confidence in her voice, "Are you waiting for me?"
"That depends," said the plump woman in a stern yet calm voice, "Are you Hermione Granger?" she asked,
"Yes." Hermione replied,
"Then I am waiting for you, good to meet you Miss Granger, I am Camilla Colinson, I have been sent to show you to your new office." she said,
"Office?" asked Hermione, excitement flooding through her,
"Yes, Miss Granger, an office, this way." Camilla then whizzed off in one direction, Hermione struggled to keep up, especially in these shoes, Camilla was plump but she sure was speedy.
Hermione was led to the lift were she went down to floor four where a voice said,
"Floor four, Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures" Camilla and Hermione stepped out with a few other people and was led to a door with a name tag on it that said: Hermione Granger.
"Welcome, Miss Granger," started Camilla, "to your new office." she opened the door and turned on the light to reveal an octagon-shaped room with plain stone walls, book cases with books about magical creatures and the history of the department (nothing Hermione hadn't already read before), a desk with all kinds of wizarding stationary on it, fresh parchment, quills, ink (etc.). Hermione sat in the comfortable, leather chair that was behind her desk and spun around in it, laughing, "Feel free to decorate it as you wish, assuming you don't need anything else, I shall be leaving." Hermione stopped spinning and nodded, Camilla walked back in the direction of the lift.
She then heard a knock at the door and spoke in her most business-like voice,
"Come in." It was at that moment that her best friend, Harry Potter, entered the room,
"So, are you enjoying it so far?" he asked,
"Yeah, look, I have my own office, with walls and a desk and quills, look how amazing these quills are." she said holding a quill and putting it down again, she was a bit overexcited.
"Yeah, they're amazing," said Harry, humoring her, "Is there anything that you need to know?"
"Yes, just one thing, one tiny thing, what do I actually do?" she asked casually,
"Well, your boss, that's the head of department, should be along soon to assign you." he informed her,
"You're lucky, you know your boss, I'll probably have some uptight, cranky pratt with a God complex and an arrogantly large wallet.' Hermione snorted, they then heard someone clear their throat,
"Hello, I think that I should introduce myself, I would be an uptight, cranky pratt with a God complex and an arrogantly large wallet." said a man who appeared from behind the door.
Harry slipped out of the room which left Hermione with her new boss who she had insulted on her first day, he then stepped forward and started laughing,
"I'm just kidding," he said, "I'm not the boss, I'm from the department, but from a different division, I believe you're the head of this office."
"What?" asked Hermione shocked,
"Yes, it's a new office in the Being Division created by Shacklebolt, I think it's the spew office or something?" he wondered,
"Yes, the S.P.E.W Office." Hermione corrected him.
"Well, bye then." he said,
"Wait, don't go, what do I do?" she asked frantically,
"Well, right now, all of the heads of Office should be in a meeting in the main office which starts in about…now." he explained, Hermione got up and asked,
"Where is the main office?"
She received her directions from the man in her office and made it to the main office, she walked in to a room with a long table with many chairs around it, Hermione sat in the empty one that she assumed was hers. The man at the top of the table spoke, Hermione assumed that he was her boss, he looked like the kind of man who could be very kind but you wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of him, she sensed a hint of crazy in his eye.
"I want to talk about what each of you have for me that I haven't heard since our last meeting," he said in a commanding yet gentle voice, "Well, might as well start with the new girl, you, bushy one," he pointed at Hermione, "What does your office hope to achieve?" Hermione was completely caught off guard, for a second she couldn't remember what S.P.E.W was, then she took a deep breath and spoke,
"Well, sir, my office is called S.P.E.W which you my not know stands for the society for the promotion of elfish welfare, see, the fact that house elves are used as slave labour and I intend to do something about it, I have already abolished the law that states that elves can't use wands and I hope to abolish and enforce many more, I want the conditions they work in to be better, I want them to be able to work in clothes, get paid, get sick-leave and holidays, I want them to have equal rights, go to school and work because their lives are just as important as ours and they deserve our proper, considering attention." Hermione realized that someway during that speech of hers she had stood up, her boss stared at her as she heard a single clap from the other employees and suddenly, they were all clapping,
"Well done, Miss…?" he asked,
"Granger, sir, Hermione Granger." Hermione replied.
"Nice to meet you Hermione Granger, I'm Mr. Sadderick, you can sit down now." he said and Hermione did so and with that, the clapping faded.
After everyone had explained their recent work in the meeting, some of which Hermione found quite fascinating, and Hermione had filled out pile of paperwork that contained questions about her, her office and what she would be doing, Hermione went down to level two, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, to have lunch with Harry and Neville. Hermione had brought a packed lunch from home, which made her feel rather like she was in a muggle school, and sat down with the two of them at a table and they started chatting about various things,
"Are you two coming tonight?" Harry asked,
"Where?" asked Hermione,
"To the Quidditch match, its Ginny's first game as a Holyhead Harpy." said Harry,
"Oh that's right, I almost forgot, yes, I'll be there." Hermione told him,
"What about you Neville?" he asked,
"Hmmm... Yeah, I should be able to make it." he said, "Who's she against then?"
"Ballycastle Bats." Harry told him,
"Oh, I hear they have quite a good chance." Neville said, Hermione, of course, had know idea what they were talking about as her Quidditch knowledge was dreadful, she did learn a bit more living with Ron but Harry and Neville were now talking about stats and statistics and to Hermione it all sounded like absolute gibberish.
Back in her office, Hermione was drawing up a poster in support of S.P.E.W, it contained information about the organization and what people could do to help, she finished it after a while and then she whipped out her wand, muttered a spell and suddenly two giant pile of the same poster appeared on her desk.
She went up to the main floor of the Ministry, holding a fraction of the posters, and started to hand them out. Some people scoffed or looked at her like she was insane, others pretended to be interested, took one, and then, when they thought Hermione wasn't looking, though it away. There were a couple who seemed genuinely interested, shame that they were some of the most insane looking people that Hermione had seen in her life. She had already forced Neville and Harry to take some and she had stuck them up all around her floor and some other places around the Ministry, hoping that someone would come across it and have some sort of epiphany.
Later on she had another meeting with only a few people where she passed on a list to her boss of all of the laws that she wanted changing and they discussed them, some more people on this floor took an interest in it, Hermione had already convinced a large number of Ministry officials to help abolish a law and it helped being friendly with the Minister for Magic. They talked about how this could be achieved, several hearings would have to take place and she would again have to convince more people to support her which was proving to be difficult.
Hermione worked for another couple of hours until the clocks chimed five o'clock and it was time for Hermione to go home, she couldn't wait to see Ron and she had Ginny's Quidditch match to look forward to. She made her way to the lift looking slightly less primped than she had done in the morning and she went up to the main floor. She went to the exit side of the fire places, grabbed some floo powder, stepped in, muttered her address and disappeared into green flames.
She appeared in her own house now and walked out of the fire place, she let Leontes out of his cage and he ran of to the garden where he occupied himself with a tennis ball that Hermione had charmed to throw itself, and she sat on the sofa. Crookshanks jumped onto her lap, Hermione stroked him and he purred. She heard keys in the door and Ron entered the living room shortly afterwards,
"Hey, how was your first day of work?" he asked,
"Not bad, did you know that I head my own office?" Hermione replied.