Today could very well be the day that she would kill her husband. Not the easy wizard way, oh no, she would do it the messy muggle way. Maybe a knife right to the chest. That sounded like the best idea she had all day, of course it was only 7:15 am so she hadn't had that many thoughts to start with.
He treated her as if "I do" meant that she would take anything the man threw at her. He assumed that no matter what, she would be there to pick up all the little pieces he left scattered on the floor. Truth be told, she was tired of cleaning up his messes. That's where she was now, in muggle London cleaning up his mess.
Seven-fifteen in the morning was way to early for her to be inside of a muggle police station waiting for Ron to be released into her care. They handed him over after signing a few documents and then returned his personal belongings to him. How the man ended up in these sort of situations was beyond her.
They caught him red-handed and he was embarrassed. Ronald Weasley rarely ever got caught. This time he had gone and given himself a muggle police record. At five this morning she had to transfigure a few old magnets into photo identification for the both of them. As well as come up with the title and tag information for the car he had stolen and crashed into a fire hydrant with his idiot friends. To top everything off he was above the legal limit of alcohol consumption. They branded her husband a drunk driver. Just lovely.
She kept her calm and smiled at the officer as she walked him outside. The cold February chill stung her cheeks as they walked around the corner towards the alley that they could apparate home from. Hundreds of questions and accusations fluttered through her mind.
When they reached the apparition point she turned to face Ron. He was staring at her as if he was pleading her to tell him everything was alright. She was so frustrated with the person in front of her it took everything in her not to explode at him right there. She knew better. She looked at him daring him to say a word so she could do just that. He handed her his arm and she took it, leaving the alley that she never should have seen in the first place.
When they arrived at home she left him standing in their living room. She laid her bag down on the counter and flung her coat over the kitchen chair. No sense in putting it away when she needed to leave so soon. She had twenty minutes to get ready and there was no way she was skipping a shower.
Ron had a completely different idea, "Say something 'Mione" he said gruffly. They hadn't spoken a word to each other since he had told her that he was on his way to Dean's house for a small get together and would be out past eleven.
She rounded on him, "As I am sure you are painfully aware of Ronald, there is nothing that I can say now that you are going to want to hear. I have twenty minutes to shower and get to work so just go sleep it off and I will see you tonight." She sighed and ran a hand through her curls.
She made her way through their flat to the bathroom. Ron followed and went to their bedroom but before he could turn around and tell her how much he loved her, she had the door to the bathroom shut and the water already running.
She knew he would try to make things right, he always did. She would get some sort of present and things would go back to normal. Right now she didn't care because work sounded a hell of a lot better than dealing with her husband.
It was busy in the Ministry. Hundreds of memo's, flying overhead on their way to whichever department they were told to go to. Hermione was on her way to a meeting with Kingsley about a case that the Aurors requested her departments coöperation on. All she knew was that the case required the two best Curse Breakers in the department. She knew that meant it was her and Draco Malfoy. There was no one else more qualified. That was fine with her. Draco was incredibly easy to work with.
She was hoping that she would get partnered with Harry as her Auror but she already knew he was on assignment somewhere in France. The next best in the department was Zabini. She had worked with him on few occasions and would prefer him over almost anyone. Harry being the only exception. Blaise was professional and always a proper gentleman. He was funny at times and she found herself always smiling around him. He made the day go by so much faster. Whenever she mentioned his name to Ron he seemed to get awfully mad. He was the "incredibly jealous over nothing" type, so anytime she mentioned another man's name that wasn't directly in their close-knit group of friends Ron tended to explode. It didn't help that Blaise was muscular and tone. Even on his worst days he was a very attractive man.
It was Wednesday so she knew Malfoy wouldn't be at the meeting. He was never at work before noon on a Wednesday. Of course they had never really worked that much together, just a few times here and there. For the most part Curse Breakers only needed assistance from Aurors when out in the field, not other Curse Breakers. Regardless of how little they worked together she was highly aware of how skilled he was at his job. He was absolutely brilliant when it came to the Dark Arts. What better job than to reverse the spells he knew how to cast?
At the beginning she willed herself to not be cruel to him, though she desperately wanted to. It was hard being nice when all he did was tear her down but that was ages ago. She had come to respect him since their childhood. He had let past prejudices go and so had she. It had been over five years since he had been cruel to her. They never really exchanged more than a few 'Hello's' or 'Have a nice day's' but there was never any animosity. She found that being around him was easy when he wasn't sticking his nose where it didn't belong.
So as far as she could tell, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Blaise Zabini and herself would be attending the meeting. She would have to just wait and see who else would show. She walked into the half empty boardroom. Only the Minister of Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Detective Gawain Robards, the Head of the Auror Department were present.
They both stood when she entered the room, "Mrs. Weasley, so nice to see you again. I hope all is well with you and your family." Kingsley smiled brightly at the witch in front of him.
"Yes Minister, it is. How are you?" Hermione asked as she embraced him in a friendly hug.
"Splendid, just splendid. We are just waiting for the others to arrive. Please do sit."
They all took their seats. She pulled out her quill and parchment ready to take notes when Blaise walked in the door alone.
"Ah Mr. Zabini. Good to see you, please take a seat." Robards instructed him. He sat beside Hermione as he also took out his quill and parchment. "Do tell me, why isn't Weasley with you?" he looked rather confused.
"Sir, He did not show up to work today. He owled in this morning saying he wouldn't be in until tomorrow morning." Blaise gave her a questioning look then averted his eyes back to his boss.
"Right. Oh well, he can go over the details with Malfoy tomorrow. Let's get to it then." Det. Robards sighed.
She exchanged a look with Blaise and voiced what they were both thinking, "Excuse me sir, I'm not sure I understood that. Are you putting my husband and Malfoy on a case together?"
Robards looked at her confused, "Yes, that's correct."
Blaise spoke next, "Do you expect them both to survive?"
"Yes Mr Zabini I do. I am sure they are both professional enough to do what we ask of them." and that was that.
Silence filled the room as they got ready to take their notes. It wasn't much of a meeting seeing as how only half of the people needed were in attendance. On the bright side of things it gave them more time together to prepare.
Two hours later and they were fully briefed on the case. It wasn't exactly a high-profile case, just one that required a little more finesse than was usually needed. Detective Beecher who worked in the Department of Mysteries had accidentally stumbled upon some dark artifacts while visiting her brother in Surrey. She had asked for discretion when she had informed the Minisrty. She knew that if leaked to the public, the Daily Prophet would have a field day with the information.
They asked their questions and took even more notes. By the time they had finished it was noon.
"Thank you Mrs. Weasley and Mr. Zabini. We are most assured that you will handle this case with as much delicacy as possible. We would expect nothing less from two of our best employees here at the Ministry." Kingsley concluded the meeting. He left with quick goodbyes with Head Auror Robards trailing close behind.
As soon as their bosses were gone Blaise cast a few charms to give them some privacy. It took Hermione by surprise but she recovered quickly, as far as she was concerned, Blaise was harmless. He wasted no time, he just jumped right in.
"Look, here is how I see this. Something is going on with you and your husband. I'm not sure what it is but I need to now before we get to involved in this case. You know how I work, I'm not going to betray your trust I just need to be prepared. We will be working long hours together and maybe overnight shifts so I need to know what I'm getting myself into."
If that statement had come from anyone else she would have ignored it and told him to mind his own business. Blaise just had a way of making everyone around him feel comfortable. That must be why he did so well with interrogations. He was one of those people you felt like you could tell your life story to without knowing a thing about them.
"It isn't just one thing. It's a series of events that just keep piling up. I'm running out of patience. He has a lot of growing up to do. He just keeps doing things to hurt me and there is only so much one person can handle. He will try to make up for it like he always does and that will be the end of it. There really isn't anything to worry about. I'll let you know if there is. Trust me, I've dealt with so much worse than this." she smiled as convincingly as she could. She really was one to wear her heart on her sleeve.
He smiled back at her and it was brilliant. The man in front of her was very easy to look at. His Auror training had him tone and sculpted rather nicely. He had beautiful eyes and a charming smile to go along with his great personality. It was a wonder the man was still single. She could not understand why Pansy would leave him but that was another story entirely.
Blaise came over to her a placed a hand on her shoulder, "I'm going to tell you the same thing you told me six months ago. If he can't realize that what he has in front of him is the only thing that he will ever need and without it he will surely fail, then he doesn't deserve it in the fist place. You'll find someone who does. Someone who wind spend every day thanking whichever God he chooses that you are in his life," he took her hand and squeezed it then continued, "You are a very wise woman Hermione. Personally, I think that Weasley will never realize what he has but that's not my place. He is my partner most of the time so I know how he is. If you ever need to talk, I'll listen. I'm glad they put us together. We work efficiently together and it's been too long since we have."
He packed up his things then brought down the wards he had placed. With one last smile he left the room.
She respected Blaise. He worked hard to get to the position he was now in at the Ministry. Maybe not as hard as Malfoy did but definitely harder than most. She knew how skilled he was as an Auror and he was almost as thorough as she was at paperwork. Which was such a relief when it came to filing the reports. Until this afternoon she had only ever seen him as nothing more than a co-worker. Now she wondered if maybe Blaise Zabini could be her friend. It was most certainly, food for thought.
AN: Sorry for the delay. Hopefully it was worth the wait. I'll try to get another chapter up within two weeks. I know that seems too long but that's really the fastest I can go. As it stands now I'm looking at two chapters a month. It sucks and I'm dreadfully sorry.
Also, thank you to the ones that reviewed and the followers :) I appreciate it immensely!
