Chapter Two

"I tell you Dad, she is a complete wreck! I don't know how I am expected to work with her, let alone manage her!" Percy grumbled, sliding his tray down the Ministry's cafeteria queue, tossing a bowl of fruit salad next to his stake and kidney pie. Arthur smiled, amused at his frustrated son. For three years he had to watch Percy from across the Ministry floor, both parties avoiding eye contact with one another, but always knowing where the other sat across the room. It had been a hard time for him, and especially Molly, to see their smart and ambitious son split from the family and the ideals they had tried so hard to impart to all their children. Being able to now enjoy working at the same place as his son, Arthur truly felt that he and Molly had done parenting right.

Ever since Percy's unexpected appearance in the Room of Requirement during the last few hours the Weasley family remained whole, Percy had desperately tried to make up for his previous actions. Applying his Percy determination that demanded anything he attempted he do well, Percy visited the Burrow for dinner more often than any other of the Weasley sons. He offered his services as the reliable uncle and baby sat Victorie to allow Bill and Fleur a night out. He and Charlie corresponded often, and he made sure to drop by the joke shop at least once a week if for nothing else than to have George and Ron make fun of him.

Arthur was extremely pleased with this new version of Percy. Though all was forgiven the second he emerged from the portrait frame, he was proud of the lengths Percy had gone through to make his way back into his family's good graces. Being forced in to humility, he had become much less pompous around his family members, and supported things such as Ron's decision to help out George at the joke shop in fashion hence forth unthinkable for the overly ambitious Weasley. His new humility had been so impressive even Ginny, who had somehow been the hardest on re-accepting Percy, was taken aback and was gracious for his tutoring and help as she prepared long distantly for her NEWTs.

That being said, Percy remained true to his core and still applied himself a bit too drastically in order to be successful. The two met for lunch a few times a week, mainly arranged by the father to ensure that his son slowed down enough to remember to eat. Percy was always enthusiastic about listening and talking about his family, but it sadden Arthur slightly that the only other thing Percy ever brought to the table related to work, and worried that his son who had grown up so fast was missing out on life.

"Come now, surely she can't be all that bad," Arthur cooed. He had been a bit shocked when he walked to his son's new office to see such a pretty witch, lounging with her legs kicked over the arms of an office chair, scribbling casually on piece of parchment, and wondered if he had walked into the wrong room. Far from the relaxed social visit Arthur had hoped for, he witnessed his son eyeing her irately as she sat oblivious to his unruly temperament. Knowing all too well the warning signs for a Percy explosion, Arthur quickly suggested an early lunch. Percy agreed before his chatty assistant could engage his father into a conversation, and told her to be back in the office in exactly an hour before shutting the door. Percy wasted no time ripping into how wasteful a helper she was and burst into wild theories of sabotage from some unknown source within the Ministry.

"You have no idea!" Percy exclaimed passionately. "She is the most unprofessional Ministry worker I have ever met, and she has my old job! She lounges instead of sits as though she were at some beach, I swear she doesn't listen to half the words I say, and she nearly lost last year's quarterly reports on Magical Immigration influx. How on earth am I supposed to work with someone like that?"

Arthur couldn't help but smile. It had been a long time since he had heard what Molly and he privately called "Percy's fussy fits", and it reminded him of older days when Percy used to complain about any one of his siblings or owls. He was such a distraught child that Molly often feared for him. Arthur remembered countess reassurances that it was just a phase that he would grow out of, and his immature cravings for perfection would get him far once tamed.

"Has she been doing her job?" Arthur asked carefully.

"Huh?" Percy was suddenly taken aback after being drawn from his rant. He frowned as he considered his father's question. "I suppose so. I haven't had her do much. I mean obviously I don't want her mucking up my chances. But when I have been dictating to her for reports it certainly looks like she's taking me down. She's at least writing something."

"Okay," Mr. Weasley continued, "has she been rude, unnecessarily late or distracting?"

"Well of course she is distracting! She sits there…. she sits… well she has been late by a few minutes… or was I just early? Rude? No, I suppose not. She does seem to laugh at me a lot but I think she is a bit touched in the head, and at least she does so softly."

Mr. Weasley grinned and looked upwards to the ceiling as he took a deep breath. Percy still seemed to be lost in his own thoughts, his eyes darting back and forth trying to recall every, or any, discretional act Audrey had made.

"Percy," Arthur called to him paternally, "you need to learn to get along with the people you work with, even if they are a bit… different. She seems to be doing her job and has a proper attitude and that's all you can ask from your employees. Don't put her down just because her style is different than yours. And don't over crowd yourself with work. Audrey is working to help you, not hindrance you. I am sure she is fully capable of handling any job you give her. You'll find that as a boss, if you're fair, a bit flexible, and give just a little, your employees are more apt to giving you a lot more back. That is the best way to run a department."

Percy mulled over his father's advice. It was true he had been a bit rash judging Ms. Larrabee. The only true fault he had with her was nearly getting knocked into the lake, but that was before the pairing and not on Ministry time, so he felt he could not actually count that against her as an assistant. Perhaps he was just disappointed he did not get the job straightforward like he had hoped, or that he had not been given Grant to help, whom Percy felt would have been just as useful and assistant as he once was.

"I guess I could give her a bit more to do. I mean, nothing important mind you, but there are a dreadful amount of things that need to be finished," Percy finally conceded. Arthur beamed at his son and clapped his hand on his back. Percy smiled sheepishly at his father, feeling a bit silly for such a thing to make his father proud of him, but he was happy to take the sentiment.

Percy and his father said their goodbyes and confirmed plans for dinner at the Burrow later in the week. As he took the lift back to his office he tried to think of why he had been so hard on Audrey and what he could do to ease his tension toward her and give her more of a chance.

However, when he reached his office, Audrey wasn't there. He checked his watch and grunted angrily. He had specifically told her to be back promptly in an hour, and she was running late. He sat back at his desk, his annoyance for the young witch mounting with every passing minute. After a whole five minutes had passed Percy stood up, deciding he would go find her. This proved unnecessary, however, as before he could even pull back his chair she jumped suddenly through the door in that distracting way she did. Did this woman have no discretion?

"You're late," he said coldly. Audrey smiled at him and gave him her soft, near silent laugh she shot at him so often.

"Actually, you were the one who was late," she replied goodnaturedly.

"What are you talking about!" he fumed. "How could you say that when I have clearly been here before you!"

" You said be back in exactly an hour, which you said at 11:31. I remember because you were talking about an old report that had been turned in on November 30th and I said, 'Hey, that's what time it is.' You gave me a very angry look and than your father walked in. So I returned from lunch at 12:27, waited eight minutes, and when you didn't show up, I went to the bathroom. Pumpkin juice has a bad habit of going straight through me."

Percy's eyes bulged out of his head at the mere suggestion that he could have been late for anything. He held out his watch to prove to her that it was indeed now only seven minutes passed the lunch deadline. However, upon looking closer, he realized that it was in fact a good twelve minutes behind the standard Ministry clock. Percy could not understand at all how such a thing happened and stared dumbfounded at his wrist.

"I assume loo breaks are allowed?" Audrey inquired, standing on her tip toes to get a closer look at what he was doing. "I have yet to ask and have been holding it in an awful lot. I don't know how you only go during lunch time; I seem to need to rush off every two hours like clockwork."

Percy looked up, astonished at her babbling.

"What? Of course loo breaks are allowed. If you need to go…"

"Brilliant!" Audrey exclaimed with a grin. She jumped back into the large chair opposite Percy's desk, threw her legs back over the arms, picked up her quill and parchment and flashed him a dazzled smile. "So shall we get back to those oh so exciting dictations?"

Percy shook out his head. This woman always seemed to place him into such a confused state, and he found himself needing to close his eyes to center himself every time she talked for a considerable length. Placing himself back into work mode, he began reading through his reports, organizing the specific dates they needed for the time, along with certain reports that needed to be revisited. For the first hour, Percy found himself glancing at his assistant constantly, to ensure she took down all his words. After awhile, assuring himself that her quill was constantly moving and her parchment sporadically flipping back and forth as she turned the page, he began to feel more secure. However, he still couldn't help himself from looking at her a bit more than he thought necessary. It was one of these unmerited glances towards Audrey's direction that he caught her flipping from a page in front of her large stack of papers, that did not seem to have dictations, but a drawing instead.

"What was that!" Percy demanded loudly. Audrey flinched at the outburst and held her pile of parchment close to her chest.

"Huh?" she asked as innocently as possible, blinking her large eyes softly.

"That!" he cried, ripping the top parchment out of her grip. Just as he had suspected, the page did not contain anything about the Immigration report. Instead there was a doodle of Percy with a small body and an enlarged head perched on top precariously. His features had been embellished into an ugly scold, and his small arms held out a pointed hand that moved back and forth in a disapproving fashion. A large bubble rose from his frowned lips which contained the words "Skip the loo, back to Floo!" in bold letters.

Percy began to breathe heavily, shaking as he tried to control his rage. Audrey on the other hand seemed not to be breathing at all. She quickly moved her legs in front of her and sat back in her chair properly. Her lip tucked into her mouth and she bit it lightly, her eyes contorted into a worried glance.

"It was just a bit of a joke, Percy," she explained softly.

"That's Mr. Weasley to you!" Percy exploded, going red in the face. " Am I a joke to you? My future is a joke to you? I entrusted you to organize my notes for a presentation and you have spent the last three hours turning me into a fool!"

"No!" Audrey cried, holding out the rest of the paper stack for him to see. Percy slapped it to the floor, causing Audrey to jump back in her chair.

"I don't need to see any more of your jokes. Go home Ms. Larrabee! I can do the rest of this without your sense of humor!" Percy declared, stepping back to calm after his outburst. Audrey looked at him apologetically and climbed out of her chair. She scooped down to collect her canvas bag and paused as she stood up.

"Gee whiz Mr. Weasley, I didn't mean to upset you so much. I'm sorry." Percy only responded by pointing out the door. Audrey shot him one more apologetic glance before walking out of the office. Percy cursed as the door shut behind her, and slammed his fist down on his desk.

A whole day, wasted! All his hard work foiled by that bumbling witch who didn't care whether he failed or not, as long as she could get a laugh. Eying the stack of scattered parchment, Percy leaped over to destroy the remaining evidence of his accursed day. However, before he began to rip the parchment in half, he was faced, not with another crude drawing, but with a very detailed numbered chart. Taken aback, he gathered up the rest of the paper from the floor.

It was all there, every date, every name, every incident, neatly organized and easy to find. She had taken down all the comments he had dictated and even corrected it when he contradicted himself. The pages were now a bit crumpled and out of order, but wait, she had even numbered every page to ensure they could be easily filed.

Percy collapsed into his chair, staring at the documents she had created, noting that he himself could hardly do a better job, and she had much better handwriting. He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, feeling his heart plummet into his stomach. Upon restoring his vision, he looked over at the drawing that had upset him so much. The ugly look upon its face matched exactly how he felt inside. That was twice he had accused based heavily on biased assumptions, and twice she had proved him wrong. Yes the drawing was unprofessional and unnecessary but he could not blame for doing such a thing, he had been quite the monster to her. Furthermore, he was actually impressed she was able to write down such good notes and draw such and accurate depiction at the same time. Having someone so equipped at multitasking could come in great handy for the massive job Percy was to undertake. That is, if he could ever get her to come back.