Disclaimer: Everything here belongs to JK Rowling. I am simply a guest in her incredibly magical world of fiction.
Warning: This chapters contains cursing.
With a punch and a kick, Monday rolled around and Rose wasn't ready to have any of it. Her head still pounded from her Saturday night outing, and her whole body was sore. It's not like she played two games of Quidditch! Apparently, her body couldn't even withstand a bit of shagging. She'd be embarrassed except she was in too much pain to care.
"Rise and shine!" Albus called through the door. "If you don't wake up now, you won't have time for a shower, and that would just be disgusting."
Rose groaned and rolled over, tugging her blankets up over her head. "Go away Al!"
"Don't be like that Rose! It's time to get up!" His cheerful voice made Rose want to gag.
Muffled groans came from within the bedroom. Al sighed. He couldn't exactly let her go into work without showering. They had a family name to uphold.
"Get your ass out of bed before I come in there and drag you out!"
Rose covered her ears with a pillow defiantly. Like Albus would dare come in there to wake her up. He knew he'd be risking his arse.
After waiting a pause to see if she would respond, Albus barrelled into his cousin's room and ripped her blankets off her.
"Alright Rose, you're being ridiculous! It's time to get up and face the world."
"I don't need you to mother me Al!" She insisted while scrambling to steal back her blankets.
"If that were true, you wouldn't be curled up here in a ball, refusing to get out of bed."
"I can wake myself up!"
"Sure, but you seem to struggle with the whole waking up, and getting to work on time concept."
She glared at him, but still rolled out of bed. "Okay fine, maybe you have a point about the work thing. But honestly, I don't think I can make it to the bathroom, let alone get through a whole day of work."
"That would be true if you were living alone, but your favourite cousin is here to save the day." Al smirked at her as he handed her a tiny glass bottle full of black sludge.
"What in Helga Hufflepuff's name is that?" Rose eyed the concoction suspiciously and held it an arms length away from her.
"Hangover Draught, you moron. It's not exactly pleasant, but it'll do the trick." Al explained. "You should probably follow it up with a decent sized glass of water though. The stuff tastes awful, and sort of makes you dizzy on an empty stomach."
"So what exactly is helpful about it?"
"Well it does get rid of the headache, so there's that. It also helps with nausea, if you can keep it down after the first gulp that is."
Rose made a face of disgust, but accepted her fate. It was the potion or another full day of bed rest. And with her workday upon her, she really didn't have an option. With a slight grimace, she tipped the bottle upside down, and gulped the potion in one go. Al wasn't joking about keeping it down. It tasted awful, and felt like a lump of bricks in her stomach. She grabbed at her glass of water on her nightstand desperately, and drank it all.
"How's it now?" Al asked with a look of concern.
Rose's eyes had watered a bit from the initial impact of it, and her stomach was a bit queasy still, but she could feel the positive effects. Her headache felt like it was lifting and her tongue didn't feel like sandpaper anymore. Her body was still sore, but she could at least move around without feeling like her joints were on fire.
"Merlin that's better, yea. It doesn't feel like there's an anvil weighing down my eyelids anymore."
A grin broke out on Al's face and he slapped Rose on the back. "That's a girl, Rosie! You had me worried for a second there!"
"What's that supposed to mean? It was supposed to work like that, right?"
"For the most part, yeah," He said under the suspicious glare of his cousin. "There may have been a slight chance that instead of a Hangover Draught, I brewed something different, but clearly it worked so it's a nonissue!" He added quickly.
"Are you serious? You could've killed me!" Rose roared, outraged. Al was always pulling tricks like this with different potions. He fancied himself a bit of a part-time brewer when he wasn't busy being an auror, though the rest of her family didn't know that. He'd probably pursue it professionally, if he weren't so worried about their approval. Not that he was a professional yet, which meant that he was often causing small explosions in their living room, or accidentally poisoning the both of them.
"But I didn't," he said. "Anyways, you should probably get in the shower now...Glad you're feeling better!" Albus used his cousin's groggy, morning state to his advantage, and slipped out of the room before she had her wits about her.
"You're a prick, you know that!" Rose called after him before pulling herself out of bed and into the shower.
By the time she was supposed to apparate for work, Rose was feeling nearly one hundred percent better. She wasn't completely there—her legs still felt like she'd been running up a flight of two hundred stairs—but for the most part, she felt as sharp as ever. After her shower, she'd even been able to make herself look half way decent. Her red mane of curls was typically frizzy, and her eyebrows were a couple days past needing to be plucked, but she didn't look any worse than usual. It wasn't like she had anyone to impress, and it was Monday after all. Every witch knew that Monday wasn't a day worth charming your hair over.
Rose made it into the office five minutes early even. She begrudgingly knew it was because of the efforts of Albus, but she'd never admit it to him. If he hadn't of woken her up when he did, she would've never made it to work on time. As it were, she made it to her desk without anyone the wiser of what her weekend had looked like.
Rose worked in the newly developing Department of Magical Inquiry and Discovery. The department was less than three years old, and was headed by her Uncle Bill. A few years back, a couple of teenagers on break during the summer got themselves stuck in a cave full of ancient Gaelic curses. The magic was so old that there was no one on hand who was qualified enough to assist them. It wasn't until the Ministry tracked down an elderly man who had devoted his life to the study of Ancient Magic that they were able to break through the curses, and save the trapped kids. After that incident, and a few others reported across the country, the Ministry saw fit to create a department dedicated to the research of Ancient Magic around the world. It was only fitting that the job of Department Head was appointed to none other than Bill Weasley, Rose's Uncle, an experienced curse breaker who had spent many years working for Gringotts Bank.
She was fairly new to the department—she'd only been there two years—but managed to move up fairly quickly. Throughout school, Rose had taken a serious interest in Ancient Runes, and pursued it past the NEWT level. After two years she was still only the undersecretary to the secretary to the Senior Field Translator, but it was a step in the right direction. She started as an intern after all. It was a particularly tedious job, but sometimes she was given castaway translations that nobody else wanted to bother with. Sometimes she was even given castaway projects if she were lucky.
No less than a minute after she sat at her desk, a paper airplane came careening through the office and smashed into her hair. Paper airplanes were the communication devices of choice at the Ministry of Magic, and Rose had experienced, on more than one occasion, a rogue plane in the office.
She heaved a sigh as she unfolded it.
Miss Rose Nymphadora Weasley
Undersecretary to the Secretary of the Senior Field Translator
Department of Magical Inquiry and Discovery
Ministry of Magic
Level 3
Miss Weasley,
Mr. Weasley requested a meeting today between you and your senior advisor, Senior Field Translator Spencer Macdonald, for this afternoon at 14:00. Please be prompt in your attendance.
Thank you for your time,
Miranda Cogsley
Secretary to Department Head
Department of Magical Inquiry and Discovery
Ministry of Magic
Level 3
Doing her best to remain cool, Rose held in a squeal. If she were lucky, this was going to be the promotion she was waiting for. For months, she had been busting her ass by staying late and taking on extra, superfluous projects, and finally her Uncle Bill was noticing. Between her and the actual secretary, Tori James, Rose had been doing both their jobs and more. It was shock that Tori still showed up for work when he certainly wasn't contributing anything. Occasionally he'd come in with a coffee for Mrs. Macdonald, their boss, but usually he'd make it wrong anyways. His entire existence was essentially pointless.
Her day ticked by slowly before the meeting. Rose mostly filled her days with fetching coffee, reviewing files for Macdonald, and occasionally going over her own projects that had been handed down to her. Usually her assignments were ridiculously simply, or incredibly challenging. In both cases, these would be the assignments that were given to her simply because no one else in the department wanted to deal with them, but they were something. At least it was something, or that's what she told herself. Something was better than nothing.
By the time 14:00 came around, Rose had managed to translate three Ancient Middle Eastern texts that supposedly described the muggle artifact known as the Holy Grail, which was in fact an enchanted goblet. These sort of texts popped up every once and awhile, and were usually just wizard mumbo-jumbo that wasn't worth looking into. Her meeting couldn't be anticipated any more after suffering through those translations. She made a point of showing up to her uncle's office five minutes early in case he wanted to start the meeting a bit ahead of schedule. When she got there, she was surprised to see her other uncle, Harry Potter, waiting in one of the chairs outside Bill's office door.
"Uncle Harry?" Rose asked skeptically.
"Rosie!" He beamed at her. "Wonderful to see you! I didn't expect to see you around these parts of the office. I seem to recall Albus telling me that you were working as a secretary still."
Rose frowned a bit at her job titled, but responded cheerfully. "I still am! I'm just here to meet with Uncle Bi—sorry, I meant Mr. Weasley."
"Surely Bill doesn't make you use such formalities," Harry said and winked at her.
"He usually doesn't, but I like to keep an air of professionalism around here. People already give me a hard enough time being related to the department head, so I try not to give them an excuse." Rose did her best to say it lightly, but in truth, she'd had a lot of difficulties being related to Bill. People often begrudged her rise through the ranks, even if she was still only a secretary.
"You said you had a meeting with Bill? That's funny because I was sure that I had scheduled 2 pm with him," Harry said quizzically before widening his eyes just a fraction. He groaned to himself and started rubbing the bridge of his nose underneath his glasses.
Before Rose got a chance to ask him about his sudden change in attitude, Bill's secretary popped up from behind them.
"Hello Mr. Potter!" she squeaked. "And Miss Weasley! I think Mr. Weasley is ready for you now, though I haven't seen Mrs. Macdonald yet..." The young girl looked around for the last member of the party, but returned her attention back to them. "I'm sure she'll be here a in a few minutes. In the meantime, Mr. Weasley would like to start the meeting."
Miranda, Bill's secretary, led them into his office where he was sat behind the desk. Upon seeing Rose and Harry, he stood to shake Harry's hand and give Rose a hug.
"It's great to see you both!" Bill exclaimed.
Harry peered at his brother-in-law from over top of his glasses and sighed outwardly at him. "When I told you about our situation, I didn't exactly expect you to assign Rose of all people."
Rose stared between her two uncles quizzically. Was she being assigned a new project? She was certain this was about her promotion, but clearly, she'd been wrong.
"We really should wait for Spencer to formally start the meeting." Bill mumbled, expecting Harry's disdained reaction.
"Sorry," Rose piped in, "I'm not sure I know what's going on with this meeting. I don't remember you mentioning Mr. Potter in the note you sent me, Mr. Weasley."
"Rose, I've told you a thousand times, you don't have to call me 'Mr. Weasley,'" Bill insisted.
"I have to admit Rosie, I'd much prefer you call me Uncle Harry like you were two minutes ago," Harry added.
Rose gave an exasperated sigh. "But that would be unprofessional! You're not my uncles at the Ministry; you're my superiors. And when we're in meetings, I'd like to treat you as such."
Both men simultaneously rolled their eyes.
Rose opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the appearance of her boss, accompanied by the secretary from before.
"Sorry I'm late!" Macdonald said. "I was just out at a field expedition when I got the message, and of course I thought I'd have more time than I did. I really do apologize for my tardiness, though I assumed Miss Weasley would fill you in on my whereabouts considering she should have it in her scheduler."
Taking a deep breath, Rose did her best to remain collected and calm. Macdonald was always pulling things like this on Rose, even though it was her actual secretary's job to keep track of her schedule and pen in appointments. Rose was technically hired to assist her secretary, not to act as her secretary. Whether or not it was Rose's job was really not an issue either way; it was Macdonald's job to get to her meetings on time, not Rose's.
"Yes well, now that everyone is here," Bill said, "we can begin the meeting properly."
Macdonald took her seat next to Harry leaving Rose standing awkwardly behind the two of them.
"Right so," Bill continued, "the reason you're all here right now has to do with a particular assignment that I received from the Auror's Office this morning." Bill looked to Harry as if to motion for him to explain.
There was a pause before Harry noticed it was his turn to talk. "Oh sorry, yea! We've had a series of break-ins at Gringotts recently and they all seem to be connected, though the only link we have between them is this symbol." Harry tossed a piece of parchment on the table that had a rough inking of a symbol that Rose didn't recognize. "Now we're not sure where the symbol is from, and most of my auror's aren't trained in Ancient Runes any higher than the OWL level, so it's got us a bit stumped. We're hoping that this symbol will help us understand the type of magic being used to break into the vaults as well as who's been doing it."
"It was brought to my attention last Friday," Bill explained, "and Harry has requested the use one of our translators. I've given some thought to it over the weekend, but I thought it was best to run my decision past Spencer first."
Macdonald straightened in her seat upon hearing her name and gave Bill a phony smile. "Whoever you chose will be fine by me Mr. Weasley!" She assured him.
Bill gave Rose a reassuring smile, which is when she finally clued in. Bill wanted to assign her to be the Auror's Office personal bitch, or something like that. She had to make a run for it, or at least try to worm her way out of it.
"You know actually," Rose piped in, breaking her silence, "I think Tori would be great for the job. Tori James, Mrs. Macdonald's secretary? He's been working really well lately, and I know he'd love the opportunity." Rose cringed at her lies. Tori was probably the worst suited to the job as he didn't cooperate well with others, and wasn't actually trained in translation. He was only Macdonald's secretary because he was friends with her sister.
"I suppose that's an interesting suggestion," Bill mulled for a second, "but I already had someone in mind."
It was hard to avoid eye contact with Bill, but Rose tried her best.
"I was hoping," Bill continued, "that you'd actually be available to help with this case, Rose."
Rose cringed as he said it aloud, and tried her best to turn invisible. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Macdonald's face drop,.
"Mr. Weasley," Macdonald was scrambling, "are you sure that Miss Weasley is right for the job. I mean, I'm just not sure we can spare her here?" Macdonald's resolve seemed to crumble though under the thoughtful stare of Bill Weasley. Rose did her best not to smirk at the prospect of Macdonald making her own coffee and editing her own papers for once.
"Did you not just say that you'd be supportive of whoever I saw fit? Of course, if you truly think that you can't spare your undersecretary then we can find someone more fitting. But your actual secretary could surely pick up the slack, if need be." Bill said. Without tipping off Macdonald, he winked at Rose as if he thought this was what she wanted. From the look on Harry's face, he was in the same situation as Rose. For some reason, Harry Potter did not want Rose to be working with his office.
"If I may," Harry chimed in, and with a nod from Bill, continued, "I'm not sure that Rose would be the best choice Bill. It's just that, I'm worried about her personal relationships with some of the aurors on the job."
Rose raised her eyebrows defiantly. What could he possibly be referring to? As far as she knew, the only personal relationships she had in the Auror's Office were family relationships, which had never posed a problem before. She was appalled that Harry would even suggest that she would lack the professionalism to work with her family. She may not want the job, but that certainly didn't mean she wasn't competent enough for it.
"I'm not sure I'm following, Harry," Bill voiced what Rose had been thinking in her head.
"There are some certain individuals who are working on the case that may clash a bit if Rose were to work with them."
"I'm sure Rose would be able to work around it," Bill insisted.
"Really Bill, I think it might be best to let Rose skip this one," Harry argued despite Bill's withering stare.
"I don't think that's going to possible, if you really want our help. We can't spare any of her superiors, and Rose is easily the most qualified person of her ranking here."
Harry sighed. "Fine," he said, accepting defeat, "but only if Rose is okay with it after knowing all the details. I don't want to throw her into anything unprepared."
Her two uncles turned from each other and looked at her expectantly as if they finally noticed that she was involved.
"Well, I don't really understand what Mr. Potter is referring to," Rose explained. "Are you worried about me working with Albus, because honestly I've always thought Al and I worked well as a team..."
Harry smirked at the thought of Rose and Albus working together. The two of them would work brilliantly together. If only that were the case.
"Not exactly," Harry said and cleared his throat. "Albus will be there, and I'm sure he'll have some say in the case, but he's not the one running it. It's, um...Scorpius Malfoy is working it," Harry finally explained. "I know you two have never really gotten along though, so if you don't want to help, I'm sure we can make other arrangements."
A look of realization crossed Bill's face, then a look of guilt. He should've trusted Harry's judgement on this one.
Rose knew her Uncle was just looking out for her, but she couldn't deny the fact that it bothered her that Harry Potter thought that she couldn't put her differences aside and work with Scorpius Malfoy. He didn't even know what had happened between them recently, thank Merlin, but for whatever reason, Harry thought Rose still held her schoolgirl grudges, and hadn't grown up.
Though she would probably regret, she couldn't let them all think that. It killed her to know that her family thought that she was still so immature. Before she could second guess herself, she blurted out her decision. "Don't bother finding someone else. It's really no problem for me to do it."
Harry stared at her open mouthed, clearly not expecting that answer. For a moment, Rose felt entirely smug, before she remembered that she'd just agreed to working with the bloody Auror's Office alongside Scorpius. It was a far cry from the promotion that she so stupidly thought she would be getting earlier.
"Rose, you don't have to do this if you don't want to," Bill assured her.
But she had already made her decision, and refused to go back on it now. Pride had gotten the better of her. "Honestly, it's fine. Thank you for the opportunity."
Bill pursed his lips, but didn't try to argue with her. He was the one who had insisted she be considered for this after all.
"If you're certain Rose, then I'll brief you tomorrow," Harry told her. "I'll see you in my office at 9 am to go over things." He gave her a reassuring smile. Harry left shortly after that, explaining that he had to get back to his employees.
Macdonald scampered out of Bill's office not too long after without saying too much more after getting shot down by Bill earlier. Rose often forgot how intimidating her family could be. To her, Bill Weasley and Harry Potter weren't war heroes—they were her goofy uncles.
"Can I have a word with you privately Rose?" Bill asked before she had the chance to slip out as well.
"Sure, Uncle Bill. What's up?"
"It's just, I feel a bit stupid for pushing this on you. I know how you feel about that Malfoy boy." he explained.
"It's not that big of a deal, honestly. It's just a silly Hogwarts rivalry, nothing more," Rose tried to assure him, but her uncle saw through her. Bill was always good at reading people.
"I know it's not the most glamorous job, but I wouldn't have put you on this if it wasn't a step in the right direction."
"I know Uncle Bill."
"Don't get too caught up with Malfoy. Don't let him under your skin. You're brilliant at this stuff, and you'll do fine on this case. Really it's a step below you skill wise, but you need to get some experience before you can move up."
Rose tried not to look too impatient, but she was over his pep talk. As much as she loved her uncle, she wasn't particularly prone to needing his assurance. She suspected this conversation was more for him than it was for her.
"I just want to see you succeed Rose, that's all."
"I know Uncle Bill," she said. "Thank you."
With a nod and a hug, Bill finally let her leave. Rose was grateful for the alone time; she would surely need it. In less than twenty four hours she would be stuck in a cubicle next to Scorpius Malfoy. Before this meeting, she was hoping to never have to see him again, and now she'd have to be working with him. It was, in Rose's honest opinion, a fate more humiliating than leaving her bra in his flat.
So that's the second chapter! It's twice as long as the first one posted, which is more of the size that I'm aiming for from here on out. Hopefully you guys think that my portrayal of Bill and Harry were fairly accurate, though they didn't really have big roles. Next chapter we'll be seeing Scorpius again, so check back for that. Thanks for reading! Any reviews would be appreciated!