A/N: Thanks for all of the support, guys. Sorry this chapter has taken so long, been way too busy all of a sudden. I'm sure ya'll don't want to hear too much about it but long story short... moved homes, new job, etc etc. This is a shorter one, but cliffy. So hopefully get the next up soon :D
Hermione's desk was crammed with paperwork. It had gotten out of hand so quickly, but she had developed a sort-of-system that worked for her. She wasn't usually the type of person to work in any kind of mess, but unfortunately, desperate times and the like. If they didn't know who to trust in the Auror department, lots of work was diverted to people whom they could trust. Unfortunately again for Hermione, that meant that if there was lots of work loaded onto Harry or Ron, there was even more work passed onto her.
"Morning, Hermione!"
Kingsley's booming voice made Hermione jump. She hadn't seen him enter her office over the piles on her desk, but she quickly regained her composure and stood, poking her head over the piles.
"Kingsley! Good morning!"
He smiled when he saw her. "Two things. One, do you have that report on the Malfoy raid?"
"Of course." Hermione stood still for a second, scanning the piles of papers, trying to remember what she put where. "Ah, here it is!" She said as she reached into one pile, pulling a file folder out of the middle of the tower, and handing it over to Kingsley. "And second?" she inquired.
"And second, is it true that you and Remus are officially a happening thing?" He asked with a grin.
He was picking on her. She instantly turned an extremely deep shade of red.
"Who in the name of Merlin told you that?!" she asked, her voice quite loud and stern. Kingsley's grin immediately widened, and he burst out in laughter.
"Who else. Ron was pretty stricken when he came in this morning. He was pretty confused and seemed to be fairly in shock. He was blubbering, but that's the gist of what I got out of it."
"Ronald needs to mind his own business!" Hermione shot back. "Who I am or am not seeing, 'officially' or no is none of his concern anymore," she elaborated, calming herself slightly. Her voice was still stern, brim with annoyance, but she didn't snap this time. Kingsley continued to grin, perhaps even wider than before Hermione had opened her lips, which made her sigh. "You some sadist, you know Kinglsey? The amount of enjoyment you get from getting me all riled up..." Hermione trailed off, standing from her seat.
"Anyhow, as much as I am enjoying your company as always Mr Shacklebolt, I regret to inform you I really must get on. I have a meeting with Allary Brockert in fifteen minutes, and am meeting Remus for lunch right after that."
Kinglsey yawned. "Yeah... I'm in that meeting too, Allary's got something up his sleeve, far as I can figure."
Allary Brockert was the Head of Magical Law Enforcement. He was a large man; not Kingsley large but large, and unlike Kingsley always seemed to wear a scowl on his face that made him look slightly off-putting to talk to, but the truth was he was a kind enough man. Though not a member of the Order himself he was an Order supporter who worked hand in hand with Kinglsey to weed out the Dark Wizard supporters from the higher ranks in the Ministry.
When Hermione knocked on his door, there was a scruff "Come in" that barked at her permitting her entrance. She poked her head in first, smiling at him.
"Good day, Mr Brockert."
Kinglsey gave her a gentle shove from behind to enter, but a gentle shove for Kingsley was a lot more for a small woman of Hermione's size, and she shot forward, the door flying open. Kingsley grabbed her by the elbow steadying her, his voice booming in her ear.
"So sorry 'bout that, my dear. I often forget that you're more of a fox to my bear." Allary chuckled at Kingsley, an unusual sound that took Hermione by surprise.
"Have a seat, have a seat," he encouraged, standing himself. As Hermione took one of the two seats opposite of him at his desk, he leaned forward slightly to her, his voice dropping; "A fox is a most apt comparison for you, Miss Granger. Sly, clever, cunning, and of course stunning."
Hermione felt herself flush at the compliment, her ears growing hot. Though Allary was a kind enough man, something must have happened to put him so high of a mood, no doubt relating to why she and Kingsley had been called upon.
"Can I offer you a drink? I've a well aged firewhiskey about somewhere..." he offered, but both Hermione and Kingsley shook their heads.
"Thanks for the offer, Allary, but it's barely midday," Kingsley chucked, and Allary looked slightly flumoxed.
"Ah, yes, I suppose it is!" He grinned. "It's just, I've received such great confirmation from the Minister on a bill about to be passed, I suppose I felt the need to celebrate." He took his seat again, leaning forward.
Hermione glanced over at Kingsley, who looked about as quizzical as she felt. Neither of them had heard of any new bill.
"It's all happened very quickly, you see, and as soon as Toor got back to me this morning I knew I needed to speak with you about it myself." He was still grinning ear to ear. "Kingsley, as Head of the Department of Aurors, and Miss Granger, as his new... assistant - " He used the word hesitantly. Assistant was not quite the right word for what she did, but was close enough. She obviously was a proper Auror, not an administrator, but she worked directly under him.
Once someone is properly inducted as an Auror, they are assigned a mentor; although for the Head of the Department to take on a recruit was unusual if not extremely rare. Yet when Hermione had reported for work on her first day, she found she was to be Kingsley's protégé.
Ah, there was a better description of her position under Kingsley...
" - I just think it will be most important you have the utmost understanding of what is about to happen." He grinned again, and handed over a thick manila folder to Kingsley. "It will be called the Regulation and Registration of Magically Inclined Beasts Act."
Hermione felt her blood grow cold, and her ears start to burn.
"As we all know, the last time that You-Know-Who rose to power, he elicited the help of creatures such as werewolves, vampires, giants and half-giants, and the like. This time around we want to be able to keep track of these races and help encourage them from turning over to him again; and a registrations act would help us do that."
"Magically Inclined Beasts?" When Hermione spoke, the words tasted like venom on her tongue. She could feel the burning in her ears grow further down her neck, her fingers were like ice clamped onto the arms of the chair of which she sat. "These are people, Brockert, not beasts. These are witches and wizards with merely an affliction, not animals that need to be locked in cages!" Her voice felt hot sharp and she fought to control her growing rage.
"We are not locking them away, Miss Granger, it is merely a registration act much like the one already in place for Animagi."
"Regulation and Registration, if I did hear you properly - and regulation makes it a very different act! Not to mention you lower their humanity in the name of the bill itself - Magically Inclined Beasts? You're directly distinguishing them as non-human!"
Hermione felt Kingsley's large hand on her shoulder, pulling her back down into her surroundings. She more so felt his tenor voice than felt it when he spoke.
"Allary, I implore you to see reason. You think that by dehumanising them in this way will discourage people of those particular persuasions from aligning with You-Know-Who? I am afraid you are opening a very large can of any worms with this; a very large, angry can of worms..."
Allary shook his head. "You disappoint me, Kingsley. I thought you of all people would understand the need for this."
The conversation went on, but with no outcome. When Kingsley and Hermione finally made their way back to the Auror Department, Kingsley followed Hermione closely into her office, and Hermione slammed the door shut behind him as hard as she could bring herself to. She turned back to him, hair and eyes alike aflame.
"I could scream right now, Kingsley, and it's the fight of the ages to hold it in."
"Aye, but there's nought we can do now..." he said. He thought hard for a moment. "As long as he has Toor under his thumb, he's going to take this one. They are two in the same; both kind men with the best of the intentions, but are no more than fools."
Hermione had met Remus for a nice lunch at a small café in central London, sans Teddy. It had been nice; as much as Hermione loved Teddy, she savoured what little time the two could spend together. Recently, though, Teddy had been spending a more significant amount of time with his grandmother Andromeda.
"I think it is very important for him to spend time with his mother's family, to fill that void, you know?" He had told her once a few weeks before.
Remus had been as much a gentleman as ever, standing to greet her, drawing out her chair for her to sit. It proved to be a most difficult lunch for Hermione, however; she was trying to push her anger and annoyance at her meeting with Allary Brockert aside, but to no avail. When she was angry she was as transparent as a window, and no one was better at reading her than Remus, besides.
He carried on with normal conversation for a while before quite suddenly reaching across the table and taking her hand in his.
"Hermione… love, are you okay?" His voice was riddled with concern; she couldn't tell, however, if it was concern for her or concern that he had done something wrong. She forced a smile.
"Yeah, I'm fine… It's just, well – something happened at work that has me a little on edge," she tried to explain, sighing. "It's just frustrating. It's like we can either deal with Death Eaters gaining ranks of power or with idiots with good intentions. Neither are ideal."
She felt Remus's grip on her hand tighten. "Do you want to talk about it?"
Hermione thought hard for a moment. She really didn't know if that was best, to open the discussion here. "I'll tell you tonight," she said, a little breathless. "After this long day is finally over."
As the waitress approached the table carrying their food, Remus pulled his hand away from hers, smiling at the wirey, blonde woman.
Hermione had only ordered soup and toast, but it was delicious. The bread had obviously been made on site; even toasted it tasted fresh and new. The soup had the same fresh, new taste, with large chunks of carrot, celery, and potato. It was a hearty and filling meal that made Hermione glad she had stumbled upon the café by chance.
When they finished their lunches and went their separate ways, Remus promising to meet her back at Grimmauld Place when she was done work, Hermione was starting to get anxious about her meeting with Minerva in the afternoon. Today had started so nicely, with breakfast with Teddy and Remus, and it had all gone straight downhill from there, which made Hermione feel like it was all a bad omen.
Regardless of how she felt there was work that needed to be taken care, though, and so apparated off to the school to meet with the Headmistress.
Minerva looked pleased to see her; or, as pleased as Minerva McGonagall ever looked. She was a very hard woman to read on appearance alone. It had taken Hermione many years to understand that she was not a cold woman, just a serious woman.
"And how are things at the Ministry?" she asked, sincerely.
Hermione sighed. "I'm sorry, Minerva, but we were informed of a … situation this morning, and I am afraid that I am still so worked up about it if I dare speak of it I might explode, and you do not want to be on the receiving end of that." She said it humourously, if anything, to try and make light of the situation. Minerva gave her a stiff lipped smile, acknowledging it as it was meant.
"I'm sorry to hear that. We'll discuss it later then, no need to have you worked up." Hermione nodded. "Well, we might as well get right to it; I'm certain you have spent enough time in these halls and even in this office to last you a lifetime," she said, with a small grin. Hermione responded with a nod of solemn agreement as Minerva handed her one of the largest books Hermione had seen in her life - and she had of course seen a lot of books.
It hit the table in front of her with an unsurprising thud that made Hermione cringe. The spine snapped open and the pages fluttered until they landed on a page that was only half full of names. Each name was written in beautiful scrawling cursive and the trademark of Hogwarts; emerald green ink. Suddenly, before Hermione's eyes, green ink started to bleed on the page like an ink stain, dark and blotched; and then it started to fade until all that was left was the beautiful cursive writing, reading MacKenzie, Aldrich.
"September 1979 through August 1980, my dear," Minerva instructed, her thin spectacles sitting low on her nose as she fluttered through pages of a second book that was as large as the first. Hermione followed suit, fanning the pages of the book until she saw the header just as Minerva had stated it.
"And from the top then. "Abbott, Hannah…"
Together, they went down the list, through the names of Hermione's classmates. She read them all. She realised partway into the list, though, they had taken to it backwards; Minerva's list was alphabetical, and with each name she read Hermione found that she was searching hard for each name as her list was in order of birth. But they had already started, so Hermione kept it to herself.
"Granger, Hermione."
Hermione scoured the list for her own name. She knew she was near the top, her birthday was September 19th, but she saw Black, Ariadne and knew she was into October. Her eyes shot to the top of the list again, but to no avail.
"Minerva… I'm not on this list…" she said, her throat dry, her eyebrows furrowed.
"Minerva shook her head. "What? No – of course you are." Hermione lifted the book from the table, placing it in Minerva's hands.
Hermione watched her eyes darting around the page. She was searching, hard, but after a few moments of complete silence Hermione found her suspicions founded. When Minerva finally spoke her voice was heavy. "You're correct, Hermione. You are not on this list."