A/N: Sorry I took so long... again... I'm really bad at this, it seems :S Anyway, hopefully this somewhat longer-than-usual chapter will make up for the wait :)

Disclaimer: The scene in St Mungo's is based off an Asterix cartoon that I don't own. I also still don't own Harry Potter.


She knew she was in trouble the moment she said those words. Astoria's eyes started gleaming as if she was a madwoman, and Lucy could swear she even rubbed her hands evilly, albeit for only a split-second.

The grin on her face didn't spell much good either.

"I knew you would give in eventually," Astoria said, taking a few steps in Lucy's direction. "Anyway, this won't take long. Or maybe it will. But that's not my concern." Giving Lucy a disdainful look (now that she thought about it, Astoria had given her that look very often; she just hadn't paid any attention to it, ever), she added, "Follow me, Weasley."

Obediently, Lucy followed her through multiple other rooms in the manor. Now that she knew not to trust Astoria too much, Lucy found herself doubting everything she said and did, and seeking an ulterior motive behind every action, no matter how small. She suspected that they were just walking through all these rooms so she would get an impression about how rich the Malfoys were. This suspicion only grew when they stopped in a room that looked very much like the room they had their talk in.

"This'll do," Astoria decided. She waved her wand, and a small desk and a particularly uncomfortable looking chair appeared. "Sit, Weasley," she told Lucy.

Slowly, Lucy took a step towards the chair, but then changed her mind. "I'm not a dog, you know," she told Astoria. It was a pity that it was a Friday and that she'd have to wait until Monday to get back at Astoria for this. She wasn't usually so resentful, but Astoria was asking for it.

"Really now?" Astoria replied. "You could've fooled me, Weasley. Are you going to sit or not?"

Closing her eyes briefly, Lucy decided that she would just do as she was told. This time. The sooner she complied, the sooner it would be over. At least, she hoped that it would. So she sat down, and Astoria waved her wand again. An enormous file of papers appeared.

"This, Weasley, will be your first job for today. These are all files I haven't had the time to look into. They all need to be worked through. The funny thing is – if you don't do this right, it won't make you look better either. I'm your responsibility, after all."

Staring at the pile, Lucy wondered how long it had taken Astoria to collect so many files. And why? It wasn't as if she knew that Lucy would come by someday to work through this pile for her.

"I trust you know what to do, Weasley. Take as long as you want – after all, it's your night's rest and you are the one that wants something from me."

With that, Astoria left the room, leaving Lucy with the endless stack of files. Well, Lucy thought to herself, better get started, then. So she did.

After only a couple of files, Lucy found that there were files here dating from years ago. It appeared that every time she hadn't been able to finish her work, for one reason or another, Astoria had taken the rest of it home, and never returned the files. She made a mental note to watch the older woman much better now. But, she did know why Astoria hadn't been promoted. If this was how she dealt with her work, it was a miracle that she hadn't been fired yet.

After a while, Lucy had no idea of how late it was, or how long it had been since she had started, or when Astoria would return. All she knew was that she was dead tired. And there was so much left to do. She now knew what a House-Elf must feel like. Perhaps she should've paid more attention whenever her Aunt Hermione was talking about Elves and their rights. Maybe after this, she would support S.P.E.W. Although… let's not push it.

"Weasley. Wake up, you silly little girl."

Feeling as though she hadn't even slept at all, Lucy looked up and blinked. Apparently, she had fallen asleep with her head on the desk. But at least the files were all done. She stifled a yawn as Astoria looked at them with narrowed eyes.

"You can take them to the Ministry now," Astoria told her. "Then you can come back here." Upon seeing Lucy's hopeful face, she added, "For your next task, Weasley. I'm not crazy."

Tiredly, Lucy picked up a pile of papers. Looking around, she reached the conclusion that that would not work. With Astoria still watching her every move, Lucy whipped out her wand and shrunk all the files so she would be able to take them all at once.

Fortunately, there weren't that many people at the Ministry and Lucy managed to arrive at her department without too much trouble. Dumping all the files on her boss' desk, she hoped that he'd forgive her for the mess she made in the process. Oh well, maybe he thought this was Astoria's doing. But she wasn't getting her hopes up.

As she arrived back at the manor, Astoria was waiting for her already. "Alright, Weasley. That was the first task. Now, if you were expecting this to be easy, you thought wrong. I'm not done with you yet."

"Is Scorpius even here?" Lucy asked; she wouldn't put it past Astoria to just make her do stuff she didn't want, only to reveal later that Scorpius had gone on a cruise in the Bahama's, or something like that.

"Yes, he is here." Astoria didn't look amused by Lucy's question. "But you don't get to see him, Weasley. I know what girls like you want. You just want the fame and the money that comes with the Malfoy name."

Lucy had to refrain herself from asking Astoria if she'd once been one of those girls too. Instead, she said, "Right. I think that we Weasleys are equally famous as you Malfoys." And they were just about equally rich too, Lucy suspected. Besides – the Malfoys didn't have such a good name after the war. Why would she associate with them if she didn't really want to? She'd better not tell Astoria this – she had the feeling that that wouldn't be appreciated.

"Now, you go to St Mungo's and get me this," Astoria told her, handing her a small piece of parchment. "In case you were wondering – it's already been paid for." Then, she shut the door in Lucy's face.

Walking towards the spot from where she could apparate to St Mungo's, Lucy studied the parchment. There was some sort of recipe on it she couldn't quite decipher. Oh well, if she only needed to pick it up, it wasn't really her problem, she decided.

She didn't know whether or not she should be suspicious of the fact that she didn't have to pay for whatever she was supposed to get – that was what she had expected. But then again, who knew what Astoria was planning.

She had arrived in St Mungo's now, and she looked around. "Excuse me?" she asked a passing Healer. She knew that, for instructions, she should actually ask the witch who was employed for this kind of questions, but she seemed… preoccupied. "Could you – never mind." The Healer hadn't even stopped when she had tried to ask him a question.

As another Healer walked by, Lucy grabbed his sleeve. "I'm sorry," she said hastily, "but could you tell me where I can find the pharmacy?"

"I have no idea," the Healer told her and walked away quickly. The thought that Healers wouldn't know where the pharmacy was seemed preposterous to Lucy, but there was nothing she could do about it.

Looking around, she saw a floor-plan of the hospital. Since there was nobody around who could help her, probably, she made her way over there. She blinked at the map, and turned back around. Right, there it was.

After waiting for half an hour (there was a rather long queue, and lots of people needed instructions on how and when to take their medicines), it was finally Lucy's turn.

"Hi," she said meekly, "I need – this." She handed the piece of parchment to the clerk and he looked it over.

"That's not available here, miss," he told her, handing her the parchment back. Great, Lucy thought, just my luck. "For this, you should go to the third floor, second corridor, first room on the left side."

"Right," Lucy replied. "Thank you." As she walked away, she tried to remember what he had said. Was it second corridor, first room, or first corridor, second room? Anyway, she had to get to the third floor, and by the looks of it, the elevators had all broken down. As if Astoria herself had had a hand in this.

By the time she'd reached the third floor, she had convinced herself that it was the first corridor, second room to the left. Or was it the right? The second room to the right didn't seem to exist, and the second door to the left was closed. Hesitantly, Lucy opened the door and peered inside. Nothing but cushions and blankets covering the floor.

Let's try somewhere else, then, Lucy thought. She walked back to where she came from and now took the second corridor, and stopped by the first room. Indeed, it seemed like a small shop for medicines.

"Um, excuse me?" she asked the witch behind the counter. "Do you have this?" She handed her the parchment.

Taking one look at it, the witch said, "No, we don't. You should go back to the ground floor and try the regular pharmacy."

Lucy gaped at the woman. "But – they sent me here!"

"Well I certainly don't have it," the woman told Lucy, checking her nails. "And I have no idea where else it should be."

And so Lucy trudged back towards the ground floor. Fortunately, she only had to wait twenty minutes now before it was her turn.

"You again?" the clerk asked. "I already told you – "

"To go to the third floor, yes," Lucy said impatiently. She didn't want to be stuck in this place the entire day. It was already driving her crazy. "But they didn't have it there and they sent me back here."

"I already told you, we don't have it here. I was certain they have it on the third floor… did you go to the second corridor or the fourth?"

"You told me to go to the second corridor, so that's what I did."

"Right. Hm, if I were you, I'd try the fourth corridor. Final room to the right. Next?"

Arriving at the third floor once more, Lucy bumped into the woman who had sent her away earlier. "Did you find it?" she asked.

"If I had found it, I wouldn't be here," Lucy replied, trying not to yawn.

"Perhaps you should try the second floor?" the woman suggested. "I know for sure it's not here."

"Not even in the final room to the right in the fourth corridor?" Lucy asked.

"Is that what they told you? No, that's a storage room for food for our patients. I'd go to the second floor if I were you."

So Lucy went to the second floor. "Girl, what are you doing here?" she heard a voice from her right. "You shouldn't be here; there are people with contagious diseases here!"

"I'm looking for this," Lucy said, trying to smile at the tall man standing before her.

The man studied the parchment closely. "Don't they have it on the ground floor?" he asked, surprised. "It's not here, I'm sure of that. Although – you could ask the man behind desk four in the office over there." Lucy made to walk away, but the man stopped her. "Wear this," he said, giving her a face mask. Once her back was towards the man, Lucy rolled her eyes. Nevertheless, she held the mask against her face as she walked towards the office she had been sent to.

Awesome, she thought as she entered the office. As it appeared, there were no numbers on the desks, so she had no idea which was desk four. There was, however, only one person in the room, so she decided to just ask him.

"Is this desk four?" she asked the man, who seemed surprised about seeing her.

"No, this is desk fifteen," he replied politely. "Desk four is currently empty."

"Yes, I can see that," Lucy said, looking towards the desk the man pointed at.

"Oh, I don't mean just now," the man said hastily. "I mean that there's nobody working at desk four today."

"I was told to ask the person at desk four a question," Lucy said deadpanned. This was not her day, at all.

"What sort of question?" the man inquired.

"Whether or not this is available at this floor," Lucy replied, showing him the parchment.

"Hm, I wouldn't know the answer to that," the man said. "But perhaps if you take this," (he gave her a box) "to the pharmacy at the ground floor, they might be able to tell you more."

"I've already been there, twice," Lucy told the man. "But they don't have what's on here."

"Oh really?" the man asked, stuffing the box away again. "You know what, I'll come along with you, then."

Arriving in the pharmacy once more, Lucy was dragged along by the man, who walked towards the counter at once, instead of waiting in the queue. "This young lady needs this, but apparently, you don't have it?" he asked the clerk, who, Lucy noticed, almost rolled his eyes at her.

"No, we don't," he replied.

"Have you even checked?" the other man asked.

The clerk scoffed. "Of course I have. And I told her that she needs to go to the third floor – "

"Oh, nonsense," the other man interrupted him. "There's nothing on that floor except for blankets and food."

"I thought that during the recent reorganisations, there was now a small stock of healing stuff as well there," the clerk said, and the other man thought this over.

"You know, that's very possible. I'd try the third floor," he told Lucy, who, by now, was ready to rip her hair out.

She nodded obediently, though, and walked away again. As it turned out, the final room to the right at the end of the fourth corridor at the third floor was, indeed, a storage room for food, and for medication. The person who sorted through all the supplies told her, however, that they didn't have what she was looking for.

"What's even on this note?" she asked. She could read, by now, what was scribbled on it, but it still didn't make sense.

"It's a facial rejuvenation cream," the woman told her. "A very expensive and a very rare one. I know that we have them somewhere here, but I don't know where. Have you tried desk four in the office on the second floor?"

"Yes, I have," Lucy said, "and it was unoccupied today."

"Oh, that's really unfortunate," the woman said, shaking her head. "I am sure that the person there would've been able to tell you where you can find it. Maybe on the fourth floor – it could be possible that it's there. Good luck."

"Thank you," Lucy replied, forcing herself to smile. After all, this woman only wanted to help.

The fourth floor was a total chaos. According to the sign near the staircases, it was the floor for spell damage. Yes, Lucy could see that.

She wandered into one of the wards and asked the first person she came across, "Excuse me, do you know where I can find this?"

Luckily, it was a Healer, and not a patient, she had chosen to ask this. "I don't – can you even get that here?" the man asked. "I don't recall ever coming across this around this place."

"Oh, right," Lucy said, disappointed. It seemed that he wouldn't be of much help. "Then I'll just ask someone else."

"Maybe you can find it at the first floor, though," the man said, thinking out loud. "First corridor, fourth door to the right."

"Okay, thank you," Lucy said, taking the parchment from him and racing back to the stairs and down to the first floor. Scorpius had better be grateful. The things she did just to talk to him for, what, half a minute? She had to admit, though, that the thought of him was what kept her going. She would've given up ages ago if she had to do this with another motivation.

First floor – first corridor – fourth door. It was locked. Lucy cursed. "Miss, what is wrong?" Lucy turned around and saw a Medi-Witch looking at her with apprehension.

"I need to find something for someone but I can't find it anywhere," Lucy said.

"Let me see," the woman said, taking the parchment from her. "If I were you, I'd ask for this," she continued, quickly writing something on the other side of the parchment, "on the third floor, second corridor, first room at the left."

"Okay," Lucy replied, not completely convinced. "Thank you, I'll try that, then."

The woman already saw her coming. "You again?" she asked sceptically. "I already told you that we have nothing like what you need on this floor."

"I need something else now," Lucy responded, and showed her the parchment.

"Ah… alright," the other woman said. "I do have some of that, yes." She dove into one of the drawers and took out a bottle. "If you take this to the pharmacy on the ground floor, and tell the clerk that you want the cream version of this, he should give you that," she said, pointing at the other side of the parchment, where Astoria's original task was.

"Thank you," Lucy said, smiling. She didn't know how many times she'd already said that today, but it this was one of the only times that she meant it.

She almost ran back to the ground floor, but came to a quick halt when she noticed the sign on the door of the pharmacy. Scooting closer, she read 'Closed for lunch. Back at 1:30'.

"You have got to be kidding me," Lucy said silently to herself. This was madness. Crazy. What had she been thinking, that Astoria would make this easy for her? She glanced at the clock in the main hall. It was almost 1 now. She therefore trudged over to the (now working) elevators, to go to the fifth floor for some lunch. It had been over eighteen hours ago that she had had her last meal. That, and she could really do with some coffee.

At 1:30, Lucy was back downstairs. There wasn't much of a line now, so she didn't have to wait long. When it was her turn, though, another man (one Lucy hadn't seen yet today) suddenly appeared. He and the clerk started chatting animatedly about something or other, while Lucy felt her blood boil. This was unbelievable.

"Sorry," she said, "could you just give me the cream version of this? I'd like to go home, I've been up for over thirty hours and I'm starting to get a little cranky."

The clerk huffed, clearly offended. "There's no need to be so rude," he said obnoxiously loud, making the other people in the queue look up. Lucy was sure, though, that they were mentally strangling the clerk as well. "The cream version of this? Why, yes, here you go. Let me see that – oh, it's already been paid for."

"Why couldn't you just give me this hours ago?" Lucy asked. In all honesty, she didn't know how late she had started, but she felt as if that had been hours ago.

"You can't just walk in here with a piece of parchment, you need a prescription," the man told her, almost glaring at her.

"And you couldn't just tell me that, hours ago?" Lucy asked. What a complete idiot, this man.

"I figured the lady at the third floor would tell you," he said, and now Lucy rolled her eyes.

"Easy, isn't it, putting the blame on others like that?" she muttered, grabbing the cream and walking out. She was not in the mood to banter with this man anymore.

She apparated back to the Malfoy manor, now openly yawning. She could only hope that Astoria would cut her some slack and let her go home to sleep before giving her the next assignment. She snorted immediately. Astoria, cutting her some slack? She might've believed it earlier, but after these past 48 hours, she knew not to believe that.

"Here you go," she mumbled, as the House-Elf that opened the door led her to a room where Astoria was sitting. To Lucy immense pleasure (well, not really), her husband was there too. "Uh – hello, sir." He only looked at her as if she was some filthy and nasty abomination.

"Good, good," Astoria said, smiling at the cream appreciatively. "Now, for you, girl – I want you to go to Knockturn Alley to get us some… things." Both she and her husband smirked at this. "Here's your list, Weasley. Now get out."

Walking out of the manor, Lucy felt more tired than ever before. And it wasn't even over yet. Now she even had to go to Knockturn Alley. She had always been told to stay away from the place – her parents would murder her if they ever found out that she was going there now, she was sure of it.


A/N: So, what do you think? Let me know, please review :)