Chapter 10

Marie sat at her desk, filing reports on immigrated witches and wizards into Italy. It had been three days since Draco's unexpected visit to her house. Her swollen bruise had died down tremendously, just a slight discoloration on her cheek that was easily concealed by foundation. She sighed, noticing the amount of Belgian witches and wizards entering the country, but remembered the current economic crisis they were facing and decided not to place an alert on the flow of immigrants. The levels were about normal, just 5% more than usual, nothing that deserved a high-risk warning. She told a few employees in the department to keep an eye on the immigrant levels, and if it surpassed 15%, then to notify to her.

With that, she could relax for a bit without a worry, at least until the top-secret files on European wizard terrorist movement came in. There had been a few radical groups they had been monitoring, one from Germany, another from Great Britain, and the last from Austria. There had been a group in Italy that she had been monitoring a few months ago, until she gave Magical Law Enforcement the file on them, and they had been squashed underfoot in a matter of days. All in a day's work for Marie Benedetti.

Marie pulled open her drawer and yanked out her copy of the Hippogriff Act and a blank piece of parchment in which she could write notes and her plan on action. As promised, Draco had sent out an emergency team to help eradicate the hippogriff contagion. According to a short message Draco had sent to her the day prior, the camp was making progress, the death toll almost down to nothing, with some hippogriffs showing enough improvement to be "out of the woods". Marie and Draco were scheduled to stop by three days from now, and as far as she knew, the Heads of Magical Creature Control from mostly all the European countries were meeting today to discuss how to put a plug in the epidemic, and quickly. Interrupting her thoughts, Louis came in, his cheeks tinted red, either from the cold or from blushing at Marie's sudden attention on him.

"Um, Signorina Benedetti, you have a visitor," Louis said shyly, before exiting the room very quickly. Marie nodded, and quickly flattened out her skirt, expecting it to be Draco, who would mostly likely taunt her relentlessly if she approached him in a wrinkled skirt. That's when she remembered that their relationship was to remain professional, so maybe she could finally become slightly less tense around his presence. The door opened, and she immediately stood up, but was surprised to see it was not Draco, but Edward O'Brien.

"Marie, how are you?" He exclaimed, wrapping her in an embrace, and kissing her on both cheeks, taking advantage of Italian customs.

She finally broke the embrace and replied happily, "Bene, Edward. I wasn't expecting you here…what brings you to Italy?"

"Mr. Potter offered me to be in charge of the emergency task force sent to help with the hippogriffs. Not how I planned to spend my winter, but when I found out you were the boss of this whole operation, well how could I say no?"

"Well, it's not just me in charge, Edward. It's Draco Malfoy and I,"

"Yes, yes, Draco Malfoy, but seriously, how much do you expect me to believe that the rich pureblood actually does something. He just rides coattails and has done it his entire life." Edward chuckled, placing his hand on her desk to lean casually.

Marie gulped, ran her hand through her hair and muttered, "Well, actually, he's helped…sufficiently."

Edward raised an eyebrow, then finally let out a guffaw, "Oh, Marie, you were always the jokester! It's just like old times." His laughing slowly died out, and he stared straight into her eyes, almost entranced by something that Marie couldn't put her finger on. He curled his arms around her in one quick motion, and went to kiss her, but she slipped out of his arms, pushing hair strands out of her face, her face showing signs of being flustered.

"Edward! This is my office, you can't do things like that here," Marie hissed, glancing out her slightly opened shutters, and was relieved to see that no one saw what had just occurred.

"So…you're saying, there is a place and time for that…just not here?" Edward asked, cocking his head slightly to the left.

"No…I'm saying, there's a reason old times are 'old' times, Edward. There is a reason things didn't work out between us…"

"I know, I was a lack-luster boyfriend, and you didn't want to take things further, and long distance, blah blah blah, but fate has brought us together again, Marie! You think it's just mere coincidence we both were assigned to the same task? As a witch, I would think you would believe in such magic."

"Edward, I don't believe romance in the workplace belongs in a productive environment."

"Please, just let me take you out to dinner, how about after you go to the hippogriff campsite, I take you out for some fine dining. Just as a friendly gesture for getting so involved in this project," Edward suggested, practically begging.

Marie bit her lip, then gave him a quick nod, "Just dinner. As friends, Edward."

"Unless you change your mind," Edward winked, before checking his watch and said quickly, "See you then, Marie." He pulled out his wand, and erupted in a wall of flames, and disappearing from her office.

"He left scorch marks, that idiota." Marie grumbled, taking notice of the patches of black on her carpet.

Louis poked his head in and stated, "I couldn't help but overhear Signore O'Brien asked you out on a date?"

Marie huffed, "Louis, it's inappropriate to engage in office gossip,"

"Oh, I'm sorry Signorina, I-"

"But if you must know, he did, but I established that it is just a friendly dinner, so if you could write down in my agenda that I will be at a dinner with Edward O'Brien from six to around seven or eight, that would be very kind of you," Marie explained, and with that, Louis rushed off into the office to grab her agenda. Marie closed her door, and collapsed in her seat, unsure of what she had just gotten herself into.

And she's back...but wait, there's more. Don't forget to leave a review, comment or share!