Chapter 20

Draco arrived at the Ministry of Magic from the Guest's Entrance, sighing to himself. This is it, he thought as he walked along the grand hallway. It was lunch time, so there were more wizards on their way out, and Draco stayed on the left side, where there were only a few wizards entering the Ministry. It's either she's in here or it's the end of the line for me.

The past week had been so hectic that although Gemini had been in his mind almost frequently, Draco could not afford to look for her at the time. Harry Potter and a few other Aurors did an inspection on his home and Malfoy Apothecary's headquarters, and the search was interfering with the office. Draco and Harry were not on speaking terms, but Harry was kind enough to explain that there was a smuggled Dark Artifact—which Draco presumed must have been very dark if they had several Aurors hunting it down—and Draco was suspected to have smuggled it. Though Draco felt insulted that he would have been named a suspect, he begrudgingly allowed them to look into his property, knowing very well he had nothing to hide—or at least, nothing hidden in his house. Harry had thanked Draco for his cooperation, finding nothing to implicate Draco of what he was looking for, and went on his way.

That was last Saturday, and now Draco could finally find out if his cousin's location was within his reach.

Draco stopped at the elevators, looking at the list of levels nearby, and realized he was at a standstill. He realized that though he knew that Gemini's record would have landed her a position in the Ministry with Slughorn's help, he realized there were so many options for her to go on. She wasn't in the Slytherin Quidditch team, but did she like sports and ended up in the Department of Magical Games and Sports? Was she in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement with Potter and Granger? Was she an Unspeakable? Was she a junior assistant to Minister Shacklebolt? Maybe I didn't think this plan through...Draco thought ruefully.

An elevator opened and several wizards exited the car and made their way to the exits. He wasn't going to wait all day in the hopes he would get a glimpse of her leaving the elevators. There were guards roaming the Atrium, and Draco knew it would look suspicious of him to be sitting by the elevators the entire day.

His answer came in the form of an information booth not far away, which was blocked by a group of moving wizards that he only saw it. This is it, Draco. Remember the plan. He approached one witch behind the counter.

"Good afternoon sir." The witch said in an almost bored voice. "How can I help you?"

"Good afternoon. I'd like to send a line to—" Before Draco could say her name, he paused and looked at a paper. "Well, the thing is, Professor Horace Slughorn suggested this recent graduate from Hogwarts that I should take an interest in for hiring at my company, but I'm afraid I forgot to take note of where she worked, though Professor Slughorn only mentioned she works here."

"Oh, that's fine." The witch said as she pulled out a sheet of paper from one of the cubby holes nearby. "If you could just give me the name of this employee sir…"

"Gemini Ridley."

"Gemini Ridley…one moment please…" She said as she opened a large brown books. Reading it upside down, Draco could faintly make out that the book was filled with tables of names of Ministry Employees and where they could be found. I could have just asked her where Gemini was, that'd make things so much easier.

Behind him, he heard several elevators ring, one after the other, and the Atrium got noisier with the sounds of people heading out to lunch. Draco tried to ignore the noise as he noticed that the witch was frowning. "I'm sorry sir, but there's no memo line for Ms. Gemini Ridley."

It was like a slap to the face. So she's not here… He thought, though he was certain a second ago that there was no other place she could have ended up in. I guess not. "Oh, very well. I see."

"Yes, well, there are no memo lines for interns, you see."

His heart sank. "Okay, thank you very much for your…" He felt his heart leap from his gut all the way to his throat. Wait, an intern? "She's here?"

"At the Department of Magical Law Enforcement." She double checked the book. "She's currently under the Witch Watcher's Division, so if you want to send her a letter, I'm going to address it to the Head of that department and he can give her the letter. Though if it's a job offer, I think it'd be more appropriate if you just talk to her personally."

This is it! Draco thought excitedly. It was all he could do to keep a calm exterior. The elevator nearest him dinged, and the Atrium grew as loud as his mind. "Very well. Is there any way for you to contact Ms. Ridley?"

"It's lunch break for most offices, sir." The witch replied. "I'll contact the reception upstairs to check if Gemini Ridley is still there, but if not, then I'm afraid you'll have to wait until one-thirty—that's when lunch time ends."

Even better, Draco thought. He nodded and the witch moved to write a note. His search was now complete. The only thing missing now, he thought, is finally seeing her after all this time.

"Excuse me." A voice behind Draco said. He turned around, freezing on the spot as he recognized the dark hair and pale skinned-girl.

"Hi, I'm Gemini Ridley." Gemini said, extending her hand out to him. "I was getting out of the lift when I heard you were looking for me."