A/N:

Hogwarts Auction:
Day 2, Auction 4: (scenario) A is always up late with work related things, one night, A falls asleep and B and C have to fumble through getting the work done for them

Word count: 1,858

Hermione pushed the door open slowly, sticking her head in to look around while keeping the stacks of files in her arms out of sight from anyone inside. At least this door didn't creak. Everything had creaked in their old house, back before she'd been promoted to Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and they'd made the move to a newer one. She slipped in, holding the files down low on the off chance they wouldn't be noticed if someone saw her. If it wouldn't have made her feel even more guilty, she'd have disillusioned them.

She hurried down the hall, hoping to make it to her office before anyone realized she was home, but Ron must have heard her despite her best efforts to keep quiet. He popped out of the kitchen while she was still turning her office's doorknob.

"Hey," he said with a smile. She returned it as well as the kiss that he pressed briefly against her lips. "How was work?"

"As stressful as always," she admitted, readjusting the files in her arms. She'd been trying to move them lower to keep them out of sight, but the movement only drew Ron's attention to them. He raised an eyebrow.

"What are those?" he asked, poking at one of them with an accusing finger.

Hermione shrugged. "Just some stuff from work."

Her nonchalance hadn't worked. She'd known it wouldn't. She sighed as Ron frowned.

"It's the weekend. Work is supposed to be off limits on the weekend," he reminded her.

Hermione groaned. "I know, and I really didn't want to. But Margaret came to my office today and said that the Invisibility Task Force and Muggle Liaison Office both need a rundown on some laws and regulations related to that new hospital that's being built in Manchester. There's been some trouble with a Muggle business that wants to buy the same plot of land. I need to look through the relevant laws and past decisions to draft up a decision on whether we keep pushing forward with that location or look for somewhere else."

Ron sighed. "Can it at least wait until tomorrow? You deserve to rest for one one night. You can't stay up late all week long. Sleep deprivation doesn't help anyone."

Hermione's shoulders slumped. "I know," she admitted. She could feel the effects of how little sleep she'd gotten recently. A healthy work-life balance had been something she'd worked hard to nail down when the kids were small and she wanted to spend as much time with them as possible. She'd thought she'd had it down, but now that Rose and Hugo were older, she was starting to slip back into old habits. "It can wait until tomorrow," she promised. "But it has to be ready to hand off on Monday. I already promised Margaret."

Ron nodded, resigned. "Put it in the office then. I think dinner's almost ready. Hugo's trying some new pasta dish that he's excited for. Something about noodles that are actually zucchini?"

His face scrunched up in confusion, and Hermione couldn't resist pressing a kiss to his cheek.

"Sounds interesting. I'll be back to see what the hype is about as soon as I put these down."

Ron moved his knight and glanced over at Hermione while Rose chose her next move. His wife had curled up in her favourite armchair with a blanket thrown over her lap and a book laid open on the armrest. She'd have looked like the picture of comfort if she hadn't been tapping her fingers against the page and chewing on the inside of her cheek.

He heard Rose place her own piece down in a new square and turned back to the chess game, deciding on his next move as half his attention was still on Hermione. He captured one of Rose's pawns. She cursed, her brow furrowed as she leaned closer to the board. She didn't notice when Ron looked at Hermione again. Hugo, busy playing with the cat on the floor, didn't either.

Hermione glanced up and smiled, and Ron smiled back instinctively. He wanted her to relax, and the fact that she was preoccupied with the work she had to do made him unable to relax either.

He sighed and turned back to the chess board.

"Did you have a relaxing evening?"

Hermione paused with one hand gripping the sheets that she'd been pulling back on the bed. "You were with me all evening. You know I was reading."

Ron shook his head with a chuckle. "I know, but did you actually feel relaxed? Because you looked tense."

Hermioned sighed as she slipped into bed, Ron following after her.

"Maybe not," she admitted, crossing her arms against her chest and leaning against the pillows. "I keep thinking about how much there is to do. I still have to go through several long statutes from the 18th century to find the relevant parts, and then I have to put it all together in a new document to give to Margaret. It makes me anxious knowing how much still needs to be done."

Ron took her hand and gave it a squeeze. He was familiar with the ways Hermione could work herself until she dropped.

"But you have all weekend," he said, kissing the back of her hand before he let it go. "For now, let's get some sleep."

She offered him a small smile as she laid down and closed her eyes.

Ron startled awake. It took him several seconds to work out that Rose was standing over him looking far more awake than he was.

"What is it?" he asked, his words slurring together. A split second later, he realized that the bed next to him was empty.

"Mum is asleep in her office," Rose said in a hushed voice.

Ron's half-asleep mind struggled to catch up. When they'd gone to bed, he'd been sure that Hermione was planning to sleep through the night. He rubbed at his eyes in a desperate attempt to not drift off again.

"Why are you waking me up?" he asked. "Why not your mum?"

Rose shrugged, but she had an answer. "If I wake her up, she's going to start working again, and she does enough of that as it is."

"Okay," Ron said slowly. He squinted up at her as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. "But why wake me up instead of just going back to bed?"

Rose glanced at the door while chewing on the inside of her cheek in the same way Hermione had earlier in the evening when she'd been worrying about work.

"I thought maybe we could help her."

"What?" Ron asked. He didn't know if it was because he was half-asleep, but he didn't understand at all.

"We can do some work for Mum so she has less of it tomorrow."

"It's the middle of the night," he pointed out as if Rose hadn't caught on.

He could see her roll her eyes even with the lack of light. "And Mum will work all day tomorrow if we don't do some of it," she said, crossing her arms against her chest. How much she looked like Hermione in that moment was the main thing that drove Ron out of bed. He groaned as he sat up, but it did help clear the sleep from his head.

"Do you know anything about Ministry zoning laws?" he asked, growing amused now that he was better able to consider the situation.

Rose pouted as if all seventeen-year-old witches should know such things and it was offensive that he'd asked. "No," she said, "but I'm sure we can figure it out."

Ron was less confident of that, but he nodded. Rose wasn't wrong that Hermione was likely to spend most of Saturday holed up in her office, and he wouldn't have been surprised if she found something to do on Sunday as well. It would be a nice surprise to wake up and find some of her work done, even if they only managed to help a little bit.

"Lead the way," he said, motioning for Rose to go.

They were passing Hugo's room as it hit him.

"What were you doing awake?" he whispered.

Even with her back to him, he noticed her nearly stumbled when she heard the question, but she recovered quickly.

"Just getting a glass of water and then going straight back to bed," she said a little too quickly.

"Okay." Ron struggled to hold back a smile and refrained from asking anything more.

"What is Code 14-232?" Rose asked, turning the parchment over several times in her hand as if the answer would light up a different colour and give itself away.

"I don't know." Ron rubbed at his eyes to fight against sleep. They'd been at it a couple hours, and he understood why Hermione had to work so much, not that he hadn't before. "Look through that file there." He motioned at the one laying in front of her on the coffee table. "It might be in there."

She started rifling through the pages. Ron's eyes slipped shut, and he jerked awake. He took a deep breath and looked back at the parchment where he was trying to write out an explanation of the information Rose had already found. He didn't know if what he'd written made sense. Hermione would need to edit it once she was awake to make sure it was presentable, but at least she'd have something to work with instead of doing all the researching and writing herself.

He hoped it was enough. As his eyes slipped shut again, he knew he wasn't going to last much longer.

Hermione jumped awake the moment Ron touched her shoulder. Because of how tired he was, the movement also startled Ron, who took a step backward and almost walked into Rose. Hermione hardly noticed them as she looked down at the desk she'd been leaning on.

"Did I fall asleep?" she asked, her voice high-pitched. "I have so much to do."

"Not as much anymore," Rose said with a giggle. "Dad and I did it for you."

She held out the documents they'd taken to Hermione, who stared at them in surprise. "You what?" she asked, flipping through some of the papers to see what Rose was talking about for herself.

"Rose read through those laws you brought home, and I tried to write something down for you that you can give to Margaret," Ron explained. "It's not perfect, but at least it's something."

Hermione stared at the files in shock, and Rose continued laughing, as much from exhaustion as genuine amusement.

"Now, let's go to bed please," Ron pleaded. "I'm about to pass out on the floor."

Still stunned, Hermione nodded. "How long did this take you?" she asked as they walked down the hall.

"Just a few hours," Rose replied, far too cheerful for the early morning hour.

Hermione exhaled loudly.

"And now we get to sleep!" Rose explained happily.

Ron heard her collapse into her bed just as he closed his and Hermione's own bedroom door.