As soon as it was 1.00 on Friday, Hermione nipped out of the
building sharpish, before anyone could spot her and ask her to run a
message or fetch them a quill or something. She Apparated in Diagon
Alley and made her way to Florean Fortescue's.

Ron hadn't arrived so she pulled out her appointment list and
studied it. At 1.35 she had to take the minutes at a meeting, at 2.15
there were errands that needed running, at-

"Hey, Hermione." Ron had turned up. "How's your day been?"

Hermione shrugged. They made their way up to the desk. She
ordered a small vanilla cone. Ron gaped at her.

"That's your WHOLE lunch? I couldn't feed Pig with that!"

Hermione had to look right through her pockets before she could
find enough money to pay. Ron ordered a vanilla cone too. "I thought
you were astounded at how tiny they are?" she asked, eyebrows raised.

"Yeah, but..." Ron muttered for a bit and eventually shut up.

They sat down at the front of the place. Ron snuck Hermione a
slightly guilty look as she gave her ice cream a dainty lick.

"Anything interesting happen at the Daily Prophet?" inquired
Hermione.

"I wouldn't have a clue. I work in the back of the place."

Now it was Hermione's turn to sneak a look at Ron. What's the
matter with us, she thought unhappily. We used to have so much to talk
about!

Ron was looking thoughtful. "But... something really funny
happened this morning."

"What?"

"Well, this guy called Dan Skriker... he was writing this
incredibly intense letter to his girlfriend, and our foreman was
coming, so he shoved it out of sight. When the foreman left, he
suddenly realised that he'd put it into one of the Prophets!"

Hermione gasped, then began to laugh. "Oh, no! Was he able to
find it? What happened?"

"That was the funny part, see- he didn't know which one! And
then about six of us, y'know, all his mates, we were practically
tearing those Prophets apart, trying to find it. We managed to, it was
me, actually. We thought we'd pay him back a bit, for causing us all
that worry, so I started reading it aloud."

"That must have been very funny."

"Oh, God, was it!"

Hermione was really starting to enjoy herself. This was just
like when they were teenagers and they hung about in places like this.

But when Hermione next looked at her watch, she nearly screamed.
She was twenty minutes late for work!

"Oh, no! No!"

"What?"

"Dear God, I'm twenty minutes late! Percy's going to kill me!"

She snatched up her bag and waved a hurried goodbye before
Diapparating. She really did feel like a teenager- a stressed out
thirteen year old with way too much homework to finish.

Percy was waiting for her when she stumbled into the meeting.
"Hermione, this really isn't acceptable. You're twenty minutes late!"

"I'm sorry Per- Mr Weasley." She had a stitch in her side that
felt about the size of Canada. AND she'd almost called him Percy.
It felt really weird calling Percy, 'Mr Weasley'. Everyone was staring
at her.

"Hermione Granger- if you can't present yourself properly to
your colleagues then you have no business to work alongside them.
Someone else can take the minutes, you... you... well, just go and do
something beneficial and USEFUL."

She went out of the meeting room and back to her office.
Hermione collapsed into her chair and put her head down on her arms.
She stayed like that for at least twelve seconds. Hermione sat up,
took a deep breath and said in a fierce voice, "Well- I'm crummy at
taking the minutes anyway!" This didn't exactly comfort her.

Well, at least she could get a head start on all her other
jobs. Hermione reached inside her bag for her appointment list- and
realised with a thrill of despair that it wasn't there. I probably left
it in Florean Fortescue's, she thought hopelessly.

She knew it would be useless to go back and look for it. They
had probably thrown it away.

When WAS she supposed to start those errands? Would it matter
if she started them early? How many were there? What sort?

Hermione had a LOT of re-organising to do...