Lying at the Ministry
A/N: As always, a big thank you goes out to all my reviewers! Thank you! You're really appreciated and it's all of you that keep me motivated. To those of you that don't review, ah, well…I'm not in the mood to go on in a furious tirade about it. I just saw Harry Potter. Poor Percy.. Hope you enjoy the next chapter! I know it's kind of short, but I'll try to get the next one up as soon as possible.
Mr. Crouch stood in front of the room where a meeting was being held and went on about how the wizarding economy had dropped two points and about how the ministry should be focusing on that instead of faulty wands. Percy merely nodded and commented in all the right places, shook his head in unison with the rest of the room in all the correct moments, his mind somewhere else entirely.
After they were all assigned an extra project, they all left the meeting, returning to their offices.
All, that is, except for Percy Weasley, who picked up his folder and walked out of the heavily carpeted room and into the corridor, heading for the front desk.
.
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After the Forbidden Forest incident, Professor Alectrice had insisted that they both go up to the infirmary to see Madam Pomfrey, who immediately blew the whole thing out of proportion.
"You could have DIED! You could have been BITTEN! Who knows what could have happened!?" she raged as she fussed over them, rapidly moving around her infirmary getting a potion for both of them.
Percy and Kristen, both still very pale-faced from what went on in the forest looked down at their glasses full of a violet sort of liquid that Madam Pomfrey had insisted they drink.
"But..we told you, we didn't get bitten," protested Kristen in a rather small voice. Madam Pomfrey, however, would have none of it.
"You'll do as you're told and drink it," she said sharply and, not wanting to argue, both Percy and Kristen tilted their heads back and drank that foul-smelling potion.
Lowering their glasses, Percy tried to keep back a gag and gritted his teeth. It tasted as a sort of cross between garlic and gave him the impression that it contained a bit of tree bark in it.
Madam Pomfrey, however, didn't notice as she went rambling on about the sort of detentions the professors and caretaker were giving out these days.
"I'm going downstairs to see Professor Snape about an ingredient I'm running low on. Now, you two, stay here! I'll be right back!" Madam Pomfrey screeched on as she disappeared down the corridor.
Whether from the effects of the potion, or perhaps just from the revolting taste of it, both Percy and Kristen had the color back in their faces and were feeling more or less like their usual selves again, if you didn't include the nauseous feeling in the pit of their stomachs.
Perhaps it was a side-effect of the potion, or perhaps it was just that in each other's presence, that they felt more adventurous that after checking for Madam Pomfrey, Kris and Percy grinned at each other and, without a word, sprinted out of the infirmary and down the school's empty hallways.
The next day, the two were able to be seen walking everywhere together. Two people couldn't go through being hunted down by a vampire – and surviving by killing it – together and not grow to be best friends, and that's exactly what happened between them. The rest of the semester went on normally (Or as normally as it can possibly be at Hogwarts) until Christmas came upon them.
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Arriving at the front desk after what seemed like hours of climbing down stairs, Percy dropped his folder on the counter and waited for the clerk to acknowledge him.
He stood there watching the clerk from behind his glasses, the clerk scribbling away at some piece of parchment that Percy could not see the name of.
Shifting his weight from one foot to another, Percy looked around the lobby of the building, trying to kill some time.
It was a fairly large lobby, a maroon couch on Percy's right, over a darkly shaded navy blue carpet. The carpet went throughout the entire office, and on the end of the other side of the room, an enchanted plant of some sort that Percy assumed was not native to Britian as he didn't recognize it. Just in front of the glass doors, Percy could just make out a young woman and one of the office officials, and behind them there were three posts, each marked with a different letter, either "A", "B", or "C". They used these for apparating points. A little way off, there was a sort of parking lot except, being in a wizarding city, they were used for brooms rather than for cars.
A soft clearing of the throat made Percy turn around to face the front desk again. The clerk flashed him a charming smile, "Yes?", she asked.
At once, Percy picked up his professional manner and tone of voice and curtly asked her, "Yes, I would like to know if anyone applied for a vacant position recently?" he asked, rather than stated.
"Well," the clerk, began, sinking back into her chair and reaching out, quickly locating a file. After skipping through it a few moments, she replied, "We had one person apply for a job as a reporter two days ago, one for a personal secretary about a week and a half ago, a job at Gringotts yesterday, a job in the Control and Extermination of Vampiric Creatures a week ago – "
"Wait!!" Percy suddenly shouted, causing the people at the doorway to turn around. Percy, though oblivious to this, hushed his voice and pressed against the matter further. "What was the name of the person who applied," he asked, unable to hide a tremor of anxiety in his voice.
"I'm sorry," said the clerk, in a cold, automatic tone of voice rather much like the ones muggle telemarketers use. "That's classified information." "You don't understand," Percy growled, leaning further up against the counter, his icy-blue eyes piercing into the clerk's now wide, dark brown ones. "It's for person-" he paused, an inspiration suddenly flooding his mind.
Clearing his throat, Percy stood up straight, fished in his pocket and drew out his identification card, showing it to the clerk. "Confidential Ministry business," he lied, the familiar matter-of-fact tone back in his voice. "We are searching for a certain young lady, applied for a job here recently and we would like to find her," he continued, placing the I.D. back in his pocket.
The clerk blinked a couple of times, then looked down at the file as if thinking the matter over.
Percy tried hard not to blink and look nervous, as he didn't know if this was going to work and was completely aware of how much trouble he could get into for doing something like this.
Finally, the clerk looked up. "..Her name's Mimswell," pausing, she looked over Percy's shoulder, at the two chatting in front of the doorway.
"Oh…well, she's over there," she sat back into her chair. "I suppose you'd want to talk to her yourself."
But Kristen, (For, indeed, it was her at the door) had already nodded good-bye to the ministry official and was turning, heading out the door.
Percy pushed himself off the counter and dashed afterward, startling the official whom Percy narrowly missed as he rushed out the door.
Catching up to her a few yards from the entrance to the building, he stopped and called out, "Excuse me!"
The woman turned around, her raven-colored hair falling back into place over her deep plum sweater, a flicker of recognization mirrored in her pale grey eyes as she surveyed her caller.
Percy reached up, brushing a vivid strand of hair out of his face.
"Hello, Kristen," he said, in a calm, neutral tone of voice.
