She made sure she had her wand to aid any eavesdropping she might find herself doing.
Chapter 7: Eavesdropping and the File
Ginny, Ianna, and Percy flooed in to his work. After procuring guest passes for Ginny and Ianna, they took the stairs to his office. Ianna was impressed. Percy must have been high up in the chain of command because his office was huge and filled with employee of the month plaques. She gasped as she looked at the desk. It was a beautiful cherry wood. She sighed with longing. She had always had a thing for desks.
"Okay, you guys stay in here while I go find…someone." Percy said rearranging a stack of paper and then walking out the door. Thinking quickly, Ianna said, "I'm going to go find a bathroom. I think I saw one down the hall. It might take me awhile. I saw one of my dad's coworkers I want to chat with. If Perce comes back tell him where I am, k?" Ginny gaped as the door closed then closed her mouth. She shrugged and walked to Percy's big comfortable chair. It might be a long day.
Ianna quickly followed Percy down the hall. She hid behind a tree when she saw Percy go into Burns' office. He was the man that had come to help take her father away last night! Why did Percy want to talk to him? Well, whatever it was they were talking about, they had both walked out and were well on their way down the hall. She didn't want to risk the open stretch of hallway between her and them and instead chose to snoop about Burns' office. He didn't have a big office…nor was it as neat as Percy's. On his desk there were many files. She smiled wickedly. Easy snooping this was to be. She carefully rummaged through the files and gasped when she came upon a plain manila envelope with her father's name on it. She picked it up and was about to open it when she heard footsteps come down the hall. Quickly she stuffed it inside her robes and ran out into the hallway. The man Burns was almost within hearing range of her and he was certainly close enough to see where she had come from. She quickly said something about looking for a bathroom then ran off in the direction of Percy's office.
When she reached it she saw Percy storming out followed by Ginny. When he saw her, his expression lightened. "Where were you?" he said lightly grabbing her arm.
"He was worried." Ginny announced winking in her direction. Ianna giggled nervously.
"I saw one of my dad's friends and I was saying hello. Sorry I worried you. Can we go window shopping now?" Ianna asked speeding her walk towards the steps. Percy and Ginny quickly followed. They walked out onto the street and stopped at the first shop they saw. It was a formal robe shop. Percy volunteered to go across the street and get drinks for them while Ginny and Ianna looked around. Ginny was looking at a particular black formal robe with silky fabric.
"Try it on!" Ianna said. Ginny protested weakly but followed Ianna back to the dressing rooms. She came out and Ianna clapped her hands. Ginny was truly stunning in the robe and Ianna was happy to supply Ginny with it. Ginny went back in the dressing room to change. "Hey, Ginny...Hand me the robe. I'll go put it up while you get dressed." Ianna grabbed the robe over the door and ran to the cash register. Quickly she handed the clerk enough money for the dress and delivery then gave the guy the address for the dress to be flooed to. She wrote out a note to pin to the dress so that Mr. and Mrs. Weasley wouldn't freak out when they saw it. Ianna had just finished and the clerk had just gone back into the back when Ginny reappeared. They walked to the front and met Percy at the door. Ginny feeling discouraged about their lack of money asked to go home and Ianna agreed. She wanted to hide Ginny's gift and read the contents of the manila envelope. They all went back to Percy's office building. Ianna saw Burns out of the corner of her eye as she was the last to floo out. She hoped he wouldn't have noticed his missing file.
When they reached the house, Ginny went outside to find Fred and George while Ianna got the dress from Mrs. Weasley who was very concerned about what the dress was for. "It's a gift. For Ginny" Ianna kept insisting. Finally she got permission to give it to her on her birthday. That meant she had to hide it for three weeks. She went to Percy's room to talk to him about it. Temporarily forgetting about the envelope.