Title: De Capo Al Fine, "Adagio" (part 1)
Author: Lea ( enyaleayahoo.com )
Disclaimer: I don't own the lovelies, but I do own the plot.
Everything else (with the exception of a few noted characters) is copyright J.K Rowling and her publishers, etc, etc, etc...
Rating: PG right now, will be higher later on.
Summary: Through a bit of chance, Percy realizes that life is not nearly as illustrious as he expected it to be; nor are his illustrious employers as aloof and inhuman as they seem. Books, as Percy knows so well, cannot be judged by their covers- he has yet to learn that the same applies to people.
Feedback: Always welcome.
Notes: 'lo. Delurking to post a fic. It's my birthday (or at least it was on the 8th when I tried posting this the first time), and I figured I would share the love- or at least, a prelude to it. grin All the same, hope you enjoy. This is the first of several movements, which should be posted every Thursday, or thereabouts.

Lea

Adagio

Percy sighed, throwing yet another file into his out box. He glanced at the clock on his wall and groaned. It was only three, and he had finished his entire workload for the day. Sometimes efficiency was a living hell. This meant that today, like nearly every other day that week, he would be Fudge's shadow.

As much as he hated to admit it, life at the ministry was far more boring than he had expected- his father had more to do than Percy did, and Percy was only two steps down from the very top of Ministry hierarchy. Slow, was the best way he could think to describe it.

He supposed he could rearrange his desk again, or even re-catalog his filing cabinets. But no, he had done both of those tasks the day before. His office was spotless. Nothing needed cleaning or rearranging...there would be no putting it off this time.

"Weasley, good, you're here," Fudge caroled, suddenly appearing in Percy's doorway.

Percy stifled a groan. "Minister," he replied, smiling and standing respectfully. "What can I do for you, sir?"

"It's more a question of what I want you to do."

Percy blinked. "Sir? I'm afraid I don't understand..."

Fudge moved inside and slid into the chair across the desk from Percy. "How long have you been working here, Weasley?"

"For you, sir, two years, for the ministry almost four."

"And in that time, how many projects have you been seriously assigned?"

"Sir?"

Fudge smiled. "Calm down, Weasley. I'm not firing you."

Percy noticeably relaxed. "I'm afraid I still don't follow your reasoning, sir."

"I'm assigning you to a case, Weasley. A rather sensitive one. You've proved your mettle as a secretary, a figurehead- now it's time to see how you work in the field."

"The field, sir," Percy repeated slowly.

"Mmm," Fudge nodded. "Look around you, Weasley- you've finished your day's work before nine, when most people are only getting started, and you've only been here for an hour and a half."

"Sir, I could simply be breezing through it, doing a poor job..." He trailed off at Fudge's disgusted look.

"According to my sources, Weasley, you've never done half a job and left it at that in your entire life.

"But-"

Fudge held up a hand. "And I have very reliable sources, Weasley."

A picture of his mother ran through Percy's mind, and he couldn't help but blush a bit. "So what did you have in mind, Minister?"

"A mark has been placed on a girl you went to school with- your old girlfriend, I believe. We think you'd be the ideal person to place as her watcher' as it were."

"Penelope Clearwater, sir?"

Fudge nodded. Percy couldn't help but feel that Fudge was putting him on- whoever heard of the Minister of Magic broadcasting new agent assignments where anyone could overhear them?

"What exactly is a watcher', sir?"

Fudge shot him an exasperated look. "How can you be so brilliant and so stupid at the same time, Weasley?"

"Um...just lucky, I suppose, sir."

"Well, Weasley, be that as it may, you will find all that out in due course," Fudge stood and placed a business card in Percy's inbox. "Contact these people, they will set up an appointment to meet with you as soon as is convenient." From the look Fudge shot him, Percy got the impression that the Minister expected it to be immediately convenient, at least on his end.

And then Fudge was gone, before Percy could say a word. Although at that point in time he wasn't sure if he wanted to say thank you, or that Fudge could go to hell and take his presumptions with him.

He settled on silence, procuring the card from his tray and drafting a note to the name he found therein. Once that much was done, he headed for the communications department, hoping they had a free owl. He left Hermes at home, rather than bring him to work and have everyone in the department running him ragged.

"Hello, Percy, what do you need?" Lindsay, an unusually pretty blonde witch, greeted him. She had the rather amusing habit of flirting with Percy every time he stepped into the Communications office. Whereas he was lucky if any other female in the building acknowledged his existence.

He smiled wryly. "Hello, Lindsay. I need an owl, if you can spare one."

"Of course," She smiled, jotting his request down on a notepad, tearing off the order, and handing it to a waiting intern. "So,

Percy," She leaned forward over the desk, giving the impression of

an intimate conversation in the making. "I was thinking, I have

reservations at a restaurant tonight- Thai food. I was wondering if perhaps you'd like to come? Purely casual of course…" she trailed off significantly, raising her eyebrows.

"Scuse me, Linds- Percy, I have that owl for you."

Percy could have kissed the intern. "Thank you, Adam," The intern winked as he walked away. Lindsay was notoriously randy, and it seemed that perhaps Percy had found a savior in the enemy's camp.

He made a show of attaching his note to the owl's leg, telling the white-faced Barn owl the address before handing him back to Lindsay.

"So what say you?"

Percy bit his lip, running the offer through his mind. On the one hand, he knew that once Lindsay got her tenterhooks in him, he'd be lucky if she ever let go. On the other, if he didn't go, he'd just be sitting at home reading with his owl and his cat for company, as he had done nearly every night before. Oh, what the hell, he'd go and damn the consequences.

"All right. When and where?"

The look on Lindsay's face was rather like a stunned cat- somewhere between blank and so surprised couldn't speak. "Oh, well, it's the Garden, that new place on the edge of Diagon Alley. Is six-thirty all right with you?"

"Yes, that's fine," He had shopping to do, anyway. "I'll see you there, then." And he turned and strode out the door, leaving Lindsay completely off-balance and looking it. Sometimes it was fun to scare the hell out of people.

Percy sipped at his wine gingerly, smiling at Lindsay. "This is really quite nice," he offered quietly. She smiled back mutely, poking at her pad Thai with a fork. The table lapsed once more into silence.

"Percy," She murmured finally.

"Hmm?"

"This is completely forced isn't it?" She smiled at him warmly, setting her fork down. "You've got something on your mind."

"How can you tell?"

She laughed, picking up her own wineglass. "Percy, I've been after you for nearly a year. You think my surveillance is restricted to the Communications office? I've watched you, Percy. I probably know how to read you better than members of your family."

Percy had to smile at that. "True."

"So what is it?"

"You truly want to know?" He searched Lindsay's face as she nodded. "My job, if you want the truth."

"What do you mean? Your job is more secure than anyone else's is- including the Minister position itself."

"Not so much that," Percy sighed. "Working at the ministry is nothing like what I envisioned."

"It never is," she offered. "You think I dreamed of working in the Communications department? I'm a glorified secretary, Percy- I send owls all day long. If something happens- and it hardly ever does- I write the press release. That is the long and short of my job."

Percy digested this before he responded. "But you're a department head," Lindsay snorted. "All right, I see your point."

"What was your point?"

"I'm not doing anything. I joined the ministry to do things, not sit around writing reports about doing things, talking about it, and spending my spare time imagining it. I thought if I was going to be part of something important. Instead I write reports on universalizing the thickness of cauldron bottoms that no person will ever read or otherwise pay attention to," he concluded bitterly.

"But you were a judge at the Triwizard tournament- that has to hold that you have some modicum of authority."

"Authority isn't the point. The point is accomplishing something for the greater good, not just for the good of Fudge's filing cabinets." Lindsay chuckled and Percy smiled ruefully. "I'm not living up to my potential," he explained, spreading his hands in an image of defeat.

Lindsay studied him carefully, running the tip of her finger around the edge of her wineglass. "And who set these standards that you try so ardently to live up to? Who told you what, exactly, your potential was?"

Percy started then stared, not quite sure how to respond. "Well," he faltered, thinking. "I...I suppose I did."

A grin broke out across Lindsay's face. "You will do, Mr. Weasley. You will do quite well."

"Excuse me?"

"Here," Lindsay handed him a card as she stood. Percy instinctively leapt to his feet, although he was still bewildered as to what had just happened. Lindsay smiled. "You passed the first test, Percy."

"Test," he repeated numbly.

"Yes, test. Now, someone will be by your flat in the morning to explain a few things. In the meantime, sit down and finish that pad Thai you ordered, it's already been paid for. You're going to need the strength," She smiled again and patted his shoulder. "Good night, Percy. And good luck."

"Thank you," he replied as she walked away. He sat down again, not quite sure what had just happened, but sure that after that meal, nothing in his life was going to be the same.

End part I.