Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures
Office of Department Head Quentin Quigley
September 10, 2010
"Well Hermione, I admit that I'm surprised to see you here. Have matters over there in the legal division grown as bad as the rumors I've heard?"
Not wanting to cast a bad light on her former colleagues, she shrugged. "Things haven't been the same since Master Allbright left, and I feel like I've been drifting, career wise. That's the best way I can describe it," she said.
"Understandable sentiment. We here at the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures would be most pleased to have you back. Your enhanced legal background will be of great help here, not to mention a slightly higher rate of pay. You were an asset in your previous time with us, and I'm sure you'll continue in an exemplary manner."
At the dining room table that evening, she helped him sort through a stack of photographs to match their case files. He often brought work home, and she didn't mind helping him out every once in a while.
"So, back to where you started?" Harry asked.
"Apparently so," Hermione said, pouring cups of tea as the timer from the kitchen sounded.
"Just keep an eye out for those rabbits," he quipped.
"Very funny, I'm laughing on the inside. I won't actually be messing around with anything furry, scaly, spiked, or slimy. My biggest danger will be paper cuts."
With a wink, she flicked a photo at his face and left the table. He saw movement from the corner of his eye from Maddie's cot. He rose and went to the cot to see her lift her head for a few seconds then relax.
"Love, the baby lifted her head!" he called out.
She poked her head from the kitchen. "Really?"
She came into the dining room with a steaming casserole dish and put it on the table. She joined him and lifted the baby from the cot. "That's our girl! Look at you, next you'll be talking!" Hermione gushed. "Get my mobile, I need to call mum!"
The next morning, Hermione reacquainted herself with the Magical Creatures department members and expanded library. A clerk directed her to her office and asked if she wanted a cup of tea, while another clerk came into her office with a stack of files. Her mobile rang and she gestured for her to lay them on the desk while she answered the call.
"How's it going? Any rabbits yet?" Harry asked from the other end.
She rolled her eyes. I'm never going to live that down!
"Getting settled in, just had a stack of files placed on my desk," she said and thanked the clerk that brought tea.
"Joining me for lunch?" he asked.
"Of course," she replied. "Any problems when you dropped Maddie off?"
"No, but Molly was amazed that she was lifting her head already. At only a month," Harry said, mimicking Molly's voice so uncannily that it made Hermione giggle.
"Well, mum did say that Evie and I developed kind of early," Hermione said.
Harry had to hold the mobile away from his ear when a screech and sound of breaking glass was heard, then silence from Hermione's end. He took off from his office at a run.
Harry didn't know what to expect when he arrived at the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures foyer, but it damn sure wasn't arriving breathless to a room of laughing wizards and witches chasing books across the floor. Tattered papers and tipped over waste baskets completed the scene of chaotic merriment.
"Ah hah! Got you!" he heard from Hermione.
Every paused what they were doing when they saw Harry standing at the door.
"Did someone call the Aurors for this?" someone called out.
"Don't be silly, why someone would call- Harry!" Hermione said and appeared in the foyer rubbing the spine of a large book.
"Lunch?" he asked.
"Yes, that would be a good idea," Mr. Quigley announced to the room. "All right everyone, take an early lunch…except for Simmons and Walters. They have a mess to clean up."
"What the bloody hell happened in there?" Harry asked when they paid for their lunch and settled at a table.
Hermione waved at someone, took a bite of her sandwich, and shrugged. "I have no idea. Simmons and Walters are new, so they probably brought them in by mistake."
"Never a dull moment, huh?" he asked.
"Not in this Ministry, no."
Harry's mobile rang, so he looked at the caller identification. He pushed the button to end the call.
"You didn't want to answer?" she asked.
"Um…it's someone who keeps calling wanting to sell me some useless stuff, I'm not interested," he said.
"Just block his number, that way it won't ring," she said.
He looked at his watch and stood. "Look at the time!"
She stopped chewing and looked at him curiously. "I forgot about a meeting I had!" he exclaimed.
"Love, you really need some kind of organizer," she said.
"I know, sorry about doing a bunk like this," he said and kissed her cheek.
"Take your sandwich," she said and handed it to him.
He got back to his office and returned the call he received at lunch.
"Hullo, McBride's Magical Manors, how can I help you?" a cheery female voice asked.
"Harry Potter returning a call," Harry answered.
"Let me transfer you," she said.
Seconds later, a gruff-sounding deep brogue was heard. "Aye, Master Potter, good to be hearing from you. I just wanted to let you know that we finished the foundation for the manor."
"Already?" Harry asked.
"Well, with a very generous bonus if we finished by the holidays on the line, we're making extra efforts; even hired some more help. All the boys are excited to be working for the hero of our world and his pretty wife."
"So I can come and look?" Harry asked.
"O'course. It's your land and home."
"Great! I'll be out there this afternoon," Harry said.
When he arrived to the land, the workers were covering the foundation, as it looked like rain. He was pleased at the progress. In his mind's eye, he could see a manor with the solarium and dining room twenty meters from the picturesque stream. He glanced up, picturing the master bedroom, where a large bay window would overlook the stream. He strolled around the rest of the foundation, picturing babies' nurseries, a cozy parlor, and a kitchen his Hermione would die for. She was making it work in the smallish kitchen at Grimmauld Place and didn't complain, but he knew she wanted bigger and better.
Or just outlandish and stupidly big, with a deluxe chef's range cooker and double ovens, as he had heard her once say to Ginny.
That's exactly what she would get.
September 18, 2010
She rubbed her eyes and looked at the clock. She looked at Maddie napping in her desk-side cot, then at Arwen dozing under the cot. From the corner of her eye, she saw Crooks dash across the front garden. She put her fingers to the keys again and read the last sentence on the screen.
She had never seen a Wizard like the one standing before her now.
She had written an untold number of essays and papers while at Hogwarts. She had successfully written dozens of case briefs for work, and articles for various Wizarding publications. Now that she was trying her hand at something fun and imaginative, she seemed to have the worst case of writer's block ever. The first three chapters had come along swimmingly, but the tale had come to a blinding halt in the middle of chapter four.
The decision to try and break into the romance writer's market wasn't made on a whim. She had first encountered the novels at Hogwarts when they were occasionally left in the Gryffindor Common Room. Titles such as Love's Sweet Curse and A Wizard of Her Own were read faithfully by many Hogwarts girls, but Hermione could barely make it through the first chapter. If they didn't belong to someone, they might have made a trip to the fireplace. Nowadays, when she picked up Maddie from the Weasley home, she noticed that Molly had a small library of various bodice-rippers, including the latest craze, The Southern Coven Chronicles, which had been on the best seller list for the past two years.
However, this wasn't something that Hermione wanted notoriety for. Harmony Rivers (a good pseudonym) would get the notoriety, not Hermione Potter. If anyone who knew the scholastic, studious Hermione had written a bodice-ripper, she would never live it down. It would be worse than the were-rabbit incident. She was certain that if people read it, they would forever wonder if the erotica she wrote was based on real-life or fantasy…and if they thought it was based on real-life…people would never look at the Potters the same way again. She couldn't put Harry through that.
An owl arrived to the kitchen window, so she told Arwen to stay while she retrieved the post. It was hard for the sweet dog, but she was finally learning to calm down when owls made their appearance. She came back into her office with the post and flipped through it. There was a Frequent Customer Coupon from Flourish and Blotts, newspaper subscription renewal notice, and a rather thick envelope from McBride's Magical Manors. Well, he was talking about getting remodeling estimates for this place. She shrugged and put the envelope on the sideboard in the dining room, where Harry liked to collect his post.
"I'm home!" Harry called out and hung his jacket on the coat rack.
"Have fun?" Hermione asked and greeted him with a kiss.
"Chudley lost…again, but it was fun," he said.
"I'll get you a snack, just let me get the baby changed first," she said.
He went to the dining room and passed the side board where his post was placed and almost passed it by, until a parcel from McBride's Magical Manors caught his eye. He snatched the parcel from the table and started to stuff it down his pants until he realized that Hermione must have already seen it, because it was put in a pile with his post. He saw that it was unopened and leaned against the wall in relief. Bless her non-curious heart this once!
Late that night, Harry woke and reached for Hermione, but she wasn't there. He sat up, slipped on his pants, and followed the sounds of Hermione typing on her laptop in her office.
"Love—" he said but was interrupted by her muted screech and turning around in her chair so fast she almost fell from it.
"Harry!" she hissed. "You scared me to death!"
He held his hands up in surrender, but wondered why she quickly closed the laptop. "Sorry, just wondering why you were out of bed at three in the morning, typing."
"Work."
"Work?"
She nodded.
He narrowed his eyes at her. "Work?"
She nodded again. "I'll be right up...just need to save what I've done so far."
Something wasn't right, and he knew it. It wasn't a bad something, just a curious something.
"Okay, see you in a bit," he said and left the office, quickly summoning his invisibility cloak from the corridor wardrobe.
He donned it and crept back into the office, where she was furiously typing until she paused, tapped her forehead, and continued typing. He crouched to see what she was so focused on and had to bite his tongue not to laugh at what he saw. He left the office and put his cloak back in the wardrobe. He settled back into bed, wondering what had brought on Hermione's sudden new hobby. Why did she do it in secret? Did she just sit around and think that stuff up? He would find out, because he was good at finding things out.
