I made it to Week 4! This week, "birthday" was our challenge, in honor of our favorite insufferable know-it-all.


September 19, 2019

She knew she should have called in sick today.

She'd always felt so smug and superior when other women had fussed over turning forty. Why should women be ashamed of their age? Wisdom and experience were beautiful things, after all. Women reached their sexual peak in middle age, after all! It would be time to relax, and travel, and really enjoy being married without the cares and inconveniences of children at home. She'd rather been looking forward to it...until the divorce.

Oh, she'd tried to seem as if she were enjoying her party. Her interns had worked so hard to pull off a surprise birthday luncheon, and seemed to think that they'd hit on just the thing to cheer her up. She'd been rather down in the few weeks since the children had left for Hogwarts. The house seemed so empty now.

So she'd smiled, thanked Matilde and Geoffrey profusely for planning the party, dutifully opened her presents, and really thought she might get through the day after all...until Malfoy showed up.

He always made it a point to mention the divorce when they met. She knew he was really sneering at her beneath the solicitous inquiries about her well-being and the children, and so she'd always brushed him off with curt replies and excused herself as soon as possible.

Now, though, it seemed impossible to shake him; he followed her around the room as she chatted with colleagues, brought her punch, and generally made a nuisance of himself until she ordered him to leave her alone. He just smiled in that nasty condescending way of his and insisted that she open his card.

It was ridiculously nice--probably cost more than most of the presents she'd received, she thought with a sniff. And inside:

For a know-it-all, you really are quite daft. I'm tired of chasing you all over the Ministry, trying to be kind and sensitive and considerate about this whole divorce nonsense. Really, you're better off, and it's time you stop moping about getting older. I've always heard that women reach their sexual peak in middle age; ditch the party and we'll find out if it's true.

She wasn't sure if she should slap or kiss him. So she did both, and wasn't quite sure which she enjoyed more. She told him further experimentation was required; he generously volunteered his services.

She was really glad she hadn't called in sick today.