Disclaimer: This is all for fun, I do not claim ownership of the characters or anything recognized from the work of JK Rowling. I am only borrowing them.
Warning: Mature themes, subject to change: mild violence, scenes of a sexual nature as well as general innuendo smattered throughout, adult themes including but not limited to death and disease both mental and physical.
[A/N] The continuous support of the reviewers and the attention this story has gotten is heartening! This is the last chapter I have written ahead of time and I'm working on Chapter 7 now. The surprise character is making the promised appearance in this chapter! Please take the time to let me know what you think.
Playlist: My Chemical Romance – Teenagers | Jimmy Eat World – Futures | Tegan & Sara – Where Does the Good Go?
Friday July 22nd, 2005 | 4:25 pm | 19 Aster Way, Surrey
Hermione sat in the center of a hurricane of paperwork in her living room. Her hair had been tied back into a French braid hours ago, hours before her legs had gone numb the first time and she had to stand to stomp the feeling back into them. A loose curl behind her left ear kept tickling her every time she moved her head but that feeling was barely registered as she combed through the equations that had been owled to her that morning.
She had been expecting an owl from work days before it had arrived but the sheaf of parchment and the zip drive she had sent before going in for DMB 4.6 had most likely kept them busy the last week. Most of the return data was frustrating at best but the quantity of analysis was promising, even if the quality was lacking.
The argument she had made over the introduction of some alchemy components had been very tricky to put into terms that would pass the Statue of Secrecy and into the Muggle portion of their market. It helped that she had sent proof that internationally, Muggles were becoming more receptive and were seeking "natural" remedies or holistic medicine. That made alchemic introduction that much easier. Reviewing the components returned by the scientists was tedious at best but she took heart in the fact that her Arithmancy equations had eliminated the idea of animal testing with their products. That was unfortunately easier to sell to the Muggles on staff than the witches and wizards.
Once the final report was signed and her annotations included, Hermione finally glanced at the time and heard her stomach protest. Single-minded was an understatement while she worked. There were plenty of half full and empty tea cups and saucers around her living room and kitchen but she doubted she had eaten more than half of a sandwich and perhaps some eggs that morning.
Instead of waiting to submit the reports by owl she decided to head into work to use their industrial size parchment conversion machine. It was only a charmed copier but it handled the thick parchment she preferred like a dream and converted it all into data saved on her account on the secure server. A wave of her wand had all of the papers and binders arranging themselves neatly once again and another flick guided them into her messenger bag. The canvas barely bulged, the Undetectable Extension Charm doing its job.
It was quick work to set her dishes to washing themselves while she quickly showered away the grime of spending the early morning in her gardens and the whole day sprawled on the floors. The office of Orphus & Gamble was in a part of London about a twenty minute walk from the Leaky Cauldron, and she knew many of her coworkers who actually used their offices would be headed there for a pint at the end of the workday before their weekends started. As if she needed an excuse to avoid heading towards Diagon Alley.
Heading into her garage, where the only area on her property available for Apparition was located, she attempted to straighten her braid one last time before turning on the spot and disappearing with a soft pop.
Friday July 22nd, 2005 | 5:15 pm | Orphus & Gamble International Offices, London
Just past five on a Friday was the best time to head into her office since the Floos, the lifts and the Apparition points were fairly deserted. Hermione headed out of the back conference room, where the Apparition point was hidden from the Muggle employees, towards the front lobby and the glass lifts waiting for her to insert her employee badge. There were only so many things they could pass by the Ministry for secrecy purposes but it was worth it for the talent they were able to hire in from the non-magical world.
The badges were more for show than anything since she could speak a password once inside the lift but that was one of the casualties of working for a blended business with Muggles on premises. She and some of her colleagues fought an annual legal battle with the Ministry over small breaches of the Statute of Secrecy and where they needed to draw the line or induct the employees into the fold. Hermione was all for exclusive access for the employees working for the company, just like the exceptions given to non-magical brides and grooms or parents of Muggleborn children, but so far her efforts had been met with a brick wall.
It wasn't helped that the Legislation against Status Discrimination was still logged beneath a slog of bureaucratic nonsense because no one could agree on the information on the document. Even Hermione had needed every ounce of her mental prowess to read the first draft and she did not envy those assigned to work on that project on a daily basis. The portion that had caught her eye when she first read it was in regards to medical records, but it had been so dense and discombobulated that it could have been interpreted any which way.
Reaching her floor, Hermione stepped off the lift and nearly ran into someone walking just past it. Losing her balance as she tried to spin away from running into them, she felt their hands grab onto her shoulders to steady her. A warm smile on her lips, Hermione turned to look up at Dudley Dursley and thanked him for catching her.
"I'm used to it by now, Hermione," he said with a friendly smile on his face as well.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Are you headed in or out?"
"My work is finished, but I could walk with you." Dudley pushed the button to send the lift back down to the ground floor.
"Perfect. I'm going to my office to drop off paperwork so it's not tempting me at home all weekend."
"Don't kid yourself," Dudley scoffed. "You'll work through the weekend with or without those files. Aren't you assigned to the Vertigo project?"
Conspiratorially, Hermione glanced over her shoulder to him with a glint in her eye. "Not anymore. I'll be freelancing outside of the company for a while. Miraculously, Wolpert agreed to it so I'll even be able to keep my normal take-home salary."
"That's great, Hermione!" he said as he held open her office door for her to step through. Hermione rarely visited her office so it was in pristine condition; the house elves even organized the quills and inkwells by color and size. "Clarissa and I are eating dinner together tonight, but I'm sure she'd be happy to have you along. You need to celebrate."
Dudley settled into one of the guest chairs across from her and crossed his legs at the ankles, the image of relaxation with his hands folded across his chest. Dudley had grown an extra few inches since the end of the Wizarding war and leaving the safe house the Order had constructed for him and his parents. As she had met his parents, on multiple occasions ranging from bland to volcanic, she saw the similarities he had to both of them. It helped she had a Healer and doctor's trained eye when it came to body structure. Dudley's maternal side brought him height where his paternal side gave him breadth. He looked like a rugby player that was a bit too tall, or a basketball player that was a bit too wide, but he used his size to his advantage when pitching marketing plans to potential clients.
Setting her canvas bag down on her nearly empty desk, Hermione plopped ungracefully into her leather office chair and laughed. "It's not that big of a deal, Dudley. I'll be spending more time at St. Mungo's to be honest."
Dudley's smile faded a bit. "Does that mean you'll be stuck in that world for awhile?"
Hermione looked up from the paperwork she was pulling from her charmed bag and paused when she saw the concern on his face. He had leaned forward, placing his elbows on the desk.
"Yes," she said bluntly. "I'll be almost completely immersed in wizarding culture for a few months, so you'd better be ready for a phone call for a movie or something to ease my sanity."
"Anytime, love." Dudley visibly relaxed again, checking his phone for messages while she continued to organize her work. "Did you want me to tell Clarissa you'll be joining us? She's making chicken parmesan from scratch. Something she learned in class this week."
"If it's not a bother, I'll tag along," Hermione said absently as she stood in front of her charmed copier and began inputting the sheaves of parchment to be converted to digital files. Dudley began clicking away on his cell to send his fiancée a text. "How much longer does she have in her program?"
"Only a few more months, thank goodness. If she keeps bringing home experimental desserts from culinary school I'll end up just like my dad."
She made a face. "Don't worry, Clarissa and I will stop that long before it happens. Speaking of Vernon, did Grunnings try to contact you again?"
It was Dudley's turn to make a face, which was all the answer Hermione needed and she chuckled as he said, "I swear they will never get over the fact that I don't want to work there anymore."
Dudley had worked for the same company as his father for almost a year after getting his business degree and Grunnings had hired him at the insistence of his father. Dudley had hated every minute of working for the boring company and his equally boring father. The year away from the world in hiding while she and the boys had been on the run had had very much tampered his opinion of Vernon, especially seeing how kind their wizarding protectors were and how awful Vernon was to them. One of the first evenings Hermione spent in her new home in Surrey had been a major turning point in his life.
The summer of 2003 was markedly chilly, nothing like the humidity of the current summer. She remembered this because the first time she met Dudley Dursley he was wearing a long sleeved cable knit sweater over a button up shirt with slacks as he knocked on her front door; an outfit not dissimilar to what Snape had worn when he had broken into her home and invaded her privacy to offer her a job a few days prior.
The first thing she noticed that evening was he did not flinch when she held her wand up to his chin aggressively after he said his name, merely taking his hands out of his pockets to stand in a non-threatening way.
"You'll want to put that away," he had said about her wand. "There are still people from your Ministry that watch this neighborhood."
That had startled her enough to invite him in off of her front step, but had not shaken her foundations enough to offer him tea. He was still the hated cousin of Harry Potter she hadn't heard many good things about.
"I'm here to warn you about my mum and dad," he had started after navigating around a few boxes to the sofa. She hadn't had a chance to fully unpack yet. "Harry said you were looking at houses here, God knows why, and hadn't been able to make you see reason."
"Harry asked you to talk to me?" Hermione said skeptically.
Dudley had nodded. "Watch out with the magic around here, you know? Your Ministry has tags on us in this neighborhood, as we're Harry's family and all so any bit of magic cast around us sends them a message of what was cast. They said it's for our "protection" or something like that. It drives my parents round the bend, it does. It's bloody awful enough working with my dad without him screeching about wizards over Sunday dinner."
Bristling at the fact that the Ministry was essentially spying on this Muggle community just because Harry's blood relatives lived there, Hermione said, "That's horrendous. The Ministry needs to keep their noses out of everyone's fucking business. They were so eager to leave us alone when there was a war but now that there's peace they start to monitor people? They're asking for trouble."
Dudley nodded again to that. "I'm glad you understand. Just…be careful of what spells you cast around here."
Dudley had quickly become his parent's spokesperson over that summer as they adjusted to having a witch in the neighborhood. Compared to other wizarding folk, Hermione lived very simply with moderate amounts of magic outside of her research for her new job at Orphus & Gamble Industries. Whenever there was a disturbance they blamed on her, they'd call Dudley at his apartment in the city with his live-in girlfriend and demand that he go over and tell her to leave. The few times that Vernon and Petunia had tried to do that themselves they had nearly pissed themselves from sheer terror of the witch, and she hadn't even cast a single spell around them per Dudley's warnings.
He was not afraid of magic or magical people like his parents were. That, and his admittedly matured people skills, had caused Hermione to prompt him to apply at her company instead of staying miserable at Grunnings. Over two years later and Dudley had been able to mostly detangle himself from his parents and had a job he could excel in. Hermione was a great liaison to explain to Muggles in the company how the wizarding world worked and vice versa but she was rarely in the office due to her random bouts of illness or treatment or even just outside research. Dudley acted as one of the company's top correspondence team members in the United Kingdom when it came to making new business deals. In the years since the defeat of Voldemort, he had shed off the rest of the prejudice he had grown up with and was fully capable of stepping in when Hermione was not available to explain cultural differences in the company.
In the early days she wondered if Dudley moved companies and stayed simply to spite his parents but he had excelled in his job. Talking business and making deals was something he was good at, even if he did have a dedicated scribe to take the notes and run the numbers for him.
"Have you talked to Harry recently?"
His question brought her reminiscent train of thought to a grinding halt. She had to breathe to remind herself that he didn't know; it was just an innocuous question.
"Not since Sunday." She pretended to be distracted by converting the last few files.
"He sent me an owl, Hermione." That made her stop and whip around to look at him. He held his hands up and shook his head innocently. "Bloody ruddy beast wouldn't leave me alone until I'd read it and responded. He was asking me if I'd talked to you lately and he hasn't asked me about you since-"
"Since he stopped going with me for treatment," Hermione interjected.
"Right, I knew that, so I just told him I'd seen you around the office but hadn't spoken to you yet."
"I really don't want to talk about Harry right now, Dudley. I'm sorry but I honestly will be a poor dinner guest if we continue this conversation. My patience has been wearing thin lately."
"My cousin and I may be on better terms now than we ever have been, but just know that I'm likely to take your side in any shite he wants to start with you," Dudley said with a vehement tone. He softened a bit. "Any change on treatment, by the way?"
Hermione grimaced. "You're dead set on bringing up something to ruin the evening, aren't you?"
"Someone who cares needs to ask you about that once in awhile. Someone who isn't your doctor, or Healer or whatever you all call them."
The last of the parchment went through the copy machine and her laptop on the desk made a soft ping to indicate it was saved to the company's intranet and a copy was ready for her on the zip drive. Dudley stood to help her gather up the sheaves of parchment and put them back into her canvas bag for safekeeping until she got the chance to properly store it.
"That's the project I'm freelancing for, actually," she said as she grabbed her faded jean jacket from the back of her desk chair where she had left it. "There are several patients who are not responding to the treatment so they're hiring me in to, well, be me all over their work."
"Let's hope some of the original work survives your scrutiny. C'mon, let's go eat dinner. I promise not to bring up Harry, or owls, or treatment or any of that once we leave the lift."
"Want to take the stairs instead?" Hermione asked. "I worked right through the morning and there was no way in Merlin that I was going to run in the afternoon heat."
Dudley held the door open for her again as they left the office. She tapped her wand against the handle to lock it and followed him to the stairwell to walk down the six flights of stairs to the ground level.
"Are you going to be a guinea pig for them?" he asked after they reached the fourth floor landing.
"Not exactly. I've technically been one for the last two years."
"I still can't see where you've found the time to go through all that, work overtime every week and still get through the accelerated course at the University."
"Being a witch has its benefits. And thankfully most of my University training tied right into the research I've been doing for the firm since I've been studying diseases and ailments that affect both wizards and Muggles. No more Time-Turners, I promise!"
Dudley smiled. Over the years, Hermione had slowly filled him in on hers, Harry's and Ron's adventures at Hogwarts. Some things would never be shared, but one night while drinking together at her home after a particularly bad treatment day, she had told him about their third year. She blamed it on the full moon that night and the residual effects of DMB. When she saw Dudley in the office the following Monday, she had hoped he would forget her mentioning a device that manipulated time. With no such luck on her side, he hounded her the whole morning until she had yelled at him through her migraine that it was a device that meant she was a year older than what her birth certificate said and they didn't exist anymore because she had inadvertently assisted in destroying them all.
Reaching the ground floor, Dudley stayed true to his promise and started asking her about how her rosebushes and gardens were doing. Hermione asked him as they walked out of the lobby if he had driven to work that day.
"No, I walked into the office this morning," he said. "If you're planning on Apparating us let me call Clare to warn her first."
The pair walked back to the barricaded office she had entered from and after asking Clarissa where it was best for the two of them to show up they vanished away with a soft pop to a homemade dinner.