How to Play Nice by WeasleyForMe
Bill finds out that his new work assignment has him paired with Hermione. Can he learn how to play nice with her? Bill/Hermione
After her hot shower on Friday night, Hermione finally got the icky feeling of Zacharias off of her skin. She slept in on Saturday and then invited Ginny to go to The Witch's Reward, a day spa in Diagon Alley.
"How are you?" she asked the tall, thin redhead as her friend approached the spa entrance.
"Superb," Ginny replied pulling her friend into a hug. "Haven't seen you in weeks though."
They went into the building and were immediately surrounded by attendants and house elves who whisked them away into pedicure chairs. Hermione loved this business; the free house elves earned a good wage to pamper witches and give them a special day.
"What have you been up to?" Ginny asked as she removed her shoes.
"Busy at work. Did you know I'm working with Bill now?" she asked as she sunk her feet into the warm water.
"Yeah, he sent me an owl the other day," Ginny replied with a smile. "He said you're feisty."
"Feisty?" Hermione squeaked. "I'm not feisty! Your brother is the one with the attitude! He showed up like he was King of Gringotts and I was somehow ruining his life! You should have seen him, acting like I hadn't planned everything out ahead of time!" she huffed, crossing her arms with a scowl.
Ginny giggled at Hermione. "You're definitely feisty."
Hermione glared back before erupting into laughter. "Yeah, you're right. I am. So what else did Bill say about me?" she asked as a house elf offered them a drink. She sipped her Butterbeer and waited for Ginny to answer, not quite sure why Bill's opinion of her mattered so much.
Ginny took a sip of wine and picked out bright green polish for her toes. "Other than feisty? He said you're funny and much better looking than his old boss."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Like that would be difficult, I've met his boss before. He's about sixty."
Ginny relaxed fully into the cozy chair while her feet were massaged. "What did you do last night?" she asked Hermione.
"I uh, well I went on a date," Hermione said vaguely grasping for a new subject to pursue.
"With whom?"
Shit, she was too late. "Zacharias Smith," she muttered, reaching for a bottle of pink nail polish and avoiding Ginny's wide eyes.
"That complete wanking arse-hole! Are you joking?" Ginny belted out. The house elves looked startled before scampering back to work. "He's a horrible little person! I had to run him over with my broom to get him to shut his big, nasty mouth!"
"Look who's feisty now!" Hermione said, waving her hand at Ginny. She then slumped in her chair. "That's how Zacharias was when we were at Hogwarts," she pointed out.
"Well, how did the date go? Did you have a good time? Is he different now?" Ginny pressed.
"No," Hermione whispered. She watched as Ginny's eyes narrowed into slits of self satisfaction. "He wasn't so bad on the first date, but yesterday he was awful. Ugh."
"There's no use crying over spilt potion. You'll find someone better, Hermione," Ginny said with a smirk.
Hermione's mind drifted to Bill's words. Obviously she deserved someone better than Zacharias, she just didn't know how bad last night was going to be.
"You should come to the Burrow for meatloaf on Friday. Harry and I are going, and so are the twins. Bill will be there as well…" Ginny trailed off before finishing her wine.
"And so will Kingsley! I need some time away from my boss, for Merlin's sake," Hermione complained with a smile. "I'll think about it, Gin," she said with a laugh.
The girls enjoyed the rest of their afternoon of being pampered while Hermione's thoughts were on Bill.
Bill awoke on Monday, eager to get to work. He wanted to tie up the loose ends of their assignment and see what was up next. But mostly he wanted to see Hermione.
He strolled into the ministry before most of the other employees, grabbed a coffee from the break room as he went by, and arrived in time to see one of Hermione's drum solos. He stopped momentarily to watch her as her hair bounced up and down with the drumming motion but sadly the song ended and she looked up.
Hermione felt her cheeks warm slightly as she saw Bill watching her from the doorway. With a quick smirk she rose, "Good morning. How was your weekend?"
"You know, I thought that I might be able to beat you in to the office on Monday morning, but here you are already hard at work," Bill joked and pointed towards her wireless. "My weekend was fine. I got some chores done around the house…" his mind wandering back to destroying things that had once been Fleur's. "What about you?"
"Oh, it was all right. Pretty quiet actually. Although I did see your sister on Saturday afternoon which was nice."
"I'm surprised you had time to fit her in what with your big date and all." Bill's stomach turned a little as he spoke the words, but he might as well take the wind out of his sail earlier rather than later.
"Oh no," Hermione gagged, "I had plenty of free time! You could say that Zacharias' true colors came out and that's the last I want to say on the matter," she ended with a huff.
Bill couldn't help but smirk a little, but luckily Hermione had looked away so she didn't catch the grin on his face. Well it certainly was going to be a good day after all. "Do I need to punch Smith the next time I see him?" he asked, unable to conceal his smile.
"Why? What have you heard?" she asked quickly.
Bill's smile vanished. "What happened?" he demanded.
Hermione eyed him closely. "Absolutely nothing happened, because I had everything under control. He's just not welcome around me anymore."
Deciding not to press his luck on the topic, Bill nodded and took a seat. "What's on the agenda today, boss?"
He was rewarded with a bright smile and a laugh from Hermione. "You know, I don't even let Dennis call me 'boss'. Well, we are going to start a new project today."
"What about the Macnair situation?"
"I came in yesterday and took care of everything."
Bill gaped at her. "On Sunday? I thought I worked horrible hours for Gringotts, but do you ever take a break?"
Smirking, Hermione handed him a copy of the report which was currently sitting on Kingsley Shacklebolt's desk. "Willard Macnair was hiding in Romania after a previous arrest in France, and that is why there was almost no record of him in the Ministry's system," she recited merrily, happy to have completed a task.
Bill glanced through her report and agreed that she had done very thorough research. He set down the report and looked at her. "So, now what?"
What's next for this duo? Only the next chapter will tell. And I'll post it as soon as you all leave a review! :D