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
Bill made his way to the Ministry of Magic on Monday morning, worrying too much about the future of his career to focus his thoughts on Hermione. He had already spent much time pondering his feelings for her after he departed from the Burrow on Friday. But, after reading the Ministry handbook, he knew could either work in Hermione's department, or he could date her. Not both.
As he walked through the atrium, the placards displaying the location of each department office caught his eye. "Office of Foreign Liaison… no, too old for the constant travel," he muttered, remembering his brief but unsavory trip to Armenia on Friday. "International Magical Cooperation. Now there's a thought." He knew, however, that he would eat dragon dung before working together with Zacharias Smith.
"Morning," Dennis muttered to Bill as he walked through Hermione's outer office. He handed Bill a bagel without looking up from his work.
"Thanks, Dennis," Bill replied, realizing he enjoyed working in this department quite a bit. However, when Hermione sitting at her desk came into view, he knew he'd choose another department to be able to be with her.
"Bill," Hermione breathed as he took a seat across from her. "Listen, I just wanted to-"
But Hermione stopped when Bill set an orange memo down on her blotter. She quickly skimmed the letter, gasping when she saw that Bill's entire department had been removed from Gringotts. "Can they do this?"
"I guess so, because they certainly did. You may as well let me call you 'boss' now; I'm going to be stuck here awhile longer," he said with a frown. "And, I don't know how I feel about that."
"Someone left a copy of page 114 from the Employee handbook in my mailbox. I'm pretty sure that was Kingsley," she added, blushing.
"So we'll just be friends for now?" Bill asked halfheartedly. He wasn't able to convince himself that he could stay away from her for the rest of the day, let alone the foreseeable future.
Hermione nodded, suddenly overcome by images from her shower dream. She quickly cleared her throat. "That's a good idea. Now, fill me in on what you found at Makar Gordian's house."
Bill leaned back in the chair and stretched his long legs in front of him. "Not very much," he said grimly. "Kingsley and I pored over my notes over the weekend. I did break a number of curses, which are all recorded in my notes. I found some handwritten letters, but someone needs to proofread my translation. Armenian isn't one of my strongest languages."
Hermione laughed. "Not one of your strongest? I can barely babble a few words in Portuguese, and you've got a list of your strongest languages?"
Bill winked at her. "I most certainly do. Russian, French and Arabic top my list."
"Ridiculous," Hermione muttered, thoroughly impressed. "Did you find anything else?"
"Just a random piece of parchment that I can't make any sense of, and a pocket watch with a carving similar in appearance to a Dark Mark."
"Interesting," Hermione muttered. "I'd like to see everything at some point, but for now Kingsley keeps giving me more Arithmantic calculations to work through."
"Hey, Hermione," Dennis said, poking is head into her office. "You made the front page." He held up the morning edition of The Daily Prophet and pointed to a small photo of Hermione in the corner next to the heading 'The Ministry Fights Back in Aid of Muggles'.
Hermione stood to get a better look at the newspaper, and Bill was gifted a better look at her creamy legs beneath her fitted skirt. He physically forced himself to turn and look out the window instead of at her.
"Oh, and the Minister wants to see both of you in his office," Dennis added before dashing back out of the room.
"Honestly, they take these photos at the worst angles. Look at my hair!" Hermione said with a groan, dropping the paper onto Bill's lap. He looked at the photo, and she looked just as charming as she did in the photograph from his wedding.
"Let's get a move on. Don't want to keep Kingsley waiting," Hermione said, and Bill followed her out.
An hour later, Kingsley was rubbing his hands over his eyes, a habit that arose when he was tired or stressed, or a combination of the two. He looked across his desk at Hermione and Bill, who both looked as perplexed as he felt.
"I feel as though we are so close, but we aren't able to connect all the dots," Kingsley said as he skimmed through Bill's notes from Armenia for the tenth time.
"Maybe we will get a good lead after Gordian and Macnair are questioned under Veritaserum tomorrow," Bill added hopefully.
"Hmmm," Hermione hummed as she inspected the pocket watch. "What else did you bring back on Friday?" she asked Bill.
Before Bill could respond, there was a loud wrap on the door before it swung open. In strolled Zacharias Smith.
"Minister, I am just stopping by to inform you that I am on the cusp of getting the Greek Minister to agree to use a universal cauldron thickness for all academic purposes. You'll recall my proposal was approved unanimously in last month's meeting," Smith said, flicking a piece of imaginary lint from his blazer. "I believe I left you a memo about it." He turned and winked at Hermione, making her hand tighten seemingly of its own accord around the pocket watch she was holding.
The range of expressions on Kingsley's face was a sight to behold as annoyance quickly turned to anger. "Actually you left me about five memos, Mr. Smith. I don't have time to deal with universal cauldron thickness right now. As you can see, I'm in the middle of an important meeting, and I must ask you to leave."
Zacharias was unfazed. "Not to worry, my schedule is all booked up too. I'll stop by later when we both have more time for discussion." He slipped from the room without another word.
Bill felt the urge to follow him into the hallway and give him another taste of the bat-bogey hex.
"I swear, he just lets himself in whenever Edna isn't at her desk," Kingsley muttered to himself. "Not a shred of respect. Now where were we?"
"Before we were interrupted, Bill was going to show me the other items, he brought back from Gordian's home," Hermione said calmly, vanquishing all thoughts of Zacharias.
"Right," Kingsley said as order was restored.
Bill brought out a stack of parchment. "Here are the letters that were written to him. It seems like normal correspondences, nothing too interesting. And I did find this," he said, handing Hermione a large, folded piece of parchment. "There's nothing written on it, no signs of spells, nothing."
Hermione turned the parchment over and over in her hands, her mind whirring at the speed of a Snitch. "This looks very familiar to me. This looks like something I've seen before."
Please don't hate me for taking a horribly long time to update this story! I hate that it has been on hiatus for such a long time, but my goal is to finish writing it this month. Thank you so much to everyone who has remained interested in this story. It has meant a lot to me, and I never abandoned it. I hope you'll hang in there and finish it with me! Thanks a million!