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
"This looks like the Marauder's Map," Hermione said, running her hands over the worn parchment. She gently unfolded it just like the muggle road maps her father kept in his car.
Bill watched as Hermione carefully set the fully opened parchment down on Kingsley's desk.
"What is a Marauder's Map?" Kingsley asked, voicing Bill's question as well.
"It just looks like a bad bit of parchment to me," Bill said skeptically.
Hermione tapped the edge of the parchment over and over, muttering absurd phrases in quick succession. Her mind was turning over everything she knew about Harry's map, trying to unlock the secret.
"Hermione?" Bill asked, placing his hand gently on hers. "What are you doing?"
Hermione felt her skin warm up where Bill's hand rested, and she had to bite her lip to keep from taking his rough hand in her own.
"I think it's a map," she said, quickly pulling her hand away from his.
Kingsley shook his head, clearly confused.
"But there is nothing plotted on it," Bill said, starting to get agitated by Hermione's vague responses.
"Well there wouldn't be if it is anything like the Marauder's Map. We would need to figure out the appropriate phrase to unlock the parchment so we could view the map," Hermione explained. "Harry had a map of Hogwarts that worked this way."
"Or maybe it's not a map at all," Bill argued, crossing his arms over his chest.
"But it looks just like the Marauder's Map," Hermione replied, setting the large parchment on Kingsley's desk with a little too much force.
"It's probably just some old parchment that you are turning into a wild goose chase," Bill snarled.
"I guarantee it is not!" she nearly shouted at Bill. He watched Hermione's anger visibly rise as she clenched and unclenched her fists; the slightly rosy color of her cheeks had burned to a bright scarlet. Bill could only think about grabbing her in his arms and ravishing her right on top of Kingsley's desk.
"Enough!" Kingsley boomed, breaking Bill out of his inappropriate thoughts.
Hermione cleared her throat, forcing her anger to recede. "Sorry," she muttered.
"We need to move on to another topic," Kingsley said, eyeing both Bill and Hermione, ready to smother another outburst. "Now, I have details from the Auror office. Tomorrow morning, they will take Gordian and Macnair into questioning rooms with magical law enforcement agents. Then we will have access to the transcripts immediately after they are finished with the interrogations."
"We can't join them in questioning?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah, after all we were the ones who captured Macnair!" Bill complained, thankful that for once he and Hermione were working together as once force.
"No, absolutely not. We can't jeopardize this investigation by involving anyone who is not an authorized law agent in the questioning," Kingsley said sternly. "We can read the transcripts, but that's all we can do."
"Fine," Hermione and Bill muttered in unison.
Once they were dismissed from Kingsley's office, they returned to Hermione's desk with Dennis right on their heels.
"What's going on?" Dennis asked, looking from Hermione's stressed face to Bill's as he set down a tray of biscuits for them to share.
"Not very much," Hermione grumbled as she bit into one of the snacks, eternally thankful for her assistant's uncanny ability to tell when she needed something to eat. "Kingsley said we can't sit in on the Veritaserum interrogation. Plus, we aren't really getting anywhere with the information we do have."
Bill virtually inhaled a few cookies, trying not to glare at Hermione. "Look, if you really think it's a map, maybe you can better explain your reasoning to me."
Hermione glanced at her desk clock. It was already past the time she usually ate lunch. "Dennis, why don't you head home early today? There won't be too much to work on until tomorrow when we have more information. Plus, you're already caught up on all of the accumulated paperwork."
"Yeah? Okay, thanks, Hermione," Dennis replied with a smile before disappearing back to his desk to pack up.
"Now, you and I have a date with some fish and chips at the Leaky Cauldron," she told Bill with a smile. She could use the excuse to get out of the office and tell him about the Marauder's Map, but mostly she just wanted to be alone with Bill. Their arguments always provoked her interests.
"Oh do we?" Bill asked as he stood with a smile. "Good. I'm starving."
Hermione laughed and they headed down Diagon Alley and into the pub. Bill grabbed the same table they occupied last time they had been at the Leaky Cauldron and pulled out one of the chairs for Hermione.
"Do you suppose we can get a few pints without getting into trouble?" Bill asked, still standing with his hands on his hips.
"Who's going to know the difference?" Hermione asked with a shrug and watched him as he strode to the bar to order a round. She watched his profile as he laughed with Tom, the barkeep. It would be extremely difficult to keep naughty thoughts of Bill from her mind. And why did she have to keep recalling the shower dream she'd had?
He walked back to her and winked. "I won't tell if you won't," said Bill, setting two pint glasses on their table. "Now will you please explain this map business to me?"
Hermione took care in explaining every detail of the Marauder's Map as they lingered over their baskets of fish and chips, thankful to be out of the Ministry building for a little while.
"You mean to tell me that Fred and George used to have their hands on that map? And they gave it away?" Bill asked, quite shocked once he understood the whole thing.
"It's not like they threw it in the rubbish bin! They gave it to Harry," she said laughing. "Came in bloody handy too, come to think of it."
"Well if we can unlock the map, what do you think it will show us?"
Hermione sighed, dipping some of her chips in ketchup. "Nothing good, I know that much. Given where it came from."
Bill leaned back in his seat and stretched his legs out at their small table. Hermione gasped when his leg brushed against hers, sending a tingle along her skin. She looked at Bill; he refused to look away, and he wouldn't move his leg. Hermione smirked and quickly finished her drink, unsure what he was playing at.
"We should head back," she said softly, finally looking away from his eyes.
"You're the boss," he said with a grin, finally pulling his long leg away from her.
They walked quietly back to the Ministry building and crept back to her office unnoticed. "What's this?" Hermione asked, picking up a magenta coloured interoffice memo from her desk. Magenta notices were never what you wanted to find on your desk and they denoted an urgent emergency.
She quickly unfolded it and started to read. Bill watched her face change from concern to horror as he munched on one of the forgotten biscuits. "What's the matter?" he asked
"A ministry employee has gone missing!"
See how quickly I updated? I deserve a review! Only a few more chapters left at this point!