Midori had been into many different scary places, including a coven of vampires (although they'd turned out t be quite friendly and pretty good tap dancers), but this topped them all.
He found it hard to grasp that in some wizarding communities they were forced hide in caves with little food from 'witch hunters' and the Ministry of Magic still had a giant, solid gold statue that blatantly showed the misuse of a house elf. The designer of this place was obviously sniffing the wrong herbs.
Shaking his head sadly as the crooked British Government he made his way into an elevator, the only thing he was happy to see. It showed that all hope was not lost for a muggle-magical union in England.
Although he should probably mention his dislike of elevators.
He stepped into the elevator alone. Neither his biological family nor his Japanese family were allowed to see him today so he to spend it with a Ministry employee until the hearing.
"Where can I direct you today?" chimed the annoying elevator voice.
"Nymphadora Tonks' office please."
"Yes sir."
The elevator music came on and it made that extremely unreassuringly groaning noise as it moved upwards.
Midori had seen Auror Tonks a few times at the Order meetings but he had never spoken to her.
The elevator dinged horribly and the door groaned open (did the elevator need to be serviced? There was no way he was going back inside it that was for sure). He stepped out into the foyer of the Department of Law Enforcement, Auror section.
"Wotcher Midori!" He looked up at his name and saw a woman with bubblegum pink hair and purple eyes, holding a mountain of papers.
"Nymphadora Tonks?" he asked back.
Her eyes flashed red, "Never," she snarled, "Call me Nymphadora!" In the blink of an eye a man was beside her patting her back.
"Calm down Tonks, he didn't know," he soothed. She blinked and her eyes returned to purple.
The man smiled at Midori. "Sorry about that. She gets really tetchy about her name. Her cousin teased her a lot about it before she hexed his ears off. Since then it's been a taboo around here. Nothing like seeing the great Sirius Black earless to strike fear into our hearts." He held out his hand, "I'm Rufus Scrimgeour by the way. I'm Madame Bones' assistant."
Midori shook the offered hand. "Nice to meet you. I'm Midori."
"Well it's been nice saving you life Midori but I'd better get back to work," chuckled Rufus, "Good luck with Tonksie. You'll need it!"
Tonks swatted at Rufus' head as the man ran off laughing. "Ignore him Midori," she said, "He fancies himself as a bit of a joker. Now your hearing is at…" she fumbled with the giant stack of paper, trying to pull out a piece around the middle. Her hands slipped and the pile began to fall to the ground. By the time she looked up, red faced, his wand in his hands.
He'd realised his mistake, no one knew of his wandless/wordless magic yet, he hadn't wanted to draw attention to himself.
"Sorry," she gasped, "I'm such a klutz."
"No harm done," he smiled in relief. She hadn't noticed.
Successfully this time she pulled out the piece of paper with his hearing details on it. "Right so your hearing is at eleven and its…" she looked around for a clock.
"Half past ten," Midori said looking at his watch. It had been charmed to withstand magic exposure.
He face brightened, "Excellent! Time for a coffee, come on then!" she set her papers down on a random table and strolled over to elevator.
"Oh bugger," muttered Midori. Stupid, unsafe elevator.
"What?" asked Tonks who was pressing down button repeatedly childishly.
"Nothing. You know it won't come any faster just because you keep pressing the button."
She scowled at him but she did stop pressing the button.
The horrible ding sounded again and the elevator opened. Tonks jumped in happily, excited by the idea of coffee, and Midori followed hesitantly. He really didn't want to be the unlucky one hundredth elevator rider who gets the special prize of falling to their death. All right that was a little melodramatic but…
The groaning started up again, along with the annoying elevator music.
He sighed; he'd known it would be a bad day.
A/N: I'm keeping it short today on purpose, not because I'm lazy. It's the weekend! So I have two days to write and write and write and write and… you get the picture.
Just a one little pointless things which I want to get out. One, my evil horrible and ill muse has decided that since I refuse to write this as a Midori/Ginny story she's not going to review. This has just enforced my theory that she is in fact Lord Voldermort illegitimate child.
Ok, enough of my wasting you time, now it's time for review answering!
Hordac85: I have thought of a few names for the story but they're all very cliché. A lot of people have, for various confusing reasons, have suggested I leave it as Untitled.
AnimegirlBunnyB: Shimo will be in the next chapter, thank god. I miss the little bugger. Hermione hasn't been able to be in touch with Midori since she's on holiday and doesn't own an owl. Yes Lily and James are married; Lily used her maiden name to avoid confusion since James was teaching as well.
Shinigami: Who knows? Probably something about the fact their ruler is actually a deformed elf. Dumbles was keeping Fawkes around with various spells that he couldn't maintain in Azkaban so Fawkes just flew away. He's now enjoying a pretty comfortable life in Arabia. He may or may not come back, I still haven't decided.
Nightstarz: Yay! You're the only one who picked up on the fact I switched Sirius with Twinklepot! Good idea. I'll keep that one in mind.
L.A.H.H.: Yes Dumbledore is at Grimmauld Place with the Potters now, but as of yet he hasn't scene Matt or Midori and he won't until the hearing is over. His presence there will most likely be brought up by Manebe and the gang.