Chapter 19

Hermione's eye burned slightly, making her regret not buying artificial teardrops last time she visited her parents. She should have anticipated that working all day reading and writing would have made her eyes dry. It wasn't painful, thankfully, but scratchy enough to be irritating and make her eyes droopy and feel tired.

She shifted in her seat, only vaguely aware of how often she'd been doing it. She was in denial about the dull ache and intermittent sharp flashes of pain from muscular spasms in her back. She knew she'd probably done some damage on the run and during the war, but there was always something more important to do than go to the doctor and get it fixed.

A blob of ink fell from the sleek black quill grasped in her fingers. It splattered and quickly bled to the surrounding parchment, leaving an ugly black blob covering half the document. "Bloody fucking hell," she glared at the blot. Her glare intensified when another blob of ink fell. "Stupid fucking ink falling all over the damned place," she fought to push away her irritation as she vanquished the ink from the parchment and tip of the quill. It pulsed in her veins as she set about filling the document all over again from the beginning. She began to write and winced when the quill scratched over the parchment with a loud squeak.

"Shit!" She'd forgotten to dip it in the inkwell. With far more force than necessary, she jabbed the quill into the inkwell, scratching the tip against the bottom, splitting it and splashing ink on the desk and her fingers. Oblivious to the ensuing destruction, she began to write again. Ink flooded from the pen soaking through the and onto her desk.

"Damn it!" She snapped. "Stupid fucking quill! Damned wizards living in the bloody dark ages," she threw the quill over her desk and incinerated it mid-air. She shuffled through her desk, slamming the drawers. "That the hell, there should be a pen in here."

Unseen behind her, Bill stood in the doorway, looking for all the world as though he'd never heard a woman cuss before. Naturally that was far from the truth, but he'd never heard Hermione curse before. Despite knowing how risky of behavior she'd performed, he could never really get past the goody-two-shoes first impression he always had of her. It made her performance somewhat unsettling, yet rather amusing as well.

"Everything okay," He asked almost rhetorically, now at her side. He realized he startled her more than he intended when she jumped and hissed "Shit!" A sheepish smile spread across his lips and he was just about to apologize when she turned and leveled him with a glare.

"Make some noise would you," she snapped. "I though you went home."

Bill shook his head, "I've been here since the afternoon finishing up everything so I'd be ready from Monday." He paused, hoping the subtle hint would work. Hermione didn't respond, opting instead to go back to work on the document with another quill. "It's getting late…" he trailed off trying again.

"So you're heading out then?" Hermione spoke off-handedly, mostly to prompt him along so he'd leave her alone. Bill crossed his arms, growing annoyed with her rude behavior.

"You're half right," his voice suddenly dropped dangerously and his eyes grew hard. His aggravation grew when she didn't when she didn't answer. The witch was tap dancing on thin ice.

"Uh huh," Hermione obviously wasn't paying attention. Bill clenched his jaw tightly; a muscle in his jaw twitched as he fought back the less than gentlemanly remark on the tip of his tongue. "Well what're you waiting for?" Hermione glanced at him for half a second before returning to the parchment. Bill could see the annoyance on her face in that glance. Unfortunately, her glance was quick and mindless, so she didn't see the dangerous look in his face. If she had, she undoubtedly would have backed off and away from the man. Instead, she topped off her dismissal with a flippant wave of her hand, eyes glued to her writing.

Bill's already short fuse spontaneously combusted. He was upon her within an instant, yanking her out of her chair by the hand that hadn't yet finished its wave. Shocked, Hermione's responding gasp hadn't escaped her lips until after she landed fully against his toned and obviously tense chest. She was still in the process of completing said gasp when he stooped and rammed his shoulder into her stomach with enough force to knock the wind from her lungs, stunning her as he stood with her prone body draped rather ungracefully over his shoulder.

Instinctively she began to struggle against him, pounding against his lower back and kicking her legs. Despite her best efforts she was no match for his strength. The fact that he held easily her down with just one arm was intimidating at the very least. When he swiftly captured her legs and hold them down while tightening his grip on her she began to panic and felt a scream rise to her lips. It was a silent scream. He'd casted a silencing charm on her. That panic grew when she realized he'd cast a stunning charm on her as well.

Bill took some satisfaction at her panic. He refused to be treated like a dog. Everyone had their limits and his had just been pushed to the extreme. Not once breaking his silence, knowing he'd only say something he later would regret, he magically closed down the office. The stun charm had done its job, but he could feel her body remain tense, ready to fight at a moment's notice. He stalked back into his office, shutting the door behind him with a definitive click.

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