Chapter Three

Sometimes Hermione loathed that she was such a perfectionist. It had taken her till nearly four am to finish sorting all of the documents Mr. Franklin had his elves just dump in her sitting room. She made a mental note to hex the little git should he ever have the misfortune to meet her. Hermione wanted to leave it till the morning but her inner neurotic organizer just wouldn't let her. Her living room hadn't looked that horrible since the day she moved in.

Hermione's eyes were now staring at her alarm clock in horror as she realized it was currently seven-thirty in the morning, almost an hour past when her alarm had gone off. Hermione was switching between cursing herself for sleeping so late, and cursing the sunlight seeping into her bedroom. What she wouldn't give to have her old time turner back so she could get some more sleep. Next to her on the bed, Crookshanks yawned and stretched before he leaped to the ground. The ginger cat meowed loudly informing his owner that, not only was it time to get ready for work, but it was also time to feed him. In Crookshanks' opinion of course one of those tasks was far more essential than the other. Sadly however his human never seemed to guess the correct order of importance.

The tired witch forced herself out of bed, rubbing her eyes that were burning with exhaustion. Hermione shuffled out of the bedroom and down the hall to her bathroom where she stripped off her bed clothes and tossed them in a hamper. Hermione switched on the shower and, after letting it get to an acceptable temperature, climbed in to allow the hot water to wake her up. Soon feeling more alert she quickly, but thoroughly, washed her hair and body before rinsing off. Hermione switched off the shower and grabbed a near by towel to wrap around her. If there was one thing she had learned from sharing a dorm with more girls in it than showers stalls, it was how to bathe quickly. As Hermione stepped out of the shower, a scratching sound came from the other side of the bathroom door. The still dripping witch rolled her eyes as she wrung out her hair.

"I'll feed you in a moment, Crookshanks!" she said, now reaching for a hair brush. "Have a bit of patients for Merlin sake."

An irritated meow was her reply, but at least the scratching stopped. She'd bought about fifteen minutes before her lard of a cat would return to bang down the door for his breakfast. Hermione was positive that her plump little familiar ate more in a week than she did in a month. She quickly dried her hair and applied a modest about of makeup. As per her usual morning routine, Hermione reached for her wand and pointed it at herself before softly muttering a spell. As the obvious reminders of the war faded away, Hermione let out a sigh of relief and left the bathroom with a bit more confidence then she'd had a few moments ago.

It wasn't long before Hermione was dressed and ready to go. Normally she'd have enough time to stop somewhere for a coffee and pastry before enjoying a nice leisurely walk to her office. Today however she was horribly late and would have no choice but to Apparate straight there. She quickly shrunk all of the boxes in her living room down and stuck them in her brief case before slipping on her heels and rushing out of the flat.

In the kitchen a rather perturbed half kneazle sat shifting his glare between his empty food bowl and the front door his human had just rushed out of.

…~…~…

The sound of the door crashing open against the wall made Sally practically jump out of her chair. She looked up to see her boss trying to remove her coat, though it would seem that the coat was winning the battle. She recognized the bags under Miss Granger's eyes and instantly felt rather guilty. Miss Granger must have been here for hours after she'd left last night.

"Good morning, Miss Granger," Sally said pleasantly as she stood up from her desk. "Long night?"

"You have no idea," Hermione yawned, and made her way to her office.

"I knew I should have stayed and helped you last night," the blond woman frowned, and followed her.

"Oh, Sally, no that's not what I meant," Hermione gave the girl a tired smile. "It wasn't the paperwork here that kept me up; it was walking into my flat last night and finding my living room filled to the ceiling with packing boxes that had me up till after three."

"What on earth…"

"It would seem that Mr. Franklin, the Weasley Twins' former lawyer, was a bit eager to hand them over to me as clients, and so had his house elves drop off nearly four dozen boxes of every paper, file, note and memo he had regarding them. And well, you know how I feel about clutter," Hermione said, as she flopped into her chair. "I've already organized and cataloged them but they're shrunk down and in my brief case if you wouldn't mind storing them for me."

"Certainly, Miss Granger," Sally nodded and summoned a black binder. Taking out a quill she said, "Shall we review your schedule for today?"

Hermione nodded, and started rummaging through her desk for a pepper up potion.

"Alright then," Sally began reading off the page. "At ten thirty you have a meeting with Mrs. Hattingson about her will; she seems to want to make some changes to it. I've given you about an hour and half block of time for her. The old bat does tend to ramble."

Hermione chuckled, despite the fact that she was quickly becoming agitated at her inability to find a pepper up potion.

"At noon I've arranged for lunch to be delivered so that we may focus on getting some paper work hammered out before you have to be at the Ministry in court at two thirty. Court should only take about two hours since it's just the formalities with the Landers' divorce, and then finally at four forty-five you have a consultation with a possible new client."

"Why so late on the consultation?" Hermione asked with a small frown as she gave up trying to find her potion. The day was going to be long enough as it was with out having a meeting that close to when she closed.

"The gentleman seemed very insistent on seeing you today," Sally said. "I offered him an earlier time slot but he said he wouldn't be able to get here till late this afternoon. He sounded foreign so maybe he has to travel."

"Odd…" Hermione frowned but shrugged. "So from now until the meeting with Mrs. Hattingson what do I have?"

"Officially, nothing," Sally smiled. "Unofficially, you're going to take a nap."

"Do I look like a toddler to you?" Hermione raised an annoyed eyebrow.

Sally smirked and put a hand on her hip, "No, you look like a walking corpse."

"You do remember I sign your pay check, right?"

"You do remember how many secretaries you went through before me, right?

Hermione glared but sighed. She really didn't have the motivation to argue this topic. Much to her chagrin, Sally was right, she could use a few more minutes of sleep. It was eight twenty-four and she didn't have a single meeting until ten thirty. The burning behind her eyes convinced her to admit defeat.

"Alright, fine," she said and laid her head on her desk. "But please wake me up long before Mrs. Hattingson gets here though."

"Of course, Miss Granger," Sally smiled and pulled out her wand. She flicked the long thin piece of wood and the curtains on the windows closed as the lights dimmed. "Sleep well, Miss Granger."

Hermione hadn't even the energy to say thank you. Sally silently tiptoed out of the office and closed the door with a soft click. She smiled softly, determined to have all the paper work and files in the brief case sorted before Miss Granger woke up. It had been a productive morning so far and she intended to keep it that way. Sally smirked in triumph at the potted plants in the corner of the office. It had taken her all of yesterday's afternoon to figure out how to make the stupid vegetation stop singing, but she'd finally done it and was all to thrilled this morning when she walked in and they were still silent. Sally sat down at her desk and picked up a case file to catalog when the door burst open again. The sound of the door hitting the wall didn't make her jump nearly as much as the voice that followed it.

"Good Morning, Sally!"

"Sweet Merlin, not you again," the blonde groaned as George Weasley closed the door behind him. The sun light coming through the window was casting a blinding glare on his bright magenta robes.

"Well now that's not very nice," George gave a pouted lip as he sauntered in. "Lovely lass like you should be more cheerful."

"I'm cheerful when people don't disrupt my work," she glared. "And it Miss. Sheffield if you don't mind."

"I mind quite much actually. I much prefer calling you Sally, it's just a charming name."

"Is there something I can actually help you with Mr. Weasley?"

"Why yes there is, Sally," he smiled and hopped up to sit on the edge of her desk. "I was hoping perhaps your lovely boss was in."

"She is, but Miss Granger is busy at the moment," Sally said, glaring at the ginger haired man. She was always shy at first with clients, but once she got to know them and her boss's opinions on them, she was far more expressive and open. "And I'll thank you kindly to get off my desk."

"I would, but you ladies truly have some remarkably comfy furniture."

"Don't make me get the tea pot."

George paled slightly and immediately hopped off the irate blonde's desk. He stood in front of it instead, rocking back and forth on his feet a bit like a child waiting for a treat.

"Better," Sally said, leaning back in her chair with her arms crossed. "Now then, as I said, Miss Granger is busy right now. If you need to speak with her I would be happy to make you an appointment."

"Now, Sally, we've already been through this," George winked and made his way over towards the office door. "I'm too dashingly handsome and talented to have to make an appointment."

"Mr. Weasley!" Sally bolted out of her chair and started at him.

George shot a quick spell back at the potted plants before ducking inside the office. The plants not only began to sing again, but suddenly stared uprooting themselves from their pots and were beginning to dance. Sally let out something close to a primal roar of fury and started firing hexes at the plants. She'd explain the burn marks to Miss Granger later.

TBC

A/N: Apparently George hasn't learned the number one rule when it comes to winning over a woman. Rule One: Never wake her up for anything short of a life or death situation. Rule Two: Should you have to wake her up for anything short of life or death you had better do so with a cup of coffee in your hands. I am kind of looking forward to see what kind of horrible things George and Sally will do to each other over the course of the story though. Till next time, my duckies!

~Chupip