Chapter Twenty Three

Aside from the occasional sniffle from Sally, the entire flat was a tense silence. Sally sat on Ms Granger's sofa with her head buried into her hands, completely unable to meet her employer's eyes. Miss Granger was taking this a lot better than Sally had expected her to but to be fair she hadn't actually said anything yet so there was no telling how upset she really was.

Viktor sat next to his distort beloved and kept a comforting hand on her shoulder while trying to ignore the hostility aimed in his direction. George, who stood behind the chair Hermione currently occupied, was gripping the back of it so hard his knuckles had turned white. He glowered deeply at Krum, for no other reason than he could. George realized that he really had no right to feel as protective of the petite blonde as he did, but someone needed to be the furious older brother in this situation and it may as well be him. The pictures in Hermione's hand were highly graphic and he wasn't sure whether he was angry at the git who took them or the large Bulgarian for putting Sally in that position in the first place. Either way, George was not amused.

Hermione just stared in shock at the photographs in her hand. If she were ever to sit down and write out a list of everything she wished she could un-see from her life, this would definitely be on that list. Top five for sure. Hermione placed the photos back in their envelope and sat backing her chair for a moment to collect her thoughts. She was angry, that was for sure. Sally was a smart girl, she should have known better than to get involved with a client.

A sharp voice in the back of her head screamed hypocrite.

The bushy haired witch sighed. Alright, fine maybe that was a bit hypocritical, given the fact that the object of her last largest case was currently standing behind her chair glaring at Viktor as though he was trying to light him on fire with his mind. For the moment though all of that was beside the point. They didn't start dating until after the case was over.

Hermione quickly buried the idea that she and George were actually dating. No, they just happened to have dinner together on occasion… and kiss… and share personal details…

'Dammit,' Hermione groaned inwardly. 'I'm dating George Bloody Weasley…'

She would deal with that personal break through later over a bottle of wine and a pint of cherry ice cream when no one was here to watch her freak out, but right now Hermione had a bigger problem to address.

Hermione rubbed her eyes tiredly with one hand, "How could you both do something so stupid?"

"Is not stupid to fall in love, Hermy-own-ninny," Viktor said firmly. Sally raised her head out her hands, looking a bit astonished at what her couch companion had just proclaimed. Sure she figured that there was a mutual attraction that could grow, but love? Sally wasn't sure if that statement was endearing or terrifying. It felt too soon for him to say that he loved her, though she couldn't help but admit the words felt right coming off his lips.

Hermione leveled the large man with a glare, "I never said it was, Viktor," she said icily. "What was stupid was having a one night stand with your attorney's assistant, when you are fighting a vindictive money hungry wench and her slime covered blood thirsty lapdog for the sole custody of your children!"

Viktor returned his gaze to the carpet.

"I'm actually fired this time, aren't I?" Sally said in a frail voice. The brunette witch sitting across from her sighed but shook her head.

"You bloody well know I can't survive a day with out you, Sally."

Sally was able to return a weak smile.

"But this does complicate things, for everyone. Especially your kids, Viktor. I hope you can both live with that. Sally, you won't be able to help me on the case if we want to be able to fend off any accusations of impropriety." They both nodded and Sally allowed Viktor to pull her closer to himself.

"I am villing to do vhat it takes to get my boys back."

"And I am willing to do what it takes to help him do that. Even if it means being off the case."

"This could turn into a surprising opportunity for you actually," Hermione addressed Sally. "Working alone on Viktor's case is going to require most of my attention and time. That means I will need you to take the reigns on my other non-immediate cases. You have your final project due for the Academy of Wizarding Law at the end of April. If you take over my other two cases you can use them for your research paper, and heading up several cases on your own will look very nice on a resume for when you are internship hunting next year."

Sally hadn't thought about that at all. She just assumed as soon as Miss Granger saw the photos and learned about what happened that she'd be out the door faster than she could blink, with out her job and with out her friend. The possibility that this could turn out in her favor had never even crossed her mind. This way she would be able to continue seeing Viktor while still retaining her professionalism, and have her final project practically written for her. It took a moment for Sally to find her words but she did eventually.

"I… I'd like that very much, Ma'm."

Hermione smiled comfortingly at her young assistant. Sally had been irreplaceable to her these last few years. She wasn't about to let something like this ruin her dreams of becoming an attorney, or ruin Viktor's chances of gaining his children back. She certainly didn't want to stand in the way of whatever happiness they might find in each other either, and she wasn't going to let this stupid bastard ruin it for them either..

"Well now that, that's settled, I think it's very late and we should all get some rest. I imagine it's been a stressful day," Hermione said. Sally nodded sheepishly. "What's on the agenda for tomorrow, Sally?"

Sally blinking owlishly for a moment, but rattled off their schedule from memory rather quickly.

"Until about two o'clock we're basically free to work on paper work and make any necessary fire calls there may be."

"I say we take the morning off," Hermione said with a smile. She felt the tension flow out of the hands gripping the back of her chair as George relaxed. Sally looked down right confused at the suggestion of taking half the day off until Hermione chuckled and explained. "George's brother and his wife are at St. Mungo's right now having a baby. Their son is asleep in my room right now and I promised to help George watch him. We'll drop him off tomorrow morning with his father then be in around lunch."

George grinned at the half truth but didn't say anything. Sally still looked like she was borderline scandalized by the thought of taking half a day off for no reason but nodded, "Alright."

As Hermione spoke with Sally, George pulled Viktor down the hall where the women wouldn't hear them.

"Look, Mate," he frowned. "I may be over stepping my bounds here a bit but there is a distinct lack of older brothers in that girl's life at the moment so I'm going to just fill in for the time being, alright?"

Viktor cocked an eyebrow at the gingered haired man but nodded for him to continue.

"I always thought you were an alright bloke, Krum and I got nothing against you personally. But if you hurt her, or those pictures end up ruining her life because you couldn't keep your broom stick in it's cupboard long enough to get this damn case over with first I will personally ensure that your suffering will be as slow and as painful of a process as I am capable of arranging. Savvy?"

Viktor sighed, "If I ruin her life because uf these, I vill let you, Veasley."

George nodded as Sally and Hermione made their way down the hall. Sally eyed the two of them suspiciously.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Nothing uf importance, Dearest," Viktor said and placed an arm around her. "I think though ve've vorn out our velcome. Shall ve?"

Sally nodded and bid Hermione and George good bye. As soon as Hermione shut the door behind the couple she leaned her head against the frame.

"Well that just made the next two months of my life a bit more interesting," she groaned.

"It certainly could have gone worse," George shrugged. "They could have tried to hide it from you. Can you imagine getting blind sided with that the day of the custody hearing?"

"I'd prefer not to think about it," Hermione shuddered. "What I do need to think about though is how I am going to spin this to a jury in a way that doesn't paint Viktor in a negative light, all while coming up with a plan to remove that conniving little insect's intestines with out getting sent to Azkaban. It's all very stressful."

"Well look on the bright side, Granger," George said, peeling her off the wall and turning her around to face him.

Hermione scoffed, "And what bright side would that be?"

George grinned before pinning her up against the door with his whole body. "You get to spend all of tomorrow morning with me."

Hermione grinned in return, "I suppose when you put it like that, I can get over it."

George didn't retort, he just recaptured her lips in a deep kiss.

… ~ … ~ …

Viktor and Sally rode the elevator down in silence. It wasn't exactly awkward, more that neither of them could find anything to say. Viktor was the first to break the quietness.

"Sally, I vant to ask you sumthing but not sure if is too soon or not," he started.

Sally's eye widened in panic. What could he possibly want to ask her that would count as 'too soon to ask'?

"Vould you… I mean vould you vant to even…" Viktor sighed and gathered up his courage. "I vant you to meet my sons. Vould you come vith me tis veekend to visit tem? I have international port key ready for Friday at five o'clock. I understand uf course if you vould not vant to, I don't vish to make you uncomfortable but I think they vould love to meet you and is very important to me, but if you don't vant to…"

Sally's panic evaporated into a humble smile. She looped her arm around his and hugged it close to stop the Bulgarian's babbling.

"I would love to meet your boys, Viktor."

Viktor's smile was so big Sally was surprised it fit his face. The silence wasn't so bad after that.

TBC

A/N: Sally and Viktor aren't quite out of the woods with this little issue yet but rest assured Hermione is going to be serving some heads up on platters as soon as she can reach her office.

As a side note, I have a deviantart account where I have recently been dumping some of my sketches of OCs and fan art from my stories. If you are interested in getting the link let me know when your comment and I will send it to you in a PM.

As always, R&R. Ta!

~Chupip