A/N: Thank you for your reviews, favorites and follows after last chapter! Huge thanks to lanamarymack and Angela 007 for alpha/beta reading this chapter! You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.

Please let me know what you thought of chapter twenty-eight and be on the lookout for chapter twenty-nine soon!


After she passed the halfway point of her pregnancy, Hermione found it more and more difficult to hide her growing bump. It seemed that sometime in March, she had "popped" and now was sporting a rounded middle that all her robes clung to in a way that made it difficult to ignore. Still, she did her best with some common tailoring charms to loosen the waist a bit and hoped that no one said anything about it.

However, it seemed that day at work, her luck had finally run out.

When she strode into her office, trying to project an air of confidence that she didn't actually feel, she was quickly cut off by a surprised looking Undersecretary Swift.

"Mrs. Riddle, what are you doing here?" he asked, guiding her into his office and shutting the door behind him.

She narrowed her eyes, confused about the line of questioning. "I'm going to my desk, sir," she answered, respectfully. "I didn't show up late, did I?" Internally, she cursed. That sounded argumentative and rude.

"I meant more...what are you doing here at all?" he asked again, still sounding supremely confused.

"I work here," Hermione repeated, growing more irritated at his line of questioning. She couldn't understand what was going on and why he was speaking to her that way.

"It's just...Mrs. Riddle, do you not remember sending in your resignation letter?" he asked, his eyes narrowing.

Hermione's heart began thudding, confused about what he was saying. Resignation letter? She never would have resigned from her job. "Um, I must have forgotten that I already sent it," she lied, wondering what had happened, though she was quickly piecing it together.

"I can't say that I was surprised," her boss continued. "I mean we all expected it, once your marriage was announced - a marriage that you did not inform us ahead of time, keep in mind. A bit untoward considering that he was involved in one of your former cases. I was surprised that you didn't resign weeks ago. But then again, now that I can...surmise your...condition I can understand that you must have a certain level of confusion. My wife always had a bit of confusion during her pregnancies."

She gave him a quiet laugh to cut through the tension. She did not agree with his sexist take that her pregnancy was causing her any confusion.

"Of course," she agreed. "Only, I was hoping to work just a bit longer. I know that I will obviously take a leave when it's my time, but I had planned on returning to work, once the child is a few months old. Could we just...forget that I've sent my resignation?"

Swift gave her a gentle smile. "Oh, Mrs. Riddle, I'm afraid we can't do that. We've already placed a more suitable candidate in your former role," he explained, not at all bothered to tell her how easily she was replaced. "And, as for a return to work, well...I am sure that once your child is here, your desire to remain in the workforce will evaporate entirely. It's quite common among mothers, I'm told."

Despite herself, Hermione felt tears prickling in the back of her eyes. While she hadn't been in love with her job, it had been the single constant in her life for the past five years. It was strange to think that she wouldn't have the daily ebb and flow of her tasks to keep her grounded. And, while her savings were good, she hated the idea of not having her own money to do with as she pleased.

This was not at all what she wanted.

Clearing her throat to loosen the knot in her throat, Hermione put on a brave face. "Can I at least go clear out my office?" she asked, meekly.

"Oh, no worries about that, my dear," he answered, genially. "Mister Malfoy was by last Friday, after you left. He already took care of it for you."

Of course, Hermione thought to herself, darkly. This sort of thing had Malfoy's fingerprints all over it. She did feel a small sense of relief when it was confirmed that Tom wasn't the mastermind behind the plan, rather it was Abraxas . Still, she could feel rage boiling up inside of her and now she knew who to give a piece of her mind.

Not bothering to exchange any pleasantries with Swift on her way out, Hermione returned to the Floo lobby at the Ministry so that she could return to her new home where she knew that she would find said Malfoy lurking, as he typically did in the mornings before heading into sessions at the Wizengamot. With each step, she only felt her fury grow that he presumed to make such big decisions about her life for her.

Upon returning home, she stomped up the stairs towards Tom's office, hoping that he heard her coming and that he felt fear. Pushing the door open, she found Tom and Abraxas standing at the desk, looking through some papers. She hadn't even realized that she had drawn her wand until it was pointed at Malfoy's ferrety face.

"Who do you think you are, Malfoy?" she snarled at the blond in her ire.

Malfoy raised his arms up in immediate surrender, taking a step back from her. "Tom, do something," he requested, looking to her husband to put a stop to her behavior.

Hermione was pleased to see that he did look frightened - that he knew what she was capable of if given the chance. She turned to face Tom. "Did you know what he was planning to do?" she demanded, hoping that he hadn't been in on it too. Surely, he knew how important her job was to her.

Tom moved faster than the blink of an eye, wordlessly disarming her and catching her wand in his own hand, not the least bit bothered by her annoyed protest. "Darling, it would help if I had any idea what you were talking about," he said, suavely. "Surely Brax would like to know what he was being threatened with, too?"

She returned her attention to Malfoy. "Why don't you tell him Abraxas?" she suggested, lips pursed together to stop herself from sniping at him. "Can't you think of anything you've done lately that would have upset me?"

"Oh, yes," he said, swallowing in nervousness. Despite the fact that her wand was no longer trained on him, he still didn't look relaxed. "How could I have forgotten that it was Monday? I helped Hermione by resigning her from her position at the Ministry."

She looked at Tom pointedly. "He quit my job on my behalf!" she repeated. "I did not want to leave my job, Tom. I'm not cut out to be some sort of housewife that sits around and has tea and plans parties, okay? I want to have meaningful employment."

Tom frowned at Abraxas, perhaps knowing that the little plan he concocted was never going to go over well. "I am sure that we can get it back for you," he said, hoping to smooth things over. "Just explain that it was a misunderstanding."

Her eyes narrowed. "I already tried that and found that I've been replaced by someone more suitable for the position," she said, clenching her teeth. "Whatever that means."

"It means that most married women and certainly most mothers do not continue in the workforce," Abraxas said, suddenly getting some of his confidence back. "Hermione, I know that you have a lot of strong opinions on the matter, but someday you will be thanking me."

"Thanking you?" she repeated, incredulous.

"Yes, thanking me, because I did you a favor," he answered. "You won't want to go back to work after your child is born."

"Why does everyone presume to know what I want?" she questioned, her head dropping back in exasperation.

"Okay, so maybe it's not exactly what you wanted," Malfoy argued. "Perhaps if you weren't so self-centered, you'd be able to think about your husband too for once."

Hermione was taken aback by the accusation, her eyes darting to Tom guiltily. She thought about Tom all the time. Did he think that she was self-centered? That she didn't care about what he wanted? The thought turned her stomach. "I don't know what you mean," she whispered.

"It's quite simple, really. Tom is campaigning to be the Minister for Magic," he said. "Think about how it would reflect on him if you still worked in your office? There could be talk of impropriety... the suggestion that there were special favors between the two of you - either that he helped you with your job or that you could be used to do Tom's bidding."

"I would never do something like that," Hermione said, adamantly, though she also remembered how she had dropped the investigation into Borgin and Burke's because Tom had gotten her office to, even though she knew it was a good case. Could something like that come back on them?

"We both know that," Tom said, pressing a large hand to her shoulder. "But you never know what the Daily Prophet is going to put into their pages. They will write anything if they think it will help them."

"Yeah," Hermione said in agreement, so sure that he was right, but she couldn't place why. Somewhere, back in her memory, she recalled a smiling blonde witch with bright coloured robes and an acerbic quill. "Anything to sell papers."

"Great," Abraxas said, a bit of tension leaving his body, too. "We are all on the same page then."

Nodding in agreement, Hermione knew that she would give up this fight for now, but she also knew she wasn't done with work either. Once the baby was born, she would just have to revisit the topic with Tom. She knew that he wouldn't keep her from doing something that was important to her, right?

Some of Dumbledore's poison words slithered through her mind once again, a vicious whisper that she just couldn't forget. "Speaking of being on the same page," she said, hoping to sound innocent enough. "Now that I have so much time on my hands - thanks to you, of course, Abraxas - I can devote myself completely to the campaign."

"I'm so glad that you said that," Abraxas said with a smirk, looking her up and down. "Aurelia has agreed to act as a sort of...image consultant for you. Even though we want Tom to appear as a family man, that doesn't mean that we need to be advertising the timing of your pregnancy."

"Excuse me?" Hermione asked.

"You've done an admirable job with transfiguration so far," he complimented her. "But you are really at a point where you need new robes. Aurelia will be able to help you pick out a wardrobe that is more suited to being the Minister's wife than what you have currently."

"I was thinking that my talents would be better used in strategy and planning," she said firmly, not wanting to subject herself to more time with Aurelia than she already had. "What's Tom's platforms? What issues is he running on? I want to know all of the details."

"With all due respect, I've been in the Wizengamot for half a decade now," Abraxas cut her off. "I am the one who is leading this campaign and I'm the one who's going to get Tom elected. I don't need your strategy or ideas."

"Tom," Hermione said, sharply, turning to face her husband. "I deserve to know what you are running on if you are going to use me to your advantage. I'm not just going to be a bit of pretty ornamentation. That's not why you married me."

"Of course you are more than a bauble to me and I value your opinion," Tom said firmly. "But, we aren't ready for a second pair of eyes just yet. Go shopping with Aurelia and have some fun," he commanded.

"Fine," Hermione agreed again, folding under the pressure. "But, you know that I'm going to have to find out eventually."

"We can run through the broad strokes of it tonight over dinner," Tom promised, pressing a kiss to her temple. "Now, go and have some fun. I think that Aurelia is waiting upstairs in your closet."

Hearing that was enough to have Hermione turn on her heel, knowing that she needed to head off Aurelia before she banished the entirety of her closet. Privately, she wondered when they had made all these decisions about her life without even consulting her. She had the distinct feeling that they were trying to keep something from her - some bit of policy that they knew she wouldn't like.

Dumbledore's words rattled in her head once again. She would have to wait and hear what Tom had to say.