The rest of the weekend- not that there was that much of it left- seemed to fly by. Monday morning was Theodore's first day in his new department, so I of course woke him up early for a good luck quickie before we dragged out of bed, had breakfast, and headed to our offices.
The first half of the day flew by and the next thing I knew it was time to meet with Baz for lunch. He was sitting on the bench outside of the Prophet's office when I walked out.
"Where to, sister dearest?"
"It's freezing outside, I would like to go to the Leaky Cauldron for their pot pie," I answered, leaning into him as his arm moved around my shoulders.
"Perhaps, Cordelia, you might not be so cold if you wore real clothes." I looked down at my outfit, I didn't have a coat on, sure, but I had on a long-sleeved blouse, the sweetheart neckline and corset-like structure was a bit risque, but not to the point where my boss was bothered- and for once I wasn't even wearing a skirt. I was wearing trousers- yes they were cropped but they didn't even show my knees. The red high heels were a give in- my signature. All in all, I was giving fifties pin-up girl, which apparently did not lend itself to warmth.
"Perhaps, Bastian, you might live to see twenty if you mind your own business. Also, these are real clothes. It's not my fault that my body makes them sinful."
"We agreed a long time ago that we do not discuss your body for the sake of my sanity."
"There is no saving that," I warned him. He reached over and flicked my nose, so I pushed him. Of course that worked a lot better when we were kids and I was bigger than him.
It changed when we were in fifth year. all of the sudden my scrawny little brother was taller, he was more buff. Before I had been able to beat him in fights and then, suddenly Genevieve had to snap at him to not hurt me.
It had been a terrible time- primarily for me. As far as I could tell, he was pretty into finally being able to best his sister.
We apperated to The Leaky Cauldron, got a table, and ordered our food. I was settling in, picking up the water that appeared in front of me when we were rudely interrupted.
"Look at that, our timing is perfect." It didn't take much to identify the pair that walked up to our table. Between the bright red hair on one and the scar on the other, they were walking, talking billboards for the Aurors.
"Potter. Weasley." Baz deadpanned, looking them up and down. It was a bit odd, seeing the pair like this. We went from seeing them damn near every day for six years. then, of course, they both disappeared during our seventh year, which- was not surprising. But when they did finally show up, they brought war with them.
I hadn't actually seen either of them during the battle, I'd been doing everything in my power to protect myself and Baz. but after the war, both of them had been stalked by the media, along with Hermione Granger, who I knew opted for ministry work over being an Auror which- couldn't blame her for that.
Harry and his friends had not made many comments to The Prophet at the time. Which wasn't a shock considering the way they had torn him to shreds in the years before.
"The Men, The Myths, the Distractions to our Education." I didn't hate Harry Potter, not in the way Draco ever had. I was vaguely annoyed by the favoritism and the fact that he consistently got in the way of our education.
"Cute. We are the ones on your case." Ron said, his eyes on me.
"I have a case?" I quirked an eyebrow.
"Someone tried to hurt you, Coco."
"Someone tried to hurt you?" Baz interrupted.
"No. Well- yes, but they didn't manage it."
"Correct, they managed to put your husband in the hospital." Harry agreed.
"they what?! What happened." I glared at Harry as Baz freaked out.
"it was nothing."
"When did this happen?" Baz was now addressing Harry and Ron Directly.
"Friday. there was a bomb, Theodore was concussed."
"Friday?!" Baz jerked his head around to look at me.
"I was fine and I knew you and Mom would freak out so I just- didn't mention it." I shrugged. "what did you find?" I asked, pushing the conversation forward.
"We haven't figured out the identity of the sender, but we did find that the snap that had been spelled to explode so- intensely- was part of a special edition set."
"So you know basically nothing," I concluded
"We are working on it. In the meantime is there anything else you think we should know?" Harry stepped in front of Ron, who was quickly turning a new and interesting shade of pink in, I assume, anger
"Nope." I shook my head and crossed my legs.
"Coco." Harry started, obviously not believing me.
"We can handle it, Harry. Our people have handled our problems internally since the dawn of time."
"Illegally."
"Internally." I corrected "There is no need to waste valuable resources."
"If you come up with anything." Harry pulled a card from his pocket, placing it on the table. "Let us know. Do not handle it internally. That just causes more problems." I rolled my eyes, pointedly taking the card from the table and tucking it into the neckline of my shirt.
"Sure."
"Thank you." He nodded goodbye at my brother and then turned to go, leaving me to explain everything to Bastian.
"Let me at least get my pie before I explain it all." I sighed.
"Do not sit down." Helene interrupted me as I was just about to plop into my chair. I froze, staring at her.
"Okay?"
"I need you to run down to Calvin Danworth's office and give him this." She held out a folder and I groaned.
"Really? Them? Again?" I asked.
"Get used to it, Nott. Around here, as long as you're my assistant you will be running all over the Ministry."
"Selwyn-Nott."
"Excuse me?"
"Theodore and I are changing it. We will be the Selwyn-Notts."
"Cordelia, I am begging you, stop changing your name. I am getting confused."
"This is the last time."
"Good."
"Unless Theodore Dies and I remarry." Helene gave me the least impressed look I'd ever seen. I responded to the look with the most innocent eyes I could muster up.
"Go give that to Danworth." I grinned at Helene and took the folder, hurrying out of the office. I took the oh-too-familiar path down to his department. The moment I walked in, my eyes were drawn to Theodore's old desk- it still sat empty. Somehow that made me happy, knowing that Theodore wasn't that easily replaceable to them.
"Hey- um- you're Theodore's… Wife?" I quirked an eyebrow at the woman with short dark hair, who had walked up to me.
"Yes. Unless he did something wrong in which case, Never heard of him." I answered.
The girl smiled, shaking her head.
"No, I'm Darcy." She introduced. I vaguely recalled him mentioning a Darcy before.
"Oh, right, Well you can call me Coco." I switched the folder to my other hand to reach out and shake her hand.
"I just wanted to check in, make sure everything was okay with him. His leaving was- abrupt."
"Yeah, He's great, today actually is his first day in his new department." Darcy brightened.
"Oh good." she seemed genuinely happy for him. I felt a little moment of pride in my man.
"What are you doing here?" a snide voice asked. Darcy and I both clammed up and turned to look at the person. It took a moment before I placed her.
"Assistant girl." I snapped my fingers. "That's right."
"Kaitlyn." She snapped back.
"Sure." I shrugged. "I'm here to see Calvin."
"You seem to do that a lot." I quirked an eyebrow.
"Yes, it is an unfortunate part of my job." Darcy looked back and forth between us, her expression as confused as I felt.
"I'm going- to go. Tell Theodore I said Hi."
"Will do," I promised. Darcy walked away leaving me alone with the odd Assistant girl.
"Give it to me, I will give it to Calvin." She held her hand out impatiently.
"No, it's fine. The last time I was told you took care of something between Calvin and me, I ended up waiting two weeks for a simple statement. I'll get it to him." I stepped forward, intending to move around her, but she stepped over to remain in my way.
"I will give it to him." She repeated, her voice firmer. I squared my shoulders and let out a laugh. I didn't grow up with the meanest of mean girls to be intimidated by this woman.
"Kaitlyn, I am going to say this nicely one more time. I will give it to him because I don't trust you to actually do it. Now move." She simply glared at me, not moving. I could feel eyes on us- I swear I gave more entertainment to this department than anyone.
"Kaitlyn, can I get your help with this?" Darcy spoke up. Kaitlyn turned her glare on Darcy and I gave her a look of Thanks, as Kaitlyn was distracted long enough for me to step around her and go to Calvin's office- he wasn't even in there. I rolled my eyes and placed it on his desk, stepping out a moment later and closing the door behind me.
"Thank you, so much Kaitlyn. It's been a real party." I commented to the woman who was still standing in the middle of the room. I walked past her and out of the office, heading back to my own. "Fucking weirdo," I muttered as I waited for the elevator. I glanced back over my shoulder to see her watching me, her eyes narrowed, her knuckles white from how hard she was gripping the door.
"Merlin." I stepped into the elevator and pressed the button to go up to my floor, the image of her hateful stare imprinted in my brain.
"Hey, what do you know about Calvin Danworth's assistant? Kaitlyn?" I asked Helene when I got back to the office. I had finally finished compiling the notes for her latest article so my desk for once was cleared of all the mess that wasn't my normal mess. Though there was still no sign of all of my missing items, but since we had implemented the protection spell over my desk, things had stopped going missing. At least I had the knowledge that it wasn't just me misplacing things. But it did leave me questioning who would have been nicking things off my desk.
"His assistant?" Helene asked with a frown. "I didn't even really recognize that he had one, let alone anything of note about her." She shrugged.
"The weird little blonde girl right?" David asked. David was the sports reporter for the paper and I'm pretty sure he ran on energy potions alone. I wasn't convinced the man slept, ever.
"Yeah- you know her?" That was shocking.
"Kind of? She's up here all the damn time. I saw her wandering around trying to find your desk a while ago and since then she's up here a lot. I assumed you two were friends."
"I didn't really know her name until today," I admitted. I'd been told her name before, but she was so unremarkable that it never really stuck in my head. "Why did she need to know about my desk?"
"She had a document with her, probably that."
Wait
"She did bring the statement?" I asked.
"I have no idea." David shrugged. "But she's been up here a few times since then, always around your desk."
I glanced at my desk and then back up at David.
"Thanks, David."
"Thank me with more of the energy potions. You make them better than anyone I know."
"Warm milk might be a better choice." He gave me a playfully dirty look before heading back over to his own desk.
"Hmm, that's weird." Helene mused. "Because I didn't get that statement for weeks after."
"I never saw it, not the one she brought. I had to go get it…" I looked down at my desk and then back up to Helene. My stomach started to churn, but I wasn't quite ready to start throwing around accusations, not yet.
I glanced at the clock up on the wall, sitting down at my desk as Helene went back to her own office.
I grabbed a pen and paper and I quickly wrote a letter to Delilah, asking her about Kaitlyn and if she knew anything about the woman.
"I'll be right back, I'm going to send this off," I said out loud to no one in particular. I hurried off to the Ministry Owlry and sent it off to her. With any luck, she'd get back to me quickly.
Turned out I did not have luck. The end of the day came and there was no letter back from Delilah. Of course, she probably had a ton of stuff she did during the day that prevented her from writing me back immediately.
I was supposed to meet Theodore in the main lobby just like we had done when he worked for Danworth. I headed down that way, expecting him to be waiting for me like he always had before but by the time I got to the pillar he was always leaning against- it was empty.
I hated waiting, I pouted a bit, looking around trying to find my husband but he was nowhere to be seen
I sighed dramatically as if that would make him show up faster, my eyes darting around the lobby, seeing Daphne walking towards the door, she happened to spot me right after that. Instead of freezing and running away- which was what I was kind of tempted to do myself, she waved at me and continued her journey out the door.
"At least one of us can act like a normal adult," I muttered. "Come on, Theodore." I groaned.
"You'd be amazed at how long the onboarding process can take." I jumped, turning and coming face to face with the same woman.
"Kaitlyn. We need to stop meeting."
"Like this?"
"At all."
Kaitlyn glowered at me, her jaw clenching.
"You think you're so funny, don't you? So witty and brilliant?"
"Actually yes-"
"Shut up." She hissed. "For once just shut up." I closed my mouth, surprised. "It's not fair. You're just a stupid kid who talks too much. You're not even available anymore."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"We are going on a little trip."
"Are we?"
"Yes, we are." I felt the tip of her wand pressing against me. "Imperio." she hissed
No.
My body stiffened as the spell took hold. Kaitlyn inched closer to me, pressing her body to mine.
"Take out your wand, and give it to me," she ordered. I could feel the spell taking over my body. My arm moved of its own accord, my elbow bending, my hand gripping my wand from the loop in my belt and pulling it out, handing it over to her, Kaitlyn's eyes brightened as if she wasn't quite sure that the spell would work. It definitely did, I was powerless to stop it.
"You're going to take me to the cottage. To the oh-so-special place that was meant for you and Calvin." my eyes widened, I tried to say no, I tried to deny her but I couldn't, just trying to do it made me feel ill.
"Of course." I heard myself say. My brain and my body screamed as the magic took hold again, forcing me to move forward, leading her away so we could apparate to the cottage.
Before we left the perceived safety of the ministry I did the only act of rebellion I could make myself perform. Now I just had to hope the right person found it.
