Chapter Seven
Ministry of Magic London
Hermione sat at her desk tapping her quill nervously against a blank sheet of parchment in front of her. It was four o'clock Monday afternoon and Nott still hadn't shown up. As much as she didn't trust the Slytherins she also had what Harry affectionately called, 'a borderline unhealthy interest in the downtrodden.' and she was fighting valiantly against her urge to get involved. She had spent the better part of the evening creating pros and cons lists trying to convince herself that she wasn't actually interested in whatever it was they were doing.
Someone waved a handkerchief in front of her face. "Chewing on quills is a nasty habit, Granger. And the security in here is abysmal" She was shocked to see Theodore Nott standing before her desk. She glared at Nico who was waving apologetically from the doorway, June gave her a thumbs up from behind his shoulder.
"Right. You're here to give a statement about the lease. Finally, Ms. Worthington has asked to be included in the meeting so we'll head to her office." She gathered up the paperwork she had in neat piles on her desk.
"What did you come up with to tell the ministry?" She asked under her breath as they walked down the hall.
"We really didn't have time to come up with a solid plan.. we were preoccupied last evening. I'm going to wing it." He quirked a smile which didn't quite reach his eyes.
He and Blaise had spent the better part of the evening fighting desperately to keep Draco alive. He had tested a potion before arriving at Nott's office the day before and it had been a rather nasty poison, since neither Blaise or Theo were quite as skilled at potions as Draco was so it had taken them a while to find an antidote.
At about four in the morning when they were certain the danger had passed, Blaise had passed out propped against the headboard of Draco's bed and Theo had collapsed into the armchair on his other side. He had barely woken up in time to throw on a suit and get to ministry, leaving the other two still asleep in the bed.
"You don't have a plan?" Hermione hissed. "We are going in front of my department head and you don't know how we're going to get out of this mess?"
"I didn't exactly have another option, did I? You said by the end of the day, and here I am." He said coolly.
Now that they had arrived at the door to Ms. Worthingtons office, Hermione was feeling far more nervous than she had anticipated but before she could say anything else the door opened and they were ushered inside.
"Well Mr. Nott, Ms. Granger had quite the run around trying to track you down." She looked sternly at him over the desk. "But she assures me that you are here now to explain why your signature is on the lease of a building that is intended for a potions supply store."
Hermione could see a bead of sweat near Nott's temple. He gave Ms. Worthington a weak smile.
"Yes, when Granger got a hold of me and let me know what this was about I came as soon as I could." He hesitated, clearly unsure of how to proceed. "The reason my name is on the lease-"
"It's a clerical error." Hermione cut him off. She ignored his desperate glance and met Ms. Worthingtons eyes calmly. "Nott signed that lease almost two years ago." She produced the copy of the original lease. "But as you can see, he hasn't been paying the lease, the money has been coming from another holding from overseas." She pulled another record from a folder.
Ms. Worthington looked them over carefully. "Why was Nott's signature on the lease in the first place?"
"He was planning to rent the space for his consulting business but went in another direction. He signed the lease for his current office the same day as he signed the other one. I've looked into this extensively, as you know, and it's just a clerical error. Nott has assured me that he will speak with the owner to clear up the issue and get a new lease with the correct information to me by the end of the week."
Hermione sat barely breathing as Ms. Worthington looked over the papers once more. Her stomach was rolling with guilt and nerves, she had never lied or even told a partial truth to her department head before.
"Well, then Ms. Granger, I expect you to get me that updated lease. And Mr. Nott, I expect you to be accessible and helpful to her in clearing this matter. This department is not in the habit of wasting time and money because people cannot attend to their mail properly." Ms. Worthington pierced Nott with a gaze that could have rivalled McGonagall and he shrank back in his seat.
"Well… that went a lot better than I expected. Thanks for the save, Granger" Nott said with a crooked smile after Hermione closed the office door behind them.
She shot him a withering glare "Next time I ask you to come up with a cover story I mean actually come up with one, not just leave me to flounder. I thought Slytherins are supposed to be renowned for their cunning and being able to get out of trouble."
"I mean. Technically I did, I just had you do all the work for me." Nott said with a wink.
"Hermione?" June called from her office down the hall.
"One second!" Hermione called back, then lowered her voice. "I expect this matter to be finished in a week, Nott. I don't want to be chasing you all around London and the quicker we're done the better."
"Right!" Nott dropped his voice to a conspiratorial whisper, his eyes sparkling. "So what's our next move then? How do we get this lease mess fixed?"
"Hermione?" June called again. Louder.
"One moment, June!" Hermione called again iiritated. "There is no 'our' or 'we'" she gestured with finger quotes. "This is a You problem." She poked him in his chest.
"Ah, Granger" he caught her hand and pressed it flat to his chest above his heart pinning her as he leaned closer to whisper in her ear. "You just lied, brilliantly, I may add, to your department head for a bunch of Death Eaters. Of course there's an 'us', we're in this mess together now. Who do you think will be more in trouble if it gets out? A bunch of death eaters who behaved exactly like everyone expects them to? Or the Golden Girl who lied to the ministry to help them?"
Hermione shivered, both at his words and his breath tickling her ear.
"Welcome to the team Granger."
"Hermione!" June shouted and Hermione yanked her hand away from Nott's chest, a blush tingling her cheeks. She spun on her heel and hurried to her office.
"June! For the love of Merlin why are you yelling at-" Hermione froze as she entered her office.
Blaise Zabini and Draco Malfoy stood by her desk, June nervously hovering beside them, her eyes wide. Both were dressed impeccably but Hermione could see Zabini was exhausted and Malfoy looked worse than before if that was possible. "What are you doing?" She asked numbly, her brain having gone blank at the sheer impossibility of them existing in her workspace.
"Granger. Nice to see you too." Drawled Malfoy sarcastically, leaning heavily on a serpentine cane.
"Mi scusi Granger. We were at the ministry and heard Nott was here on some business. We came to collect him for dinner" Zabini explained. "We don't mean to intrude, if you still have business with him we can wait."
"No. We're finished, you can take him!" Hermione said quickly.
"So your business with Nott, everything is… completare?" Zabini asked carefully.
"Mostly. Just a few loose ends for him to tie up." She glanced at Nott who gave her a wink.
"Evviva! In that case would you like to join us for dinner to celebrate?" Zabini asked.
Four sets of eyes turned on him.
Malfoy looked horrified while Nott looked mildly surprised.
June was biting her lip nervously as she stared openly at them.
Hermione was trying her best to school her face into something professional.
"Oh- um, thank you Zabini but I don't think that-" she tried but he interrupted her. "Drinks then? If dinner is too much? A 'thank you' for what you did for us at the trials, I insist."
Hermione hesitated, "And of course your assistant is more than welcome to join us." Zabini offered Hermione his arm.
June seemed too stunned to turn down the arm that Nott offered her, Hermione watched as he steered her out the door, throwing her a wink over his shoulder as he left. Malfoy followed close behind them, as if he couldn't wait to get out of her office.
She couldn't leave her young assistant alone with them.
There were a thousand reasons and excuses running through her mind but she couldn't seem to grasp any of them. Gingerly she took Zabini's arm and the unlikely group made its way down the halls of the ministry towards an apparition point.
She had been half hoping someone would stop them or call her back for help with something but Zabini seemed to know exactly which halls and stairs and lifts would be empty. He chatted about the weather and fashion and Italian life in an endless stream of polite small talk which hardly needed any response or encouragement.
They reached a rarely used apparition point in a corner behind the department of Magic Creatures and Blaise let Hermione drop his arm.
"So as to avoid scandal and intrigue with the papers which we aL no doubt wish to avoid, we will go ahead. Just tell the barkeep of the Doves Cross in London "Nemo saltat sobrius" and he'll know what to do. Give us a few minutes head start." Zabini instructed, brushing a kiss across Hermione's knuckles, Malfoy rolled his eyes.
"What does "Nemo saltat sobrius" mean?" June asked curiously after they had disappeared.
"It's latin for 'No one dances sober'." Hermione said distractedly, rummaging into her purse for paper and a quill. She scrawled a message across it. She tapped it with her wand and it duplicated itself before folding into an interdepartmental memo and floating off.
She had sent the memos to her desk, if she wasn't into her office by 10 in the morning tomorrow they would automatically go to Ms. Worthington and Harry. They contained her location and who she was with.
She also pulled out a small pocketbook and Ginny used to communicate when Ginny was travelling with her Quidditch team. She had gotten the inspiration for it's creation from Tom Riddle's diary of all things and while it had taken the better part of half a year to figure out the spells, it was one of her favourite inventions.
She opened the small blue notebook and scrawled a quick message to Ginny explaining that she was going for drinks with June, Malfoy, Zabini and Nott. Yes she was going of her own free will. No she was not imperioed. She would be home by 10pm and would let her know when she was home.
She snapped the book closed and put everything back into her purse before linking arms with June, taking a deep breath and disappearing.
A/N: Italian Translations for the chapter:
Mi scusi- Excuse me
Completare- finished/completed
Evviva- Cheers
I do love weekends, sitting at my table with a cup of coffee editing/publishing a new chapter is such a high point in my week.