Chapter 22
“This is the Department of International Cooperation headquarters, you’ll be spending a lot of time working with them on legislation to ensure it follows inner and outer state accordances. This way...”
Hermione stifled a yawn as her new supervisor, Orchalid Dawes, showed her to another of the various offices in the Ministry. It was probably something she should be taking notes on but she was positively exhausted. She’d spent the last week going to Malfoy Manor at noon for her wedding planning with Narcissa (which were starting to feel like ‘Lessons in Ladyship’ or something) and staying until eleven or midnight in the records room going over the Malfoy Inheritence Decree. She’d taken notes and talked them over with some of her friends in the Accounting Department, Department of Magical Artefacts, and the Office for the Removal of Curses, Jinxes, and Hexes as a hail-mary effort. No one was able to find any loopholes or ways to break the document without actually breaking the will. She’d been able to have the day off yesterday for Neville and Luna’s wedding, which had been a beautiful, if not interesting affair.
She’d arrived at the venue shortly after Noon to stop in and say hello to her friends. Neville had been an emotional wreck; trying to find his tie, worrying about Luna calling off the wedding (which was less likely than the dinosaurs returning to life), and reapplying Wick-Away potions to stem his sweating. Luna had, as expected, been considerably calmer. The girl looked beautiful in a paganistic sort of way. A wreath of leaves, white flowers, and ferns sat atop her short veil, and her hair was loose for the most part with pink and white flowers braided down the middle and around the back of her head. Hermione was surprised to see that Luna had chosen to go without makeup but it was certainly a very Luna thing to do. Besides, the girl was beautiful without it and the rest of her adornments brought attention to her face in the same way makeup would have anyway. Her dress had been one with more of a wizard design than a traditional muggle dress (as some of her other friends had chosen) but was pretty all the same. The shoulders were ruffled chiffon and a crepe satin ribbon wrapped the shoulders before crisscrossing her bosom and tying around her waist. The top part of the dress was an anti-chaffing lace that connected to a floor-length flared skirt made of patterned linen. Mione didn’t recall seeing the dress at their group appointment so she assumed it was a family heirloom or perhaps the girl had found it at another store.
She had left the room at five to one to go outside and find her seat near Harry and Ron (who had finally pulled his head out of his arse and apologized). She’d been confused by all of the empty seats in the crowd before shedding a tear as Harry explained that they were for the people who couldn’t be there (Luna’s mother, Fred, even Dobby had a chair laid aside for him. Neville's parents weren’t able to leave St Mungos so they each had an empty chair as well but she’d heard that the bride and groom had stopped by between the wedding and reception to meet them. Alice had even given Luna a hug).
Neville looked dashing in his blue linen suit, his yellow bow-tie matching perfectly to his dahlia boutonniere. The flower girl had been adorable in the little yellow dress as she scattered, of all things, blades of grass down the walkway, and the three bridesmaids wore tea-length, satin and lace dresses of the same colour. Hermione wasn’t sure whether to laugh or to smile at the look of complete adoration on Neville’s face as Luna came down the aisle. The groom had broken into tears as soon as his bride smiled at him, something that had put a seed of longing deep within Hermione (who doubted she’d ever get that experience).
The reception had been fun, a wizard DJ played the latest hits and some of the muggle songs that had made their way into magical media. There had been an open bar and people walking around with champagne flutes all night around the outside of the dance floor. She’d danced for a few hours before partaking in the buffet they had set up. It was a very eclectic mix of foods. There were different curries, a few kinds of sushi, some different kinds of pasta, a taco station, Som Tam, and the regular fish, chips, steak and kidney pie, and bangers and mash. Not to mention two whole tables of pudding. Hermione had indulged in a little of everything over the course of the night and had enjoyed all of it. The bride and groom cut the cake around six, a pink base with poppies and dahlias up the sides and two butter-cream cranes in the middle. The passion-fruit rum cake had been heavenly on her slightly drunk tongue.
She’d, unfortunately, left around nine-thirty because she’d had to be at the office by six this morning, but she was kind of glad she’d missed the bouquet toss since Luna’s was a mix of roses, dahlias, and cacti. Mione wasn’t sure how the girl hadn’t been getting stuck by the spines all night because when Della Jints had caught it she’d had to spend an hour getting them taken out of her hands (at least according to Ginny).
She’d awoken to her alarm blaring and her head pounding before downing two bottles of hangover potion, throwing on her pantsuit and a pair of low heels, and stopping by a cafe near the ministry for a cup of beet and lemon juice tea. When she’d arrived she’d been introduced to her new supervisor (miss ‘Please, call me Orchalid instead of Auror Dawes’) and the woman Mione would be replacing. Starla Vesson had an impressive career at the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures spanning thirty years (give or take from when she’d been in hiding during the war). She’d been one of the first witches on the force, managed to achieve Being status for trolls and leprechauns instead of the Creature status they’d had previously, and was one of the advocates for Vampiric blood banks (a cause Hermione supported wholeheartedly). In fact, she was a woman Mione very much looked up to and would hopefully be conversing with over the coming years on her indoctrination of House Elves Rights, Werewolf Reforms, and other pet projects she wanted to go after once she’d achieved her main goals.
“To the right-hand side is our Auror headquarters and the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.” Auror Dawes continued. Hermione fought the urge to roll her eyes and waved as they passed Harry and a few of his co-workers in the hall. He sent her a smile and a discreet thumbs-up before going back to his conversation. She was surprised he was there today, considering he was meeting Astoria’s family in a few hours. Their wedding was on Tuesday. Hermione found herself shocked on Monday when she’d realised just how close everyone’s weddings were. Not only had Neville and Luna married yesterday, but George was getting married tomorrow, Harry was marrying Astoria on Tuesday followed shortly by Ginny and Blaise on Wednesday. Percy was getting married a week from today, and Ron and Pansy were getting married on the eleventh. Only three days before her own wedding. She wasn’t sure whether to be terrified or elated that it was coming so fast. On the one hand, she’d be happy to stop all of the wedding planning she’d been doing for the last month, no more tastings, or fittings, or speech writing, or dance lessons, or memorizing names of family members and diplomates, and no more going over seating charts. Merlin, she hated it all.
But on the other hand… dear God, in a week and a half she’d be married to Draco Malfoy. She would be Mrs Hermione Malfoy (she’d teased about keeping or hyphenating ‘Granger’. It had not gone well). In a week and a half, she would have to pledge her life in matrimony to the boy who’d been the bane of her existence for eleven years. The boy who’d made her life a living hell. Who’d tormented her and verbally (and occasionally magically and physically) assaulted her on numerous occasions. She would live with him, sleep with him, be the mother of his children! Godric’s great balls, she’d been putting off thinking about how well that would go. The two of them weren’t even on a first name basis and she would have to have sex with him in a little over a week! Sure he was physically attractive, she’d found herself aroused by him before, but they’d only recently begun having cordial conversations. How well would pillow talk go? She wasn’t sure what he would like or not like, wasn’t sure if it should matter to her or not. Since they were both going to sign a fidelity clause she guessed it was probably something she should learn.
And at least that was all out of view of the public. She’d overheard Cho talking yesterday about her own wedding to Graham Montague. Apparently, their first kiss had been at the altar and he’d attempted to go right for french kissing when she’d expected a quick peck. It had embarrassed poor Cho and been awkward and humiliating for both bride and groom. Hermione did not want the same experience. She was debating with herself, last night, about the best way to rectify that situation. Should she ask Malfoy on Sunday when she returned to the manor for her lessons to kiss her? Should she bring up the topic of their marriage and first kiss and just let him lead the conversation? Or should she just walk up and lay one on him? It was a weird thought process that had led to her thinking about her level of interest in actually kissing him . Which was surprisingly high. She’d been slightly mortified to realise just how much she wanted to kiss him. Would his lips be gentle and soft? Would they be domineering and harsh? Would he hold her while they kissed or would he simply connect their lips for a second and walk away? She hoped it would be a good experience since she’d have only him to kiss for the foreseeable future. With Ron, while he’d lacked in the bedroom, at least he’d been a good kisser. He knew how much pressure to apply when she wanted to be kissed sweetly, and when she’d wanted to be kissed dirtily. He may have sported chapped lips a few times but at least he knew how to use them. She’d never seen Malfoy kiss anyone. Sure there were rumours of his prowess in the bedroom but no one ever complimented or complained of his lip-locking actions. So she had no idea what to expect from him. And she hated not knowing things.
“Any questions?” Auror Dawes asked as she stopped in front of Hermione, pulling her from her thoughts.
“What?” Hermione mumbled confused and slightly disoriented. How did we get back to the DCOMC offices? “Um, no. No, questions.” She replied quickly with a fake smile.
“Great! Well, I’ll let you get adjusted and acquainted with everything today. I don’t know why they had you come in on a Friday. No use starting any real paperwork or training since you’ll have a two-day gap. Feel free to settle your things at your desk, you’ll be taking over Ms Vessons office third down on the left. The rest of the day is yours to explore the office and get acquainted with the different people and departments.” The older witch said with a smile as she clasped her hands together before walking away. Hermione let out a huff of air at finally being given some free time and let herself into her new office. It was... an office. She’d been doing research from her apartment in Australia so she’d forgotten how much she’d never wanted to have to work in such a little space. It isn’t that bad, she told herself. Nothing special sure, but it would be fine. She’d bring in a couple of plants, maybe charm the walls a different colour or add a fake window. Besides, she wasn’t here for the accommodations. She was here to make a difference in the lives of creatures and beings who needed help. She straightened her spine and set about decorating her desk with the few trinkets she’d brought. After a few minutes, a knock sounded at her door.
“Did I forget something, Auror Dawes?” Hermione asked over her shoulder as she finished the wand work to give her plain wall a window view of the nearby park.
“Would a Miss Granger be working in here?” A masculine voice called out as her door opened. She swung around with a large smile on her face.
“Theo!”