Quit Before You Lose Everything

1. New Beginnings

August 20th, 2001-10:32 am

The clipboard slipped from Hermione's hand, tumbling on the ground before coming to a stop near her desk. She groaned, watching as the tape in her arms tumbled away and the cup of pens she was carrying crashed to it's side. She dumped her load of papers on the desk, and pulled away, squatting down to retrieve the things she spilled before righting herself.

"Oh Mione!" Hermione took three deep breaths, before turning her gaze up to the ceiling asking for guidance before the door to her office swung open, crashing off the plaster and shaking her walls. She watched, as Harry took three stomps into her office and the cup of pens she just picked up, toppled right over the edge of her desk and crashed to the floor.

"Have you got my-you alright?" Harry paused, waiting for Hermione to acknowledge his presence. She nodded, took another deep breath before spinning, coming face to face with Harry who's eyes went a little wide at the sight of her.

She hadn't had any make-up to cover the bruise on her cheek from her father, but she had a story. She crashed her bike should any one ask, a stray cat darting in front of her and she went head over handles, crashing to the pavement. It was a sad story-not at all believable but it would ward off the questions.

"Contract?" She asked, spinning back around, not entirely eager to answer any questions and began thumbing through the stack of papers that Harry was on the hunt for.

"Yes, what's the matter?" Harry asked, never one to just simply let things drop for the sake of letting things go.

He had been that way her entire childhood, knowing things before she could even answer.

"Nothing, just tired." Hermione shook her head, slipped his stapled pack of papers from the stack, flipped through it to ensure everything was there. Of course it was all there, she had put it together but it busied her hands, stalling him. Retrieving her clipboard and a pen from the floor, she signed her name beside his before handing the clipboard over.

He took it from her slowly, eyed her once before scribbling his name down.

"Right, send Ginger in for his." Hermione nodded at him, then squatted down to retrieve her pens once more, deciding at once she needed something better than a paper cup to hold them. It clearly couldn't handle the shakiness that happened in her trailer office, connected to the stadium, a temporary solution for a permanent problem.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Harry asked, rolling his contract up into a tube, clearly a nervous tick.

"No, Ginger please." Hermione stood, raised her eyebrow at him until Harry broke into a tentative smile.

"Tea?" He asked, and Hermione sighed.

"That'd be wonderful actually." She nodded at him, and Harry turned at once disappearing right back out her door, letting it slam behind him. She closed her eyes as the paper cup toppled on her desk, clearly not happy with being shoved against a wall, and scattered the pens once more.

"If it isn't our favorite assistant coach." Spike began.

"Our only assistant coach." Ginger rebutted.

"Still my favorite."

"Scar sent tea."

Hermione turned, Ginger's and Spike's contracts in her hand. She traded the tea clutched in Fred Weasley's hand for the clipboard and took a long sip, before crinkling her nose in distaste.

"I'm your athletic trainer, not your assistant coach." She reminded, but it didn't matter because she went by several titles, unofficially that is. "It's cold." She pouted, but took another sip all the same.