Hermione walked into her office and found a stack of papers on her desk. She sighed and sat down. She gingerly picked up the stack and began leafing through what she needed to fill out. She groaned when she realized it was all of them. Sometimes there were a few blank pieces of parchment mistakenly snuck in, but no such luck. Her quill was broken at the nib, so she decided to make a trip to Harry’s office to borrow one.
She exited her office and lumbered down the corridor lazily. She made sure to keep her pace slow so that she could put off the paperwork for as long as possible. Harry was just walking out of his office when Hermione walked up. He was squinting at a bit of parchment and frowning.
“Harry?”
He jumped, startled.
“Oh, Hermione. What is it?”
“I was just wondering if you had an extra quill, mine broke.”
“Of course, hold on.”
He disappeared into his office and left Hermione waiting outside. She looked around and saw several groups of witches and wizards huddling together. She figured they were a part of the
investigation. It just hit her on how big this was getting.
A couple of minutes later, Harry emerged holding a handsome-looking quill.
“Are you sure you want me to borrow THIS?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.
Harry laughed.
“Hermione, just take the quill and get back to work.”
He winked and went back into his office. Hermione shook her head fondly and began to turn around.
“Oomf!” a muffled voice said.
“Sorry! So clumsy of m-“
“Making a habit of trying to mow people over, Granger?”
Malfoy stared back at her with his penetrating grey eyes. She huffed and walked past him.
“Granger, I want a word. I was actually just at the briefing room, but you weren’t in there.”
“What do you want, Malfoy?”
“My Granger, seems as if you’ve grown a backbone after all these years. Congratulations.”
He smirked.
“Malfoy; the point. Get to it, or I’m not going to stick around and listen to your nonsense.”
She folded her arms across her chest and shot him a very Mcgonnogall-worthy look.
Hermione was in no mood to put up with him. Surprise set into his handsome features, and he looked impressed.
“Very well. I’ve just received word that we need to stay late – Kendrina has something to tell us. I told her that I was perfectly competent enough to trust, but for some reason, she didn’t believe me.”
Hermione rolled her eyes.
“Ok, Malfoy. Is that all?”
“That’s all. Where are you going, anyways?” he asked with an honestly curious look on his face. “Why were you by Potter’s office? Sneaking off for a little office romance now, are we?”
His expression was taunting.
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I was here to borrow a quill. Mine broke from the boatloads of paperwork I did last night, and I needed a new one to complete the same
amount of paperwork today. So, if you don’t mind, I’ll be going.” She threw him a dirty look,
and began to walk.
