Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Hermione's resignation had been met with little resistance. She had told them that she thought there were better challenges and opportunities for her working outside the Ministry. The head of her department had tried to compel her to give him two months' notice to replace her, but Hermione politely turned him down, knowing that he'd already acquiesced to her leaving after the month was over, but the one that hurt the most was the small argument she'd had with her division head and direct supervisor, who had both tried to convince her to stay, but she had ended that by letting them know that she already had a job. She then spent the rest of her week transferring her projects to others in the department – a very onerous task since she was involved in so many projects. She had never realized how many until she started divvying them up. It was no wonder that she had always been exhausted.

Once that was done, she spent her time helping out where she could and trying her best to let go and not surrender to the urge to regain control of any of her old projects. The Thursday of her second week, her boss, Madame Crowley called Hermione to her office.

"You wanted to see me?" Hermione asked as she stood in the doorway.

"Yes, Hermione. Please, have a seat." Once Hermione was seated Crowley continued. "I know that you gave us your notice and expected to be working here for another couple of weeks, but there really isn't a reason for you to come in anymore. Since you have quite a bit of leave, why don't you take some of those days to finish up your two weeks? I think it would be best for everyone. You'll be able to wrap everything up by tomorrow, won't you?"

"Of course," Hermione replied with a heavy heart. While she had been told that it was likely she would not have to stay at the Ministry the entire thirty days of her notice, she was still surprised to see it happening. "I just wanted to thank you for everything, for the opportunities you gave me and the faith you placed in me."

"It was a pleasure having you work here. I literally don't know what I'm going to do without you. I've never seen someone work so hard before. You'll be missed."

Hermione was a bit stunned by the praise since Madame Crowley did not normally give her workers that sort of acknowledgement. "Thank you," Hermione replied and then got to her feet and shared a handshake.

Late Friday morning, Hermione was collecting the last of her things when Madame Crowley asked her to come with her to the break room. Hermione was quite surprised to see her coworkers there to farewell her. There was a small cake and some tea for everyone. She had never been that close to her coworkers, so this was truly a pleasant surprise.

After the party, Hermione put the last of her personal belongings in her satchel and walked through the atrium for the last time as a Ministry employee. It was the oddest feeling she'd had, well, besides walking out of Hogwarts for the very last time as a student.

It was still early and she did not really want to go home yet, so she decided to go to the library.

While at the library, she found she was just staring at the books. She was trying to decide what she was going to do for the next two weeks. She supposed she could always contact Mr. Grey about starting earlier than she had previously mentioned, but she thought that might be unprofessional. And there was the fact that she was still technically employed by the Ministry. That probably wouldn't sit well with anyone.

She did know that she was going to be involved in Potions research, so she could spend that time in the library polishing up her Potions knowledge and maybe even brewing some potions at home. That wasn't something she did very often, only when someone was ill.

Feeling better about what she was going to do with herself, Hermione wandered over to the Potions section and started browsing the books, looking for ones that struck her fancy. She selected half a dozen books and checked them out of the library.

Once at home she curled up in her favorite chair with the books and a notebook.

By the time Ron got home, she was fully immersed into Potions mode and had two different cauldrons going to make bases for various Potions.

"What... in Merlin's name is going on here?" he asked after he got over the shock of having found his living room turned into a Potions lab.

"Oh, Ron, is it that late already?" she asked she moved a stray lock of hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear. "I completely lost track of time."

"I gathered," he said dryly. "What are you doing home?"

"Well, I managed to turn over all my work, and they decided it would be best if I used some of my accrued leave rather than sitting around the office doing nothing. I just decided I might as well brush up on my Potions since I didn't have anything else to do," she replied with a shrug.

"By turning the house into a Potions lab?" he asked sarcastically.

"I... guess I just got a bit carried away. I really had not intended it to get this far, but I had a few ideas I wanted to try out, and well... It sort of got away from me, didn't it?" With a few swishes of her wand, she cleaned up the worst of the mess. Normally she wouldn't leave ingredients lying around like she had, but her mind had been moving at a million miles an hour, and she had gotten sloppy. Back in school they were generally working on a single, well-defined potion, not doing the sort of experimenting she was planning.

"And you're going to do this until you go back to work?" he asked cautiously.

"I never mean for it to get this messy. I can – I promise not to get so carried away. It's just that I was making some potions bases. Now that those are pretty much stable and settled out, I can contain it much better. Give me about fifteen minutes to clean everything up, and then we can do something simple like spaghetti for dinner," she offered.

Ron did not look like he was in a mood to argue with her. "Sounds fine to me. I think I'm going to shower and change. Things got a little messy at work."

She finally really looked at him and saw that he was indeed covered with something. "Oh, sorry to hear that. Anything too bad?" she asked sympathetically as she sorted things out on the transfigured coffee table.

"No. Just one of those days where you run into some guy who fancies himself the next Dark Wizard yet is really an idiot who couldn't charm his shoes tied. Nothing we couldn't handle. I'll let you clean this up," he said as he gestured at her mess.

It did not take Hermione long to clean up the rest of the mess and get the noodles cooking on stove. She longed to talk to Ron about her experiments, but she knew that his interest in Potions was basically non-existent.

Hermione spent the next two weeks working on various Potions theories. Most of them fizzled and a few even did so dramatically, making her thankful that she could use to magic to clean it up, and that they lived in a magical neighborhood where this sort of accident was not completely unheard of. Although she did ruin the carpet, not that she really minded staining the old thing. She'd meant to replace it years ago.

Fortunately there was no real damage to the house, her belongings or herself. There were some other theories she wanted to test, but she knew that they would be better tested in a real Potions lab. The closer she got to beginning her new job, the more excited she became. If she wasn't working on a theory, she was in the library conducting research. She had no idea what sort of projects she might be assigned, but it had been liberating to actually conduct research rather than work on bland reports.

She started to wonder why she had waited so long to leave the Ministry and why she had not considered anything else in the first place. She could only surmise that it was because she had been so naïve about the ways of the wizarding world. She could not be sure that having spent a seventh year at Hogwarts would have made a difference, but she at least would have had her professors available for mentoring.

Finally, it was Friday and she needed to start picking up her experiments. She had promised Ron that the house would be clean for the weekend and that she would also visit his family. She was not entirely looking forward to facing the whole Weasley clan now that she would be starting work at Malfoy Industries on Monday. So far she had been able to avoid Arthur, and on her previous visit to the Potter's, Ginny had oozed disapproval, even though she had not actually said anything negative. George had not immediately disapproved, but he had not sounded enthusiastic either when she had mentioned her new job. She had at least hoped for his support, but then again she knew he would not want to be at odds with his family.

But she had promised and Ron had gotten much better about not criticizing her decision to change jobs. She had asked Ron to talk to his family and see if they could spend the day together without conversation centering on her, but he had refused and she knew it would be hard if not impossible for them to resist.

Hermione had grinned and stoically beared it for three hours at the Burrow. It had been difficult, but she had managed. Everyone had wanted to voice their opinion about her decision to work for Malfoy Industries. As she had expected, Ron had not really said anything to support her decision, and it had made her feel horrible that her husband would not defend her or even make the slightest attempt of supporting her.

When they returned back to their flat, she went to the bedroom and started getting ready for bed. She did not want to discuss the evening with Ron because she was reasonably sure she would say things that she would regret.

"Hermione," Ron started as he came into the bedroom.

"Ron, just... don't. I don't want to talk about it. I just want to go to bed." She knew it was still early and that she was not likely to fall asleep anytime soon, but it was the best way to avoid him for the evening.

He wisely decided that this would be a good time to listen to her. He grabbed his pillow and headed toward the living room.

She knew that if she left the light on to read that he would eventually want to come talk. She heard voices and knew he'd turned on the Wireless. Rolling over, she tried to beat her pillow into submission before she was finally able to get comfortable and try to clear her mind of all the stress she had experienced that day. It took her a long time to finally fall into slumber.

Sunday was just as tense as Saturday had been. That morning Ron had mumbled something about Harry and slinked out the door. That actually made Hermione more angry that he was taking the easy path of getting out of the house rather than actually trying to understand her feelings. She should not have been surprised because he generally tried to avoid any sort of conversation that centered on her emotions or emotional needs. She snorted. Ron hadn't grown up at all; he still had the emotional range of a teaspoon, just like she'd commented in fifth year.

She decided to spend the day getting ready for her new job. Of course, it did not take long since all she had to do was decide what to wear and pack her notes. She was not sure she would need her notes since she had no idea what her actual role in the Potions Division would be, but it was always prudent to be prepared. She did go out for a bit to purchase some comfortable loafers and some thick cotton socks, since she'd assumed she'd be standing most of her workday.

The flat was empty when she came home. Feeling at a loss, she chose a novel, made a cup of tea and curled up in her favorite chair.

Dinner approached and Ron still had not returned home. Hermione was reasonably sure that he would sneak in late, after he presumed she would be in bed. That actually suited her just fine since she had no desire to get into one last row with him over her working for Malfoy Industries. Rather than cooking just for herself, she decided to head out and grab a quick bite to eat in Diagon Alley.

As she walked down the Alley, she met George walking the other way. "Hi, Hermione," he replied cordially.

"Hello, George," she replied, giving him a wan smile and bracing for whatever might come next.

"Where's Ron?" George asked as he noticed that she was alone.

"He's still in a snit over my new job, and he's gone into hiding," she replied honestly. George had been the only Weasley to really support her.

"Sorry to hear that. He can be quite a git sometimes. We tried, but well, it's Ron," he replied with a shrug.

"Very true," she replied with a sigh, but she appreciated his attempt at humor.

"Why don't you join us for dinner? I know Angelina would love to have you over, and it'll be better than eating alone," he replied, guessing why she was out in Diagon Alley at this hour on a Sunday.

She smiled at him. "Thanks. I'd like that." She then turned around and fell in step with him. As they walked back to his flat above his store, he told her about some of the new products he was considering. He had always enjoyed bouncing ideas off of her. She didn't always approve of them since some could be used to skive classes, but she knew how much George loved his work.

Dinner with George, Angelina and little Fred was pleasant. They managed to talk about everything but her new job and neither of them was judgmental about her choice. "Good luck tomorrow," George said as the evening wrapped up and Hermione got ready to leave.

"I know you'll be brilliant," added Angelina.

"Thanks, you two. That means a lot to me. No one else seems to think this is a good idea," she replied as she gave Angelina a hug.

"Well, no one thought me and Fred leaving Hogwarts was a good idea, but look how that turned out. Following your heart can't be a bad thing, I say," waxed George philosophically.

"So very true. If only the rest of your family believed that," she replied sadly.

George gave her a reassuring hug. "Just give them time. They'll come around when they see how happy this makes you. After all, once Fred and I became successes, Mum came around. See you later, Hermione," he said as he released her so that she could leave.

Both of them wishing her luck on her first day of work had left her with a spring in her step. She felt better than she had since returning from vacation. It had been so nice to hear people supporting her decision rather than trying to talk her out of it. Maybe she should have Ron spend some time with George and Angelina so they could talk some sense into him?

As she thought about Ron, she really hoped that his plan was to wait until late to return home. She knew that getting into it with him would just ruin her good mood, and she really wanted to take this mood to bed.

Thankfully, Ron had stuck by his predictable plan. She sighed in relief when she realized the house was hers. Rather than staying up late and tempting fate, she decided to head to bed so that she would be well rested for tomorrow.

A/N: As always my undying gratitude to my beaweasley2 who helps make this a better story. I could do it without her, but there would be big gaping holes a Norwegian Ridgeback could fly through. :)