Title: Completely Abnormal
Author: Ociwen
Source: archive.skyehawke.com
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On a completely normal day, Harry Flooed into work at the Ministry of Magic, still holding his tankard of coffee in hand. The Auror hours were far too long for him, far too early. His hair was mussed, more so on the left side, since he liked to sleep facing away from his ruddy alarm clock. His robes were rumpled, always wrinkled, unless Hermione had taken pity on him and ironed them. His robes, like his hair, seemed to fight any sort of tidying charm- or ironing charm, at that.
Harry said "Hello" to Mavis Barkenham, the nice witch who worked in Ministry Accounting who arrived precisely at 7:06am, one minute before him from the same Floo station. Her eyes were always perfectly rimmed with eyeliner, not a curl under her pointed hat astray. It wasn't a normal morning unless Harry got a whiff of the floral perfume she wore, saw the twinkling of the gold chain she always wore around her neck.
Mavis said "Hello Harry" back to him, then "Got your coffee, I see?" To which Harry nodded blearily. She smiled at him, winked and walked away to the Accounting offices, past the main desk.
On a completely normal day, Ron would stumble into the Auror Department three minutes later than Harry, his eyes drooping. Ron mumbled something incoherently, which might have been "Hello" or which might have been "God, I need a bloody coffee". Harry would always shrug at Ron and sip his, until the secretarial witch of the Department (named Tabitha Coke) sighed and got Ron a coffee herself.
Harry and Ron didn't do much fieldwork yet. They sat at their desks, facing each other and did paper work of field cases for the Senior Ranking Aurors who had better (and more exciting) things to do. After coffee, Ron and Harry would grumble to each other how being an Auror was boring and not all it's cracked up to be when you're fresh out of Auror School. At lunchtime, they would get a curry from the hole-in-the-wall shop down the road from the Ministry of Magic, in the Muggle world. The owner knew them by name, and that they liked the #4 curry meal, times two. It was packed in a Styrofoam box, in a white plastic bag, as always.
In winter, Harry and Ron would have cold curry by the time they walked back to the Ministry building. A warming charm tainted the curry with the faint taste of charred bananas that not even another coffee would hide.
The afternoon was a monotonous repetition of the morning. More paperwork, more coffee, more grumbling. The weather was cold, snow threatening to fall for the past two weeks, but nothing had come yet besides a freezing winter drizzle, miserable and depressing. Harry and Ron happened to sit in the draftiest area of the Auror Department. Ron would put on an old rust-coloured Weasley jumper and Harry would rub his palms together after going over every third field report.
At night, Ron was always the first of them to leave. "Hermione will have dinner ready," he said. Harry would nod and agree he should come over some time for supper, and that he would happily bring a bottle of Hermione's favourite Madeira that was not available at the shops in Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade and Ron refused to go into a Muggle shop to purchase. They said their good nights and Ron left with the rush of Aurors, all scrambling to make the 5:09pm Floo.
As Harry had no one to get home to (unless a withered-looking cactus counted), he didn't have any reason to rush. He would finish one more field report for the day, getting ahead on tomorrow's pile, stretch his arms over his head with a loud yawn and leisurely put his cloak on. The Department was nearly empty, only a few die-hards left at that hour. Sometimes, if Kingsley or Tonks were around, he would stop and chat for a few minutes. After the dissolution of the Order, Harry found that he still liked to talk with them, especially Tonks, who was seeing Lupin- not that she would admit it.
