A Woman Of Ice

LXXV- Dear Mr. Greyhill

Six Months Later

It was nearing overtime for Diana Black and Calvin Greyhill working in the Auror Office. They intended to leave once most of their tedious paperwork and other business had been finished. In the meantime, Diana was finishing a report of the day's field work. The illegal magical weapons dealer that Diana had spied on in order to expose, Nikolas Fairfield, had been caught on this very day. Diana was quite proud of her practically solo field work, as was Greyhill and most of the others in the department. Unfortunately, two Aurors had been hurt fairly seriously; one with a magical arrow to the gut, and the other needing to regrow an entire eye. The fight out at the dealer's base got pretty out of hand, but was soon cleared up enough to prevent as many casualties as possible. Not only were both wounds very serious; they required a lot of laborious and gruesome paperwork, not to mention the awful letters that had to be sent to family members. Working for the Ministry was not always so rewarding. Diana tried to focus on the positives, but couldn't always. She finished her paperwork within the next half hour and knocked on Cal Greyhill's door.
"Come in."
"It's me," Diana said as she entered.

Greyhill was currently having a logistics meeting with Collins, the department's communications liaison, and, regrettably, one of Diana's least favorite coworkers, about the upcoming press conference regarding the topics of this particular raid, the conditions of the injured, and the Ministry's future plans for dealing with illegal magical weaponry. Diana dared not focus on such a, basically, petty rivalry at a time like this. There were families and close friends to be thought of. Even Collins and Tate seemed to respect that, which Diana found somewhat comforting.
"I hope I'm not interrupting. I've finished the reports and I'm about ready to clock out. How's it going along?" she asked.
"Oh, I'm still wrapping a few things up. It's been a long day, D, why don't you go ahead and leave? I'll take over from here, you don't have to wait, I can just meet you at home," he smiled.
Diana shook her head. "No, it's fine, really. Hey, why don't I grab us some coffee or something from downstairs? It's no trouble at all," she smiled.
Cal nodded slowly, appreciative of her company. "Oh, sure, thank you."
"Oh, no problem, let me know if I can help take anything else off of your plate. Oh, and what do you want?"
"Erm, I'll just have one of a black coffee, and one of those nice little croissants, with the cheese, if you don't mind," he smiled politely.
"No problem. See you in a minute."
"Thank you. Now, where were we?" he asked Collins as Diana headed down.

Later on, Diana would wish so desperately that they had never had that entire conversation in front of Collins, for fear of the consequences.

****

Once Diana was back upstairs, Collins had been out of Greyhill's office, and she had come in to give Greyhill his food, as he smiled and thanked her.
"Can I take something off of your plate?"
"Oh, it's fine, dear. I wouldn't mind some company, though," he chuckled lightly. Paperwork isn't exactly fun."
"Believe me, I get it," Diana nodded, taking a seat at a chair across from him. "So, since I'm here, what's on your mind, I guess?" She dipped her coffee casually.
"Oh, I don't know," he sighed. "But I guess since you asked, my father's been giving me a whole lot of grief lately, when I'm not ignoring him, that is."
"Why, what happened?" Diana asked.

She and Greyhill were getting along well and becoming closer now.
"Well.... I'm sorry to say, it's about my association with you. I mean, I support you fully, but him.... he hates the Black family, your name, as well as Harry Potter."
Diana sighed, nodding understandingly. "It's fine, I mean, most of the Blacks are all notorious racist, Pureblood extremist, former Death Eaters, even I hate them. But I've gotten one letter from Sirius Black, my father, and I believe that he is an innocent man," Diana said honestly. "And about the other part of it.... I understand what you're going through. I really do. Sometimes your family or friends warn you about someone, usually because they love and care for you. But if you know and believe in your heart and gut that that person is someone who is true and someone that you want to be around.... if they are someone that you also love and care for.... that's when your own independence and decision making come in. Sometimes with people, you have to trust your own instincts. Because, well.... a lot of people are worth that leap of faith," Diana Black explained. "But I don't really know, I could be wrong. I've been many times before."
"So have I, trust me," Greyhill nodded slowly.