Fulfilling Obligations (Harmione)

Chapter 36: The Mission

Hermione stared in disbelief at Harry, who hadn't moved a muscle since fixing his eyes on her. Disregarding the bewilderment, the expression in his gaze was unreadable. He appeared neither pleased nor angry at the sight of her - not even triumphant that he'd finally cornered her.

Oh Merlin...she thought. It had never crossed her mind that Harry would be the Auror she would be teamed up with.

But apparently Fate had other things in mind. Bastard.

"Harry," she finally managed to choke out. "I - I didn't think you were supposed to be working today."

Harry finally came out of his trance at her statement, and he fixed her with an abrasively gratified smirk.

"I wasn't," he said in a falsely light tone. "Funny how things sometimes work out."

Hermione flinched at his unfriendly demeanor, and turned away from him, resigning herself to what would doubtless be an emotionally exhausting few hours.

If Cecilia detected any sort of coldness to their exchange, she made no comment on it. "Please have a seat, Harry. I'm sure the two of you are anxious to be on your way, so I won't take up too much of your time."

"No rush, Cecilia," Harry replied in an almost mockingly casual manner. "I've got all the time in the world." He sat down in the chair next to Hermione, and she could feel his eyes on her, but she refused to turn her head towards him.

"I'm sure your boss doesn't see it that way unfortunately, so I'll be quick. I promise Alec told you the location?"

"Yes, he gave me the coordinates just before I came down here," Harry said.

"In that case, I really don't have much more to tell you. I'll leave it up to you to fill in Hermione on the details." At this point she fixed Harry with a stern gaze very similar to the one she had given Hermione earlier. "And I trust you'll bring her back safely as well."

Hermione couldn't resist peeking over at Harry at this point, and saw that he was looking at her in a considerably softer manner than before.

"Of course," he said quietly.

"Then I wish you both the best of luck," Cecilia said. "We'll see you back here soon."

Hermione and Harry both nodded solemnly, stood up, and exited the office.

Hermione waited for the accusations to begin the moment the door had clicked shut behind them, but Harry didn't say a word. He led the way to the lift, up to the Atrium, and finally to the Apparition zone before he acknowledged her, and even then he did it wordlessly. He offered her his arm without even looking at her, and Hermione took it, gripping it much more tightly than necessary. Still he didn't look at her, but the next moment she felt the sensation of being forced through a tube and then she was standing at the edge of a forest, a cold breeze playing on her face. The green hills of Scotland met her eyes, but she couldn't bring herself to find much beauty in them at the moment.

She dropped her hand from Harry's arm as soon as they appeared and turned her back to him.

"Thanks for acting like a pompous git in front of my boss," she said, though she felt strangely detached from the anger in her tone. She knew she had no right to be angry with him, but something clearly needed to be said...it just so happened that insults were the easiest things to say.

"My bad," Harry said harshly from behind her. "I forgot you prefer the cold shoulder over outright disrespect." He gave a bitter laugh. "Actually, that's not quite right either - the cold shoulder usually requires two individuals to actually be in the same room with one another. Even blatantly ignoring a person involves an acknowledgement of their existence. You seem to favor blocking people out of your life completely."