Heart's Desire | Harry Potter for Grown-Ups

Act II

A wave of shocked recognition flooded Minerva when she looked up from her desk to see Amelia Bones grinning down at her.

This, she thought, unbidden. This is why.

She had suddenly remembered the feeling of ashamed, visceral longing that had possessed her when she had seen her cousin Hector take to the air several feet above the Ross estate on his gleaming Cleensweep Junior.

The longing that had been utterly absent from her feelings about poor, disappointed Dougal, and that she had known existed, somewhere in a not-quite-developed portion of her cerebral cortex, had been dormant, waiting to spring to fulminant life at the right provocation.

At this.

"Want to get some lunch, Minerva?"

"Yes, all right. Just give me a moment," a dry-mouthed Minerva replied.

She peeked her head into Mr Urquart's office and said, "I'm going to get some lunch now, if that's all right?"

"Of course," replied her boss, standing. "Can you find your way to the canteen, or would you like an escort?"

"Thank you, sir, but I'm going with an old school friend. She works in the Investigation Department."

"Oh? Well, then, enjoy your lunch, Miss McGonagall."

Minerva joined Amelia, and they shared the Ministry lift, lurching sideways and diagonally, with six other quiet Ministry functionaries and three noisy post owls.

Finally seated at a corner table of the bustling canteen, Amelia asked, "So, how's the first day going? Urquart pinched your bum yet?"

Minerva cursed her pale skin for the millionth time as she felt her face grow hot. "No. Is he likely to?"

"If what the other girls say is true, he might," said Amelia. "He's never done mine, of course, but then I suppose I'm not his type."

"Neither am I, then, I expect," said Minerva, earning her a wry smile.

"Maybe, maybe not," was all Amelia said.

Lunch became a regular affair for Minerva and Amelia. They left Minerva's office together promptly at 12:30 most days, staked out "their" table in the canteen, and sat over stringy ham or stale pickle sandwiches discussing Ministry gossip, or the Harpies' chances in the All-Britain Cup, or the latest round of Muggle-baiting Amelia was investigating. Minerva's own work was, to her dismay, far less interesting, so they never spoke of it. She tried to remind herself that Amelia Bones had been in her job two years already, while Minerva was just starting out.

One evening, when Minerva had stayed late to finish piecing together the conflicting accounts of a suspected unregistered Animagus sighting, Mr Urquart called her into his office.

"Working late, my industrious assistant?" he inquired.

"Yes, sir. I'm almost finished writing up the report on that wild boar sighting in Chertsey. It sounds legitimate, but it's possible it could have been just a mundane member of the Suidae family."

"Very good." He paused, looking at her, and for a moment Minerva wondered if he was going to dash forward and pinch her bottom, just as Amelia had said.

Instead he said, "I notice you spend most of your lunch hours with the Bones girl."

"Yes, sir," said Minerva, suddenly and inexplicably on the defensive. "We're old friends from Hogwarts."

"I see," he said. Hesitating, he continued: "It isn't my place, I realise, to comment on your personal life, but I wonder, my dear, if you are quite ... cognisant of Miss Bones's ... personal habits."