Monday morning, my alarm goes off earlier than Fred's. While Fred lets out a groan, I snap my fingers to stop the alarm from ringing and waking up the whole house. Fred buries his head deeper in the pillow and I step out of bed.
Nerves begin to pool in my stomach while I grab some clothes out of the closet. I asked Arthur yesterday what I had to wear as his assistant and he gave me the Ministry guide-lines. After a quick shower and changing into the black pencil skirt with a dark-blue blouse above it, I head back to the bedroom to braid my hair.
"Why did you even take this job?" I hear Fred ask, "Have you seen what time it is?"
Looking in the mirror at the bed, I see Fred's red hair stick out above the blanket. With a smile, I answer: "I would like to do something useful again and this job didn't seem very dangerous to me."
Fred turns his head to look at me and he sighs: "That's true. Nothing dangerous about being the assistant of the head of the Office for the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Objects – and I know Dad will make sure you won't get in any trouble."
Standing up from the stool in front of the small mirror, I walk to the bed with a smile. After pressing a kiss on Fred's lips, I remark: "Indeed. Good luck at work.
Fred hums and has fallen back asleep when I look back at him from the doorway. Quickly, I snatch my shoulder bag (a gift from Fleur as a thank-you for helping her with the wedding) from the chair in the corner and quietly close the door behind me. Making sure I don't wake up anyone else in the house, I head downstairs for breakfast.
"Good morning, Elena," Molly greets when I enter the kitchen. Molly was proud when Arthur told her about my new job and assured me I was a perfect fit. She smiles at me and places a cup of tea before me when I sit down opposite of Arthur. The man shoves a notebook and a Ministry-ID card over the table in my direction. When I open the notebook, I notice it is Arthur's agenda. While I eat my breakfast, I flip through the agenda to see what is planned for today and the rest of the week.
"I am afraid you won't have a desk yet but I will make sure you will have one before the end of the week," Arthur says. He stands up and sends me a smile. I smile back at him and place the agenda and the ID in my bed. "That won't be a problem, I will find a spot to work from."
Molly hands us both a small package with food for the day and presses a kiss on Arthur's cheek. With a proud smile, she wishes me a good first day of work. I thank her before grabbing my coat and following Arthur outside.
Once outside, Arthur holds out his arm for me to take and says: "Let's go to work, shall we?"
Arthur apparates us away and when I open my eyes, we are standing in the entrance hall of the Ministry. The older wizard begins to walk through the crowd of people and I quickly follow him. We walk through the hall to a long queue of people. While Artur sighs when he sees the queue, I look around the hall.
We have almost reached the end of the queue when I hear a voice call out: "Arthur Weasley, would you please come with us?"
Two guards in black clothing are heading in our direction and stop in front of us. I hear Arthur mutter something under his breath before he nods. The two guards look at me before eying Arthur and announcing: "You have been randomly selected for a security check."
Security check? I wonder what that is supposed to mean, while Arthur and I follow the two guards. The men lead us to a completely different queue where at the end, I see an older wizard in black clothing sitting behind a desk. When we arrive at the desk, he gestures to the desk and orders: "Place all your belongings you currently have on you – this includes your wand – on this table."
I look at Arthur, not knowing if I should listen to the man. Arthur gestures to do what the man tells us and takes his wand out of his jacket to place it on the table. I follow his example and place my shoulder bag on the table. From my coat, I grab my wand and the Ministry-ID and place it beside my bag.
While the two guards go through our bags and check if there is anything suspicious in them, the older wizard takes out wands and walks away with them. I take a step forward to ask where he is going with our wands, but Arthur stops me and shakes his head.
It takes quite a while before the older wizard returns with our wands and I see Arthur impatiently checking his watch. When the man finally returns, he hands over our wands and the two other guards inform us that none of our belongings is going to be confiscated.
"I didn't know you hand a personal assistant, Arthur," the older wizard remarks while he picks up my Ministry-ID Arthur had made for me, "Elena Dubos. Aren't you Severus Snape's niece? I thought I heard something about that."
"I am," I look at him with narrowed eyes. The man nods and places the ID back on the desk.
"I would like to congratulate you on the appointment of your uncle as new Headmaster of Hogwarts."
With wide eyes, I stare at the man on the other side of the desk. Headmaster of Hogwarts, my uncle?
"If you are done now, Yaxley, I would like to head to my office," Arthur interrupts with an annoyed tone in his voice. The wizard grins and with a simple gesture, he lets us pack out bags and lets us through. While we are walking to the elevators, I ask Arthur: "Did my uncle really become Headmaster?"
Arthur nods and weirdly, I am not even surprised. Voldemort must have made him Headmaster to get Hogwarts in his power in case Harry would think about going back to school.
The elevator brings us to level 2 and Artur leads me through a couple of halls before we walk through a big door that leads us to a big room filled with at least ten desks. Several boards hang on the walls, all filled with all sorts of colored paper and newspaper articles. On the desks are laying stacks of papers and I see people run around.
When we enter the room, all the employees present turn to us and Artur greets them: "Good morning everyone, I would like you to meet my new personal assistant, Elena Dubos."
A bit awkwardly, I wave at all the people before turning to Arthur. Taking his agenda out of my bag, I open it and tell him: "You have an appointment with Mr. Dawlish from the Auror Office about a criminal they arrested – they would like you to have a look at the confiscated belongings – in about ten minutes."
Arthur nods and hands me his briefcase. Pointing at the desk at the end of the room near the two windows, he says: "That is my desk, you can sit there if you'd like. Or pick out another desk. I will go now, could you answer my mail when I am gone? All the information you need is on my desk and you can always ask one of the employees if you need any help."
I nod and Arthur turns around to head out of the room. I take a deep breath, place the briefcase beside Arthur's desk, grab the big pile of mail and begin my job.
It takes a while before I managed to get through all the mail (and I had to ask several people lots of questions) but at the end of the day, I have responded to every piece of mail, made sure Arthur's desk is organized, learned a lot about the Ministry, and made sure Arthur arrived on time for all his appointments.
The rest of the week, Arthur and I leave early to work (getting "randomly chosen for a security check" three more times) and I am getting used to running around while making sure Arthur's work is as organized as possible.
"Elena, do you have that file about the cursed Sneakoscopes for me?" Riley asks me and I turn my chair to look through the different casefiles I have organized on date. After I found the right one, I hand the binder over to the woman with a smile. After a thank you, she walks away. I look in the small notebook in which I have written the everyday to-do lists and realize I have to speak to someone at the Minister for Magic's office.
Grabbing my quill, the notebook and some other pieces of parchment I need, I check on Arthur (reminding him of the appointments he has this afternoon) and head to Level 1.
Level 1 is very different from the other parts of the Ministry. The floor is covered in thick purple carpets and each door in the hallway I am walking through is made of gleaming mahogany. It takes quite a walk before I reach my destination: the office of the Junior Assistant to the Minister for Magic.
I knock twice and wait for someone to answer.
A group of wizards and witches walk past but I don't pay attention to them. Growing impatient, I knock again. This time, I hear someone call out something and after seconds, the door opens.
Carefully, I open the door further and step into a smaller office than I had imagined. Behind the desk is sitting a red-haired man, reciting something to a quill who writes in all down on a piece of parchment. The man doesn't look up when I enter and after closing the door behind me, I wait patiently before he acknowledges me.
When the man finally raises his head to look at me, I can see the surprised expression on his face.
"Mr. Weasley?" I begin and take a step towards his desk. With a flick of his wand, the man cleans his desk quickly and sits upright.
"As you know, every Ministry employee has to provide a family tree to prove their blood-status," I continue and the man nods. I walk to his desk and place two pieces of parchment in front of him. Pointing at the family tree, I remark: "Mr. Arthur Weasley would like you to acknowledge this family tree and sign this form to confirm its authenticity."
I see Percy Weasley's eyes shift from me to the family tree. He leans forward and grabs the piece of parchment with the family tree. Scanning it with his eyes, he looks back at me and asks: "What if I don't sign it?"
"I will tell Mr. Arthur Weasley about your decision and he will make sure the family tree is changed," I answer and see the man nod lightly. Percy grabs a quill from his desk and signs the form. As soon as he has signed, I grab the form and the family tree and place it back in the file. Not taking the risk of him having second thoughts.
With a polite smile, I nod at him: "Thank you for your time, Mr. Weasley."
Turning around, I want to exit the office again, but Percy's voice stops me: "Are they- is everyone alright?"
I stop and turn back to the man behind the desk. Percy doesn't look at me and I can see some sort of embarrassment written on his face. With a small smile, I answer: "Yes, they are. Ron is sick and Ginny is preparing to go back to Hogwarts."
"And Mum and Dad?"
"Fine too, but your mother misses you very much." I answer, "She cried when you didn't turn up at the wedding. I am sure you are aware of what happened."
Percy bows his head. After a moment, he looks back up and me. With a small gesture, he sends me away again. Deciding not to say anything more, I nod goodbye and exit the office of the Junior Assistant to the Minister for Magic to head back to my workplace to continue the workday.