Collection written for:

Christmas Collection Challenge. Prompt: House-Elf

Another Day At Work

Hermione pulled out an empty chair and sat down, greeting Remus and Harry who were already seated at the table.

"It's finally lunchtime," she said with a sigh. "I can't tell you how slow things are in my department at the moment. I was actually counting down the last two hours."

Remus smiled symphathetically. "If you get too bored, you're welcome to help me check over the new Werewolf Legislation I've been writing up. It's finished, I'm just searching out loopholes that others may try to exploit."

Hermione cheered up instantly. "You'll let me have an advance look at it?" she asked in surprise. "Of course. Once we finish here, I'll come through to the Werewolf Division."

"So... why are things slow?" Harry asked.

Hermione frowned again. "It's all the voting to make the changes. All the witches and wizards who were all for my house-elf rights are now dragging their feet. I think they hope to drag it out until after Christmas so they can still exploit the poor helpless little things until they've had their Christmas dinners cooked."

Harry stayed silent on the matter and Hermione knew it was because he would be eating Christmas dinner cooked by exploited house-elves too, though it wasn't really Harry's fault that he was dating a Malfoy.

"So - how is working at St. Mungo's?" Hermione asked, sensing Harry's need for a subject change.

"Oh, it's great," he said. "It's still only the basic stuff that I'm allowed to do, and that's only when I'm shadowing another healer. But I feel like they aren't watching me as closely anymore, so they are more confident in the few jobs I'm doing."

"That's excellent," Remus replied with a wide smile. "How are the exams going?"

Harry's smile faltered. "It's like they just find any reason to give us exams," he complained. "I spend all of my time working, studying, or in exams. It's a wonder I sleep at night!"

"You do?" Hermione asked, a raised eyebrow in Harry's direction. "Badly cast Silencing-Spells tell me differently."

Harry blushed. "I'm sorry about that," he said, not meeting her gaze.

"It's okay, just... please clear some time so I can teach you it properly," Hermione begged.

Harry nodded his head. "So... Remus, how is Teddy? Does he understand the meaning of Christmas this year?"

Remus shook his head. "Last night he showed me every single picture of a toy from a magazine, and insisted he wanted it for Christmas. It went on until bedtime."

"Bless him," Hermione replied, fondly. "Let me take a look at his Christmas list before you post it so I can pick something to get him."

"Me too," Harry replied. He pushed out his chair. "Well, this was fun, but I better head upstairs for my next exam. Remus, I'll catch up soon. Hermione, is it your turn to cook?"

Hermione nodded her head. "Good luck," she said, choosing not to scold him for not making the most of his lunchtime during which he could have been studying.

Thanks to Lynn for Betaing

Review Please :)

So - I know some of you will look at this and be like "But what about your other fics?"

Well, I will be working on the other ones too. This one has an outline (I'm so productive these last few days) and I know exactly what to do with this from start to finish.

I have a goal to get a lot of my MCs and other collections completed too. I'll be working on those, don't worry!