Ch 15
Agyness woke on Saturday morning, no sunshine streaming through her white Venetian blinds today as they had done on Friday. London had returned to its typical, cloudy self. She lazily yawned and sat up, stretching her arms to the ceiling and rubbing her eyes with one hand. The night before had been a blur. As her brain started to whirr, she quickly touched her hand to her torso and with relief, found that she was still wearing the royal blue dress from the night before. She swung her legs from the bed to the cold, hardwood floor and gazed at herself in the full-length mirror across the room. What a mess she was! Her hair looked like a tornado, her bun had long fallen out, and her eye makeup had smeared. She turned to grab her wand from the bedside table and saw that a post-it sized note had been left for her. Waving her wand to open the blinds and let some light in, she picked up the note and read:

Agyness,
Thank you for an amazing time last night. An owl was sent for me early in the morning to report to the Ministry; they’re making me work this weekend. I would have liked to stay, but I need to work on a criminal case. I will see you on Monday morning.
With Love, Draco

Agyness grinned and sighed as she read the love note, her memory of the former night returning. After the bout of emotion by the door, Draco had swept her off into her bedroom. Oddly, the best part was that Draco had not even tried to undress her. They snogged for a bit, and after that her memory had gone fuzzy. The last thing she remembered through her foggy recollection was falling asleep in his arms, feeling secure, warm, and most of all, loved. Agyness stopped herself at that thought. Did they really lo-? It was hard for her to even comprehend the word. Their relationship was definitely in full bloom, but had they already progressed to that stage? Her eyes traveled back to the note, rereading the words “with love” in his elegant script over again.

Agyness roughly combed the fingers of her left hand through her tangled hair, trying to banish the thought for now. She rose and made her way to the bathroom, humming a tune as she went to start her weekend.
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The weekend had gone by slowly. Agyness had been cooped up in her flat, finding herself baking and cleaning as if she had a family of ten. No owls from Draco made her even more anxious to head to work on Monday. Now that it was Monday morning, Agyness wore a grin so wide and exuberant that she had trouble keeping her mouth closed for long.

After throwing a knee-length, khaki-colored trench coat over her gray, long-sleeved woolen dress and a matching gray, woolen beret on her head to prepare for the cold weather, she apparated to the entrance of the Ministry. She definitely was glad that she didn’t have to bear the rain and thunder that the rest of her working Muggle neighbors did. She covered her mouth with her hand to keep from laughing as a short, stout wizard with stark white hair apparated onto the entry level, soaking wet. With the flick of his wand, he dried and then scuttled over to the young wizard who sold newspapers, eager to buy the new issue of the Prophet.

Agyness was making her way through the thick crowd of employees to get to the elevators when a young boy with Muggle-like, shabby clothes approached her. Through her time spent as an employee, she came to find out that he was a messenger boy, a squib. “Miss?” He asked as he stopped her in her tracks, “Miss Agyness Prince?” “Yes,” She replied to the tiny boy, taking notice of his old, patched, brown cap and giving him a warm smile. Instead of verbally responding, the young boy handed her a folded letter. As he slowly began to meander off, Agyness’s eyes widened as she noticed that the letter had the Minister’s seal on it. What would the Minister want with her? She slowly tore the sticky seal and began to read the letter.



Agyness didn’t know what to make of it; her hands shook violently. As she read, countless thoughts raced through her mind. Is this why Draco had to go to the Ministry over the weekend, to tell the Minister that he wanted her sacked? Is this what Harry and Draco had been debating about the Friday earlier, whether to keep her or fire her? The letter dropped to the gleaming tile floor as she apparated away from the Ministry.
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Draco had made his way from the elevators to meet Agyness as she arrived. From across the large space, he could see Agyness reading a slip of paper intently, her back facing his direction. He quickened his pace, wanting to surprise her. When he was a few feet behind her, she had apparated and her paper had floated to the floor. “What the hell?” He thought, approaching the spot where she had stood and gazing at the paper. Before a tubby witch was to step on the parchment with her gold, glittering flats, he snatched the paper from the floor and scanned it fixedly.

His expression became more and more enraged as he read on. He was as confused as if he had been confunded and was as angry as a blast-ended skrewt. Draco, with the document still gripped tightly in his hand, pushed his way through the crowd as he headed for the Minister’s office. He stepped on some toes along the way, many, “Oi!”s and “Watch it, lad!”s coming his way. Before approaching the oaken door of the Minister’s office, he took a deep breath and knocked.

“Come in, come in,” The high-pitched voice of the minister jovially called from the room. Draco stepped in to see that he was sitting at his large desk, or at his throne as many employees liked to call it, with his silken, ruby-slippered feet propped up. He patted his large, overgrown stomach tenderly as he popped a toffee into his mouth. “Good to see you again, Draco, and so soon-” The minister began, a smile on his face before Draco cut him off. “What is the meaning of this, minister?” Draco quickly strode across the room, making an effort to control his tone but his face showing his distress. The minister took the piece of parchment from him and scanned it for a second before saying, a quizzical look on his face, “What do you mean, my good man? You simply came here this very morning to request her dismissal.” “What?” Draco seemed to twitch. What the bloody hell was happening? Seeing his state, the minister spoke in what was supposed to be a fatherly tone, “Draco, are you alright? You haven’t been-” Before the minister had finished his sentence, Draco had walked out of the door. He had no idea what was going on, but he was going to find out. The first step was to find Agyness.
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Tears streamed down her face as Agyness bustled around her tiny flat, putting clothes and luggage together both with her hands and her wand simultaneously. She didn’t know what to think; her thoughts were too jumbled to make any sense. All she knew was that she had to get away, and fast. She was too embarrassed to stay in town for many reasons: Harry, Ron, and Hermione would have “I told you so!” attitudes, her parents would be disappointed with her sacking, Draco would probably have a good laugh when he found out about her sad state… Once all of her things were packed, Agyness apparated to the King’s Cross train station. It would only be even more embarrassing if Harry, Ron, Hermione, or Draco had seen that she had used the floo network or a broomstick to get away. With all of the secret information that the ministry had, they could easily see that she would have traveled from fireplace to fireplace or that she would have flown away on a broom.

When Agyness had safely blended in with the muggles and purchased a ticket for the train that left the soonest, her tears had dried. She looked through a window to see that torrential rain was tattooing its mark on the outside world. It seemed to communicate that it felt her pain. As she was gazing at the downpour, a whistle from one of the many train’s blew shrilly. It was time for her to leave. To where, she didn’t know or even care. To her, it was destination nowhere.