WHO: Hugh Abbott, Sarah Daniels, Ally Atanasio, & Colin MacMillan
WHAT: Eight years laaater...
WHEN: Monday morning
WHERE: Teh Ministry!

Despite all her talk about this 'just friends' thing and how that idea would calm her down, Sarah sure as hell had the butterflies fluttering around in her stomach as she walked in the door of the Department of Magical International whatchacallit for her first day on the job. She probably looked completely unprofessional (okay, so she totally looked completely unprofessional) standing just inside the threshold all confusedly, but--oh, where in the world was she supposed to go? Where was Hugh and his office and--okay, no, this was a bad idea taking this job... she didn't belong in the Ministry or anywhere near old flames, she should probably just turn around now before anyone saw her and just forget about it and him and--

Crap. Or not, she thought, spotting a very familiar (albeit taller than she remembered) figure approaching her.

Hugh Abbott usually had his weekdays planned out impeccably. He got up, ate breakfast while reading the Prophet, watched a bit of the telly, and then headed off to work. There he did his job (his mind-numbingly boring job, he might add), put up with his co-workers, and went home. Occasionally, to keep his sanity, he pulled hilarious office pranks, but so far, no one seemed to have caught on it was really him behind the jell-o incident. Today, however, he did not come into work with his usual sardonic attitude – he was actually… kind of nervous. It wasn’t every day that a bloke found out – via those new journals, he might add – that his ex-girlfriend, whom he hadn’t seen in about eight years, was going into work with him. Oh, excuse him – going to work for him.

It wasn’t as if it was a bad breakup, mind you, but the memory was still very fresh in his mind. He had decided to act normal around her. After all, being friends was the best way to go, right? Right.

On the flip side, at least he already knew her. That was a bonus.

He wondered if she was still insanely cute.

Hugh peeked out his office (for the millionth time that morning) and saw a very familiar figure standing at the threshold of the department, and couldn’t resist the huge grin that spread across his face. Instantly, he walked over, and without giving it a second thought, he gave her a big hug (which was allowed, of course, because he hadn’t seen her in such a long, long time). “Sarah!”

Sarah hardly had time to breathe (and definitely hadn't had enough time to think) before she was swept up into the hug. Oh gosh, his arms still felt the exact way she remembered them, and it wasn't hard to throw away all her nervousness, if only for a brief moment, and melt into his embrace, finding without a problem that comfortable niche she'd always had there. Taking a deep breath and wondering at the fact that she recognized even the scent of someone she hadn't seen in forever and a day, Sarah closed her eyes for a moment and allowed a contented smile to form across her features.

"Hugh... It's been... Merlin--"

Of course the moment lasted far too briefly, and as she let go of him reluctantly, she couldn't help but blush a little at her own thoughts from just seconds before. Friends, remember! she shouted mentally. Friendsfriendsfriendsfriendsfriendsfriends!

"You haven't changed a bit," Sarah said, continuing to smile. Oh God, he hadn't changed. This was bad.

The enormous grin was still on his face as Hugh looked down on Sarah. He was right – she still was insanely cute. “You haven’t either,” he replied, resisting the urge to swoop down and give her yet another enormous hug. He remembered something he had told her when they were just starting to go out, something like, “You’re the most huggable girl I know.” It still applied.

“So this is the office,” he said. Although his tone was dry, he couldn’t hide the excited expression in his eyes at seeing Sarah again. “Really exciting place to be, I know. Shall I give you the grand tour?”

There was a definite reason why your boss really, really insisted that you kept your personal life personal and out of the bleedin' office. Oooh, she could just hex that stupid grin off Hugh's face, smiling like a dope at his new secretary. See how long that lasted.

No, she wasn't being an insanely jealous girlfriend, not at all.

With a sigh, she pushed forward off the desk she'd forced herself to lean on after she'd spotted the two hugging and nearly collapsed. Fine, he was being friendly, Hugh was a friendly guy. Fine. Ally was a friendly person too, she really was, she was just very good at mentally raging at boyfriends when they decided to hug girls like that right in front of everyone else in the goddamn office.

"Heyyyy, sweetheart," she said, waving a folder in the air as she neared the two. Ally grinned up brightly at him and handed him the folder, leaning her head on his shoulder and looking over the cover. "I've got a whole folder with some rough drafts of that curfew the higher ups are starting to set up, try and knock them off their high horses, will you?"

She looked over at the new girl and smiled just as sweetly,

"Oh! Hiii, I'm Ally Atanasio, Hugh's girlfriend; are you his new secretary? It's really nice to meet you!" She turned back to Hugh after smiling sweetly at the girl, scrunching her nose.

No, Hugh hadn't changed a bit since Hogwarts.

Oh yeah... if you didn't count that he was dating someone other than her.

Sarah thought she would about die the second Ally's voice chirped into the middle of their conversation--she sure as hell did blush a lot harder than she had been because ohhh that was the same exact voice she would use all those years ago when she thought some other girl was getting too close to him and--oh Merlin, well, now she had really made a fool out of herself, hadn't she? Because as much as she had tried to deny it, didn't want to admit it, Sarah had been hopeful, just a little, about meeting up with Hugh again. Hopeful that maybe he hadn't forgotten completely the way he used to feel... kind of like she had been holding onto her feelings for eight years. Eight bloody years, God!

But of course it had been stupid to think that after all that time, he wouldn't have moved on. And look at her, she was bloody gorgeous, this Ally Atanasio girl and--he'd moved onto bigger and better things and that was painfully evident right now.

Swallowing the lump that had formed in her throat, Sarah forced a smile onto her face. "Hi, I'm--ah, I'm Sarah Daniels. It's nice to meet you too."

Hugh wasn’t a stupid person. After going out for nearly three months, he definitely recognised that tone of voice in Ally’s voice. However, she could understand that he was happy to see and reunite with an old friend, right? Right. Besides, Sarah was his friend.

So why couldn’t he keep that sinking feeling from his stomach when Ally joined them? Unlike before, where his grin had been easy and natural, he found himself forcing a smile as he slipped an arm around Ally. “Ah, sorry I didn’t introduce you two.” He paused. “We’ve, ah, been together for nearly three months.”

No, this wasn’t awkward at all.

She refrained from rolling her eyes, because, really, it was probably innocent and all that. Ally just wished it wasn't like. So obvious that they knew each other. Good gracious, he had mentioned that he knew the girl that was going to be his secretary from school, but Ally was going to quickly bring up later that Hugh had failed to tell her that he and Sarah had dated.

Which, of course, she was totally assuming and might be wrong, but with how insanely awkward the air felt around them just now, Ally was quite sure her female intuition was right.

Boys were stupid.

"He's such a doll, honestly," Ally said with a grin up at Hugh, patting his chest lightly. She turned back to Sarah, eyebrows going high as if she were telling her a secret, "But he's super grumpy in the morning, I'd wait until about ten before sending any messages his way."

"Yeah, I know, he never really was a morning person." Sarah said it before realizing what she had said, following it up immediately with nervous laughter once she had because... while Ally didn't know anything, that was still--ohhh. "I mean--well, he was just always very difficult to talk to.. at.. breakfast.. ah heh."

She really should just hex her mouth shut forever. She'd get into a lot less embarrassing situations that way.

Anxiously, Sarah brushed some of her curls behind her ear, noticing that Ally's hair was so smooth and--how did she get it that nice and pretty? Guh, another obvious reminder of why she was dating Hugh and not her. This woman was like, ridiculous, how she was everything she wasn't.

There was no denying the thick air of awkwardness hanging about the three, so Hugh decided to take it upon himself to at least and try to lighten up the atmosphere.

“Yeah, I think by now I’ve got coffee running through my veins instead of blood,” he said lightly, with a cheerful (or at least, what passed for cheerful) shrug.

Honestly. What was with him? It wasn’t like he liked Sarah again, or anything like that. He was perfectly happy with his gorgeous, smart, witty girlfriend, and he really wasn’t the type to angst and anguish over the past. Right. He had to take his mind off of this, somehow. Perhaps a good office prank was in order. Ally was the only one who actually knew about them, and although she usually laughed along with them, sometime he got the distinct feeling she thought they were… a bit immature. And all right, so they were. But how else was he supposed to pass the monotony of work?

She only thought his pranks were immature because when people realized Hugh had pulled them (which people often did, even if they didn't have evidence) they often came up to her and either praised him or called him a moron. Of course Ally defended him, she wasn't going to let anyone call her boyfriend a moron (even if she called him that all the time, she was allowed to), but it got really frustrating. It was hard enough getting a higher up job in the ministry without connection, so for a muggleborn-no name with a boyfriend who was constantly annoying people, ugh.

"They really need a caffeine inducer spell, yah? That would be really helpful." Ally let out a giggle and shrugged. "Well, Sarah, it was a pleasure meeting you, but I've got some diplomats to please, so I'll see you guys later?" She looked up at Hugh and grinned, pushing up on her tip toes and giving him a sweet kiss. "See you!"

Hugh and Sarah stood in silence as Ally left the office, and then for a few moments after--it would seem that somehow the moment had become even more awkward with her presence absent than it had been with her there. When Sarah finally realized and made to clear her throat, she knew that the situation was all unredeemably horrible.

"Uh.. so, right, you were... going to show me around?"

She knew that the socially acceptable thing would have been to comment to him on how sweet or pretty or generally fantastic his girlfriend was, at least a little, but Ally was really the last thing Sarah wanted to focus on now. Honestly, she was more ready than ever to turn around and get the hell out of this place; away from her past, and stupid ex-boyfriends and their annoyingly perfect girlfriends. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid. Maybe she would go to the Head of Department and just explain to him tomorrow that the job wasn't going to work out for her... too many personal problems getting in the way of professional interests. Or something.

The Three Broomsticks surely wouldn't have a problem taking her back since it'd only been a day, right?

“Right. So the tour…” Hugh bobbed his head a little and made a sweeping motion with his arm. God, how he hated awkward moments, but then again, who didn’t? “Keep all hands and feet inside the vehicle while we’re moving,” he said, some of his natural playfulness returning to him, “and remember, no eating or drinking inside the ride.”

He lead the way. “And in this corner, is my boss’s office – Hey Marco! – you can call him by his first name, he’s really mellow. Here’s some more offices... and whoa! Yet some more offices. There’s the lounge, the bathrooms..."

It took a good thirty minutes for him to lead her through the department floor, and they finally stopped in front of an office door that he had purposely left for last. “Aaaaand here’s my own lovely office, whom I share with my co-worker, Colin MacMillan. Sadly, you’ll meet him soon enough.” He opened the door, ignoring Colin, and lead Sarah to another door adjacent to the two desks. “And here’s where you’ll work.” He turned to her, giving a little bow. “And thus endeth the most exciting tour in the history of the world. Tips are appreciated, of course.”

Sarah couldn't help it, she smiled a little at his playfulness. Even though she was thoroughly put off with him for the time being for the whole girlfriend thing (it wasn't that it was his fault or anything, it was just a gut reaction), he still knew how to make her smile. That's what she had always liked about Hugh so much--he had the best sense of humor of anyone she had possibly ever met.

In passing his desk, she sent a small wave to Colin, even though he looked infinitely perturbed at her presence (or maybe it was Hugh's, though she couldn't guess why). Shaking it off (he looked rather odd in general anyway), she turned back to Hugh, the air quite a bit more relaxed now that some time had passed, and bit her lip in thought. "Well, I don't know about tips, but... I think I could probably bring you a soda tomorrow." Sarah hesitated for a moment; well, he had changed with his taste in women, apparently, she thought a tad bitterly, so maybe other things had changed too. "You still like soda... right?"

Ouch, that'd been a bit more pointed than she had meant it. Oh well.

Was it his imagination, or did Sarah sound... Well, hopefully it was his imagination. Hugh shrugged. "Hey, you know me, Coca-Cola's my ultimate favourite. Are you still a Sprite person?"

He leaned against his desk, ignoring Colin's pointed gaze. He'll deal with him soon enough.

That brightened her up just a little. "Uh yeah, Sprite's still my thing. All white soda, all the time and all that," she said, giving him a slight smile. "I'm surprised you remember."

She bit the inside of her cheek for a moment, leaning against the desk beside him. "So what do you do around here for fun? You can't tell me that you content yourself just to sit around and partake in a boring old desk job," Sarah said, knowingly, arching an eyebrow at him.

Maybe it was how Sarah smiled at him. Or maybe it was because he knew that Sarah would really appreciate and see the brilliance of what he did. Whatever the case, Hugh raised an eyebrow back at her. “Ah – I forgot to show you the most important room of all, the closet where we store our entire extra documents. C’mon!” He quickly led them both out and into another hall, which was fairly deserted. He quickly peeked over to Ally’s desk; she seemed to be gone somewhere (not that he thought she’d care, he was just… in a hurry).

Hugh quickly ushered them inside, and shut the door. “Right. I’m going to let you in something, something that only a select few – me and Ally – know. And you’re going to be my secretary now, and I know you’re trustworthy, so…” He couldn’t help it; he let out an loud chuckle. “Are you ready?”

Sarah also glanced at Ally's desk as they passed by, but because she was actually concerned--she had been threatened by the hug, after all, so she would probably be really annoyed at her boyfriend dragging her through the office and... into a closet? Oh, this was...

She looked up at him skeptically, trying not to think about how crowded this closet was, and crossed her arms. "Okay, what?" she asked, the side of her lips quirking up into a smirk at his laugh. "What's so important and secretive?"

“You know how I used to pull those pranks on Edmund Lear back in school?” Hugh pressed his lips together, shrugging. “Well… think of that. When I first went to work, I thought I could put all behind me, but I guess the prankster in me won’t let it die. Colin’s things have to be in jell-o at least once every three months, and sometimes… I send him owls. From himself. From the future.”

Okay, trusting that Sarah understood him completely. so he wasn’t making much sense, but he grinned. “He’s really that bad, Sarah. Trust me, you’ll see it in the first hour of working here.”

By the time Hugh was finished explaining his exploits in pranking Colin (so now she understood why he had been glaring), Sarah was laughing harder than she had in a long, long time. Oh man, this was so like him--he had been like this back at school, always pulling a prank or two, each one more creative and hilarious than the last.

"Jell-o?" she asked, grinning deviously. "That's a new one. You know... have you tried yet convincing him that it's Thursday when it's really Friday? Or--or moving his desk an inch towards the wall every time he leaves to go to the bathroom?"

Hugh's eyes grew round. "You are brilliant," he said slowly, cracking up in laughter. "He does go to the bathroom quite a lot - much more than the average person. It's really kind of alarming."

He looked mischievous. "Say, I haven't done anything to him in awhile... I was saving jell-o for next week, but now I just can't wait. How about we do the bathroom one? It'll be grand."

He turned to open the closet, but turned around to face Sarah again. "It's really great seeing you again," he said sincerely. "Really great."

Okay, so maybe she'd give it at least a week before she decided she'd quit.

Sarah's laughter slowly died down once he turned around and faced her. She shot him an equally sincere smile, for a whole moment forgetting about the fact that she should just get over it and him, feeling extremely light. "Thanks. It's great to see you again too," she said. I missed you, she thought, but bit down on her tongue before she could say it. That would be too much.

As he looked down on Sarah, Hugh fought the urge to reach over and hug her again, but as they were in a closet and… Yeah. That would make it quite awkward again. So he gave her another bright grin and opened the door. “Then let’s go,” he said mischievously.

The long work day dragged on as usual, but Hugh found it to be much less longer than it usually was. Colin introduced himself to Sarah, and probably weirded her out for life, but that was to be expected. Using the suggestion that she had given her, Hugh got up and pushed Colin’s desk exactly one inch every time he got out to use the bathroom, which was an astounding total of twenty-four times. By the twenty-third, Hugh looked up at Sarah, amazed, but shrugged and happily pushed the desk another inch while Colin continued not to notice.

Now it was the end of the day. Hugh looked up and caught Sarah’s eye (for he had a direct, perfect view into her own office), unable to hide the impish smirk on his face.

Colin wasn't very big on picking things up. To not notice that his desk had moved two feet was pretty spectacular. He just wasn't... Observant. For some reason, that skill was very lacking. It helped that he hadn't really sat down at it in the past hour. Though, it had taken far longer then an hour to get it move that far, so it wasn't much of an excuse. However, when he went to sit down, and noticed just... how... Differently positioned his desk was. Misplaced, even. Over too far.

...

...

"OH VERY WITTY."

No wonder Hugh was such a good poker player. He even reckoned that, in a former life, he had been a damn good actor. That was the reason why he was able not to laugh or even grin whenever he pulled off his spectacular pranks of Colin.

With an absolutely straight face, Hugh blinked and merely said, "Colin, what are you talking about?"

Colin pulled himself up from his seat, walking over to the side of his desk and pushing it until he was quite sure it was where it was supposed to be. He looked to Hugh with irritation, flopping back into his seat and shaking his head.

"So, I'm guessing my desk moved itself then?" He said with as much sarcasm as he was able to muster. Sadly, it wasn't much.

Hugh blinked again, looking, for all the world, extremely puzzled. "Look, I really don't know what you're talking about, Colin. You were up an awful lot, you know. Maybe something happened during the many times you left and came back."

He lifted his shoulders in a shrug. "It's really strange though, isn't it?"

Strange. Strange. He chuckled sardonically at his choice of words. Colin wasn't exactly stupid, you know! Sure, he hadn't done well on his O.W.Ls and his N.E.W.Ts had been... well, decent, but not exemplary, but he knew that his desk just hadn't gotten up and walked over twenty-four inches. Given his company, he was pretty sure it could only be the work of one person too.

"Perplexing, Hugh. Really."

Hugh shrugged. "I know, that's what makes it so weird. I've been at my desk for the whole time, trying to get finish these so they'd be in by five today." Of course he had them long finished at one, but what Colin didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

He looked over at Sarah. "It's Sarah's new day, but I'm sure she didn't see anything either. Right?"

Sarah looked up from her place at her desk, blinking and pulling off the completely oblivious act quite well. "What? Oh--no, I haven't seen anything," she said, frowning despite the fact that she wanted to break out into a fit of laughter. "You know, actually, Colin, I think you might be imagining things. It didn't look like it moved to me."

Oh well that was just peachy. Sighing, he pushed himself up from his desk, moving it slightly from it's place and showing the marks where it was quite clear a desk had been sitting for several, several hours. "Those were showing. Clearly it moved!" He said with a huff, putting it back in his place and flopping down. "I know I'm not crazy."