Beauty From Pain

Chapter Thirty-Three

When the War had ended and everyone had tried to find some semblance of a normal life to return to, Hermione had been grateful that certain things hadn't changed. Ron was still married to his appetite and was an avid quidditch fan. Hermione was still a resident of the library and addicted to books. And Harry...

"Merlin bless Harry," Hermione growled under her breath. He was still the most unorganized individual she had ever met. Oh, he had a heart that was far too big for this world and a wicked sense of humor. His book keeping skills, however, were greatly lacking. "This office hasn't been organized since the day he took it."

Ginny looked around the room, her lip pulled back in disgust. "I'm not the most organized person in the world," she said, "but this is too much even for me."

Harry's office at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement looked like a tornado made up entirely of papers had blown through the room. Twice. There were stacks of scrolls and ledgers that had fallen over and caused an avalanche of other stacks, the chaos of which covered half the floor. One of the two chairs situated before his desk was piled high with a stack of memos nearly as tall as Hermione, and there was a dusty cloak draped over them that looked in desperate need of a wash. The room smelled like an attic that hadn't been opened in a decade.

"This room would be a nargle's dream," Luna said. She looked curiously around the room with her usual dreamy expression. Hermione wasn't going to ask for any sort of sound reasoning, but Luna offered her explanation nonetheless. "They could steal as many papers as they like, and Harry would never notice. It's a wonder he doesn't have an infestation yet."

"Maybe because they don't exist?" Hermione said it quietly enough that Luna didn't appear to hear her, but it earned her an elbow to the ribs from Ginny. "Nargles or not, this place is a nightmare. How are we supposed to figure out where they went when we can't even find his desk?"

Ginny ignored Luna's very obvious pointing towards Harry's desk and said, "I don't have the energy or the attention span to tackle this problem. Can't we just, I dunno, accio the memo or something?"

"Who says there's even a memo to find?" Hermione frowned at the chaos around her and felt her fingertips begin to itch with the need to organize it all. Honestly, it wouldn't even take her that long. Just a few hours of uninterrupted organizing, and she could have it looking like a brand new office by the end of the day.

"Don't even start." Ginny was pointing an accusatory finger at Hermione, her expression stern. "I know that look. That's the same look you got when you saw the quidditch shed at the Burrow, and you ended up organizing that mess for three days."

"It needed it," Hermione said defensively. "That shed was the most absurdly —"

Ginny cut her off, "It doesn't matter. We don't have time for that today, Hermione. You're trying to distract yourself from the worry of not knowing where they are, and that's not healthy. Face it head on, and use it to find them."

Hermione glared at her but only because she was right. Stress cleaning was an odd habit she had picked up while on the run with Harry and Ron. It helped direct her anxious energy, but she tended to come out of it more stressed than when she started.

"What Ginny means to say is that you can have all the time in the world to force Harry to clean his office once they come back." Luna smiled serenely at her and asked, "Wouldn't it be better to teach him to be neat rather than to be neat for him?"

It was always unsettling when Luna had a point, and a correct one at that.

The three witches decided the best tactic would be to divide and conquer. Luna set about looking for nargles since they were known to steal only the things you needed them not to, or so she explained to the others. Ginny left to find Harry's assistant Isobel if he had told her where he'd gone. Hermione went to speak with Susan Bones.