11 Am Meeting

The only thing that made her day less frustrating, Ana decided, was that she wasn't stuck on the Hogwarts grounds again. Those days were, essentially, her least favorite days in the past month. They meant many confused and complaining students, and sometimes some grumpy adults who were matched to those students. Thankfully, the Ministry meetings felt a little more normal, as she spent most of her time there anyway. Sure, the meetings often went badly, but they were a bit less obnoxious than usual at the Ministry.

Peering at the letters the next match had returned to the Ministry as well as the rest of their files, Ana wasn't sure if this meeting would go well or not. She could only hope it would work out in the end. Even if the first meeting between two people didn't work out, there was no reason that they couldn't get along later. Maybe it would be like that for some of the folks that she had seen deal with issues in their meetings with her.

The two Hogwarts graduates that were expected would hopefully arrive on time so that Ana could get the meeting started and hope it was as short as some of her previous ones had been. Unless it was a serious disaster, she might even be able to head to lunch early and take some time to herself. Sending up a silent request to whomever could help her, Ana closed the files and glanced at the door in the hopes that someone would walk through and start the meeting.

Rose didn't like this.

She didn't want to be forced to marry someone. She wanted it to happen on its own. But the thing that bothered her was that she was marrying a guy. She'd been uninterested in guys for a couple of years now, even though recently she'd been caught in a certain guy's charm.

That didn't mean she completely liked only guys now. No, that was far from the truth. She still went the other way as well, and those feelings were greater than the ones she had for guys. So this bothered her, and it bothered her greatly. But how could she stop this? It wasn't possible. She debated even showing up for about half an hour before she realized that it was time to go and meet her match.

Why couldn't I be excluded from this? she asked herself, shaking her head.

If only. There was no way to get out of this. She sighed softly and knocked on the door to the Minister's office when she stood in front of it. She only hoped that her match wasn't there yet so she could have some time to prepare herself before the meeting began.

"Good morning.." She said softly as she walked in, a wave of relief rushing over her as she realized that only Mrs. Levski was there. That was a relief, for now.

(OOC: Remind me later that I have a plot idea for Rose/Bash/Ben )


Never one to be late to anything, Bentley had been awake for hours – though, frankly, that probably had to do with both his anxiety regarding the day as well as his new maybe-flatmate. To say Ben had been distracted the past two days would be an understatement. He hadn’t even been to the office, regardless of if he really ought to be. It was technically holiday break so, in his less-than-humble opinion, he shouldn’t really be expected to show up. This meeting, however, was not something he could avoid or stay home during. No, it was non-negotiable.

Striding into the ministry, his usual confident nature was taking over where it had been failing so badly in his own flat. The Gryffindor had certainly changed him, regardless of if Bentley wanted to accept it or not. He’d known the guy less than forty-eight hours if he was counting correctly, and yet he couldn’t help but hate the Ministry all the more for taking the blonde away just as Bentley was being taken away.

A steady hand lifted to knock on the door, eyes already narrowed with distaste, before Ben pushed it open and made his way into the office unbidden. “Morning,” he drawled, the word seeming almost pulled from his lips. Falling into the closest chair, Bentley eyed both women with a raised eyebrow. Perhaps this meeting could kick his arse back into gear. Bring back his sardonic, mercurial self. He was used to that version of himself and found he liked it a little better than the unsure, confused Bentley he could now see each time he looked at the mirror in his flat.

“Morning, Mr. Pierson. Miss Weasley.” Ana greeted slowly, regarding him warily. Ben’s eyes snapped back to the redhead. He should have known she was a Weasley. She looked like one now that he thought about it. “Do have a seat, Miss Weasley.”

Glancing between the two, Ana continued with her generic, over-rehearsed speech. “Bentley, this is Rose Weasley. Rose, Bentley Pierson.” She punctuated the introduction with a nod, shifting the papers around on her desk. “Now, for today we’ll need to go over what you two should expect in the next month as well as completing the fertility tests in order to-“

“Honestly?” Ben interrupted with a huff, tilting his head slightly to show his disapproval. “This is bloody ridiculous.”

“What this is, Mr. Pierson,” Ana corrected darkly, voice low and words short, “is the way for you to avoid getting sent to Azkaban. Do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal.” He chimed sarcastically, then rolled his eyes when she turned to look at the redhead.

“You’ll have a month to plan things, and if – at the two week mark – you come up with more questions you can set up another meeting to discuss things with me.” Mrs. Levski continued, avoiding any look in Ben’s direction. They clearly weren’t going to get along – not that Bentley minded even a whit. “The marriage must be filed with the ministry and officiated by the end of the month. How you have the wedding, where it is, and so on – that’s all up to you. We just need proof. Then you likely know the three year time period designated as the range of time in which you’re meant to have at least one child together.”

“What about this,” Ben jumped in again, rather enjoying the angry look she shot at him. “How about we marry, but then she has the kid with someone else, hmm? I’m not the father type.”

Ana glared at him for a moment before sitting up taller and leveling an angry look at him. “The point of the law is for certain people, with certain amounts of wizarding blood and influence to be matched with those who are different. In order to assist with the issue that has risen regarding the number of squibs and children with weak magical powers. You will do as the Ministry asks, or you will be reprimanded most harshly. Anything you do can affect her, as well, so you might want to ask her what she wants before you go on and make ultimatums.” Ana gestured to Rose vaguely, though her attention remained on the dark-haired wizard in front of her.

Smirking, Bentley leaned back farther in his chair. If he could get under her skin, well that was a morning well spent. Glancing over at Rose, he offered her a joking grin. “Well, then, Red. Any questions? Or should we just let her get on with things?”

She already didn't like him. It took a lot to make Rose hate or even dislike someone. But he had already managed to get on her bad side. Rose watched the exchange between Pierson and Levski, and she wondered how long she could go without really being involved in the discussion, even if her name was brought up. It honestly lasted longer than Rose thought it would, but when he finally brought her into it by asking a question, the name he used to address her was one she would not tolerate.

"Do not call me Red." she snapped at him.

Whether it was meant to be insulting or not, Rose took that name as an insult. She loved her red hair but she hated when anyone made any kind of rude or bad comment about it. 'Red' was a name that was used for her when someone was trying to make fun of her and she had grown to hate it within the years that she had been called that.

Rose narrowed her eyes at Bentley and she looked at Ana. "Is this really what I have to marry?" she asked. She was almost pleading, she wanted so badly for there to be another solution to all of this. She didn't want to marry this man. She already hated him and wanted nothing to do with him. Maybe that was his plan? To make a bad impression. If it was, he had certainly accomplished it.

Ana frowned darkly at Mr. Pierson as he began automatically toying with the redhead seated next to him. The girl hadn’t had a chance, really. At least, Ana decided, Rose could retaliate easily. She seemed to have some retaliation in her, which was definitely a good sign; at least the businessman wouldn’t try and trample all over the healer once they were wed.

Judging by Bentley’s reaction, though, he seemed disappointed by her negative response to his name for her. Ana nearly laughed, wondering if he had thought the name would be endearing. Maybe he had a thing for redheads. That, or his tone never matched his actual meaning; that was entirely possible at this point.

Miss Weasley opened her mouth again but this time spoke to Ana, asking after her lot in the law. “Yes, I’m afraid so,” Ana replied lightly, ignoring Bentley’s huff in response. “I do not make the matches, unfortunately, or I would have looked into the applications more properly than whomever has been doing so. I daresay you lucked out, though, compared to some. The other day, a vampire got matched with a student.”

Bentley’s laugh was also ignored, though Ana had a rather bemused expression on her face as well. ”Needless to say, you two got off a bit easier.”

“Well, then,” Bentley began, crossing his arms over his chest and making a grand show of being put out. “That makes it all better,” he rolled his eyes. After waiting for a reply from Ana but getting naught but pursed lips in return, he continued. “Listen, we both have lives that we need to live, and neither includes the other person thus far. So can we just marry but not live together?”

Ana tilted her head and looked between the two of them. Nothing in the law stated that they had to live together, but not doing so certainly didn’t help the fact that they were meant to have a child in the next three years. “During the school year,” she mused aloud, “it would be rather difficult for the two of you to live together, as Miss Weasley has to work at Hogwarts. But outside of that – so, during breaks – you’ll need to live together, yes. Not doing so makes the other requirement of the law far more difficult.”

Bentley scowled but kept quiet, hoping the redhead would make some sort of comment about the law on her own, rather than keeping quiet as she had thus far.

"I think I'd prefer to take my chances with a Vampire." Rose retorted, not bothering to look at Bentley. There was no way the two of them would get along. There would just be way too much trouble between the two of them. She was supposed to have a kid with him, right? We'll that wasn't happening, they'd probably kill each other first.

Rose huffed quietly and looked at her hands in her lap.

Bentley finally said something that Rose could agree with and she perked up at the thought that she wouldn't have to spend much time with him. Not that her job allowed it too much, which was a good thing for her. But Ana objected saying that they would have to live together when he wasn't at Hogwarts and the girl crossed her arms.

This sucked way too much.

"Isn't there anything else we can do?" Rose inquired. "Can we agree to meet from time to time - or something?" She started hesitating. "But not really have to live together?" It was probably useless to try to find a different way out of everything. They were going to have to be together at some point, but Rose couldn't wrap her mind around the idea. She wanted nothing to do with the man sitting next to her.

If there was some way to escape from him, she would take it. As long as it didn't involve going to Azkaban. She didn't want to go there.