Dirty deeds

23 January (Thursday)

Still no owl from Severus. He’d better have a good explanation for this or there will be no more being tied up in bed and that’s a promise. Odd that punishment for being uncommunicative is being, well not punished.

Decided to turn up to work on time this morning to further unnerve the Tosser. Stuck with the chai latte.

Fuck it, I thought as I crossed the threshold and decided to resign that day. No point dragging it out and inuiinuing to play silly power games. Being Slytherin may be sexually communicable but obviously in need of a top up. OH YES.

So wrote out letter of resignation to Tosser and Old Boss, and delivered it in person to Tosser. He ignored it for a bit – trying to play little mind games with me. You know the ones, putting employees in chairs that are lower than you, ignoring them for five minutes before deigning to have a conversation with you, which any sane and sensible person can see through in five minutes flat. These sorts of games are often played by shortarses or persons of a ginger disposition. Not Ron, for once. Would soon have sorted that out, plus too thick to work out how to play games of that sort. Sort of people that haven’t come to terms with the fact that almost everyone they meet is taller than them (or less ginger).

And if someone thinks that kind of crap is going to work when you have had bastard Snape leaning oyou,you, sneering at your work, and still managed not to have shaky hands; or when you dealt with either sodding Malfoy – both masters of the snide comments and the condescending sneer; or when you have had to deal with crackpot Dumbledore at his most erratic then they are obviously very very stupid.

Mind you, we knew that already.

So patiently waited him out. Yawned a little to signal that had better places to be, and waited for him to pick up the scroll, read it and rdlyrdly digest the contents.

Oh dear, it seems to be somewhat indigestible.

Usual spluttering. What is the meaning of this etc. Told him in best Lucius manner – more supercilious than my beloved – that thought the answer to the question was self-evident from the contents of the scroll but for the benefit of the truly stupid: I resign, I quit, I am terminating my employment with the Ministry, I am an ex-employee; I am going to pastures new.

He got the message, but not the cultural reference. Pythons have never made it to the magical world. Shame really.

Called over Old Boss. Who repeated the process. Couldn’t be arsed doing the whole routine again so just stared at him very hard in best Severus manner.

He got the message too.

What I wanted was to see the bastards grovel at my feet and plead with me to stay. What I got was threats. I couldn’t leave, they wouldn’t give me a reference, no one would ever employ me once they had finished with me.

Told them that had a job, references weren’t required, that copies of my research sufficient.

More threats about taking research not entitled too.

Sweetly pointed out the omission of confidentiality claand and that if either of them ever so much as looked sideways at me never mind uttering threats there would be hell to pay. Reminded them exactly who I was, and who I knew – dropped names like confetti – Malfoy senior and junior (about time they did something useful for someone once in their life), Dumbledore, Harry, and Severus. Both twitched at that.

Both young enough to have been taught by Severus.

Think being Mrs Snape could be fun. Had originally intended to keep my maiden name (there’s an old-fashioned sexist term for you) for career but now thinking that Mrs Snape is a name to conjure with and will strike fear into many a hardened individual whether ex-deatheaters or ex-good guys.

Could almost hear the trumpets sounding the retreat. Immensely satisfying.

Made leaving speech to shee
I
I have enjoyed working with some of you. (Very pointed look at Tosser who was trying to pretend that everything was fine). However my disappointment at leaving will be tempered by the knowledge that at my new job I will have an office of my own, more money, more holiday and some respect.

Best of British with Tosser. You’ll need it.

Went down a storm. Almost carried out of building on shoulders of sheep and off to storm the bastille.

Popped belongings into cardboard box. Boss and Tosser wanted to check it for contraband – silly sods had all been smuggled out before – but bottled it when it came to the confrontation.

Toddled off home before lunch and settled down to watch daytime TV. Ah the joys of unemployment. Must become independently wealthy and give up work for good. Some sort of patented potion I think. Should get to reap benefits of sweat of brow rather than going solely to fat cat capitalist running dogs.

Still no note from Severus so sent him an owl:

Dear Severus,

I haven’t heard anything from you all week and I am beginning to get a bit worried. Surely the thought of meeting my parents isn’t all that bad?

If you don’t want to make it this weekend, we can do something else. If we are feeling really adventurous we could try staying out of bed for more than half an hour and go to see a film or something?

Have resigned in great style, worthy of you at your most sarcastic and cutting. I want to tell you all about it in person, as can’t get the full flavour of the sneering in a letter, so I will save all the gory details for later.

Anyway, let me know as soon as possible what you think about the weekend.

Love

Hermione