((Sorry it took me so long. I just gave the muse a swift kick to the rear, so I hope you'll find it in your heart to forgive me. :b ))

"Well, we'll always be Slytherins at heart, whether we like it or not."

That's what you think, she thought, not changing the expression on her face. She wasn't a Slytherin at heart, at least not the way that Rhett was talking about. Sure, she had some Slytherin qualities...cunning and ambition among them. But hers were limited to the side of good, they wouldn't carry her over. She wasn't against doing something that could be construed as bad if it had a good result...but there were moral regulations penning her in, and Hestia had been raised differently from most Slytherins. With actual love and...approval. Not to mention the fact that she was a half blood, not a pureblood, and both of her parents had been in Ravenclaw. But no one was talking about that, were they? As far as they were concerned, Hestia was a pureblood Slytherin descended from a line of other Slytherins who would do absolutely anything to get herself ahead. As far as they were concerned.

"I suppose so," she replied, at the risk of giving herself away, "Plus, green's a good color for both of us."

"It's not too far. I would say we should Apparate, but the park is infested ith Muggles...I'm surprised you haven't been to Inn The Park before. You have a view of the lake and across the way is Buckingham Palace...This is exactly why you need someone like me who has too much free time on his hands to take you out and away from that drag of a job for a bit of fun."

Yes, that drag of a job. Where she spent all day interrogating and researching dangerous criminals at the risk to her own person. Where she was, unfortunately, paired up with a detestable man that made her want to eat her own shoe rather than speak to him. And who seemed to have an intense amount of dislike for personal hygeine. And staying sober. She wrapped a hand around Rhett's arm, just thinking about Elphais Haddock. Rhett was so...pleasant, so handsome, compared to that man. And despite the fact that he often reminded her of her Slytherin days, she liked to be around him. He was right- she needed to get away from work. She needed to escape the day in, day out drone of something that seemed futile if you didn't get some distance from it once in awhile. The bad kept coming, as much as people fought it, and sometimes it felt like there was no progress, no point.

"Well, I can't wait to see it." She smiled. "And I haven't been there because going to fancy restaurants alone isn't really my idea of a good evening. It's lucky for me I found someone to take me."

"Have you been up to anything terribly thrilling since last we talked?"

"I singlehandedly managed to save the world from too much paperwork by gathering it all on my desk." Hestia tilted her head back and gazed to the heavens in an expression of mock virtue. "It's a difficult job, hero of all, but someone must do it."

Somewhere along the line, she had decided not to tell Rhett that she was an auror. She had a lie cooked up. She worked as a secretary in the Department of International Magical Cooperation (or whatever that department was called, she'd never actually been there). If he asked her where she worked, that was what she would tell him. And she had no qualms about lying. He was a former Slytherin, and as such, there was a part of her that wouldn't completely trust him. He had proved himself to be benign...not exactly a fine, upstanding pillar of moral fortitude, but not a poisonous man masked by good looks and a charming personality. As far as she knew. But she was watching. She was always watching. Hestia liked to escape crisis before it happened, not watch as it fell on top of her.

"How about you?" she asked, "Any luck in the job search?"