Working out frustrations

[Hermione Chambers]

The steady thudding of a punching bag was one of the few sounds in the gym on the Ministry's 3rd floor. Not surprising for a Monday, as most of the aurors were getting back into the groove of the week after the lighter weekend rotation. Not surprising having little to no major incidents in years. Hermione Chambers had been an auror for almost 10 years, most of which were assignments abroad. Despite that, most aurors, even the rookies knew of her fierce reputation owed to the harder exterior of her personality since she lost her husband 8 years previous. Precious few ever got to see the underlying softer, more vulnerable side since then.

On this particular Monday, Hermione found herself trying to work out building frustration. She had returned almost a month previous to help find the escaped Azkaban prisoner. Normally, Hermione wouldn't care, but this was a special case. This particular prisoner was the one who'd murdered her husband. Technically, she wasn't even supposed to be on the case due to her personal involvement, so she'd used her undercover skills to pretend to be doing other assignments while conducting a one woman manhunt. She was mostly irritated at the auror in charge of the escaped prisoner, her husband's best friend and fellow auror, Straw Buckett. Weeks ago, when she'd first arrived, he'd told her a ridiculous story about how the prisoner was actually her dead husband and that he was being sheltered by Straw, whom was deliberately stalling the investigation. Turns out, he was fairly good at stalling her as well. She smiled slightly at the thought, almost proud that he'd developed into quite the talented auror without her around.

Sweat rolled down Hermione's shoulders running down the side of her sports tank as she punished the bag for all that she was angry about. If she didn't make progress on her 'secret' case soon, she was going to end up breaking her hand. However, the almost cathartic exercise helped clear her head to go over what trails she had found over the last couple weeks. Again she was wrestling with whether or not to turn Straw in on the off chance that he really did have something to do with this case other than being in charge of solving it. But had she become that cold that she could sacrifice a friend, even one as estranged as Straw?

[Pansy Parkinson]

Green eyes popped open and cautiously looked around. Just her office, she had fallen asleep again. Pansy had never needed much sleep but lately she seemed tired all the time. Pushing up off the couch, she groaned asnher back popped several times. Well, today was Monday. And Mondays sucked. Just going to be one of those days, she guessed. Pansy thought about going home, but decided against it. Why bother if she had to turn around and come right back. The clothes in her locker were there for a reason, after all. Grabbing said clothes and other basic things, she locked her office and headed to the 3rd floor gym.

By habit, Pansy took the long way around, going by Nevilles' office. Of course, he wasn't there. They had a several year old on and off relationship. Oh well, didn't matter, she could wait on him. She continued to the gym, taking her time.

She reached the gym, pausing in the door way. Currently there was one of the young Aurors, seriously making the bag regret being there. Pansy just leaned against the doorway for a while, watching. What was her name? Chambers, maybe? Yes, that was it. She had met many of the Aurors though Neville and was sure of the name. "Hey, Chambers." Not wanting to hollar again, she stepped closer. "Not sure what the bag ever did to you, but I think you won that fight."

[Hermione Chambers]

Generally, Hermione was very aware of her surroundings. In her line of work, not paying attention to what was going on could be the difference between living and dying. Especially when one tended to work around dangerous people. However, the red haze from frustration and anger had dulled her usually sharp senses.

The initial shout had surprised her and caused her to miss the bag, causing her to collide with it from the momentum of her punch. Breathing heavily as she grasped the bag as an afterthought and looked to see who had disturbed her. The dark haired woman that approached was vaguely familiar to her as someone that she had interacted with, but never got to know.

Putting up her metaphysical guard, Hermione arched an eyebrow at the interloper. She fell back into her training, assess the situation before acting. "I'm not sure. We were still debating the issue of a winner." Shaking out her taped hands, the start of a few bruises already evident, "Maybe more of a tie." Ironically, that was the moment the bag ripped open and started spilling sand on the floor, causing Hermione to falter a bit as the bag lost density quickly. "Or not." She smirked slightly, waiting to see how the situation developed.

[Pansy Parkinson]

Well, didn't mean to suprise her. Running a hand through her hair, Pansy wandered the rest of the way over. Hermione but the bag or the bag hit her, either way it looked like it hurt. Pansy didn't miss a beat though, and quirked an eyebrow right back at her. "Still debating. Right." The bag splitting open could have happened at a better time. Pansy tried to stop it, really she tried. But in the end, the humor won. Laughing the whole time, she spoke. "Like I said, I think you won the fight." It took a good minute to get herself under control. "Anyway, I didn't mean to interrupt you. I was just grabbing a shower"

This was the point she should have turned away. Gone to take the shower she so needed. But she couldn't. Back in the States when Pansy was an Auror, she had a case that had nearly done her in. A good number of Muggle children had gone missing. She knew the signs. The anger and frustration, not knowing what to do, where to look. It was almost painful to watch. But Pansy barely knew this girl and didn't know the situation. So she turned and headed to the locker room.

Five steps. That was all Pansy managed to walk away. Clothes were set on the floor, hand stuck in pockets. She turned, blowing out a breath as she retraced her steps. "So, listen. Im not sure what the situation is, um, but if you want to talk about it, I'd listen. We could get coffee or something."

[Hermione Chambers]

Hermione clung to the bag, even as the last of the sand dribbled out. "That's okay. Chief Longbottom makes me stop when I break the bags. He calls it a cool down period, so unless I want to ride a desk for a week, I've got to stop anyways," Hermione explained with a softening smile.

Watching the other woman start to walk away, figuring their brief conversation was over, Hermione let go of the bag, shaking the sand out off the top of her sneakers as she started to peel the tape off her hands. But, the other woman didn't get very far without turning around and offering to talk. Years of practice were the only thing to keep the panic off of her face.

She needed to come up with some kind of logical story that would explain the ferocious nature that she'd attacked the bag with. After all, even rumors to what she was really up to could foil her secret investigation. "Paperwork." she blurted out. "I've been away on loan for a bit, and I'm just now getting all my back paperwork situated. I hate paperwork. Give me a bad guy any day." Hermione smirked, hoping that it was a plausible story, or at least something to mollify the dark haired woman.