Office hours never applied to Seraphina Picquery. Not when she was an Auror, not now that she was President. If anything, her days had only gotten longer and longer. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had a full night of sleep. She rubbed her eyes. It was ten in the morning and she hadn't even had breakfast yet. She needed to eat something. But more than anything, she needed coffee. Hot, strong coffee. She checked her schedule. Qaltaqa would come in at half past ten. That should give her enough time to go down to the Atrium and fetch herself some coffee. She walked towards the elevator.

As the elevator rushed down, Seraphina closed her eyes for a moment. She had sourly underestimated the work that came with the Presidency. She had only been in office for three months now, but it seemed the amount of requests never ended. A reading here, a favor there, some money needed elsewhere…

The doors of the elevator opened and she stepped into the Atrium. Immediately, two employees came towards her.

"Madam President, could we have your opinion on…"

"I'm really sorry, but I'm rather pressed at the moment. I'm awaiting a visit from the Headmaster of Ilvermorny. Is it urgent?"

The employees glanced at each other. "I guess it could wait a bit…"

She could sense their dissatisfaction, but she really had to rush. At the same time, she didn't want to be seen as rude. "I think I might have a moment to spare after lunch. Please check with Janice and ask her to make an appointment."

They nodded. "We'll do that," the tallest of the two said and they disappeared.

Seraphina entered the coffee bar. Only twenty minutes left. There were two people waiting in line before her; Harvey Jordan, who liked the lady tending the bar better than he liked coffee, and a blonde she had not seen before. The blonde turned around shortly after, carrying a tray of coffee, and Seraphina had to force herself not to stare. It was not done for a woman to stare after another woman. Especially not if one of them was the President of MACUSA. But the blonde was gorgeous.

Down the other end of the bar, a man whistled.

The blonde waved at him and left the bar.

"Who's that?" the whistler asked once she was out of earshot.

Despite herself, Seraphina would quite like to know the answer as well, and stepped a bit closer. There was no harm in getting to know the name of someone who worked at MACUSA, right?

"Close your mouth, Keith. She's not that pretty. And to answer your question: She's the new girl at Wand Permit," an older witch replied. "She does little tasks around the office, fetch coffee for the staff, those kind of things."

Seraphina froze where she stood. Wait. Abernathy had a coffee girl? Even the Wand Permit Office had someone who fetched coffee for them – a pretty woman nonetheless - while she had to stand in line herself? That wouldn't do. That would not do at all.

She stormed of towards her office, ignoring the call of "Madam President, you're forgetting your coffee!"

"The nerve of it," she muttered to herself on the way up. She was getting angrier with every floor they passed.

"Janice, why don't I have someone to fetch coffee for me?" she said as she arrived at the top floor. "Even at Wand Permit they have a coffee girl!"

Her secretary looked surprised. "I figured you favored the walk. You go down to the coffee bar at least twice a day."

"That's because there is no one to do that for me. Oh, the time I could have saved!"

"I'm sorry, Madam President, I honestly thought..."

"Well, I have a busy day ahead. Get me a coffee runner for today," Seraphina interrupted her.

"But Madam President, I can't find someone to start today!"

"Then get me a coffee runner from one of the departments. Surely they can fetch their own coffee for a day. I want it arranged before Qaltaqa arrives."

"But he could be here any minute now!"

"Then you'd better get started," Seraphina replied icely. "It's Monday morning, I'm on a tight schedule, I didn't get much sleep last night and I'm in desperate need of coffee. And if only someone had bothered to tell me it was even an option to hire a coffee runner, we wouldn't be in this predicament now."

She glared at her secretary, daring her to contradict her, but Janice just muttered: "I'll get working on it straight away, Madam President."

"Good."

Seraphina slammed the door to the inner office. She already regretted her harsh words to Janice. She knew she was being irrational. Well, she would apologize later. After she'd had some coffee. If only I hadn't stormed out of the bar without taking my coffee with me.

-o0o-

At ten twenty-eight there was a knock on her door.

"Come in," she said, expecting Qaltaqa. But it was the blonde from the coffee bar. Her heart skipped a beat at the sight of her. The day was looking brighter already. I must remember to thank Janice later.

She coughed and composed herself. "Come in. And close the door, will you?"

The woman did as asked. "I understand you require my assistance for the day, Madam President?" There was a pleasant timbre to her voice.

"That's right. I'm sorry it's such short notice."

"Oh that's al right," the blonde said with a smile. "What can I do for you?"

"I'd like you to provide my visitors with coffee during the day. And me as well. My next meeting is with Headmaster Qaltaqa. He could be here any moment now."

"I'll wait outside then until he arrives." The blonde made to leave.

"Wait."

"Is there anything else you require?"

"What's your name? I can't very well call you 'woman' all day."

"It's Queenie."

"Well, Queenie, I'm glad you're here. You can…"

"Oh hello, Headmaster," Queenie said as Qaltaqa walked into the office, his Ilvermorny cloak billowing behind him.

"Hello Queenie, it's good to see you! How are you doing? And how is your sister?"

"I'm fine really, and Tina is fine as well. She's an Auror now."

That was interesting. Seraphina knew Tina from her time as Auror. If Queenie hadn't mentioned it, she would never have guessed they were sisters.

"And Seraphina! Look at you," Qaltaqa said proudly. "President of MACUSA. I still remember you standing in the hallway, a nervous eleven-year-old. And all the carvings stirred. We hadn't seen that in over a decade. It only goes to prove that our mascots have a good sense for talent."

Seraphina felt embarrassed. It was publicly known that she'd been offered a place in all four houses of Ilvermorny, yet somehow she didn't want Queenie to think of her as a nervous eleven-year-old.

"Shall I go get those coffees then?" Queenie asked at that moment.

"That would be great," Seraphina replied, grateful for the distraction. "I'll take mine without anything."

"Some sugar in mine please," Qaltaqa said. "You know me, I've always been a sweet tooth."

-o0o-

Much too soon to Seraphina's liking, the day came to an end. She had drunk more coffee than she normally would have, and her visitors hadn't wanted for anything either. All so she could see Queenie all the more often.

Janice tapped on her door. "Madam President?"

"Yes?"

"I've asked around but it'll take time to find a good coffee runner. At least a week, Recruitment reckons. In the meantime, would you like Miss Goldstein to continue until I've found a replacement?"

Seraphina made an effort to pretend to consider the option, even though she had wanted to grin widely. "Well, she did a good job today. Why not? Tell her to be here at eight."

"I took the liberty of already asking her, Madam President."

Seraphina was pleasantly surprised. "Thank you, Janice."

-o0o-

Seraphina was in a good mood when she arrived in the office the next day. She was looking forward to seeing Queenie again. She knew what she was feeling was unnatural, but as long as she didn't act upon it, she figured she'd be fine.

Queenie appeared in a raspberry colored work suit that nearly took Seraphina's breath away. Gods, she looks stunning. The matching beret was tilted a little to the left, giving her a playful look. Her lips were painted in the same color as her outfit.

Get yourself together, Seraphina scolded herself, as the thought of kissing those lips sent a jolt down her body. It can never happen. You know what happens to women who kiss other women. She knew only too well. She'd been nine when her next-door neighbor had been found in a compromising position with another woman. The women had been beaten up once word of their amorous affair had reached the street. Very little had been done to catch the culprits and weeks after people had spoken of the disgrace the two had brought to their neighborhood. So when at age thirteen she had discovered that she preferred girls, she had panicked and decided never to let anyone find out her secret.

"Madam President?" Queenie's inquisitive voice woke her from her thoughts.

"I'm sorry, Queenie. Just running the day through my mind," she lied. "My morning will be filled with the weekly meeting with the Heads of Department, so I reckon we'll be needing a lot of coffee. Those meetings tend to go on for hours."

"Don't worry, I'll be there to provide moral support. And coffee of course."

The next couple of days followed pretty much the same pattern. Seraphina was busy with meetings and tête-à-têtes with foreign dignitaries and Queenie was there to make sure everyone got their coffees. She also proved agile in doing little jobs around the office, things Seraphina never got around to doing like rounding up the doxies in the curtains. Even though this meant Queenie spent more time around Seraphina, it didn't mean they got to talk together. They shared pleasantries and tidbits of conversation, but Seraphina longed to really talk to her.

An opportunity presented itself when Marcus Fischer, manager of the national Quidditch team, cancelled their meeting due to illness, and she suddenly found herself with a meeting-free afternoon.

"I'm going to do some paperwork," she announced.

"You work too hard," Queenie said with concern. "You're here everyday before anyone else, and I reckon you leave long after everyone is gone."

Seraphina shrugged. "That kind of comes with the job."

"Still, you need some time to unwind as well. I'm a bit worried about you. I've never seen anyone drink this amount of coffee on a daily basis. You won't be able to keep up if you continue at this rate. Why don't you take the afternoon off?"

I only drink a lot of coffee so I get to see more of you. But Queenie did have a point. "I guess you're right," Seraphina sighed. In a spur of the moment, she continued: "Would you care to join me?"

"Join you?" Queenie echoed.

"Yes, you've been working for me for four days now, and I hardly know anything about you. That feels wrong. You just said so yourself, I need an afternoon off. Maybe we could talk?"

"Sure. Would you like me to get us some coffee?" Queenie grinned. She didn't wait for an answer but was out of the office before Seraphina could object. Only now did she have time to think. Me and my big mouth, she thought groaning. Why did I even suggest this? I'll only make things more difficult for myself. What if she finds out I'm… not normal? But there was no turning back anymore. It would look weird and rude if she were to tell Queenie that she didn't want to talk to her after all.

Queenie returned with two steaming mugs of coffee. They sat down on the couch by the window that gave an overview of New York. Queenie took a sip of her coffee and sighed contently. "I know a lot of people would disagree with me, but I love half and half. Coffee and cream go so well together."

Coffee and cream, brown skin on white skin… Seraphina bit her lip and tried really hard not to think about the dream she'd had last night. Don't go there.

"Do you want to know anything in particular about me, Madam President?" Queenie asked.

"Please, call me Seraphina. And let's start with some general stuff, shall we? Like where do you live, what house were you in in Ilvermorny, what are your hobbies, what was your favorite band when you where younger…" Sweet Morgaine, you're rattling like a love struck teenager, Picquery.

"Ah, so we're gonna do a sort of Q&A of Queenie Goldstein?"

Queenie laughed. A warm, rich sound that sent shivers down Seraphina's spine. She was suddenly painfully aware of their physical proximity.

"Well, let me see. I live in New York. I share an apartment with my sister, Tina. I was in Pukwudgie. I love to bake and my favorite band was, and still is, Karma Chameleon."

"Oh, I love them," Seraphina replied enthusiastically. "Witch Hour is my favorite song."

After that, the awkwardness was gone, and they talked and talked until it darkened outside.

"I should go," Queenie said with regret. "Tina'll be wondering where I am." Slowly, she got up from the couch. "So, I'll see you on Monday then?" she inquired.

Monday. Gosh, that seems like ages.

"It's been nice to talk to Seraphina instead of to Madam President." Queenie gave her a warm smile. "We wouldn't mind doing this more often."

"I liked it too," Seraphina replied. More than you could imagine.

Queenie put on her coat, then left. Seraphina stared at the door long after she was gone. She realized with a pang that she really, really liked her. She liked her beyond physical attraction. What mess have I gotten myself into, she sighed inwardly. Whatever happened to not crossing the line, Seraphina?

-o0o-

The weekend seemed to last forever. To keep her mind of Queenie, Seraphina took home a case full of thick files, pages and pages of uninteresting topics, long phrases, dull sentences and diplomatic language. She had been postponing reading them since she had started as President. She wrestled herself through them, but was never happier to see Monday approach.

-o0o-

Just before lunch break, Janice knocked on her door. "Madam President?"

"Come in, the door's open," Seraphina replied.

Janice stepped in, smiling. "I believe I may have found you a coffee runner. I had to pull some strings here and there, but if you want, he can start tomorrow."

Seraphina needed a moment to let this sink in. Tomorrow?

"Aren't you pleased, Madam President?" Janice asked worriedly. "You said last week that you really needed a quick solution…"

Yes, but I never thought a week would pass by so quickly. Ah well, what was she even thinking? She had known from the beginning that Queenie would have to leave eventually. And maybe it was for the best. The longer she continued seeing Queenie, the greater the risk she would expose herself. And she couldn't let that happen.

She nodded. "Yes, thank you, Janice. I appreciate that."

"Would you like me to inform Miss Goldstein?"

"No, I'll take care of that. Thank you, Janice," she said again. I owe her at least that much.

She waited until the end of the day, not knowing how to broach the subject. At a quarter to five, she called Queenie in.

"You're going to tell this is my last day working for you," Queenie stated.

Seraphina nodded sadly. "Yes, Janice has found a coffee runner who can start tomorrow. And they must miss you at Wand Permit." I know I will miss you. "How did you know?"

Queenie chuckled.

"Madam President, Seraphina," Queenie corrected herself at Seraphina's look. "Hasn't anyone informed you that I'm a Legilimens?"

"You're a what?" Seraphina felt the blood rise to her cheeks. That could not be true.

"I guessed as much. I didn't think you'd have been as … liberal if you'd known."

"You mean…" Seraphina needed to digest this. "Everything?" she asked weakly.

Queenie nodded.

"But… why didn't you tell me?"

"I was curious to see where your thoughts would take you. By the way, you have some interesting dreams," Queenie winked.

Seraphina sat paralyzed. Her world was shattering around her. She'd be publicly exposed. This would mean the end of her career.

"Oh Merlin," she said shakily. She turned to Queenie. "Please, would you not tell anyone? I know I'm abnormal. But if anyone finds out… If the press finds out…" she shuddered. They'd mince her. She could already picture the headlines. Scandalous behavior: President to resign after only three months. Society would cast her out, if they didn't take her in for sodomy. Another thought occurred to her. What would her family say? Her father, Moses, Amara… would they be targeted too? Would they be subject to unrelenting press attention because she'd made the mistake of falling head over heels for a woman? "Please?" she whispered. She hated to beg, but right now, her fate lay in Queenie's hands.

"Don't worry, I'll keep your secret." Queenie said. "On one condition."

"Anything. I'll do anything."

Queenie chuckled again. "A less scrupulous person would take advantage of that. You're lucky I have a secret of my own."

"I don't understand. You've got leverage over me. Why would you care to tell me a secret of your own?"

Queenie bent a little closer. "I'm abnormal too," she whispered. She leaned in and when their lips met, Seraphina knew that however wrong society would judge them, she had never felt more right.

A/N: I wrote this story for the third round of the One Character Competition on HPFC. My character during the entire competition is Seraphina Picquery. We were all given pairings to chose from. I picked Seraphina/Queenie (my other choices to pick from were Grindelwald, Newt and Modesty). As additional prompts I've used breakfast and cloak. This was also written for the Forbidden Love Competition, also on HPFC, for the category LGBTQA Divide.