(Took place shortly before 6pm)

Stocking shelves, that's all she ever did. Stocking shelves, taking inventory, and making sure none of the customers left feeling like they'd just witnessed their pet being hanged. Angelina's entire life was beginning to be taken over by Hyacinth Elixirs and the dictator she called a boss. She couldn't remember the last day she had had off...well that was a lie, it had only just been last Saturday but she had had to resort to bribing Daphne to fill in for her a bit. And maybe lie to Snape just a smidge.

If only he could have just continued high on fumes for the rest of his life Angelina mused as she stocked some green viscous potion that she couldn't name to save her life, The world would have been a much happier place.

"Miss Johnson." Severus didn't bother opening the door fully, just peered around it. "When you're done rearranging the dust on the shelves, would you please check the inbox and make a start on getting the owl orders together? I'll look it over when you're done."

"Sure, I can certainly do that," Angelina replied in the overly chipper of annoyed employees everywhere and shoved the box of potions aside to go grab the owl orders. The potions could wait, she wasn't sure Snape could.

And he always had to check things. Every time she turned around he was double-checking something she had done, searching for a mistake. It was driving her mad. If he was so convinced that she couldn't do anything right then why even keep her around? She was convinced he was looking for a reason to let her go.

Which wouldn't be so bad she supposed. Maybe she'd get the chance to see the outside world again.

Grabbing the insanely large stack of order forms, Angelina began to plod through them, organizing them and making notes. For some reason, people preferred to patronize Hyacinth Elixirs from a distance. Angelina couldn't begin to imagine why.

It took her a good twenty minutes to make any sort of progress in the order forms. Looking at what remained, she decided to break the orders into parts as she gave them to Snape. It would be too overwhelming otherwise.

Rapping on the door frame, Angelina poked her head into the backroom, "I have the first of the forms ready, if you want to look at them, Mr. Snape."

That was another thing. They were definitely back to formalities. Not that she'd been horribly comfortable with 'Severus' to begin with but still, 'Mr. Snape' wasn't much better. And she was sure he would have preferred professor but Morgana would strike her down before she called him professor again. She'd rather dissect flobberworms. He had hardly taught her anything when she was a student and he certainly wasn't teaching now.

Severus wanted to correct her on the subject of his title, but he supposed he should be somewhat informal with his employees. At least they'd stopped using his first name. "Just put them on my desk," he said, not looking up from the potion he was stirring. "And bring me some tea before you start the rest. Please."

Angelina wasn't sure where in her job description tea duty was mentioned but she clenched her jaw, gave a tight smile and nodded. He'd said 'please', after all. And it was some consolation that she couldn't make any sort of tea that tasted better than dirty water and he seemed to drink it without complaint. It was possible he just hadn't noticed how truly wretched it was yet.

Pouring a cuppa and grabbing the forms, she returned to the back room, placing them both near his elbow before turning to return to the counter. Before should could leave the room, however, a thought struck her. The Ball was that night and she would be needing to get off early. Angelina had mentioned it to Snape earlier that week but he had only nodded at the time and never brought it up again. She should probably double-check to be sure.

"Mr. Snape, I'd just like to remind you that I won't be here later tonight."

"What?" Severus frowned as he finally looked up from his work. "Where do you think you'll be? Someone needs to be behind the counter, and I do believe that's your job."

"I know I'll be at the Ministry Ball because I informed you of it earlier this week and you nodded in affirmation," Angelina replied, staring at her employer evenly, daring him to tell her otherwise.

"Tell me, Miss Johnson, did you form the impression that I am a man given to communicating by means of grunts and gestures while I was inadvertently on drugs, or is this a conclusion you'd formed in the Gryffindor Common Room while gossiping?"

"Well, I was given the impression since early childhood that nodding is a physical gesture of assent, apologies for not revising this universal rule solely for you. In return for that gem of wisdom, I'd like to remind to you that actually listening when others speak to you could be an advantage in day to day life. I would think you learned this somewhere during your time as a spy."

Severus felt his eyebrows shoot up at the acid in her tone. "Well, this is a change from the cringing shadow that has lurked around my store in recent days."

"The novelty wore off. But this isn't the point of this conversation, remember? I'm going to the Ministry Ball. Maybe you should hire someone so that this conundrum doesn't happen again. The extra help isn't exactly unneeded," Angelina reasoned.

"I did hire someone," he said with what he considered to be extraordinary patience. "I hired you."

"No, you hired me and you hired Daphne to run the front of the shop, but Daphne doesn't exactly do that anymore, does she?" Angelina replied in the same slow speech reserved for the exceptionally dense but slowly it began to escalate. "I can't be here all the time! I can't stay late sorting out your order forms every night! I can't finish inventory and show every customer where the whatever they bloody need potion is shelved! And I certainly can't seem to get a bloody day off! You can't run a shop with only one shopgirl!"

Severus started to wonder why he ran a shop at all. Surely it'd be easier not to? But if he didn't show some sort of source for his income, the Ministry wouldn't stop until they'd either clapped him in Azkaban or ferreted out the secret of Madame Prince. "You certainly can't show every customer where their potions are shelved, as you still can't identify all our potions."

"Yes, well, if that's the criteria for a good shopgirl then maybe you should be in the front of the shop. You would know where everything is, but would people actually come in?" Angelina snapped back. This was really starting to spiral out of control, all she wanted was the time off. "Just hire someone else, would you? Please?"

"If I hired someone else, why would I need you?" Not that he wanted to train a new person, but he didn't appreciate being given orders by a cheeky Gryffindor.

"I suppose you wouldn't but you'd be having this conversation again with every single person you hire, and I'm sure they will be many," Angelina replied, exasperation beginning to set in. "Again, this isn't really what I wanted to talk about. I'm going to sing at the Ball, get Daphne to cover for me or something. You're supposedly a genius, you'll figure something out."

Looking at the clock, Angelina realized they'd argued right up to the what she previously thought was the agreed upon time for her to leave. No more work had been done on the order forms. Angelina decided that that was unfortunate but she was going to a Ball.

"Well, I'm done for the day, Mr. Snape. I'll see you tomorrow. Have a good evening." With that, Angelina simply grabbed her belongings from their hook on the wall and walked out of the room. In the front of the shop, Angelina was sure to store away the remaining order forms and pushed the box of potions back under the counter before leaving. It wouldn't do to be fired for untidiness. She'd much rather go for being overly confrontational and hostile toward her boss. Or leaving her post before her shift was officially over. She supposed she would find out tomorrow if she still had a job.

[Summary: Angelina communicates to Snape that employees are supposed to get time off.]