Two years after the war against Voldemort, Hermione Granger had finished her education at Hogwarts School (without the company of Harry and Ron, who had both dived into their Auror training straight away) and was currently working at the Ministry in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.
One night as Hermione finished up in her office, she received a Patronus from Ron, inviting her to the flat he shared with Harry in Diagon Alley for dinner. Hermione replied immediately that she would be there in a half hour. She shuffled her papers and gathered them into her bag before slinging it over her shoulder and Disapparating on the spot. She needed to do one last thing before leaving to Ron and Harry's flat.
Not a moment later, Hermione entered the Leaky Cauldron, where she was meeting a man named Will Booker, who had contacted her at work that day and promised her he could get her a promotion in her department.
She spotted him at the bar; he was a tall, thin, brunette man who was around her own age, probably a bit older, and who she only had seen earlier that day, but he assured her he worked higher up in the Department, and they simply had yet to be introduced. He smiled at her as she sat down beside him, holding out a hand for her to shake.
"Mr. Booker," Hermione said professionally, shaking his hand. "I really only have a half hour, so –"
"Not a problem, not a problem," he said, still smiling. "Miss Granger, I was planning to meet the Head of the your Department, just after you so we could all discuss your situation together, but I told him I would meet him down the street at a Muggle pub. It was for his convenience of course, he asked of it…"
Hermione frowned, thinking this was a bit unlike her Head of Department. However, she agreed to follow Will to the pub, which he assured her was only a block away. If anything happened, she did have her wand…
They stepped out of the Leaky Cauldron, and started walking to the left, where there were less people walking on the dark streets and more gloomy, old buildings looming over them, sucking them into the night.
As they walked, Hermione became a bit nervous. She didn't exactly trust Will yet, and began to wish she had dropped by the Auror Department on her way out of the Ministry and asked Ron to come with her to the meeting. They were together after all, after seven long years, and she did trust Ron more than anyone else. Hadn't her mother always told her to make sure she had someone with her on the streets at night (preferably a strong boy she trusted) because that made her less of a prey? What had she been thinking?
Just as if Will had read her thoughts, and just as the last trace of people disappeared down the road behind them, he grabbed her arms tightly, pushing her into a nearby alleyway and Hermione saw his eyes flash cruelly, as he Disapparated with her at his side, into the unknown.