Hermione's fingers drummed the edge of her desk, her nails tapping in turn against the wood. She had tried organising papers, she had tried writing out amendments to the Decree for Elfish Education – which had entirely missed the options out there for working House Elves and not just those who were considered free citizens. She had tried reorganizing the position of the two quills she kept on her desk – one a large snowy owl feather which she had found and had made into a quill in remembrance of Hedwig. It had been meant as a gift for Harry but being too worried it would get spoiled in a house with soon-to-be two under three's, he had insisted she keep it.
Hermione had also unzipped bag pulled out a mint and closed it again several times. She glanced at the clock on her wall above the doorway. She checked the pretty pocket watch she kept in her robes. Two minutes still, two minutes until that stupid stick would tell her for certain. Just as it had done the day before. And the day before that one.
The thing was Hermione knew, knew her position, knew that she could do several tests – both magical and muggle – and still come up with the same result. She wasn't unhappy – far from it – but she was concerned. Would it all happen again? Would they lose this one too? She didn't want to go through it again, the emotions, the fights and heartache. She didn't want to see that look on his face again. She knew an old part of the anxious boy she had known at school had resurfaced in Ron over the past year or two, knew it made him grind his teeth to know all the married members of his family had children, even his younger sister was expecting her Second, but they didn't seem to be able to do it.
Two minutes were up, Hermione allowed herself to slip her hand into her desk drawer and remove the test stick which she had placed in a zip-lock bag, to be on the safe side. Two lines, just as the one the day before had said, and the one the day before that. The two lines looked like an equals sign, equals what, failure? Disappointment? Or this time, maybe, a baby?
A knock sounded on the door of her Office and Hermione quickly snapped the drawer shut before calling 'come in', this would have to wait.
Ron didn't seem right Harry noticed. He wasn't sure what was up with him and sometimes, with two of his best friends being married, Harry didn't need to know. He had heard more about their physical relationship than he ever wanted to, but it was more the emotional stuff that he didn't like hearing. He didn't like to know if they'd had a fallout, didn't want to know who had yelled at who over the cat. Sometimes he wished he had a very different type of work colleague, but then he would come to his senses and realise Ron was the best person any Auror could have at their side, Ron would always have his back.
He had come full circle and ended up at the door to Hermione's office again that day, an illegal breeding case had been caught onto and a Rolf Scamander was being questioned. Harry knew the man was engaged to none other than Luna Lovegood. He didn't believe any of the stories, feeling Scamander – if involved at all – was anything more than Hagrid had ever been, just a man with a passion for collecting magical pets.
He heard a drawer slam from inside the office before Hermione's familiar 'come in' came through the walls. Harry entered to see his friend sitting at her desk, one hand under the desk and a look on her face that made it seem like she was trying to look casual. Hermione was not good at putting on a front, in fact, she used to be laughably bad but as times had changed and the need for hiding and pretending had become more serious so had her abilities.
"Oh, Harry." She paused, looking almost a little confused for a moment,
"Oh! The Scamander case, did you know that Rolf is the Grandson of Newton Scamander - the athor of Fantastic Beasts and where to find them? We read it in school?" Hermione appeared to give up and roll her eyes to herself but smiled affectionately as she did so.
She should've known by now that Harry and Ron had between them maybe read one book at Hogwarts which wasn't directly linked to homework or an exam.
"Ugh, yeah," Harry began, looking at Hermione who seemed to have gone a little pale.
"Here's the papers for the case, ugh, are you ok?"
Harry continued to look at Hermione, all the colour gone from her face. She stared at the desk as though trying to concentrate on the wood rather than her sudden change in colour.
"Harry, could you reach into the cupboard on your left – your other left – yes, hand me one of those biscuits."
Harry, confused as he was, knew better than to argue and reached up into the cupboard to a small biscuit tin which contained half a packet of chocolate digestives. He quickly walked to Hermione who was now drinking water from a mug which read 'Witches Brew' on the side. She refilled it with her wand and taking the biscuit from Harry she caught him reading the mug.
"It was from Mum and Dad, they thought it was funny." She smiled nostalgically and began to nibble to the biscuit.
"Are you ill?" Harry asked her, not stopping to think much about the mug.
Hermione shook her head,
"I just forgot to eat breakfast, low blood sugar, I'll be fine in a moment." She nodded at the case file Harry had brought,
"Thanks, I'll let you know how the case goes?"
Harry took the prompt, thanking her for the offer of an update he turned and left the office, heading off to find Ron in the staff room. Funny, he thought to himself, it wasn't just Ron that thought it this time. Hermione was definitely acting strange.