Hello.

This little plot bunny appeared as I was writing my NaNoWriMo piece and it wouldn't go away. So here it is. It is currently rated T but I may find I shall have to change it down the track.

It's an idea I haven't come across before on FF, so let me know what you think!

All names associated with Harry Potter belong to JK Rowling.

"I think it's about time you looked at getting a housemate Hermione."

Hermione looked at the woman sitting in front of her with a look of disbelief. "A housemate? Are you being serious?"

"Perfectly."

"She does have a point you know. You're 28 years old and you've never lived with anyone else."

Four voices murmured in agreement and Hermione groaned in exasperation. She had invited her five friends out for lunch to celebrate her birthday and for the majority of the afternoon, the hot topic of conversation had been her single status.

Her five friends were all in relationships and four of them already had children. The fifth was currently expecting. Luna Lovegood- who was one of her oldest friends and the one to suggest the housemate- had been married for six years and had a three year old daughter. Ginny Potter-the one who reminded her that she was 28- and her partner Harry Potter were her neighbours who had been married for four years and had a three year old son. Lavender Brown had a sixth month old daughter with her boyfriend of sixteen months, but due to the two women living in different parts of England, they rarely got to see each other. Hermione had never met the woman's partner, but apparently his name was Seamus.

Pansy Parkinson was one of the new additions to Hermione's group of friends and the two had met at a conference a year ago. Pansy was older than the other girls by a good four years, but age meant little between the women. She had been with her fiancé for six years and had an eight year old step-daughter that Hermione positively adored. Finally, Hannah Abbott was Hermione's brother's girlfriend and the one who was expecting a baby.

The six were an odd group, but they were Hermione's closest girlfriends.

Placing her hands flat on the table, Hermione said loudly, "Okay Okay, I got the picture! I'm 28 and alone! But I don't know why I need a housemate though."

Hermione saw the five girls eyeing each other. It was Pansy who spoke. "Hermione you know we love you. But you're 28! You have a huge apartment to yourself that just sits there when you are out of town. I think a housemate will be good for you. Someone who can look after the place when you're gone and who can help you pay the rent."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "I can pay the rent perfectly fine, thank you very much."

Pansy sighed and rolled her eyes. "We know you can, but imagine what an extra 300 pounds a week could do!"

Having been in the process of taking a sip of her water, Hermione choked and spluttered at Pansy's words. "300 pounds? Who on earth will pay 300 pounds just for a room?"

Silence met her question. Lavender, probably the least well off amongst the girls, placed her hand on Hermione's shoulder. "Sweetie, your apartment is huge. You pay way too much money a week just to store your clothes. You're so very rarely there that it is a waste of your money to even own it."

Hermione scoffed. "I'm there plenty. Why would I want some stranger living in my house just to help pay rent?"

It was Hannah who answered that question for her. Pushing her sunglasses further up her nose, Hannah said in her soft voice, "Before I met your brother, I lived in share accommodation. It's really not like that you know. Sure it can be awkward at first. Especially if you end up with a guy as a housemate and you catch him shagging in the kitchen," Hermione gaped at the woman, but Hannah ignored her and continued, "but you will probably find that when you're there, the other won't be. And vice versa."

"So what's the point of that then?"

Three girls groaned and the other two merely smiled. Pansy looked at her watch and then stood up. "While this has been a lovely lunch, I need to be off." Picking her handbag up from the floor, she winked at Hermione. "You girls do what you can to convince her. I really don't fancy buying her another cat for Christmas this year."

Ginny and Lavender laughed, Luna shook her head and said something about miniature Dachshunds while Hannah sighed and muttered that Crookshanks- Hermione's current cat- gave her allergies.

The five women watched Pansy walk away. For a 32 year old woman, she was in better health than them all combined. She was lithe and graceful and Hermione knew that she ran twice a day to keep her figure trim. She couldn't prove it, but she swore Pansy was some sort of ninja with the way that she tackled juggling a full time career, a partner, a child and an exercise regime that put most women to shame. Her other friends had stopped working after having children, but Hannah was still plodding along in her job as a bakery assistant. Apparently she was aiming to stop working a month before she was due; she was currently four months along.

Hermione didn't mind being 28, single and childless. She was career driven and could never imagine taking time off to raise a child. Of course, she would have to find a man first, live with him for at least two years, get married and then consider having children.

She watched as the four remaining women surrounding her debated the pros and cons of share houses. Hermione wasn't completely opposed to the idea, but she wasn't sold on it. It was true that she was frequently away and that her apartment just sat there, but she had never found herself lonely. Ginny and Harry would look after Crookshanks for her when she went away, so she didn't even need someone to 'catsit' him.

Suddenly Lavender's fist came down onto the table hard making them all jump. "I know what you should do!"

Four pairs of eyes met the fist that had caused the offensive sound before Lavender continued, looking slightly embarrassed by her enthusiasm. "You should stick an advert up just to see if anyone is interested in paying you for one of your rooms."

Hermione sighed. This was not how she envisioned her birthday lunch.

"That's a great idea Lav," chimed Hannah.

"She should write 'Looking for sexy man who knows how to cook and likes cats'," Ginny giggled.

At Hermione's glare though, she quickly quietened down. It was Luna who was the voice of reason much to Hermione's relief. "What would you be looking for hypothetically in a housemate anyway?"

Before Hermione could respond, Hannah said "Male," Ginny said "Hot," and Lavender said "Cats."

"I asked Hermione, not you three house wives who live vicariously through Hermione."

Hermione laughed at the fallen faces of her friends. "I don't know what I would want. I suppose I would want a person who likes cats. But I don't care if it's male or female or what they look like." Frowning, she really gave it thought. "Ok, well I'd want someone else who works, but I don't care if it's shift work or office hours. They can't smoke. And umm, anything else?"

Four faces stared back at her. "You don't ask for much do you?" Ginny said.

Hermione shrugged. "I'm just going along with this to shut you girls up."

Luna let out a short laugh while Lavender pouted, but it was Hannah who spoke for the girls again. "Just go away and think about it alright? Now that we have planted the seed into your head, you might find yourself growing to the idea."

Shaking her head at her friend's persistence, she flagged a waiter down to collect the bill. "We shall see," was all she said cryptically.

Three hours later, Hermione was back in front of her laptop. She was an employee of the Department of Prosecutions and was currently working on one of the biggest cases she had been given permission to work on. A well known bike gang had been investigated by police for over three years as part of a crackdown on bike gang violence, and the amount of evidence collected during the investigation was phenomenal. Hermione had been given the task of working on the case of the only female biker involved.

Bellatrix Lestrange was the wife of the gang's most notorious member, but the evidence against her was not as damning as the evidence against her husband. The evidence given to Hermione indicated that Bellatrix was in charge of gang run brothels and collected the funds from the drugs traded. Despite the evidence in front of her, Hermione couldn't help but feel there was something she was missing.

Call it intuition or dedication, but things did not add up when it came to the woman and this was why Hermione was spending the remaining hours of her birthday working. Witness statements seemed flimsy and they all seemed to say the same thing, no matter how distant the association of the witnesses. To Hermione, it seemed like they had been trained to say their statements, but when she had mentioned this to her supervisor, he had looked at her evidence but then assured her that the crimes against Bellatrix were fairly straight forward and so there was no need to think that witnesses had been coached on what to say.

Despite this, Hermione persisted with digging deeper. There was something about Bellatrix Lestrange that sent alarms going in her head, and Hermione trusted herself enough to know that there was something bigger than the information that the police had found.

All she had to do was find a crack in the evidence.

She spent another two hours working before she called it a night and headed to bed. Working late on a Saturday was normal for Hermione as she gave herself Sundays to sleep in and laze about the house. After studying her arse off at University, she knew how dangerous it was to work herself too hard.

As she propped herself up against the headboard of her bed, she picked up her Jane Austen novel and began to read. Instead of following Emma's life however, she found herself thinking about the housemate conversation from earlier that day. Having never lived with another person since moving out of her parents house nine years ago, Hermione was a bit out of practice. She wondered whether a housemate would mind her taking over the kitchen table to work on her cases or if they would be bothered by her early bird habits on weekdays. Would her housemate understand why she saved every jar she used or why she stored onions in the fridge?

Would her beloved cat like them?

The unknowns were beginning to circle around in her head. Groaning in frustration, she hit her head against the head board and closed her eyes with a sigh. Why couldn't her friends just accept that she lived alone? Deciding that she needed to focus on getting some sleep, Hermione placed her book on the bedside table and flicked her lamp off.

In typical Hermione Granger fashion, she decided to prepare a pro's and con's list in the morning. She would analyze this from every angle possible. She had been working in law for too long not to have suspicions when it came to people. Law had taught her that being paranoid was a good thing, especially given some of the crimes that she had worked on in the past. The last thoughts swirling in her head centered around a case that she has read years ago about a man killing his housemate for playing his music too loud.

Thankfully Hermione did not play music, but what habits did she have that could invoke a strong passion like murder in a person?

She was too young to die just yet!

Next update soon!

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