~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`Chapter 1~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`

She was going to be late. She couldn't believe it. 24-year old Hermione Granger groaned in annoyance as she half trotted half walked through the throng of people. She hated how crowded Diagon Alley was in the mornings. She didn't want to miss the Auror meeting, Harry was counting on her.

"Please don't kill me!" she muttered, while passing through the busy crowd of wizards and witches hurrying to wherever they needed to go, and mentally cursing Diagon Alley for being so crowded.

Some witches gave her a dirty look as her tote hand bag accidently wacked one of them on the shoulder, she sighed impatiently and muttered a quick apology. For once thankful she had listened to Ginny - who thought she needed to add a little 'mystery' to her look- and decided to wear sunglasses.

Generally she didn't come to all Auror meetings, but Harry who was standing in for Neville while he was away, had requested her help, and had also mentioned that Kingsley who was the Minister for Magic had wanted to talk to them. So she figured it had to be pretty important. She glanced briefly at her watch, 9:40; Harry had said to be there by 10:00.

She quickened her pace if that was possible, and nearly walked into the row of newspaper stands, all of which were lined up with today's issues of; Wizarding Life, Average Wizard,The Daily Prophet,The Quibbler,Witch Weekly, and various others. The man who was in charge of the booth, frowned at her as she bypassed him.

It was almost six years since the war had ended and she had graduated from Hogwarts at the top of her N.E.W.T.s class. She was now working for the Ministry of Magic in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, as were most of her friends.

She was in the Investigation Department a subdivision of the Auror Office; she was practically in charge of the department, since it had only been opened in 1998 to catch the criminals of war.

Although she only reviewed and put together the files for each cases; more specifically every case Harry worked on, which was mostly all of them. She loved her job surprising many people along the way, since most people thought she would become Head of the Law Department.

However after the war and seeing all those bodies of former classmates and people, she knew and loved. She knew she wouldn't be able to handle sentences or even bare to see any of those notorious Deatheaters, she had realized that she didn't want to do a job so depressing, so she decided to help by providing Aurors with research and investigations instead. So far she was happy with what she had decided with.

Many people had also been surprised when she and Ron didn't get together, but after the war, they had tried to make it work, but after witnessing him kissing a witch while they were still together made her realize that maybe she and Ron were not meant to be. So with a somewhat strained and slightly understanding atmosphere, the two had parted ways a few years ago; with Ron taking an opening position as the head of security at the residence of the American Minister of Magic.

She had seen Ron only once since the breakup, it was at Harry and Ginny's wedding, they had exchanged awkward hello's as they went on with their respective Maid of Honour and Best Man duties and much to the disappointment of Ginny and Molly, declined to dance together at the Wedding. Luckily for her, Harry had understood, he was and still happened to be her pillar of support for everything, and she was ever so grateful. And as far as she knew Ron was happy and dating the youngest daughter of the American Minister for Magic. And that's all she could ever ask of him, that he stay happy.

She exhaled as she finally reached the Ministry Atrium, the building as pretentious as ever, although Kingsley had added some changes after the war, such as proper functioning elevators, and recently far more security was added in 2001 ever since the attack on the muggles in New York City as a safety precaution.

She opened the door of the Atrium welcoming the light breeze; she glanced at the large Rolex cloak and saw that it was 9:45. She waved at the security guard who was sitting at the desk behind a spell-proof window pane and showed her ID card which automatically opened the barrier of the gate in front of her. She smiled at him in thanks and he nodded back. She quickly headed towards the elevators which were now empty as rush hour in the mornings at the Ministry ended at 9:00 AM sharp.

She breathed a sigh of relief as the elevator doors closed; she pressed the button for the 2nd level. She glanced at her reflection on the mirror walls and took off her glasses and put them in her bag. Then she neatly tucked her hair into a messy bun, just as the elevator doors opened with a bell.

"Department of Magical Law Enforcement", a recorded voice spoke. She glanced at her reflection one more time, then walked down the medium lit corridor to the Auror Office listening to the chatter of voices from the other sub-divisions. She stopped at fifth door on her right, she heard low murmurs coming from inside and a deep chuckle following. She knocked gently on the door and heard a shout "Come in!"

She swung open the door and walked in, and found Harry, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and Nigel Wolpert already there. Nigel was sorting through some folders while Harry and Kingsley were flipping through reports. They were all seated at the long table with their heads bent over the massive amounts of files and documents spread out all over. They hadn't even glanced up as she entered the room. All except for Dean Thomas who was standing in the mini kitchen in the back room, which was attached to the meeting room by a glass sliding door.

"What's up Hermione." he greeted her with a smile, leaning by the sink, his dark hair cut into a buzz, wearing a pair of ripped dark jeans with a faded long-brown shirt and was holding a bunch of papers in one hand while holding a mug of coffee with the other one.

She smiled back "Hey Dean. You look tired"

"Yeah I'm beat, it sure isn't easy kicking their asses and trying to remember what they looked like so I could draw them."

Hermione shook her head at him although she couldn't help but smile; she had come to understand and even appreciate the male Aurors and sometimes even the female Aurors' crass language. When said at the right moments it was an excellent way to lighten the mood.

Dean and Seamus were the most vocal out of all them; but given how they were the ones often stuck with the desk jobs; it didn't surprise her. Neville refused to give them anymore field jobs after the last mission had them almost blowing their cover; resulting them blowing up the entire hideout of the underground movement causing the deaths of several death eaters (they wouldn't have a chance for a trial, not that it mattered) and worst of all; allowing them to flee to safety to who knows where.

Needless to say Neville was absolutely furious. None of them had ever seen him that mad before, though he wasn't the same meek boy from Hogwarts, he still was a relatively calm person. So everyone was left staring at him in shock and the entire Department could be seen wincing or casting silence charms, as he shouted. The floor had actually vibrated.

Hermione, Harry, and the rest of the team had spent months following and tracking them down and this was supposed to have gotten them all into custody. So naturally Neville had completely flipped, He had yelled himself hoarse and put Mad Eye Moody to shame. Eventually Kingsley and Harry had to calm everyone down, and as a result Seamus was stuck filing and Dean stuck drawing the wanted posters as he was the only who was "good with a quill."

Hermione bit her lip trying to not laugh and patted him on the shoulder reassuringly, "So do you know what the meeting is about?"

He shrugged "have no idea, Harry was pretty serious about everyone being here, heck he didn't even let us see the file about this. He made a disgruntled face, "Seriously he should just take over already and become Head of the department; he practically runs it anyway with Neville going to Hogwarts most of the time and all." He frowned before taking a sip of his coffee.

Hermione laughed softly, unable to fault Dean for being moody. She knew it would last a while, a result of his hurting pride, he never butchered missions. But she knew that Neville would reassign them back onto the field next month. But she wasn't allowed to tell them yet, so she humored them.

Hermione looked over at the table, they seemed oblivious to the conversation that was happening in the room behind the table, and bit her lip, "They look kind of busy I guess we'll just have to wait until the meeting starts."

Dean rolled his eyes good-naturally, "it's already 10:00 Hermione" he said loudly causing everyone by the table to look up.

Hermione smiled and shook her head at his antics, then went over to the table and took a seat at the long table.

"Hey Guys" she said smiling at everyone.

"Hello Hermione" Kingsley's booming voice greeted her with a smile, and Harry raised his arm up in response as he continued reviewing.

She smiled knowingly at Harry, and turned to speak to Nigel who was sitting on her left.

"What do you think this is about" she whispered

He shrugged: "I'm not sure really Harry's been keeping quiet"; he whispered back, "but I guess it's pretty serious since he seemed stressed about it. - Well more than he normally is anyway" He added hastily at the skeptical look on Hermione's face.

Then he leaned back in his chair with a thoughtful look on his face. Hermione shared a look with Dean who had come and sat across from Ernie Macmillan, who had just arrived a few minutes ago and currently had his head tipped to the side trying to sneak a peek at whatever Harry and Kingsley were looking at.

By 10:10 everyone had arrived and was chatting quietly amongst them. Hermione scanned the table, checking if everyone was present. She spotted Anthony Goldstein talking with Rionach O'Neal and Susan Bones. While Seamus had Luca Caruso and Alice Tolipan laughing at something he said.

She looked up and caught Harry's eye and nodded slightly and he smiled at her gratefully. He stood up and cleared his throat, and everyone immediately quieted and turned to him. He smiled at everyone, "Well now that everyone's here we can begin. As you all know, yesterday I sent everyone a message via Owl or in some cases; I personally called your houses, about this meeting and told you how important it is."

He paused for a moment and his eyes held Hermione's.

He gave them all a knowing look "Well I bet all of you are dying to know what this meeting is about so I'll get to it. For starters you all will be happy to know that we have rounded up some of our wanted criminals, such as and now they're waiting trail in Azkaban," he paused as shouts and whoops of joy came from all of the Aurors. Luca whistled to quiet everybody down.

Harry grinned at him "Thanks Luca" and he nodded at him with a mischievous grin on his face. He continued, "It obviously isn't everything we've hoped for, but it's a step in the right direction, hopefully we can find all of them by the end of this year, no doubt you are all working hard on tracking them and also for the group of Aurors and Hit Wizards who are out tracing them. But this is not the main purpose of this meeting."

He coughed lightly "Kingsley care to do the honors"

Kingsley nodded, stood up, and spoke in his deep booming voice.

"I trust everyone is following so far?" he questioned, receiving nods from the Aurors.

"All right, the other reason of this meeting was that most Pureblood families are mellowing and some of them are willing to let their children marry Muggle-born wizards and witches, and yesterday I had a private meeting with Mr. Draco Malfoy where he personally asked for a Muggle-born witch to marry and is looking for immediate arrangements." He paused again as Susan Bones interrupted

"Honestly Kingsley, why do we need to know about Malfoy's love life, I'm sure the Daily Prophet's gossip column or even Witch Weekly would suffice?" she said sarcastically causing everyone to laugh. Harry and Hermione shared a smile and even Kingsley let out a small chuckle.

"I understand the antipathy Susan but his private life has proven to be the upmost importance to us." He said and Susan looked puzzled, and everyone turned to him intrigued. Hermione frowned as Kingsley continued.

"I told him, I would let him know as soon as possible. However we have also unfortunately received a note from an anonymous source who is claiming that, some Death Eaters who had supposedly gone into hiding four years ago, have now been spotted south of England, near Wiltshire-"

"Which is exactly where Malfoy Manor is located." interrupted Harry while Hermione rolled her eyes at Harry's obvious theory of Malfoy is a Death Eater but at the same time wondering who this anonymous source could be, rarely had they ever had a case where Kingsley never stated who the source was; come to think of it, this would be the first. She needed to ask him.

Kinsley went on, "that is true, however we are not exactly sure if Mr. Malfoy is involved in anyway. Which is why I wanted put an Auror in, under the pretense of being Mr. Malfoys future wife…" He trailed off as everyone stared at him in horror. Most of them like Hermione seemed stunned; a couple of Aurors shouted their protests and Susan, Alice, and Rionach looked positively ill at the prospect of the task. Hermione herself felt a sense of foreboding, as she watched Kingsley explain.

"We need to investigate if Mr. Malfoy is really up to something. And since we don't have many willing Muggle-born Aurors here, it will be extremely hard to make that work, although I do have one person in mind but we still would appreciate your cooperation."

"ha our cooperation! ABSOLUTELY NOT. This is INSANE sir! How are we even supposed to pull it off!" Rionach shouted stunning everyone into silence. Rionach too, like Neville rarely ever lost her temper but when she did, she was a force to be reckoned with. Very much like Ginny. Hermione allowed a smile to appear on her lips though her heart was beating so widely out of her chest; she was surprised no one had heard it yet. This had to be the most insane mission they had ever had to take.

She glanced at Harry, who gave her a somewhat strained smile.

"Well none of us will participate sir, You can fire us if you want but we will not." said Alice softly as she stared at Kingsley who looked apologetic and she raised her eyebrow at Harry who avoided her gaze.

Kingsley nodded, "I will not force any of you. However I did have Hermione Granger in mind." He said effectively shocking the entire room. Hermione paled slightly, and Harry looked at her guiltily.

The room went deathly silent and all eyes went towards her.

_

A/N: I changed Hermione's age from 19 to 24 cause her previous age would not fit in with the story.I also did some minor changes, it won't really affect the story THAT much so don't worry about it that much! Thanks so much for understanding :)
Rilla :D