Chapter 1

After completing their school years Hermione, Harry and Ron moved on to do different things. Now 21 Hermione works for the Ministry of Magic in her own department of magic cryptology and symbology. Today was just like any other day, and Hermione was sat behind her desk working out the meaning of new codes and symbols that possibly held secret spells within them if cracked. She had just began working on the first code of the morning when a memo flew through her office door and landed in her in tray on her desk. Thinking that it was just another memo for yet another secret code that had been found she put it to one side underneath the pile of other codes that she had to crack that day. It was nearly 4:00 in the afternoon when Hermione managed to get to the bottom of her pile of work (most of which had just been silly muggle children's notes to their friends) when she came to the memo that arrived that morning. Opening it to begin working on the code she thought it must hold she was surprised to see a formal letter addressed to her in a hand that she hadn't seen before.

Dear Hermione

I have watched you from afar for several years now, more years than I would have liked but now I am finally ready to contact you. I cannot say who I am at this time but you do know who I am. I, like you attended Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry and I was in the same year as you just in a different house, and I now also work at the Ministry. While at school I always liked you but didn't show it as I was afraid of what other people would think, so I didn't act on it, but now seeing you here everyday looking as beautiful as ever I now do not care what other people think. Don't get me wrong, the reason I cared what people thought at school was nothing against you but we were brought up completely differently and if you knew my family you'd understand. This is also partly the reason I cannot reveal my identity to you at present as I am afraid you won't accept me from how I was at school. But to reassure you from school I have completely changed, I'm a lot different to how you'd remember me. I am going to stop saying things about me at present as I don't want to give away who I am yet. I want to get to know you properly but through letters is the only way I can think of at the moment. You may be wandering how to reply to my letters, if you choose to, without a name for the memos to deliver to, but this memo knows who sent this letter so if you enchant it to be wiped clean and reply on the same piece it'll find me that way. I want to know all there is to know about you but for now I shall leave you to continue your work as I'm sure you have a lot, I know I do. Please write back to me, but if you choose not to, I'm sorry i bothered you.

With Love ... -X-

Hermione read and re-read this letter and then realizing what the time was packed up her things and left to meet her best friends from school for coffee after work before they all went their separate ways to their homes.

Hermione had just walked into the coffee bar they always meet in and without looking around she heard the familiar voices of Ron, Harry and Ginny calling her from the corner.

"Hey guys how's it going?" She asked them once she had seated herself in the chair they had saved for her.

"Not too bad thanks, how was work" Harry replied. Once Hermione had ordered her cup of coffee she gave them a brief account of what had happened that day leaving out the letter she had received as she was planning on telling Ginny the youngest of the Weasleys's in private that night when they got back to the flat they shared, that was providing Ginny didn't bring Harry back with her for the night. It wasn't that Hermione didn't want Harry and Ron to find out, she just thought she'd tell Ginny about it first to see what she thought before letting the others know. For the next couple of hours the group enjoyed each others company talking about their days and their plans for the weekend, before calling it a night as they all had early starts again the next day at work.

Once Hermione and Ginny were back in their flat only minutes later after apparrating from a deserted alleyway, they settled themselves in front of the TV and opened a bottle of wine to relax themselves before heading to bed. It wasn't until they were watching the news that Hermione suddenly remembered the letter she had received and got it out of her bag to show it to Ginny.

"Gin, I received this today and wanted to know what you made of it" Hermione said handing the letter to Ginny.

Ginny opened up the sheet of paper and began reading it, thinking it was a code that Hermione had cracked but wasn't sure what it meant, which Hermione frequently brought back home with her, and was shocked that it was an anonymous love letter. Hermione could see the shock and confusion in Ginny's face as she was reading and was waiting with bated breath to find out what Ginny made of it.

"Wow, Hermione this is different. It's usually a code you've cracked that you wanted checking over, I definitely wasn't expecting it to be a love letter." Ginny said calmly but when it got to the last part she said it mockingly.

"I know, what do you think I should do? Do you reckon it's a joke or real or what? I have no idea who it's from it just flew into my in tray at work and I just assumed it was another code or something so I put it to the bottom of the pile, I didn't expect this at all. I don't quite know what to do. I'm flattered obviously but for all I know it could be some death eater trying to lure me into a plan or something, I know Harry defeated Voldemort years ago but the death eaters that didn't get caught could be re-grouping and trying to get revenge for all we know!". Hermione finished almost breathlessly and Ginny could tell that these things had been bothering her for a while, but still replied quietly and calmly to what Hermione had said.

" 'Mione it seems pretty legit to me, you always jump to the worst conclusions, why do you find it so difficult to believe that someone likes you? You're beautiful and smart and anyone would be lucky to have you, but I can see where you're coming from on the death eater front, they used you as bait for Harry before but now their easiest target for bait would probably be me considering we have been going steady since the war. But if your that worried about it leave it for a couple of days and then see how you feel".

"Your right Gin, I'll leave it for a couple of days and then see how I feel about it. I'm going to bed I'm shattered. See you tomorrow" Hermione replied then stood up gave her friend a hug goodnight and left to go to her bed room, taking the letter with her and storing it in her desk drawer.

Over the next few days Hermione went about her normal routine not worrying about the letter she received and before she knew it a week had passed without her realising it and she had completely forgotten about the letter. That was until they were eating their dinner one night in front of the telly.

"Herm, have you decided what your going to do about that letter yet?". Ginny asked casually.

"To tell you the truth I haven't really thought about it." Hermione replied caught slightly off guard.

" But now that I do think about it, I think I am going to reply just to see where it leads, if it gets dodgy after a while I could always just stop replying, don't you think?"

"Very true, Hermione, very true. What are you going to say then?" Ginny replied getting slightly excited.

Once they had finished their meal Hermione went to he room and retrieved the letter from her desk drawer and took it back to the lounge with her. When she was seated next to Ginny again she read over the letter and then magicked a copy before wiping the original clean ready to write on it like the sender of the letter requested of her. Hermione and Ginny then sat and decided what to write, and once they had finished, they read over it again and Hermione folded it up and put it in her bag ready to send it back with the other memos at work the next day.

Hermione awoke at her normal time of 6am the next day and began her morning routine of showering and getting ready before apparrating to work for 7am. Once she was in work and settled in her office, she pulled out the letter and performed the spell to bring the memo to life so to speak and sent it on its way to find the person who originally sent it to her precisely a week ago.

On the other side of the ministry in the office for the investigation of ancient magic practices and artefacts, the memo landed in a hansom 21 year old's in tray. As it was early he wasn't expecting any memos just yet so curious as to what this one could be or at least with a slight hope of what this memo could be, he opened it and was pleased to see that his hope was right. Hermione Granger had written back to him. The first step had been made and all he had to do now was gain her trust, and build up a relationship with her of at least friendship before revealing to her who he was. After reading Hermione's reply he stored the letter in the inside pocket of his robes and began the work load that he had in front of him.