Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with Harry Potter. I only own Herman Sykes and Lila Grey in this chapter.

A/N: This story is somewhat AU. The Final Battle happened as it did in DH, but the events afterwards didn't happen. Ron and Hermione didn't hook up. Everything that happens after is AU.

Chapter One: A Cruel, Cruel World

***

The wind was picking up while the weather was getting colder. She shivered and wrapped her cloak tighter around her. She needed to get inside somewhere soon before she froze to death. Unfortunately, there wasn't any place she could go. Every place she passed was either too cold, or too expensive and she couldn't take one more person kicking her out because she had no money. That was happening practically everyday now and she could barely take any more.

When had it come to this? Eight years ago she had graduated Hogwarts with top marks, recommendations, and honors. She had received thousands of job offers from twenty different countries, all of them willing to pay her whatever she needed to get by. The whole world was at her fingertips. After the Final Battle and Harry had defeated Lord Voldemort once and for all, the three of them, Harry, Ron, and Hermione had become world wide celebrities in the wizarding world.

She had finally accepted a job at Gringotts, as a curse detector. It required a ton of magic, and was pretty difficult to handle, for the unforeseen consequences of detecting a curse sometimes had painful side effects. But for two years, at least, she had been happy. Everyone had been happy. Ron and Harry became Aurors, two of the most powerful and successful the Ministry had ever seen. They all had kept in contact, and even hung out on the weekends assuming none of them ended up at St. Mungo's for some reason or another.

But then new magic had been introduced. There was now an enchantment one could place on a room that detected all spells, curses, charms that were put on anything, living, dead, or otherwise, and it didn't require a lawsuit in case something particularly deadly occurred to Hermione.

So they fired her. It was quite abrupt and sudden and they didn't give her any notice. Just told her she was gone and gave her a severance check and she was on her way. It was barely enough for her to pay her rent. It wasn't long before she had been evicted from her apartment, thrown out on the cold streets of London.

In her desperation she had been forced to sell most of her prized possessions, needing to find some way to make some money to keep her fed. But they money she received from her belongings was barely enough to buy food for a week. After that, with nothing left, she was officially homeless.

At first she thought about going to Harry or Ron and asking them to help her out, maybe even get her a small job at the Ministry, but decided against it. They had lost touch with each other. Well, it was more like she had lost touch with them. Harry and Ron were both Aurors at the Ministry and from what she heard, they were two of the best ones the Ministry had ever had. Both were quite successful with families of their own. It was all over the Prophet that Harry had recently eloped with Ginny and were expecting their first child.

And Ron had hooked up with a witch from France who had recently moved to England. According to the Daily Prophet, she had been hired by McGonagall to be the new Care of Magical Creatures professor since both her parents were famous French couple who created the first Magical Creature hospital for the seriously wounded and sick. They had raised Mira Leveaux in the art of all magical animals, and was the best there was.

A part of her was jealous of this French witch, but only a small part. There would always be a part of her that still loved Ron, but it was a small part, and she was long since over him. But she was happy for both of them. They deserved to be happy after all the time training for the battle. And she didn't want to ruin it. Besides, if she showed up on either of their doorsteps as a failed Gringott's Curse Breaker, it would only be a matter of time before it made the front page, and the whole world would go crazy with the news. 'Hermione Granger, brightest witch of the age, homeless and looking for help.' No thanks.

So she left the wizarding community once and for all, and instead got a job at a Muggle bakery since, with her lack of references and education (Potions and Transfiguration hardly counted as a regular education as fat as Muggles were concerned), that was all she could manage. Still, it paid the bills and the rent. She had managed to rent a small flat in the slummier part of London with a vermin problem and a serious lack of heating. But still. It was enough for Hermione to call home.

Her landlord, a fat balding man by the name of Herman Sykes, wasn't the type to care if his residents had a roach in their kitchen sink. If his residents had a problem with their flat, than they could call an exterminator at their expense. It wasn't like they were living in a five star neighborhood. As far as he was concerned, their business was their own, and he stayed out of it as long as they paid their rent on time.

His only exception was Hermione, and he made sure she knew it. She was just so cute when she showed up on his doorstep all those years ago with nothing more than the clothes on her back and a curious brown stick she refused to let him touch. From the moment she came into his line of view, he made moves on her, and offered to take care of her vermin problem and cut her rent for her if she wanted, so long as she gave him something in return. But she refused. She would be just like everyone else and take care of her own problems, hoping that would keep her jerk of a landlord at bay, but she had no such luck. If anything, it only made him more persistent.

That was the reason Hermione worked so hard that by the time she got home she was so exhausted. She wanted to steer clear of him and make enough money to move into a better flat eventually at the same time.

But it didn't really matter as long as she stayed away as much as possible. The only thing that really bothered her was the fact that Herman Sykes had a master key to every flat, and he could come into hers anytime he so desired, day or night.

That day had been as normal as possible. She opened the shop at 10 am and got the ovens started up so that she could make fresh pastries for the day. No one showed up until the afternoon, so she wasn't worried about running out of goods. She needed all the money she could.

"Hello? Hermione?" Hermione looked up from putting her apron on and smiled inwardly as her best friend Lila Gray came into the shop. Lila co-owned the shop with her, and they managed to run the place by themselves, mainly because they couldn't afford to hire new employees.

"In the back!" Hermione called as she took out a pan and started putting the dough for cinnamon rolls on it.

Lila came bouncing in, her vibrant red curls bouncing as she did. Hermione could never understand how her friend could be so chipper in the morning. Especially when it was so cold. "So? How was it?" she asked, biting her lip and looking at Hermione expectantly.

"How was what?" Hermione replied, blushing. She knew that the first thing Lila would ask about was Hermione's date. Lila had set her up with one of Lila's friends named Jeremy. She said that they had known each other since practically kindergarten and that he was looking to settle down with a girl. He was nice enough, and treated her right and everything, but he wasn't Hermione's type. And she told Lila so.

"But Hermione! How can you not like Jeremy? He's the perfect gentleman!" Lila whined, sounding as if they were both teenagers in high school talking about the most popular boy in school.

Hermione shrugged. She couldn't tell Lila the truth. The truth that every time the thought of dating crossed her mind, Ron Weasley interrupted, and all those painful memories came rushing back to her like a tornado ripping its way through a town. And if she was still thinking about Ron then she wasn't ready to see other people.

"I just don't think I'm ready for dating yet," Hermione said finally, deciding that was as much of the truth as she could say.

"Oh come on! How can you not be ready for dating? And if you truly aren't, then Jeremy's the perfect guy to start off with! He's every girl's dream man!" Lila argued, resting her head in her hand and staring off into space dreamily.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "If you like him so much, then why don't you date him?" she retorted, putting the cinnamon rolls in the oven and setting the timer. Then she moved over to do the same thing to the croissants.

"Please. The guy is like a brother to me. That's disgusting," Lila said, putting on her own apron and getting the doughnuts ready.

"Look, can we drop this, please? I don't want to talk about it," Hermione snapped, then sighed. "I'm sorry. It's just with Sykes breathing down my back every fifteen seconds, and the business not doing so great...I think I'm a little stressed."

Lila sympathetically. "I understand. Sometimes it seems impossible to get out of bed. You know, I don't know how you do it, Hermione, putting up with everything you do. And you still manage to be in good spirits all the time. It's about time you cracked a little."

"I'm not always in good spirits. I just repress everything."

"Yeah well in this day and age, who doesn't? You want to get the registers set up? I'll finish getting everything in the oven," Lila suggested, and Hermione nodded.

"Yeah. I'll be in the office if you need me," she said, then went to the very back office, which was really more like a broom closet. There was just one desk that was fit for a five-year-old, a way-too-old-and-big computer from about the eighties, and massive amounts of paperwork. Much more than would seem necessary for a simple bakery. Mainly they were letters from the bank saying they needed to pay off their loan soon if they expected to stay in business. Just more causes to add to her stress level.

Hermione closed the door, and went to the safe that rested behind the desk. Every night when they closed up and after Lila left, she would put a small spell on the safe, making it unbreakable. There was technology now that allowed people to be able to break into safes, and if theirs was, then they would lose everything, and Hermione wouldn't be able to keep what little she had. Hers and Lila's lives would pretty much be over, and she would have to start over yet again. She could barely afford to keep herself alive now. She didn't think she could manage being homeless again. Risking Lila finding out she was a witch was worth it in the long run. It was why she insisted on opening and closing alone.

She muttered the spell allowing the safe door to open with a simple flick of her wand which she kept in her purse at all times, and the safe door opened without needing the combination. Hermione took out the register and counted it like she did everyday.

Granger and Gray Bakery wasn't doing so well. Neither were most of the shops in the side of London they lived at. And it seemed that everyday they did a little worse. When they first opened they didn't do so good, then business picked up a little, and they managed to gather a few loyal customers who came in everyday to get their afternoon pastry, but other than that, it seemed people couldn't afford even a simple treat anymore.

It just made Hermione homesick for her old way of life. There were days when she thought about going to the Ministry and asking for a job, but it wouldn't feel right. Plus there would be the tension with Ron to deal with all the time, and she couldn't handle that along with everything else.

Hermione finished counting the drawer, then took it out and put it in the register and made to help Lila finish the rest of the pastries they would try to sell that day.

***

"So all in all, it wasn't that bad, right?" Lila asked as Hermione finished counting the money they had made that day. She sighed as she finished. Only four hundred pounds. And that was for the entire day. They usually closed at eight pm, but sometimes they stayed open an extra hour or so if they were feeling up to it to try to wrangle in some extra cash, but tonight was not that night. They closed shop at around nine, with no one stopping for the last two.

"Yeah, if you don't want to eat for the next three days," Hermione said sarcastically, putting the extra money in a bag marked for the bank, and shutting the computer off.

Lila sighed. "It will pick up again. Once the weather warms up a bit. And people can actually manage to go outside without this damned snow," she said, but neither one of us believed what she said.

"C'mon. I just have to put the register in the safe and get this money to the bank, and then we can go get dinner," Hermione said, changing the subject, and Lila took that as her cue to head outside.

Once Lila was gone Hermione took out her wand and put the spell on the safe, then put on her coat and grabbed her small purse and joined Lila outside.

They went to dinner at a small Chinese restaurant across the street that was inexpensive and still managed to fill you up. Lila was going on about Jeremy again, and how she really hoped Hermione would consider going out with him again because they were perfect for each other. But Hermione barely listened. Once Lila got started on a subject, it was nearly impossible for her to get off it, and it was better to let her just keep talking until there was nothing left to say.

Hermione just smiled and nodded at all the appropriate places, but she couldn't stop thinking about their situation, and just how much trouble they could potentially be in really soon. She wouldn't admit it to anyone, but she was really scared. She never thought she would be in this situation. Even before she knew she was a witch and thought she was a muggle, she never thought she would be struggling this much. Her parents were never wealthy, but they managed to make enough money to make everyone safe and well off. She wished they were still around to help her out, or at least give her advice on what to do.

They split the bill as usual, and then went their separate ways. Both of them walked home because the fares for cabs nowadays were ridiculous, and neither of their homes were too out of the way. Hermione sort of liked the walking because it gave her time to clear her head and it was the only time she ever had any peace. She was always looking over her shoulder at her flat, afraid that Herman Sykes would finally break in, and Lila was at the bakery, and she could never tell her what she was truly feeling. And that was because Lila wasn't a witch and couldn't understand the dilemma she was facing.

If Harry and Ron could see her now, they'd slap her across the face and tell her to come back to reality. If she was meant to live as a muggle then she wouldn't have become a witch. They'd tell her that she was wasting away, and that all her work at Hogwarts would go to waste. She wasn't meant to own some silly little bakery in the slums of London; she was meant to do great things for the wizarding community. And there were times she would agree with them.

It took about half an hour to get from Granger and Grey Bakery to her flat, and once those thirty minutes were up, she repressed her thoughts to the back of her mind, and put up her guard for Herman. He was always there when she returned, waiting up for her as usual. And tonight was no exception.

"Hey beautiful," he drawled, standing up from his chair and walking over to sit on his desk, staring at her.

Hermione rolled her eyes as she took out her key. How she wished she could take out her wand and curse him into oblivion. "Why don't you go pick up a hooker? I'll bet she'd love the lines you've been giving me."

"They wouldn't appreciate them as you do, sweetheart. We were meant to be together. Why else would you be here?" he smirked as he said it, and Hermione thought that he actually believed what he was saying.

"What the hell does that mean?" she snapped impatiently. All she wanted was to get away from Herman and take a nice long bubble bath.

"A pretty girl like you? You could go anywhere you wanted in places much nicer than this one, yet you're here, at my shabby little inn. That could only mean one thing; that the Gods have brought us together. You'll see in time," he promised and I fought the urge to vomit then and there.

"Goodnight, Sykes." Was all I could manage and I walked up to the third floor where my flat was. I took put my key, unlocked the door, and nearly fell into my living quarters. I couldn't remember ever being so happy to return to this dump.

I turned on the light and set my purse and coat on the sofa like I did every night, and made to go into my room when I noticed the flyer on my pathetically old dining table.

Wanted: Young woman to act as nanny for six-year-old girl. No experience necessary. Must be available seven days a week. Flexible hours. Pay: Thirty pounds an hour. Number listed below.

My eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets when I saw the starting salary. Thirty pounds an hour? For acting as a nanny for a six-year-old girl? Either this family was very rich or very desperate. Either way, it was an opportunity I had to look into. I could keep working at the bakery and still have some time for the kid. It said flexible hours, and I could always take off from the bakery a bit early. That spell for the safe would have to be sacrificed, but for thirty pounds an hour, I couldn't really care all that much, could I? I had to at least give this opportunity a chance.

With the flyer clutched tightly in my hand and I went to the phone and dialed the number listed, hoping not too many other young women had mysteriously received this flyer on their dining tables as well.

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A/N: So how was it? Not too bad I hope. Please review. Constructive criticism is much appreciated. I swear I will update this often, as well as my other stories. It may take some time, but they WILL get updated, I promise!