May 3, 1999
Hermione Granger always wanted to travel.
Not in a tent with two boys fleeing for their life type of travel, but the kind with an itinerary and maps.
Dining in actual restaurants.
With seats and a roof.
Maybe with the two boys too, if they were amenable.
The thought had sprung up insistently last night during the Ministry-funded party commemorating the first year anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts.
The fall of Voldemort, that mad, psychotic…
Back to thinking about travel.
To do so would require funds.
To get the funds she had to work.
In that regard, Hermione was doing quite well. She had accepted the offer from the Minister to begin in the Magical Law Enforcement department shortly after N.E.W.T.'s. Kingsley promised he'd switch her to Magical Creatures when most of the issues in MLE were resolved.
Apparently she should've paid more attention to the wording. It was a never-ending flow of petitions, deadlines, invitations to network, complaints, employee reviews...
Her desk was as neat as all the papers and frames would allow. She had a color coded calendar charmed to the wall to her right, with nary a blank space to be seen.
Hermione had carefully placed a handful of pictures on her desk. One was of her parents, the other was of the twins mugging for the camera, clipped out of an article announcing the success of their store.
She also, defiantly, framed a copy of the original Order of the Phoenix.
Their waving hands caught her eye, and she spied a young Remus Lupin tiredly smiling. Instead of returning to her work at hand, and there was a great deal of it, she looked at the next picture.
It was Ginny and Tonks. Photo Tonks switched between a Snape nose, a button nose, and a pig nose. Caught in an eternal loop, they both laughed at her warmly and silently.
The last was of Colin Creevey next to a clearly uncomfortable Harry, who kept eyeing the escape routes while the eleven-year old Muggleborn beamed for all he was worth.
Suddenly she rose up and swept everything onto the ground.
They all fell in distant metal thunks and sharp tinkles of glass, followed by the soft flutter of parchment.
Hermione immediately sank to her knees, hands hovering over the the broken frames. Glass glittered all around.
She wept on the floor of her office.