Folks: For those of you who have this on alerts, sorry for the double/triple posting. I have a beta, (The Infinity of Infinity Limited) now, and she made some great improvements for chapters 1 and 2, so I uploaded the revisions. No real plot element changes – you don't need to re-read anything.

Chapter 3 is all new! (Infinity did a great job!)

Hermione sat in her office at the ministry, a muggle mechanical pencil shoved behind one ear. Her office was surrounded on three sides by overstuffed bookshelves, with unkempt piles of additional books perched precariously on every available surface.

She had adapted to wizarding ways easily, but her intellectual curiosity had not been tempered in the years after the fall of Voldemort, and many subjects caught her interest. Although she was used to using parchment in her magical job, for her own intellectual pursuits, she used muggle stationary items. She no longer feared the rejection of wizard kind; if they thought less of her, she could care less about their ignorance.

What currently had the wild-haired witch in a conundrum was Harry's scar. It hadn't so much as prickled, true; however, she knew about it being a horcrux. Was it possible that the reason it hadn't so much as prickled was that it simply hadn't been activated? And if activated, wouldn't all her best friend held dear be put at risk? She sighed, worry and fatigue crossing her face. It was a risk she just couldn't bring herself to let go.

She was startled out of her contemplation by a casual rap on the door, and her ginger-haired boyfriend stood in the doorway, flanked by his more reserved best friend.

"Ronald, you are supposed to wait to be invited before you come barging in." she admonished tiredly. Truly, she had given him the same response for months, and yet the boorish behavior continued.

"You know you love it!" he replied blithely, winking. Harry just gave a helpless shrug. It was pointless, they both knew it.

"We got our guy!" Ron chortled, doing a little celebratory jig, very nearly toppling the piles of books.

"Ronald!" she screeched ineffectually.

"Come on 'Mione, let's go celebrate. You spend too much time cooped up in this dusty old office."

"Ron, it's only three in the afternoon. Just because we got the rest of the day off doesn't mean that 'Mione is free." explained the darker haired Auror quietly.

"Not you too, Harry! It's not like she's going to get into any trouble. Look, we're all heroes! "

Hermione's eyes snapped in anger. "I don't take advantage like some people! Grow up Ronald!"

She winced internally at her Harry's sad eyes. He was always so disappointed when they had a row. But she just couldn't help it – Ronald Weasley had been driving her stark raving mad for MONTHS!

"Well, it certainly looks like you're taking advantage to me. That isn't a case."

"You know very well what that is Ronald." She said, trying to reign in her temper.

"A bloody waste of time, that is." He muttered petulantly.

"That, Ronald, is research that may just keep your best friend alive."

"Well, you can't do anything more with it right now. You need a book and you don't have it and that's that." He replied. "Now can we go to the pub?"

"Honestly, Ronald, is that all you think about?" she said, throwing her hands up in defeat.

"Nope. There's always quidditch." The wink he gave her was simply more than she could bear. Harry sensing the mounting conflict steered his friend out the door.

"Come on Ron. I don't think Hermione is in the mood." He threw his other best friend an apologetic glance over his shoulder. "Sorry, 'Mione."

The raven haired man flinched as both his friends turned on him in unison. "What does being in the mood have to do with anything?"

Harry Potter sighed. A year on the run seemed easier than getting his very different and yet very much alike friends to get along.

"You are never going to get that book you need…" Ronald shouted as Harry bodily dragged his fellow Auror from the room and down the hall.

"That's what you think!" she yelled after them, and slammed the door shut with a wave of her hand.

Men!

She flung herself back, and scowled at her journal. The problem was that she couldn't do any more. Hermione needed a book. She knew where a copy of the book could be found. In fact, her boyfriend and his best friend had searched the location a number of times. She knew it was there, but they had not found it. She just knew that given time and cunning, she could find the book, but an adolescences steeped in rule breaking combined with their dangerous job had satiated the boys' sense of adventure. Well, she would just have to break a rule or two by herself.

After a long internal struggle, the young witch gave in to necessity, and let go of the part of her that liked to follow the rules. After all, she was both a war hero and a barrister. If she was going to get into trouble and need to use her political capital, it was going to bloody well mean something. Gathering her cloak, she grabbed her journal and left.

There was only one place to go: Malfoy Manor.