Hi guys!
So this is my first fanfic that I have ever written, so I would greatly appreciate any feedback that you have, positive or negative, and anything as simple as a spelling error! Now, enjoy the story!

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, seeing as I am not J. K. Rowling, I do not own anything of Harry Potter, and will make no gain. It's just me and my imagination.

Harry really couldn't deal with all the reporters and photographers. They always showed up at the most inoppurtune moments, blinding him with flash bulbs and deafening him with questions. Yeah, he was The-Boy-Who-Lived-Twice, and yeah, he may have defeated Voldemort at a young age, but that was precisely the problem! He was still young, and he wouldn't stay young forever. So, even though becoming an Auror had been his dream all through his Hogwarts education, he was going to do something else with his life. Something to keep him out of the lime light as much as possible. Something like basket weaving.

Unfortunentally, basket weaving seemed painstakingly boring. But what else could he do? If he got an exciting job, he would most likely be put in the paper for it. But then it hit him. He could be a home security installer! It would enable him to help people without being particularly exciting. No, that wouldn't do. He could stay an auror, but do the low profile cases, like home robberies, and occasionally a homicide. That sounded promising, so he decided to go and talk to Kingsly about it, and ask him if he could be taken off of the high profile cases he was currently on. However, around 15 minutes later after his explanation, Kingsly Shacklebolt did not seem too pleased.

"And why on earth would I do that, Auror Potter? Take one of my best and hardest working aurors and assign him to monkey work? And here I was, thinking that you would be one of the few who would actually think of other's safety before your own. However, we can test it out for a week or two, but I want you to do some serious thinking about this. Now, here are a couple of breaking and entering cases thay we think might be linked, you can work on these unil you come to your senses."

Needless to say, Kingsly was not too pleased with Harry.

So Harry did what he was asked, and sat down at his desk to look at the case files. There were five houses in total that had been robbed, various valuables missing from each. A breathtaking neclace from one, an ancient clock from another, a golden-rimmed bath tub from yet another. Harry wondered why on earth the robber thought that these various items were needed and what he or she was planning on doing with them. However, something strange caught his eye, on odd simularity between all five.

Besides the same unknown spell used to break down the protective wards around the houses, each house reported that the socks left on the floor were stolen from each. This struck Harry as oddly peculiar, and he couldn't remember for the life of him why it sounded familiar. There was something that happened in his life that involved socks, but it was refusing to be snagged. So Harry decided he needed to visit Hermione, the memory of his group of friends. He would have asked Ginny, but Harry wanted to give her some space, seeing as they had recently broken up due to Ginny's love of the lime light. So, Harry sent Hermione a letter to tell her he was coming.

"Hey Harry! I didn't expect to see you today. But I'm glad you came, I've missed you," Hermione said, hugging him as he stepped across the threshold.

"Yeah, I've meant to come and talk to you for a while, but I didn't want to have to face Ron, he seemed pretty livid about me and Ginny," Harry replied.

"He was pretty annoyed. But now that he has had some time to think about it, he has started to realize that you were probably right, and that you and Ginny were not a couple destined to last," Hermione assured him. "Now, why did you come visit me? Not that I am complaining, just curious."

And so Harry launched into his story of his lack of a new career, and how the case that he was now working struck a chord with him, and that he couldn't remember why. But it had something to do with socks.

"Socks, you say?" Hermione asked. "That does seem familiar. I can't remember why though off the top of my head. I will think about it though, hopefully I will have an answer for you soon."

"Thanks, Hermione, you're the best" Harry said, smiling greatfully. They sat and chatted for a little while longer about how their lives were going, and basically catching up on some missed time. Soon, Ron came home, and was startled to see Harry sitting on the couch, conversing with his girlfriend.

"Oh, hey Ron. I was just about to leave, don't worry," Harry said, hastily standing up from the couch.

"Oh, come now Harry, stay for dinner! Ron and I haven't gotten to sit and chat with you in a while, and we both miss you very much, right Ron?" Hermione exclaimed, staring purposefully at her boyfriend.

"Yeah, maybe a little," Ron replied, a little hesitant. Harry and Ron both worked as aurors and had been partners until Harry and Ginny had broken things off, because Ron had decided that he needed a little space from Harry.

Hermione got up to go and start making dinner, seeing as she refused to puchase a house elf and Ron did not inherit his mother's skill at cooking. This left Harry and Ron standing in the sitting room, awkwardly regarding one another.

"So, Ron, how has life been?" Harry asked tentively.

"Fine."

"Any interesting cases?" Harry asked, thinking that Ron was always willing to talk to Harry about his work.

"No."

"Oh."

"You?" Ron asked, finally looking at Harry.

"Yeah," Harry replied. "A breaking and entering case where they reported various valuables missing. And, oddly enough, any socks left laying on the floor."

"Socks? Really?" Ron asked. Now that he was curious, he decided to give a whole two words to Harry.

"Yeah, it's odd. I have this feeling that something happened with socks in our lives, but I cannot remember for the life of me what it was," Harry said, hopeing to get Ron to start talking.

"Huh. Does sound familiar," Ron replied, avoiding Harry's eyes again.

Harry sighed. " Listen, Ron, I am sorry about Ginny, but things just weren't working between us, and neither of us were very happy towards the end. I know that she may seem more upset than I am, but we both agreed it was for the better. So please, stop ignoring me. I miss my best mate."

Ron finally looked a little sheepish, shifting from foot to foot. He really wasn't good at this sort of thing, his pride tends to complicate things.

"I know. It's just, she's my little sister, I feel like I should protect her." Ron replied. "Although I will say that I am slightly glad that you guys broke up, it was always weird thinking about you with my little sister" Ron admitted, scrunching up his face a little at the thought.

Harry laughed, glad that Ron finally said an entire sentence to him. Soon enough, Harry and Ron were making small talk, not quite totally forgiving eachother, but working on it. Just then a stream of curse words came flooding out of the tiny kitchen, and Ron and Harry both jumped up and ran to the kitchen, wands at the ready.

It turned out Hermione had been eavesdropping on their conversation, and had accidentaly let the noodles cook themselves into one giant, mushy noodle.

"I'm so sorry guys! I just stopped paying attention to it, and I let it boil into this giant mess. I'm afraid that we will have to go out for dinner, this is a tad unsalvageable," Hermione admitted, flustered.

"It's ok, Hermione. We can go to this little restaurant one of the other aurors showed me in Diagon Alley the other day, it has delicious Italian-style food," Ron said, smiling at his girlfriend.

So Hermione grabbed her purse, and they side-alonged with Ron to the apparation point near the aforementioned restoraunt. Less than thirty seconds after stepping onto the sunset colored street, there were shouts of "It's Harry Potter!" and "It's the Golden Trio!" and flashes of blinding light. So Ron grabbed Harry's arm and Hermione's hand and dashed up the street into the little Italian restaurant. Needless to say, they would probably be plastered across newspapers in the entire wizarding world by sunrise tomorrow, if not sooner.

"I'm so sorry about that guys. It seems like no matter what I try and do, the press always finds me, and always finds a way to ruin a perfectly good time," Harry lamented.

"It's ok Harry, just ignore them, the craze will probably die down eventually" Hermione comforted him. She was about to say more, but was interupted by a slim, pretty, Brunette waitress.

"Here are your menus, do you know what you like?" she asked, winking at Harry. 'Oh great, not another one,' thought Harry as he politely smiled at the waitress. "I think we will all just have waters to start with, thanks" Hermione responded, clearly annoyed.

"Coming right up!"

When they got their waters, Harry ordered the pasta special, Ron ordered a chicken dish, and Hermione ordered a soup and salad, and the waitress left to deliver their orders and loiter around the corner. Harry, Ron, and Hermione soon started chatting about this and that, and generally having a good time, and thoroughly enjoyed their meals. However, at the door, Harry said that he really should go back to the Ministry to finish some paper work he had been putting off for a while now, and they parted ways through the croud of reporters.

Harry was just putting the final touches on his report of a recently closed case when a new apprentice who was running errands for the veterans came over with a manilla folder.

"Uh, hi, Auror Harry? Mr. Shacklebolt told me to come and give you this, uh, this file. He said it was, uh, was connected to your case? Well, have a nice day."

The apprentice scampered off before Harry could get out a "Thank you." So he shrugged and looked in the folder, curious about how this may help his case. Inside was a report that there was another breaking and entering with the same m.o. as the previous ones. Except there was a major difference between this one and the others.

This one was at the Malfoy Manor. And Harry was asked to personally come and assess the situation.

'What a great way to ruin what was turning out to be a decent night. Now I get to return to the home of many nightmares,' Harry thought.