"Tell me again where we're going, Harry," she laughed while having her best friend pulling her hand.

"Whatever place we'll find, Mione dear, " Ron answered instead. "In fact, I don't really care. We just came, we haven't seen you for ages, we miss you and we will most definitely have you to ourselves tonight."

She smiled. It had been a long time indeed since she had met her best friends, 5 years to be exact. After graduating from Hogwarts, she had been offered a scholarship in Salem University in USA. Without skipping a beat, she gleefully had accepted it and had been gone in an instant.

Harry and Ron had been quite put out by the fact that she had left them too soon. It had taken her many letters and floo calls to stop their pouting. But after a while, they were back to their old selves. Moreover after a double offer came to them, to both play for Chudley Canons. Tournament schedules soon took their mind off. Add that with Hermione's study, their communication then started to get neglected a bit.

Not that she minded. Even though she often missed her best friends, but her study took most of her focus. Well, that...and some other things.

"So, Harry, how are things with Ginny?" she asked. Now that Chudley Canon's tour coincidentally passed the town where she lived, she might as well catch up with them.

Harry grinned. "You know Mione, that's one of the reasons why Ron and I came to visit you. You see..erm..." he was suddenly fidgeting. "You know..we...what I meant to say is..."

"Oh bollocks, just tell her already!" Ron snapped. "They're getting married, okay? My best friend and my little sister is getting married. There! I can't see what's so difficult about that."

Hermione smiled, only smiled. She knew it was bound to happen sooner or later and wasn't in the least bit surprised.

"Easy for you to say, you git. You're not the one who's getting married," Harry jabbed Ron playfully. "So yeah Mione, say something. You're coming to our wedding, right? It's in two months," he looked at her.

"Of course Harry! I wouldn't miss it for the world. I miss Ginny so much too," she sighed. "In fact, I might as well floo her after I got home. It's been too long. Besides, I need to get my bridesmaid dress fitted," she winked.

All of them laughed. They continued to chat while walking aimlessly, until Ron spotted a pub. "Hey look, that looks like a nice pub. Let's just go there and have a nice drink."

It was an Irish-styled pub, with a very homey atmosphere, giving the boys immediate sense of being home, back in UK. The signboard had a picture of a dragon, and it said 'Naga'.

"Naga. Hmm..that's an unusual name," Harry said. "But it looks comfy, shall we then?"

Hermione snapped her head when she heard the name. She had not been paying attention to the pub the boys were talking about. Her mind was still on Ginny and her wedding. When did they reach this part of the town?

"Naga?" her voice was slightly shaking. "I don't think it's a very good place. Let's find another place," she said while trying to sound nonchalant.

"Why not? It's getting cold now and I'd love to get my hands on a glass of warm beer immediately," Harry answered, clasping his hands together.

"Em..it's just..I.." she stammered a bit. "I heard it has a bad reputation. Many..many dodgy people are usually seen in this place."

"Where? I don't see any," Harry glanced around. "It sure doesn't look like a dodgy place to me."

"Oh come on Mione," Ron whined. "It's cold, we're still tired from the whole traveling thing, there are no other pubs seen nearby, and we want to get in. Now come on!" he suddenly pushed her back to the door's direction.

Too stunned to react to Ron's sudden movement, she didn't have any chance to dodge, and was pushed to the door. Feeling like she had no other choices, she opened the door slowly with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. This was definitely the last place she wanted to be at the moment.

She walked really fast to a table that's partially hidden by a pillar, trying hard not to let her face be seen. She didn't even look back to inform Harry and Ron where she had sat. She just waited until they found her on their own.

"Oi Mione! What was that? You were almost running to get here," Ron said loudly, while getting his coat off. Hermione flinched to the sound of her name being called loudly. Please, please, let that be unheard. "And why do you pick this table anyway? It's going to be difficult to get the barman's attention from here," he continued obliviously.

"Hermione? Is that you?" Oh Merlin. Here we go. "I thought you were someone else," said a bargirl. "It's been a while since you came here. The boys are not here, it's Wednesday you know, not their schedule. You don't usually come here on Wednesday anyway, what's with today? And oh..who do we have here? Your friends?" the girl stopped her rant, only realizing Ron and Harry's presence.

Harry and Ron were stunned. Aside from the girl's continuous rant, she seemed to know Hermione well, and from the sound of it, she came here often. Then why did she say the place had a bad reputation? What's going on?

Harry decided to take the initiative. "Hi, I'm Harry Potter. And this is Ron Weasley. We're Hermione's friends from England."

Realization flickered in the girl's eyes, and she smiled widely. "Aaah yes, of course I know you two. Who doesn't? The savior of wizarding world. So I take it you're here to visit Hermione then? A Trio reunion, eh?" she looked at Hermione.

Hermione smiled weakly, trying to form a coherent sentence. "This is..ah..Sisca. She works here..ah..but you can see that."

"Oooh but Lucius is here!" Sisca cut her. "I'll call him. He knows the Trio too, right? He must be happy to see you again dear. It's been a while you know. He must be at the office, I'll get him now."

"No..wait..you don't have to..SISCA!!" Hermione tried to stop her, with no success. Sisca was off to find Lucius already. Dear Merlin, she thought, I'm screwed. She fearfully turned to look at Harry and Ron, who were dumbstrucked.

Harry found his voice first. "Hermione..was she talking about..Malfoy? As in Lucius Malfoy?"

"What's going on Hermione?" Ron growled. "Obviously not many people had the bad luck to be named Lucius, so I place my money on Malfoy. What is this? Why is he here? The office? This place's office? What in the world do you..." Ron couldn't finished his firing questions, as a voice cut him.

"Well..well...if it's not the wonderful Trio..together again, at last," Lucius' familiar sneer was heard.

At the end of the War, Lucius Malfoy was another person that turned out to be the second spy, aside from Snape. Not everyone took the revelation well, including Ron. Along the way, Harry had been able to put aside his initial prejudice on Lucius, but not Ron. For him, Lucius and Snape will always be Dark Wizards.

"You!" Ron said, contempt was evident in his voice. "What are you doing here? Everyone thought you're dead. Along with your greasy bat friend."

"Here? This, young Mr Weasley, is my pub," Lucius smirked. "And unfortunately yes, I'm still standing in front of you, in the flesh. As well as my old, ah..how did you say it? Greasy bat friend, Severus Snape."

"The dragon sign," Harry gasped. "I should've known."

"Indeed." Lucius then turned his sight to Hermione, who refused to look at him, and was trembling slightly. "And what do we have here? The ever lovely Hermione Granger. I thought you would never have the guts to come here again...after what you've done.."

"I didn't do anything wrong," Hermione whispered, just enough to be heard.