Only when the knocking became incessant did Hermoine Granger get up from the tiny table she'd fallen asleep at in the scruffy Muggle hotel in the slums of London. She knew she looked seedy but in this kind of place it didn't matter anymore. The knocking grew louder and she looked out the peephole. Great, she thought, the Ministry of Magic. McGonagall had warned her they were coming. Hermoine open the door a crack.
"What?" she asked coldly, finding it hard to believe she had once been employed by them—and proud of it. Fudge looked up at her; he'd shrunk a couple inches she noticed, and looked different, older maybe or stretched from old age and far too much work. Ha! as though they knew what work was.
"We just want a few words with you miss," the young man to his left said. That wouldn't be all she knew, it never was.
"You've had a few words." She closed the door on their faces.
"We'll blow the door down miss!" a different voice yelled. Hermoine sighed and rolled her eyes knowingly.
"No, you won't, because this is strictly a Muggle hotel and town and you were never any good at memory charms Cornelius. Even if you were able to perform the simplest of all memory charms you wouldn't have the time to do so." But then, for a reason she herself did not know Hermoine opened the door and let the four men in.
"This place, miss?" one of them not bothering to hold back his laughter.
"Say what you've come to say and do it quick. I haven't got time to waste on you." Hermoine said even more coldly than before, if that were possible.
"Off to capture another one of You-know-who's followers and leave the second before we get there?"
"Yes, very busy schedule, over a dozen today."
"I don't see your checklist, auror," one of the arrogant young men said.
"It's in my head, sir. Any good auror would keep the list in their head." Hermoine hid a smile knowing her words had hit their mark. "A little free advice 'auror', do not try and read my mind. The last man who did didn't like the outcome very much."
"We just would like to ask you a few questions miss." Fudge waited for her to agree. He knew she would remember the wizarding and Muggle laws down to the exact wording.
"You know my name Cornelius, so the least you can do is use it." Fudge flinched as his former employee used his first name. She was the only one employed by him who had dared to say it to his face.
"Alright Granger, we came to inquire about Harry Potter," the cocky young man said taking out a Quick-Quotes-pen. Even after he had faded out of Quidditch and his reputation as being one of the best aurors around and finally disappeared without a trace no one had forgotten him. No one needed to explain who Harry Potter was, they probably never would.
"Well then I'm afraid you've come to the wrong place gentlemen. I can't tell you anymore than you already know." Hermoine was fed up with the Ministry that much was clear, but Fudge decided to push the matter farther hoping she would suddenly give as she had earlier when she'd opened the door. His position was lost if he didn't find the famous Harry Potter and Granger was the one person who may have information.
"What can you tell us?" one of the men asked after a nod from his boss.
"He disappeared almost two years ago and hasn't been seen since. Happy?" she asked moving toward the cupboard and taking out a mug. They watched her heat water and add a teabag in silence. She offered them nothing.
"But you dated him!" the man cried in annoyance as she tossed the bag in the trash.
"And lived with him, and worked with him for a time, and had some really great sex. Anything else you want to know?"
Cornelius's scowl deepened. "Granger we have been polite and you have been rude; we have put up with it and you have continued, but not we are through. Do you understand me?" Hermoine looked at him steadily and thought about her options; she could continue to be a pain in the ass, or she could tell him what they wanted and get him out of here faster so she could go to work.
"Fine, whatever," she muttered.
"Good," Fudge said happy things were going his way. Not entirely though, Hermoine thought hopping onto the counter and crossing her legs. She shoved the microwave closer to the sink to give herself more room. The Quick-Quotes-pens perked up at the aspect of writing. Fudge and the man who had never spoken sat at the table, the other two, who were extraordinarily cocky, stood and took turns questioning her.
"You say you dated Harry Potter, how long?"
She thought about this for a while. They had started dating a while after Hogwarts, but how old had they been? Twenty? No, that's to long ago. It must have been when they were twenty-one.
"About four years I think," Hermoine said monotonously.
"And he disappeared shortly after you left him. Why'd you break up?" Oh Great Wizards, Hermoine thought. The Ministry must be getting really desperate if they were hiring aurors like this.
"Because of the times idiot! It was the dark days all over again! People were afraid! Voldemort was in control!" she cried. All four of them flinched at the name. "You do know what the dark days are, don't you?"
"We do not need your lip Granger."
"I'll let you hear it anyway," Hermoine said sweetly. Fudge glared and motioned for them to continue there questions.
"You left your boyfriend because it was the dark days? Wouldn't you stay with him for protection?"
"Let me ask you something. Would you stay with someone if you were an auror and you could protect yourself? Pretend you were a halfway decent auror." The man gritted his teeth and plunged on.
"Then what about the dark days made you leave?"
"I'll say this very slowly in the simplest words known to man so you understand. The Ministry told me I was one of the best. And with everyone from the dark side out to get me I believed them."
"You left because you were afraid."
"Very good," Hermoine said seeming rather pleased they had caught on so quickly. "I didn't know who to trust so I didn't trust anyone. I went off on my own."
"And then Harry Potter disappeared. Didn't you grieve? Didn't you do anything about it?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"We broke up and he took it hard and severed all contact."
"But didn't you love him enough to want to find him?" the silent man at the table asked.
He was obviously the youngest, probably extremely new to the business, and his head was filled with the fantastic idea of romance. It may have been his incredibly naïve outlook on dating and love that Hermoine answered him kindly.
"He said he didn't want to see me again, and if by chance we saw each other he ignored me. And I, in turn, did not try to contact him or go back to him because I loved him."
"That's very oxymoronic, Granger," the more cocky of the two interviews said highly pleased he had won the battle of words. Hermoine smiled wickedly, she would win the war, she always won. Hermoine Granger did not loose.
"No, it isn't. Although I left because I was afraid I also left because I loved him enough not to work with him anymore. I didn't want anything happening to him when Voldemort's followers were after me." They shuddered; she grinned and poured the last bit of her cold tea down the clogged drain. "Why did you waltz into the slums to ask me about my former boyfriend? Why's he so interesting?"
"He's the only one who can defeat You-know-who!" Cornelius cried. "We need to find him!"
"Or you'll loose your job?"
"Or You-know-who will take over. You must know that his attacks and killings have been greatly heightened lately."
"Oh I know, I captured three of his followers who were torturing Muggles just five hours ago."
"Yes, I know. That is why I came to you." Cornelius said. If he hadn't made it clear to her Hermoine gave no notice.
She sat on the counter staring at them with absolutely no expression on her face. Her nails, which she no longer kept long and perfectly filed, were still drumming on her knee. She looked good in Muggle clothing he noticed, better in it than she did in wizarding robes; and she had lost weight, but she'd built up some muscle. He had to give it to her, she was cut out for this job, and she was good. No one in the Ministry compared to her…or Harry Potter. Fudge needed him back and he would do almost anything to accomplish that.
"We thought you would know where he is. We've got to win this war." an auror said flatly. "Harry Potter is the only one who can defeat He-who-must-not-be-named and we need to know where he is."
Would they win the war thought? Hermoine doubted they would find a trance of her former lover. He had left no clues to where he was, she knew, she'd looked on her own, and questioned every Death Eater she'd sent to Azkaban. Thank the Great Wizards Fudge had removed the Dementors after their fifth year at Hogwarts. "I already told you I don't know where he is."
"Don't you have any idea where he is?" asked the cocky auror in exasperation. He pen had run out of ink and the man at the table was taking his out with a nod from Fudge.
Hermoine snapped, she'd had enough of their questioning and silent jeering and cockiness. She leapt off the counter and stood on the floor facing the young man. Though she was a good twelve inches shorter than him her fury made her seem ten feet tall. "Alright mister hot-shot, listen up, I have put up with you all when I didn't need to and I have postponed putting several Death Eaters in jail and I have answered all of your questions just so Cornelius could keep his position at the Ministry but I am through with it. Get out. Now. Before I get nasty."
Fudge got out of his chair hastily and motioned for the young man to do the same. "You have your wish Granger, we're leaving."
Again though she showed them a sudden streak of kindness, "Cornelius, just use a simple locating spell to find him," she suggested. "There's a chapter on them in The Standard Book of Spells: Grade seven by Miranda Goshwick."
"We've tried that already," one of the young men said. "Many times, but he's blocking it somehow. It's as though he knows we're seeking him. Or there is the more probable answer, he's dead."
"Well gentlemen, I've changed my mind. I'll help you find him." Their eyes grew wide and their jaws fell to the cheap, dirty carpet that was no longer land-lord-yellow but a grayish color. "If you'll wait a while I'm going to clean up and then I'll come with you to the Ministry."
They stumbled back into the hotel room utterly confused at her sudden change of mind. Hermoine rubbed her eyes and looked around in wonder. She her suspicion of him being dead was wrong. Thank the Great Wizards.
"I'll only be a moment," she said and disappeared into the bathroom.