Hello, it's Matthew! This is my first story ever being published, so be nice with the reviews, haha! So sorry if I've made stupid grammar mistakes, I'll blame it for my Finnish nationality - meaning I only study English. A beta would be appreciated, so if you're interested, hit me up!

Enough with the small talk, here's the first chapter:

1. The invitation

Hermione stood in her balcony in the heart of New York, with a beautiful white invitation in her hands. She had just received it ten minutes ago, and was still re-reading it over and over again. The first time her eyes had just hovered over the text, thinking it was just a dull invitation to some press conference, but after realizing it was a wedding invitation, it got her full attention. And it wasn't just any wedding invitation. It was from Harry and Ginny. They were finally getting married.

The whole invitation had came to Hermione as a surprise. Well, she knew they were encaged, as they had informed her about it a year ago, but that she was actually invited. After she had moved to New York six years ago, she slowly started to grow apart from Harry, Ginny, Luna and all her former friends. She wasn't happy about it, but it just how her life had gone. Actually, she had been dating Ron and he had moved to America with Hermione, but after five years of being together, Ron told her he wanted a break, and that break turned into their break-up. After Ron had moved out of their flat during the 'break', Hermione hadn't seen him ever since.

Even though the whole break had came out of the blue to Hermione and she had been sad and furious with her longtime boyfriend for not explaining himself, not all his actions were despicable. For example, he had introduced his assistant, Emily, to Hermione. Emily was short and blonde, a lot different from Hermione. She was ready to slap a bitch and was very spontaneous. When the women had met, they had instantly clicked and after a while, they became best friends. Emily was a good listener and she always gave the best advices. She had been there for Hermione when Ron stopped contacting her and the brunette was beyond grateful for that. Sometimes, Hermione wished she'd be a bit like Emily. Not afraid of anything. Okay, Hermione wasn't afraid of battling against dark wizards and that sort of stuff obviously, but she was afraid to be fierce and take a full control over things. Hermione sometimes thought Ron was the reason why she was like that. The ginger was usually very nice and kind and not the one to actually grab her, pin against a wall and heat things up. That meant their sex wasn't exciting. It was okay, but nothing too special. Therefor Hermione, who had craved excitement and sexual tension, didn't know how to be mysterious and sexy. Ron didn't make her feel sexy. Hermione was independent enough to not miss Ron or think about getting in touch with him and possibly getting back together, but sometimes she wondered how he was and what would they now be if things would've gone like in fairytales. She had asked Emily about him a couple times, but she always just muttered something like 'he's doing fine'. That was her way to tell Hermione she shouldn't be asking such questions about that asshole.

But enough about Ron and back to the invitation.

The invitation quickly explained where the wedding was held and at what time etcetera. What made it so dumbfounding was, that Hermione was invited to spend a month with Harry, Ginny and some of their friends in a beach house in an island called Koh Lipe in Thailand. The invitation to the island had been in the flipside of the actual wedding invitation.

"Dear Hermione,

I hope you're doing fine there in America. We haven't heard anything about you in a long time! We miss you a lot.

As you can see, we invited you to our wedding we are going to have in Thailand in 4th of July. We're really excited about that! There's more to that, than just the wedding though. We, Harry and I, rented a beach house from the island where we're having our wedding. It's really big and we're going to be there for a month. After that we're going to spend a week in the hotel we're having our actual ceremony and reception. We would love you to join us there! Some others are coming too, like Neville, Luna, George and Angelina for example. Also few of Harry's co-workers are coming too. The other one is Ryan, who's a real hottie! My cousin Marnie is coming too. They'd all love to see you too. Harry took the liberty to contact your boss Mr. Evans and arranged you a vacation from work. Harry and Evans are good friends (they used to play Quidditch together in Sundays about a year ago. Small world, isn't it!) so it wasn't a problem to him at all. I guess you got the image of this being an invitation, but actually this is a command. You have to come!

With love,

Ginny and Harry."

Hermione exhaled after reading the letter out loud. She couldn't believe they had contacted her boss from the American wizarding magazine and arrange her a month off. The brunette detangled the stray of hair she had been rolling between her fingers and winced for the pain. One million thoughts were all racing through her head at the same time and she had to sit down to the windowsill. She really hadn't been in a regular contact with any of her school friends, and all of a sudden she was asked to spend a whole month with them. Hermione folded the letter back to it's envelope. Part of her was excited and ready to pack, but another part of her was hesitating and unsure about the whole trip. Her work situation was under control, thanks to Harry apparently, so the woman didn't really have an excuse not to go.

What if Ron would be there? Sure he would. He was Ginny's brother. Hermione swallowed and placed the closed, white envelope to the windowsill next to where she was sitting.

Hermione was excited about seeing her friends, but she was still unsure about what if she'd see Ron there. What would happen then? Would they develop a relationship again? Hermione didn't really have any feelings towards him anymore, but who knew, right? And what about her friends then. She hadn't seen them in years and was quite unsure how to act around them. Would it all be awkward? Hermione decided to get some sleep and think about the whole situation tomorrow with a clear mind.

There were three firm knocks on Hermione's door. It was Emily. She was the only one who knocked like that. Well, she was also the only one who even visited her unannounced. Hermione lifted her wand and waved it, opening the door without getting up from her bedroom floor, where she had a straight eye contact to her front door. She saw a blonde hair peeking through the crack of the front door and looking left and right.

"I'm right here, you dummy", Hermione smiled and made her friend look at her with a grin.

"I knew that." Emily opened the door fully and stepped into the hall, walking to Hermione's room and sitting down next to her.

"What's up with all these piles of clothes?" She asked, lifting one of Hermione's summer dresses from the floor. The room was filled with clothes, shoes, bags and in front of Hermione, there were two big, purple suitcases.

"I'm packing, isn't it obvious?"

"You decided to go?" Emily asked with a lifted eyebrow. Hermione had told her all about the invitation to the beach house and her concerns about Ron and her other friends. Emily had been supportive but she still seemed surprised about the fact Hermione actually had finally decided to leave.

"Yeah. I need to see my friends. I love them to death and I can't believe I've let myself distance them from me", Hermione sighed and folded her turquoise, wavy dress.

"Hey, I'm your friend too", Emily teased. "What about Ron? Do you think you'll be able to handle it if he's going to be there?"

"Do I have any other choices? Besides, I'm not going to let him be in the way of seeing the people I grew up with. That would just be stupid."

"Right. Do you need help with the packing?" Emily offered and Hermione nodded. After a while of comfortable silence, Emily inhaled heavily and opened his mouth.

"Actually, I think I have to tell you something." Hermione lifted her face to meet Emily's bright, concerned green eyes.

"Is everything okay?" Hermione stopped folding her tank tops.

"Yes, everything's great. It's just that… uh…", for the first time ever, Emily actually seemed to be out of words, which made Hermione nervous. Emily was always ready to speak and wasn't the one to stutter.

"Well? Spit it out", Hermione demanded.

"I got the invitation too. To Koh Lipe", she finally said. Hermione's eyebrows lifted and her mouth opened slightly. What? Emily had been invited too? Hermione did know she had spent a bit time with Harry and Ginny, but not enough to actually be considered as one of their close friends, in Hermione's opinion.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier. I really have no explanation on why I didn't", Emily dropped her eyes to her lap.

"I don't get it. When did you get it?" Hermione asked, dumbfounded.

"A month ago. At the same time you did", she sighed.

"Why didn't you tell me? It's such a small thing. Besides if I would've known, I would've been much more calmer and not so nervous about this whole trip, Emily." The blonde squeezed her arm and didn't lift her face to meet Hermione's.

"I know. I'm so, so sorry. I have no idea why I didn't tell you. Ugh, I'm so stupid", Emily slapped lightly her forehead, making Hermione grin a bit. The brunette truly was confused and a bit mad at her friend for not telling her. There was no reason not to.

"I guess I was just afraid of what you'd say. I mean they're your friends after all and I wouldn't want you to feel like I'd be intruding your territory", Emily explained. Hermione thought about that. Did she feel like her best friend was coming to her area? Not really.

"I mean it's a bit weird, since I didn't know Harry and Ginny even remembered you, no offence, but it's fine to me. I'm just glad you're coming there. I couldn't bare over a month without you", Hermione said and continued packing. Without a warning, Emily wrapped her arms around Hermione's neck and hugged her tightly.

"Whoa, I'm not completely happy with you, young lady, but not entirely mad either", she laughed. Emily giggled back and apologized again for her actions. They continued packing Hermione's belongings in peace and the brunette couldn't stop smiling. She thought about her and Emily. That was the thing about the two; even though one of them did something entirely stupid and unexplainable, they always figured things out. Hermione didn't really understand why Emily had hid the fact she had been invited to the island too, but after hearing her explanation, it wasn't as dumb as it seemed. I mean, would've Hermione tell her immediately if she would've been invited somewhere by Emily's friends? Maybe she would've mentioned it sooner and not the night before leaving, but still. Emily and Hermione were different at some things. And that was one of the things why they were best mates.

"Do you want to use the same portkey?" Hermione asked.

"Dude, they're bracelets. We can't both use the same small object."

"Yes we can. It doesn't matter how big the object is. Once we had ten people using the same boot to get to the Quidditch worldcup and it was completely fine", Hermione said.

"Yeah but we have all the luggages and everything. I rather use my own bracelet."

"I'm going to use a spell to make my suitcases smaller, but okay if you want to travel by yourself." Hermione couldn't help to be a bit offended. Again, the brunette couldn't quite understand Emily's actions, but sometimes the blonde witch just was like that.

After a couple more hours of the women chatting and having a few glasses of red wine, Emily left and Hermione went to her bedroom to check her wardrobe. She had packed almost every single piece of clothing the woman owned, which wasn't that much to be honest. Hermione collapsed on her bed and sighed deeply. Tomorrow she was supposed to face her friends she hadn't seen in a long, long time. At the same time, the thought terrified her and made her excited. Hermione had decided not to think about the fact if she'd be able to be herself around Ginny and others, but as the departure came closer and closer, it jumped back in to her mind. Hermione shook her head.

"Concentrate. It will be fine. They will be normal to you and you will act normal around them."

With that thought, the exhausted brunette fell asleep.

Soooooo... yeah! There it was. Hope you enjoyed *nervous sweating*. Please let me know if you liked or not!