See Me

Chapter One

It was two years after completing her schooling at Hogwarts, and Hermione Granger was rushing home for Christmas. It was very difficult for her to tear herself from her office in the wizarding world. Hermione was basically a wizarding lawyer. She dealt with marriage disputes, and custody battles. She never knew this took place in the wizarding world, too. It was just like the muggle world, except sometimes the disputes were much more dangerous. Hermione liked being a wizarding lawyer, but it was very stressful and had extremely long hours. She had mountains of paperwork on a daily basis, and sometimes she felt like she was being pulled in 50 directions. She did her best to satisfy everyone's wants and needs.

Luckily, her boyfriend Ronald Weasley was just as busy as she was most of the time. He worked at St. Mungo's Hospital as a Healer. He wasn't a normal healer. He healed emotions. He was a psychiatrist, in muggle terms. Ronald had found that he was actually very good at listening and dealing with other peoples problems. He worked a lot with patients who had deep depression. Also, he worked with patients with relationship problems or orphaned children. Ronald hated working with children. It wasn't that he hated children; it was that he hated seeing them sad. No child should deal with depression. He worked well with them, though.

Hermione was madly in love with Ronald Weasley. He had a big heart. They had been together since their 7th year at Hogwarts. It was an obvious relationship. Harry definitely wasn't surprised, and neither was his girlfriend, Ginny. Harry and Ginny was an obvious relationship too. To Hermione, anyway. To Ron, it was a complete shock. It took Ron time to get used to the idea, but he found he liked it. At least he knew his little sister was with a good man. He was happy when Harry and Ginny announced that they would be getting married. Hermione was too, but she couldn't help but thinking she should be getting married too. She and Ron had discussed marriage, but he wasn't ready. He didn't understand the pressure to "grow up". Hermione didn't argue with him. She didn't want him to concede to marriage, she wanted him to want marriage. In Hermione's opinion only time would tell.

It was the day before Christmas Eve, and Hermione was rushing to get out of the office, but her secretary kept bombarding her with even more paperwork.

"Hillary, this is going to have to wait until I get back. My parents are expecting me," Hermione said, becoming exceptionally annoyed.

"Ms. Granger, these can't wait. Mr. Malfoy said they are of the utmost importance. He said they'd have to be signed before you can leave the office. He said he's sorry to do this to you at the last moment," Hillary said quickly. Hillary Swint was a good secretary, but she was easily overwhelmed.

Oh, and that was another thing. Draco Malfoy was Hermione's boss. Surprisingly enough, he had become a nice man. He had torn himself away from the death eaters. It was never a life he had wanted to maintain. He actually never wanted to be evil; it was just something he had been forced into as a child. When Draco first hired Hermione Granger, he spent hours explaining this to her. He wanted to make sure she knew from day one that he was deeply sorry for everything he had done. Ron and Harry didn't want to believe it, of course. Hermione didn't care. She believed him, and it was a good job.

"All right," Hermione was defeated. She grabbed her quill and began scribbling frantically. Normally she would have to read through the papers and make sure she knew what she was signing for, but she knew Draco had already done it. Whenever he sent her last minute paperwork, he made sure to read through it. After a year and a half, he pretty much knew what Hermione was willing to sign off on.

After she finished signing about ten papers, she was on her way out. Soon enough, she was at her flat. It was a little place. It was an apartment, and it was actually in the muggle world. She found that living in the muggle world, but having a wizarding job was more effective for her. It kept her tied to her roots. Ron didn't understand, but how could he? He wasn't raised a muggle. Hermione loved her apartment. It had one bedroom, a bathroom, a very nice kitchen, and a den. It was small and quaint; just what she needed. The only thing it was lacking was a Christmas tree, and that was only the season. She felt bad that she never put up a Christmas tree. It was just something she hadn't gotten around to. Besides, what was the point? No one spent Christmas there, and it was just more work for her to do.

After glancing around, Hermione picked up her suitcase that she had packed the night before, and was out the door. Her apartment building was a good hour from her parents' house; therefore, she had rented a car, like always, so she could drive there. Hermione always liked to drive. Her parents taught her how when she wasn't at Hogwarts. It was nice, because everything in the wizarding world was so fast. You could be somewhere in seconds, even if it was far away. Hermione liked taking her time when it came to travel, and what better way, other than walking, was there?

Her rental car was simple. It was a white Mercedes. It wasn't her style, but she gladly took what they had. Hermione always liked SUVs. It didn't matter. She was just about to start the car when there was a tap on the window and out of the corner of her eye she could see Ron's red hair. She smiled as she saw his worried face in the window, and opened the door.

"Leaving before saying goodbye?" Ronald said, miserably.

"I thought you'd be with your family, and I was in a rush." Ronald knew she would forget to say goodbye. She was a busy lady, and he loved her for it. She was the ultimate multitasked, but sometimes even she forgot or messed up.

"It's alright, love. I just couldn't last five days without seeing your face," he smiled at her. Hermione looked amazing to him. She was very modest, and was dressed in simple grey dress pants and a white blouse. And she was wrapped up in a black pea coat, and she was wearing black heels. Her face was very lovely and the only makeup she ever wore was mascara.

"I'm sure you could have managed," Hermione laughed, as Ron pulled her into his arms. He held her tightly for a few minutes, and Hermione just rested her head on his broad chest. Nothing could replace this feeling.

"Hermione! You're finally here," Hermione's mother came running out of the house. Her father was standing in the doorway trying to get his wife to come back into the house. It was freezing cold outside and snow covered the ground, and Jane, Hermione's mother, was wearing a short sleeved t-shirt and jeans. Hermione couldn't help but smile. She had amazing parents, who loved her very much. They were always exceedingly proud of her, even if her being a witch wasn't what they had in mind. They were unusually accepting of Hermione's gift and exclaimed that they had always known she was special. They just didn't know how special.

The day Hermione had received her letter from Hogwarts; they had all thought it was a joke. They laughed, except for Hermione. She, of course, did not think it was a joke, and took matters very seriously for an eleven year old. It was a perfect explanation for all of the weird things that had been happening to her. Surprisingly, when she explained to her parents they decided to look into it. Since the letter said nothing other than to board Platform 9 ¾ on September 1st at 11 a.m. From there, everything just fell into place.

Hermione's parents were ridiculous. Here her mother was frantically running through the snow towards the car, and her dad was chasing after her with a jacket. She laughed and got out of the car.

"Mom, would you please put that bloody jacket on before Dad has a heart attack?" Her mother wouldn't hear any of it. Soon enough she was smothering Hermione with hugs. Her father, Daniel, wasn't far behind, coat in tow. He forced the jacked onto Jane.

"Daniel, grab her luggage," Jane said as she pulled Hermione towards the house.

"Mom, let me help him," Hermione struggled. She felt bad treating her Dad like a butler.

"No. Your father can handle it." Jane wasn't going to have any of it. She refused to have her daughter carrying luggage when she was a guest. Even though Hermione used to live there, her mother insisted that Hermione was a guest.

Jane ushered Hermione into the house, while her husband grabbed Hermione's luggage. Daniel was thankful that his daughter wasn't one to over pack. All she brought was one suitcase and a little travel bag. Once he got back inside the house, the girls were in living room talking about Hermione's job. He took Hermione's things up to her old room. Jane and Daniel had left it the same. It still had the same canopy bed. Everything was the same, except Hermione didn't live there.

Downstairs, Jane and Hermione were catching up. Daniel entered the room just as Jane was asking about Ronald.

"So how's Ronald?" Jane absolutely adored Ron, and Daniel did too. They thought he was a match made in heaven for Hermione and Jane was always asking about marriage. She was overeager for grandchildren. Hermione tried to explain that she was only 20, and wasn't ready for children anytime soon.

"He's good, Mom. He's with his family for Christmas."

"Set a date yet?"

"Mom, no. We've been through this. Ron will ask me when he's ready. Until then, I'm not willing to force him into a marriage he isn't ready for. Maybe he'll never be ready. Who knows?"

"I know," Jane stated, "Tea anyone?" Jane got up and left the room before anyone could actually answer. She always abandoned conversations when they didn't go her way. In her mind, Ron and Hermione were engaged. Hermione sighed and looked over at her father who shrugged and yawned.

After tea, they all went to bed. Hermione was exhausted. It was barely 11 p.m., but she was beat. It had been a long week, like always. As soon as she plopped onto the bed, she knew she wouldn't get back up until morning. She wouldn't even get up to change her clothes. As she lay in bed, she thought about Ron. She imagined five years from now. In her dream, they were happily married.

Hermione woke up late; it was 11 a.m. She knew that her Mom and Dad would already be up and about. Probably going crazy over preparations for their annual Christmas Eve party that they had. They invited everyone: coworkers, family, and friends. It was a big deal and everyone looked forward to it. As Hermione moseyed her way downstairs and into the kitchen, she noticed a plate of breakfast on the counter. She heard her parents in the living room discussing what they need to get. Hermione was busy devouring her pancakes when her parents walked into the kitchen.

"Hermione, we're going to run a few errands for the party tonight. We should only be a few hours. You can come along if you'd like or stay here," Jane watched Hermione shovel food into her mouth.

"I'll definitely come along," Hermione spoke with food in her mouth. She hadn't had good food in a while, and temporarily forgot her manners. Hermione finished her food and put the plate away, then dashed up the stairs to change.

As Hermione was coming down the stairs, she noticed her parents waiting by the door. Her parents had always been that way. When they were ready to go, they were ready to go. They weren't impatient with her like they had been when she was a child.

"Sorry," Hermione muttered as they all walked outside.

They were on their way back from running errands, and Hermione was oddly happy. It had been a while since she had done this with her parents. Funnily enough, as a child she absolutely hated running errands with them. Now, though, it was nice. It was an excellent way for Hermione to spend time with her parents.

As she peered out the window, Hermione noticed that a lot of things had been changing around her old home. There were new stores, new schools, and new neighborhoods. They were at a red light and Hermione noticed a large truck in front of them with metal pipes tied onto the back. Hermione hated being behind big trucks. They were slow, and very dangerous. Luckily, they only had a couple more lights before they would be turning in the neighborhood.

Hermione's parents were chattering away in the front seats about new additions to the house. They wanted to do some renovations. Hermione laid her head back and closed her eyes. She was thinking about Ron; she missed him already. She thought about what he was doing at that very moment. He was probably outside playing Quidditch with Ginny and Harry. They always did that even though it was freezing cold. Hermione laughed to herself at the thought.

"Oh my God!" Hermione heard her mother scream from the passenger side. Hermione looked up and saw pipes rolling off the back of the truck. Daniel tried to turn the car, but everything happened so fast, and suddenly everything was going black……