Chapter 1: A New Beginning
A man with glasses and black, messy hair walked out of a highly secure room late one evening. After he closed the door the walls spun around, making him feel slightly dizzy. The man walked across the room and carefully chose another door. He was on his way home from a tiring day of work at the Ministry of Magic. He walked down the dark corridor and bumped into someone he would much rather not be around, Draco Malfoy. "Watch where you're going Potter!" he spat. Harry Potter walked away ignoring what Malfoy had said and thought about how nice it would be if he could just apparate home, but as that was impossible to do he had to use floo powder. He walked fast down the hall since he was running late.
Finally he reached the lift and entered; the grills shut with a crash behind him. The lift slowly ascended and came to a stop. A cool female voice said "The Atrium," the grills slid open and Harry walked out into a very long hall with dark wooden floors. The hall was crowded with many wizards on their way home. Harry however didn't pay attention to them he was looking at a large fountain halfway down the Atrium, as Harry looked at the witch and wizard placed on it, he remembered only too well the time when he chased Bellatrix Lestrange to this very room. She had killed his god father, Sirius Black. Harry had become possessed by Lord Voldemort that night - he shuddered with this thought.
He was brought back to the present by someone saying "Hi Harry!" Harry looked to his right: it was Neville Longbottom. Neville was now working as an Auror for the Ministry of Magic, because he was determined to stop innocent people from getting hurt, like their parents had.
"Hullo, Neville," Harry said glumly.
"How are you, Harry?" Neville asked excitedly.
"Tired" Harry said. "Sorry, but I can't talk now, I've got to get home, I'm late."
"Ok," Neville said, looking a bit disappointed. "See you tomorrow Harry!"
"Bye," Harry said as he walked off to the left wall where there were many fireplaces with people walking into the green flames. Harry went to the only fireplace left, tossed in some floo powder, and stepped into the green flames.
"Headmistress Office, Hogwarts," he commanded.
He swirled around tucking his elbows in so they wouldn't hit the sides. Minutes later he landed in a circular room with many moving pictures of all the previous Headmasters and Headmistresses of Hogwarts. He wiped the soot from his glasses and robes and started to walk towards some steps when a voice called out "I still think you would have done well in Slytherin."
"Oh shut up." Harry said to the Sorting Hat.
"Now is that any way to talk to the Sorting Hat, Harry?"
Harry turned around and said "Sorry professor Dumbledor," to a portrait of a man with half-moon spectacles and a long gray beard. Harry turned back around and slumped up the steps that led to the next room.
"Harry! There you are. You're late - I was so worried," Hermione said apprehensively.
"I'm sorry," Harry said giving her a kiss on the cheek. "I had a lot to do at work today; I got out as soon as I could."
"That's ok," Hermione said, and sat back down on her arm chair.
"Happy second anniversary!" Harry said, and with a flick of his wand he held out two dozen red roses for Hermione.
"Oh, Harry they're beautiful!" Hermione exclaimed. She jumped up and gave Harry a big hug.
"I had the Elves make us a special dinner for tonight. I offered to pay them extra - I hope you don't mind." Hermione said looking at Harry.
"That's fine," Harry said with a smile. Once Hermione became Headmistress of Hogwarts she convinced the house Elves, along with the help of Doby, that they would be much happier if they received pay.
They both walked into their little dining room, which Hermione had adorned with romantic candles and little pink hearts that magically floated around the room. She whipped up a vase for her roses and placed them in the middle of the round table. Harry poked a floating heart and it popped.
"Sorry," he said sheepishly.
"It's alright, I popped one too," Hermione told him.
They sat down in their usual seats, and waited for their supper to appear on their plates.
"So how was your day?" Harry asked Hermione, as he picked up his fork to begin eating.
"It was good, except for when these two first-years dropped dung bombs in the halls - Filch was really angry," Hermione laughed. "They are always playing pranks."
"That sounds like Fred and George - are they twins, too?"
"No," Hermione replied "but they are both in Griffindor, and a lot of their prank supplies come from the Weasley's Wizarding Weezes. This one prank they did last week had a poor girl stuck to a toilet with the foulest smell ever coming from the stall. She told her friend that she couldn't get off the toilet and her friend immediately came to get me. The unfortunate girl was so embarrassed. The boys were quite disappointed when they found out I knew how to get her off the toilet because Fred had guaranteed them that no one would be able to figure out how to remove the spell from the toilet. I guess Fred didn't know that George had told me about it. In fact Fred was quite disappointed as well."
Harry laughed.
"They are quite the mischievous little pair, although I don't know if they will be able to live up to Fred and George's standard," Hermione said with a smile.
"Speaking of mischievous people, guess who I literally ran into today," Harry said.
"Who?" Hermione asked.
"Malfoy, he was heading towards the Department of Mysteries."
"What was he doing down there?"
"I don't know."
"He might be up to something, you should probably keep a close eye on him," Hermione commented looking slightly worried.
"So how was your dinner?" Hermione asked, noticing that Harry was finished eating.
"It was delicious."
"You're welcome," she said with a big grin.
"Wow, its really late - we should probably get to bed," Harry said looking down at his watch.
They both got up from the table as the scraps of food miraculously disappeared from the golden plates. Hermione put out the flames of the candles and got rid of the floating hearts as Harry put away the glistening plates.