Author's Note: I am actually really surprised at the amount of reviews I got for the first chapter (and delighted), so please review this chapter.

Also, one of the review said that there was a story really like this one the site, I'm kind of devastated because I thought I was being so original, but what can you do? If that person wants to tell me the name of the story then I'll take a look at it and try to make them more different. But, to be honest, this story is already planned out, and I can't change too much of the plot without it turning out badly. But I really don't want to have a story that's the same as someone else's, so I'll try and make them different of you let me know which story it is.

Chapter 1

It was just so surreal. She was still struggling to believe that they had left that crappy bunker, and just hopped on an aeroplane and came home. Imagine, after 4 years of clinging onto the hope that she would one day get to come home, she was now absolutely terrified at the prospect.

She knew it was stupid, moronic actually, for her to be so terrified of the one thing she had yearned fir in all her time away from home. But she was. The problem was probably that she had longed for it for so long. Through everything that had happened in the last few years, all the new horrifying experiences, the one thing that had kept her going, the one thing that had given her hope was that somebody, if all went well, she would get to go home.

She knew it was ridiculously cheesy but she had fantasises about how her return would go, how everyone would just be happy, not mad. Maybe she wasn't ready to let go of that dream at the moment.

Hermione looked up as the receptionist came back to them, the small of seven squashed onto the small sofa.

"Minister Shacklebolt said to go on in." The receptionist said.

Hermione noticed the curiosity in the woman's eyes, she quickly bowed her head as she and her friends approached the office. She doubted that anyone would actually recognise her with how she looked now, but she had learned never to take something for granted, never make silly mistakes.

As they crowded into the office Hermione noticed that it looked almost exactly the same as it had the last time she was there. The walls were lined with portraits, each one of them had their eyes on the group, watching their every movements. There was a mahogany wooden desk in the centre of the room, it was large and grand, and covered in stacks of parchment. The same thick, white and brown rug lay in front of the desk. With two chairs in front of the desk and a few sofas pushed up against the walls, with brown and orange cushions scattered over them carelessly. The room was spacious and gave the impression of wealth and power. The wall behind the desk was mostly taken up by a huge window, it showed the outside streets of London, with the sun splitting the sky and people rushing from place to place. Hermione swore it showed the exact same scene it did four years ago.

Kingsley Shacklebolt, Minister of Magic, sat behind the desk. Outwardly, he appeared calm and composed but from knowing him personally, and learning to read people, Hermione could see shock, suspicion and nerves in his eyes. She wondered briefly how this must seem from his point of view, they had no contact with the ministry for so long and now they turned up in his office. She didn't find herself feeling too sympathetic to him though, after all this was mostly his doing.

"Well. This is certainly a surprise." Kingsley said, smiling at them, with the same calming voice Hermione remembered from her school days and yet it didn't have the calming effect it used to on her, "A good one, though."

Hermione nodded, but before she could answer, Martin spoke up from behind her,

"Bet you didn't expect this King, eh?" He laughed, although it seemed strained to her ears.

Hermione remembered Martin mentioning that he had gone through auror training with Kingsley.

"Definitely, I'm having a hard time believing this actually," Kingsley said, "If you don't mind I'd like to be absolutely sure that it is?"

Hermione nodded again, Kingsley's eyes rested on her before he spoke again,

"When were you first able to see thestrals?" He asked her.

"The night we rescued…Harry. I saw the thestral when you accidentally killed a Death Eater, we were paired up." Hermione answered.

The mention of Harry brought up a few emotions. She would get to see Harry soon, hopefully.

Kingsley nodded.

"I'm not really sure what to do. We had assumed you all dead, there hasn't been any contact in years."

She could feel the accusation he was sending their way. A fire shot through her, a need to protect and defend.

"Contacting the ministry would have given away our position, we couldn't do that." She answered heatedly, showing emotion for the first time since they had reached the ministry.

It was silent for a moment, the tension in the room was growing. She wondered if Kingsley could feel the accusation in her answer too. She saw Nate move closer to her out of the corner of her eye, and she was reminded of everyone else's presence.

Kingsley cleared his throat, "I can understand that." He said gently.

Some of the tension left, Hermione was just glad to have him acknowledge that sometimes ministry protocol didn't apply. When you see someone murdered before your eyes, ministry protocol doesn't apply.

"We thought you were all dead." He said again.

Hermione stiffened, she had expected this.

"Is this all of you?" Kingsley asked quickly, obviously scared of the answer.

"Yes," Jonathon said, stepping forward, "This is everyone."

"What happened?" Kingsley whispered.

Hermione got the impression that he was looking to get answers he had been searching for, for a long time. Hermione had never seen him like, she knew that he was thinking of the plan he had brought forward four years ago. A safe plan, the best way to handle the problem at hand. Efficient, effective and economic. It had crumbled before his eyes.

"We were attacked fairly early in, completely unprepared actually," Jake said, "We lost most of them then. The others happened over the years."

"How many died in the initial attack?" Kingsley asked.

"Nineteen."

Kingsley was silent for a moment. Taking it in.

Hermione looked around her, Martin was watching his old friend intently with concern in his eyes but Jake, Beth and Nate were glaring determinedly at him. Ally and Jonathon were whispering so silently to each other that Hermione would not have realized they were talking, had she not been looking at them.

"I'm going to need to get a clearer picture of what exactly-"

Kingsley was interrupted, as a memo came flying through the air, and landed on his desk. When Kingsley had finished reading the note he began to frown, and Hermione could have sworn that he looked at her for a fraction of a second before answering.

"Actually, that can wait for a few days I'm sure. In the meantime, I think it's best to have you all go to St. Mungos-"

"We're perfectly fine!"

"-no need-"

"…nothing wrong-"

Hermione supressed a laugh, at her friends' attempt to avoid the trip to the hospital.

"I'm sure there's not," Kingsley smiled, "Nevertheless, you have all been through a lot and it's best that we just check that no permanent damage has been done. I'll send you all to a private ward."

"What kind of check-up?" Beth asked nervously, Hermione had to admit that she didn't really like the sound of being poked and prodded by a healer either.

"Just a brief one."

"So we just go there now?" Jake asked.

"Yes, but if you tell the secretary there that you are from the Prevention of Potential Threats Department, then there will be a specific healer who will know what to do. That was all arranged beforehand." Kingsley trailed off.

"What about our families?" Nate said suddenly, "When do we get to see them?"

Hermione felt her stomach churn, a thrill of adrenaline going through her veins.

"That is where I am going to go now actually. It seems I have some very good news to deliver…and some explaining to do, apparently." Kingsley said.

Hermione tried to imagine having to tell a family that their relative was alive, when you were the one who would have said they were dead and she found that she didn't envy Kingsley one bit.

She realized with a jolt that Ron, Harry, her parents, her friends, the Weasleys…would have all thought she was dead. They might have spent time grieving and had now moved on. She almost wanted to tell Kingsley not to bother them with this news, but her selfish need to see them won in the end.

"Do they, um, do they know what we were doing?" Hermione said, unsure of what answer she wanted to her.

Kingsley looked very ashamed of himself, like a child caught with his hand in a cookie jar.

"The department we created was confidential," he began, "So, no. We did not think it was a good idea to tell your families the exact details of the mission. Of course most of them knew that you had signed up for something like this before you left."

Hermione noticed Kingsley avoiding her eyes, he was most likely trying to gloss over the fact that she had not actually signed up for any of this.

"So you'll go see them? Straight away?" Ally said timidly, speaking for the first time. Hermione knew that being the youngest of the group, she had struggled a lot with missing her family.

Ally had only been 17 when they left, she wasn't even meant to have done so much as she did, she was mostly supposed to remain hide away from everything that was going on, but that just wasn't possible and Ally had to grow up quickly, in the same way Hermione had to during the war when she needed to be there for her boys.

Kingsley stared at Ally for a second, a look of sad recognition on his face, probably noticing that Ally had certainly grown up, she had lost the innocent and enthusiastic look that she had when she had first joined the team.

"Of course I will," he answered softly, "I'll bring them to the hospital, it shouldn't take more than a few hours."

Kinsley grabbed a piece of parchment and began scribbling something down, judging by the way he would glance up every few seconds, Hermione assumed that he was writing down what families he needed to see.

"You can all use my floo. It's probably best that your family get to see you all before this gets to the press."

oo00OO00oo

Hermione sat up rigidly on the hospital bed, the Healer beside her, casting spells every few seconds and recording something in his file. Hermione found it irritating how much notes he was taking, especially since he refused to tell her what he was writing down.

She smirked a little when Nate began making faces at the Healer. He was in the bed across from her and seemed to make it his personal mission to cheer everyone up. It wasn't really working. The mood had been quite dour between them all since the meeting in Kingsley's office. Everyone was absorbed in their own thoughts and feelings, and the anticipation to see their families was growing steadily.

Hermione knew that they all had their own stories. Martin had a wife, they had been married 9 years when he left but they never had any children, Hermione knew he was worried about how long he had left her alone, he seemed to be certain that she would still be waiting for him. Jake had been feeling down one night and asked Martin how he knew that he would have a wife to return to, Martin had frozen briefly but then said that his wife knew what his job was, and that there was always a chance of a long mission.

Nate came from a family of boys. He had 4 brothers, 2 were older and 2 were younger. His parents divorced but he had always seemed ok with it. Nate and his brothers had lived in a farmhouse in the countryside for all of their lives, his father lived there too, before the divorce. Nate had a close bond with his mother and missed her more than anything, he had never told her this but she could tell.

Beth was an only child, adored by her parents. She had lived in an apartment in London with her parents until she was 11, then she decided to go to Beauxbatons instead of Hogwarts and the family had moved to France. She had just broken up with her boyfriend when she left, Hermione had always assumed that Beth had joined the department to make a fresh start of some kind. Beth had always told Hermione that she intended on finding her ex-boyfriend when she got home but Hermione had the feeling that Beth was more interested in someone else now.

Jonathan had 2 sisters and a brother, he was the eldest. His parents had been murdered by death eater during the war, which prompted Jonathan to completely change his career path. He became an auror in America, where he was born. He had never really dealt with the death of his parents' death until their mission. Ally helped him heal. Hermione knew that Jonathan was desperate to see his younger siblings again.

Ally signed up for the department when she was straight out of Hogwarts, as an apprenticeship sort of thing, she had only been 17. She had one brother, and lived with him and her parents in a house quite like Hermione's growing up. Ally had never told her family exactly what her apprenticeship involved.

And Jake, well no one really knew. Sure, he had told them about his family. It was just him and his sister, along with their parents. He had come from somewhere in Ireland initially, and had gone to Hogwarts. Everyone was aware there seemed to be something missing from his story, he had never talked about the few years leading up to his departure and the only thing he ever said he missed from home was women. But after hinting time and time again, the group had finally given up and accepted that Jake wanted to keep something private.

Looking around at her friends Hermione was glad that they were all in the same boat together. They had supported each other for so long waiting for this moment, they all knew what being reunited with their families meant to each of them. It was amazing how far this group had come. She remembered first meeting them, they were all so awkward around each other and now, they were practically family. She smiled, she hoped that the bonds they had made would never go away.

The healer checking on her left the room, and Hermione sighed with relief.

"I wouldn't look so happy," Nate grinned, "There might actually be something wrong with you and he's going to get potions."

"Shut up." Hermione rolled her eyes. "How do you know there's not something wrong with you?"

"Cause I'm perfect." Nate grinned.

"Actually I think you're both fine, but I did notice the healer looking at Ally a little weirdly." Jake called from his bed at the end of the ward.

"What? No! Are you serious?" Ally panicked, while everyone laughed at her. She really hated hospitals.

"Oh leave her alone, stop trying to freak her out." Jonathan said.

"Actually, if Jake wanted to freak her out he could just have asked her what she thinks her parents reaction will be to you two going out." Beth grinned wickedly.

Jonathan and Ally both turned a rosy pink, while Hermione smiled at them. It had certainly been surprising when, two years ago, a 19 year old Ally and a 26 year old Jonathan, had announced, rather sheepishly, that they had begun seeing each other but it had worked out so far, personally Hermione thought they were great together.

Nate and Jake roared with laughter at the blushing duo. While Martin looked over at Hermione, and rolled his eyes at the others.

Hermione felt herself relax a little, this is what she need. Pointless banter, between her friends. It was how they muddled through.

"Mature, guys, really mature." Ally said scornfully, although since she was hiding her face it lacked the nonchalant effect she was going for.

The friends were silent. Hermione looked around the room they were placed in. It was a reasonably big room with seven beds, three on one side and four on the other. Hermione was at the farthest end, with Ally beside her, then Jonathan. Facing Hermione was Nate, then Beth, then Jake and finally, Martin beside the door. She was reminded of the way they had been living they past few years, and wondered if it was automatic they way they formed the same format they did when they were sleeping in their bunker. Probably.

Hermione lay back down on the bed, this was probably the first time in her life that she ever thought a hospital bed was comforting but she really liked the bed at the moment. They were all still on their own clothes, she was grateful that they hadn't had to put on hospital gowns. She noticed, for the first time, that the clothes she was wearing were quite big on her. Did she really lose that much weight? She would have to get some new clothes, she wondered what kind of robes were in style at the moment.

God, what was wrong with her? She was about to see everyone again and the only thing she could think about was what clothes she would wear tomorrow. Maybe there was something wrong with her after all.

"So," Ally began, breaking the comfortable silence, "Is anyone else terrified?"

Hermione looked up, interested in the answers.

Beth was smiling at Ally, probably glad that she had brought up the subject. Beth loved to talk about things, she had always been told by her parents that the best way to deal with a problem was to talk about it, and she had practically forced openness into their group.

"Yeah," Beth answered, "I just can't believe it. We're home, guys, this is it."

They all looked around at each other, unstoppable grins forming on their faces. It was a moment, one of those moments, where everything around you seemed to stop and you just got to take in what was around you. Who was there. What you were doing. Why you were there. They would always remember what was about to happen next, for whatever reason, and they were all going through it together. This was the moment that they had all thought about, that they had all talked about and this was what they had been working towards.

"We done it, then." Jake smiled, "I have to admit, I wasn't sure we would for a while there."

Hermione nodded, she was still waiting for the other shoe to drop. She still couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't actually over, she hoped that would pass with time.

"I think we all thought that for a while," Martin said.

"Not me, I had complete faith in our abilities." Nate grinned.

Hermione shook her head at him,

"Sure, what about the time you nearly got both of us killed because you tried to run off?" She demanded, smiling slightly.

"I was testing you."

"Sure." She scoffed.

Nate looked like he was about to retaliate but before he could the doors opened again, and the same healer from earlier walked in.

"Ok, we've done the regular tests and everything seems to be fine. There's been quite a lot of trauma inflicted on both your minds, and your bodies though," he said, not looking up from the parchment in his hand, "so I am going to give you all some Dreamless Sleep potion, I think that would be the best way to guarantee that you all get enough rest."

Hermione nodded at the healer, although he couldn't see her.

She began to mull over his words. Trauma? Well there was no prize for guessing where that trauma had come from, but still, she had assumed that they were all ok, at least physically, since nothing had appeared wrong. Maybe that was a little naïve.

Another healer came rushing into the room and Hermione was shocked to see Kingsley following behind her.

"Healer Jones, Minister Shacklebolt would like a word with the patients, if you don't mind." The healer said.

Healer Jones looked like he did indeed mind but decided not to argue with the Minister of Magic, and he quickly left the room.

"Well," said Kingsley, "I've just got to mention a few things that I should have cleared up earlier."

"Like what?" Nate demanded, "Are our families not here?"

"Of course they are," Kingsley smiled, "But I needed to make you aware of a few things. Firstly, you know that they department was a secret organization?"

They all nodded, Hermione could see where this was going.

"And you remember signing a contract," Kingsley continued, "Saying that you would not tell anyone the specifics of what your job was, unless you received permission?"

They all nodded again.

"Well, I have to inform you that that contract still stands."

"What?" Beth shouted, looking outraged.

"King, you know that I'll have to explain where I was to my wife." Martin said softly.

Kingsley looked uncomfortable.

"Yes, I know this is not ideal, but the details regarding the department were never made public. While we are the ministry thought you to be dead, the public just assumed that you were all people who had decided to leave." Kingsley said.

Silence greeted this revelation. So she had been wrong earlier. Her family didn't think that she was dead, they thought that she had left. Just, left them. Her hand found the ring around her neck and she clung to it for dear life.

"Well what are we meant to tell them?" Jonathan asked, his tone was business-like.

"Due to the circumstances we have decided-"

"Who're we?" Hermione said, finding her voice again.

"The board, the one that was involved in the creation of the department. Anyway, as I was saying we have decided that you can tell your families that you were doing a job for the ministry, but don't go into specifics." Kingsley said.

"Are they out there then? Can we leave?" Martin asked coldly.

Hermione knew that this was him showing anger. Martin never shouted, he just acted with a cold indifference to someone when he was mad. It had always reminded her of how her father would just look disappointed when he was unhappy with her, instead of angry.

"O-of course." Kingsley stammered, Hermione guessed that he was unaccustomed to Martin being annoyed with him.

But what did he expect, really? Hermione knew that Kingsley had been the one to recommend Martin for the department, did he really expect, after 4 years, for Martin to be glad that he was away from home that long and couldn't tell his wife anything.

Hermione climbed off her bed and watched as her friends rushed out the door, the feeling of nervous anticipation came rushing back to her, full force. She felt overwhelmed at the prospect of having to deal with all of this right now.

She had almost reached the door, when Kingsley grabbed her arm.

"Listen Hermione, I know that I'm not your favourite person right now," he began, and for the first time that day, Hermione felt comforted by his calming voice, "but I just wanted to warn you, to let you know that…well when I went to get them, I explained a little."

"Oh, well, um thanks?" Hermione said, unsure of where Kingsley was going with this.

"No, what I meant was that…they were relieved that you were ok, of course but they're a little angry and confused right now," Kingsley said awkwardly, "I'm not sure what to expect for them, you know? It was hard for him, when you left."

Hermione felt a sinking feeling in her stomach, followed almost instantly by red hot anger.

"Well it's not like I wanted to leave, was it?" she spat at him.

She moved past him, not caring that she might have hurt him or been too rude, and she put her hand on the handle of the door. Taking a deep breath, she pulled it open.

Songs for this chapter: I will reach you, by Westlife (It was hard looking for a song for this chapter but I think the lyrics in this one describe Hermione's feelings quite well)