Chapter_02
Seven years later
Hermione sat in the café she had occupied since she had come back into the magic world for her new job.
After the war was over and the new school year had started, Hermione had hoped that Pansy would be back but no such luck. She had looked for any kind of evidence that she would be alive so she could find her but after the summer was over she had asked Draco, who had become a member of their friends group, but he told her that Pansy probably didn't wanted to be found.
So after her graduation she took one year off from everything and traveled through the magic-world and the muggle-world to find the girl. She didn't even know why she was so determined to find her but she told herself she wanted to thank Pansy, that was all.
But after she didn't had any luck on her travel, after years, she came back to Hogsmeade where all her friends had stayed to pursuer their dream jobs.
Ron had become the new owner of The Three Broomsticks, after Madam Rosmerta decided to travel the world. Ginny and Luna had moved in together after graduation, since they are dating. The redhead started her job as an auror and Luna studied every magical-creature she could find and became a magizoologist. Harry had finished his master in potions and is now the potion teacher at Hogwarts and his longtime boyfriend, Draco, is now surprisingly, a wandmaker.
And Hermione? Well, after she came back from her unsuccessful search she started a doctrine by madam Pomfrey to become a Matron. And now after five years of learning everything she could, the brunette took over the hospital wing in Hogwarts after madam Pomfrey retired.
And today is the first day of the new school year.
"Hey, you are early." Hermione looked up and saw Ginny sitting down in the chair in front of her, a coffee in hand.
"Yeah, I needed to go through a few documents before the new students arrive today." She looked back down at her papers and absentmindedly took a sip from her tea.
"Actually, I came here today to tell you that I have to go to another investigation." Hermione looked at her redheaded friend with concern. Ginny had been going to these investigations for the last month, one time she had been gone for nearly a week. And nearly every time she comes back with some minor wounds.
"How long is it going to be this time?" Every time Ginny goes away her girlfriend stays over at Hermione's place, since she doesn't likes to stay alone. Not that she has something against it, it's just that the longer the redhead is away the more worried Luna gets and then she starts to follow the brunette everywhere and Hermione can't do her job right.
"At least three days and at most a week." Since Ginny started this investigations she had more and more secret missions and Hermione would love to know what these where. But she trusted her friend and knew she shouldn't put her nose where it didn't belong.
"Alright, Luna can stay at my place." Ginny's smile brightened. "But, you have to hurry and come back without injuries or I will forbid you to go on any missions in the future." Hermione glared at her with hidden amusement.
"That is my job, Hermione, you can't forbid me to do my job." Ginny grinned smugly, thinking she had the upper hand.
"I'm your doctor, I can transfer you to a desk job." Hermione could see the horror making its way over her friends face and then her eyes narrowed.
"You wouldn't dare." They glared at each other for three seconds before bursting out in laugher. They had all been so occupied by their work that it was hard to meet up with everyone for a bit and enjoy the company.
Hermione looked at her watch and noticed that the students would arrive in nearly an hour and she still had to do a few things before they would storm through the doors.
"Sorry, Ginny, but I have to cut this short. I still have a few things to prepare before the students arrive." She put her papers in her back and stood up with Ginny. They hugged each other goodbye and Hermione left the little café.
"You sure that you won't say anything?" Ginny asked into the room, to the only other costumer, at the table in a corner, hidden behind a book. "It's been seven years."
"It's better like this." The black haired woman said.
It had been now exactly five days after her conversation with Ginny and she started to feel anxious. Luna had started to come to Hogwarts every day now and didn't like it when Hermione left without saying something, which was kind of a sign that something happened. Hermione can't explain it but Ginny and Luna kind of feel if something is happening to the other and that makes her even more anxious than she already was.
Hermione sat in her office, in Hogwarts, and looked at a black scale she had found after she searched for Pansy near the girl's mansion. That was the last day of her search, Hermione had taken the scale and put it on a chain so she could hang it around her neck and had never took it off since.
Suddenly the door burst open and a bunch of blonde hair run in.
"You have to look at this!" Luna run up to her and showed the brunette her closed hands. "I found him outside in the woods. I looked for his parents or other animals but he was all alone and hurt, so I took him with me."
"Hold still or I can't see anything." Hermione placed her hands on Luna's shoulder's and hold her bouncing friend still so she could take a good look at what she was talking about.
Luna opened her hands and there sat a golden snidget on her palm. Hermione looked at the golden bird and slowly took him from her friend's hand and looked for the injury Luna talked about.
"He just has a dislocated shoulder. I will direct it and bandage it to his body so he can't use it for a week, after that he will be as good as new." The brunette smiled at her friend who excited lifted the bird in the air and started telling him how he is going to be okay.
The day slowly came to an end and Luna was still sitting in Hermione's office. Luckily #, there hadn't been any accidents so she had a rather quiet day.
Luna lay on the couch she had put into her office for naps or when friends came over. Hermione sat on her desk chair looking down on the scale, she wasn't sure why she still kept it but somehow every time she looked at it she felt that everything would be okay.
"That's a really pretty dragon scale." Hermione froze in her seat, she didn't notice Luna walking over to her. "You never really told us where it's from."
"Yeah…" Hermione looked over her shoulder contemplating if she should tell her. She never really considered it a secret but it was something that was hers and she didn't feel comfortable sharing it. "I don't really want to talk about it."
"Oh, of course. You don't have to, it was just something I noticed." Luna smiled her bright smile and walked back to the couch.
Hermione looked back down to the scale, it was everything that she had from Pansy. After the war pansy had vanished from the face of earth, no one had talked or seen her, she was a ghost. Many people thought she had died somewhere or that she had joined the last death eaters but Hermione was sure that that wasn't the case.
Pansy had fought for them in the war and protected the students from the death eaters, she wouldn't join them. Not many had seen who had been the one who did the fire magic except for a few. And Hermione was surer that Pansy was still alive, nothing kills Pansy Parkinson that easily.
She was ripped out of her thoughts when suddenly the door swung open and crashed against the wall. She couldn't believe her eyes, there stood Ginny a few wounds showing on her pale skin and an exhausted expression on her face.
"Oh, merlin, what happened?" Before Hermione even could react Luna was already by her girlfriend's side. Hermione jumped up and walked over to the redhead but before she could reach her Ginny already hobbled out of the office to the infirmary.
"You have to help her." She pointed to a figure lying on one of the beds, unconscious. Hermione didn't had to be told twice, she run back to her office grabbed her supplies and then back to the patient.
When she reached the bed her breath stopped, there lying on her infirmary bed was Pansy Parkinson, the person she had searched for, for nearly seven years.
Hermione came back to her sense and started her examination. "What happened?" She looked up at Ginny, who shamefully looked down while getting patched up by Luna. "I have to know or I could give the wrong diagnosis."
"We attacked a group of death eaters with our squad." Ginny looked ashamed to the ground when Hermione shot her an angry look. "We thought we would be alright because they were five and we were seven but it was a trap and we got attacked from every side. Only thanks to her, because of the Dragon-Curse, we came out alive and could imprison most of them. But then she suddenly collapsed and I couldn't bring her to a hospital or someone would recognize her."
"How long?" Ginny looked quizzically up at her brunette friend, who was still tending to an unconscious Pansy.
"What?"
"I asked, how long have you known? How long have you listened to me talking about finding Pansy and secretly knowing where she is? How long have you been lying to me?" Ginny looked sheepishly don to the ground and that made Hermione even more furious.
"A month." The redhead whispered. "When I came on the squad last month I had no idea, I swear, but then she came into the conference room. Our squad is responsible for catching the last death eaters and it seems like she is helping but it had to be kept a secret and-"
"Enough, I don't want to hear this anymore." Hermione was angry, not because Ginny hadn't said anything, she wasn't allowed to, no, it was because it seems like Pansy had been in Hogsmeade for a while and didn't even thought about contacting anyone of them. Not that they had been friends but a simple 'I'm not dead', would have been enough.
"I'm sorry." She heard Ginny whisper. Great, now she made her friend feel bad, she had explain herself or Ginny would feel bad without any reason.
"No, don't. I'm not angry at you, it's just, that she had been in Hogsmeade for some time, right?" Ginny nodded. "And she never said anything. That's what makes me mad." Hermione concentrated back on her task as Ginny and Luna looked at each other with knowing expressions.
Hermione couldn't find anything that would have caused Pansy's condition so she raised the t-shirt up to under her breasts and what she saw let her breath hitch. On Pansy's ribcage you could see five black scales, it wouldn't have been so bad if she had been in her dragon form but she was a human at the moment, which meant the curse started to attack her body.
Hermione quickly walked over to her different potions and looked for the only one that could work. She found it and jogged back to the unconscious woman. She opened it and let ten drops fall onto the scales and the rest she made Pansy swallow.
All three woman waited patiently and then the scales slowly vanished in a dark mist. Hermione exhaled, the worst was finished. She walked into her office and wrote down the ingredients she would need to make more of this potion and walked back to her friends.
"Could you get these things for me? I need them as soon as possible." She handed the paper to Luna and looked over at Ginny. "I gave her a potion that will stop the curse to increase as long as she won't be using it again but therefore she will have to drink it every other day." Ginny nodded in understanding. "Are you okay, or is there something I need to take a look at?"
"No, I'm okay, just a few scratches nothing too serious." Ginny grinned. Now that the worst was over every one could breathe again. "I will go home now and come back with Luna to bring you the ingredients."
She stood up and took Luna's hand, with one last goodbye the pair left the infirmary.
Hermione looked down on Pansy, her pale skin was marked with a few little scars and bruises. Her face looking much more relaxed than she had ever seen and her beautiful long black hair was spread around her head and pillow.
"What have you gotten yourself into?" Hermione asked the sleeping woman.