Chapter 1

3 months earlier

Hermione sat in her living room waiting for Ron to come home from work. Hugo was at the Burrow with his grandparents who had picked him up from school at Hermione's request. He and Rose, as well as all three Potter children, had attended muggle primary school until it was time to go to Hogwarts. Hermione, whose parents were muggles, and Harry Potter, who was raised by muggles, thought it best that their children experienced both the muggle and wizarding worlds to "expand their minds". Ron and Ginny, being from an all wizarding family and being stubborn by nature, were not initially fond of the idea. Regrettably for them, neither could argue with Hermione who had a million and one counter points to each of their objections complete with charts, graphs and studies showing how beneficial an early muggle education could be to magically able children. Currently however, Hermione was trying to methodically plan her next conversation with Ron while absent-mindedly tracing a small penknife over an old thing scar on the inside of her left wrist. She knew Ron would not take her impending news well and a big fight would break out, not that that was a bad thing. Tension had been mounting between the two for quite some time and Hermione was somewhat looking forward to venting some of her pent up emotion. Suddenly she felt the pad of her thumb split open and she breathed in sharply and dropped the knife.

"Bollocks!" she muttered angrily while grabbing for her wand "Tergeo! Accio band-aid!" Quickly she cleaned up the spilled blood, snatched the bandage flying at her out of the air and walked over to her writing desk throwing the knife in a drawer. She happened to glance over to the wall as Ron's hand on the enchanted clock (a wedding present from Molly and Arthur) clicked over to traveling. "Dammit, well I guess it's now or never"

"Hermione!" Ron said forcefully as he walked through the door. He stormed into the living room to find Hermione sitting calmly on the sofa.

"Hello honey, it's nice to see you too! How was your day?" she said rigidly.

"How was my day? How was my bloody day? You tell me Hermione!" Ron was fuming "Harry and I came back from Albania and I went to your office to ask you to lunch and I found it is shambles with a team internal operations wizards poking around! Felix from Magical Creatures told me you'd gone of your rocker and blew up your office and quit! I've spent the last 5 hours putting out your fires! Some of them actual fires! What the bleeding hell is going on?"

Hermione remained calm and sighed deeply before speaking. "Do you ever bother to listen to me Ronald?" Ron was about to interject but Hermione stood up quickly and stepped in front of him jabbing him roughly in the sternum with her fore and middle fingers. "Let me FINISH! This is exactly what I am talking about, you never listen, you never let me say my piece and when you do, you tune me out. Well let me tell you mister I have had one hell of a day too, fuck I've had one hell of a year and I sure as shit am not going to let you interrupt me now!" Hermione took another deep breath, ran her fingers through her quickly frizzing hair and sat back down on the couch, patting the space next to her beckoning her husband who was standing with his mouth agape to come sit down. Ron was scared, and rightfully so. Hermione rarely lost her temper and when she did, it was not pretty. He gently sat down as far away as possible knowing she was not above slapping him.

"Now Ron, I told you months ago, in fact I believe it was at dinner on March 4, that I was unhappy at work and was thinking about quitting. And if I recall correctly, you just blew it off with the old 'we all have rough days Herm, but they don't call it work for nothing'" she said this last bit in a mocking tone which she knew would sting Ron a little bit. "I again voiced my feelings a few weeks later at the Potter's dinner party and your sister was the only one to even acknowledge the comment." The thought of Ginny maybe her skin tingle slightly. 'Shake it off Granger, focus!' Hermione thought to herself. "And finally last week I told you that I was going to meet with Shacklebolt to discuss my taking a leave of absence. This whole thing with the Gringotts goblin strike and the resulting misappropriation of gold to the Russian minister's private account has just put me over the edge!"

The truth of the matter was Hermione had single handedly built the Magical Being Interaction Law Division from the ground up. She started off in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures right out of Hogwarts hoping to expand on S.P.E.W. and other similar pursuits. After the Second Wizarding War, attitudes towards non-wand carrying magical beings were quickly changing and it became apparent that a whole restructuring of all the old laws and regulations was in order. Hermione's talent and enthusiasm were quickly realized and in a bold move by Minister Shacklebolt, she was moved to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and given the seemingly impossible task of building her own division at the age of 21. But Hermione being Hermione was more than up for it and within 15 months of her placement she had already written and pushed through over 100 new laws and revisions. Currently the department was made up of a team of 7 witches and wizards and over 1000 new laws or revisions had been made and 99% of them she had personally written. She had been going non-stop ever since and now at 39, with two kids, she had probably worked harder and more cumulative hours than many people twice her age. She honestly felt that she had been doing good work and was making a positive impact on the magical community but the one thing seriously gnawing at her was her children. She had come to the shocking realization one day that she'd practically missed Rose and Hugo's childhood. When they were younger and got out of school they would go to either the Burrow or to their cousins the Potter's who went to the same school because Ron was an Auror and had odd hours and Hermione worked until at least 6, often much later. Ginny or Molly would then floo Rose and Hugo home when their parents got off work. With all his faults, Ron really was a very loving and hands on father. As soon as they walked through the hearth he was in total dad mode. Hermione, who also desperately loved her children, was very practical however. Someone needed to do the cooking and the cleaning and make sure the kids were doing the homework and run the errands. Her relationship with her children was much like the one she had with her own parents growing up, very loving but also somewhat removed. Her children were smart and independent and didn't need to be coddled, but when they did need that extra attention, they went to Ron. And that tore at Hermione's heart. She needed to do something and she needed to do it now before both her kids went off to Hogwarts. She knew from experience that her own relationship with her parents had weakened when she went off to school, partly because they were muggles, but also because she was growing up, she was a teenager and parents are not cool to teenagers.

"Ron, they wouldn't let me quit. I spoke to Shacklebolt last week. He said I was "too valuable to the ministry"

"You are! How is that a bad thing? You're amazing Herm!" Ron added quickly hoping a compliment would help the situation.

"Ron I'm valuable because I do the work of 5 people in a fraction of the time and a fraction of the cost and I'm burnt out"

"Then ask for more money! They'll give it to you to keep you around!" Ron shouted.

"It is not about the goddamn money Ronald! Is that all you think about? I know you grew up poor but for gods sakes let it go! We have more than enough gold for a lifetime." She knew this last comment was a low blow as Ron was very proud of their financial success and was always self-conscious of his meager beginnings. He hung his head and she could see his ego deflating. She tried to get back on track, "anyway, he offered me a raise, a substantial one in fact, but that is entirely beside the point I am trying to make. Bottom line was Shacklebolt would not accept my resignation so I knew that if I really wanted to get out I would need to make somewhat of a spectacle out of it, hence, what happened today. I discussed it in full with Marjorie and transferred all the important documents to her office yesterday, she will be fully capable of running the division and she deserves the promotion…" Hermione began to trail off.

Ron took this break as a cue to rejoin the discussion "But why Hermione? Why? Because it was too much work? Cut back your hours! You've always been so passionate about your work, I don't understand…"

"Because of the kids Ron!" She snipped before he could go any further, "I miss my kids, our kids. I've watched them grow up from practically the sidelines! And now Hugo is off to Hogwarts in the fall and I'll have missed my chance!"

"Herm that's not true! You're a great mom! The greatest mom! They know you love them and they know you love job and that what you do is important, just like me and my job" Ron did truly believe she was a great mom and was pleading at this point for her to see it.

"Ron, you can't understand. You spend a lot of time at work as well but when you come home your whole focus is on Rose and Hugo. And I envy that. I get home from work and have to keep the household running, make sure bills get paid and the socks laundered and dinner on the table. And I don't want that to be the only way I show my kids that I care about them. I know they know I love them, but I want to be the one to play games with them and take them to quidditch matches,"

"You hate quidditch!"

"I don't HATE it, but again, off point. Ron, I want to be the parent that you and Ginny had growing up. The parent that you are to our kids and that Ginny and Harry are to James, Albus and Lily." She paused here knowing that the next bit was sure to rile Ron yet again, "which is why I am taking the kids to my parents' place in Perth for the summer"