Gathering their bearings the Grangers walked together to the front door, Hermione knowing it would be the ministry official, and her parents wanting to support their daughter, even if they didn't know what was going on. Sucking in a deep breath Hermione opened the door, to see a relatively young looking woman, Hermione guessed she would have just recently left Hogwarts, or whichever school she attended. The woman looked up at Hermione, putting on what she supposed was meant to be a professional but friendly smile, "Miss Hermione Jean?" the woman inquired.
Hermione had lost her nerve, and couldn't find the words to respond, she simply nodded, stepping back from the door, allowing the woman to walk through, leading her back into the lounge room, where her wand sat still on the coffee table. The woman spotted it instantly, and moved to pick it up while introducing herself. "I am Melissa Eatons, and I presume this is the wand that was used to perform the spells in question?" she asked, holding it up firmly to be seen by all in the room, but away from everyone, as if she expected someone to make a grab for it.
"Miss Eatons, I'm afraid there has been a terrible mistake" Hermione began, finally finding her voice. "You see, I turned of age today, it's my birthday, you must have simply forgotten to remove the trace from me" Hermione continued. Melissa simply shook her head and gave a small tsk sound.
"The Ministry of Magic does not simply forget to remove the trace" She said, emphasising the word simply and talking to Hermione as if she were but a small child. "The trace essentially dies once a witch or wizard reaches of age, at the age of 17 you become slightly stronger with your magic, enough to fight the trace out of you, so to speak" she continued smugly, even with her stumbling words, as if she was making it up as she went along.
Luckily Hermione's mum had figured out enough of what was going on and had the sense to fetch Hermione's birth certificate. She marched back into the room, waving it around proclaiming "Look here missy! Don't you go calling my girl a liar!" and shoving the certificate into the witch's hand.
"Granger?" The woman asked, looking up at the three rather intimidating faces of the family, "I see, there seems to be some sort of-" the woman paused, looking mightily embarrassed "error, I'll need Miss-" she paused again to look at the certificate in her hands "Miss Granger to come with me to get this sorted out".
Melissa stuck out her arm to Hermione and looked at her expectantly, she begrudgingly took Melissa's arm in her hand and in the blink of an eye the two were gone, re-appearing in a busy room of the ministry.
It was chaos, people were running everywhere carrying stacks of parchment, other pieces of parchment were flying overhead through the air in all kinds of directions, and people were calling out to one another across the room, some even using charms to ensure they got heard clearly. Hermione couldn't help the look of disdain that graced her face, as much as she respected some people in the ministry and those of authority, it was no wonder there were so many blunders in the magical world. No wonder she was being dragged from her parents over their mistake.
Melissa walked quickly through the halls barking orders left and right, Hermione struggled to keep up without having to run. Before long they burst through a pair of doors, into the first peaceful room Hermione had seen, there were a few desks lining the walls, and a few people sat behind them, paused momentarily to look at Hermione and Melissa before turning back to their work. The two walked through the office and into another set of doors at the end.
The man in this room was a very stern looking man, and it looked as if he did not appreciate the interruption.
"What is the meaning of this Miss Eatons?" he barked. Melissa on the other hand continued walking closer to the desk, bending over and whispering into the man's ear, frantically gesturing towards Hermione.
"Get the blasted test done then woman! Find out who she is and don't bother me!" he snarled back, Hermione ever so curious stepped forwards to speak, but she was instantly pulled away and dragged once again through many corridors, Melissa barking orders all around her once more.
Hermione began to panic, what was going on? What tests were they talking about? What did any of this have to do with her? Something was obviously wrong, and Hermione did not have an answer for her own questions, and no means to find out, as Melissa was in no mood to respond to her. After what felt like a good ten minute brisk walk, Hermione was out of breath having been dragged everywhere and was glad to have a rest, the room around her reminded her of a muggle hospital, it was all very white and clean, though it did not have the distinctive chemical smell.
Her musings were interrupted when Melissa finally decided to fill her in on what was happening, "We are unsure of why the trace is still on you, so we are going to conduct a small blood test and hope that will give us some answers" she said, before forcing Hermione into a chair. Seconds later a medi-witch appeared, brandishing her wand and giving a reassuring smile to Hermione.
"This won't hurt at all" she promised, holding her wand to Hermione's forearm and a vial nearby.
Hermione's arm began tingling, and as she looked down she could see the medi-witch slowly and carefully guiding her blood, through a cut she hadn't felt, into a vial. The medi-witch smiled again, before Hermione slowly closed her eyes, succumbing to the tiredness she had not felt before.