Upon arriving for her second day on the job, Hermione's nerves were high on alert.

It was the day in which Ben would be introduced to the Department staff as Head, and she was particularly interested to see if anyone other than Harry noticed his resemblance to a certain dark wizard. Since his disappearance, the world still feared his name. However, one reporter was braver than the rest and decided to publish a book - a biography of sorts - of Lord Voldemort.

Hermione had let out a multitude of indignant shrieks the night before as she sifted through the work of Rita Skeeter.

As much as it pained her to admit, she was grateful for the awful woman's book. She'd included a blurry old school photo of Tom Riddle early on in chapter four, so she was very curious indeed to see if any of the Ministry-employed fanatics recognised him. Unlike Harry and Ginny, Hermione had never actually seen Tom Riddle. But after finding the photo, she had to admit - Harry was not wrong. Ben did look a fair bit like the blurry school boy.

She decided it would be for the best to keep mum about Harry's suspicions for the moment. Knowing Ron, he'd panic unnecessarily, and that was certainly something she didn't want to deal with, not with the added pressures of a new job. She didn't need him fuelling the fire, though she was certain that Harry would tell Ron himself soon enough. Resigning from his position as an Auror hadn't come between him and Harry, the two barely managing to go a week without catching up.

It was best she make the most of the calm while she had it.

"Morning, Granger!" Ben greeted cheerily as she entered the office bright and early.

She halted in the doorway and narrowed her eyes. He had to be doing it on purpose, there was no way someone could be so forgetful.

He tilted his head questioningly before he eventually figured it out. "Oh, right - Weasley - sorry."

"Good morning," she replied at last before she dumped her things on her desk in her booth.

"How's it coming? Anything of value in those boxes?" Ben asked, having followed her over.

"In all honesty, no. Most of it's rubbish. But I have this," she handed over the report that Penrose had given her the previous night. Ben's eyes scanned the document quickly.

"No wonder Williamson lost his mind," he mumbled once he had finished reading. He scrunched up the parchment in his hand and threw it into the small waste paper basket in the corner. "This tells me that you all have no idea what you're doing any more."

Hermione's eyebrows shot up. "I know it's not ideal, but it's all that we have. The trail is like... chasing a ghost."

"'Not ideal'" Ben scoffed. "That's putting it all lightly. There are no leads, not a single one. The department has let it run completely cold."

"How would you suggest we fix it then?" Hermione asked before she could stop herself.

"We need to look into groups of power. We know he was a half-blood, yes? Have we looked into muggle organisations? Any dictators on the rise? It may not be his MO to work with muggles, but maybe he's desperate. Like Grindelwald and Hitler? And - we need the Malfoy's to talk. I know you've all tried, and I know they think they've helped, but maybe you're not asking the right questions," Ben ranted. "So, I want you to get started, go out there with your Aurors, and find me something useful."

"You - you want me on the field?" Hermione stuttered.

It wasn't usual for Heads or Deputy Heads to be out on the field.

"Of course I want you on the field! Where else would you be?"

"I just - I just thought there would be meetings, and paperwork, and such."

"What do you think they signed me on for?" He asked as though it were obvious. "I need eyes and ears out of the office, that's where you come in."

"The department has never been run that way-"

"And how much success have we seen lately?" he cut her off. "No, now that I'm in charge, things will be changing."

Hermione exhaled, seeing that she wasn't going to win the argument. "Alright."

"Good. Set it up with Potter," he instructed before leaving her desk.

Hermione frowned. She hadn't taken up the position to be dictated to. She wanted to be treated like an equal, or a partner. As Deputy Head, that's how it should be. They should be evening out the workload, and instead he just wanted rid of her.

Maybe Harry was onto something.

Hermione snuck out of the office with her irritation in tow and headed for the Auror's office.

"Hello Harry," she greeted when she found him at his desk.

"Hullo," he mumbled, taking a moment to draw his eyes off of his papers. "I did as you suggested, I 'forgot' my lunch at home today and Ginny's stopping by with it before noon."

"Why wouldn't she just owl it to you?"

"Because I want to see her," Harry said with a sideways smile. "Now, what can I do for you?"

"The new boss wants me out with you. He wants us to look closer into muggle organisations and speak to the Malfoy's again. I know," she added seeing Harry roll his eyes. "I know it's a waste of time, but I couldn't tell him that, he insisted. In all honesty, I'm a little scared of going back into the office without any good news."

"Is that right?" Harry asked, eyes narrowing suspiciously. "What's he like anyway? Hasn't dropped any hints about taking over the wizarding world?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Hermione scolded with a smile.

"But seriously, have you looked into him yet?"

"No, I haven't had the chance. When I got in this morning he all but shooed me from the office to head out and see the Malfoys."

"Alright, I'll set you up with an interview with Lucius or Narcissa. I'm sure your visit will make their day," Harry laughed.

"Yes, I'm sure," Hermione agreed sarcastically.

Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy had been in Azkaban ever since they had been tracked down after the battle. They weren't the only ones; Yaxley, Mulciber, Rosier and Rowle all shared their fate, along with close to thirty others. They had all been questioned thoroughly and constantly over the years, and yet they hadn't managed to uncover any information regarding Voldemort's whereabouts.

It seemed their master hadn't been very open with them about his future plans.

"Can we squeeze it in today, by any chance?" Hermione requested hopefully.

"I'll try my best, but it'll have to be in the afternoon after the department meeting," Harry said.

"That works for me, thanks. Will you be joining me?"

"Probably not, sorry, I'll send another Auror with you though. Someone has to hold down the fort here."

"Perfect," Hermione said, smiling appreciatively. "Thanks, Harry."

She averted her gaze as she went back to her desk, sure that Ben was frowning at her. He probably expected her to immediately barge her way down to Azkaban and demand to see the prisoners.

But no, that wasn't Hermione, she was not rash. She would plan her questions, organise them in the most informative manner and go in knowing exactly how the interview would play out. As such, her morning was spent locating the previous interview information from her boxes of files and writing out a foot-long piece of parchment filled with questions. She didn't want to repeat useless questions that the Malfoy's had already been asked. In her opinion, they had already been asked everything in every possible word combination, but to keep Ben happy, she racked her brain to come up with anything that was even almost new.

A few hours deep into her study, there was a knock on the door.

"Hermione!" The red-headed woman greeted happily. she crossed the office in a jog and wrapped her arms around her. "Good to see you!"

"Ginny," she greeted, hoping her surprise was believable. "What brings you in?"

"Harry forgot his lunch, and insisted that I bring it over. Wouldn't take no for an answer, actually," she said, her eyebrows drawing together. "Plus, I wanted to see you and see how the new job is going."

"Well, here I am. It's going well, still settling in and trying to get up to date with everything that the office has found over the years. How's James doing?"

"As boisterous as ever, he'll be walking soon, I expect," she said proudly, before she closed in. "But I didn't just come to check up on you. I also wanted to share some news with you."

She paused for effect. "I'm pregnant again!"

"Oh Merlin!" With James just about to turn one, Hermione was genuinely surprised. "That's wonderful, I'm so happy for you! Two under the age of two? You poor thing!"

"Yes, you should have seen Harry's face when I told him. It's good though, we want James to have siblings. But we didn't exactly expect it so soon..."

"Have you told Ron?"

"Not yet, so don't tell him before we do. I was hoping we could do a dinner this weekend? Saturday night at our place?"

"Sounds great! I'll tell Ron not to make any plans," Hermione said with a smile. "How far are you then?"

"Two months, so there will be plenty of time for Harry to get used to the idea," Ginny said with a laugh, before she stretched to peer over the top of Hermione's half wall. "So, Harry said you have a new boss? I saw someone sitting at the desk when I came in."

"Oh, yes," Hermione replied as her pulse spiked, trying to sound as casual as possible. "Let me introduce you."

Hermione quickly dashed around Ginny into the main office. "Ben?"

"Granger?" He answered without looking up from his papers.

"I'd like to introduce you to Ginny, Ginny Potter," she said, ignoring the anger over her name. Once she got to the name 'Potter', his head shot up.

"Oh," he rose to his feet quickly and stepped around the table. "Lovely to meet you, Ben Jenkins," he extended a hand to shake Ginny's.

She took his hand, though her eyebrows were furrowed. "I'm sorry, have we met before? You seem... familiar," she said in an unusually small voice.

"I doubt it, I would most definitely remember if I'd met someone as beautiful as you before," he said, flashing his teeth in a flirtatious smile.

Ginny's eyes widened at his words. "I - Oh -" Ginny blushed lightly as she reached up to tuck her hair behind her ear.

Hermione laughed nervously.

"Now that we've all been introduced, you probably shouldn't let your husband starve," Hermine said, gesturing to the lunch bag in Ginny's hand.

"Oh, right, nice to meet you," Ginny smiled a small smile at Ben and exited the office with Hermione. "Um, good catch up, however brief. See you Saturday evening?"

"Wouldn't miss it."

Ginny waved and headed down the hall towards Harry's office. Hermione was dying to follow her and see what she thought, she clearly had recognised him to at least some extent. But, sure that Harry would quiz her himself and let her know later, she sighed and ducked back into the office.

"Your sister-in-law? She must be, with that hair," Ben asked, sitting back down at his desk.

"Yes," she said happily, throwing in, "she and Harry are very happy together."

"Shame," Ben said, giving Hermione a smirk.

Hermione's mouth popped open involuntarily. "That's so inappropriate," she said at once. "Isn't there a Mrs. Jenkins to consider?"

"Don't be such a prude, Granger," he said with a grin. "And no, there is not."

"You know that it's Weasley!"

Ben laughed.

"You are doing it on purpose, aren't you?" She demanded.

"You're very easy to wind up, you know. Your nose goes all pink."

She shook head. "Insufferable," she breathed, and retreated to the safety of her desk.


Hermione scrunched up her nose as she walked through the main corridor of the offices of Azkaban.

It stunk.

She didn't know what they were feeding the inmates, but it smelled strongly of dead fish.

She was accompanied by an Auror by the name of David Tremlett, who she hadn't met beforehand, but apparently, he was related to a member of the Weird Sisters. According to Harry, he had some experience with interviewing the Malfoys, a fact she was grateful for.

"Now don't be too surprised by their appearances, personal hygiene is at a much lower standard here than it is in Malfoy Manor," David commented with a laugh.

He led her all the way to the end of the corridor to a large metal door which was guarded by a large man. They showed their identification and after signing in and leaving their belongings and wands by the door, they were let in. The small room they entered was an entrance room of sorts, leading to another large metal door. There was a buzz, and a click of the door unlocking. David lead the way, and held the door open for Hermione.

As she entered the room, her eyes immediately met with those belonging to Lucius Malfoy, though he was on the other side of a wall of thick metal bars. He no longer looked like the proud man she remembered.

Most notably, his hair had been shaved off.

If she hadn't known it was Lucius, she'd never have guessed. He was thinner and looked exhausted, as though he was slowly wasting away.

The second thing she noticed was how insanely cold it was in the room. She felt a shiver, one which she immediately recognised.

There must have been a dementor through the door on Lucius' side of the room.

"Mr. Malfoy," she greeted as she took her seat at a desk that had been set up in front of the wall of bars.

He responded with a mere nod, and Hermione wasn't sure whether he recognised her or not.

"As I am sure you are aware, we are here to conduct an interview regarding your knowledge on the whereabouts of the wizard widely known as 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named," she stated formally. She had been instructed not to use Voldemort's name - apparently the Malfoys were still rather sensitive to it.

"What more could you possibly have to ask?" He replied, in a hoarse voice that sounded nothing like she remembered, staring down at the table. "I've told you people everything I know, I swear."

"We aren't concerned about your answers, Mr. Malfoy. We're concerned about our previous questions," she said comfortingly, in an attempt to reassure the man. Beside her, David was hand writing notes on their conversation. "I would like to begin, if that is alright with you."

He gestured impatiently. "Hurry up then."

"In the time before your imprisonment, and after the Battle of Hogwarts, did you have any form of contact with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?"

"No."

"None whatsoever?"

"None."

"Before the Battle of Hogwarts, had He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named given any indication of what was next on his agenda, after the killing of Harry Potter?"

"Expansion. He wanted to move to through Europe."

"Do you know where he wanted to start?"

"France, Belgium, Germany..."

"Did he ever mention leaving his followers? Working on his own for a while?"

"He spent most of his time alone. I don't know, he was private. He didn't share much with me personally. Our family lost its trust after the boy escaped..."

"Do you know of anyone else he might have trusted this information with?"

"Severus is dead... Bellatrix is dead... His most trusted are either dead or in here. You've surely already asked the others."

"Are there any followers that you know of who are still free?"

"I've told you people this before."

"Please, Mr. Malfoy."

He looked up and met her eyes. The exhaustion and lack of life in them was chilling.

"You've found Yaxley?"

Hermione nodded.

"You've found Rosier?"

She nodded again.

"I don't know what to tell you. All of the inner circle are dead or here."

"Are there any outside of the inner circle? Any who he might have come to trust over the last few years?"

Lucius pursed his lips thoughtfully and looked away.

"Mr. Malfoy?"

"There... there might be one."

She straightened.

"You won't arrest him? He was only a boy at the time of the Battle. He didn't do anything wrong..."

"Who was only a boy?"

"The Selwyn boy. Jack's son. Edward? No - Elliot," he said nervously. "As I said, he was only a boy at the time, a few years younger than Draco, I believe? But he was an up and comer. He was going to be marked when he came of age. Only a boy... but eager. He desperately wanted to be like his father. Jack brought him along to a few meetings. He might know something?"

Hermione sat up straighter, excited that she had found something even if it turned out to be nothing.

"Do you know where we might find him?"

Malfoy stared at her for a moment. "I've been here seven years! How would I know what became of him?"

"My apologies," Hermione quickly gushed, realising her mistake. "Before we go, I have one more. The last time you saw He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named... what did he look like?"

"'What did he look like'?" Malfoy asked incredulously. "Has someone attacked you with a memory charm recently?"

"Answer the question, Mr. Malfoy."

"He looked normal - well... as normal as he could look without a nose, bald, red eyes."

"Thank you for your time Mr. Malfoy," Hemione said, and signalled to the guard behind the bars. Malfoy was pulled up by his guard and shoved back through the small door he must have come in through.

"What was with the last question?" David asked once they were out of the first door.

"Just following a hunch," she answered quickly. "Can you do me a favour, and remove that question from the manuscript?"

"You wouldn't care to enlighten me as to why?" When Hermione shook her head in response, he continued, "then I'm not at liberty to do any such thing. That would be a crime, you of all people should know that, boss."

"Will you at least forget that I asked you to remove it?"

"That I can do," David laughed.

By the time she got back to her office, Hermione was exhausted. She was beyond relieved to see that the office was empty, assuming that Ben must have gone home. She took out her copy of the manuscript of the interview that David had given her, and highlighted the key points about Elliot Selwyn. Surely, she wouldn't be so lucky that her first lead would be useful, but it was still nice to remain hopeful. She placed it in the centre of his desk so that he couldn't possibly miss it.

She went to leave, but quickly decided that Harry wouldn't forgive her in a hurry for letting such an opportunity go to waste.

Quickly making sure that no one was out in the corridor, she poked through the papers that Ben had on his desk. They all seemed quite mundane - induction forms, employee information, safety checklists. Focusing on how disappointed Harry would have been if she had stopped nosing there, she took out her wand and unlocked the first drawer. Quills, spare pieces of parchment, and - a change of socks?

Rather strange things to be keeping in a locked drawer, she thought to herself.

She quickly closed it and locked it again, and moved onto the next drawer. More forms.

So, many, forms.

She stifled through them quickly until she came across a photograph. It was bewitched, and the scenery was moving but there wasn't anyone in the photo. It was just a nice picture of a tree in a forest. Strange.

But not incriminating.

She closed the drawer and re-locked it with her wand. Really, it was silly. What did she think she find in his drawers?

"Having a nice time?"

Hermione jumped about a foot in the air as his baritone voice sounded through the office. There stood Ben, leaning on the door frame on one arm, one eyebrow cocked.

"I - I thought you'd gone home?" she said in a highly pitched voice once she had recovered from her initial fright.

"Nope," he said slowly, popping the 'p'.

"I'm sorry, I just-"

"Yes?"

"Well I wanted to see-"

"Do tell?"

"I'm sorry," she looked down at her feet. She hadn't felt this way since Hogwarts, like a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

"Find anything interesting?"

"No," she said in a small voice. "Except a pair of socks... why do you keep a pair of socks locked in a drawer?"

"For rainy days," he replied, not looking amused. "And I meant today, with Malfoy."

"Oh! Here," she handed him the manuscript of the interview.

His eyes quickly scanned the parchment, going over the spot that she had highlighted multiple times. He was still stood in the doorway, preventing her from leaving.

"Good," he said at last, his expression blank. "Why did you ask what he looked like?"

Damn. The one question she wanted to avoid.

"Just a hunch. It's been years since he's been seen, maybe he doesn't look the same," she said as innocently as she could manage.

He looked at her sceptically. "It's possible," he said thoughtfully after a moment. "Well, we'll go and visit this Selwyn kid tomorrow, it's too late to think about now. Wear something warm," he handed her back the parchment and went to exit the office.

"W-wait, we?" she called.

"Yes, Granger, we," he said with a smirk and disappeared around the corner into the corridor.

"It's Weasley!"


The next afternoon, Hermione hurried through the atrium of the Ministry behind Ben. Her shorter legs were no match for his long ones, and she almost had to jog to keep up. They were headed into a muggle town in Surrey called Guildford where Elliot Selwyn had been living for the last three years. Unfortunately, they couldn't Floo to his cottage and therefore, the only option left was apparating. The wards around the Ministry prevented their apparition, so they had to make their way around near the visitor's entrance to the apparition point, where the wards were lifted.

Hermione had to catch her breath as she reached the large wooden doors, which Ben politely held open for her and the few employees behind her.

"What about all of your paperwork? Don't you trust me to do this alone?" Hermione asked. She had been nagging him all morning to let her go alone, but he just wouldn't give. Hermione couldn't help but think like her friend when he'd said that he wanted to come with her to interview Selwyn.

What if Harry was right and he was Voldemort? What if she was walking straight into a trap?

Ben raised his eyebrows at her. "It's not that I don't trust you, it's that I don't trust the other Aurors. They've found nothing in years, I'm not letting them ruin the first almost-lead we've found," he explained as they reached the side of the building.

That's probably fair, she thought to herself.

"Here, take my arm," he instructed, poking his elbow out to the side like a chicken wing.

"I can apparate myself, you know," she said indignantly.

"I should certainly hope so. But do you know Selwyn's exact address? I don't fancy us arriving on opposite sides of town, Guildford isn't a small place. Now take my arm."

Rolling her eyes, Hermione gently placed her hand onto his forearm. Ben stared at her for a moment before pulling her arm upwards, and wrapping his arm properly around hers. Before she could protest, he had already pulled them into the pressure of apparition.

Hermione had never had an issue with apparition, although like many others, she did find it uncomfortable. But as she took in her new surroundings, she noticed that side along apparating with Ben wasn't nearly as bad as she was expecting. It felt like she was being gently guided through space rather than the usual ripping through it.

"See, that wasn't so bad," Ben commented as if reading her thoughts, looking over at the cottage. Her nerves calmed a bit as she took in the pleasant yard that they had arrived in. It looked nothing like the home of a suspected Death Eater, more like a quaint home of a grandmother. It was a small cottage on the edge of town with a beautiful flowering garden out the front, lined by a cute, white fence.

"After you," she said, and Ben happily lead the way to the front door.

"Now, let me do the questioning, will you? And make sure to record every detail," Ben said quickly as he rose his fist to knock on the door. She rolled her eyes, but nodded anyway.

It took a few knocks before the door was answered. The man who opened the door was young, weedy and blond - it must have been Selwyn.

"Elliot Selwyn?" Ben asked.

"Yeah?"

"My name is Ben Jenkins and this is Hermione Weasley, we're from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. We'd like to ask you a few questions if that's alright?" Ben spoke like he'd done it many times before. It was reassuring to know that he did know her name.

"I don't know if that's -"

"With all due respect, Mr. Selwyn, we can do this now, easy in your own home, or we can do it later at the Ministry. The choice is yours."

Selwyn's eyes shot between them a few times, as if sizing them up. "Alright," he said at last. "Come in."

He led them into the dining room of the cottage. It was much bigger from the inside, a magical enhancement surely, however it still looked like the home of an old woman rather than a single young man.

He took a seat at the table, and gestured for Ben and Hermione to join him. They took the seats on the opposite side, and Hermione brought out her quill, which she quickly charmed to write down all that was said.

"So, what's this about?" Selwyn asked, looking between the two.

Ben didn't respond. He reached his hand into his jacket pocket and brought out a small brown vial which he placed in the centre of the table before pushing it toward Selwyn.

"Ben..." Hermione said warningly. She knew exactly what was in the vial - she'd used veritaserum a number of times over the past year when interviewing suspects.

Its use was strictly restricted to in the questioning rooms of the Ministry.

Ben glanced at Hermione quickly out of the corner of his eye and nodded toward the vial. "Mr. Selwyn, I'd like for you to drink the potion before we begin."

Selwyn stared at the vial with wide eyes. "Look, if I'd known you were going to bring this out on me, I would have said-"

"Mr. Selwyn, the same offer stands. We can either do this here, or we can do this in a cell at the Ministry."

Selwyn looked panicked, turning toward Hermione, silently pleading her to help. She turned to Ben with her lips pursed in an attempt to hide her shock, and he in turn ignored her.

Hermione couldn't believe it. If any other Auror attempted using veritaserum outside of the Ministry, they would be sacked on the spot. Hell, if she used it, she would have been sacked on the spot.

After seeing that he wasn't getting any help, Selwyn let out a small sound of frustration before picking up the vial, uncorking it and downing it in a single gulp.

"Excellent choice," Ben said, his tone significantly happier. "Now, I'd like to begin by asking whether you know of a wizard known as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?"

"Course, I do," Selwyn replied immediately. "I don't live under a rock."

Ben ignored his irritated tone. "And have you ever met He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named personally?"

Selwyn glared, a flash of surprise at the question crossing his features. "Yes," he said slowly after a moment.

"When was the last time you had any contact with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?"

He exhaled angrily and gave a soft groan of protest before he eventually gave his response. "A year ago."

Ben turned to Hermione with the smuggest smile she had ever seen in her life.

Hermione's eyes widened. Her lead actually found something. On her third day of the job, no less.

"And what did he contact you about?" Ben continued.

"He... wanted to give me some news."

"What news?"

"News of his... successes."

"Successes?"

"Events that went according to plan."

Ben frowned. "Tell me everything he told you the last time he contacted you," he rephrased.

Selwyn groaned, unable to avoid the directness of the question. "He said that he'd gained enough support... and that... that he'd..." Selwyn sighed. "And that he'd be returning to the country."

"Merlin," Hermione slipped out, unable to restrain her surprise.

"Is he back now?" Ben continued.

"I don't know, I haven't heard anything since then."

"Where was he when you were last in contact?"

"Antwerp, in Belgium."

"Mr. Selwyn," Hermione interrupted. "What did He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named look like the last time you saw him? How did he get around such a large city without being seen?"

He furrowed his eyebrows. "I... I don't actually know. He was hooded the whole time, and it was dark."

Ben glared at Hermione. "Where did you meet in Antwerp?"

"At the home of a newer follower."

"And do you know the name of this newer follower?"

"Florian something. Everard? ... or Evrard? Something like that."

"When was the last contact you had with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, before you met in Antwerp?"

"About... three years ago? Maybe? And even that was only a letter. We weren't exactly close."

"Do you still have this letter?"

"No. I burnt it after reading it."

"What did the letter say?"

"That he had business in Germany, and we wouldn't be hearing from him for a while."

"'We'?"

Selwyn swore under his breath. "Yes."

"Who is 'we'?"

"Those who have remained loyal and the new recruits, I suppose. I only know two others, not including Florian. I know that there are more, but I have never met any of them. We've been instructed to stay quiet."

"Well, you're doing an excellent job of it now then, aren't you?" Ben smirked.

Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say, as Selwyn took that moment to draw his wand.

"Bombarda!"

The table that they had been sitting at was forced backward in an explosion that forced Ben and Hermione backward off of their chairs. Hermione landed against the wall, a piece of the chair dug painfully into her back. She slowly pushed herself up, and attempted to look through the dust of the explosion for Selwyn. She made out Ben to her side who pushed himself up quickly, and scanned the room. He quickly ran and disappeared from view out of the dining room back toward the front door of the cottage.

Hermione groaned as she rose to her feet, her head stung, and she was sure she was bleeding from where she had collided with the wall. The room was a mess; although the table exploding was relatively small, the pieces of wood scattered all over the room, and had broken picture frames, the light, and destroyed the chairs. A moment later, Ben stormed back into the room.

"He's gone. Apparated probably," he panted.

"Why did you have to taunt him?" Hermione demanded, wincing slightly as she began searching through the rubble for the parchment that she'd recorded the interview on.

"He was going to run anyway, I just... accelerated the process," Ben shrugged.

"Accio parchment!" The parchment flew out from under one of the planks of wood into Hermione's hand. "You're lucky that this is alright. If he'd destroyed this, we'd have nothing to bring to Kingsley."

"We're not showing that to Kingsley," Ben said quickly.

"Are you mad? This is a lead. The first solid information we've gotten in years. He needs to know."

"We'll tell him the important parts. He certainly doesn't need to know about the veritaserum. We'll tell him the parchment was destroyed." He waved a hand nonchalantly.

Hermione gaped. "B-but that's a felony! We can't withhold information of this caliber from the Minister for Magic."

"What's the point in being at the top if you can't bend a few rules?" He shrugged.

"I can't believe you," she muttered as she brushed past him and made her way back out of the cottage.

"Hermione," he called from behind her as he followed. "Hermione!" He grabbed her arm and stopped her from moving.

"What?" She asked rather rudely.

"You're bleeding. Let me help," he reached out for her head.

"I don't need your help."

"Be quiet," he brought his wand to the gash on her head and quietly said, "episkey."

Hermione wouldn't admit it, but she almost immediately felt much better. Instead, she frowned and pulled away from him.

"Now, give me the parchment," he instructed, reaching his hand out expectantly.

Hermione raised her chin defiantly. "No."

"Granger..."

"That'snotmynameanymoreandyouknowit!" She yelled at such a speed that Ben almost missed it.

"Give-me-the-parchment."

"I-said-no."

"Incendio."

The parchment in Hermione's hand lit up in flames, prompting her to drop it immediately, but not before it burned her fingertips.

"Ow! Have you gone completely mad?! We needed that!" She yelled, cradling her hand.

"Yes, we did need it - we needed it to be destroyed," he said smugly. "Alright, we can go back to the Ministry now."

"But what are we meant to tell Kingsley now?!" She demanded.

"That our recordings were destroyed during the explosion, simple."

"But, you're the Head of Law Enforcement!" Hermione exclaimed. "That doesn't give you a free pass!"

"Go on then, arrest me," he dared. She stared him down for a moment, pursing her lips angrily. Eventually, she huffed before turning away and apparating to Ministry without another word.


Needless to say, Kingsley wasn't happy about the loss of information. However, he was reasonable, and allowed them to use the Ministry pensieve to reconstruct the lost document. Unsurprisingly, Ben insisted on doing the work himself, leaving Hermione to inform Harry and the Auror office of the need to find Selwyn, and to help put the case together.

Harry immediately concluded that Ben not allowing Hermione to help construct the manuscript was a plan of Voldemort's. 'It's the perfect chance to change Selwyn's answers and get away with it', he'd insisted.

Hermione hardly had it in her to argue.

She couldn't bring herself to tell Harry about the veritaserum - what if he reported Ben in a paranoid attempt to be rid of him? There was no way that Hermione wouldn't be dragged into the matter, and her job would most definitely be put on the line.

No, there was nothing else to be done but agree absentmindedly to Harry's ramblings.

The rest of the week went by rather quickly - by Friday, the Department was buzzing in a way that Hermione had never seen it. The lead provided by Selwyn seemed to have given everyone a motivation boost, and for once, Harry had a task that had volunteers. Although they hadn't yet found any signs of Selwyn, everyone was still remaining positive.

After all, one young man certainly couldn't be as difficult as Lord Voldemort to find, could he?

Hermione was relieved when Saturday finally came. It had been a long week, even though it was only the first of many. She found it quite calming to be around Ron, who didn't care too much for the Auror politics these days. It was nice to be able to put work to the back of her mind for a while.

"Hermione!" Ginny engulfed Hermione in a tight hug as she answered her front door come Saturday evening. "And Ron," she hugged her brother a little less enthusiastically. "Good to see you! Come in, come in."

Ginny and Harry had moved into a quaint house not unlike Hermione and Ron's, however theirs was a little further out of town. 'More privacy', Harry had explained.

Hermione couldn't blame him - since the war, his celebrity status had rose even higher (if that were possible) and frequently had strangers attempting to visit his home. After the first handful of uninvited visitors, they had wisely warded the property.

As soon as they entered, Ron went to greet Harry.

"Been alright the last few days?" Ginny asked as soon as Ron left them. "Harry said you've found a lead at work?"

"Yes, we were pretty lucky with it, actually. Malfoy suggested we check out Selwyn's son - he wasn't even of age at the time of the war, and he turned out to be right," Hermione said, trying not to give too many details as she followed Ginny into the kitchen.

"A lead on your third day, we all knew you'd be amazing at the job. Kingsley must be proud of his decision with you," Ginny grinned.

"It was just luck - had anyone else asked Malfoy that specific question, it would have been them."

"But you asked it. So, it's still your lead."

"Actually, it was Ben who suggested we look into speaking to Malfoy again and change our questioning. So really, it's his lead," she said sheepishly.

Ginny looked at her with concern. "Harry mentioned something to me about your new boss. And - and he's right really. I knew I had seen him before, somewhere. Helooks - well, he looks a bit like-"

"Voldemort?" Hermione asked before Ginny could finish. She couldn't withhold the scepticism from her voice. When Ginny nodded, Hermione shook her own head. "Did you think that yourself, or did Harry have to give you the idea?"

At that moment, Harry and Ron came back into the room.

"Did I give who what idea?" Harry asked.

"About Ben," Hermione replied irritably.

"Oh."

"No, he didn't! I told you, I knew that I recognised him. I just needed Harry to point out where I recognised him from. It's truly uncanny, Hermione," Ginny said defensively.

"What is?" Asked Ron cluelessly.

Hermione sighed and rolled her eyes. "Harry thinks that our new boss looks like Tom Riddle."

"What?!"

"You didn't mention it?" Harry asked.

"Of course I didn't! I knew you'd overreact," Hermione said to Ron.

"Overreact? Overreact?! If You-Know-Who is hidden in the Ministry, in the same office as you, I think I'm reacting just fine!"

"He's not hidden in the Ministry! It's a coincidence, that's all. You're all taking this too far!"

"You said yourself that he didn't let you help put the manuscript of the Selwyn interview together. Why wouldn't he let you help if you were there? He's probably kept something out of the report, something vital to finding him," Harry concluded.

"Harry, he's the one who suggested we talk to Malfoy in the first place! Without him we wouldn't have even had a lead!" Hermione pointed out.

She couldn't tell Harry about the use of the veritaserum, she just couldn't.

"Exactly! We'd spoken to him a million times before, how did he know we were missing something?"

"Do you know how paranoid you sound? Ben asked all of the questions with Selwyn. If he were trying to keep himself hidden, why would he have tried so hard to get Selwyn to spill the beans? Why wouldn't he have asked pointless questions instead? Besides, the report should be done by Monday, I can look at it straight away and tell you whether he's cut vital information," Hermione argued. "And I looked into him just like you asked yesterday. He checks out. 'Benjamin Harvey Jenkins, born 24th December 1978. Attended the National Wizarding Academy of Australia, former Investigation Officer, Stockholm,'" she recited.

"But this is You-Know-Who we're talking about. He easily could've-"

"That's enough!" Ginny interrupted, sounding an awful lot like her mother. "We're here to have a nice dinner, not bicker about You-Know-Who. You can carry on all you like after dinner! Now sit down!"

After all the arguing, they actually did have a nice dinner. It was awkward, and a bit forced at first, but the food was lovely and provided an excellent ice breaker. Mrs. Weasley would have been proud by how Ginny's cooking was coming along.

They were only interrupted by James' crying once, and thankfully, it was after dinner. While Harry left to attend to the infant, the others flocked into the living room. "Now, Ron, when Harry gets back, we have some news to tell you," Ginny said, biting her lip to hide her grin.

"News?"

"Yes."

"What kind of news?"

"Happy news."

"Go on then," he said with a crooked smile.

"Not until Harry gets back!"

"I'm right here," said Harry, who had just appeared in the doorway behind Ginny.

"Oh! Well, alright. Ron... You're going to be an uncle again," she announced. It seemed to take Ron a minute to understand, so she helped out a bit and added, "we're having another baby!"

"Blimey! Congratulations!" Ron got up from the sofa and hugged his sister, and shook Harry's hand. "When's this happening then?"

Ginny laughed. "I'm due in October."

"Wow! Got any names yet? Have you considered 'Ron' for a boy?"

"We're thinking Lily for a girl, and we're still unsure about a boy."

"That wasn't a no!"


The night ended up pleasant enough. The conversation of Voldemort thankfully didn't come back up, and talk of the new baby took over the night. When they arrived back home and hopped into bed, Ron and Hermione stayed awake for quite a while.

"A second baby then," Ron stated eventually.

"Yep. Another miniature Harry to save the world," Hermione laughed.

"...Hermione?"

"Yes?"

"When will it be our turn?"

Hermione sighed. She'd been expecting this question again since they got home. "We've been through this, Ronald."

"Yeah, but not for a while. I thought maybe you might've changed your mind."

"It's just not possible at the moment. I've only just started the job, and I'm liking it. I don't want to lose it yet."

"You wouldn't lose your job. No one could do it better than you, and Kingsley likes you," he reasoned. "Anyway... you're not in this alone, you know. I could stay home with the kids, while you work."

"I'm not sure that your mother would like that idea."

"Why does her opinion matter? You love your job, and you earn more than me. Why wouldn't we do it that way?"

Hermione sighed. Ron had a point; it seemed obvious that if and when they had children, that would be the arrangement. "I need time to settle into work. Give me... I don't know, a year? Then we'll consider children again, alright?" Hermione reasoned slowly.

"Yeah," Ron mumbled as he rolled away from her.

Hermione sighed again, and closed her eyes, willing for sleep to take her. Why couldn't he understand? And since when was Ron such a child lover? Sure, he got along well with James and Teddy, but he certainly wasn't a natural with children. Probably feeling competitive with Harry, yet again, she thought bitterly to herself.

"...Hermione?" Ron asked in a small, tired voice.

"Yes?"

"Harry and Ginny have said... and so did Rita Skeeter... that Tom Riddle was... well... attractive? And charming, I guess?"

"Yeah, they have said that," she replied, unsure where Ron was going.

"Well, it's just... if your new boss looks like him, as you all say... is he... you know,attractive and charming too?"

Oh.

Hermione rolled over to face Ron again. "Attractiveness and charm are all subjective," she said diplomatically. "Don't worry, he has none of your charm," she reached over and kissed him lightly. Much to Hermione's relief, that seemed to reassure him sufficiently.

As she lay there attempting to find sleep, she couldn't help but think to herself, you didn't say no.

It took her a long time for sleep to take her, and although she didn't remember it in the morning, her dreams were clouded with a taller, dark haired man.


Come Monday morning, Hermione was greeted at the office door by Ben, who was leaning on his desk, clearly awaiting her arrival.

"Granger. We've found Selwyn," he announced immediately, crossing the room to close the door behind her.

"Yeah? He's been brought in then?"

"In a manner of speaking," he said awkwardly. "He's dead."