"I can't stand it anymore," Hermione announced as she burst through the door to the dining room at Grimmauld Place. "Kreacher let me in," she explained off-handedly as she plonked down on the seat next to Harry. "I would suggest asking him to make sure you're expecting guests before letting them run rampant, but then I suppose he'd probably just stop letting us in altogether."

Harry hastily finished his mouthful of food. "He's actually starting to like you since you made that announcement about how Regulus died trying to bring down Voldemort. But you're not here to talk about Kreacher. Butterbeer or firewhiskey?"

"Firewhiskey." Harry nodded. This was serious, then. He fetched two glasses and a bottle of the strong drink from the kitchen, setting the glasses in front of their respective seats and filling them both. If Hermione needed alcohol, chances are he would too by the end of the conversation.

"A toast?" he asked dryly.

"I think we've had enough toasts for a lifetime. To the boy who defeated Voldemort, to our young heroic lovebirds, to the teenagers who fought Voldemort…"

He laughed. "My favourite was the toast to the girl who believed and didn't let what others said faze her, instead going on to help lead the rebellion at Hogwarts."

"I don't think I was there for that one."

"You weren't; it was when you were working on werewolf history and laws for that amendment. The Auror Department asked Luna in as a guest speaker on facing persecution and keeping secrets while in enemy territory. Of course, the Ministry official making the toast was one of the Housemates who used to bully her. Said she remembered her from school and everything."

"How did Luna take it?"

"She just smiled, thanked her and said that she remembered her too and thought she should know that she did find her shoes eventually. She played it off so innocently, too, but the official went red as a Weasley and fled the stage as soon as it was acceptable!"

They both burst into laughter before simultaneously taking a swig from their glasses and grimacing at the bitter taste that they still hadn't acquired.

"So, what can't you stand?"

Hermione tentatively drank some more before replying. "Ronald. I love the insufferable twat, but sometimes he's too much to take. Do you know what he was saying to his friends? That I'm a perfectionist and an overachiever."

"Well, you are. That's not a bad thing." Harry had witnessed firsthand both the effort that Hermione put into her work and the rewards reaped from it. She spent more hours working than anyone else in her department, often finishing drafting a new policy at home because she couldn't rest until she got it right. From his work teaching defense skills to Aurors and ministry workers and ensuring that schools' DADA curriculums were providing the most effective education, he had both suggested changes and seen evidence of changes that Hermione had devised. He wished that his best friend would rest more, but they both understood the importance of enacting and enforcing as many policies as possible while the Ministry was still in a state of receptiveness following the war. Kinglsey Shacklebolt was firmly on their side in his position as the Minister for Magic, but there were many more people who had to cooperate for the policies to be properly enforced and the heavier the knowledge of the Death Eaters' penetration of all aspects of their society weighed on their minds, the better. As it was, they were nearing the end of the golden window of opportunity, but had only changed a fraction of what they thought needed changing.

"According to him, it is – oh, don't stop eating on my account, Harry, your dinner will go cold. We could heat it up, but it's never as good when it's been heated up."

Meeting her eyes, Harry very deliberately ate some more pumpkin before he spoke. "He doesn't mean it like that. It's just…we both know he's prone to envy." They shared a bittersweet smile. "He wouldn't wish failure on you, but he doesn't like that we've both been successful in the Ministry while the only reason he was accepted into the Auror Academy in the first place was his involvement in the war. They accepted a lot of people from the Battle of Hogwarts to replenish their numbers, but now they're faced with a group of brave but young recruits who they wouldn't have accepted had it not been for the battle. I don't know how long he'll last. I think he knows there will eventually be a crackdown on performance."

"I know. It's just hard to take him being so negative and passive aggressive all the time, that's all. It's like he has to suck the joy out of all my accomplishments because he doesn't want to apply himself enough to improve his performance or ask for help."

"I don't think he wants to acknowledge that he needs help. Work is the first thing we've done on our own, it's the first time we have to prove ourselves without having the others as back up. He's under a lot of pressure. You've always put that pressure on yourself and my job is essentially just an extension on the D.A., but he's experiencing a lot of things for the first time."

"When did you get so wise, anyway?"

"When I entered into the real world and had to start dealing with politics and all of that. School really doesn't prepare you for everything, huh? Well, I guess Slughorn tried. Or did you mean here specifically? When I started training people and realised how frustrating it is when you know a student could master a spell if they only tried and realised that that was me in many ways at Hogwarts, I 'spose."

"You're a good man, Harry." She sighed, running her fingers along a pattern on the table. "I'm sorry you and Ginny didn't work out."

"I'm not. Not anymore. I love her. What we were is always going to be special to me. She's always going to be special to me. But so are you and Ron and the D.A. and McGonagall and everybody else, you know? It's just that her special has a different feel attached."

"Did you know she's dating Oliver Wood now?"

"Yeah, she told me a few months ago. You're fine with it?"

"I was surprised at first, but yes. I guess I've finally truly moved on."

"That's something I could drink to." Hermione smiled before doing so. "I thought he'd be bad for her, be too focused on Quidditch, but she's handling him well. I'm really glad you're fine with it, Harry, because I think they're rubbing off on each other in a good way." She suddenly became more subdued. "You know, coming back here reminds me of the summer before fifth year. We knew something terrible was going on but had no idea what, but we were all here, together. You and me and Ron and Ginny and the twins and the Order. I'd have to say that was by far my favourite summer ever. Things will never be the same, of course they won't, but I still don't want to lose that… Harry, what does it say about me that the main reasons I want to stay with Ron are that he's my friend, it's comfortable, I don't want to hurt him and it means Ginny and I will eventually be sisters-in-law?"

"That you're persistent." Harry sighed. "I hate to say this, and please never tell Ron I did because he'd be pissed, but you need to make sure you don't hurt yourself by staying. It hurt when Gin left me, but…but I think our relationship was holding us both back. We understood what the other had been through better than anyone but we weren't allowing ourselves to move on. Is Ron holding you back, Hermione? Ron will get over this eventually, whether it's by changing jobs or getting the hang of it. But, knowing him, it'll happen again over something else. I guess the question is whether you can accept that."

"I feel like I should be able to. I helped defeat Voldemort, I should be able to put up with Ron Weasley's faults."

"For our whole lives, it's been a matter of what we should do or are expected to do. What do you want to do?"

"I want –" Hermione paused to consider. What did she really want? She knew what she thought she wanted, but this wasn't the kind of question to which one should respond with a guess or a habitual answer. "I don't think it's entirely a matter of what I want, either. It's also a matter of what I can and can't do. I want to make it work with Ron. But I can't talk to him about this. If he's annoyed with me, he won't listen to reason, and if I'm annoyed with him over a derogatory comment that he's made about me, he insists it was just a joke and I need to lighten up. If I could do anything, I'd make him listen. But I can't. And if I can't talk to him about things…that's not a very good relationship, is it? So I guess I want things to work with Ron, but things need to change for that to happen, and I don't think they can change."

"Something Hermione Granger can't do? The press would implode with excitement."

"See, when you say things like that, they actually sound like a joke."

"Wood has an older brother, doesn't he? Maybe you'll end up with him and then you and Ginny can be sisters-in-law."

She chuckled. "At least he likes Quidditch less than Wood." Finishing the remainder of her glass, she stood up. "I should go. I have a boyfriend to break up with before I talk myself out of it."