Disclaimer: I'm just playing around with some characters I borrowed from our friend JK. Not mine though, definitely not mine…

Chapter 3. Long-time no see.

"Hermione? What are you still doing here? You scared the life out of me!" Laura, a junior unspeakable, gasped as she tried to recover from the shock of seeing her boss sprawled over a stack of forms in a seemingly deserted office.

Hermione blinked owlishly up at the young blonde girl she had come to recognise as a friend. She swept a stray lock of curly hair out of her face irritably as she straightened in her chair. She glanced down at the stack of forms pilled on her otherwise neat mahogany desk and sighed regretfully before straightening her notes and placing them on the right hand corner of her unpersonalised desk. All of the surrounding work stations were littered with pictures and knick-knacks but her desk held nothing but parchments, quills and an ink jar. Once her forms were filed at the end of the day it would appear that the desk was just an abandoned work station, just as it had appeared when Hermione had claimed it over a year ago. Sighing again she turned to face Laura.

"Laura! Umm hi. I was just working through some equations on the viability of mixing practices such as transfiguration and potions in order to increase the stability of some of the more volatile potions... Wait, where is everyone?"

Laura smiled as she realised that Hermione had once again lost herself in her work and had completely detached herself from the real world. It was a well-known fact in the department of mysteries that once Hermione was involved in a project, it would take raging hippogriffs on steroids to move her from her office. That was the reason Hermione had moved so rapidly through the ranks and was now the youngest witch to be conscripted into the top ranks the department had to offer. A little known fact was that along with her normal role of secret projects unspeakable, Hermione was also trained as part of the stealth and defence section, the elemental section and the advanced practice section in virtually all disciplines.

As the saying goes, the best things come in little packages, and this was most certainly the case with unspeakable Granger. The petite witch barely reached 5'4" in heels, with chocolate-coloured doe eyes and slightly-less-than tame hair. Her curvy hour-glass figure was hidden by long, fitted robes that covered her from ankle to wrist. She was a powerful little witch, but nothing in her appearance, except the hard look that occasionally appeared in her eyes and general lack of facial expression, would suggest that to the average wizard.

Realising that Hermione was still waiting for an answer, Laura shook her head slightly as she replied, "Well as its half-way through lunch, I would assume that most people are strolling around diagon alley or stuffing their faces in the leaky cauldron by now. Have you eaten anything since this morning?"

Ever since Laura had started working in the department of mysteries, she had secretly considered it her job to ensure that Hermione ate at least once during her ridiculously extended working day. Her boss may have the temperament of an angel (unless disturbed while doing paper work, or when death eaters were mentioned in any way, shape or form) but had the tenacity of a tiger when concentrating on her latest project. It was actually the sheer number of times that Laura had come across Hermione asleep on the stack of paperwork when she arrived to work in the mornings that had driven the two women to become friend in the first place.

Hermione grinned at her friend sheepishly as she rose from her chair. She groaned blissfully as she stretched like a cat before she turned gracefully towards the younger woman.

"Well, now that you mention it, I am a tad peckish... Oh and there was a new shipment of books due to arrive in flourish and blots this morning!"

Laura grinned at Hermione as she watched her retrieve her purse from her desk. It still astounded her how different Hermione was now, compared to when she had first arrived. True the beautiful brunette still rarely smiled and never wore anything that revealed more skin than her wrists and ankles, but at least she no longer had a dead look to her chocolate coloured eyes. Laura remembered hearing about the mysterious war heroine when she had first started working at in the department. She had been unnerved by Hermione's lack of emotion and general disinterest in conversation, until a colleague had mentioned that it was completely normal behaviour for her boss. Even then there was an aura of mystery about her boss. The only thing anyone could tell her was that Hermione had been deeply involved in the last war and had not only been orphaned but had also lost most of her friends. Nobody seemed to know why she always wore long robes, even in the stifling heat of summer and due to her rumoured skill with muggle and magical means of combat, nobody dared to ask her. Hermione was a mystery and lacked interest in office gossip and general chit chat. The only time she seemed to come alive was when she was surrounded by research. Laura had been completely mesmerised by Hermione's aura of silent strength and was exceptionally interested in her story. However, one year later and all she knew about her quite companion was her love of books and her fierce intelligence. It was unusual for her to know somebody for so long and not really know anything about them but Laura just considered it one of the many interesting aspects of knowing Hermione.

"Well what are you waiting for then, off with you"! Laura laughed. In the back of her mind she acknowledged that she was the one person in the office who had the guts to boss around a known war heroine, even if it was in jest.

And with that Hermione waved and turned on her heel with a resounding pop.

Then sun was scorching as Hermione mad her way through the crowded street towards flourish and blots. A lone bead of sweat made its lonely voyage from her hairline to the collar of her wine robes. She hated the warm weather. It was always such a nuisance to cover her scars when even a light sun dress would be too warm. She sighed as she acknowledged once again that she could simply wear more revealing clothes and trust her glamour to hide her trophies from the war, but there was always the danger that somebody would notice the unnatural texture of her skin caused by the air-brushing effect of the glamour. She didn't want to have to explain it to anybody. She knew that it was unusual for a witch to walk around in full length robes all of the time but it was less noticeable than the glamour. And combined, the robe and the glamour ensured that she appeared completely normal. Casting a quick cooling charm wandlessly, she continued on through the crowd.

With a grim expression, she wondered if people would ever stop staring at her. She didn't want to be a celebrity, but ever since her position in the previous war as Harry's right-hand witch had become common knowledge she had developed the same star status as Harry himself. She had always been sympathetic to his inability to do anything without the entire wizarding world hearing about it, but now that she found herself in the same position, she had discovered a new respect for his tolerance of stupidity and ignorance.

Oh Harry… Merlin she missed him. The daily reminders of his sacrifice did nothing to help the grieving process. She sighed audibly as she entered the book shop.

Her lips quirked slightly as she inhaled the scent of new books and relished the silence of the room, before moving slowly towards the back of the shop. Like everything else, the comfort she received from books had greatly diminished since the war, but it was still a part of her. She was not as passionate as she once was perhaps, but she still enjoyed filling her brain with new information or slipping into a world of fictional characters. She shook her head slightly to clear it of her negative train of thought before browsing the overflowing shelves before her. She read the titles in murmured tones and she progressed along the aisle.

"Ouch!"

Hermione gracefully caught herself before hitting the clod stone floor of the store. The other person was not as lucky. She leaned forward to offer her hand to the blonde figure on the flagstones. As she did so, her uncontrollable hair obscured her vision. As they both straightened up, she caught her first glance of the man she had accidently thrown to the ground…

Draco had been having a terrible day, just like every other day really. Still strongly shaken from the resurrection of his memories, he had trouble settling down to his day as head accountant in Malfoy industries. He could easily have hired an accountant, but he didn't trust strangers with his possessions. Well that and he needed something to do during the day.

By lunchtime he had a pounding headache and struggled not to yell at the idiots in the office next to his, who seemed to be incapable of compiling the numbers of galleons spent in the various departments of the company. "Really?" He fumed. "How difficult is it to add up a bunch of receipts?"

Draco took a deep breath and decided that it was time to escape the office for a little while. With a loud pop he reappeared in front of the book shop in Daigon Alley. The dark cloud over his head seemed to disappear as he entered the store. However he was so distracted by the thought of having to return to work that he didn't notice the slim figure coming towards him until he was staring up at her from the floor.

Straightening up, with a faint blush staining his cheeks, he swallowed a gasp as he realised who he had bumped into. He groaned inwardly. This was just what he needed after the dream he had last night. Oh merlin, he hadn't seen her for over a year. Not since the night he had stunned the death eater behind her in the battle of Hogwarts.

"Oh Morgana, what do I say to her? Hey Granger, long time no see?"

A/N hey! Sorry about the slight abandonment of the story! The good news is that I'm back. I'm aware that the style of this chapter differs from the others, however this is intentional as it reflects the change in the story :P That aside, I sincerely welcome CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, but please no flames. Thoughts and opinions appreciated. (R&R please! :D)