Hermione Granger sat in her office trying to read a draft for a new law involving cauldron regulations. Her eyes were going over the same lines over and over again yet she could not understand a word as her mind was somewhere else. This is rubbish. We have bigger problems than cauldrons. She threw the parchments aside and stretched her back. The news of the girl's escape had reached her first thing in the morning. Even before she got to work, two owls had barged into her and Ron's bedroom delivering two scrolls telling her the same thing. Delphini Diggory (or Black or Riddle or whatever your name is) had escaped from Azkaban. Hermione had hurried off to work saying a quick "I'll explain later!" to her sleep deprived husband who immediately turned and went back to sleep snoring loudly. He was already used to Hermione being a workaholic who carefully considered every single tiny issue and had a dedication to her job which would put his older brother Percy to shame. He probably thought this was just another case of me making a fuss out of nothing. By now Ron had probably read the newspapers himself and realized the gravity of the situation.

The Minister had quickly rounded up all the Aurors in charge of guarding the prison last night and interrogated them. One was missing, MacPherson, and it did not take Hermione's brilliant mind to figure out that he had been involved in the escape. His body had been found later at the Shrieking Shack. The other Aurors testified that he had Stunned each of them, taking them by surprise. After that, he must have smuggled the girl out.

Hermione sighed and rubbed her eyes. It was not that she disapproved of former Minister Kingsley's decision to replace Dementors with human guards. Dumbledore would have done the same thing. Sheagreed that Dementors made Azkaban an inhumane place and even murderous witches and wizards deserved better than to slowly go mad with torment. However, human guards were fallible. The Dementors could be manipulated, true, but only by a powerful wizard such as Voldemort which certainly did not come more than perhaps once in a hundred years. But this man MacPherson... How did she get to you? Had Delphi tricked him in some way, manipulated him, blackmailed him,... seduced him perhaps? There had been previous cases of Aurors taking advantages of female prisoners and Delphi was certainly good looking enough to inspire lust. But at least the previous Aurors (who had all ended up in Azkaban themselves for their crimes, Hermione saw to that) had been smart and careful enough to not let the prisoners overpower them. The theory most common among the other Aurors was that MacPherson had taken Delphi out of Azkaban for a good shag and the girl somehow managed to overpower him. But when his wand was found still on his person, Hermione ordered a search for Delphi's wand in the storage where they kept the prisoners' belongings. They had found her clothes there but no wand. The only working hypothesis now was that the man had stole her wand from the storage intending to give it back to her after he'd freed her. Obviously they had been cooperating but why?

The door to her office opened suddenly and Harry Potter stepped in, taking a seat in front of her without invitation. Hermione did not mind, not in general and certainly not now when she needed a friend to discuss this with.

"I have nothing," Harry said fiddling with one of her quills between his fingers. "She could be in Africa by now." He looked exhausted and the work day would not be over for a few more hours. Perhaps even longer if they followed a lead.

"You have to take it easy, Harry. We'll find her," she said knowing that such platitudes were not likely to comfort him in any way.

"Do we know anything more about this MacPherson fellow?"

Hermione sighed and got up to pace the room. She stopped by the window with her hands behind her back. "I had to deliver the news to his family today. They were heartbroken of course. They told me he was an upstanding man and a dedicated Auror who would have never helped the girl willingly. I believe them, Harry. That was my impression of him as well. He was threatened into helping her, I'm sure of it."

"That means she must have had an accomplice on the outside," said Harry loudly. "How could she have threatened him with anything if she was locked up?"

Hermione agreed. "An accomplice seems likely."

Harry stopped toying with the quill and put his hands on her desk with a serious look in his eyes. "Hermione, we have to find that Lestrange guy. Delphi mentioned him to me when she thought I was Voldemort. Rodolphus Lestrange was one of Voldemort's most loyal Death Eaters and I'm damn sure he wouldn't let his master's daughter rot in prison. If you don't want me to talk to him personally because you feel I'd be too emotional or something then at least let me send some other Aurors."

Way ahead of you. As usual. "Harry, you know that we increased the surveillance on Rodolphus Lestrange when Delphi got arrested. The Aurors tracked him down this morning but nothing appeared to be out of order. Rodolphus would not risk his dearly bought freedom just to save Delphi. He has been very open with us about his whereabouts at all times. I really don't think he was involved," said Hermione sitting down and matching Harry's grave look.

Harry seemed to be considering this information for a moment. "Well, it doesn't have to be him personally," he said. "He had a brother, remember?"

Hermione reminded him that Rabastan Lestrange had been slain in the Battle of Hogwarts. She could feel Harry losing his patience.

"Well then some other one of his Death Eaters cronies!" he snapped. "I warned you it was a mistake to put Delphi's parentage in the Daily Prophet. You don't think Death Eaters can read, Hermione? When they saw she was their beloved Lord's daughter of course one of them stepped up to the plate and rescued her. Maybe they're even hoping to replace Voldemort with her for all we know."

"She's certainly no Voldemort despite her powers," said Hermione in a confident tone. Of this at least she was sure. "We're doing all the investigations we can possibly think of, Harry. Old Death Eaters who are still alive will all be checked and asked questions. But they barely escaped death or imprisonment after the war so I don't think they would risk anything just to save their master's loony daughter. Remember that many of them did not even look for Voldemort himself when he went missing. Even if some old Death Eater is helping her, it is just nostalgia. There can be no question of a dark regime coming back." I sound like Fudge now.

Harry said nothing, looking down at the desk. He thinks I'm being too casual about all this.

"Harry, I assure you everyone is doing all they can to find the girl and her accomplices. In the meantime take the rest of the day off, go home and try to live as normal as possible. I know it's hard while she's still out there but living in fear is exactly what she would want you to do." He was silent and did not look at her.

Hermione resumed her attempts to comfort him. "Harry you've seen this girl. Even if she comes after any of us, we can handle her. She's a misguided orphan— " I should not have used that word.

Harry's eyes widened, his face white with fury. "So now we should feel sorry for her? Is that it?"

"N-no of course not!" his outbursts always startled her.

He pointed his finger at her. "It's easy for you to be so calm and composed about this, Hermione! It wasn't your children she kidnapped."

Hermione gasped. "Harry!" she exclaimed, her eyes now as angry as his own and incredulous. You've always had a temper but this is going too far.

Harryrallied at once. "I'm sorry Hermione, I'm sorry. I know how much you care. It's just that this whole experience has brought back memories and feelings I'd hoped I buried a long time ago."

Hermione nodded. "I understand, of course. How is Albus doing?"

Harry smiled. "Well he no longer cringes when he sees me, at least. The only good thing about this experience has been that it strengthened the bond between us. Not much else would have probably accomplished that."

"Remember the troll", said Hermione cheerfully. "Without him we'd never have been friends."

"Yeah, and thanks to Albus we saw how that turned out for you, Professor Granger," he teased.

"Oh haha. And for your information it was Ron I was missing in that case not you," she replied, suddenly in a much better mood than she'd been in for days.

"Speaking of your ginger husband, I'm having a drink with him tonight if that's okay with you," Harry informed her while he got up to leave. "He seems a bit off to me lately, maybe I'll finally find out what's been bothering him."

"Oh, it's that thing with his mother," Hermione said with a dismissive hand gesture.

"Is Molly feeling unwell?" asked Harry worried.

"Oh no, not at all," said Hermione. "It just that..." She wondered if it was wise to start the discussion again since they'd just closed the painful subject. "It's this thing with Delphi," she said finally.

Harry rolled his eyes, clearly weary. "Why do I keep hearing that name in connection to the problems in our families?"

"Well, it's not about her escape as Molly obviously could not have known about that until this very morning." Though her escape is not likely to help matters, thought Hermione. "It's more the simple fact of her existence, if you know what I mean."

"Oh, I know what you mean. If she didn't exist, I wouldn't have a problem either," said Harry sarcastically.

He really is going to make me spell it out for him. She took a deep breath. "Mrs Weasleys feels guilty about what she did at the Battle of Hogwarts," said Hermione. "You see, she didn't know and couldn't have known that Bellatrix was at the time the mother of an infant daughter. And when the news came about Delphi they also mentioned her mother, not just her father and— "

"So what?!" interrupted Harry, his bad temper returning. "Molly did the right thing. That woman was going to kill Ginny. Are we supposed to ask our enemies whether or not they have families while they're attacking our own family?"

"Of course not, Harry. That's what Ron's been telling her as well and rationally of course she knows that. But feelings of guilt over killing someone, even an enemy, is what separates us from them," said Hermione wisely, hoping it will calm him down.

"Yes of course, you're right," he said, appearing ashamed over his outburst.

"She'll come around. You know how she is about children and families," said Hermione. "Another reason to end this Delphi business as soon as possible."

"You don't think it's possible that Delphi might try to attack Molly, do you?" asked Harry as though the idea had suddenly come to him. "She might not come back for us because she knows we can capture her again but Ron's parents might be in danger."

Hermione felt like she could put his mind at ease about this one at least. "I don't think so. She had plenty of time to attack Molly when everyone thought she was Diggory's niece and no one would have suspected her. She's not likely to want to draw attention to herself now. And she seemed more interested in her father than her mother anyway."

"I suppose you're right as usual." Harry was at the door preparing to leave when he turned around to speak to her again. "I really hope Albus doesn't have trust issues after this incident. I'd hate for him to suspect any new friend of being an enemy."

Fair concern. "Maybe it's a good thing for him to be suspicious of pretty girls with one-of-a-kind time turners, though", said Hermione with a smile, hoping to ease his concerns.

Harry returned her smile. "Certainly. And I sure do not want any romantic drama in his life anytime soon so him being suspicious might not be such a bad thing after all. I just hope he doesn't lose his adventure lust."

Hermione raised her eyebrows at him as though she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "He's the son of you and Ginny. I wouldn't worry about him losing his adventure lust anytime soon." Harry laughed and let himself out.

Back to work. But an hour later, her mind was still on the conversation. She had assured Harry the girl was not dangerous. Delphi's reaction to being arrested had been almost pitiful, certainly not something either her mother or her father would have done. Does that mean you've learned your lesson? Or were you just sorry you got caught?