To say that Hermione was nervous was an understatement, and she knew it. Three years had gone by since she had left London to live in Australia. Five had gone by since she had last seen Harry – the love of her life. Now she sat in a plane – with her boyfriend Mark seated on her left holding her left hand – returning to England.

'You nervous babe?' he asked leaning into her.

She laughed nervously, 'No, not really, why?'

'Your hands are cold and a bit sweaty. You get that way when you're nervous.'

'Well it must be this airplane ride. Never liked flying. Remember all those quiditch stories I told you about?'

'Oh yes. Sorry about that. I was just worried. Why don't you rest for a while?'

She nodded and leaned into him. At least she could act as though she was sleeping so she could freely think. Going back to England had been Mark's idea. Well, he was left no choice in the matter anyways. Mark had worked at the foreign affairs department at the Ministry of Magic of Australia for 13 years (he was now 33), and had finally been named an Ambassador to England. This was the promotion that he had always dreamed of because, ever since he could remember, he had always loved England, but could not go. He had called it the golden opportunity when he had given the news to Hermione over dinner. Denying the opportunity would have been more than crazy. The poor girl had thought that he had finally decided to ask her to marry him after a two year old relationship. But she had quickly recovered her initial disappointment which was then replaced by fear.

Yes, she would be returning to London, where she could run into Harry, Ron or one of the Weasleys. She accepted anyways, because she wanted to stay with Mark and she had to inaugurate the opening of her new office in England. Indeed, when Hermione left England and chose to go to Australia of all places, it was for two reasons. Firstly, it was to get as far away from Harry and memories of Harry as possible. Secondly, she quit her job as a healer and decided to find another one. Healing was no longer fulfilling. Therefore, when she heard that Australia was searching for potion brewers and researchers, she jumped on the opportunity. She had always loved potions and she was good at it. Plus she had the experience of being a Healer.

The group was supposed to find new healing potions to cure diseases which had mysteriously appeared in the magical community in Australia. However, Hermione made an interesting discovery quite accidentally. One day, while mixing different ingredients in her cauldron at the laboratory and testing the effects on rats, her potion exploded drenching her from head to toe. There had been a general panic and she was then rushed to the medical emergency section of the research center. Upon discovering that there was no intoxication whatsoever in her body, Hermione realized that her hair had been fully straightened; a feat that no magical and muggle products had never been able to achieve permanently. She kept her discovery to herself and perfected the potion. She then withdrew from the program to ensure that when she began to commercialize the product, that the center would not claim the rights to her discovery. Within the year that she went public with her new product called the "Revitilizer", it became a great success. Productions tripled within the year that Revitilizer entered the market. All of this had happened within the year that she had arrived in Australia. She had then met Mark while celebrating with her employees in a restaurant.

'Wake up Hermione,' Mark whispered, shaking her lightly.

She had fallen asleep two hours ago, and now, they were about to land.

'Oh, sorry about that. I guess I really was exhausted,' she replied while putting her things together.

'Yes, I guess you were. I warned you about working too much. Your company is doing just fine,' Mark scolded her playfully with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

Hermione was about to reply when the main air hostess announced their impending arrival.

Two hours later, they had gotten their luggage and had cleared through customs with Mark complaining every to minutes about the disadvantages of muggle transportation. The Ministry of Magic had placed a vehicle with a driver at their disposal in order to ensure their safe arrival at one of the chick houses in Diagon Alley, away from the main street where all the stores were located.

'So do we get to keep the car?' Mark asked their designated driver.

'Well yes. But you must have already guessed that traffic is not allowed on the Main Street. In order to enter with the vehicle, you'll have to use the other entrance.'

This time, it was Hermione who spoke up leaning forward so he could hear her, 'Which is?'

'I can't really explain you'll just have to watch where we're headed and remember I suppose. However, if after that, you still feel a bit uncomfortable, Miss Granger here can buy a map of the new Diagon Alley at Flourish & Blotts.'

'Are all of the stores still here?'

'All, except one Miss Granger. Much to our general shock and disappointment, Ollivander's closed.' Other than that, there are new restaurants and boutiques open due to the presence of the new neighborhoods.'

'Wow. I never thought that that would happen one day. Why did he choose to close? He didn't go out of business did he?'

'Well after Mr. Potter rescued him 10 years ago, the store reopened, but 6 years later, he decided to sell it to this young man named Gasper in order to retire. He declared that after what he lived through, he needed a break.'

That said, they remained quiet for the rest of the ride. Hermione and Mark watched carefully as the driver passed the Leaky Cauldron and continued on the main road, then made a left turn in the first dark alley. Mark was a bit alarmed when they continued and drove through a wall which allowed them through with no problems.

They must have gotten the same person who built the wall of platform 9 and ¾ to build this Hermione thought but said nothing. The road then continued on the outskirts of the City or Main Street of Diagon Alley. The driver then stopped in front of a bid black rot ironed gate which asked them their purposed of visitation. After having answered, the gates swung back on their own, granting them access to a sort of Americanized neighborhood. It being daytime, Hermione and Mark could examine the place closely. Houses upon houses lined each side of the road with garages. Except that the houses did not resemble each other. Some seemed to sway to the wind while others looked like castles or replicas of the titanic. As they drove on, they could see children riding their brooms all around the houses while a woman whom she assumed was the mother asked them to be careful from a second floor window. There was even a magically "mowing" the lawn in front of his ancient roman house.

'Wow this place is truly magical!' exclaimed Hermione. She could picture herself living her with Harry and their children. Harry would be flying around the house with their children on their brooms with her asking them to be careful. They would not have to worry about muggles seeing them seeing that the neighborhood was far away from the boundary walls of Diagon Alley. Thoughts that she quickly pushed aside.

'Yes it is,' agreed both Mark and the driver. 'If I could, I'd move here with my wife Susan and our son Luke. Well here we are.' The driver declared driving up the paved road leading up to a quaint Victorian house.

It was in no way as extravagant as the others they had passed. He parked, got out of the car and removed the luggage from the (coffre). 'Three bedrooms, four baths, a sitting room, a kitchen, a basment/laundry room and a library. There is also a den and a back yard. I guess they thought that you might be coming with children.'

Mark looked at Hermione who smiled sadly. If marriage had not been on their minds, children were totally out of the question. The driver walked up to the house and pronounced the spell to unlock the door. Wards had been placed around the house to allow the three access, seeing that Mark was a government figure. The couple could later on open those wards to whomever they wanted. After having placed their luggage in the main hall, the driver bade them goodbye and left. Mark and Hermione visited the house and ended up in the master bedroom.

'Well,' began Mark, 'this is it.'

'Yes it is,' Hermione agreed, feeling a bit uncomfortable.

She had never felt that way before with Mark and felt like kicking herself. Why was she making this out to be so hard? Why did she let the change in location dictate how she behaved with Mark? She had yet to meet Harry and he was already having an effect on her. Out of guilt, she joined Mark at the foot of the bed and hugged him. He kissed her deeply and she allowed herself to be kissed. She wanted to be more natural, more like the Hermione knew in Australia. Hours here should not change that. He let go of her and sighed.

'Why don't you arrange our things and I'll make dinner. It's getting late.'

'Sure go ahead.'

'Hermione, we have to talk.'

They had finished their dinner and were preparing themselves for bed. She had an idea of what he wanted to discuss, but she wasn't ready. So she continued to pull back the comforters on the bed manually in order to keep herself busy.

'Hermione,' he repeated this time, walking up behind her and turning her around.

'You know that we need to talk right?'

Hermione acquiesced by nodding her head.

'Look, I know that this has always been a difficult subject, and I knew that once we'd be here, we'd have to face it. You have and will always be in love with that Harry Potter guy. I accepted that. And before you interrupt me, I know that you love me too. We've have been together for a little while now and we haven't had any problems. The thing is that, I want to know if this thing between us is real and strong enough, before we take any other steps-'

'What do you mean by any other steps?' she asked sitting down on the edge of the bed.

'I mean like marriage and children.'

'You want to know if I'm ready?'

'Think of this as a test for us.'

'And if we lose?'

'It's a risk that I'm will to take Hermione. If you see him and can still come back to me…then I'll know that I'm with a woman who can love all of me. I don't want a piece of your heart honey, I want all of it.'

'I know that this isn't fair. I hate putting you through this,' she admitted. She pulled him down onto the bed and kissed him. They then made love, but it wasn't like before. It was like some desperated attempt to hold on to what was.

For my comeback this might be a bit disappointing, but I had to add some new element to this story, or I was as good as doomed. I know that the Hermione runing away plot is more than overused but, I at least I didn't have Harry crying over her for months not knowing what happened to her. We know what happened, but why did she end up in Australia?? Stay tuned for the next chapter folks. Oh and for those who might be interested, I re-edited the previous chapters and added some new stuff.