Hermione tapped her quill in frustration as she sat down for breakfast the next morning, trying to think of how to phrase her letter to Draco Malfoy.

Dear Draco, she immediately scratched it out. It was too friendly; Malfoy was merely an acquaintance now, as they were now on level ground as far as Hermione knew. She wrote the simple words, Dear Malfoy, and paused again. As though by pure coincidence, but caused Hermione to be suspicious all the same, a tawny owl fluttered towards the kitchen window.

She opened the window tentatively, the owl hopping gently upon the ledge and offering the letter in its beak.

Dear Granger,

I didn't get to fully explain to you why I saved you from those Snatchers. If you can, would you mind coming to the Leaky Cauldron this weekend?

See you soon,

Draco Malfoy

"'Morning, Hermione, what's that?" Ginny yawned, pulling her red hair back into a ponytail and making her way towards her. Hermione folded the letter and stuffed it into her pocket. Ginny seemed yet to have woken up fully, still stretching and yawning like a lazy cat.

"Just McGonogall asking if there are any other books I would want to go through before teaching next term." She smiled, occupying herself with spreading butter onto her toast. Merlin, I need to stop using McGonogall as an excuse.

"Come on, it's the Christmas holidays! You can't just work all the time!" She joked, pouring herself a cup of tea and sitting down opposite her.

"Hark who's talking! How many people are you inviting to this wedding?" Hermione said, eyeing the huge pile of objects strewn across the rest of the table from the previous night's work.

"I know." Ginny sat down. "But this is extremely important. And I don't want anyone or anything missed out. Oh, here, actually, can you go see Harry and give this to him later today?" She said, handing Hermione a big wad of parchment containing countless scribbles and figures.

"I was hoping to see... Ron today. He's the best man, isn't he?" Hermione asked, still unsure when she would speak to Ginny's brother directly again. Ginny nodded with a smile. "I'll drop them off later."

"Thanks. I'm going to see Bill and Fleur, see if she's still craving caviar." Ginny grabbed a slice of toast, one that Hermione had just had her eye on, and dashed out of the room, quite anxious to meet up with her pregnant sister-in-law.

Hermione scribbled a quick note, seeing as Ginny had left the room and returned it to the owl. It simply read:

Malfoy,

Sure. See you on Saturday?

The owl took flight in seconds and Hermione returned to the matter in hand - meeting Ron.


Later, in the Aurors' department of the Ministry of Magic, Hermione stopped by Harry's office. It was clear that Ron had had a small influence on its decoration, a Chudley Cannons banner hanging by the window, yet the remainder of the walls were painted in a light gold, photos of Ginny playing Quidditch hanging from them. She glanced at the door when she heard Harry walk in from the neighbouring storeroom.

"Oh, morning Hermione. How are you?" He set a file of parchment on his desk and returned his attention to Hermione.

"Fine." Hermione took the parchment from her pocket and enlarged it to its normal size. She stifled a laugh at the surprise on Harry's face. "Ginny told me to give these to you."

"Is this really how much preparation goes into a wedding?" He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose with a small smile. "I knew she'd do this."

"She would be less preoccupied if it was Quidditch season." Hermione sat down opposite him, sharing his exasperated look. Her train of thought soon returned to Ron. "Harry? You don't mind that I can't tell anyone about this, do you?" She said, biting her lip.

"You mean Dumbledore? No. I think Ron overreacted. You were both having a hard time." Hary said sympathetically, before adopting a more serious tone. "But are you sure you're okay? Is it anything I should be worrying about? It's not Voldemort, is it?"

"No, of course not Harry." She said vaguely, and gave a small laugh. She hated to lie to her best friend, but it wasn't worth putting him through more stress after he had already dealt with it for years. "It's all sorted now I think."

"I'm sorry I've been working so much, it's almost Christmas for Merlin's sake-"

"Don't apologise Harry, it's not you're fault your skills are in demand." She joked, and walked with Harry out of his office. "I'll see you tonight."

Harry gave her a hug and rushed over to the golden elevator doors just in time. Hermione realised that she could have obviously been able to take a Sneakoscope from his store cupboard, but knew there would be other means to do so. She took the opposite route and headed towards Ron's office door, giving it a small knock.

"Hi Ron. Are you in there?" She opened the door and peered inside.

"Mmmhhmm." Ron's mouth was stuffed with Every Flavour Beans, who was lazing backwards in his chair, his feet upon the incredibly unorganised desk. How he became an Auror, Hermione was not quite sure.

"You know, I think you have too many of those." She smiled and walked fully into the room, also equally as messy as his desk. The back wall was painted a garish orange, in obvious support of the Chudley Cannons and a cabinet was overflowing with metal contraptions.

"Hermione... I'm sorry for... you know..." He trailed off, his ears turning an unmistakable pink. "I shouldn't have overreacted like that."

"It's okay. I understand. I'm actually happy to hear you're with Luna."

Oddly, Hermione didn't feel any jealousy or regret towards him. She never expected their relationship to move on this well, yet she knew it was for the best for them to not be together. She knew it wouldn't have lasted much longer anyway.

"I was wondering if you could tell Ginny about your speech." She continued, as Ron quickly glanced at the violently moving cabinet beside him and silenced it with a charm.

"Oh yeah, the speech-" Ron muttered, clearly having no idea what she was going on about. "What speech?"

"Your speech at the wedding! Ginny wants to know if you've started on it yet. Honestly..."

"Well, sort of..." Ron admitted. Hermione rose an eyebrow in his direction with a small smile, and he added, "You know I hate writing. Isn't it a bit early to be thinking about the wedding? Harry said it would be a few months at least.

"You should try talking to Ginny. She doesn't have the Holyhead Harpies training to occupy her time at the moment."

A small paper aeroplane flew over her head and landed promptly upon Ron's desk. He stood up quickly and picked up his cloak, making his way for the door, saying, "Sorry, Seamus just sent a note about a banshee he can't keep under control."

Typical Ron. He forgot to lock the door. Hermione glanced over his desk, searching for something that may come in handy if she did meet more Snatchers, and pocketed a Sneakoscope before leaving Ron's office also.