Sunday, 20 December 1998
Before Hermione realised it, the Christmas holidays had started. She hadn't even thought about going home for them though that might have been because she felt conflicted about where home was. For almost her entire life it had been the house her parents had lived in. When she was on the run with Harry and Ron, home meant someplace warm and safe, but it always meant wherever Harry and Ron were. And now they were living together at Grimmauld Place but the townhouse didn't feel like home either. For a few months over the summer, home had meant Lestrange's manor. Maybe home would be the Burrow now.
In any case, Hermione had pushed the thoughts of home aside to think about later and continued her studying into the holiday. She still faithfully went to the Gryffindor common room on Saturday nights and the inter-house common room on Sundays.
Ginny had gone home for the holidays, as did most of the students. Malfoy, however, had not. When Hermione walked into the common room she found Malfoy sitting by himself in front of the crackling fireplace. Hermione glanced around, making sure Parkinson wasn't around before she walked over and sat beside him, jostling him enough to make him open his eyes.
"Hey," he said after he'd looked over at her.
"Hi," Hermione replied. "Happy early Christmas," she whispered, though she continued to stare at the fire instead of at him.
"Are you going home for the holiday?" Malfoy asked.
Hermione's eyebrows scrunched. "The train left last Saturday, Malfoy. If I were going home I wouldn't be here now."
"Oh, well, I was going to Apparate to the manor tomorrow morning from Hogsmeade. Since we're of age, during the holiday we can go down into the village. I thought I might pick up a last minute gift or two and then go see Mother."
Hermione glanced down at her lap before looking over at him. Hoping to sound teasing, she asked, "Have you put off your holiday shopping until the very last moment, Malfoy?"
He grinned and nodded. "Yes. That's how I usually do it. Let me guess, you had presents all purchased and wrapped by September."
"October. September was a little rough this year."
"I do have one thing that I purchased early. Want to come back to my room?" His voice sounded earnest but his words oozed suggestion.
She raised her eyebrows at him.
He looked panicked for a moment after he realised what he said. "No, no. I mean, I have a gift for you but it's in my room." He chuckled as he dropped his head and rubbed his hands over his face. "That sounded just as wrong." He looked back up at her. "I apologise. If you'll excuse me, I'll be right back," he said formally. The stiff language seemed to come naturally in his fluster. He stood and walked from the room.
Hermione listened to the fire crackling and closed her eyes, basking in the warmth it gave off. As she waited, there was a soft popping sound and the clink of spoons against mugs as an elf set a tray on a low table. "Thank you," she said to the elf without opening her eyes.
"Welcome Miss," the elf said quietly before another pop, this time louder. The door of the common room opened and Hermione waited for Malfoy to join her. She only opened her eyes when the sofa cushion jostled her.
He was sitting on the edge of his seat, holding a small, flat box.
Immediately, Hermione was wary, thinking of the last time he'd offered her jewellery. This box looked different but it may just be a different piece from the Malfoy set.
He seemed to notice her non-verbal reaction and reassured her. "No, it's not betrothal jewellery. I've... I've learned my lesson, I suppose. Surprising you with something that important probably wasn't the best way to go about it. The point is moot now, anyway. But yes," he said, handing her the box. "It is jewellery, but..." he bounced his eyebrows in an expression that told her to open the box.
She did and inside was a beautiful necklace and a matching ring. Her eyes widened, wondering what the significance was with this gesture. "I can't..." she started to say but the words trailed off at the look on his face.
"I bought them in Sydney in an antique shop while wandering around brainstorming ideas to find your parents. Abalone isn't used in betrothal jewellery. The pearls, yeah, that might be a nod in my direction, but I thought the few small pearls were tastefully done. I know Muggles use rings as engagement pieces but that's not why I bought it. I bought it because it was a set and I thought you might like it."
Hermione was confused. "You bought me jewellery even after I ruined your proposal?"
He half smirked but the attempt at levity didn't show in his eyes. "I thought I'd get another chance." He sighed heavily. "In any case, I bought them for you and you can wear them whenever you'd like and no one will know they're from me."
She ran her fingertip over the ring and picked it up, testing it on her finger. It surprised her when it fit. "How did you know?"
This time the smile reached his eyes. "I didn't. I did look up a charm that would resize it in case I needed to. It's just pretty Muggle jewellery. No enchantments, no expectations."
Hermione touched the gold of the necklace again. "Thank you, Draco," she said. "Happy Christmas."
"Happy Christmas," he replied.
* . * . *
Thursday, 15 April 1999
Hermione knocked on the door to Professor Vector's office. She'd officially stepped up as the Head of House for Gryffindor when Professor McGonagall became the Headmistress. The door swung inward, allowing Hermione to walk in. Professor Vector was standing behind her desk. "Come in, please have a seat, Miss Granger." When Hermione sat, so did Vector. "Now, I know you're in your last year of schooling and you had career counselling in fifth-year. Your file has several notes in it saying you were undecided about what you wanted to do for your career. Do you still feel that way?"
Vector was a middle-aged, short, dumpy witch with a bubbly personality. She was passionate about her subject, Arithmancy, and she was very good at it and teaching it to others. She was the reason Hermione couldn't decide between Charms, Transfiguration, and Arithmancy as her favourite subjects.
"I'm still unsure. I want to be able to apply myself. Aside from my school subjects, I'm good at research, but I have to admit creativity isn't one of my strengths. Professor Snape always seemed frustrated that I never tried to deviate from the book-written instructions in our potions lessons."
"That's a fair assessment, I would say. But I think you do have creativity in other areas. Potions just weren't something that came intuitively to you, like they did Severus. Things like Arithmancy and Transfiguration require creativity and you do really well in those subjects," Vector said. "The Ministry has owled the Headmistress to encourage our students to aim to work there. Is that something you might see yourself doing?"
Hermione recalled telling the late Minister Scrimgeour that she would never work in the Ministry, but it seemed so long ago now. "I didn't want to work in the Ministry if I could help it. All I really know is that I don't want to be an Auror. I wouldn't mind doing something that works with Aurors, though, as a number of my friends are going through training. Eventually, my goal is to free house-elves and promote equal rights between other magical beings. I'd also like to get rid of obscure laws, the custom of betrothal jewellery, and confinement garments."
Vector nodded as she wrote down a note on the parchment in front of her. "That's a lofty goal, Miss Granger, and you'll no doubt be fighting against the grain. Especially with regards to house-elves and goblins. I don't know how successful you'll be at getting rid of confinement garments. They are important so people know to be respectful around a pregnant witch. Even the most loathsome of our society wouldn't think of harming a witch in a confinement garment. Children are too precious. And families that use betrothal jewellery are so rare these days; a witch can always decline them if they're offered."
"And the claiming thing? The horrific concept of being married to someone you don't like and the only recompense is to kill them before they rape you?" Hermione asked.
Vector's eyebrows had raised and her mouth had gone slack in shock. "I'm not sure where you've come across those things but they're barbaric and no one does that anymore. They're old wives' tales from when families arranged marriages. Arranged marriages are a thing of the past; no one with the authority to officiate a wedding would do it if one of the people involved was against it. It's just not the done thing anymore." She paused and took a deep breath, obviously drawn off-target by Hermione's questions. "Anyway, I think a career in the Ministry would be the best place to start. The Auror training does have a course regarding laws on the books and you might be able to sit in on one of those even if you don't join the program. I don't think going directly into law would be the best thing for you. Despite your dedicated study habits, you seem quite restless these days and law requires a lot of self-motivation," she offered a sad little smile that spoke of pity rather than sympathy.
Hermione crossed her ankles and glanced at her hands in her lap to hide the fact that she felt discomforted by Vector's pity.
When Hermione didn't say anything, Vector continued. "There's a new sub-department that's being opened up. The witches or wizards that are going to be hired or moved to that department aren't Aurors but they'll deal with Dark Artefacts and the destruction of such, or the dispelling of Dark Magic. It will require brainstorming and research, attention to details, high marks in Defence Against the Dark Arts, Charms, and Arithmancy and a working knowledge of Ancient Runes. There might be a need for Potions but I've been told they'll be hiring a Potions Master from the continent for consultations. You've got all the qualifying marks for it. Not all the time will be spent behind the desk. There will be times when agents would need to do field work, I've been told. Going to homes or businesses to collect Dark Artefacts—but not raids. Does that sound at all interesting to you?"
It did. Hermione found herself nodding as she thought about the chance to work with Dark Artefacts. There was still some risk but it wasn't going out and trying to 'catch Dark wizards' as Harry had put it when he talked about joining the Aurors. "I... I really do like the sound of that. Are they sure they want to hire directly from Hogwarts, though? Surely new hires would need information on curse-breaking, which can only be gained through a year's apprenticeship with Gringotts. I'm not on the best of terms with Gringotts at the moment."
"There wasn't any information in the owl about curse-breaking. It's likely if that's needed, they'll subcontract it out."
Hermione smiled, thinking about the distinctions between breaking curses and dispelling Dark Magic, they weren't the same thing but they were related. She wondered about on-the-job training and how much extra research a job like this could require. Still, it was something. If it was a sub-department of the DMLE then she might get to work with Harry and Ron on occasion. "How do I apply?"
* . * . *
Saturday, 3 July 1999
The sound of students laughing and shouting their excitement that the school year was finally over were drowned out by the Express whistle and the slow chunk-chunk of the steam pipe as the train started to move.
Hermione wasn't feeling the excitement. Her leg bounced restlessly as she watched Hogsmeade disappear out of view when the tracks curved around a mountain. All that was left was the musical drumbeat of the locomotive and the tinkling squeaks of the compartment cars as the train made it's way south. That was it. Her time at Hogwarts was officially over. She didn't feel particularly excited about it nor did she feel proud or accomplished like she thought she would. Instead, everything felt tarnished. The shine had worn off of going to a magic school sometime in the last seven years and there wasn't any going back to before.
Not that there was a before to go back to. Harry had issued an invitation to live in Grimmauld Place with him and Ron. Mrs Weasley had owled and told her the Burrow would always be open to her. Hermione sniffed. No, she was going home. To a closed up house. To take the dust covers off of the furniture, to stock the refrigerator, to have the electricity and water turned back on. Home. She had quite a few things to do to settle the house. Getting the deed changed over to her name would be the first step, followed by finding out if her parents had any funds in savings. Then she would go through the things her parents had left behind and after she started working full time, she'd renovate. The house was hers and she would make it home.
Hermione had owled The Dark Artefacts Agency and learned that it was actually a subdepartment of the Department of Mysteries. They had found in the past that although 'mysterious' was an apt description of an Unspeakable, it was also lonely and that very few were applying for work that they would never be able to speak about, even with their loved ones. Creating the branch for Dark Artefacts was the first step in restructuring the department. Unspeakable Croaker was in charge of new hires and said that pending her official N.E.W.T.s scores, she had the job.
She had yet to tell her friends. She figured they would probably all be gathering at the Burrow for dinner tonight and she would tell them there, along with her plans of reopening her parents' house. Hermione wondered how her friends would react to her new job. Would they think it suited her? She wondered if Ginny had also spoken with Professor Vector and talked about what she was planning. Now though, Ginny was in the prefect's car, going over the end-of-term notes and acknowledgements. Hermione remembered those from when she was prefect herself.
She continued to watch the scenery pass by in a green blur even as they passed under heavy, dark rainclouds. The windows were pelted with fat raindrops and the pattering was enough to lull her into thinking a nap was the best way to pass the train ride home. The compartment door slid open. She was proud of herself when she didn't jerk and immediately draw her wand. She had relaxed some of her stringent paranoia while she was at Hogwarts this last year as she healed from her battle wounds. Not reacting like someone was always out to get you was a good thing. 'Constant Vigilance' was all well and good in war, but Moody wasn't known as 'that mad, old Auror' for nothing.
Malfoy stepped in and stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Hello, Granger," he said.
"Hello, Malfoy." She gestured towards the seat opposite. "Have a seat."
He looked at it and then back at her, a puzzled expression on his face like he was wondering why she was sitting alone. "I'd better not, Pansy and Blaise will start looking for me after a while. Lovely jewellery, by the way."
She reached up to touch the necklace with the hand wearing the ring. She grinned. "Thank you, it's lovely. I don't remember if I thanked you when you gave it to me."
"You did. I was wondering if—"
"What are you doing in my compartment, Malfoy?" Ginny's voice spoke over his low tones, defensive.
He smiled, "Weasley," he greeted her. He turned back to Hermione, "Best of wishes with everything, Granger. Hope we cross paths again sometime."
"Thank you, Malfoy."
He turned and stepped past Ginny, hands still in his pockets. She pulled the door shut looking confused. "Was he just polite to you?"
"He was... er, wanted to marry me, Ginny, remember? Why wouldn't he be polite?" Hermione shifted to sit on her feet, leaning toward the rain-spattered window pane.
"Yeah, I remember, but I... I suppose it never occurred to me that he might act nice to you. Nice necklace, by the way, was that a present from Ron?"
Hermione shook her head and smiled. "Picked it up in Sydney, thought today was a good day to wear it." She knew that even if she tried to explain to Ginny how pleasant Malfoy had been she wouldn't believe her. Probably because half the time, Hermione had a hard time believing it herself. She knew being nice to her had the ultimate goal of marriage but Hermione still wasn't sure why. There had to be more to his motives than that unless he just really wanted to spite his father. Figuring out Draco Malfoy would take a degree in psychology and years of study and that sort of studying was something Hermione was proud to say, even to herself, that she had no interest in.
"So, what are your plans, Ginny?"
Ginny's smile was infectious as she started detailing her plan to get picked up by the Holy Head Harpies and how she was well on her way to her goal. Hadn't Hermione seen the scouts in the stands at the last two games of the year? Hermione found it humorous that Ginny would think so. Quidditch just wasn't her thing. She went and watched to support her friends, cringing whenever a bludger came too close to them, but she wasn't a fan of the sport like Harry and Ron. And Ginny. And the rest of the Weasleys.
They spent a large portion of the train ride playing Exploding Snap. Then Ginny decided to go visit all of her other friends. Hermione begged off to take a nap since she'd said goodbye to the majority of her friends before she'd got on the train.
Ginny shook Hermione's shoulder to wake her from her nap and told her they were about ten minutes from King's Cross. "Are you sure you don't want to say goodbye again?"
"I'll owl them all later in the week. I've got some news that I want to share with you and Harry and Ron before I tell them. So I've got something to write about."
"You're not pregnant again are you?" Ginny's eyes went wide.
"And how would I have done that, Ginerva? Asexual reproduction? I'm single if you hadn't noticed."
"Oh, right. You're not planning to go back to the Death Eater are you?"
Hermione sighed dramatically. "No, but his name is Lestrange, Ginny. And I'm not telling you my news—which is happy, good news—until I'm at your family's house and we're eating dinner. The train ride always exhausts me, you know, and a good meal and surrounded by family will be wonderful."
"But what does that have to do with not telling me the news first?"
"I'm tired and don't want to have to repeat myself," Hermione explained.
"Oh," Ginny nodded, shifting in her seat, trying to hide the bouncing of her leg. Instead, she tapped her fingers on her knee. "I can understand not wanting to explain twice. Half the time you have to do that just for Ron, no need to go making it worse." She giggled and Hermione joined in.
"Just that," Hermione agreed. She looked up as the train whistled and started decelerating.
"You're still in your school robe, Hermione," Ginny said.
"That's all right. I'd plan to just wear it at your house and change for bed once I get there. It goes back to the exhausted thing. Changing once is better than twice when I'm not going to be seen by Muggles."
"We might have to go through the Muggle side of King's Cross, though. I don't know if we're all going to Apparate home or not. Do you want me to Apparate you home if we do? If you're exhausted..."
Smiling, Hermione said, "That's all right. I bet Harry or Ron could do it. Even I could technically do it, I've Apparated Side-Along both of them before, exhausted and malnourished."
"Yeah, but you don't have to now. You look much healthier than you did this time last year, you know. You've got boobs now."
Hermione laughed, "Ginny I've had boobs since fifth-year!"
"Yeah, but, I mean you've gained weight and now they're, you know, Va va voom!" She teased, holding her hands out in front of her own bosom.
The train whistle blew again and they could hear the other compartment doors sliding open. "Let's get these trunks and get out there. It's always a crush." Hermione levitated her trunk and Ginny levitated her own, happy to be able to do magic outside of school. They joined the queue of students getting off the train, having to wait behind the younger one who couldn't levitate their own trunks. A few seventh and eighth-year Hufflepuffs were at the steps, helping the younger students pick their trunks up and put them onto the station trolleys. Hermione grinned to herself as she passed them. Once passed the clutch of younger students, Hermione and Ginny moved further back from the train near the wall to look for their family. It didn't take long.
"Ginny!" Harry's voice called out and he seemed to swoop in from nowhere to pick her up and hug her tight, spinning her around and around.
Ron came up to Hermione and slipped his arm around her waist. "Hey, Hermione. Hope they get that out of their system now, he's been talking about Ginny for the last three weeks. She wrote something in her latest owl that had him climbing the walls."
Hermione could think of quite a few things that might have got Harry excited for his girlfriend. Were they officially dating now? She leaned into Ron and rested her head on his chest waiting for Harry to notice she existed too. It took several minutes of kissing before George cleared his throat immediately behind Harry before he let go of her. Mr and Mrs Weasley just smiled at them, though there was a quirk to Mrs Weasley's smile.
There were lots of hugs all around and Mrs Weasley said that dinner would be ready almost as soon as they got home. Hermione discreetly asked Harry if he would Apparate her Side-Along to get her to the Burrow.
"But you hate Side-Along? Plus, who'll take your trunk?"
"Ron," she called. He turned and she pointed to her trunk. "Can you take that for me, Harry's going to Side-Along me and—"
"Of course," he said. It was such a strange answer from him that she almost wanted to ask him security questions. Her puzzled look at Harry only made him shrug.
They Apparated to the Burrow where Bill and Fleur and their two-month-old, Victoire, were entertaining Charlie and Percy. Ginny launched herself at her older brothers, excitingly telling them about the scouts for the Pro-Quidditch leagues.
Hermione asked Mrs Weasley if she needed any help in the kitchen.
"No, dear, thank you though. Why don't you and Harry—" she looked over to wear her daughter was talking excitedly to Bill and Charlie, still clinging tightly to Harry's hand, "Why don't you and Ron take a walk about the garden for a few minutes; I'll call when everything's ready."
Ron had heard and walked up to Hermione, slinging his arm around her shoulders and leading her to the door. Once they were outside and strolling, he spoke, "How've you been?"
"Ron, I owled you weekly," she said, rolling her eyes and laughing slightly to let him know she was teasing.
"I know, but you didn't really, you know, say much. You talked about classes and the changes at Hogwarts and about other people. You even talked about your plans to change the curriculum when you got the chance, but you didn't talk about you. So... How've you been?"
She smiled, wondering when he'd grown up so much when she felt stagnant. There was a flash of memory in her mind, tanned bare skin against hers, the burned Dark Mark still mottled green on his forearm, a little girl's giggles. Maybe she wasn't as stagnant as she felt. "I'm okay. A little sad about things but looking forward to the future."
"You're sad? Not because you didn't have to marry that git, right? Just sad that you're leaving Hogwarts."
Hermione wasn't sure he would understand even if she did try to explain so she went with what he was sure to understand. Losing family. "My parents are dead, Ron. Before the war, they were always so proud of my accomplishments, so happy even if they didn't really understand about Transfiguration or Charms or Potions. Leaving school, properly I mean, was always such an exciting goal but now that I have, it feels sort of bittersweet. I've done this really great thing and I think my NEWT scores are going to be fantastic but they aren't here to celebrate it with me."
"Oh," he said, his voice low. "Yeah, I get that. Losing Fred's been hard on all of us but especially George. I've been spending weekends helping out at the shop, you know, and he'll be working on something and I'll hear him shout in excitement and turn to his side as if to show Fred. Then he gets this lost look in his eyes like the thing he was excited about just wasn't that exciting anymore."
Hermione nodded, glad that Ron seemed to understand. Mrs Weasley called from the kitchen window that dinner was ready, so Hermione tucked her hand around Ron's elbow and headed towards the door. At first, he didn't realise what to do, but when he did he crooked his elbow and escorted her. Though he fumbled at the door because he wasn't sure whether to try to hold it open from the outside or go inside to hold it. Hermione just chuckled and Ron grinned at her.
Over dinner, Hermione told them about her news about moving into her parents' house and her pending job. There were cheers all around and Bill offered advice regarding protective spells he'd learned in Egypt to protect her from some of the residual Dark Magic that sometimes leaked from objects.
After dinner, they were all squeezed into the sitting room talking about random things. Fleur had ended up moving around the room, letting anyone hold the baby. Ginny was delighted to, Ron seemed a bit clumsy, and even Harry held little Victoire.
When Harry finally handed Victoire back to Fleur, Fleur turned and placed her in Hermione's arms without bothering to ask.
Hermione's arms had come up to cradle the little one but her breath hitched and her eyes began to prickle with tears. Victoire grinned at Hermione and reached up to grab a loose curl that had dangled over Hermione's shoulder. Hermione swallowed hard and tried to stem the tears she didn't want to bear, but it was no use. When she opened her mouth to ask Fleur to take the baby back a whimpered sob came out instead.
Mrs Weasley realised the problem before anyone else. She was up and taking the baby back from Hermione before Fleur could even ask what was wrong, gently passing the baby off to her husband who had stood as well. Mrs Weasley guided Hermione up and into the kitchen and onto a stool. "You're all right, sweetie. It's okay to cry," she told her gently.
Hermione tried to take a deep breath but it sounded ragged. She blinked to stop the traitorous tears and dabbed at her cheeks. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—"
"Hush," Mrs Weasley chided. "Why don't I fix you some tea; put a little something special in it to help you sleep, hmm? Then you can go right up to bed and not even bother saying goodnight. I'll tell them all for you."
Not ten minutes later, Hermione crawled under the covers of her bed, feeling pleasantly drowsy and warm. She would deal with everything later.