Through Hermione's Looking Glass

Hermione has definitely had an eventful few years. Since her fifth year, she had been in constant contact with Viktor, exchanging at least one letter a week. She was often asked by many of her fellow female classmates how she handles a famous boyfriend.

Not any more than how she handled her regular life being one of Harry Potter's best friends.

She often wrote congratulations as a footnote of her letter at him winning his latest match. He didn't like too much attention forced upon him of his Quidditch matches.

On the day that she turned sixteen, she received a lot more than she expected. She knew about courtships, of course, from the book that Draco had given her but she hadn't expected an actual offer.

It was from Viktor. He had crafted her a glass rose with a note No petals will fall as my love is eternal. That got a lot of sighs from her fellow roommates.

"That's really special, Hermione. No one ever crafts courtship gifts anymore." Lavender sounded positively green with envy.

"Viktor is special." Hermione beamed at the note. She told him about the muggle fairy tale Beauty and the Beast but she didn't think that he was really paying attention. But it seemed he was.

Lavender sighed in hopes that she would get something that lovely as a courtship present.

Over the next year and a half, as Hermione finished her sixth and seventh year, with visits from Viktor and constant letter writing, she had received many gifts and eventually a very lovely engagement ring appeared on her hand one day, to the surprise of everyone around her. They knew that Hermione was being courted by Viktor and Viktor seemed very in love with her and vice versa. She came back from Easter break and during it, Viktor proposed to her. She immediately said yes and he beamed happily.

Ron seethed in jealousy that Hermione was still dating Viktor and the end of their relationship didn't seem to be ending anytime soon. He really needed to find someone who he would love and who would love him. But he wouldn't really find that person in Hogwarts. He burnt too many bridges here.

Upon her graduation, Viktor surprised her by buying a beautiful flat in London for them to have with the news that Viktor retired from Quidditch.

The entire world was in an uproar. Some were claiming that Hermione was an evil vixen who stole the best seeker the word and others thought that Hermione and Viktor had "twue wuv" and it overpowered everything else in their way. That they were soulmates.

But Hermione was extremely happy.

She got a job in the Ministry in the Department of the Regulation of Creatures. She was also asked to be a new recruit on the Muggleborn council.

Dumbledore was successful in strong arming the Wizengamot into allowing some alternate viewpoints to make an impact on the legislation. It was true that the Ministry had an unfair preference for purebloods in positions but as she was a best friend of Harry Potter as well as an academically accomplished Muggleborn witch, she was awarded one. This gave her a foot in the door as she really wanted to make a difference in the magical world.

She didn't like to use Viktor's blood status but he was a pureblood and they had discussed their political views and they aligned and using Viktor's political savviness that he learned from his father, she was successful on the Wizengamot council and was able to sway some of the purebloods to agree with her and successfully was able to convince them that werewolves were beings and not beasts and they should not be persecuted but instead, be provided the wolfsbane potion and given help and not to be discriminated against.

And she wasn't biased at all in assigning Remus to be the liaison to the Werewolf Liaison office.

But now, she had arrived at the Hogwarts gate, with her co-worker from the Department of the Regulation of Creatures, Agatha Barnthy. She was an older witch that was capable of providing backup.

They were attempting to locate the Cerberus that had been freed after the incident with the stone in her first year. She was randomly selected for the mission, although she was pretty thrilled, as she knew more than Barnthy did and she was sure it would make her seem more knowledgeable about the creatures she wanted to help and protect. And perhaps make her co-workers listen to her about the treatment and welfare of house-elves.

She trapezed over thick roots and made her way deep into the heart of the forest when she heard it.

Three deep growls.

Barnthy paled and brandished her wand.

"Um, hello, Fluffy." She nervously laughed.

"You know this creature?" Barnthy hissed.

"It's been a while. I went to Hogwarts, you know." Hermione replied.

Barnthy sniffed.

Fluffy rose to his intimidating twelve-foot-tall stature. Hermione stepped back, cautiously. Fluffy's lip snarled and drool started to drip as they snarled and advanced on her.

She quickly summoned a harp and started playing it.

Slowly, the Cerberus' eyes drifted shut and he relaxed and eventually fell asleep.

She exhaled in relief as Barnthy summoned a cage and enclosed the Cerberus in it.

Her coolheadedness earned her an advance in her position in the Ministry.

The Department for the Regulation of Magical Creatures was located on the fourth floor of the Ministry and it had three factions: Beast, Being and Spirit. Hermione was fast-tracked to being head of the Being division – she slowly advanced over the years. Under the being division, there were three main areas – Goblin Liasion, House Elf Relocation Division and the Werewolf Liaison. Hermione recommended Fleur Weasley for Goblin Liasion as she had worked for Gringotts and had a respect for them and they her as they valued her employment. She had married one of their most loyal employees and the relationship between goblins and wizardkind were stronger than ever.

Hermione recommended Remus Lupin for the Liason to the werewolves, not only because she was one, but as proof that even if one was attacked by the most evil werewolf, like Remus was, the personalities weren't contagious. Remus was bitten by Greyback and eventually Greyback was taken down shortly after Voldemort was destroyed, but Remus had no evil traits. Remus was one of the most even tempered, kind men she had ever met. She helped provide Remus with plenty of support with potions and helping the werewolves find jobs and housing and find happiness within their lives, much like Remus had now.

Hermione had a feeling that there was more between Sirius and Remus than anyone else thought, but it wasn't her place to pry into the personal feelings of someone she respected and liked as much as she liked Remus.

As for the House Elf Relocation – that was her primary area. And she loved it.

Over the four years that she had been employed at the Ministry, she made significant strides in the treatment and abuse of house elves. She had explained Fair Labour Acts in the muggle world and why the muggleborns had such significant issues with the house elves when the muggleborns entered the wizarding world, and although some older, crueler Pureblood houses disliked it, new laws were governed to protect the house elf population and more elves than she thought she could help, could petition for new placement. For various reason. Perhaps their humans were getting too old and the elf wanted to take care of young ones, perhaps their humans were abusive, perhaps their humans passed away, perhaps the human couldn't take on the elf's offspring and wanted to find a new home for the elfling. Lots of different reasons and they were all valid and kept Hermione on her toes.

She loved her job.

And she loved her husband.

Viktor and her had been married for some time, around three and a half years at her fourth year in the Ministry and they recently had their first child. Viktor and her were surprised but very happy with the new addition, Aphrodite Krum. Viktor was usually with her as he only had the Wizengamot duties as his job, which paid enough for him. He had a fortune to fall back on and he loved spending time with his daughter and made sure to visit his wife often, bringing Aphrodite, much to the entire department's delight, especially the elves. They loved when Aphrodite visited.

And one day, Viktor spoke to her about something in a serious tone.

He spoke to her about running for office. For the Minister position. She thought he was joking.

He told her about his strategy, about how he could convince Purebloods to join his vote as he would provide Pureblood point of views when she was in office, try to trick the Purebloods into thinking they would get two leaders for the vote of one.

And damned if it didn't work.

She was sworn into the office of Minister of Magic, the first Muggleborn in history.

She knew she could do great things in the magical world if she applied herself. She looked at her life. Fulfilling job, helping creatures and helping people, a wonderful husband, supporting friends, an amazing daughter.

She posed for her painting that was going into the Ministry of Magic as she thought back on all her trials that she went through.

But she made it and she loved her life.