Hermione sighed and set the folder down on her desk. It was only 3:00pm, just two hours away from going home for the day. Her barefoot kicked off the carpet, causing her chair to slowly spin around in a circle. Her curls swayed over the back of the chair as she stared up at the tiled ceiling.

After work she needed to pick up cat food for Crookshanks. Maybe pick up something frozen or premade for herself to eat. She just needed to make it to tomorrow which was Friday, which was basically not even a real work day at all because everyone was excited for the weekend. Then Saturday she could spend the whole day to herself, but she should probably get out of the house to go see someone. She'd probably wind up spending the evening with Harry since Ginny was away for Harpie training and Ron was off doing auror field work. Sunday was for grocery shopping, cleaning, and putting off sleep as long as possible because if she went to bed then Monday would follow. And Monday meant she'd have to be back here. In this office. Doing the same thing every day until Friday returned. Just like clockwork.

Hermione kicked the floor again for one last spin. She popped her back in a way that sounded like it should have left her paralyzed and she returned to the folder. Her fingers and eyes ached from searching and pulling out relevant forms. The Office of Magical Creatures was instituting a new filing system as their previous system was simply to shove everything into a folder and put that in the nearest filing cabinet. Who could've guessed that would lead to inefficiency?

As a result, she was tasked with completely reorganizing the last 70 years of paperwork, mainly because she was the person who questioned the organizing system to begin with. Never had she been more thankful that magical creatures weren't taken seriously until recent years. God forbid if she had to organize 200 years' worth of paper.

The purging had initially been meditative. Every Monday Hermione took stacks of folders to her office and spent the whole week alone in her office. Her office didn't have windows, so once lunch rolled around she would bolt out of there. However, as the days passed, she felt like she was going crazy. Hermione always prided herself on her mind, however there were days where she wished it would just shut up.

The silence made her confront things she didn't want to think about; things she hadn't even known bothered her. Like maybe this wasn't what she wanted to do for the rest of her like – but if not this, then what? She didn't exactly want kids right now, but she was in prime childbearing years. Sure, she didn't think that she needed children to have fulfillment in her life and she certainly disagreed with society's sexist expectations that motherhood was mandatory for all women. But at the end of the day, her biological clock was ticking!

Two knocks rapped on her door. "Come in," she called.

"Hey, Mione," Harry smiled. His pressed Auror robes were thrown over his forearm, showcasing his paisley navy button up shirt and dark grey dress pants. Apparently when one no longer had to be concerned about looming death and fascism, they were free to explore daring wardrobe colors and textures.

"Leaving already?" She asked, glancing at her watch. 15 minutes to go.

Harry shrugged, "It's Friday. What are they going to do; stop us?"

She laughed and leaned back in her chair, "Who's this 'us' you speak of? I don't leave work early and we don't have any plans for today."

"Well today we do," He reached for her jacket and purse.

Hermione rolled her eyes but began putting away her folders. "The war made you clingy," she scoffed.

"Better than making me dead."

Hermione snorted, "Despite its best efforts."

"I was thinking we could get dinner together. I'm missing muggle London," he said, handing her the baby blue jacket Ginny had gifted her a Christmas ago.

"That actually sounds amazing," she said

Harry waved to her coworkers on their way out. "Where do you want to eat?" He asked.

She held elevator door open for a tall wizard lightly jogging towards them. "I don't know. Maybe we could just get Indian and bring it back to my place?"

"Or we could go out and not hole up in your apartment?"

"Or we could get drunk, watch tv, and you can spend the night on my couch."

Harry pursed his lips. "So... what Indian place are we thinking?"

"Do you think I'm capable of having a healthy relationship?"

The normally tidy one-bedroom apartment was a bit of a mess, with playing cards strewn across the coffee table and Styrofoam containers stained orange on the countertops.

"Of course you are," Harry slurred, burrowing deeper under the quilt on top of him. The harsh lights from the tv illuminated the pair as they laid in the dark living room, Harry laying on the chaise and Hermione on the loveseat.

"It's just like... I have no purpose anymore. And I can't even accomplish the checklist of what's expected of a 26-year-old."

"The lack of life or death experiences making life too dull for you?"

Hermione laughed. "Honestly, yeah," she threw back a swig of her drink, "I know it's only been a couple years, but I guess I just expected more. Every so often I spend weeks researching and drafting legislation. I send it through all of the appropriate channels and then in 5 to 20 fucking business days I receive a letter from the Wizengamot shutting it down, all while getting paid just enough to barely cover my bills. Every day is the same goddamn thing."

She sighed, "I know that hard work is supposed to get you to where you want to be in life, but I just feel like I'm wasting my time. I'm not helping anyone and I'm not making any difference. And now I'm on organizing duty at work because I don't know when to shut up and just accept that I don't need to control everything." Her nose burned, warning her to stop talking before she cried.

"Hermione-"

"I know its ungrateful to feel this way when people literally for me to be able to even exist in the Wizarding World, but it just all feels so missed up. Like we get rid of a Dark Lord, so society is convinced that everything is good? When there are people and creatures in this world that are being abused? Did you know that people can legally stage hippogriff fights?"

"No, I didn't-"

"It's just, there's so much hurt in the world, you know? But nobody gives a shit because they're not the ones hurting anymore."

"Yeah-"

"And it's like, how dare they? When the people who are being hurt now are the ones who fought for THEIR peace? They, the hurting ones, fought for the now not hurting ones that use to be hurt. And now the now not hurting ones aren't helping the hurting ones. Does that even make sense?" Hermione asked, poking her tongue that felt entirely too big for her mouth all of a sudden.

Harry rolled onto his side to look at his friend, "Are you happy 'Mione?"

Hermione blinked causing hot tears to fall down her cheeks and focused solely on the ceiling above her. Her bottom lip quivered despite her best efforts. "It feels wrong to say anything other than "yes". It feels wrong to feel lonely when I'm surrounded by people every day and watching people thrive. It feels wrong to feel sadder now than I did while at Hogwarts."

"Well, I mean, it was Hogwarts. A magical secret castle in the middle-of-nowhere-Scotland where you could literally eat anything you wanted and sleep in front of a roaring fire."

Hermione laughed and covered her face with her hands, "God, the food was so good!"

"I miss being young enough to handle it. I've had maybe 6 vodka lemonades tonight and I'm pretty sure it's burning a hole in my stomach right now. I can't even eat tomatoes for breakfast now without heartburn."

This made her howl with laughter, nodding profusely in agreement, "Getting old sucks!"

"Hear, hear!" Harry yelled, handing Hermione an overflowing shot glass, throwing back his own.

Somehow being slightly hungover made work more manageable for Hermione. She was flying through the files, grabbing what she needed and throwing the rest out with reckless abandon. Normally she would double check her work before committing to throwing out the other documents, but what was the likelihood that anyone would notice if she even made a mistake? Since they clearly were so on top of the paperwork prior. What was the worst thing that would happen – they'd fire her? The thought alone made her snort.

Hermione yawned and put the last file on top of the tall stack. This week's pile was completed in record time leaving her with three hours remaining to do whatever. She wondered what she could do to waste as much time as possible. Maybe she could socialize with the other office mates for once?

She closed her eyes and massaged her scalp. A knock sounded at her door.

"Come in," she said.

Harry walked in, locking the door behind him.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" she asked.

He stayed silent, merely handing her a document.

I, Reporting Auror Silas Rubenstein, arrived at residence 3214 Cobblestone Street at 10:43 PM. Victim Andrea Lovell ran out of the residence towards me. She was distraught with deep cuts horizontal across her midsection. Lovell explained that a male, approximately 180 centimeters, 13.5 stones, muscular build, brown hair, hazel eyes, and a gap in between his front teeth. Additional aurors arrived at the scene and I escorted Lovell to St. Mungo's to be further evaluated.

"The suspect they're holding is shorter, smaller, has brown eyes, no gap, and is 15."

"He's just a kid, Harry!"

"He's also a werewolf," he said with a clenched jaw. "I'm worried the Wizengamont will treat him the way they treated me if no one intervenes. I'm worried the system will fail him the way they did Sirius."

Hermione stood from her chair and threw her arms up in the air. "The system isn't broken because this is exactly how it was built; disenfranchised against magical creatures. It's doing exactly what it was meant to do. It's corrupt!"

She paced behind her desk. "We'll smuggle him out. If Padfoot could escape, then he can too. There has to be a guard there that we know who can help us. We can help him start a new life somewhere. Maybe house him on some Potter property? We can give him enough gold that he can survive for awhile while he finds a job. I'll brew Wolfsbane for him every month."

Harry sighed at his friend, "Hermione, I don't know what we are going to do, but we are going to do something. We'll figure it out."

She stood still and made eye contact with him, her eyes pleading him. Harry took the document back and glanced over at the door.

"I just wanted to let you know what was going on. I'm going to spend the rest of the day trying to figure something out and I'll get back with you before 5." He forced a smile, "Please don't do anything rash."

"That's rich coming from you."

Harry shrugged before leaving her alone where she promptly spent the rest of the day cleaning the entirety of her office. Not only was everything organized, but it was also sanitized. St. Mongo's ought to consider hiring her for their team given how thoroughly she cleaned the space. Pens were wiped, file cabinets were relabeled, and her mind was numb.

The amount of dust she uncovered in the room was disconcerting, especially considering that there had to be some house-elves that worked in at least some areas of the building. Had she really been breathing all of this stuff in? Perhaps it would be a good idea to get some plants from Neville for her office.

Harry opened the door roughly this time, not bothering to knock but making sure to lock it.

He was slightly out of breath, "I went and talked with Dumbledore's portrait-"

"You what?"

"-and he said there was a wizarding law school that had a three-year program for British law. In the 70's the attendance dropped so low that they were forced to close and offered a two-year program during its last two years. It was set to close in 1982, but nobody showed up for the last year because of the war."

"Okay?"

"I've been researching a lot about this-"

"I can tell."

"-and I think we can send you back so you can attend the final program since you were at your happiest at school-"

"Harry…"

"-we just have to send you back for a year-"

"That's not poss-"

"-I got approval from the Unspeakables half an hour ago."

Hermione's jaw dropped. "You've got to be joking, Harry Potter."

"...you free this weekend for some back to school shopping?"