A week had passed since Anselma's burial, but Hermione still couldn't believe what had happened. She had been in the morgue, she had leant over her mentor's lifeless body, she had set sparks into the sky at her funeral. Yet, every time she walked into their Ministry office or into the clinic, Hermione somehow still expected to see Anselma's long grey hair emerging from a pile of scrolls.

Some could argue that it was not the first time that she was losing someone dear to her heart. After all, she had survived the war against Lord Voldemort while others did not. But whoever argued into that general direction would fail to recognize how different it was to see someone die in times of war and in times of peace. Of course, Hermione had never wanted to lose Remus, Tonks, or Fred. But she had always known that it could happen. This was different. A brutal and senseless murder such as Anselma's was simply unfathomable.

"Dr Granger?"

Hermione shook her head as she realized her thoughts had drifted off once more and she had stopped listening to what her patient was saying.

"I'm sorry Joy, could you please repeat what you were saying?" she apologized.

"Nah, don't worry about it. I was just rambling about that Malfoy bloke. He's been even more annoying when I came by yesterday."

"I wished I could tell you that I am surprised to hear that ... but tell me, how is it that you could get out of Hogwarts for our appointment?"

Joy's eyes narrowed, as though he were trying to make out whether Hermione was joking or not.

"Well, it's Christmas break." he stated after a moment.

"Is it already?" Hermione wondered, a little startled.

"Are you okay, Doc? I heard people whispering stuff when I went to St Mungo's. And our teachers were kinda in a strange mood before Christmas break. Is everything okay?"

Hermione readied some plausible excuses, but, just as she was about to say them out loud, her shoulders fell with a weary sigh. She could not bring herself to lie.

"Well, I ... We lost one of our colleagues not so long ago, Dr Bones. She was very important to the magical world."

"No way! Was she the woman with the grey hair who was often around? You know, Flitwick spoke about her just a couple weeks ago, when we were studying memory charms! What happened? She wasn't even that old ..."

"She was ..." No, Hermione could not tell a young boy that a Ministry official had been murdered under polyjuice potion and put on her doorstep. She could not be the starting point of a mass-panic. "She was sick. She had ... err ... cancer. She had been battling it for a couple years."

"Cancer huh? Isn't that Muggle thing?"

"Well, as a matter of fact, it is more frequent in the Muggle world than in the wizarding world. But wizards and witches can also have it, and it is one of the rare maladies that magic cannot cure." Hermione explained, more at ease now that her lie was taking a more believable shape.

"That's a shame. Must be weird for you to come here now that she's gone ..."

Hermione nodded and answered a couple more questions before guiding Joy back to their session. With everything that had happened, she had not had much time to care about her patients. She was therefore very happy to see that Joy had decided to come back to her on his own accord. At the end of their session, he even cleared his throat before taking a more serious tone:

"Listen, err ... I'm sorry I've been such a git lately." he said.

"Don't worry about it, we all have our moments."

"Yeah ... It's just ... It's stupid, but I was kinda annoyed when I realized how famous you were and how many people you knew. I mean, of course I had heard of you before, I come from a wizarding family. But it just ... I don't know ... it felt weird to see first-hand that I'm such a small dot in your life when you're so important in mine." Joy clarified.

The boy's cheeks had turned quite pink now, and Hermione wondered if it were possible that she had overlooked how fond of her Joy was. She beamed at him warmly and stood to set a friendly hand on his shoulder.

"Thank you for opening up to me, Joy. I am glad that you feel comfortable enough around me to do so. But I hope you know that, as a therapist, I will always have multiple other patients."

"Yeah, I know ... I'll get around it. I guess I sort of had ... like ... a small crush on you or something. But please don't send me to someone else for saying that."

"Of course not!" Hermione reassured him "If anything, your telling me shows that we can still openly discuss any topic. Now have a good time with your family and have a long last look at yourself. Next time we meet, you will certainly look very different. And I cannot wait to see the real Joy."

Joy smiled at her before he left her office and, for a moment, Hermione forgot most of her worries. She sat at her desk for another hour, taking notes on Joy's case and reviewing the paperwork for his transfiguration, which was due in January. It was only as she heard three soft knocks on her door that she came out of her work-trance.

"Hermione?"

Luna's blonde locks fell through the doorframe, and Hermione felt her heart drop to her stomach. How long would it take for her to look at Luna without remembering that day at the morgue?

"I made lunch, want to join me in the breakroom?" the blonde proposed.

"I wished I could, but I have to meet Narcissa and Harry for lunch at the Manor."

"Is this about ..." Luna started, but Hermione was quick to cut in.

"I can't talk about it, I'm sorry Luna. I'm already late anyway. Catch you soon? We can grab dinner with Ginny when she comes back from her trip!"

Luna nodded half-heartedly and closed the door behind her as Hermione hurriedly started collecting her belongings.

When Hermione apparated in front of the Manor's gates, it was half past twelve already. She was very late. Netty, the family elf, appeared on the other side of the gates with a small popping sound and guided her towards the entry. The small creature informed her that Narcissa had been working late into the morning also, which meant that Harry and she had just sat for lunch down when Hermione entered the dining room.

"Finally!" Harry jeered as he stood to kiss Hermione's cheek.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't see time go by ..." Hermione apologized as she walked around the table to greet Narcissa. Yet, as she had reached the older witch, she did not know what to do with herself, given Harry's presence. She hurriedly settled for a short and friendly embrace before she finally sat down.

"So," Narcissa started as she picked up her glass of red wine "care to finally tell us why Mister Potter had to call in sick just to spend his days watching me read?"

"I really didn't mind, Miss Black." Harry said as he caught Hermione's distressed look.

"I just wanted to be sure that you were in the most capable hands" Hermione reasoned.

"I believe we both know that the hands that are most competent at taking care of me are yours, Hermione" Narcissa answered with a suggestive smirk.

Hermione could feel Harry's embarrassment radiating from the over side of the table and, for a second, she herself was at a loss for words. Narcissa only chuckled and took another sip of her wine.

"But most importantly ..." Hermione went on, trying to hide her flush. "I wanted you and Harry to get together because I believe that he can help on other matters. Harry, if I remember correctly, Ron and you are working with the French Ministry of Magic to uncover some illegal weaponry trade, right?"

"Well yes, but I don't see how ..."

"Oh Merlin ..." Narcissa gasped. She turned white instantly, for she had grasped where Hermione was headed.

"I'll be back tonight, and I'll be on my Christmas break by then, so you'll be free to go back to work." Hermione explained, turning to Harry. "But in the meantime, could you tell Narcissa everything you know on the subject? I believe you could both help each other."

"But Hermione ... We're not supposed to talk about our missions to outsiders ... What if somebody hears?" Harry whispered worriedly - not that he could really speak without Narcissa hearing him.

"What if I could help you find out who is behind all this?" Narcissa proposed, suddenly back to her usual confident self.

Harry's eyebrows shot high on his scarred forehead. This had to be some sort of joke. But, at the same time, he remembered that everyone knew the Malfoy often had secret arrangements with the French wizarding world. It wasn't such a stretch to imagine that Narcissa could be linked to this affair. And, truth be told, the Aurors had not found out much since their first mission over the summer.

"Well, that would be amazing, but I would need to call Ron in on this. It's as much his case as mine." Harry claimed.

"No" Hermione and Narcissa exclaimed at the same time. They shared a look and agreed on Hermione going on. "The less people know, the better. And no, don't look at me this way. It has nothing to do with my personal feelings towards Ronald."

"So, you would not mind him knowing you have something going on with Narcissa Black?" Harry innocently asked, cocking an eyebrow at his friend.

"Oh, no, please, don't let yourself be bothered by my being here ..." Narcissa ironized, rolling her eyes at the mention of her name.

"No, I would not mind him knowing. But I really don't think that it would be wise to have his bias mixed into all of this. Isn't part of you Slytherin, Harry? If you're the one to crack this case, you would have great chances of becoming the next Head of the Auror's department. Haven't you always dreamt of that?" Hermione argued.

"Well now I'm seeing two Slytherins in this room, and none of them is me." Harry commented dryly. "But alright, I get it. I won't tell anyone."

For the remainder of the day, Hermione struggled keeping her head in work. Luna had left after lunch, which left her isolated in the office with the impossible task of reviewing the hundreds of parchments that Anselma had authored since they had started the clinic. It was becoming increasingly obvious that they would need at least one new associate, but, for now, Hermione wanted to handle this herself.

Just when she thought that she would drown under psychology jargon, the young therapist suddenly stumbled onto something unexpected. She had to be wrong, but it seemed as though Anselma had been working on a project that she knew nothing about; a project they had promised never to pursue. For a second, Hermione thought back to the first meeting they had had, months ago. She thought back to the surprise it had been, when Anselma insisted she would lead it instead of her. What if it had been for the sole purpose of protecting herself from lying to the Minister's face? After all, when the head of the Department for Magical Law Enforcement had asked if they planned on using Legilimency, Hermione had answered. She was not lying when she said that she wasn't planning on using it. But if Anselma had said so, she would have been lying. Because what Hermione was reading was clearly illicit research on experimental Legilimency.

If she understood this right, Anselma believed it possible to combine Legilimency and Memory Charms to supress memories that were deeply rooted in someone's mind, such as traumatic events, and that without harming the patient or leaving any trace of said intrusion. Of course, Hermione could imagine why this research was problematic: in the wrong hands, such magic could allow wizards and witches to become unaccountable for anything they did. Yet, the Gryffindor could not help realizing how helpful this could be in therapy. Even if those who wronged a patient were caught and sent to justice, no amount of talking could undo what had been done. But what if an abused child could forget what their parents did to them? What if a victim of rape could be freed of her memories once the rapist was behind bars? She had to admit that even she would love for someone to delete some of the things she had seen during the war.

This new discovery kept Hermione so busy that she only noticed how much time had passed when she was suddenly forced to turn on the light on her desk. Though she was not entirely satisfied with her reading yet, she decided it was time to let it be for the day. She would have plenty of time during the holidays to read through Anselma's papers and reflect on pursuing her work.

When Hermione arrived at the Manor, that same evening, Netty informed her that Narcissa was still in her study. After what had happened at Hermione's apartment, Narcissa had insisted on going back to the Manor, where she felt safer and had all she needed to keep working. Hermione had agreed on the sole condition she never spent an entire day without seeing someone trustworthy or sending her updates on how she was doing. Until now, Harry had been able to stay with her, but now that he was leaving for France once more, it was Hermione's turn to move into the Manor. She had stopped at her apartment before coming here, and she was glad that Netty could take care of setting her belongings in her room for her - though she did feel a little guilty about giving a house-elf work.

Once she had made sure that Netty really did not mind putting her clothes into the guest-room dresser, Hermione finally walked up to Narcissa's study. When she opened the door, she found the blonde wearing her reading glasses and dragging a quill over a piece of parchment with great focus. The creaking of doors startled her though, and she looked up to the newcomer.

"Hermione, darling, is it this late already?" she wondered, searching for the nearest clock.

"It is about eight o'clock." Hermione clarified as she moved forward to lean over the desk and kiss the blonde on the lips.

"Not so shy anymore, are we?" Narcissa mused as she broke the kiss, an amused smile stretching her lips.

"Well, with Harry being there, I realized we never really clarified how we stood on public displays of affection ..." Hermione argued.

"That is true, indeed. For my part, I do not mind them if they are heart-felt."

"I can work with that." the Gryffindor smiled. "How did it go with Harry? Did you get anything out of it?" she then asked.

Narcissa's smirk instantly dropped. For a split second, Hermione thought she looked terrified. But then her smile was back on her lips, and the young witch convinced herself she had been imagining things.

"How about we discuss that tomorrow? We both had a long day ... I am sure we could imagine more pleasurable ways of spending this evening together ..." the blonde proposed as she stood from her desk to kiss Hermione once more.

Hermione could hardly argue when Narcissa's hands were snaking around her waist and her soft tongue was prodding at hers. "Sounds like a plan" she agreed sheepishly before deepening their kiss.

Soon enough, Narcissa had her sitting on her desk with her thighs spread, the blonde standing between them. When things started heating up, Hermione waved her wand at the desk to clear it of its paperwork.

"How rude ..." Narcissa muttered in a falsely insulted tone. "Toying with someone else's belongings ..."

"I thought you said I was the best fitted person to take care of your belongings" Hermione taunted her, her breathing already short from their kissing.

"How true" Narcissa agreed with a wicked smile as her hands crept under Hermione's jumper.

When Netty approached the study and heard the noise, a couple minutes later, she knew better than to enter. She simply covered her long ears and made sure that dinner would still be warm when her mister was done. She had already heard much more troubling things here in the past.

Time's running out ... only a couple more chapters left!