The war was over. It took the populace a while to get back to normal, but after a couple of years everyone had begun to breathe normally again. No longer was it normal for them to have to keep constant vigilance for something to pop out of the shadows and attack them. No longer did they have to keep looking over their shoulders in case someone tried to steal them right off of the streets. It was slowly becoming the bustling magical community it once was before the dark days.
Hermione was more than ready to return to Hogwarts and finish out her seventh year once the castle was brought back to its former glory. What she hadn't expected was the constant gawking, staring, and fawning that she received from the student body. Not to mention, the constant bad press from Rita Skeeter herself, who had been spreading lies about her and the boys at every turn. Regardless of whether she was around them or not.
Since neither of them wanted to be gawked at or belittled by others about their standing in the war, she and Draco had come to terms with their past and even became study partners for the subjects that they shared. Hermione kept to herself otherwise while at Hogwarts. She felt that since she wasn't going to be there very long, there really wasn't much point in socializing. Without the constant threat of evil lurking around every turn for her, she immersed herself in her studies completely.
Without all of the stress and anxiety from the past years, her biology finally caught up to her. It made her come to the painful realization that she was an alpha, which made the decision to not socialize even more important. Thankfully, Draco was a beta so it didn't matter much to him. The last thing she needed was other alphas getting in her face over things that were not her fault, nor problem, as well as not wanting to deal with dreamy eyed omegas trying to get with her.
Her seventh year came and went in the blink of an eye, which brought on a very interesting notion for Hermione. Since she was no longer under the protection of the school's walls, she was constantly hounded by the media. Skeeter progressively got worse with her scathing stories about her or the boys being with people that they had no romantic connection with. Hermione also found it difficult to walk around Wizarding London without being hounded by passersby who wanted to talk about the war.
She decided that it was time to find her parents and hopefully restore their memories, only to find out from Australia's Ministry that they had passed away in a car accident a few months before. Distraught with grief, she chose to travel the world and learn about all the different types of magicks that she came across.
Years had passed, and Hermione realized that she had a knack for finding objects of power. She made it a point that no matter where she was, if she did find dangerous objects that she gave them to the Ministry of whatever country she was in at the time. Word started to spread about a traveling witch with a nose for finding apocalyptic relics. So much so that she started receiving owls from diplomats asking her to come to their country and help them with their relic problem.
Throughout her travels, Hermione found that she truly loved Scandinavia the most compared to all the other places that she had visited due to its rich, long standing history not only in the muggle portion of the country, but also the wizarding one as well. Learning Seidr magicks was incredibly enlightening. It took her a while to really grasp the difference in meditation techniques compared to Asia's and Japan's styles. Still, once she had understood it, there was no going back. It opened her mind up to a whole new way of seeing the world around her, as well as hightening her senses to the surrounding magicks.
Scandinavia was like a second home. She stayed there the longest out of all the places that she had been. She ended up buying a little cottage and some property off of the coast in Norway. She had come to love a little village there that was so peaceful and quiet that she just couldn't stay away. The neighbors—the few that she had—were friendly and kind. Some of them were magick users like herself, and some were muggles that just chalked up the strange happenings to the local lore of sprites or elves.
Her stay in Scandinavia also turned out to be when she decided to seek professional assistance with her mental health, and how best to cope with all the trauma after the war. She was lucky in finding a good therapist that was a witch, so she didn't have to edit out all of the talk about magick usage like she would have if she were to see a muggle therapist. It took a while, but eventually she was able to come to terms with everything, and additionally learned how to deal with her PTSD. Meditation was helpful, but being able to talk to a professional about her issues and how best to deal with them was like a weight was lifted off of her shoulders. It didn't completely stop the nightmares, but at least now she knew how to deal with them in a healthy way.
Correspondence with her friends, over the years, was sometimes difficult since the only means of conversation was through owl post. She missed them terribly. Unfortunately, she missed both weddings for the boys, Harry to Ginny and Ron to Lavender. She would have been there, but she was either knee deep in the jungles of the Amazon, climbing up the mountains of the Himalayas, wandering the deserts of Egypt, or soaking up the rich culture of Spain. No owl could reach her, so by the time she received the letter asking her to come, it was too late.
She was happy to hear that Harry and Ron had become Aurors after successfully completing their training while Ginny traveled with the Holyhead Harpies as their starting Chaser. She tried her best to tell them where she was and what she was up to, but it was difficult since she couldn't really give them details. So she gave them brief updates about the places that she had been and the sites she had seen.
The rumors of Hermione's freelancing eventually piqued Kingsley's interest, spurring him to find out who this mystery witch was. Finally, after using up all of his connections with other Ministries, he found out that the witch in question was none other than Hermione Granger. Kingsley offered her a job at the Ministry in their Unspeakable Relic Retrieval Department. She would be head of the department since she already had so much experience in the field.
Hermione thought about the offer for quite awhile, debating whether it was worth it to go back to England once more where everyone knew her. It was nice to have had the anonymity that came from being in a different country. Some people knew of her, but didn't bother her. Though, a lot of the time no one knew her, which was just fine by her. Ultimately, Ginny was the one to convince her to come back. Mostly with the threat of bewitching letters with constant bat bogeys if she didn't come back to them, so Hermione said her farewells to her neighbors in Norway, closed down her cottage that she loved, and headed back to England.
She settled into her official job fairly easily. Still traveled on missions, retrieving dangerous relics for the Ministries so that they couldn't fall into the hands of someone that would use them for world domination or destruction. On a few occasions, she teamed up with Luna when it involved both relic retrieval and mystical creatures. Those missions were always interesting, especially when witnessing Luna lull creatures into calm states or sleep states with her voice and what appeared to be magic mixed within it.
A few months after being back in England, Ginny felt it was time for her friend to start dating again, much to Hermione's dismay. Regardless of her protests and excuses, she relented and went on a few blind dates that Ginny had set up for her. The first few were not anywhere near her tastes, but on one occasion something clicked for her with a lovely beta, Katie Bell. They had hit it off and began to date for a while.
After a year and a half of dating, Hermione broke things off because in her opinion, things just weren't working out between them anymore. Neither of them were home for long stretches of time, with Hermione herself traveling for work and Katie traveling around with the Harpies as their starting Beater. For Hermione, it just didn't make sense to continue a relationship that felt like they were two ships passing in the night, only able to see one another for a few days at a time. Towards the end of the relationship, all they did was fight about the same things with neither of them willing to compromise, so Hermione broke it off and they went their separate ways.
After that, she made Ginny promise to not set her up with anyone anymore. She would find someone in her own time when she felt ready for it. Ginny conceded her defeat as matchmaker to Hermione and never brought it up again. Hermione remained single. She had some one night stands here and there, but nothing overly serious since she was never home longer than a month or two. She was content with that, happy to lose herself in her work and didn't have to worry about being constantly nagged to stay home with someone.
Hermione had just returned home from a long trek through the plains of Africa, where she had helped search for a statue that could be used to make the earth's core explode, flooding the world in magma. When Ginny came over to talk to her about the Gala that was happening the next day, Hermione tried to decline. "No Ginny I'm really in no mood to be hanging around the Memorial Gala. I just got home from months of traipsing through Safari. I want to sleep."
Ginny smirked. "Did I mention that the Gala is mandatory for Ministry workers? Because it is."
Hermione groaned in frustration. "Odin help me. Fine, I'll go, but you need to help me get ready for it."
Ginny squealed in excitement. "Yes we'll go now, come on!" She grabbed Hermione by the arm and apparated them to Diagon Alley. "What did you have in mind for an outfit, and what do you want to do with your hair?"
Hermione ran her fingers through her hair trying to get a feel of how long it had gotten since the last time she had it cut. "I have an outfit that will work, but I need someone to shave this mane for me, so let's do that."
Ginny looked at her and tilted her head to the side. "What outfit do you have that would work for a Gala? I've never seen you wear anything other than jungle gear and robes for work."
Hermione smirked at her. "I have a tuxedo at home that I had custom made to double as tactical robes for a mission I was on a while back in Argentina."
Ginny's eyes bulged out of her head in shock. "What kind of mission would call for you needing a tactical tux?"
Hermione snickered. "Nothing you want to know about, trust me. Come on, let's get this hair of mine tamed for the Gala."
Ginny shrugged, tugging her friend towards the salon.
The woman behind the counter smiled at them politely as they entered. "Hello, how may I be of assistance?"
Ginny smiled. "Yes, my friend and I need some help with our hair for the Gala tomorrow. Can you fit us in?" The woman looked at both women skeptically, but upon recognizing both Ginny and Hermione, the latter who was standing nonchalantly with her hands in her pockets as she swayed back and forth on her feet looking around bored, she nodded excitedly.
"Of course we can fit Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasley in, not a problem. Let me get the hairdressers for you," She said, walking briskly to the back. A few minutes later, a skinny, dark-haired man and a curvy, blonde woman walked out. The man walked over to Hermione while the woman waltzed over to Ginny.
"Hello Ms. Granger, come sit down and tell me what you are looking to do with your hair," he said, motioning towards the seat. Hermione sat down in his chair and told him that she wanted the sides and back shaved clean while the top of her head was to be kept long and double french braided on the top, then braided together into one single braid at the end. Ginny had decided on a fancy updo.
Once they were done, they went back to Hermione's flat to hang out together, chatting and catching up. After Ginny had left for the night, promising that she would return for Hermione before the Gala so that she couldn't run away, Hermione went into her room and began rummaging through her closet until she found her tactical tuxedo for the next night and hung it up in the bathroom so it had a chance to air out.