Chapter Three

"Plead my cause with them that strive with me: fight against them that fight against me." Psalm 31:1

Hermione unbuttoned her thick winter coat as she stepped inside the Ministry. The castle was magically heated throughout but apparating there was freezing work in mid-Winter.

Everyone should have looked relaxed and cheerful after the Christmas break but the mood was sombre as she made her way to the magical laboratories. She had been recently promoted to manager of one of the branches of the Magical Research and Development section, the one that dealt with the development of new tools for Aurors to use against the Dark Arts. It looked like all the hard work she had done in the past 5 or so years would be soon put to use against Voldemort.

She was the first to arrive as per usual and she began setting up the equipment as she waited for her team to arrive. She checked on the experiments that had been left to run over Christmas and smiled at the positive results that most of them were showing. I think we're finally ready, she thought peering into a gently simmering cauldron.

"Morning boss," Glinda, one of her team called out as she came into the lab.

"Ewwww! Don't call me boss! You know I hate that," Hermione said, wincing.

Glinda grinned at her. "I suppose you've heard all the talk about Voldemort rising again, haven't you?" she asked Hermione.

"Yes, we'd heard about it. It looks like all our hard work may be put to good use sooner that we would have liked," Hermione commented.

Suddenly the Head of Magical Research and Development's head popped up in the fireplace. "Miss Granger, can I see you in my office straight away? I need an urgent up-date on the projects you and your team are currently working on," she said, swiveling her head round to see Hermione on one side of the room.

"I'll be there in 5 seconds," Hermione replied with a smile and after exchanging a glance with Glinda, quickly apparated outside the door of her superior and went in after knocking.

"Ah good, take a seat Hermione," the rather wild looking, middle-aged redhead said kindly. She peered at Hermione through her thick glasses. "Now, I understand your team have a set of tools nearly ready that our Aurors could use effectively against any Dark Arts attacks on the wizarding community?"

"Yes, that's right Wanda. Most of them are ready for the Aurors to trial out in the field. Some Aurors have already been trialing them for quite some time in a controlled environment and we seem to have worked out all the bugs that we initially encountered. The potion we've been working on probably needs another week or so of testing but the charms are all ready for use," Hermione explained.

"Excellent, excellent. The Minister will be pleased. As you would know by now, the timing of these tools being ready now is very fortuitous. Apparently the Minister had confirmation as early as Boxing Day that Voldemort is on the move again," Wanda said, playing nervously with the mass of paper scattered messily over her desk.

"Yes. I take it the Aurors are preparing for a strike?" Hermione said conversationally, relieved that Wanda seemed unaware that the confirmation of Voldemort's reappearance came from Hermione herself.

"They are on special alert of course, yes," Wanda confirmed.

"Is there any news of a mission?" Hermione asked with feigned casualness.

"No, not yet. We have yet to be informed of a position for Voldemort but the whole Ministry is on high alert," Wanda said, now playing with the myriad of beads around her neck.

Hermione merely nodded. She knew more than most of the Ministry, in that case. She had no doubt that Voldemort had located himself in the extreme North. It was a safe place for him to regain his strength. Neither the wizarding world nor Muggles visited or populated that part of the world in great numbers. He could remain undetected for as long as he wished. "Well, I had best get back to work if these projects are now urgent," Hermione said, getting up.

"Yes, yes. Report back to me as regularly as you think sensible regarding progress," Wanda said, ushering Hermione out of the door. As she left, Hermione saw the manager of another section in Magical Research and Development waiting to speak to Wanda. She smiled and nodded to him, and then apparated back to her lab.

"This place is going beserk," Hermione commented to Padma over lunch. The two often met up in the dining hall at lunchtime. Padma had just been promoted to manager of her section in the Muggle Relations Department too. "I imagine your section is the busiest in your Department at the moment," she added.

Padma ran the section that took care of cleaning up after Dark Arts incidents in the Muggle community. Unlike Arthur Weasley who worked in the section that did the day-to-day cleaning up of magical accidents in the Muggle community, Padma's team was specialized in Dark Arts incidents only.

"You bet," Padma said with feeling, taking a bite of her roast beef and mashed potatoes. The lunch appeared down the center of all of the tables in a similar fashion to the dining hall at Hogwarts. "Everyone is saying that there is confirmation that Voldemort is active again but no-one is saying exactly what that proof is."

"Maybe the Ministry weren't the ones who got confirmation and they don't know themselves," Hermione postulated, feeling guilty for hiding the truth from a good friend.

"Hrm. It all seems strange to me. What's Severus doing with himself at the moment?" Padma asked, changing the subject as Hermione appeared to have no more information than she did herself.

"Oh, he's at the Manor. You know what teachers are like. They spend half their lives on holiday," Hermione said with a grin.

"Ain't that the truth? I almost wish I had done teaching now myself. I was considering it but putting up with bratty teenagers isn't my idea of a great work day," Padma said.

"I don't think it's Severus' idea of a good work day either," Hermione said, throwing back her head and laughing. "Wasn't he a bastard to all of us when we were at Hogwarts?"

"Yeah, and he particularly disliked you as I recall. Don't things change?" she teased. "You know, if you married the man, he'd be perfectly happy for you to sit around in the Manor all day playing Lady," she added, pointing a solid silver fork at Hermione.

"What would I do? Gather dust and cobwebs?" Hermione said with a shrug, forking some mashed potato and gravy into her mouth.

"You could make it your full-time job to restore and run the estate," Padma suggested, not very seriously as she herself would not contemplate doing something like that either.

"Nah. I have no nesting instinct. He would need a different type of woman for that," Hermione said honestly with a grin.

"He's not going anywhere. You're stuck with that one for life," Padma said flatly, then grinned.

"He'd better not go anywhere!" Hermione said, then laughed again.

When Hermione got back to the lab she began planning out some new charms and potions she wanted to develop for the Aurors. The charms would need to stand up to extreme weather conditions from the look of it and although there were some good charms for that already, they really needed more.

Jinty, one of Hermione's favourite young Aurors, came into the lab that afternoon. "Wanda tells me that you're nearly ready for us," she said cheerfully, her chestnut chair gleaming under the bright lab lights.

"Yes, try this," Hermione said and showed Jinty one of the completed charms. Jinty was a quick study and got it almost right the very first time she tried it. "I can see why they recruited you straight out of Auror School for special missions," Hermione said with a grin.

"Actually, it was yours truly who had the brains to recruit her," Ron said, coming through the lab door looking relaxed. Ron was now a Senior Auror with his own special assignments team of which Jinty was a member.

"Trust you to take the credit," Hermione joked.

"Are the new tools nearly ready?" Ron asked more seriously. He was anxious to have anything that may aid and protect his team. He knew it wasn't long before they all were sent on a dangerous mission.

"I was just teaching Jinty the first of them. She's been trialing the different stages for me but I've just given her the completed charm that has all the bugs worked out of it," Hermione explained, watching Jinty practice it with narrow-eyed concentration. "Ah! Well done, Jinty!" she exclaimed as the Auror got it completely right for the first time.

Ron grinned. "Hermione, that is fucking brilliant! I knew you could do it!" he enthused.

"Me and my genius team," Hermione demurred, turning to her team with a quick smile.

"Yep, that's us! Fucking brilliant geniuses," a scraggy, skinny young man with freckles and buck teeth replied with a grin. Jinty, who had been fending off invitations for dates from the young man for quite a while, snorted eloquently but continued practicing without missing a beat.

"Well, if you want to bring your team up tomorrow, we'll put them through their paces getting these new charms right. The potion will need a few more days work but then they can have that too," Hermione said to Ron.

He looked very pleased indeed. "Done! We'll be here. Are you going back to the Manor tonight?" Ron asked.

"Yes. Severus is still on leave from Hogwarts so we'll be there for a few more weeks," Hermione replied, still watching Jinty carefully.

"Good. Can I bring Padma around after dinner time? Say around 8pm? There are some things I'd like to discuss with yourself and Severus," Ron asked with contrived casualness.

"I will never know how you managed to become an Auror when you are such a terrible actor Ron," Hermione said with amusement.

"It's the hot-headedness. The Ministry decided we could use it," Jinty kidded, still practicing.

Ron gave Jinty a squinty eyed look but ignored her comment. "Why would I be lying?" he asked Hermione, trying and failing to look innocent. "We do want to discuss some things with you and Severus."

"Hrm. I bet there's more to it than that but never mind. We'll see you both at 8pm. I'd invite you for dinner but I don't want to do that without checking with Severus first. He might be up to his armpits in some disgusting new potion and not want to stop for dinner," Hermione said.

"Fair enough. 8pm it is," Ron said cheerfully. "See you both then. C'mon Jinty. You can teach that to the rest of the team this afternoon. I think you've got it now," he added to the tall, pretty Auror.

Hermione waved them off and checked her watch. It was after 5pm and she was beat. "Okay guys, it's after five. Pack up and let's go home for the day. Voldemort is not going to show up in London tonight!" she said to her team. Ten minutes later, they were out of the door.