Neville was feeling a bit out of his depth. He hadn't been interested in dating anyone since Hannah Abbott died during the war and Hermione had started seeing Ron after the war. He kept their soulbond a secret because he hadn't wanted to take Hermione's choice away from her, even if that meant he suffered for it. He'd decided to give Hermione a hint about the bond by gifting the Longbottom family heirloom Soulmate Journal to her. He was a bit nervous about how she might react, but he didn't want to keep this a secret anymore, not when she'd been hurt by Ron and when he'd been in love with her since the moment he met her.

Gran had been worried about giving Hermione the Journal but he'd reassured her that Hermione was the only person he would ever trust with any kind of artifact or ancient text. Of course, Gran hadn't needed as much convincing as he'd thought since she had worked with Hermione a lot over the last few years since she'd become Minister of Magic. Gran did warn him though, not to come on too strong since Hermione had just gone through an extremely publicized divorce. She also mentioned that if he wanted to pursue his soulmate, that he should do so privately before making anything public. He agreed with her there and hoped that Hermione would be agreeable, but knowing that most of her life had been public knowledge due to Rita Skeeter, he was thinking she would be amenable to this.

He sent the package off with two owls and told them to deliver it to Hermione Granger. The owls flew off with the package, and Neville hoped they would deliver it to her home instead of her office. Checking the time, he wasn't too sure if she'd be home or not.

Hermione was getting anxious. The Weasley family dinner was four nights ago and she hadn't heard from Neville yet. He'd told her that he would send her a new book and she was keen on finding out what it was he wanted her to know before he could go out with her. She had even gone to Ginny and ranted about it and asked for advice from Lavender! They'd both told her to take the initiative and reach out to him but she wasn't sure she wanted to incase he rejected her or decided he didn't want to go out with her anymore. That's not something she wanted to know. But she did want to know, she needed to know if he wanted her. She didn't want to find out by seeing him out with someone else, like she had found Ron. That would hurt more than she wanted to admit. She was just about to start writing a note to him when two owls started pecking at her kitchen window.

She flicked her wand and scanned the package they were carrying to make sure it wasn't anything dangerous, before she left the owls into the kitchen. She untied the package from the owls and reached into the bag of owl treats she'd gotten from Harry, giving each of the owls a few before sending them off back through the kitchen window. She untied the twine holding the package closed and the box fell open to reveal a potted plant and another wrapped package. Smiling, she lifted the pot and set it on the window sill behind the kitchen sink, before turning back to the other package. Gently, she unwrapped it to find a seemingly ancient tome with no title or inscription on the front. Humming, she set it aside before accio-ing the book about the language of flowers, and flipped through it to find out what plant Neville had sent her.

"Hmm, it could be a horsetail..but it's not an exact match…maybe a quillwort, but I doubt it…oh! It looks like it's a fern!" Hermione double-checked the picture and decided that it was a fern as far as she could tell, "Ferns represent magic, fascination and secret bonds of love."

Hermione's smile widened as she set the book aside, thinking about what Neville was telling her with the fern. Magic brought them into each other's lives, fascination could mean he was fascinated with her or that she was always fascinated with learning new things, and she could only think that the secret bonds of love might be related to the book he sent with the plant.

She decided to get comfortable before she read the book, so she made her way up the stairs to the third floor which she'd had renovated to be her entire master bedroom, one half of the room held a king sized bed, her vanity, double cupboards and two bedside tables with lamps. The room was cut in half by a partial wall of mirrored glass and on the other side was her bathroom. Her bathroom was cut in half as well, this time one half held a watercloset, and double sinks, while the other half was a large walk in shower, that also had a soaking tub. She took a quick shower, rinsing the stress of the day off. After her shower, she slipped on a pair of checkered pajama pants and a vest top, as well as a pair of house shoes before making her way back down the stairs to her kitchen. She made herself a cuppa before levitating the tome from the kitchen and into her office.

She set her cuppa down on the coffee table in front of her fireplace, before curling up in her oversized armchair and delicately levitated the tome onto her lap. Opening the front cover of the book, she saw a list of names and years inscribed in gold ink, the last on the list said "Frank Alice - 1959 1960, 1972, 1977". Hermione wondered at the meaning behind the dates, before deciding that the first two must be their birth years and the other two must have been the years they either met or started dating and the year they married. Glancing up at the other names and dates on the list, the dates would be updated when the couple passed on to the next life. Checking the dates and names above Frank and Alice, she found "Archimedes Augusta - 1922 1927, 1946, 1947, 1990 –", which showed that her assumption was correct as she knew for certain that Neville's grandfather passed shortly before they started at Hogwarts and that Augusta was definitely still alive.

She counted about thirty couples on the list ranging from the most recent to the first, dating back to the 10th century, which was astounding to her. Knowing that there were only thirty couples on this list, meant that this journal was restricted to a very specific set of couples, and knowing that there weren't any triadic relationships listed, this must be specific to soulbonds. Purebloods were the only ones that kept family soul journals like this, at least that's what Draco had mentioned during the divorce proceedings. She grimaced at that thought before turning to the next page of the book and beginning to read.

Hermione spent the entire night reading, only stopping to switch from tea to red wine and to snack on some leftover tiramisu that she'd gotten from a muggle Italian restaurant Monday evening. When she finished the book, she noticed that the sun was beginning to come up, so she took a moment to send a note to Lavender to inform her that she would not be coming into the office until that afternoon. She set the book aside and sighed, the book was one hundred percent about soulmates and was an accounting of soulbound couples from the Longbottom family. As soulbonds are fairly rare, Hermione wasn't surprised that there were only thirty couples listed on the first page of the tome. Hermione was fairly sure she was beginning to understand what Neville wanted her to figure out, although she wasn't all that surprised, she was a bit frustrated that he hadn't told her sooner. She decided to go take a nap, and then she would go to her favorite French cafe and get lunch and maybe stop by the Department of Mysteries before going to her office.

Hermione woke up from her nap when her wand alarm went off at ten o'clock. Stretching, she groaned and got up, taking a full shower before getting dressed. She decided on a cream colored blouse and a burgundy pencil skirt, paired with a pair of cream heels and her tan muggle trench coat that she could transfigure into a travel cloak or an outer robe once she got to the Ministry. Leaving her house, she set her wards as well as the muggle alarm system. Harry had insisted she get one once he found out that she'd moved into a townhouse three houses down from them, stating that because they lived in a muggle area it would be perceived as strange not to get one. Seeing as he'd had Gringotts remove the fidelius from Number 12, and had one installed as well, Hermione agreed to it.

She stopped at Alpino Cafe to pick up lunch before going in to the Ministry. She made a take away order for two, ordering two servings of spaghetti puttanesca with a chicken escalope in each and two large to-go cups of lavender chamomile tea. As she waited for her order, she contemplated having Lavender meet her in the Department of Mysteries, but she decided she'd prefer to check the Book of Bonds by herself before involving anyone else.

"Take-away order for Hermione!" was called out, which tore her from her thoughts. She collected the take away, thanking the waitress before leaving the restaurant.

She slipped into a side alley and placed the food under a stasis before shrinking it down and sticking it into her pocket. She then apparated to the employees entrance for the Ministry, luckily because it wasn't yet the lunch hour, the crowds were minimal and she made her way through the Ministry easily. She reached the Department of Mysteries and made her presence known to the head of the department before going into the room that housed the Book of Bonds.

Taking a deep breath, Hermione bit the inside of her cheek, before waving her wand over her palm and cutting it above the Book and letting a drop of her blood fall onto the open page of the Book. She held her breath as the Book glowed before flipping to a page near the middle and showing two portraits and a gold colored line, signifying a soulbond. The portraits were of her and Neville Longbottom. She nodded slowly as she tried to figure out the best way for her to process this new information.

She liked Neville, and she was definitely attracted to him. She'd been friends with him since they started at Hogwarts, it had been seventeen years since they'd met on the train. She had felt like she'd known him forever, he was her first friend. She didn't want to ruin another friendship, but the Book showed that they were meant to be together. She was worried, of course, that things could end up as poorly as they had with Ron, but knowing that she and Neville were soulmates led her to believe that maybe that's why she and Ron never would have worked in the first place. That made her wish, once again, that she'd known about the bond sooner.

Shaking her head, she left the room and made her way out of the Department of Mysteries and up to her office. Lavender was at her desk when Hermione entered the antechamber to her office.

"I brought lunch, Lav, it's going to be a working lunch, but I figured it'd be easier if we had some good food." Hermione smiled at Lavender.

"You are a goddess," Lavender praised, "I was just about to order from the atrium's cafe."

Hermione waved her off, "Finish whatever you're working on and I'll set up in my office. Set a ward at the door so we're alerted if anyone comes in."

Lavender agreed and turned back to the paperwork she was filling out. Hermone went into the office and set up their lunch on the table on the balcony, keeping the stasis on it before going back into the office to grab a copy of the dragon sanctuary bill Charlie had put before the Wizengamot the week prior. She duplicated it so Lavender could look over it with her. Lavender was an unbiased party and would have insights that Hermione might not have noticed. Lavender came in a few moments later, and the two women sat at the table and began eating as they read over the bill together.

Lavender pointed out a few things that could be changed to be more beneficial for both the Ministry and the dragon sanctuaries, including allowing Charlie to open up a smaller sanctuary in Wales that specializes in abandoned immature dragons and dragon eggs. Lavender pointed out that keeping the baby dragons separate from the adult dragons would result in less losses of young dragons and less injuries to the dragon handlers as well.

Hermione agreed with Lavender's points and made some notes on her copy. By the end of their lunch, they'd gone through the entirety of Charlie's bill and Hermione felt confident that it was ready to be presented to the Wizengamot again with the alterations. Lavender excused herself, taking the excess rubbish from their lunch with her and vanishing it. Hermione spent the rest of the afternoon in meetings with the members of the Wizengamot, going over the bill and getting them all to sign off on it. Her last meeting of the day ended up being with one dowager Lady Augusta Longbottom. Once she and Augusta had gone over the bill, and Augusta had signed off on the bill, Augusta stayed seated and watched Hermione for a few moments.

"You're an exceptionally bright young woman, Minister, so I'm not going to pretend that I am unaware that my grandson sent you the family Soul Journal," Augusta stated, "And I take it that you've read it, based on how much tension you've been holding in your shoulders throughout out meeting today."

Hermione grimaced, "I apologize if my body language has offended you, it was not my intention. Neville did send me your family's Soul Journal, I can have it returned to you. I read it last night."

Augusta nodded, "It's quite alright, dear. I understand how you may be feeling at the moment. My Archie had me read the book before we began dating as well. You can return it to Neville once you've come to terms with the bond. It's quite rare that three generations of the same family would have soul bonds, but it's not unheard of. The last time it happened was in the Black family."

Hermione nodded, "I did think that it was unusual, I'm glad it's not totally unheard of, I might have to research that."

Augusta grinned, "You don't seem as shocked about the soul bond as one would have thought. You almost seem to be comfortable with the idea."

Hermione sighed, "You were one of the Wizengamot members who was not present for my divorce proceedings. It came out during the proceedings that Ronald and Draco have a soul bond. Unfortunately, it didn't become active until last year, when Draco became one of my personal assistants, because they'd been constantly at each other's throats for the previous sixteen years. I can't help but think that if things had been different from the beginning we may not have had to go through all this, but who knows."

Augusta hummed, "It's possible, but now that you know, how are you feeling? I know Neville and I have discussed this for many years and he's known since he met you. I know that us keeping it a secret may upset you, but Neville didn't want to tell you. He didn't want to influence your decision to be with him based on the bond. The bond is always there, but it doesn't become active until it's acknowledged and embraced by both parties. He just didn't want you to feel like you had to be with him because of the bond."

Hermione blushed, "I appreciate that. That's actually very sweet of him, he's always been sucha sweetheart. I think I would like to pursue a relationship with him. But I think I would like to keep it private and out of the public for a bit of time. Nothing against Neville or your family, it's just that my divorce was quite public and it's hard living life in the spotlight constantly."

Augusta nodded, "I agree, which is exactly what I told Neville when he brought the matter to my attention once your divorce was finalized."

They spoke for a few more moments before Augusta left Hermione's office. It was almost the end of the work day when Lavender came in carrying a huge bouquet.

"Hermione, this was dropped off for you during your last meeting." Lavender set the bouquet on Hermione's desk and handed her a card.

Opening the card, Hermione found it listed the flowers in the bouquet, but the note at the bottom said, "Have fun looking these flowers up. Please let me know if you'll allow me the honour to cook for you Saturday evening. ~NL"

Hermione smiled and thanked Lavender before sending her home, "Go ahead and lock up, I'll floo home tonight. Have a good night and give Parvati and Padma my love."

After Lavender left for the night, Hermione warded her office from the inside and tossed some floo powder into the grate of the fireplace in her office. Picking up the bouquet, she stepped into the grate and called out, "Hermione Granger's home, 14 Grimmauld Place!"

Once she'd arrived home, Hermione set the bouquet on the mantle of her fireplace and took the card with the list of flowers into the kitchen where she'd left the flower journal. Waving her wand, she set a kettle on for tea and sat to begin looking up the flowers Neville listed for her.

"Yarrow," Hermione started, "means everlasting love."

"Valerian, meaning readiness."

"Yellow Tulips meaning sunshine in your smile."

"Red Tulips meaning passion and a declaration of love."

"Dwarf sunflowers meaning adoration."

"Sorrel," Hermione grinned remembering this one from the first bouquet he'd sent her, "meaning affection." She continued to the next one.

"Red Salvia meaning forever mine." Hermione hummed at how bold Neville was with this one.

"Blue Salvia meaning I think of you." Hermione smiled. The kettle started whistling, so she got up to prepare her cuppa before returning to the list of flowers.

"Last two are Red Roses and White Jasmine," Hermione flipped through the journal, "Red Roses mean I love you…." Hermione felt something bubbling inside her, "and White Jasmine represents sweet love and amiability." Hermione quickly wrote out a note for Neville, and sent it before she could stop herself.

Neville was pacing in front of the fireplace in the front lounge of Longbottom Manor, he'd just spent dinner with Gran discussing her meeting with Minister Granger. Gran wouldn't stop singing her praises and talking more animatedly than he'd seen or heard from her since the war. She seemed to be half in love with Hermione herself. He was glad that she approved and gave him her blessing to move forward in pursuing Hermione, but she reiterated her warning to take things slow and keep it private until Hermione was ready to go public. He was also unsure if Hermione would accept his offer of cooking for her on Saturday, but he hoped that she would.

He was about to start pacing the room again when the floo lit up momentarily and spit out a piece of parchment. Kneeling before the fireplace, he picked the parchment up and unfurled it.

The note said, "Neville, I would love to accept your offer of dinner on Saturday. Say, 7 pm? ~HG"

Neville grinned and sent the note back through the floo after scribbling down that 7 pm on Saturday worked for him. He was suddenly full of excitement and couldn't wait for the rest of the week to pass so he could see Hermione again. He made a mental note to put together a new bouquet for her on Saturday to give her when he arrived at her home. He also needed to decide what he was going to make for her. He sent off another note, this one to Harry, asking for Hermione's more recently favored meals so he could choose from them. Harry sent a note back about an hour later, saying that recently Hermione hadn't had a fondness for any specific meals lately, as she'd typically just eaten whatever was the fastest or easiest thing to grab in between work. After reading Harry's note he figured he could think on it for the next few days before he made a decision about food, for now though he needed sleep, so he headed to bed.