Disclaimer: I don't own any of this. sigh.

Chapter 2: Hermione's Mystery Man

Saturday morning Hermione wandered around her flat. She watered the plants growing in pots on her windowsill and tidied the magazines on her coffee table. She re-color-coded the robes in her closet and labeled some files of Prophet articles she'd written recently. Not able to find anything else to fill her time, she sat idly on the couch and looked about. There was nothing left to clean, for it was immaculate. There was no laundry to do, no groceries to buy, and no errands to run. In short, Hermione Granger was quite bored. She sighed. Saturdays were her least favorite day of the week because she didn't have any work to do. At least tonight she had a party at Grace's to go to.

In the beginning Hermione had gotten nervous about these Saturday night matchmaking parties. She had actually believed Grace would somehow manage to lure the perfect man to one of the parties and she would fall madly in love with him right then and there. This idealistic way of thinking lasted approximately five minutes into her first party experience. After that, Hermione begrudgingly went to the parties, putting less and less effort into her appearance. Tonight she would be wearing a set of rather unspectacular blue dress robes with silver trim. They were nice, but nothing too special, for Hermione secretly feared that if she got too excited about the party, she would be jinxed.

Hermione had to admit Grace's description of the mystery man (whose name Grace kept forgetting) sounded somewhat appealing. From what Grace had told her, the man seemed somewhat accomplished, having started his own business. He also seemed like a family man, considering he was working closely with his own brother. And, Grace swore that Max came home every night laughing about the mystery man's jokes during their meetings. All of this sounded pretty promising to Hermione considering the other dolts Grace had set her up with. One had been an Unspeakable with the Ministry of Magic. He was covered in strange scars, had shifty eyes under monstrously huge eyebrows, and spoke in such a thick Russian accent that Hermione could not understand a word he said. Another had been a painfully shy schoolteacher for young wizards and witches with thick glasses and an argyle sweater. Though Hermione felt hopeful that he would be able to converse with her on an intellectual level, he was too timid and Hermione was forced to wrack her brain the whole night trying to come up with questions that could not be answered with a yes, no, or shoulder shrug. Another one of Grace's potential husbands for Hermione had been a very successful doctor. He was handsome and charming, but when he introduced his equally beautiful and charming wife, Hermione knew Grace had somehow misunderstood this man's availability. After these disasters, and countless others, Hermione still managed to scrounge up a tiny glimmer of hope.

As 8:30 rolled around, Hermione decided it was about time to start getting ready. Her routine was quite simple; she showered, brushed her teeth and flossed (she wasn't the daughter of two dentists for nothing!), and slipped into her blue dress robes. Then she performed a couple of spells on her hair to calm it down and keep it in place. Next she smeared some raspberry lip gloss over her lips and scrutinized her reflection in the mirror. Well, it could be worse, she reasoned with herself. And with a soft crack! she apparated over to Grace and Max's apartment.

When she arrived in the front hall she was greeted by a very loud, squealing Grace who hugged her tightly.

"I have something weird to tell you," she whispered into Hermione's ear. Hermione's eyes widened.

"What's going on?" She asked. Grace looked at her nervously.

"This guy, the one I thought you'd like, he's got red hair Mione," it sounded so simple but the impact was huge on Hermione.

"Noooo, red hair? I can't do this Grace. Everytime I try to talk to him I'll just think about Ron, or some other Weasley at least. Does he know you were trying to set us up?" Hermione said, all of a sudden having second thoughts about the whole situation.

"No, no, he has no idea. I didn't want him to think I was like, you know, really weird or something, inviting him here and pouncing on him with you. I'm sorry Mione, I really had no idea."

"Oh it's ok Grace. It's not your fault at all," Hermione said sighing. She'd gotten her hopes up again. "I think I'm going to head home, all of a sudden I don't feel so good." Grace's face fell, but she nodded supportively.

"Of course honey. I really thought tonight…I'm sorry Hermione" Grace said enveloping Hermione in another hug. Suddenly Hermione felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Hermione, I'd like to introduce you to someone," Max said. Hermione whirled around and found herself facing a very surprised George Weasley.

A/N: Hi y'all I know this is sort of short, and not too unexpected either, but I needed to get their meeting out of the way. I hope you liked it! Please please read and review!