A/N Hello, welcome to my story! This story is actually my first GxH fanfiction ever, started quite a few years ago and took a long time to finish. Buckle up as this story is almost 4 times longer than my last. It is set Post-Hogwarts minus the final 19-year jump chapter as most of my stories are. As always with me, it is a romance between two women so if that is not your thing, please turn back now. I try to stay as canon as possible and keep the characters as true to character as I can, but as this is a fanfiction obviously we do step out of the box in both categories.

Disclaimer: I clearly do not own Harry Potter or any of J.K Rowling's characters. I just like to imagine them in crazy fanfiction stories.

Chapter 1

A Day in the Life, Part One

Hermione Granger sat at her overly large, and overly full desk in her office at the Ministry of Magic.

She was just finishing up some annoying paperwork for the Department of Experimentation and Development of Magic. That was not her official position in the ministry, and she was not officially the head of that department, either. Yet, with the war going strong, it was where she spent most of her time these days.

Hermione sighed and leaned back in her chair, she pushed a bit of her dark brown hair out of her eyes and closed them. She let her mind wander around as she rubbed her temples with her fingertips. It was just another day with just another headache, and she just had to put up with it all.

She began to consider a small potion to remedy her headache but hadn't the time to make or buy anything. 'No time for small comforts,' she thought, as she continued to rub her temples. For a moment, she allowed herself to reminisce about the past, just to remind herself of what she was fighting for.

After the hunt for the horcrux and the battle at Hogwarts, the Wizarding world had thought that everything would be over, and peace would reign. That was hardly true. With Voldemort gone, things were considerably better for the rest of the world. Unfortunately, circumstances only seemed to get worse for the Golden trio, Dumbledore's Army and The Order of the Phoenix.

Death Eater attacks raged on against anyone remotely close to Harry Potter, and against anyone who showed any sign of being tolerant of those without pure-blood status. Somehow, even though they were underground, the Death Eaters were considerably more dangerous after the war. The continued aggression of the Death Eaters and the mass confusion at the ministry directly after Voldemort's fall had led to utter chaos.

To stop the inevitable fall of the ministry, Kingsley Shakelbolt had stepped up to begin the cleansing and restructuring of the ministry. Holding trials for people running back to the good side, wanting mercy or claiming bewitchment was only half the situation. Many ministry officials had to be removed pending investigation or were out right charged with crimes.

This left the new Minister of Magic with an extremely small employee count. Most departments only had one employee just to keep them running as smoothly as possible and even then that person knew that at any time they could be called up to fight.

The only departments that seemed to be thriving were the ones that Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny or other DA members were directly involved with. Most of those departments had to do with the war.

After the cleansing, Kingsley quickly realized that he needed help. He needed people to work at the ministry, people he could trust. He asked Harry to step in. Most of the Order was already a part of the ministry at that point but they were still drowning.

Harry contacted everyone in Dumbledore's Army and told them that they were the only people that he could trust to help fix their world. He asked if they would all forgo their plans for their futures and take positions at the ministry.

Most immediately stepped forward to help. Only a few waited a week in order to, as Hermione had put it, "properly end their education," and took their N.E.W.T's. Hermione couldn't even consider not taking her N.E.W.T's and anyone who was under 17 was promised by Professor McGonagall that they could forgo their final years at Hogwarts IF they could pass at least three of their N.E.W.T's.

Ginny and Luna paired with Hermione for studying and both easily passed their exams. Hermione with flying colors, as usual, getting an impressive 7 N.E.W.T's. After testing, all of the 17-year-olds and those who had been able to pass their exams early joined the ministry. Harry and Arthur became Deputy Minister of Magic directly under Kingsley. Hermione immediately joined Percy Weasley as Assistant Minister of Magic. Percy worked under Arthur and Hermione under Harry, granting the young witch honor, glory, prestige and the mountains of work she currently was distracted from.

Hermione pulled herself from her memories and leaned back towards her paperwork, she mindlessly signed a document and cast a charm to send it directly to Harry's inbox. Her head throbbed again but she ignored it. Hermione reached for her next set of paperwork when she caught a glance at her clock.

This clock was not the average clock that you would see on the wall. This clock was made by Molly Weasley, it was based on the clock at the Burrow. The largest difference about it was that it had only Hermione on it. The clock had regular things such as 'Lunch time,' 'Break time' and 'Time to go home.' But it also had some Hermione specific times, such as 'You've been here way too long', 'You haven't been getting enough sleep,' and 'Don't forget to eat.' She noticed that it was currently pointing at 'Time to go home.'

She briefly considered ignoring the clock as she often did, then changed her mind since it had only recently stopped pointing at, 'You need to take better care of yourself'. Which it had been pointed at all day for months. The young Assistant Minister feared it would switch back to the dreaded message, so Hermione swept herself from her chair and began to pack her briefcase to head home.

Hermione secretly believed that Molly had some way to monitor the clocks that she had given to her children and adopted children because she seemed to always know when Hermione's had been pointed at a negative message for too long. If Hermione's clock had been pointed at 'Don't forget to eat,' for too long, Molly would inexplicably show up with "too much food," and would promptly insist on sharing. Hermione quickly noticed the coincidence.

Once her bag was packed and office organized for the next day, Hermione stepped out into the hall and locked her office with a swish of her wand. The thud of the lock signaled her days end, and she turned to begin her slow and depressing walk through the empty hallways of the ministry. No matter how quickly she walked, the journey always took too long; so she paid no attention to the speed of her steps. She listened to her heals loudly echoing back at her, seeming to tick like a clock. Memories of her family and friends seemed to jump from each moment and the brunette felt the strain on her war-torn mind.

Hermione came to a halt at the Floo fireplace and quickly landed back in her dark flat. As always when going home, Hermione had a moment of fear. Fear of being so utterly alone. Fear that perhaps her security spells have failed, and she is not alone. A piercing fear that she will remain always in this darkness.

Hermione shook herself from that nightly routine of panic and drudgingly marched toward her bedroom. She turned on her small side light and began her nightly routine for bed. Quickly she washed and got dressed in sensible pajamas. The brunette continued to her bed where she laid down, she attempted to settle her war stricken and tortured mind.

The brunette awoke from sleep, and slowly opened her eyes. In the moonlight from her small window, she saw slight movement at her darkened bedside. Her heart beat wildly as she reached for her small light, initially wondering why it was off, and clicked it to no avail. The darkness remained and Hermione began to panic as she often did in the dark.

She frantically flipped the light switch; certain her throat was shrinking. In desperation she grabbed her wand from the bedside table, whipped it towards the movement and shrieked "LUMOS MAXIMA!" In that instant Hermione's fear rocketed as her tormentor, Bellatrix Lestrange, stood at her bedside. The Death Eater's evil shown in her glowing eyes, her sharpened teeth shined unnaturally behind her grin. Bellatrix cackled wildly as she lunged at Hermione with a dagger. Hermione threw her sleeping body up, flung her arm out to stop the attack. With a blood curdling roar, she attempted to fight the Death Eater with all her might.

Her eyes opened widely before she noticed that the light showed easily from her bedside lamp like it always did. The brunette slowed her breathing and saw that the image of Bellatrix was gone, and her room was back to normal.

Just another nightmare.

Hermione laid back down and closed her eyes, then forced her breathing back to normal. She tried to relax her body, knowing that it sometimes was the only thing that helped the burning she felt from time to time. She had nerve damage throughout her body from the extended use of the Cruciatus Curse that was used on her during her torture at Malfoy manor.

After she joined the ministry, Hermione had studied the extensive research on the curse. She knew it was known as the torture curse and after her studies she realized why. The curse activated every nerve ending in the body causing it to burn from head to toe. Extended use could cause extensive nerve damage and, as in the situation of Neville's parents, madness. The pain is so intense the mind literally can not handle it. In order to keep the body alive, the mind just turns off. After that, most never turn back on leaving the victim either eternally catatonic or unable to ever get a grip on reality again.

Hermione attempted to calm herself for what seemed like hours, but soon realized that her meditation techniques would be futile like always, so she reached for her bedside table and grabbed a small bottle of Dreamless sleep potion. Uncaring that she shouldn't take more because it could be dangerous and addictive, she downed the small amount and laid back. Slowly she drifted into what she knew would now be a dreamless slumber.

A/N Hope you enjoyed please continue to chapter two as they were posted simultaneously.