Waiting and Hoping
Prologue
The war had been hard on all of them especially Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny. There had been many losses: Dumbledore, Hagrid, Bill amongst others, but it was now over and they had the rest of their lives to think about.
Harry and Ginny consoled mainly in each other and they were soon able to have dreamless nights without potions. Ron after an initial few weeks of not talking to anyone had finally come out of his shell and began to move forward. Hermione however kept her emotions tightly closed off from the outside world mainly to avoid accepting the truth about what she had seen that night. To all intents and purposes she had moved on and few could see past her tough façade.
After leaving Hogwarts and the war behind them Harry signed up for the Auror program and was obviously accepted. Ginny moved in with Harry and worked as a trainee healer at St Mungo's. Ron had been signed up to play keeper for the Chudley Cannons, and Hermione had shocked everyone by accepting a hardly respectable and not intellectually stimulating job as an office worker at the Ministry of Magic, a job usually taken by students who scrapped only a few OWL's and NEWT's.
A year had passed and Harry had caught numerous dark wizards, Ginny had become a qualified healer, she worked in Spell damage, after all she had seen enough of it during the war, Ron had helped the Chudley Cannons come 2nd in the league for the first time in over a century and Hermione, well Hermione was still were she was a year ago unchanged in personality and unchallenged by her work.
Harry and Ginny were soon to be married in what was already deemed to be the wedding of the century. Ron had found romance with none other than the Chudley Cannons physiotherapist and former Yule ball date Padma Patil. She got on well with everyone, everyone that is except Hermione. Padma had never quite forgotten Ron's maltreatment of her at the Yule ball that she blamed on Hermione.
Hermione had remained single and led a very independent life for she hardly ever saw the Weasley's or Harry anymore, she hardly spent any time with anyone really. She lived in a small cottage on the edge of a small village in a little known area of England. The village consisted of 3 cottages and a post-box. Hermione had chosen it for it's isolation and the garden which although was small it was very cosy and had a small pond in which Crookshanks liked to try and catch the fish. All in all she had chosen this house because she felt safe, she was away from her old life.
Hermione was sitting in her garden rewriting some of the old Ministry of Magic files that had got dusty, she could of course have done this by magic but she liked to read the files sometimes they were about new spells that had been approved, or minutes from a very important meeting. At the moment however it was about Floo regulation and even Hermione found it very boring. She had just turned over the page and was about to continue writing when a Tawny owl flew onto the table and stuck its leg out. Hermione recognised this owl at once it was Wilburt, the owl belonging to Mr and Mrs Weasley (Errol had died some years earlier). Hermione started, it had been sometime since she had heard from the Weasleys, when she occasionally saw Harry at the Ministry there was always a rather hurried and awkward conversation about how they were getting on. She removed the letter and the owl peaked her finger affectionately. She read the letter quickly and her face paled:
Dear Hermione,
How are you? We haven't seen you for such a long time! We are having a family get together tomorrow and it would be wonderful to see you. Please come you must have lots of news for us it must have been 6 months since your last visit and I know Harry, Ginny and Ron of course would love to see you. Come round about 4pm, your welcome to stay the night.
See you tomorrow
All our love,
Molly and Arthur
xxx
Hermione closed her eyes, as though hoping that they letter would disappear before she opened them again. It didn't. She grabbed a piece of parchment from her bag and wrote:
Molly and Arthur,
Thank you very much for inviting me, I will see you on Sunday at 4pm, although I must be home by early evening so I won't be stopping over. Thank you for the offer though.
Yours,
Hermione
Hermione knew the letter was short and probably sounded quite rude but she really didn't want to go to the get together, she wasn't family, she didn't have family anymore, reflecting on this sad thought she gathered up her work and walked into the house.
The house, like the garden, was small, cosy and exceptionally tidy. She walked into the turquoise kitchen and tapped the kettle with her wand. It hissed loudly and began to steam. Hermione busied herself for a few seconds making a cup of tea. She sat at the old oak table and began to make a to-do list:
Saturday evening:
Feed Crookshanks
Finish ministry files
Water garden
Write a reply to Remus
Write a rejection to job offer
Have a bath
Cut some flowers for Molly
She looked at the list. She knew that she would not do number 4. She had been putting it off for days. Remus kept suggesting that she should go round for tea but she knew that he would try and get her to talk about the war. She wasn't ready yet; she doubted she ever would be.