So this has been plaguing me for a bit and I couldn't get anything else done till I put it all down on here. Yes, I'm still working on my other stories. I have not abandoned them and I won't. PLEASE PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!
As always these are JKR toys I'm just putting them in a different story.
Hermione has a good job. One that she's pleased with and makes her feel like she's making a difference with it.
She currently works in the Law offices of the Wizingot.
After she graduated, Kingsley had invited her to be on a team of people that are revising and changing or completely eradicating old, outdated, unethical, or cruel laws.
When Ron told her that he didn't see the difference between old and outdated she patiently explained to both him and Harry that outdated laws still on the books that had not been updated and restructured to avoid loopholes have caused cases to be ruled in different ways dealing with the same subject matter.
The same law should be in effect for everyone.
Old just meant that it needed to be gone over to make sure that it was still viable or needed to be done away with altogether.
It was their job to go through and show how they could be bad for everyone and how if re-written or done away with could be good for everyone.
Easier said than done because not everyone's ideas of good and bad were the same. Hence, the team of people working on them.
Both boys just looked at her for a few moments and then Harry said, "Well whatever you do we're proud of you."
She still had her doubts whether they understood what she did daily at work or not but at least they loved her enough to support her in it regardless.
Hermione's private life wasn't really all that exciting. But that was ok. She figured she'd had an exciting (if that's the word one wanted to use for it) enough childhood.
After graduating from Hogwarts, she had moved into Grimmauld Place with Harry for almost a year.
It was when Ron moved in and started bringing dates home that things began to get a bit awkward.
Well, for him at least.
They'd only dated for three months following the war before they decided that they were better off as friends. Which in the long run they truly were. But he still seemed awkward about the fact that she knew every time he brought someone home for the evening.
Every morning after his date left, Ron couldn't seem to look her in the eye, and then it took him till the following Wednesday to speak more than a few mumbled words to her. She thought it was hilarious at first and teased him about it but eventually took pity on him after a few weeks and decided to move. Both she and Harry had known that she'd already been planning to move out before that anyway. This just moved it up a few weeks.
So, she bought a two-bedroom flat on the outskirts of Diagon Alley.
Where she now lives alone with the exception of a cranky cat and three semi-tame house plants. (courtesy of Neville) She finds that she likes the solitude and lack of questionable sounds and smells that come from living with two single males.
Although, two of the three plants have nearly gotten tossed out several times.
One of them keeps trying to eat anything of paper near it. Books, magazines, mail, casefiles; nothing is safe from it. (Thank Merlin it was only a copy of the McNavers vs Perks file that she had placed on the table that day) She named him Edgar.
The other trouble-making oxygen giver for some reason has started singing every night at exactly 3:49 in the morning. The fact that it has an affinity for Operatic solos was definitely not lost on her or her neighbors. His name is Chad.
As far as her cat was concerned, Hermione figures he has a right to be cranky. She rescued him out from under a garbage bin in the alley near her flat.
(Why are there bins there when every witch or wizard could just vanish their trash one might ask. Well, there's a sign above them saying that it's for muggle-borns. "To hang on to and integrate some of their heritage" Surely the magical community could come up with something a little less unsanitary, right? Or was it a nasty message from some pureblood that was being snarky? Then she remembered Ron and Harry telling her about them flushing themselves into the Ministry during the war and knew that even purebloods had to use them. She finds wizards totally illogical sometimes.)
Back to her poor feline boy. He only has three legs, and his right ear looks like it's been partially chewed off while several scars run across his face. Then there are the bald spots. A large one on his back and two on his tail. Needless to say, he isn't the most aesthetically pleasing. (But then neither was Crookshanks) She figures with the life that his scars say he's lead he has every right to be a little testy.
He still hisses and spits at her (well at everyone really) if she's looking at him but he will sit next to her and accepts (only) head skritches if she does it without turning her head in his direction. He also sees fit to be in the same room with her now when she puts food out for him.
It's a slow process but she feels like he'll come around eventually. She's only had him for a year after all.
Harry thinks she should have named him Snape. The man has become a recluse since the war and tolerates very few people and only for short periods. Strangely enough, two of those people are Harry and Neville. At any rate, Harry says that Snape and the cat have almost the same exact personality.
Ron thinks she should have named him Moody after Mad-Eye. He said they shared most of the same physical characteristics. He figures the only difference was that Mad-Eye was nicer.
She decided to name him Bob.
All in all, her life is pretty good.
Sure, it's fairly mundane but that's ok. She likes the ordinary and boring life that she's living, where the only thing that goes wonky is when they mess up her order of take-away. Which is happening less and less because she always orders the same thing. She figures that's a good thing too.
That was until today.
As Hermione floo'd into her flat, the sounds of screeching, hissing, and things scattering across a hard surface reached her ears.
Quickly dropping her bag, she ran around the corner into her kitchen and stopped dead. She felt herself blink several times.
Bob and Edgar (the paper-eating plant) were in what appeared to be a life and death struggle.
Bob was flopping around, hissing, scratching, batting, and biting at the plant and the pot it was tipped over in while trying to pull its tail out of the plant's mouth. Edgar looked to have swallowed the majority of the Bobs' tail and was trying to finish off Bob.
Her mind kicked into gear despite the absurdity of it all and she rushed over to rescue her poor cat from Edgar. All while muttering, "Oh..oh Merlin…ooh Merlin."
"Edgar! Let go!" she shouted as Bob wrapped his paws around her arm digging his nails in as she tried to pull the tail out of the plant's mouth. "Bloody….Bob" she yelped, "I'm trying…to... OUCH…STOP IT… help. Don't you dare bite…!" Another louder yelp left her as Bob bit down on the back of her arm.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, she registered the sound of the floo going off and running footstep but at the forefront, all she could think about was yanking the tail out of the plant's mouth and getting the cat to let go of her arm.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw two sets of legs run in front of her then she heard, "Stupify" and both the cat and plant immediately went slack. A half-second later the rest of Bobs' tail (now completely bald and burned from the acids inside the plant) came out of the plant's mouth as Hermione fell to the floor with the feline hanging off her arm.
Everything was quiet for a few precious moments.
Then both Ron and Harry started laughing.
Hysterically.
It seemed that Ron needed to lean up against the counter to stay upright, while Harry placed a hand on his stomach bent over while wiping tears from his eyes.
Hermione huffed and began to try to gently pull the rest of Bobs' claws out of her arm.
Both boys were still laughing a few minutes later as the last claw came out and they didn't look to be stopping any time soon. So, Hermione just rolled her eyes and got up off the floor, and headed to the floo.
"Longbottom Manor!" she yelled into the flames.
A few moments later an elderly house-elf answered.
"Yes? How is Todsy helping Missy Grangey today?"
"Please tell Neville to come to my flat as soon as possible. It's extremely important."
"Yes, Missy Grangey."
With that she pulled herself out of the floo and walked towards the bathroom, stopping first to look into the kitchen.
Yep, two idiots still laughing, a stunned ugly cat with a now hairless tail and an omnivorous plant that looked like it was dying by the minute.
Everything was as it should be.
Then she continued on to the bathroom to clean up her arm and take a pain-relieving potion.
Needless to say, Hermione Granger was having a day.
She couldn't even necessarily call it a bad day. More… ridiculous if she had to put a word to it.
After turning on the water, she held her forearm under it while she stared at herself in the mirror.
Face flushed, hair in considerable curly disarray with sparks lightly fizzing off the ends.
As she stared herself down in the mirror she tried to think back and pinpoint when things began to go odd.
It seemed to all start with her ride in the lift that morning.
Out of nowhere Stan Shunpike, the knight bus driver asked her out for coffee. She was so stunned that she stood and stared at him till he snapped his fingers in her face. She was saved from being trapped in the lift with him because at the same time the bell tinged, and the doors opened. So, she hurried to leave while shouting over her shoulder, "No thank you."
She hadn't even stopped to think about why he was even in the lift till right then. Logically, there were only so many reasons that he'd be at the Ministry. Showing up for some sort of court case, taking care of a parking violation, or renewing his license were the only three that she could come up with.
Putting that behind her she rushed to her office to find her desk loaded with files.
That did not belong to her.
That she was never supposed to see.
Or even supposed to be in her department for that matter.
She was fairly certain that the Unspeakables were going to call her in tomorrow when she showed up for work because half a years' worth of their files had somehow ended up on her desk and had to be delivered back down to them by her.
The receptionist at the Dept of Mysteries kept giving her the skeptical stink eye when she tried to explain that they were on her desk when she got there that morning, and she didn't know how or why they were there.
Having spent the better part of an hour trying to explain herself to the suspicious woman meant that she was late starting work. She hated being late, but she felt like her excuse was reasonable enough.
Not that anyone asked.
Her office was pretty relaxed when it came to being late. Everything was accepted with an "I'm sorry I'm late." as long as you showed up within the first hour. So, when she came in nothing was said.
By lunchtime, things were looking up. They'd thrown three laws into the "get rid of" pile having dug up everything that existed about them and deeming them completely unneeded in today's society. It was so ironclad that her first-line supervisor was taking them into the next Wizingot session.
So off she went to lunch feeling much better about the day.
Until she remembered that she had set a lunch date with her parents at a nearby deli. With a groan, she turned away from the ministry cafeteria and headed towards the floo.
It wasn't that she hadn't wanted to see them. Hermione really did. It was just that things were so tense between them all now. Since they had their memories restored and had everything explained to them, they were leery of anything that had to do with magic. That meant especially her. It hurt but she understood. She used magic on them. She hadn't even told them anything that was going on in her world before then. She couldn't blame them but it made their monthly lunch a tense quiet affair.
And tense and quiet it was.
A quick light hug, a somber hello, and how are you then the rest of the time was spent quietly eating. Till they finished, then it was with a quick light hug and a somber love you and see you next month that they parted ways.
She figured she only started to breathe regularly again when she finally dropped into her seat at her desk. Thankfully the rest of the afternoon was spent going through laws and by-laws without a hint of nonsense.
That was until she was walking to the lifts and was passing the DMLE office. Just as she was about to pass by the door flew open and out walked Vincent Crab. Right in front of her. She'd been walking fast enough that she couldn't stop her forward motion quickly enough to not collide with him.
If bouncing off his chest and landing on her bum in front of a dozen or so coworkers also trying to get out of the Ministry wasn't embarrassing enough, the man himself reached down, picked her up under her arms, and set her back on her feet like she was a toddler.
Which compared to his now 6'5" muscle-bound frame, her 5'4" self almost felt like she was.
She was so stunned that for a second time that day she stood there just gaping up at someone. Unfortunately, she was brought out of it by him turning her around and one of his big hands firmly swiping the dust off her bum. As his hand seemed to curve over her right arse cheek her brain kicked in. Jumping sideways, she turned around to look at him with an extremely embarrassed "excuse you!" that was only about half-whispered.
To which the man actually chuckled at her and said, "Your cute Granger. Wanna go out?" The deep rumble of his voice surprised her. Somewhere in the back of her mind, the question of whether or not she'd ever heard him speak at school floated around.
Again, stunned.
She just stood there gaping up at him and shook her head. He laughed again at her and said, "Well, if you change your mind I'll be around for a while." Then the man patted her on her head and sauntered off like he hadn't just manhandled her, while treating her like a child, then asking her out on a date.
Her brain stalled.
It was at that moment that the rest of her emotions kicked back in and she felt herself flush beet-red.
To say that she nearly sprinted to the lifts to get to the floo system to go home would be an understatement.
Then she came home to find one of her plants trying to eat her cat.
Yes. Ridiculous was the only word for today.
She looked down to see that the water had been shut off for her and a towel handed to her.
"So, how was your day?" Harry asked with a grin. It looked like he was trying to hold in his laughter and was only barely managing it.
Narrowing her eyes as she dabbed the towel over the holes the cat left in her arm she muttered, "Ridiculous. Why?"
He just shook his head, chuckling, and said, "Here, let me heal those for you."
As she continued to eye him suspiciously she held out her arm and said, "Thank you."