"Minerva? Are you ready?"

"Goodness but you are bossy," Minerva chuckled, coming out of the bedroom, fixing her earring.

Hermione gaped at the woman, who stopped and looked down at herself.

"What?"

"Nothing," Hermione swallowed. "Nothing, sorry."

"Hermione -"

"Come on, we need to go. We're going to be late."

Life had not really panned out the way Hermione had expected it to. On the evening of her birthday, Minerva had moved in and though they'd had no furniture, save that which she'd bought with her, they'd made dinner together and sat together on the floor in the living room, eating off paper plates. Hermione thought that those 24 hours of Minerva's birthday had been the most magical she'd ever had. The next day, they'd managed to get the furniture situation sorted and in no time at all, there was a sofa, a bookshelf or two, two beds and a desk. They didn't bother with a dining table and it was perhaps then that she should have realised. Hermione had moved into the main bedroom - she refused to call it her parent's bedroom - and Minerva had taken the guest room. Hermione's childhood bedroom had been turned into an office for Minerva and that had been where she had stayed since she arrived.

Hermione had expected, perhaps, a little more togetherness while they were at home, at her place. But all that had happened was that Minerva had received owl after owl after owl which kept her busy from sun up to sundown. Hermione tried to spend tie with her, but after standing beside Minerva's desk for ten or so minutes, Minerva would often look up like she was surprised to see her and after a few of those incidents, Hermione had stopped. She'd call up to Minerva in the evening, and she'd receive the odd reply so she often cooked dinner alone and then brought it to Minerva. The first night that had happened it had sat cold, on the corner of the desk where she left it and after a week of Minerva picking at it while she sat beside the desk, she stopped that as well. These days, she just dropped it on Minerva's desk and withdrew, leaving her in her office.

Sometimes, even though she didn't stop to chat, Minerva seemed genuinely happy to see her, but mostly, she merely thanked Hermione and then carried on working.

The promise Hermione made; that she could and would give Minerva space came back to bite her in the arse. At one point, during the lowest moments of their stay together Hermione even wondered if she'd dreamt that Minerva had kissed her that day and that, in fact, the woman had tricked Hermione into letting her stay. She'd gone immediately over to Harry's and had sobbed while he'd quite rightly called her an idiot, despite her walking in on him and Ginny snogging in the kitchen.

Ginny had laughed as she'd weaved her tale and insisted Hermione just speak to Minerva about it all but Hermione couldn't. She didn't know how; she never had any time with Minerva where the woman's focus was fully on her.

So she waited. She read a lot and did the dishes and the cooking until Harry reminded her that she wasn't a House Elf and that they would need to decide what they were doing about the Ministry Ball. Hermione had groaned and begged off until Harry had reminded her that she would have to remind Minerva anyway so she might as well attend with them. And so, she did and Minerva blinked and looked at the calendar before nodding and kissing Hermione's forehead and going back to her desk.

It was, altogether, incredibly frustrating.

Now though, it was the night of that Ministry ball, and Minerva was wearing the most beautiful bottle-green, satin dress that left absolutely no inch of her to the imagination and Hermione had to bite her tongue for fear she would say something stupid like you're not wearing that for anyone but me. She blinked, perplexed, as to why Minerva McGonagall, who wore nothing but her sternest robes to these things, was suddenly wearing such a number, but she didn't have time to examine those thoughts. She valiantly bit back her comments and took Minerva's arm when she offered it and let her Apparate them to the Ministry. They weren't late, per se, but she could see that they had missed the beginning. She wondered absently if Minerva was always late to these things, but she didn't ask. She dropped Minerva's arm as soon as they'd arrived and walked just a little away from her as they entered the room, smiling politely at a few of the Ministers that swept Minerva away in a sea of questions about Hogwarts and progress and the latest enrollment figures.

"What's a beautiful woman like you doing in a place like this, then?"

Hermione beamed as George pinched her side as he joined her and she threw her arms around her.

"How are you?"

"Doing okay," he shrugged. She hugged him again and then stepped back. "Did ya see my date?"

She frowned and looked where he was pointing, a beautiful woman wearing a red dress that gave depth to her dark hair was chatting enthusiastically with a few people she recognised vaguely from one of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

"Wait, is that Angelina?"

"You know it," he grinned proudly. "I met up with her before the battle and had a couple of drinks with her. We reminisced for a while, and then after," he went quiet and she squeezed his hand. "She's been a rock," he sighed. "It's really helped, so," he shrugged with a little grin. "Now she stays with me above the shop."

"George! That's fantastic!"

"It is rather, isn't it," he chuckled. "What about you? Gin said You and McG?"

"Ha," Hermione said drolly. "Kinda. No? I don't know. I thought so but she's staying with me and honestly, I saw her more at school than now."

"Oh," George frowned. "That's a shame cos I reckon you two are well suited to each other?"

"No comment about the age difference?" Hermione asked, wanting some feedback from someone who she loved like a brother but who didn't know her quite as well as Harry did.

"Nah," he chuckled. "Like I said, you and her? Come on. There'd be none better would there?"

"I thought so too," she said sadly.

"Ah, don't be like that. Come and have a drink with us. Lee is around here somewhere. His bloke isn't here, so you can keep him company."

"That sounds great," Hermione breathed, thankful she wouldn't be alone.

It turned out Lee, who she didn't know beyond him as the Twin's friend, was charming and delightful and wickedly funny. They hit it off almost immediately. She sat with them and drank the cocktail that he bought her and by the time Harry and Ginny arrived at the table after doing the rounds, she was on her fourth and a bit sloshed.

They chatted expressively until Kingsley got up on stage and started the speeches. He looked over with a glare at the young ones around her laughing still as he cleared his throat but Hermione was feeling free for the first time in so long and she revelled in it while they settled in to listen.

She was delightfully fuzzy but he droned on and on about progress. It was in counterpoint to the progress happening in Hermione's life so she didn't bother paying too much attention. She liked, Kingsley, she really did and she didn't want to be rude but as she glanced around the room, Lee leaned forward and passed her another drink and whispered about one of the Ministers rocking on his heels towards the back of the room. She'd snorted into her drink and only just managed to stop it from splashing onto her dress. Kingsley gave them another glare and she'd elbowed Lee for making her laugh. The focus turned on them and she noticed Minerva standing with Poppy and did her best not to care. She was having fun, for the first time in months and she was enjoying it. She'd missed this, but more than anything, she'd wished she could have this with Minerva, instead of without her.

She noticed absently as Harry disappeared and tried to ignore the stream of consciousness that Lee was whispering into her ear and biting her lip to stop herself from bursting out laughing, instead she wiped the tears of laughter from her eyes and just caught Harry following Minerva out of the room. Even in her state, it occurred to her that it would be just like Harry to attempt to save her, or Minerva, from themselves, so she sighed and finished her drink.

"I'll be back," Hermione promised, kissing Lee's cheek and getting up.

She waved apologetically to Kingsley for the disruption and as she was leaving caught Madam Pomfey's eye. Whatever she'd spoken about with Minerva had all the disappointment shining out of her eyes and Hermione resolved to sort it before they left here. For better or for worse.