For the most part, Harry had believed that he had made a very suitable career choice despite all the overtime and endless paperwork he had to deal with in a daily basis, as he was genuinely good at his job and he had quite enjoyed certain aspects of the job, but he surely would be lying if he said he had never felt jealous of Ron for the freedom and flexibility his best friend enjoyed in his job, to have the choice to go in to work whenever he was pleased, especially on a Tuesday morning after getting a terrible hangover the previous night for celebrating his best mate's birthday. While Harry very much preferred being a working level Auror who would spend the majority of his working hours on the field, being the Head of Department at least meant that he would not be told off for coming in late once in a while, specifically the day after returning home at two thirty only to realise that he had run out of hangover potion, or so he thought when he entered his office at almost eleven, which was about two hours later than usual.

"You're late, Harry." His other best friend greeted him from his seat without making any eye contact as soon as he opened his door, while reading what he suspected to be one of those reports which had been buried at the bottom of his mountain for at least a month.

"Merlin, Hermione! You may be my boss but it's considered basic manner not to go through someone's stuff in the person's room behind his back, especially when I'm at least the Head of department." He knew he was in the wrong but it was hard to keep himself respectful when he felt like his privacy had been invaded while his head was exploding.

"Said the Head of department who has arrived to work two hours late without calling in, who has been neglecting a whole mountain of reports and who has apparently been too hungover to even realise he had gotten a Floo-call from his boss at half past nine at home." She recited matter-of-factly without raising her eyes from the document she was reading. He did feel bad about disappointing her but considering the circumstances, he inevitably felt a bit annoyed at her.

"I get it, Hermione. But you of all people should understand that the only reason I would ever go drinking on a Monday evening was to celebrate your husband's birthday and that he would never let me go before finishing my third drink. And I thought you would show a bit more understanding on this particular day."

"Third? I know you're not good, Harry, but you probably have the worst tolerance among all the people I know." As if this conversation could not get any more annoying to him, she chose to finally look at him while teasing him about his alcohol tolerance.

"Said the person who always refuses to have more than one drink under all circumstances." He tried to look as impassive as he could.

She shook her head then sighed, "As Minister for Magic, of course I have to make sure that I would be functional at all times. I do appreciate you making Ron's birthday special for him while I was busy but if I can't expect a bit more cooperation from my best friend at work, how helpful could I expect my other subordinates to be when we have only just started to earn back some goodwill from the public." She placed a tiny bottle of hangover potion on the surface from beneath the table while giving him a conciliatory look.

It took every bit of self-control he had not to rush over to grab the potion before devouring the whole bottle in one gulp. Instead, he silently walked over, gave her what he intended to be a simultaneously apologetic and grateful look before calmly picking up the potion and drinking it on the spot. He could feel his head cleared and his nausea disappeared before even finishing the potion. There was not any indication anywhere but he could simply tell that the potion had been home-brewed by Hermione herself.

"Feeling better?" She sounded truly curious as if there was a chance her potion could not work. Behind Snape and Slughorn, Hermione was the most talented potion-maker Harry had ever known.

"Much better," He could not resist giving her a warm and proud smile, "this is the best hangover potion I have ever tried, you should consider selling it."

"Well, Ron needs something stronger sometimes." She shrugged while standing up, "I'm glad you're feeling better, I should get going." She was already on her way towards the door holding the report she had been reading.

"Hmm... Hermione, why were you calling me earlier?" He was hoping that he could silently convey his apology by appearing eager to return to work.

She did not even turn towards him but he could see her gesturing towards the report she was holding, "It's already been taken care of, don't worry about it." He could tell she was busy but she was always busy and she was definitely relatively free right now.

"Wait, Hermione, can I ask you something?" He asked before giving himself the chance to reconsider his plan. He might regret it as he had not even discussed it with Ginny.

She turned back towards him with the report closed, looking surprised and curious. "Sure, go ahead."

"Would you be free on the Sunday after Easter?" Being the dedicated Minister she was, he knew his best friend essentially worked every day and Easter was another day for family that she would not miss out, making the chance pretty slim for her to be available two weekends in a row.

"Hmm… I would be spending time with both my family as well as Ron's family during Easter and the MACUSA president will be visiting at the end of April that I would very much prefer to catch up with work a bit that Sunday… why are you asking?" Hermione did not sound judgemental in the slightest but he was already regretting to have asked at all.

A part of him really wanted to take his question back but he might as well asked anyway even though he knew he sounded juvenile to want to involve the Minister for Magic in his gathering just to make things easier for his family. "Well… it's totally okay if you can't make it but I'm going to have Andromeda and Teddy over to introduce Teddy to the Malfoys at a dinner at my home… I don't know if I have told you but I've been writing to Draco regularly these days and we have gotten… hmm friendlier. I thought it might be a good idea if your family can visit earlier on the day and to stay for dinner as well…" He honestly did not remember the last time he had been this tongue-tied in front of her.

"Let me guess… you are hoping that Ron and I could get friendlier with Draco?" He nodded. "And you have not hinted at this in front of Ron at all despite drinking for hours with him last night?" He nodded again, feeling very much like a schoolboy getting caught.

She looked thoughtful for half a minute before continuing, "I was wondering why you would want us at the dinner… could you possibly want Ron and Rose to distract James with Quidditch or something and Hugo to distract Lily so it would not be a bore for them, who are essentially strangers to the Malfoys?" He raised his hands in surrender, "You have guessed everything, Hermione, now would you consider coming?... and perhaps to talk Ron into coming?"

Hermione gave him an unexpectedly teasing smile, "You know, Harry, you can be very predictable sometimes, and I thought you would have been more open in front of Ron after your talk at the Burrow."

He did not really mind the teasing itself as she was right as always but not so much to have been teased only to have received no answer at all. "Yeah, I get it, Hermione. I should be asking him myself but would you mind doing it?"

"Can I ask you something?" She did not wait for his answer before proceeding, "Why is it so important for you to help Draco? I know you two are friends now but I feel like your interest in the Malfoys has far exceeded that for a regular friend. Or have you two already become really good friends?"

It was a good question that demanded an elaborate answer that he was not sure where he should begin. He needed Hermione to be on his side that he took his time to come up with the most important part. "Of course we are not that close… I suppose it all began on the day Malfoy showed up at my door demanding to know why I had separated the boys from each other. I have made a terrible mistake to an innocent boy which has made me wanted to make up to Scorpius ever since Godric's Hollow. He did not have to but Draco admitted to me in my kitchen then that he had felt jealous of us three back in Hogwarts. It made me realise for the first time how lonely and helpless he had been."

She nodded and said sympathetically, "Draco definitely had matured a lot, especially in the way he had offered his Time Turner to help. I really feel bad about them losing Astoria so soon too." His best friend had been so busy with work these days that he did not realise how much he missed confiding his personal problems to her. She was a brilliant listener and she always had an answer to everything that suddenly, he wanted to tell her all about Albus' guilt and nightmares and the helplessness he had been feeling in helping his son. But the first thing on the agenda was to persuade her whole family to give the Malfoys another chance.

"Exactly, Hermione, Scorpius may look bubbly even after their adventures but he's in many ways still a grieving child who thinks about his mother a lot. I randomly got the idea to let Al visit the Malfoys on Christmas day and it was one of the best decisions I have made in a while. I realised that day that Draco is essentially on the same boat with his boy as Ginny and I are with Albus, so it just makes sense for us to support each other, especially with Albus and Scorpius being best friends. We have made some sort of agreement that day and Malfoy has honoured his promise, that I really want to do my part to make things better for them as well. Also, I have talked to Andromeda and Teddy and the excitement to meet the other family is certainly mutual instead of one-sided." He was rambling and sounded sort of desperate but he did not care.

She had been nodding approvingly without interrupting him once. "It's a great thing you're doing, Harry. I'm so glad you two are helping each other."

Sure it was a good sign that she appreciated his quest to connect the two families but this was not the answer he was anxiously anticipating. "Hmm… does it mean you'll help me then, Hermione?"

She looked unfazed about his impatience but to his annoyance, she seemed to be deliberately delaying to answer his question. "I'll answer you after you solve my riddle."

"What? What riddle? This makes absolutely no sense at all, Hermi…"

She ignored him to go ahead with her riddle anyway, "I am the creature you have not seen. I am you. I am me. The echo unforeseen. Sometimes in front, sometimes behind, A constant companion, for we are entwined." It could be because he had been taken completely off guard, or he was not in the mood for riddles, or because he had missed the beginning that she had to repeat it, or most likely because he was not good at riddles at all, but it took him eight minutes to solve it. He felt bad about holding her up but she was determined that he would have to solve the riddle himself that she just patiently read her report while waiting for him.

"I get it, it's shadow!" He was too relieved to get this over with.

"And you, the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, would have been bound securely waiting to be caught red-handed if you had tried to steal the Time Turner." She could not feign the tiniest bit of excitement for his late success.

"Wait, is this the riddle you used to hide the Time Turner?"

"Yes, one of the riddles." She closed the report to look squarely into his eyes. " And Scorpius had solved this all on his own when Delphi and Albus had been swallowed by the library." He involuntarily let out a gasp hearing his son gotten swallowed, he had heard it before but it was something they had never dwelled on during their previous narrative about their adventures. Hermione, however, did not react to that at all. "You know, Harry, Rose would get annoyed when she got beaten in school and she had only ever been beaten by one person in Hogwarts." He knew that Scorpius was very intelligent that he was not surprised to hear him beating Rose and he admired the boy a lot, but he wished Hermione could just get to the point. "Meaning?"

"Scorpius is very bright and this is the perfect opportunity for me to get to know him better, perhaps I could even help nurturing him a bit. Besides, Draco has more than earned a second chance following the incidents. I will never forget Draco Malfoy defending us when we told the world about Delphi." In his excitement, he held her free hand and said, "Thank you so much, Hermione! And Ron…"

"Don't worry, I'll talk to him, not that I believe he'll mind too much anyway. Honestly, I'm pretty sure he has somewhat warmed up to Draco. He has told me about twenty times that he could not believe that Malfoy would apologise to him for poisoning him after twenty-four years." This Harry could definitely believe as he had heard the same thing for at least five times himself that very day when it had happened.

"Besides, he had heard you two talking about the gathering on the platform that day and had been so curious about it. I think he has been secretly wondering if you were going to invite him." Uncharacteristic of her, she gave him a smirk.

"Oh." Thinking back to the day, he had to agree Ron had seemed strangely nosy about the gathering when he had asked him about it over lunch. They had moved on a couple of times to some other topics only to be brought back into it by some random question his mate would come up with, like what he was planning to serve for dinner, as if he were some professional chef who would be planning the courses of a meal months ahead.

He should let her go back to work now but there was another favour he wanted to ask of her. "I really appreciate your help, Hermione, but there's something else I want to ask you…" She raised an eyebrow but did not look displeased. "I know there'll be so much going on in April… but I'm wondering if I can have the Monday off after said Sunday."

She sighed then said, "That's kind of bad timing, Harry, but why is it so important for you to have the day off before the kids returning to school?" Even though she was clearly not too happy about it, just the fact that she could guess that this had something to do with his children made it much easier for him to find the words.

"I-it's Albus. He has apparently been having nightmares for months about the incidents… and the Easter holiday will be for the whole family that I want to spend a day with him alone… just the two of us so I can spend some quality time with him for once. There's something I think we can do but I think I'll leave it up to him… I've been so troubled about this lately so it would mean a lot to me… if I..."

Unexpectedly, she interrupted him decidedly, "Of course you can have the day off, we'll be able to arrange something. Oh, Harry… I'm so sorry about Albus." She suddenly threw her arms around him that he momentarily forgot that she was his boss, "I'm sorry this happens to you… but I am sure you'll be able to help him."

He was grateful for her understanding but he had heard such sentiments too often that he was truly confused, "But why? Why should you be feeling sorry for me when Al is the one who's suffering? I wish everyone would stop saying that I'd be able to help him. If I am really that great for him, he would not have nightmares at all at the first place."

She let go to look at him sympathetically, "Of course I'm sorry for Albus, but I'm also sorry for you, Harry, because bad things tend to happen to people closest to you. And you, being the selfless person you are, always feel terrible and beat yourself up for it even when it's not your fault. Knowing you, I can tell you would feel even worse when Albus is the one suffering… However, I know you'll be able to help him because I remember how it was in Godric's Hollow. Both you and Albus had tried to save each other, both of you love each other so much. The heart of the matter between you two is miscommunication but the love is there and has always been there. I can't see how he could not get better when you're working so hard to help him because you care so much."

On the one hand, he wanted to believe that she was right but he did not feel confident enough to agree with her. On the other hand, what she said had been well-reasoned that it was hard to argue with her. He pursed his lips and chose to stay in silence instead. Sensing his conflicted feelings, Hermione gave him a pat on his back before finally leaving his room.

A/N: This chapter owes its existence to Scorpiusisthebest. I've never tried to write any part of the story to please any reader specifically but if I read a suggestion I like, I won't rule out incorporating it if I can find a way that works for the story, so Scorpius and Hermione are indeed going to meet later. I keep saying this and that character wasn't supposed to play a part but somehow, the fic has become so long that it seems wrong to not give Hermione a chance to shine when less important characters like Neville, Molly and Andromeda had had their moments, of course these characters' development happen at the cost of the fic being turned into a never-ending story. (I do know the ending but it feels like it's never-ending because just thinking about the road ahead gives me a headache sometimes.)

Thank you for all your support as always. A shout out to Blue Herons because I can't PM you.

PS: Have you ever find it weird that we know the Weasleys like they're our own family but barely know anything about Hermione's parents? I really felt the need to add her "my family" here because of that.