During the following week, as July melted into August; Hermione found her workload ramping up. She was attempting to create a register of all known house-elves and their lineage so that the Ministry could keep track on how they were being treated and help the Aurors to step in when things weren't going so well. According to the Ministry's "official" estimations, there were 225 house-elves spread across the country, in addition to the 100 or so living at Hogwarts, but so far Hermione had only managed to record 200. Her plan was to eventually interview all the elves on the list for her research, but she'd hit a wall on where to find the missing 25.

By the Thursday after Harry and Ginny's wedding, she felt like she was going around in circles and she was struggling to concentrate. She had caught herself more than once staring at the badly plastered wall of her cubicle in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. She gathered her notes with a sigh and made her way down to the Ministry library. She had spotted it during her induction tour of the Ministry and it had greatly excited her, but she had struggled to find time to get down there and explore the depths of its racks and aisles. It apparently held a copy of every magical book ever written, including those even more evil and awful than the ones contained in the Restricted Section at Hogwarts.

Hermione strolled through the chamber, looking to find a quiet spot among the racks of books. She stopped briefly at an aisle titled "Failed Magical Initiatives" and made a mental note to come back and check these when she had time. Wizards and Witches were free to experiment with their magic, once they had come of age, and often came up with new magical devices or spells which could be submitted to the Ministry to become patented and "official". Very few of these came to fruition; these experiments could sometimes have the potential to cause harm to muggles or were so instable, they could have disastrous consequences to those who used it but Hermione was curious to see if there was anything worth investigating and improving on but right now, she needed to focus on her register.

She walked past the section dedicated to defensive magic and froze in her tracks. Sat at the table at the bottom of the aisle was a familiar ginger haired wizard. Hermione grinned and changed her direction, wandering slowly towards him.

"Well this is something I thought I'd never see… Ronald Weasley in a library, seemingly of his own free will…"

Ron dropped his quill as he lifted his head, grinning as he spotted her standing in front of him. "Yeah, you've caught me!" He laughed, gesturing for her to take one of the empty seats.

Hermione slid into the seat happily. "No seriously, what are you doing down here?"

He slid one of the mock exams he had been working through towards her. "In three weeks we have our mid-point assessments. If we fail, we get kicked off the programme so I thought I'd better get a head start on my revision…"

Hermione looked visibly impressed. "Oh you have done some growing up, I'm impressed! Is it weird that I find that quite sexy?!"

Ron let out a loud laugh, covering his mouth as he received a chorus of shushes. "For anyone else, it would be really weird but not for you. I'm actually down here quite a bit, there's so much going on in the Auror Training Department, I struggle to concentrate. I'm surprised I haven't seen you down here before now…"

"I am working on a register of all house-elves, but I've lost a few…"

"You've lost a few house-elves?!" Ron looked confused.

"Yeah… In our department, there's a clock that ticks over every time a house-elf is born or passes away and there are currently 325 on the clock. Hogwarts has 100, and I've managed to trace and speak to another 200 which leaves me 25. I need the register so I can make sure the law changes are adhered to…"

"So there are just 25 house-elves just roaming the country, living their best free lives?!"

"Well I just can't figure out where else they may be!"

"Do you know what you need?" Ron sat back in his seat; arms folded across his body.

"What's that?" Hermione watched him; eyebrows raised.

"You need a house-elf!"

"Yes, I need 25 of them…" She frowned but had an amused smile on her face.

"No, not one of the missing ones – obviously!" Ron laughed, rocking his chair onto it's back legs. "You need one to help you. You're all about gaining equality and you want to make their lives better so you should ask to hire one to work on your project with you – as an equal!"

Hermione's mouth fell open, although no words came out of it to begin with. She digested what he was saying, turning it over and over in her head for a moment before a wide grin appeared on her face.

"Ron Weasley, you are a genius!" She leaned over the table and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

Ron blushed bright red. "I'm okay…"

"Seriously! You're brilliant! Who else would understand the house-elves better than a house-elf? They could have some insights that I would never be able to grasp because I'm not one of them!" She laughed and pulled a piece of empty parchment from her pile of notebooks and notes before starting to scribble on it furiously. "I'll have to put together a proposal so I can get funding to pay them and then I think I'll write to Professor McGonagall and Hagrid to see if they can spare one from Hogwarts…"

Ron watched her with a smile. She was so passionate about house-elves and improving their rights and it was great to get an opportunity to watch her at work. When she got something on her hook, she gave it her all to achieve it. He found it inspiring and he turned back to his studies, working in a comfortable silence with her.

Eventually, Hermione finished setting out her proposal and she passed it to Ron to look over. She watched him intently as he read, chewing her bottom lip. It was important to her that he got a chance to have an opinion on the proposal, especially because he was the one to suggest it.

Ron looked up from the parchment. "I only have a few suggestions…" He passed it back to her before leaning over it to show her where he thought she could make some changes. Hermione was very aware of how close he was to her at that moment. She could see each of his blonde tipped eyelashes and she forced herself to pay more attention to what he was saying than him. She didn't want him to think she was being dismissive of his opinion.

Ron's revision ended up neglected as the duo worked through the proposal and it wasn't until they noticed that the library had gone quiet around them that they looked up from the parchment.

"I think it's late…" Hermione rubbed at her eyes. "But the proposal is ready to be submitted…"

Ron checked his watch. "It's gone 6! I'm going to be in so much trouble tomorrow; I was supposed to have duelling practice at 4…" He sat back in his chair and stretched.

"Oh no, I don't want you to get into trouble…." Hermione looked concerned.

"It'll be fine, I'm still top of the class and I think I can justify going missing considering I was doing something useful!" Ron looked a bit smug. "If you're going up to Hogwarts, I was thinking maybe I could tag along? I know I'm not a part of your project, but it would be nice to see the castle again and get a few hours with you too…"

"That sounds like a good idea…" Hermione smiled and started collecting her things.

"Great! Let me know when and I'll free up some time!"

"Thank you so much for today Ron, I really mean it. I'd hit a brick wall and I really didn't know where to go with my project. I was close to giving up before I'd even started. You've really helped me find a way forward…"

"S'nothing…" Ron shuffled his feet but smiled. "Felt good to be helping you for a change…"

Hermione watched him for a moment with a smile. "If you can get the time off to escort me to Hogwarts, maybe I can take you out to dinner at the Three Broomsticks to say thank you?"

Ron's grin grew wider. "I am absolutely not going to turn down a free meal…"

"Great!" She leaned in to kiss his cheek again. "I'll send you an owl with the details."

The pair walked back to the elevators together, parting ways once they got to their respective floors.