Sunshine had began to filter it's way through the Venetian blinds that Hermione hadn't remembered to completely close the night before. She sighed as rolled over squeezing her eyes shut tight. It couldn't possibly be time to get back up already, it felt as if she had only just crawled into bed. When the sun continued to warm her face, and sleep continued to evade her, she groaned and got herself out of bed. Why was it that on weekdays when she needed to get up and get ready for work, waking up seemed liked the most difficult thing in the world? When this morning she had planned to spend her whole Saturday morning sleeping in bed, and somehow she found her self wide awake before seven in the morning.
Her favourite part of her morning was having a hot shower. She turned on the water and once the water had heated up enough she let the hot water of the shower run down over her body, whilst she stretched out the tough knots in her back. She had tossed and turned a bit last night, and she could feel it in all her muscles. Once she had almost ran out the hot water, she dried off, got dressed and made her way downstairs.
She turned on the the stove top in the kitchen to boil the kettle and began to sort out the mountain of books and papers that were spread across her table. As much as she loved magic, there were certain things that just felt better to do the muggle way. The sound of the kettle whistling on the stove top made her feel as if she were back in her grandparent's kitchen, eating all the sweet treats and biscuits that her parents never let her have at home. Her grandmother used to put chocolates in her pocket when she on her way back home and hold a finger to her mouth, pretending like it was a big secret.
Hermione was as surprised as anyone, that her life had turned out the way it had. She had of course, gone back to Hogwarts after the war to finish her education. She had been Head girl and had received Outstanding on all her NEWTs (No surprise there, both Harry and Ron had rolled their eyes when she had acted shocked). Even though this was what she felt like she had been working for her whole life, the aftermath of the war had certainly taken it's toll. There were so many people missing from Hogwarts and so much re building that had to be done. She still remembered the article in the Daily Prophet after they had graduated; Outstanding in their field - what will be next for the golden trio? Hermione frowned. What next, indeed. The whistling of the kettle brought her out of her reminiscing, she made a large pot of tea and carried it and her books and notes out to her table on her front porch.
The sun was shining and there was only a light breeze, the perfect conditions to research outside. Hermione usually had a lot to do for her work, but as always her weekends were saved mostly for her personal research, for her one goal, that without achieving, she would never be able to achieve any of her other goals she had spent so many years dreaming about. She continued to sip her tea and highlight things of interest as the morning passed by. The sound of a car pulling into her neighbours driveway pulled Hermione out of the paragraph she was reading. She looked up quickly to see her parents unloading bags from the back of her car.
"Hello Mr and Mrs Wilkins!" Hermione smiled and waved across as her parents, as they walked up the paved walkway from their car carrying bags of shopping.
"Hello dear," Hermione's mother smiled across at her. "You know, we told you a thousand times to call us Wendell and Monica."
"You're doing more work again, on a Saturday?" Wendell frowned. "That law firm had better be paying you double for all the extra hours you put in."
"Oh, it's okay I really don't mind the work." Hermione smiled. "I'm sure I have a good Christmas bonus to look forward to at the end of the year."
"You're much too young to be spending a beautiful day like today on work!" Hermione's mother frowned in the same way she used to when she told Hermione off when she was growing up. Hermione felt a pang as she always did when she spoke to her parents. "You should go out and enjoy your weekend."
"I will, I promise." Hermione forced a laugh. "After just a couple more hours work."
They both smiled and waved goodbye as they headed inside and closed the door behind them. Hermione smiled sadly after them. Years ago after the war had been won and once Hermione had finished her final year of Hogwarts she had made her way to Melbourne to find her parents and undo the memory charm she had placed years earlier. She wanted to wait until she was certain that the majority of the death eaters had been rounded up before she found them, what was an extra year she had figured at the time. She was devastated when she found she couldn't undo what she had done. Had she done the spell too well? Had it been left too long since she had done the spell? Did she do something wrong in the first place? Hermione had spent countless nights awake wondering what she could have done differently. She had spoken to the top healers within the memory ward at St Mungo's about why she couldn't lift the charm but they were no help. "There is so much we don't know about the mind and memory spells Miss Granger." The healer had looked at her sadly through his glasses. "Sometimes we cannot restore people's memory and there simply isn't a reason for it."
Hermione huffed exasperatedly. There had never been a problem that she couldn't solve if she spent long enough on it. But the healer was right a way, there was simply not enough research into memory spells backfiring. Everything she found was guess work which was the most frustrating thing. She never thought she would see the day that she felt sorry for Gilderoy Lockhart. Hermione sighed and looked back at her research material spread across her table. She only really got to spend time on the weekend looking into memory spells, and sometimes not even then if she had too much work to get done from her actual work.
The Australian Ministry of Magic seemed like the perfect option when she decided she wanted to be close to her parents again. Her primary job was working as a liaison for the British Ministry of Magic, which she mostly enjoyed as it involved working with a number of different departments as well as involved the occasional trip back home. She took a special interest in international laws, so she figured she wasn't really lying to her Mum and Dad.
Hermione started as she heard a voice calling out her name from her living room. She knew that voice well, and she also knew that it wasn't happy.
"Hermione!" A grumpy freckled face was shouting out to her from her fire place. "Hermione Jean Granger get your butt over to this fire place right now or I am coming over there!"
"I'm coming! Don't get your wand in a twist." Hermione smiled sheepishly down at her best friend. "You know, you sound more and more like your Mother every day."
Ginny scowled up at her in a very Mrs Weasley like frown. "You better watch yourself or next time I'll be sending a howler that would put the one my Mum sent to Ron in school to shame."
Hermione sighed, knowing fully well that she was in for a serving. "What can I do for you Ginny?"
"Don't act like you don't know why I'm here. You haven't replied to my last two owls. You know I never complained when you said you'd be moving to Australia, Australia of all places,-"
"Yes you did-,"
"I understood that you needed to be close to your parents," Ginny continued on, ignoring the interruption. "But I never agreed to you hiding out and ignoring your best friends,-"
"I'm not ignoring you, I've just been-,"
"Busy." Ginny rolled her eyes. "We are all busy, and I know how you get but it's not healthy for you to be there on your own, researching memory spells till Merlin knows what time in the morning. You need to enjoy your life to Hermione. Consider this an intervention. You know living a little doesn't mean you are giving up on your Mum and Dad."
"Of course I know that," Hermione felt a stab of pain in her chest. "I've been living my life too."
"Have you now." Sometimes Ginny looked so much like Mrs Weasley it was scary. Her eyes felt like x-rays. "Okay then, name one time in the last month you went out other than for work? Like with a friend? Or on a date?"
Hermione scrambled. "I went out to coffee with people from work the other day."
"It doesn't count if it is in work hours." Ginny rolled her eyes again. "I'd also bet my best broomstick that I interrupted you doing more research, and not anything that counts as actual fun."
Hermione narrowed her eyes. "You know, next time I'll go and do my work at the local library. That way you can't rudely pop into my fire place and interrupt me and make me feel bad about myself."
"Look." Ginny gave her a hard stare. "Everyone is worried about you. This boys wanted to do a full intervention. I've headed them off for the time being but they're pretty close to showing up on your doorstep."
"Okay," Hermione sighed. "Consider myself told off. I'll plan a trip soon and make some social plans here too, okay?" She quickly changed the subject. "How are the boys?"
Ginny's eyes lit up. "They are great but it's been so crazy lately! James has really found his feet, he is into absolutely everything and seems to have a sixth sense for the second your attention is elsewhere. I'm guessing he picked that up from his father, or grandfather... Or any of his uncles for that matter." Ginny and Hermione both laughed. "Albus is teething, and has been so cranky! He has been keeping us up all night. Plus it doesn't help that my coach is training as harder than ever with the finals coming up and Harry is as busy as ever at the Ministry. In fact the Auror department could really use some more help, but every department is being so bloody prudent since the war, there's not a lot of money going around for hiring anyone to help!"
"I haven't seen James walking yet!" Hermione exclaimed. "I can't believe it has been that long since I had come home for a visit. I'm so sorry Ginny, I know I have been completely self absorbed recently. What if I came home next weekend after work? I could stay with you guys, look after the boys if you and Harry want to spend some time alone?"
Ginny smiled. "I'll tell Harry. If you floo here straight from work I'll organise a big family dinner. Mum has been asking about you a lot recently too."
"I usually finish around 5 or 6. I'll pop home first and then head over."
"Okay we'll see you then!" Ginny fixed her with one last hard stare. "And no bailing!"
"See you next week, I promise" Hermione waved as Ginny's face disappeared from the fireplace.
Hermione got her self up, had a quick stretch, and made her way back to her front porch. If she was going to loose all of next weekend to a holiday back home, she had better get back to it now.