Chapter 1 - Old Friends

"You're being ridiculous and overprotective, Harry!"

"And you're being pigheaded and obstinate, Hermione!"

The bushy haired witch raised an eyebrow, more at the choice of words than at the accusation. "Obstinate?"

Her friend shifted his feet. "It was yesterday's word of the day on the calendar you gave Teddy. Thought it might come in handy."

"Well, I'm glad to see your vocabulary is expanding but the point remains that you are blowing this whole thing entirely out of proportion."

"You are receiving death threats, Hermione. I fail to see how my recommendation of a bodyguard is out of proportion."

"Because this is nothing new, Harry! I've gotten hate mail ever since I started working at the ministry three years ago. Not to mention the letters I received when we were at school. Or have you forgotten the sort of things your "admirers" sent me during the tournament when Rita Skeeter implied that I'd broken your heart?"

"And have you forgotten that one of those letters contained undiluted bubotuber puss which burned your hands so badly you ended up in the Hospital Wing?"

Hermione grabbed a stack of papers from her desk. "I was fine."

"You could've been permanently maimed!"

"But I wasn't, was I?" Hermione threw the papers into a file and slammed the cabinet drawer shut for emphasis.

"Only by sheer dumb luck!"

"Well, you certainly ought to be able to recognize that," Hermione snapped. She blew a stray piece of hair from her face and dropped down into her chair. "I'm sorry, Harry. That was uncalled for."

Harry took a seat across from her. "No worries. I suppose this is what it felt like?"

"What do you mean?"

"We seem to be having our same old argument in reverse. This must be how you felt every time you tried to get me to see reason and I stubbornly refused." He ducked as a volley of paper wads came flying at his head.

"Oi! What was that for?"

Hermione tried to look cross but failed. "It's for being a prat."

"I'm a prat that wants to keep his best friend alive as long as possible."

"I know, Harry, and I appreciate the sentiment but look at it from my perspective. If I start showing up places with a bodyguard over a few crank letters it's going to make me look weak and afraid and I refuse to give them that. I fight enough battles working here at the Ministry as a Muggle born championing controversial legislations. I don't need any more obstacles in my path."

"These aren't just crank letters, Hermione. You haven't seen the ones we've intercepted recently. Some of them are really vicious."

"It's just people blowing off steam over the upcoming Werewolf Act."

"Maybe. A few go way beyond that. Some are pretty sick."

"I'll be fine, Harry. I've faced worse." She unconsciously adjusted the sleeve of robe as she spoke.

"At least let me send someone to the gala with you tomorrow night."

"No! The press will be all over the place. The last thing I need is Rita Skeeter making me out to be some sort of helpless victim! I can see the headline now - 'She can't protect herself. How can she protect us?'"

"I can take you or we can pull Ron back from his assignment in Wales and..."

"Oh! Even better. Then they can write about me being a home wrecker. "

"You know Ginny or Susan won't care."

"But the rest of the Wizarding World will care, Harry. I'm still struggling to get enough votes for the legislation. I don't need that on my plate as well."

"What if I came up with a compromise?"

"What sort of compromise?"

"Someone trained as an Auror that already has a personal connection to you. One that wouldn't raise any suspicions being seen with you in public. It would just look like a date."

"Harry, I've already said I won't go with either you or Ron and since Seamus is married to Dean and..."

Harry held up a hand to cut her off as he made his way to the door of her office. He peeked outside and waved somebody in.

"Will this do?" he asked.

"Neville!" Hermione rushed around her desk and threw her arms around her old schoolmate. "How are you?"

"I'm doing well," he said, returning the hug. "No one's threatened to kill me in over a month, which is more than I can say for you, young lady."

She smacked him playfully on the arm. "When did you get back to Britain?"

"About three weeks ago."

"And I'm just now hearing about it?" Hermione gave Harry a cross look.

"Not Harry's fault," said Neville. "I had to go through an extensive debriefing followed by several lengthy exit interviews. Just now being allowed to see the light of day."

Hermione looked bewildered. "All that to leave a temporary Herbology post at Beauxbaton's?"

Neville glanced at Harry who gave him a nod. "It's okay. Kingsley agreed to give her clearance."

"Clearance for what?" she asked.

"May I?" asked Neville, gesturing towards one of the visitor chairs. Hermione nodded and they all took a seat. "I suppose you remember when I resigned from the Aurors last year?"

"Of course. I went to the going away party Harry threw when you accepted the job at Beauxbatons."

Harry blushed slightly. "Yeah...sorry about that. That was actually a bit of a show."

"What kind of show?"

"The kind that covered up the fact that I was still an Auror going undercover to help sniff out a major pipeline in the illegal trade of dangerous and endangered plants," said Neville. "We had information pointing to France as a significant distribution route so we used my 'resignation' as a smoke screen."

"Did it work?"

"Eventually. We managed to round up the last of the smugglers about a month ago without blowing my cover. I finished out the term, came home and put in my resignation for real this time." He smiled. "I promise I won't make you attend another party or buy me another gift."

"Thank you," Hermione grinned. "It's great to see you although I'm sorry Harry's trying to drag you into one of his preposterous schemes."

"Hermione, I really think you should listen to him." Neville leaned forward in his seat. "He let me read some of the recent letters. Some of them are deeply disturbing. I used a threat assessment spell to review them and I honestly believe there's a very present danger here."

"Threat assessment spell?"

Neville nodded. "It scans for specific words or phrases that indicate overt aggression or extreme malicious intent as well as detecting any residual dark magic left by the author. I got the idea from one of the articles on Muggle police work in the binder you gave us when we entered Auror training."

Hermione's face lit up. "You read the data I gathered?"

"Of course. There was a lot of good stuff in there. It was really helpful. I referenced it all the time."

"I'm so glad you found it useful, Neville." Hermione gave Harry a look and the raven haired man suddenly became very interested in his shoes.

"I meant to get around to reading it..." he muttered.

There was a half second of silence before all three burst into laughter.

"Right!" said Harry. "Now that we've established that not much has changed with any of us - do we have a deal about tomorrow?"

"Harry..." warned Hermione.

" 'Mione, if it were different circumstances I might back down but the security for the gala is going to be a nightmare. The people hosting the event insist on holding it outside in the new Memorial Garden which is going to make it almost impossible to ensure the perimeters are properly locked down. The last thing I need to be worried about all evening is the life of my best friend. Please, for me, at least consider it."

When Hermione hesitated, Neville shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "Listen, if it's just the fact you don't want to go with me, then..."

"No! That's not it at all!" Hermione rushed to reassure him. "I'd love to go with you, Nev! It's been ages since I've seen you and it would be great to spend an evening at one of these events with someone who can discuss something other than office gossip or quidditch scores. I just don't want to compromise any potential relationships you may already have by getting linked with me in the press."

"Not a problem. Nev's single," proclaimed Harry.

"Honestly?" Hermione asked, glancing at the wizard in question.

"Cross my currently unattached heart," said Neville, making the appropriate hand gesture over his chest.

"Excellent! All settled!" Harry jumped out of his chair. "I'll leave you two to sort out the details. I've got a meeting with Kingsley so I'll see you kids later."

Hermione and Neville laughed as their friend bolted out the door.

"Okay, Nev - now that Harry's gone, please, tell me the truth - is going with me tomorrow going to interfere with your love life? I don't want to make trouble for you or have a jealous witch coming after me for poaching her wizard."

"Nope. No one."

"I find that hard to believe - a clever, handsome war hero like yourself," she teased gently.

"I can turn that right around - there ought to be a list of eligible bachelors fighting to escort a witch as bright and beautiful as you."

Hermione averted her eyes at the compliment. "I don't know if I'd go that far..."

"I would. Seriously, Hermione - there have to be dozens of blokes that want to go with you."

"There are people who want to be seen with a member of the 'Golden Trio'..." Hermione grimaced as she made air quotes with her hands. "However, finding someone who actually wants to spend time with plain old Hermione Granger? That's another thing entirely."

Neville nodded, "Ah. The old 'do you want me' or 'want to be seen with me' question."

"Exactly. I'm sure you go through the same thing."

"Not to the level you experience I'm sure, but yeah. It's one thing when it's someone you knew beforehand but when you meet new people it's always in the back of your mind - do they like me or the idea of me?"

"Or do they like the idea of the money they'll get when they sell our conversations to the tabloids?"

"Merlin! Did that happen to you?"

"No. Close call though. Met a man at the local coffee shop. We ended up ordering the same drink and started chatting. He seemed like a nice guy. Invited me for dinner. The day before our date I was out shopping with Luna and caught sight of him across the street. She recognized him as one of Rita Skeeter's network. Turns out he'd tried to sell stories like that to the Quibbler before. "

"Ouch. That had to hurt."

"Sadly, the worst part is it's made it almost impossible to get coffee there anymore. Shame. No place else ever gets my order right." Hermione gave a weak shrug then attempted to shift the conversation. "So - have you heard from Luna recently?"

"Had dinner with her and Rolf a few months ago when they were passing through Toulouse. She'd recently spotted a rare form of Dracaena and brought me a cutting for my collection."

"I was always a little sad that the two of you didn't work out. On paper you seemed like the perfect couple."

"Well, you know how it is. Luna's great and I love her but we both realized pretty quick that we were better suited as friends."

"I believe I am familiar with that particular relationship dynamic," said Hermione.

"Touché. Speaking of, how's Ron these days?"

"He's doing really well. Marriage and fatherhood suits him. Now that his wife is expecting again he's thinking of hanging up his Auror robes and going to help George at the shop full time."

"How many will that be for him now?"

"Three."

"Wow! How are Susan and the kids?"

"They're all great. Amelia's almost one and Gideon turned three last week. They had a big party. I may still have chocolate icing in my hair." Hermione smiled as she twirled a quill in her fingers. "Do you ever hear from Hannah?"

"We keep in touch. She and Padma are very happy together."

"And no one at Beauxbaton's?"

"I dated the charms teacher for a while. She was pretty and nice but there was no..." He searched for the right word.

"Spark?" Hermione prompted.

"Exactly. Don't get me wrong. It was all very pleasant..."

"Nev, you're a wonderful man," Hermione cut in. "You deserve more than 'nice' and 'pleasant."

This time it was Neville's turn to shrug. "Be that as it may, she felt the same so once the assignment was over we mutually ended things and I returned home." He leaned back in his chair. "Now. Enough about me. What about you? I know you and Ron moved on years ago. What about Victor Krum? Papers still link you two from time to time. He isn't going to swoop in and hurl a bludger at my head if we're seen together, is he?"

"Hardly! You obviously haven't seen the latest headlines, have you?" She held up the most recent copy of Witch Weekly magazine showing Krum alongside an imposing looking woman. "Viktor's engaged."

Neville studied the picture. "My. She looks..."

"I believe the word you're searching for is 'formidable."

"I was going to say terrifying but your way is far more diplomatic."

Hermione laughed. "I believe either works in this situation. She's a professional dragon wrangler. Viktor sent this to me yesterday. He seems very happy."

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Are you happy?"

She folded her hands and considered a spot on her desk. "That's a complicated question, Nev."

"Okay. How about an easier one, then? Are you seeing anyone at the moment?"

"No. Between the near miss with the coffee shop guy and the cheesy pickup lines I was subjected to on the rare occasions I'd go out with Ginny and the girls, I've abandoned that part of my life for the moment."

"Heard some real doozies, did you?"

"Yeah. The last straw was when someone actually said, "Let me know if you ever want to check out my restricted section.' That's when I threw in the towel."

Neville barked out a laugh. "A bloke did not actually say that to you."

"He most certainly did."

"What a twat! On behalf of my entire gender I extend my sincerest apologies." He stood and bowed slightly. "I know it's only a drop in the bucket but could I start making it up to you by buying you lunch?"

"Oh! I'd love to Nev but I already ate and I've got a mountain of paperwork to get through this afternoon."

"Fair enough. I'll be in the building tomorrow morning to sign a few more documents for Kingsley. How about I pick up a coffee for you on my way? Give you an excuse to avoid the dreaded shop. We can work out the details about the gala then."

"That would be wonderful. Thank you." She scribbled on a scrap of parchment and handed it to him. "The shops just around the corner and this is my usual, if you don't mind?"

He stifled a chuckle as he read the complex order. "Seriously?"

Hermione blushed. "What? It's not that silly - is it?"

"Not silly at all, just remarkably...thorough." Neville gave her a reassuring wink as he tucked it into his pocket and started towards the door. "I'll drop by about eight?"

"Sounds perfect. I still want to hear more about this threat assessment spell you've worked out."

"I'll try and remember to bring my notes with me."

"I look forward to it. And Nev?"

He stopped and glanced over his shoulder. "Yeah?"

"It's really good to see you again."

"Really good to see you too, Hermione." He gave a small wave as he slipped out the door. Hermione stared after him for almost a full minute before shaking her head firmly and digging back into her work.