A/N: Updated a few days earlier than usual. Enjoy and please leave a review!

Chapter 4 – Like Those Good Old Times

One week after her adventure at the Quidditch pitch and the night out with her friends, Hermione was once again walking towards the ministry while looking up at the sky as usual. December had come and the weather was chillier now, so she could see her breath forming a transparent white cloud as it came from her mouth. A few remaining leaves were swirling through the air carried by a strong wind, which made Hermione shiver despite the thick cloak.

One of the leaves caught her eye, because it was of a beautiful and rich red color, contrasting the brown grayish ones surrounding it. Hermione smiled, because the color reminded her of Ginny somehow.

Her thoughts traveled back to the evening one week ago. After Ginny had described what her ideal type was like, Neville and Luna had assumed that she was describing Hermione. But Ginny had just laughed at them. Hermione had come to her help affirming that she was first of all not interested in girls and secondly that there were so many girls with long wavy hair and brown eyes out there. Neville and Luna had exchanged some more looks but then they had moved on to other topics. Hermione had noticed that there was a slightly hurt expression on Ginny's face but she did not elaborate on it because the alcohol had seriously started impairing her thinking.

Another cold wind swept around Hermione as she proceeded into the street where she usually disapparated to the ministry. Thinking about that evening with her friends made her happy and sad at the same time. Happy, because she had felt loved and welcomed for the first time in ages, sad, because she now more than ever started to realize how boring her life was right now. Maybe she should really start to look out for someone, trying to get to know that thing people called love. But how? And with whom? She could not think of any man who stirred her interest in such a way. And maybe she did not really need love in a romantic way at all right now. Maybe it was better to focus on her friends first. She really had to meet Ginny more often. The redhead had helped her to forget about work for a bit and she had felt relaxed and comforted around her.

Maybe Hermione could even help Ginny to find some nice girl to go on a date with. Like real friends do. She thought about that for a while but it somehow made her feel weird. Imagining some girl at Ginny's side just didn't seem right. Maybe she had just not yet get used to the fact the redhead liked girls? That must be it.

Hermione shook off these thoughts and tried to focus on work instead. Today would probably be like any other day. Getting called somewhere, filing reports, run some errands for her supervisor. Probably no time for her project. She sighed wearily as she did so often lately. She did not even realize she was sighing anymore, because she had become so used to the action.

Hermione disapparated and a few seconds later she found herself in the Ministry of Magic's atrium hall surrounded by a buzzing crowd of witches and wizards on their way to their respective departments. As every morning, she walked past the statue of Harry, met Sera on her way to the elevator and pressed the button for level four.

Hermione's day started quite as usual. She greeted everyone and had a quick chat with Ms. Woodstock, who had scolded Hermione about the broom incident a little, but was pleased with the quick resolution of the matter. After their talk, Hermione sat down in front of her desk drawing her wand and performing a few organizing spells since a lot of files had been dropped on the desk by her colleagues during the last few days. She had invented some of these spells herself and was quite proud of them because they enabled the user to organize files by a selected category in a matter of seconds. After organizing her files in order of importance she started to read over them making a few amendments here and there.

However, her day was soon to be turned to the worse. Or even the worst.

About eleven o'clock there was a sudden and forceful knock on the door, which made Hermione flinch so much she lost grip on her quill. As everyone else in the office, she turned her head towards the door wondering who it could be.

The door opened and a woman entered. Hermione's mouth fell open and her eyes widened. What the bloody-?! It had to be an illusion. It was an illusion, right? No, it just couldn't be! The woman who entered was no other than Pansy Parkinson! The person Hermione hated more than Malfoy, more than Lord Voldemort himself even!

Hermione's mouth stood still open as she tried to comprehend the situation.

"Good morning", Pansy said smiling in a way that made Hermione's stomach cringe. "My name is Pansy Parkinson and today is my first day in your department. I am looking forward to work with all of you." She looked around and her gaze fell on Hermione. Her face lost composure for a moment, apparently surprised to see Hermione in the office. But it lasted only for the fraction of a second; the fake-smile was back on her face before anyone but Hermione had noticed the sudden change in expression.

"Ah Miss Parkinson, right", Mrs. Woodstock said and shook Pansy's hand. "You transferred from the department of Magical Transportation, isn't it?"

"Yes, exactly," Pansy replied. "I have worked in the Portkey Office after my job-training, but I applied to this position a while ago, since I think it matches my interests and abilities better." She smiled even more slyly and Hermione had to keep herself from running up to her and punch her in the face as she had done with Malfoy in third year. She usually was not a violent person, but seeing Pansy here of all places after all the cruelties and bullying she had suffered from that girl, made her fume with anger. How come she was even here anyways? Wasn't her family one of the ones who had been punished after the war? But come to think of it, Pansy was clearly mean and evil, yet, Hermione could not recall any mention of her or someone from her family being a death eater.

"You might know Miss Granger here", Mrs. Woodstock said and made a gesture towards Hermione. "Like you, she also finished her job training in less than two years. I am really pleased to have two outstanding witches working here at my office."

"Is that so?", Pansy replied still smiling wider than necessary. Her eyes met Hermione's. "How lovely." It made Hermione shudder, but she tried to look strong and confident not wanting to show any signs of weakness since it could have fatal consequences.

Mrs. Woodstock continued to speak, clearly not having any clue what was going on between the two young women: "Even though it won't be your main task, sometimes we might need you to revise reports written by our colleagues Miss Granger and Mr. Lencer, so it would be best if you'd acquire some general knowledge about our reports system and their work. Why don't you sit over with Miss Granger? She is really good at explaining. She will let you know the basics and everything you need to know. If you have further questions don't hesitate to ask me. And let's talk about the other tasks later", Mrs. Woodstock smiled warmly at Pansy and patted her on the shoulder. She seemed a lot nicer than she had been on Hermione's first day at work. Sharp as Hermione's thinking was she sensed that something had to be going on she was not aware of. But before she could think more about it, Pansy had come over to her desk. Still standing, she was looking down on the seated Hermione, an evil grin on her ugly face. She had not changed at all over those last few years, Hermione noticed. Her face still looked like a pug as Harry had described so well, her eyes small and dark and her hair was longish and looked somewhat neglected. Pansy drew her rather short wand and moved the chair from an empty desk to Hermione's. She sat down and said: "Hello, Granger, it's been a while huh?"

Hermione just nodded while she was fighting the urge to spit right into Pansy's ugly face. How on earth was that even possible? As if her life hadn't been miserable enough already. There was only one way she figured: Keeping a straight face and focus on work. Like a professional. This was the Ministry after all. They were not in Hogwarts anymore, so the time for bullying and evil tricks should be over.

Hermione straightened her shoulders, put on her best fake smile and replied in a high-pitched unnatural voice: "Pansy, how very nice to see you." She pulled a random file from the stack she had organized so neatly not caring about order any more. "Seeing as I am working here longer then you and possess some experience, it might be best if you just sit here and watch what I do. Ask questions if you want", Hermione said.

To her surprise, Pansy actually just remained on her seat and listened to every word Hermione said. But Hermione was not ready to let down her guard just yet, maybe she would never be able to in the presence of this person. She could not help but touching her front teeth with her tongue checking if they were alright. She felt tense and nervous sensing danger in Pansy's every movement and look.

"So, after filling out the basic fields of the report, we have this section called 'special advice'", Hermione explained to the other woman still speaking in an unnatural voice. "Here we add anything we think might be important for future incidents or occurrences involving magical creatures."

"Can you give an example?", Pansy asked. She did not talk in a very friendly manner nor did she ever use please when asking a question, but strangely she seemed really interested in what Hermione explained to her. Maybe she really just wanted to do her job properly like anyone else and was not interested in bullying anymore. Hermione could not be sure though. Not yet.

"I told you about the House Elves incident on the Quidditch pitch we had last week, right?", Hermione replied. "When I filed the report about this incident I recommended to consider house elves' nature and their tendency to punish themselves when investigating the incident since it would be the most likely cause for strange behavior."

"I see, okay", Pansy nodded.

At about one o'clock everyone in their office got up for lunch break. Hermione remained seated however. Pansy followed them towards the door, but turned around once more asking Hermione whether she wouldn't come with them.

"No, I'm fine, I usually eat by myself getting some more work done", Hermione said. Pansy shrugged and proceeded to the door.

As soon as everyone had gone outside, Hermione let out a cry of frustration and ruffled her hair. She drew her wand, cast a muffliato at the door, then she walked over to the armchair standing in a corner of their office. It was a really ugly green olive colored chair and Hermione detested it somehow. However, now she needed it. Well actually she needed the big cushion resting on top of it. She grabbed it and started to punch it like a sandbag. The action was strenuous, still, no sound was coming from her mouth. She was not that desperate yet. No, she could do it. Just be professional, she thought as she was putting the cushion back on the armchair a few punches later. She felt a little bit better. She had thought about using this method for stress relief a few times and today she had finally done it. She felt stupid and a little ashamed of herself since she detested violence. But it was only a cushion, right? That did not count as violence.

She walked back to her desk sat down and pointed her wand at her bag. "Accio lunchbox!"

She grabbed the lunchbox and opened it. Today she had packed a few cheese and ham sandwiches. Nothing really healthy, but she had put on a few slices of tomato so she could pretend she was living and eating healthy. Chewing on her sandwich, she read over some of the more important reports not even realizing she was eating. But if she ever wanted to get to work on her project she should finish these first. Eating in the cafeteria with everyone else was a waste of time for her. Usually everyone was rather quiet at lunch anyways or just sharing some gossip she was not interested in. No need to sacrifice time that she could use more efficiently instead.

She continued working eagerly and after a while her colleagues came back into the office, chatting and laughing as they resumed their places. Pansy sat down again on the chair next to Hermione, but got called into Mrs. Woodstock's office after a few minutes. She did not come out for what must have been an hour or so, but Hermione was so occupied with her work, she did not notice how much time was passing. At around five her colleagues began to leave the office. Sera walked up to Hermione's desk and put his hand on her shoulder. It felt stiff, but Hermione knew that this costed him some effort as he was always so stiff and formal. "Miss Granger, you worked really hard today, why don't you go home on time for once?" he said looking slightly concerned. "You look quite tired today as well. It would be advisable to rest and sleep early", he continued in his usual manner.

"Thank you, Sera, I will. I just have to finish this report and then I'll go home. I promise", she added as she noticed his disbelieving expression.

"I really wish you'd do so," Sera said and drew his hand from her shoulder. "Have a nice evening."

"You too, Sera", Hermione said absentmindedly because she was re-reading some amendments she had made to a report about an incident with a Ghoul in order to detect possible mistakes. Just one more report, she thought to herself.

As she looked up at the clock after a while it was already nine o'clock. And she had not even finished half of what she had wanted to do today. But she was so tired and noticed a lot of mistakes in her remarks and amendments she had made during the last thirty minutes. After working for twelve hours, her body and mind were exhausted. She tried to resist the feeling, wanted to concentrate just once more, but failed. I'll do better tomorrow, she thought. Then she finally got up and exited the office.

She was the only living being to walk through the corridors at this hour. Her steps were echoing from the marble walls making it the only noise around her. The sound made her suddenly feeling empty and lonely. What was wrong with her? She usually was happy just doing her work and getting things done. Was it because she did not finish her work today? She was too tired to think about it now.

As if controlled by an outside force her hand reached for her wand pointing it to her bag. "Accio galleon", she whispered. The Galleon rushed into her outstretched hand and she looked at it affectionately as it felt so familiar in her palm. She whispered a few words to the galleon and put in back into her bag. She could just have cast a patronus to use it as a messenger, but using that old galleon seemed just right to her at the moment. It felt almost like going back to Hogwarts. She smiled at that sentiment of nostalgia and then disapparated to her flat. Hopefully, Ginny would accept her invitation and come over for a while.

She really missed her.

A/N2: Don't forget to review. Thank you!