A/N: This is the longest chapter yet. Hope you enjoy.

A/N2: I couldn't write as much as I wanted over the last week since I'm visiting home and the time difference between Korea (where I live) and here is like 8 hours. Jet-lag is stealing all my evenings/nights. Hopefully I'll be back on track soon!

Chapter 5 – Life is Like a Box of Chocolate Frogs

Hermione apparated behind a wall that enclosed a parking lot almost right next to her apartment. Apparating right in front of the entrance of the building was too dangerous as Muggles were frequently passing by the place. Living inside of London surely had its upsides but at least as many downsides. Sometimes, Hermione regretted moving out of her parent's house. She really loved spending time with her family, especially after she had to obliterate their parents' memories of her. After restoring their memories, she had grown even closer to her parents, even though it had taken them some time to get over it. In the end however, they had agreed that Hermione's action might have saved their lives.

Despite all of this, Hermione had not felt much at home anymore, although she had lived in the house for almost all her life. After all that had happened it didn't feel the same anymore. Home was supposed to be the place where you should be able to relax and let go of your worries, but whenever Hermione had been in the house she had felt suffocated and uneasy, not knowing why. She still did not know, but at least it had become a little better after moving to her own place. There were still many days when she was not able to relax properly and often times she performed some occluding and protection spells after entering her apartment. This was not supposed to be necessary anymore, since the world had become a great deal more peaceful, but she could not get rid of the habit. Fortunately, she was able to distract herself by reading books or designing new spells, so that she didn't feel much need for relaxing anyways.

Hermione walked the short distance to her building's entrance. The complex looked ugly and neglected as usual, though this was just a disillusionment charm. The building contained about twenty flats almost all of them inhabited by single wizards and witches working for the ministry. But there were a few exceptions, for example Mrs. Maurer, who lived right next to Hermione. She was at least ten times as old as Hermione – or at least she looked like that – with deep wrinkles all over her face. She had come to live there because her husband had died and she did not have any children to live with. Sometimes Hermione had tea with her on the weekend, because she felt a little sad for the old woman living all alone at such old age. Sometimes she wondered if she would end up like that as well. Having no one to share a home with, eating breakfast, lunch and dinner all by herself in some ugly building where one did not even know their neighbors? The chances were pretty high.

Hermione came to a halt in front of the entrance door and looked around for Ginny. It had been only about five minutes since she had send the message via galleon inviting the woman to come over to her place to have some tea, so no need to worry yet. It was quite late, but Ginny's training usually ended late as well and according to what Ginny had told her last time, she usually did not go out to meet friends on weeknights. So naturally Hermione had been sure that Ginny would follow the invitation without hesitation.

Hermione continued to wait for a few minutes, looking up and down the street. It was pretty dark that night. The street lamp in front of her building seemed to be broken, it flickered irregularly and made Hermione feel uneasy somehow. She could not even cast Lumos, since the chance of Muggles passing was too high.

Hermione shivered and buried her hands in her pockets. Still no Ginny in sight. Maybe she was already sleeping, exhausted from training? Maybe she did not really want to see Hermione after Hermione had rejected Ginny's suggestions to meet too often? Or maybe…maybe she was out on a date with some girl? It would only be natural, Ginny was really pretty and had a great personality. Many witches who like witches would be attracted to her wouldn't they? But how did two witches even date each other? How did they recognize each other? Suddenly, a thousand questions about lesbian witch dating run through Hermione's head. She just liked to have information on the topic she was dealing with, hence, since her best female friends liked women, Hermione should get some research done about the topic. Maybe a comparison between muggle lesbianism and wizard lesbianism would be nice? But why did the image of Ginny and some faceless witch on a date drinking butterbeer kept crossing Hermione's mind? And why exactly was it bothering her so much? She was clearly overworked, Hermione thought. That had to be it.

She waited for another couple of minutes, but Ginny did not appear. The street lamp had eventually turned off completely leaving Hermione in complete darkness. Hermione finally turned around and walked towards the entrance of her building with slightly hanging shoulders. Worst day ever. Well, maybe the battle of Hogwarts had been worst. So second worst day ever.

Hermione was about to point the tip of her wand at the entrance door to activate the unlocking spell, when she heard her name being called.

"Hermione!"

Hermione stopped in motion her wand hovering in the air. Ginny's voice. Since when had her voice sounded so soft and beautiful? Why did it feel like the sound of her own name from Ginny's mouth washed away all the misery she had felt today?

Slowly, Hermione turned around. Maybe she had only imagined the voice? But it was the real Ginny, who was standing only a few feet away from her.

"Ginny!", Hermione called out and smiled in relief. "I thought you wouldn't come!" She wanted to go over and hug the redhead, but somehow, she could not bring herself to do it. Strangely, she felt a little shy all of a sudden.

"Well, here I am', Ginny said playfully while grinning in a typical Weasley manner. "It took a few minutes, because I was in the middle of performing advanced broom stick care. Gotta do that once a while or the broom will start to look old."

"Oh I am sorry, I didn't know", Hermione replied feeling bad for sending the sudden invitation. "But you finished the broom care?"

"No, the advanced care takes about five hours", Ginny replied still grinning. "I had done about four hours when this one here", she held up the DA galleon, "suddenly became hot. It was really nice to see an invitation coming from you, Hermione." The grin changed into a soft smile as she said this.

"Oh Ginny, I am so sorry for interrupting you!", Hermione said feeling a little uncomfortable. "Good you already did four hours, so tomorrow you can just finish it, right?"

Ginny snickered and the grin reappeared on her face. "Oh Hermione, you really don't know anything about Quidditch, do you? The advanced broom care has to be performed in one go for it to be effective. I will just give it another try tomorrow." She laughed as she saw the expression on Hermione's face. "Oh, don't worry Hermione, it's okay, really."

"But-but because of my sudden invitation you wasted so much time!", Hermione exclaimed. "Oh I am so sorry, next time I will just send an owl and let you know a day in advance, so you can arrange your schedule and-"

"Hermione!", Ginny interrupted her. "I don't care about schedules and planning and stuff like that. I do what I want to do and today I want to spend time with you. Spending time with you is more important to me than taking care of my broom. Even though I love the procedure", she added. She closed the distance between them and hugged Hermione lightly. "I was really happy about your invitation", she whispered against Hermione's wavy hair. "Thank you so much."

Hermione felt a sudden shudder mixed with excitement rolling over her body. It felt so nice to hear the other girl's voice so close. Her eyes went shut for a moment.

Ginny ended the hug leaving Hermione feeling a little…empty? She did not really have any words to describe the feeling because she hec never really felt it before. Today was such a weird day. She tried to compose herself and pointed her wand at the entrance door. A clicking sound indicated that it had unlocked. Hermione pushed the door and held it open so Ginny could enter first.

"Sorry, but this place looks awful", Ginny said as they walked up the stairs to the third floor where Hermione lived.

"Don't worry, it looks quite nice from the inside", Hermione assured her.

They arrived at Hermione's flat and Hermione opened the door in the same way as she had opened the building's front door.

"Welcome to my…place", Hermione said and gestured Ginny to go inside. She had wanted to say 'home', but somehow, she could not bring herself to say the word. Had she ever referred to her place as 'home'? She could not remember.

Following Ginny, she entered the flat and took off her shoes before proceeding further inside. The flat consisted of two rooms. A small living room which also had a kitchen and a small table in it where she usually had breakfast. Instead of a sofa the living room only contained a wide desk and a few bookshelves holding all her favorite books. The door to her bedroom stood slightly ajar, hiding the bed and cupboard for her clothes from view. It was really small as well. Fortunately, her place was tidy since she had cleaned only a few days ago.

"So, what do you think? Better than it looks from the outside, right?", Hermione said hoping Ginny would feel comfortable.

She headed over to the kitchen section to set up water for tea. "You don't like it?", Hermione asked as she did not hear any reply from Ginny.

"Umh, I am not sure", Ginny finally said, though reluctantly as if she didn't want to hurt Hermione's feelings. "I mean it looks neat and all, but it does not look like someone actually lives here. But if you like it that way, it's okay of course", she added hastily.

"What do you mean?", Hermione said taken aback. "It looks perfectly normal to me."

"Well, first of all, look at how tidy everything is. I mean", Ginny said searching for the right words, "I mean of course tidiness is great and everything, but here, literally nothing is lying around. For example, look at your table, there are no flowers or decorations on it at all, and your desk as well. And no pictures anywhere but the one with you, Harry and Ron on it. And having just a desk in your living room isn't that a little…incomplete? I mean, do you never get all comfy cuddling up in an armchair or on the sofa? Or is it because I was overexposed to such things at the burrow?" She looked at Hermione a little insecure, but Hermione could also detect a hint of sadness in Ginny's eyes.

"Uhm…", Hermione started to speak, but no words came out of her mouth as she took another look around. As if Ginny's words had broken some kind of disillusionment charm, she suddenly could see what Ginny meant. Before, she had just thought that since she was not spending much time at her place anyways, she didn't need unnecessary stuff like pictures and flowers, which would just die hat her hands anyways. At least without magic. But looking around now, seeing the naked, boring-looking walls, the empty desk, the window pane with nothing but a little bit of dust on it, everything seemed suddenly cold and distant to her. Not like a home was supposed to be.

"I…", Hermione uttered and the still empty teapot started shaking in her hand "I-I…", her bottom lip started to tremble a little and suddenly she felt a lump in her throat. No, she mustn't cry. Not yet and not in front of Ginny. She had to compose herself. Handling things professionally as usually. Her place was just fine the way it was. At least better than stuffing it with unnecessary kitsch in every corner. It would only draw anyways.

Hermione took a deep breath, strengthened her grip on the tea pot and started to fill in water.

"I like it, so it's okay for me. I am sorry, you don't like it", she said to Ginny while looking at the water filling the pot instead of meeting Ginny's eyes.

"Well…if you are happy with that," Ginny shrugged and sat down on one of the chairs surrounding the small kitchen table.

Neither of them spoke for a while as Hermione prepared everything for the tea.

"You want some biscuits?", Hermione finally asked.

"Do you have chocolate frogs?", Ginny replied and a smile reappeared on her face.

Hermione smiled as well and the awkwardness that had built up between them faded at once. "Yes, I bought some yesterday, since I am planning on having people over more often from now on", she replied and opened one of the drawers. Hermione put the box of chocolate frogs in front of the redhead and set down across from her.

"Would you mind if I ate a lot?", Ginny asked shyly. "They have a special edition of famous Quidditch player cards this month and I haven't collected that many yet", she explained.

Hermione grinned. Ginny really was a Quidditch-nerd. "Sure, eat them all. I'll give you all my cards as well."

Ginny reached for the box and unwrapped one of the frogs.

"Oh, it's just Harry", she said in a disappointed voice.

"Just Harry?", Hermione laughed. "You used to be all over him and now you are disappointed from just seeing his face on a chocolate card? You've come a long way, my dear Ginevra", Hermione teased her.

Ginny blushed and put the chocolate in her mouth. Ginny's lips looked really nice, way better than Ron's, Hermione thought as she saw the frog disappearing into Ginny's mouth.

"Harry is just my friend and actually, we've always been friends. Except the kissing and stuff", Ginny said while chewing. "But emotionally, we were friends and just friends. Took me a while to realize though." She reached for another frog, starting to unwrap it.

"I am sure you can find someone…some witch, who you can love in the romantic way", Hermione said. "I guess every lesbian witch would give everything to date you."

Ginny stopped unwrapping the frog and looked up at Hermione. Hermione could not quite figure out the expression in her eyes. Was it expectation? Hope? She couldn't really point her finger on it.

"Why do you think that?", Ginny asked still looking directly into Hermione's eyes.

"Well isn't that obvious? You're extremely pretty, you're on your way to become a legendary Quidditch player, you have a great body and you're really clever as well. And funny. And…one really cannot help but to like you!", Hermione blurted out. "At least as I see it as your friend", she added quickly.

Ginny chuckled and resumed unwrapping the frog. "Oh, it's Dumbledore. I got his card like at least a hundred times", she said and tossed the card back into the box, only keeping the chocolate.

The high whistle of the tea pot let them know that the water was boiling. Hermione got up from her chair and poured the hot water over their cups, each containing a peppermint teabag.

She placed the steaming cups on the table and sat back down.

"By the way, why the sudden invitation?", Ginny asked.

Hermione sighed. She had already forgotten about Pansy. "I wanted to talk to someone and you were the first person who came to my mind and also…I missed you."

"Thank you, Hermione, I missed you too", Ginny said and smiled at her. She made an awkward gesture with her hand as if she was about to place it on Hermione's. But she stopped the motion halfway making a turn for the chocolate frogs instead.

"So, what did you want to talk about?", she asked.

Hermione started telling her about her encounter with Pansy and how she could not get her intentions. She also included quite a rant about how bad Pansy's personality was and how she could not understand that someone like her had gotten a job at the ministry. Ginny listened and just nodded though she sometimes frowned at some things Hermione was saying.

"So, what do you think? What should I do?", Hermione asked after she had finished her monologue, looking expectantly at the other woman.

Ginny took a few moments to think about everything Hermione had said while sipping some of her tea.

"I dislike Pansy almost as much as you do", Ginny said, "But maybe she does not have any hidden intentions? Maybe she really just wants to live a proper life now, work like everyone else and maybe she even regrets what she did. This might be hard for you, but why don't you just try to get along with her? You don't have to become friends, just work with her as you do with everyone else. I don't think there is any reason to be concerned yet."

"You are probably right", Hermione replied. "But I have a weird feeling about the whole thing. Mrs. Woodstock, my boss, treats Pansy way nicer than she treated me at the beginning and she even told me she usually does this to newbies. So, I just cannot understand why Pansy would be any different. It just seems a little off to me, that's all."

"Maybe your boss is just friends with the Parkinson family or related to them", Ginny said having some more tea. Hermione had not touched hers yet although there was no steam rising from it anymore.

"Might be", Hermione sighed. Maybe she was really being too invested the issue. Hurtful past experiences could disturb one's view of the present significantly.

"Okay, let's leave the topic for today", Hermione said, finally having a sip of her tea which was barely even lukewarm now.

"But apart from Pansy, is it worth it?", Ginny asked. "I mean working for the ministry? Whenever I think about it the only thing coming to my mind is Percy sitting in some ugly office doing boring work." Ginny grinned at Hermione somewhat apologetically.

Hermione snickered at that. Ginny's imagination was quite close to reality actually. She had been to Percy's office a few times when their department had to coordinate something with the Minister, and usually Percy had been filling out some standardized forms, which had looked indeed like a rather boring thing to do.

"Well, I don't know to be honest", Hermione said, the laugh vanishing from her face as she thought about her own work. "I started the job because I did not know what else to do. It was just the convenient thing to do at the time. At first, I really loved it because I learned so many new things, but now it kind of stagnated. Every day is pretty much the same, though we have some interesting cases with magical creatures from time to time. But all the report filing work related to that is rather boring and time consuming and the recommendations I make for future procedures often go unnoticed by my superiors."

"Why is that?", Ginny asked while playing around with another chocolate frog.

"I think it's because of my low position in the ministry", Hermione replied. "I am still a newbie, so I should make more efforts to climb the ladder and get promoted. Usually, higher ranking officials have a lot more influence. It's pretty hierarchic there unfortunately."

"But you are Hermione Granger!", Ginny exclaimed a little agitated. "You're famous and brilliant and everyone knows that!" She really seemed upset, Hermione noticed. But why did Ginny look so cute when she was being upset? She had never noticed, but the way Ginny pouted was really lovely somehow.

Hermione smiled at Ginny to assure her that she was fine with that. "If I work hard enough, it will change", Hermione said. "I just have to finish my individual project, then I might get promoted, because it will be an important addition to the house elves legislation. If only I had enough time to work on it", Hermione sighed rubbing her forehead. They fell silent for another couple of moments.

"I'm really glad, you came over tonight, Ginny", Hermione finally said and smiled at the redhead.

"Me too", Ginny said resting her chin on her hand smiling at Hermione. Hermione looked right into Ginny's eyes, strangely unable to avert her gaze yet even blink. For the first time she noticed the slightly lighter-colored freckles sprinkled throughout the girl's irises and she started to loose herself in those eyes, started to let go of all the thoughts she had about work and Pansy and getting promoted and doing her project and filing reports and struggling with her boss and being professional…and suddenly she saw images appearing in Ginny's eyes. Herself sitting on her desk having lunch all alone…herself walking around the pitch-black hallways in the ministry after everyone had already left…herself punching the cushion, her face distorted…herself falling asleep in her dark room, piles of parchment she had taken home from work still next to her…images of herself smiling at the picture of her, Ron and Harry thinking about their times in Hogwarts...and then Ginny again. Right in front of her. But her features started to blur as tears formed in Hermione's eyes. She finally blinked and a single tear run down her cheek to her chin clinging to it as fearing for its life. She felt a soft touch on her hand which brought her back into reality. Ginny had laid her hand on Hermione's and rubbed it lightly with her thumb.

"Hermione", Ginny said quietly. Her expression was surprised and worried. "What's wrong?"

"I'm sorry", Hermione said in embarrassment and wiped the tear off her chin. "It's just…" She tried to coordinate her thoughts which turned out to be an impossible task at that moment. She thought for a few more seconds before making another attempt to explain, but Ginny spoke up first.

"Hermione," she said and gave the other woman's hand a little squeeze. "You are not happy with your live right now, are you?"

Hermione said nothing at first since it took her a while to take in those words. Happy? What did that even mean? There were no rules for happiness and everyone had their own definition of what happiness should be like, she thought. Was she unhappy? What did happiness mean for her? Had she ever earnestly thought about that? But did being not unhappy meant that you were happy? Too complicated.

Hermione closed her eyes for a second concentrating only on the feeling of Ginny's hand on her own. It felt like small waves of warmness were send from Ginny's hand to her own body. Would holding someone's hand make her happy? Would love become the foundation of her own happiness? Or was it something else?

Hermione opened her eyes again trying to smile at Ginny, but a slight twitch of her lips was all she could manage to do.

"I don't know, Ginny", she said honestly. "I really do not know. I might be unhappy…but…even if I was, I wouldn't know how to change that. I have gotten used to the life I have now and it's not that bad actually, just a little lonely maybe." She finally succeeded at smiling though it was probably not very convincing.

"I think you should change some things about your life", Ginny said softly. "Work less, do what you love, instead of sitting in that boring office all day. Even if you keep working in the ministry, just do your thing and don't worry about promotion. Your mind is too brilliant for that. You should do bigger things. Things that fulfill you. And maybe…you even find love at some point."

"But-But I don't know what I want to do!", Hermione exclaimed, her voice higher than usual. "I don't have a dream like everyone else has. Your dream was Quidditch and know you're a professional Quidditch player, Harry wanted to be an Auror and now he is becoming one, Neville studies magical plants and Luna magical creatures and…I-I don't have such a dream! How can I know what to do when I don't have a dream to pursue? And how can I find love if I don't even know myself?! Living like this and relying on myself is all I can do at the moment, I guess…" Hermione sighed and stared at her reflection in the tea cup. "I just wish I knew what to do. Or that someone could tell me what to do at least."

Ginny withdrew her hand from Hermione's leaving Hermione with an empty feeling. She wished Ginny would put it back. But the other girl reached out for a chocolate frog and put it into Hermione's hand.

"Chocolate helps the after effects of encounters with dementors, so it should also help against negative thoughts, right?", she smiled at Hermione and she started to feel a little better.

"Thanks, Ginny", Hermione took the frog and though she did not feel like eating anything, she slowly began to unwrap it.

"And about what you said", Ginny continued. "I think I know a solution." She grinned mischievously at Hermione as if a funny thought had just crossed her mind.

"What do you mean?", Hermione asked in confusion.

"You said you want someone to tell you what to do in life, right? So why not get some professional help? Luckily for you, I happen to know just the right place for that."

Hermione looked at Ginny inquiringly. Ginny's grin became even wider.

"Let's go ask Professor Trelawney."

"P-Professor Tre-Trelawney?!", Hermione coughed because she had almost choked at the chocolate frog upon hearing the teacher's name. "You must be kidding me!"

"No, I'm not", Ginny said, clearly amused by Hermione's reaction. "I know you don't like her and think she's a fraud, which I used to think too, but-", she raised her hand as Hermione attempted to protest. "But from what I heard, she has become really good at predictions lately. Apparently, she can only predict well at night, so we could never experience her true skills in class. And she even opened a shop in Diagon Alley where you can get personal predictions. It only opens during nighttime and some people from my team have visited to ask about their love lives and stuff. They told me they had been really satisfied with the service and most her predictions have come true."

"But isn't that like Muggle horoscopes? Keeping it as broad as possible so that everyone can find something applying to themselves?" Hermione was still not convinced.

"Why not go and try it out?", Ginny suggested. "Trying won't hurt and maybe it's not as bad as you think."

Well, Hermione thought, she did not have many other options at the moment and maybe visiting her old teacher would really help her somehow. Believing in predictions, fortunetelling and other esoteric stuff was not really something she would do, but maybe it would lead her to new ideas about her future somehow. Ginny was right, trying would not hurt her, so why not?

"Okay", Hermione finally agreed. "I cannot believe I am saying this, but, why not?" She laughed as she saw the triumphant expression on Ginny's face. She felt a lot better already thanks to the presence of her dear friend.

"So, should we get going?", Ginny asked.

"Wait, what, you mean now?!", Hermione said in surprise.

"Of course, now! Better sooner than later", Ginny replied and grinned at Hermione. "The shop should be open now."

The redhead got up from her chair in determination raising one hand and pointed at the door as if she was leading the way for a group of tourists. Hermione got up hesitantly and they got ready to disapparate.

"Wait!", Ginny suddenly exclaimed. "You didn't look at it, did you?!" She run over to the table where they had just sat. Hermione had no clue what she was doing.

Ginny suddenly gave an excited squeal and hurried back to Hermione. "Why didn't you tell me you got Glynnis Griffiths?!", Ginny said a little accusingly. Hermione spotted the chocolate frog card Ginny had clutched in her hand tightly as if protecting a treasure.

"Oh I', sorry, I forgot to look at it earlier", Hermione said apologetically. "But is she someone famous?"

"Oh Hermione", Ginny rolled her eyes at the girl. "Let's just go."

The two woman disapparated to Diagon Alley, neither of them knowing what would await them.

A/N: Please review!