She accepted Kingsley's offer that evening, her new owl taking off eagerly from the balcony. Harry was off with Ginny downstairs, so Hermione decided to go through the spare rooms that she had offered to the Malfoys and make sure they were suitable.
They were very similar to her own; she had to fix the enchantment on the window in the first room because it was showing a winter morning when it was actually a summer evening. She chose a couple of relatively harmless books to arrange on the dresser and put a couple of sets of women's robes in Narcissa's room.
The second room was for Draco, so she sent an elf to find men's toiletries and clothing and began to arrange the books she had picked out on the table. She spun when she heard footsteps behind her and found herself staring straight into the mismatched eyes of Grindelwald. He was furious, at what she didn't know but the darkness roared and crackled around him.
'I was mistaken in trusting you.' Grindelwald growled, levelling the elder wand at her. She stuttered, running through her memories desperately to figure out what she'd done wrong. It couldn't be offering the Malfoys shelter? He had seemed keen for her to cultivate them, he'd seemed fine when she visited a couple of days ago. The longer she remained unanswering, the angrier Grindelwald seemed to become. He slashed his wand and blue fire streamed out, Hermione leapt backwards before it could touch her, then paused.
She could still feel her dormant oath to Gellert, he was still far away and magically bound, so this Grindelwald was someone or something else. She dodged another stream of blue fire, noticing that it didn't catch the carpet alight.
'Riddikulus' She cried, hoping that her gut was right. A sharp crack marked her success and the boggart-Grindelwald was forced into Trelawney's dress and hair. She cracked a smile, knowing that the dark wizard would hate it if he knew what she'd forced anything in his likeness into such an outfit.
She forced it into a snuffbox, resolving to take it downstairs to where Lavender and Neville were planning to start a summer school for any children whose families couldn't be found. Most of the adults had dispersed by now, leaving only those whose houses had been destroyed; Professor McGonagall, Hagrid and Flitwick were staying until Hogwarts had been rebuilt, Trelawney was staying with Professor Sinstra and Slughorn was taking advantage of his new status as a hero. Most of the Hogwarts elves would be returning to the castle each day to help with the rebuilding, although that came under the head of house's responsibilities, the paperwork for which was currently piling up on her desk.
Ronald was yet another issue on her desk, one that was on her to-do list for the day. It was one that she knew she couldn't put off much longer, but that she didn't really know how to approach. Gellert would take a hard line on the traitor; it was one thing to attack her in a fit of anger, but it was very different to jeopardise all that they had fought and died for over the past couple of years. She guessed that he would fall under Lichtenstein law, which was so ancient that it could legislate anything. All he'd done was make a false report to the ICW.
She found Harry and Ginny on the Weasley floor playing wizard's chess. As usual, both of them had been decimated and their pieces were both threatening to strike. Harry was trying to persuade his knight to take Ginny's bishop and Ginny was threatening her bishop into holding its ground.
They both looked up when she stopped over them and they stood to wrap her in a hug. Ginny bluntly informed her that she looked exhausted and in a manner that was disturbingly like her mother, bustled around to make her a cup of tea. It was always a point of contention on this floor that Mrs. Weasley had forbidden the elves from performing any chores, from cooking to cleaning. That meant the Weasley children had to tidy their own rooms, boil their own water and as the matriarch was currently spending every day rebuilding the Burrow, cook their own lunches.
They exchanged news over tea – Hermione sharing what she had learned from her international forays and Harry and Ginny informing her on the situation at home. The witch was helping Neville and Lavender keep the kids distracted as the teachers worked to track down their parents. The grounds were coming along swimmingly; Neville had been keen to preserve the stunning natural beauty of the valley but had taken happily to the challenge of persuading ivy to grow up the manticore coated walls without damaging the protective layer.
It was strange having so much news to share, almost as though they were strangers. When she thought about it, she and Ginny certainly may as well be, they'd hardly spoken since last summer. Hermione was always so busy, first researching with Grindelwald, then training and ending the war and recently with her political ambitions.
She managed to lead the topic in a somewhat natural manner to the topic of what to do with Ron. Fortunately, neither of her Gryffindor friends even suspected her of subterfuge so she could get away with her less than perfect skills. Ginny fired up immediately, furious at her brother and daring him to face her again.
Harry, surprisingly coolly, mentioned that he was certain he could be tried by the court in Britain for interfering with their democratic process. At the very least, he suspected that there were Liechtensteiner laws against lying to the authorities. Ginny muttered something about how Hermione was basically the government already and that she should just leave him to rot in his cell for the rest of his life.
She shot the young woman a disapproving look as Harry summoned the book on Lichtenstein law from his room, adjusted his glasses on his nose and flicked through the pages with practiced ease. Ginny sighed and summoned a candle, lighting it so that her boyfriend didn't have to squint so badly.
'Well, the punishment for "presenting deception to watchmen of the witangamot" was being fed to the trolls.' Harry finally said, closing the book. Both witches gaped at him.
'So we have to feed him to trolls?' Ginny asked incredulously.
'As far as I can tell, maybe we should try and get him tried in Britain; at least the punishments are slightly less archaic.' Harry muttered, summoning yet another massive tome to him. This time it took him longer but he eventually found the relevant sections. 'There's not much here, it seems like its trolls or nothing.'
Hermione sighed and leant back. There was a part of her that was angry but not enough to wish for death for someone who used to be her best friend. However without a "witangamot" as the Lichtenstein government had been called, it was impossible to update the laws.
'I'll send him away today. In the meantime Harry, could you see if you can figure out how we can install a new government in Lichtenstein. We have more than fifty people living here; there must be something we can do.
She wore the robes she'd bought to visit the Malfoys; an elf did her hair and makeup. She found a set of heeled dragon hide boots and a long black dress to go underneath the robes. To face her ex best friend, she needed to be Hermione Granger, Lady of Nurmengard and soon to be Deputy Minister. She couldn't afford to run away from these confrontations as Hermione the muggleborn bookworm had.
She strode down to the cells where Ron had spent the last couple of days. It was, Hermione reflected as she passed the hundreds of barred doors, significantly more comfortable here than where Gellert was being kept by the ICW. There was enough light to see by, so long as one didn't mind the blue and it was at least dry. It didn't take her long to find Ron's cell, counting down the numbers on the doors so that she didn't go too far.
The redhead was awake when she pushed the door open, the torches flaring uncomfortably bright in the corridor behind her. A look of fear crossed Ron's face as he took in her silhouette before he quickly smirked.
'Come to kill me for your master?' He taunted and Hermione allowed the lights outside to dim. She twirled her wand and looked down on him.
'Actually, you're free to leave.' She informed him, he leaned back as if the floor was a throne.
'I think I might stay. What can you do about it, run to Grindelwald? Or is he in prison still?' Hermione straightened her posture so that she loomed over him.
'I am the Lady of this house, everyone in it is here at my behest. I can and will order you to leave, I can and will revoke your key to the wards. Make no mistake, I can and will unleash the full power of this house should you ever return.' She didn't know if it was her imagination, but she could feel the dark magic that blanketed the house stirring as she spoke, the torches seemed to flicker and the shadows leapt greedily towards Ron.
The redhead stood quickly, seemingly cowed and she planted her wand squarely in his back and marched him down the flights of stairs to the front door. The students working in the gardens cheered as they saw them but Hermione ignored them, forcing Ron all the way down the valley to the edge of the forest.
'You'll pay for this Hermione! You're nothing, at least I'm a pureblood.'
'Actually, I think you'll find that means very little.' She said dismissively before turned away from him and strode back up the path to the castle.