I know, I know, please don't throw things. I've been gone so long,I'm sorry. But here's the next chapter, I hope you enjoy.
~Fan Queen
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CRACK! I landed in front of the Burrow loudly. It was different, I could tell, even from the outside. It was wider now, with a more solid foundation. A lot more rooms had been added. I took a moment to steel myself, this would be the first time seeing any of the Weasleys (or Harry) since five years ago. I was a little nervous, understandably.
Knock, knock! Mrs. Weasley opened the door with a huge grin on her face. She was the only one who knew that I was coming back, I had wanted to surprise the others.
"Come in, my dear, you're just in time for lunch! The others will be so excited to see you!"
"Thank you, Mrs. Weasley, I'm excited to see them too."
"Now, none of this 'Mrs' business. It's Molly to you, "Mrs" makes me feel old."
"Of course, Molly."
As we had been speaking, Molly ushered me into the entrance way, where I stood for a second. The Burrow had changed a lot from the inside, as well. The walls were repainted, and there was an actual entrance hallway now, with other corridors splitting off to the bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, and the basement. Yes, the Burrow had a basement now, apparently.
Molly led me into the eating area, where Mr. Weasley, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ginny, and Harry were gathered.
Harry stood up, knocking his chair over in the process, staring at me.
"Hermione, is that you?!"
"Yeah, yeah it's me. Surprise!"
At that, everyone received some silent cue to jump up from their seats and pile on top of me in one massive, group hug.
"Guys, I can't breathe, I think you've like, permanently crushed my lungs. Would you maybe consider letting go now?" I pleaded with them after at least five minutes of enduring a full-Weasley group hug. "I've missed you too, but I'll miss my lungs more if you kill them."
"Where the hell have you been? What are you doing here? We haven't heard from you for five years, since you left for Ilvermorny and America, and then you just show up here, all of a sudden? We've missed you so much, where have you been?"
"Not 20 Questions, Harry," I laughed. He was still so over-exuberant.
"Sorry, I've just missed you so much. Do you want to eat and catch all of us up during lunch?"
"Yeah, lunch would be great, I'm famished."
Right on cure, Molly came back through the door with the rest of the food, Mr. Weasley right behind her with a huge pitcher of lemonade.
"Everyone, sit, let's eat and enjoy each other's company. I've worked all morning on this food."
"First of all, 'Mione, why do you look so different?" It seems Harry was a bit more observant now, I thought to myself dryly. It was true, my appearance had changed a lot.
"Right, well, that can kind of only be explained along with the rest of my story, so do you want me to go first?" No one disagreed, so I took a big gulp of homemade lemonade and prepared to relive my last five years.
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"So you all know that Percy helped me transfer to Ilvermorny and everything, right? And I finished out my schooling there, it took one year. After that, I traveled around America a bit, I still didn't know what I wanted to do. Before I had planned to work in the Department of International Magic Cooperation, but a boring desk job didn't hold the same appeal for me anymore.
I lived all across the country, but eventually I settled in NYC, where I made some good friends. I had lived there for about a year when my roommate was kidnapped and raped. She was returned, alive but badly traumatized, and the kidnapper had escaped. The American Auror force wasn't doing that much, they had just gotten a huge case and didn't have anyone to spare, so I started searching for trails myself. I managed to track him down, capture him, and turn him in to the Aurors.
Then I realized that I really liked that, working for myself, but I also liked hunting down criminals and turning them in. The Aurors invited me to join their service, but I declined and they told me about a sort of Wizard Bounty Hunter. There is a section of the DMLE which is made up of witches and wizards who work individually to capture criminals and turn them in, for a bounty. Even if the DMLE wasn't aware of the criminal or offense when you brought them in, you could testify under Veritaserum and the criminal would be interrogated under Veritaserum as well.
So for the next year, I trained myself mentally, physically, and magically to be as strong as possible. I also changed my appearance, as you can tell. Long hair just got in the way, so I cut it, and decided to have some fun at the same time. And as for my clothes, they're easy to move in, but they're also armour. You can't tell, but the clothes are made out of scales that I invented; they are similar to dragon wings in that they are resistant to virtually all types of magic, and protect me from the elements, but are also very flexible, obviously.
I did that in America for three years, and was pretty well off, but I decided that I had been away for long enough and that I missed home. So here I am, and here I'll stay."
"Wow, Mione, I can't believe you did all that, accomplished all that. Actually, I can, who am I kidding, it's Hermione Granger, brightest witch of her age! She can do anything!"
"Aw, Harry. Anyway, how have you been?"
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Please leave a review, I love it when you do that. Constructive criticism is always helpful and appreciated. Question, would you guys like a side-fic about Hermione's five years in America? If so, please tell me in the comments.
~Fan Queen