Herminone Granger Weasley tried to stop herself from gawking at the thousands of time-turners and clocks in the vast, luminous Time Room, of every shape and size and color imaginable. A bright, beautiful, white light danced in the room, refracting off of surfaces to form the colors of the rainbow. Though Hermione had been grudgingly told (in secret) a little of what to expect here in the Department of Mysteries, until now she had not yet fully realized of what her new job as an Unspeakable would entail, mainly because either no one knew or was willing to enlighten her. She was here because she had decided, after her 5 years in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, to challenge herself. Having already done much for the equal rights of muggle-borns and non-humans, only the Department of Mysteries still held a certain type of new appeal for her.
Walking around the Time Room, she felt like she little girl she once was, so excited to be at Hogwarts, so excited for a new phase in her life.
"This way, please." said her guide rather pointedly. The guide was a man of about 60, advanced in years but also in knowledge. He had been an Unspeakable since he graduated. "I'll introduce you to your colleagues."
"Hermoine!" exclaimed an attractive woman with long black hair.
"Cho! It's been so long!"
They smiled warmly at each other. A man and a woman working on an experiment next to Cho also looked up and smiled. They were about to introduce themselves when –
"Granger. What are you doing here?"
She remembered that voice, but who was it? Hermione turned around and tried to hide her surprise.
"Nott. I could ask the same question of you." she said rather stiffly.
He smirked at her and arched an eyebrow.
"I work here. Why else would I be here? You haven't changed a bit since I saw last you, though, Granger. Not even the hair. And pleasantries were never your strong suit, I recall."
"My pleasantries? I'm not quite sure if everyone deserves them."
Hermione remembered two boys – Malfoy, pale and blond, and Nott, tall and lanky then – snicker at her revealing that she was a muggle-born back in their Hogwarts days. The same kind of prejudice she had worked hard to eradicate during her time in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
Nott only scoffed in reply.
Hermione turned back to Cho. Though they hadn't exactly been friends during their Hogwarts days, they had fought in the Battle of Hogwarts together and afterwards bumped into each other many times on the street. Now they were on good terms, though until now Hermione had wondered why Cho was so unwilling to talk about her job.
"So this looks really cool, what's your experiment about?"
As Cho began to regale with the details of her research on the effects of ageing manifested in humans compared to those manifested in non-humans, Hermione could just barely see Nott smirking and turning away to tinker with a small clock. And I thought working with Percy Weasley was bad enough, she thought.