After the war, Hermione finds that she had drifted apart from Harry and Ron, as their lives head in different directions. As new opportunities come to her and she makes new friends, will the Golden Trio ever reconnect? Cedric lives. HG/CD.

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Disclaimer: Not mine, don't own it – I wish! Unfortunately, Harry Potter belongs to JKR and not to me; I'm just playing in her sandbox.

Author's Notes:

» This story is has been written in full and updates will be posted at the rate of approximately one chapter a week.

» Thank you to my beta, the wonderful StrongHermione, for all her help and support. I highly recommend having a look at her stories – especially her multi-chapter fics, "Lily Potter's Biggest Secret" and "Against Their Will." They're well worth reading.

» Thank you for all the reviews, alerts and follows; they're all appreciated.

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Chapter 9

Hermione's NEWTs flew past without incident. She spent most of her free time with Cedric and his parents; however, she did spend a couple of evenings with her friends from school. Harry and Ron were conspicuous by their absence.

The evening after she finished her last NEWT, Hermione and Cedric went to Shell Cottage. Hermione wanted to thank Bill for all his assistance with the goblins and she was looking forward to catching up with him and Fleur. To her great delight, George, Ginny and Kingsley were also there.

As Hermione and Cedric entered Shell Cottage, Hermione was immediately accosted by a spirited Frenchwoman who was delighted to see her and excited to catch up with one of her few female friends. Being a quarter-Veela, other women tended to be suspicious of Fleur and few bothered looking beyond the surface to see the intelligent and caring person she is. Hermione and Luna had both become quite close to Fleur when recuperating at Shell Cottage after escaping Malfoy Manor during the war, and Hermione even more so, when she had stayed there prior to leaving for Australia. When Fleur finally broke off the hug, Hermione looked around and saw a very sheepish looking Ginny sitting on the couch, trying to act nonchalantly.

"Hi, Gin," Hermione said softly.

Ginny looked up and saw her friend smiling at her and she launched herself at the bushy-haired witch. "Hermione, I'm sorry. I didn't realise Mum had asked you to leave and I was angry that you just left without saying goodbye. I'm so sorry. I should have realised you wouldn't just disappear without a good reason. I've missed you so much; I hope you can forgive me."

"Of course I forgive you, Gin. And don't be upset at your Mum. She was grieving and she wasn't thinking straight. Harry doesn't have any other family – unless you can count me? – and he's become very much a part of your family. I haven't. I have my own parents who I love very much. I'm not an honorary Weasley, I'm a Granger. It was hard for your Mum to have a guest in the house at that time. Harry isn't a guest but I am. I was intruding and I knew it. It didn't help that I wasn't feeling the same way you all were. Oh, I was grieving too, of course I was, but I was also looking forward to going to find my parents and that clashed with the atmosphere in the Burrow, making my presence even more out of place. I had hoped to stay a few days more to give me time to organise my trip to Australia to find my parents but Bill and Fleur took me in and I was fine."

"You're being very generous, Granger," came a voice from behind her.

"George!" Hermione squealed. Detaching herself from Ginny's arms, she rushed over and gave George one of her patented bear-hugs. "I'm not being generous, you know. I'm being honest. I was out of place and it was time for me to move on and find my parents but I was procrastinating. Your Mum gave me the kick in the rear I needed to get myself moving."

"Hmm," was all he said in response and Hermione hit his arm.

"Don't give your Mum a hard time over me, George. I don't want you to. I don't resent what she did. I was a bit upset at the time, admittedly, but I got over it as soon as I found my parents. Now, tell me what I've missed while I was away."

Laughing, they all sat down for dinner and the four Weasleys and Kingsley updated Hermione and Cedric about everything that had happened over the past few months.

"I've reopened the store," said George. "Ron and Ginny have been helping me. I gave myself time to grieve and then I got stuck back in. Freddie would never have forgiven me if I'd abandoned it. He wouldn't have wanted me to spend my life mourning him. He'd have wanted me to celebrate his life."

Hermione nodded in agreement as Ginny started laughing. "George put up a giant-sized portrait of Fred in the store. He chats to all the customers and the kids who come in adore him."

"That's brilliant," Hermione said enthusiastically. "That's exactly what he would have wanted you to do, George."

"I know. I am a genius, aren't I?" he said with false modesty, and his sister and brother threw their table napkins at him in mock disgust.

"I was only helping George in the holidays. I'm going back to school to do my seventh year," said Ginny. "The shop will quiet down a bit once the back-to-school rush is over and George should be able to manage with the regular staff. Ron will be doing Auror training but Lee Jordan and Angelina Johnson have both agreed to help out until George is back on his feet again."

"Have Ron and Harry approached the goblins about reparations yet?" Cedric asked wickedly.

Bill shook his head in disgust. "They don't know it yet but the goblins have given them until the end of the month. I warned the rest of the family what might happen, and Dad and I have tried telling the boys that they need to sort this out but they're just not hearing us. If the goblins start freezing vaults, the entire family will be in trouble. Fleur and I want to start a family but if our income is frozen that just won't be possible. Mum and Dad are financially solvent for the first time in a very long time and this could destroy them. Charlie has always wanted to do a Mastery in Care of Magical Creatures but Mum and Dad couldn't afford to fund it, so he's been saving up. He's finally able to afford it himself but this could jeopardise that. As for George…"

"It could mean the end of the shop," said George shakily. "That's my legacy from Freddie. We planned this for years. We developed it together. I can't lose that last bit of him. I just can't."

"I mentioned the terms I agreed with Gringotts to Minerva," suggested Hermione. "I imagine that Harry can afford to pay his share of the debt completely in monetary terms but Ron can't, and Minerva thought that service would be an excellent way for Ron to pay his reparations. I'm not sure he'll agree, especially as it'll mean he would have to put off his Auror training for a few years."

"Mum will drag him down to Gringotts herself if he causes their vault to become frozen," said Ginny grimly. "And we'll all help her."

"You know, if Ron guilt trips him enough, Harry might volunteer to pay Ron's share as well," Hermione observed.

"Can he afford that?" asked George, incredulously.

"No idea," said Hermione. "But he'd pay as much of it as he can, even if it cripples him financially. That's Harry for you."

"The Potters were supposedly very wealthy," said Kingsley. "Now that he's of age, Harry has access to the family vaults and not just his trust vault. I doubt it'll be a problem for him."

"Well, it's a problem for me," said George, and Ginny and Bill nodded in agreement. "All three of you were there and all three of you need to pay your share. Harry can pay for Ronnikins, but ickle Ron needs to pay him back."

"You know, Percy's still feeling so guilty over abandoning us during the war, that I can see him offering to help Ron, as some kind of penance," said Ginny.

"As long it's only help and Ron doesn't expect him to pay for everything," observed Kingsley cynically. "Percy has only been working for about three years and he barely earned anything last year because he wasn't a confirmed sympathiser of Voldemort's administration. He isn't on a particularly high salary, so he won't have much by way of savings. Besides, he's dating a nice, young witch he met at the Ministry and it looks like it might be getting serious. He can't afford to bail out Ron if he wants to get married."

"Are there any other means for Ron to pay his share?" Hermione asked curiously. "Anything that we didn't discuss for me?"

"He could pay in blood," said Fleur thoughtfully.

"Literally in blood?" asked Cedric incredulously.

"Oui," she replied.

"Surely he wouldn't entrust his blood to someone else? Not even the goblins?" said Cedric, aghast. "Who knows what it could be used for or to make him do?"

"Oh, I think our Ronnikins could indeed be that careless," said George, rolling his eyes.

"What would the goblins do with the blood?" asked Hermione curiously.

"I have no idea," replied Bill. "That's one of the things the human employees aren't allowed to know. I think they have some ceremony where they pour it over the stone that's regarded as the Heart of the Bank and add it to the bank's protections but I'm not sure."

"How bad would this be? It's not as if some random person can come along and use his blood for dark magic?" Hermione asked.

"No, it would be protected in that respect but it would also tie him into Gringotts' wards and I have no idea what the consequences would be if they ever used the ward stone for more active or warlike purposes."

"Then I suggest that none of us mention that option to him, because he'd do it regardless of the possible consequences, just to get the reparations over and done with."

Everyone nodded in agreement with Hermione.

"The best option would seem to be service," said Bill. "I really don't want Harry to pay for Ron's share of the debt. Ron will never learn to take responsibility for his own actions that way. Right now, he's swanning around the wizarding world as though he's Merlin reincarnated, and he sorely needs a reality check."

"Try suggesting to the goblins that they insist each person make their reparations separately and independently of the others," advised Kingsley. "You could appeal to the goblins' vindictiveness. If they're feeling sufficiently vengeful towards the actual perpetrators of the break-in, they might agree not only to that, but also to the other family vaults being separated from Ron's, just to see Ron suffer."

Bill sighed. "Normally they wouldn't entertain the idea but they're rather annoyed with Ron and Harry at the moment. They respect Hermione for being so honourable and addressing the matter with them as soon as she returned to the Burrow after the Battle of Hogwarts. The goblins might just be angry and obstinate enough with Ron and Harry to agree to insist on each person making their own compensation."

"What would Ron do for them, if he gave them time in service?" asked Hermione curiously. "I don't mean to put him down but he's not exactly the most academic of people and I don't think he has any particular talents that the goblins could utilise."

Bill opened his mouth and closed it again, while George and Ginny exchanged looks of bafflement and Fleur, Cedric and Kingsley all tried not to laugh. George, typically, was the first Weasley to react and began laughing. "Granger's right. Ron didn't learn Ancient Runes or Arithmancy, he's useless at potions, he's only average at Charms and Transfiguration and he's hopeless at research. He's learned to be good at Defence, I suppose, but I doubt he's as good as any of the skilled curse breakers. His only real talents are chess and spouting off random Quidditch facts."

Bill banged his head on the table. "That only leaves blood or money, and we've already decided against blood," he said in despair.

"How long are the goblins willing to wait to be paid in full?" asked Kingsley curiously.

"I don't know. Why?" asked Bill.

"What if he donates a percentage of his salary to the goblins every month until he's paid his debt to them? He could also offer service, to be claimed by the goblins at any time, if they ever find a use for him."

They all laughed again at the way Kingsley had phrased that. "We shouldn't laugh," said Ginny. "But he's become so arrogant since the War ended that I couldn't resist."

"I'll suggest the monthly instalment option to the goblins," said Bill resignedly, "but it'll likely take him the rest of his life to pay it off this way."

"You could always ask them for details of what would be done with Ronald's blood if he were to pay that way and what possible consequences there could be," suggested Fleur. "Even if they do not usually share this information with humans, it's only fair that he should know exactly what his blood will be used for and what the implications of that are. I think the goblins would understand that a wizard will not give his blood until he knows this."

"That's a fair point," Hermione remarked. "If his blood strengthens the ward stone but does nothing further and will have no repercussions for him should the goblins make a more active use of the stone, then perhaps that might be acceptable?"

"I'll ask the goblins for more information. I don't think Ron will have any other choice. I think it's the only reasonable way he'll be able to pay them back," Bill acknowledged regretfully.

"I'll tell you what," said George forcefully. "If this all works out, then the arrogant git ought to owe you service for sorting all of this out for him. He'll not thank you, you know."

"I know," said Bill. "I'm not actually doing it for his sake, I'm doing it for Mum and Dad's."

"Yeah, I figured," said George.

Bill smiled an evil grin. "Don't worry, though, Georgie. When all this mess is finally sorted, I fully intend to make ickle Ronnikins know that he owes me a favour. Fleur too, if her idea about donating blood works out."

"Excellent," said George evilly, rubbing his hands together in glee. Hermione choked and Cedric began to laugh.

"What?" asked Ginny, her eyes alight with curiosity.

"It's a muggle thing," replied Hermione, laughing.

"How can we show them The Simpsons?" Cedric gasped in between gusts of laughter.

"I could play a DVD for them on my computer," said Hermione, having brought her laptop with her to Britain so she could email her parents, "but we'll need to go somewhere non-magical or it won't work."

"I thought you were working on a charm to protect your electronics from magic?"

"I'm still working on it. The charm I developed seems to work fine on stationary objects but as soon as I move anything – my laptop, the mouse on the desktop computer, my MP3 player, the charm collapses. I don't want to risk frying my laptop."

"What about the muggle pub near home, where you go to check your email?"

"I suppose if it's a nice day, we could sit outside and watch some DVDs without disturbing anyone," Hermione conceded. "But not tomorrow as I'm going shopping with Lavender and Parvati."

"You, Hermione Granger, are going shopping with Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil?" asked Ginny incredulously. "You weren't exactly close friends in school. In fact, you hated Lavender in sixth year."

"I didn't hate her," grumbled Hermione. "She just irritated me. And, yes, we're going shopping. You know that she was attacked by Greyback during the Final Battle, don't you? Well, she knows no one's likely to agree to employ her now, even though she doesn't transform, but she has a plan for her own business. I'm taking her to see some muggle shops to give her ideas about how they do things. It'll help make her business stand out in the wizarding world."

"Can I come too?" asked Ginny excitedly.

"I don't see why not, if George can spare you?"

"I don't need her," he said cheekily, as Ginny stuck her tongue out at him.

"Okay, I'm meeting Lavender and Parvati outside the muggle entrance to the Leaky Cauldron at half past nine," Hermione said. "You can meet us there, if you like?"

"Sounds good to me," Ginny agreed.

"What about you, Fleur? Would you like to join us too?"

"I would love to but I can't. I have to be at work tomorrow," she replied regretfully.

"We'll bring you back something," Ginny promised her sister-in-law, who smiled at her gratefully.

After that the chatter turned to more light-hearted and inconsequential matters, until the evening broke up and everyone made their way home.