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 10

A few minutes before half past nine the next morning, Hermione exited from the Leaky Cauldron into Charing Cross Road, with her otter bag slung over her shoulder. Ginny was already waiting for her, excited to be going shopping in the muggle world, and Lavender and Parvati joined them just a minute later and they all exclaimed delightedly at Hermione's bag, all of them being familiar with her Patronus.

"I hope you don't mind if Ginny joins us?" Hermione asked her former dorm-mates.

"Of course not," said Parvati, who was bouncing up and down from excitement. "I've never really spent any time in the muggle world before, let alone gone shopping for muggle things."

Hermione refrained from rolling her eyes but it did irritate her the way purebloods spoke about spending time in the muggle world the way muggles would talk about going on safari. However, she did not want to start the day off in a snit and spoil it for everyone. This was important for Lavender and even though they had not been particularly close at school, she wanted to help the other girl.

"Okay," she announced. "I thought we could start off on Oxford Street. We'll hit some of the department stores and dedicated accessory shops. Then we'll head over to Camden for lunch and to browse the market and we'll finish off in Covent Garden. I know you're all going to want to look at the clothes and shoes and everything else, but remember, we're doing this to help Lavender with her jewellery business, so we need to focus on the jewellery departments only today. Everything else will still be there another day."

"Yes, oh gracious leader," Ginny quipped, making everyone laugh.

As none of her companions knew where to apparate to and she did not want to risk losing them amidst the busy crowds, Hermione decided it would be simplest to travel to Oxford Street by the muggle transport system, as this would allow them to remain together and it was only two short stops away. As they walked to the nearby Tube station, she explained to the other girls what to expect.

"London has a train system that travels underground. The stations are similar to Kings Cross but also underground. We'll go down to the station and I'll buy us all tickets. I'm getting us all-day tickets, so we don't need to buy new tickets every time we make a journey today. I'll show you what to do with the tickets once I've bought them."

With that, she led the wide-eyed girls down into the Tube station. They were overwhelmed by the noise and the crowds of people and they all nervously crowded close to Hermione, who had fortunately expected that reaction. Making her way to an automatic ticket machines, she instructed the girls to stand to the side and "Wait there," while she queued up. When it was her turn, she quickly bought four Day Travelcards, then, waving to the other three girls to follow her, she went up to the barrier.

"Here's your tickets," she said. "You slip them in this slot, here, with the black stripe facing down." The girls all jumped, as the machine almost seemed to grab Hermione's ticket from her hand. "Then you collect it from this slot here," she said as it reappeared. The girls jumped again when the barrier slammed open electronically and Hermione walked through it before it snapped shut again. "Once you've done that, just walk through the barrier when it opens. You only have a few seconds. There's no need to panic but don't dawdle either. Okay, who's going first?"

Ginny timidly stepped forward and Hermione talked her through the procedure again. To the red-head's relief, everything went smoothly and she passed through the barrier with no trouble. Lavender and Parvati soon followed and the four girls headed for the escalators.

"All right, first make sure you've put your tickets away safely, as you'll need them again," Hermione instructed. "Ready?"

Her companions nodded hesitantly and Hermione explained how to get on and off the moving stairway. The girls were slightly more relaxed about this as, even though the escalator was not powered by magic, it was still a familiar concept as many of the stairways at Hogwarts moved in some way or another. They got on and off the escalator without any problems and Hermione led her friends deeper into the bowels of the station. Once they arrived on the platform, Hermione saw on the electronic display board that the next train would be there in just a minute so she quickly instructed the girls what to do.

"Don't go close to the edge of the platform until the train is here. When it arrives, the doors will open automatically. Get into the nearest carriage and, if you can, find a seat. Otherwise, you'll need to stand. Hold on to one of the poles while you do, so you won't fall over when the train moves. We're only going two stops. If we get split up, just get off at the second stop and wait on the platform until we all arrive. To get out the train, you'll see a button beside the door on the inside of the carriage, and you might need to press that for the doors to open."

No sooner than she had finished her explanation did the train arrive. She shepherded her friends on first and followed them onto the train. Looking around, she saw the carriage was quite full so, knowing that the journey was brief, she beckoned the girls to join her in the standing area in the entryway of the carriage. As the doors closed and the train started moving, Lavender, Ginny and Parvati all held on for dear life. Fortunately, the journey was not long enough for the girls to freak out and a few minutes later, Hermione led them off the train again and up out the station. They went through the barriers with more confidence this time and followed Hermione up the stairs to Oxford Street. The three purebloods looked around in amazement at the long street full of glossy looking shops. This was nothing like Diagon Alley!

"I'm taking you to specific shops," she told the girls. "I know you'd love to browse around leisurely but I only have today and there's a lot I want to show you. Now that you've been here once, you know where to apparate to, so you can easily come back any time you want."

She first showed them the shops that specialised in fashion accessories, such as Accessorize and Claire's Accessories. They looked around open mouth at the colourful display of costume jewellery, hair accessories, bags, scarves and a multitude of other items and Lavender's eyes lit up as ideas began forming in her mind.

Meanwhile, Parvati was looking around, with a puzzled frown. "Where's that music coming from?" she whispered to Hermione, who laughed and explained the concept of a sound system and piped music to the girl.

"Most department and fashion stores will have music playing," she said.

"And this isn't from the radio? You can choose whatever music you want to hear?"

"Absolutely. Well, the staff can. I'll take you to a music shop later as well," Hermione promised.

From there, the girls followed Hermione to a couple of department stores. The young pureblood witches were fascinated by the concept that you could buy so many different things in one place and would have stayed happily browsing for hours but eventually Hermione pulled them out. She also took them to a mass market jewellery store, H Samuel. Although the items they offered were more classical rather than young and funky, she thought it would be good for Lavender to be able to compare the different types of store.

"Okay, back to the Tube station," she informed her companions. She led them back to Oxford Circus and back down into the bowels of the station. After another successful journey, this time with a change of trains in the middle, Lavender, Parvati and Ginny were beginning to feel more at home with this strange method of travel. Fifteen minutes later, they disembarked at Camden Town station and Hermione quickly herded her friends to Camden Lock Market, where she selected a restaurant overlooking the canal. "We'll have lunch and then we can browse the market," she suggested.

This was met with loud approval, as they were all foot-sore and weary by this time. As they sat and ate, Hermione had a quick word with the waitress to check if the café offered internet access and then produced her laptop from her otter bag, which she had charmed with strengthening and feather-light charms. She powered it up and logged onto the café's customer internet account. She then proceeded to explain computers and the internet to her interested friends and called up some internet shopping sites for Lavender to look at. "This is how you can sell in the muggle world, if you don't want to open a muggle store," she explained. "You'll just need to use the muggle postal system to mail out the orders."

Lavender looked extremely interested at the options this medium opened up for her and Hermione smiled at her. "Let me know if you want to sell through the internet and I'll find people who can help you set up your website and teach you properly about computers and the internet."

Once they had finished eating, the girls began to browse round the market at Camden Lock. Ginny, Lavender and Parvati were all fascinated by the varied boutiques and stalls and they all felt more comfortable in this more village-style environment than in the unfamiliar department stores of Oxford Street. They all adored the eclectic mix of products available there and each resolved to return another time to browse again. Ginny had hoped to find a bag she could use as her book-bag this coming school year, something similar to Hermione's but with a horse design, as this was her Patronus, but was delighted to find instead a pretty necklace with a stylised horse pendant, which Hermione informed her was based on the White Horse of Uffington. As the White Horse was a very magical site, it made the pendant even more special to the young red-headed witch. She also purchased some pretty silk scarves for Fleur and her mother, as did Parvati for her mother, together with some brightly coloured bangles and earrings for herself and her twin sister, Padma, which Parvati thought would look perfect when wearing their traditional saris. Lavender purchased a selection of jewellery pieces from a number of places, which were already inspiring her in new ways with the large variety of materials, colours and styles used. They could not believe Hermione could possibly have anything more to show them and were all surprised when, after another journey on the Tube, she led them to Convent Garden. Again, they browsed happily through the market and street vendors' stalls and Lavender picked up yet more ideas.

Finally, Hermione kept her promise to Parvati and led them to the nearest HMV, where she explained the concept of recorded music. The girls gaped in astonishment at the large variety of musical recordings available and were astounded when Hermione told them that the selections currently in the shop were only a fraction of the music available in the muggle world today. Passing a Waterstones book shop, she also stopped off there as there was a book she wanted to pick up for herself and, again, the girls were shocked to learn just how much literature – both fiction and non-fiction – existed in the muggle world. For her last surprise, she escorted the girls into a WH Smith newsagent and introduced them to glossy muggle fashion and style magazines, such as Vogue, Elle and Marie Claire. Lavender and Parvati pounced on them in glee and bought one of every woman's magazine they could see.

When they returned to the Leaky Cauldron to collapse over drinks, it was after seven o'clock and despite being completely worn-out, the girls were buzzing at all they had seen and experienced that day. Hermione gave Lavender information about muggle London's jewellery district, Hatton Garden, and advised her to go and visit the area when she would have time. She laughed when she told them that she had only given them a brief glimpse of the muggle world and she began to explain the concept of shopping malls, before reminding her interested companions that shopping is only one aspect of the muggle world and there is much, much more to experience.

"Muggles are amazing! What they've managed to do without magic is incredible," declared Lavender, much to Hermione's exasperated amusement. "I never imagined the variety of goods available in the muggle world. I'm definitely going shopping there again! Thank you so much for today, Hermione," she said, hugging the bushy-haired muggleborn witch.

"You're very welcome, Lav," she replied softly as she hugged her back, overcome with emotion.

"Lav," said Parvati thoughtfully. The usually bubbly witch had become quite quiet and pensive as the day progressed.

"Yes, Pav?"

"You know that I want to work with my Mum on developing beauty products, like lotions, creams, perfumes, shampoos and conditioners?"

"I didn't know your Mum is Potions Mistress, Parvati," Ginny interrupted in surprise.

"She isn't. She's a potioneer really but her mother and grandmother were both Potions Mistresses and they taught Mum. Mum didn't finish her Mastery because she couldn't spend enough time on it once Padma and I were born. To be honest, she doesn't have the instincts for healing potions, although she has tremendous instincts for beauty products. Anyway, Padma and I have been working with Mum since we were little – although Padma wants to be a Healer rather than work in the business – and I have the same instincts Mum does. I want to work with her to make our small owl order business something big. Lav, what do you think of our joining together and selling our beauty products in your shop? I noticed a lot of the shops we visited combined the accessories you want to sell together with makeup. We could have a beauty shop that sells both skin and hair care and also physical beauty enhancements, like jewellery, hair accessories and things like that."

"That's a brilliant idea, Pav!" Lavender squealed. "I'd love to work with you!"

"Oh, I wish you'd suggested that earlier, Parvati," Hermione said regretfully. "I'd have taken you to The Body Shop and some other similar places, too."

"What's that?" asked Parvati excitedly.

"The Body Shop sells natural beauty products – lotions, creams, makeup, the kind of products you're talking about, Pav. They've got branches everywhere, so it won't be a problem for you to find one. They must have hundreds of stores in the UK alone. It's worth visiting. I think you'll find their style would probably blend quite well into Lavender's shop. Just remember that whatever you sell to muggles can only have ingredients that are available in the muggle world; no magical ingredients allowed."

Lavender and Parvati both thanked Hermione profusely for all her help and advice and promised to keep in touch with her once she had returned to Australia. They left the Leaky Cauldron still squealing and Hermione and Ginny smiled at each other in amusement, before also both making their own way home.