Hermione breathed a sigh of relief as the hands of her watch finally told her it was five, and the end of possibly the longest week ever. While she loved her job at the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures there were some weeks she just wanted to scream, pack it all in and never get out of bed again. Mostly weeks like this. Everything that could've gone wrong this week had gone wrong, all her meetings had been long and unproductive and all the things she thought she was making progress on had been thrown backwards.

All in all she was very grateful for the end of the week and the prospect of a drink or two later on. She had had a note from Ron earlier which read:

Pub tonight? Usual time, usual place, something to celebrate. R. Her reply had been even more straightforward. Hell yes.

Just after eight she apparated to an alley in Nottingham then walked down the road to the pub they often met in. Although it was a fair way by muggle means from London it was no problem for a wizard, and the nature of the place meant any comments that Muggles shouldn't hear went more or less ignored. After all when the walls are decorated with implements of torture and some of the walls scream nobody notices unusual attire or names that don't make sense. She headed downstairs to their usual spot and greeted the crowd.

"Evening all" she said, then smiled as Ginny handed her a drink. "Ooh, for me? What is it?"

"Lust. Or gluttony and mine is lust." Ginny said, shrugging. Hermione dropped onto the spare seat and glanced round. Harry and Ron, with Ginny and Demelza were there, as were Luna, Neville and Charlie.

"Thought you'd gone back to Romania Char?" Hermione asked.

"Nope, they've had an outbreak of Dragon Pox and the whole place is in quarantine. So I'm here for another month or so, granting you the pleasure of my company." He said with a cheeky grin. Hermione laughed at him, the second Weasley brother was gorgeous, and unfortunately gayer than a Rio carnival. It was a damn shame.

At this point Ron stood up. "Now you're all here I have an announcement to make. Yesterday I asked Mel to marry me. And she said yes." There was silence as the group processed the news then Ginny squealed threw herself at Demelza.

"We're going to be sisters! Ooh I'm so excited." The rest of the group laughed then offered their congratulations. Harry and Hermione had known he was planning on asking her the night before and grinned at Ron.

"Told you she'd say yes mate." Harry said. "She and Ginny want to be sisters."

"Thanks, make it sound like she married me for my sister. Cheers for that." The three of them laughed, and then Hermione wandered across to the join the girls in admiring the ring. It was a half carat diamond in a platinum band, with a tiny ruby on either side.

"He said that the two rubies were us, and the diamond was a symbol of our perfect shining love." Demelza was telling Luna and Ginny.

"Aw, that's so romantic." The other two cooed.

"It's a beautiful ring Mel." Said Hermione.

"Thanks, but I know you helped pick it."

"What makes you say that?" She asked, trying not to grin.

"I love him, but there's no way he picked something this elegant on his own, and Ginny already denied all part in it. So it must've been you." Demelza said, a triumphant smile on her face.

"Guilty as charged." Hermione laughed. "But as a matter of fact I didn't actually need to do that much." All three of the other women looked sceptical. "Honestly, once I had talked him out of the huge ruby set in the mouth of a gold lion," all four of them cringed slightly, "he took hardly any guidance at all. I just told him to think of you and your relationship and find a ring that fitted."

"Is that what you told Harry too?" Asked Ginny, with a fond glance at her own engagement ring.

"Yup."

"So we know what to tell the man who buys you an engagement ring then." Said Luna.

"I think it'll be George who needs to advice next, personally." Ginny said.

"What, George is asking Hermione to marry him?" Harry said, confused from just hearing snatched of conversation. Hermione laughed.

"Don't be daft; George has finally managed to ask Angelina out of a date, after she's been going into the shop every day for well over a week just so she can talk to him."

"How do you she was going to talk to him, and not buy stuff?" Ron said, puzzled.

"Nobody needs new prank stuff for ten days back to back." Said Charlie. "So she must've been going because she wanted to see George."

"And after an immense amount of bullying I finally managed to convince him to ask her to dinner." Hermione finished the tale.

"But, I thought you and George were, you know, together or whatever?" Said Neville. Hermione laughed and shook her head.

"No, Mione and George are just friends." Said Ginny. "It's someone else who makes her blush tomato red, and think naughty thoughts isn't it Mione?"

"Ooh, who?" Several voices asked.

"A certain older gent, former member of the teaching profession with a wild side." Laughed Ginny, sounding like she was some sort of Lonely Hearts ad.

"Gin, shut up." Hermione said, blushing.

"Wait, you and Remus?" Harry asked. "You never said."

"There's nothing to say."

"Then why you blushing?" Questioned Ron.

"Because you're all embarrassing me." Hermione replied.

"I think you'd make a good couple." Luna said.

"Yeah, clever, nice, kind, occasionally quite scary." Neville added, making the others laugh.

"Stop it, he's just out of a nasty break-up from a long relationship, and I don't do relationships." Hermione objected.

"Yeah, so he needs a shoulder to cry on, and Remus is nothing like," Ron stopped midsentence at the glare Harry gave him. Suddenly Hermione stood up.

"Another drink anyone?" She took everyone's requests and headed to the bar.

"Anyone else notice that she never denied liking Remus?" Demelza asked once Hermione was out of earshot. Ginny smiled and nodded, thinking that George's theory maybe wasn't so far off, and she should help him with his plan. If anyone could help these two heal, it was each other.

A/N Sorry this is shorter than usual and took a while, been giving me issues. The pub in Nottingham is the Pit and Pendulum, it's real and awesome, the Seven Deadly Sins cocktails are great and the Seven Heavenly Virtue shots are deadly!