Disclaimer: I am paid in love and affection of those who follow, favourite and review. No money is made and JKR is the queen.

Note: A new update within a week? In addition to a new christmas fic? I don't understand either, i've just been on a roll and writing while waiting around at the hospital for endless hours. Hope you enjoy!


The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.

Robert H. Schuller


He had her. Emmanuel had been in and out of the Weasleys room all day, taking floo calls from the nurse's small vestibule to keep up with work, and chatting them up all the while.

Such little effort for such a productive day: Burges would cry foul if he found out. But when he found out, Emmanuel would have bigger news to deliver.

He knew sweet little Hermione Granger wouldn't come quietly. The tension in the room had been palpable and the attention Weasley had been paying the rather lovely brunette- Allison, if he remembered correctly- had spoken volumes. Either their relationship was on the rocks, or their contacts in the infamous order of the Phoenix had been blabbing. Which was all immaterial- the condition of their relationship was trivial at best: If the Granger girl were shrewd she'd still give the offer descent consideration.

All he had to do was cut her other options off.

A few simple reminders that the ministry would always win; that in the end, she would submit.

Her face had fallen when he'd suggested escorting her downstairs. He was somewhat surprised the witch had made it through the war and the Trio's infamous infiltrations and deceptions: Almost every passing thought was plastered across her face, for all her attempts at subtlety. She was certainly no actor.

The question was, where did the panic stem from, if not a fear that he was from the ministry, a fear that he was here to enforce a law that she wasn't meant to know about.

Either way, Emmanuel could work with fear. Fear was fertile ground for him to work with, a few threats sewn here and there, and within the week the Granger girl would be cracking at the seams, sprouting mistake after mistake after mistake.


Hermione walked ahead of the blonde wizard, trying to keep a track of where he was out of the corner of her eye. She tried not to walk too quickly, or too slowly. She had to appear normal, casual, at ease.

Not the panicked mess of nerves she truly was.

He'd seen everything. The wizard was obviously taking an expressed interest in her, and the lack of questions, the lack of formal procedure unnerved Hermione more than anything else. Mindless bureaucracy, she could deal with; Legal proceedings, she knew the ins and outs of. Politics and power plays, insinuations and reading between the lines; that wasn't exactly her strong suit.

They walked down the stairs in silence. Hermione couldn't help the waves of tension rolling off her. Why wasn't he saying anything? What was she supposed to say? Would an innocent, ignorant person speak, or wait to be addressed? She had absolutely no idea and all she knew for certain was that continuously glancing out of the corner of eye at the inexplicably unnerving wizard probably wasn't helping.

In the end, Hermione decided putting her foot in her mouth was decidedly more in character- at least more Gryffindor- than letting the awkward silence continue.

"So, you never said, are you one of the wizards monitoring level 4?" Hermione kept her tone conversational and tried, valiantly, to appear apathetic to his presence entirely. Judging from his near shark-like grin, her attempt landed somewhere between pathetic and laughable.

"Yes, yes, well… sort of in that division." He obviously enjoyed the subtleties of such a vague answer: He'd answered perfectly cordially without telling her a single thing. "I must say Miss Granger, and I didn't before only out of delicacy for your Mr Weasley, but I am an enormous fan of yours. What you did for muggle borns everywhere was simply inspiring."

Hermione couldn't tell if she'd imagined the slight emphasis on 'Your Mr Weasley' but she was thoroughly unimpressed by this direction of conversation. If the ministry believed she could be as easily swayed as Ronald in the face of barefaced flattery, they were mistaken.

"When needs must." Was her only response, with all the cold civility her fraying nerves could muster. The man continued undeterred.

"Ahh well yes, but then again that is the attitude one would expect from you. Forgive me when I say but the stories of you do tend to trickle through the Wizarding world- well at least Wizarding Britain."

Hermione merely nodded; unsure what he was supposed to be getting at- was this meant to be threatening? A warning that the ministry was watching her? If so, Hermione wasn't exactly quaking in her boots.

After touring the country with undesirable number one, a threat so veiled does rather pale in comparison

"Then again, perhaps the Wizarding world is more accurate. I'm sure you're aware Miss Granger, that the entire magical community of Europe has a, well, let's say a working understanding when it comes to up keeping our core values: Blood, magical blood, does far more than cross borders."

"Well technically speaking I don't have what some would term Wizarding blood." Hermione regretted her sharp retort as soon as it left her mouth. She shouldn't let herself be baited. This was definitely not the type of stranger one engaged in theoretical debate- not if he was serving as the eyes and ears of the ministry.

"Ahh, perhaps in the past political climate, but ever since peacetimes new reign, I think you'll find your blood is more powerful than ever."

Arriving on the second floor landing, the turned once more and made their way down the last flight of stairs, Hermione still hyper aware of the wizard trailing behind her. It was difficult to judge his reactions, and control her own when she couldn't keep a visual on his face.

"It's not just Britain following that line of course: The fall of He-who-must-not-be-named was celebrated world wide. I doubt there's a single other country you could step foot in without being recognised."

Ahh.

He had finally gotten to the material point of the conversation. It wasn't merely that Hermione was being watched. It was a reminder, a pointed assertion that she had nowhere to run. That they would always find her.

"I don't really have much business abroad, as it were. The furthest I've gotten in the last six months has been Blackpool." If her humour here was dry, then perhaps her attempts at apathy weren't as forgone as she thought.

"No of course, where does one find the time? I understand, from my colleagues on level four most prominently, that your work is very important to you. Research internships aren't exactly easy to come by of course."

I.e. We're watching you, you'd never blend in abroad, and we have a tenet of control over your career.

At least the man was succinct. Three subtle threats in the space of a minute and they hadn't yet reached the foyer.

"It is. My time under Healer Sullivan has been most instructive." Hermione had uttered her most unbelievable lie yet, and she dearly hoped the wizard would understand- She'd hate for him to believe his careful threats were going unnoticed. Hermione was the brightest witch of her age and she would not be treated like a moron by the ministry.

The blonde's smile was an inanimate as ever in the face of this, and Hermione knew the message had been well received.

Just as the tense pair descended the last few steps to the landing, a young nurse swathed in baggy green robes came rushing up to Hermione, waving an envelope in the air.

"Hermione! Hermione Granger! This just came, it's an overnight express, the postmark looks Italian! The Matron from level four sent me down straight away to catch you." The nurse's mouth ran faster than her person, and she was still a few feet away when she had finished exalting Hermione's business at the top of her lungs.

Hermione wondered if she could surreptitiously hex her now.

Judging from the silent Emmanuel standing two steps behind her, perhaps not.

"Thank you-" Hermione drew a blank for the younger girls name; she was new to the fourth floor.

"- Sarah." Emmanuel came in smoothly, and Hermione didn't have to be facing him to imagine the pseudo-charming smile he'd adopted.

Hermione walked slowly down the last three steps, examining her letter and ignoring the ministry wizard as much as humanly possible- Which he clearly wouldn't allow.

"Italy, Miss Granger; Quite impressive. Quite a bit further than Blackpool."

Hermione turned to face him as he stepped down off the stairs and into the main foyer. The crowd of patients in the waiting room went unnoticed by the pair, the rushing of healers and nursing staff made no impression. Emmanuel's steely grey eyes gleamed down at Hermione, teeming with unmistakable traces of satisfaction.

Fuck.

Hermione looked down at the suddenly incriminating letter. Did he think she knew? Did he assume she was ready to flee the country like Kingsly had suggested, like he had just now warned against. Did he imagine he had caught her out?

Say something you moron, anything.

Hermione floundered, her mouth opening then closing again, her voice seemingly useless.

"Well I'll leave you to your letter, It must be a matter of some urgency, An Overnight-express from Italy wouldn't come cheap. I'm sure we'll have another chance to catch up, quite soon."

And with that he simply stalked off, leaving Hermione still spluttering, still silently cursing herself and the thrice-cursed letter. Feeling the oncoming vestiges of a splitting tension headache, and tired to the bones, Hermione made her way to the communal floo gate. She should probably floo to the Burrow, or get a hold of Kingsley and let them know the tanned blonde wizard had shown up with a bag of threats and an inclination to play dirty- but she was exhausted. A hastily penned note would have to do.

After she got home and ripped open the letter sitting slightly scrunched in her fist, of course.

Honestly, what were the Potion's publishers at 'A Posse Ad Esse' doing writing to her now?


Draco had been subdued when he finally decided to leave Severus in peace. He was a good dealer paler than normal and Severus was almost tempted to invite the boy to stay for another drink.

Almost.

In the end he'd made do for standing and escorting him to the fireplace, handing over the pot of floo powder, and watching as his form spun through the green flames.

Standing alone at the hearth and placing the wooden box of powder back atop the fireplace, Severus let their entire conversation play back in his head once more. Where did Draco's interest in obtaining the plant spring? Leaning against the dark wood of the fireplace, Severus idly traced his hand over his old copy of Advanced Potion Making. Even as his thoughts fled far away, a small part of his mind realised he must have left it there on his return from the Burrow. Flicking it open, Severus absentmindedly looked the plant up in the index. Given it's second hand nature, the older edition still had some information on the root that the newer productions had censored. Even so, Severus didn't remember Slughorn covering it when he was a student. It was no wonder Draco was quick to wave off the serious effects as old wives tales. Yet another instance of how the censorship of darker magic inevitably leads to ignorance and faulty decisions. History only lived to repeat itself.

Letting his long fingers trail the list of ingredients, Severus made to flick to the specified pages when he paused, brows drawing in confusion. Abandoning the reference list, he let the book fall open in his palm and noted, for the first time since returning from the Burrow, the wad of notes folded next to the instructions for the Excito Animatum potion.

This time, he recognised the handwriting immediately.

Severus thrust the book aside and sunk once more into the chair by the fire before all but devouring her notes. It looked like a virtually complete draft- an untested formula, complete with references and notations.

What's more, it looked like utterly unique research.

Severus' mouth hung open as he raced through the various mental calculations and attempted to make the potion out.

Memories.

Granger had been researching the restoration of memories.

It was brilliant. Completely and utterly brilliant.

Severus read them a full six times before any pangs of guilt made their way through his focus.

This wasn't his research. This was Granger's. If he worked off this, as he was so dearly tempted, even if he just quickly nipped into his lab to run a few basic experiments, he'd be the world's largest hypocrite.

After all the grief he'd put her through too.

No. He should probably put it out of his sight. Fetch an owl and send it back to her, establish that he was the bigger person. That after abusing her so abominably to return his dingy old textbook, he could claim the moral high ground once more.

Then again, Severus had never been big on holding the moral high ground anyway.

It's been here two days, clearly Granger hasn't missed it, or she'd have come hounding for it's return. She'd probably work off a duplicate rather than contact the likes of you for its return anyway. You can always run a few trials, test her basic hypothesis, and then return it. It's not like you have to return it right this minute.

Severus stalled, letting these traitorous thoughts trickle through his brain.

Then he made for his lab.

A few days of lab work wouldn't set the witch back all that much.

The moral high ground was over-rated.


Emmanuel sat in his darkened office, adding to the list of notes scattered upon his standardised black ministry desk. Even engrossed in his work and concentrating thus, the small grin of triumph never left his face. He was sure, without a single doubt, that Hermione Granger knew- that the law was a secret no longer. What's more is, he was certain, entirely and absolutely certain that she would try to run.

A challenge at last.


A/N: There we go! I've been busting to write this chapter for a while now, I hope there weren't too many of you who saw it coming, and more than anything you enjoyed it! Let me know what you think, you guys always make my day! :)