A week after the footprints had been discovered around the house, Hermione was relieved to find the incident appeared to be a one off. No more footprints had been spotted during the week, and nothing untoward had happened. In fact the only thing that had happened in the previous week was Draco settling into the house and the Christmas decorations going up. Harry and Ron were still keeping an eye on the situation, but they'd admitted they couldn't do much more unless anything else happened.
However, Hermione was hoping nothing else would happen and the entire thing was behind them. With a little over a week to Christmas, Hermione was hoping she could concentrate on her family. Today was Anya's last day at nursery and she was due to go and pick her daughter up in a few minutes. All morning she'd been talking with Charlie arranging his visit over Christmas, and she was planning on popping to the shops with Anya before they came home.
Grabbing her bag, Hermione made sure she had her shopping list before she left the house. Anya's nursery was just in the muggle village where they lived so Hermione walked the short distance to the school. When she arrived at the nursery school gates other mothers were already waiting for their children, and she got talking with a couple of women with children Anya's age.
As she was talking to the other women, Hermione got an uncomfortable feeling that someone was watching her. Trying not to look too conspicuous, she glanced around to try and work out who was looking at her. However, all she could see was the parents waiting for their children to finish nursery for the holidays. Deciding she was just being paranoid, Hermione focused on the conversation going on around her.
Hermione still had the feeling she was being watched when the doors to the small nursery building opened and the youngsters began to emerge. Forgetting all about her strange feeling, Hermione focused on finding her daughter in the small crowd of children. She quickly spotted Anya, and gave her daughter a wave to let her know where she was standing. Waving back, Anya sprinted over to where Hermione was waiting for her.
"Did you have a nice day?" Hermione asked.
"Yes," Anya replied with a grin. "We played with toys and had a party."
Hermione smiled at Anya's enthusiasm. She was so pleased that her daughter loved nursery, especially since none of her cousins attended nursery or school. Even though Hermione had wanted her daughter to have a muggle education before she went off to Hogwarts, she didn't want her to feel like an outcast with her family. Luckily, apart from Molly no-one else had a problem with Anya attending a muggle nursery.
Making sure Anya had a tight hold of her hand, Hermione headed off to do her shopping. With Christmas so close all the shops were fully decorated and Anya loved the bright colours and endless Christmas songs. Consulting her list, Hermione made a mental list of the shops she wanted to visit.
Hermione and Anya had just emerged from the first shop when Hermione yet again got the feeling someone was watching her. Tightening her grip on Anya, Hermione hurried off to the second shop all the time keeping an eye on her surroundings. Even though Hermione couldn't see anyone suspicious, she still felt as though someone was watching her.
The feeling persisted as they did their shopping and after fifteen minutes, Hermione was ready to go home. There was still a few items on her list, but she would get them another time. All she wanted to do was get Anya home. Putting the list back in her bag, Hermione turned and headed for home.
"Are we going home?" Anya asked with a pout.
"Yes, we are," Hermione replied, taking another wary look at their surroundings.
As they walked, Hermione thought she heard footsteps behind them but every time she looked around she saw no-one. Hoping she was just being paranoid following events of the previous week, Hermione tried to convince herself she was just imagining things. However, she couldn't shake the feeling of being followed and every now and again she was sure she heard footsteps behind them.
Luckily for Hermione, she and Anya arrived home and she could get her daughter safely indoors. The second they entered the house, Hermione locked the door and strengthened the wards. She then went to the window in the front room and peered outside, looking for any trace of anyone watching the house. However, she couldn't see anyone outside and there was no indication she'd been followed.
"You're going mad," she muttered to herself as she turned away from the window and shrugged out of her coat. Hanging her coat up, Hermione then turned her attention to her daughter and got her out of her winter belongings. "Come on Anya, let's go and make some biscuits," she called to her daughter.
Picking up her shopping bags she headed into the kitchen with Anya trailing behind her. After magically unpacking her shopping she summoned everything they would need to make biscuits. Anya settled herself at the kitchen table as the pair proceeded to whip up a batch of biscuits. Luckily for Hermione, baking biscuits was second nature for her and the fact her mind was on something else wasn't an issue.
"Can we paint them?" Anya asked as the first tray went into the oven.
"Yes, we can decorate them," Hermione replied.
Opening her baking cupboard, Hermione pulled out the tubes of icing and arranged them on the table. As Anya picked out the colours she wanted to use, Hermione settled back to wait for the biscuits to be done. When the first tray came out of the oven, Hermione magically cooled them and put them on a plate for Anya to decorate while she baked the remaining couple of trays.
Watching Anya decorate the biscuits, Hermione temporarily forgot about the fact she thought she'd been followed. It wasn't until Anya was finishing her last biscuit that the thoughts came back into her head when there was a loud crash from outside. Despite herself, Hermione couldn't help the shaking of her hands as Anya looked up in panic.
"Don't worry sweetie, it was only the bins falling over," Hermione said. "It'll just be a cat. Finish your biscuits, and I'll be back in two minutes."
Pulling out her wand, Hermione pulled open the backdoor and tentatively stepped outside. The snow of a week ago had all but melted, so she knew there would be no evidence to see if it had been a cat or a person who'd knocked the bins over. Poking her head round the side of the house, Hermione found the bins on their side as she'd expected from the noise, but there was no sign of anyone. Using magic she righted the bins, and frowned when she spotted a small patch of snow beside them. The fact there was a patch of snow wasn't unusual since it was in the process of melting, but the fact the patch contained half a footprint was. Hermione knew Harry and Ron had removed all the footprints from the previous week, meaning it had to be fresh.
Turning quickly, Hermione flew back into the house and locked the door behind her. Making sure she looked calm, she turned to Anya with a smile. Her daughter was sitting at the table, grinning proudly as she displayed the Christmas biscuits she'd decorated.
"They're great, Anya," Hermione said. "I'll get you a glass of milk and you can eat one while you watch a Christmas film."
Anya was more than agreeable to the idea and within five minutes Hermione had her daughter settled in front of the television with a biscuit and a glass of milk. Leaving her daughter to watch her film, Hermione went into another room to use the floo network. First she left a message at the Ministry for Harry and Ron to get in touch with her, before contacting Draco's office and leaving the same message with his secretary.
Draco was the first to arrive, coming through the fireplace within two minutes of Hermione talking to his secretary.
"What is it?" he demanded. "Are you okay? Is Anya okay?"
"Anya and I are fine," Hermione assured him. "But I think someone was following us today down in the village. I didn't see anything, but I kept hearing footsteps behind us. Then a few minutes ago the bins were knocked over and there's a fresh footprint in a patch of snow that hasn't melted yet."
"Have you told Potter and Weasley?" Draco asked, wrapping his arms around Hermione and comforting her as she was so obviously shaken by the incident.
"I've sent them a message, they should be in touch any minute."
Right on cue the fire lit up yet again and Harry emerged from the flames, closely followed by Ron. Hermione told Harry and Ron what had happened, and the two Aurors headed off outside to check the new footprint. While Harry and Ron were busy outside Hermione checked on Anya, but her daughter was so engrossed in her film that she hadn't even noticed anyone else was in the house.
"It looks like the same boots as before," Ron remarked as he and Harry re-entered the kitchen. "We've taken a picture for comparison, but we both think it's the same as last week."
"We need to find out who's doing this," Hermione said. "Anya could be in danger."
"No-one will hurt Anya," Draco reassured his fiancée. "We'll make sure of that."
"I think our best lead is still your work," Harry said to his best friend. "I think you need to go over your workload and make a list of everyone that could be angry with you. Make sure to include criminals and law enforcement officials."
"I'm telling you now, it's a long list," Hermione replied with a sigh. "I've approved hundreds of cases for prosecution, and I've also turned down a lot of cases. Even you two haven't been immune from that."
"We all know that's part of the job," Ron said, smiling at Hermione so she knew neither him nor Harry blamed her when she said they needed more evidence for a prosecution. "Besides, nine times out of ten we do a bit more work on the case and you approve it for trial."
"We're thinking more the law enforcement officials who have taken the rejections personally and are bitter towards you," Harry said. "Also look and see if there's anyone whose cases you've rejected a lot. Do we have an incompetent law enforcement official working for us, and do they blame you for not allowing their cases to go to trial?"
"I could go to the office and get my files," Hermione suggested. "I could compose the list over the weekend."
"That would be great," Harry said. "Once we've got the list we can start making enquiries. But we'll subtly ask about the department anyway."
"If you give me ten minutes to pop back to the office and finish up for the day, I can stay with Anya and you can get to the office this afternoon," Draco suggested.
"Thanks, I would appreciate that," Hermione replied.
"I do have one question," Draco said turning to Harry and Ron as he suddenly recalled something that had been said the previous week. "Didn't you set up an extra couple of wards that would alert you to an intruder?"
"We did," Harry answered with a thoughtful nod. "Why didn't it go off?" he asked, turning to Ron. "We should have known before we got the message from Hermione."
"We should have," Ron agreed with a concerned scowl. "I think we need to check the wards."
While Harry and Ron went off the check the wards they'd erected the previous week, Draco quickly popped back to the office. By the time Draco returned, a miffed looking Harry and Ron were entering the house via the back door.
"Well?" Hermione asked.
"The wards have been disabled," Harry answered quietly. "They've actually been disabled since yesterday afternoon."
"How could someone disable your wards?" Draco asked. "You two are professionals."
"The wards can only be disabled by our wands," Ron said quietly. "My wand was used to disable the wards."
"How?" Hermione gasped. She didn't for one minute think Ron was responsible, and she knew there had to be a reasonable explanation.
"I don't know," Ron confessed. "Yesterday was my day off, I was either at home or at The Burrow the entire time."
"Did you have your wand on you at all times?" Harry asked his best friend.
"Do you have your wand on you at all times when you're at home?" Ron queried, looking around at the others in the room.
Of course the others all knew the answer was no. When they were at home, they all tended to leave their wands lying around more than normal.
"No, wait," Ron cried. "I was in Diagon Alley for ten minutes. I went to pick up some wool for Mum."
"It would appear someone nabbed your wand and cloned it," Harry remarked with a grimace. "There's a gang of wizards specialising in cloning wands," he explained to Hermione and Draco. "Half the time the victims don't even realise the wands being cloned until it's used to access their Gringotts vault or something like that."
"How did this happen to me though?" Ron frowned. "I'm always so careful with my wand."
"Mistakes happen," Harry said with a shrug. "Even the best of us can sometimes be careless. All it takes is for you to put your wand in an outer pocket, rather than inside your jacket."
"It's not your fault Ron," Hermione said, placing a comforting hand on the redhead's arm. She could see Ron blaming himself for his carelessness, and she didn't want him beating himself up over something that he couldn't help.
"But does this mean whoever cloned the wand can use it again to remove the wards?" Draco checked.
"No," Ron answered with a shake of his head. "Harry changed the wards so only his wand can alter them."
"That's a relief," Draco muttered.
"We should get back and check with the team investigating the cloning's" Harry said. "Maybe they have some useful leads and we can work out who is behind all of this."
"I'll go with you and grab my files," Hermione said, before turning to Draco. "There's some freshly made biscuits in the cupboard. Help yourself, and take Anya a second one. Make sure she doesn't realise something is going on."
"Don't worry, she'll be fine," Draco replied with a smile. "Go and get your files, I'll keep Anya safe."
Knowing her daughter was in safe hands, Hermione headed off to the Ministry with Harry and Ron. It took her nearly half an hour to sort her files and grab what she needed. With a briefcase load of work, she headed home for the weekend. It would take her hours to sort through her old cases, but if it helped find the nutcase who was stalking her then it would be worth it.