A Force of Magic [HP Jamione fanfic]

Chapter 3: A Return

20th June 1998
11am
12 Grimmauld Place – London

It had been over a month since the Battle of Hogwarts – as people were now calling it – and whilst the renovations on Hogwarts were slow to progress, the rest of the Wizarding World had been busy rebuilding too. The Ministry of Magic had been the first focus of the remaining members of The Order of the Phoenix and, before some 'former' Death Eater could swoop in and take the position that had been left open by Scrimgeour's death, Kingsley Shacklebolt was appointed Minister of Magic – a position he fit very well, and hardly anyone had protested to. Elections to ratify his position had taken place just days ago, and he had been properly and legally appointed.

The day after his appointment as Minister on 6th June, Kingsley had started the long and arduous job of firing and exposing Voldemort's supporters in the Ministry. Most were imprisoned after a quick trial, or fired by virtue of their actions during the war (Harry had been ecstatic over the imprisonment of one Dolores Umbridge). The trials for Death Eaters had also started, and, whilst almost every single one of them was sent to Azkaban for the rest of their lives, Harry had testified on both Draco and Narcissa Malfoy's behalf, insisting that they get commuted sentences or pardons. With quite a lot of reluctance, but respect for the saviour, both of them were pardoned of most of their wrong doing, and ordered to pay hefty fines towards the reconstruction efforts.

The 'Golden Trio' were still staying in Grimmauld Place together, but, per Remus' request, they'd started trying to communicate healthily again, and making sure to leave the house and not let themselves fall into the same rut as a month ago. Hermione and Ron, to the shock of absolutely no-one, had started tentatively dating, after discussing what they'd come to refer to as 'The Kiss'.

Whilst Hermione had acquiesced to Remus' request to not lose herself in reading as she'd tried to do a month previous, she had spent the last few weeks researching. At first, it had been ways to return her parents' memories and bring them home to England, but when, to her utter horror and devastation, she had discovered that there was no way of reversing the particular memory spell that she'd used on them, she started a new project that she had absolutely refused to tell anyone about.

She spent her evenings in the library at Grimmauld Place, or the newly restored library at Hogwarts, and her nights with Ron, but she refused to tell anyone where she was spending the majority of her days. She'd excused herself from helping with the restoration of Hogwarts for the time that she spent working on her project.

The only person who knew of her plan was Kingsley, because he had to let her into the Ministry. She had been spending her time studying the Veil in depth, trying to find out what happened to someone if they fell into it. Sirius had been hit by a relatively harmless spell by Bellatrix in the battle that had brought them to this room, and would've survived if it hadn't been for him falling into the Veil. Whilst Hermione worked tirelessly at trying to fix the Veil, Kingsley was trying his utmost to get Sirius' name pardoned by the Wizengamot, but even with the testimony of every member of The Order, and Harry's insistence, the majority of them refused to even consider it – too set in their assumption that it had been Sirius who led to the Potter's deaths, and the horrible murders of the twelve muggles he had been framed for, and their wilful ignorance that Harry was no longer a young boy.

Hermione was currently secreted away in Grimmauld Place's library, reading through an incredibly dark tome written by an ancient ancestor of Sirius' with an unpronounceable name, and some odd obsessions that Hermione didn't want to delve too deeply into. Despite the odd nature of the author of the tome, it held some incredibly useful information about Veils between this world and the next, and Hermione had lost herself so much in an explanation of a particular type of Veil, which only suspended people in time, and didn't take them to the next plane of existence, that she didn't notice anyone else entering the library until a vague outline of a person with bright green hair flopped onto the sofa beside her.