On Tuesday morning, Hermione woke up with an apprehensive feeling of what she was in for. It was 5:30 in the morning, and she didn’t have to be at the Ministry until 7:00. She dressed with a nauseous feeling in her stomach. She wasn’t sick, just extremely worried. She hoped that the lead turned out to be nothing. She’d much rather spend her day writing until her hand protested in pain than see one of her friends die.
It was another drizzly morning, but the sun peeked slightly behind dark grey clouds. She hoped it would come completely out by the afternoon. She made herself a cup of tea as she waited until she had to leave. She could feel the sleepiness catching up with her, but she could hardly get any at all. She was far too busy thinking about things that could go wrong. She disapparated from her small flat at 6:45, deciding it gave her enough time to make it to the briefing room.
When she got to the Ministry, she couldn’t see Harry or Ron anywhere. They were probably going to be late… again. She walked with haste, not noticing when she bumped into an innocent bystander on her way. She reached the door and hesitated before opening it, trying
to mentally prepare herself. But who was she kidding? She’d never be truly prepared.
The handle turned before she could open it, and she was standing face to face with Kendrina.
“Ah, Granger. Prompt as usual, good. Not everyone is here yet, so I’m afraid we can’t start.”
She gestured toward a comfortable looking sitting area with a sofa and two arm chairs. Three witches sat on the sofa, speaking in hushed voices to one another. Hermione took one of the unoccupied arm chairs and fidgeted.
“Hermione!” she heard Ron say from the door.
She looked up, and both Harry and Ron were standing there, looking disheveled and rushed.
“Got off to a bit of a late start,” Harry said. “My alarm clock didn’t quite cooperate this morning.”
He took the chair next to Hermione and straightened up his loose tie.
“Bloody H*ll, do you think this is everyone?” Ron wondered aloud.
“No, Kendrina said that not everyone was here yet. Good thing you two weren’t the last ones to show.”
“Lucky for us.” Ron said with a sleepy yawn.
Kendrina came back into the room, followed by two more wizards Hermione didn’t know.
“We did have another wizard joining us, but it appears as if he’ll be running a bit late. We’re going to start now, if everyone is ready.”
The witches sitting on the sofa produced notepads and quills. Hermione followed their example.
“We have reason to believe that several of – You-Know-Who’s death eaters are still out there, having avoided capture from Azkaban. We got the tip from an ex-death eater, but we are not positive that this is a completely true tip. We plan to investigate it further, but we felt that -”
Kendrina stopped when the door handle jiggled. The wizard on the other side probably noticed that it was locked, because everyone heard a muffled, “Alohomora” come from the other side. The door flew open and in walked a tall wizard with white blonde hair. Hermione gasped, and she heard Harry curse under his breath. Ron was speechless. It was all because that one wizard had to walk through the door. That wizard was Draco Malfoy.
