It was late on Friday night when a resounding crack was heard in Godric's Hollow. Hermione Jean Granger wobbled for a split second, disorientated as she usually was by apparating. Regaining her balance, she headed in to the magically enlarged bungalow she lived in with Ron just on the outskirts of Godric's Hollow. However this weekend, the cottage would be strangely empty; she would be alone. Ron, along with Harry and their friend Neville Longbottom had been requested by the Minister of Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt to join the team of Aurors. This weekend the boys would be out on a mission to round up a suspect death eater who was causing trouble in South Wales, so Hermione would be left alone.
As Hermione spelled the dinner to cook itself, she realised it was probably good Ron was away, she had a lot of work to do. She had recently transferred to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and her work load was much heavier than it had been when she worked in Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Luckily she had the whole weekend to complete three new reports for the Minister, but not tonight. Tonight she would relax. Packing up the food, Hermione walked over to the fireplace, mentally thanking herself again for thinking to link her fireplace up to Potter Manor so she could visit whenever she pleased via the floo network.
She finally arrived back home in the early hours of Saturday, having spent the night with Ginny, talking and laughing like old times. Looking back on her life, Hermione realised that she had never had any close friends who were girls. Actually, she hadn't really had any friends at all until she went to Hogwarts. She smiled fondly, remembering how she, Harry and Ron had become best friends, despite the latter's tactless comments about her over the course of their friendship. She had surprised even herself in her fourth year when she found herself becoming good friends with Ginny, having previously avoiding female company due to their petty conversations (in her opinion anyway). Even then, she found herself liking Ginny, with her tomboyish ways and good sense of humour. The only issue at that time had been Ginny's insistence to avoid Harry's company due to what Hermione still regarded as the most major crush OF ALL TIME. It had been her source of entertainment for many years, and even now she never let Ginny live it down.
She regarded Ginny as a sister already, and she had for a long time. They shared everything and Hermione was possibly the most proud when Ginny was accepted to play Chaser for the Holyhead Harpies Quidditch team. Ginny, similarly to Hermione, did not have many girl friends. Growing up in a house with six brothers was the foundation for her tomboy attitude, classic redhead anger and her sharp tongue. Hermione, along with Luna Lovegood, was her best friend. This was why, in a week's time, Hermione was to be the Maid of Honour at Harry and Ginny's wedding.
Her close knit family of Harry, Ron and Ginny had been extended, to her surprise, to George Weasley. Wracked with grief after the loss of his twin brother Fred, George had felt closest to Ron and Harry after the Battle of Hogwarts, and had eventually moved into Potter Manor with Harry and Ginny. For a while he had refused to step foot into Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, the joke shop he had founded with Fred. With a push from Harry and Ron and a not-so-subtle kick up the backside from Ginny, George had returned to the shop just last week, and was back in business with help from Lee Jordan. With George back on his feet, a great weight had been lifted from everyone's shoulders; they had really been worrying about him.
All this time Hermione had been lying awake, thinking about how much things had changed since she had graduated from Hogwarts. She had been the only member from the Golden Trio to return to Hogwarts for their seventh year, albeit a year late. Even now, she underestimated herself. She had been shocked right down to her core when she was offered a job at the Ministry straight out form her graduation, and on top of that, she would be right up there in the hierarchy of the Ministry, working directly with the Minister of Magic.
She glanced at her bedside table and sighed in frustration. The clock read 4:20am. For the 12th night in a row, sleep appeared to be unreachable to Hermione. "Accio dreamless sleep!" Hermione muttered with frustration. To her increasing annoyance, only one tiny bottle flew out to greet her. She had used her whole stock of potions! Deciding that first thing in the morning she'd have to pay a visit to Madame Pomfrey, Hermione drank the potion and felt herself, finally, drift off into sleep.
Precisely three hours later, Hermione jerked upright in bed, pyjamas sticking to her as she broke out in a cold sweat. What was going on? The whole point of the potion was that it created a dreamless sleep! So why, she asked herself, had she had the most vivid dream she had ever had? Memories, unbidden images rushed back to her, things she had unintentionally forgotten over the last few years.
Giving up on any hope of sleep, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and shakily got to her feet. Slipping on a dressing gown and slippers, she staggered down the stairs, unstable on her feet due to a lack of sleep. Sticking her head into the fire, she contacted the only person she could think of who could offer any help right now.
"Professor?" Hermione called her voice still somewhat groggy. "Miss Granger! What a surprise, what can I do for you?" Minerva McGonagall's bemused face blinked back at her. Realising she was now awake, Hermione fully submerged into the fireplace and arrived at the headmistress's office at Hogwarts. "Sorry about the hour Professor, but I need to use the pensive, and I need you to come with me."
