Hermione almost tripped on the fifteen something bottles of Sleakseazy Hair Smoothener that were adorning the floor of her bathroom. She carefully walked to the door and back and then looked at Ginny – glaring, daring her to point out a fault.
Her red headed friend only smiled self-satisfactorily, before encasing her in a careful hug, not wanting to mess up the hair do she had spent the last two hours on.
"You look perfect!" Ginny squealed, releasing her and then ushered her out the door of her bedroom and down the narrow, rickety stairs of Grimmauld Place. "Now hurry up! You're late!"
"As if that is my fault. I was being held against my wi-"
Ginny snickered at the irritated witch, and waving her a quick goodbye, shut the door in her affronted face.
"Three hours of make up and pish-posh, only to flush myself down a toilet." Hermione grumbled, as she dusted her clothes after stepping out of the green flames into the polished dark surroundings of the Atrium. She was wearing an expensive black silk frock that actually belonged to Ginny. It suited her though – reaching her knees, drawing perfect attention to her upper body curves and fanning out at the waist with a deep cut.
Since the Ministry was still building up steadily, Kingsley had not bothered to change the way of main entry, and it had been irritating many officials. Sure, she pitied the man's current situation, but that didn't mean she was happy to flush herself down a toilet everyday.
She followed the large instruction banner in the Atrium and took a lift to the Ministry's newly installed Ballroom.
It had hit the exact six month mark today, from the day Hermione had joined the Ministry of Magic. Straight out of Hogwarts, she and Lavender had joined the Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures as mere interns, though the work load and dependence on them had been much more than on the normal intern, due to the lack of staff in the department. It was one of the major problems of the complete refining of the staff that Kingsley had single-handedly attempted, though he did have to seek out the help from his own trustworthy members of the Wizengamot and what had remained of the Order.
Their boss, Jeffery Jameson, an old man of forty-five, had stepped up for the charge of the Department on Kinglsey's request. He was a traveler and expert on Animal Habitat, and had written two muggle books, which were considered of no importance in the magical world. He was a kind hearted man though, an average magician, and one that Kingsley trusted, so Hermione respected him. Though his appearance reminded her of Horace Slughorn, he was not nearly so in his nature and habits.
Her boss had preferred her for the post of his Secretary after he had met her and interacted with her on a regular basis. So she had been promoted to that post after two months of internship. Lavender had been promoted too, though she was still junior in office to her.
The blonde girl was no longer the same, no longer just the blonde classmate, ex-girlfriend of Ronald Weasley. No. Lavender Brown had changed a lot. They had all changed in fact, all starting after the war.
Anyone who came to know that this group of people hung out together, would never believe how close knit their group actually was. It had all started when Harry had decided to help get the charges off Draco and Narcissa Malfoy. His proposal was well met – but with the condition, that he extend his statement to include Lucius as well, or they rejected his offer. Everyone had been shocked to say the least. Harry had begrudgingly agreed and the Malfoy family had been released with his assurance to the Ministry.
After a few months of silence, Harry had received a proposal – to invest in the newly developed Malfoy Business, headed by Draco. He never met personally, but the proposal was discussed by Theodore Nott – and well, these two clicked immediately. All everyone knew about Theo was that his mother had married and remarried seven times, having a few children, and inheriting a shitload of wealth along the way. Theo had been handling his family's finances since sixth year; and after finding out that Blaise Zabini was actually his half brother, Zabini's finances as well.
Now he had been looking into the Malfoy finances too, on Draco's request and trust – which was what had indirectly exposed them all to Draco Malfoy. Theo had once asked Draco and Harry, both separately, if they knew that they were cousins, and after pushing them a few times, finally got them to hang out with each other.
Harry had always been hyper aware of the fact that Draco was the only family he had left, by blood. They had bonded over that, and the three Slytherins were suddenly a part of the trusted circle. They were not all good, but Hermione had to admit, they weren't all that bad either.
Sure, they had had their… problems, in the beginning, with Ron especially, but eventually, everyone had calmed down. Fights took place, hard words were exchanged and some nasty curses were dealt with, but in the end, even Ron couldn't ignore the happiness of his best friend.
As for the rest of them – Neville had matured a lot, so he was an adult about it, admittedly the only one, and George and Ginny – well, those two loved a laugh, so they got along fairly well. Lavender and Luna had somewhat of a clean slate, so there was nothing much to worry about.
Hermione, on the other hand, had a different connection with each of the guys, and she now considered them a huge part of their small family. But those were musings for another time.
Right now, someone out of their small group needed to keep up with what was happening with this world. And seeing that Draco and Harry had convinced Theo and Lavender and Luna to cancel their plan to attend the night's event in favor of the small party they were throwing at Grimmauld Place, she was the one who felt responsible to do it. Being the official nerd and all.
Slughorn's tea party was more exciting than this!
The evening was a completely simple and an infuriatingly boring one. A few speeches by Kingsley that updated them about progresses in all sectors over the few months, introductions to new people, sucking up to some of the higher officials, avoiding some people who wanted to do the sucking up to her, and mostly waiting till it was polite to leave.
Just after the New Year and the New Century had been officially welcomed, Hermione was ready to leave the premises and go back home to drink something stronger than whatever was being served. Whatever it was wasn't strong enough. It was around 12:30 that she spotted her boss at a bar, looking somewhat red, in discussion with a tall official, whom she recognized as Peter Podress from the Department of Mysteries. She watched as they argued over something while her boss kept shaking his head and looked like he was trying to come to a very difficult decision. After Podress left, she made her way towards the bar, and saw Mr. Jeffrey crack a relieved smile on seeing her. He poured her a drink and invited her to sit beside him, "Ah Ms. Granger, just the person I wanted to see."
"To what do I owe the pleasure, Sir?" she said, draining half her glass at once.
Her Head of Department grimaced as they settled on a table, his demeanor mostly resigned, "I'm afraid you won't like what I have to say Ms. Granger."
Hermione frowned at his tone, but was forced to ask nonetheless, "Is this about Mr. Podress and your discussion with him just now, Sir? He looked rather insistent."
"Yes. He is insistent on having you."
Hermione almost upset her glass at the disturbing implication. "I'm sorry, but what? I don't know him – I've never even spoken to him."
"This is not about your work in the Ministry Hermione. This is about something more specific." He paused and raised his glass for a refill, watching the liquid fill somberly. "The Department of Mysteries wants you to go on a mission. It is mostly a research mission and they asked specifically for you because they think that you are the most capable. Who better than the Golden Girl of the Wizarding World?" he chuckled, as Hermione made a face at the stupid new nickname.
"Well, Sir, I suppose it wouldn't be that bad if it's only a research mission. I do rather like to play the field. Paperwork does get boring after a while. I don't see what's there to be upset about..."
"Hermione, the topic of your research is Vampires."
She raised her eyebrows at the still sad expression of her boss, not understanding how that would be a problem. Wizards and vampires did not have much of a difficulty co existing and if all they needed was research, what was the problem?
Unless he didn't want her to go. That would be rather unusual for her boss though – he wasn't that much of a selfish person. He was good to them, always granting leaves whenever they asked and did not generally mind doing some work himself.
"Uh... I still don't see how that's a problem, Sir. However, I won't go if you don't want me to. I'm happy to s-"
"So you wouldn't mind researching about vampires?" he said suddenly, looking up at her curiously.
"No, Sir. I would actually enjoy it I think."
He laughed out loud at that, relief evident on his face, "Now I see why they thought you would be perfect for the job."
"What would the job require exactly, Sir?"
Mr. Jeffrey had this mixed expression on his face. He looked somewhat apprehensive to talk about this and his voice lowered as he spoke, "Well, that is actually the part where most candidates lose the enthusiasm. You have to mostly gather information, analyze it, keep the archives updated, and track one."
"I'm very sure I'll be able to fulfill it Sir. It sounds interesting. Whom do I have to track?"
He nodded impatiently at her now, "Hear me out. The one we have to track, wizards have been keeping an eye out for that one for centuries. Unfortunately, his records haven't been updated in over a hundred years. He's the one we need to watch mostly."
"What's his name?"
He looked about suspiciously, before leaning in and whispering, "They call him The Hybrid."