Chapter 1
Hermione stared at the list. She was teamed with six other Ministry Personnel, all of whom she did not like. Today was turning out to be a bad day, a very bad day and it was a Friday, supposedly the best day of the week. Behind her she could hear Harry, Draco and Ron complaining that they weren't put on the same team! Imagine that, Harry, Ron and Draco wanting to be on the same Quidditch team. If someone had told her that at Hogwarts, she would have hexed the person into the next century. But here they were, years later arguing with Kingsley Shaklebolt about the teams for the first inter-divisional Quidditch championship throughout the Ministry. The Ministry had taken Hermione's idea yet again and used it without crediting her.
After the war, everyone went back to finish off their last year at Hogwarts but there was still a division between the houses especially towards Slytherin. Hermione thought this was the same atmosphere that would keep breeding more Dark Lords. She had remembered when she told Harry, Fred and George that Quidditch just served to divide the houses so she decided that it could also serve to unite the houses. She had gone to Professor McGonagall and proposed that their be a Quidditch tournament held within Hogwarts. 8 teams divided into two groups and the winner of each group face off against each other to declare the final champion.
She proposed that each team would consist of 3 chasers, 2 beaters, a keeper and a seeker, just like the house teams. The only catch was that for a team to enter the tournament it had to have a member from each house. McGonagall had agreed with her that it was a good idea to unite the houses but she couldn't see any of the students going for it. Hermione then suggested that she suspend regular house trials until they got 8 teams. After much debate and Hermione arguing that this was for the common good, Professor McGonagall gave in knowing that once Hermione got going, there was nothing you could do to stop her.
She could still remember the students exuberance at first hearing about more Quidditch games, then their disappointment when they had to have a member from each house, then their utter hatred that there would be no Quidditch until they got 8 teams. Hermione had actually signed up with the first team. Even though she disliked Quidditch, this was for the greater good. After all, she couldn't suggest the idea and not sign on, that and McGonagall, the smart witch that she was, insisted that the only way she would let this go on was if Hermione signed herself up to set a good example to the student body!
Her team consisted of Draco Malfoy, Luna Lovegood, Zacharias Smith, Hannah Abbot, Blaise Zabini and Micheal Corner. She, Luna and Hannah were going to be the Chasers. Draco of course wanted to be seeker and Micheal and Zacharias were beaters and Blaise was the keeper. She could still remember Harry and Ron's reactions to her being on the same team as Draco. Even though Draco had proved himself during the war they still hadn't forgiven him yet for Dumbledore's death.
Flashback
"Hermione are you kidding, you're going to be on a team with Malfoy!" Ron said in a fit of anger.
"It's a person from each house and my team has a Gryffindor, two Slytherins, three Ravenclaws and a Hufflepuff. I don't see anything wrong with it. What happen? Afraid you might lose?" Hermione teased
"Lose to you. You're bloody awful at Quidditch. Bloody awful Hermione! Your team doesn't have a chance." Ron countered
"Weasel, leave her alone she sure as hell is better than you!" Draco said. He had appeared out of thin air.
He had grown quite fond of her by then. There friendship had grown out of tragic circumstances. Circumstances to this day she still hadn't faced.
" I can fight my own battles Draco." Hermione said as she glared at him
"Yeah well sometimes I think this Weasel here should treat you a little better, sorry for caring." He said as he turned and headed towards the head boy dormitory.
"Great look what you did Ron!" Hermione said as she ran after Draco. She stopped halfway and turned to face Ron and Harry. " I will beat you!" She said in a very determined voice and continued on her path after Draco.
She had eventually caught up with Draco and apologized to him. She didn't want him slipping back into his old ways of hatred. In the end, the tournament did bring the houses closer together and it had become a bi-annual competition that the students looked forward to. Someone's arm on her shoulder brought her out of her daydream. It was Harry.
"Hey!" he said flashing her the most adorable smile.
"Hey" she replied kind of depressed, though seeing his smile brightened her day a bit.
"What's wrong?" Harry asked concerned
Hermione replied by pointing to the list of players. Harry looked up at the list and closely surveyed it again. He quickly searched through for Hermione's team.
"Oh! That must be the worse team I have ever seen and don't all these players hate you?" Harry asked
Hermione shook her head in response.
"Come on it isn't that bad. What happened to my Hermione that always has
something to say?" Harry said with his sexy smirk
Hermione rolled her eyes at him.
"Harry, sometimes it's best to just keep quiet, cause you know, once I start I don't stop!"
"Oh don't look now but here comes a member of your team." Harry said as he looked over Hermione shoulder.
"Oh great it's Junior" Hermione replied under her breath as she took a quick glance behind her.
"I said don't look." Harry teased. "When will you ever learn to listen to me?"
"Maybe when you learn to listen to me." Hermione responded as she arched an eyebrow up at him.
Junior was a short man. He was shorter than Hermione's 5' 5" frame but he was muscular and very arrogant. During Hermione's first week at the Ministry he had a huge argument with her. At the time he was just a clerk in The Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Hermione had been fighting for the house elves and other magical creatures such as Werewolves and Centaurs to be placed under a separate division. She argued that intelligent magical creatures that thought and felt should not be forced into the lower segments of society but should receive the chance to become a fully-fledged member of the magical community. Junior disliked this and fought her every step of the way. They were still before the Wizengamot battling for the rights of house elves and other creatures.
Junior walked over and looked at the list. He too let out a huge huff.
"Well Granger, looks like we're on the same team" he spat nastily at her.
"Oh Junior I didn't see you there, thought you were just another one of those House Elves!" Hermione replied sardonically.
"Listen missy" The stout man said pointing his finger at her. "Just because you run that SPIT organization."
"S.P.E.W." Hermione interrupted angrily
"Whatever, the point is you are fighting for something they don't even want!" Junior said as he waved his finger in her face.
Just then Ricardo De Monte walked up, another member of Hermione's Quidditch team that she didn't like. He was taller than Hermione by about 3 inches and had blonde hair with green eyes. He worked in the Department of Mysteries. He walked passed them and glanced at the board.
"Granger you seem to be the only bad apple on our team!" Ricardo said as he turned around to face them.
Hermione was about to open her mouth to respond when Harry jumped in.
"I'm sure we would all love to stay and chat but we have work to do." Harry said as he glared at them. He wanted to hurt them very badly but Hermione would never approve of that. He had once got into a fight with Vesper Crinkleman in the Minister's office. Ironically, Crinkleman was also on Hermione's team. Crinkleman had said some very nasty things about Hermione that Harry certainly didn't approve of. As a result, Harry was suspended for six months because of the fight and Hermione had made him promise not to get into trouble on her behalf. She insisted she could handle matters herself. Not wanting to relive that lecture, Harry opted for grabbing Hermione's hand and yanking her away from the insulters. He would find another subtle way to deal with them later.
The only person on Earth Harry was afraid of was Hermione. She was truly scary when she was thoroughly pissed. He had only witnessed her that angry once and he was thankful that he wasn't on the receiving end of her anger. It had been during the final Horcrux hunt. They had cornered Nagini in the old Riddle house and Ron and Harry were trying to kill the snake. Hermione and the others were fending off other death eaters. He had briefly spotted Hermione out of the corner of his eye, fighting with Dolohov and Bellatrix. Memories of the curse that hit her in the Department of Mysteries came streaming back to him. He was about to head over to her when he saw Draco join her. He looked long enough to make sure Draco was there to help before he returned his attention back to Nagini.
His next glance across found Hermione fighting Dolohov and Draco with Bellatrix. Dolohov shouted something at Hermione and he watched as her face contorted with fury. He couldn't hear clearly what Dolohov said but Draco obviously did as he started backing away from the two, while dogging the hexes that Bellatrix through at him. At that point Harry was ready to beat Draco for leaving Hermione but Hermione started sending a string of colourful hexes and curses so fast it looked like she was shooting rainbows at Dolohov. Harry had never seen such a colourful array of spells before and was temporarily mesmerized by the display. He was soon knocked back to reality as Nagini sent him flying into a wall.
By the time Ron and him had finished with Nagini most of the death eaters had either been captured or escaped. Hermione had immediately started healing his wounds as soon as she reached to him. Harry had been so relieved at the death of Nagini he never asked what happened to Dolohov. It was only months later when he was looking through the list of death eaters sent to Azkaban that he inquired about Dolohov. It was then that Luna told him that Dolohov was in St. Mungos. Hermione had hit him with a series of hexes that returned him to the emotional state of a two year old in the body of a 45-year-old man. Antonin Dolohov could be found in St. Mungos doodling with crayons and paper.
Harry asked Luna what was the spell that did it and she said she didn't know. No one knew not even Hermione. If they did know the spell then maybe they might have a clue how to return Dolohov to his normal state but until then the healers were at a loss at what to do for him. Hermione had been so angry she just threw whatever spell popped into her mind and considering how much Hermione had read there were lots of options that could have popped into her mind. The fact that Hermione was proficient at non-verbal magic meant the spells just kept flowing faster and faster as all she had to do was think about the spell she wanted.
Harry learnt that day to never piss off Hermione, as he never ever wanted to be on the receiving end of that temper.
"Harry its Friday you guys never do any work on a Friday. You like to sneak away early and go to the Three Broomsticks for Butterbeer. I'm usually the one who stays here and covers for you guys." She said to him as he dragged her to the lift.
"Precisely Hermione!" Harry responded as he kissed her goodbye on her forehead. He put her in the lift and sent her up to the Auror level. As soon as she was gone he turned around and rejoined Ron and Draco at the apparition point.
"Is she going to cover for us?" Ron asked hesitantly
"Of course! Doesn't she always?" Harry responded happily.
"Yeah until we piss her off" Draco added with a slight hint of fear.
They disappeared with a soft pop.
Hermione stepped off the elevator and on to her floor. The Auror department was now more organized. It consisted of five teams with five people each. These five teams were responsible for most of England. There were smaller branches set up outside of London to cover certain hot spots. Each of those branches had about ten Aurors working there. Each team had specific assignments to complete. If a certain mission required more than one team, then multiple teams would be assigned. Different colours Red, Yellow, Pink, Green and Blue referred to each of the teams.
The Red Team consisted of Harry, Ginny, Lupin (Captain of the Red Team), Lee and Heather. The red team generally got to do the most daring and dangerous missions. As a result it was the Red Team that had most of the time off, as things had been relatively quiet since the downfall of Voldemort. This team usually spent their days training intensely to ensure that they were prepared for anything that might arise.
The Yellow Team had Luna, Tonks (Captain), Neville, Mundungus (yes Mundungus, after the war they were desperate for Aurors), and Seamus. They were affectionately refereed to as the baby team due to the youth of most of the team. Tonks was also the youngest captain. This team was usually the most entertaining team as Luna, Tonks and Neville could cause quite a laugh among their colleagues. Most people had to watch their belongings as a certain person still had their kleptomania habits! This team generally dealt in information gathering. Tonks being a Metamorph was easily able to go undercover, Mundungus had many ties to the criminal society and Luna was linked to the Quibbler. The Quibbler was an excellent source for information on criminal activities and many cases had been solved with information obtained from Luna's father. Seamus and Neville were great with undercover work. No one would ever believe that Neville Longbottom was an Auror.
The Pink Team had Ron, Cho, Angela, Rebecca (Captain) and Harriett. Ron was referred to as the luckiest man in the department cause he was the only male on a team with some of the most gorgeous witches in the Ministry. Needless to say Ron was very happy but the one thing he wanted changed was the colour of the team. Ron hated being associated with the colour pink. He was trying to convince Kingsley that Orange was a good colour for his team. The Pink Team dealt with criminal situations involving muggles. There were some wizards that entered the muggle drug business and created a new drug called Glitter. Glitter had no affect on wizards but because of some of the magical components, it caused a similar affect to heroin on muggles. This was becoming a huge problem and the Pink Team was assigned the task of preventing the sale of Glitter to muggles.
The Green Team had Draco, Blaise, Zacharias, Hector and Mad Eye Moody (Captain). Draco and Blaise were happy to be on the green team. After all green signified Slytherin! Naturally, this team dealt with matters involving the use of dark magic. The team particularly dealt with situations involving the unforgivable curses. Moody regularly claimed that there was dark magic brewing in the Ministry and unless they took action soon it would be unstoppable.
Lastly, the Blue team had Hermione, Gregory, Cole, Helen and Brian (Captain). The blue team was always all work and no play. Her team mainly provided a research background for missions. It always seemed like they were on some mission. All the people in that team were highly intellectual and this team hardly did any real fieldwork, which greatly disappointed Hermione. She suspected that Harry was very happy with her lack of fieldwork. They were always paired with one of the other teams to assist on missions and when they were paired with Harry's team he always did his best to leave her locked up in England.
The head of the entire department was Kingsley Shacklebolt. When asked why the teams were the way they were he just shrugged and said ask the sorting sword. When Kingsley had first started as head of the unit, the Aurors were a mess. They had suffered heavy loses during the war and were badly organized. He decided to sort the Aurors into the teams but he didn't know how to pick and choose which person would be assigned to what team. He tried to use the sorting Hat but Headmistress McGonagall refused to let him `borrow' the hat so he had to come up with a different way to sort his Aurors. After a bit of research, mainly done by Hermione, they were able to isolate the exact magic that created the sorting hat. Kingsley decided to replicate the magic and used a sword as the Auror sorting device. Kingsley thought the sword was a better representation of an Auror than a hat. The Aurors often joked that he messed up since the teams seemed very weird at times.
Hermione was stepping out of the lift when a familiar voice spoke to her.
"Hey Hermione, have you seen Ron around or did he go on his usual errand with the boys?" Ginny asked
"Usual errand, why?"
"Mom's looking for him. We're all invited to lunch at the burrow on Sunday. Mom said to dress up. It's going to be a special lunch!" Ginny said excitedly
"Special lunch?" Hermione questioned
"Yeah I don't know yet but I will!" Ginny said mischievously.
"Let me know when you do. Hey you think Fred finally proposed to Katie?"
"Nah Maybe George to Angelina?" Ginny replied
"Or they both proposed?" Hermione said as she pondered the reason for the special lunch.
The last time they had a special lunch was when Charlie proposed to his new bride Alice. It had been a momentous occasion, but poor Alice was overwhelmed with all the Weasleys. She was a bit shy at first but now her true colours shone through.
`This will be interesting' Hermione thought to herself.
"See you later" Ginny said as she got into the elevator.
"Wait, where are you going?" Hermione asked
Ginny just winked her eye at Hermione as the door closed shut.
"Great I'm stuck here alone now." Hermione muttered to herself.
"What muttering to yourself Granger?" She looked up to see Cho Chang approaching her. Things didn't go well between Harry and Cho at school but at Auror training they hit it off again and he dated her for about six months before ending it. He never did tell her why he ended it with Cho but she knew what ever the reason, Cho blamed her.
`Great just great. Another run in with Miss I am the most beautiful thing on earth Chang.' She thought to herself before Cho reached her.
"I need some research done on Great Seers of our time?" Cho said "On Shacklebolt's orders!" She added
"I'll get it to you by Monday." Hermione said
" I need it today." Cho said with a wicked smile
"Fine" Hermione replied acidly. She knew there was no way in hell Cho would get it today. She just didn't want to get into another fight with someone else. Divination wasn't exactly her favourite topic either. She knew the least about it.
As Hermione entered her office she immediately began to feel guilty about just dismissing the assignment she was given. No matter who assigned it to her it was still information the Pink team needed. Ron was on that team and she would hate to think that something happened to Ron because she refused to do some research for Cho.
The best source for information on Divination was Lavender Brown and Parvarti Patel, who fortunately for Hermione, just opened up a shop in Diagon Alley. If she left now she should be able to catch them before they closed up for the evening. Lavender was still sore that Hermione had dated Ron right after she broke up with him but she knew she could get Parvarti to talk to her. She grabbed her purse and exited the office. Maybe this Friday she might actually get to spend it outside of the office. Things were beginning to look up but this was just the beginning of the roller coaster ride and Hermione would many highs, lows, twists and turns to endure before this case would be finished.
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