Finally Home

Chapter 2

Hermione walked in the front door of her flat that evening at 8 pm, completely exhausted from her day at the Ministry. Her work was becoming more and more intense as each day passed. You’d think that with Voldemort banished over ten years ago, that things would be much quieter in the Auror department, she thought to herself. But Death Eaters are still out there, and recently, there has been an uprising in activity. Almost as if there might be another to take Voldemort’s place in the near future. Just what this world needs, she thought.

Trying to keep those thoughts from going too far, Hermione reminded herself that tomorrow was date night. The pact that she, Ron, and Harry made was to meet every week, and they still did, although sometimes, given work schedules, they had to postpone some dates to every other week, or even once a month. Harry and Ron had both been lucky and started playing professional Quidditch, which occasionally wreaked havoc on trying to keep their dates. But they still met without fail.

Hermione walked into her flat and was greeted by a throaty meow from Crookshanks. He was still with her and showed no signs of old age as of yet. He still played and chased after other creatures, just like he did when she first bought him in Third year. She reached down to pick him up, and he voiced no complaints, but rather kicked his purring up several notches to let her know he missed and loved her. Hermione walked over to the divan and sat down with her cat to relax a bit. Grabbing the remote control, she switched on the tele to catch up on muggle news. With nothing too intense, or out of the ordinary going on, she waited for the weather report, and then switched the tele off.

Getting up, Hermione had to dislodge Crookshanks from her and set him down, much to his disapproval.

“Sorry, boy. Mom needs to get something to eat and check her messages. Not that anyone would be calling me, but still…” as she padded into the kitchen. Looking down at the answering machine, she noticed that the light was on. Just a message from her parents, telling her that they were having a good time on vacation and that all was well. Hermione sighed before continuing to the refrigerator to look for something to eat. Settling on leftover pasta, she heated it up and went to the kitchen table. She picked up her latest copy of “Hogwarts: A History” and began reading while she ate.

Finishing dinner, Hermione took care of her dishes and went into the bathroom for a nice, long, hot bath to calm her down before climbing into bed to read herself to sleep. This was her routine. Rarely did she deviate from the routine during the workweek. Besides, she thought to herself, why change what works?

She walked into the bathroom, turned on the water, and got in the bath. After a half an hour, Hermione got out, dried off, dressed, and braided her hair. Going into her bedroom, there was where she found something out of place. There was a body in her bed! Before freaking out, she looked around for a moment and saw Quidditch robes on the floor next to the side of the bed where the person was sleeping.

Harry, she thought with a smile. That man still comes into her bed and sleeps when he has had a rough day, or is stressed and wants to talk. Ron never did this, only Harry. Hermione went over and made sure he was covered up before getting in on her side of the bed. Rather than reading, she extinguished the lights and pulled the covers over herself. Harry never moved a bit as she did all this. Well, she thought, I guess that his talk will take place in the morning. I wonder why he didn’t just wait until tomorrow. We are all going to see each other tomorrow, and he could have come over after our dinner and movie. Oh well, she thought. Guess I’ll find out what’s eating him in the morning. Good thing tomorrow is Saturday.