Don't Say A Thing

Chapter 4:A Day In The Life Of Hermione Granger

Twenty-six year old Hermione Granger woke up early in the morning to start her working day with preparing a breakfast while reading -more like scanning- the newspaper. The newspaper wasn't interesting or intriguing anymore, ever since the downfall and destruction of Voldemort. On the other hand, she was thankful to the gods above for the fact that it was only mundane news about discount sales that newsapaer carried and not news of Muggle-killings happening all over the world. Still, reading the Daily Prophet was a habit she had developed since her fourth year when she had first subscribed to it, and habits that old die hard, very hard. She had tried to rid herself of this urge to read the newspaper because it reminded her of the terrror that she and her family, and Harry and Ron had had to deal with. It wasn't that the rest of the wizarding world was unaffected. But, Harry was the eye of the storm and, and she and Ron, being his friends, had suffered the worst blows.

Memories like these caused her to abandon the newspaper and also gave her a feeling of guilty to have not kept in touch with her best friends as she had promised them. Sometimes, in an act of frustration, she would throw the newspaper in the dustbin, and use her office paperwork to distract herself. But, that again was not an easy job because, as in her school days, her work was always up-to-date and in its' best form, irrespective of the involved stress or approaching deadline. Occasionally, she caught herself just blankly staring down at her work uninterestedly. Then again, that was because, no matter how much she enjoyed her job, there were times when the work got boring enough to drive her mad. She had begun using a laptop to store all her work reports. Her lifestyle was an odd mix of Wizard and Muggle and she was perfectly content with it.

Hermione worked in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Muggle-Wizard Relations Office. After her final year and the Final War, she had gotten sick and tired of all the violence she faced. According to her, she had faced enough. So, she accepted this job with a lot of enthusiasm since she was Muggleborn and she completely agreed with the idea put forward by the new Minister of Magic, Drew Conroy, that it was very necessary to understand the muggles so that in future, another Voldemort could be avoided. The world was still in too much disarray to face another psychopathic homicidal maniac, Wizard or Muggle.

The best part of her job was that she worked under one of her favorite people, Arthur Weasley. She really enjoyed working with him and that put no stress on her job.

Over the years, Hermione had become very close to the Weasleys. So much that Fred and George considered her a sister like Ginny and they took their liberty to tease her to their hearts' content;she was also beginning to get used to it. Something else that made her happy nowadays was Ginny's upcoming wedding, and she had assured Mrs.Weasley that all the responsibilty of Ginny's personal grooming, such as her wedding trousseau, shopping etc. was now hers. Mrs. Weasley trusted Hermione completely, and was glad to let her take that responsibilty, so that she could concentrate on the rest of arrangements.

As Hermione prepared to leave for work, she felt something different about this day. She could not place a finger on any solid reason as to why she felt that the day would turn out differently, but she was sure all the same. As she reveled on the reason for the strangeness of the day, she heard an owl tapping on her living room window. Recognising the owl as the Weasley family's new owl, Cosmo, she let the owl in and took the message from its claws. After giving it an affectionate stroke and some water to drink, she opened the message:

Dear Hermione,

I have a special assignment for you, beginning today. Please come to my office at 10.30 am. Also, bring all the reports you wanted to submit yesterday. I'll take them today.

Arthur Weasley.

Wondering what the assignment might be, she wrote a short reply:

Dear Mr.Weasley,

I'll be there. The reports are ready, except that some last minute touch up is needed. But they will definitely be ready by 10.30.

Hermione.

She sent the message with Cosmo, and set off to work.

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As Hermione reached her desk, she took a deep breath before starting her work for the day. She had switched on her laptop and as she waited for it to boot, she closed her eyes and tried to stabilise her breathing and heartbeat; she had practically rushed to work.

Reading through her report, she realised that she could use some more information and figures from her colleague and friend, Katherine "Kathy" Jones. After collecting all her material from Kathy and a little small talk, she realised it was getting late. Late submissions and resultant extra concentration on the subject on hand was not a very pleasant combination, especially for Hermione. It always caused her to land in trouble, as she never paid attention to where she was headed.

So, as usual, she was walking so fast that she didn't see that she was going to run into a tall man with reddish brown hair who was "strolling" in the corridor. She ran into him and, since she was too busy to check on who she had run into, she mumbled a quick "I'm sorry" and rushed ahead to her desk.

In half an hour or so, when her report was satisfyingly complete with her last minute additions, she took a breath of relief, as her quill automatically printed out her report from her laptop. The magical work on her desk would stop only when the report was completely bound.

After it was all done, she knocked on the door of Mr.Weasley's office. She entered the office when she heard a very cheerful "Yes, please come in. You are just in time."

I wonder what the matter could be. It can't be an emergency, because Mr. Weasley sounds pretty cheerful today.

"Good Morning, Mr.Weasley. My reports are ready."

"Oh good, so I see. Neat work as usual. Bring it here, Hermione."

As Hermione approached the desk, she noticed the presence of a third person, who also happened to be the one she had run into, in the hall. She remembered she hadn't seen his face but she did recognise his hair. As she handed over the report, she felt that the person was closely gazing at, almost studying, her. Feeling slightly at unease over such close scrutiny, she turned around to look at the person.

She was certainly not prepared for the shock she received when the familiarity of the man's face rushed to her mind.

It was Ron.