Controlling Corruption

Chapter 2

Draco walked downstairs while buttoning his cufflinks, he was thankful their home in Calais resembled nothing of Malfoy Manor in Wiltshire. He was happy to escape the bad memories once he was released. He and his mother left the second he was declared exonerated.

Recovering from Azkaban was a long road, even today he couldn’t sleep without dreaming he was in that cold cell again.

Walking into the dining room of the expansive chateau, he kissed his mother on the cheek before sitting down for breakfast. His father had finally returned from his sentence and joined them immediately in France, anxious and shaking. From the screams he heard across the hall, he knew his father slept as well as he did, and based on the bags beneath his mother’s eyes, she stayed at his side every minute.

Mornings were more often quiet now, reflective and somber of how they have ended up where they are. His father’s recovery was slow, and there were still moments where he thinks himself either dead or dying, but regardless, they were together again. Draco had long since taken up the mantle of providing for his family and performing his duties to the household, and upon his father’s return, he had no intention of changing that. His father seemingly agreeable with the change as well.

Picking up the copy of the Prophet, he began skimming through while drinking coffee. His father cleared his throat purposefully.

He lowered the paper, arching one blond eyebrow at his father. The tension in the room was palpable.

“Good mo-morning,” His father’s stutter was pronounced today. He had been back with them for about a month, it was better some days than others, but healers said it was doubtful it would go away entirely.

Draco folded the paper, discarding it, “Good morning,” he gave them his full attention.

His anger and resentment towards his father had mostly subsided in the ten years he was in Azkaban. Understanding his mother helped him to see his father’s misguided attempts to protect him and his wife throughout all of Voldemort’s reign. Still, some apathy for the man remained.

The table remained silent, as though his parents needed the time to build their courage to say what was needed.

“Did you sleep?” He asked, “Sleeping well” was out of the question these days.

His father nodded quickly averting his gaze. He saw their hands move under the table and he looked towards his mother.

She looked at the Senior Malfoy with concern, “Last night was a rough one,” she said quietly.

Draco’s gaze softened, looking back to his father, “I’m sorry, you can try and work out for a bit before bed, that seems to help me at least get in a few hours undisturbed,”

His father’s shoulders seemed to relax slightly, and he nodded.

“We’ve been meaning to speak to you about something,” his mother started, her eyes full of concern, “And of course if you’re not amenable to it, after everything we have been through, we understand,”

His hand reached out, and gripped his mother’s hand, looking at her, “I understand,”

His parents shared a glance, Lucius nodding for her to go on.

His mother took a deep breath and began again, “It’s been a decade since the war,” his mother looked down into her tea, “We didn’t make the best choices during the war and because of that, our family has suffered. None so needlessly as you,” giving his mother’s hand a squeeze he nodded solemnly, “With your father back to manage affairs here, it’s time for us to start rebuilding,”

“What do you mean?” he looked back and forth between his mother and father.

“We need to start rebuilding our reputation,” his mother said carefully.

Draco nodded with her, “I fully agree, how do you suggest we begin,”

His father let out an exhale, as though he was fearing Draco’s reaction.

“Connections have long been the best way for us to begin, we know you have still been in contact with friends back in London, and it’s important to your father that we repair the manor and take residence there again, one day,” His mother continued.

Draco nodding, “I understand, I can move back, Theo has kept in contact and invited me to stay numerous times, I can begin repairs on the manor as soon as possible,”

His father froze, “That would be a great start, my love, but not exactly what we were thinking,”

He nodded for her mother to continue, “In order to start rebuilding we need to begin the next generation,” She began gently, “You need to marry,”

Understanding dawned and he sat back in his chair, letting out a breath, “I can’t say you’re wrong, but I can’t promise I’m ready for that either,” The idea of marrying some faceless, pureblooded, virgin left him empty. He knew this day was coming, at one point he expected to be married to Astoria Greengrass and producing little pure blooded blond babies by the time he was twenty-five. Now, he wasn’t sure if he would be able to settle.

Hermione Granger descended into his life like the annoying little swot she was and he wasn’t sure when his childish antics and tormenting took a turn, developing into something more. Maybe it was always a crush, childish and silly, but still a crush. When she took the floor during his trial, he thought she was going to betray him, throw him to the wolves and let him rot. Instead, she showed up to a tampered trial and proved them all wrong. He could practically hear her roar like the lioness she was.

Ever since that moment, the idea of getting involved with anyone else made his chest hurt and his throat stop. No one else compared, she was gorgeous, soft brown curls falling down her back, freckles dotting the bridge of her nose, eyes that practically glowed. Not to mention she could match him wit for wit, until he wanted to bend her over his knee and show her who was really in charge. She haunted his dreams like that, and he’s watched the memory of her coming to his rescue every night since it happened.

Ever since, he did his best to fuck every temptation of her out of his system, re-enacting his worst fantasies with worse people, and he still dreamed of her. Nothing ever stopped him thinking of her.

“We would have to play our hand strategically,” His mother went on, ignorant of his inner turmoil, “Your father and I discussed what type of woman would be best,” Draco felt sick to his stomach, “We understand times are changing, and with the former… indiscretions of our family, we decided the best thing would be to venture towards muggle-born women, preferably with some type of social influence,”

Draco’s entire world froze, his mother clenched his hand.

“Again, if you’re not ready for this, we would understand,” his mother said softly.

His mother just described the woman he had been aching just to see. The one woman who made him feel something other than cold indifference. It was a good thing she and the weasel were probably married by now, with his parents newfound acceptance, he didn’t think he could hold himself back anymore.

He took a deep breath, “Who did you have in mind?” His mother’s eyes rounded in shock that he would be willing to even look. His father’s mouth fell open. “We’re at the point where I need to start thinking of the next generation,” he said resolutely, looking between his parents.

Draco has known this conversation has been coming for years, the only thing that surprised him was his parents offering him an out. But the reality was, no one would measure up to Granger. Anyone else would just be someone to settle for and do his duty to create the next generation. The thought made him nauseous, but the idea of having a son to teach how to ride a broom and brew potions with made his chest feel lighter. Someone to teach and nurture, and hopefully be better than his own father.

No the idea of getting married was not a good one, but the desire for a son rooted deep, besides there’s nothing to say he had to be attached to the mother.

Hermione heard a knock on her office door, looking up to greet Kingsley as he walked in. Drowning in paperwork, she was happy to have a distraction.

“Hermione, checking in to see your progress with the Bagman file,” Kingsley made himself at home in her office, popping one of her mints in his mouth and sitting in her armchair in the corner. Luck was on her side after the explosion that was Draco Malfoy’s trial. Kingsley Shacklebolt continued in his campaign to end corruption within the ministry and was formally elected Minister of Magic just a month after the trial continued. Hermione was forever grateful that she didn’t cave to her desire to leave the Aurors, and as soon as Shacklebolt was in place he promoted her position, making her the head of a Corruption and Internal Affairs unit in the Aurors, making sure that Hermione only reported to him.

Since that day, Hermione has made it her mission to blow every corrupt member out of the Wizengamot, doing her best to work with Shacklebolt in order to check the power of the high and mighty council.

“It’s coming along, we have multiple eyewitnesses to testify to his notable favoritism towards teams along with accounts of all funds going into the department of Magical games and the amount of funds leaving, and there’s a significant difference,” Hermione pulled the notes out of her drawer, handing them over for him to review.

Kingsley through the file, turning the page as he went. Hermione looked down at the file she had been reviewing before his interruption. Queasiness filled her, “Kingsley, I’m not sure there’s anything here, but can you take a look at this document?”

Kingsley looked up from his review questioning, “What do you mean?”

She handed the file over to him, it was small to say the least, only a few pages, “I received word from a Charlie Weasley, a number of the eggs he has received recently have either gone missing to show up destroyed or have been destroyed on the spot while unattended,” She briefed quickly.

His eyebrow raised, taking the file with suspicion, “Why would that be something you would look into?”

“All the eggs had been received from the relocation department in the Control and regulation of magical creatures,” she said quietly, already sinking back into her stream theories regarding the file, “None of it seems right, dragon eggs don’t magically destroy themselves,” She reached back to her desk to hand him the pictures of destroyed eggs Charlie had sent along with his letter.

Kingsley frowned at the photos, “Poachers maybe?”

“That doesn’t seem right, poachers would steal the eggs to sell on the black market, not destroy them outright,” Hermione shook her head, running a hand through her hair, “Normally, I don’t think I would think much on this, but it’s not an isolated incident, there have been 7 so far in the past 3 months, and all the eggs were surveyed prior to leaving the relocation department,” She pointed back to the file, “Each one was cleared as healthy, all from different Dragon specialists,”

At her insistence, Kingsley flipped through the file, finding the clearance forms outlining the specifics of each egg and its viability. Removing his hat “That doesn’t mean there’s corruption throughout the department,” he said shaking his head.

“Yes, that’s fair, but the first eggs destroyed were sent back to the specialists in the department, look at the photos, each one was declared non-viable from the beginning and said to have deconstructed when the embryo was developed with malformations,” she insisted, “There were no fetuses notated to have been collected from the sanctuary,”.

At this Kingsley’s eyes met hers, “I think you may be on to something, look into it, but be quiet about it, I’m already fielding questions of your employment being a witch hunt,” his solemn eyes met hers. Hermione rolled her eyes, she had already made enough enemies out of powerful people, what was one more.

Kingsley handed the files back to her, “Regardless, we should have enough to arrest Bagman, go ahead and submit my approval for the team to pick him up tomorrow night,”

Hermione groaned sitting back in her chair, “More paperwork?”

Kingsley chuckled, “It’s never ending,”

Hermione laughed with him, “Did you walk all the way over here just for that? You could have sent me the approval through a memo,”

Kingsley grinned at her knowingly.

“Oh no,” her face fell as soon as she saw his teeth come out, “You promised me you wouldn’t ask this of me anymore,”

He sighed, “I know,” Deep voice reverberating through her, knowing what he was about to ask, “Regardless, re-election is coming up, and I’m not running anymore, nearly ten years of this circus is enough,”

She shook her head at him, “The answer is no,”

“Yes, but,” He pulled a copy of the Daily Prophet out to show off the headlines, “McMillian Sr. is running, and with his money pulling every string in Diagon Alley, he’s sure to win without your appearance,”

Hermione took the prophet, staring directly into the smiling face of the capitalistic egomaniac. “My appearance doesn’t make a difference in the slightest,” she said shaking her head.

“The people look up to you,” Kingsley encouraged, “You’re the Golden Girl,”

Hermione glared at him reclining in her chair, “Besides, you’re the smartest woman in London, and if you declare one way or another, it will cause people to take second look at who they’re voting for. Presenting a unified front with Harry and Ron-“

She cut him off, “Excuse me?” He froze mid-sentence. The thought of making another appearance as the “Golden girl” made her sick, the idea of standing next to her Ex while doing it was enough to make her physically nauseous, “What in your right mind made you think I’d agree to this?” She nearly yelled at him, shaking with anger at his entitled assumptions.

“I know you don’t want to see him again, and I’m not going to force you into anything, but this could be good for the cause, Hermione,” Kingsley stood up, running a hand over his bald head “The gala starts at eight Friday, just please think about putting in an appearance,” She glared at him from across her desk.

“The last time was a disaster,” she said harshly, daring him to disagree.

“You’re more prepared this time, and I would hardly call a proposal a disastrous event,” Kingsley leaned his head back chuckling, Smug bastard knows he’s won.

Hermione crossed her arms, “There were three,” She said flatly, “And Ron only saw the last one,”

Kingsley finally broke out laughing, “His face was so red,”

Her eyebrow raised while Kingsley did his best to reign in his hysterics.

“I’m happy my misery is so entertaining to you,” She deadpanned. Trying to rub the sleep from her eyes, she groaned and checked her watch, “I’ll make an appearance, not for very long, and you’re running interference with anyone who tries to corner me,”

Kingsley’s smile grew, “Deal,”

Hermione watched him leave, checking her watch as she gaged the amount of work she needed to do prior to going home to begin mentally preparing for a gala she had no desire to attend. After her appearance as one of the “Golden Trio” and Malfoy’s trial she had been inundated with marriage proposals from wealthy families looking to regain some status and show their “Non-biasness” towards muggle-borns. Since that point in time, it had become easier and easier for muggle-borns to gain employment, but generally part of employment initiatives by the ministry.

Kingsley had gotten a non-discrimination policy passed as part of ministry employment practices, but regardless discrimination still ruled outside the ministry and, more often than not, muggle-borns were hired as a token to put on display rather than for their legitimate skills.

She rubbed her hand down her face, fighting lingering exhaustion and preparing to finish the paperwork she needed to prior to going home for the day, when she saw Ginny’s Horse patronus appear, “Dinner and drinks at my place tonight?” The horse’s mouth didn’t open to speak the message in Ginny’s voice, but she knew the mother of two must be struggling today to keep up with the toddlers.

Grabbing a piece of scrap paper as the patronus dissolved into the air, she walked to an owl in the hallway to deliver her message to Ginny, she would be there at six.

Turning back to her office, she took a sighed and resigned herself to a busy afternoon before she could escape for a much-needed dinner with her friend.

Using the public ministry floo, Hermione went straight to Grimmauld Place.  She should have stopped to shower, knowing Ginny’s comments on her appearance were inevitable, but ultimately she couldn’t bring herself to care.

The second she stepped out of the floo, a flying toddler jumped and wrapped himself around her legs.

“Aunty ‘Mione!” little James looked so much like Harry it was always jarring at first.

“I’ve missed you, James!” Hermione kneeled to give the wild child a hug and kiss to the head.

“What am I? Owl dung?” Hermione chuckled to see her best friend standing over her with another baby on her hip.

“It’s good to see you too, Gin,” Hermione stood, unlatching herself from the small octopus that James became, and gave her a hug. Ginny handed her Lily before leading her to the kitchen and pouring a glass of wine for them both.

Little Lily cooed and grabbed for the loose strands of Hermione’s hair, “I don’t know about you, but it’s been a crapshoot of a day here,” Ginny put the glass in front of Hermione on the table before taking the one-year-old back to put into the high chair, “I just got off a call with Harry that the Cannon’s tour is going to be two weeks longer than expected,”

“I feel that today, I’ve got six open cases on my desk that for one reason or another can’t seem to fit anywhere, and now I have them” Hermione sipped her wine while Ginny brought a plate worth of pasta over from the kitchen counter. James, diligent as ever, pulled his chair over to her and tried unsuccessfully climb in.

“Six cases? That seems like a lot, what are they doing? Using your department as a catch all for misfit crimes?” Ginny sat while Hermione lifted James to his booster seat.

“That’s certainly what it seems like. How’s Harry and the Cannons doing?” Mouth watering at the food, Hermione dug in.

“They haven’t lost a game this season,” Ginny was proud, even if exhausted, “But I swear, the longer he’s away from home and leaving me with the children, the more I miss playing with the Harpys. I was the best beater on the team, until I got pregnant. I made Harry promise that next season, I get to play with the Harpys while he stays home with the kids,” Ginny gave a sigh as she watched James ditch his fork and start shoveling buttered noodles into his mouth with his fingers.

Hermione nudged him, and held up her fork, watching as the toddler’s eyes went wide and he dropped the noodles back onto his tray, and maybe a few on the floor. Gripping his plastic fork with his entire fist, he began trying to copy her and shovel the noodles that way.

Ginny laughed, “Hermione, if the next child we have is still exactly like Harry, I’m going to make him a full-time house husband so he can see what it’s like to raise himself,”

“That definitely wouldn’t last long,” Hermione laughed along with her friend as they helped the babies finish eating.

Having the toddler’s eat and get ready for bed, Hermione and Ginny finally finished eating by eight, making their way to the couch in the family room to chat and relax.

“James has been a terror all day, tormenting me, tormenting Lily, even Kreacher, the surly elf has made himself scarce all day just to avoid it!” Ranting was Ginny’s favorite thing to do, “I had to skip my workout because the grangey mutt wouldn’t come out of hiding!” Hermione winced, trying to get back on a professional quidditch team after birthing one kid was hard, let alone trying to do it twice. “My coach almost showed up here to yell at me himself,”

The second Ginny officially graduated Hogwarts, she was drafted to play for the Hellmouth Harpys, and since then she’s made a huge difference on the team, helping to lead them to their first quidditch finals in years right before they made the decision to have James. There was no chance in hell that she would get kicked off the team, but taking nine months off to have a child before accidentally getting pregnant with Lily had her on thin ice. Not to mention scheduling has been hard since Harry quit as an Auror and got signed to the Canon’s as a seeker a month later. Hermione knew her team was frustrated with her.

“Yikes, finger’s crossed he doesn’t actually do that, talk about humiliating,” Hermione stretched her feet out on the loveseat, finally releasing her feet from the prison confines that were her boots. 

“Please tell me you have something good going since your date with Terry Boot the other night, I need to live vicariously through you,” Ginny looked so hopeful, she felt bad.

Her date last weekend had been a disaster, Terry Boot asked her to dinner and drinks only for them to end up in bed. With a less than stellar performance on his part, she’d left as soon as he fell asleep and has been dodging his owls ever since.

She gave Ginny and awkward smile.

“No, it was that bad?” she looked scandalized.

“It was terrible the whole way through,” Hermione confirmed, “During dinner all he wanted to talk about was the ministry and how progressive his father is for running a department with three muggleborn witches, then he tried to take me to Ron’s bar for drinks,”

Ginny looked horrified, “Why the hell did you end up going home with him??”

“Hey look, a vibrator will only go so far,” Her and Ginny dissolved into laughter.

“Well was that at least decent?” Ginny took another sip of wine, looking expectantly at Hermione.

“I should have stuck to the vibrator,” Ginny winced, “Really, we’re almost thirty Gin, and I can’t find a man who understand the concept of foreplay?” Hermione shook her head disappointedly.

Ginny was practically rolling on the floor with laughter at this point, “I think it’s just you, I had my fair share of horror stories dating before Harry, but damn, you put them all to shame,” She was wiping tears from her eyes, trying to control her giggles.

“I even ended up seeing Viktor and having a “Catch up” date last month,” Hermione exasperatedly threw up a pair of air quotes, “And that ended up worse!”

The date with Viktor again started out good, catching up, drinks, laughter. As soon as they got to his flat though it was all downhill. She had remembered him as a gentle and giving lover, but then again, she hadn’t had any one to compare him to the first time. This time around, Hermione didn’t think she’d seen anyone pass out after quite so quickly. He certainly didn’t live up to the hype of his fan base.

Ginny was bawling now, “I’m happy you’re so entertained by my shitty dates recently, because at this point it’s more shitty dates, or just caving in and taking a random marriage proposal from someone looking to use my name for their status,”

Ginny reigned in her giggling, wiping away the tears from her face, “You could do worse you know. How many have you gotten recently?”

“Well, I’ve been avoiding them like the plague, but since Ron and I broke up, they seem to keep coming through. One guy owled me the other day, asking over the post. Not even asking for a date, just going through it via letter,”

Ginny shook her head, reaching again for her wine, “Wow, they really have no shame recently,”

“And Kingsley just asked me to make an appearance at the campaign gala to show support for Patricia Ogden,”

Ginny went somber, “Shit really? After how badly the last one went? Why does he think that’s a good idea?”

“Ernie McMillion Sr. just announced he’s running. And with all the pureblood support, along with his ideas of cracking down on crime with policies that would mostly affect muggleborns, he could reverse all the progress we’ve made since Kingsley became minister,” Hermione was quiet. She knew the right thing to do would be to go to the gala and present, as Kingsley said, a unified force, but the idea made her sick to her stomach.

Ginny sat up, “Seriously? I can’t believe there’s still so much support for blood prejudiced assholes,” She paused deep in thought, “Didn’t one of those proposals come from his son?”

Hermione rolled her eyes, “Multiple actually, he was the one who cornered me on the dance floor at the last gala and made a huge show of it. Looking back now, it seemed like he was really trying to pressure me into saying ‘yes’,”

Ginny looked somber, “Have you talked to him recently?”

“Who? McMillion Jr.?” Hermione took a drink from her glass, thoughtful.

“No, stupid, Ron,”

“No, I’ve been avoiding him for nearly a year and a half now, since the last gala” Hermione shrugged.

“You should talk to him,” Ginny said quietly.

Hermione snorted, “Why? So he can go on again about how he misses me? How he’s sorry for what he did? Or so, he can show off his possessiveness again as publicly as possible?”

Ginny pinned her with a glare, “He’s sorry, I know you don’t want to hear it, but he feels sorry for how you guys’ broke things off,”

She rolled her eyes, “Then he shouldn’t have fucked Lavender Brown, in our bed, no less,”

Ginny threw her pillow at her head, “He wants to make up as friends, you daft dimbo!”

Hermione got nailed in the face, giggling as she chucked it back at her. Thinking back on how everything went with her and Ron, her face fell.

After the battle of Hogwarts, they started dating seriously, but as time went on, they slowly but surely grew apart. Hermione always worked long hours at work, especially after Kingsley promoted her and gave her a department of Aurors to manage, but no matter how many boundaries she put up, or how much she stepped back from her work, he never seemed happy.

The last year of their relationship, he proposed, regardless of their discussions and Hermione pointing out that she wasn’t ready. And to double down on his bad decision, she said yes.

Regardless, she put in the effort, she scaled back the hours she spent at work, stopped bringing it home with her to work on, not to mention she funded a few of the beginning stages of Ron opening his own tap house in Diagon Alley. If she’d known that the tap house would be their downfall, she can’t say she would’ve done anything differently.

Lavender Brown always had her eyes on him. Once the bar opened, she apparently saw her way in. She started working for him as a bartender, and supposedly things just went further after that. Hermione couldn’t forget the night, walking in after a long shift, supervising a raid, only to find her fiancée balls deep in Lavender.

She’d kicked him out that night, telling him to remodel the space above the bar into a flat. Everything snowballed from there.

After months of not seeing each other, Harry finally forced them together during the nightmare Gala, telling them to “Make friends again”. Hermione was always open to the idea of being friends, of trying to let his past betrayals go, but as soon as she began talking to another man, he became jealous. More jealous than anyone needed to be, especially in regards to an ex you cheated on.

By the time she had turned around after speaking to the third man of the night, his face was beet red and he looked ready to kill someone. As soon as she got kidnapped for a dance by McMillian, she knew something bad was going to happen with him. Watching him kneel to the ground, and hearing the music change to a planned song, the dance floor clearing, leaving them alone, her heart had dropped and she knew the look on her face had to be anything but happiness.

Watching the words leave his mouth happened in slow motion, and just as he finished his announced intentions to the world, asking her to marry him, Ron hit him square in the chest with a stunning spell.

The night imploded entirely as Ron and McMillian dueled on the dance floor. The aurors were called, and Hermione had to break out her badge to finally put a stop to it. Hitting McMillian with a petrificus totalus and knocking Ron off his feet and wand out of his hand she stormed to the floor between them. In an embarrassing display, she had yelled at both of them, telling McMillian that he would be the last man on earth she would marry, and reminding Ron that their relationship had ended more than a year and a half prior and exactly why their relationship hadn’t lasted.

For the entire week after, Rita Skeeter had taken great joy in blasting the front headlines with her social life and playing Ron and McMillian as the victims in the entire charade. Ron even went so far as to comment about how if Hermione had just settled down to stay at home and have his babies, then he would have never felt the need to cheat. Hermione refused to go out into public without some sort of disguise for the next month and after that, she faced countless questions regarding her personal life.

Regardless of her public outburst, as soon as it made headlines, the rich pure-blooded men that had begun pursuing her after their breakup increased tenfold. These days, everything had quieted down, but she had lost the ability to date without men coming up to her for months. The past few have been sparse at best, but a woman has needs and Hermione was anything but ashamed of hers.

“I’d rather not go down that road again,” She finally broke out of her contemplation, Ginny looked at her mournfully.

“I get it,” She rested her chin on her knees, curling up on the couch, “When Harry and I got married, you remember the media firestorm that followed?”

Hermione nodded, the media following Harry and Ginny’s wedding was chaotic at best and libel at worst. Numerous articles came out calling Ginny a whore and a slut, saying that she wasn’t good enough for the Boy-who-lived.

“Well, a woman showed up after that, claiming she was pregnant with Harry’s baby, then it kept going. One week a woman showed up naked to our doorstep and threw herself at him right after he opened the door,” Ginny recounted, “There was a second there were I really thought Harry was more attracted to her than he was me, we almost divorced a month after our wedding. Harry couldn’t leave the house and be seen with a woman without Witch Weekly talking about how he was having an affair,”

Hermione sighed, ever since the battle of Hogwarts the media had swarmed them as a group. Even she and Harry had lunch, just for someone to snap a picture and Rita Skeeter published an article about an illicit affair the next day.

She sighed, “I know, the media has been a terror,”

“Point is, we stopped paying attention to it at some point and it all went away. Even after the last gala, the media shit-storm eventually ended. I know you don’t want to talk to Ron again, and trust me, I understand, but he’s wanting to be friends again, and it would mean a lot to Harry, and I, not to mention, then you could start coming around the Burrow again and mum has missed you,”  

Hermione chuckled, “Maybe you’re right, we were all so close at one point, I miss that. Even if I’m not interested in Ron romantically, I miss his friendship,” Ginny put her arm around her and cuddled her, “Do you have any sage advice for my romantic life?”

Ginny laughed, “Afraid you’re on your own with that one,”