One Shot Harry Potter

Hermione finally had a weekend off from the daily grind. As much as she loved working for the new Ministry, much better than just having the rich, old, white men in charge that were stuck in their old ways, it was a lot of work. There was so much paper work and little, baby steps that needed to be made in order for change to happen. After the fall of Voldemort, the Ministry had gone through a lot of quick changes for improvement, but that was more of a one-time thing. Governments don’t change overnight, no matter how many people wanted it to happen.

As soon as Hermione graduated from Hogwarts, she went straight to work at the Ministry to work her way up and to start making as many beneficial changes for the people as she could. It was a long, very long, and paperwork filled process. But it was all worth as she started to, very slowly, see changes being made in a positive way. It also helped that the people being put in power were no longer Old Money men that wanted nothing but to get richer.

Hermione finally had a full week off, something she normally didn’t have. But she was in one of those situations of either use her paid time off hours or lose them, she opted to use them. As soon as her friends found out she had time off that coincided with theirs, they didn’t have as many days as she did just the weekend, they decided to hold a small party. Nothing too extravagant, but something to give them an excuse to invite as many people as they could to Harry’s place, the mansion he inherited from Sirius, and just let loose and have fun.

Harry and Malfoy invited everyone from their school and work. Given the newer couple were still in their honeymoon phase, so they claimed Hermione thought they should have been well past the ‘honeymoon’ phase, they wanted to have a large party. Hermione wasn’t normally one for large parties, but since it would be the first party that wasn’t work related she had been to in a few years, she didn’t count the memorials she had been to for the fallen from the Battle of Hogwarts given the type of party those were, she wanted to let loose and have.

She arrived much earlier than the party was planned to start, but she was going to help the boys set up. Really, she was there to help Harry stay out of the way and not be bored while Draco set everything up.

“Well, at least it means there’s less work for you to do mate.” Ron said from his seat at the kitchen table. Since Draco didn’t think any of the party was going to take place inside the kitchen, the trio was told to stay in the kitchen and out of the way. They were all too happy to oblige.

“Yeah, except I’m the one that has to clean up.” Harry said with a smile, not all bothered by being in charge of clean up.

“Because Draco would let you clean up and possibly put things away in the wrong spot.” Hermione said with her own smirk, all three of them recalling how much trouble Harry had been when he reorganized the living room as a surprise for Draco and then promptly got scolded that nothing ‘flowed’ and then Draco ended up redoing the whole thing over again.

“Yeah, I’ll never do that again.” Harry chuckled, remembering the long talk Draco had with him about how the furniture had to be set up in ways to allow an easy flow of a bunch of stuff he quite frankly didn’t remember. All Harry remembered from that time was Draco claimed to know where things needed to be since he grew up with Narcissa teaching him and so Harry would just let Draco do it all.

“You’re just happy he lets you clean up so you can use magic to do it all.” Hermione said with a knowing smile. Cleaning up after parties was so much easier with magic. Hermione remembered her parents cleaning up after their parties growing up and how long it would take doing it by hand. It was one of the many things she was thankful to have magic fun if not one of the more basic reasons.

“Yeah, I am.” Harry said with a prideful smile as the three broke down into giggles. It wasn’t that funny, but they hadn’t been able to spend time all together in so long it seemed anything would make them.

“Who all is coming?” Ron asked as they calmed down and Hermione summoned them some drinks to start their part of the party early. “Did you invite any ‘Mione?” Ron asked with a seemingly nonplussed tone.

Ron and Hermione had tried to be a couple after the battle. But they last long. It didn’t long for Ron to get angry with Hermione’s goals to not only work and advance as far as she could in her career, she truthfully wanted to become minister one day, but he was also upset she had no plans to start a family. When Hermione put her foot down about not being a stay-at-home mom whenever she did decide to start a family, which she still hadn’t entirely decided if she wanted one or not, she decided she and Ron wanted to many different things in life and just weren’t compatible.

Ron had taken the news hard and for a while they hadn’t talked or even visited each other. It wasn’t until the last few months Ron had started to act like normal around her if not giving her longing looks when he thought she didn’t see. But now, they were finally at the stage where all three of them could hang out like they used to when they were in school and not fighting for their lives and Ron could easily ignore his very much not returned feelings.

“I invited everyone I could that I thought would show up.” Harry jumped in, knowing what Ron was fishing for and knowing he wouldn’t like the answer. “Both from our school days and a lot of people from the ministry.”

“Yeah, I remember hearing a lot of people talking about it.” Ron answered with an annoyed huff, knowing his friend was trying to distract Hermione from answering his question. It was an innocent question, what did it matter if he wanted to know? “I didn’t invite anyone ‘cause I figured you would have already invited who I wanted to.” Ron said with a shrug.

“Who would you have invited Ronald?” Hermione asked with a quirked eyebrow. She really didn’t care who he wanted to invite or even possibly date, but if he was going to be petty about it and act like a school kid trying to get attention all the wrong ways from his crush, Hermione would gladly play that game.

Ron’s face went red as he was caught in his lie, “Well, we’ll just see if she shows up, I guess.” He said, trying to reign in his anger and petulance.

“Well, I did invite someone.” Hermione said with a smile, completely excited to finally introduce her friends to her girlfriend. She hadn’t wanted to say anything for a while in case things didn’t work out. But both her and her girlfriend were confident they wouldn’t break up anytime soon so now it was time to introduce each other to their friends. Thankfully they had very similar circles of friends, so introductions would be easier, just a change in their titles. “And I want to leave as a surprise.” She said with a smug grin, channeling the Slytherin her girlfriend was rubbing off on her.

Harry quickly turned the conversation to which of their friends from the original D.A. who would be showing up and where they were in their lives. They talked about the different directions in life their friends had gone in from what they thought they would do when they were all on school together.

Not long after their gossip session, the guests started to show up and Draco pulled Harry into playing host with him. Hermione and Ron had stayed together for a little bit then were separated as work friends from their different departments showed up. After many drinks and lots of laughs, Hermione’s girlfriend finally arrived but didn’t go straight to Hermione in favor of saying hi to other people first since she was a late arrival. But by that time, Ron was well passed drunk and still upset about hearing Hermione may have a date and he didn’t.

They had mingled together, some of the older guests having leaving and the youngers ones that were drinking and having fun were still there. There were pockets of people who had hung out together in school throughout the large ballroom. Hermione found herself with Harry, Ron, Ginny, Luna and Neville. Draco had been with them for a little bit but he had slowly drifted off towards his Slytherin friends who were in another area of the large room.

“Come on ‘Mione, I’ve waited long enough, who did you invite?” Ron asked with a slur in his voice.

“Just drop it Ron, maybe Hermione doesn’t want her date to meet a bunch of drunk people.” Neville defended Hermione. There was once a time he wouldn’t have spoken up, but he had grown a lot since he was a kid and afraid to say anything. Now he wasn’t afraid to tell someone they needed to stop talking before they said or did something stupid. And since Ron wasn’t exactly known to keep his cool, Neville didn’t think he was smart of him to keep talking.

“I think you’re lying.” Ron accused as he pointed a finger at Hermione and swayed a little as he tried to look around and catch who Hermione may have been with.

Hermione was drinking as well but not nearly as much as Ron, only enough to get a small buzz. She had a girlfriend to spend time with after the party and she wanted to make sure she was able to stay awake for their alone time.

“I’m not Ron. She’s been mingling with her own friends she hasn’t had time to visit with in a little bit so I figured she would come over when she was ready.” Hermione also didn’t want her girlfriend to come over and for Ron to say something stupid because with how drunk Ron was, Hermione was sure he would say something stupid.

“I don’t think she exists, or she would have at least said hi to you.” Ron said getting closer to Hermione, solely focusing on her as he accused her of lying.

“Calm down Ron.” Harry said putting a hand on Ron’s shoulder to try and pull him back but Ron only shrugged him off.

“No! I’m tired of Hermione always saying she’s dating someone and yet this person can’t seem materialize whenever we try to meet him.” He angrily said, making everyone think he was still nursing a big crush on the Golden Girl.

“Well, considering I’ve told you quite a few times I have a girlfriend, not a boyfriend, I don’t think you’ll ever meet a boyfriend of mine.” Hermione said, seeing from the corner of her eye her girlfriend making her way over. Wonderful, her girlfriend wasn’t known to keep quiet and would likely only end up pissing Ron off more than he already was.

“Whatever, it doesn’t really matter if this person doesn’t exist.” Ron said with an angry pout, “I just don’t get why Hermione doesn’t admit it.”

“What is Hermione not admitting?” A very well recognized voice asked from behind Hermione.

Ron turned his attention to the newcomer, hopeful someone would be on his side since no one else was.

“Andromeda! Have you met this mystery person Hermione is supposedly dating? I don’t think he exists.” Ron exclaimed.

“I can’t believe I’m related to an idiot.” Ginny said as she sipped her drink, happy to just sit back and watch her brother embarrass himself. She and Luna and long since figured out who Hermione was dating, well, Luna figured it out and told Ginny when she kept the blonde up late one night complaining that Hermione wouldn’t tell her.

“A boyfriend?” Andromeda asked as she snaked an arm around the other brunette’s waist. The older woman turned her attention to Hermione, keeping Ron within her peripheral vision. “I thought I made it clear that I don’t share dear?” Andromeda purred to her girlfriend, absolutely giddy at the look Ron grew on his face.

“You’re dating her?” Ron exclaimed, unsure of how he felt. “You left me for her? I’m younger than she is!” He yelled, upset that Hermione left him for someone in an older generation.

Andromeda turned a feral grin towards the ginger, reminding everyone in the group who her older sister was and what type of family life she would have grown up with.

“Well dear, you may be younger, but I am also smarter and more than able to support her dreams.” Andromeda said, watching as Ron’s face turned a brighter red from anger. “Why don’t we go home now Hermione, Teddy will be at his friends house all night and I would like a chance to show you just what all I can teach you.”

Ron only huffed in annoyance as everyone started laughing when Andromeda and Hermione left with a pop. It wasn’t exactly how Hermione wanted to introduce Andromeda to everyone as her girlfriend, but at least now hopefully Ron would keep his mouth shut around her. Everyone knew Slytherin’s were a bit territorial and everyone knew the Black sisters were very much possessive of their families and while Andromeda was no longer a Black, she still carried on the family traits. Truthfully, Hermione was looking forward to Ron saying or doing something stupid to allow Andromeda to show off her Slytherin tactics to embarrass Ron and amuse her.