A/N: Hello! Here is my newest short Marcus x Hermione - it's going to be eleven chapters and you will get a new one every three days through the month of May. I really hope that you enjoy what I've got in store for you. You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions. Beta love to mojowitchcraft!

Please let me know what you thought of chapter one and be on the lookout for chapter two soon!

Hermione Granger scribbled furiously, hoping to finish off her report before the end of the day. The stack of uncompleted - unreviewed even - work that towered around her desk menacingly made her efforts seem almost meaningless. Still, it was a good feeling to be able to scratch her signature at the bottom of the page, knowing that she'd given it her best work and that it was finally completed.

When she had joined the Ministry of Magic, she had hoped that she would be able to make some positive changes for the rest of wizarding society, only to be quickly disabused of the notion. It seemed that everyone in her department knew her reputation for getting things done, and her coworkers were only too happy to dump their work off on her desk and she kept doing it because, well...she knew that it was the only way to get things done.

The alarm on her wand buzzed again for the third time, and she cancelled the spell, irritated. Wondering how she'd managed to miscast her morning alarm so horribly, she returned to the work in front of her.

Happy with the report, Hermione leaned back into her chair, stretching her arms overhead. She rolled her neck from side to side. All that the report needed now was a quick proofread and then she could go home for the evening and snuggle in for an evening of muggle movies with Crookshanks.

She was half way through her edits when her wand buzzed again. Staring at it with narrowed eyes, Hermione agonized over what she was forgetting. She jumped out of her chair when her promise suddenly came back to her.

"Oh Merlin, James!" she said to herself, scrambling to grab everything she needed from her desk. "Oh, Harry is going to kill me."

Pulling her cloak on, Hermione walked as quickly as she could to the communal floos at the entrance of the Ministry of Magic, her heels echoing in the empty room. Godric, she was going to be so late that she was certain Harry wouldn't even bother asking her to pick up James in the future, which was unfortunate, seeing as he could really use the help right about now.

She flooed to the address that Harry had given her to get James. Apparently, he'd been starting his son in flying lessons, even though he'd barely turned five. Hermione thought it was a touch ridiculous and wondered why Harry couldn't simply teach the boys, but she knew that he was very busy working as an auror too, so perhaps lessons just provided more consistent instruction.

When she arrived at the little building, she found it decidedly unoccupied and her heart sank. Hopefully the instructor hadn't gotten so fed up with waiting on her that he had called Harry or something. Oh, she'd never be able to forgive herself, even as she was just over thirty minutes late. Merlin, she couldn't remember the last time she'd been this late.

Looking around, she decided to make her way outside to see if maybe the class was still gathered. After all, it wasn't as if you could teach flying inside. She exited the little building and looked around, quickly realizing that she was standing on a Quidditch pitch. Of course it wasn't even half the size of the one at Hogwarts, but there was no mistaking the giant rings.

And there on the other side was James, hovering on his broom while the instructor gave him gentle encouragement to push his broom into a slow motion dive.

Hermione's heels sank into the grass as she walked and belatedly she wished that she would have used some sort of cushioning spell to prevent her awkward gait. "Sorry I'm late," she said breathlessly when she got to their sides. "I got caught up at work."

James's face lit up when he saw her and he nearly jumped off of his broom to give her a tight hug. "Aunt Hermione!" he said with a toothy grin.

"It's no trouble, I don't mind working one on one with the lad," came the grumbly voice of the instructor.

Hermione returned to her full height, her eyes trailing up from his feet past his chest to his face, only to gasp in surprise when she realized she knew him. He'd grown a bit of a beard, but there would be no mistaking Marcus Flint, former Slytherin Quidditch player.

"Flint," she said by way of greeting.

His eyes widened in surprise. "I didn't think you'd remember me," he answered.

"You are difficult to forget," she answered, before wincing at how awkward that sounded. "Anyway, thank you for keeping him late. It was unprofessional for me to show up so late without even an owl."

"Easy Granger," he said with a shrug of his massive shoulders. "You won't lose any house points here."

Hermione gave him a tight smile, feeling rather like he was making fun of her. She did not enjoy it one bit. "Well, James, we should probably get you home. I'm sure you're starving," she said to her honorary nephew.

"Yeah, dad said we are going to have toasties for dinner tonight," he said with the enthusiasm that only a five year old could have for melted cheese and buttered bread.

Flint began walking beside them. "So will you be picking up James regularly then?" he asked, looking at her out of the corner of his eye as they walked back to the over large shed that served as his office.

"I'm not entirely sure what Harry's plans are yet, but I suppose it could be a possibility," she said, tersely.

"I'll have to be sure to clear my schedule after practice then. Make sure there is someone to watch Jamie while we wait for you to show up," he said, fighting to hide his smile.

Unfortunately for Flint, Hermione did not find that particularly funny. Giving him a glare, Hermione grabbed some floo powder. "I don't think you need to worry about a repeat. I am usually very punctual," she said with a frown, before throwing the floo powder in and calling out for Grimmauld Place.

The formerly dismal townhouse had been lovingly transformed over the years by Harry and now Grimmauld Place was warm and inviting upon entry. Hermione walked James up the stairs so that he could clean up a bit before his dinner, changing out of his miniature Quidditch gear and into regular clothes.

By the time that they were all finished, Hermione could hear Harry rummaging down in the kitchen. James excitedly ran to his dad, wrapping him up in a hug. Then he launched into a play by play of everything he had learned that day, both at school and at his practice.

Little Albus smiled upon seeing her and Hermione gave the three year old a quick hug and kiss on the top of his head, before pouring him a little bit of pumpkin juice to go with his dinner. She could practically hear her dentist parents scolding her for giving him juice so close to bedtime, but she knew that the tiny little bit wouldn't hurt him.

Harry invited her to join for dinner, which she was only too happy to do considering she hadn't done the shopping for the week and her flat was sadly devoid of anything edible. The four of them ate happily and once they were done, Hermione helped Harry get the boys into bed before joining him in the library for a nightcap.

"Flint owled me," he said, not bothering to hide his smirk.

"Blast," Hermione whispered under her breath. She was hoping that she might just get out of having to tell him that she was late picking up James all together. After all, the little boy hadn't even seemed to realize that he hadn't been picked up when he should be. "Er, I'm really sorry Harry. I just got so caught up at work. I swear, Stanhope gives all of the Department's work to me."

"You shouldn't let him push you around like that," Harry said sternly, not liking her coworker one bit. "You know you could always transfer to the DMLE."

"I don't know...I am finding myself less and less enamored by my job," she said with a frown. "I'd really thought that I was going to be able to improve things for magical beings and creatures, but...there is so much red tape it feels pointless."

"It's fine, by the way," Harry said, ruffling his already perpetually messy hair. "James is pretty in awe of Flint right now, so I don't think he would have cared if you never picked him up."

"Flint? Really?" she asked, thinking back to the mean boy she had known at Hogwarts. "Are you really sure that you are okay with James idolizing someone like him?" she pressed.

"Yeah, he's alright, actually," Harry said with a shrug. "He's a surprisingly patient teacher. I was skeptical when I first found out that it was him running this little Quidditch league, but James begged and begged and then I couldn't say no. I watched the first practice and I've got to say that I was...pleasantly surprised. Marcus is great with kids."

Hermione raised her eyebrow at that statement, thinking that Harry must be confused. "Marcus Flint is good with children..." she repeated, not sure if she could ever believe what he was saying. "Harry, when we were at school he stole a beater's bat from his own teammate and sent a bludger at you that nearly sent you to the hospital wing."

Harry shrugged his shoulders, not particularly bothered. "It was just Quidditch," he said. "It's not anything personal."

"He's not exactly the picture of sportsmanship then," she said, still not wanting to accept what Harry was telling her. "Do you really want him teaching such underhanded, Slytherin tactics to James?"

"You sound like Ron," Harry chastised her.

"Please don't compare me to him," Hermione said, not wanting to be reminded of her ex-boyfriend. She and Ron had not been suited as romantic partners and mutually agreed to part ways in their early twenties. She had been perfectly happy as friends, but it seemed that Ron could not stand to see her date anyone else and their relationship quickly soured.

"Look, if I thought that Marcus was teaching James any bad habits, you know that I would pull him from the Quidditch League in a heartbeat," Harry explained. "But, it's one of the only things that makes him happy right now, so I am not going to hold Flint's childhood behavior against him."

Hermione softened, knowing at all three of the Potter boys were going through a tough time at the moment. No one had seen Harry and Ginny's divorce coming, but apparently things had been tense between the two of them for a long time. While things had started off amicably enough at first, Ginny now seemed intent on dragging the proceedings out as long as possible, if only to make things as difficult as possible for Harry. With all the solicitor meetings, Hermione had offered to help Harry out as much as she could.

"How did it go today, with Ginny?" she asked quietly, hoping that it wouldn't upset Harry too much to talk about.

Harry sniffled slightly in response. "I don't understand how someone I once loved so much could become so vicious and cruel," he said with a frown. "It seems like she is only doing things to hurt me, and doesn't even see how much it hurts James and Al, too."

"They'll get through it," she said, hopefully. "They have a great dad who is looking out for them. And...it will be difficult, but I think that they will understand someday."

"Yeah," Harry agreed with a nod. "Thank you for all your help with them, too."

"Even if I'm late," Hermione added, still feeling terribly guilty that she'd forgotten about James and then tried not to tell Harry about it.

"Even if you're late," Harry agreed, with a laugh.