Disclaimer: I do not own or profit from this use of the Rowling and Tolkien estates.

Warnings: Language is bad. Really bad. There will be graphic descriptions of violence in the second two thirds of the story. I will not write non-consensual sex, or any kind of "milder" sexual assault, and any romantic encounters will be rated PG13 and under.

Edits take one: 1/27/2012

Edits take two: 4/30/2015

Words: 1,405

1: Department Transfer

Hermione Granger sighed and tapped her foot impatiently, waiting for the man in front of her to just shout his destination into the green fire and be gone. Honestly, the fireplaces at the Ministry were useless for actually getting around.

As the man finally disappeared with an indistinct shout (she hoped he ended up in Knockturn Alley), Hermione resolved to never get her Apparation license suspended again. Just because her (muggle) friend had been visiting was no reason to—

"Miss Granger?" She sighed again and let the handful of powder trickle through her fingers and back into the bag. The emptiness around her ring finger filled her heart with a dull ache; it was at least the third time she and Ron had ended their engagement, and she was almost unable to mourn the tattered remains of their relationship.

"Yes?" She turned around and stepped out of the line for the Floo, noting absently that it was going to take her a hell of a long time to get back to the front of the queue. A few of the other Ministry workers shot her sympathetic glances.

"Follow me, please," An Unspeakable hurried past her, a middle-aged man she was certain she had never seen before.

The twenty-six-year-old glared at his retreating back and grumbled to herself, but followed. She had only been head of the Department of Sentient Beings for a year and a half, and it was a new department formed after concentrated effort from her and Harry, but surely her title should have granted her at least some respect.

She gave the Unspeakable a sharp look when they ventured into an abandoned-looking corridor, but he responded only with a slightly sardonic smile and continued down the hall. A quick glance at her watch revealed that Crookshanks would most certainly not be amused when he finally got his dinner.

"Is this it?" She asked when they finally reached a door and the man stopped. He just raised an eyebrow at her. Hermione muttered to herself darkly, glaring at the Unspeakable. She fingered the handle of her wand, strapped in a holster on her wrist.

He just smirked at her, then opened the door and poked his head inside.

"Miss Hermione Granger, here to see you, sir." She gave him one last haughty look and stepped inside the office uninvited.

A grey-haired man, holding what looked suspiciously like a pipe, sat in a comfortable leather armchair. He wore dirty, travel-stained grey-brown robes, and he had blue eyes that reminded her of Dumbledore.

"I don't believe we've met," She told him shortly as she dropped into the only other chair in the office, her patience wearing thin after the long trek through the bowels of the Ministry. "I'm Hermione Granger, Head of the Department of Sentient Beings."

There was a pregnant pause as the man grinned and lifted the pipe—Hermione barely refrained from wrinkling her nose but grudgingly respected his refusal to be intimidated.

"My name is Gandalf," Her eyebrows disappeared into her hairline briefly before returning to furrow down towards her nose and he grinned her cheerfully. "I know, it can be a lot to take in. Your work in creature liaisons drew my attention, not to mention your performance during the war—I was hoping to convince you to hire on in this department."

When staring at the wizard disbelievingly for about two minutes didn't cause her to wake up from the dream she was obviously having, Hermione shut her mouth and blinked.

"Uh…"

"Excellent!" The old wizard smiled at her winningly, then stood up and gestured for her to follow him towards a door behind his desk. "I'll explain things, if you'll just follow me?"

She stood up and did as she was told, her automatic respect for authority kicking in when her brain found itself unable to properly function. They walked into the room with the Veil, causing her to flinch involuntarily and rub the place where she had gotten that nasty scar across her chest, in fifth year.

"You will have access to the Philosopher's Stone, of course," Gandalf called back to her as she hurried to catch up. "As is standard protocol for Unspeakables above a certain rank."

Deciding to ignore the glaring fact that The Lord of the Rings and therefore Gandalf were not real, Hermione ventured cautiously, "I thought the last Stone was destroyed by the Nicholas Flamel and his wife, before they died."

"Oh, that was hardly the last, my dear," The wizard told her cheerfully as they glided past the brains. "The Department of Mysteries would certainly not give up research on such an important object."

"Oh, certainly not." She muttered to herself.

"My function is as a guardian of sorts." He turned and looked at her. Hermione sat down when it became clear that they were staying in the room, determinedly keeping her eyes away from the Veil behind Gandalf. "All worlds are linked; some more closely than others. By coincidence, the connection between our worlds is very tightly bound, and very easy to get through. At least, it was until we built the Gate."

Ah, shit, the Veil is the gate, Hermione thought darkly. I hate the bloody Veil.

"I'm afraid I'm going to need you to back up a bit," she told him, holding up a hand. "I've read a little bit on the possibilities of other dimensions but all of this is a bit of a jump for me."

Gandalf explained some of the more technical details, although he brought them back to the original subject when Hermione threatened to become sidetracked.

"I understand you are very attached to your work in the Creature Liaisons Office," he told her. "And I understand that you may not wish to move positions so abruptly. Therefore I'd like to offer you a trial period during which you can explore Arda and learn your duties."

"Who in your world knows about all this?" She peered up at him.

"None but I." He dropped down unceremoniously. "Any friend of mine is a friend of the citizens of that world."

Hermione raised an eyebrow as a suspiciously Ron-like mental voice murmured, You really are hot shit, aren't you?

"What would be my job description?" she asked, logically. "Surely if this were just guard duty you could post some Aurors outside the Department and be done with it."

"That's where this gets somewhat complicated," he replied. "As you know, your government has not always been the most accepting of, well, anyone different. A few centuries ago, the last of several species of sentient beings were banished from Earth and turned up in Arda."

Hermione later acknowledged that this was the moment she decided to take the job.

"Among these are the Great Eagles and the Ents, who have been separated from their Ent-wives for many hundreds of years now. Part of your job description, as you say, is to take care of these beings, several of which were separated from their families and will want to be reunited with them."

She let out a deep breath. "When you put it like that I suppose I don't really have a choice."

Gandalf grinned widely.

Hermione accepted a small chunk of obsidian for her anchor to Earth. She would have to find a token from Arda, as well, and keep the two together. It would make the passage between worlds easier—without it she could end up like Sirius, forever trapped in the Void.

She cleaned out her office with very little ceremony. Harry wasn't the only person curious about what the D.O.M. had offered her to make her leave her position, but was certainly the most aggressively curious one. He was, therefore, the only person Hermione explained her new job to. It was technically illegal, but he was the Boy-Who-Lived and therefore to some extent above the law in the eyes of the Ministry.

Her decision to tell Harry and not Ron proved to be the final nail in the coffin of their relationship. Although Harry and Ron remained close, they never regained the rapport they'd shared in school and Harry's own relationship with Ginny eventually faded gently back into friendship.

Thus Hermione Granger became an Unspeakable.