It was a very cold, dreary day at the Ministry of Magic. The Department of Magical Law Enforcement was crowded and hectic, wizards and witches running about and trying to get papers finished and deadlines met. Hermione Granger had twice the amount of normal work as usual because she'd been backed up with dark wizard cases for a month. She worked as much as she could, but the enormous workload was too much, even for a witch as efficient and diligent as Hermione. Hermione dipped her quill in a jar of ink and poised her hand to start writing. She winced when she moved her fingers, as they'd been cramping up for the past hour she'd been at it. She sighed and sat down her quill, her hand still aching from the copious amount of writing she'd done. Hermione had been in her office for 10 straight hours, only stopping for meal and bathroom breaks. Her day was only getting progressively worse as the headache she'd obtained grew larger and larger. Hermione didn't much mind the rain, she just hated the annoying sound it made as it pelted at the window panes like little bullets.

"All right, Hermione?" A familiar voice came from her open office door.

Her eyes darted toward the door and met another pair. There stood Harry Potter, glasses broken, hair a mess, and dirty robes, all completely contradicted by a large, satisfied grin. Hermione felt herself smile as she shook her head at one of her best friends.

"Harry, what happened?" she asked as she performed a non-verbal repairing spell on his damaged glasses. The cracks completely vanished within a millisecond.

Harry's smile got wider.

"We caught Aerope." He stated with satisfaction.

Hermione smiled and chuckled.

"Did he put up much of a fight?"

"He wasn't much of a match for us, we had him captured within a minute. He tried to cast a Cruciatious curse on Ron, but he missed and ended up cursing himself. His wand was snapped in half when he fell on it."

Hermione repressed a giggle. Aerope was a dangerous, but scatterbrained wizard. He'd been in a ton of trouble for putting children under the imperious curse and casting hexes on unsuspecting muggles. He hadn't killed anyone, but he gave Ministry a fair bit of grief when mystery attacks began to circulate through muggle news.

"Well, I'm just glad you two are safe," She smiled. "Where is Ron, by the way?"

"He went home for lunch. He asked me if we wanted to join him, so I came in here to ask you."

Hermione nodded.

"Just let me finish this last paragraph, and I should be finished up for the morning."

She sat back down at her desk to reluctantly finish her report.