Late Sunday night found Harry Potter sitting in his office at home, a half drank glass of fire whisky in his hand. He was staring at the photograph on his desk, the three teenagers in the picture repeating the same sequence again and again. A tall lanky red headed boy and a messy raven haired boy flanked a pretty girl with brunette curls, the three teenagers in the picture laughed and waved at the camera.

Finishing his drink Harry ran a hand through his unruly jet black hair. At twenty seven Harry still looked very similar to the teenage self in the photo he was looking at. His hair was still messy looking even after it had been combed, he still wore the same style glasses he had in his youth and of course he still had his scar on his forehead which was almost as famous as him. Harry was so engrossed in looking at the picture he failed to notice his wife enter the room.

Ginny Potter, formerly Weasley, was a tall striking redhead with long silky smooth hair that fell just below her shoulders. Harry and Ginny had been married for seven years and Ginny knew exactly what was troubling her husband. Moving towards where Harry was sitting Ginny moved up behind her husband and wrapped her arms around him hugging him from behind

"You miss her don't you?" She said startling Harry from his thoughts.

"Yes." Harry replied simply, again looking at the picture of his best friend who he had not seen in nine years.

"I'm sorry." His wife replied looking guiltily at the floor "It's partly my fault she left."

"I think we all share some blame. Me, you and Ron" Harry answered before putting the empty tumbler down and standing up from his chair, taking Ginny's hand and leaving the room.

Once in the living room Harry sat on the sofa and pulled his wife to sit down next to him. The Potter house was a modest four bedroom house situated not too far from Ginny's family home, The Burrow. Originally Harry and Ginny had lived at Grimmauld Place, Harry's house he inherited from his godfather, Sirius Black. Despite Ginny making the house a much more welcoming and brighter place to live the couple decided it wouldn't be the ideal place to raise a family, so when Ginny discovered she was expecting their first child the couple bought a new house quite near to Ginny's parents.

After sitting in comfortable silence for a few minutes Harry asked the question that had been circling his head for weeks now. "Do you think she'll show up this year?"

This coming May marked the tenth anniversary of Voldemort's defeat. Every year the Ministry held a ball to commemorate the dead and celebrate the freedom of the wizarding world.

"I don't know honey, she hasn't turned up to one in the past nine years."

"Maybe she will this year." Harry said sadly, he really missed his best friend and desperately wanted her in his life again.

Hermione had yet to meet his two children, James who was three and Albus who was barely a year old. Harry silently contemplated all that Hermione had missed in his life, his marriage to Ginny, his children and his career as a successful Auror, after years of hard work he became Head Auror eighteen months ago. He wondered if Hermione was married, did she have any children? What did she do for a living? Most importantly, was she happy?

Ginny silently watched her husband as he thought about one of his best friends and she wished there was something she could do. Knowing there was nothing she could do or say to help Ginny stood up and kissed her husband goodnight.

"Harry, don't stay up all night thinking about this. You still have work tomorrow you know."

"Yeah, I know. I won't be long Gin, Night."

"Night."

Despite the promise he had just made to his wife Harry couldn't stop thinking about the reasons why Hermione was no longer a part of his life.

...

After Voldemort's defeat and the aftermath of losing so many loved ones Hermione and Ron had finally gotten together. Their happiness had only really lasted a few short months before their first of many rows.

They'd argued fiercely when Harry had announced he was testifying for Narcissa Malfoy in her trial, following her actions that saved his life. Ron thought she should still be punished because after all she had only saved Harry for selfish reasons while Hermione said it didn't matter why she did it the point was she did. Things only got worse when Harry said he would also testify that Draco Malfoy was a unwilling supporter of Voldemort's and didn't deserve to be imprisoned. Ron was furious when Hermione stated she was also willing to testify for Malfoy in reference to him being unwilling to identify them when they were captured and taken to Malfoy Manor, even though he knew it was them. Ron then spent weeks moaning about his friends helping Death Eaters when thanks to Harry and Hermione's evidence both Draco and Narcissa Malfoy were released.

The tension between Ron and Hermione only escalated when Hermione announced she was returning to Hogwarts to take her exams that she had missed the previous year. Ron argued that she didn't need her N.E.W.T.S as the Ministry had offered her any job she wished. When Hermione retaliated that she wanted to be qualified and to deserve her job and not just handed it to her because of who she is Ron saw red and took it to mean that she thought he didn't deserve his place on Auror training, that he was due to start that September along with Harry. The tension was eased a little when Hermione announced that Professor McGonagall, who had taken over as Headmistress at Hogwarts, had arranged for Hermione to take an advanced course in her school work so her exams would be over by January and she wouldn't have to repeat a whole year. Unfortunately once Hermione went back to school things were even more difficult for her and Ron, they hardly saw one another and when they did all they did was argue.

After Hermione finished school in January she decided the time was right to go and find her parents in Australia and retrieve their memories, this led to a major fight between Hermione and Ron leading to their eventual break up.

Ginny, who had decided her brother and her best girl friend were meant to be together arranged for all four of them, her, Harry, Ron and Hermione, to meet in Hogsmeade to talk. She thought if they just talked about their issues Hermione and Ron could work it out. Naturally the day was a disaster. Hermione and Ron both refused to concede, both parties getting particular nasty towards each other.

Ginny had started off neutral to the fight trying to keep the peace but eventually she snapped and ended up siding with Ron calling Hermione among other things selfish, for abandoning Ron, first by returning to school and then by running off to Australia. Harry who had been caught in the middle didn't say much. When Ginny told Hermione she should leave and never return and Ron agreed with her, Harry found himself torn between siding with one of his best friend's or his girlfriend and his other best friend. Not knowing what to do Harry stood there in silence. When Hermione turned to him with tears streaming down her face all he could do was look at her sadly. Hermione, not getting any support from Harry, turned and apparated away from the trio.

When Harry and Ron returned to the Burrow that night Hermione, who had been staying there, had left leaving only a note thanking Mr and Mrs Weasley for their hospitality and looking after her. That was the last time Harry had seen his best friend.

...

Dragging himself out of his memories Harry stood to go to bed, as he got ready for bed and brushed his teeth Harry wondered if he had left it too late to make things right with Hermione or if he'd lost her for good.

In hindsight Harry could see that Hermione and Ron's relationship was never going to work, once they became a couple all their differences and everything they used to argue about as friends seemed to become a much bigger issue. A few times in school Harry had thought about the fact that if it wasn't for him there was no way Hermione and Ron would have been as good friends they were.

As he got into bed beside Ginny and pulled the sleeping witch into his arms he swore to himself that he would find Hermione and make amends. If she failed to show up to the anniversary celebration, which he was fully expecting as she hadn't attended for the last nine years, he would find her and try to apologise and maybe he would get his friend back.

The following week was hectic for Harry, he had multiple cases on at work and being Head Auror meant twice as much paper work and constantly having to check on the other Auror's in his department.

Harry found himself immensely relieved when it was finally Friday, only a few more hours and then he could spend an entire weekend with his family. He and Ginny were planning on taking James to a Quidditch match on Saturday. At only three James was already Quidditch mad. Harry put this down to the fact the whole family, bar Molly Weasley who was going to spend the day babysitting Albus, were all slightly obsessed with the sport. Ginny had played professionally for the Holyhead Harpies for several years, before retiring to start a family. She was now a part time quidditch correspondent for the Daily Prophet. The match they were going to watch involved the Holyhead Harpies and it provided Ginny an opportunity to catch up with her former team mates, a thing she rarely had time for being a busy mother of two small boys.

On Sunday all the Weasley's and their families were going to be at the Burrow to celebrate Ron's birthday the following Tuesday. Harry was looking forward to spending time with his large extended family, even though there would be a boat load of people in attendance and it would be hectic with all the children running around. Harry couldn't think of a better way to spend his Sunday.

As Harry was fantasising about his upcoming weekend, and ignoring his paperwork, Ron entered his office.

"Hey, mate." Ron said cheerily as he sat himself on one of the chair's in front of his best friend's desk.

Over the years Ron had grown taller and had a bit more muscle behind him, he wasn't nearly as lanky as he was as a teenager. His bright red hair and face full of freckles hadn't changed a bit though.

"Hi, Ron. What can I do for you?"

"I just need you to sign these forms before you head off to your meeting." Ron replied placing a stack of papers on Harry's desk.

Harry groaned at being reminded of the meeting he was due to attend in half an hour, it was to discuss the upcoming ball to commemorate Voldemort's defeat. Harry hated party planning and such tasks but he felt like he should have an input into the celebrations. He liked to remind people for all the joy that went along with finally been free of the tyrant wizard it was also achieved with a lot of pain, many people had died fighting against Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

Harry also liked to make sure that the victims of the war were remembered, he himself had experienced the loss of many close to him. He liked to remember that there were people still missing their family. The Weasley's had never quite recovered from the loss of Fred and his twin brother, George, still had his bad days where he missed his other half terribly. Andromeda Tonks had lost both her husband and daughter in the war leaving her with custody of her grandson, Teddy Lupin, who himself was an orphan and was growing up without his parents. So for all the celebration Harry liked to make sure those who gave their life for this better world would still be remembered.

"There you go Ron." Harry said with a smile as he handed the papers back to his friend. "See you on Sunday."

"Yeah, see you Sunday." Was Ron's reply as he took the papers and left Harry's office to get back to his work.

Half an hour later found Harry sitting in a meeting with Kingsley Shackelbolt, the Minister of Magic, and various other Ministry employees who were involved in planning the upcoming ball. Within minutes of the meeting starting a major problem had arose, the venue where they had held all the previous ball's was unavailable due to structural work being done to the building. Sitting listening quietly was the current Minister who heard some of the other suggestions before throwing in his opinion on the matter.

"I think I can come up with a suitable solution to the problem, I'll do some research and get back to you all this afternoon on whether we have a venue." Kingsley's smooth and quiet voice cut through the room effectively ending the meeting.

As the attendees of the meeting filed out Kingsley sat back in his chair wondering if his hastily thought up plan would work, only one way to find out he thought to himself as he picked up a bit of parchment wrote a short note and left his office to send the note via owl.

Two o'clock that afternoon found Kingsley sitting in the café area of a wealthy wizarding hotel, The Black Gem, awaiting the recipient of the letter he wrote a few hours earlier.

After the war when Diagon Alley and the surrounding area was rebuilt a few miles away a new wizard shopping place was built, unlike Diagon Alley this area catered to the more expensive and luxurious shoppers. The shopping area housed designer robe shops, fancy restaurants, Quidditch stores, furniture shops, jewellery shops, perfume houses and many more places.

A few years ago The Black Gem hotel was opened and it screamed opulence. The hotel housed a restaurant situated on the top floor of the hotel, a nightclub, a café, a wizard spa, a gym, three different types of bars, a rooftop pool, a performance stage where some of the wizarding world's greatest entertainers had performed (most recently The Weird Sisters) and a Quidditch pitch where charity matches were often played. The hotel also had function rooms for people to hire for special occasions which was one of the reasons that led Kingsley to this place.

Looking up from his coffee Kingsley spotted the witch he was waiting for enter the café. Upon spotting him at his table by the window overlooking the magnificent hotel gardens, the witch made her way to Kingsley.

"Hello Minister, your invitation to meet is early this year." The brunette witch said as she slid into the seat opposite him at the table.

Chuckling slightly Kingsley responded. "Well Hermione, that's because I have an ulterior motive."

A/N - I've had this story part written for ages, so I figured if I published it I would end up finishing it. The story won't be too long, maybe ten chapters or so. Since I don't have it all written I'm not sure how quick I'll be able to update but I'll try and do it at least twice a week.

Enjoy!