DISCLAIMER:  All the characters here are property of J.K. Rowling (except Gillian, she's mine).  No money is being made from this story.

A/N:  I was inspired to write this story of watching "The Wedding Singer" for the first time.  To answer anyone's questions in advance, Ron, Harry and Hermione are twenty-three in this story and Ginny is twenty-two.

Improper use of magic office

CHAPTER ONE

        Glancing at the dash Hermione checked the time again – the tenth time in the last five minutes – and then had to slam on her breaks to avoid rear-ending the car in front of her.

        "Oh for Merlin's sake," she muttered as the car in front of her slowed down for no apparent reason.

        That was all she needed: an accident to top off the wonderful day she had had.  Members at the Ministry of Magic had decided to dump on her shoulders the little re-occurring fiasco of a group of wizards that were going around terrorizing muggles.  It had originally been a case being investigated by the Improper Use of Magic Office, but those high up on the ladder at the Ministry had decided it was a case for the Magical Law Enforcement Squad, and with Hermione being the Department Head, that meant the job fell onto her shoulders.  It wasn't that she minded the extra work; it was just she had enough on her plate already, with the Head of Goblin Liaison Office away on sick leave, and his paperwork being sent directly to her desk for her to do because she used to work in the liaison office when she had first started at the Ministry.  Add that to her own paperwork and the case with the terrorized muggles, and Hermione barely left the office except to sleep.  She was usually one of the first people to arrive in the morning and was one of the last to leave at night.   And then just a few days ago, she had received an urgent owl from Ron, in dire need of her organizational skills to help him plan his wedding that was only two months away.

        Immediately, she had refused.  Honestly, Ron was a grown man now and he still expected her to be around to bail him out of any situation.  Maybe if he weren't such a procrastinator he would have started planning for his own wedding months ago.  It wasn't as if she owed him anything.  He had some nerve asking her for help.  Did he have any idea how awkward it would be for the two of them?  Knowing Ron, he probably hadn't thought of that factor.  Her mind had been made up until she had met Harry for lunch the day before yesterday.  Of course he was being Ron's best man.  The two of them had remained close over the years despite the fact that Harry's job often called for him to leave for weeks at a time without saying anything to anyone. 

        She wasn't exactly sure what Harry did.  It was classified and he wasn't allowed to talk about it to anyone.  What she did know was that the work he did usually involved tracking down groups of dark wizards and doing other undercover work that was more dangerous then any auror dealt with on a daily basis.  On several occasions, folders had ended up on her desk with Harry's name on it.  She knew better now not to look at them, but when she had first started at the Ministry right after Hogwarts and had not heard from Harry in almost a month, she had read the classified parchments.  She had learned her lesson that time and never again so much as peaked at the folders.  She simply filed them away and forgot they ever existed.  She had never told Ron or anyone else what she had found in there.

        When Ron had first gotten engaged, Harry had been the one to tell her.  And she would be forever grateful to him for that because it gave her some time to adjust to the idea before she ran into Ron and his fiancée, Gillian, in an outdoor café and they told her the good news.  She knew it had been bound to happen because just about every time she talked to Ginny Weasley she would tell her how happy Ron was and how close he and Gillian were getting.  She assumed Ginny did that to try and goad some sort of reaction out of her, but Hermione never rose to the bait.  She was just glad that Ron had finally moved on.  You can only hold on to your childhood crush for so long until it's time to grow up.

        Anyways, back to lunch with Harry.  She had been adamant in telling him her decision not to get involved with Ron's wedding, but somehow Harry had managed to convince her otherwise.  He had spent the afternoon pleading with her, telling her how hard it had been for Ron to ask for help and she wasn't being very fair to reject him without giving it a chance.

        "Just tell him you'll try it out and if it doesn't work, you'll leave him with to deal with the mess.  What's the worst that could happen?"

        Harry had said that to her and when she thought back on it now, she realized a lot could go wrong.  But she had eventually let herself be talked into owling Ron back to tell him she would drop by The Burrow on Friday evening after work.

        That was where she was on her way to now – if the traffic ever let her get there.  She hadn't realized that when she had told Ron she would come on the Friday that it was a Friday of a long weekend, and everyone was heading out of the city.

        She could have apparated to The Burrow from her apartment, but she preferred driving sometimes.  She remembered Ron had said she was crazy when she came back from the summer of sixth year with her driver's license.  His exact words were, "you're a witch, what do you need to know how to drive for?"

        She had given him a whole list of reasons, not the least of them being the wizard way was not always the best way to travel.  It was too risky at times with all the muggles around, and it would definitely not look good on her record for a Ministry of Magic worker to have been spotted by muggles using magic.

        Since her parents were muggles, she found it was just as important to be well educated in both the non-magic and magic world.  Growing up as a muggle, she had more respect for non-magic folk then a lot of wizards and witches did.  And years of nagging Ron had finally convinced him to take Muggle Studies in their last year at Hogwarts – since his ignorance of them used to drive her nuts – though she would learn later in their seventh year he had not taken it for the reasons she had thought he had.

        Her exit was coming up and she moved over to the right lane, taking the exit ramp off the highway.   It was about a ten-minute drive to The Burrow from there.  She would drive out passed the city until she reached the countryside and from there the road would lead straight to the Weasley house.

        Now that she was off the highway, the drive was a lot smoother one, and the traffic lessened to nothing once she reached the outskirts of the city.  Before she knew it, she had reached The Burrow.

        There was just something about it that made it seem almost like home to Hermione.  It probably had something to do with the way Mrs. Weasley treated every guest in her house like a member of the family.  There was no place Hermione felt more at ease at – except for maybe her own home – which was really just a small, one bedroom apartment near the Ministry.  Knowing Molly Weasley, she probably had some huge dinner planned in honour of her and Harry coming over.  Harry was only staying for dinner and then he would spend the next month and a half living with Ron in his flat in town.  Harry had his own place somewhere in London, but he wanted to make up for some lost time with Ron before he got settled down and married.

        Her reconsideration to help Ron out meant she would be spending her weekend at The Burrow and then head back to the Ministry on Monday morning.  She was only a twenty minute drive from The Burrow, and it was even less to get to Ron's flat, if she needed to meet with him – which, undoubtedly she knew she would.  It was going to be a challenge trying to juggle her job and a wedding – but she had been through worse.  At least she wasn't going to need to use a Time Turner to accomplish all her tasks.

        She pulled into the driveway behind the old Ford Anglia that Arthur Weasley still drove and got out.

        She found it was surprisingly quiet as she walked towards the front door – something highly unusual at the Weasley's.  There was almost always some constant bang or commotion to be heard.  She figured that with all of the Weasley children having moved out – except for Ginny, Fred and George, (the twins were planning on moving out as soon as they made enough money with their joke shop in Diagon Alley) the place was bound to be a lot quieter even with the twins room in the basement.

        After several knocks, the front door opened and Ginny Weasley flung her arms around the older girl.

        "Hermione, I'm so glad you came," she said pulling away from her friend.  "I feel like I haven't seen you in months,"

        It had indeed been months.  Hermione had found herself so backlogged at work she hadn't made it down to The Burrow since Ginny's twenty-second birthday – that was almost three months ago.

        "Where is everyone?"  Hermione asked, stepping inside.

        "Fred and George are out, and mum's outside with dad setting the table for dinner.  Ron's out helping them," she added with a knowing look at Hermione.

        "So, let's go and say hi,"

        "Ooookay," Ginny agreed, somewhat surprised at her eagnerness.

        Truth be told, Hermione just really wanted to get the initial 'hello' out of the way with Ron.  She was hoping once that was over with, she would feel a lot less awkward at being in his house so she could help him plan his wedding.

        "Is Harry here yet?" Hermione asked as Ginny led her to the backyard.

        "No,"

        And that was that.

        Harry was beyond a sensitive subject for Ginny.  Just mentioning his name to her could change the atmosphere of a room.  To make a long and complicated story short, they had gotten engaged shortly after Ginny's graduation from Hogwarts, and Harry, one night, months down the road, all of the sudden decided to call it off.  It had been suddenly to everyone else except Hermione.  Harry had been talking to her about calling it off since Ginny had been badly injured a few weeks earlier after he had let her accompany him on a routine assignment out of town. 

        Ginny took it hard.  She called him selfish and screamed at him that she could take of herself and that any risk was worth them being together.  Unfortunately for her, Harry didn't see it that way.  He left that night for one of his missions and didn't return for months.  Unlike the times before, he didn't owl Ginny once.  When he got back, she was seeing Colin Creevy (they had dated on and off in her fifth year before she and Harry had finally gotten serious), and didn't want anything to with him.

        That was three years ago and Ginny still hadn't gotten over it.

        Hermione was one to talk.  It had taken her years to finally get over Ron – and they weren't easy years either.

        Ginny opened the door to the back and they stepped out into what was the huge backyard of the Weasley's.  Immediately, she spotted Mr. and Mrs. Weasley setting cutlery on an oblong table.

        Molly Weasley looked up as they approached and smiled at seeing Hermione.  She dropped what she was doing to come over and greet her.

        "It's good to see you, Hermione," she said, giving her a hug.  "You and Harry don't visit nearly as much as you used to,"

        "That's because they have lives now, Molly," Arthur Weasley said, coming over and greeting Hermione in a similar fashion.  "You can't expect them to spend every free moment at out our house.  Hermione's probably loaded with work back at the Ministry,"

        "Overloaded, actually, but I'm handling it,"

        "Too bad our son can't handle a fraction of the workload your dealing with.  Ron is a disorganized mess half the time.  No wonder he's having trouble planning his own wedding.  Sometimes I wonder how he got through Hogwarts," Arthur said.

        Hermione and Ginny exchanged looks but said nothing.

        "I heard that," said a new voice from behind Hermione.

        She turned around and saw Ron standing there, holding a bunch of plates in his hands.

"I am not a disorganized mess, I just happen to procrastinate on occasion.  And as for Hogwarts, I had a good teacher," he said, looking in Hermione's direction and winking at her.

        Hermione gave a small smile back, but luckily for them Ron's parents took no notice of the exchange, only Ginny seemed to know what Ron was talking about.

        Before she could stop the thought, she found herself thinking he looked good.  He had kept himself in shape over the years by playing for one of the smaller Quidditch Leagues in England.  It wasn't professional or anything, but he told her once he enjoyed it all the same.

The instant she caught herself staring at him she realized one thing: this was going to be a lot harder than she had originally thought.

Let me know what you think.  All types of feedback are welcome. 

I'll try and have chapter two up as soon as I can.