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Stunningly Pretty? Her?
A One-Shot
Hermione Granger was good at being famous. It still took her a few years to get to the point she is at now, eight years to be exact, eight years after the Battle of Hogwarts.
Harry Potter was, unsurprisingly, not good at being famous. After only four months, huddled together in the burrow, he went to live with Andromeda Tonks and his godson Teddy. Everybody thought it was better than him dying in his guilt. Over the loss he forgot sometimes, that the war was won.
Ron Weasley decided to replenish his energy by following the invitation of Headmistress McGonagall and retook his NEWTs year. They all brought him to the train station with Ginny, the two of them were in the same year now.
Hermoine sold her parents house and bought a flat in London, a muggle district, but warded so she could use magic there unsuspected. When Harry set foot into life a little bit, he asked for her help. He had inherited from Sirius and his parents, a fortune much bigger than he had originally seen, accessible now, that he was seventeen and had had time to look. Together they founded the Lilli Potter Foundation in January of 1999, to make sure the wizarding world didn’t fall off the wrong side again. Their first act was funding of Hogwarts supplies for students who couldn’t afford them. Molly Weasley cried.
On the one year anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts, they all hid out, nobody left their house, everybody mourned.
When Ron returned with his NEWT results, him and Hermoine broke up. They should have done it sooner, but they had taken to help each other heal their wounds after the war and a connection like that was sacred.
Shortly after her 20th birthday Ron left for Egypt. He said for studies, but nobody knew what was really going on.
The LPF build steadily in the first year, being socially important due to them being the “Saviours of the wizarding world”, a title Hermione associated with Harry, who hated it, but becoming big in political importance as well after supporting the Equality Act of Half-Creatures. They gave their own Gala in January of 2000, after nobody had wanted to believe Hermione that the world was not going to change over new years Eve. Harry didn’t show up but muggle fashion became an object of interest in wizarding high society after Hermione wore a muggle dress. She started to keep up with the press after that, the gossip columns, easily remembering the names thrown around, and the political ones, which were, sometimes, hardly different.
After the second anniversary of the end of the war, Harry started working. Hermione saw a lot of potential in his curse-breaker career, although it did become a bit intimidating when he started doing all his spells word and wandlessly. She could feel his magic sometimes.
When Shakelbolt won the first election after the war, everybody was relieved. Especially Hermione. She didn’t think the society was stable enough to be called at peace and Shakelbolt was amazing at ensuring peace.
Minerva, as Hermione was asked to call the Headmistress, send her a birthday letter for her 21st and Hermione started learning for her NEWTs independently. She could take them alongside the Hogwarts students in a private room any summer she wanted. Shortly after, Ron returned to the Burrow. He hugged Hermione in greeting and all her anxiety that they might be awkward vanished.
Shortly before the second Gala of the Lily Potter Foundation in January of 2001, Hermione took her first own personal assistant, a tall witch, looming over her, every bit as organized and determined as her, Freddy was exactly what Hermione needed. Someone she could rely on to fend off the paparazzi and to remember all the names of important people and all the dates for important places. She was a huge relief with the funding of wizard orphanages.
In an unforeseen turn of events, Ron started at St Mungo’s as a midwife and family support. Georges teasing stayed at a minimum after Charlie argued that it kind of made sense. Rons whole life had been his family but he was the second youngest. Of course he wanted to help others grow.
On the third anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts, Hermione left the house. The muggle side of the city was bustling, but Diagon Alley was deserted. She got a tea from a muggle shop and sat at the Thames.
She read the Article about the Healthy Rehabilitation of the Wizarding World twice, it was really well written, before she saw who had written it. Pansy Parkinson. Hermione knew she was trouble. Harry was in Scotland on some mission, so she owled him about it. His response surprised her. He had forgiven Pansy Parkinson, the girl who had wanted to just turn him over to Tom Riddle. On the other hand, it had been three years and Parkinson had been a child. Just as Hermione had been. She was also obviously invested that the wizarding world stayed clear of muggle discrimination, so much was shown in her, truly brilliant, article. So Hermione forgave her too.
Harry was back for her twenty-second birthday and was not at all happy with the publics reaction to Pansy Parkinson writing in the Daily Prophet. He wrote a statement and asked Hermione to get the Prophet to print it. Freddie remembered some connection they had and soon, Hermione’s office was full with complaints about how she had managed to manipulate Harry into doing so. It died down when Harry appeared at the next LPF Gala for the very first time since the existence of the annual event and confirmed to the attending journalists and some very talkative people Hermione pointed him at, that he had indeed written the statement himself, on his own free will and meant every word of it. The last letter she got on the Affair was from Pansy Parkinson herself, thanking her for defending her, apologizing for her actions in the war and then apologizing again for the trouble she caused in the last months. Hermione responded, expressing her hope that Pansy never stopped writing, as she had truly enjoyed her article. There was a column in the Prophet about the evolution of post war wizarding fashion by Pansy the very next week.
Hermione was invited to Harrys very own house on the coast of Wales the day after the fourth anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts. She had never been to his house before, so she was wondering what could be so important to warrant a visit now, especially right after the anniversary. It was Draco Malfoy. Draco Malfoy sitting at Harrys kitchen table, nervous in a way that showed he wasn’t nervous often. He took Hermione’s hand when she offered it and relaxed after they had all sat down. Hermione was happy that Harry shared such news with her and he was doing so much better with Draco by his side, she could tell. She was happy for them. Still, when she stepped out of the floo in her apartment, she couldn’t quite believe Harry was dating Draco Malfoy of all people.
The next time she was over at Harrys, Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini were there too. As Dracos best friends, they had apparently wanted to meet Harrys. Ron came stumbling through the floo last and thoroughly surprised Hermione, when he greeted Draco and Blaise with an easy handshake and hugged Harry hello. Pansy Parkinson and Hermione kicked off instantly. Blaise joked they should have never get them to meet, as all of them were now at their mercy. Hermione laughed, Pansy smirked mysteriously. It was true, probably. While Harry was magically superior, Hermione and Pansy were a force to be reconned with.
The two of them spend the fourth anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts together, sitting silently at the spot at the Thames Hermione had found last year and when Pansy offered her a cigarette, Hermione accepted. They were wizards, they didn’t get cancer from cigarettes, Hermione looked it up.
She reread that first bigger article by Pansy the day after and started a call for an Act of early integration of muggleborn sorcerers. It turned out to be way overdue and gained traction quickly.
Her NEWT exams started the month after and she was nervous, even though she had been preparing the last two years and all her friends wished her the best of luck. Freddie had even quizzed her to ease her nerves, but it had had the opposite effect.
She got her NEWT results a few weeks before her twenty-third birthday: All O’s. Blaise laughed at her for her anxiousness, Ron said, that nothing could have stopped that from happening. Harry hugged her and so did Draco, but the way Pansy had smiled at her stayed in her mind the longest.
On the 18th of October Ginny fell off her broom during a Quidditch match somewhere in the south of the country. The people who got her off the pitch were not healers and the curse that she was put though could not be healed by St Mungo’s healers. Ron was furious. The Department of Magical Law Enforcement caught the offenders quickly and they were found guilty of several crimes against prominent fighters of the war. Ginny was bound to a wheelchair afterwards, although she didn’t want to let the arseholes win, so she made it glittery and asked Hermione for a job in the LPF, of course she got it.
On Harrys idea, they funded a line of support for queer people in the wizard community, Pansy was more than happy to write an article about it and got a full page in the Prophet.
The fourth Lili Potter Foundation Gala of 2003 went swingingly and Hermione was pleased to see Pansy in a light purple muggle dress that complimented her nearly ghostly skin tone perfectly. She spend most of the evening with Minister Shakelbold, who praised her on her NEWT results. He was still quick on his feet and more than perfect for the job as Minister for Magic. Hermione found herself absorbing all of his words like they were of the utmost importance.
On the fifth of May, a gay wizarding couple was attacked in a wizard living area in the suburbs of London. Harry was furious. Hermione had spend the day like the year before, smoking with Pansy Parkinson, but when Harry had floo’ed her the next morning, she contacted the witch again. Harry gave an interview and outed himself as Gay to the public. Hermione was so proud of him. In the end, the positive voices outweighed the negative and on June 28th Harry went strolling through Diagon Alley with a little rainbow bracelet around his wrist.
That evening they all sat together, Harry, Draco, Blaise, Ginny, Ron, Pansy and Hermione and Hermione tells them. Ron and Draco seem to be the least surprised, which surprises Hermione in return. For Draco to know she was Bisexual wasn’t the crux, but Ron? When had he become to observant. She learned that both Ginny and Blaise were Pansexual and that Pansy was a lesbian. Ron didn’t say anything about himself even though Hermione could have sworn he wanted to.
On her twenty-fourth birthday Hermione decided to leave the LPF. After having met Neville and Luna in Diagon Alley, she realized there was something else she needed, although she wasn’t quite sure what it was. Neville came through the floo from Hogwarts for her birthday, he was the new herbology professor and Luna came with the muggle underground. They weren’t together and Hermione chided herself for the misinterpretation but did pick up how interested Ginny seemed to be in Luna and how much Luna like the sparkles on the redheads wheelchair.
Two months later, Hermione left the post of the head of LPF to Ginny, who started her term of office by planning the fifth annual Lilli Potter Foundation Gala and magically wheeling through the doors with Luna Lovegood holding her hand.
Pansy wrote a beautiful article about the Seamless Change of Power in the LPF, highlighting Hermiones new job. Ron said Pansy had sung her praises, but Hermione was too happy about her position as political adviser in the ministry too care.
On the sixth anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts Harry visited Hogwarts with no other than his boyfriend Draco Malfoy himself. The media outrage was horrendous with witch weekly receiving a howler from both Ginny and Hermione. Pansy had wanted to write one too, but Hermione could talk her out of it, seeing as she had also written an article about the matter and the message of the howler would be taken all wrong. Pansys article was better though, so much better, not only less offensive but also beautiful as ever.
The ministry was different from the LPF. There were more people and worse coffee and she had to fight to be heard. So she fought. Hard. Shakelbolt seemed impressed and Hermione really hoped for it to stay that way, because she would not pour over books and research to support her political assessment for nothing. More often than not, Pansy flooed her late in the evening and ushered her to bed.
Hermione spend her twenty-fifth birthday with Draco, Harry, Luna, Ginny, Blaise, Neville, Ron, Freddie and Pansy, as well as Patrick, the ministers assistant who she had become friends with over her work. Molly and Arthur flooed in too at some point, bringing more food. Later in the evening, the rest of the Weasleys appeared, Bill bringing Fleur and their baby Victoire. Charlie brought, surprisingly, Viktor Krum, who hugged Hermione before handing her a box of her favourite Romanian sweets. George came with a never depleting pot of ink and Hermione could kiss him.
In the end Pansy was the last one to leave.
The next Tuesday over weekly tea with Pansy at her favourite muggle café, Hermione realized she liked the vicious witch. Really, really liked her. She kept it to herself. She never knew what to do with a situation she couldn’t fully assess.
They spend new years’ together at the burrow and she didn’t say a word.
In January, Hermione attended the Lily Potter Foundation Gala as a guest for the first time. Ginny had outdone herself on the decoration and the guest list and Hermione didn’t realize that two sentences about her dress in Pansys article about the event were extraordinary. She had like her dress as well and had gotten many compliments over the night. She felt a little sad that a journalist couldn’t report on themselves, because Pansy would have surely outshined Hermione in the article otherwise.
Hermione gave an interview with witch weekly for the seventh anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts and Pansy got mad at her. Hermione waited on the bench at the Thames alone for a long time, trying to figure out what she did wrong. She mourned her parents even though they weren’t dead and wished once more they were there to give her advice.
After a particularly exhausting day at work Hermione stumbled into Harrys house through the floo and looked up to directly meet Pansys eyes. They were dark brown, but Hermione new they had a little bit of honey in them. Draco ushered the into the garden to talk out the tension. They screamed at each other about abandonment and fear and responsibility and then Hermione kissed her. When they returned inside, Draco glanced meaningfully at Ron, who had arrived by now, a glance which apparently confused Harry to no end.
Over the summer, more and more of Hermiones apartment was consumed by Pansy. Her clothes, her favourite brand of tea, her books, her writing equipment, her favourite wine in her fridge, her magic. Hermione could feel it everywhere. It is one of the best feelings she had ever experienced and she had had a lot of good happen to her and a lot of bad to compare it to.
On her twenty-sixth birthday, holding hands with Pansy was like breathing. Luna congratulated them and then, Harry got it too. Ron eyed Blaise and Patrick weirdly the whole night and after the liquor had made several rounds, Hermione got why. The two were involved somehow. Knowing Blaise the whole ordeal could take their whole lives, so she set her hopes on Patrick to take the reins. She learned that Freddie made the best cocktails in the whole world.
She got promoted to primary advisor in October, just a month before Shakelbolt announced that he would not take part in the next election. After Freddie jokingly said that Hermione should be the next minister, Patrick had slipped her the contact to enter the process. It still took a conversation with Pansy to convince her. Maybe this was what she was supposed to do. Hermione didn’t know, but it was what she was good at.
At the seventh Lily Potter Foundation Gala Hermione gained a lot of support even though she felt like she had been distracted by Pansys stunning dress the whole evening. She gained a lot of votes in many magical communities, gave public speeches and interviews and was reminded of how good she was at doing it all. Of course it was still exhausting and when Minister Shakelbolt made a speech in front if the black lake of Hogwarts on the eighth anniversary of the Battle, she cried into Pansys shoulder. Nobody blamed her. All her friends stood around her and all of them understood.
On the first of July 2006 Hermione Granger was called into office as the Minister for Magic of the British ministry of Magic. Shakelbolt congratulated her, so did Armand Juston, her counter candidate. After she had finally left her new office table and the cameras to go home she was overrun by a heap of people and wheeled to the floo-points on Ginnys lap. Pansy grabbed her hand and unceremoniously closed the floo-connection behind them once they landed in Pansys apartment.
On the fourteenth of September 2006 Hermione celebrates her twenty-seventh birthday with all the Weasleys, their plus ones, all her friends and her girlfriend in the Burrow. The article about the youngest minister for magic lays forgotten on the kitchen table as Molly hoards everyone to eat.
Later, in their bed, Pansy whispers in her ear just how stunningly pretty she is and swears that she will tell her every day for the rest of her life. Stunningly pretty. For ever.
The End