Chapter Text
It was five years after the war had ended, lots of good people lost their lives and it only felt like now that things were getting back to normal. For Hermione anyway. She had gone back to school for her newts but it had felt so odd to her. She easily got a job in the ministry, not in any particular department, the minister of magic, said she could work ok whatever took her fancy.
When she went out people were fawning over the brains of the golden trio. Anytime she went on a date it was clear they wanted the fame that came with dating her. She had stopped going on dates two years ago and felt much better for it but was getting lonely.
This was why she went against her better judgement and entered a new magical contest called magic is blind, based on a muggle TV show.
She wasn't allowed to tell anyone she was entering. There was a big buzz in the magical community about it. Witches and wizards didn't have tvs but they had started opting in for watchable radio. If they tuned in for certain programmes and said the spell they could watch aswell as listen.
It was an ingenious piece of magic, created by the Weasley twins after she explained television to them one evening at Fred's bedside after he had lost leg during the battle of Hogwarts.
She surprisingly found herself excited about joining in the show. It was 20 women and 20 men. They met each member of the opposite sex behind a wall so they couldn't see each but could talk easily and they had to preform some magic to impress each other. As far as she was aware there was three rounds. In the end you chose one person to go on a proper date with.
This had her in Florish and botts looking up creative spells on the weekend before it all started. She bumped into Harry.
"Hi Hermione, of all the places I could have bumped into you, I should have guessed it would have been here." Harry beamed at her.
"Just looking for some new books, how are you Harry?" She smiled back.
"Very good, Ginny is glowing, so excited for the little one to arrive in a couple of months. Why don't you pop by and see us next week?"
"I'd love to but I... uh.... have a big project at work, that's going to take the next couple of weeks." She quickly lied.
"If your still upset at her for saying you'll die alone if you don't go on a date, it was her hormones talking and she feels terrible. Please I know she really wants to see you. " Harry pleaded.
"Already forgotten and forgiven Harry. I promise I'm busy for the next few weeks but we can catch up after." Hermione says grabbing a three more books at random, adding them to her already large pile in her arms and heads to the till.
That evening she opens a bottle of wine and plans to flick through the books until she finds something really interesting, but ends up reading in depth and trying out every spell she comes across.
She was particularly fascinated by a spell that made water bounce like a rubber ball until you ended the spell and it would splash. She could have great fun pranking the twins with that. It was only the third spell in the book, she would try it one more time then move on.
Just as she was seeing how high it could bounce, her floo roared green as someone entered. Losing concentration the ball fell on her head and she was soaked.
"What the...?" Ginny asked.
"Just trying new spells, you distracted me. Everything okay?" Hermione enquired.
"No you're avoiding me, we usually hang out every week and it's been at least three and Harry says it's gonna be a few more since you're too busy with work. But you have time to play with spells. I said I was sorry." Ginny almost cried.
"Ginny..." Hermione sighed. "I promise you're forgiven, I've just got stuff going on that I can't talk about."
"Can't or won't?" Ginny seethed.
"Can't, you've got Harry and Ron and Lavender, not seeing me for a couple of weeks is not going to hurt you. I'll be back by the time the little one is ready for the world."
"Back? Where are you going?" Ginny asked confused.
"Oh I... I meant back in your life." She replied not looking at her friend.
"Hermione, somethings going on, please tell me, otherwise I'll just worry until I see you again."
"Fine, but this goes no farther, I'm not even meant to be telling you." Hermione said with a sigh.
"I swear I won't tell a soul." Ginny replied, happy her friend was sharing.
"I'm going on that magic is blind show, I know it's unlike me, but I do feel in a rut and this might be a way to meet someone nice."
"Oooooooh!!!! I was going to invite you to watch it together, but this is even better!!! So excited!!! Thank you for telling me." Ginny squealed as she hugged the brunette.
They spent the rest of the evening chatting about who they thought was going to enter and drinking hot chocolate.
The rest of her weekend was spent learning fun spells and trying not to panic about what she had let herself in for.