It had been ten years since anyone in Britain had heard from Hermione Granger-Weasley. Two days after the funeral of her young red-headed husband, and four days after Ginny's burial, she was nowhere to be found. The grieving Weasley family, torn and scattered to the war, anticipated her return within the year. Yet, she never came. Christmas, birthdays, holidays, all passed without a word. After two years, they stopped leaving a seat open at the table for her at family gatherings. Two years later, they sold her possessions, and the small house outside of London she and Ron had once occupied. Now, a decade out, her name was not hushed from occasional anecdotes, but rather accepted, and filed into the 'life-before-the-war' category.
Harry, on the other hand, moved out of Godric's Hollow and into the Burrow after the death of his fiancée and month-old son. Molly, George and Fred, who had moved back into the house after their shop was destroyed in a Death Eater raid, Bill and his daughter Madeline welcomed the Boy-Who-Lived back with open arms, claiming him as the dark-haired brother and son they had never had. Charlie had died in Romania during the first month of the war, defending the dragons he so loved; Arthur fell defending his youngest children during the Final Battle. After Harry, Ron and Hermione's sixth year, Percy was never heard from again, and was rumoured to have died at Peter Pettigrew's wand before Pettigrew was killed by Remus.
In the decade after the war, the Weasley family grew both in number and strength. Both Molly and Bill had remarried: Molly to Kingsley Shacklebolt, Bill to a Russian witch, Anna, who had been on exchange from St. Petersburg. Both Fred and George married on the second anniversary of the Final Battle, to Hogwarts' sweethearts, Angelina Johnson and Katie Bell, and had produced numerous grandchildren for Molly to spoil. Harry remained single, as he spent most of his time tracking down Dark witches and wizards, at least during the two years after the war.
Life in wizarding England had slowed to its normal pace. Marriages and births were properly celebrated; deaths were now properly mourned. Each day was lived much the way it had been during the years before the Dark Lord. All, it seemed, was finally at peace.
That is, until an article in The Daily Prophet broke the silence.
"American alchemists develop lycanthropy cure"
By Luna Longbottom, Special Correspondent
Werewolves have a new reason to howl. The American Ministry of Magic's Department of Medicinal Potions released details Monday about the new 'wonder-potion' Wulfsend. At a press conference in Washington, DC, Potions Mistress Hermione Granger, PhD, explained her team's success. "By using properties of Muggle chemistry, my team and I were able to enhance the potency of the Wolfsbane's elements, and recombine them to create the Wulfsend."
Art Klopsky, the head of the Department of Werewolf Registration, when asked how the potion would change the lives of werewolves, answered "It would obviously change their lives for the better. We are already developing werewolf reintegration programmes." No word yet on the status of such programs in other nations.
Mr. Kingsley Shacklebolt, head of the Auror Department, speaking from his London office, offered this comfort to the families of Fenrir Greyback victims: "He will be given the potion, tried by the Wizengamot, and punished to the full extent of the law." Werewolves are not susceptible to the effects of dementors and are therefore not often imprisoned in Azkaban. As to the change in legal status for registered werewolves, Shacklebolt's only comment was "We shall see what the Minister decides." A spokes-witch for the Minister answered by admitting "The matter warrants further investigation before a decision may be made."
Remus Lupin, Order of Merlin First Class, a werewolf of almost 40 years reacted jubilantly to the news of the potion. "My wife and kids are overjoyed, as am I. We had known Hermione was experimenting with a cure when she left Britain, but had no idea she would finish this quickly." It is rumoured that Mr. Lupin, a former Defence Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, will be returning to the position after the administration of the potion.
Ms. Granger, a member of the illustrious Order of the Phoenix and a Hogwarts graduate, is also known for her development of the cure for HIV/AIDS. She received the status of Potions Mistress after apprenticing with world-renowned alchemist Gustav Cartier of Beauxbatons Academy of Magic. She also received her Muggle PhD in biochemistry from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
Hermione unplugged her laptop and stowed it in her bag in preparation to land. Rolling her neck, she sighed. The flight from Washington to Paris had been as many of the other flights she had flown: long and tiring. In her mind the glaring sunlight of the French morning did not help matters. She had one more meeting with the French ministry before her train to Edinburgh.
Why she had chosen to take the train, she did not know. Though trans-Atlantic Apparition was not possible, popping from France to Scotland most certainly was. Perhaps it was the desire to relive a part of her past, to see what she had not in ten years. She smiled at the irony: she would connect at Kings Cross Station. Perhaps, if she were lucky, she would meet an old acquaintance come to pick up their child for the Easter holidays.
She shook that thought from her head. She did not come back to revisit her past, though, she would certainly be required to divulge pieces of it to Remus when she visited. She would go to give Remus the cure for his disease. She would visit the Ministry and receive permission to extend her patent into the country. She would take the meeting with Minerva merely to appease her former mentor. Three days she had allotted herself. In three days, she would be back in Washington, in her lab, where she belonged.