A/N: Many thanks to my wonderful beta for listening to my ideas and helping me make this story better. Also, I took a liberty with Prompt 71. I decided that five years was too long to have someone be a private servant and reduced that to one year.

This was written a few years back for a prompt fest on I believe The Petulant Poetess website.

71. As a condition of release from Azkaban after the final battle, Lucius Malfoy must act as the private servant of a wizard or witch for five years. Who gets him? What happens?

87. Researching the history of the Death Eaters, Hermione wants to find out why Lucius turned to Voldemort in the first place and finds herself becoming more and more enchanted by him. What happens?

After defeating Voldemort and dealing with the obligatory praise for her work in bringing about his downfall including attending a formal celebration and the less glamorous but equally necessary funerals, Hermione had left for Australia to bring her parents back home.

Even though she had stayed a few weeks after Fred's funeral, Ron had still given her grief over leaving. He just didn't understand how difficult it had been for her to relocate her parents and wipe all memory of her from them. They had not left on a good note, with him claiming she was abandoning him. She thought that was rich given how he had actually abandoned her and Harry during the Horcrux search.

Now she stood outside her parents' house in Perth trying to decide the best course of action. The memory charm she had cast on them had been incredibly complex and she feared that removing it all at once would be very traumatic and might even damage their real memories. Besides, she wouldn't feel proper just stealing away an entire of year of their lives, not to mention there would be far too many questions to answer. And merging the two lives abruptly could send then in a catatonic state. She would have to start small and take her time.

Walking up to the door, she rang the bell. Her father answered, and it was all she could do not to give him a huge embrace. "Mr. Wilkins?" she asked cautiously.

"Yes. May I help you?"

"Mr. Wilkins, I'm a good friend of your brother, and he's asked me to give you some very important information."

"I'm not interested in anything my brother has to say," he said tersely and started to close the door.

Hermione put her foot in the door, having expected this reaction. "Please, Mr. Wilkins. I know the two of you haven't spoken in years, but he told me this was very urgent. I won't take much of your time, please?" For a moment she thought the memory charm was working too well. She had hoped a feuding brother would provide her enough of an opening to get in the house where she could slowly begin to reveal the truth and undo the memory charm.

He looked into her imploring face for a few moments before opening the door to let her in. "Monica, we have company with news from Alan."

"Alan?" her mother's voice came from the kitchen. "What sort of news could he send?" she asked bitterly.

"I don't know. This young lady – what did you say your name was?"

"Hermione Granger," she replied simply, knowing they would not recognize it.

"Hermione Granger says it's urgent. You might as well come listen, too." Her father led her into the living room. She noticed that when her mother joined them, there was no tea, clearly indicating she was not a welcome guest.

"Mr. and Mrs. Wilkins, your brother wanted you to know that I am a witch and that you have been under a spell for nearly a year." She braced herself for their reaction.

They looked at her as though she had grown a second head. "A witch? Is this some sort of sick joke?" he father asked angrily.

"Not in the least," she replied as she pulled out her wand and turned the flowers on the table into butterflies. "Magic is very real, and there is a very small part of the population that can do magic. I am part of that population."

Emotions danced across her parents' faces: fear, revulsion, disbelief and more. "Wh-why are you here?" her mother finally asked.

"I am here to remove that spell. But it is a very complex spell and will take time since it will need to be done in stages. You see, it's a memory charm. You knew important information, information that could have gotten you killed. That knowledge was hidden and you were relocated to Australia to save your lives."

"But we have a happy life. Why would we want to change it?" her father asked, clearly a little afraid of magic being done on him.

"Because even though your lives are happy, you feel as something is missing, something that you can't quite remember." She saw them glance at each other and she knew that she was right. Even the best memory charms left some sort of residual trace on the affected person. "If you would like to discuss this, I can come back tomorrow." She really didn't want to leave, and she hadn't considered that her parents would not want to have their memories restored. If they didn't would she undo the spell anyway despite the potentially disastrous outcome? She thought she might. She had to have her parents back in her life.

"Our life before, tell us something about it. Were we happy?" her mother asked.

Hermione smiled broadly. "Oh, yes. You were very happy. You were dentists in England and had a very loving family. You didn't want to go, but you did it out of the need to protect yourselves from harm. You would want to go back to that life."

"Give us a moment," her mother said as she led her husband into the kitchen.

Hermione waited impatiently for them to return, forcing herself not to use magic to eavesdrop on them.

"I don't know why," her father said when they returned, "but we trust you. What do you have to do?" he asked as he and her mother regained their seats.

She sat forward on the edge of the sofa, eager to begin. "Due to the complexity of the spell and the fact that I don't want you to lose the last year of your lives, it will have to be done in stages. This will allow you to tie up your affairs here while you still retain the memories of being Wendell and Monica Wilkes. You will retain the memories of what you have done in the last year, but the personalities and memories of Wendell and Monica will be removed. When you are ready, we'll move back to England."

Hermione and her parents spent close to a year in Australia. With Hermione removing the charm in stages and allowing her parents time to wrap up their life in Australia, it had taken close to six months. The rest of the time they spent getting to know each other again.

Hermione hadn't realized how far apart from her parents she had grown and how much it had hurt them. They had accepted that she was different and belonged in a different world. Only now did she realize how much time she had spent away from them.

Due to the distance, it wasn't feasible to get owls from Britain. She did get the occasional copy of the Daily Prophet, but her heart wasn't in it. She wanted to escape a little while from everything in the wizarding world. Interacting with the Australian wizards didn't feel like the burden it had been in Britain where everyone recognized her and wanted to shake her hand. Here she was just another witch, not one of the heroes of the war.

Finally her parents felt ready to return home. Because they had arrived by magic, she took them home the same way.

When they arrived home her mother looked around the living room and started crying as she touched various pictures and mementos. "Everything looks like it did when we left."

"I put a spell on the house," she replied softly, allowing her parents to come to terms with being home for the first time in nearly two years. Now that she was back in Britain, she really wanted to get in touch with Harry and Ron. They three of them had communicated intermittently while she was gone since neither of the young men was much for letter writing.

After ensuring her parents were settled, she decided to head over to Grimmauld Place and see if Harry or Ron were there. If they weren't there she would check The Burrow.

Arriving at Grimmauld Place she was pleased to see a light in the window. Hermione knocked on the door and waited for Harry or Ron or even Kreacher to answer the door. She got the shock of her life when the door opened.

"How may I help you, Miss Granger?" Lucius Malfoy asked pleasantly.

Her mouth hung open for a few seconds before she realized how she must look. "I… er… Harry?"

"Mr. Potter is up in the sitting room. Shall I tell him you are here?"

She searched Malfoy's face for any hint of emotion, but it was completely impassive. "Er, no. I know the way." As she headed up the stairs, she noticed that he went down to the kitchen. She found Harry and Ginny in the sitting room playing wizard's chess. The two of them looked up and upon seeing her rushed her and nearly knocked her from her feet. She couldn't understand a word they were saying because they were both speaking at once.

"It's good to see you both," she said once she was able to take a breath.

"It's good to see you, too," Harry replied and Ginny agreed. "When did you get back?"

"This morning. My folks are pretty well settled. Sorry it took so long. Um…. Malfoy?" She looked out the door of the sitting room and towards the stairs down.

Harry scratched his head and looked at his feet. "Er, yeah. Well… The Ministry decided to do some creative sentencing. He's er… well…"

"What?" Hermione asked impatiently.

When it was clear that Harry wasn't going to answer, Ginny said, "He's Harry's servant for another two months."

"He's what?" Hermione asked, completely aghast. "How on earth…?" She was so flabbergasted that she couldn't complete a coherent sentence.

"Sit down. It's a long story," said Harry with a tone of voice that indicated he would rather sit through one of Binns's lectures than have to explain everything to her.

As she listen to him review the trial and how all the Malfoys had been exonerated, declared that they had been under duress during the war – never mind that Lucius Malfoy had been convicted of breaking into the Department of Mysteries and attacking members of both Dumbledore's Army and the Order of the Phoenix – how they had not participated in the final battle other than to aid Harry and the Order – never mind that Draco, along with Crabbe and Goyle, had tried to kill Harry, Hermione and Ron in the Room of Requirement – and how both Lucius and Draco had been more or less exonerated and sentenced to one year of servitude to a member of the Order. Harry had been assigned Lucius.

She didn't know where to start with how ridiculous the whole thing was, but she could not believe that the Malfoys had gotten off scot-free. "And he lives here?" she finally asked.

"There's a room off the kitchen. He cooks and cleans – I'm sorry, Hermione, but Kreacher passed away shortly after the war, but he died a free and happy elf. He gets his wand back if he fulfills the terms of his sentence," Harry finished.

"I see," she replied reluctantly. "And the Ministry just believed his story after it was clear that he had lied the last time since you said he went straight back to Voldemort upon his return."

"You weren't there. You didn't see the trial…" Harry started.

Hermione interrupted. "I didn't need to be there. He hosted that madman at his house—"

Ginny interjected, "It's not like he had a lot of choice, did he? Let him in or be killed."

"You don't believe this nonsense, too, do you, Ginny?" Hermione looked at her friend in disbelief.

Ginny sounded more confident than Harry had. "Harry said it – you weren't there. You didn't get to see the testimony, see his body language."

"But he tried to kill you!" shouted a clearly exasperated Hermione.

"I don't think he had the foggiest idea what the diary would do. And his actions, well our families have been at odds for a long time. I think he just felt it would cause some mischief, get me expelled." She sounded incredibly nonchalant about the whole affair.

"I cannot believe the two of you are supporting him. I'm going to the Ministry tomorrow and read through that testimony, and then I'm going to punch holes in it. He does not deserve to go free." She crossed her arms, letting them know her she could not be dissuaded. She would definitely look into this more deeply. It just didn't make sense that once again Malfoy was getting away with his transgressions. Surely she could go through the evidence and find some way to get Malfoy locked up. "And what about Ron? Where is he?" she asked to change the subject.

Ginny reached over and put her hand on Hermione's knee. Harry said, "He's, er, out."

She had half expected this. They hadn't parted on the best terms and it was unreasonable to think that he would have waited this long for her. "With who," she asked as she sighed.

Harry looked back down to his feet and she shifted her gaze to Ginny.

"With Lavender," she replied in a whisper.

"Oh," said Hermione softly. She had half expected that. A part of her thought that there was more they had to say. "And?"

"They're going to be married at the end of August," Harry replied without looking up from his shoes.

"Oh, I see. Well, I wish them the best." Her relationship with Ron was one thing she had had plenty of time to think about while in Australia, and she had come to the conclusion that it was probably for the best if they just remained friends. Now that seemed like a certainty, assuming Lavender would allow him to be friends with her.

"Did you want to stay for dinner?" Harry asked.

Hermione wasn't sure she was ready to deal with Malfoy and knew it would be awkward if Ron came home. "I really should get home and make sure my parents are doing all right. How about we meet somewhere tomorrow evening?"

Harry sounded a little disappointed. "Sure. There's this new place in Diagon Alley that's pretty good. It's next to Madam Malkin's. Seven?"

"Sounds great. I'll meet you there." She gave them both hugs. "It was great to see you both and I look forward to catching up. I hope you understand that the move has been a bit taxing on us all."

"Sure thing. Take your time getting used to being back," Ginny said. "Let me know if you want to get together during the day. It's the off season for the Harpies so practice doesn't start up for a few weeks yet."

"Thanks, Ginny. I'll send you an owl once I know my folks are going to be fine. And I guess I should start thinking about a job." This was something she hadn't considered until now.

"You know the Ministry would hire you. I think Kingsley could see to that," Harry offered.

"Thanks, Harry. I'm sure you're right – I just don't know what I would like to do. I've always had some goal before me whether it was acing all my courses, helping you find Horcruxes or bringing my folks back. It's just hard to realize that I can make my own choices."

He smiled weakly. "I know what you mean. See you tomorrow."

Hermione left and was glad that she didn't run into Malfoy on the way out. She still could not fathom what the Ministry had been thinking. That would be what she would do first thing in the morning.

It was late when Hermione returned home, so late that her parents were already asleep. And she knew that she would be up early in the morning. They had already indicated they wanted to get the house in order and weren't planning on going out. It suited her fine because she would be free to go to the Ministry.

When she arrived there, she saw that security had returned to pre-War standards. The watch wizard weighed her wand and then sent her to the archives. The witch in charge of the archives brought her the requested transcripts and Hermione carried them to one of the tables and began reading. It was very dry, but she was used to reading dry history texts.

As she read through the transcript, she was in utter shock. Malfoy had argued that he had no choice, that he had been forced to join the Death Eaters the first time around by his father, thus the Imperius Curse he had been under. He further argued that he had been forced to return to Voldemort and carry out his orders in order to ensure Draco and Narcissa's safety. Both of them had corroborated his statements and the fact that Draco had been forced to also join the Death Eaters was entered as proof. Obviously since Draco was underage when he took the Mark, it was not by his choosing.

A part of her had to admire Malfoy's argument that had gotten them both off with their light sentences. But she just couldn't bring herself to believe Malfoy had not willingly joined the Death Eaters. Though she did have to admit that Voldemort was not his contemporary, but she was sure that all the young Slytherins were clamoring to join Voldemort's pureblood agenda.

She returned to the desk with the transcript. "I'm researching the Malfoy family and was wondering if you had any other information from about the last fifty years." She figured that would be a safe number so that it didn't look like she was researching Lucius Malfoy specifically.

Hermione spent the rest of the day poring through Ministry records on the Malfoys. The witch at the desk had recognized her and had provided her with various Ministry investigations which had never led to charges.

She rubbed her eyes at the strain of reading so many pages. Looking up at the clock, she couldn't believe how late it was. She had been in the archives nearly the entire day. Finally noticing the rumbling of her stomach, she decided to get up and leave. It was still a couple of hours until she would meet Harry and Ginny for dinner, so she decided to have a light snack.

As she took her tea, she tried to assimilate and analyze everything she had spent the day poring over. Her notebook had page after page of notes about the Malfoys. While it had been enlightening, she still wasn't sure that she believed Malfoy's profession that his actions had not been his choice. After all, no one had made him give Ginny that diary – he had done it out of spite and hatred for the Weasleys. Clearly doing nasty things was in his nature.

Though she did have to admit that after they saved Draco, she could not recall having seen a Malfoy actively participate in the battle and Harry had told her about Narcissa saving his life. She needed time to digest this new information. And she thought a visit to the Daily Prophet was also in order. Perhaps she could ask Aberforth what he knew of Abraxas Malfoy as well.

It was close to midnight when she returned home from dinner with Harry and Ginny. They told her about the wizarding Britain's recovery and how Kingsley was the best thing to have happened at the Ministry in a long time. Even Percy wasn't being a prat anymore and was one of Kinglsey's top aides. George and Ron were running the joke shop and Hogwarts was going to reopen on September first with an entirely different way of sorting students.

Eventually the conversation had turned to Malfoy. Every argument she made to condemn the man, they had countered, offering insight not in the official record, but personal observations about his emotional state and that of the other witnesses. She just could not believe that her friends had bought into Malfoy's lies. She knew he was capable of sweet-talking the Ministry since he had done it during the last war, but she was sure that Harry, Ron and Ginny would know better. Clearly the Ministry records had not provided her with all the information she needed.

It was strange for her to think that so much had happened in the last year. She hadn't expected everything to stand still – though she had not expected to be gone for an entire year – but it was still strange for her. All her friends had found jobs and some of them had gotten married – surviving a war tended to do that to people – and she had done none of that. And instead of trying to get her life started, she was trying to… She wasn't sure what she was trying to do. Malfoy had been good to his word, so why was she so obsessed at proving that he was evil. It's not like he had ever shown the ambition to be an evil overlord – he seemed to prefer letting others get their hands dirty.

Finally she drifted off to sleep, details of the Malfoy family rolling through her mind.