Victorious -- Minerva

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Well, that was that. It was finally over. The Triwizard Tournament, the one nobody was sure they really wanted to happen, was finished and her niece, Molly Annelise Weasley had been victorious. Hermione had had to hide her pride as she presented Anna the Triwizard Cup and monetary winnings. She would be able to show how proud she was the next day; Anna would likely be celebrating into the night with her housemates and boyfriend from Beauxbatons, but tomorrow the rest of the Weasley clan would be around to celebrate Anna with a formal luncheon. She hoped the girl brought Oscar, as she had noticed how much happier Anna was this year, and how she lit up whenever the dark haired French boy was around. It was what she saw in Hugo around Xanthippe, and it was all she could ask for for any of her family.

Hermione’s job this evening was to wrap up the Tournament with the Hogwarts headmistress, her mentor Minerva McGonagall. Even more than twenty years out of school, Hermione still felt a twinge of nerves whenever she met with the older Gryffindor. She was Minister for Magic for Merlin’s sake; what did she have to be nervous about? Still, Hermione found herself having to take a steadying deep breath before knocking on the phoenix shaped knocker that led to the Headmistress’ office. “Professor...Minerva?” she called, checking her watch. She was five minutes early, but she didn’t know if a student or professor might have had an appointment with Minerva before her. She bounced up and down on her toes, waiting for the Headmistress to answer the door.

@headmistress

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The Tri-Wizard Tournament wa now over and the champion announced. No doubt all of Hogwarts was celebrating... But more then likely the Gryffindors' were celebrating the hardest. No doubt the party would never end if it wasn't broken up, so Minerva had already sent a note to Parvati asking her to break it up by two am. They deserved a little celebrating after all, but they also needed at least a little sleep. They still had exams coming up and classes in the morning.

By now though, Minerva had returned to her office. Sitting at the large desk and reviewing the scrolls of parchment that entailed the visiting student's leave from Hogwarts. They would have two final weeks at Hogwarts, before returning to their own schools in time for their own final exams. Then... a knock at the door. Ah, early. With a wave of her hand the door swung open, permitting the Minister access. "Please, come in." she spoke, rising from her desk and moving to the lounge chairs infront of the fireplace. "I take it things have finally settled down in the halls?" She might be permitting the students to celebrate but that didn't mean she wanted them causing a ruckus in the corridors late at night.

@hermionejean

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Hermione entered the Headmistress’ office, feeling that familiar swooping sensation in her stomach. She had very rarely been in this office as a student as she had rarely gotten into trouble, but she had been in McGonagall's office plenty of times as the woman had been her head of house. Most notable was probably at the tender age of thirteen, Hermione was granted permission to use a Time Turner to take every single elective class offered at the school. She didn’t look back at that year all too fondly; so much sleep had been lost over how much schoolwork she had, never mind the worry that her best friend was being hunted by a known murderer. Of course, that had turned out to be untrue, but the stress and anxiety had still been there.

“Thank you for seeing me Headmistress, I know it is getting rather late,” Hermione said as she took a seat, stifling a yawn herself. She knew the kind of ruckus that happened when Gryffindor won the Quidditch Cup, and since there had mercifully been no deaths during the Third Task, Anna and her companions could happily celebrate her win. She chuckled a little at Minerva’s next statement. “I’m pretty sure I saw my niece being toted away on the shoulders of her friends, and a few people heading down to the kitchens for some late night snacks for whatever party is being thrown. Other than that, the noise seems to have abated somewhat.” She doubted the Gryffindor Common Room was quiet, but she couldn’t hear anything from the office. She pulled out her notebook and opened up to a page near the end. “All we have left is the Farewell Feast and Procession, then Hogwarts can go back to worrying about exams and graduation,” Hermione commented with a small smile. Worrying about exams had been her own forte back when she was in school, though she didn’t know if anyone was quite like her that attended now.

@headmistress

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The headmistress lowered herself into one of the arm chairs, silently casting a spell toward the fireplace and reigniting the flames. It washed the office in a familiar warm glow. "Considering how many years I've taught here I consider it quite early still." years of patrolling the halls had given the woman a slightly nocturnal schedule. While she might not have to patrol them often herself, old habits were hard to break. "No doubt Parvati will have to send them all to bed in a few hours. If they are anything like their parents they will party as late as we permit it." Parties Minerva had broken up for years, including ones During Hermione's school years.

Folding her hands across her lap the older woman reclined back into the chair. "The foreign delegates have informed me they hope to leave in the morning of the eighteenth instead of the evening like they first expected. So we will need to move up the farewell feast to the night before. They'd like to give their students their own feasts the night thy return." personally it didn't matter to Minerva what day they left. At least this way it meant classes could adjust back to normal a few hours earlier.

@hermionejean

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Hermione couldn’t help but let out a tiny snort at Minerva’s quip. “Well it wasn’t me staying up so late enjoying the celebrations, especially not our third year when I decided to take every single elective offered at Hogwarts,” she commented with a wry smile. Her husband of course, and Harry had stayed up late into the nights after they won the Quidditch House Cup, but Hermione had normally gone to bed on the early side of the celebrations. Third year especially, since she was fighting with Ron at that point and had so much homework she felt like she was ripe for a mental breakdown. Why at thirteen she had thought it was a good idea was well beyond her. Lily Potter however, seemed to have inherited her parents’ partying genes; she’d heard the girl had arranged two dance parties throughout this school year, which having spent plenty of time with her niece didn’t surprise her. “They deserve it though; Anna won fair and square and her many, many cousins should be celebrating with her,” she finally said with a small shrug.

Getting back to business, Hermione rubbed her temples with her index finger and tried not to groan. It made sense of course that the delegates wanted to get back to their respective schools, but it did throw a wrench into the festivities they had planned for the first of June. “Very well, that is understandable,” she finally replied, pulling out a notebook and pen and jotting down a few notes. They’d have to alert the press, the different team members that had put together the tournament, and the heads of each department. In Hermiones’ opinion it was a bit much, but she supposed it made a good showing of the British Ministry towards their foreign comrades. “How has hosting them been?” she asked Minerva, curious to know what the Headmistress had spotted with her keen eyes.

@headmistress

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Ah, Hermione's third year. That had definitely been an interesting on. In fact all of Hermione's school years had been interesting. But the third was particularly unusual in a very different way. "No, you eer up late doing homework as I recall." the minister had been determined to take every single class possible, a feat few would be capable of. And a task that wasn't feasible today due to the destruction of all the ministry's time turners. Everyone seemed convinced there were none left in existence but the Headkistress often pointed out that there were how many magical individuals in Europe alone, let alone the world. Was it really plausible to think the U.K. Was the only community to have time turners? "And thankfully the tournament was much less exciting then the one during your fourth year." some people had been worried that the Purifiers might cause a scene. But the group had been almost completely silent the entire school year. It was almost like the storm had passed.

Minerva just nodded at the minister's frustration. Of course changing their departure time would cause some issues. At least they'd been given a bit of a heads up, so as to make the necessary changes. "I've only had the luxury of hosting them after all the hard work was done. Longbottom dealt with tha majority of the mess. But I did find a scorched wall the other day. Durmstrang handiwork I assume." she answered casually. According to Mrs. longbottom he was still in the hospital with no sign of improvement or idea what he had contracted.

@hermionejean

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Hermione chuckled. “I was indeed. I was doing that a lot throughout my time at Hogwarts if I can recall correctly,” she said with a smile. Of course she could recall how much she studied and did homework over the years; it had been a good eighty percent of her school life (alright more like eighty-five percent). But in all fairness the other percentage had been death defying stunts with Harry and Ron, so really that more than made up for it. “Ron was attacked that night, I remember that’s why you came back at one in the morning.” It was interesting to think back on that night now, knowing what they knew now compared to then. “Poor Sirius, he was just trying to take out Pettigrew before he got back to Voldemort,” she said, a bit wistful at the memory. Hermiones’ smile faded a little at the memory of the Tournament that had been held her fourth year. “Yes, that Tournament was quite...exciting, in more ways than one,” she agreed a bit dryly. She had encountered her first romance with one Viktor Krum during that Tournament, but even bigger for her was the fact that Lord Voldemort had risen again, killing Harry’s friend and fellow Champion Cedric Diggory for good measure.

“It’ll be fine, it’s probably better this way anyway,” Hermione said, waving a hand around, though she was dreading the meetings she’d have to arrange tomorrow to have her Magical Law Enforcement department assemble teams far sooner than they were initially told. They’d have to alert the press too, she thought as she suppressed a groan. Ever since Rita Skeeter, she had been admittedly a non-fan of the press, but she was Minister and this was a major event, so they had to be there. Hermione raised an eyebrow at Minerva’s accusation. “Perhaps, or it’s someone else who wants us to think it's’ someone from Durmstrang,” she said, sitting back. “If I remember correctly though when going over the files...wasn’t one of their students a pyromancer?” she asked, trying to remember the girl's name. It began with an M, she was certain. “Maria!” she exclaimed, finally remembering.

@headmistress