Harry arranged for Crabbe's body to be removed from the vault by the Ministry's medical team while Larkin had the death announcement written for the next day's paper. Meanwhile, Hermione was analysing the ring Harry had found in his office and trying to find any trace of magic on it. She didn't touch it even to move it and had scanned a perfect replica of it with her wand so she could easily manipulate it and get a better look. They told Larkin about it and while Hermione wanted a chance to analyse the blood spells protecting it, that evening it would be taken down to the Ministry curse breakers.

"Harry said I'd find you here."

Hermione looked up abruptly and saw Ginny standing in the door, holding her very pregnant belly.

"Ginny! I'm so sorry!" Hermione gasped, bringing a hand up to her mouth as she remembered her agreement to meet Ginny for lunch. "I completely forgot. Oh Merlin! I'm so sorry."

"It's alright," Ginny said, waving her hand. She waddled into the office and took a seat in one of the chairs, huffing slightly. "I sent Harry off to pick us both up lunch. He said something about you analysing a ring up here, though, so I had to make sure you weren't going insane."

Hermione snorted and assured Ginny all was fine.

"It's part of a new case," she explained. She gestured to the ring lying on Harry's desk. "We found it at the crime scene and it holds some type of blood magic. Harry can touch it, but I can't."

"Probably pureblood," Ginny said. Hermione nodded. That much had been obvious with the family crest emblazoned on it and the fact it had blood magic in the first place. "Any success yet?"

"Not yet," Hermione sighed. She sat up in her seat and smiled at Ginny. "I really am sorry for forgetting. I was so excited too."

"You'll just make it up to me next week," Ginny said with a wave of her hand.

Hermione promised she would as Harry stepped into the office carrying a large bag of food.

"I have the lunch order," he announced. He pressed a warm kiss to Ginny's lips and set the bag of food on his desk. When he pulled away from Ginny, he looked at Hermione and asked, "Anything?"

"Not yet," she replied, opening the bag and pulling out a box with a large 'H' written on it. "What did you get for lunch?"

Upon opening the box, she discovered Harry had stopped by the muggle Chinese place just outside Diagon Alley. She also discovered she was holding Harry's food and passed it over to him before reaching into the bag again and grabbing the second box labeled with an 'H'. Ginny happily grabbed the remaining box and tossed her feet up on Harry's lap as he took the seat beside her.

"Now, I know this case is top secret as always," Ginny said, twirling her fork in her noodles. "But tell me something. It's incredibly boring staying at home alone all day."

Harry smiled adoringly at Ginny even as she shoved a large forkful of food into her mouth and Hermione smiled to herself. Ginny looked at her expectantly and after Hermione had finished her own bite of food, she told Ginny briefly about the case. There wasn't much she could say as they weren't allowed to tell anyone the break-in was at Gringotts, but she did tell Ginny it had to do with an ancient pureblood family and a break-in.

"It's about time someone robbed the rich," Ginny said. She licked her lips free of teriyaki sauce and turned to Harry. "What's the muggle story you told me about? Where the man steals from the rich and gives the money to me?"

"That's not the story," Harry told her, eyeing her skeptically. "Do you listen when I tell you muggle stories?"

"Of course!" Ginny swore. Hermione snorted into her food and Ginny turned on her. "You know the story though, right?"

"Robin Hood, yes," Hermione agreed. Ginny gave Harry a look as if to say if Hermione had understood, he should have as well.

"I knew what you meant, love," Harry assured her, rubbing her swollen ankles. "I was just concerned you hadn't really heard the story."

Ginny waved him off and Harry smiled. The point was, according to Ginny, that whoever had stolen whatever it was from whichever pureblood family should be praised. Hermione refrained from reminding Ginny that technically she was a pureblood wizard as well, but Harry clearly didn't get the message not to remind her their own vault was full of old money.

"It's different," Ginny promptly told him. Leaving no room for argument, she added, "You're adorable and lovely. The Sacred 28 are the scum on this planet."

Hermione laughed.

Certain that she'd made herself clear, Ginny let the subject slide and attempted to reach for a fortune cookie. Unfortunately, her belly didn't allow for it and after several tries, she resorted to summoning it wandlessly and ate Harry's as well.

"I was going to eat that," Harry told her, but he didn't look too upset.

"Yes, but I'm pregnant," Ginny reminded him.

Just like he always did when he was reminded of Ginny being pregnant, Harry got a stupid grin on his face and Hermione averted her attention when he leaned forward to kiss her.

It wasn't much later when they had finished their lunch and Harry was helping Ginny to her feet so she could leave.

"Sirius and Remus are coming over to help decorate James's room," she told Hermione with a smile. "Merlin knows what they'll get up to if I'm not there when they arrive."

"You better get going then," Hermione suggested. She hugged Ginny as best as she could then returned to studying the ring while Harry walked Ginny down to the Ministry Floo.

Hermione spent hours studying the ring and examining the spells surrounding it, but she hadn't gotten very far by the time the spell breakers came to pick it up. She handed over her notes and briefly explained what she'd managed to figure out. Once the spell breakers left, there were two more hours before her shift was over, so she reviewed the file then went to find Harry to ask after what he'd found in the vault again.

"Not even trace magic," Harry said unhappily. Hermione frowned. "The entire vault was clean except for Crabbe and the ring. It looked like there may have been a fight, but no magic."

"What wizard doesn't fight with magic?" Hermione mumbled to herself. If there was one thing she'd learned early on was that wizards could almost always be expected to rely on magic. It was the first thing she checked at the crime scene because they didn't seem to think about their magical signature. Clearly this person had. "What was Crabbe even doing there in the first place?"

"Beats me," Harry shrugged, tossing the file on his desk. He leaned back in his chair and ran a hand through his hair. "Do you think Malfoy knows he was there? They were best mates at Hogwarts."

"I wouldn't say best mates," Hermione denied, shaking her head. "Crabbe and Goyle always seemed more like lackeys to him. Zabini was his best mate."

"Why don't we ask him then?" Harry suggested. Hermione frowned. "He'd know how to contact Malfoy and maybe then we could see what he knows."

"I doubt he'd tell us," Hermione said. Besides, she wasn't even sure what she'd say to Zabini or Malfoy if she saw them. She hadn't talked to either of them at Hogwarts except for a few times when she was partnered with Zabini potions and Malfoy in alchemy seventh year.

"He can't say no to the Ministry," Harry pointed out.

Hermione hummed in agreement, but it wasn't an option she was fond of.

"I'll contact him in the morning," Hermione said. "Maybe they'll respond to an owl. If not, we can pursue other options."

They finished up at the office and by the time they were pulling on their cloaks, Hermione was beginning to get a headache. Harry invited her over for dinner, but Hermione decided to skip in favour of a book and a hot tea.

"Tell Sirius and Remus hello for me if they're still there," she instructed.

Harry promised he would and they parted ways at the Floo.

As soon as Hermione returned to her flat, she hung up her cloak and kicked off her shoes by the Floo. She walked into the kitchen and started some tea, eyeing the coffee grounds in the cupboard. She much prefered coffee over tea, but with the headaches she'd been getting recently, she'd had to invest in tea. Coffee only made them worse and the tea her mother had recommended seemed to work magic even if it was muggle.

Once she'd brewed her tea and heated up the leftovers she had in the fridge, Hermione made her way into the sitting room and ate silently. She picked up her most recent book after she had finished eating and while she sipped her tea, she read.

While the book on werewolves was very interesting, her thoughts kept drifting back to the Gringotts case at work. The goblins had answered a few of her questions, but none of the answers were incredibly helpful and without knowing whether something had been stolen from the vault for sure, she couldn't be sure which direction the case would go. It was no surprise Malfoy was wealthy so to hear galleons had disappeared from his vault wouldn't be too much of a surprise. However, if it was an heirloom that had been stolen or anything else with the Malfoy name on it, then Hermione was more likely to chase down a different lead.

What was Malfoy even up to these days?

Her thoughts bolted a different direction as she thought about how he'd essentially disappeared immediately after Hogwarts. He only appeared in the papers occasionally and it tended to be for a business outing with Zabini. As far as Hermione knew, however, neither of them ran a business.

Crookshanks rubbing against her legs was what managed to break her out of her thoughts long enough to realise it was well past midnight.

With a groan, she got up from the couch and stretched. She left her book on the cushions and took her mug into the kitchen before following Crookshanks upstairs to bed. As expected, the kneazle jumped right up on the mattress and got comfortable while Hermione quickly changed and brushed her teeth. When she did finally make it to bed, Crookshanks was fast asleep.

"Goodnight to you too, Crooks," she mumbled, flicking off the light and curling up under the covers.