"You know, I couldn't always wait for backup either," Hermione says at last, lips pressed thinly together as she hears more about Steve, and the habits that he once had. She wonders if she wouldn't be able to better identify with the choices that Steve's made. There's a good chance that the Ministry's inaction in the past is responsible for it, but sometimes, Hermione feels that she better understands the choices of the ITF than she does the IPD, that she'd join the former sooner than the latter, though she's learned to appreciate both. "I don't... I don't know that I'd be here if I always waited to act by the book. I used to, before I realized that breaking the rules was necessary in certain situations."