Since I have just recently written a Hermione-Harry one-shot (Standing by your side 'til the end) and people were dissatisfied with the ending (I have to admit, it was a wee bit mean^^), I decided to make up for it by writing a longer story, beginning with the same starting point.

Disclaimer for the whole story: I do not own any rights concerning Harry Potter whatsoever! J.K. Rowling does.

The battle had been waging for hours, when Harry had struck the final curse, killing the Dark Lord. All remaining deatheaters had either fled or surrendered.

Even though the dark side had finally been defeated, there was no one near that was anything close to happy. There had been far too many losses, far too many people to mourn.

The Weasleys had all gathered around Fred's dead body, unable to come to terms with the death of their beloved brother and son. Molly was in sobs, and there was not one of them, that had no traces of tears in their eyes. The family stood there, and if it had been for another reason, it could have been a lovely picture of a family reunion, each of them in the arms of another. Even though they were all devastated, one could also witness the glint of pride in their eyes, Fred had died in the manner of a hero, fighting for the cause he believed in.

Harry on the other hand had some mourning of his own to do. He was crumbled across Lupin's body, crying about the loss of the only father figure he had had left. Yet again, he had somehow succeeded in winning over Voldemort. Yet again he had failed in protecting those he loved and cared for. Life was not fair.

Hermione was sitting in a dark corner in the Great Hall on her own. She hadn't wanted to intrude on the Weasleys' family privacy and she did not want to disturb Harry either. People had died, people whom she had sincerely and dearly liked, even loved, but she had not been as close to them as any of the others.

She was caught up in her own thoughts, thinking about her parents, wondering where they were and what they were doing and whether they would ever be able to forgive her for what she had done. If she was to find them, that is.

She looked at the trembling figure of her best friend, not far from her and felt so sorry for him. Life did not treat him well, he did not deserve this. He was the boy, no, by now the man who had once again saved them all and fate thanked him by killing all the people close to him. This was not how things were supposed to be. This was not how fairytales ended. Even though Hermione had never taken a real liking in this sort of books, right now, she would have given anything for that kind of ending. Sadly, it was not up to her to change things to the way she wanted them to be.

Days passed, weeks even, and the wizarding world was still in a state of shock. Many funerals had taken place, too many for anyone to count.

Eventually, first celebrations took place, but neither the Weasleys, nor Harry or Hermione were in any mood to take part in them. However, the wizarding world slowly but surely started to rebuild itself.

Harry had taken custody of Teddy, but he did not spend much time with him. He was still too much wrapped up in his own guilt and misery. He had momentarily moved in with the Weasleys, as had Hermione, but it was evident that they could not live there for much longer, the place had already been crowded before they all had been there.

Ginny had started to take care of Teddy, being very protective with him, not to say obsessive.

The situation was solved when, after two months or so, Bill and Charlie both decided to go back to their work. Even though no one wanted to see them leaving, they also felt that at last they had gotten some space to breathe again.

Hermione was lying on her bed, brooding. She was unsure whether it was time for her to leave as well or not. The final battle had made her realize that she did not really love Ron and he had obviously come to the same conclusion. Only a few days after the Battle of Hogwarts, they had broken up. It had been awkward at first, but they were back to being best friends now. The battle had also shown to Hermione how valuable time was, and that one should not postpone things. Who knew what might happen to the person whom you love, they might die not knowing what you truly feel for them.

Even though she truly had come to believe this, she did not have it in her to open her heart. She did not want to complicate things, and she for sure didn't want to ruin a wonderful friendship.

Yes, the deaths of so many beloved people had made her once again realize that she, Hermione Jane Granger was deeply and irrevocably in love with Harry James Potter. Yet she did not find the courage to tell him so.

There was also something else she really needed to talk to him about, but dared not to. She knew that Harry did not really love Ginny, he only made himself believe so. And she understood why he did so, Ginny looked just liked his mother and since there was none of his own family left, he had taken a liking of the first person that somehow resembled one of them.

Not that she didn't like Ginny, she was a lovely, cheerful person and they had become great friends over the years, but she was just not right for Harry. Her friend had one flaw that she was not willing to oversee: She took a liking for famous people, and Hermione had long ago come to the conclusion that Ginny did like Harry, but really loved Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived.

It was only now that she took into consideration that her own feelings for Harry might have clouded her opinion, but she knew that situations like that, she could still observe somehow objectively. She could not even name the exact time when she had realized how madly she was in love with Harry, she had always been good at suppressing her feelings.

However, she started to remember the sting of jealousy she had felt, when Harry and Ginny had become closer, but she had blocked it out, as she had done before. And then she had started to go out with Ron, a part of her really interested in him and wanting to get to know him better, but another part also wanting to see how Harry would react, wanting to make him jealous. To her dismay, he had rather behaved contrary to her hopes, encouraging the two of them and being happy for them. And, being the master of suppression, somewhere along the way she had "forgotten" about the second reason for going out with Ron, making herself believe that she was in love with the red-neck.

Luckily, Ron had also been rather "exploring" than really been interested in her or it might have turned out messy.

But when Harry had leaned over Lupin's dead body, all her old feelings had come back flooding in. It hurt her to see him so broken, she wanted to comfort him, yet felt that it was inappropriate, that it was not her place to do so, it was Ginny's. At the same time, she herself was longing for some comfort, and she found that it were not Ron's arms she imagined being wrapped around her.

Hermione sighed, she had once again allowed herself to be wrapped up in her day-dreams. But enough of that. It was not for the first time, so it was no big problem to her to once again push her feelings away to somewhere in the back in her mind, or so she thought. However, each time it seemed to get a little harder to really suppress her feelings, and she realized that she would not be able to do so if she wasn't to leave soon.

She swung off the bed, having made up her mind. She would leave the following day, going to Australia in an attempt to retrieve her parents.