Written for the RLt Fall Event: The Green Room. Not chronological but will make for a single cohesive story.
People still whispered about when it happened. About when she broke, she broke bad. The whispers reached her ears; she just didn't hear them anymore is all.
It's not like she changed all that much, if anything she was more like the girl she was growing up than the witch they had built legends around.
They used to call her bookworm, nerd and everything else their tiny minds thought was hurtful. Oh, that hurt used to be so sweet. Sweet like a bee sting in May, throbbing sharply as it was warmed by the sun and quickly whisked away by one of her boys.
They were her boys, both part of her as much as her hair or books. If they could see her now they would understand, Harry intuitively and immediate; Ron would lag behind but make up for it with his fierceness.
Of all the words used to describe her these days; cold, calculating, heartless, emotionless, none of them were correct.
Of course it was her boys who laid it on her soul, they had said it with love and awe which entwined it even deeper. Above the intelligence, wit, loyalty, passion and knowledge Hermione Granger was ruthless.
That was all she was anymore; without her boys, all that was left of the brightest witch of her age was an unchecked ruthlessness.