+ONE

Hermione clicked her tongue as the quill dropped onto her desk as though it were annoyed as she was. Whatever had persuaded her to write a memoir, she had no idea. Who would want to read Hermione Granger's story of the war?

Apparently every muggleborn and half-blood between the ages of eleven and twenty three. She pulled her wand from the matted bunch of curls perched atop her head. Wordlessly shooting a spell to fetch tea and stop the kettle from whistling, Ginny would be here in three hours- for lunch- and she was nowhere near the deadline she'd set herself. In fact, she was nowhere near any deadline at all. She had made a whole scroll's worth of attempts, at least half another of promising starts...but it all added to nothing. Frustrated she hurled her wand into the chair full of cushions.

An irate meow had her scooping her mangled and old cat from the pile of cushions and reworn robes. They both were in need of fresh air, she decided, as he wriggled out of her arms. It was a golden morning: the sun blooming just beyond the valley. Her little cottage was secluded and perfectly suited for her. She remembered a morning, very unlike this one, where Harry, Ginny, Neville, and Luna had helped her move into it. It had been pouring rain, and the boys huddled near the hearth while Luna brewed them all tea (something-or-other was living in her new stove, supposedly).

"You know we all think he's an arse, right?" Ginny leaned against the door frame opposite her.

She and Ron had been happy; a couple everyone adored and celebrated with. Everything had been going well. But then the nightmares, and the flashbacks returned a year to the day it was all over. They were all broken again. Too many beloved people were gone; Teddy's bubblegum pink hair and tender personality reminded her painfully. Harry had held the squirming child on his hip while talking low and seriously as Teddy's attention drifted. Ron had squeezed her hand painfully as they watched Harry stiffen when the question they'd all knew was inevitable was asked. Even from the distance, Hermione knew Teddy was asking the same question Harry once had of his aunt and uncle.

Teddy wiped with chubby fingers at his godfather's eyes. She welcomed Teddy into her arms to give Harry a moment; parting ways with Ron who joined his family at Fred's headstone.

She had felt a hand, like the cool grip of a grindylow, wrap around her shoulder. It was familiar and brought her back to damp, frigid woods. To loneliness one only knows as they watch their best friend self-destruct, leaving you in a world where you feel isolated and unwanted.

After the wounds reopened, she and Ron were never the same.

They never spoke about her parents. They never spoke about Fred. How could they? They never talked about what he did when he left. They never brought up what happened while her and Harry were hunting horcruxes.

On the Third anniversary, things went to shit. Ron came back from the pub late. He made a comment about her brain taking up too much space for emotion. She remarked he never had any feelings for anyone but himself.

It was the beginning of the end. They alternately screamed at and held each other until there was nothing left to be said; and what had been said was fraying at the edges. They'd worn each other out. And so when he asked her to leave, she did.

And it had been raining. And no one had known what to say. Except Ginny. And Luna.

"She's right," Luna piped up, as if they hadn't been across the room. "Ronald Weasley is really a douche-bag. That's what muggles say, right Harry?"

Harry and Ginny laughed till tears came, and Hermione opened her eyes, realizing she liked her new home...

Teddy had started showing magic there. Mr. Weasley heard about his new promotion in the very spot she was standing. Harry had asked Ginny to marry him there, twice (not counting when he'd been drinking). Her home had become a new headquarters for old friends. Even Ron found himself comfortable there when it became appropriate to try for friendship again. On the fifth anniversary Rita Skeeter announced the impending memoir of "Hermione Granger, witch, scholar, and hero extraordinaire". Only after being threatened by Neville AND Harry did the witch admit she'd run into Luna Lovegood traveling abroad for The Quibbler, who had mentioned off-hand what Hermione had been asked by the ministry.

"I don't see why you're so upset," Luna had said, managing charm even through Hermione's temper and the floo. "You were always smart in school. I just assumed you'd say yes."

Neville and Ron, of course, were on her side. Until. Until Harry said she should do it. Then not one Weasley took her point of view.

So here she was, only a month away from her publishing date without a manuscript.

Ginny was working on her third shot of firewhiskey while Hermione fretted between her chow mein and the section in front of her. Ginny convinced her that no one would care about "the exposition" (what she called "the little kid stuff") and only wanted to know about the war.

"But when did the war begin?" She said, highlighting another passage she might be able to salvage. Might.

"Where it began." Ginny rolled her eyes.

Hermione shook her head. "I don't think it's that straightforward. Was the first war ever over to begin with?"

"-Yes." Ginny groaned.

"Or did it start with the philosopher's stone?"

"The what?"

"-Sorcerers. It was probably fourth year, if anything...Poor Cedric."

"Pooooooor Hermione's virginity taken by Viktor Krum."

Hermione flung a piece of cabbage at her friend. "You're not helping. And you know very well Ron was my first."

"I try to forget knowing that at all, actually." Ginny flicked it into the floo.

Despite Ginny's intentions to be encouraging, all she managed was to frustrate her. Which helped her to be more convicted and decisive. Which of course, Ginny had interpreted as a victory.

"You'll be through with it soon. The Hermione Granger I know never turned in an assignment late."

This is my first Dramione/ any HP FF ever, so it may take a couple chapters to get to the smoochy stuff ;)

I have a bit of establishing to do, more for my benefit than anyone else's I'm sure haha.

RnR, ideas etc welcomed :)