Chapter 1- The Aftermath
Harry Potter wasn't sure what to do with himself. The war with Voldemort had been won, leaving much to be repaired and loss to be shared. The following months found harry with terrible nightmares of Voldemort returning, or worse, never having been defeated at all. He awoke most nights to a member of the Weasley family shaking him conscious, his throat dry and rough from screaming.
That morning had been no different except for the face that greeted him when the nightmare finally subsided was none other than one Hermione Granger. "Hermione." Harry spoke her name as he got up onto his elbow to grapple for his glasses and turn on the bedside lamp. "When did you get here?" Harry asked sitting up completely. "Just now, I heard you screaming. They aren't getting any better are they?" Hermione said as more of an observation than a question.
Hermione, along with Molly, as well as Ginny and Fred had tried to convince Harry to go with them to St. Mungo's to seek help from one of the many Healers for his nightmares. But after five months of urging him, they still got the same response from him and his unwillingness to open up to any of them about what he was truly feeling or even thinking.
Hoping to lighten the mood and redirect Harry's obviously wondering mind to a more positive direction Hermione pulled the opened letter from her back jeans pocket. "I got this right before I left the ministry to get here." she said and opened the letter and looked at it again for the probably millionth time. The words written on the parchment, at least to her, were a sign of a brighter future just around the corner. "Hogwarts will be reopening the day after tomorrow." she said and held the letter out to Harry so he could read the words himself. Hermione watched Harry carefully as he went over each word with scrutinizing detail. She wasn't exactly sure what reaction she was hoping the letter would arouse in Harry, she just hoped it would be something different than the stone wall and appearance that he was alright. Granted, Hermione understood why.
They had all lost a lot to the war. Maybe Harry most of all, not only had he lost his godfather Sirius, but also a dear mentor in Remus, as well as a dear friend in George. But the death that Hermione knew without a doubt put Harry over the edge, was the death of Ron. Each Weasley took the death hard and reacted in their own individual way. While, much like Harry, Mr. Weasley had retreated into himself and had only begun to show signs of improvement; Mrs. Weasley had become much more anxious about her children not being close and had even gone into hysterics when Ginny had voiced her decision to not go back to Hogwarts, and instead finish her magical studies at Beauxbatons- her reason being that going back to Hogwarts would simply be too much to bare without her brothers.
Charlie had remained with the family for some time before being forced to return to Romania to help with damages from the war. Percy, though having made amends with his family stayed a shorter time than Charlie, but had kept in touch throughout the months as he, and many other wizards and witches put the Ministry back together. Bill and Fleur were the last to leave, Bill wanting to make sure that his family wouldn't be falling apart after he left.
After many moments of silence and enough time for Harry to have read the letter three or four times Hermione broke the silence. "Harry," she didn't want to push him for any sort of reaction, but the fact he had been staring at the same spot on the parchment worried her. "I miss him Hermione. I miss, all of them. And it's my fault-" Hermione interrupted Harry's downward spiral with pulling him into a tight embrace. Harry wrapped his arms around Hermione, the letter still clutched in his hand as the tears started to flow. For the first time since the war, Harry cried, not just a tear or two but let all of the grief pour from him.
Once Harry had fallen asleep Hermione separated herself from him, but not before running her fingers through his dark mess of hair and kissing his scar. Hermione descended the rather long staircase of The Burrow to find George leaned against a window pain and mindlessly watching the coming sunrise. "George?" Hermione called out to the half deaf man, surprised to not only find him awake, but that such a gloomy look held fast upon a co-owner of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes face. George turned and gave Hermione a smile that she didn't fully believe, but knew George likely felt it was his job to remain the happy Weasley amongst all the pain.
"Hermione. When did you get in?" George greeted her and offered a hug that she graciously accepted. "About right before Harry started screaming. Couldn't sleep?" Hermione guessed after she had broken the hug and George shook his head and pointed towards the stairs that Hermione had descended. "Nah. It was my turn to see to Harry. Mum figured if we all showed our concern for Harry that maybe the nightmares would get better." George shrugged giving Hermione the impression that the nightmares weren't just keeping Harry from a good night sleep. "How is he anyway?" George asked and Hermione took a deep breath and sighed. "He's asleep, which I hope means he is okay. The news about Hogwarts seemed to just open a dam. Maybe now he can start to heal." Hermione said as she rubbed her upper arm. "What about you? How are you holding up?" George then asked watching her closely
Hermione tried to keep her upper lip still but the quivering was uncontrollable, and much like she had done for Harry, George embraced her as she cried "I know, I miss them too." He said quietly and stroked her hair. Hermione had just come to realization that she had fallen in love with Ron, and before she even had the chance to tell him, he was gone. After a moment of crying Hermione separated herself from George and wiped her eyes followed by a 'thank you'. "Hermione." Ginny walked into the kitchen and quickly embraced Hermione. "I'm glad to see you." Hermione said and Ginny nodded. "It is good to see you too. How is Harry?" Ginny asked, Hermione's eyes fell to the floor and George cleared his throat, motioning for Ginny to follow him so they could let Hermione be for some time. "Miss Granger." Hermione turned to the voice of Mr. Weasley and offered a smile, even though it was a strained one. "Mr. Weasley. How are feeling?" Mr. Weasley's smile wasn't any less forced than George's but she could tell that he was genuinely trying.
"Better. Actually I was wondering if I could speak to you for a moment about taking Harry to Diagon Alley. With Hogwarts reopening i'm hoping we can help Harry back into a more normal routine by going back to school." Hermione nodded. "I was actually hoping to talk to Harry about it as well, I think it would be good, for all of us, to try and move forward." Hermione took a shaky breath and continued. "Ron would want that." Hermione swallowed hard to keep the tears at bay. "Yes, so would Fred." was Mr. Weasley's sad response before patting Hermione on the shoulder and retiring to a more private room of The Burrow.
~~~Diagon Alley- Several hours later~~~
once the sun had finally rose above the horizon and the day had worn half away- and with much hesitation as well as a nasty attitude from Harry, him and Hermione had made it to Diagon Alley Hermione prattled on about the books that would need to be replaced as well as robes in hopes that she could convince Harry that Hogwarts was where he belonged. Hermione read aloud from the list of school supplies from both her and Harry's lists since Harry had no intention of actually participating. "Is this really necessary? A lot of people dropped out of school in the muggle world and made it just fine." Harry was in the middle of another bout of complaining when a light voice interrupted his sour mood.
"Is what necessary?" both Harry and Hermione turned to look at Luna. She had recently cut her hair and the once long brilliant blonde hair was now in a layered bob; making Luna look much more grown up than she had probably intended. "Luna." Hermione greeted her and Luna waved. "Are you shopping as well?" Hermione asked, maybe seeing that the other students were trying to move on, Harry would do the same. "Oh yes. It would be quite a shame to not go back to Hogwarts with it being restored and all. Plus I am rather curious as to what it will be like with Professor McGonagall as headmistress." Luna said and looked between Harry and Hermione. With a far off look in her eye Luna smiled and left the two saying that she really needed to finish her shopping before her head became too full of Wrackspurts to think well enough to completely take care of her list. With Harry in no better of a mood than before speaking with Luna, Hermione promised that they could stop at the Leaky Cauldron, though Harry, wasn't impressed with the offer. "Alright then," Hermione said, her brows furrowing with frustration at Harry's continued lack of participation. "What about The Three Broomsticks? We can Apparate there for a few butterbeers, after we finish." Hermione was stern with her words but was glad that Harry at least gave a slight nod. "Good. Now let's see…" Hermione returned to looking at their lists with Harry trailing behind as she spoke to herself about the few remaining items that needed to be acquired.
~~~~The Three Broomsticks~~~
Hermione and Harry had finished half of their drinks with Hermione starting to get an upper hand when her sentence dropped halfway as her eyes connected to something or someone that was located behind him. Harry turned in his chair to try to figure out what had captured her focus and almost wished he hadn't; sitting alone at a table with an untouched Butterbeer was a rather dejected looking Draco Malfoy. From what Harry had picked up from the radio -when he had actually been in the mood to listen to whatever nonsense was being spoken of- the Malfoy's had all but fallen from grace when they abandoned Voldemort at The Battle of Hogwarts and most of their colleagues had branded them cowards and traitors. Hermione dropped her gaze from Draco back to her drink then looked to Harry, her eyes full of what could only be categorized as fear, pain, perhaps the memories of everything leading up to the war was still fresh in her mind as well.
Hermione wasn't a person to particularly take pleasure in other people's pain, and she had never blamed Draco for anything that had ever happened to her –mostly because the only thing he had ever done was call her names, though even that was more due to his upbringing- but for some reason she couldn't help but feel that the Malfoy's got what they deserved. "Potter, Granger." both Harry and Hermione jumped and looked up at the blonde in shock, neither of them had realized he had moved let alone approached them. Draco looked as uncomfortable as both of them and it took a moment of awkward silence before he spoke again. "I hope I will see you on the Hogwarts Express, Both, of you." Draco's face contorted as he talked as if his words burned him or perhaps because of who he was directing them at; but he quickly left leaving no time for either of them to come up with anything to say, though he seemed genuine, Harry wasn't sure if there wasn't some sort of hidden agenda in his words. Draco's eyes had seemed deeper than before, perhaps it was the dark circles that encased his grey eyes, they seemed darker too, Harry was sure that Draco's eyes were silver… but he could have been wrong.
Harry sighed with the realization, Draco's words expressed that not only was he expected to return to Hogwarts, but that Hermione wasn't the only one who wanted him to be there. Most if not ALL the other students were gathering their courage to return to Hogwarts, simply because they thought Harry would. "Fine. I'll return to Hogwarts." Harry resigned himself and Hermione's face became that of shock, and a slightly darker emotion of loathing as she looked down at her drink, had that been truly all it would take to get Harry back to Hogwarts, Draco speaking to him about being there? Hermione loosened her grip on the Butterbeer and spoke about returning to the Burrow before it got too late and Molly began to worry. The last thing they needed was Molly Weasley to have another fit and declare that none of them would be leaving the Burrow.
With a mind full of confusion Hermione took the liberty of Apparating back to the Burrow. "I have a few things to take care of, but we will go together to Kings cross?" Harry was about to interject asking why they couldn't just Apparate to Hogsmead let alone Hogwarts before Harry remembered that Apparating onto Hogwarts grounds was not permitted.