"You'll be okay, of course."
It's what Ronald Weasley maliciously snarls at her as he slams the door in her face and her life falls off the shelf and shatters.
"You'll be okay?"
It's what her divorce lawyer asks her, after he's packed up his suitcase and is ready to apparate from her flat. She clutches the papers he's given her to her chest and tries to tell him yes but somehow, the words won't make it past her mouth. He nods at her briefly and closes the front door behind him as softly as possible. Still, she makes sure she hears the crack of his apparation before she closes her eyes.
"You'll be okay?"
It's what Harry Potter says, tentatively, as she rubs fiercely at her puffy eyes and nods stiffly. She wants so desperately to say, No, Harry, I won't, not ever again, but she's been making excuses for Harry Potter ever since the first time Ronald Weasley insulted her and the savior of the wizarding world did nothing, didn't even give her the dignity of looking back at her. She knows better than to demand he do something, just hug her and tell her everything's going to be all right or maybe even fucking take a side for once in his life, because she knows there's no chance it will be hers. She wouldn't do that to him, anyways, make him choose between his two best friends. And it doesn't matter what she does, because she knows Ron has already been to see Harry.
She has finally stopped making excuses for Ronald Weasley.
"You'll be okay?"
It's what Ginny Weasley desperately calls out to her but too late, she's already walking, back straight, away from the Burrow forever. A pathetic, last-ditch attempt at reconciliation that has no real sincerity behind it, just a simple desire not to be caught in the wrong. A heartless question that only serves to dig a deeper wound, a question asked right after Ginny uncomfortably told her that she couldn't ever see her again because, well, Family first, right? She doesn't answer and it's this that makes Ginny even more uneasy, makes her try to fix it with a tentative, It's just that, with all this, and Ron, and you, and... She leaves before she can hear the rest. She doesn't need any more shit today.
"You'll be okay?"
It's what Molly Weasley asks her when she comes to take back the wedding gift from the Weasley family, a set of beautiful antique silverware that used to belong to the Prewett brothers, Molly's famous older siblings. She stares at the silver dessert spoon and says nothing, remembering their honeymoon in Venice when Ron fed her chocolate mousse with the same spoon and told her how beautiful she looked in the seaside light. Told her he'd always love her forever. She remembers she paid for that honeymoon, and closes the door in Molly's face.
"You'll be okay?"
It's what the children at the orphanage ask her, with wide eyes and sweet voices. They don't know what's happened but they know something has, and for once, all of them feel for her. For her. Rosie, the young girl she and Ron were going to adopt after they found out she was barren, hands her a precariously glued-together mass of wood and metal. It's a windchime! I made it just for you. She beams.
Just for you. She hugs Rosie so hard the girl loses her breath and hangs the windchime on her front door and loves it and loves it until Ron comes by to take the jewelry and slams the door and it falls off and shatters.
"You'll be okay, love."
It's what her mother gently tells her when she is three, right after she trips while running up the hill in the park and scrapes her knee and gets grass stains all over her new dress. She stops sniffling because Mommy says she's going to be okay, and so she will, and takes her mother's hand. They walk together past the orange trees and Mommy stops and bends down by the side of the path, plucking something and holding it up for her to see. Look, Hermione. It's a dandelion. But she's seen hundreds of dandelions before and there's nothing special about them so she pulls on her Mommy's hand because she wants to get to the Rose Garden, which is especially pretty.
Did you know, love, that if you wish on a dandelion and you blow away all the seeds, your wish will come true?
Since that day, she has wished on 382 dandelions, but not once has she managed to blow off all the seeds.
Until today.
She's older now, but some childhood memories will never lose their magic.
"I'll be okay."
Really, I will, she says, and she's surprised to realize that she means it.