If Hermione thought that the pain she felt when she first fell through time and lost Harry and Ron and her parents and Ginny and Neville and Crookshanks and EVERYONE she ever knew, was painful, it was nothing, nothing compared to the pain she felt when she fell through time again and lost him
And it's a funny feeling when the boy, because that's what Harry was, tries to tell you it's ok, that everything will be ok and go back to normal and she just has to wait and – it's a funny feeling when the boy you used to love like the sibling you never had, would protect from any and everything tells you something like that and all you want to do is claw his eyes out until he's lying on the floor crying and bleeding and feeling a slither of the pain that is crushing you
And it's a funny feeling when the boy you used to fancy, had daydreams about marrying and kissing and growing old with speaks to you like nothing has changed and tries to hold your hand and speaks to you about quidditch and eats with his mouth full and – it's a funny feeling when this boy tries to do anything 'romantic' around you and you want to slit his throat because it would be 'romantic' to watch him bleed out and stop hearing his whiny fucking voice
And it's a funny feeling when the girl you used to know, used to try and protect from the dangers of the world after her traumatising first year experience looks at you with sympathy, because surely she knows what it feels like to be manipulated and coerced and charmed by – it's a funny feeling when you want to laugh at her and cut her and tell her she knows nothing and that she was nothing, is nothing, knows nothing about it at all
They won't leave her alone
Hermione can't work out if it's because they're worried about her (which they should be) or if it's because they're afraid of doing so (which they should be wary of also)
She hasn't spoken one word to them
Not since she found out that they dragged her back
Hermione is smart and even the thought of people from a future which shouldn't have even existed thanks to her, dragging her back to it without a second thought about how it would affect her, makes her head hurt and the palms of her hands from where her nails are constantly digging in
They took her wand
They don't know that he taught her how to do wandless and non-verbal magic and that she could eviscerate them in seconds if she wanted to, which she does, she's just biding her time
She has to get back
She will die trying to get back
She will kill them all as soon as she knows how to, because fuck them if they think that they could pull this little stunt again
Six years she was gone for
It was only one for them
The physics of that hurt her head too, but it doesn't matter, they'll be dead soon
She gets lucky when she's been back for three months – she refuses to call this place home when it's not, and overhears them talking about the spell they used
She gets even luckier when she been back for six months and they give her back her wand and encourage her to get out and about from Grimmauld
Their luck runs out eight months after they 'summoned' her and she kills them all quietly with an incredible amount of bleach in their food – the smile Ron had given her when she presented him with a homecooked meal almost made her want to stop the plan and kill him on the spot
The only thing she takes home with her is Crookshanks
"You were gone for four years" he breathes in her ear, stepping up behind her and encasing her in his arms when she appears in their living room.
She can't stop the tears and turns in his arms to look at the love of her life, her Tom.
"I'm home now."