Dani: WHOA!!! Long time no see! Thought I would bring the dull dead story back to life with a new spirited author. I actually went back and fixed EVERYTHING that I had so far in this story. My eyes hurt cause it is now 2 in the morning. But I had to do it!!! Just had to! This story had to come back to life!

So yeah, deleted the old one and added more detail fixed all those mistakes I made at first. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Not mine! Thank you very much!

Hatred then Love

It was a bright summer morning in the home of the Weasleys. The Burrow creaked with a waking yawn of a few people that resided inside of its cozy little house. Gnomes giggled and ran about, crashing into flowerpots and away from the ginger cat that watched them with ferocious eyes. Colorful birds chirped and three howls flew in circles, with little screeching mice dangling in their beaks.

It was a morning like many others in the summer with a full house of Hogwarts students and ex-students. Red heads and brunettes stretched out muscles and scratched itchy heads. Out of habit, they rose from their warm beds and grumbled about cruddy mornings with their hungry stomachs growling. All except one.

Seventeen-year-old Hermione Granger lay in her bed, wide awake after a horrid dream. A dream that brought crystalline tears to her eyes and roll down sweating, reddened cheeks. It was so horrible. And the rapid beating of her heart was proof of it; each beat only increased her fear and need to scream out.

Harry… Sweet Harry that was like her loveable brother. Why did so many things seem to influence the danger he got in countless times? Hermione could only curl up into a ball and hope that her dream did not come true as Harry's sometimes did. It was frightening, that sometimes, for witches or wizards, their dreams could have already happened, just happened, or will happen—especially when you are no where near the incident.

In her dream, she witnessed Harry being roughly placed under the Cruciatus Curse by not just Voldemort, but many other loyal followers of him. Harry writhed and screamed in pure agony, begging for them to stop—begging for help. The dark wizards merely laughed and forced her and Ron to watch.

Voldemort mocked Harry, as he screamed to the top of his lungs. The dark lord was having a ball while watching the witnesses cry for it all to stop. He especially enjoyed Hermione's tears that ran in rivers. She could only wish that she was in the place of Harry, so he would not go what he did in that dream.

Hermione sat on the edge of her bed and look at the other twin sized bed that once held Ginny—she had gone down to make breakfast for everyone. With a few body racking sobs she buried her face into her hands. She wasn't too surprised to find herself covered in sweat and tears. Her blankets were tousled and her pillows were far from her head. What else could a nightmare do besides make you toss and turn in your sleep?

Memories of so much flooded through her head. That wasn't the first dream of You-Know-Who and his followers torturing others she had cared about so deeply. And after losing her parents… Hermione clung tighter to her bonds with everyone else. After that day of screams and fear, nothing was right for Hermione, everything went downhill. Dreams were no longer pleasant, she was edgy around children of the Death Eaters that snickered behind her back, and the muggle world, her original home, was no longer safe.

Staying at the Burrow, she had felt safer for she was around trained wizards, but it was nothing like Hogwarts.

-333-

Last summer

Hermione was perched in her comfy and moon-shaped chair, reading her Standard Book of Spells (Grade 6) on one hot summer afternoon of 1996 after her return from Diagon Alley. Her parents were downstairs talking about their only daughter. How fast she was growing, and how they needed to start trusting her. Her mother was frantic, wondering if her dear and adorable Hermione would find a suitable man. Mr. Granger however, chocked on his tea and told his wife that she was rather too young to be thinking about boys right now.

At the mention of boys, Hermione giggled. Her mother was the only one who knew about her few dates with Viktor Krum in the family. Girl talk between mother and daughter gave the answers Mrs. Granger wanted from the witchy bookworm. Mrs. Granger was ecstatic. But at the mention of breaking up, she immediately went blue.

Oh if her father knew, she would never get him to calm down. His face would turn red and he would demand to see this Viktor Krum that had gotten his daughter so smitten. Now Hermione couldn't really call it smitten. She would admit, she did have a crush on him for the first half of her fourth school year at Hogwarts but after a while, it faded away.

Hermione and Viktor were still friends and still wrote to each other, and he had found another girl, which she congratulated him on.

After finishing chapter 13, her cat, Crookshanks, was slowly hissing out the window. Hermione ignored it. It was rather normal for Crookshanks. There were so many little rodents and birds wandering around that it meant nothing when he hissed and scratched at the windows.

However, Hermione's lips turned into a deep frown when the ginger cat started snarling and scratching angrily at the window.

"Crookshanks, what's wrong?" She asked, placing her book facedown on her bed. She picked up Crookshanks off of the windowsill and petted him soothingly. But his snarls and yowls would not stop.

She looked out the window and saw a group of masked hooded figures. A shocked gasp left the witch's lips once one of them took off their hood and mask briefly. Hermione was looking at the dangerous grey eyes of Lucius Malfoy, which only meant one thing: the hooded figures were all Death Eaters. Hermione jumped away from the window with Crookshanks held close to her chest when she had thought the father of the most obnoxious boy alive, Draco Malfoy, spotted her.

The young girl gulped down her heart when she heard a loud knock downstairs—it sounded more like the stump of a tree being slammed against the poor white door. Hermione could only pray that her parents would take their time to answer the door (and why did the Death Eaters feel the need to knock?).

Crookshanks jumped from her arms and closed the door that was slightly ajar with his body while his mistress slowly walked backwards to her phone while staring at the door. Hermione grabbed the object she needed and found Harry's phone number right next to it. Three rings already and her parents had opened the door.

"Pick up Harry! Please, please pick up." She whispered in the speaker.

"Hello?" Harry's voice said after she heard something fall and break downstairs. A loud shout was muffled by her closed door.

"Harry, this is Hermione," She said still staring at the door hearing more things shatter.

"Hermione? How are you? You sound like you lost your voice." He said with a hearty-laugh.

"Harry, help me, there are Death Eaters here," She whimpered.

"Death Eaters?" Harry nearly screamed. He did not hesitate to give her orders. "Hermione, you've got to get yourself out of there."

"I can't, they're inside!" She dropped the phone with a clatter after she heard a scream from her mother.

"Hermione!? What was that?!" Harry questioned, obviously worried.

On the brink of tears she picked up the phone with shaking hands and replied to his question. "My mum… That was my mum. Harry please help me, I'm scared!"

"I'll get some help Hermione, Don't worry." He hung up and she hung up as well, as quietly as she could

She opened the door a crack and saw the Death Eaters pointed their wands at her father. Crookshanks pulled at the hem of her pants as if to tell her to close the door.

"Leave this house!" Her father bellowed.

"We are here to kill you and the mudblood." One of them said. He was stubby and had a squeaky voice. Just like a rat. Hermione bit her lip, to hold herself from going out there and against the rule for underage wizards. That rat… How dare he!

She looked at her mum. She was lying lifelessly on the floor. Her mouth locked in the form of a scream and eyes as wide as they can be.

Hermione chocked back on her tears and a hand immediately flew to her mouth to keep her from screaming.

Frightened and lost, she took a small breathe and closed the door inaudibly. She backed away from the door, her chest heaving in heavy pants. Why? Why her and her family? Why now? If she was trained for this, she would run out there, fearless of the battle ahead. But she was a nearly 16 year-old witch who shook in her boots at the mention of Death Eaters.

When her back had hit the windowsill, she yanked the glassy window open and stared down. Where was that wooden ladder that her father never moved? She nearly groaned when she saw how it was nearly nothing but vines, thorns, and roses. A crash, a yell and a sickening crack sent shockwaves through Hermione's body. At this moment, she did not care if she got a few scrapes. She had to get away, or her parents' protection of her would've been pointless after she too was hit by the Killing Curse.

Hermione threw her legs out of the window and gave a small glance to her cat who looked ready to attack the door.

"Take care, I'll be back." She murmured. Crookshanks looked at her, and then back at the door, his tail swishing back and forth in a predatory way.

The young witch muttered "ow!" as the climbed downward as fast as she could, thorns cutting against her arms and hands. The thought of being caught before reaching the ground bleed into her head and she dropped down a few bars of the covered ladder.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!" and a flash of green passed through the windows below her.

Hermione almost lost her footing at the flash and scream of her father. With deep gulps of air she clung onto the ladder. No… Two large chunks of her life were yanked away from her. This was not how it should've been…

She shook her head and dropped the rest of the way. As she landed on her side, she let out a few sobs of grief

Hermione! Get up! Get out of here!

Hermione nodded and obeyed what the voice in the back of her head commanded. Pushing herself up to a crouch, she crawled away, hoping not to be spotted through the window that reflected her torn home.

Once at that sidewalk, she bolted and did not dare to look back. The adrenaline rush added to her speed and strength to go on, not to mention her mind's words of encouragement (or so it seems) helped her push her past her limits. Hermione slowed her pace a few times to let her lungs breathe correctly, but the thought of Lucius Malfoy being right behind her, teasing her, she quickly ran on. Her legs and chest screamed for her to stop, but her heart and mind urged her to go on and ignore them, they would be thankful once she was out of harm's way.

Tears of anger, frustration, and fear were streaming down her cheeks and flying in the air behind her that howled in pain at the wetness of an innocent girl.

At the perimeter of a park, 3 miles away or so from her house, Hermione tripped, landing on her already damaged hands. She stayed that way for what seemed like hours. On all fours, still and poised like a statue. Her red striped shirt was drenched in sweat and her hair was matted and limp. Soon, she collapsed, crying like there was no tomorrow on the watered grass. No one passed her. Not a single soul. And she seemed grateful for that.

"Hermione?" A soft familiar voice said.

A hand was placed on her shoulder and Hermione jerked away in surprise. The muggle-born lay on her back, staring up at the most beautiful green eyes she knew all too well.

Harry was not alone. A group of witches and wizards surrounded him. Among the face of sorrow, she saw three familiar ones: Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, and Remus Lupin. Several of them were positioned for attack, wands hidden in their sleeves.

McGonagall made a move to help Hermione up but Dumbledore had stopped her, shaking his head slightly. The older woman had tears in her eyes.

At once, she felt safe; she could trust the Aurors and her teachers that came to her aid. She propped herself on her elbows and starred at Harry.

"Oh Harry, they're gone" She whispered to him.

"It's ok Hermione," he got down on his knees. "You're alive. I bet they're just glad that you escaped."

She knew he was trying to comfort her but it wasn't exactly working. Losing your parents and you're the only one to live, it just didn't seem quite fair at the moment.

"Harry they're gone," She said again. "They're gone, they're never coming back." She sobbed.

Hermione flung herself into Harry's arms and buried her face into his chest.

"It's ok Hermione, shhh…"He caressed her hair as she cried.

-333-

Hermione's sixth year was the worst year she had ever had. Everyone pitied her and that did not change her moods one bit. The Slytherins were laughing at her and Malfoy seemed bothered her everyday. It was almost like he was stalking her just to laugh coldly at her, insult her, and push her around. She only wished it would all stop. She wished that she could go back in time and kill those Death Eaters. But that was not Hermione Granger. Hermione Granger was not a murder like them.

Harry and Ron stood by her side, comforting her when needed to. She couldn't ask for any other to do so. Ron and Harry were perfect for her best friends. Ron did not argue once with her at all that year and Harry seemed to take her job as telling everyone to do their homework. Ron and Ginny even offered her a new home, which she gladly took.

This year was going to be different. Hermione was over her grief and planned to imprison those who killed her family and many others. Those Death Eaters would then have every bit of them drained forcefully out of them by the Dementors that floated around Azkaban and she would feel a bit free.

With lighter heart and head, she was going to finish the last her schooling bright and happy. Hermione was glad that she was made head girl, and got Outstanding marks on all her O.W.L.s, even though she had trouble paying attention in class. She would have to thank Harry for that. And maybe Ron, if he continues to act the way he did last school year: Sincere.

She looked at her alarm clock and it read 6 a.m. She sat up and found Crookshanks staring at her intently from the window. How he climbed up there from the grassy ground outside was a mystery to her.

"Morning Crookshanks." She said with a smile.

Hermione wiped away a few stray tears and walked out in her pink robe.