The house was quiet apart the distant sound of music as he walked through the house and upstairs. He knew where she would be. He climbed the second flight of stairs with the music getting louder as he entered the room. Suddenly the music stopped.
"I thought I would come see how you were."
"How did you get here?"
"Oh, flu powder."
"Of course."
"How have you been?"
"Okay."
Harry moved closer to her. He knelt in front of her and looked at her, he couldn't bear to see her like this. Her face looked thin and gaunt, there were little black bags under her eyes, which were swollen from her tears and sleepless nights.
He looked into her sad eyes. She held his gaze for a moment before averting her eyes onto the floor.
"Hermione, when was the last time you slept?"
"I dunno. Couple of days ago."
He sighed, "Why don't you try and get some sleep. I'll stay here and tidy up."
Hermione didn't say anything; he took her hand and led her out of the attic room down a small flight of stairs and into her and Ron's bedroom. He helped her into bed then sat at her side.
"Try and get some sleep now."
Hermione slumped onto her side. "I can't sleep, I hate sleeping in this bedroom by myself." One small frustrated tear fell from her eye.
"Come on now, your not alone. I'm here, why don't we give you a spell to help you slee..."
But before he could finish, she had angrily jumped in, saying "No! No magic! Not now, not ever."
"You don't mean that." Harry said calmly
"Yes, yes I do. I don't need magic anymore, I can do it by myself. Now leave me alone."
Harry was stunned by her reaction to his suggestion of using magic - magic practically ruled her life.
He shut the bedroom door and went down stairs. The house was an utter mess. He went into the lounge and started to tidy the dust-encased mess. He removed crockery into the kitchen, but where the crockery had been was clean and the area around it was still encased in dust.
Once the lounge was clean he started on the kitchen, there was a pungent smell in the air and Harry soon found where it was coming from. On one of the work surfaces there was a small blue lunchbox. Inside was a lunch that must have been weeks old (two weeks 3 days to be exact.)
He was just about to throw it away when a voice of horror behind him said, "What are you doing?"
She had made him jump. "Oh, Hermione. I was just gonna throw this out."
"Don't touch that! You can't touch that, that was his!" she screamed at him.
"Hermione it's mouldy."
She ran to him and snatched it off him.
"It's his! Leave it alone! Never touch his things!"
She went into the lounge, stopped and looked around.
"What have you done?" she could hardly breathe "What have you done?" Everything from that day was gone, and this room would never be like how he had seen it, like it was the last time he was here.
She slid down onto the floor.
"It had to be left. It had to stay the same. Why did you do this?!" Her anger now built up inside her she stood up and through her tears she shouted.
"You bastard! You fucking bastard!" She lunged at him, but he grabbed her and wrapped his arms around her. She struggled to get free, but it was hopeless - he kept his grip on her, hugging her firmly.
Her anger melted into sorrow and her body shook with her tears. He gently lowered them to the ground, still keeping a tight grip on her.
"It's ok, let it out." he kissed her head and what had just happened hit him hard in the chest. She was in so much pain. He couldn't bear to see her in so much pain.
"Why did he have to go Harry? Why him?"
"I know, I know." Now he couldn't control himself, his own tears now poured from his eyes. He cried as hard as she did.
Together they sat and cried, both hearts raw, both souls shattered.
After what seemed an eternity, Hermione's sobs subsided but neither of them moved. They stayed entangled in each other bodies and what seemed after a decade of silence Hermione said, "Harry, I'm tired."
"Okay, let's get you in the bath and I'll cook dinner then you need to get to bed."
He helped her up stairs, and then he ran her a deep hot bubble bath, lit some candles and left her to it.
He walked along the hallway into baby Gwen's room, she was staying with Hermione's parents. The whole reason Harry had gone was to see if Gwen could home, but from earlier it was obvious that she couldn't. Harry decided that Gwen could stay with him for a while.
As he walked down the stairs he looked at the wedding photos, at all those smiles. He shook his head and carried on walking down stairs.
He knew that gone were the days of Hogwarts, joint holidays, drinking, laughing, loving smiling, and of the inseparable trio.