All Is Fair

"In love and War"

All characters belong to J.K. Rowling, I did not own those characters or the original story/plot.

Hermione's hair was a tangled mess as she sat by the fire in the Gryffindor common room. It'd barely been a week since the war at Hogwarts had ended. Everything had been rebuilt, and Hogwarts was almost as good as new, but classes had yet to return and the whole aura of the place was a strange stillness that hadn't been experienced before. Most people had gone home after the defeat of you-know-who, wanting to be with family after such a triumph that shook the wizarding world. Ron Weasley, who Hermione had grown so close to through the events of the war, hadn't spoken to her since it ended. He opted to spend time with the rest of his family, which Hermione completely understood. It was a dark war, and it took so much out of everyone, especially that family that didn't exactly have much of a home right now. They were all housed within Hogwarts for the time being, as well as a variety of families who had lost their homes during their battles. Ron stayed with the rest of the Weasley's, where his mother and father were, along with his brothers and sister. Occasionally Hermione would see him slip up to his own dormitory, but that was only an occasional glimpse before he would disappear again. Perhaps it was because she wasn't paying enough attention, stuck in her own thoughts, that she didn't really notice him too much. But she didn't let it take a toll on her. It'd only been a week after all. Sure, things could change, and she knew that, but she didn't think that her relationship with him would change, not at this point, not now. They'd come far too close for anything to change. So many other things had changed to lead them to where they are now, so they couldn't just revert so quickly. She looked into the fire. It'd barely been a week, she reminded herself.

No one knew when classes were going to return to normal. Everyone supposed that they'd have to deal with all of the students and families associated with Hogwarts first, in order to recalibrate before anyone could think about classes. The only person who was probably thinking about classes was Hermione. At least she had Harry Potter around to break the silence that occurred within the Gryffindor walls. Harry stated a few times that he knew it was a time for celebration, they'd finally got rid of the darkest wizard of their time, they'd finally put an end to this war, they were all finally at peace here, and yet, there was still some sort of terror that laid in the air, as if one pin drop would change everything. It hadn't been the first time you-know-who had vanished, but this time they saw him die. No one really knew what to do next. They'd spent their whole time at Hogwarts preparing for this, and now it's over, no one really knew what to do, at least none of the students did. Hermione let herself think about her parents for a brief moment. She had obliviated them before battle, but now that it was over, now that she was alive, she couldn't bare to bring her parents the shock of having a full grown daughter, who's a witch nonetheless. She had no idea what to do about this whole situation with her parents, and the last thing she wanted to do was disturb them. The brightest witch of her age, and yet she had no clue what to do, her wits weren't helping her in her current situation.

Harry came down into the common room and sat beside Hermione on the couch in front of the fire. She noticed the fire reflecting in his classes as he gave a little smile, it was a somewhat sad smile, but still a smile all the same.

"What happens next, Harry?" Hermione inquired, bringing her legs up onto the couch so she could casually hug her knees.

"I wish I knew, Hermione. I don't think any of us have answers right now."

"I'm not sure if we could ever return to normal," Hermione stated, "Hogwarts will. I know it will. It's been through this kind of thing before. Hogwarts has been through so much for a school, and I'm sure it'll withstand this but…"

"But?" Harry repeated after her pause.

"But what about the rest of us? We've never been through something like this, Harry. I've read about the great battles that have occurred, and the things people have done, how buildings and communities have survived but there's nothing in books to show how the people got on. Who knows what they psychological outlooks are now?"

"Yeah, I know. We'll get through it though, we always do."

Hermione returned a half-hearted smile, similar to the one Harry gave her just before and she leant her head against his shoulder. She just needed warmth.

It wasn't just those who fought on the side of the good that felt there would be a strange change in their lives. Those who were led astray came back to Hogwarts and the Wizarding community in hopes of reconciliation. Draco Malfoy placed various items on his bed, preparing to leave his home and return to Hogwarts sometime in the next few days. Draco had opted to come home with his parents, not only because he knew their fragile state after the events that had occurred, but also due to the fact that Hogwarts would become a safe haven for those who had lost their families, orphans, those with no homes, and those who had no where else to go. He felt like his presence would seem as though he was mocking them, which is not what he or his family needed right now. Perhaps it was also a slight twinge of embarrassment that further prompted these thoughts. His family had once been seen as cowardly to those who were under the Dark Lord's regime, and now he felt the same twinge of emotion due to this cowardly outlook that had been thrust upon them yet again. He was on the losing side of the war. Not only that but the boy he hated and yet envied through school had saved his life while he chose to attack his. Malfoy's ideologies were really put into perspective, and he needed the time away from Hogwarts to think about everything that had occurred during this war, and everything that had changed. It wasn't like he was about to become friends with Potter or Mudblo- Muggle Born, Granger, or freckle faced Weasley, but he knew that what he had been conditioned to think and believe growing up had changed. Now he was forming ideas of his own, outside of what he was told to think, not that he never had his own ideas before, they were just secondary to his father's ideas, who he really did look up to growing up.

Lucius Malfoy had slimly escaped the clutched of Azkaban prison, as he cooperated with the ministry in order to catch the others that were included in Voldemort's 'crew'. He was a bit of a mess after the whole ordeal was dealt with, though, it had barely been a week and they were all sure that the ministry would be back to inspect further. Lucius did not want to speak to anyone inside the house. The place was so large anyhow, it wasn't like it would be hard for Lucius to scour away from the other two people in the mansion they called home. Draco's mother on the other hand, Narcissa, didn't seem to know what to do at all, and was at a complete loss for once in his life. It was only now that Draco had realised how strong his mother really was, how strong every mother is without their children really realising it. She was the one that really kept it all together in this family, while Lucius would occasionally fail at a task described to him Narcissa kept it together for Lucius, and for Draco. Even when Draco had to step up to the plate and he barely could, knowing he was set up to fail, Narcissa was always a rock within the family, she kept them together. But now as Draco put his socks into a trunk, he knew that his mother would be down stairs, sitting there, with tea, just staring off into the distance with not one word to say. She didn't know what to say. She didn't know what to do. The air was still around them, they had never been in quite this position before, and so she just sat their, drinking her tea. Draco wondered what she was thinking, perhaps she was deciding what their next move would be, where they'd go from here or what she would do with the rest of her life. Her life was dedicated to Lucius, and Draco, and Lucius was dedicated to the dark lord, so the dominos just fell until everything was still.

Draco placed some books into his trunk. They no longer had any house elves around their home, and even if they did, it would've felt even more strange amongst everything else, at least that's how Draco felt. He closed the trunk shut, doing the clips then lifting it up to bring downstairs into the living room. He grabbed his wand before closing his room shut. He didn't necessarily need to head back to Hogwarts but he didn't really want to be at 'home' either. Sure, one factor was boredom but the other was the fact that everything felt so fragile here, and he couldn't deal with fragile right now. Hogwarts wasn't always his favourite place in the world, probably because of the hogwash his father put into his head about everything that goes on there, but Draco new it was a good school, and he knew it's where he had to be right now. He dropped his trunk at the end of the staircase and saw his mother in the living room. She sat there with her tea, staring at the fire place. He called to his mother a few times but she blocked him out. He sighed and sat down next to her.

"Mother?" he questioned her state as he was closer to her now.

"Oh Draco," she startled, "I'm sorry."

"I'm heading back to Hogwarts," he stated.

"Oh. Did you pack everything yourself?" she looked over at the trunk by the stairs.

"Yes."

He felt like he should linger around the house longer, to make sure his parents were okay, but he knew that there was nothing he could do anyhow.

"Are you going to be okay, mother?" he looked at her with concern.

"Yes. I'll be fine."

"And father?"

"You don't need to worry about him."

Draco wasn't entirely convinced. She gave him a smile, it was small but her eyes mirrored a glimmer that almost reassured him. He never had to be concerned about his parents before. Even when he had to make up for Lucius' faults, he was never concerned, he was determined to prove that their family still had worth in their circle, but not concerned. Now he didn't have that sort of determination, he didn't have that on going battle for his family within their group.

He smiled back, showing that he understood, then got up and grabbed his trunk. With a wave of his wand he apparated and his mother took another sip of her tea, looking at where Draco had just been. She let out a light sigh before putting the tea cup back on its saucer.