Hermione Granger sat there on the couch, a blanket wrapped around her legs and tears streaming down her face as she drank from the red wine bottle. The glass she had initially wanted to use was smashed on the ground in hundreds of pieces. Her hair was a bundle on top of her head and her shirt was far too baggy for someone her size, falling off her right shoulder nearly exposing her breast. But right now she didn't care.

It was her birthday and she went in for her yearly checkup with a Healer from St. Mungo's, when she had given blood and they came back to read her test results she figured they would say what they had said for the past seven years, that she was perfectly healthy for her age and to continue what she was doing, but not today. No, today she got the worst news of the life and she couldn't bear to think about it anymore. She left in a hurry and watched as her feet led her to Gringott's.

So she came home after shopping and spending nearly every dollar she had left in her bank account from her Christmas bonus she had neglected to spend for the past six months and cracked open a bottle of red wine. She threw the glass on the ground, changed into a pair of pajamas and turned her music on high to drown out her sobs as she drank.

Hermione continued to drink until she heard someone knocking on her loft door. She ignored it though, placing down the half empty bottle of red wine on the living room coffee table. The first bottle was smashed on the floor along with the glass from earlier. Her hair had large pieces of tendrils falling in her face, sticking to her wet cheeks. Her face was red and puffy, tear stained and her eyes were stinging from all of the crying she had done in the past four hours. She shut off the music and continued to sit on the couch until her loft door was pushed open and her roommates came barreling in, filling the room with joyous laughter which made her sob even more.

Five half-drunk men came barreling in through their three-story townhouse door, laughing giddily until the saw the sight in front of them. It was an unfamiliar sight, an unfamiliar one indeed. Hermione Granger, the strongest woman they knew sat drunk and sobbing on the couch, broken glass was strewn all over the floor, and loud music was circling through the sound waves of the atmosphere which nearly took out all of the wizards hearing.

Theodore Nott was the first to respond, walking over to the large muggle stereo and dicking with the damn thing until he managed to shut that blasted noise off. He starred at Hermione confused, more confused as to why there was broken glass all over the floor.

Marcus Flint quickly walked over to Hermione and peeled the blanket from off her legs and dragged her petite body into his lap, consoling her sobs as she buried her face into his chest and cried.

Blaise Zabini did a quick spell to pick up the mess of glass in the center of their living room and sat himself on top of the coffee table, taking the wine bottle and scrutinizing the label.

Adrian Pucey, shut and locked their town house door and walked over to his mates, seating himself next to Blaise, clutching on of Hermione's hands in between one of his own.

Draco Malfoy, stood by the door, completely dumbfounded at the mere sight in front of him. His first thoughts were what the hell had happened and when did Granger become so unstable? He had never seen her like this. The six of them had lived together for the past four years and this was never something he had experienced before.

After the war, Hermione had befriended Adrian Pucey, Marcus Flint, and Blaise Zabini quickly. The three men had no involvement with the war and it was easy for her to forgive them for their Pureblood prejudices and soon she was best friends with the three of them.

Nearly a year after their friendship had blossomed the four had set off on a vacation to Italy where they thought Hermione would enjoy to get away from London because she had found out weeks prior to the vacation that both of her parents had been murdered by a pair of rogue Death Eaters. The boys had made it their sworn duty to protect her after they had experienced her pain of her parents dying.

While they were in Italy they had invited two of their closest friends, Draco Malfoy and Theodore Nott. Although it was hard for Hermione to allow the two males in, eventually she subdued her stubborn side and accepted their apologies, hoping that she could become as close of friends with them as she was with Adrian, Marcus and Blaise.

In the beginning, Draco had seen how protective the three were of Hermione, especially Marcus, the two seemed to act more like a couple then a pair of friends, but when asked if they were dating they would shake their heads no, but not before Marcus would smirk and Hermione was blush a red as a rose.

And now here they were, living together nearly four years later in a large three-story town house in the middle of wizarding London. It was a very popular Lane that they had lived on, notorious for large families to live on, but that's just what they were, a large family.

Draco shook himself out of his thoughts and strode over to the couch and seated himself next to Marcus, looking at Hermione with concern.

"What's wrong Cara?" Blaise asked as she pulled her face away from Marcus's chest to glance at the men surrounding her.

"It's my birthday," She stated.

Adrian chuckled, "We know that Kitten, but there's no reason to cry about aging."

"I went to a Healer today at St. Mungo's, they ran the usual tests like they always do, and I was happy. I expected them to tell me that everything was alright and I was healthy like they had last year. But today was different," She explained feeling more tears welling up in her eyes.

"Well what did they say?" Marcus asked.

"I've only a year to live."