Chapter 1: Helping Hermione

Author's Note: I do not own the rights to this. The rights to Harry Potter are owned by the magnificent J.K. Rowling!

The war took a tole on everyone; losing so many friends is not an easy situation, but at least the Weasley family was still in tact, and Hermione, Harry, and Luna were always there.

Curled up in a blanket, on a chair facing out the window of Hermione and Ginny's shared room, Hermione sat staring out into the woods, off in her own world again. This was the only way she knew how to cope. Her frizzy brown hair lay haphazardly across her shoulders and down her back, her eyes not moving an inch from the branch in which the nightmare she was reliving in her mind was taking place. The war had been over for almost three weeks, yet she had barely moved, barely spoken to anyone, and everyone acknowledged her wishes and gave her space.

After the war, Mrs. Weasley would kindly bring up a plate of warm dinner to Hermione, other than that she would not eat. Mrs. Weasley knew that the war had taken a huge tole on everyone, but to end it without her own family to return to must have been excruciatingly tough. After a week or so, when she finally felt comfortable enough to emerge from her room, she would go down to dinner, but meal times were uneasily quiet for the Weasley household; no one was completely back to themselves quite yet. Other than the occasional dinner, Hermione never left her seat in front of the window. It was a Thursday, late in May, that Ginny had decided to ease her friend back into interacting with others again. She knew how shaken up she was, though, so she visited her by herself for the next week and a half, bringing her hot chocolate and sugar cookies from time to time.

She had been making progress, and Hermione could tell that it was in her best interest, so she tried as hard as she could to not be stubborn, even though all she wanted was to curl up in front of that same window and drift off into her own world again, or to curl up on her bed, underneath twelve blankets, and read until the words blurred together. Ginny convinced Hermione to accompany her to the living room for a game of Exploding Snap while the boys were out playing Quidditch. Luna was also out, looking for Nargles as usual, and her parents were out shopping in Diagon Alley for some new cauldrons and robes. Hermione agreed. She enjoyed Ginny's company; she liked how they could talk about almost anything and it would not be awkward or annoying. Hermione always wanted brothers and sisters, and Ginny was as close to a sister as she was going to get.

While playing Exploding Snap in the middle of the living room, the both of them wrapped snugly in their comforters and quilts, the fire crackling in the brick fireplace behind them, they spoke of their usual topics: school, boys, and the war. Although it was only May, they could not return to Hogwarts for the last term as the building was destroyed. And to Hermione's astonishment, a great deal of witches and wizards in their year have specified that they are not returning for their final year in September. As far as Hermione knew, she was going back. She enjoyed school. It was one of the few places where she got to excel and be her own person. She had decided on going even though her best friends, Harry and Ron, said that they doubted they were heading back. Ginny, being a year younger, stated that she is returning, and although she was worried that might inconvenience her relationship with Harry, they both agreed that returning next year is the best thing for her. Ginny and Harry's relationship has been going strong; whenever she was not trying to convince Hermione to leave the comfort of her room, she was off snogging, or talking about snogging, Harry. Hermione was quite used to this by now but it did not in any way make her feel any better. Although Ron had shared what he thought was a "passionate kiss" with her amidst the battle, she unfortunately did not feel a any connection, therefore avoiding him like the plague when she could, Just another reason to stay in my room! She thought. It's not that she didn't love Ron, she did! Just not in that way; she loved him like she would love a brother, like she loved Harry. She only wished he felt the same.

Halfway through a game, Hermione on edge from the last three turns of cards exploding in her face, the boys barrelled in from the cold to warm up by the fire. Hermione was just starting to enjoy herself when her mind forced her back into wanting solitude more than ever. As the boys clamoured in, she wrapped her blanket in tighter around her body in an attempt to escape from reality once again. Ginny noticed a familiar wall starting to form around of Hermione's mind. This pissed her off. She wasn't mad at Hermione, but at her brothers and even Harry for wrecking her progress; she just wanted her friend to stay with her, to communicate with her since she didn't have anyone else when Luna wandered off, which was often.

"Erg! Bill! Charlie! Fred! George! Ron! Harry! What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?" Ginny was furious now. She felt bad for yelling at Harry, but she was mad that he hadn't noticed that she'd actually gotten Hermione to come downstairs for another reason than dinner in over a month!

"Hey, there's no need to get mad..." Charlie attempted, though the looks from both Ginny and his brothers showed him that attempting to rationalize in this situation would not work out very well.

Fred, however, did not have any sign of annoyance towards Charlie's comment.

"Yeah, we're just in here to warm up. It's cold enough to freeze the fire from a Hungarian Horn Tail out there! And besides, we wanted to see our favourite little sister!" Fred said smoothly as he tapped Ginny on her freckled nose.

Ginny's mouth couldn't help but turn up at the sides a little. When her brother acted like this it was extremely difficult to be mad. The only reason that her face returned to a frown was because she glanced over to witness Hermione's take on the situation when she noticed the corner of her blanket sweep past the doorway and disappear. She was gone back to her room. I'll have to start all over again!

"What's wrong, Gin?" asked George, the smile of seeing his brother suck up to his little sister slowly vanishing from his face.

Ginny unclenched her fists, and plopped down on her pillow on the floor with a big sigh and pointed to the now empty pillow across from her.

"She's gone. She's alone again and it's all your fault." For a moment there, Ginny had sworn she actually saw meaningful hurt flash across Fred's face as he looked past the crowd of people standing behind him to the entrance to the corridor.

Thanks for reading! If you have any suggestions/comments on what I just incorporate into the following chapters please inform me! I'll be glad to hear your thoughts!