A/N: This story started out as a plot bunny and kind of emerged from there. I haven't written a fanfiction in a long time, so I apologize if I sometimes get OOC. Feel free to offer any advice or tips! And lastly, please have patience if my updates are sporadic. It's summer and we all know that things get hectic. Lol.

Summary: After the final battle, Hermione is left with no job and no place to live. Most of Wizarding Britain is destroyed, people are missing, and much is left in destruction. She is left fending for herself out on the streets of Britain, barely making enough to survive. Out of sheer luck, an anonymous benefactor contacts her, telling her that he is aware of her adept knowledge of the sciences and will provide her a way of living as long as she comes to work for him on a research project. What happens next is a long story. Are you willing to listen to it? HG/SS.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Harry Potter characters, settings, or plot lines expressed in the books. However, I'd like to. Hehe.

Prologue

It was over.

It was finally over.

She didn't know what feelings to express. Joy was a possibility, but with all of the deaths how could that be appropriate? Sorrow was another, but the good had finally defeated the evil.

Dropping to her knees, she stared wide eyed at the open grassland that the battle had taken place in, right in front of the castle nonetheless. Bodies of former Order members lay bloodied and broken among the corpses of Death Eaters. Hermione had never thought that the battle would have been as spectacular as it had. Voldemort and Harry dueled it out in a glorious show of colored hexes and spells. Death Eaters and Order members had fought endlessly, without food or sleep, for almost an entire twenty-four hours.

So many had been lost in that ugly war. Her old professors Fitwick and Sinistra both died in a duel with Bellatrix (who later died courtesy of Harry), and some of her classmates including Dean and Seamus were also murdered in the brutal effort to regain sanity in the wizarding world. One question still poked at the back of her mind: How would the wizarding world bounce back from this, and if they could, would it ever be the same? She felt as if she had lost everything, every shred of a connection to her old life with comforting fireplaces and books at her side. The world seemed so raw, so brutal, how would they survive?

She was shaken out of her reverie by a bandaged hand on her shoulder. Harry. If there was anyone that she was indebted to more than anything it was him. He sacrificed his childhood to fight for the good of mankind…all of mankind, including defenseless muggles.

"Come on….there's still some Death Eaters who escaped and who knows if they'll come back for revenge." God he looked so old. He was only seventeen, but in mind and spirit he could pass for an old man. He was so young but had seen so much…

"Right," she mumbled. Rising to her feet she allowed him to guide her to the infirmary for the treatment of her wounds and out of the dangerous battlefield.

Later that day, a short ceremony was held for those who were lost. Then, a ceremonial burning of the bodies was held in a symbol of their spirits rising to watch upon the rebirth of the wizarding community. Minerva gave a short speech about the valor of those who fought, and then the crowd departed. Some went to the reception being held in the Great Hall, and others returned to their homes to rest and mourn the loss of their friends and family.

Hermione didn't know what to do. She knew she couldn't handle seeing the grieving faces of those who remained by returning to the reception at Hogwarts, but she had no where else to go. Harry and Ginny had left to return to their hiding place out in the country. They still couldn't risk being found by Death Eaters, especially since Harry rekindled their relationship which made them all the more vulnerable to attacks.

Pushing a stray curl out of her eyes, she sat down under an old oak tree and tore the grass with her fingers as she perused her other options. Ron and Lavender had also departed, back to his brother Charlie in Romania until the dangerous time was over. Lavender was expecting their first child, and they didn't want to raise it in this mournful atmosphere.

Hermione didn't have any family anymore since her parents were killed in a brutal attack on muggle London, and whatever belongings she had left were either lost or destroyed.

Yes, it was true. She could return to Hogwarts, but what would she find there? Depression and emptiness for sure. The atmosphere seemed dead inside of the castle, and that feeling permeated into the surrounding territories.

She decided to rent a room for a night at The Leaky Cauldron until she found a solution to her current debacle. She had enough saved up for a few nights at the Cauldron and a few meals, but not much else.

Making her way towards the apparition point at Hogwarts, she took a last look at the destruction and a slight 'pop' announced her departure, which went unnoticed by all except one.

Author's Note: Please Read and Review!