"You amaze me, sometimes."
"Why?"
Hermione stroked a finger along Asher's bare shoulder, her expression serious. "Because you could have become so angry, and you didn't. You could have decided you hated the world, and instead you only were wary of it, and hated yourself instead."
The words touched Asher's heart in a sweet, painful way, and her throat clogged. She'd never put words to how she felt about what had happened to her, and why would she? Who would have been there to listen? She turned her face away as tears pooled. "Your pillow talk needs work."
Hermione reached across the bed and turned her face back with a gentle tug. "It's only the truth. I didn't say it to you to make you cry." She leaned in and kissed a tear from Asher's chin, brushed black hair from where it hid her eyes. She smiled into them, hoping it would show what she meant. "But you did ask."
