[A/N: Hermione's beginning. Chapter 3 starts their interaction.]
Disclaimer: Not mine, unfortunately. Main story plot is mine, but the rest all still belongs to J.K. Rowling.
Lost. Lost and alone. She didn't know how she'd come to be this way. Wasn't it just a few years ago that she'd had everything together? That she'd been a hero? She'd risked her life and put everything she had into the battle. They'd won, and she'd been nearly uninjured. A few gashes here and there, yet nothing serious. She was full of joy when the battle ended.
However, the joy only lasted until she had a chance to glance around the battlefield. How had so many of their side died? It was unfair. There she was, barely injured, and she'd had little to no fighting expertise. How had someone as weak as her lived, while aurors and professors and much more skilled fighters died?
She felt as though she'd robbed them of their lives, and no one understood. After the war, she'd withdrawn from her friends. She spent most of her time training and furthering her education. She didn't know why she'd been spared, but she didn't want to waste the chance she'd been given.
Hermione Granger had always been a bookworm, but now she'd taken it to new lengths. The light was gone from her eyes, no longer shining with the thrill of life and love. Every day was a task, just another tedious 24 hours of life that should've belonged to someone else. She never thought she'd wish she wasn't alive, but in her darkest hours, her thoughts drifted to despondent plots.
She'd met a man named Daniel Herbert about a year after the war in her auror training. He was beautiful, charming, and patient. Not even a year later, they were married in a private ceremony. Less than a week after the wedding, he hit her for the first time. The last bits of hope that Hermione had left for her life were gone in the next years she spent living with that demon.
So here she was, on Christmas, alone in muggle London. She didn't know why she'd risked it, he'd be furious. She missed the thrill of Christmas… the joy and smiles. She wandered aimlessly, stopping by places such as her old house and the cemetery where her parents now rested. They hadn't lived through the war. Hadn't even made it to the final battle.
She continued walking, although she was quickly growing weary from lack of nourishment and her injuries. She knew she had to return soon and face him before his anger grew even further, but it was just so beautiful here. She looked up towards the sky, watching the snow fall towards her.
Smiling a tiny smile and allowing a tear to fall down her cheek, Hermione spun in a circle slowly. Spinning faster and faster, Hermione danced through the snow. Soon she was grinning and sobbing, falling to her knees. As her vision straightened, she saw a man in the distance sitting on a bench, watching her.
Before she could think anymore, she grew very dizzy and fell forward in an entirely ungraceful faint. Her last thought was of the never-ending cold, as she'd fallen into the snow. She didn't see the man rise from the bench and start towards her.