Disclaimer: come on, we all know I don't own Harry Potter. Was Drarry featured there? Did anyone have creature inheritances? No. So, it's not mine.

AN: I'm trying so damned hard to work on other pairing besides HPDM, this one will not be Drarry (it's mentioned heavily). This is all Hermione. This is another one shot, something else I'm trying to get the hang of so tell me if I'm any good. This one is based on God Send Me An Angel by Amanda Perez (3 my iPhone and all its music)

Warnings: Religious implications (always figured Hermione would be the one) and bad italian. Mine blows. How do you say that in Italian?

Pray, Mia

Hermione Granger seemed to apparate already walking everywhere she went. Tonight was no different. She apparated mid step and walked amongst the marble and stone ruins on contemplatively on her way to the Pantheon. She had already been to the churches she had visited as a child, the chapel in Hogsmeade and the one in Godric's Hollow. These were important places to her, spiritual places that she had visited throughout good and bad times in her life. Ron had left her for some pretty thing at the office five months ago and Hermione couldn't be arsed to remember her name. Now, her heart broken and shattered, she prayed.

She knew Harry and Draco were worried. For the first month she didn't really eat or sleep much at all. She thought she'd die without Ron. Harry had been the one to kick in the door to her flat and drag her out, hitting her with water spells and yelling at her. Draco had even gone as far as taking on the wolfsbane potion cases from her Department that no one wanted so he could visit often. They thought she wouldn't realize what he was doing. Still, she had continued praying. This was her foundation, she reasoned. First, she had prayed that whatever deity would bring Ron back to her. She would forgive him and already had. They didn't answer this prayer so she knew it wasn't meant to be. Instead, now, she prayed for strength. She prayed for wisdom. She prayed for her own angel.

Hermione entered the Pantheon reverently, walking quietly as she lit incense. The sounds and smells brought her back to years ago, just after the war. Hermione smiled as tears filled her eyes and she dabbed at them. She had been the one to mess up all those years ago. Ron hadn't yet come around and Harry had just started seriously dating Draco. She'd been so lonely, spending as much time with the blonde Slytherin as she could. They were quite close, she and Draco.

Draco had returned her friendship by introducing her to Blaise Zabini who, Draco felt, was perfect for her. She and Blaise had hit it off right away bursting into immediate screeching and roaring about a controversial potion that had ended up in teary laughter at one another. They'd only been together three months but she had cared so deeply for Blaise and left him for Ron when he'd come around, convinced they were meant to be together. It was the right thing to do. She and Ron would settle down, make babies and grow old not tour the world and attend lavish parties. Draco hadn't spoken to her for six months and she hadn't seen Blaise again.

What had Ron ever really done for her, she wondered as she eased herself on her knees in front of the goddess to look up reverently. Blaise had wanted to help her learn things, had implanted a deep love for Italy in her heart. When he'd discovered her deep love for her spirituality and all things religious he had brought her here. He thought the Pantheon was a very Hermione type of place and had swept his arm out to showcase it saying, as he did whenever she asked him what she would do about a problem, "pray, mia." He'd given her a silk handkerchief that day, the very one she clutched now, with different religious symbols embroidered delicately along the hem. She always kept it on her. She thought she might go to Venice and see if he was still there.

"Hermione?" a hand she had so missed with long dark fingers, lay on her shoulder. Blaise Zabini crouched beside her, a look of real concern in his crystal blue eyes. She sobbed out a laugh and looked back at him,

"Blaise, I don't know what to do." But he didn't reply the way she'd wanted at all, just like her prayers never were answered the way she wanted. He smiled gently,

"Carpe Diem, mia." And she did; Hermione surged forward into his arms and flung hers around his neck. As they left, arm in arm, she looked back at the goddess sitting there and smiled,

"Grazi, mia."

MISCHIEF MANAGED