Hermione had had a stressful week at work. And when Hermione's week at work had been stressful it meant that nothing in the house had been cleaned, there were empty whiskey bottles on the side, the owl had taken residence at the Malfoy's as it had a much greater chance of being fed there..
On Friday 8th September she finally managed to get home at 7 pm, tumbling through the fireplace she kicked her nude heels off, dropped her briefcase on the floor and walked through the living room, mumbling to turn the lumos balls to a soft white, she couldn't deal with much more. She walked into the kitchen to find Ron sat at the kitchen table, nursing a bottle of fire whiskey. "Ronald." Hermione spoke loudly, waking Ron from his daydream. "Have we got any food in the house?" Ron looked up and shrugged, "Think we've got some bread or something." Hermione went to look in the cupboard and found a crusty loaf of bread, that was now rock hard. She cast a spell on it and it softened enough for her to eat it, she didn't really care at this point. She shrugged her suit jacket off and sat at the table with Ron, pulling lumps of the bread off and eating them. "What's up with you?" Ron muttered, not really that interested, but he had soon learnt that it was much better to ask. "Crux from the Reversal Squad tried to reverse the memory of a squib, completely unaware that he was a squib. The spell deflected and now he can't remember anything. Had to take him to St. Mungo's but St. Mungo's are dealing with an outbreak of MRSA, somehow it got in from one of the muggle hospitals in the area. Absolute nightmare. So, Healer Smethwyck sent us to the only other place that could quickly reverse an obliviatus spell.. Hogwarts." She sighed, eating more of the bread, and tearing chunks off quickly. "And of course, Crux couldn't apparate so he had to side along apparate with me to Hogsmeade and then we walked up to the castle from there." Hermione was out of breath by the time she'd finished, but she was glad she had it off her back. "Tonnes of paperwork. But Crux has his memory back now, thank Merlin." She'd already finished the loaf of bread.


Harry walked into the back garden to find Ron kicking a football around, a muggle invention which Hermione had introduced him to, you had to kick it against a goal which they had nailed to the back fence. Hermione was curled up in one of the cabana chairs, with a book on degree level magic, not that she was interested in studying for a degree - she didn't have the time. "Your mum sent an owl over Ron!" Ron looked up and shrugged, "You can open it." Harry sat by Hermione and pulled at the red ribbon, unfurling the scripture. It read:

Ronald,

Me and your Father miss you, George has gone travelling and we're not sure when he'll be back. Ginny has gone back to school, I feel like all my owlets have all left the nest. Bring Harry and Hermione for dinner tonight, Merlin knows you all need some meat on your bones.

Hermione smiled, "Just write back and say we'll be there by 6. Here, I've got some owl treats here somewhere." She dug into her pocket and produced a few bits, the owl ate them graciously, took the note, and flew off again into the afternoon haze of London. "Do we have to go?" Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron's childish whining, "Ronald, that's your parents you're complaining about. All they want to do is give you dinner." Ron laughed, "But it's not just dinner is it? It's 'are you okay?' 'Will you ever settle down?' 'You three can't hide out in that house of yours forever'. Mark my words Hermione, she'll be questioning us as soon as we've dug into the roast potatoes." Harry laughed, kicking the football into the goal. "He's right Mione." She huffed and tossed her unruly ringlets over her shoulder, the more stressed she got the curlier they got, she had tried countless charms on them but nothing seemed to work. She'd even been to a muggle hairdresser to see if she could try the old fashioned way, but still no luck.


The trio flooed into the Burrow, Hermione was wearing a white summer dress which skimmed her knees and had a belt around her waist that was made from charmed daisies, she'd pinned her hair back so that her ringlets fell down her back and were out of her face and she'd glamoured her face so that she looked less tired, less malnourished. She couldn't deal with Mrs. Weasley fussing. Harry and Ron on the other hand, had both pulled t-shirts on, of varying clean shades, battered jeans and converse. They couldn't have looked worse.

"They're here! Arthur! Oh Hermione, you look lovely." She cast an eye over the boys and shook her head in disgust, "You couldn't even have put on a clean t-shirt?" She tried to tame Ron's hair but it just ended up looking worse. "Muuuum.." Ron whined, praying for this whole ordeal to be over soon. Arthur Weasley walked into the main room and smiled, the smile didn't go to his eyes - but that was a characteristic of most people affected by the war. Especially the Weasley's. He hugged Harry, slapping him on the back and hugged Hermione gently. "Ron, my boy. Come on, I've got something to show you: in the shed." He chuckled and whispered in Ron's ear, "Get yer Mother off your back."
As the two of them were busying themselves in the shed, Mrs. Weasley took it as her chance to pounce on Hermione and Harry. "Is he keeping well? Staying away from the whiskey? Does he go outside? Bathe? Get exercise? Eat?" Hermione smiled sadly, "Mrs. Weasley.. Please, try not to worry yourself. You can't have another heart scare. Ronald could not cope." Harry was laying the table at the time and looked up, "In answer to your questions, he's okay. He drinks more than he should, but it's hard to take it away from him. It gets him through his nightmares.. He plays football, showers regularly, eats breakfast most mornings.." She smiled gratefully, she knew that her boy was in the best possible place. "And he's thinking of getting a recovery dog, someone to be there when he wakes up from his nightmares. It means regular exercise at least.." Mrs. Weasley raised an eyebrow as Harry spoke, "What did you say dear? A recovery dog? What is one of those?" Hermione smiled, "It's a dog that is trained to respond to nightmares, situations that might terrorise the owner.. They're being bred by the Ministry at the moment, I was offered one a week or two ago but I don't have the time.. Ronald however." The older woman chuckled, dusting her hands off against her apron. "Ronald with a dog! He could barely look after a rat.." As soon as the words were out of her mouth she regretted it, but it would do her no favours to dwell on the past.


An hour or so they were all seated at the table, Mr and Mrs Weasley, Ron, Harry and Hermione. Mrs Weasley had put on a roast dinner, with roast potatoes, green beans, stuffing, carrots, red cabbage, sweetcorn, sausages, pigs in blankets ( a muggle favourite of Hermione's ) and a jar of homemade redcurrant sauce. Hermione picked up the serving spoon and dug into the roast potatoes and Mrs Weasley spoke up, "So you three, are you dating? You know you can't live in that house together forever." Ron chuckled, "Told you Hermione." She screwed her face up, she hated when Ron was right. Harry thought he better answer the question, considering his friends were preoccupied. "Not yet, Mrs Weasley. But I'm considering dating again." He'd glamoured the tattoo on his wrist - he wasn't in the mood or the mind set for a Weasley inquisition. "You are? Oh what delightful news! How wonderful is that Arthur?" She turned to him and smiled, Mr Weasley had a mouthful of green beans, but he quickly swallowed and nodded. "Yes that's great news, Harry. Good for you." Mrs Weasley couldn't contain her excitement, "Hermione, Ronald? What about you two?" They both looked at each other and Mrs Weasley jumped to conclusions - "You're back together? Oh thank Merlin! You were always better together, all of this tiptoeing, I can't deal with it. Oh I'm so" Hermione cut her off. "No.. Sorry, we're .. we're better apart."

An awkward silence followed, and Ron couldn't bare it much longer so he piped up. "I heard the Patil twins have started a dating business, blind dates, you know. I think it's called 'All you need is love, potions.' Hermione raised an eyebrow, "Oh it would be like them to start some superficial business when we're all trying to pick up the pieces after the war." Harry rolled his eyes, "Maybe they're trying to make people smile again. You know Hermione, love can do that to you." She sighed and stabbed her sausage. "Well why don't the three of you sign yourselves up for it? You never know, you might find the one. How lovely would that be?" After a while, they had all relented. Even Hermione, who in her words didn't believe in love, or love at first sight. But Harry knew she was lying. He remembered when her and Ron had broken up, she was a mess..

Hermione was curled up in her bed, grateful that it was her room alone now. The soft, plush interiors didn't suit Ron anyway, the walls were papered with a textured paisley pattern in creams and accents of gold. There was a small balcony out, which faced the garden, but she seldom used it and instead kept pot plants on it that she intended to use for sleeping potions without the addictive side effects. Against one wall there was a woven tapestry that had hung in her childhood home, and against the wall was her bed, it was a large princess and the pea bed with a soft velvet ottoman at the foot of it. She had more pillows than humanly necessary and she had a faux fur throw that she was currently wrapped up in. Opposite her bed was a grand fireplace with a tv above it ( one of the main things she missed in the wizarding world. ) She had two chairs with were painted to change colour depending on her mood, and her walk in wardrobe was made of soft pine, with floor length mirrors. It had ball gowns upon ball gowns on one side, for all of the things she has had to attend as one of the famous trio. It had gotten sickening, but she quite enjoyed getting dressed up.
She heard a soft knocking on the door and knew that it was Harry, Ron's knock was much more bashful, and he wouldn't be brave enough to knock on her door after breaking up with her. "Come in." she sniffled, putting her hair up into a messy bun atop her head, and rubbing her eyes. Harry walked in and looked at her like you would look at a wounded puppy. "Hey. I heard.. about you and Ron." She smiled briefly at hearing his name and then remembered they weren't together anymore. "We decided it was better we stayed friends. It's fine." She muttered, the words coming out far more harshly than she intended. "Well clearly it isn't 'fine'.. Otherwise you wouldn't be crying." She stroked her throw and it purred gently, "Fuck you Ron. Your blasted charms. Why charm anything thats remotely furry, to purr anyway?!" She was angry, and Harry didn't want to be caught in the cross fires of that. "I know he hurt you." Harry sat on the ottoman, facing Hermione, "But he's grieving, he lost his brother." Hermione had had enough. "Yeah, and I lost my fucking parents." Harry blanched, "What?" She sighed, too soon, she thought, too soon. "Well you know I oblivated any memories of me to protect them? They still got them. They killed them, whilst I was under the Cruciatus curse.. Brought them right in front of me, they didn't even know who I was.. and they killed them right in front of me."


That night, when they returned to their house, they each sat on a different piece of furniture in the living room and filled out their application forms for 'All you need is love, potions.' "What's the worst that could happen, eh?" Hermione shook her head, "You're not allowed to say that anymore Ronald. You nearly had us killed after the last time." Harry smirked, "Or worse, expelled."