Alone in the remains of a post-war world, Charlotte must come to grips with her new reality – widowed at nineteen and remarried to a cold, brutal man, the mark that scars her forearm like a disease – and decide if it is truly survival that is most important in the wake of devastation, or if it could be something more.

Hermione has never shied away from a confrontation with Rita Skeeter, and she's about to find out why she should have. But perhaps through all of the lies and the lines, she can find something truer than she ever thought possible.

At the behest of Lord Voldemort, Severus Snape is forced to commit a deplorable act against one who should have been under his protection. Bound by Dark Magic, he and Hermione Granger must learn to trust one another and themselves as they work together to thwart the dark plots surrounding them.