So much for my happy ending

– Avril Lavigne

Let's talk this over

It's not like we're dead

Was it something I did?

Was it something you said?

Don't leave me hanging

In a city so dead

Held up so high on such a breakable thread

You were all the things I thought I knew

And I thought we could be

You were everything, everything that I wanted

We were meant to be, supposed to be, but we lost it

And all of the memories, so close to me, just fade away

All this time you were pretending

So much for my happy ending

A flat in Diagon Alley

"Ron, wait! Let's discuss this, please!" Hermione yelled, pleading with tears beginning to form in her eyes.

"No! I'm done, Hermione! We shouldn't have done this in the first place!" He turned, looking at her with pain written on his features. This was difficult for both of them, and she understood why he was the one doing it, but God, she felt her heart breaking. "Look at us! We keep fighting for everything and we never fix anything at all. We can't even communicate the way we should." She let a sob escape her mouth, and covered it with her hand while the other came to rest on her stomach, she felt like she was being punched. Ron was by her side then, and hugged her tightly. Hermione grabbed him and pulled him even closer, crying hard on his blue jumper. "I love you, Hermione, you're my best friend since I was an 11-year-old boy, but I think it's better for us to stay as friends."

She knew he was right. Of course she knew, but it hurt. It hurt to know they took that step only to realise it was a mistake, and now their friendship would forever be tainted by it.

"I love you too..." She whispered to his shirt, clutching him a little more closer to herself, and then let him go, rubbing the back of her hand to her nose and inhaling hard. She was a mess, and Ron wasn't better. He had tears running down his flushed face, his hair in disarray from his hand going up to brush it anxiously.

This was it. And it only took them four months after the war to be over to realise it was all a mistake.

A month later

Granger Residence

Her world after the breakup had been filled with solitude. Hermione just wanted to be left alone after so many months being in close quarters with the boys and then being the girlfriend of one of them and living together.

She needed space, and space she got. She had gone back to her parents house, which she had kept in one last, selfish desire to keep something, anything, of them while they were gone. Hermione had sent them away with everything else, and they wouldn't need the house anymore.

She often spent the day researching for a way to bring them back, although her hopes had started to decrease as she began to understand how dangerous it would be to restore their memories. At the time, when she had concluded she had no other option but to delete herself from her parents minds and send them away, Hermione had had no real time to search for a way to reverse the spell. Mind magic was a tricky thing, it was only a miracle Hermione hadn't fried their minds as she preformed such an intricate, intrusive form of magic.

She would need a professional Mind Healer if she wanted any chance of retrieving her parents memories safely and even so, there was a very real risk of there being side effects. Hermione was actually planning on going to St Mungo's for a consultation in a few days when the phone rang.

"Ms. Hermione Granger?" Said a male's voice from the other side of the line. It was six in the morning and Hermione was cooking breakfast in her childhood's home kitchen.

"Yes?" She asked, shooing Crookshanks from her feet when he came to brush against her leg in search of food and attention.

"We're are calling from St. Andrew's Hospital..." The words faded, she could only hear the man on the other side as background noise as he told her her parents had had a car accident. Her mother dying on site, while her father died at the hospital, the damage too much for the doctors to mend on time.

It was then that her world truly crumbled. Her magic lashed out in waves, shaking the foundations of her home.

She never noticed the Ministry forces arriving by apparition. She only knew oblivion when one of them shot her a stupify.

A day later.

St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.

Her eyes opened slowly. The windows were blessfully covered by thick curtains, but the room was nonetheless much too bright for her sensible eyes to handle. Hermione groaned, alerting the others in the room that she was finally awake.

"Hermione!" blinking wearily, Hermione saw on her field of vision her green-eyed friend appear, worry written on his face as his eyes searched hers for any sign of discomfort. "Dear God, Hermione, you had us worried sick about you!"

It was probably the use of a Muggle expression, rather than the concern on his face that made Hermione grimace and guilt crawl its way into her.

"Harry?" Her throat felt dry, and she weakly searched for water.

"Merlin, Harry, give her space!" Ginny exclaimed, pushing Harry to the side and helping her sit. The girl then pressed a glass of water to her lips and helped her drink. "Better?" She asked, her voice soft and kind. Hermione smiled, and nodded her head.

"Hermione, what happened? The officials said you lost control of your magic." Harry asked, blunt an straight to the point, appearing on her other side and taking her hand.

It was then when her brain finally caught up with her. The call, her parents, the feeling of loosing everything.

Her eyes filled with tears and a sob got stuck in her throat. Her free hand went to cover her mouth. Ginny launched forward and hugged her, even though she didn't know why her friend had reacted so, she only knew she was in pain.

Between hiccups and sobs, it felt like ages before Hermione managed to explain. Her parents were dead. She was now a true orphan. And what was worse, they never got their memories back to remember she even existed. They died not knowing they had a daughter. Not knowing they were leaving her behind.

She was alone for real now.

New York City, Stark Tower.

"Mr. Stark, I found something you should probably know." The AI called Jarvis announced, making the man working on a gauntlet lift a brow in slight interest.

"Yeah? What is it?" He asked, not lifting his eyes from the circuits he was working on.

"The death certificates of ones, Mr and Mrs Wilkins." the AI explained. Tony Stark waited a second, rolling his eyes when the AI stayed silent.

"And who are they, Jarvis?" He asked, his tone condescending.

"They were previously known as Alan Granger and Helen Carter. They seemed to be part of some British witness protection, otherwise I cannot find a reason for them to change their identities. The marriage died last night at a car crash. Their daughter, Hermione Granger, was notified a few hours ago." Tony had gone still the second their names had been revealed.

Helen Carter. He knew she had married, and apparently to the man she had a crush on since University, but he never knew more than that. Tony raised his eyes to the ceiling, his curiosity piqued. His heart ached for his childhood friend, and wondered if her daughter was doing alright before mentally kicking himself. Of course the girl was not alright! Her parents just died!

"Show me their files." And Jarvis complied. Tony went through them up and down, absorbing every word like a piece of new research, and in some way, it was.

Tony was surprised. The only way Jarvis concluded they were the same couple was footage of them from both Britain and Australia. There wasn't any documentation he could find as to why, or how, they had gone into witness protection. In fact, it was only a theory, a possible explanation as to why they would move out of the country, change their names and lifestyle, and leave an 17-year-old daughter behind. Although said daughter figured as their first call in case of emergencies on their hospital charts.

It made no sense, and Tony couldn't leave it like that. Couldn't leave that girl alone like that. So he kept informing himself, and more he digged, the less he found. Hermione Granger was a genius on the making as a child, up until she was almost 12, were she virtually disappeared. No more school records, no more social media activity. Only a few, once or twice a year, where she could be seen on street or mall cameras with her parents during summer vacations.

There wasn't much else aside from that.

He also discovered that both her grandparents had died years ago, from old age and sickness, and that she had no more relatives from her father's side, besides, Tony knew Helen was an only child. He decided then that, seen as the girl had no more family left, he could pay a visit, pay his respects, and maybe take her with him so she wouldn't be alone in such time.

It was reckless. And probably a bad idea. But Tony couldn't, for the life of him, leave her alone when her parents had just died miles away. It hit too close to home. His own chest ached for the loss of his own parents.

"Jarvis, call Pepper, tell her to schedule a flight to London as soon as possible." He said as he kept reading, trying to find her address on the screen.

The girl was a ghost to be found. But Tony discovered someone was still paying rent for her former home, and found her on cameras from a local grocery store nearby. It was his guess that she stayed there.

Some time later, Pepper, Happy and Tony were seated on his jet on their way to London.

St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.

Hermione woke again the next day feeling better. Her magic felt calm and less edged, and her skin had stopped shimmering.

A healer nurse in aquamarine robes entered her room to run some final test and decide everything was alright now and let her go, with the warning to not use anything but basic magic for the next four to five days to let her core settle completely, and gave her a small box with potions to help her core mend, it was a five day treatment, she said, once the final potion was drank, she had to present herself over for a final check-up and only after she was cleared she could do more complicated magic, but anything above second year spells was off her repertoire for the next week.

It was Molly Weasley who came for her at the Hospital. At the sight of the motherly woman, something in her heart broke, and the raw pain she felt when she was told about her parents came to the surface and her eyes teared. She rushed to Molly's side and hugged her tightly, letting the woman whisper sweet nothings into her ear and caress her hair soothingly. It made her cry harder, remembering when her mother used to do the same thing when she was a small child.

But the hug helped.

Hermione stayed like that for a few minutes, taking as much comfort from Molly as she could, and the Weasley matriarch waited patiently, knowing that the girl in her arms needed it.

When Hermione pulled away, she couldn't look at the other woman in the eye, shame begining to crawl into her face as she remembered where she was.

"I'm sorry..." She whispered, rubbing her puffy eyes with her sleeve.

"Nonsense. Let's go to the Burrow, I prepared a real meal for you to eat, Hospital food is terrible" and just like that, Hermione let go a small smile, and followed the ginger woman to the Floo.

Arriving at the Burrow, Hermione was enveloped into a bear hug courtesy of George Weasley. Hermione hugged him back, feeling the tears come back to her eyes and her body to start shaking with the suppressed urge to cry.

"It's okay to cry..." George said softly to her ear as he clutched her closer and feeling his own eyes begin to tear at the memory of Fred.

"I can't believe they are gone..." Hermione said back, her voice breaking as sobs began to tear their way out of her throat.

They had lost so many people in the war. So, so many people. Even her parents, now, although not during the war itself, but Hermione felt responsible, and they died far from home as a result of the war, otherwise they would have been here, there wouldn't have been any car accident. They would've been alive and well.

She should have been there.

That thought alone made the tears began to fall down her face.

"Shhh... It's okay, let it out..."

It was some time later that day, when Hermione had been fed and hugged by every member of the Weasley family that was still in the country, sans Percy, and consoled by Harry, that she was able to go home with Ginny tagging along.

"I will not let you go there by yourself." Had said the ginger girl, a serious expression on her face that told Hermione she wouldn't be convinced to stay.

Harry had wanted to come with, but Ginny had stopped him by saying that it was better if it was a girls-only week, and then launched on the things she was planning on doing with Hermione, scaring the Boy-Who-Lived-Twice enough to leave them alone. Hermione found it amusing, although she tune out much of what Ginny said.

When both girls arrived at Hermione's place there was an odd pause, none of them knowing what to do next. Hermione decided then on tea. One could never go wrong with tea, she supposed.

Ginny followed, and watched, seated at the counter, as Hermione started to make tea the Muggle way.

"When I was little I often wondered what it would be like for muggles to do things without magic." Ginny started to say, a far off look on her face as she reminisced. "I mean, I saw mum doing so many things at the same time with only a swirl of her wand, but there was always so many things to do she never finished all of them." Then, Ginny turned to look at her. Hermione had a hip propped against the countertop, waiting for the water to boil. "How do muggles do it?"

Hermione shrugged, and looked down at her sock-covered feet as she thought of a proper answer.

"I guess we just... I don't know, organise and keep things as tidy, but there are people that don't have time for that, so they hire someone to do it for them."

"Like a house-elf?" Ginny frowned.

Hermione nodded, a grimace on her face as she looked at Ginny. "Yeah, but they get paid to do so, there are companies of cleaning services, although most of the people that clean houses for a living are independent from such companies."

"Huh."

The water boiled, and Hermione served the tea, fetching her mother's teabox from the cupboard and settling it on the table in front of Ginny for her to choose whichever she liked.

A few minutes passed in comfortable silence. Until Hermione suggested a movie, and Ginny jumped at the opportunity of watching the Muggle contraption called television. Hermione fell asleep in the couch, tired of crying all day.

After that, both girls had a nice time, watching TV, cooking the Muggle way, and talking. Hermione cried, Ginny hugged her and cried as well, and both mourned the loss of the family they would never see again. The friends both of them had lost.

They were cooking lunch the next day, her father's CD player reproducing one of her Imagine Dragons' CDs, Hermione softly singing along to Demons while Ginny hummed, not really knowing the lyrics, when there came a knock on her door. Both girls turned to look at each other with matching frowns of confusion.

Ginny pulled out her wand, casting a stasis charm on the food, and Hermione went to the front door with her wand clutched by the point inside her long sleeve.

She looked through the peephole, and saw a man standing there. He had sunglasses on, so she couldn't distinguish very well who he was, but she was certain she had seen him somewhere. She opened the door.

"Yes? Can I help you with something?" She asked politely.

The man, who had turned the second the door began to open, pointed over his shoulder towards the fence at the front of the house. "Did you know the lock on your fence is broken?"

Hermione lifted a brow, and leaned sideways a little to peak at the fence, then back at the man before her.

"Okay...?"

"Hi, I'm Tony" he continued, as if she hadn't said anything. Hermione thought he seemed nervous about something. Years of facing danger and fighting a war made her suspicious from the beginning, but such behaviour was making her let her wand slide by her hand to grab the piece of wood properly behind the door. Her eyes narrowed at the stranger.

"Well, nice to meet you, Tony, but can I help you with something?" She asked again, losing patience. She could feel the comforting presence of Ginny behind her, but still.

"I..." He hesitated, and Hermione lost it. She steeled herself, and opened her mouth to calmly sent him off when he spoke again. "I knew your mother from when we were kids, I'm sorry about your loss, Hermione, she was an amazing woman, and I'm sure your father was amazing too, she wouldn't have settled for anything less."

That made Hermione go still. No one, aside from her friends and the Weasleys, knew about her parents. How did this man found out, and so quickly?

Her body tense, Hermione clutched her wand tighter. "Who are you, again?"

He looked her strangely, as if not believed she didn't recognize him. "Tony, Tony Stark."

So, there it is, my first ever crossover. I have no idea where I'm going with this, and have no help whatsoever to write it, so be gentle and patient because I will not post regularly, I have two jobs, you know?

Anyway, there is that. I really hope you like this first chapter!