The morning brought a light tapping on the bushy-haired witch's window, and the girl shot awake, panting and fearing the worst. Hermione heart was in her throat, instinctively reaching for her wand when she realized that Nautica, her owl, was outside. Hermione willed herself to focus on her breathing as she unlatched her panel and the owl hooted inside happily. The witch carefully removed the letter from Nautica's ties and sat back on her bed staring at the blank envelope.

She opened the yellow parchment and scanned looking for a name, Parvati was scrawled at the bottom. Of course, she had forgotten that she had even sent a letter to her, a whole lifetime had passed since then.

Hermione,

It's so great to hear from you, I hope you're doing well. I'm doing fine, I'm in the states now working as a healer (your poor owl must've had to travel so far, give her treats for me).

I'm saddened to say that I understand where your question is coming from. Lavender loved Ron, Hermione, and she would never share anything negative about him, but yes, I do remember her random bruises. She also told me that they were from her being clumsy, but I was always suspicious. I can't say for certain, but she seemed to abruptly stop being clumsy after they broke up, if that tells you anything.

She also started having these arbitrary mood swings a month or two in the relationship where she'd be ecstatic one day and then just refuse to talk to even eat the next. I'm not sure the cause but the timeline matches up.

I hope I'm wrong Hermione, I hope it was nothing but if it was, is, then please, please, get out. You're one of the smartest, bravest, kindest witches I had the privilege of knowing at Hogwarts and you deserve love that doesn't hurt.

Yours truly,

Parvati

Hermione read the letter twice, focusing on the middle portion. She felt this need to defend Ron to the letter, Parvati didn't know him like she did. Hermione had known Ron for ten years before anything like this had occurred, so it was likely that Lavender just didn't understand or just didn't know how to handle….

Hermione froze, shocked at the voice inside her head. What was happening to her? Who was she becoming? Hermione tossed the letter into her fireplace, not giving it another chance to doubt her faith in herself or her finance, though that portion of her trust was dwindling by the day.

She just needed a distraction, a reason to get out of the flat and reconnect with who she was. She didn't realise how much she missed her friends until her brain thought about seeing them again, Luna, Ginny, Neville, Harry. She needed to see Harry.

Hermione fabricated a text to Ron, letting him know of her intentions, and implying the warning that she'd be heading to Wales, in case that was where he had decided to 'get away'.

Ron's reply was instant and filled with his usual mannerism that Hermione felt a pang for her best friend. He might have been the reason she didn't know who she was anymore but that didn't stop her from missing him. His text indicated that he was still in London, staying with George but would probably return by the time she got back.

Hermione took that as enough approval to depart and prepared her belongings. She quickly scratched a note to Kendra, saying that she had a family emergency and would be gone for a couple days but that she was taking her work with her. She was sure that Kendra would give her a prompt lecture on missing work as soon as she was back but that was another day's problem.

"Nautica, can you take this to the ministry? I'll be gone for a couple days but come to Harry's if you want, okay?"

The bird hooted and Hermione fed her extra treats before she departed, watching her brown elegance until it was nothing but a speck. The witch packed up any remaining clothes, almost forgetting her toothbrush, and walked to the apparition point without a thought of even warning Harry before she just showed up at his doorstep.

She looked to make sure that no one was lingering and apparated.

Hermione arrived at the green saturated village and sighed. It was nothing like London and everything she needed. The witch realised that she was on some sort of cliff, with cloudy water running as far as her eyes could see and grass covering the other half of her world. She could make out hills and valleys and a little multi-coloured house not far from her. If Hermione wasn't absolutely freezing, still dressed in London attire, she may have adventured on her own but right now, the predictable heat of indoors was substantially more appealing.

Her eye caught movement on the outside of the house and Hermione instantly knew him at his steady and balanced posture, his messy black hair and his welcoming expression before her eyes even took in the round glasses.

Harry.

Hermione dropped her bags and sprinted, knocking straight into her dark-haired friend with an oomph. His eyes were wide, but he eventually wrapped his arms around the witch, holding just as firm.

He pulled away first, questioning her abrupt arrival, "Hermione. What are you…where did you-

"I'll explain later okay, I just wanted to see you."

Harry's eyes travelled to her face, and she saw the telltale concern bloom as he saw her, no doubt looking as wary as she felt. "Hermione, what happened?"

Hermione felt her throat closing as she stared at her alarmed friend, she couldn't do this right now. She looked down at his beaten-up tennis shoes and gave a small shake of her head with clenched teeth.

Harry, of course, understood her implication immediately and whispered, "Okay. Later then." He gave her arm a small squeeze and started again with a trying optimism in his voice, "Ginny's going to be so excited Hermione, and you're going to love Wales." He motioned for her to come inside but the witch had not yet recovered enough to put up her front, one that was awfully necessary in front of Ginny.

"I left my bags. Harry, go on, I'll meet you inside."

He gave her a small nod, his posture notably drooping looking at Hermione's back and the small shake of her shoulders as she tottered to her belongings.

Breathe, please Hermione, just fucking, agh. Her breaths came sharply as her anxiety pooled out of her once again. She glanced back at the house to make sure her friend had gone inside before dropping short of her belongings and dissolving into the soft grass of Wales. Her mind thought back to her short lived Occlumency training and she willed the little energy she had left to take away her panic, her sadness and anything short of positive emotions that her friends in that house knew her for.

Hermione imagined her box opening a miniscule amount and shoved all of her dark thoughts inside. She hoped it would hold, but even she knew that the box was getting quite cramped to sit comfortably.

The witch, once her breaths were coming at even intervals and her surroundings came into focus, gathered her belongings and marched towards the house, knocking with intention when she arrived at the door.

Familiar red hair greeted her, and her brain posed no intention of flitting back to the man that shared the shade of locks, Hermione was present and when her eyes crinkled with happiness and she grinned, she meant it.

"Hermione! I barely believed Harry when he mentioned it, you know how his imagination sometimes runs wild."

"Hey, can you not take a dig at me the minute Hermione gets in." Harry's face was trying to pull a stern expression, but his voice wavered with laughter.

"How would she know it's me then?"

Harry rolled his eyes and playfully pushed Ginny out of the way while grabbing Hermione's bags. "Like anyone else could pull off that hair," He muttered.

Ginny whooped Harry on the head while simultaneously pulling Hermione inside.

The house was decorated with no color scheme in mind, there was a retro orange clock sitting on a green ascent wall behind a red squashy loveseat. Hermione's eye flitted to the broom placed like wall décor and noticed that the wallpaper on that section was filled with miniature snitches. Only their coffee table seemed like it wasn't picked out by a drunk teenager with its intricate detailing in the wood.

"Hermione," Harry said returning, "You can get settled in the guest room if you'd like, I put your bags in. It's just down the hall, to your right."

Hermione nodded and skirted to where Harry had pointed. Her room, thankfully, was much more neutral with only an abstract painting being too bright to stare at. Hermione started to remove the clothes she had haphazardly thrown inside the bag while simultaneously inspecting their potential uses and hanging them in the narrow closet. The repetitive motion calmed her and she, for an instance, forgot herself; what bliss that was.

Hermione arrived back to the main room silently where Harry and Ginny had flitted to the kitchen; Ginny was making tea and Harry, pulling out a tray from the oven.

"I told you to just make them with magic." She said, analyzing his muffins, "They seem a little dark."

"You can't magic impeccable taste," he said, lifting up a muffin to her mouth, keen for her to taste.

Ginny took a big bite right off the top, immediately huffing out quick breaths resembling a dragon, "Hot, hot, hot, hot." Harry chuckled, shaking his head and cooling the rest of the muffins with a charm. "Ou, wait, not bad Chef Potter."

"I think you pronounced incredible wrong."

"I think you overestimate your abilities."

"I think you had no problem with my abilities last night."

Ginny gasped, "Potter!"

"Weasley!" Harry cried in the same tone and Ginny wacked him with an oven mitt while the dark-haired man chuckled. All Hermione could do was watch the perfectly normal relationship. Her chest ached to have these moments again with Ron, when there was nothing less than love and trust and faith. If she willed it hard enough, could she get it back?

Hermione cleared her throat lightly and Ginny whipped around, "Oh my gosh, how long have you been standing there? Come, sit, sit."

Hermione fell back into the plush, burnt orange sheets, exhausted with the tiring amounts of social interaction. Ginny had grilled her about every aspect of her life, and Hermione, not wanting to be rude, had complied.

Kind of anyway, with little white lies spread over how she had tons of friends at work and Ron was, "Just incredible really." There was no reason to worry Ginny about her trifling problems, but she had a feeling Harry wasn't as satisfied with her answers. She'd deal with him tomorrow; she thought and fell asleep within a minute.

The witch had slept soundly for the first time in weeks until she was being shaken awake. Hermione woke up with a start and her mind travelled to the years before the war where this could only mean someone was in trouble, or worse.

"Hermione wake up." Harry was whispering.

"Harry! What? What's wrong?" Her heart was thudding through her chest and her brain still felt disoriented.

"Nothing, come on." He was dragging her out of her warm, oh so warm, bed and shoved a woolly sweater at her, "Put that on."

Hermione complied, years of Harry's friendship had taught her to do the task and ask questions later. She silently dug the itchy sweater over her hair, now double the size with the Wales humidity, and followed the messy black hair out the house. Harry's hair was standing up at the back and Hermione felt a little more at ease. She'd followed that same head into battle, into shrieking shacks and forbidden forests, whatever this was, she could handle it.

Harry brought her to the same cliff she had apparated to and just sat down, facing what she remembered as endless water. Hermione hesitated, what the hell?

"Sit down Hermione."

She gulped and, against her better judgement, sat next to him.

"You woke me up to sight see…in the dark?"

"The sunrises are incredible here," Was all he offered.

Hermione stared into the black surroundings; the light of the moon would allow for some visibility had anything with boundaries actually existed.

"Wales is gorgeous Harry; how do you like it so far?"

"It's fine." She thought he was done speaking when he stayed silent for a minute longer until the purpose of this random adventure finally came out. "Hermione…it's Ron isn't it?"

Her breath stopped in her throat, and she willed herself to not gasp out loud. Hermione took a breath and with innocent confusion answered, "What about Ron?"

Harry sighed and looked back out to the endless darkness, "I don't know about you but you're still my best friend, and I still know when you're lying, and you were lying last night Hermione. You couldn't say one good thing about Ron without your voice getting higher or your fingers twitching."

He stopped, waiting for her to say something, anything, but when she didn't, he finished with, "You may be fooling everyone in your life, even yourself, but you can't fool me."

Hermione waited for an excuse to come out of her mouth, or to ridicule Harry and say he was reading too much into it but with the light of the moon, she could faintly make out his green eyes and his scar and his comforting presence was engulfing her. Her body needed someone, no not anyone, it needed Harry to know.

But to tell him would be to compromise his friendship with Ron. It would be to threaten a relationship she knew both Harry and Ron would need throughout their lives. Hermione shook her head, eyes stinging with tears and a knot in her throat.

"I can't." She croaked into the oblivion.

She felt Harry nod and when he spoke again, his voice was stern, "I thought as much. Listen Hermione, I know I don't know what's happening with Ron, but I do know you. And I know everyone talks about how you're the smartest witch of your age and how you're brave and loyal and selfless but you do not need to let that define you, okay?"

Hermione's tears silently spilled out of her eyes and she rested her head on his familiar shoulders, she felt his head lay lightly on hers.

"It's okay to be wrong, to be weak or selfish because at the end of the day, you can't give what you don't have." He whispered; his words saturated with a desperate persuasion.

Hermione's tears were soaking Harry's shirt now, but he didn't seem to mind. "I need you to take care of yourself, I need you-," for the first time that night Harry's voice cracked but he continued, clearing his throat, "I need you to be okay Hermione."

She nodded her head slightly, knowing Harry would feel it, unable to convince her throat to open again and sat sitting there with her friend until the sun rose. It truly was incredible, the sky changing into marvellous colours, and the water accepting them as its own.

When her and Harry went back to the house, the sun was fully risen, and the warmth of the day was making her sweater itch and her back damp. They were greeted with the glorious smell of breakfast: eggs, bacon, pancakes, French toast placed out on the counter professionally with Ginny singing into her spatula as she waited for her egg to sizzle.

"You're back! I was wondering where you guys had gone off to."

Harry went over and kissed her on the cheek, looking at the plates of various dishes with a suspicious brow, "You just learned how to cook while we were gone?"

"I have always known how to cook, Potter, you just underestimate me."

"Mhm, mhm." He walked over to the garbage as Ginny opened her mouth to shout a no, but it was too late, and Harry was pulling out a cardboard box labelled Welsh Breakfast and Eatery.

Harry chuckled and Ginny threw an egg at him which only made him roar with laughter, even Hermione smiled. It was nice to see that they hadn't changed since Hogwarts.

Hermione grabbed food on her plate and sat at the table that had all different kinds of chairs, some suited for a bar counter and others just beanbags. Harry and Ginny joined her, and they ate in silence for a bit until Ginny asked, "Harry and I have work today, you'll be okay on your own?"

Harry looked at Hermione with concern and she was sure that he was about to make an excuse as to why he'd be staying home but she spoke up, "Yes, I have some adventuring to do anyway; I have a feeling Wales doesn't get this kind of sun very often."

Ginny beamed and Harry gave her a small but genuine smile. The rest of breakfast was taken over by Ginny detailing all of the hikes around their house and the best places to relax without the incessant babble of tourists.

"Technically Ginny, I am a tourist." Hermione said with a forced amused brow, but it was enough, and Ginny light up at the sight of the old Hermione.

"Yeah, yeah but you don't babble."

Hermione grinned, that much was true.

The adventuring witch sat on a log, staring at the fork she had just come across. The trail thus far had been fairly easy, her feet only tripping her enough to stutter rather than face plant but now, she was forced to choose rather than aimlessly follow the cleared-out path.

She almost regretted leaving her wand resting carefully on the bed, but she had to do this without magic, she wasn't sure why, but it seemed necessary. Hermione analyzed the two paths. They seemed identical in the sage overhangs, bushy neighbors and roots sprawling from the ground but felt different.

The one on the left felt familiar, the way the trees went tall, how they held the same red berries she had become accustomed to on the rest of her hike and how the path was straight for as far as she could see.

The one on the right was inviting her to explore what lay beyond the entrance. The trail curved around almost at the beginning and she couldn't make out much further. The berries were green on these shorter trees, giving an illusion of a much darker hike.

Left or right?

Right or left?

Hermione finally decided and started walking through, plucking the red berries as she strolled and plopping them into her mouth. She was certain they were safe, their properties along with uses popping up in her brain from one of her herbology lectures, Sorbus aucuparia, the witch recalled.

Hermione's unease grew as the trail continued, had Ginny said it would take this long? Had she chosen wrong? She was sure she had seen that particular tree before. Hermione walked along, cursing herself for leaving behind her wand.

Her concentration was so diverted to her surroundings that she missed the tree root sprouting out of the ground, perfectly placed to catch her foot, and Hermione went flying. The berries fell out of her hands as she faceplanted into the dirt. Dammit.

She got up, wiped off the soil stuck on her clothes, not even bothering with what was definitely on her face and continued down the path. Her eyes were now fixated on the trail, as she carefully stepped over every rock, every stump, every root but this time, she missed the long-awaited exit that would lead her back onto the cliffs.

Her chest grew heavy as her anxiety bloomed. How long had she been here? How long had she been walking? Hermione swore it was darker now and the once inviting trail had developed a sinister feel. Hermione gasped, trying to breathe but her claustrophobia was growing.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

Hermione's pace quickened as she tried to find an exit, she was about to just say fuck it and turn back around when she heard her name.

"HARRY!" She screamed, breaking out into a run towards the noise. "HARRY!"

She pummelled right into him, almost dropping both of them to the ground.

"Oh, thank god," he said. "I was beginning to think the bear ate you."

"BEAR?!"

"Hermione it's a joke." He stared at her with wary eyes, "What happened?"

"I think I picked the wrong side at the fork."

"They're both fine, but you just need to watch out for the exit in this one, it's less clear."

"Exit? There was no exit." Hermione said, wide eyed.

"It's like two hours back, near the beginning of the fork."

Hermione groaned, "Remind me never to go into nature again."

Harry chuckled and hooked his arm on hers, "Let's get out of here."

They reached the house, Hermione absolutely exhausted with the day, her stomach flipping with hunger.

"I cooked some stew," Harry said, grabbing her a bowl, "Do you uh…want to get cleaned up first?"

Hermione examined her clothing in the light and saw that it was unrecognizable, with rips and dirt spread out like she was in a gothic band.

"God, yes. Give me a second."

Hermione had decided on just changing but after viewing her hair, from which she removed a whole leaf, and the dirt streaked and dried on her cheeks, the witch decided that a shower was not only necessary for her but also those that had to be near her.

She let the hot water run over her for much longer than necessary, the heat easing muscles she didn't even know were tight and washing away the day. The water ran cold when the witch finally exited to the kitchen, Ginny and Harry had already finished their bowls and were sitting at the table while Ginny explained her Quidditch practice.

Hermione's ears blocked out Ginny's words, partially because it was Quidditch, and partially because her eyes fell to her dark-haired best friend. He was gazing at her like she was the most marvellous thing he had ever seen, his ears catching every word, eyes regarding her with nothing more or less than pure love.

The witch leaned against the doorframe for a second longer before turning back and making her way to the guest room. She had imposed enough, and it was time, time for her to go back to her person.

Even though it was harder lately, even though that love was tested, she needed to give it another chance because there was only one person that had ever looked at her like Harry was looking at Ginny and he was waiting for her at home. Maybe he was her only shot, maybe he was all she got.

So, when Hermione arrived back at her flat after saying her goodbyes and accepted Ron into her arms, it wasn't because she felt bad for him or because she felt the need to give him another chance, but it was rather for herself, because she needed to give her chance at happiness, at love, another shot.

NOTES ~

AH dramione shippers, please don't kill me! Hermione needs to go through this...fork in her life...(see what I did there hehe)

I can't believe that we're 23 000 words into this, it started off as just a rough sketch of an idea but it has become so much more *insert tear emoji*.

Anyhow, I'm not too sure when the next chapter will be up but knowing my midnight urges to write this fic, probably soonish. Have a glass of wine, and throw an egg at your significant other for me :)

As always, review and lemme know what you think!

*muah*