She's a daughter of dentists, and in the old days dentists usually kept removed teeth as prices for a job well done. Hermione smiles as she leans over a death eater that tried to skulk bout the castle. Not on her watch. She grins at him and transfigures a hairpin – she always carries them, great for miniature stabbing – into pliers.
"Open wide," she whispers and wills her magic to push the creepy man's mouth open. He struggles in vain. Hermione giggles and goes for his lower wisdom teeth.
Come evening, Hermione has teeth from living enemies and dead ones, safely tucked away in her beaded bag. She runs her tongue over her own teeth, contemplative. She once read about a tribe in a foreign land that sacrifices their own teeth after a battle to show that they are not afraid to go through what they made their enemies go through. Hermione thinks it fitting. The pliers moved on their own, aided by her magic, into her mouth. No one hears her blood filled gurgled laughter fill the room.
Ginny sneaks a peek into Hermione's bag one day when the bushy haired older with has left it in Ginny's bedroom at the Burrow – they share like old times, but nothing feels as it did back then. At first, the bag seems to be empty, but then Ginny sticks a hand down in the depts of it and feels hundreds of hard small things falling all around her hand. She grabs one of the things, pulls it out into the light. A human tooth. A real, blood stained, human tooth. Ginny puts the tooth back, closes the beaded bag and tries to unsee it. That night she dreams of teeth that chase her while a laughing Hermione watches. The next night, she wakes up from the feeling of her mouth being forced open. She tries to scream but Hermione who sits bent over her makes a tutting noise and tells her to stop struggling. Ginny cries as two of her teeth are pulled from the flesh of her mouth. Hermione smiles down at her with madness is her eyes, whispers that Ginny found her collection and that it's only fair she contribute to it.
Ron wakes up one night to find Hermione's side of the bed empty. He hears her in the kitchen and smells something strange, so he gets out of bed to see what she is up to. He finds her sitting by the table, stirring something steaming in a bowl. There is a trail of blood from her mouth down her chin and Ron steps into the light of the kitchen lamp and asks what has happened. Hermione smiles at him, and he sees that one of her teeth are missing, a canine one in the lower part of her mouth. In the steaming bowl, Ron sees several small white things swimming around in something that looks like a very dark red soup. He backs out of the room and hides in bed. Three nights later he wakes up with a gurgle and feels as if his mouth s o fire. Hermione holds his down with magic as she dries his mouth from blood, telling him she needs a few of his teeth to secure that she will be strong enough to give him children, because teeth are bones and bones makes you strong.
Harry sits down by the table and tries to appear normal and at ease. Hermione doesn't notice him at first, she is too busy playing with the white little wooden pieces that almost resemble teeth. And then she smiles at him, smiles with a mouth that is almost completely toothless, and tells him that he has a beautiful smile of pearly teeth. Harry leaves her in the special ward at St Mungo's, trying to hold back tears that make his eyes burn and his throat close up. The war has ruined many, many lives. But Harry thinks it may have ruined Hermione in a very different way. The happy bushy haired friend who loved books and learning is gone, and according to the Healers, nothing can bring her back. Bellatrix Lestrange broke his friend, and he didn't even notice until Hermione was far, far too gone.
Hermione knows something is wrong. The teeth in her hand feel all wrong, to stiff, not like her other teeth. She runs a finger over the five teeth left in her mouth. Compares them with the ones on the table. All wrong. The teeth they gave her are fake. The haze around her mind burns away as anger fills her. The stole her teeth. She needs them back. Bones make you strong. She's the daughter of dentists, she needs to own teeth. Snarling, she digs her finger deep into her mouth, claws at the flash with broken, sharp nails, spits blood, pulls and pulls until the shiny, real tooth lies in the palm of her hand, bloody and gleaming, and Hermione laughs, laughs, laughs until green clad Healers surround her and everything turns hazy, and she clutches the tooth in her hand, refuses to let it go. Bones make you strong, and she needs all the teeth she can get. Someday, she will get them all.