The rest of the afternoon was spent chatting a little more freely. Hermione tracked down a bottle of wine from the restaurant next door to the pizza place and together they enjoyed a glass with some of the best pizza Hermione had ever tasted.

Her phone buzzed while she was watching Minerva laugh at something Harry had done the other day and when she looked, it was Harry himself, checking how long she'd be. She quickly typed out a message and shoved it back in her pocket, returning her gaze to the woman that she was madly in love with.

"Please don't stop on my behalf, Hermione. As you said to me before, about respecting my solitude and privacy, please know that I will absolutely do the same. Though I'm still not sure I trust these new fandangled machines."

"Oh it was just Harry," she chuckled. "I think his ears were burning. It's quicker than sending an owl, you know."

"How is he, really?"

"Fantastic, now he has his own place," Hermione smiled. "Ginny pops around to see him now and then but I think she understands this is him figuring out life as Harry Potter for the first time. He's loving it. He's a fantastic cook."

"Maybe we should do this again. With him, I mean. I have been meaning to see him."

"Min?" Hermione said, taking her hands across the table. "He'd love to, whenever you're ready."

"For someone who has done this before I'm making a poor showing off the recovery," she huffed. "You are all only just into adulthood and look at you all succeeding where I have failed."

"Minerva," Hermione groaned. "You haven't failed at anything! You said yourself you have done this before. It isn't easy and we're not having an easy time of it. We're just," she considered what they were and chuckled as the answer came to her. "We are far more inclined to share with each other than you are," she said pointedly. "And! This is our first time. Having done all this, then having to put all that freedom away and find the strength to fight again is no mean feat Min. There is no correct way of doing this, you know." Minerva looked slightly mollified so Hermione took a chance. "So walling yourself off from everyone is perhaps not the best idea."

She got a crumpled up napkin to the face for that and she giggled while Minerva pouted.

"You look incredibly cute when you poke out your lip like that."

"Cute!"

"Mhmm," Hermione smiled. "Utterly delightful."

"You've cracked," Minerva grinned as she sat back with a sigh. "Darling as much as I have enjoyed this, and I truly have, my bottom is going quite numb sitting here. I believe it is time to be off. Perhaps," she took a deep breath and then met Hermione's eyes. "Perhaps we can pick up some of my things and," she winced. "Some furniture, and go to your parents' house?"

"Oh," Hermione nodded, her mind racing. "Right."

"You're disappointed."

"No," Hermione hurried to answer. "No, not disappointed. I -" She groaned and put her face in her hands. "I have done something you may not like."

"What?"

"I may have asked Harry to gather a few of our most trusted friends and go and see if they can't fix your rooms up a bit? Even though I do still want you to come to mine?"

Minerva stared at her, the tips of her ears going red like they did when Fred and George produced a particularly obnoxious joke item. She braced herself for a rebuke but as she sat there, it never seemed to arrive.

"I am livid," Minerva said, sounding every bit of it as well. "That you would trick me into coming here -"

"No!" Hermione said quickly. "No, that wasn't what I did at all. I didn't have this planned, Min. Seeing you, in your rooms like that; made me want to do something nice for you. And knowing how private you are, knowing how much you value your space, and how precious your books and things are, I wanted to help you find that again. I asked Harry while I got the coffee."

Minerva frowned.

"Today?"

"Yes," Hermione groaned. "Seeing you so sad, stuck in there, made my heart hurt. I just wanted them to make a bit of a start on it so that it wasn't so overwhelming for you. I know they have to do the towers and all that. I mean, that's why I want you to come with me, or find somewhere else if you'd prefer, but, I mean," she slumped against the table. "I just think that if your rooms are in more of an order, then the rest of you can figure," she glanced up at Minerva. "Right?"

"He -" The frown deepened. "They are there now?"

"Yes, I told him to ask Filius and Ginny and maybe Madam Pomfrey, although I know you two aren't speaking right now."

Minerva looked genuinely surprised.

"How do you know that?"

"I went to ask her for your address," Hermione shrugged.

"How many people did you ask?" Minerva squeaked.

"Um," Hermione counted on her fingers as she listed them off. "Filius and Pomona, Madam Hooch, Kingsley, Molly and Madam Pomfrey." She winced as she remembered how that had gone. "She was quite rude to me, about you."

"Aye," Minerva groaned, rubbing her face with her hands now. "She has every right to be." She met Hermione's eyes and reached across the table. "I was unkind to her last time we spoke. All of those people -"

"Your friends," Hermione supplied.

"Yes," Minerva sighed. "Though I have not been a very good friend back."

"We are all mourning, Minerva. We, they love you. And I told Harry to keep the list short. Very short. I know how you are."

"Better than I know myself, I shouldn't wonder," Minerva groaned.

"Well, I told Harry to at least ask Madam Pomfrey. She has a soft spot for him, after all."

Minerva chuckled and looked at what was left of the pizza.

"They're still there?"

"Yes? I incorrectly assumed we'd be here a bit longer."

"Well, I have an idea. Come on."