Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or world, everything belongs to JKR, etc. etc.

P.S. This is a post-war fic where every 7th-year student is invited back to finish their education in the 8th year at Hogwarts. Might put it the occasional escaped death eater later in the series. This is my second fic, so leave a fave or review if you like it!

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Chapter 1

Hermione woke up with a jolt, thinking for a second that she had slept in and missed class, before realizing she lay in her own bed in London. It was the first day of August, and she hadn't been in classes in over a year. She took a second to think back over the last year… The war, the people they'd lost- there were still so many things spinning around in her brain.

She thought about her friends, Harry and Ron, and also of Ginny, who she'd grown closer with this summer following the war. Ron was difficult to think about. They'd shared that one kiss, a passionate moment in the heat of the battle, but after that things had just been strained between them. Ron had pulled away after the battle, mourning the death of his brother, and Hermione had been too busy trying to sort her affairs to be there for him.

She knew that sounded bad- sorting her affairs. It was the best way to describe it really. She had her parents in Australia, still with no memory of her and their past lives, as well as their abandoned house in the suburbs to deal with. She'd been to Australia to see them, under the guise of being a visiting university student wanting to meet the locals, of course, but she'd been unsuccessful in restoring their memories. Obviously, she hadn't given up there. She'd brought in a handful of mind specialists from hospitals around the country, but none had been able to crack her obliviating spell. They said she'd simply erased too much- too many memories, too much personality. So Hermione stopped trying. Her parents had seemed so happy in Australia, she couldn't bear to experiment on them if there was any risk of permanently damaging their brains. So she went back to England and sold the house.

The very next day, she moved into a flat in London. She had picked one decently far away from any wizarding monuments, wanting some peace and quiet, as well as a break from the press. While she'd been staying at the Burrow, immediately following the war, they'd had reporters following their every move from outside the wards. Harry had also found this exhausting and started working on renovating Grimmauld Place around the same time she bought her flat.

Now, Hermione woke up every day in her new bed, struggling to find the motivation to do- well, anything, frankly. She'd accepted Profess- Sorry, Headmaster McGonagall's invitation to finish her studies at Hogwarts in the following school year, and while she was excited to take her Newts, she was underwhelmed by the idea of being back in the castle where so many people she knew had died. She wasn't even sure she knew everyone who had been killed in the final battle yet. Of course, she knew the ones most important to her- Fred, Remus Lupin, Tonks… But she knew that once she stepped foot in Hogwarts, there would be many of her former classmates missing. Not just the ones who would choose not to return- Ron and Harry being among those- but the ones that she would later find out to have passed during the war.

The one thing she was glad for was that Ginny would be returning to Hogwarts as well, and they'd be taking very similar courses. Well, McGonagall had mentioned the 8th years would most likely have their own separate sections of each course, to separate them from the 7th years, but she would at least have similar course material to Ginny.

That reminded her: she needed to go into Diagon Alley to pick up her course materials, as well as all-new supplies. Before the war, she'd banished her cauldron and other school things rather than leave them at home where they might identify her house as being magical. This meant she needed all new supplies, robes, as well as textbooks for each of her classes. She'd also noticed on the usual Hogwarts supply list that dress robes had once again been listed. She supposed that McGonagall had probably planned a dance of some sort to raise spirits after the year everyone had.

Groaning as she slowed down her thoughts and pulled herself out of bed, she pulled on a jumper over her pyjamas. Recently, it had been hard for her to get dressed in the mornings. She pushed aside the sliding doors between her bedroom and kitchen/living room area. She'd found quite a decent flat, especially for the price and location, but it was still only barely bigger than a studio. Of course, the price wasn't really a necessary consideration, after the ministry had been put back together following the war. They'd given her, Harry, and Ron generous sums for the lack of support they'd gotten from the ministry as well as everything they had done for the wizarding world. Hermione had done the math, and she was thoroughly set for life if she was decently frugal. Of course, that would definitely not stop her from getting a proper job once she'd gotten her Newts. She still had things she wanted to do with her life.

She went over the list of things she needed from Diagon Alley while pouring milk into her cereal. She'd need new robes of course, as well as some new dress robes- she had no clue where her Yule Ball robes had ended up. A new pointed hat, though older students rarely actually wore theirs. A few winter-cloaks, definitely new mittens, as well as a new set of potion-making supplies, as she was taking N.E.W.T level potions this year. The classes she'd taken in her sixth year were as follows: Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Potions, Herbology, Charms and Transfiguration. This meant she would be expected to take each of these classes for one more year, and then sit for each N.E.W.T. examination at the end of the year. However, she was considering asking McGonagall if she could drop D.A.D.A as well as Ancient Runes, as they didn't seem as applicable to the sort of career she was going for. She was thoroughly done with anything defence or fighting-related, and Runes was more of a hobby thing to start with.

Hermione sighed. There was just so much to be done today, which it felt impossible after over a month of doing next to nothing. She washed up her dishes and went to wash up. She contemplated her cosmetics bag for a few seconds before settling on some dark brown eyeliner and a few pins in her hair to keep the unruly curls back.

She changed from her maroon pyjamas to a pair of mid-rise flare jeans and a black tank top. For good measure, she threw on a matching necklace and bracelet that she'd recovered from her childhood home before selling it. She pulled on a pair of black trainers- that reminded her, she needed some new shoes before school started, yet another thing to buy today- and grabbed a black handbag with her wallet and keys before walking out the door.

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By mid-afternoon, Hermione had bought damn near everything on her mental list and was ready to crash. All she needed were dress robes, but she was thinking at this point she might just come back next week with Ginny to buy those. She was much too tired to do anything after hours of shopping, dodging paparazzi, and chatting with old classmates that she'd never really talked to before. She was glad people were moving on from the previous year's tragedies, but she still didn't quite feel ready to put everything behind her. She was sick of constantly needing to be everyone's hero. For the millionth time, she wished she could disappear into her books.

Putting her last shopping bag into her charmed purse that could hold a storage locker full of things, she apparated back to her flat.

Hermione spent the next few hours fitting everything she'd bought into her new trunk, trying to keep everything orderly so that nothing would get crushed or wrinkled in the next month or so before school started. She left out a few textbooks to do some light reading and sighed, knowing she should contact her friends. It was just so hard to force contact when everyone was dealing with their grief. Ginny had put on a façade of being alright but she knew she was dealing with the same thing as the rest of the Weasleys. You don't just get over the death of your brother in the span of a few months. Harry, too, was also wracked with guilt over the death of so many people. Keeping all of this in mind, she drafted a letter to Harry:

Dear Harry,

How are you? I'm doing well, or as well as one can really be doing in these circumstances. I've just bought my school supplies for the year. It's weird buying all new supplies as if I was a first-year, but I bet many will be doing the same. I'll miss you and Ron at school- I don't know what it will be like there without you. I hope you'll come to visit. I expect you're always welcome at Hogwarts. How is Grimmauld Place coming along? Did you manage to get the screaming portrait of Sirius's mother down? Remember to write to Ron.

Hope you're doing well,

Hermione

Her letter to Harry was short and not particularly deep, but she wasn't sure what to say. It had been hard talking to each other lately.

After putting away her writing supplies, Hermione sent off her letter with the owl she'd recently acquired from Diagon Alley: Lark. She'd wanted a companion after Crookshanks died during the war. Lark flew away with a hoot and Hermione promptly buried herself in one of her new textbooks. That is, until she was startled by a loud crash and a dishevelled man stumbling through her fireplace.

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