The scrap of paper lay innocently on the dining table, oblivious to the glare it had been receiving since the past two weeks from a woman with thick curly brown hair. Hermione leant back dejectedly on her chair, fingers playing absently with the edges of the letter; an invitation to Harry and Ginny's Christmas dinner.

Had this invitation popped three years back, she would've been busy baking up semi-eatble cakes with fervor, running through the streets of Diagon Alley with the determination of a harried war general managing last minute expectations and pushing all her meetings to ensure she received at least a week's worth of solace and festivities. However, as close her bond was with Ron and Harry, the past three years had witnessed her priorities, work and lack of time chaff their friendship. Ron was busy with the expansion of the shops, Harry with Auror duties and her trying to wedge a foot in the higher ranks.

While they'd remained in contact, her work became demanding enough to apologize and push dinner plans frequently until owls carrying their letters slithered to every few months.

She inhaled, squared her shoulders in determination and picked up her pen. The owl flew out the window into the clear afternoon sky before indecision could creep in.


The faded blue door looked inconspicuous yet unnerving in the large foyer. The heat from the bright sunlight prickled along her back as apprehension bit her skin. Hermione knocked hesitatingly, eyes distractedly grazing the numerous pots bursting with overgrown plants outside the door. The faint scratches and weathered paint showed a patient witness to the years she'd missed, looking down at her almost mockingly.

The door flew open suddenly and standing there with a dazzling smile on his face was Harry. Her muscles clenched impulsively into a mangle of nerves, anxiety and indecision as her her eyes scanned over his face frantically, noting all slight changes in his appearance; the faint laugh lines on his face, dark circles under his eyes, before resting on his vivid green eyes.

The whorls of green sparked with a warm glint as he beamed an infectious smile, a hazy reflection of the boy she'd met at eleven.

Before she could muster a sound, he enveloped her in a hug, surrounding her in his familiar warmth.

"Hermione", he gushed warmly.

Her anxiety trickled away as she nudged her face into the crook of his neck. Why hadn't she reached out before?

"I've missed you", she murmured into his shirt, the scent of wood and clean detergent filling her nose.

He squeezed her and she chuckled before squeezing back.

"We've made a lot of changes since you last visited", Harry said over his shoulder, making his way into the house.

The house they'd built five years back had certainly undergone numerous changes since she'd last visited. Gone were the old light brown wooden floors, dark paints and small windows. The large house was flooded with rare English sunlight slipping through the numerous windows and bathing the walls into a warm golden color.

"I noticed", she replied, eyes roaming in wonder at the bright colors in every room.

They'd pushed the main entrance outward, repainted the walls to a off-white color, rebuffed the wooden floor to a light brown color and replaced the living room wall overlooking the garden with a glass panel. The house hinted the burrow in every nook and cranny.

"Ginny's been cooking like crazy. She was so excited to when she heard you'd be coming. She made the chocolate cake you love", he wiggled his eyebrows in excitement.

Hermione laughed as she entered the living room, a pang of pure love hitting her.

As she moved around to examine the living room, Ginny burst in.

"Hermione!", she exclaimed before jumping on her.

Hermione laughed before hugging her tightly, smiling foolishly at Harry right behind her.

Ginny donned an apron with smudges of flour on her face and hair tied in a messy bun, red hair burning in warm sunlight.

She grasped Hermione's hand and pushed her into a dark green chair, sitting down on wooden one opposite of hers.

"Its been so long!", she said

"I know", Hermione sighed, shaking her head in apology.

"You've got no time for us.", Harry stated flatly.

"I do! I - "

"Have the ministry to save?", Ginny finished.

"- been working", she replied lamely.

"We haven't?", Ginny needled.

"You do! I just saw the cup you won!"

"Cup?", she glanced at Harry who shook his head in disappointment, "you're hopeless."

"Ah, shut up"

They chatted away, teasing, cajoling and mocking each other and Hermione relaxed further and further, a realization catalyzed by Malfoy now slipping back into the front of her mind. Did work really hold that much importance in front of friendships, love and laughter? In front of quiet Sundays spent in the company of the people you love, laughing till the evening crept in, eating till your hearts content?

"Where are James, Lily and -", she began.

Ginny waved question away.

"They're at the burrow getting spoilt rotten. This was just for all of us."

She paused, eyes darting to Harry's, before adding, "Ron will be joining later."

Hermione nodded. Even after years, Ginny and Harry crept nervously around the subject of the failed relationship that she and Ron had shared but it had ended amicably enough for her to not share their nervousness. Ron remained one of her closest friends and she knew with certainty that he would remain so forever, even if distance and time threatened to pull them away.

She even knew he'd found someone, a girl from America, Elizabeth. The daily prophet had been filled with pictures of their "secretive affair".

"Who else will be joining?"

"Oh, the entire gang", Harry quipped before standing. "I'll just check up on the bread", he shook his head solemnly, "Don't want you walking out without getting a taste of it." He turned and walked out the room, leaving a gaping Hermione in the wake.

"Bread?", she whispered incredulously.

"Please do not encourage him. We have heaps of failed bread attempts in every spare inch of our cabinets."

A laugh burst through her as the image of a harangued Harry, leaning over a recipe with skewed glasses and messy hair while baking a bread hastily, conjured up in her mind. For a boy who moaned in ever potions class, baking was the last activity she could have dreamt him partaking in.

"When did he pick it?", she managed, snorts of laughter slipping out after a minute later. Ginny looked so disgruntled, almost on the verge of adorable.

"He and Mum now have weekly baking competitions."

"NO", she gasped in mock horror.

"Yes, and they're competitive. Last week was a blow for him."

Hermione burst into peals of laughter once again.

The evening was a warm and cozy affair. Seamus showed up first with a big box of chocolates, followed soon by Katie, Dean and few other Ministry friends. It was slightly strange to see all of her friends, whom she'd grown up with brining in their partners, settling down in life and all working in different fields. They chatted around the fireplace that spilled a warm glow around the room as Hermione saw the affection that had grown between everyone in the years she was absent. It unhinged her slightly to see how comfortable they all looked around the room, Seamus on the plush red sofa joking with Katie who was sitting cross-legged on the carpet, Harry talking with acquaintances she'd only glimpsed across Ministry halls and Ginny weaving them all together with plates of food floating around every few seconds. She shook her head before sitting near the empty chair beside Luna, whom she'd chatted with few hours earlier.

"The room is beautiful, isn't it?", Luna asked in a reverie, the familiar glint in her eye pulling Hermione back to Hogwarts.

The warm yellow room with a crackling fire, laughter ringing through the walls and warm colored sofa were reminiscent of the Gryffindor common room.

"Yes, it is."

The muted sounds of conversations reached her ears for a minute before she spoke again.

"Are you with someone?"

Hermione's eyebrows shot up.

"Me?", she shook her head vehemently, "not at all."

She gave a grim smile before a thought popped in her mind.

"Are you?"

"Oh no", Luna replied, "I like a boy but it might be too early."

"Ah.", Hermione was unsure of how to response. "That's nice. Where did you meet?"

A sudden uproar swept from the other side of the room as Hermione craned her neck to ascertain the source. Ron, with his tangled red hair, walked in followed by George, laughing as he hugged Harry and Ginny.

Though years had passed, little had changed; he remained just as tall and lanky. Her breath caught in her throat at irreverence radiating from him, the carefree attitude she always envied rippling in waves. She watched as his eyes scanned the room, nails digging into the rough cloth of the chair, till they landed on her. His eyes widened imperceptibly before returning to their familiar warmth.

Hermione couldn't understand the desperate emotion that arose within her, perhaps triggered from watching everyone's life unfold so differently from her own, that recognized Ron as a safe harbor and asked her to clutch onto him.

He patted Seamus's back before making way towards her, arms stretching in front of him and she stood up instinctively.

Smiling widely, she hugged him fiercely. His body stiffened for a blink of an eye before arms wrapped around her in solid warmth.

"How are you?", she asked brightly even as her heart clenched sharply.

Ron gave a sheepish smile before ruffling his hair with the back of his hand.

"I'm good, what about you?"

"Good good", she nodded. She glanced around the room nervously before looking back at each other.

"Harry tells me all about what you're up to"

"Really?"

"Yeah, you opened another shop right?"

He nodded again. The bridge between them grew as she continued racking her brain for other topics.

"Are you with someone?", he asked suddenly. Hermione blinked.

"Me?", she laughed belatedly, "no one"

He nodded hesitantly before biting his lip.

"Did Harry tell you.."

"Ah yes! You're with Elizabeth, if I'm not wrong?", Hermione wished the awareness would dissipate but it wavered like drops of water lining the coast.

The sinking realization that they'd grown, drifted and changed crept up her nerves, replacing the desperation she'd felt just moments before.

Ron nodded, smiling softly, eyes crinkling like when he was wished a conversation to end.

She sighed before smiling, shifting a leg back. "I'll help Ginny?"

She smiled warmly, holding his gaze for a moment longer than necessary for her heart to reconcile to what she'd lost before turning back towards the kitchen.

Two hours later she found herself sitting beside Luna once again. They sat sipping wine, observing as others mingled with food flying in every few minutes, swishing narrowly above people's heads.

The party had become progressively unbearable. Everyone had settled in their lives, found someone, and perhaps most annoyingly, sat content with their lives. Loneliness pierced her heart like a sharp blade as she stood up suddenly, almost knocking off the vase beside her. She bent towards Luna, "I'm leaving"

Luna, half-drunk with red wine, nodded dreamily, waving her away.

She waved at Ginny who was distracted by Katies arms pulling her away. Harry sat beside Ron laughing at something as she made her way out to the cool air of London.


Her apartment felt freezing cold after the warmth at the party. She quickly cast a warming spell before jumping to remove her shoes, knocking her knee at the table. Disgruntled, she quickly changed her clothes before lying disheartened on the bed.

"This is how I'll die. Lonely, cold and alone in this place.", she whispered to herself, watching the wooden beams on her room glisten with the moonlight. Her fingers grazed the soft lines of her bedsheet as her thoughts wandered the path of wistful thinking. If only her job was better, her expectations manageable, her parents with her and gosh, she just wished she had someone. Someone to look at like Harry and Ginny, someone to sneak off to, someone to laugh with, someoneto hold onto.

Just anyone with her.

Right now holding her.

Maybe it was the dullness from the wine or the glaring emptiness in her life that forced her to curl into herself. A tear slipped by as she fisted the bedsheet and pushed her face against the bed, her righteous mane falling around her.

The other hand crept up her chest, fisting her shirt as the wound bled open slowly.

She wiped away the tears before conjuring up a pen and paper.

Before second thoughts could creep in, her hand furiously wrote a small note asking to meet a person

she'd never imagined seeking out. Would he be just as lonely as her or would he mock her? Did she really- she stopped herself.

She bit her lip as her eyes read over the words.

"5 am at Florean Fortesque?"

5 am would be in another two hours. Would he even read it?

Thoughts rushed past her brain as the undeniable pain in her chest grew further.

Would he come? What would she say?

She was just so lonely.

She jumped and ran to Zilla's, her owls, cage, regretting waking up the bleary-eyed owl, who hooted softly at the letter being wrapped around her leg.

"Return quickly", she whispered, as she stroked her head, walking towards the long wall windows of her apartment.

Zilla flew out into the starry sky, watched over by a pair of brown eyes frowning in regret, with a small letter addressed to Malfoy Manor.


Authors Note: Apologies for spelling errors. This was a rushed one but just felt like writing it out. Let me know if you did or didn't like it as reviews help in staying on track :)