Chapter 1

Bzzz-Bzzz!

Hemione woke up to her phone buzzing beside her pillow. She moaned in her sleep and dismissed the alarm. She pulled off the blanket and stepped down from her bed while thinking of all the stuff she had to do for the day. Heading to the kitchen, she opened her refrigerator and took out eggs and bacon for breakfast. "Jane! Come here, have your breakfast baby girl," she called out to her cat and started cooking on the small stove.

Her cat sauntered into the kitchen and purred against Hermione's legs. Suddenly, Hermione heard a faint tapping coming from the window. She grabbed her wand and tip-toed towards the window, only to find a black barn owl trying to deliver a letter. She opened the window and let the owl in while grabbing some treats for it. "Hey there, you wanna eat this?" she cooed, feeding the treats to the owl. She reached down and untied the letter from her leg.

She started worrying when she saw the Hogwarts crest on the letter. She, along with Harry, Ron, Ginny, and a bunch of others had worked with the professors tirelessly to restore Hogwarts to its might over the past year. Wondering what had gone wrong, she quickly opened the letter and started reading.

Dear Ms. Granger,

We are pleased to inform you that you and the rest of the seventh years are required to return to Hogwarts this year in order to complete their N.E.W.T. year and to fully graduate. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books.

Term begins on 1 September.

Yours Sincerely,

Filius Flitwick

Deputy Headmaster

As soon as she read the letter, Hermione's frown turned to a smile, and her eyes lit up. She looked towards the owl but saw that she had already flown away. Walking up to close the window, she saw Pigwidgeon flying towards her. She let him in and took the letter from his leg while feeding him treats. She opened the letter and saw Harry's untidy scrawl.

Dear Mione,

I'm guessing that you've got your letter. I can't believe they are making us come back! How can they do this? We just started Auror training, and now we have to leave it behind for a whole year.

Anyway, I'm going to Diagon Alley today at 12, would you be there? I would love to see you once, before meeting on the train again, of course. I'll be in the Leaky Cauldron till 1. If you come, meet me there. If not, I'll just shop on my own.

Love,

Harry

She shook her head as she read his letter and his reluctance to go back to Hogwarts for one last year. She, on the other hand, was looking forward to it. She was getting a chance to redo her last school year after being on the run with Harry and Ron in order to find the Horcruxes. She wrote a quick reply on the back of his letter and sent it back with Pigwidgeon.

She went back into the kitchen, quickly finished her breakfast, and proceeded to get ready for the afternoon.

Locking her apartment door, Hermione walked out and turned to an alley. She looked around and made sure no Muggles were around, then Apparated into the Leaky Cauldron. She looked around with a bright smile to find Harry but her smile quickly faded into a frown as she saw Ron sitting with Harry.

After their kiss in the Chamber of Secrets during the war, Ron and Hermione had started dating, and Hermione had moved in with him into a new apartment. 4 months into the relationship, Ron had proposed to her, and she had said yes immediately with tears streaming down her cheeks with the sheer happiness of being finally united with her first love.

But her happiness had been short-lived. A week after their engagement, she walked into her shared apartment with Ron, only to find him on the couch, snogging Lavender Brown, of all people. When confronted, Ron shouted at her, instead of the other way around, saying "You never spend time with me! You're always in the library, snuggling books instead of me! You're lucky I pulled you out of the library occasionally, or you wouldn't even have a life!" All through his accusations, Lavender had been sitting on the couch Hermione had helped pay for, looking at her with a smug smirk on her face.

She had left her apartment the same evening, taking all her stuff with her, and had stayed in a hotel room for two months before she could by an apartment for herself. That day was the last time she had seen Ron. Even though he had tried to contact her on numerous occasions, she had refused to even look at him. But, there he was, sitting with Harry and looking as if that day had never happened.

Hermione walked toward Harry, trying hard not to burst into tears. She looked straight into his eyes as if to say 'Why would you do this to me?" and then said, "Harry, why did you invite me here?" She managed not to look at Ron and waited for any possible reason that could justify Harry's actions. "Mione, he wants to apologize. You need to hear him out," he said, reaching for her hand to comfort her. She yanked her hand away, mustered all her courage, and looked at Ron.

"What?" she asked him in a quivering tone. Taking a deep breath, he began, "Mione, I'm sorry. I was being a jerk and a git and I shouldn't have said those things to you. I didn't mean them. Please, forgive me. I love you. Please." By the end, his eyes were moist. Hermione, on the other hand, didn't budge. "Ronald, I might forgive you with time, but I will never, in a million years, fall in love with you again. We are can be friends, just friends, and nothing more. You broke me, and it took me all I had to get back on my feet. I can never trust you like that again." she said, holding back her tears.

She stood up, looked at Harry, and said, "Harry, I need to buy my textbooks. If you want, you can come along. But I can't stay around him. Not yet." She walked out of the bar and headed to Flourish and Botts to buy the textbooks for her seventh, or rather, eighth year.

"Hermione! Wait up!" Harry called after her, running to catch up. "I'm sorry, but I thought it was time you two made up. I di-" Hermione cut him off and said, "It's okay Harry. You were right. I need to forgive him. But as soon as I saw his face, all I could think of were the horrible things he had said to me that day, and, I just couldn't let it go."

"Come here," Harry said in a soft whisper and hugged her tightly. "Everything will be fine. We're going back to Hogwarts, your favorite place in the world. No Voldemort, no Death Eaters. What could possibly go wrong?"

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