When the first night fell, long slender fingers tightly grasped smaller, less lined hands. She would not, could not, allow Morpheus to take her least she awake and find it all a far too sweet a dream. Sunset came, then dusk, then blackened skies and beams of moonlight, and still the fingers kept their grasp. It was her own sort of vigil. The sort of vigil that did not end until morning light at last came to frame Hermione's hair like a halo. Her angel was truly there.
Progress.
That was what they called it when the next night she did allow her eyes to flutter closed. Her grip never faltered even when horrific scenes of loss, despair, and green flashes of light ripped her back to the land of living. Her panicked cries and desperate tears were soothed with gentle hands and even gentler lips. Soft spoken words, "I love you", lulled her heart back to a resting rate. "I'm here with you. Until the very end."
Progress.
That was what they called it when she managed to sleep through the night. It took weeks but it happened. Every morning, green eyes would seek out brown, breath held until they met the reassuring gaze. Then she would breathe again. She was still here. Still here.
Progress.
The first day she awoke without Hermione beside her and allowed the panic to consume her was the first setback of the journey to healing, to being whole. The second day it happened, when she took long, steadying breaths and ventured out of the bedroom on shaky legs to discover her witch busily cooking breakfast with a smile, they called that progress.
Progress.
Progress continued to grow just as they continued to grow together. Their relationship was an interesting one, moved both too slowly and too quickly, filled with heated arguments and even more heated makeup sessions. The biggest moment of progress came, however, when Minerva nervously knelt before Hermione on one knee, shakily offering her a ring and the promise to never stop making progress, to always offer penance when penance was due, and to never blink long enough to miss a moment of their lives together.