A.N. Oh my goodness you guys. You'll never believe how much trouble I have been through with technology recently. So towards the end of last year my computer started to freak out on me. Of course none of my documents were saved so every story I've written disappeared. Then the computer shut off altogether. So I had to buy a new one and start over on my stories from scratch.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or the quotes.

Warning: This story is dark and contains dark themes. It is meant to be a more real version of a war story. It is rated M for a reason.

May 31st 1999

"Because what was the point in crying when there was no one to comfort you? And what was worse, when you couldn't even comfort yourself?" Cassandra Clare

In many ways it had surprised Hermione how much weight she had gained during isolation. In retrospect she could understand, but the idea itself just didn't sound right. One meal a day, given to her by an unpleasant man in the mid afternoon under normal circumstances would cause a girl to lose weight.

But Hermione had been so frail when she arrived at New Town Mudblood. For a year she had survived on a small portion of rabbit or snake, bugs, and -at desperate times- leaves. Her body was used to not eating much, but it had also gotten used to constant movement. In isolation she had more to eat during her meal and sat around for the rest of the day.

She had talked to herself in hopes of remaining sane. After the first week she had started to lose hope about leaving the isolation room anytime soon. During the second week she had begged her food man to make the smell go away. Two weeks' worth of urine and feces was enough to make the tiny room sickening. At first he hadn't said anything, but later that same day he came back and with a quick spell cleared the room. Hermione hated being grateful to a Death Eater, and she refused to acknowledge the gratitude instead she just stopped speaking to him.

The third week she had started imagining Harry and Ron sitting with her. She knew they weren't there but she liked talking with them more than herself. The boys gave her comfort that she hadn't had since she had last seen them. She made up stories of how their lives were, fantastic tales of them escaping on coming to rescue her.

The forth week had been her wake up call. The smell had started to take over the small room again and this time she refused to ask for anything that would put her in debt to a Death Eater. She stop playing make believe and forced herself to look at the truth of the situation. She was trapped, stuck in a small room inside a terrible building in a town where the Death Eaters were slowly preparing the muggleborns for slaughter. She started accepting the fact that no one would save her, that Harry and Ron were just as trapped as she was. There was no way to escape, and even if there was she had nowhere to go.

The likeliness that her family was alive in Australia was slim. The Weasleys' were as good as dead. Her cat even had probably passed away. She was alone, not only in the small room, but in the world. There were plenty of muggleborns surrounding her but none of them were her people. She had made friends –it had taken her until she was twelve but she had made friends. The magical world that once held so much promise was gone. And for the first time since she first learned magic was real she wished Dumbledore had just left her in her place.

Her place… it had been the first time she had thought it. The magical world was no longer a place for her. Perhaps it had never been, if this was the destiny she had been stuck with. It was then, in that forth week that she first thought of herself as a muggle trapped in the magical world. She no longer had a wand, wandless magic had only gotten her hurt, and the wizards in control had locked her away because they viewed her existence as a crime. She had never thought of herself as a mudblood, but that was what they were forcing her into –a dirty animal, trapped and sniveling but mostly dirty.

The fifth week hadn't been anything special. Hermione sat in silence allowing the stillness to overtake her. She only moved to get her food or to go to the restroom. She would fall asleep sitting up, or leaning against a wall. Yes nothing exciting happened during the fifth week, until the food man opened the door and never closed it.

Hermione had stared at the door for longer than she liked to admit before she even considered leaving the room. She wasn't sure if she would handle the real world, wasn't sure if it was a trap, five weeks had taken away the confidence she knew she needed to gain back if she was going to survive.

That was what drove her in the end. She needed to survive, and she could hardly do that if she stayed in isolation and allowed herself to be treated like a pet. She needed to become comfortable with fighting again, needed to stand up for herself. If she ever had a chance of getting out she would need to be stronger.

It was surprisingly easy to stand, probably due to the extra weight she had put on. In the woods her legs felt as though they would snap every time she stood. In the isolation room she only got slightly dizzy form standing too quickly. The room was tiny and only took a few steps to be in the doorway. She looked around cautiously, waiting to see if a Death Eater was going to jump out and prove leaving the door open had been a trap.

But no one came after her, nothing happened. In fact it was all fairly anticlimactic in the end. She walked out of the room and out of the building without much fuss. The problem only occurred once she was outside.

The sun was high in the sky, and Hermione had nearly forgotten about sunlight. Immediately she could feel the warmth on her skin, but the pain in her eyes was what mattered more. She practically jumped against one of the buildings, hiding in the shadow from the light that had burnt her eyes.

The others around her continued walking as if nothing had happened. Nobody seemed effected by her presence. Their lives kept on moving forward as if they weren't trapped in an undesirable situation. But Hermione's whole life had been uprooted and she refused to down play it. She refused to let isolation beat her. Even if she had to remind herself everyday she wouldn't give into them.

She had learned her lesson from solitary; never speak to the Death Eaters. She still didn't know where she was supposed to sleep that night but she would figure it out on her own this time.

As her eyes adjusted to the morning light she people watched. There were plenty of other muggleborns shoved into the small town. In fact there were probably too many. The town was small and crowded with large iron gates surrounding the entire perimeter. The buildings looked far too rundown for a place that was built only within the year. Bars were on every window, and from what Hermione could tell there was only one door going into each building.

The children seemed perfectly content with their situation. She watched as the school aged kids played and laughed with each other like nothing was wrong… The eleven and twelve years olds had never known another side to magic, they had always been faced with Voldemort's take over. Perhaps to them this town away from the violence of it all was a blessing.

But Hermione could see the broken look in some of the adults eyes. They were trying their best to keep up appearances for the children, trying their best to remain happy and not cause problems. But anyone who could remember the world before Voldemort's return knew better than to be happy with how things turned out.

Women were walking around, some old and some Hermione's age, with baskets of food. Hermione knew she had a lot to learn about the town and clearly the only way she would truly learn is if she would ask the other muggleborns. Somewhere there was a place to get food, somewhere there had to be a bathroom because everyone looked clean and the town didn't smell of urine, and somewhere there was a place for her to sleep.

"You keep hiding away and people will think you're a vampire." A girl no more than sixteen said.

"What?" Hermione questioned.

"You're standing off in the shadows." She explained. "I'm Anna, Anna Watts. You are?"

"Hermione Granger. I got here about a month ago."

"Not possible, people would have talked if Hermione Granger was here. You're like a celebrity."

"I was in isolation for… a few weeks." She sugarcoated.

The younger girl grabbed Hermione by the hand and pulled her through the shadows down the short dirt street. Hermione couldn't help but smile when she saw the fruit cart Anna had led them to.

"I hear isolation is fed slop, but we actually have decent food here. I can be, like, your guide. It's easier if you have someone helping you. When I first got here I had Matthew, but he got transferred. So I'll be your Matthew."

Hermione could get past the girl's cheerful demeanor. She was old enough to know how things had been before… Yet, she still smiled and looked at things optimistically. Hermione didn't know if she should be horrified by the town's way of twisting people.

"Who's Matthew?" Hermione asked.

"He was my boyfriend back at school. He ended things when he moved here but we picked back up once I joined. Having someone is always better than being alone, that's the first thing you need to know about this place. The Death Eaters don't ever get involved unless it's to punish someone so you need someone to help you with the transition, or at least that's what Matthew told me."

Hermione nodded, even if she didn't understand the girl's happiness she was more than willing to accept a friendship. She had felt far too alone during those weeks of isolation. Being without Harry and Ron would be hard enough but maybe with a friend she would be able to ease the ache in her chest.

"Awesome! First things first, everyone has a job. Women work in the factory and men work in the fields. Basically we make everything everyone here needs, or we grow stuff. Beds are first come first serve, but once you pick a bed everyone just kind of respects that that's your place. The younger kids don't have to work but they aren't allowed to learn magic, so once a week we switch off who teaches them basics like math and science and stuff. We all just kind of flail around until we find our footing."

Hermione let the younger girl lead her through the town. She told her what every building was called and the purpose of it. Anna even led Hermione out towards the fields to see some of the men starting to work. She pointed out all of the guard towers and stressed that Hermione never speak of You-Know-Who or the Death Eaters in a negative way.

Hermione had been quiet through the whole tour until then. She refused to go through life in the town pretending the Death Eaters and Voldemort weren't affecting her.

"Hermione, seriously. Anyone who speaks out gets transferred to the other Mudblood camp, but it's not nearly as free there. Rumor is it's more of a jail than anything else."

Hermione didn't know what to say. Five weeks ago there had only been two towns built. Of course it wasn't impossible that a town had opened during her time in isolation but it seemed unlikely that it would be another Mudblood town. Surely the Death Eaters would split up the Blood Traitors and the Halfbloods before giving the Mudbloods another place to live.

"Two weeks after I first got here a group of people were transferred to the other town and we can't even write them. They are practically in solitary." Anna explained.

But Hermione's mind was racing. From what she had gathered Anna had been in the town for quite some time. There was no other place for them to take Mudbloods unless they joined the Halfblood and Blood Traitor town... The only thing Hermione could think of was that people weren't being transferred; they were being shipped off to die.

It was just like she had told Ron. The Death Eaters weren't providing them a home, this was a stepping stool. They would live in these towns until they became too old or sickly then Hermione had no doubt they would be shipped off and never seen again.

"Come on," Anna said pulling Hermione towards one of the housing buildings. "It's almost dark so we've got to get off the streets."

Anna led Hermione up four flights of stairs in the creepy brick building. Opening the door to the fourth floor was not at all what Hermione had expected. Instead of rooms the entire floor had been gutted. Cot-like beds sat in rows filling up the room. There was a door that Anna told her led to the bathroom.

People had already filled the room up, but luckily there was still a bed empty next to Anna's. Women and children, even a few men climbed into their cots and tried to force themselves into sleeping. It had only just gotten dark, there was still plenty of time in the day left, but once it was dark there was nothing for them to do in the town but sleep.

"There are small children." Hermione noted.

"Yeah, people who had little kids brought them, and some people have had babies since they got here. It's really sad though, some of the men have kids that are with their moms in the Halfblood town. Or some women sent their kids with dads because Halfblood Town is supposed to be nicer."

"Families got separated?"

"Yeah, I mostly don't mention families to people cause of it. So sad."

"It is."

"Oh, and Hermione, tomorrow you're going to want to shower. You smell kind of awful."

Hermione watched Anna slip under the small blanket on her bed and listened to the sounds of the night. Many people were sleeping but the cries of grown men and women were enough to keep Hermione up. Babies would cry as the night went on and she couldn't think of anything but being separated from the people she considered family.

She would have thought she would cry. Thoughts of Harry and Ron, the rest of the Weasleys… the thoughts overran her mind but she couldn't bring herself to cry. When they had been in the woods Harry always stopped her tears one way or another. Ron, during his few good days, would fumble about awkwardly trying to cheer her up as well. But here she had nothing but the desperate moans of broken people to comfort her.