a/n1: Moin, here we are with the next chapter! viv-heart is still betaing and coping with my germanisms. She also posted some new stories, check them out! :)

…the faces of her parents going blank when she took their memories…Ron laying splinched on the forest floor, bleeding heavily…the baleful look in Ron's eyes when he left…Harry kneeling at his parent's grave…missing the hare for the tenth time because her stomach grumbled so much…scouring the trashcans behind a muggle restaurant in a tiny village for food…being caught and beaten for being hungry…Ron coming back, smiling as if nothing had happened…Harry speaking the taboo…Bellatrix' Crucio, her knife on her neck…the cold, unfeeling eyes of the Malfoys…not being able to find Harry during the battle…seeing Harry dead…being subjected to the Crucio again…

Hands on her shoulders, shaking her awake. "Hermione! 'Mione! Wake up! They are just nightmares!"

Hermione opened her eyes to see Harry, Ron and Ginny leaning over her. Still panicking because of her nightmare, really just memories, her brain struggled to understand what was happening.

"Ginny, since when are you here?" Hermione croaked out, her throat felt raw.

"I came over two hours ago as I couldn't sleep at the Burrow. It felt wrong without Fred there," the younger girl said calmly.

"How late is it?" Hermione asked, still trying to catch up with reality.

"One o'clock in the morning, 'Mione," Ron answered.

Hermione frowned. "But I went to sleep at four in the afternoon? Why didn't you wake me up for dinner?"

Ron scratched his neck. "We know that you didn't sleep much in the last, well, year probably and thought it would be better to let you sleep."

Hermione nodded her head. "Please wake me up the next time. I can't miss anymore meals." She smiled shyly up to them and Harry laughed.

"Well, don't let Kreacher hear that or he will be on your heels feeding you at every turn!"

"Do you want to eat something now?" Ginny asked kindly.

"No, I would like to go back to sleep," the other witch answered and stifled a fake yawn. She wanted to be alone, wanted to be able to breath, to think.

"Alright, sleep well, Hermione!" Harry said and gave her a kiss on her forehead, Ginny hugged her and Ron pulled her close to his side for a moment before letting go.

When they were finally gone, Hermione put up her normal privacy wards and scolded herself for forgetting them. But the adrenaline from the nightmare still coursed through her veins so she decided to write Narcissa, maybe talking would help. The older witch also had probably more experience with dealing with nightmares.

Dear Narcissa,

it's currently a bit past one o'clock in the morning, but since there is no way I am able to sleep anytime soon I decided to write you in a very personal matter. We havealready discussed how bad our sleeping rhythm was, but I never mentioned the reason I sleep so badly. Although, knowing you, you probably figured it out very quickly anyway.
I don't even know whether I should call them nightmares as they are memories. Bad memories, granted, but we have been at war. Of course I would have mostly dark memories of it. Still, they are haunting me every night and I can't seem to banish them from my sleep.
I tried Dreamless Sleep, but within a few days I felt the addicting influence and never took it again. I tried muggle sleeping pills, but they weren't really working. Do you know anything else?
Maybe I could come over sometime this week and we could talk? I don't really feel like writing my memories down as I don't know whether our letters are intercepted.
I hope you had a more pleasant night. I will try to catch a few more hours of sleep now.

Yours
Hermione

Having finished the short letter she called for the tiny owl she had bought a few days after the battle. She was rather feisty and Hermione instantly fell in love with her and decided to name her Athene - her species was called Athene noctua after all. She attached the scroll to the tiny owl's leg and send her out of the window.

The next morning found the four inhabitants of Grimmauld Place pouring over plans of the floors in old house. They had written into every room what they had to do to renovate it, but had had trouble to squeeze in everything in some rooms despite Hermione's tiniest script. Kreacher had told them about house-elf charms that would help, but he was an old elf and couldn't do that much. He asked them whether he should search for an apprentice he would train and who would be much more capable to help them.

Hermione was reluctant as she still wasn't convinced of elf labour, but she finally agreed after Kreacher assured her that he would only accept a progressive elf who would understand that she didn't reject his work but thought that it should be valued more.

They also realised that they would need to learn cleaning charms if they wanted to do something as well and Hermione suggested that they should ask Mrs. Weasley whether she could teach them or at least recommend a book on it.

"It could help her with her sorrow about Fred as well," Hermione added in a tiny voice and the two boys nodded their heads.

"Alright, Harry and I have our appointment with the Aurors today, right before we have to do the acceptance test. They probably hope that we will still be under the influence of Veritaserum while they question us," Ron joked. "That means, you will have to go to the Burrow, 'Mione." She nodded her head.

"Kreacher will use the time to talk to a few house elves," the old elf stated and apparated away after they agreed to that plan.

When Hermione arrived at the Burrow she wasn't overly surprised that she didn't hear the normal buzz of the house. Even the garden gnomes were rather subdued and as she entered the kitchen the bushy-haired witch didn't see Mrs. Weasley bustling around. Hermione walked into the living room and found the matriarch of the Weasley clan. The witch sat in the armchair in front of the fire, a blanket over her shoulders and what seemed to be Firewhiskey in the glass in her hands. She stared blankly into the fire and Hermione suddenly knew why even the garden gnomes were quiet. She had always known that Mrs. Weasley was a powerful witch, but only now that she felt the older woman's magic oozing from her in waves of sorrow she truly understood that.

"Mrs. Weasley?" Hermione called out in a soft voice. The other witch didn't so much as blink and Hermione took a step forward to her and gingerly put a hand on her shoulder.
"Mrs. Weasley, I wanted to ask you something," she said with a bit more vigour, hoping that being needed would pull the witch out of her stupor.

But it didn't at first. Only when Hermione already wanted to try once more Mrs. Weasley blinked slowly and looked up to her with unshed tears in her eyes.
"I wasn't supposed to live longer than any of my children!" the distraught witch exclaimed and finally the tears fell from her eyes.

"Mrs. Weasley," Hermione began but was interrupted.

"Molly. No need for such formality," Mrs. Weasley said.

"Alright, Molly. I know that. I cannot possibly understand your pain. But I don't think Fred would want you to grieve him forever. He probably wants you to continue to live your life and laugh. Because that was his life goal: to make people and especially his family laugh." She put her arm around the shoulders of the older witch and sat down on the armrest.

"It just hurts so much. To know that he will never again poison himself while testing his products. That he will never again finish George's sentences or tease his siblings. Why him? Why?"

"Because he chose to fight evil instead of accepting it happening like so many others. Because he was a brave and a good man, even though he probably shouldn't have used first years to test his products." They both chuckled at that.

"Thank you, Hermione," Molly said after a while.

"Always, Mrs. - Molly," Hermione answered.

"Now, why did you come? Surely not for me to pour all my grieve over you," Molly asked sounding more like herself again. The waves of magical sorrow also subsided a bit. Not completely, it was just too soon.

"I wanted to ask you whether you could teach us household charms? We had to discover on the run that we didn't really know any and since we want to really renovate Grimmauld Place we will probably need them. Furthermore we won't always live with a house elf."

Molly nodded. "Alright. That sounds like a good plan. I will search for the book my mother gave me. Ah, don't look at me like that, child! I know you quite well by now."
Hermione grinned sheepishly and nodded her head. "Probably," she conceded.

Narcissa was suddenly very glad that she had made the elves teach her to cook while Voldemort was living at the Manor. It had been her escape from the presence of her house guests as nobody would have searched for her in the kitchen. After some time the house elves understood that she didn't want to learn because she didn't want them anymore. But because she needed time for herself and loved cooking just as much as they did, they became more open and showed her more and harder techniques. Now she was able to surprise the family with a nicely done continental breakfast. Their faces had been priceless and she couldn't help but grin very smugly all through breakfast, which they enjoyed greatly.

That was until she received Hermione's letter. Narcissa frowned at it. She had known that the other witch had nightmares, but she also could make a decent guess of which memories she was talking.

"What has Hermione written, mother?" Draco asked when he noticed her expression. The others looked up as well and Teddy used the opportunity to pull away from his bottle.

"She wants to come over and talk to me about one or two things, I was just wondering when. We have to repeat our testimonies this week and I don't exactly know when she has to go there," Narcissa lied easily and instantly earned herself two identical frowns from her sister and husband. She fought to keep the smile from her lips, it looked too strange.

"Alright, you just looked a bit worried," Draco explained.

After the breakfast Narcissa went to hers and Lucius' room to write a reply.

Dear Hermione,

I am very sad to hear that. I luckily slept quite well tonight. Having a normal bed really helps. I wondered when you were set to make your testimony. Lucius, Draco and I have an appointment in two days and I will be probably too tired after that to talk or think much.
I surely hope you don't worry about your memories too much. I am sure nearly everyone who participated or was strongly affected by this war has nightmares. Lucius, Draco and I definitely have, I think Andromeda as well, and surely your friends will report the same when you ask them. Don't fear them, it's the past, they can't hurt you anymore.
As soon as I have some time to mediate I will search my library for everything that could be useful. I will also ask Andromeda for help, she is a mother and grand-mother and didn't raise her child with the old pureblood customs. Maybe she knows more than I do.
You are completely right that speaking about it would certainly help and I will gladly listen. I came to appreciate you very much and would like to know how you fared during the war. As much information as the Prophet was able to gather about your "adventures", I am sure that there is more. Things you didn't want to talk about publicly, which I understand very well. If it makes talking easier maybe I could tell you about my time as a prisoner in my own house, but only if you want that of course.
I will have to continue my day now. I certainly hope that you were able to catch a few more hours of sleep and have a pleasant day as well.

Yours,
Narcissa

When she finished and sealed the letter she turned around to Lucius. "Ask."

"What did the girl really write? You seemed worried."

"Her memories of the past year are haunting her. She asked for help," Narcissa answered calmly. She had never intended to lie to her husband about this, she just didn't want Draco to hear it. He already felt guilty enough. Her son wished that he could have done more although they knew they hadn't had a chance.

"I understand. I guess she already tried sleeping potions?"

Narcissa nodded. "Even muggle ones. But the memories were able to overpower them."

Lucius sat down on the bed. "Maybe sleeping charms for children would help? Do you remember when Draco used to sleep so badly after he had seen us arguing? You used some charm to calm his worries and soon he slept just fine."

"I will definitely suggest it, but only after researching it thoroughly," Narcissa nodded. "Thank you for your understanding." She stood up and sat down next to her husband laying her head on his shoulder

"I know how much she means to you, darling. And she is a really nice girl," he conceded. He took her hand in his and squeezed it gently. "I am sure between the two of you, you will find a solution. And now go, tell Andromeda before she draws the wrong conclusions."

Narcissa chuckled and gave Lucius a chaste kiss before she stood up, took the letter and then left to look for her sister.

When she found her outside Athene swept down from the nearest tree branch and settled on Andromeda's shoulder offering her leg before either witch could say something. Laughing Narcissa secured the letter and send her off.

"What did Hermione really write, Cissa?" Andromeda asked sounding a little annoyed.

After a quick Muffliato Andromeda was informed about the contents of the letter and remembered having a book on charms for children's care.

"Why did you use a silencing charm for this discussion?" her older sister asked curiously.

Narcissa sighed. "Draco feels very guilty about his role in Hermione's torture and general life. If he hears that she has nightmares he will feel even worse. I am sure he suspects it, but knowing it for sure is very different."

Andromeda nodded and resumed her garden work.

"May I help you? I always enjoyed working in the gardens of Malfoy Manor, it was so peaceful and calm out there," Narcissa said.

"Of course. The hedges need grooming. I normally do them in a round shape," Andromeda explained and returned to her work while Narcissa went to groom the meadowsweet bushes.

a/n2: The next chapter will hopefully have more Dramione, after all that's still the pairing (although I sometimes wonder wether the characters think the same *sigh*). I hope you liked the glimpse in the past year and the part about Mrs. Weasley. I normally firmly deny Fred's death, but I wanted to show how all of them coped after the war therefore he sadly had to stay dead.

See you next week! :)