Hermione had been a daddy's girl all her life , never following her mother's footsteps, never ever. However, ever since the war had ended she had started to think that maybe her mother was not the optimistic fool she had thought her to be and as Hermione sat in the backyard of the Burrow, thinking of her conversation with Ginny , she dearly hoped that everything will turn out fine and that she will get her friends back . She had always been rather shy and it had resulted in her having very few friends. ( Not to mention her sarcastic and critical personality, or her habit of telling people everything about ... well. ... about everything. ) Hermione had known from the moment she had made friends with Harry and Ron that she would not be able to handle losing their friendship, she had known how distraught she will be if she lost their friendship forever but she had been greedy. She had not thought of the consequences of her action, she had just gone with the flow. Oh , how wrong she had been then , she had been a complete fool at that time, thinking that she had a right to be a normal girl , a girl who had friends, who dreamt of Prince -charmings and picket fences and dogs . She had forgotten that although she was named Hermione Jean Granger, she had taken after her Father, Paul Henry Granger and she had become a sarcastic, critical ,know-it-all bookworm who was insufferable for the people around her. She had always felt grateful towards Snape for giving her a reminder in her third year , even if it had come with a dose of his usual bitter , Gryffindor- hating personality. Although she had not given much thought to it at that time , she had continued on her path to self-destruction. Nonetheless, Hermione knew that she should be grateful towards him , her parents had taught her that much . She wished that she had done something or had shown him the little bit of gratitude she felt but due to Ron and Harry's immense hatred towards the man , she had been unable to do so. Speaking of their hatred for Snape , Harry had been utterly disappointed with himself
for not believing Dumbledore , no matter how many times he had vouched for Snape . Harry had always denied that Snape didn't want to harm him or that Snape tried to protect him . Nothing had been able to convince him otherwise. That was until he had seen Snape at the Shrieking Shack, laying on the dusty wooden floor , grasping at the wound in his neck , trying fruitlessly to stop the flow of blood pouring out of it. Harry had surprised her that day , when he had gone to sit beside the dying man , before he had taken Snape's memories ( that he had put in a flask that she had conjured) and gone to Dumbledore's study to look through them. There had not been any major change in his behaviour but Hermione had had a suspicion that something had changed after his visit of those memories , there on his body-language she had seen cracks . Finally, Harry had cracked completely one day when Ron had insulted Snape . Ginny had been telling Ron that she had finalised the names of their future children .

"Ron ! Listen to me , I have finalised the names of mine and Harry's future children - the boy will be named James Sirius Potter and the girl will be named Lily Luna Potter."

"These are great names Ginn, but what if you two have a second son ? What will you name him?"- Ron had said .

"Well ... I am sure we will ... we will think ...think of something , won't we Harry ?" - Ginny had asked.

Harry had been staring at the ceiling ever since they had started talking , clearly his mind was elsewhere. However at Ginny's question, he had answered instantly. - " Albus Severus Potter "

It had been such a shock for Hermione and Ginny that they had been unable to say anything but Ron being Ron had recovered quite quickly and had put forth the question they had all wanted to ask .- " Harry, have you gone mental ? you want to name him after that guy ? Blimely mate , have you completely forgotten about all the other people ..." -

Ron had been unable to finish his statement as Harry's fist had collided painfully with his jaw . He had been thrown on the floor because of the impact and had stayed there , laying flat on his back (as his effort of getting up had met with another punch from Harry ) as he had looked at Harry with a questioning gaze , looking for an answer . He didn't have to wait though , as Harry had began to yell right after throwing his second punch - " Don't you dare question me on planning to name my son after him , I won't let you go away with it and as to why I would do that , it is the least I can do to honour him and thank him for what he had done for me , for how much he had sacrificed for me , to protect me and listening to my accusations . Understood ?" - He stopped for a minute and then took up the shouting again. - " What did you mean by other people? Were you thinking about yourself? Well , newsflash Ron , you will never have that honour . You are my best friend and I love you but it does not mean that you are worthy of that honour , No ! - He calmed down a little and his voice came down to normal level . He continued talking in that voice - "Severus Snape was and always will be the bravest man amongst those who I have met . To think of how much I have insulted him all these years, no doubt he had been hurt , yes , he had been hurt , hurt , hurt , hurt..." - He had fainted after that. Mrs. Weasly had said that it was due to excessive mental stress that Harry had . Hearing that Hermione and Ginny had left him alone but Ron had always been surrounded with all his brothers and he knew nothing about personal space or the basic concept of leaving a person alone , therefore, he had confronted Harry and it had resulted in a horrible fight between the two boys. Apparently, Harry had no intention of discussing that particular topic and he had told Ron about it . Sadly Ron had not gotten that and had continued to badger Harry about Snape ( which in Hermione's opinion, was quite a stupid thing to do, Harry was heaps better than both her and Ron when it came to hexes ) , the outcome was that he had been thrown out of the room with an awfully powerful stunning spell and had crashed into the wall opposite the room , coughing up slugs . Harry had not talked to Ron since then , he had not even looked at Ron at mealtimes ( where he had appeared in a foul mood ) . Hermione had stayed out of this and Ginny had followed suit. Both of them knew that it was better for their own good , they did not want to crash into a wall and cough up slugs for the rest of the day , did they ? Ron , as expected, had gone to Harry to talk to him , not paying heed to either of the girls and had faced the consequences ( Harry had left him tap dancing in the backyard and had sent a storm cloud out there) . He had been later rescued by George and to their utter disappointment, Ginny and Hermione had learnt that he still had not gotten Harry's message. They had tried though, they had told him again and again about how he had to give Harry a little bit of time but to no avail. He had listened to them , sipping the hot tea his sister-in-law had prepared ( Mrs . Weasly had been busy with making enough potions to last both Ron and George, as George had gotten quite wet during the process of rescuing Ron ) but at last, he had shaken his head and had told them that they had no idea of dealing with Harry and had insisted that confronting him was the best option. Frustrated with his stubbornness, Hermione had turned to the person who she though had better chance getting the message in Ron's thick skull - Fleaur Billius Weasly , Ron's pretty , silvery blonde haired, part- Veela sister-in-law. Ron had always been fascinated by her , so Hermione thought that she would have better luck in convincing him . To Nobody's surprise, Fleur had succeeded in doing just that. Hermione could not deny being jealous of her for that then , it was normal to be jealous, as it was supposed to be Hermione who had the ability to convince him .

That had been three days ago , before the day of Ron and Hermione's fight and two days after Harry and Ginny's fight ( the discussion containing names of future children had been held two days before the day of the storm cloud incident ) . Today had turned out to be the day of Hermione and Ginny's fight . In six days , the four had come from being the best of friends to a point where they would rather talk with the gnomes instead of each other ( Hermione had avoided Harry's company ever since their last meeting ) . It was a little bit too much for Hermione's liking , who had enough trouble on her plate already and was in dire need of her friends.

It was that said dire need that had compelled Hermione to go and visit Luna and seventeen minutes later had found her staring at the cluster of weird looking bushes that stood guarding the Lovegood home , which at the moment looked like the only ray of hope amongst the pitch black state of mind she was in .