It had been a month since that fateful day on her front porch. A month of holding her friends while they broke down and cried their hearts out. A month of not being allowed to leave her flat unless she had a member of the Order with her. A month in which she had almost forgotten what it was like to be alone for more than five minutes.

True to his word, Harry wasn't going to let her risk her life by trying to find out who specifically had done the atrocious act. The members of the Order would switch shifts with each other, but never in a specific order. They would eat with her; "relax" with her; watch her while she slept. She felt as if she were in prison simply for witnessing a tragic event. It felt almost as if she were in Azkaban.

"At least they have their privacy for the most part," she mumbled to herself. The only time that she was alone was when she was using the restroom. Even then, though, someone was standing right outside the door.

She tried to remember which Order members she had seen since it happened so that she might be able to try and guess who was going to be coming next. She'd had Harry, Ginny, Molly, Arthur, Minerva, Harry, Moody, Ginny, Remus, Harry, Neville and Luna, and she was at the moment stuck once again with Harry. Maybe Tonks would be next, she would willingly take anybody other than Harry.

She loved the messy-haired, green-eyed boy like a brother, but his "constant vigilance", as Moody called it, was beginning to get on her nerves. He wasn't like the others who would stay for maybe a day and a half max. Harry stayed on for three, sometimes four days at a time. She knew that after losing Ron the thought of losing his only other best friend was enough to drive him to tears – she'd already come into contact with those – but he was getting less sleep than she was. And the only time she ever slept was when they forced dreamless drought down her throat.

She had been in such a state of shock the first few days that nothing fully registered, but after that the nightmares had come. She never woke up crying, but she would wake up in a cold sweat, trembling, and her heart would be racing. She would be jumpy and irritable the next day, scared that her dream was going to come true. That was why they had begun giving her the dreamless drought. There were only ever two dreams that she had anymore. And neither of them was very pleasant. The most prevalent one being the most recent one she'd had.

---

"Ron, how can you possibly stuff all of that into your mouth at once? And how does your stomach stand it? You should be a balloon by now what with the way you eat." One look at the smile on Hermione's face and one could tell how much she loved the boy that was sitting cross-legged in front of her, eating his own weight in desserts.

"Aw come on, Mione. You know that I have a fast metabolism, and what with this bloody Auror training keeping me busy I don't have time to keep the weight on, let alone gain more of it." The redhead continued to sit there scarfing down the food that sat on the picnic basket. He grinned goofily at his girlfriend and then shook his head. "Besides, it's not me you should be worried about. Have you eaten anything since we've been here?"

Hermione knew that Ron was so used to how his mother was that he sometimes compared the two women together.

Molly Weasley was not a small woman by any means. She had given birth to seven children not to mention she had to feed all of those hungry mouths plus the mouths of any other straggler that came to the Burrow for dinner. She was a stay-at-home mother and a housewife who had spent most of her life at home, doing chores around the house and cooking for her family. By the time it got around to dinner time Molly had been working so hard all day that she ate enough to keep up with any of her children.

Hermione, on the other hand, had lost weight since they had been out of school. Most of the time she was so busy working on a problem that she forgot to eat and when she did remember that she had to eat, she wasn't terribly hungry. It was frustrating working for the Ministry in a dead-end job that she hated. But nobody else wanted the job, and she hated jobs being left unfilled.

She picked up a grape out of the basket and popped it into her mouth with a bit of a smirk on her face and saw that while Ron looked at least somewhat happier with that it wasn't enough. He scooted closer to her on the blanket and pulled a sandwich out of the basket handing it to her. "Eat it," he said playfully to her, but there was something serious in his voice.

Doing as he asked, she picked up the sandwich and took a bite. She hadn't looked to see what it was so she was pleasantly surprised when it ended up being an egg salad sandwich. Egg salad was her favorite. She finished off the sandwich in record time and then smiled triumphantly at her boyfriend. "What now, Mr. Bossy Pants?"

He growled playfully and tackled her, sending them both rolling off of the blanket and into the grass with his hands working to tickle her mercilessly until she cried out for him to stop. Her face was red and there were tears falling down her cheeks from laughing so hard. By the time he let off on the tickling she was panting, her chest rising and falling against his own.

He looked down at her and their eyes met, his blue eyes boring deep into hers. "Hermione, will you marr---"

He didn't get to finish his statement because at that moment there was yelling coming from Hermione's left and just as she tried to look past Ron to see what was going on, she saw a flash of green and then felt his body slump against hers. She knew he was dead. She tried to push him off of her, tried to reach for her wand so she could curse whoever killed him, but he was too heavy. She couldn't get to her wand and she couldn't run away. All she could do was sit there as someone leaned down and whispered "you're next," in her ear before they disapparated and she woke up.

---

Her brown eyes met Harry's green eyes and she frowned. "Harry, you need to get some sleep. Go home to Ginny." He shook his head, running his hands through his hair and trying to ignore the growth of hair on his chin. He had yet to show or to shave, having only used a simple cleaning spell on himself. But a spell was never the same as the real thing.

"I can't leave you."

Hermione slammed her hands down on the chair and growled at him. "Harry James Potter, you leave my house right this minute and I swear to you if you send anybody else here to watch over me I am going to personally use Ginny's favorite hex on you so many times you won't know what hit you. Get out. Go home. I won't go after them."

His eyes had widened when she'd begun yelling at him and for a millisecond he almost looked fearful of the woman. When she was finally finished yelling at him, and was looking at him rather decidedly he stood up from the table. He could almost see the smoke coming out of her nostrils. "I'll be back to check on you in a few days." He gave her a quick nod and then hurried out the front door.

When she heard the front door shut quietly she picked up her wand and warded the apartment before sitting down and sighing, her head falling onto the table. She sincerely hoped that she hadn't pushed Harry away, but she couldn't take his babying of her anymore.

She glanced over towards the clock that hung on the wall. Molly had given it to her as a present but she had only just put it up on the wall. There was a dial on there for herself, Ron, Harry, Ginny, Neville, and Luna. In order for her to put anyone else on the clock she would have to get a piece of their hair to transfigure, but it wouldn't be hard. As she looked at the small picture of Ron, she felt her heart clench. She missed him more than she'd ever missed anyone before.

But she was still waiting on those tears.

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A/N: Hola everyone! Thanks to those of you who reviewed, it really means a lot to me. Also, I noticed that someone wanted to know what an elephant chair was. I hadn't realized that I put that there, otherwise I wouldn't have since I doubt that is what they are called. At the store Big Lots, my aunt and I found a few arm chairs that are big enough for two people to sit side by side comfortably, and since they are so big we just call them elephant chairs. Hope that clears things up.

xoxo