Hermione slept right through the rest of the day, and all of that night. In the morning she woke up to find a note on her bedside table.
Hermione.
Make sure you come down for breakfast (Ron's laid out matching clothes for you to wear) at some point. If you're not out of bed by lunch time we're coming back to drag you downstairs if we have to.
-Ron and Luna
Sighing at the neat scrawl, which was obviously Luna's, on the parchment, Hermione slid out of bed to wash her face in her en-suite. She didn't have a hangover, she never did if she managed to get a full night's sleep, but the water on her face felt so good and refreshing she ended up having a bath.
After her bath she found the clothes Ron had laid out for her. It was one of her outfits from her recovery days, a pair of grey sweats and one of Ron's old school shirts. Hermione loved this outfit, it was comfortable and baggy but she could still appear presentable if needed. Slowly she dressed herself and took a very deep breath before opening her bedroom door, where she stopped dead, staring at her study door and biting her lip.
Do I dare? Before she could think anymore, Hermione dashed across her hall to open the study door, her heart filled with hope.
Only to have that hope sink low into her stomach. She should've known it was too much to hope that Draco would write to her again. She shouldn't have checked to see if his owl was there, it only made her spirits sink lower and start the day badly.
Hermione made her way downstairs to the kitchen, where she found Ron and Luna cooking together.
"Hey 'Mione!" Ron waved as he turned and filled up a plate of food in Hermione's place. "How you feeling?" Hermione only shrugged her shoulders, eyeing the plate of food and wondering how she was going to eat anything. Food was the last thing on her mind, and the thought of it only made her feel sick.
"Hermione, you're going to do your best to eat. You can't go off your food. Here's a Caramel Latte to help it go down." Ron placed a steaming mug on the table for Hermione as she sat down and picked up a fork. Knowing that Ron was right, Hermione grudgingly began to eat.
Ron and Luna keep up a cheerful conversation, not including Hermione but keeping it open so that she could join in if she chose to, keeping to subjects like their favourite books and what each individual Weasley / Potter family member has been doing lately. But Hermione didn't hear much of it, concentrating on finishing enough of her food for Ron to deem acceptable so that she could go back to bed and just sleep the day away again.
But Ron and Luna weren't going to allow that.
"So, Hermione. Ron and I both have the day off work today. Is there anything that you would like to do?" Luna spoke to Hermione very politely, but Hermione glared up at Ron, knowing that he was behind the reason both of them weren't working that day.
"Ronald. I know all your tricks to look after me. I don't need you to look after me. I. Am. Fine." Ron coolly kept eye contact with Hermione.
"Hermione, you need looking after. I'd bet 100 Galleons that after finishing breakfast you were going to go straight back to bed and not come back downstairs until dinner time. You were going to block out the world and sneak out until later when you could go back to Knockturn Alley to get more alcohol. I'm not letting that happen!" Hermione's glare darkened.
"What does it matter to you, Ronald Weasley? You don't care about me. No one does! So. Fuck. Off!" Hermione stood up and stormed upstairs to her study, where she sat at her desk and buried her head in her arms, crying again.
Hermione cried until she physically couldn't cry anymore, and sat up slowly, her eyes burning slightly now that she'd dried them out. A quiet knock at the door made her jump.
"Hermione, it's Luna. May I come in?" Hermione sighed but replied with a curt, "Yes. Come in Luna." The door opened and Luna walked in carrying a small square box, which she placed at Hermione's feet. Hermione didn't get a chance to read the label written neatly on the lid before Luna sat down on top of it, looking directly up at Hermione.
"Ronald told me what happened between you and Malfoy. Would you like to hear my opinion?" Hermione tilted her head in curiosity and nodded.
"Hermione, I think that Malfoy didn't make the decision to leave you. I think his father made him leave you. What did he say to you, exactly?" Hermione had to take a few deep breaths before she could say the words that she could remember through the fog of hurt.
"He – he said that his father found a wife for him … a pureblood wife. And that he shouldn't refuse. He said I was a – a distraction from his duty of continuing the Malfoy lineage. He apologized for holding onto me for as long as he did … he called me a mudblood." Hermione was surprised when more tears welled up in her eyes, she thought that she had squeezed out more tears than was humanely possible already. But she continued talking to Luna.
"Then he told me he was moving out of his apartment and back into Malfoy Manor with his parents, and he won't be talking to me again." Hermione dropped her head into her hands and heaved a huge sigh.
"Well Hermione, now I definitely believe that Malfoy's father made him leave you. Maybe he threatened to throw him into a pit of rabid Pygmy Puff's without his wand. But I don't think Malfoy chose to leave you." Hermione peeked up at Luna through her fingers.
"You think so?" she asked in a small, childlike voice. Luna nodded confidently.
"Hermione, I saw the way he looked at you. You're the brightest witch of our age and you we so ready to believe that he just left you?" Hermione's gaze dropped to the floor again.
"Actually I did. I don't feel good enough for anyone anymore. I haven't since Ron and I broke up." Luna huffed at Hermione and pulled Hermione's hands away from her face and lifted Hermione's face up so that she had to look at Luna.
"Hermione, we've never felt good enough for you. Everyone around you feels like we're in the presence of royalty! Now. Stop moping. And remember who you are." At that Luna stood up, turned and opened the box she had been sitting on before she stood back so that Hermione could see inside.
"What is this Luna?"
"During my years at Hogwarts, I made scrapbooks in my spare time. These three are my favourite ones." Luna gently pulled them out one by one, and laid them on Hermione's desk next to each other so that she could see them. The first was labelled First Year, the second was labelled Fourth Year, and the third was labelled Sixth Year.
"My first year was your second year, my fourth year was your fifth and my sixth year was your seventh … the year you, Ron and Harry didn't attend." Luna opened the First Year scrapbook gently, showing Hermione the pages. The first few pages were dedicated only to her school subjects, with information about the subject and little hand drawn diagrams and descriptions about what she had learnt. She'd even stuck in her best essays that she had written for the year, one for each subject. The very last page had a picture of two girls waving and smiling widely at the camera. Underneath the picture was one neatly written line.
My first friend.
"Is that you and Ginny?" Hermione asked. Luna smiled at the picture, nodding.
"She really was my first friend. This was also the first ever photo I had with someone who wasn't someone from my family. Daddy was proud." Smiling softly Luna put away the scrapbook back in its box. Hermione was astounded with how lonely Luna's life must've been before she went to Hogwarts. Of course because she was a book worm, Hermione had had few friends before going to Hogwarts, but she hadn't been as lonely as Luna. Suddenly Hermione felt an overwhelming feeling of protection for this lonely young woman.
"Now for Fourth Year. This is the year that the DA was formed." Luna gently thumbed through the book until she reached a certain page. Hermione watched curiously as Luna unfolded the parchment – she'd folded it many times over, it reminded Hermione a little of the Marauders Map, except that it was just folded to fit into the scrapbook and not the whole of Hogwarts. The page was huge, almost triple the size of the scrapbook.
Once it was completely unfolded Luna pulled away so Hermione could see. Hermione found herself looking at a series of sketches. Luna had drawn everyone from the DA. All around the edges of the paper were head and should portraits of everyone; even Marietta the sneak and Michael Corner were roughly drawn in on one of the corners. But what caught Hermione's attention were the three people Luna had drawn in the middle.
Luna had drawn full body portraits of Harry, Ron and Hermione in the centre of the paper – their portraits were the largest and most detailed out of everyone's, except for maybe Ginny's who was just off to the side of the three of them. Harry was in the very centre, with a very light yet serious expression, his scar visible through his fringe and his body language relaxed yet his right hand had his wand half raised.
"You captured Harry perfectly." Hermione praised Luna, who beamed at Hermione.
"What do you think about you and Ronald?" Hermione shifted her eyes to Ron's portrait first. Luna had drawn Ron on Harry's right hand side, looking much more relaxed than Harry, his wand at his side and his other hand in his pocket, and a confident half smile on his face. But there was something about it that Hermione couldn't put her finger on …
"You caught his personality perfectly. But what's with his hair? It looks like you tried making it longer and changed your mind." Luna laughed as she explained.
"Do you remember the year before how Harry and Ronald had long hair? This was the year they'd cut their hair short again. I was drawing from memory, and I couldn't remember what Ronald looked like with short hair, so I drew it longer than it really was that year." Hermione gave a light laugh along with Luna.
"Yes, they looked a little ridiculous in our fourth year didn't they? I was so glad they decided to cut their hair short again!" Luna smiled and pointed at the drawn Hermione on the parchment.
"And what do you think of yourself?" Hermione glanced down. Luna had drawn her with her head held high, clearly confident, a book held close to her chest with one arm and her wand held high in her other hand. Her face was serious but she had a very small smile tracing her lips.
"It looks great. Did you really draw these from memory?" Hermione watched Luna as a blush covered her cheeks.
"I did. I surprised myself with my memory. But it was lots of fun. Did you notice the words at the bottom?" Luna seemed excited and proud to show off her work, and Hermione didn't blame her, it was amazing artwork. Hermione turned and trained her eyes on the bottom of the parchment, where Luna had written two sentences for each person under their feet.
Under Harry she had written; "The Chosen One. A very kind, passionate, determined and occasionally emotional human being." Hermione had to laugh a little at "occasionally emotional."
Underneath Ron, Luna had written; "Harry Potter's best friend. Sometimes rude, but loyal and armed with surprisingly good magic."
Finally, under Hermione Luna had written; "The Gryffindor Princess. Most intelligent of the trio, also the most patient but just as stubborn and strong willed."
Hermione's eyes flicked back up to the top of the parchment, where Luna had written three more words above the three friends.
The Golden Trio.
Hermione glanced up at Luna, who was waiting almost nervously, fidgeting with her collar on her shirt.
"Is this how you viewed us? As the Golden Trio?" Hermione was curious, Draco had called them that mockingly, but she hadn't realized that the nickname had really stuck.
"That's how everyone viewed you three. You were the Golden Trio to everyone at Hogwarts, especially in the year that you were out hunting horcruxes." Luna smiled down at Hermione before leaning over to fold the parchment back up carefully.
Hermione watched Luna fold the parchment, but she was lost in thought. We were much more of an influence to those at Hogwarts than I realized! Well, I knew Harry was to everyone, but I thought Ron and I had stayed in the shadows…
While Hermione was lost in her thoughts, Luna put away Fourth Year scrapbook and opened Sixth Year to a double page. Looking down Hermione was once again looking at the Golden Trio, but older than they were in the previous picture Luna had shown Hermione.
"When is this meant to be, Luna?"
"This is after the three of you came into Hogwarts the night of the final battle. You came through the portrait into the Room of Requirement and everyone felt like the war was finally coming to an end!" Hermione studied the picture, but all she could really see was how tired the three of them looked. Tired, but determined.
Luna took back the scrapbook and put it away while she spoke; "Hermione, you, Harry and Ronald were everyone's beacon of hope during the war. Not just at Hogwarts, but all through the Wizarding World. Even while I was locked up with Mr Ollivander, my hopes were focused on the Golden Trio winning the war." Luna folded the box's lid closed and turned to face Hermione.
"Everyone knows the story of what you three were doing now that you've published the official book. Everyone knows about horcruxes and the Gringott's Break in and the lost love between the Hogwarts ghosts. And you proved to the world that you were such a valuable friend to Harry Potter, because of your intellect and ability to keep a clear head when the boys couldn't." Now Luna bent down so that she was looking Hermione straight in the eye, speaking seriously.
"Hermione, you're the brightest witch of our age, yet you've been reduced to drinking over Draco Malfoy. You're much better than that Hermione." And with that, Luna turned, picked up her box and walked out of Hermione's study, leaving Hermione slightly shocked, but with new information to absorb and consider.