Fiddling awkwardly, Hermione sat before the Headmistress's desk with the heads of the house around her. Professor Snape was glowering behind her, Professor Flitwick by the fireplace, Professor Spout rocking back and forth on her heels, and Remus in the chair beside her, casting side glances at her as she continued fidgeting. All the while, Headmistress McGonagall sat behind her desk with a pleasant look on her face as she looked at Hermione.

"I-" she stopped, looking down at her hands.

Professor Snape had collected her from Muggle Studies, his pace not slowing despite her limp. She hobbled behind him all the way to the Headmistress's office, where she waited as the other Head of House's joined the room. Now she wasn't quite sure what they were waiting for. The Headmistress just kept staring at her.

Professor Flitwick let out a small yelp that Hermione swore made Snape chuckle when the fire flared green and two more people entered the room.

"Hermione," Narcissa sighed, coming up to put a hand under her chin and get a look at her, "Are you well? Where is your cane?"

"I-"

"She burned it," Snape cut in this time, earning a sharp look from Narcissa before she looked wide-eyed back down at the witch before her, "Excuse me?"

"Cissa, let's focus for now," Lucius drawled from behind her.

Hermione gave him a thankful look, "How are you here?"

The aristocrat smirked, "Per the Wizengamot, I am permitted on school grounds for my children's needs."

Remus grunted, "You're not her father."

"I am here on his behalf as he, and her mother, gave Narcissa and me power of attorney in order to aid Hermione after their transportation was delayed following her accident." He glanced at Remus, "I have every right to be here as I do from Draco, Theodore, Blaise, and Pansy."

Remus rolled his eyes, though it wasn't visible from where Lucius stood behind him. Standing, he pushed his chair closer to Hermione and offered it to Hermione, "Mrs. Malfoy."

Giving him an appreciative look, Narcissa took the chair, never letting go of Hermione's hand. "What is it you wanted to discuss Headmistress?"

Looking thoroughly amused, McGonagall clasped her hands before her on the desk.

"We have it on good authority that Miss Granger knows who her attackers are and we're not leaving this office until she reveals their identity to us."

Hermione felt the weight of six additional pairs of eyes on her following the Headmistress's statement.

"I truly don't think it necessary. They likely won't do it again since their last escapade went array."

McGonagall tutted, "You know that's unacceptable, Hermione. You nearly died. There needs to be accountability for that."

Hermione sighed and looked at her hand once more, the other still clasped in Narcissa's.

"They're just kids," Hermione whispered.

Narcissa squeezed her hand gently, making Hermione look at her. "Who?"

Tears gathering in her eyes, Hermione confessed to Narcissa the names of the students she could, a disgruntled group of third-years who had been targeting her since the beginning of the year. As she did, Hermione could hear the scratch of a quill as the Headmistress wrote down each name. When she was done, she took the handkerchief Lucius offered her and wiped her eyes.

"Why do you believe it to be these students?" Snape ground out.

"They all lost someone in the battle."

"Respectfully, Hermione, we all did," Remus said softly.

"I've seen them each during the first few incidents."

"Oh?"

Hermione looked at the Headmistress, "They're just upset kids. They wanted someone to blame."

"And that was you?"

"Who else?" She shrugged. "Surely they wouldn't attack Harry. Ronald is still very vocal of his disdain for Slytherins. I, however, sat for several trials, was resorted as Slytherin, and have gotten into many public verbal sparing matches with Ronald over both. I was the perfect avenue for their anger."

"Thank you," McGonagall put her quill back in the ink pot. "We will handle this accordingly."

"Please, they're just kids."

Behind her Snape scoffed, "You were just a kid once too. You didn't maim anyone."

Hermione turned in her chair, "I lit you on fire in second year."

Snape's jaw dropped. Beside her, Narcissa chuckled and both Lucius, Remus, and Sprout didn't bother to hide their laughter.

"Ronald attacked Lockhart the same year in the Chamber of Secrets. Harry stunned you in third year and I punched Draco in the nose. The same ages at the children targeting me. They're reckless and scared, they want someone to blame because they hid in the common rooms, as instructed to, so they didn't have to witness what was happening."

"You want me to be lenient to those who nearly paralyzed you last month?"

"I feel that is an oversimplification but," Narcissa chuckled again, "yes."

Headmistress McGonagall eyes her closely but eventually nodded, "We will see, Miss Granger." Standing suddenly, the Headmistress looked between the Malfoy's, "It's nearly dinner time, if you'd like to stay through the meal, you're more than welcome."

"Thank you, Headmistress," Lucius drawled.

Dismissed, Lucius offered his hand to Narcissa, which she took, only letting go of Hermione long enough to help her up too. "Let's go see how our other children are, love."

Narcissa smiled up at her husband, "Yes, let's." Looking at Hermione, she offered her her arm. "Come now, darling, let's go surprise the boys and Pansy."

Linking arms with the matriarch, Hermione nodded to the Headmistress as she gave her a goodbye nod of her own and then to Remus, who stepped forward to kiss her forehead before letting her go. Try as she might to hide her limp, Hermione didn't make it down the stairs without having to give in to the inevitable limp she was still living with. Her spine tingled still, all the way down to her toes. Absently she made a note to visit Madam Pomfrey about it.

"You lady," Narcissa spoke calmly from her side, "Do you want to tell me where your cane is?"

Hermione glanced at the woman beside her, getting a smirk from Lucius over her head before looking forward again, "I set it on fire in a broom closet."

Lucious chuckled, getting a glare from his wife before she refocused on Hermione, "Why?"

"I was tired of people catering to me." Huffing, Hermione looked at the blue eyes staring her down, their pace never wavering, "They created a bloody schedule. To and from every class, every meal, my tutoring session, and my patrols. It was driving me mad."

In an exasperated manner, Narcissa sighed dramatically, "As stubborn as the rest of them."

"Cissa!"

A tangle of witch collided with the pair making Lucius panic as he reached to steady the three. When it was clear there was no danger, he blew out a breath, a hand still on the top of Hermione's back as she wavered under Pansy's attack.

"What are you doing here?" Pansy asked when she collected herself, casting glares at the students around them who were watching them, as she smoothed out her robes.

Nothing, not even Hermione's lack of a cane or Pansy's attack could wipe the smile of Narcissa's face now.

"We're here for dinner."

Looking between the three in front of her, taking special note of the blush in Hermione's cheeks, Pansy scoffed, "Did she finally admit who it was?"

Lucius snorted, "She did."

The look Pansy gave Hermione was patronizing at best, "Finally."

Hermione rolled her eyes, "We're headed to the Great Hall. Come with us, we need someone to scare off the students staring."

"An impossible task," Pansy waved her off, "but a challenge I humbly accept." Linking arms with Narcissa, Pansy guided her to the Great Hall, leaving Lucius and Hermione behind. "Did Granger tell you of her experiments with pyrotechnics?"

"Ugh!" Hermione groaned loud enough that she knew the witches heard despite how their conversation continued. Looking up at Lucius, Hermione huffed, "She's a pain in my arse."

Lucius smirked, "Welcome to my life, Miss Granger."

Hermione laughed and took his elbow when he offered it. Unlike Professor Snape, Lucius slowed his stride to match Hermione's and the limp that was steadily becoming worse.

"How are you feeling?"

Leaning into him, Hermione considered how to answer him. "It hurts still. It gets progressively worse in the evenings."

"Have you spoken to Professor Snape about some pain management options?"

"I get a potion every other day, it helps some. I need to visit Madam Pomfrey, though, I think there is an underlying issue that might need to be addressed."

He paused and looked down at her with what she could only describe as worry, "What do you mean?"

"Nothing important," she tried to placate, realizing her mistake, "Just some numbness."

"We'll arrange an appointment at Mungo's if you'd prefer?"

They would too. She knew they would.

"I'll write if Madam Pomfrey thinks it's necessary."

He stared down at her a moment before nodding and resuming their pace towards the stairs, Narcissa and Pansy far ahead of them by now. He took special care with her on the way down, casting glances around as if to check that there was no one about who might harm her. By the time they reached the Great Hall, her limp was much heavier and she was leaning heavily on Lucius, who was supporting her while being vigilant of every person in the vicinity, glowering if someone got to close to them. When they stepped into the Hall, the Hall got quiet but neither of them took notice. They simply walked to the Slytherin table, where Narcissa ushered Hermione into the seat between her and Daphne, leaving Lucius to round the table, glowering as he did, and sit between Blaise and Pansy.

"Are you alright, dear?" Narcissa asked, her troubled gaze set on Hermione.

"I'm fine," Hermione said as calmly as she could. In reality, she was embarrassed. She could feel the weight of everyone's stares throughout the hall, not necessarily on her but on her table and the group around her. She was tired of feeling helpless. Tired of feeling the ache shoulders and the pinch in her hips when she took the stairs. But most of all, she was tired of people caring. No, that wasn't quite right, she was tired of feeling like an obligation to her friends and those around her.

Narcissa could sense that her answer wasn't completely truthful, Hermione could tell from the way her brow pinched before she looked at Theo, who snorted.

"She didn't snap at you for asking, so it's a good day."

"Be quiet, Theo," she snipped, earning a laugh from him and Blaise.

"See," Theo whispered dramatically, getting a hex from Hermione in response.

"Witches are often testy when in pain, Theodore," Lucius drawled, handing a prepared plate to Narcissa, who took it with a charmed smile while passing him the empty one in front of her for himself.

"Although the witch in question wouldn't be in so much pain had she not set fire to the device intended to assist her."

Narcissa said it with such lethal calm that Lucius only smirked as he continued plating for himself but the rest of their group was silent as they watched the Malfoy Matriarch like she was was a stick of dynamite.

Hermione sighed, "Maybe the witch in question is tired of -"

"Mother," Draco's voice had her tensing, "Father."

"Of what?" Theo asked from across her while Lucius addressed Draco.

"Hello, son. Join us?"

Sighing, Hermione shrugged weakly, "Being an obligation."

The last word was whispered in such a way that Narcissa finally looked at her, gently lowering her goblet as she did. Her hand moved to clutch Hermione's tightly. Giving her a tight smile, Hermione put her napkin on the table as she rose.

Reigning back in her emotions, Hermione gently extracted her hand from Narcissa and turned to Astoria and Draco. Ignoring the pain that lanced through her, she smiled at Astoria. "Please have my seat Astoria," she motioned to the spot she'd just vacated, her full plate disappearing as she did.

"Her-"

Knowing it was impolite, Hermione kept walking away, doing her absolute best not to limp as much as she wanted to. As much as she knew she probably needed to ease the ache that continued to press on her hips and spine. She managed to make it to a broom closet before breaking down into sobs. She must have fallen asleep because the next thing she knew, she was sitting up from the floor of the closet, the ache in her spine still there, but more pressing was the one in her neck from how she had been laying. Getting up, she groaned at those aches.

Getting to the common room was too much pressure, so instead, she took the longer route, down to the dungeons. The Slytherins in the common room paused seeing her limping but paid them no mind as she wandered down the hallway to the passageway. Stepping through the passageway, she didn't pause seeing Theo, Blaise, Draco, Harry, Ginny, Pansy, and Luna all throughout the room. More than half of them looked worried. Harry looked amused. Luna was unbothered, sitting on Blaises lap while he appeared to be calming down Pansy and Ginny.

"And where have you been?" Ginny screeched.

Hermione winced but didn't stop walking.

"Sleeping," was her clipped reply.

"Oi!" A hang yanked her to stop moving and she gasped when it made pain radiate up her back. Glaring at an equally angry Ginny she didn't back down. "What's this I hear about you feeling like an obligation?"

Hermione yanked her arm out of Ginny's grasp. "Leave me alone."

The room was blanketed in silence.

"What?" Ginny whispered.

Anger still roiling through her, Hermione stepped away and looked at them all, "Leave. Me. Alone. I know you want to help. Merlin knows you all want to help but you lot are smothering me. None of you have to take care of me. I never asked you to! Any of you," her eyes touched Draco's for a moment before she looked back at Ginny, "So please, just leave me alone!"

"That's not fair," Harry called out. Turning to look at him, she saw confusion and hurt written on his face.

"Fair," Hermione laughed lowly, "Life isn't fair, Harry. You know that as well as I do."

"Maybe you need someone to take care of you," Pansy countered. "You've always taken care of everyone else. Why not let us take care of you?"

"And yelling at me is how you do it?" She shrieked, "Or forcing me to eat too much. Or creating a schedule to monitor me. Or how about forcing me to do what you all think is right?"

"That's not fair," Draco echoed Harry. Stepping in front of Pansy as if to shield her, he glared at Hermione. He didn't know why she was projecting at them but he saw Pansy recoil at Hermione's outburst and didn't like it. Pansy never backed down from anyone. It wasn't in her nature. "You can be mad but you can't lash out like this. They were worried about you."

Hermione didn't miss the "they" and not "we".

"I love them for it. But you are all smothering me. I just want to be alone, is that not okay? You lot," she pointed at the boys, "have quidditch. So do you," she pointed at Ginny. Looking at Pansy, she sighed, "You have Daphne and the girls and shopping and everything you like to do. I have the library and an entourage of chaperones everywhere I go! I used to be alone for hours before without any of you noticing. This is the first time in weeks I have been alone for longer than ten minutes and I come back to an interrogation! Tell me what isn't fair again, Draco Malfoy?"

"It wouldn't be like that if you hadn't hidden what was happening to you," he growled back.

"Draco," Theo warned but he was ignored.

"Maybe if you trusted anyone, this wouldn't have happened!"

Once more silence engulfed the space.

"Maybe," she hissed back, "It would be easier to trust people again if I was made a priority before things happened." He glared at her. "Maybe I don't want everyone's attention suddenly on me just because I got hurt. Maybe I want to be someone's first choice and not something they remember after the fact."

Turning, still running on the fumes of her anger, Hermione stomped into her room and slammed the door shut.

Hermione knew she'd messed up. She knew it the moment she shut the door to her room on all her friends. Still, she hunkered down in her room for the night and the better part of the day before emerging from her room. After a long shower, Hermione made the trek to the Gryffindor common room and knocked. A blushing fourth-year opened the door, stammering as he let her in. Quietly thanking him she checked the dorms first before curling up on the window seat she used to always occupy.

Eventually, she snuggled down further so she was laid down as she looked out at the grounds. She was there long enough that the sun began to set, and students, presumably from dinner, began to file into the common room. She went unnoticed until she heard a small voice ask "Who is that?" and the room got significantly quieter than the Gryffindor common room ever had been.

Sitting up, she kept the blanket Darcey had put on her from falling and brushed her hair out of her eyes as she turned.

"Oh," the young witch blushed. "They're not here."

Hermione smiled, "How is it you know who I'm looking for?"

The girl arched an eyebrow, "You're Hermione Granger, I'd think it was obvious."

That got a surprised snort out of Hermione. "Touche. Do you mind if I wait?" she asked the room who were all watching the interaction.

"Course not," an older boy shrugged.

And just like that, the room erupted into its normal volume. Giving the boy and girl each their own smile, Hermione turned back to the window and curled back up. It wasn't long before the portrait opened and the room quieted again. This time Hermione didn't move. She was too tired, so instead she just stared at the moon's reflection of the Black Lake.

Sighing, she just waited. Eventually, there was a huff and what sounded like a punch before the window seat expanded, and someone little crawled over her between her and the window.

Her eyes blurred with ears as she looked into Ginny's blue eyes.

Giving her a sad smile, Ginny pulled the blanket over both of their heads.

"It's okay. I'm sorry too."

Hermione let herself break.

Unintentionally, the pair fell asleep in the window nook. Hermione woke up to the sun blanketing her vision. She tried to cover her eyes with the blanket, and when that didn't work, she rolled over only to find Harry, Neville, and Ron sprawled out on the floor. It made her eyes water again. Ron and her had been mending their friendship, but it wasn't back to its former glory yet. That he was here meant something to her. Tucking her arm under her head, Hermione watched her closest friends sleep around her and, for the first time since her resorting, wished things hadn't changed.

Guilt lanced through her.

It was a traitorous thought that had her thinking of Pansy and her rare smiles. Theo and his newfound ability to treat her like Harry did. Blaise and his penchant for mischief. Daphne and her uncanny ability calm the chaos Theo and Blaise often wrought upon them. Draco and - no, she wouldn't think of Draco. Not right now. Not ever if she could find a way to do it.

Once again, the ache in her chest rose. The same ache that never seemed to go away after Christmas.

Rolling to look up at the ceiling, she focused on the curtains framing the window just to her left. She imagined a music box, one from her childhood. A little thing with a pink ballerina who stood slightly crooked from years of opening and closing the top. As the melody from her childhood music box played in her mind, she forced all of her feelings, all of her thoughts and wants with Draco, their nights, their game, their touches, every single memory that brought a longing to her heart, she stuffed into that box. Snapping it shut, she put the box in her closet, levitating it gently up onto the top shelf with her other forgotten trinkets from her childhood.

Blinking, she took a deep breath and felt the tension in her shoulders relax.

Around her, her friends started to rouse as a few students clambered down the stairs talking loudly about breakfast. Grumping about the aches caused by their unconventional beds, they collectively got ready for the day before making it down to the Great Hall. Hermione had refreshed her breath and showered in Ginny's dorm. By the time she was done, Darcey had put clothes on Ginny's bed for her.

Dawning a jumper from her stash, one that she thought might be Fred's given the cherry candy scent and obnoxious pattern. Which was what she was wearing, hair still damp as she walked leaning against Neville into the Great Hall.

He kissed her forehead just like Harry does before she branched off towards her own table.

Her friends didn't speak to her when she sat, she just plated her food and turned to look at Pansy, who was currently the only one staring at her. When she met her dark brown eyes Pansy frowned.

"Are you-"

Pansy cut herself off with her frown deepening.

"I'm sorry," Hermione supplied looking from Pansy to the rest of the group to see them each looking at her now, "You're not a punching bag for my feelings and it wasn't fair to talk to you all that way."

"Too right," Pansy scoffed.

"But..." Blaise edged, giving Pansy a stern look.

"But you were right too. We weren't being fair and we haven't for a while. We noticed things and never said anything. We gave you space and let you be because it seemed to be how you liked to spend your time. We didn't realize you were lonely, that we were making you lonely."

Hermione felt her eyebrows prickle before clearing her throat and turning back to her food.

"Thank you."

It was hushed but they all heard it.

"Granger," she looked up at Theo, "we have a reputation to uphold. Jumpers like that are no longer acceptable in the Great Hall."

A laugh erupted before she could stop it, making Theo smirk.

"Bite me," she chuckled while Blaise nudged Theo playfully and Daphne grasped Hermione's hand in her, reminding her for a moment of Narcissa. That thought had her glancing at Astoria and Draco. She was almost surprised with how empty she felt looking at them after months of hurt. Even as Draco glanced at her and nodded. She just stared for a moment before smiling and nodding back.

As she turned back to Pansy, the black haired witch talking her ear off like nothing happened, Draco froze.

Hermione had smiled at him. She hadn't done that in months. Except right after her accident when she was on her potions but he didn't count that.

No, what struck him the smile she'd just given him wasn't the smile itself.

It was the lack of emotion in her eyes when she did it.

Hermione Granger wore her heart on her sleeve and when she looked at him, her eyes were cold.

She wasn't fine.

She was occluding.