**I don't own these characters or the stories they belong to**

After Ron abandons Harry and Hermione

Harry, Hermione knew, believed that she was despondent because of Ron's betrayal and departure; he thought she was pining after Ron. That might have been the case in the beginning, but when anger overtook her heartbreak, it was like a fog was swept away. Her mind suddenly cleared and she was able to think through things a bit more rationally. It was as if a whole new vista was laid before her. Hermione came to realize her yearning for Ron was validated by little but familiarity and friendship. She supposed her heart could equally have landed on Harry, but Harry's awesome destiny and responsibility had given him an intensity and secretive aloofness which had made him somewhat daunting, even as a best friend. Ginny with her fierce bravery and crafty tenacity was well suited to him and Hermione hoped that it all worked out for them in the end.

Ron, however, had been affable and approachable in addition to being one of her best friends. The three of them had been through so much that they had a very close bond. But the more she thought back on Ron, the more she realized how his immaturity, insecurity and inconstancy were neither admirable or desirable. It's true that there were plenty of things to admire him for. Despite his fears and temper, he had a good heart and he always came through in the end - somehow. Each time Ron proved himself her faith in him grew, and that faith had grown so strong and great that it could withstand even his large mistakes - like his abandonment of Harry during the Triwizard Tournament. This time was different though. Something had broken.

Hermione hoped that Ron would somehow come back to them and come through in the end again. But even if he did, this betrayal had been enormous - big enough to damage her faith in him, big enough to break her infatuation with him. That she still had a small hope that Ron would come through in the end again must mean that she retained some faith in him, but her anger was so great that she couldn't sense it anymore. Her fury overrode everything to do with Ron at the moment - everything but her sadness for Harry's sake, for the breaking of their trio of friendship.

This shift had not brought her out of her silence and solitude. First the heartbreak over Ron had overwhelmed her, then the anger had. But something else entirely weighed her down now. During one of the quiet times of solitary research that she and Harry engaged in following Ron's departure, Hermione checked the watch that she had charmed to show her parents' status, like a miniature version of Mrs. Weasley's clock. To her horrified dismay, the watch showed her Mum and Dad to be dead. Without abandoning Harry as Ron had done, Hermione had no way of telling what had happened to her parents. All she knew was that her efforts to keep them safe had been for nothing and there was nothing she could do about it now. She had failed completely; she had lost her family. This heartbreak and anger had so eclipsed that which Ron had caused that she had been able to admit her small hope for Ron's redemption. Ron's betrayal now seemed diminished in comparison and she might even be able to forgive him, eventually.

Not that Ron wouldn't feel her full wrath when or if he did return. In fact, her anger having now effectively doubled, it would be worse for him. She had learned the hard way what Harry had known: you never neglect your family, you never turn your back on them. And that's what Ron had done. The bond between the three of them had made them more than friends, it had made them family. And Ron had walked away.

Hermione didn't want to weigh Harry down with her burden. His was already more than he should ever have had to bear, so she said nothing about her parents. It would wait. There was nothing she could do about it at the moment anyway. Nothing but mourn. All investigations and arrangements would have to come after they completed their mission in this war. Harry thought she was mourning the loss of Ron; she let him continue to think so.