She was alone. Well and truly alone.

The war had gone, and so had everyone she loved. Harry, Ron, Fred, George, Ginny, all the Weasleys. Remus, Tonks, and Severus, too. Even her classmates were gone- she was the only one left. The only Order member, that is. The other students were coping, making do in this "new world order." A time of peace and prosperity, she thought bitterly, hating the tears that began to sting her eyes every time she even had a passing thought of them.

She couldn't even say their names anymore, not without breaking down. So she didn't. She didn't mention her best friends, her lover, her almost-sister. She didn't mention the fact that she cried in her sleep, still, even six years after the war. She didn't mention the fact that she envied her parents every day- Monica and Wendell Wilkins, who had no idea they had a daughter. No idea what that daughter had done to them.

And yet, tempted as she was, she never could turn her wand on herself. Not any of their's, either. She'd tried. She kept their wands, bundled together in the false bottom of the bottommost drawer in her desk, disguised to look like a cache of muggle money.

She'd had visitors, of course, acquaintances and classmates coming to pay their respects to the only living Golden Trio member left in existence. She acted with the utmost grace, accepting their meaningless words and pretending not to taste the bile rising in her throat. She had savior faire, and behaved as if she were royalty- which, unfortunately, people now seemed to think she was.

"Hermione Granger, the most eligible Witch in Europe" "Hermione Granger announces plans for a Memorial Library in Central London" or, most recently, "Hermione visits Orphanage, reveals plans for her own family"

Everyone seemed to want a piece of her, whether as the brains of the Golden Trio, or "The Girl Who Lived", an unfortunately "affectionate" spin-off of Harry's old moniker. Everyone wanted the infamous Hermione Granger.

Everyone except the witch herself.

She'd give anything to go back to when this all began, stop it ever from happening. She'd give anything just to see her friend's faces again, alive and well.

She'd give anything.

And as it turns out, that anything just became

everything.