Chapter 1

As Hermione took the cup of tea from her former professor, she caught the twinkles in green which made her just fall in love with her all over again. Right here, in this ruined castle, Hermione had seen a different Minerva McGonagall –– the one that she had always thought lay beneath that strict exterior and had always been curious about and had always wanted to see, but, honestly, she never would have thought she would. Hermione Granger had always thought that only those who were close to the Headmistress and very privileged got to see that side of her. She never would have thought that she would look at her one day and see her smile without restrictions and see mirth glistening in those emerald eyes. She was very grateful that she could, though. She was very grateful that in this place it was possible for her to smile whereas it wasn't at The Burrow, exactly.

Right after the battle, Harry and Hermione had, without words, sort of moved in with the Weasleys, Ron and Harry, as usual, taking Ron's small bedroom, as Ginny and she shared the Weasleys' only daughter's. Whereas Harry had seemed fine with it, undoubtedly since it enabled him to be with his now-fiancée as much as possible that way, Hermione hadn't quite felt 'at home' anymore, ever since the first night she had Apparated back there. It had felt very weird and foreign, since The Burrow had always had that homey feeling before, but she hadn't been able to deny the change. Initially, she had described it to the aftermath of war, and she still did believe it played a big part, but not in the way that she had thought initially.

All of them had had a very hard time with coping with the losses of close friends, of family, and so had she. The weeks following the battle in which the non-survivors were buried had taken a big toll on everyone, and it had on her, as well. They said that burial was supposed to be the beginning of a life without the buried, sometimes, but Hermione had always thought that that psychoanalytic interpretation was just a bunch of bull shit, because as she sat at the table with the Weasleys, especially when Mrs. Weasley invited Order members over, she couldn't look past Remus' and Tonks' and Fred's empty places, even though there physically were no empty seats. Meals were rather painful, and just being there, hearing Mrs. Weasley burst into tears at anything that reminded her of the loss of her son and the general beaten-down atmosphere didn't help things. It all felt so different as opposed to how it had before, with smiles and laughter at the table and the Weasley twins' pranks and jokes. George alone didn't pull any pranks. It didn't feel like that sad atmosphere would change soon either, and Hermione understood that, but it wasn't working for her –– not moving on was not helping her give the losses a place.

Retrieving her parents from Australia and then reversing the Memory Charms before telling them what had happened had not at all been a stroll in the park, either. In fact, it had been a great deal harder than she had expected to try to tell them of the ravage and trauma that she herself had been through, albeit un-detailed, when they had been safely tucked away in another corner of the world, shielded from it all when all that had gone on. Even if Hermione had felt comfortable answering the questions they continuously asked her when she was with them, she didn't believe she could ever talk to them about it –– not really.

When at the beginning of June, about a month after the battle, Minerva McGonagall had been at the dinner table one night and had stated that she was going to try to slowly rebuild Hogwarts again, something had poised the Brain of the Golden Trio to ask if the Headmistress could use any help. She had felt the need to do something useful in order to help her move on, and rebuilding Hogwarts had seemed like a good idea to go about it. Ignoring Minerva's initial response that she shouldn't feel obliged to help and Ron's that it was probably better to just stay home with him and with the rest of the family, Hermione had stated that she would be more than happy to help.

Despite the fact that Ron had still been grumpy about it and Mrs. Weasley had asked several times if she was sure she was up for it, as had Harry and Mr. Weasley, she had gone to Hogwarts the next morning to assess the damage with the Headmistress and try to decide how to best go about the rebuilding. Ever since that day, she had gone to help her every morning, the two Gryffindors working together, restoring all the tiny pieces of the fabled institution one by one, mending the damage to the castle, to themselves and to each other as they did.

To say that there had been nothing between them to begin with would be a lie, but nothing could or would have happened between the people they had both been prior to the war, whereas the people they were after the battle as they rebuilt Hogwarts as nothing less than equals had lead to strong developing feelings for both of them that couldn't have developed before.

Over the course of the past few weeks, the two Gryffindor women had grown to each other both tentatively and securely. The comfort and understanding that was always woven between very few spoken words had turned into a place of peace and acceptance Hermione had needed a great deal. It was something that had grown slowly, yet effortlessly, founded upon therefore vague feelings, fostered by their new respective needs and wants, and something that neither of them felt they could miss anymore… something that, even after just a month of free growth, couldn't be termed anything else than actual 'love'.

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