Authors note: If you don't like hurt/comfort fics or femslash then you probably shouldn't read this fic because it will contain a lot of angst (not in the first few chapters though, I'm trying to make it fairly long). Please R&R, as always I would greatly appreciate feedback.

Lots of love,

Charlotte (RedButtons) xx

Chapter One

Hermione hated Bellatrix Lestrange. No, she didn't just hate her, she hated her with a strong passion, in fact she detested her, she didn't think that the woman, that selfish, murdering monster that had caused so many people pain, deserved to live. In fact, she was certain that there was nothing she would love more than to see her get killed, to see the tears roll down her pale, sunken cheeks as she fell to the floor, writhing and begging for mercy.

How sadistic, you're becoming the woman for Merlin's sake!

SHUT UP brain, your meant to be studying, not thinking about Bellatrix Lestrange

She found that she had been doing that a lot recently, that is thinking about Bellatrix Lestrange, not being sadistic. She didn't know why she thought about Bellatrix all the time, sure she hated her, but she hated Voldemort as well and she hardly ever thought about him. 'It must just be because of the whole torture thing at Malfoy manor, it's probably still fresh in my mind' she reasoned with herself…but she knew that wasn't the real reason, not really.

Hermione absent-mindedly chewed on her quill as she brooded, taking a 5-minute break from studying so she could actually think about something. She didn't get much time to daydream anymore, ever since Harry and Ron died after killing the dark lord, she threw herself into studying so she didn't have time to grieve over her lost friends. Well they were much more than friends to her, they were practically her brothers, ever since they had died she hadn't smiled once, she had nothing to live for anymore. Hermione never did anything for herself anymore, she hardly ate or slept, just cast a glamour charm on herself to stop the concerned looks that came from her professors. Without the glamour she looked awful, her pain-filled eyes looked huge in her now tiny face, the tiny face that now always looked blank and expressionless, her hair was lank and dull, and she was so thin and fragile that it looked like her arms and legs could snap off at any second.

It wasn't that she had stopped eating because she was grieving, it was simply because she didn't have time anymore, she didn't have time to sleep either, and even with the glamour, the ugly, dark bags that were ever-present under her eyes were always visible. She usually fell asleep in the middle of studying now, at about 3 '0 clock in the morning her head and shoulders would start to droop with exhaustion and she would fall asleep with her work acting as a pillow, often turning up to class the next morning with ink smeared across her face. No one said anything to her, they all felt sorry for her now, even Draco had stopped calling her a mudblood. She was disappointed in a way, she would have liked at least one thing to seem normal.

Hermione had fell asleep on her work again, she was just in the middle of a lovely, dreamless sleep when she felt a hand gently shake her shoulder, and unfortunately she was being woken up. She groaned and rubbed her eyes, glaring through bleary eyes at whoever had ruined her slumber. It was only dumbledore, standing over her and twinkling as normal. "Miss Granger, I was wondering if I could see you for a moment in my office?" it was clearly not a request, so Hermione grumbled something incoherent and reluctantly followed the Headmaster, through the corridors of Hogwarts, to his office.

She couldn't have ever been prepared for the sight that greeted her, for there, sitting casually in one of the Headmaster's chairs (and looking better than ever), was Bellatrix Lestrange.