Nobody Needs to Know

Hermione took another long drag from her cigarette. She was enjoying the last moment of her summer, dreading to go back to Hogwarts. The big war was over. They had all left school early in the middle of the term last year. That was just after Dumbledore\'s funeral. In the time between the school let out and the last battle, Harry had managed to find the rest of the horcruxes and destroy them. Although, he\'s still working on R.A.B. Nobody but Hermione knew that Harry was still alive. Ginny and Ron would go crazy trying to find him, but he had to stay hidden for his own safety until all the Death Eaters were gone. Bellatrix Black was still on the hunt for Harry, with the help of many others. Hermione was his only correspondent, and she knew she would never let anyone that could harm Harry know that he was still alive. The two wrote as often as they could, but Hermione usually had to wait until Hedwig came for her because the other owls couldn\'t find Harry. The last she had heard from him, Harry was looking into Regulus Black (Sirius\' brother) as the mysterious R.A.B., but had had no luck so far. Hermione had written back confirming the initials, which she had checked against the Hogwarts records, but that was all that she could offer. Not only was she still physically drained from the last battle, but emotionally as well. Only twelve students would be returning to Hogwarts as seventh years. The rest were dead, transferred or missing. Hermione and Draco would be the two new Heads, but not in the traditional way. Severus Snape had been killed in the final battle, whom no one really mourned, but that also meant that more teaching positions needed to be filled. Hermione was being trained as the new Transformations professor, Draco the new potions master and Ron as the new Care of Magical Creatures professor (Hagrid, too, had fallen). Slughorn would stay until Malfoy was ready to take over, and Hermione would be working alongside the new Headmistress until she too was ready. Ron would just go by the ministry guide lines and \"wing it\".

The reason Hermione was so reluctant to return was because of Ron. After school let out, they had stayed with Harry for a while (until he left) at Grimmauld Place. There they had started a much heavier relationship than that at Hogwarts. They\'d quickly become involved, and Hermione had quickly regretted it. Ron was very possessive and controlling. On more than one occasion, Hermione had gotten slapped or hit by him, usually over something very stupid. It only got very bad after the deaths of Molly, Arthur, Percy, Bill and Fleur. When Harry turned up missing and thought to be dead, he lost it. Ron was devastated, and turned to alcohol to drown out his sorrow. At first, Hermione had been strong willed and tried to help him, but after months and months of being told you\'re worthless, it\'s hard to keep up faith. Ron had soon owned her completely, and she had spent the last two days in Diagon Alley, trying to avoid him as much as possible while he drank himself into a stupor every night in the pub downstairs. Her only comfort was that the Head students got their own dorms, although she wasn\'t sure she\'d be much safer with Malfoy. Sure, he had deflected to their side before he could have possibly known that they\'d win, but that didn\'t make him a good person. Not to mention his obvious hostility towards her all of these years. Hermione was very reluctant, to say the least, to return. But return she must, and so she gathered her stuff and made her way towards the Hogwarts express, watching Ron tap his foot impatiently waiting for her. Her throbbing block eye was barely concealed by the glamour she had used on it, these days they didn\'t seem to be working that well anymore, and wore off very quickly. When she heard the train\'s whistle announce their departure from the station, she leaned back into the seat and closed her eyes. For once, it didn\'t bring her a great amount of joy to be returning to this place that she had spent the last six years of her life. She didn\'t feel a great amount of joy at all anymore. She had a boyfriend that hit her, and it was her own fault that he hit her. She didn\'t please him well enough, and she wasn\'t good enough to replace the place in his heart he had for his family. It was no wonder why he hit her. She was a failure. She failed to kill Bellatrix Black in the final battle, she failed to keep Harry safe and she failed Ron and his whole family. Not even Ginny wanted to see her anymore. She had transferred to some far away school near Charlie so she wouldn\'t have to think about Harry every day, like that would work. No, Hermione was alone in this world. No one left loved her. She could only help that one day she could please Ron enough for him to love her again, like he used to.