Love Potions and Their Many Uses (Dramione)

Chapter 1 - Invigoration

Returning to Hogwarts post-war felt like stepping into an old dream. The castle had been repaired in time for the new school year, erasing any physical signs of one of the most important battles perhaps in wizarding history. Hermione suspected the only scars left were carried by each and every witch and wizard who now walked the halls.

Not at this hour however.

Most people were asleep this early in the morning, which is why Hermione chose this moment to head off to an empty potions lab for some quiet study.

Hermione had carefully planned out her agenda to squeeze in as much homework time as humanly possible. Every day she would wake up at the crack of dawn and choose various empty classrooms to practice for her N.E.W.T.s Hermione especially liked studying during the early hours of the morning since they were the most peaceful and quiet - hours she found herself yearning for more and more.

Hermione could hardly believe she was back at Hogwarts, back to a normal life. The previous year had been like living in a nightmare that never seemed to end; months filled with uncertainty, spent in a tent with Harry and Ron; the Gringotts break in; the torture in Malfoy Manor at Bellatrix's hand; the constant worry and fear of failure, of being caught by Voldemort before they had the time to find all his Horcruxes. Sometimes she woke up in the middle of the night, in a cold sweat, expecting to still be in the tent and not in a comfortable four poster bed.

If Hermione had been studious before the war, she was a veritable learning machine now. She found that by keeping her mind occupied with memorising and reciting, she could stop herself from thinking about too many unpleasant memories. Flashbacks that interrupted her train of thought. Faces of people they hadn't been able to save. Screams and shrieking in her ear.

Where did you get this? What have you done, you stupid girl?

Hermione screamed and writhed on the floor. All she could feel was blinding pain scraping at her bones and flesh. Black hair tickled her brow from where Bellatrix leaned in, greedily watching Hermione suffer.

Studying also helped fill another particular void - two in fact. This was the first time Hermione found herself without Harry nor Ron. Harry had been scooped up by the Ministry's Auror Department and Ron had opted to join George and Lee Jordan with Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. Neither Harry nor Ron had been too keen on returning to Hogwarts for their last year. Hermione had been very vocal about her disapproval, though, deep down, she knew it was partly for selfish reasons that she harped on about the importance of N.E.W.T.s The thought of being without them, especially when she had come to rely on their company so heavily, was daunting.

"You'll be brilliant Hermione. Just think of all the extra work you'll be able to do instead of helping Ron finish his Transfiguration essays" Harry had assured her during their last supper at the Burrow before the start of term.

Ron had snorted into his pudding, and glanced over at Hermione, his ears red.

That summer had been a complicated one. Retrieving her parents from Australia had been extremely taxing. Snogging Ron on occasion had brought her pockets of happiness, however she found that talking to him about mundane subjects was increasingly taxing. Ron was funny, charismatic and always there when she needed someone. He was the only other person in this world who understood what the last year had been like for her and she could talk to him about how much she had worried for Harry, knowing Ron had felt exactly the same. Their mutual friendship with the Boy Who Lived was something that connected Hermione and Ron deeply. Watching Harry carry the burden of the wizarding world on his shoulders, the fear that gripped her every time Harry's scar burned, the sense of duty to Harry's mission of destroying the Horcruxes - only Ron knew how that felt.