Unexpected

Harry Potter and Hermione Granger have returned for their eighth year at Hogwarts. Ron had gone ahead with his life, he was helping George at the joke shop and was making use of the Weasley support system he had available to him at all times. Hermione had decided the trauma from the war and her parents not knowing they had a daughter was enough to keep her from jumping into a relationship with ron. Harry had broken up with Ginny simply stating that he had needed to find out who he was without having to be something. This didn’t go over well with any of the weasleys so Harry and Hermione had moved into grimmauld. They hadn’t spoken to the Weasleys other than the occasional event that the “golden trio” was dragged out like show ponies for the ministry. Yet every time this happened Harry would go silent the minute they got home while Hermione would rant that it's ridiculous that they drag out the children they forced to fight their battles. She would begin crying and they would fall asleep holding each other on the couch.

Now they were sitting in a train compartment on their way to Hogwarts, Harry had been approved for auror training but didn’t want Hermione to be alone. So he decided to return to school with her. Part of her wondered if he just didn’t want to be alone. As Hermione looked into the hallways she noticed Ginny passing by for the fourth time. This wouldn’t have been strange if Hermione didn’t notice Ginny glance in the compartment every time she passed. “She’s doing it again.” Harry pointed out, “She’ll get bored.” Was all Hermione said.
Ginny didn’t get bored. In fact she sat next to Hermione which made them all uncomfortable. A perk the two heroes had was that mcgonagall had allowed them gryffindor head boy and girls dorms which had their own common room, this was because Hermione had written stating harry and herself didn’t want to disrupt anyone with their nightmares.

The next day when classes started harry and Hermione were attached at the hip, the were both on edge and incredibly jumpy, this was extremely obvious when Blaise Zabini had accidentally dropped his book off his table and Hermione had dropped to the floor and covered her head while harry drew his wand. Blaise had apologized and Harry spent the better half of that class coaxing Hermione out of her panic. After the war she seemed to be in fight flight freeze or fawn mode , she seemed to be stuck in freeze or fawn. When she would panic at the burrow she was told to get over it that there were bigger issues to be dealt with, she couldn’t find it in herself to tell anyone she still felt Bellatrix and her blade digging into her skin. So she dealt with it alone, until Harry found her attempting to cut across the word to try and cross it out. He took the blade from her and sat with her rubbing muggle ointment on it. Did it help? Probably not. But it gave her the illusion it did. From that day on Harry didn’t let her think about that day for too long,and during her off days he just held her and put the ointment on her arm. Sometimes Harry woke up in a cold sweat thinking he died, which is understandable, after the first time it had happened Hermione put wards on Harry’s room that alerted her when he woke up feeling that way. Each time it happened she would sit and hold his fingers to his pulse point reminding him he was alive, when they fell back asleep Hermione would stay in Harry’s bed.

Draco malfoy and Pansy Parkinson had taken notice of Harry and hermiones behavior. After the third class when Harry and Hermione had walked out of transfiguration hand in hand the two slytherins knew something was wrong. Flitwick had given them the task of transfiguring a rag into a decent sized tent in partners, it wasn’t a surprise when the tw gryffindors had partnered together but it was surprising when flitwick had walked into their tent and announced they’re to receive extra points for providing survival necessities in their tent. “They seem a lot closer than usual, don’t they?” Pansy had asked once they sat down for lunch, they were sitting next to each other with a clear view of Potter and granger. “They’ve always been close.” Draco responds. “Well yea but look at them, they’ve only talked to each other, they don’t even look at the weaselette, the rest of the eighth year gryffindors seem like they’re too scared to speak with them, granger looks like she’s constantly about to cry and she’s basically sitting in Potters lap while he whispers to her.” Pansy paused, “and from what I can tell he’s whispering the words ‘it’s okay, just a couple more classes.” Draco looked at Hermione and Harry, the latter of which in fact had the former pulled into his side as she cried. “Pansy, are you concerned?” He asked her, “Yes. Especially after Blaise had accidentally knocked his book off the table and sent her into a panic. Something’s wrong.” Draco shook his head “pansy i'm an ex-death eater and you tried to sell him out to a nose-less bastard, I’m sure we're the last people they want checking on them.”
“Exactly, we need to apologize first then let them know we’re concerned. It’s more genuine because we weren’t friends to begin with.”
“Ill go along but if we get hexed im not gonna stop granger from hexing you.”