Author's Note: Hello, everyone! Thank you so much for bothering to take a look at my work! In this preface, I will be graphically discussing topics such as self hate, harm and suicide, as well as battle wounds and in-battle death. If any of these topics bother or trigger you, please take care of yourself and steer clear of this preface or brace yourself if you feel confident. There is another A/N at the end of this preface for more details about the rest of the story to come!

JKR owns all Harry Potter… lucky her...

Thank you so much, and enjoy!

-Cherry

~SSHG~

Preface

The Golden Duo

Hermione's flat in Hogsmeade was a cozy one, and close to work too, as she had just quit her job in Hogsmeade and was now the new Professor of Defense at Hogwarts. It's the second year that the wizarding world has known peace since the defeat of Voldemort at the hands of her best friend, Harry Potter, and therefore the second year that Hogwarts has been in commision under the command of Headmaster Minerva McGonagall, and the second year that the position of Defense teacher has been left open, save for the multiple substitutes that have tried, and soon fled, the position.

Minerva had been desperate and called in a favor.

Hermione was only too happy to oblige.

For her, the last two years had been nearly as bad as wartime itself, the last year in particular. She'd been offered positions at the Ministry of Magic, under multiple branches including the coveted Department of Mysteries, as well as the Auror office and Arthur Weasley's branch, Misuse of Muggle Artifacts. She'd been offered jobs outside of the country as well, in the American Magical government as well as doing work for multiple agencies working against any future rise of Dark Magic, and even teaching at Ilvermorny or Beauxbatons.

But she'd turned down every single one. Worse yet, she'd went ahead and got herself a job- one that wasn't nearly as stimulating- and one that she'd just quit to take up her new teaching position... one she should've quit a year and a half ago.

Currently, it was her last day working at Gladrags Wizardwear after a year and a half on the job. It was a good shop with good clothes, good coworkers, good salary, and even good customers. But damn Merlin to hell if she didn't loathe her job. It wasn't that it was a bad job either, it just was not a job fit for Hermione Granger.

Everyone, including herself, expected her life to be full of opportunities and chances for greatness- for Hermione to show the world exactly what she was made of and exactly who was the real reason Harry Potter hadn't gotten expelled or had turned himself inside out from a poorly cast spell. The war, however, ensured that she would have different plans.

She was doing fine, or rather as fine as one could be when one saw their loved ones being slaughtered left and right and was helpless to prevent it, when she breached the final tipping point and her mind began to slip from her in the Shrieking Shack. She was present, along with Harry and Weasley, as they hid from the sight of their former Potions Professor as he confronted a fearsome Lord Voldemort. She watched as the man they had once all feared- one whom nobody crossed, one who was as solid as the ground she stood upon, and one to whom danger was rarely considered a threat compared the massive amount of logic and purpose he could put into his actions to counter whatever threat lay before him, and one whom never, ever, was out of his range- beg like a child for his own life to his master, then have it yanked away from him in one of the most horrible, brutal, and inhuman ways Hermione would see even in the midst of that wretched war.

He had been a loyal follower to Voldemort, followed his every command and even killed Albus Dumbledore in the name of his Dark Lord, and that same Dark Lord took his life without even the slightest trace of remorse or second thought to his actions.

Then they, the three of them, had approached him, mangled, bleeding, and dying- and it was like she was meeting him for the first time.

He was lying on his back, bleeding profusely from his neck which was partly a cavity of bloody shreds beneath his head, thanks to Voldemort's cursed snake. His skin was paling as she watched, and blood oozed out of him by the litre, but then she saw the look on his face. He was, in that moment, completely unguarded, vulnerable, and very, very much human- very, very unlike the man she'd known while he taught her and her peers from a podium at the front of a classroom. He looked at each of them, but more specifically Harry, as though he was about to apologize to each of them for dying in front of them, as though he wanted to ask for help but was either too weak or too ashamed to ask. When he had looked at her, even though it was for a brief moment, her heart had stopped, and she saw that it wasn't just someone dying in front of her- it was a man who had felt something while he lived, who had a story and a purpose and meaning, and who had just had all of those things stolen from him by a madman who just wanted power and saw him as just another stone to cast out of his way in the process. She saw, for a fraction of a second, into those deep, black eyes, seeing them less as the caves of malice that she first saw them as and more as now-unguarded gateways into a very scared man, and seeing also, a man who had no idea if he was still alone, even in the midst of the trio in front of him.

Then he had spoken, and Hermione nearly had an aneurysm.

"Look...at...me…"

Only three words, that's all it took, for Hermione's mind to be trapped in the folds of Post-Traumatic Stress for the next few years of her life. Those words had confirmed her most recent thought: that, indeed, he was looking to not be alone, for once, in his final moments. That he wanted a glimpse of something, of someone, one last time as he faded away. That a glimpse of solace was all he wanted in his final moments.

That one fact about Severus Snape's death had royally screwed over Hermione Granger.

Now, every death in the war became the death of a human with a purpose who didn't want to be alone. Now every death was brutal and vicious, and every murderer needed to be put to the same fate as their victims. Now, to Hermione, every step around every corner sent pulses of fear into her veins, every opportunity that was given to her by someone was just an opportunity for failure and betrayal and, dare she admit it, perhaps even death. Every effort she made to move sent a jolt of pain through her head that just reminded her that it was easier to deal with the pain if she would sit down and relax. The night would always come with darkness, which remained a promise of fear and potential for harm and, worse yet, nightmares. Nightmares of the night of May the second of 1998, particularly those moments she spent staring at her dying Professor.

But that's not what kept her down the entire time.

She'd been to a Muggle psychiatrist, one who'd had experience with the wizarding world, and had been diagnosed with PTSD from the war. Harry had eventually told her and Weasley about the memories Snape had given him, which only made her point of view on the Professor more pitiful and made her nightmares about him worse. She'd also eventually be diagnosed with depression, as would Weasley, nearly a year after the war. That was when the two of them decided, without the consent of their counselors, to move in with each other.

They'd rented a small flat in a more wizarding-dominated part of London, nestled between Diagon Alley and a bookstore that Hermione had favorited years before. It was a perfect home with the possibilities of the future, for both of them, looking bright. They were both already getting job offers, which they were both looking forward to looking into once their multiple issues got handled, at least in part. Hermione, on one hand, had decided to take a job in Diagon Alley, working part-time at Flourish and Blotts, to keep herself busy, while Weasley had decided it was better for him to have some alone time at home to sort through his brain. Weasley, turns out, didn't sort through much, but, rather, sank into it.

He'd been put on an antidepressant potion, but had stopped taking it without telling Hermione. He'd spend the days crying and feeling hopeless, feeling like a waste of space and money in his own home, and feeling like without the war he'd be just another nobody, and feeling with the war, he'd become guilty for all the deaths that had happened around him. His nights were plagued with the screams of his friends as they were slaughtered, and his days packed with thoughts of how he could've been of more use rather than been a worthless tag-along sidekick to Harry Potter.

At least, Hermione had found this out in his suicide note. Which he had left on her night table, in their bedroom, where she had found him, four feet away from her side of the bed that they shared, with slashes cut into his wrists and neck.

That was what made everything worse.

She had kissed all the letters asking for her resume goodbye that afternoon. She'd gone to Harry, which had been helpful, but any moment of silence just reminded her of the member of their trio who would never be with them again. She wanted to be with her parents, but they were in Australia, their minds having been permanently altered by Hermione to not include her at all before the start of the war. She went to the funeral, but only stayed for a few minutes before she forced herself to leave after Molly screamed at her, telling her it was all her fault for some reason or other. She didn't really hear the woman, in fact she didn't hear much at all.

That had been a year ago. They'd only been living together for six months before Weasley had changed his title in her mind from his first name to his last. Even though so much time had passed, the Prophet couldn't get enough of "Weeping Granger" who was teetering on the edge of sanity and following in her dead boyfriend's footsteps, or "The Golden Duo", as they were now referred to as, getting together in Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade for lunch and their afternoon being dubbed as another chronicle in the Potter-Granger "love through death" romance.

She could vomit just seeing the goddamn rag of a newspaper sitting in a trashcan.

Now that she had moved and created a small but stable life for herself, with Harry's help of course, she had income and she had people to support her. And now that Professor McGonagall had confirmed her position, she had a reason to get out of bed starting tomorrow, August fifth.

She had been a couch potato in her normal life away from work, not bothering to get out at all except to get groceries or to meet Harry, and sometimes Ginny if she tagged along with him. She had Crookshanks, but there was only so many activities one could do with a cat. But now that her position at Hogwarts was confirmed, she could start looking forward to having that magnificent library at her disposal again. She could plan her curriculum, grade papers, work with students, and even have staff-level access to materials and portions of the castle that she'd never had before.

She was finally excited about something, and the fact that she was finally excited about something made her excited, which also made Harry excited, which made Ginny excited, which also made her concerned boss at Gladrags excited, which made Minerva excited once Hermione told her how excited they all were.

And damn it all if she wasn't due for some good fortune.

~SSHG~

A/N: Hey and thanks for reading all the way through (if you did)! This is my first fanfic ever, so constructive criticism is fully wanted and welcome! As I mentioned in the summary, this fic will have mature, graphic content with everything from sexual content to battles to suicide to self harm and hate. That said, I'm not making this completely depressing, so don't lose hope. This is an angsty fic, but I'll make it worth your while- I'll make the Unbreakable Vow if necessary! I will also be posting A/N's at the beginning of every chapter if there's any content that might be dodgy for some readers to read. I might also change the description (Romance/Angst) of this story or the title according to how things turn out on the road ahead. The romance part will stay, for those Snamione fans digging around for some more content, so don't worry! I'll keep you posted on what happens to change.

Also, I will be posting as often as I can (every 1-2 weeks at least), but I also have University to attend, so be aware that school priorities are a thing that need to be taken care of.

Please review! I would love to hear everything that you guys have to say!

Happy reading!

-Cherry