Silena Beauregard, the coffee shop owner, sent Hermione's morning coffee to her table, smiling quite cheerily as she did. "You alright there, Hermione?" she asked, her eyes wide with excitement. Silena had always been the merrier of the pair, it seemed, and Hermione could only guess why—she herself couldn't remember the last time she had smiled as wide as Silena did.
Yet, Hermione smiled, the corners of her mouth feeling stiff. "Perfectly fine, thanks, Silena. And you? How are you and Charles?" Hermione asked politely, and with the question Silena went off gushing about the dinner he had taken her to.
Charles Beckendorf, Hermione learned, was Silena's boyfriend of six years, which was a long time to court each other, really. All Hermione knew about Charles was that they had met at a summer camp here in Long Island. Silena had never told her any stories of the camp itself, though Hermione had half her mind's memory stuffed with stories on the adventures Charles had taken Silena on.
"It was wonderful!" she said quickly, as if Hermione was about to interrupt her. "He prepared the whole thing! We ate really to-die-for lobster and pasta and before I knew it, champagne was being poured! And guess what?" she asked, her face the happiest it's been for a long time.
Hermione looked her over thoroughly, before noticing a sizable diamond ring on her fourth finger. "Oh, congratulations! Gosh, Charles is really lucky to have you."
Yet, no matter how congratulatory she was being, Hermione envied Silena. Where was her Charles, then? Someone who would prepare lovely dates and make her fall in love? Someone who could sweep her off her feet, even literally? She took a sip of her coffee, before setting the glass down. Silena had left without her noticing.
"Get a grip, Hermione," she muttered to herself, picking her belongings up. "You don't need anyone but yourself to be happy." She paid for her unfinished drink, before Silena unceremoniously invited her to the wedding. "It'll be in three weeks. A bit short notice, but we can't wait to get it over with," she explained, and Hermione agreed to come, even just for a little while. She returned to her little apartment in Queens, New York, feeling only a bit better than she had been before her morning coffee.
As far as her magic went, she had only used it for the simplest spells, like doing laundry and cleaning up messes. It had become something of a lazy lifestyle, something she never would have admitted to resorting to, but it was true. She had lost the will to care. Hermione Granger wasn't one to believe in heartbreaks taking over someone's life, but in her case, where her friends hadn't bothered reaching out, where she was shunned from her only job… Hadn't her reasons been justified?
Little did she know just a floor above her lived Perseus Jackson, mourning over the death of his girlfriend, Annabeth Chase.