Hermione spent the rest of the evening studying, her intellect was the only thing she had left.
She just wanted to throw herself into her work for the rest of her life, the perfect distraction.
Then came the nuisance, she heard a knock at her door and reluctantly opened it to find Harry stood there, looking uncomfortably gormless.

"Harry, I told you I don't want to talk to anyone right now!" She sighed, scrunching her hair at the root in despair. "Please, Hermione you can't go on like this! If you would just talk to me... Maybe there's something we can do, I mean, it doesn't need to be like this!" Harry tried desperately. "It does have to be like this! Nothing is the same anymore, I'm not the same anymore!" Hermione cried out, why wouldn't he just leave her alone?

"I know, just understand that you can overcome this. You have overcome so much over the past few years, you cannot give up now." Harry pleaded, "I've overcome nothing. I just swallowed it all down and now it's come back to bite me, we're not all as strong and perfect as you Harry. 'The boy who lived.'... Ask yourself this, deep down inside are you really living Harry?" Hermione spat cruelly, causing Harry to look at her like he didn't recognise her, she was a stranger. She stared back at him with distain, anger and a hint of desperation she was desperately trying to hide. 
Harry left without saying a word.

Hermione tossed and turned that night, like she did every night. She slowly into a deep sleep that could only be described as a black hole. The nightmares... every night, They never ceased.

*********
screams, screams of pain. people pleading for mercy... friends pleading for mercy. Prayers that would never be answered. Her parents, her beautiful parents. They didn't understand why these strange men were going to kill them, they didn't believe they had a daughter! It was all lies! they tried to prove their innocence, the monsters didn't listen, they didn't listen!!!!

*********

Hermione woke up soaked with sweat, the sheets twisted around her as if she had been in a battle with them. She lit a candle on her bedside table, she didn't want to sleep anymore, sleep was too tiring. Oh the irony.
She thought about what Professor Snape had gone through, all the things Harry had told her.
How did he remain so calm? So untouched? Hermione couldn't comprehend his behaviour at all, she felt like she was slowly going insane. After everything he was.... Fine.
The man she hated for so many years, the man who turned out to be a true hero... She envied him.

If only she knew..... what lived behind his cold eyes, what lived in his loveless heart.
If only she knew..... that they were the same, that they were reflections of each other.
She didn't know, she couldn't see it.