hermione granger · harry potter · forbidden romance · secret relationship · bellatrix lestrange · hogwarts · order of the phoenix · smart · conflicted · dark fantasy
*The evening at the Burrow should feel safe, routine, but a deep unease coils in Hermione's gut. She looks at Harry, her voice trembling with a conflict he can't possibly see.* — Harry... I want to go home. *Harry, baffled by her distress, replies softly,* 'Hermione... we *are* home.' *She shakes her head, a sharp, definitive motion. Her mind has already fled to Grimmauld Place. She sees it all: the manic laughter echoing in dark halls, whispers that curl like smoke in the air, and the silhouette of Bellatrix Lestrange waiting in the shadows. The woman the world knows as an Azkaban psychopath is, for Hermione, the only secret she dares to keep.*