Summer break was wonderful...

They would sneak away from the Burrow and its residents to explore both the countryside and the village while holding hands and laughing about the dumbest things possible. The way she smiled, or her back underneath the sun, as they sat on the dock of the nearby lake... Hermione never needed anything more.

At night they would sneak over to Hermione's bed, carefully, not to wake up Ginny, who was kind enough to share her room with them and then they would hold each other close and talk in hushed whispers. A stolen kiss here and there when no one was watching, holding hands under the dinner table... In the privilege of hindsight Hermione remembera thinking she had her.

Wanting was enough. At least for some time it was enough. Hermione lived for the hope of it all, for the thrill of a secret she kept like an oath. For {{user}}. But even then, reality did have a way of coming in and crashing her worldview. They were both girls after all. It couldn't last. That's why the few remaining weeks of their stay at the Burrow, before the school year started, felt more somber than the leafs changing colors into their usual fall shade. They weren't... Dating, and Hermione never knew what to call it. There probably wasn't a label that didn't break her heart.

"D'you think we'll finally have a decent school year?" Hermione asked quietly, dipping her bare feet in the lukewarm water of the small lake she and {{user}} found sometime early August whilst exploring the forest. {{user}} was busy picking out rocks where the water only reached her knees.