After saving the wizarding world from Voldemort just a few months before, public opinion has turned against Harry Potter due to his involvement in an extreme act of dark magic. Nearly everyone has deserted him, and he contemplates a dreary holiday alone and isolated, until a certain bushy-haired witch arrives just in time for Christmas Eve.

Five years after the war and after several failed relationships, best friends Harry and Hermione spend Valentine's Day together doing some mundane tasks. Hermione happens upon a hidden item from long ago and realizes that her best friend has apparently been secretly in love with a mystery woman. The revelations that emerge shock them both and could alter their friendship forever.

Over the years, Harry and Hermione have sometimes found themselves leaning on each other quite a bit as friends—intellectually, emotionally, and sometimes… physically. This story is a series of missing scenes from canon, moments of physical closeness that didn't quite make it into the books. Mostly canon compliant, but without the epilogue. Hermione's POV.

After Harry and Hermione have their rollicking time travel adventure at the end of Prisoner of Azkaban, they settle down to sleep next to each other in the hospital wing. But Hermione has a final question about Harry's unprecedented use of advanced magic. The answer is certainly not anything she could have expected.

The War is over. Hermione is alone back at Hogwarts, separated from her best friends for the first time in a year. Her 19th birthday is coming, and Harry is determined to cheer her up and help her escape from her post-war malaise through a novel challenge. After the pair embark on a weekend excursion together, the extent of their friendship is tested and buried feelings surface.

Harry and Hermione react as canon shifts about them. An homage of sorts to H/Hr tropes, beginning after Ron leaves them in DH. Traces H/Hr through the years to the DH epilogue as they struggle to understand the nature of the forces that keep them apart and will ultimately bring them together. No bashing, though incorporating overly serious drama, humor, and occasional absurdity.