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Summary
Hermione Granger has spent years being brilliant, useful, and reliable—everything the world expects her to be, even when it leaves her hollow.
A year after her breakup with Ron, she is trying to rebuild herself through Ministry reform, careful routines, and friendships that refuse to let her disappear inside her own grief. She tells herself she is fine. She tells herself she has moved on.
Neville Longbottom has always known better.
Now an Auror, steady and quietly formidable, Neville has spent years watching Hermione make herself smaller for people who never deserved the effort. He offers her safety without pressure, protection without possession, and tenderness without asking her to become easier to love.
But when a secret masquerade club strips away names, expectations, and the careful distance between them, Hermione and Neville are forced to confront the truth neither of them has dared to touch.
Sometimes the person who feels safest is the one dangerous enough to change everything.