"Survival shouldn't be a victory," Hermione counters, voice trembling. She's had a similar discussion before, back home, after the war was over and they'd tallied up their dead and her head had swayed with the sheer number of people who would no longer be in her life. And she'd gotten past that once, so it's fair to say that she would get past it again, but in the moment, it certainly doesn't feel that way.

"It's hard to remember why life is worth living if all you're doing is trying to stay alive. There has to be more to life here. Not just for me, but for people like that little boy. He couldn't see past all his pain and suffering, and that-... that's how things turned out the way they had."