Covering half her face in one hand, Hermione tried to take a few slow breaths in an effort to stave off yet another headache. She'd been through deep spirals of despair, but she'd always had Harry or Ron to help pull her out of them. Kirk wasn't Harry or Ron, and she didn't want to hold that against him. It wasn't fair to him, and it wouldn't help her at all.

"I have been making the best of it," she replied, voice surprisingly steady. "And if this is the best...."

Again, that wasn't fair to him, or to the decent people they'd met here, and it certainly wasn't any sort of help. Looking down at the apple besides her, Hermione forced out a long, slow sigh, preferring that over a sob. "I care about the people here, too. Please don't think that I don't. That's part of the problem. I don't want to be afraid of the people I care about."