People had claimed that Hermione would get used to the ever-present throbbing of the shard, but she hasn't seen any signs of that happening as yet. Throbbing only ever happens if there's something wrong, and so she's been left wondering just what sort of damage is being done to her from the inside, and whether she'd ever be able to come back from it. Harry still has his lightning scar on his forehead; will she end up going home with a green scar in her palm?

"If we can find the source of that first major breach, find out just what was responsible, maybe we can work out a way to reverse it. Or... well, I don't know how advanced surgeries are in this world, but if we find a rather excellent surgeon and someone brave enough to have their hand prodded at, perhaps we can at least find a safe way to have these things removed. Perhaps with a few shards combined, we can even discover a faster and more efficient way to get rid of these rifts."