Your last line: "She rolled over, hugged Crookshanks, and fell asleep, convinced she would figure things out by September." tells me that Hermione really hasn't learned anything Yes, she's done some introspection, covering all the 'safe' topics, but she remains almost exactly as she was at the beginning. One hopes she really DOES 'figure things out' before she returns to her friends.
In the event you decide to continue, I have placed this story on my 'alerts' listt and hope to see where you take it.
Alorkin
Author's response
I totally agree with you, she really hasn't learned, as we saw in HBP (and the Hermione part of my story 'Smoke')
"T"