Chapter One
Hermione Granger was going mad. She was torn between so many different emotions and was having difficulty coping with the many feelings that had been bombarding her since the conclusion of the war. The more powerful ones included feelings of relief, happiness, sadness, loneliness, uncertainty, and a powerful need to go back home. It had been a very long time since she had last seen her parents and her last visit with them had been short. She was just glad that they hadn't been targeted by death eaters and murdered. She needed to go home. Here her world was slowly falling apart. Voldemort was gone forever; she had gotten O's in all of her NEWT exams and had no idea what she was supposed to do next. She needed to leave for awhile to reassemble and realign her life now that it didn't revolve around the existence of a raving madman.
With profound sadness she packed up all her things for the last time and placed them in her trunk. She looked around the dormitory one last time and tucked the image into her memory. She shrunk her things so that they would fit into her pocket and kept her wand close at hand. She went down the stairs where she found Harry and Ron waiting for her. They gave her a brief hug and without saying much walked her to the entrance of Hogwarts.
At first they had been upset at her. Ron had wanted her to stay with them a bit longer at Hogwarts, and then had wanted her to stay with them at the Burrow. She explained that she needed to see her parents and when he suggested that she could visit her parents for a week or two and then stay with the Weasley's for the rest of summer vacation. She gruffly refused, becoming impatient with him, which of course upset Ron even more.
"But what will I do without you 'Mione? We've always been together, all three of us. Why are you leaving us now? Where will you go? I thought that our relationship meant something to you, but now, when we can finally spend time together, you're leaving?"
She didn't want to fight him or hurt him. She knew that he wanted to date her, possibly even marry her, but she wasn't sure about her feelings for him. She knew that coming from a big family with lots of brothers and Ginny, that he would want a large family of his own. She knew that she wasn't especially attractive and that her intelligence intimidated a lot of her peers. But she didn't want to rush into marriage and children with the first boy that made her stomach flutter at times.
Hermione wanted to go and travel and get experience in the world. Magic was wonderful and amazing but she had lived without knowing about its existence for a major part of her life and she felt a bit burnt out. She had some muggle money saved that was her college fund but she felt that she needed an extended vacation, and figured that she could work odd jobs here and there and that if she still wanted to go to college she would.
She met Professor McGonagall at the bottom of the staircase. She smiled and gave each of the boys a hug and told them that she would write. McGonagall walked with her to Hogsmeade briefly asking her what her plans were. McGonagall could see how the end of the war and loss of many of her friends had affected her. The young woman that stood before her had grown thin and worn from the stress and had faint purple circles beneath her eyes. She thought that it was a good idea for her to go traveling and to get some breathing room away from the two boys that were constantly at her side. Sometimes in order for young people to grow up they need time on their own to experience things for themselves without the influence of their friends. She gave Hermione a hug at the gate, wished her luck and watched her apparate outside the castle gate.
This was the third week that Hermione would be spending with her parents and already she was anxious to leave. She loved them both very much but without realizing, she had gotten to the point in her life where she would never call the house where her parents lived, her home. They had converted her bedroom to an extra office and during the time she spent there, she never felt truly comfortable. She had difficulty sleeping in a strange bed, in an eerily foreign place. It had taken awhile for her parents to adjust to her presence in their home. She had missed them, but the more she thought about it, it was that she had missed being a child more. As a child, she didn't have to think about friends who had been murdered in the war, she didn't have to make decisions about her life; she didn't have to worry about breaking Ron's heart and losing his friendship forever. She had wanted to be young again, had wanted her parents to pick her up, hold her in their arms and makes everything right. But that would never happen and she just had to deal with it.
She really didn't have any solid plans, but she knew that she needed to get away to gain some perspective. She packed as much as she could carry on her back, said goodbye to her parents, who told her that they would always love her, and got on the first plane that she could catch.
That plane happened to go to the United States. She traveled across the country, staying in cheap motels, traveling by bus to the next city. It was an exhilarating blur of excitement and adventure. But eventually her funds dwindled and she desperately needed some new clothes. Somehow she ended up in a small town in Colorado, made friends with the owner of the small bookstore in town and settled down working at the bookstore and staying in the small apartment that was above it. She got to know all of the residents of the town, and finally realized that she was comfortable and happy living this quiet life surrounded by friendly people and books. Using snail mail, she sent a letter to her parents telling them of some of her adventures, and gave them the address of her apartment above the bookstore. Life passed by at a comfortable pace. She had plenty of time to run the bookstore, organize and clean, go grocery shopping, cook and found time to delve in a good book that she borrowed from the bookstore or town library.
That Christmas she sent a package of American treats to her parents and included gifts and letters that they were to send on to Harry, Ron and Ginny. A day after Christmas she received a package from her parents with a new quill set, some money and letters from her friends. Each contained a plea asking her to come back home to England but it seemed that in her absence everyone was pretty busy establishing their own lives. Harry and Ron had signed on with professional Quidditch teams and Ginny was finishing school.
It was on the day of the first snow of the New Year that Hermione realized that she had fallen in love with this place, the mountains and pines and people. She was not ready to go back, not yet at least.
