Author's Note: I don't really know where this came from. I just started writing and this is the result at 1AM. This is another product of my current prompt challenge with SS Lupin. The prompt for this story was "flight". This isn't the usual fluff people expect from me but I felt like branching out. Forgive me if it's too emo but I couldn't help it, haha.
There is no need to test my heart with useless space.
These roads go on forever.
There'll always be a place for you in my heart.
-"Living in Your Letters", Dashboard Confessional
She left.
She packed a bag in fifteen minutes at the crack of dawn with no clue as to where she was going. She dressed in the semi-darkness, her hands shaking as she buttoned her blouse. Before she left, she looked down at Ron, who was still asleep. He was shirtless, the blanket pulled up to his waist. There were dried tear stains on his cheeks.
She left without looking back. But no matter where she went, she couldn't escape the headlines. "The Boy Who Lived No More." "Potter Performs Ultimate Sacrifice to Save Best Friends." "Voldemort is Gone – And So is Harry Potter."
She left the Wizarding world, tried to put it all behind her. She traveled from place to place, leaving before she could even get settled. She finally went to live with obscure relatives in the States, avoiding their probing questions. She answered the frantic messages from her parents with short, succinct statements. She took any job she could find to keep herself busy. She let her co-workers set her up on blind dates, certain that this date would do the trick. This date would finally make her forget about him.
She left and he didn't know why. He couldn't understand how he'd lost his two best friends in less than twenty-four hours. What's more, he couldn't fathom how she could just leave after the battle, after making love for the first time in an attempt to comfort each other and dull the pain. He wrote long letters at first, pleading for her to return and sent them to her parents, hoping they'd forward them along to her. Her silence spoke volumes, though. Finally, he decided to pick up the pieces and move on. But those faceless women who lay next to him night after blurred night didn't even compare.
She left and she didn't know why. She didn't even know what she'd hoped to gain from it in the first place. She'd only managed to lose everything, including him. She knew she'd hurt him badly. The letters he'd sent that she couldn't bear responding to were proof.
Four years later, she came back.
She stood on his door step, ignoring the rain that'd started to fall. She didn't know how long she stood there. Minutes, hours, days; it made no difference. Her heart beat wildly and her mouth was dry but she resisted the urge to take flight again.
Everything seemed to move in slow motion as she raised a trembling fist and knocked.
"Hermione."
With a choked sob, she fell into his arms.
-end