Mysteries of Phoenix
A collection of short ficlets: 1000 words till 2000 words
My answers to a Summer-Challenge
Author-Note: I would like to thank spencer for betaing this ficlet.
Summer-Challenge: Harry or Hermione receives a gift and discovers it's from the other
Nearly every day the alarm went off at 5 AM, calling through the darkness for Hermione to get up for work. As owner of a bookshop, she had to wake up early to do paperwork before she opened the store itself.
Today was no exception, as she again wished her shop had a connection to the floo network so she didn't need to travel like a Muggle. Since the war, Diagon Alley had been designated a restricted zone. No one other than an Auror was allowed to apparate in.
The British weather was especially unbearable in autumn; if not thick fog, then it was heavy chilling rain. The underground was even more crowded than usual this morning due to the heavy rainfall.
Hermione shifted uncomfortably and wished for her commute to be over. Finally arriving, she sighed heavily as she muttered the incantation to open her shop. Inside, she was in a kind of heaven, if not Hogwarts, which she missed terribly at times.
It wasn't simply the castle or the classes, but rather the times when she was still a little girl who could hang around every single day with her best friends. How she missed them! Never before she had thought she would miss the daily arguments with Ron, but what Hermione truly missed the most was Harry.
After Voldemort was gone forever, Harry had announced that he wanted to see the world, to be free from his prior burdens. With tears in her eyes, she had accepted his decision to leave England.
Harry seldom wrote to her, but even when he did, he didn't mention personal matters, so she finally started to throw herself more into her bookshop, building up a large clientele. After all, Hermione was famous in the wizarding world herself, too.
After a year, she found that she needed an assistant. After searching, she finally found a girl barely older than herself. In Hermione's opinion, Lydia could have done well in Witch Weekly, Hermione having never seen a girl that beautiful without veela blood. But it didn't matter much because Lydia was excellent help.
Thoughtfully, Hermione went past the full bookshelves, looking for books that needed restocking. As usual, many Gilderoy Lockhart books were with on the list. Thus started another morning, just like every other one of Hermione's life after Hogwarts.
There was no longer a famous Harry Potter around her who needed her knowledge to survive; now he managed alone without her. There wasn't a Ron Weasley who bickered with her about everything and anything; they just met once a week because of old times.
After all, Ron was now married and had a job outside London; he didn't need Hermione. The only things that needed her were her clientele and this shop. Sometimes, though, in the quiet depths of her soul, she admitted that she really didn't know what she wanted anymore—not this, certainly, but something much more, something indefinable. Angry with her own sentimentality, she pressed her quill against the parchment with so much force that it broke.
Furiously she threw it away. This wasn't where she belonged, she thought. Her place was somewhere else. The first tears fell unnoticed; thankfully, the earliness of the day meant that she didn't need to hide them from anyone. Sometimes this hollow in her heart was just too much for her.
Suddenly, "Hermione?" a female voice called after her. Hermione hurriedly brushed her tears away so she could face her blond assistant.
"Here, I'm here, Lydia," she answered with a steady voice.
"Is that your owl there?" Lydia came around the shelves and pointed at the window. Curious, Hermione went to the window to see if this owl was familiar to her. Through the mist it was hard to see anything outside the shop.
The fog that had accompanied the rain thwarted her efforts to see out. Hermione opened the window carefully and found herself greeted by a snow-white owl. Her heart beating faster, she let Hedwig in. It had been months since she had last seen Hedwig, and to see her now… Attached to her leg was a rather large packet.
"Who's it from?" asked Lydia, who was looking over Hermione's shoulder.
"It's from Harry," she answered shortly.
"It isn't your birthday, or…?" Lydia questioned her, but Hermione just shook her head.
After she freed Hedwig from her delivery, the owl flew straight onto Hermione's shoulder and watched as she started to unwrap the damp packet. Under the paper was a wooden box. For a brief moment Hermione hesitated to open it, but Lydia and Hedwig urged her on.
The moment she opened it, soft music began to play:
A tiny golden snitch was hovering over the opened box, the music coming from its wings. Fascinated and touched by this gift, Hermione reached out to catch the miniature snitch. Suddenly and unexpectedly, she felt a familiar jerk behind her navel.
"A Portkey!" The thought rang through Hermione's mind as her feet touched solid ground again.
Bright sun hit her face as she turned, confused as to where she was. Her gaze passed over a lake and forest before coming to rest on an old stone castle, and Hermione realized she was back at Hogwarts.
"If you could see your face!"
She heard a warm, gentle voice from just behind her. Abruptly she turned around and stood face to face with Harry. "I missed you," he said with a much smaller voice and gathered her in his arms to hug her tightly.
Joy overwhelming her, she kissed him eagerly on his lips, a favour he returned. This, Hermione decided, was truly her heaven.
