House: Gryffindor
Position: Prefect 2
Category: Short
Prompt: [Setting] King's Cross Station, Platform 8 3/4
Word Count: 1274– excludes header, title, and A/N
Beta: CK, Tigger, and Shay. Thank you! 3
A/N: This was written for The Houses Competition, Y2R9.
Train to Anywhere
Hermione stared at the familiar scene of the train station. The train's whistling and the screech of the brakes as it entered the station. The constant hustle and bustle of the people around her.
She made her way through the crowd and down onto the platform, her heels clacking on the cement. She saw husbands kiss their wives, children clinging to legs, and mothers sniffling and waving their older children goodbye. She tried not to think about the fact that no one would be there to say goodbye to her. No one even knew she was going.
She picked up the pace. She didn't want to think about that right now. She might be leaving everything behind but it was for the greater good. She kept repeating that to herself, the mantra matching the pace of her steps.
She finally arrived at Platform 8 and knew she had some time before her train arrived. She tried to stare straight ahead, not ready to cross onto Platform 8 ¾ yet; she really wanted to avoid as many magical faces as she could. It wasn't that she was worried about seeing someone she recognized, but rather that she was worried about someone recognizing her. It seemed that everyone knew who she was now-a-days; her face was plastered across the Daily Prophet almost weekly. Her eyes couldn't help but stray to the familiar pillar between 9 and 10, the one she would never be going through again.
She stared at the brown brick; funny how nothing ever was what it appeared to be in the Wizarding World. That brown pillar wasn't just a pillar; it was the entrance to Platform 9 ¾. If someone with magical blood ran straight at the wall, they would be transported to a different place and whisked away to Hogwarts.
She remembered her first day walking through the platform like it was yesterday. She had been so excited and proud to have gotten her letter and have the opportunity to study at Hogwarts. She had studied and read every book she was able to get her hands on; she had wanted to know everything and learn everything. She had wanted to be the best, prove that she belonged there.
She hadn't known that the school would have changed her life in such a big way. She didn't know she would be walking into a war when she boarded that train. She didn't know she would be targeted or would be best friends with the Harry Potter, but here she was, on the other side of it, victorious and still wishing she could go back in time and change it.
There were so many things that she would change if she could. Maybe if she would have tried to make friends sooner, maybe she would have other friends to turn to now if she had. She shook the thoughts from her head; it didn't matter now. She checked the giant metallic clock on the wall and and gave another deep sigh. She still had twenty more minutes. Twenty more minutes of anxiously waiting. Twenty more minutes of stuffing her curly brown hair into her hood, just in case, and twenty more minutes of hoping no one realized she was gone yet.
Hermione prided herself on being a strong woman, and she was. She had proven herself smart and strong time and time again, but everything was getting to be too much right now. Ron had been pressuring her to get married and she just wasn't ready yet. She wanted to marry him some day, but she wanted to figure out who she was first. She was only twenty after all and all she had known was war and Ron. She wanted to remember who she was again. She wanted to reconnect with the bushy-haired, bright-eyed, eager young girl that had walked onto the platform nine long years ago. Where was she?
She had gotten so lost in protecting her friends, standing up for them, and fighting for them, that now that they could take care of themselves, she didn't know what to do with herself anymore. She knew her worth wasn't solely based on friends, she just had to find it again. Find something that she wanted to fight for again and work towards. Ronald just didn't understand that.
It was funny really; if anyone had told her she would be sitting there with no idea what direction she wanted to go in life she would have laughed at them until she turned blue in the face. She always had a plan. Once she had found out she was a witch, she had her whole career path laid out. She wanted to be the youngest witch to ever be the Minister of Magic at thirty-five, but that just didn't appeal to her anymore. She really did not want to be in the spotlight. She was tired of her whole life being splashed across every front page and being paraded around. Her friends didn't understand that. Ronald basked in all the glory that was thrown his way, Ginny was used to it by now being a famous Quidditch player, and Harry, well, he wasn't really fond of it, but he didn't let it bother him anymore. Hermione had wanted to be well-known and well-liked. Her younger self would have loved having her smiling face grace the cover of any magazine, but Hermione didn't like just being famous for being part of the Golden Trio; she hadn't done anything, not really. It was all Harry. She was basically famous because she was friends with Harry Potter, not because of her brains or any great feats to the Wizarding World, but because Harry had saved them from evils that had threatened the Wizarding World..
Harry and Ron had immediately found their niche of being Aurors. They were happy and loving life. They had everything planned out. Hermione had gone back to complete her seventh year at Hogwarts. She graduated a couple months ago and she still had no idea what she had wanted to do with her life. Ron didn't understand that, he didn't understand why she even needed a career. She could stay at home with kids. Hermione knew she didn't want that life. She was determined to do something more with her life. She would not let Ron work every day while she stayed at home and raised a pack of children. She certainly respected Mrs. Weasley for that course in her life, but knew she wouldn't be satisfied with it. She needed to find something to do with it and this little vacation was going to help her rediscover her passion.
It wasn't that Hermione was running away from everything; no, she liked to think of it as redefining herself. She didn't tell anyone she was leaving because she knew that they would try to stop her or worse yet, come along. This was something that she needed to do on her own.
She looked up at the clock again and grinned when she saw it was time. She placed her hand on the pillar before Platforms 8 and 9 and gently walked through the wall, emerging on Platform 8 ¾. She boarded the train, unsure about the destination; it didn't matter. She just needed the first train out of there. She sat down on the velvet seat and stared out the window. When she came back in a month's time, she knew she would be a different person. No, the destination didn't matter, it was the journey she needed.
"All aboard to Edinburgh!"
Hermione smiled to herself, Edinburgh, that would be perfect.