DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter.

Ultimate Hermione Competition II: Blind Hermione

Drabble Club: Books (item)

Quidditch Pitch: abundant (word)

If You Dare Challenge: 9. Blankly

Emotion Challenge: Scared

Greek Mythology Category Competition: Hephaestus: Write about a life-changing injury.

Cinema Competition II: Inception: Write about a figurative or literal change in scenery.

Percy Jackson Character Challenge: Briares: Write about someone who's scared.

Potions Club: Porcupine Quills

Prompt: Write about someone metaphorically struggling to stay afloat in troubled waters

House Cup Competition: Bonus Activity

Prompts: quill, mushroom, starlight, hope


You watch as a flash of light zooms toward you, and your eyes grow wide. You are frozen in place, and before you can duck, or do some other heroic act to save yourself, the light hits you, throwing you back.

The glass table behind you shatters, sending twinkling shrapnels of glass flying into the air. For a moment, time is frozen; you are frozen.

You know you cannot stop what will happen next.

In a flash, the moment unfreezes, and everything is in motion again. You can do nothing but watch as the glass crashes into you.

You feel pain.

Everything turns red, and you cannot hear even your own screams. Your heart is drenched in a feeling of dread.

Your eyes bear agony.

Pain.

Pain.

Pain.

The lights go out, leaving you stranded in a sea of darkness.

It is a scene that will never change.


You hold the quill, running your fingers over the gentle ridges of the feathers. You wish you could see the mottled brown, wish you could do more than just feel.

But you never will.

The sea of darkness has snared you in its raging waters, and it still tries to push you under. But somehow, you manage to stay afloat.

But there is one thing you know.

It will never let go.


"Hermione?" a voice calls. The name is only a faint echo in the distance.

You remember a girl who used to be so full of hope. That determination to never let anything stop her. A girl who could see.

That girl is no more.

"Yes?" you say blankly, holding the book to your chest. You slide a thumb between the pages and wish you could see the abundant words the book holds.

You once took those words, that abundance, for granted. You once thought that you would always see them.

But now you can't.

You are finding it harder each day to stay afloat. The sea keeps trying to pull you under.

You promised yourself that you would never give up.

You fear that you will soon break that promise.


You feel a warm hand close around yours, pulling you along. Your feet are bare, able to relish the feeling of the rustling grass. You can feel the squishy mushrooms that dot the grass sink under your toes, sending a tingling sensation running through your veins.

You once took the ocean of green for granted. Took the dirty mushrooms for granted.

Now you don't.

You raise your head to the sky, trying to recall the bright flash of starlight.

You become afraid when it seems that you can't remember.

"No. I can't forget," you whisper, your words a plea to the sea of darkness to let you go.

There is nothing that scares you more than the fact that you are forgetting.


The sea still holds you, its waves pounding you with darkness.

Darkness.

Darkness.

Darkness.

The haunting word echoes in your head, taunting you. Telling you that it all you will ever see.

You are just barely afloat.

You know you will sink soon.

Once you do, you know you will let go of hope.


You choke on your breath, gasping as you stifle a scream.

Darkness surrounds you, seeping in, first through little trickles, then through a relentless torrent.

It will never let go.

You know the sea of darkness guards its few prisoners carefully.

It will never let go.

But you must stay afloat.

It is the only thing that will give you hope in this sea.