The Dawn of Silence
Chapter 1 – Remembering
Hermione looked out the bedroom window at her parents house in the heart of downtown London. If she strained her ears enough, she could hear the birds singing, the crickets chirping, as well as the wind rattling the window pane.
Hermione had just completed her sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, along with her two best friends, a red haired, gangly looking boy named Ron Weasley, who had proposed to her, and a raven haired, bespectacled boy named Harry Potter.
Along with her two best friends, they had all gotten into some extraordinary adventures. Some of which had ended happily, and some which had ended up tragically.
Hermione sighed as she remembered the Longbottom family as it used to be. Frank and Alice Longbottom, both former Aurors for the Ministry of Magic, who had suffered from the cruciatus curse long enough to be driven insane had both been killed, trying to defend the other residents of St. Mungo's during a battle with Death Eaters. That was one pf the most recent battles in what was being called the second war.
Her own parents had been attacked three days before the start of her sixth year, and that had had a devastating affect on her throughout the school year.
Luckily, neither of them had been injured, but the fact that they had been attacked, and that at the time she was at the Burrow, unable to protect them if they gad needed it had eaten her up inside.
Again she decided to look through the window. It was a beautiful summer day, the day after her sixth year had ended, and she now had two months of relative freedom. It felt good once in a while to relax, she decided privately. She had never relaxed at Hogwarts, that was for sure.
Her first year had been filled with a run in with a troll, a three headed dog named Fluffy, and a wizards chess game in which she had almost been clobbered several times.
Her second year, one of her friends, which just happened to be her best friends sister became possessed y Voldemort, and she herself had been petrified by a basilisk.
Her third year, she had to been on the watch constantly for a notorious mass murderer, whom just happened to be innocent of the charge that he was sent to Azkaban for, and he was also Harry's godfather.
In her fourth year, she hadn't been in any real danger, well, except when she was at the bottom of the lake at Hogwarts.
Fourth year had also been the year when she had met her first boyfriend, an internationally famous Quidditch player, named Victor Krum.
In her fifth year, she and five other students from the school had journeyed to London to the Ministry of Magic to save Sirius Black from an almost certain death. Not only did they not save him from it, they hastened Sirius towards his own death, and ended up fighting off Death Eaters as well. She had come out of the battle much the worse for wear, due to the curse Dolohov had used on her.
And just three days ago, Voldemort had shown up at Hogwarts, ready to make his final stand, and to battle Harry to the death.
It had been an extremely intense battle, with everyone else also joining in to get a part of the action, but in the end Harry had finally vanquished the Dark Lord, and everyone who was an agent of Voldemort had tried to make a run for it, as Harry thought they might try to. Not one death eater managed to escape, but that didn't mean that Voldemort's other minions weren't still out there.
Noticeably not amongst the ones captured were Severus Snape, who had openly said that he was a spy for Voldemort inside Hogwarts, all under the guise that he was spying for Dumbledore, Bellatrix Lestrange, the torturer of the Longbottom family, Lucius Malfoy, whom was the father of ferret boy Draco, and Peter Pettigrew, whom had betrayed Lily and James' location to Voldemort.
Hermione wondered if any of them had been captured yet. Also not found was the former Minister of Magic himself, Cornelius Fudge, a death eater of many years, as well as Percy Weasley, which had shocked the whole Weasley clan when they found him doing the bidding of fellow death eaters.
Just then, someone started to cry inside her bedroom. It wasn't her. She figured she would know if it was her. She rushed over to the crib which had been made by Molly and Arthur Weasley, and picked up her daughter Ginevra, named after Ron's little sister, whom herself was not so little herself anymore.
"Shh baby," Hermione cooed, "Momma's here. Shhh!" she said as she gently rocked Ginevra in order to try and get her to go back to sleep.
Just then a thought struck her. Her baby's father was at the Burrow, so she could ask Ron to take care of Ginevra for a while, as Ron was her father.
Ron was staring off into the fire in the fireplace when it turned green, the colour it usually turned when someone used it travel through over the floo network. Eventually his daughter came through from Hermione's, and Ron was ecstatic. He had only seen his daughter once since she was born about a week ago, and even then Molly and Arthur were cooing over their new granddaughter.
It was a nice idea of Hermione to name their daughter after Ginny, whom they asked to be the baby's god-mother, and Aunt, which she was already, since she was Ron's sister.
"Did I just see someone floo in?" Molly asker her son.
"Yes, and she's asleep for the moment," Ron told her, quietly, hoping not to wake Ginevra.
"The little bundle of joy arrived then," Arthur said as he walked over to stand beside his wife to admire one of their grandchildren.
"Hermione sent her over," Ron told them.
"Do you need any help with her mate," a raven haired, bespectacled boy asked as he entered the living room, carrying his own daughter Lily Hermione Potter, and tickling her lightly, causing her to giggle.
"Thanks mate, but you got your own little one, and I wouldn't think of taking you away from her.
"How's Ginny?" Arthur asked Harry, who had just married into the Weasley family days before Ginny had delivered their daughter.
"She's resting comfortably dad," he said, and gently continued tickling Lily. "She had a hard labor, sop I am taking care of Lily until she is feeling better," he said matter of factly.
"I still can't believe you haven't made an honest woman out of Hermione yet," Mrs. Weasley said to her son.
"Mum," Ron exclaimed, "she said that at the time she was too young to get married, and that we would get married before we returned for our last school year.
"That was before her parents died in a plane crash Ronald," his father said quietly. "I think you had best better give her time to properly grieve for them.
"I am, Ron told him indignantly. "I told her if she felt like talking, she knew I would be here for her any time she wanted me to be. I told her how much I love her, and I also offered her our condolences.
"You did everything you should have," Molly said, "for a change," she added, almost as an afterthought.
"That's it," Ron said, starting to stand up, "no more grandma for you," Ron smiled at his mother's look of indignation.
Hermione sat back down on the bed in what used to be her parents home. She missed them dearly.