Title: Loss
Rating: K

Mariah Peyton.

Hermione hadn't thought about her in years. When had they even spoken last? Maybe third year? She had sent letters regularly, but Mariah's had become more and more infrequent until eventually Hermione stopped after sending five unanswered letters. She figured Mariah had received the letters though- they had never been returned to her.

They had met at toddlers in the local nursery and had remained fast friends until Hermione had tearfully bid her goodbye the day before she left for Hogwarts. For two girls who had been nothing alike, Mariah and Hermione had been inseparable. Hermione was bossy, but quiet and shy, Mariah gregarious and loud. They took to one another as only those who have found a perfect compliment in another human being can. It wasn't something that either could've explained, but both had always taken delight in the other.

There had been fights, of course. Arguments over whether it was better to be right or to be nice. Hermione would have never admitted it when they were friends, but now it was becoming harder and harder to choose. Right was morally satisfying, but nice… she had grown to understand just why so many tried to be nice. It was something Mariah had always tried to explain to her, but even at 10, Hermione had been too stubborn to listen.

She could picture Mariah in her head. Glossy, thick black hair that tumbled down in her back in curls that were barely tamed by barrettes, combs, and sometimes even rubber bands. Large, chocolate colored eyes that danced with life and delight. The small gap between her two front teeth and the way her nose was just a little flat.

Mariah's parents had been in the process of getting a divorce when Mariah's letters stopped coming. Hermione had even tried to call her occasionally, waiting until she could get home for recesses. Mariah never seemed to be home and, one day, the operator told her that the number had been disconnected.

She had been baffled and angry at first. As the years wore on and as Harry, Ron, and later Ginny became her best friends, her family, Hermione had begun to forget about Mariah Peyton. She still felt a tinge of regret when she shuffled through old letters that Mariah had sent, but the feeling soon faded as she remembered the life she was so engrossed with now.

Hermione felt her fingers curl into the newspaper she subscribed to. It was a nothing paper. Local Muggle newspaper from her tiny hometown. Nothing of much importance happened there, but it was nice to read names of people she had known before this life. People she doubted would even recognize her now.

"Hermione?"

She started and looked up. Ron was rubbing the back of his head like a sleepy child.

"What are you reading?"

"Oh. A friend from home." She looked back down at the smiling, unmoving face of Mariah. "She died in a car accident this weekend."

"Gosh," Ron breathed. "Were you close?"

She shook her head, then folded the newspaper back up and set it carefully on the kitchen table.

"No."

She waited for Ron to finish his breakfast before carefully clipping the tiny notice. She folded it with shaking fingers before slipping it gently behind the Muggle driver's license in her wallet.