Train To The Kingdom
She had always relied on logic.
Although magic had greatly changed everything she believed in as an eleven-year-old, she learned to adapt to it during her years at Hogwarts. Even the most absurd things, according to muggles, such as dragons, merpeople, and even unicorns had somehow actually turned out to be as real as everything else. Very few things are able to surprise her these days.
Yet, somehow, Hermione Granger had not expected a simple star to have changed her beliefs once more.
She had clutched her beaded bag tightly against her chest, not wanting to let go of her best friends' possessions in fear of losing them forever. Hermione had nearly driven herself insane by the constant memory of her loved ones screaming until the everlasting darkness took over them.
It's been a fortnight since the war was lost to Voldemort. She could almost remember the way the light had left Harry Potter's eyes once the green light of the killing curse had struck him. She could almost remember the ringing sound piercing her ears as she, along with many of her other friends, had screamed and mourned for the loss of the Chosen One. She could almost remember how the dark wizard that killed him barely gave any of them time to grieve and used the opportunity to murder them one by one.
She could absolutely remember the guilt she felt in not being able to save a single person but herself.
It all had happened much too fast. So many of her friends lay dead on the ground. She barely had any time to comprehend each of their faces in her head. She kept running, narrowly dodging any curses that were sent her way. Tears clouded her vision, her heart beating loudly within her chest as she tried to focus on escaping and mentally grasping everything that had just happened. She tried to search for a head of red hair, anyone she knew and trusted, yet came up with no one. Hermione resisted a strong urge to break down and cry as she hopelessly continued her escape.
Hermione had been on the run since that night, constantly in motion, careful not to stay in one place for too long. She currently sat on the edge of a river listening to the radio she had packed for the Horcrux hunt. None of her friends had been able to contact her. According to the radio, many were known missing, possibly in hiding from Voldemort just like herself. The rest were found dead.
As Hermione gazed into the moon's reflection on the river, she kept listening to the seemingly never-ending list of people who had died that night. Many of the names were people she had recognized. Each name had shattered her already broken heart a bit more as the list went on. One name in particular had caused her heart to make an abrupt stop.
Ronald Weasley.
At the thought of another best friend she had lost, Hermione succumbed to the grief and allowed the tears to freely flow. It almost seemed like she'd been crying forever. But she just could not find the power to stop. It was as if she could actually feel the physical pain within her chest, choking her like shards of glass getting lodged deep within her lungs.
Looking up into the night sky, Hermione repeatedly let out her apologies in short gasps. She felt like a coward for having been able to escape whereas many of her friends had not.
It was not supposed to end this way.
Hermione stared at the many stars in the sky, appreciating their beauty. Two stars in particular were so close together it could've been mistaken for a single star if she had not focused on them. She was instantly reminded of her two best friends, therefore claiming the fixed points of luminous bodies as Harry and Ron.
I should be there with them.
That was the moment Hermione discovered a single shooting star, painting across the dark sky with a trail of light. She was never one to have really believed in wishing upon them, even as a child. They were merely meteoroids anyway, not actual stars. Yet as she saw it passing by the two other stars, she somehow felt compelled to. She shut her eyes and slowly drifted to sleep with one thought on her mind.
I wish I had known.
Awakening, she finds herself in an empty compartment on the train to Hogwarts.