A/N. This is my first fanfiction and I am flying solo (no beta.) Constructive criticism is welcome but outright flaming is fairly harsh.
Best, MSK.
Hermione Granger sighed deeply as she lay in bed, the room was dimly lit by the street lamp outside number twelve Grimmauld Place and she could make out the faint outline of the occupant of the other bed in the room. Whilst the deep and rhythmic breathing she heard coming from Ginny Weasley was usually soothing, helping Hermione to drift off to sleep, tonight it was irritating her and adding to inability to drift off. She lay in the semi darkness, eyes open and unfocussed, knowing that sleep would be near impossible.
Hermione had not expected to ever fall in love, it was illogical, nothing more than a change in hormone levels and other biological factors that she had read about in textbooks. It was something that happened to other people, not her, she was a girl that was ruled by her head and not her heart. But at the start of summer, she had travelled to London in order to stay with Ron and his family at Grimmauld Place, there she had first met Nymphadora Tonks.
Hermione sat bolt upright in bed, this was getting her nowhere! Thinking about a ridiculous schoolgirl crush was pointless, she carefully slid her wand out from underneath her pillow, pulled back her quilt and climbed out of bed. Trying not to wake Ginny she padded across the room and unlocked the door, slipping into the dim hallway and pulling the door closed behind her. Listening intently to see if anyone else in the house was awake, the pyjama clad figure tiptoed down to the ground floor, missing the third stair from the top that had a tendency to creak (Hermione had done her fair share of walking around the house late at night, and was starting to understand the best ways to move without making noise.)
The shadows cast across the walls and floor were eerie, yet Hermione found her way to a large solid oak door with ease, with a quick glance over her shoulder she turned the ornate handle and pushed the door open just far enough to slip through before closing it again behind her. She stood with her back pressed against the door, breathing in the smell of old books that seemed embedded in the room. Laying a hand against the wood of the door, Hermione started to murmur a charm of her own devising, the walls and door seemed to shimmer for a few moments before a flash of bright light shot across the room and she was plunged back into near darkness.
She gave a small satisfied smile in the knowledge that any magic she performed in this room wouldn't be picked up by the ministry so long as her charm was in place, "Lumos" she whispered before walking over to the large fireplace. Kneeling down on the hearth rug she placed her lit wand to one side, took a handful of kindling and a sheet of an old daily prophet from a stack by the fireplace, scrunched up the newspaper and placed it into the grate and leaned the small pieces of wood up against it.
Hermione leaned close to the bundle of paper and wood, right hand outstretched and her eyes screwed up tight, she remained in this position with a strained expression on her face for over a minute, but nothing happened. With a huff, she opened her eyes and poked at the bundle, drawing in a deep breath she extended her right hand once again and muttered "incendio." The bundle of paper started to smoke and a small flame appeared, slowly growing to consume the wood around it, Hermione grabbed a few more handfuls of sticks and placed them over the flames to slowly increase the size of the fire.
Leaning back from the fire, Hermione sat cross legged on the floor staring into the flames. She was disappointed despite having managed wandless magic, the spell had been weak and she had needed to say the spell out loud. Picking up a stick of kindling, she held it up in front of her and stared at it with undivided attention. Trying her best to think of burning, heat and flames, Hermione tried again to cast the wandless spell, this time her quiet "incendio" was enough to cause the tip of the stick to set ablaze at once. With a small smile, she threw the stick into the steadily growing fire and picked up another, determined to continue working on improving the spell.
Half an hour (and many charred sticks) later, Hermione finally started to feel like she was making an improvement, she had managed at long last, to cast a non-verbal incendio. A slight headache had started to develop due to the mental exertion, but at least her brain was starting to become as tired as her body, more importantly she had managed to not think about Tonks in the whole time she had spent exercising her magic.
Standing up with a slight groan due to the amount of time spent on the floor, Hermione picked up one last stick and focussed on the end. With a deep breath she though 'incendio' and a large flame flickered into life at the end, Hermione allowed herself a grin, that was much better than when she had started.
Just then there was a noise from outside the door, Hermione jumped and span around at exactly the same moment the door was pushed open. Framed in the doorway was none other than Nymphadora Tonks, stood with her dark violet travelling cloak slung over one shoulder and a look of surprise on her tired face.