Spring was beginning to show itself at the Granger estate. The apple orchard they owned was starting to bloom ad the pleasant sound of birds filled the air, welcoming in the new season. Hermione Granger, however, seemed to be oblivious to these changes as she stormed past. Her petite frame shook with indignation, and her small face was flushed with anger.
"If they think that I'm going to marry that complete pig, Zacharias Smith", she muttered to no one in particular, wiping sweat from the warm day daintily off her brow, "they're completely mad."
Hermione had been betrothed to Zacharias Smith, a wealthy landowner like her father, since birth. She had been told today because she had come of age. She gaped in a mixture of horror and disgust when the engagement was announced. She had later thrown a temper tantrum, being very unladylike beating her fists and feet against the floor in protest. But her efforts did not seem to work, as the wedding was set to be in exactly three months.
Since Hermione's family was of a certain wealth, she expected to get everything she could ever want and more. This unforeseen surprise was something that she definitely did not want. She wanted to be able to go where she wanted, do what she wanted, and she wouldn't let any man tie her down with the trivial duties and responsibilities of being a wife. Maybe she would eventually let some man, one that respected her and understand her wants and needs, but if that was the case, Zacharias Smith was undeniably not that man. He was petty, squabbling over a penny, and cold, once evicting an old blind lady and her husband because they could not pay their taxes. He was handsome and smart, having been taught by some of the best scholars of the time, but that wasn't enough. She needed a man who would care.
Hermione kept wandering through her through her property, her icy expression slightly warmed by the weather, her angry march turned into a leisurely amble. She strolled past her family's fields with maturing wheat and barley, the plants' green stalks extending toward the clear turquoise sky. Past their horse stable, with the beautiful red and brown mare she had named Cinnamon. As she walked past the small harbor they owned, with their merchant ships docked and tied to the dock, she was reminded of the conversation she had heard earlier that month between her father and their harbormaster about the fierce pirate ships that his sailors should be on the lookout for, such as the Soaring Lion and Green Serpent. She finally stopped and turned toward the small wood at the very edge of their property.
Hermione marched slowly, as if in a funeral procession for her own freedom, down a hidden, worn path. She continued for several minutes when she appeared in a small clearing. This clearing had been her safe haven since she was very young. The sky and ground had become her comfort, and the animals, from the smallest ant to the biggest bear, from the vicious cougar to the peaceful butterfly, had become her friends. Hermione had hoped her favorite hiding place would help her forget her worries, but her impending wedding cast a dark shadow on her thoughts that didn't disappear once she had reached her haven.
Hermione laid down on the grass, staring at the cloudless sky and the tips of pine trees surrounding the clearing. She wondered if she be happy married to someone she did not love. "But what is love really?" she pondered. "Is a figment of an overactive imagination or is it real? Could I ever learn to love Zacharias Smith?" She continued asking herself these kind of perplexing questions aloud. Her overwhelmed mind and the warm air made her feel sleepy. It wasn't long before she fell asleep on the grass in the clearing.
Hermione was running, not knowing why or caring. She chanced a glance behind and noted what was chasing her. A man in a red cloak and feathered hat pursued her on a white stallion. Why he was or who he was, she did not know. All she knew is that it would not be good to be caught by him. She glimpsed behind her again and noticed that the man was steadily gaining on her. Hermione was so terrified that she was going to be caught, she started whimpering. Her foot caught on a root and she fell. She tried to get back up, but the pain in her ankle was too intense and she was drawn back to the ground. She threw another terrified look behind her and saw that the man had dismounted his horse and was walking toward her. She grasped her ankle and massaged in effort to help the swelling go down, but to no effect. The red-cloaked man steadily walked up to the place where she sat on the ground. Hermione tried to call for help, but fear stifled her voice in her throat. The man was less than ten yards away from her now. She begged that he not hurt her or her family. The man continued on his trail until he stood right beside her. She began screaming just as the man reached his hand out to touch her. Closer, closer, closer his hand came until finally…
Hermione opened her eyes, looking around wildly for the man with a feathered hat and his horse. The clearing was completely devoid of any human life with the only exception being she. She glanced down at her gown, which was covered in cold sweat. "It was just a dream." Hermione let out a silent sigh of relief. Then, she noticed her surroundings. The day sky had faded to its usual midnight color scheme. Hermione had been in the clearing before at night, but not recently and she didn't have a lantern to light her way, as she had on those occasions. She picked herself up off the ground and looked around, keeping in mind her mental map from the clearing to her house. With little light from moon, she set off.
The clearing had many paths, many that Hermione had already explored. She had chosen the path that was the closest to where she had been laying moments earlier. It was full of overhanging branches above her and sharp rocks under her, so the path was definitely not the one she had taken earlier as it was not as treacherous. Her stubborn confidence willed her on.
The path that Hermione was taking was long, too long she realized. She whirled around, looking for any other path out of her beloved woods. Then, she spotted it: light, very dim, but light none the less on her right. She hurried in that direction, hoping that she would be home soon.
A/N: Just to forewarn you, the next chapter is going to take a while cause I am still working on this story when I get the chance. I just couldn't stand having this in My Documents for another couple of months.