Written for the Out of a Hat Challenge! On HPFC, my first properly published fic. YAYNESS.
Being fine
Hermione sat on the edge of her bed in the sixth year girls' dormitory. The moon shone through the open window, on to the faces of her sleeping classmates. She dug through her bag, using her wand to light it.
"Damn." She muttered, shoving through the scraps of old parchment and broken quills. Then she looked inside her books, worried it had gotten stuck in between. Her diary was nowhere to be found.
She wouldn't have got something as trivial and silly as a diary, had it not been for the small fact that there really wasn't anyone she could explain her feelings too. Harry wouldn't understand, and she couldn't tell Ron. Seeing as he was the source of her confusion. So the idea of being able to write down every single secret in that book was great, sweet relief.
And now she had lost it. Pulling herself to her feet and using her wand to stop her from tripping over the messy floor, Hermione crept out of the dorm and down the stairs to the common room. Praying to all the gods she knew of. She hoped that she wouldn't meet anyone.
She tried to remember when she had last had her diary.
It seemed to her that it could only be in one place; by the tree near the lake. She hoped it hadn't been moved.
Several flights of stairs later and Hermione was standing in the dark entrance hall. Funnily enough, the front door was unlocked, and she managed to find her way to the lake without getting caught. A clock tolled somewhere far away; midnight.
The grounds were still and silent; lit silver and bleached pale. Black shadows hung from trees, but in a comfortable way, the pleasantness of night. She couldn't hear anything but for the whistle of a wind. The castle was as black as night.
In the shadows of the tree, she found her diary, still locked and barely touched. It was buried in the grass.
Picking it up, Hermione heard something coming from the forest near her. The crunching of leaves under feet, the snap of branches.
Her heart pounding, Hermione cursed her stupidity at leaving the castle alone, looking for a diary. They were near a war, and with the world as crazy and dangerous as it was, Hogwarts was a stricter place; to keep them all safe.
Her breath quickening, Hermione looked into the shadows at the edge of the forest, and saw a silvery figure. A patronus.
It bounded closer, a racing misty creature. It came closer, and Hermione saw that it was in fact a dog; a Jack Russell Terrier. It circled Hermione, before darting off back into the shadows.
She followed it.
Deep into the woods where no one would find her, where the trees grew steadily closer and closer together. She couldn't see anything but for the patronus, which lit the way better than her own wand, which she still clutched tightly in her hand.
And all of a sudden, it vanished.
Great, Hermione silently cursed herself follow the dog into the forest and then get lost. Wonderful.
"Hermione?" A voice asked from behind her, shocking her. But she didn't have to worry about who it was; she would know this voice anywhere. Ron blinked at the bright light she shone on him; realising her mistake she quickly diverted it. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to get something." She missed out the part about her wandering into the forest after a patronus; those things weren't really normal. "What are you doing here?" She asked, gazing into his shadowed face.
To her surprise, he slumped to the floor, and sat on a mossy log. "I don't know." He moaned. "I don't know what I am doing anymore. Did you know that my mum is threatening to take Ginny and I home at every opportunity she can get?" Hermione nodded, slowly crouching to sit beside him.
He lent on her shoulder, and she put her arm around him in a friendly, comforting way. He was cold.
"Geez, how long have you been out here Ron?" The scolding tone in her voice only noticeable if you knew what you were looking for. "You know it is dangerous here!"
He rolled his eyes, but didn't answer.
"Do you think Lavender will ever stop glaring at me in Potions?" Ron asked, fiddling with a clump of moss.
Hermione stifled a laugh. Lavender was upset and angry, and sometimes it was quite funny; how she reacted to loosing her "Won Won".
This time it was Hermione's turn to shrug.
It was comfortable in the woods, as they sat in silence. The moon occasionally made its way through the foliage, creating patterns of silver and grey amongst the jet black.
"Thanks for being here Hermione. You actually listen to me; you care more than Lavender ever would." Ron smiled at her down his large nose. She returned the smile. "You are truly a good friend."
She tried to ignore the sinking of her heart, the pang in her chest; when he said those words. A friend? Was that really as she was?
"Sure." She dragged out the word.
Hermione felt the witching hour come to its inevitable close, but in the shadow of the trees, next to the man she probably loved, she felt safe. Even in the heart of danger, with him at her side, she felt fine.
She wanted to be fine.
Two years later, and the forest looked the same. Well, not exactly the same; there were more weeds and the moss was thicker. Maybe the trees that threw shadows over her head had grown, but Hermione didn't notice.
Hogwarts, the year after the final battle that had torn the world apart was slowly sewing itself together again. It wasn't as full as it should have been, as fear was still in some peoples' hearts, but some were here, and they were coping. The Aurors were taking care of it, their skills and determination strong as always, as they fought those remaining followers, the few that wouldn't go down without a fight.
Some of her good friends were among those brave Aurors. Harry, Ron…
And Hermione had returned to the school she had known for eight years- to take her NEWTS.
Sometimes, the castle was quite lonely without them. Endless stacks of books, classes and teachers for her- adventures, mysteries and stories for them. They told her in their few letters.
Hermione was studying harder than ever before this year, if that was possible. Ginny told her to slow down, relax, but Hermione had nothing better to do.
She was bored, lungful for adventure.
She missed them.
The forest had become a place of calm for her- she spent long afternoons here away from the younger kids in the common room or the library, which she was honestly tired of. It was a place where she could breathe, relax and dream.
A brand new diary was open on her lap, her wand by her side. Even though the battle was over, it was still too dangerous to go around unprotected, and Hermione didn't let it go as she lit a small fire to give her light.
She drew a swirly doodle in the margin of her page, her mind too random and irregular to make any simple comments about her day.
A faint wind whistled round her ankles, shaking the branches of the closely packed trees and dripping rain onto the leaves.
There was a crunch of feet against the ground, and some more light emerged into the small clearing. Hermione's heart sped up, her wand raised to her side; she shone its beam into the blackness.
"Who's there?" She called her voice only slightly shaky.
Ron stepped into the clearing. He was more tanned than usual, his freckled skin shone in the light. Months of work in some hot country had made him fit and healthy, something the thick sweater proved.
"Hi." She whispered, gazing at him. She hadn't seen him since last summer, opting to spend her Christmas at school with her other classmates. He had been home that time, for a short break before returning to his job.
Too bad she wasn't there.
"What are you doing in the forest alone?" He asked, stepping towards her in two long strides and sitting down.
"Sitting." She answered, avoiding his question. "Why are you back at Hogwarts? Aren't you supposed to be somewhere in South Africa?"
"We're on break."
"Oh." She fingered with her pen, the one with the sparkles on the end. "But why did you come back here?" He wasn't getting out of that question.
"I came to see you."
Hermione felt a thick blush creep up the back of her neck, warming her chilly skin.
"Oh." She repeated.
She knew his blue eyes were fixed on her face, so she shifted her hair to cover the blush.
Butterflies filled her stomach as his arm brushed against her. Needless to say, they hadn't talked in a long time. It was hard. Bookworm she may be, but Hermione was sometimes very bad at admitting her own feelings. Especially round Ron.
He seemed to take her silence for annoyance, and asked, his tone harsher; "Don't you want me here?"
His voice, louder in the forest than the nightlife, gave her a shock as she turned to face his heavy blue stare with her own plain brown eyes.
"Of course I do Ron, how can you even think that?" She eventually smiled back at him, before turning away once more. "I just don't get why you came back to see me."
"Because," he started, and Hermione stiffened. She knew this sentence, knew the awful let down of a phrase "you're my friend" was inevitable. Try as she might, she could never be anything more to him; never be what she wanted to be, even if she didn't know what that was herself.
"Because you are Hermione. You're everything to me." He smiled, the cheerful grin that she so admired.
"What?" She asked quietly, turning to face him properly, her eyebrows furrowing as she realised there was something she didn't understand.
She was silenced by his kiss, soft and tender and beautiful. His hands were in her hair, so wild and bushy today because of the careless way she had brushed it, and his touch made her feel like every nerve in her body was being electrocuted, sparks running up and down her arm.
Sometimes, she was more than fine. He kissed her in the forbidden forest at midnight, on that cold, cold day. In a place made of shadows, with moonlight around; a perfect setting.
And then it was later, and the sun was rising over the castle as he walked her back and they said goodbye.
She sat on her bed in her dorm, her diary in her hands as she looked at a drawing she had made the other day. A simple drawing; a small Jack Russell Terrier.
She would be fine.
FIN