Hey all! So this is my first fanfiction in well, almost forever. It might start out a bit dark, but will get better with time for sure. Currently I have around 10 chapters outlined so hopefully those will be written and published quickly. My main aim is to improve my writing ability, so I welcome any critic you might have.
I hope you will enjoy the story!
"No, you really don't have to see me off from the tracks, I will be fine. You should go so you aren't late for your appointment" Hermione says, forcing her lips to curl up in a smile to her parents.
"Are you sure? It's no hassle dear" Her mother answers, eyes scanning Hermione. For what she is not sure.
"Yes, I'm sure, I'm 16 and perfectly capable of finding my way to the train myself. Thank you for the ride though. I will be sure to send letters every week!" Accepting her trunk from her dad after he removes it from the car, quickly giving them both a hug. She throws out a quick "I will miss you both!" over her shoulder before taking decisive steps towards the station doors.
As the doors of Kingscross station closes behind her, her shoulders slump a little, a small sign of the exhaustion she feels. Hermione slowly makes her way to a stand selling coffee before continuing to platform 9 ¾. She allows her feet to further slow as she is nearing her target, sipping her coffee, trying her best to gather herself once again before facing the magical population. Right before the portal she brings up a compact mirror, to make sure her make up is covering everything, covering the leftover signs of her previous malnutrition and her current sleep deprivation. Finding no more reasons to delay, she takes a deep breath and steps through the wall, pointedly ignoring the stares of the younger students once she is through, and how her mere presence seem to affect the mood of the people on the platform. A little girl points and says something to her mom, who quickly smacks the hand down, whispering something intensely to the girl.
As she picks a spot to wait for Harry and Ron she observe them, they all seem so happy, slowly getting over her entrance and returning to talking about the coming school year. Promises of owls, letters, and Christmas celebrations being exchanged between parents and children. Reunions between friends after a long summer occurring all over the place.
Most people know very little about what happened before summer, when Voldemort died. But they know enough to place her there, the golden trio's capture by him last May was after all the trigger for him to come out to the public again, trying to reclaim his power over the wizarding world, and almost succeeding according to what she has heard. Moreover there was that blasted picture. Whilst she was not even close to a main actor in the final battle, at least as far as the public knows, there was that one picture taken before Sirius and Remus managed to chase away the reporter. The picture where Molly was standing over the three of them as they were clutching to each other, where you could see some of the bruises and wounds on their skin, and the after effects of the torture and starvation.
It is regarded as the picture of victory now, most preferring to focus on Molly, she is after all the one hailed as the killer of Voldemort. Hermione likes to think that in the picture Molly looks completely like wild magic, hair crackling, and gaze murderous against anyone daring to take a step closer to them. Like a mama bear protecting her cubs, which is probably close to the truth, exactly like wild magic Molly was a bit feral, the final battle broke her in a way that Hermione prefers not to think about. Even if the focus of the picture was not them, the popularity of the picture did lead to people focusing on her, Harry, and Ron some more though. They were not the only ones who had been captured, but they were the only ones whose injuries were captured and spread around, making people talk about their role, and what happened to them. She had considered if she should just come out with a tell all, remove all the speculation and intrigue, but it was not just her story, so she lived with the stares. There is no guarantee that the complete truth would make them stop anyway, even if Ron and Luna would have allowed her to tell it.
More whispers through the crowd catches her attention. Finally, they are here! Sirius is in the front, eyes daring anyone to step forwards, taking swift steps to the train. Ron sees her first, not even a few feet into the station, grabbing Harry and making a run for it. As they get past Sirius, he has a brief look of confusion before seeing Hermione, who is not quite running, but definitely moving quickly to meet the boys. Allowing himself to relax a little with her there, he instead decides to focus on gently pulling Ginny along after the boys, the girl looking terrified as she tries to hide behind him.
"Mione! You should have let us pick you up instead of coming alone!" Ron shouts out as he gets close, Harry stumbling along trying to keep up with his long strides. Both are wearing huge smiles.
"Ugh, Ron, let me go!" Harry snaps out, managing to free his arm from Ron's grip, pushing him backwards to pull Hermione into a hug.
"Not my fault you're so slow mate, one would think with your seeker reflexes you would be a bit quicker" says Ron, somehow engulfing them both into a hug.
Hermione taking the chance to truly cuddle up in their arms as they are bickering a bit. "Boys boys, take it easy, there is plenty of time for us to catch up"
"Maybe even in a bit more private setting aye?" a chuckling Sirius chimes in from the sidelines, gesturing with one arm to the rest of the platform, with Ginny sticking close to his other side. Hermione looks up from her spot in the middle of the sandwich, breaking out and pulling the two newcomers into a hug, albeit a bit unwillingly from Ginny's side. "Sirius! Freedom seems to be treating you well, I mean this new suit even makes you look respectable. Fred and George would be positively scandalized seeing their idol looking this grownup" earning her a chuckle and a head rub from the man himself "Hah, yea, freedom is definitely not all I thought it would be, all this responsibility is going to turn me into some boring grump soon enough".
Hermione shares another smile with him before she turns her head closer to Ginny's, whispering "I missed you… Remember, we are also free now, I am fine, and you are too" As the girl slowly raises her hand to clutch Hermione a bit closer, Ginny whispers back "Will we ever be free? Whenever I close my eyes I see you in that room, how can I be free when I'm still there?" At that Sirius strengthens his grip on them both, eyes refusing to go down to them even when Hermione looks to him, trying to find some form of help. Hermione understands what he is trying to say only she can understand, and only she can help. She takes a moment to think before answering. "We decide to be free. The room might always be a part of us, but we can decide what it means. I try and see it as proof of our strength, and proof of our love for each other. They didn't break us, even though they tried."
After a few seconds of silence Ginny disentangles their limbs, stepping away. "But they did, didn't they? They did break us, just not in the way they wanted…"
At that Ron steps up, placing a hand gently on Ginny's shoulder "Hey, let's get going yea? Get you to your friends, and us to a compartment to catch up?" picking up both of their belongings.
Harry shares a last hug with Sirius, promising to write as much as possible before he starts to follow Ron, bringing Hermione with him. The four walk in silence until they find a compartment with Ginny's friends. "Ah, I got a delivery for you all, take good care of her yea?" Ron jokes, actually earning a reaction from Ginny, who smacks him on the arm "Pff, I can handle myself, as I think I have showed plenty of times!" She quickly steps inside, closing the door before anyone else has time to say something else.
"Hah, seems she still has enough energy to get mad at you at least. That has to be a good sign" Harry says. Ron scratches his head, actually looking relieved with his sister's temper. "Yea, I guess…"
The lighthearted conversation continues as they are looking for an empty compartment for the three of them. Until Hermione opens a compartment which seemed empty, finding Draco and Pansy "Oh, sorry… I didn't know you were in here"
Draco has his head in Pansy's lap as she is gently stroking his hair. Both tense up as Hermione stands there, awaiting a response. Draco meets her gaze, and she can see they are looking a bit glassy. As he opens his mouth to say something Pansy interrupts "Well, here we are! Kindly turn around and leave as you were obviously mistaken." Gaze promising pain if Hermione says anything else.
Hermione looks back down at Draco, whatever he was about to say seems gone now. His eyes firmly stuck to the side of the compartment, away from her, even as she keeps staring, trying to decide if she should say something more, he is after all one of them now. Harry places a hand on her shoulder "Of course. We didn't mean to disturb you. Let's go Mione" he says, as he slowly closes the door.
"Here guys, this one is empty!" Ron says two doors down, apparently having missed what just happened.
Once they all manage to shuffle inside together with their belongings Ron pulls the other two down onto one side, pulling Hermione close, nuzzling her hair. It takes some coordination but eventually they are all in some form of pile, Hermione in the middle, but all touching each other somewhere.
"We missed you Mione" Harry starts, irritation slipping into his voice. "I was so restless without you there. Even if I was supposed to be living with Sirius, I still got to see Ron regularly, allowing me to see he was there, alive. But you hardly even answered our owls" he says chidingly. Ron staying silence, not voicing his opinion on the matter, but tightening his grip on both of them.
She blinks a few time, trying to keep the tears at bay. "My parents were so upset once I got back, I think they were considering locking me inside if it kept me from going back. If they could they would have built me a glass cage, all to keep me safe. Even owls made them scowl. I had to push it all away, had to make them believe I was okay, that nothing had happened." Looking up at Ron "I didn't mean to make you worry, I know you both had better things to focus on, I just couldn't handle writing anything down whilst pretending. I missed you both though, I couldn't really sleep." At that she releases a breath, putting her head on Ron's shoulder, whilst grabbing Harry's hand.
Ron's gruff voice answers her, silencing whatever protest was about to come out of Harry's mouth "We weren't too busy for you, but I understand. We are here now though, as we promised." She feels Harry wriggle around a bit before he also adds "Yes, as we promised." Squeezing her hand, before adding venomously "They shouldn't have forced you to leave though!" apparently still a bit upset, but deciding to focus his feelings on others than her.
"They did what they thought was best." She says. "How are the rest? Molly? Fleur?"
"Mom is… they try, but it's hard. I wasn't sure if I should leave, but Charlie was adamant that they could handle it, and that I needed to go with Ginny." As Ron speaks, he slowly strokes her hair, Hermione is not sure if it is for her benefit or his. "Mom didn't want Ginny to go you know, she has been focusing a lot of her attention of trying to help her. It wasn't really helping though, I think it's a bit like you were saying, she is trying to create a glass cage, and Ginny just sees it as another cage. It's the same with Fleur, Mom tries to help, I think she thinks if she can fix them everything will be okay again, but when nothing works it brings her down even more, which then brings them down. Gerrard has been trying to help, but I'm not sure if he as actually helping or hurting either. "
"Gerrard?"
"Ah yea, an old family friend. He came claiming to help, but it's a little late now ain't it? Nothing but time can help them, and even that is doubtful. Fleur at least has the baby to think about, Mom just has us. The other day she called me Bill… She blames herself for his death and it's breaking her"
At that Harry chimes in "She's just a bit confused Ron, it will pass. Bill made his own choice, to fight for a future for his family, you know that, and she will know that eventually."
Sensing that there was not much more to say to improve the situation, Hermione tries to change the subject a little. "They will talk you know, and stare. Like at the platform. How do you want to handle it?" Aiming her question more at Ron, than at Harry.
At that Ron grows tenser, sitting up a bit more. "Let them stare, they need to get bloody over it. It's over ain't it? They should be focusing on being happy and living their lives, not focusing on trying to figure out whatever happened to us, or if we are on the verge of a breakdown, like Luna…"
Ah Luna, Hermione thinks. She did not handle the freedom all that well, and they claimed her crazy when she decided being free meant being completely free, flooing into the Diagon Alley bare as the day she was born. "Do we know what happened to her?"
Harry is the one who answers "Sirius said they took her to Saint Mungus, but she didn't stay there long. Her father collected her and took her home, and no one has seen her since as far as I know. Neville might know more though."
With that the conversation dies out, the three choosing to simply take comfort in their closeness, and Hermione drifting off to her first calm sleep in over a month.