Welcome Back, Hermione

Prologue: Touching First Words

Disclaimer: No, I don't own Harry Potter. Wanna make something out of it?

A/N: Trust me, it'll be less trippy as it goes on. This is just the prologue, remember?

The first thing she remembered was light. Bright, blinding, painful white light. It was all around her, shining in her eyes, probing every crevice of her face, searching and whispering and invading the privacy of the soul of someone who had been in the refuge of dark for so long. It hurt.

So she whimpered, a small cry that sounded strange even to her, who had been in the haven of silence for so long.

It had been safe there, safe and dark and nice with no sounds or lights or feelings to touch her, to hurt her there. Nothing—nothing except dark dark dark and she wanted the dark to come back because it hurt so much out here with the bright light.

And then she heard the voices.

"Quickly, I think she's responding to something here!"

Excited mumbling that she doesn't pay attention to because she's too busy trying to adjust to that damn light. Oh Merlin it hurts so bad, and she wants to go back to that nice place where nothing hurt and it was all safe and sound and—

Oh great, now her head's pounding too, great thumping grinds of whatever punishing stone wheels that are up there, punctuated by sharp needles that are pricking in her flesh, whatever part of it that isn't being slowly trampled by those awful wheels.

"Mione? Mione? Hey girl, can you hear me?"

Yes, she thinks, yes I can, but I don't want to. Go away. Go away and leave me alone so I can be back with my dark again. Nice dark. Nice nice dark. Go away. Go away. Make it all go away.

But the voice is dragging her up now, dragging her away from her nice safe dark and into the blinding bright white light that hurts so much, oh for crying out loud just leave the poor girl alone but the voice won't, and then the voice is joined by yet another voice, for the love of—can't they just leave her alone?

And then that damn Gryffindor nobility speaks up and says, if they want you so bad, the least you can do is go to them.

She has never hated that Merlin-awful chivalry of hers as much as she does now. But it's taking over like it always does, so she opens her eyes groggily and says the first words she has spoken for three months. "Go away."

And so Hermione Granger returned to the land of the living.