It was over. The War was over, and they had won. Yet, those who lost and suffered had not. It was a matter of consequence and differences. For some, the overwhelming losses surpassed the welcoming future.
The suffered were no longer in pain, yet some had encountered mercy in other ways...Despite the victory, Hermione still remained in the pits of despair, and she found herself walking towards the forbidden forest aimlessly.
Step after step. Tear after tear.
She never knew she would miss him that much. They'd only reached pleasant speaking terms by the end of sixth year. And then the Shrieking Shack, Gringotts, their fights, their kisses...and then everything ended with a stream of words from Voldemort's slit of a mouth. And then he...
No. She wouldn't think about those prior events. She couldn't. She won't. Step after step, tear after tear. She had no idea where she was heading. No idea where she wanted to be.
The feeling of immense shock lingered in her thoughts. And then she succumbed to the pain, the regret, the loss, sinking against the trunk of a tree until her knees hit the grassy bottom. She felt to numbed by the tears that streamed down her face.
Four days. Four days since Draco stumbled to the ground as the bright, emerald, glow of death faded into nothing around his slain figure. She could still feel his fingers slowly slip away from her grasp, still hear the blood-curdling scream...
She had dreams for days, those same dreams. Not of his death, no quite possibly something worse. Those dreams appeared almost every night after that day in Hogsmeade. Despite the Polyjuice Potion, she couldn't help but feel relief rush though her body when the real Draco emerged; when he took her in his arms.
"It's just a crush." She continued to tell herself. "What have I...imprinted on him?..." Yes, there were only thoughts of desperation. They had to be. "I mean...come on, he was the only wizard here besides Ron and Harry, who are practically my brothers! Just a silly little fancy, if I must say..."
Deep down, she knew it had to be something more. With all the logic in the world, Hermione Granger could never shake off that feeling.
But...it was too late of course.
Draco was never going to come back. She couldn't even bring herself to bury the body, and it most likely lay underneath the rubble of the school. It would take quite a long process to rebuild, even with magic. But for now, she sat silently underneath the tree, her breath coming in short, harsh gasps, as the tears left her. Her fingers stroked the grass beneath her, in a failing attempt to regain her balance and to calm herself down. She knew she had to go back soon, or else Harry, Ron, Ginny, and the rest of the bunch would go out and search for her later.
Hermione reached for a bit of space on the ground to hoist herself back up with, yet the palm of her hand landed on a particularly hard, but flat object. 'Probably just a rock...It's pretty smooth though...' she thought. After Draco's death, she often consoled herself with small talk in her mind, to distract herself from...
Back to the rockāno, probably a stone. Picking it up with one hand, and grabbing the trunk of the tree with the other, she finally stood, smoothing her trousers as she went. She let out an enormous sigh, and absentmindedly tossed the stone from hand to hand. It was almost comforting. She glanced at it for a moment, as her fingertips traced over some kind of engraving on the back. And then she turned it over.
'No! This...this...this simply couldn't be!' Her mind must have fooled her for a moment. It couldn't possibly be...But it had to be. It had to. Harry probably left it in the forest...
The Resurrection Stone.
She knew exactly how to use it. She so desperately wanted to. But she was hesitant; still weary of her own thoughts and decisions.
It was time. Only three turns between the hands. Before...
Her hands couldn't move fast enough. The anticipation skyrocketed as she made her last turn...and she closed her eyes, unsure of what she was expecting. The anxiety sunk deeper than she thought it would, and she remembered what had happened to the second Peverell brother once he brought his bride back to the surface. But, Hermione was a smart witch. The brightest of her age, correct? She opened one eye, and then closed it again. 'Maybe it's...it's delayed...maybe...maybe...'
It didn't work. Of course it didn't. 'What was I thinking?' Out of desperation and misery, she had attempted to give Draco life once more, or at least communicate with him from the other side. And it hadn't worked. For once, Hermione Granger did something wrong. The facts hadn't aligned. And this time, she wouldn't earn a T on her exam, or potions essay. It was much more than that. So much more. She didn't want to open her eyes. Perhaps there was some hope. Because as much as she had tried to deny it, as much as she stifled her feelings...she still loved Draco Malfoy.
But, her love could not bring him back...
Author's Note- It's finally here! Hi, by the way. I haven't been on here in a while, and I just started school yesterday. But enough about me, how are you guys? I hope you liked this. It's not exactly the first chapter, it's more like a...introduction? If that's what you call it. The next update will be roughly this weekend, and if you're coming from my other shorter story; The Play's The Thing, I might have a chance to update that on Thursday. So! Yeah. If you're really stalkerish and sneaky, you'd get a hint of what's going to happen next in the story. I'm not telling you where or what it is, because then I'd be practically giving it away. ;) Anyways, I feel like my author's notes are always so irrelevant to my stories/chapters. I feel kind of guilty sometimes when the main character was just crying, or someone just died, and then I'm pretty much like, "Hi guys! Did you like the story? Please review, because it means a lot to me, yada yada..." I don't know, maybe it's just me, but sometimes I feel like that transition is jacked up. Especially if it was a really emotional bit prior to the note. But, enough with my rambling. Goodbye! _._
