Disclaimer: I do not own the characters from the Harry Potter series. They belong to J.K. Rowling.
Author's Note: I just realized now that I never really made the time clear. This takes place after the sixth book, as if the seventh book never happened.
Chapter 6 - "We Are in a War."
The next week seemed to follow that pattern – wake up, eat, go to her room – minus confronting Aria and crying. Even though most of the people in the house noticed her strange behavior, no one questioned it. Just as they were, she was suffering from loss, confusion, and confliction. And she was also worried for her family. In addition to all of that, Hermione had to worry about Malfoy, Bellatrix, and whatever Aria was hiding. She felt alone. She felt that no one knew what she was going through, always thinking about where her parents might be, if they were safe or not, if they were even alive. Just thinking about them made her stomach form knots. And she didn't know whether or not she could trust Malfoy. He was the enemy after all. How was she to know that he was telling the truth?
Throughout the entire week, she wasn't revisited by Malfoy in her dreams, and she was happy for the fact. Having retrieved her wand, she was able to distract herself from Malfoy and all of her other problems by studying magic books and teaching herself new spells. Most of the books contained spells that she could already do in her sleep, so the amount of spells to learn was slim; at least the spells that she could learn in those books were slim. The books that she had in her room were far from advanced, and after not much time passed, she grew bored of them. It was then that she decided to take a trip to the library to find more advanced books to keep her mind off of everything.
Cracking her bedroom door open, Hermione peaked out to see if anyone was close enough to see her leave. After concluding that no one was in sight, she slipped out of the room, wand clutched in hand. She slowly made her way to the library, tip-toeing the whole way there. Safely making it to the library, Hermione slipped in and locked the door. Just being in the room calmed her down. She didn't move. She looked around the library, taking the sight in. Everyone had always called her a bookworm, and she never really knew how true that was until now, as she stood completely content having been surrounded by books.
A slight smile appeared on her face as she approached the bookshelves. This was the first time she had smiled since before Dumbledore was killed, and she could get used to it. As her fingered grazed the books, she skimmed over the titles, but she found that the titles didn't matter to her; she just needed something to preoccupy herself. She picked out a book at random and flipped through it. Inside she read information about spells that she already knew about: Accio, Expelliarmus, and Expecto Patronum. But the one charm caught her eye, Bewitched Sleep. Memories of her fourth year at Hogwarts, including when she was used in the second task in the Triwizard Tournament, came flooding back to her.
She relived the magnificent night at the Yule Ball with Viktor Krum and the entire year that she spent with him. She remembered the simplest times that she spent in the Gryffindor Common Room with Harry and Ron. She smiled as she imagined them laughing and joking around. She could picture herself jumping up and down as Harry flew on his broomstick and captured the egg from the first task. But then she remembered Harry appearing in front of the crowd after the third task, crying, with Cedric Digory's corpse in hand, and the smile was quickly erased from her face. Suddenly, all of the happiness she was feeling disappeared and was replaced by fear. Whether she knew it then or not, that moment that Harry appeared was the turning point in the war, the day Voldemort was brought back in the graveyard that Harry constantly had nightmares about.
A creak of the floor behind her brought her back to reality. Instantly on her feet, she turned around and said the first spell that came to her mind, "Expelliarmus!"
Aria, who had entered the room, deflected the spell and pointed her wand at Hermione. "What is wrong with you?"
The two girls remained silent, but never took their wands off of each other. Hermione was the first to speak. "How did you get in here?" She clearly remembered locking the door after entering.
"The door?" Aria sarcastically remarked.
Hermione didn't feel like dealing with Aria at this moment and was quickly becoming irritated. "I locked the door."
"I do have a wand, you know. I mean if you couldn't see it."
Hermione was beyond annoyed. She was about to through another spell at the girl when Aria spoke again, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
"And why shouldn't I?" At that very moment, Hermione really couldn't think of a reason not to throw her against the wall.
"They already think you're unstable." Aria paused, expecting a response from Hermione, but she never got one. Hermione remained poised with her wand pointing at Aria. The only reaction out of her was a twinkle in her eye that resembled a tear. Hermione didn't want to believe that everyone she loved was losing faith in her, and she didn't believe it. Aria was hiding something, and this very moment confirmed it. Aria had to be lying. "They know you're going through a lot, but so are they. We all are. How could you be so selfish as to think of your wants while we are trying to think of a way to end this? We are in a war. Don't you get that? You don't get to think about yourself now, none of us do. Look, I know you don't like me, but you don't have to. You just have to work with me because believe it or not, I'm on your side."
Hermione couldn't listen to Aria anymore, even if some of what she said was true. She completely lost her self-control and started to fire any spell she knew. Her anger turned to frustration as all of her spells were successfully blocked by Aria, but she didn't retreat. Soon, spells were coming at her as Aria began to fight back. It was a losing battle for both of them, as they were both incredibly skilled and were able to block the other's attempts. Then the opening door distracted Hermione and a spell hit her dead on, causing her to fly backward and slam against a bookshelf.
No more spells were fired, and the room fell dead silent. Hermione stayed propped up against the bookcase, head hanging, too weak to hold it up. She couldn't move. As she attempted to do the simplest task of opening her eyes, her entire body screamed in pain. Some sort of noise must've escaped her mouth because she could hear footsteps shuffling towards her.
There were a lot of voices, none of which she could make out at the moment. Not much time passed before someone was lifting her. Shooting pains charged through her body, and this time she knew she groaned. A familiar voice calmed her, "Sh. It's okay. You're going to be fine." Harry.