Chapter Eleven

Logical Wishes

"Harry!" Hermione lunged at her best friend and in turn squeezing her other best friend, Ron.

She had just arrived at the Burrow, at the crooked and quaint house that she thought of as a home. It was hard not to when she spent nearly every summer and vacation there.

"Merlin, Hermione," Ron choked. "Help! Geoff me! Help!"

Mrs. Weasley hurried in. "Hermione!"
She hugged her next as Ron recovered behind her. "She's bonkers. Are there marks?"

"We're so glad you're here, Ronald said you may not come. We're happy you're here. Welcome home."

She warmed at the wonderful sentiment, although she gave Ron a quizzical side-glance. He thought she would choose her family... "I've missed all of you," she said. "Where's Ginny?"

"At Fred and George's shop. She'll be home for dinner."

Hermione faced Harry and Ron. "Did you two do your homework?"

Ron gaped. "Really, Hermione? We're on vacation!"

"That does not mean you should neglect your studies. Oh, honestly, Ronald, how do you expect -"

Harry laughed. "It's good to have you back."

Posters of flying women passing a quaffle littered the walls of Ginny's room, shadowy movements in the greater darkness. Hermione watched them, curled on the camp bed Mrs. Weasley set up for her, snuggling under a patchwork blanket. Ginny slept soundly from the other side of the room, having laughed herself to sleep telling her all the jokes in her twin brother's shop.

Hermione, on the other hand, was missing her parents and brother. Yet, she couldn't regret coming to the Burrow, it was like another home. It was home. And her boys needed her more than ever.

She fingered the fringe on her borrowed blanket. Her other boy needed her too. She remembered what he said, that he needed her as much as Harry and Ron, but Draco was alone. A Death Eater in the middle of a war, and she abandoned him.

There should have never been a choice between duty to the world and herself; duty to her family and bloodline. Between her best friends and her brother. Between the Burrow and the Manor.

"The Weasley's!" Father huffed in his study one morning after her return from her First Year at Hogwarts.

"The Dark Lord is okay with her befriending Potter and the mudblood-lover?"

Silence, but Hermione didn't peek in, lest she wanted to be caught snooping. Her father was a harsh punisher. She could hardly believe she was eavesdropping on him! She had spent an awful lot of time with Harry and Ron, and they were rubbing off on her.

That last thought made her smile.

"Lucius, you did tell him?"

"Don't fret, my dear. The Dark Lord was pleased."

"He wanted this to happen?"

"We are not to question the Dark Lord's motives."

"I... I worry for our daughter. She's only a little girl. I -"

"Sh."

They listened and Hermione stopped breathing. Her father opened the door with a furious glare. She looked down at her shiny black shoes, ashamed.

"If you have the uncontrollable urge to spy like a mudblood, you will be treated like one."

Hermione began to cry, fearful that she would be sent to the cellars with the house-elves.

At the sight of her tears, her deeply kind-hearted father bent and hugged her. "Shhh, my silly daughter. I was not going to beat you, only send you to your room. You foolish girl."

Her mother had worried from the on that they damaged Hermione. Hermione knew that, because that was not the last time she had accidentally overheard them talking, although they took more care not to be caught again.

Hermione wrapped the fringe around her finger, and peered out the window to the starry sky. It was too similar to the last night she spent in Draco's arms. It was as though every star decided to be her personal reminder, to cause her to almost feel the warmth of him around her.

She had never wished on stars. It was not very logical, although, she supposed if she had grown up muggle, she would have. There wouldn't be her mother preparing her and her brother for Hogwarts by teaching them beginners Astronomy.

This time, it seemed okay to wish on them, while she was in her dire need of a miracle. By all logic, what would it hurt?

"I wish, I wish, I wish upon all stars, please keep my family safe from harm." She whispered it to the heavens, hoping someone would hear her plea.

She hoped that Draco would wish, too, as he had when he was a child. Perhaps, in all logical sense, their wish would double.

She could hear him, in her head, a ghost of what should have been a memory say, "that's a Hermione wish."

Hermione was his word to use for common sense when they were little. She would smile and roll her eyes every time.

She closed her eyes to the stars, and wished and wished until sleep took her in its graceful arms.

"Where are we at, Harry? We are out past curfew, if Mrs. Norris or Filch caught us -"

"Keep it down. I want you to see something."

Hermione followed Harry to an empty classroom. Alone in it was a beautiful ornate mirror. Curved along its top was writing that Hermione couldn't read. It was not runes, and so she thought. Then she saw it. It was English, but the words were written backwards.

Mirror of Desire... What could that mean?

"How did you find this?"

Harry looked away, and she knew it was something that she would reprimand him for. She stepped closer, but Harry pointed to a spot right in front of it. "Stand here," he said.

She did, and peered into the mirror. She gasped and stepped out of mirror's way.

"What did you see?"

She pressed her hand on her heart. It was racing. "That wasn't me."

"Who was it?"

She shook her head, breathed evenly, and returned to her spot. She stared again. The girl in the mirror made all of the same movements she did, but it couldn't have been Hermione. This girl had blond hair and silver eyes, an ethereal paleness to her. It was then that she realized, that the girl was her. It was Hermione, only, it was Hermione with Malfoy genes.

"Oh." She ran her fingers through her hair, watching her mirrored Malfoy self do the same. She was pretty. She was very pretty.

"What is it?"

"I look like my brother." She looked like a proper Malfoy. She would be able to attend her mother's balls and fit in. No one would question whether she belonged there, even silently as she knew they must. Tears sprung in her eyes, stinging her into submission.

"Harry," she asked, only slightly choked, "what do you see in the mirror?"

"My family."

She nodded as she had suspected as much. She turned from her reflection and smiled. "I'm glad you got to see them. I wish I could see them, too."

Hermione listened carefully for any sounds that could be their doom, but she heard none. All the same, it was late. "We should go."

"Suppose so."

He pulled the invisibility cloak over them.

"Harry?"

"Yeah," he asked in her ear.

"Thank you."