When my eyes opened, I was met by harsh light. My back ached as though I had been slammed to the ground and the skin of my legs was burnt terribly.

"Oi Harry! She's moving! Should I hold her down or something?" Ron's voice sounded, heavy with stupidity.

"Ron, don't be an idiot, she just saved our lives, make her a tea, help her sit up, you know?"

"Oh uhhh… right."

I wondered if the voices seemed so surreal because they were disembodied or because I was hearing them aloud rather than in my head. Then I remembered that I had exerted my magic entirely too much when I was last awake. "Mr. Weasley? Is that you?" I croaked feebly, hoping to appeal to the boy's better nature as a member of the golden trio.

"Uh yeah- it's Ron. You want something to drink?"

"Do you have any sunglasses?" I asked.

"To drink?" he laughed. I smiled a mock smile.

"My eyes are terribly sensitive to light Mr- Ron. Are we inside? Are there curtains which you could close?"

"Uh yeah, sure." I heard Ron cross the room and close some blinds and slowly opened my eyes. Around me, seated on sofas, chairs counter tops, were two young wizards, scruffy looking and too brave for their own good, a witch with white hair and kind eyes, similarly scruffy looking, a wand maker, Mr Ollivander, who was seated on a wicker chair and smiling knowingly, and a goblin.

Every single pair of eyes was looking at me and I, gratefully at them. The roar of the sea sounded in the distance.

"No one has ever saved me before."

Olivander leaned forward in his chair. "Miss Jonker… you saved us, wielding not one, but five unyielding wands!" the mans blue eyes flooded into my own amber, like the ocean that reflects sunrise.

"Thank you, Mr Ollivander. I hugely respect all that you have achieved in the realm of wand making." I turned to face the witch next to him but the man continued:

"The wand that Jonker made you is rivalled by only that of the elder wand."

I looked down, smiling. "I couldn't even lift it when I was small, twelve inches of obsidian was no gift for a four-year-old."

I looked up to find the white-haired witch sitting on the ground next to my leg. I held her face in my hand, Ron drew his wand. The witch was not afraid for she could feel the pain that I had for so long denied myself. She spoke softly, "Perhaps he knew who you would become."

"And what is that?" I let go of her jaw.

"A saviour of course." She smiled.

Harry interjected, "Lilith, how do we defeat the Dark Lord?"

I turned my head slowly toward the boy. "If you can heal me and apparate me back to my home before sundown, I will tell you all that the stars will allow."

Ron paced across the room, bringing his mouth to Harry's ear and whispering. Harry nodded. Luna drew closer to me on the ground in front of my chair.

I like this Luna. She knows power when she sees it.

"First tell us why you impersonated Hermione. Did she know you were doing this?"

I looked into Harry's eyes, "Hermione is safe. She wanted to save you, but I didn't want her to come to any harm, not in the state she was in." I tried to stand up but let out a whimper and sat back down, aggravated. "She is at home, protecting the sword."

"What state?" Ron asked angrily. Finding fault with the most truthful portion of my statement.

"Where is home?" Harry asked simultaneously, a much more intelligent question.

"When I found Hermione, she had been abandoned like a stray, sleep deprived, shivering, gaunt… Where is her wand?"

Luna looked up at the wizards with alarm.

"I have it." Said Ron.

"Please may I return it to her?"

"How do we know that she isn't dead too?" Harry interjected.

I felt my patience thinning and took a deep breath. "Would you like to see her?"

"How?"

"for now, by entering my mind, however you will also be able to see her in person a few hours after nightfall, once she has been properly fed and rested."

"Hermione can look after herself-" Ron began, but Luna sprang in to life.

"This woman has just saved your life! She has been taking care of Hermione after your couples tiff sent her into the wilderness alone! Hermione could have died!"

"We could have died!" Ron countered feebly.

"She has the sword. She has the second most powerful wand in the world and she wants to help us."

There was silence for a moment before Luna knelt before me and held my hands. "Miss Jonker, if you know how to defeat you-know-who, I am at your service. Tell me- how can I heal you- where do you want us to apparate you too?"

Smart girl. When my reign comes, I will put you at my right hand. I mused.

When the sun had fallen and I arrived home. I disrobed, placed Hermione's wand by her bedside and reunited with my own. Picking it up in my fingers and breathing deeply, feeling its magic seeping back into my body as though a warm embrace.

Hermione was still sound asleep. I walked over to the kitchen to prepare a pot of coffee- I want her to be perky for her friends' arrival in a few hours.

Then, while I let the coffee brew, I had a shower and washed my hair. After drying myself I lifted the silencing charm of the little witch and walked over to the kitchen to collect a mug of coffee. I lay next to her, draping the bedclothes over my naked body suggestively.

"Hermione," I whispered.