Disclaimer: I do not own HP.
HOGWARTS SUPPORT GROUP
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No one knows who started it or for whom it was made, but it spread like wildfire nevertheless. When the first Monday of the winter season came and the new headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Minerva McGonagall, strutted in the halls and spotted the fine writing on the wall, she read it thrice before she decided not to take it down. The early risers who followed suit include five Ravenclaws and two Slytherins and even they could not decipher how the writing came to be. Even the ghosts of the castle couldn't identify the mastermind behind the words that seem to lighten the mood of anyone who reads it. Speculations were made, but no one can deny or confirm its validity.
Hermione Granger was feeling down when she left the library to join her two best friends for breakfast. Four and half months of research and she still had no idea how to reverse the spell she did on her parents. They were still away from her, still living the lives they didn't choose for themselves, still having no idea that once upon a time, they had a daughter who was a witch.
It didn't help that the after effects of the war was still the never changing topic in the common room, as it had been since the Final Battle. At first, she, along with Harry and Ron, were nothing but accommodating and friendly to anyone who asks. But when new students came for the semester to gape at them in awe and treat them like heroes, the real sacrifices and tragedies became lost to what the Daily Prophet labelled as courage and heroism, it all felt like a burden to smile and recount all that transpired and all they had lost and learned along the way. Suddenly, it became too much to correct the distorted notions and they'd rather keep their peace and silence away from the noise of it all.
So that morning, when she was running late after a long night of tedious but pointless research, heart heavy and eyes dropping close from exhaustion, the writings on the wall couldn't have been any more surprising.
In the exact same wall where years ago, Tom Riddle had manipulated Ginny Weasley to write "THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR…BEWARE" in rooster's blood, were words so different and so empowering.
It says...
Breathe.
You're enough.
You'll be alright.
I know you're lost and you couldn't hate yourself more for the bad decisions that you've done and the consequences it brought you and people. Perhaps, if you can turn back time, then you'll do the same things all over again, and it makes you hate yourself more. You think that your mistakes define you, and that you couldn't be forgiven. You think you're all alone and lost, and the guilt is becoming too much, it fills up everything inside of you. You believe that you should have done better. Then, things would have been different and the people around you would have suffered less. But the truth is, you're just a human being who's like everybody else. Muggles, muggleborns, purebloods, halfbloods or squibs, you already know you're all the same. You hurt. You grieve. You suffer a pain no one else can understand. And yet there's nothing more you long than to be understood, to be accepted, to be forgiven and to be whole again.
In that dark hole the war had left behind to cage you, did you know? I can see you very clearly. You're still standing. You're still shining. Your flaws and mistakes only made you even more magnificent.
You're here, and the universe cannot be more grateful.
I cannot be more grateful.
So breathe. You deserve to rest. Everything good takes time, even healing.
It isn't over yet. You still have people to love, creatures to set free, a world to change. If the time comes and you realize you're doing it wrong, then turn back and walk a different path. It's never too late for you. It is never too late to try again. You're here, aren't you? You're breathing. You're alive. Thank you for being alive. Thank you for not giving up on you.
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Harry Potter came by her side in her fifth reread. He tried waiting but worry overtook and led him to search for her. He already heard the latest gossip and was aware of the writings on the wall. It took him by surprise, but not as much as her.
"'Mione? What's wrong? Are you alright?" he asked, eyeing his best friend with concern. His thumb was already drying her cheeks when she realized he was there. "You're crying," he said. And she frowned because she didn't know.
She didn't know why the words penetrated her heart to take root and start healing the cracks that she didn't even know were there.
"Nothing," she said, her own way of asking Harry to wait until she's ready to talk.
Harry Potter nodded, accepting her answer for what it was, before taking her hand and leading her to the great hall.
No one was witness that when they left, a lone figure hiding in the shadows smiled and whispered the word 'Finite.' And like magic, the words on the wall were no more.
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"You once told me the same thoughts in different wording. I'm just giving them back to you. Don't give up Granger."
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A/N: Perhaps tomorrow, a different set of words will be there.
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