"Mr Weasley? Mrs Weasley!" Hermione called. The two elder Weasleys were empty nesters now that all of their children had flown the coop. Ginny and Harry lived at a renovated Grimmauld Place, Ron had a room with Fred above Weasleys Wizard Wheezes, Percy had an apartment with his wife Penelope Clearwater-Weasley, Charley was in Romania living up his daredevil bachelorhood still, and Bill and Fleur were busy filling Shell Cottage with their progeny.
It was only a short minute later when Mrs. Weasley rushed into the kitchen, pulling on her dressing gown.
"Is it Ginny? It's time for the baby? Oh! Hi Hermione, dear. I thought you'd be Harry"
"It is Ginny! She says its time, and they are headed to St. Mungo's now."
"Oh, good! I wanted to come and stay with them, you know. So that I would know when it was time, but this works out great! Shall I meet you all there?" Mrs Weasley was gushing and in full military mode, had her wand out and was conjuring up a quick breakfast.
"Not right away, I'll be there later Mrs. Weasley. Can you ring Ginny's back up back please?" Hermione prevaricated as the woman began a gravy to throw on their toast.
"Okay dear. These things do take some time. Arthur! ARTHUR!"
Mrs. Weasley ran from the room, mumbling something about how "that man could sleep through a banshee".
Hermione shook her head, amused. She backed out of Harry and Ginny's fireplace.
"All ready, then?" Harry was asking Ginny, who was tapping her foot impatiently. Their house elf, Maggy, was shoving scones into their hands.
"I'll be there later. Good luck!" Hermione was able to say as the elf herded the two towards the fireplace. They gave her distracted waves as they disappeared into the green flames.
Hermione would have to go it alone.
Hermione rubbed her eyes with both hands, a habit she always caught herself doing when she was stressed. As she did so, she felt a dull ache in her right eye.
She stood in the kitchen, looking a bit bereft, holding a scone in her hand that Maggy had given her before she disappeared with a pop. Her right eye was aching terribly now, for some reason.
Now that it was just her, she bit her lip, another nervous habit she had never been able to break.
.
The first step should be to go to Malfoy Manor. But could she face the location of her nightmares? Where she had gotten her scars? Facing it was one thing, but to do so alone? Harry and Ginny were busy having a baby(!), Ron wouldn't help Malfoy, having never forgiven him. Had she forgiven Malfoy? That thought would take more time to think about than she currently had, and she pushed it aside for later.
The urgency of the nightmare was fading, and she nearly felt a bit silly for rushing out of bed to save someone who she didn't even know if she had forgiven.
Maggy placed a piece of raw meat in her empty hand. She stared at it, unable to comprehend why there was a juicy red steak there.
"For yours eye, Miss 'Mione" Maggy mimed placing something over her own eye.
"Thanks Maggy," Hermione said automatically.
Hermione looked at her hands, shoved the scone into her mouth
'I probably look like a chipmunk, and oooh, lemon! My favorite!' She thought.
Her eye throbbed worse when she touched it this time. Hermione rushed to the stairwell outside the kitchen to take look in the mirror, dripping steak juice from her hand.
Catching sight of her eye, she couldn't believe nobody else had noticed that she had a shiner the size of a Pygmy Puff over her right eye. It was swelling shut as she watched! She set the steak on the hall table, making a mental note to scrub it herself before Maggy could get to it.
Hermione used every healing spell she could think of. Nothing worked on the bruise!
'Plan B: essence of dittany! With a smirk, she remembered the time she had been punched by one of Fred and George's prank items and they had given her some to cover her rapidly growing black eye.
She reached into her reticule. It was the bag she had charmed when on the run with Harry and Ron all those years ago. After a moment of sifting through items, she found the bottle. She closed her eye and poured a few drops into her eye. It didn't feel better. A cursory glance at her reflection said it didn't look better, either.
She nibbled her lower lip again. She didn't know what exactly to do. Going anywhere with a black and blue eye was embarrassing, but to see Malfoy was going to be excruciating. She could almost hear his taunts already.
Hermione, not being made for indecision, set her face, stood up straight, and marched right back to the Floo. She grabbed a handful of the powder, and before she could change her mind threw it into the flames, announcing "Malfoy Manor!"
-.-.-.-.-
Hermione is pulling on her Gryffindor courage and going for it! The story is finally going to start moving here soon!
Please review, review, review, my lovelies~!
