Chapter Three: Love you Always
"Professor Dumbledore! Are you all right?" Hermione squealed.
"I am now that you have returned," he replied, smiling weakly at them "I need you each to go into that room over there," he pointed at a large door "a woman named Megara Tianola will meet you and speak with you"
"Megara Tianola? But she's a-a divinator! Why do we have to speak to one of them" Hermione exclaimed
"Though I know how much you dislike Divination and everything to do with it, Miss. Granger, I ask you to do this for me, she's been known to predict correctly" Dumbledore said, a little stricter than normal
"All right" she whispered
"Would you like to go first Mr. Malfoy?" he asked
Draco nodded and headed into the room.
"Gin- what happened to your brothers and parents?" Harry blurted out. Ginny looked at him with sad eyes.
"Sorry to be so- blunt, if you don't want to talk about it that's all right"
"No, I might as well tell you. Its either sooner or later. Well, at the beginning of the war, Fred, George, Ron and I went to go live with Bill in Egypt because he had written a letter saying it was safer there than in Europe. Percy, Mum and Dad were going to go collect Charlie in Romania, then meet us at Bill's. After about two weeks we got a letter from Mum that they would be leaving Romania the next day and should be in Egypt within the week. Well, a week passed, and then two weeks passed, then at the end of the third week, we got a black bordered letter telling us Mum, Dad, Percy and Charlie were killed while trying to cross the border into Bulgaria. When we got the letter Ron just said 'I have to go' and then just packed his bags and left, without another word. I haven't heard from him since. Towards the end of the war, Bill got very sick. Since there was nowhere to take him, Fred and George tried to take care of him. When the war ended I decided to come back to England, to see what was left of it. Fred and George decided to stay in Egypt and care for Bill. About three months ago I got a letter from Fred saying that Bill died in his sleep one night. Fred and George are still in Egypt, they have jobs and like it better there. George once told me that they felt England brought back too many sad memories for them. So, now my family has been left with myself, Fred, George and maybe Ron, but that's doubtful, oh yeah, I have you two as well, you are practically a part of my family " she concluded, sounding very brave throughout the story. Little did everyone know that inside her heart was breaking all over again. Harry sank into a chair at the side of the room, burying his head in his hands.
At this point, Draco walked out of the room, looking a bit paler than normal.
"She wanted to see 'the young beauty with hair of fire,' I suppose you'll have to do Weasley" Draco spat, but with an icy glare from McGonagall he added
"Sorry, force of habit"
"That's quite OK, I never cared much for your opinion to begin with, why should I care now?" Ginny said while drawing the door closed behind her. Hermione knelt down on the floor before Harry.
"Are you all right?" she asked somberly
"I'm a curse" he whispered
"What was that?"
"I'm a curse. When I was a baby my parents died, and now, I've lost the only parents I ever had growing up. I'm a curse to everyone I love and loves me"
"That's not true" Hermione comforted
"How can you say that?"
"Well, I know you love and care about Ginny, she's alive, you haven't been a curse on her"
"Well, if her parents hadn't known me, maybe they wouldn't be dead and maybe she wouldn't have to have gone through so much pain"
"Don't be ridiculous. What about me Harry, how have you been a curse on me?"
"Apparently, you're day hasn't come yet. For the first time I wish I didn't love or care about you Hermione"
"If what you are saying is true, that you are a curse on everyone you love and loves you, then even if you stop caring about me, I'd still be cursed, because I will never stop loving or caring about you Harry Potter. Never." Hermione assured.
"Then I apologize ahead of time for whatever harm my curse brings to you" he said then knelt down on the floor next to Hermione and gave her a hug. When this was all said and done McGonagall and Dumbledore exchanged approving glances.
"Harry- she wants you to go in now" Ginny said, coming out of the room, looking pale under loads of freckles and obviously shaking.
"All right, I'll be there in a minute," he said, letting go of Hermione "don't worry, I'll be fine. I don't think I'm cursed anymore" he said. He stood up and walked into the room. Taking one last look at his best friend, he closed the door behind him.
Hermione, still on the floor, looked down at herself. She was still wearing the short red dress and heels with the trench coat covering her arms and shoulders. It was her very best outfit. When you live in fear with absolutely nothing, even your best isn't that great. She thought about a lot of things at that moment, but mainly where she would be if she hadn't found Harry earlier that night. Again, Harry Potter had been a hero, though this time it wouldn't benefit the lives of every wizard in the world. She smiled at the thought of her own private hero, it sounded like something out of her childhood dreams. But, she wasn't a child anymore, she hadn't been a child since the war began. She'd seen and been exposed to too many things to ever be innocent like a child again. A voice interrupted her thoughts.
"How have you been Hermione?" Draco asked her softly.
"Do you care?" she asked, wondering why a Malfoy would lower himself to talk to a 'mudblood' like her
"Yes, I do, how have you been?"
"I've been better, way better to be correct, and yourself?"
"Though I know you don't care, pretty much the same. Life has been chaos since our graduation"
She was about to agree with him but, at that moment, Harry walked out of the door, looking a bit sickly. Hermione was now scared of what the mysterious woman behind the door would say to her that would make her look as terrified as those who went before her.
"Hermione-" Harry started
"I know, I'm next right?" she smiled.
"Right as always"
Shaking, she stood up and crossed the room to where the door was, partially open. Opening it up enough so she could fit through it, she walked into a poorly lit room. One candle was lit, it revealed the face of Megara Tianola, formally known as Lavender Brown.
"Lav? Oh Lavender! How wonderful to see you!"
"My name is not Lavender, Its Megara, I never knew anyone with a horrid name like Lavender" she said. Hermione rolled her eyes
"Whatever you say"
"I was brought here to look at your mark, and draw certain conclusions from it. Now may I please see it?" she explained
"What mark?" Hermione asked innocently
"You know, for someone who was quite smart in school, you've become quite daft! What mark you think I mean? The one on your left leg!" 'Megara' exclaimed
"So you admit that you went to school with me? I never went to school with a girl named Megara"
"OK Hermione, I admit it. Happy? Now may we please get this over with? Harry and Draco had no problem taking off their pants to show me their mark"
Again, Hermione rolled her eyes. Nothing a divinator was going to say was going to scare or hurt her. Hermione sat down next to Megara/Lavender and pulled the dress up a few inches, exposing a large black mark on her leg.
"Its a bird," Megara said "a black one. It represents a lot. It shows a sharp mind. You are dependable, but there are many times when you just have to escape, and you do. That is you're weakest trait, you flee when people need you most, but not all the time. You can be absent minded, but you will always want to learn more and more, and believe that you never stop learning"
Surprisingly enough, she had pegged Hermione pretty well. She didn't think that she left people when they needed her most though. There were only two instances when she "flew away" from people and their problems. Once, when she was seventeen, she dumped her boyfriend Ron (whom she believed even to date that she had loved) because she couldn't deal with all of his problems and her own too, and she had left her parents. She couldn't deal with their disappointment in her anymore. She couldn't stand hearing about how she ought to be a dentist instead of a witch, how she never listened to them. She never wanted to disappoint them, but it was just one of those things that she had to do. Practicing magic was like breathing to her.
"Thank you, Megara" Hermione said and stood up to leave. Just before she turned the doorknob, Hermione heard a groan behind her. Megara's eyes were rolling and she looked awfully rigid in her chair. Megara Tianola was making a real prediction.
A/N: Hope you're Enjoying my story so far! Please review, even if you hated it!! Please? Pretty Please? With sugar on top? Anyway, I think everyone should yell out a big "Yay" for Megan T, who got the line right in the previous chapter, * ~~ there is your pretty gold (ok, so its black) star