I ran. I had to get away from it all. I realize now what a cowardly thing it was but I had to get away. It was all so horrible.
Hogwarts was fixable and school would go on as normal the next year, but it would never be the same. It had really killed Hermione inside when she realized that Dumbeldore, Harry, Ron, Ginny and many other Gryffindors had died during the great war between good and evil. It seemed that Voldemort and the death eaters had only been aiming to attack those in blood red and gold. They had left Hermione though. For some reason no one had come anywhere near her. No one with a stone heart could it seemed. She couldn't protect her friends though. They had all died.
Before he died Harry had finished Voldemort off. As soon as Voldemort gone almost all the death eaters collapsed. It seemed that Voldemort had somehow possessed a part of their mind and when he died that part died to. The evil part. Not in Lucius's case it seemed. The minute Voldemort died he ran. He ran faster than Hermione was now. It seemed that in his case nothing possessed him he WAS pure evil.
Maybe that was why she was running she felt as though she had failed. Failed for the first time in her life. At the one thing that mattered more than anything. Saving her friends.
I continued running. I was fed up. Every one had told me it wasn't my fault but it was. At least that's how I felt. No one could make me feel any other way.
I left in mid July. I took nothing except my wand, a bit of money, a sleeping bag, and some food. If I needed something else I could just make it with my wand. I left at about 12:30 July 21st. I left a note on the kitchen table telling my parents I would be fine and not to come after me. I decided to stay in London because it was big and no one would notice one more street kid.
Now I was sitting on a cold cement door step trying to protect myself from the rain and cold. I suppose I could have cast a water repellent spell but it would look a bit strange if I was walking down the streets of London completely dry when every one else was soaked to the bone. So here I am sitting on a freezing door step shivering.
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The next day wasn't bad. There was at least a bit of sun. I met a few street kids that day. They struck me as the kind of people who weren't strong mentally or physically enough to live on the streets. The only reason I went up to them was because they looked as though they had been on the streets for a while.
They had an alcove in an abandoned theatre all sectioned off with tin roofing leaned on its self to create a sort of shelter.
I walked up and asked if they lived on the streets. They said yes. One of the girls who looked nice asked if I did to. I told her I had just run away the day before. Immediately they asked if I wanted to stay with them for awhile until I got used to living on the streets. I decided to stay for a while considering that it was probably safer for me to stay with a group of people then on my own.
That was the day my whole life turned upside down. There were probably many other people I could choose to stay with but I chose the first people I met. Not a good Idea.
Later that day we had just finished lunch when a bunch of guys in school uniforms came over and asked to speak to one of the guys in the group, I later found out his name was Dylan. They walked over to a secluded corner to talk.
When one of the uniformed teens swung a punch at Dylan the girl I had spoken to earlier, Teddy, whispered in my ear that Dylan was a drug dealer, they all were. I sucked in a breath and said that I had never done drugs before. She told me that I had to try them. They were the best thing to do if I was trying to forget something. Somehow she knew I was.
The minute I tried it I was hooked. There was no way to get me to stop. Even if it meant my death. Which at the time I wouldn't have minded.
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After a few days of living with Teddy, Dylan and the rest of their friends I began to feel at home. I felt like I fit in more then I ever did at Hogwarts. I still had my wand hidden in my knapsack but I hadn't used it since the war. No one asked about why I ran away. They just sort of accepted me.
I loved it. This was the first time in my life I felt like I was living for no one but myself. I never thought about what would happen the next day. Just what was happening then. I knew deep down that something was wrong, that maybe I should leave but I always pushed it away. Teddy had spotted the ring on my finger and asked why I hadn't pawned it off so I could buy more weed. I told her that I had had it since the day I was born and couldn't take it off.
I remember the day I managed to take it off. I had been swimming and my fingers had shrunk a bit from the cold water. I also used soap to help slip it off. The minute it left my finger it glowed red then I fainted. Obviously someone had noticed that it was the reason I had fainted because they put it on. If they had put it on a minute later I would have been in a coma.
After explaining this to Teddy minus the glowing red bit she told me she understood how I felt and that she had a necklace her mother had given her at birth that she hadn't pawned when Dylan had asked her to.
I didn't think she understood the real reason I wouldn't pawn it. I think she believed I just liked it because I had had it forever and because it was pretty. Which it was. It was silver band that was woven through its self and had a beautiful stone in the middle that seemed to reflect the light. Almost like a diamond except that it was foggy and at night looked as though there was a galaxy trapped inside it.
We partied most nights and spent A LOT of money, but what did we care we had a ton. Thats what you get from selling drugs. I loved it. I didn't have a care in the world. There were a couple of times I wondered what I did when I was high but Teddy said it was just fun and games. In other words no prostitution. That was a good thing to hear. I had worried about that for a while.
I sometimes wondered what the people were doing in the wizarding world. It was strange being out in the muggle world after living with wizards for most of my life. I wondered what had hapened after the war. I hadn't stayed long enough to hear the casualties or the outcome. A lot of people had switched from the evil to good and worked as spies. I wondered what people like Draco Malfoy did. I'm sure I would have heard if he had died. He was supposed to be one of the Death Eaters in the inner circle.
I had to be careful about the stories I told. Especially when I was high. That was one of my chief worries. Telling someone about my other life, My old life. I didn't think to many people would pay attention. I was just another high street kid. Whatever. If another wizard ever heard me telling stories I could get in deep trouble with the ministry. Oh well it was a chance I was willing to take.