"Wow, Harry was right when he said this place was beautiful," Hermione
smiled as she walked up a worn dirt path to a modest looking white house
with green shutters placed on the center of a hill and surrounded by
patched of wildflowers and tall green grasses. She knocked lightly on the
door and a girl of about sixteen with long blond hair tied back in a braid
greeted her merrily.
"Are you Hermione Granger?" she asked as she led her into the house.
"Yes," Hermione grabbed her bags and pulled them behind her as the girl dragged her into the house.
"I am Marianna. It's so nice to have someone coming to stay with us! We haven't had someone here since that tall black haired man over two months ago," she smiled graciously.
"Harry?" Hermione laughed, "He recommended for me to come here."
"I believe that was his name. This is going to be your room," Marianna opened the door to reveal a pale blue room with a small whitewash bed against the wall to her right and dresser against the far wall and a door against the wall to Hermione's left. "That," Marianna pointed to the door, "is your bathroom. Dinner is usually around half past six and breakfast around eight. Lunch depends on when we all manage to be in the house at once. I'll leave you to get unpacked. If you have any questions, I will be in the kitchen."
"Thank you," Hermione set her bags down by her bed and grinned contentedly. "This is nice. A whole week and a half off." She set her bags at the edge of her bed and walked into the bathroom. She started hot water in the old- fashioned bathtub and went back into her room and grabbed her robe. She warm water felt amazing as she slipped her foot into the tub. She immediately felt herself relax and sunk into the tub.
Hermione sat in the water until her fingers looked like raisins and then got dressed in a white, light gauze muggle dress and a coat. She ventured out of her room and into the house, following her nose to the kitchen where the aroma of wildflowers and turkey mixed together. "Marianna, I'm going to go outside. Call if you need me."
"We shouldn't need you until supper. That, as I said will be around half past six, so you can just come back anytime around then. If you want to go to town, we have a truck by the barn. The keys are in it and feel free to use it. No one else does," Marianna kept her back turned away from Hermione and leaned over her dinner. "Have fun."
"Thank you," Hermione opened the screen door and headed for the barn. "Town today, mountains tomorrow," she promised herself as she headed to the truck. She lifted her finger and whispered, "Accio handbag," and her purse flew into her hand. As long as the magic wasn't obvious, she figured it safe to be used.
Hermione looked at the oversize hunk of blue metal and she wondered if it would run. It was an old Chevy, by the looks of it from the 1950's and had been worn out from use. She climbed into the drivers seat and turned they key and, surprisingly, the car started right up. Hermione took her time driving down the old mountain road and parked right outside of it. She slid out of the truck and tucked the keys into her pocket before going to explore the cozy little town.
She listened to her shoes click as she walked down the cobblestone streets, completely content for once. A sweet aroma drifted down the street and Hermione inhaled the scent of fresh bread coming from a small bakery called Konditorei. "Well, now we know where my first stop will be," Hermione smiled as she swung open the door to the bakery. Elegant looking pastries and delicious looking breads greeted her temptingly as she stepped into the dimly lit room.
The woman behind the counter was speaking in a different language that Hermione didn't understand. Hermione reached her hand into her pocket, wrapped it around her wand and muttered "translatio," and suddenly understood everything the woman was saying perfectly fine. She had simply asked Hermione what she wanted. Hermione pointed to a small, chocolate pastry and the woman pulled it off the shelf. Hermione gave her a few coins she had traded Marianna for and took the pastry.
"Danke," she smiled at the woman and headed back out of the shop. She bit into the pastry and the most amazing rush of flavors took over her mouth. The crispy dough and chocolate creamed mixed together to form the most delectable thing Hermione had ever eaten.
After browsing through a few shops and picking out various items for Harry, Ginny, and Ron, Hermione started back to the truck waiting for her on the other side of the town. She took her time ambling down the street and stopped at the bakery again to pick something up before going back to her new temporary home. She ordered her pastry after a brief conversation with the owner, Marguerite, and started back up the mountain in the truck.
Once she was back to the house, she unpacked her bags and tucked Harry, Ginny, and Ron's gifts deep into her suitcase. Then, she changed into more comfortable clothes and helped Marianna prepare dinner. At six PM, Marianna's mother came home from her job, which happened to be a sales clerk at one of the stores Hermione had passed on her stroll that day. Hermione didn't dare ask where her father was, so she simply greeted Marianna's mother, Leila, with a smile and kiss on both cheeks before going back to dinner.
Dinner went by quickly, graced with small talk and questions both for and from the new guest in the Ciaperi's home. Hermione immediately felt at home there, herself. Leila and Marianna seemed like sincerely kind people and did their best to make her comfortable. After dinner, Hermione helped clean the dishes and then lay down in her bed, immediately drifting off to sleep.
She woke up, her face drenched in tears, breathing hard. He was there, silver eyes and everything. Not in reality, of course, but in her dreams, her most pleasurable, most beautiful dreams. Only there, they were free to be together again. To hold each other. And, in her subconscious, they had done just that, his touch taking her breath away as it had done five long years before, the taste of his mouth more exotic than even the pastry she had eaten earlier.
"I hate you, Draco Malfoy," she muttered unconvincingly. "Stop haunting me."
Truth be told, Hermione didn't want him to stop troubling her. She had craved him, or at least some sort of love, for so long, the times in her dreams when she received love were some of her most carefree. They made her shake off her duties and worries, particularly about him, as she drifted away to where she was wanted and loved. A place where work wasn't the most important thing and she didn't need to travel thousands of miles for contentment, but only to her lover's arms. For this, she considered herself pathetic. Desperate.
The clock's red numbers read 3:15 and Hermione closed her eyes again, forcing herself to sleep. This time, she slept dreamlessly until 6:45, when her internal alarm clock went off and she rolled out of bed.
She pulled on the same dress as yesterday and pointed her wand at her hair and muttered a quick charm that put it in loose, delicate curls and then went to the kitchen. There, she fixed herself a quick picnic, put it in a basket she found in the pantry, and wrote a note to Marianna and Leila explaining that she was going out for a picnic and should be back in time for dinner. She practically skipped out of the door with her picnic basket, felling like the little girl from the muggle movie "Heidi," and started up the grassy hills.
Occasionally, she would lean over and pick up a wildflower and place it in the basket, starting a small bouquet for the Ciaperi's. After about two hours of hiking up the hills and picking flowers, Hermione settled herself on a rock jutting out of the side of the hill, overlooking the vast landscape below her. The Ciaperi's house was almost nothing more than a dot from where she sat. She bit into her turkey sandwich as she thought about her life.
With all of the potential people seemed to think she had back in Hogwarts, Hermione came to the conclusion hadn't turned out to be much. Sure, she had a powerful job and was important to the ministry, but what good was that if she was miserable and made everyone else around her miserable? She could remember the fear on her secretary's face every time Hermione pointed out one of her mistakes. Every time Hermione started yelling and throwing a fit over other people's incompetence.
People were right in thinking she had potential, she did, but she just didn't know how to use it. Without someone to share her success with, what was the point? Harry was never home and Ron had his new fiancé, Lavender Brown, so he never had the time. Besides the two of them, Hermione was utterly alone in the world. And every time she thought about being alone, she thought about him. She thought about the first Christmas they spent together and how, in an odd way, they had offered each other comfort from that. Then, she thought about how because of him, she felt more alone than ever. Now that she knew what love felt like, it was ten times harder to get it ripped away.
To push all thoughts of him away, she, ironically, did what he did. She sang.
A thousand days have made me older
Since the last time that I saw your pretty face
A thousand lies have made me colder
And I don't think I can look at this the same
All the miles that separate
Disappear when I'm dreaming of your face
I'm here without you, baby
But you're still on my lonely mind
I think about you and I dream about you all the time
I'm here without you, baby
But you're still with me in my dreams
And, tonight, there's only you and me
(3 Doors Down, "Here Without You")
She didn't know where the words came from, or what inspired her to sing them, but she did, and afterwards she felt so much better. It was a way to express herself and it worked. She felt like she had just sent those words to Draco. Like he could hear her and understand. After five years.five full years, she felt free of him, if just for that moment. It was like he flowed out of her with those words, with those breaths. No wonder he sang so much.
Hermione lifted the pastry she bought at Konditorei and ate it slowly, savoring the delicate flavors. Once she was done with the chocolate wonder, she pulled out her quill and parchment and started writing to Harry.
Dear Harry,
Thank you for suggesting this place to me. It's beautiful. Leila and Marianna are wonderful people and I feel so at home and content here already. It's such an odd feeling, not having to do anything. I can just sit back and relax and not have to worry about any deadlines or obnoxious phone calls with people complaining to me about trivial things.
I'm having a solitary picnic right now. I climbed the hills for almost two hours and I'm looking over Basel. It's breathtaking. I feel like I can see anything in the world from up here. I'm actually relaxed. You're a miracle worker, Harry. What would I do without you?
I hope all of your Auror duties are going well. See you in a week and a day!
Love Always,
Hermione
Hermione folded up the parchment and pulled her wand out of the basket. She pointed it at the paper and spoke forcefully at it, "Transpantate Harry's sofa." She figured the sofa was where he spent most of his time, so that would be the quickest way for him to find it. She watched as the envelope flickered out of view and then laid her head back on the wicker basket, soaking up the sun. After about an hour, she drifted off to sleep.
When Hermione's eyes opened again, it was much later. She could tell easily because her legs had gone from unnaturally pale to bright pink. She put a cooling spell on the burning flesh and put everything back in her basket except for her wand. She sat on the edge of the rock, her mind clear of all thoughts, and just admired the view. She had no idea what time it was; her Hogwarts-friendly watch had been placed under so many enchantments forcing it to work in that particular place that it didn't work anywhere else and she had never taken the time to get a new one. However, she didn't worry. It couldn't be dinnertime yet. She had, after all, left the house at 7 AM. There was no way eleven hours could have passed.
Marianna smiled excitedly as she stirred the soup for tonight. Another visitor was coming today. After her father's death, she and her mother had a hard time paying for their land, so they had opened their home as a bed and breakfast, so to say. It hadn't brought in much money until the black haired boy sent these two. "Maybe we should hire him for advertising," she laughed merrily.
A light knock rang through the house and Marianna quickly slipped off her apron. She was far too young to be wearing one of those things, anyway. She pulled open the door to see a man of about twenty-three standing in front of her, dressed in a gray suit. He looked very elegant and debonair; nothing like Marianna had pictured him from their phone conversation.
"Hi," she pulled open the door to make room for him to enter. "You must be Ron," she smiled and led him down the hallway. She opened the door to a small, pear colored room," this will be your room. We have on other guest staying with us for about a week more. She should be coming in for dinner, but she went out on a picnic early this morning and hasn't been back since.I guess I'll just have to go and find her. My mother will be home soon. Her name is Leila. Dinner will be at six thirty. I hope you enjoy your stay," she smiled and closed the door behind her.
The new guest peeled off the uncomfortable muggle jacket and was unbuttoning his shirt when the girl popped her head back in the room, "By the way, I'm Marianna," she added before closing the door unnecessarily hard behind her.
"Whew, he certainly was covering up a lot with that suit," she chuckled to herself.
Ten minutes later, the man sat at the kitchen table, eying Marianna as she made dinner. She shuffled uncomfortably in the silence and stirred the soup quicker than normal.
"Would you mind trying to go find our other guest? She has lightly curled brown hair and brown eyes and is sort of pale," she tried to explain Hermione to the man. "But not nearly as pale as you," she mumbled under her breath.
"Certainly," he stood, happy to get out of the cramped kitchen. He let his feet lead him up the trail, expertly climbing over the rough terrain and following the messy lines in the leaves where the other guest at Serenity's Home had dragged their feet up the mountain. "I suppose laziness is sometimes helpful," he sighed as he moved quickly up the hill.
After quite a bit of climbing, he came across an opening where he saw a woman sitting on a rock, overlooking the landscape below them. Her hair was in loose curls and pink arms were visible under a flowy white dress. She looked like the depiction of a muggle angel. Completely graceful. "Excuse me?" he called to the woman's turned back.
She spun around to face him and both of their eyes filled with horror, "Draco?"
"Hermione?" Draco watched as Hermione scuttled off the ground, snatched up her wand, and backed as far away from him as possible.
"Are you Hermione Granger?" she asked as she led her into the house.
"Yes," Hermione grabbed her bags and pulled them behind her as the girl dragged her into the house.
"I am Marianna. It's so nice to have someone coming to stay with us! We haven't had someone here since that tall black haired man over two months ago," she smiled graciously.
"Harry?" Hermione laughed, "He recommended for me to come here."
"I believe that was his name. This is going to be your room," Marianna opened the door to reveal a pale blue room with a small whitewash bed against the wall to her right and dresser against the far wall and a door against the wall to Hermione's left. "That," Marianna pointed to the door, "is your bathroom. Dinner is usually around half past six and breakfast around eight. Lunch depends on when we all manage to be in the house at once. I'll leave you to get unpacked. If you have any questions, I will be in the kitchen."
"Thank you," Hermione set her bags down by her bed and grinned contentedly. "This is nice. A whole week and a half off." She set her bags at the edge of her bed and walked into the bathroom. She started hot water in the old- fashioned bathtub and went back into her room and grabbed her robe. She warm water felt amazing as she slipped her foot into the tub. She immediately felt herself relax and sunk into the tub.
Hermione sat in the water until her fingers looked like raisins and then got dressed in a white, light gauze muggle dress and a coat. She ventured out of her room and into the house, following her nose to the kitchen where the aroma of wildflowers and turkey mixed together. "Marianna, I'm going to go outside. Call if you need me."
"We shouldn't need you until supper. That, as I said will be around half past six, so you can just come back anytime around then. If you want to go to town, we have a truck by the barn. The keys are in it and feel free to use it. No one else does," Marianna kept her back turned away from Hermione and leaned over her dinner. "Have fun."
"Thank you," Hermione opened the screen door and headed for the barn. "Town today, mountains tomorrow," she promised herself as she headed to the truck. She lifted her finger and whispered, "Accio handbag," and her purse flew into her hand. As long as the magic wasn't obvious, she figured it safe to be used.
Hermione looked at the oversize hunk of blue metal and she wondered if it would run. It was an old Chevy, by the looks of it from the 1950's and had been worn out from use. She climbed into the drivers seat and turned they key and, surprisingly, the car started right up. Hermione took her time driving down the old mountain road and parked right outside of it. She slid out of the truck and tucked the keys into her pocket before going to explore the cozy little town.
She listened to her shoes click as she walked down the cobblestone streets, completely content for once. A sweet aroma drifted down the street and Hermione inhaled the scent of fresh bread coming from a small bakery called Konditorei. "Well, now we know where my first stop will be," Hermione smiled as she swung open the door to the bakery. Elegant looking pastries and delicious looking breads greeted her temptingly as she stepped into the dimly lit room.
The woman behind the counter was speaking in a different language that Hermione didn't understand. Hermione reached her hand into her pocket, wrapped it around her wand and muttered "translatio," and suddenly understood everything the woman was saying perfectly fine. She had simply asked Hermione what she wanted. Hermione pointed to a small, chocolate pastry and the woman pulled it off the shelf. Hermione gave her a few coins she had traded Marianna for and took the pastry.
"Danke," she smiled at the woman and headed back out of the shop. She bit into the pastry and the most amazing rush of flavors took over her mouth. The crispy dough and chocolate creamed mixed together to form the most delectable thing Hermione had ever eaten.
After browsing through a few shops and picking out various items for Harry, Ginny, and Ron, Hermione started back to the truck waiting for her on the other side of the town. She took her time ambling down the street and stopped at the bakery again to pick something up before going back to her new temporary home. She ordered her pastry after a brief conversation with the owner, Marguerite, and started back up the mountain in the truck.
Once she was back to the house, she unpacked her bags and tucked Harry, Ginny, and Ron's gifts deep into her suitcase. Then, she changed into more comfortable clothes and helped Marianna prepare dinner. At six PM, Marianna's mother came home from her job, which happened to be a sales clerk at one of the stores Hermione had passed on her stroll that day. Hermione didn't dare ask where her father was, so she simply greeted Marianna's mother, Leila, with a smile and kiss on both cheeks before going back to dinner.
Dinner went by quickly, graced with small talk and questions both for and from the new guest in the Ciaperi's home. Hermione immediately felt at home there, herself. Leila and Marianna seemed like sincerely kind people and did their best to make her comfortable. After dinner, Hermione helped clean the dishes and then lay down in her bed, immediately drifting off to sleep.
She woke up, her face drenched in tears, breathing hard. He was there, silver eyes and everything. Not in reality, of course, but in her dreams, her most pleasurable, most beautiful dreams. Only there, they were free to be together again. To hold each other. And, in her subconscious, they had done just that, his touch taking her breath away as it had done five long years before, the taste of his mouth more exotic than even the pastry she had eaten earlier.
"I hate you, Draco Malfoy," she muttered unconvincingly. "Stop haunting me."
Truth be told, Hermione didn't want him to stop troubling her. She had craved him, or at least some sort of love, for so long, the times in her dreams when she received love were some of her most carefree. They made her shake off her duties and worries, particularly about him, as she drifted away to where she was wanted and loved. A place where work wasn't the most important thing and she didn't need to travel thousands of miles for contentment, but only to her lover's arms. For this, she considered herself pathetic. Desperate.
The clock's red numbers read 3:15 and Hermione closed her eyes again, forcing herself to sleep. This time, she slept dreamlessly until 6:45, when her internal alarm clock went off and she rolled out of bed.
She pulled on the same dress as yesterday and pointed her wand at her hair and muttered a quick charm that put it in loose, delicate curls and then went to the kitchen. There, she fixed herself a quick picnic, put it in a basket she found in the pantry, and wrote a note to Marianna and Leila explaining that she was going out for a picnic and should be back in time for dinner. She practically skipped out of the door with her picnic basket, felling like the little girl from the muggle movie "Heidi," and started up the grassy hills.
Occasionally, she would lean over and pick up a wildflower and place it in the basket, starting a small bouquet for the Ciaperi's. After about two hours of hiking up the hills and picking flowers, Hermione settled herself on a rock jutting out of the side of the hill, overlooking the vast landscape below her. The Ciaperi's house was almost nothing more than a dot from where she sat. She bit into her turkey sandwich as she thought about her life.
With all of the potential people seemed to think she had back in Hogwarts, Hermione came to the conclusion hadn't turned out to be much. Sure, she had a powerful job and was important to the ministry, but what good was that if she was miserable and made everyone else around her miserable? She could remember the fear on her secretary's face every time Hermione pointed out one of her mistakes. Every time Hermione started yelling and throwing a fit over other people's incompetence.
People were right in thinking she had potential, she did, but she just didn't know how to use it. Without someone to share her success with, what was the point? Harry was never home and Ron had his new fiancé, Lavender Brown, so he never had the time. Besides the two of them, Hermione was utterly alone in the world. And every time she thought about being alone, she thought about him. She thought about the first Christmas they spent together and how, in an odd way, they had offered each other comfort from that. Then, she thought about how because of him, she felt more alone than ever. Now that she knew what love felt like, it was ten times harder to get it ripped away.
To push all thoughts of him away, she, ironically, did what he did. She sang.
A thousand days have made me older
Since the last time that I saw your pretty face
A thousand lies have made me colder
And I don't think I can look at this the same
All the miles that separate
Disappear when I'm dreaming of your face
I'm here without you, baby
But you're still on my lonely mind
I think about you and I dream about you all the time
I'm here without you, baby
But you're still with me in my dreams
And, tonight, there's only you and me
(3 Doors Down, "Here Without You")
She didn't know where the words came from, or what inspired her to sing them, but she did, and afterwards she felt so much better. It was a way to express herself and it worked. She felt like she had just sent those words to Draco. Like he could hear her and understand. After five years.five full years, she felt free of him, if just for that moment. It was like he flowed out of her with those words, with those breaths. No wonder he sang so much.
Hermione lifted the pastry she bought at Konditorei and ate it slowly, savoring the delicate flavors. Once she was done with the chocolate wonder, she pulled out her quill and parchment and started writing to Harry.
Dear Harry,
Thank you for suggesting this place to me. It's beautiful. Leila and Marianna are wonderful people and I feel so at home and content here already. It's such an odd feeling, not having to do anything. I can just sit back and relax and not have to worry about any deadlines or obnoxious phone calls with people complaining to me about trivial things.
I'm having a solitary picnic right now. I climbed the hills for almost two hours and I'm looking over Basel. It's breathtaking. I feel like I can see anything in the world from up here. I'm actually relaxed. You're a miracle worker, Harry. What would I do without you?
I hope all of your Auror duties are going well. See you in a week and a day!
Love Always,
Hermione
Hermione folded up the parchment and pulled her wand out of the basket. She pointed it at the paper and spoke forcefully at it, "Transpantate Harry's sofa." She figured the sofa was where he spent most of his time, so that would be the quickest way for him to find it. She watched as the envelope flickered out of view and then laid her head back on the wicker basket, soaking up the sun. After about an hour, she drifted off to sleep.
When Hermione's eyes opened again, it was much later. She could tell easily because her legs had gone from unnaturally pale to bright pink. She put a cooling spell on the burning flesh and put everything back in her basket except for her wand. She sat on the edge of the rock, her mind clear of all thoughts, and just admired the view. She had no idea what time it was; her Hogwarts-friendly watch had been placed under so many enchantments forcing it to work in that particular place that it didn't work anywhere else and she had never taken the time to get a new one. However, she didn't worry. It couldn't be dinnertime yet. She had, after all, left the house at 7 AM. There was no way eleven hours could have passed.
Marianna smiled excitedly as she stirred the soup for tonight. Another visitor was coming today. After her father's death, she and her mother had a hard time paying for their land, so they had opened their home as a bed and breakfast, so to say. It hadn't brought in much money until the black haired boy sent these two. "Maybe we should hire him for advertising," she laughed merrily.
A light knock rang through the house and Marianna quickly slipped off her apron. She was far too young to be wearing one of those things, anyway. She pulled open the door to see a man of about twenty-three standing in front of her, dressed in a gray suit. He looked very elegant and debonair; nothing like Marianna had pictured him from their phone conversation.
"Hi," she pulled open the door to make room for him to enter. "You must be Ron," she smiled and led him down the hallway. She opened the door to a small, pear colored room," this will be your room. We have on other guest staying with us for about a week more. She should be coming in for dinner, but she went out on a picnic early this morning and hasn't been back since.I guess I'll just have to go and find her. My mother will be home soon. Her name is Leila. Dinner will be at six thirty. I hope you enjoy your stay," she smiled and closed the door behind her.
The new guest peeled off the uncomfortable muggle jacket and was unbuttoning his shirt when the girl popped her head back in the room, "By the way, I'm Marianna," she added before closing the door unnecessarily hard behind her.
"Whew, he certainly was covering up a lot with that suit," she chuckled to herself.
Ten minutes later, the man sat at the kitchen table, eying Marianna as she made dinner. She shuffled uncomfortably in the silence and stirred the soup quicker than normal.
"Would you mind trying to go find our other guest? She has lightly curled brown hair and brown eyes and is sort of pale," she tried to explain Hermione to the man. "But not nearly as pale as you," she mumbled under her breath.
"Certainly," he stood, happy to get out of the cramped kitchen. He let his feet lead him up the trail, expertly climbing over the rough terrain and following the messy lines in the leaves where the other guest at Serenity's Home had dragged their feet up the mountain. "I suppose laziness is sometimes helpful," he sighed as he moved quickly up the hill.
After quite a bit of climbing, he came across an opening where he saw a woman sitting on a rock, overlooking the landscape below them. Her hair was in loose curls and pink arms were visible under a flowy white dress. She looked like the depiction of a muggle angel. Completely graceful. "Excuse me?" he called to the woman's turned back.
She spun around to face him and both of their eyes filled with horror, "Draco?"
"Hermione?" Draco watched as Hermione scuttled off the ground, snatched up her wand, and backed as far away from him as possible.