Author's Note: Thank you for the reviews chattypandagurl and Facade.
And a special thanks to my beta reader, Lissie89!
Disclaimer: All of the HP characters belong to the wonderful J. K. Rowling, but she's kind enough to let me borrow them every now and then for my own entertainment...like now, for instance.
************************ Chapter 3
Harry ate his lunch very quickly; he was eager to read Mione's response, however short it was. He stuffed the last bit of his sandwich into his mouth, mumbled an "Excuse me," and took off up the stairs to Ron's room. It was still a painfully bright orange, but this time Harry paid it no mind. He was too busy opening the letter. It read:
Harry,
I won't be able to make it to Diagon Alley week after next. I've already got the things I'll be needing, so Mum and Dad don't see any point in me going back. My summer's going as well as can be expected. Tell everyone I said hello, and hopefully I'll see you and Ron soon. I really miss you guys!
Hermione
Harry reread the "letter" (it didn't seem long enough to him to be called such) over twice before folding it neatly and putting it in his trunk. He closed the lid slowly before sitting on it and putting his head in his hands. 'That certainly didn't sound like Mione,' thought Harry. As a matter of fact, she had been acting weird all summer. The only other time he had heard from her had been on his birthday. He'd gotten her present (which had been a book, of course) and the note that had come with it. The note had contained only three words, "Happy Birthday Harry!" He'd just assumed that he would hear more from her later, but he hadn't. 'Well,' he thought, 'at least it was sentences this time.'
Hermione's latest letter came to mind. '"My summer's going as well as can be expected"? What did that mean? It sounds like she's not having such a good time.' Harry rubbed his face, then ran his fingers through his hair in an exasperated gesture. Of course she's not having a good time! She was nearly killed by a Death Eater just a couple of months ago! 'I believe that would put a damper on anyone's mood,' he thought, hands still in his hair. He sat like this for another minute before slowly raising his head and staring at the wall on the other side of the room. But he didn't see the wall. Instead, he saw Hermione. He thought of the very first time he had ever laid eyes on her...The bushy-haired, eleven-year-old brainiac came easily to mind. Harry grinned. That imagine wasn't too different than the Hermione he knew today. As Harry sat there, head in his hands, memories of things the three of them had done together came flooding back. Brewing the Polyjuice potion in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom...attending the Deathday party...getting into the Shrieking Shack...Ron and Hermione helping him for the then approaching tasks...practicing during D.A. meetings...
Some of the things that came back to Harry during those moments were things he hadn't thought about in quite some time. The past year had been extremely...stressful, so it had not left much time for reminiscing. But saying it had been stressful was putting it nicely. It had been horrible! And to top it off, Hermione had been hurt. The smile vanished from Harry's lips. His memories turned from being happy to pure agony in the blink of an eye. He was now seeing Hermione lying on the floor of the Ministry, blood pouring from her mouth.
Then the next thing he knew, he was at St. Mungo's watching as Hermione was placed on a bed. They had tried to usher Harry from the room, but he had refused to move. He had then spent the next two days holding Mione's hand, begging her to wake up and look at him once again with her big brown eyes. Only after the Healers had convinced Harry beyond a shadow of a doubt that Hermione would regain consciousness within a couple of days and that she would make a full recovery did he allow himself to sleep. The Healers had been right. Hermione was awake the very next morning, looking at him with those beautiful eyes. She had been pale and very tired-looking, but she had been smiling. Harry could not remember feeling more relieved in his entire life.
CRACK! Ron appeared from thin air directly in front of Harry. This startled him so much that he fell backward off the trunk.
"Sorry, Harry!" Ron said, leaning over and offering to help Harry up. He grabbed Ron's wrist and stood, fixing his glasses which had gone askew from his fall. "I just came up to see if you wanted to play Quidditch." Harry gave Ron a look. "Well...I know we don't have enough people to play a real game, but we were planning on just throwing the quaffle around and stuff." Ron seemed to have read Harry's mind, because this was exactly what he had been thinking. Harry was on the verge of saying no; he wanted to be alone and think. But deciding he'd done enough thinking for the past hour, he nodded his agreement. They grabbed their brooms and headed outside.
On the Hogwarts Express...
"Where's Hermione?" Ron asked Harry for at least the hundredth time that week.
"Ron, I don't know where she is, I told you already!"
"But we're on the train, ready to go, and no Mione. Harry, have you noticed how weird she's been acting this summer?"
Harry stiffened slightly. "What do you mean?"
"I mean that I haven't heard more than 10 words from her since I last saw her at St. Mungo's. Do you remember that we talked about her coming to stay with us for a little while before going back to school? Well, I reminded her of this in a letter, but she never wrote back. Then we don't see her at Diagon Alley and now she's no where to be found on the train!"
"Ron," Harry started, not feeling like dealing with his break down at the moment, "I'm sure Hermione has a reason for not being in Diagon Alley at the same time we were, and I don't believe she would miss the train to Hogwarts. We just have to find her." That's exactly what Harry and Ron tried to do. They went through the entire train, from compartment to compartment, looking for Hermione. She was nowhere to be found, however. Harry and Ron wound up sharing a compartment with Ginny and Neville. Harry tried to remain calm throughout the trip, but he was finding it rather difficult. Thoughts like 'Where the heck is Hermione?' kept drifting across his mind.
When the lunch cart arrived, Harry was grateful for the distraction the food offered. He had just taken a swig of pumpkin juice when he saw a bushy head go bouncing past the compartment's window. Harry spit the pumpkin juice out in his haste to reach the compartment door. It narrowly missed Neville. Harry threw the door open and looked wildly around, trying to spot the bushy head again. There was no one around, though. The compartment doors on either side of their's was closed, the occupants talking loudly. 'Strange,' thought Harry as he slid the door closed. 'It had looked like Hermione...' *************************
Let me know what you think by leaving a review! See how that works? You review, I type, Lissie beta-reads for me (thanx again Lissie!), and then I load it. By the way, Lissie is writing a couple of very good stories: Harry Potter and the Green Flame Torch and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I suggest you check them out!
Disclaimer: All of the HP characters belong to the wonderful J. K. Rowling, but she's kind enough to let me borrow them every now and then for my own entertainment...like now, for instance.
************************ Chapter 3
Harry ate his lunch very quickly; he was eager to read Mione's response, however short it was. He stuffed the last bit of his sandwich into his mouth, mumbled an "Excuse me," and took off up the stairs to Ron's room. It was still a painfully bright orange, but this time Harry paid it no mind. He was too busy opening the letter. It read:
Harry,
I won't be able to make it to Diagon Alley week after next. I've already got the things I'll be needing, so Mum and Dad don't see any point in me going back. My summer's going as well as can be expected. Tell everyone I said hello, and hopefully I'll see you and Ron soon. I really miss you guys!
Hermione
Harry reread the "letter" (it didn't seem long enough to him to be called such) over twice before folding it neatly and putting it in his trunk. He closed the lid slowly before sitting on it and putting his head in his hands. 'That certainly didn't sound like Mione,' thought Harry. As a matter of fact, she had been acting weird all summer. The only other time he had heard from her had been on his birthday. He'd gotten her present (which had been a book, of course) and the note that had come with it. The note had contained only three words, "Happy Birthday Harry!" He'd just assumed that he would hear more from her later, but he hadn't. 'Well,' he thought, 'at least it was sentences this time.'
Hermione's latest letter came to mind. '"My summer's going as well as can be expected"? What did that mean? It sounds like she's not having such a good time.' Harry rubbed his face, then ran his fingers through his hair in an exasperated gesture. Of course she's not having a good time! She was nearly killed by a Death Eater just a couple of months ago! 'I believe that would put a damper on anyone's mood,' he thought, hands still in his hair. He sat like this for another minute before slowly raising his head and staring at the wall on the other side of the room. But he didn't see the wall. Instead, he saw Hermione. He thought of the very first time he had ever laid eyes on her...The bushy-haired, eleven-year-old brainiac came easily to mind. Harry grinned. That imagine wasn't too different than the Hermione he knew today. As Harry sat there, head in his hands, memories of things the three of them had done together came flooding back. Brewing the Polyjuice potion in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom...attending the Deathday party...getting into the Shrieking Shack...Ron and Hermione helping him for the then approaching tasks...practicing during D.A. meetings...
Some of the things that came back to Harry during those moments were things he hadn't thought about in quite some time. The past year had been extremely...stressful, so it had not left much time for reminiscing. But saying it had been stressful was putting it nicely. It had been horrible! And to top it off, Hermione had been hurt. The smile vanished from Harry's lips. His memories turned from being happy to pure agony in the blink of an eye. He was now seeing Hermione lying on the floor of the Ministry, blood pouring from her mouth.
Then the next thing he knew, he was at St. Mungo's watching as Hermione was placed on a bed. They had tried to usher Harry from the room, but he had refused to move. He had then spent the next two days holding Mione's hand, begging her to wake up and look at him once again with her big brown eyes. Only after the Healers had convinced Harry beyond a shadow of a doubt that Hermione would regain consciousness within a couple of days and that she would make a full recovery did he allow himself to sleep. The Healers had been right. Hermione was awake the very next morning, looking at him with those beautiful eyes. She had been pale and very tired-looking, but she had been smiling. Harry could not remember feeling more relieved in his entire life.
CRACK! Ron appeared from thin air directly in front of Harry. This startled him so much that he fell backward off the trunk.
"Sorry, Harry!" Ron said, leaning over and offering to help Harry up. He grabbed Ron's wrist and stood, fixing his glasses which had gone askew from his fall. "I just came up to see if you wanted to play Quidditch." Harry gave Ron a look. "Well...I know we don't have enough people to play a real game, but we were planning on just throwing the quaffle around and stuff." Ron seemed to have read Harry's mind, because this was exactly what he had been thinking. Harry was on the verge of saying no; he wanted to be alone and think. But deciding he'd done enough thinking for the past hour, he nodded his agreement. They grabbed their brooms and headed outside.
On the Hogwarts Express...
"Where's Hermione?" Ron asked Harry for at least the hundredth time that week.
"Ron, I don't know where she is, I told you already!"
"But we're on the train, ready to go, and no Mione. Harry, have you noticed how weird she's been acting this summer?"
Harry stiffened slightly. "What do you mean?"
"I mean that I haven't heard more than 10 words from her since I last saw her at St. Mungo's. Do you remember that we talked about her coming to stay with us for a little while before going back to school? Well, I reminded her of this in a letter, but she never wrote back. Then we don't see her at Diagon Alley and now she's no where to be found on the train!"
"Ron," Harry started, not feeling like dealing with his break down at the moment, "I'm sure Hermione has a reason for not being in Diagon Alley at the same time we were, and I don't believe she would miss the train to Hogwarts. We just have to find her." That's exactly what Harry and Ron tried to do. They went through the entire train, from compartment to compartment, looking for Hermione. She was nowhere to be found, however. Harry and Ron wound up sharing a compartment with Ginny and Neville. Harry tried to remain calm throughout the trip, but he was finding it rather difficult. Thoughts like 'Where the heck is Hermione?' kept drifting across his mind.
When the lunch cart arrived, Harry was grateful for the distraction the food offered. He had just taken a swig of pumpkin juice when he saw a bushy head go bouncing past the compartment's window. Harry spit the pumpkin juice out in his haste to reach the compartment door. It narrowly missed Neville. Harry threw the door open and looked wildly around, trying to spot the bushy head again. There was no one around, though. The compartment doors on either side of their's was closed, the occupants talking loudly. 'Strange,' thought Harry as he slid the door closed. 'It had looked like Hermione...' *************************
Let me know what you think by leaving a review! See how that works? You review, I type, Lissie beta-reads for me (thanx again Lissie!), and then I load it. By the way, Lissie is writing a couple of very good stories: Harry Potter and the Green Flame Torch and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I suggest you check them out!