Disclaimer:

Mae-Gene: Oh, so wonderful Ms Rowling, would you ever be so kind, so generous to as give me Harry Potter? With your beautiful writing skills, your words filled with such grace, description and talent?

Ms Rowling: No


The rest of the school day was uneventful. Hermione walked from class to class, taking notes, listening attentively. She felt like a human robot, blocking out her feelings and emotions.

Walking, dragging her feet was even an effort. She trudged up the stairs to the girls' dormitory, careful not to draw too much attention to herself. She of course, had not had sleep for 48 hours, and Lavender and Pavati gossiping was not what she needed right now. Nor did she need questions from her friends to as why she did not show up for lunch, and why she was not heading to the Great Hall for dinner.

She just did not feel like it.

Everything that mattered before didn't seem to matter as much anymore. Trivial things, like eating, how she looked, what others thought of her. It didn't matter. Nothing much else mattered.

She didn't even care much for her studies. But she knew she had to care for them, she had to put effort into them.

For now, she had no one. No one was there to catch her, should she fail. No one to care for her, if she had no where else to go. No one. She was alone.

Sure, Harry was alone too. But he had Remus, and the Weasleys. Ron had his whole family. And it wasn't that Hermione didn't have the Weasleys. It was just that they weren't close, Ron and her, like he and Harry were. They were nice people, but they just weren't family.

Harry had grown up without a proper family; he still did have the Dursleys, should he fail in the wizarding world. But Hermione had no one. Both her parents were only children, and her grandparents were long dead. Not even some long lost, distant relative to show up and take her in.

Hermione dumped her bag on the ground, drew her hangings around her bed and fell into her bed, not bothering to pull the covers around her or to change, and fell into a deep slumber.

"Matt! Matt! Let's play hide and seek!" a young nine year old Hermione called out to her brother.

"Okay, I'll hide, and you can count" Matt replied.

"One…Two…Three…Four…Five…Six…Seven…Eight…Nine…TEN! READY OR NOT, HERE I COME!"

Hermione looked behind the nearest tree and frowned. Where would Matty hide?

'Let's see… I'll choose a pathway!' she thought to herself, pondering. And she chose the middle one.

Soon the sun was beginning to set, and large murderous looking trees loomed above the small girl. A botanic garden was not the place to be in the dark.

She searched behind bushes, scrubs and in fallen logs, choosing different pathways, not bothering to remember which way she had come from.

Soon enough, it was pitch black. Fear gripped her like a cold hand suffocating her, she couldn't breathe.

"Matty!" Hermione's voice wavered, as tears came pouring down her cheeks.

She stumbled in the dark, her arms in front of her, careful not to walk into anything.

Unsuccessful, after tripping over sticks and walking into various fallen logs, Hermione sat down, defeated.

She wailed even louder.

"Mum? Dad?"

"Matt?"

"Please help me, someone!"

"I'm alone… Mum! Dad! Matt!"

Hermione wept even louder, her tears running down her cheeks like a waterfall.

Sixteen year old Hermione Granger woke up with a start. Beads of sweat were dripping down her forehead and there were tears in her eyes.

"Hermione? Are you alright?" Pavati's voice brought Hermione back to reality; she was at Hogwarts, in her dormitory.

She had been crying in her sleep.

"Uh huh"

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, it was just a bad dream. Sorry to wake you Pavati"

"It's alright"

Then silence.

Hermione sat back against the frame of her bed; hair matted, frizzy and sticking to the back of her head.

She wiped her tears from her eyes, but whatever she did, how much wiping and dabbing she did, she could not stop crying. Silent tears ran down her face, uncontrollably.

They were never going to come back.


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