A/N: Sorry! It took me a whole lot longer than I had anticipated updating! But the internet hasn't been working on my laptop so I couldn't email the document to my other computer to put it up here. I'm sooo sorry! But here this chapter is! I'll try and update sooner!

Disclaimer- see chap 1, I'm tired of typing it out ever time.

The Girls of BlueMorning

Chapter 3-Down and Out, Yet Still Going

Hermione continued wallowing in self pity for several more minutes. She was still having trouble contemplating what had just happened to her, much less, who had done it. It was just too much, even for Hermione Granger.

"What can I do?" she said to herself through her tears. She replayed the whole thing in her head over and over and over again, yet she still could make no sense of it. 'Why?' was all she could ask? Having no answer to this simple, yet complicated question made it that much worse.

She balled her hands into fists and thrust them downward into the ground beneath her. "HOW COULD THEY DO THIS TO ME!" she screamed into the earth through clenched teeth. Her face was red and puffy from crying and she was shaking from shock. She collapsed to the ground beneath her in another wave of tears.

She curled into a ball against a nearby tree. She felt so lost. It was there that she cried herself into a dreamless sleep.

Hermione awoke hours later with a sharp pain shooting through her back. She groaned and rubbed her back as she sat up. She had fallen asleep across a root. Hermione moaned again as she stood up and stretched out. Her arms reached upward and her fingers extended out. Relief washed itself over Hermione. It was as if the stress was escaping right through her fingertips.

As she brought her hands down to meet her side, she leaped up suddenly, too suddenly. She collapsed down to the ground again dizzy. She stood again, slowly this time.

Something that remotely resembled a smile crept across Hermione's face. "This life might be shattered, but that doesn't mean I'm down and out for the count. The world has more to see of me yet! Maybe it's just supposed to be from a different perspective. Hmm..." She pondered aloud. She wiped the remainder of her tears away.

Hermione stared across the night's dark horizon, then up at the moon. "Our darkest moments can lead to our brightest." She smiled remembering a quote she had once read in a book. "The moon goes from light to dark only to become light again. This is simply my dark moon."

Hermione let out a triumphant war cry into the night. The trees stirred as if they could feel her perseverance. She may be down and out of this match, yet she was still going... and onto the next round.

"All passengers please take your seats-" the flight attendant continued on with the plane's procedure. Hermione eased into her seat by the window and stared out at the runway.

After deciding that she was going to start a new life, one away from any part of her old one, Hermione had gone to Gringots and took out all of her money. Then she had gone to a wizarding trade post where she traded all of her wizarding money for muggle money. After that, she quickly apparated home and grabbed her more precious possessions. Then she caught a cab to the airport and bought a ticket on the soonest flight out of England. The flight was to L.A. California.

The flight attendant announced that the plane would be taking off. Hermione whispered her last goodbyes to England and her old life and the plane started forward. 'Here we go Hermione. Breathe, just breathe.' she thought to herself. Soon enough, the plane was in the air.

First seconds, then minutes, then hours past by as the plane glided effortlessly through the clouded sky. The ocean was gone and out of sight from the window and all that could be seen through the round piece of glass were tall buildings and cars traveling from one place to the next.

Time continued to pass and the number of buildings dwindled into wide open prairies and grasslands. This country was so vast... Hermione loved it already.

More time past and she drifted off into dream land. She was walking along a wide beach with the setting sun. A pair of masculine hands slunk their way low around her waist and a shiver of delight ran all through her. The owner of the hands pulled her close and began whispering sweet nothings in her ear in soft breaths. A set of soft and tender lips made their way up Hermione's neck, leaving behind a sweet trial of kisses. She let out a sigh and closed her eyes, completely blissful. The lips met with hers and pulled her into an even more blissful kiss. Hermione smiled wide into the kiss. She was a little disappointed when the person pulled away but she smiled again when the words I love you were spoken lightly, as if they were fragile and precious, into her ear.

When Hermione went to open her eyes to see who this perfect man was, she was, instead, greeted with the scene of the plane landing. 'I guess that dream is meant for another day' she thought while a heavy sigh escaped her lips.

After the plane came to a stop, Hermione stood from her seat and grabbed her carry-on bag with all of her money in it and her purse. She waited patiently for the people to get off the plane. When she was finally off, she let out a heavy sigh. 'Hello California!' she thought to herself with a wide grin across her face. Her feet moved rapidly in the direction of the baggage claim and she waited again, though impatiently this time. She spotted her bag and her guitar and snatched them up as quickly as a cat swiping at its prey. She rushed from the airport terminal and out through security and then the front doors. She let out another sigh and dropped her bags to bathe in the suns warmth.

Her moment of triumph was interrupted when she was shoved aside. She turned to see who it was and to confront them about it, but whoever it had been had grabbed everything but her guitar and ran. She grabbed her guitar and ran after the mugger. Normally she would have cast some sort of curse on the man, but her wand was in her purse.

She ran and ran, but the man was too fast. He cut a corner and got lost in a crowd. Hermione let out a string of curse words and sat on a nearby bench in defeat. Now she had no money and well, nothing else. What could she do? Then her eye caught on her guitar. Maybe there was something she could do.

She took out her guitar and put the case down by her feet. She used the pencil in the case and the back of some empty sheet music to write a sign. It said, "Help me please. I just got mugged." She put the sign on the inside of the roof of the case. Then she began to play. Then words started to stream from her lips.

She played song after song to her hearts content. A good sized crowd had formed and so had a pile of money on the bottom of her guitar case. A smile appeared on her lips as she began her next song. She had been thinking about this ever since her life fell apart. She had written this song in her mind but had not yet expressed it. Her fingers flew across the strings as if this moment was what they where there for. The words coming from her mouth came with such passion that they could have brought even the coldest heart to tears.

The last line of the song came:
You think I'm down and out, yet here I stand... I'm still here... and I'm still going. Ooooo, yea I'm, still, going on.

Half the crowd was sniffling and the other half was completely in tears. Hermione smiled, through her own tears. She had meant every word of that song.

A/N: well there you have it. It's a little longer and Hermione isn't as depressed! Yea! Well ya. So, not much to say except, I'm glad you guys like the story so far! I like it too! Well duh I'm writing it! Ok, well now I'm rambling so I'm going to shut up now.
Shutting up...