Surprises in the lilac alley
It was a rather chilly morning in one of the very last days of July.
The frizzy haired girl was walking down an idyllic street not to far from Guildford, heading for the nearby bus stop, trailing a large trunk. The burden of it didn't seem to bother her though. Her father had attached four wheels underneath it and the trunk rolled smoothly behind her.
But the girl went past the bus stop. There was no hurry; besides, she needed a couple of minutes or more to think. She could as well go to the next stop, it wasn't that far.
Hermione hated leaving her parents like that. They hardly knew her anymore, her own fault of course; the three of them hardly ever meet these days.
Harry needed her of cause. Now more then ever after last terms event. With Dumbledore dead, they all needed one another.
Hermione hadn't talked to her parents about all of this. In the future, she knew, she might have to tell her parents the whole story. The tale of The-Boy-Who-Lived, The-Chosen-One. But this year had not been the right time for them to know how their daughter had been weaved in to his destiny.
Crossing the large market-square, Hermione disappeared among the tiny alleys surrounding it.
This wasn't the fastest way to the next bus stop, but she needed the time thinking.
The young man (or boy, it was hard to tell in the shadows) was tired, hidden by the bushes, outstretched in a strange angle. He wasn't comfortable but didn't really bother either. He needed some rest that was all.
The young mans face, still a bit childish, may once have been pretty but not these days. More pale then ever, he was, the eyes had lost there colour and beneath them there were dark shadows, not caused by the leaves concealing him. He looked as he had lost a lot of weight in a short notice of time and the robes of his lay loosely around his body.
The young man was aware of this but didn't give any priority to it, after al, he wasn't the boy he once had been.
Proud of today's hiding place, he tried to get some sleep.
Hermione walked down the alley, a very pretty alley, she had to admit. Hadn't been in this particular alley more then maybe once or twice in her lifetime.
Old houses and large lilac bushes lined the narrowly alley. Even though the lilac flowers since long had been dead, this was the kind of place she would like to live in when she'd grown old.
Her trunk bumped slightly. Maybe a stone… or a mislead root.
"- Ouch…"
Hermione stopped at once. Hogwarts had through the years widened her senses and no stone nor any roots she'd come across (how ever mislead they might be) had ever whined.
What was it then?
She could hardly belief her eyes as she glanced back on the slender lane. During her schooling she had learned to rely on her eyes, nothing was impossible, but… was that really an arm sticking out of one of the bushes?
It couldn't be… but it undoubtedly was.
Looking in to one of he lilac bushes she could just almost distinguish a young man (or a boy, it was hard to tell).
Authors note: I do know about the mandrakes in CoS but I doubt they say "ouch"!