Hermione yawned as she woke up, the way she always woke up. She balled up her fists and stretched them into the air, squinting and moaning a bit at the effect of the stretch. She noticed that her hands felt different, but she wasn't entirely sure how. She opened her eyes to check.
They were free of wrinkles, and young looking. They were full of color, and they felt strong. And it wasn't the silky hangings of her bed that she saw above her, but a clear blue sky that seemed to go on forever. She looked around and sat up, and it wasn't her fine grey hair that she saw bordering her face, but her old famous bushy brown hair, frizzy and untamable.
At first it seemed to be only her in what appeared to be a field of tall grass, but when she stood up she saw a familiar shape lying in the shrubs. Harry Potter was just waking up. He opened his eyes he sat up, seeming oddly surprised to be there.
"Harry!" shouted Hermione, running towards him, and o the way treading on something that shouted, "BLODDY HELL!"
She stopped in her tracks.
"Ron?" She said, looking down at him.
"Yeah, it's me, who did you think you tripped over, Scabbers?" Ron said, indignantly.
"Well, Ronald, it's just that your dead," Hermione said.
"Oh yeah…" Ron remembered.
"That's exactly why I'm confused," Hermione told him.
"But Harry's dead too!" Ron accused.
"Yeah, I'm dead as a doornail," Harry informed her.
At that moment Ginny sat up from the grass.
"You're dead, as well!" Hermione exclaimed.
"I know I'm supposed to be dead, Hermione," Ginny said, "But the question is, why, if we are all in fact dead, do we appear to be young and alive?"
"Well I was alive to begin with," Hermione told them with pride.
They all sat in quizzical silence for a few moments before a fifth figure popped up from the grass, blonde hair swaying around his face.
"Oh, dear god, I'm stuck with you four again. Why, god, why me?" Draco Malfoy turned his face to the heavens, "If only I had asked him yesterday…we had tea and crumpets."
"Softened up a bit, haven't you Draco," Ginny said, chuckling, "tea and crumpets…"
"It's what heaven will do to you…" Draco said apologetically.
All five of them got to there feet and looked around.
"Where are we?" Ginny asked, brushing dirt from her hair.
"I'm not entirely sure…" Hermione said, but there was another thing that was bothering her.
All four of the others had been dead, and she hadn't woken up in her bed this morning. Was it possible that she was dead too? She gave a gasp of realization. The wish she had made before drifting off to sleep must have come true. This was her second chance. Except everyone knew what she had done with her first chance. Then another thing occurred to her: if she had asked for a second chance, it was apparent why Harry, Ron, and Ginny were here. But as for Draco Malfoy, Hermione couldn't thing why he might have come back with her friends.
Draco was thinking the same thing. He had been dead before, he was certain of it, and apparently so were the others. So why had he been brought back with them?
The five confused people walked towards a destination they couldn't define. They simply walked slowly, slightly in a daze past what could have been miles of greenish yellow grassy fields, until they reached a house. It was rather large, made of red brick with big, white framed windows. The shudders on many of the windows were open, revealing gauzy white curtains that were blowing about. There was a big white front door with a heavy brass knocker on it.
For a second all five of them just stood and stared at the door. They could hear someone whistling from the window, and all of them were rather surprised when the face of Albus Dumbledore appeared in the window. They had always assumed that their professor lived at school. None of them ever thought that he had a house, and maybe a dog or a cat, too.
"Oh, hello, my friends! Do come in, I didn't expect to see you!" The old man shouted, beaming.