57. December

She feels so alone.

She misses her friends. She misses Harry, and Ron, no matter how mad at him she is.

Hermione hadn't realised how quiet she'd been since she got home until her mother came to talk to her the night before. She cried, feeling somehow calmer afterwards. Talking with her mother helped, and Hermione suddenly remembered that she is seventeen and allowed to perform magic outside of Hogwarts now.

The thought brightens her up, she can finally share something of her world with her parents. She feels her heart constrict slightly, knowing that going to Hogwarts is driving them further apart. She doesn't know how to fix it. Right now everything seems broken, her relationship with her wizard friends or rather, absence of it and the one with her very not magical parents.

Determined to do something about it, she decides to start where she is. Home, with her parents.

On Christmas morning, she wakes up early and using magic, she makes them a feast for breakfast. When her parents enter the small kitchen, they look pleasantly surprised and it warms her heart.

"It smells good!" her father cheers, obviously famished at the sight of all the food.

"You made all off this?" her mother exclaims a little dumbfounded.

"Magic has its perks," Hermione shrugs nonchalantly.

She's nervous as she invites them to go to the dining room. She's closed the curtains, plunging the room in peaceful darkness and charmed three dozen candles to float effortlessly above their head. She turned ceiling into a beautiful and vast starry night sky that makes both her parents gasp.

Suddenly, she feels small, afraid of having gone too far. After all, they aren't used to magic like she is.

"I- I wanted you to see what I saw when I entered Hogwarts for the first time," she hears herself say quietly.

She remembers the grandeur of the great hall, the feeling of excitement coursing through everyone and the sensation of belonging, and how all of it had taken her breath away that night.

Gazing at a smaller version of it, that, six years later, she made happen using her magic, brings tears to her eyes.

She dares to look at her mother, who is watching her with mirroring tears and so much pride. Hermione cannot stop the strange mix of laughter and sob escape her mouth before hugging her parents tight.

Maybe, just maybe, they aren't as broken as she thought they were.