Author's Note: Here is the next part. I am breaking my own rule a little bit because I still havem't finished the chapter I am working on but I've hit a bit of writer's block and don't want to keep you waiting any longer.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, I am not JK Rowling, I am not making money from this.

Warning: This story has an M rating for a reason, it is dark and will continue to be dark.

PART TWO

"We need time to defuse, to contemplate. Just as in sleep our brains relax and give us dreams, so at some time in the day we need to disconnect, reconnect, and look around us" ~Laurie Colin

July 6th, 2000

"You will find that it is necessary to let things go; simply for the reason that they are heavy. So let them go, let go of them. I tie no weights to my ankles." ~C. JoyBell C.

Hermione was aware she was awake before she opened her eyes. She was alive –that was a good sign. She lifted her head just slightly and ran her hands around every inch but didn't feel any sticky blood to worry about. She was happy with how everything had turned out.

The moment she had started to fall from the train, purposeful or not, she had been overcome by fear. She could only hope the charm would be strong enough to hold, which had been a gamble since she hadn't practiced magic in over a year and wandless magic was tricky.

She could feel daylight on her skin. The sun was high and beating down on her. She had to have slept through the night then. It was nice to feel the warmth of the sun and know that no one would order her inside or threaten her.

The feeling hit her suddenly, freedom. She was free, on the run, but free. Now all she had to do was find Harry. Logically she told herself he would return somewhere they knew was safe, but she knew there was a possibility of him hiding somewhere she may never find.

But word was sure to get out about her escape, maybe the news wouldn't travel into the towns –just like she hadn't known about Harry for so long- but the outside world would have to know. Voldemort would surely send out notices that people were to turn her in if found, or murder her. Anything could get back to Harry and make him realize she was looking for him too.

The important thing would be finding a way to travel safely. She needed to stay out of sight, but close enough to main roads that she would be able to find her way if lost. Not being able to Apparate made being on the run much more complicated.

She was lucky her leg was healed enough to walk around. But if someone started to chase her she would never manage to get away. She needed to be careful. She had to think about self preservation rather than foolishly jumping to the rescue when she didn't have the means to do anything –or foolishly jumping off trains and hoping she survived.

Finally she opened her eyes and took in the day. Her sight was fuzzy, but only barely. She could still see but for the first time in her life squinting made things better. It was a little bright for her eyes causing her to blink and take the images in slowly.

She only saw grass in her line of sight, but somewhere nearby she could hear the flow of water. Her heart raced, she and her parents had gone to nearly every body of water in England at some point during her life if she was able to recognize where she was things would be much easier.

Her plan no matter what was to head south. Shell Cottage had been sold by Bill but the Order had taken it up as a safe house right before the Battle. If she could make her way there she was bound to see a friendly face. Shell Cottage was one of the only safe houses she could think of that hadn't been compromised, at least to her knowledge. Bill and Fleur had left it, she remembered a vague mention of moving to America; but that was before the battle. Hogwarts had changed everything.

For now she was happy to assume that the cottage was safe and travel south. She hoped she wasn't too far north, a long distance to travel wouldn't be fun with her leg. Anna would get lots of chances to fuss over her though.

Anna.

Hermione cursed in her head. She hadn't thought of Anna once since she woke up. The girl had been her only family for a year and she just let her mind run away with plans of where she would go and what she would do. Of course with Anna in mind she would need to double check those plans with the younger girl. She couldn't very well lead her about the country with no real plan if Anna had something better in mind.

Hermione moved slowly, still scared she may have hurt herself. Standing up too fast with internal injuries could make things worse. So she started just by tilting her head up, she felt a little dizzy but she let the feeling pass before propping herself up on her elbows. On and on she continued until she had pushed herself to her feet.

She stretched slowly. It didn't go without notice that her leg felt better. Her whole body felt better, like she had gotten to sleep off the stress of everything. The thought crossed her mind that more than one day may have passed, but Anna wouldn't have let her sleep that long.

She groaned as a small headache started to formed. Every movement she made was slow and deliberate in hopes of avoiding any further injuries. She needed to be as well as possible to take on the challenge of a walk across the country.

Her eyes scanned the land, searching for Anna in the distance. If the girl had woken before Hermione it was very possible she went to find the source of water. Thirst overcame Hermione just thinking about the possibility of clean refreshing water.

She turned to look behind her, carefully minding the tracks under foot. How she had managed to survive was a miracle, and for a moment she felt happiness as she took in the green grass surrounding her. But her happiness was destroyed the instant she turned to see the tracks behind her.

There, Anna was laying her chest still and her eyes open. Her head had a deep gash covered in dried blood. The stain covered a good portion of the tracks as well. One of her legs was twisted underneath her body making her appear to be a human pretzel.

Hermione had nearly fallen to the ground. Anna had the faint traces of a smile played across her lips –as if her optimism had come back to her in her last moments. She was too stunned to feel anything. The hurt and sadness were frozen within her chest as she slowly took steps over to Anna's body.

She knew the war had taken lives, she had taken lives herself. But she hadn't witnessed the death of someone she cared about. During the battle she had run across bodies laying in the hallways but it was never someone she knew well. This wasn't just a body, death had taken her friend. Anna had kept her alive and helped her see the good in life at times when Hermione would have lain in bed till she died. In the year they had known each other Anna had become a part of Hermione.

"No." she croaked out as she kneeled beside the young girl.

She was supposed to take care of her. Anna was supposed to be fine, she was supposed to survive the war and keep living her life. Hermione didn't understand how the charm hadn't worked. There was no reason Anna should've been killed –injured maybe but the charm should've prevented death.

Hermione's eyes traveled to the blood stained ground. Tracing the stain back she saw that the blood had trailed for a while before Anna found her final resting place. It was possible Anna's charm never worked properly. She hit the ground with all the force she had and died in the process. Hermione's plan for survival had backfired, and in the process another person got hurt.

It seemed, to her, that all she did was hurt people. Since the moment she pulled Harry away from Hogwarts the people around her had only gotten hurt or worse. It didn't bring her any comfort to think about Anna wishing for death only minutes before jumping from the train. It didn't help to think she had died with her hope back.

'Hermione, I've just got to say-'

What? What had she been about to say? Hermione cursed at herself for not letting the girl have her last words. She'd thought something was important enough to say before jumping off a train and Hermione hadn't let her.

She needed to do something, Hermione knew she needed to get moving before Death Eaters figured out she was missing and she couldn't just leave Anna laying on the train tracks. With a slight struggle she pulled herself to her feet and pried Anna off the ground. The girl was small, and light as a feather but Hermione was weak.

Figuring her best option was to move towards the trees in the distance she forced herself to gain some type of second wind. Making her way to the trees the rushing water got louder. She knew she needed to be careful as to avoid random muggles. Being seen carrying around a dead body would not help her, add in the fact that they both looked like they had been severely abused and neglected and she was sure no one would leave her alone.

She was confused about where she was, the small patch of trees brought her to a river and she knew exactly where she was –or where she should've been. She didn't understand where the clearing or the tracks had come from unless they had been magically built during her time away from civilization. But she was sure she'd stumbled upon the Avon river. Even more so the houses and little town she could see in the distance looked like Salisbury.

But something was wrong. The bridge crossing the river was destroyed, and as she moved closer to town –staying on the edge of the trees to remain hidden, she could see that in the distance the town had been destroyed. It looked like a bomb had gone off. Hermione could only think that Voldemort had been a part of it somehow. He was starting to destroy muggles now that he had a handle on the magical world.

She didn't even have time to mourn those who might have been lost. She couldn't take even a moment to feel anything other than the need to get away. Salisbury was a nice place, it would make a good resting place for Anna. Since Hermione had no tools or time she figured the best way to lay her friend to rest was in the water, just leaving her out in the sun would hardly be appropriate.

The water was poetic in a way. Always moving and free –it would be a nice ending for the girl who had been trapped. Hermione forced Anna's eyes closed before she rested her on the shore for a moment. Saying goodbye was hard and the words didn't really come to the older girl. There was so much she wanted to say, so much she wished to do differently, but she could only think that Anna was in a better place than the town they'd come from.

It only took a few moments for the body to sink into the depths of the water once Hermione set her friend in the river. It was another moment Hermione felt like she should have been crying but tears just couldn't come to her. It took too much to form the tears, too much energy to do anything but survive.

She needed to get moving. Her plan of going to Shell Cottage was all she had to live for at the moment and she needed to let go of the past. If she let Anna's death consume her she would never manage to get anywhere, she'd be just as trapped as she had been on that train.

She would make her way to the coast and trace her movements that way. It wouldn't be as hidden but she could only hope Voldemort wasn't out in the open. If she was able to just blend in enough to make her was to Tinsworth she'd be able to find an Order member.

Her best guess was it'd take her five days to walk there. Though with resting and her injured leg she thought she might be overestimating her abilities. Shell Cottage wasn't impossible though. And she knew eventually she'd make her way there. She might be alone but she had a silver lining of hope.

Author's Note: I am so sorry, I've gotten messages and comments hoping that Anna and Hermione will finally be free and it's all dashed. But it really was necessary Hermione alone on her travels. I hope you don't hate me too much. It is a war, and people die, especially doing risky things, but take comfort that there won't be another death for a while.