Chapter 19
Hermione apparated to work the next day. Her parents hated people appearing and disappearing in front of them, but under the circumstances, their annoyance gave way to larger concerns.
She still couldn't believe he had attacked her. She dreaded to think about what he would have done if Harry and Ron hadn't come to her rescue. But as the store got busy, she dismissed it from her mind. Actually that's not true, it crept in as soon as she wasn't doing anything. She made sure she wasn't subjected to those conditions as much as she could.
Tension was building as the day was drawing to a close. And she hated it. She was not going to be told what to do by a stupid ferret. With all the confidence she could muster, she decided that she was not going to change her ways. She was going to walk down Diagon Alley to Harry and Ginny's apartment. She kept a firm grip on her wand the entire way, but luckily there wasn't any signs of Draco or any other Slytherins.
Ron was on her the minute she got in the door.
"You have to do something about this." Ron said. "He can't do this."
"Apparently he can." Hermione said. "Everyone thinks were married, they will let him do anything he wants. People were walking past and they didn't do anything."
"But you're not married."
"I never thought he would go this far." Hermione said, more to herself. "This is serious Ron, he attacked me."
"I know, but he didn't, we were there to protect you."
"He said he wanted to drive me out of this world." Hermione said, looking out the window at the world he was referring to. "Maybe I should go."
"That would be letting him win."
"I don't care! I don't want to play anymore, not if I am going to get attacked in the process. Winning against Draco is not worth getting raped or beaten, or whatever else he's decided in his demented little mind."
"Come on Hermione, I'm sure its not that bad. He was just trying to scare you." Ron said. "You have to report this. He can't get away with this. If you report it, he will be forced to stop. You can't let him spook you like this."
"No Ron." Ginny intervened. "I think Hermione is right. There is something seriously off kilter with this. This is more than just a bit of teasing."
"I know it is, but you can't just walk away. You can't let him win."
"Watch me." Hermione said feeling angry at being pushed. "It was mere chance that you and Harry were there yesterday."
"But we will be and you will be on guard next time."
"I don't want a next time. I am sick and tired of fighting. This war is supposed to be over now. I have had enough of fighting."
"So what are you going to do?" Ginny questioned.
"I am going to go for a while." Hermione stated.
"Just leave us?" Ron said with more concern than when she left their relationship.
"I can come visit here, but just stay out of the public for a while. Until Malfoy fixates on someone else. I'll go away for a while, come back and do my NEWTs then go from there. Its not like I am achieving anything working in the joke shop anyway."
"So what are you going to do?" Harry said, voicing in for the first time.
"I don't know. Maybe go to University, get an Internship somewhere. My grandmother has offered to get me an internship at one of the media companies. That would be fascinating. Or I could go travelling again, properly this time." Hermione was getting into the swing of things and the light feeling that came over her as she talked about the exciting opportunities in the muggle world didn't go unnoticed by her or anyone else.
Actually it was like a great weight coming off. Her time in the wizard world had always meant swimming against the current with pure grit making her move forwards against prejudice, small minded-ness and oppressive ignorance. There was no great horrible war looming, the constant obsession with her blood status and it felt really good.
"Just for a while." Ginny said pointedly. "You belong here."
"Uh huh." Hermione confirmed, but she wasn't sure how strongly she was going to feel about that later. The muggle world was like a shiny new life where everything was exciting, new and possible. Hermione knew that none of them would understand that. She was old enough to suspect that the wizard world may seem like a dark hole in comparison, but she wasn't sure. Maybe she would miss it terribly. She had after all missed her friends something shocking when she was away during the latter part of seventh year.
Hermione enrolled in University a few days later. She was going to study French Literature. It sounded interesting and she probably wasn't going to stay around too long, so why not study something interesting.
She was really excited about starting anew. She decided to dig through some of the stacks of books in her bookshelf to extract a couple of favourite French books she'd read a few summers back while on vacation with her parents. As she riffled through one of the stacks she came across her sketching book. The one she'd had with her in Cuba. It seemed to burn her fingers, but she couldn't take her eyes off it. The bland yellow cover of the booklet seemed to tease her, but her brain was screaming at her to put it back.
She slowly leafed through the pages full of Cuban scenery. They weren't really the sketchings she was interested in. Towards the second half of the book were the drawings of Draco. One of him fishing on the shore. One of him smiling. Several of him sleeping and naked.
She studied the pictures for longer than she'd care to admit, but closed the booklet quickly as she started to tear up. She had been so happy then, so content, living a lie.
She hated the fact that there was a part of her that wished that Harry and Ron had not been there in the alley. A part of her that loved his dedication, the willingness for intensity and the thrill of the chase. That same part that adored his Slytherin qualities, the determination, the resourcefulness and relentless pursuit of what they want. Even vengeance.
The fact was that she still wanted to play and that scared her more than anything. It was what made her back away. What kind of girl wants to be attacked on the street? And even though she had acknowledge that there is a part of her that revels in him and his constant piercing attention, there is a major part of her than cannot abide by it. It was not who she was raised to be. You did not allow any kind of aggression or any liberties for that matter. Boys should ask your permission before they kiss you. Ron had, so had Greg for that matter. So why had she on one level been relieved then those relationships failed?
She wiped whatever stupid moisture had built up in her eyes, put away the sketch booklet somewhere out of sight and dismissed those stupid thoughts from her head. She was going to have a fantastic Christmas and she wasn't going to think of him once.
Her university was chaotic. There were 10,000 students and she swore every single one of them were there that day. There was a sea of people her age, chatting, laughing, listening to their MP3 players or engrossed in their computer screens. There were cute guys, and cuter guys, then absolutely gorgeous guys. Ginny would never believe her.
The classes were interesting. There was no such thing as blood status and no one looked down on her. She could get used to this.
To her surprise, her friends were ambivalent about hearing of her new experiences. With a non-commited nod and a 'how interesting', the topics seemed to gear back towards quidditch at the soonest possible opportunity.
She had spent every Friday night at Harry's apartment and it had been great to see everyone. Both Harry and Ron were working at the Ministry and Ginny was trying out for one of the professional quidditch teams. Lavender had opened a shop selling beauty products. Luna was working with her.
Eventually activities were encroaching on their Friday nights together, Ministry events and the such. The Friday nights together became more rare and Hermione discovered that living in two worlds wasn't really working. Straddling the two worlds seemed to disable either of them from working properly for her. Eventually she was being invited out more by her new muggle friends. She could feel herself gliding out of the wizard world more and more. What was worse was that she didn't really have a reason to fight it. She would take her NEWTs at the end of the year, but beyond that she didn't really have any plans.
And then one day after one of her tutorials, she met Matt. He was cute and funny, and smart. He was two years older and planned to be a journalist. They walked to the tube station together and agreed to meet up for a coffee the next day. He was talking about going skiing in Norway the next week.
As per usual, the house was empty when she got home. Her parents usually didn't get home until later in the evening. But she got a funny feeling as she walked through the house. There wasn't anyone there and there weren't any signs that anyone had been. But something was off. She chided herself for being silly until she saw a single blond hair on the matt on her floor. It had partially fallen on the dark part of her Garfield matt, otherwise she would never had seen it. She got that ridiculous matt when she was seven and hadn't had the heart to throw it out. Besides, Crookshanks had loved it.
He'd been in her house. She couldn't see anything disturbed. She scanned the entire house for any hidden magic, but found nothing. There weren't any traps laid for her or her parents. There were no messages, or any sign that he wanted her to know he'd been there. She had vacuumed a few days ago, so the hair was definitely a recent addition.
She didn't turn the lights on until her parents got home. She wasn't sure why. Actually, she knew. If the lights are on, she could be seen from the outside. Not that she thought he's be watching her, but then again she'd never anticipated that he be in her house.