Chapter Two

Hermione

The last light of day was swiftly fading through the ever-darkening windows of the university library, when Hermione decided it was about time she ventured back home. The summer term had commenced and ceased so swiftly, that she was certain most students would have no recollection of it at all. Save for their examinations, that is.

Remaining seated at her desk, Hermione began to neatly arrange the stack of tomes she had amassed throughout the day. For any other physics undergraduate, Hayek's Road to Serfdom and Rand's Atlas Shrugged may have looked somewhat out of place amongst the likes of Mandelbrot's The Misbehaviour of Markets and Carlson's biography of Tesla.

But Hermione's curious mind had been left unsatisfied by the Lightman's The Accidental Universe, and – upon hence falling into the previously unchartered realms of ethics – she had discovered that philosophy and physics were really not all that different. And even went rather well together. Besides, nobody could blame her for desiring to temporarily set aside physics textbooks after all the mental acrobatics this year had demanded.

Shuffling out of her seat, Hermione released the tension from six-hours-worth of sitting motionless by giving her neck a gentle crack. Then, after slinging her Ledbrook gym bag over her shoulder, she gathered the books in her arms, and made her way towards the stairwell.

Almost four hours later, the train was approaching her stop. Face pressed absentmindedly against the glass of the window; Hermione resolved never to permit herself to travel so late again. Though the sky was much clearer here, since there wasn't so much light pollution as up at university, she failed to take advantage of it. For once, Hermione was not stargazing. She was drifting in and out of consciousness.

"We are now approaching Tisbury." The sharp, stale female voice of the train announcement shook Hermione from her drowsy state. She slinked past the elderly lady asleep in the seat beside her, and gently tugged her luggage free from the rack.

As the train slowed to a standstill, Hermione spotted her brother waiting for her on the platform. Will waved the train in as it moved past him, his bright blue eyes glistening in the moonlight as he searched the carriages for sight of his sister.

Hermione stepped out of the train into the still night. Seconds later, she was ambushed by Will's warm embrace.

"Steady on," Hermione murmured, still somewhat sleepily. "If you were any more forceful, you'd have landed us both on the line."

Will smiled. "Come on," he said, picking up Hermione's gym bag in one hand, and throwing his other arm over her shoulder. "Let's get home."

Once they had made their way to Will's weathered Audi, Hermione wasted no time in acquainting herself with the car's passenger window.

"…Don't you think?" Will said, seemingly continuing a sentence. He glanced to his left, observing Hermione pressed semi-consciously against her window. "H, are you even listening to me?"

"Mmm," she murmured, slightly irritated at having been woken again. "Mrs Hopton's nieces."

"French nieces." Will corrected, smiling inwardly to himself. "They arrived this evening." The road was winding to and fro, all the while bathed in moonlight. He looked back to it. "Riley and Aline."

"They're pretty names," Hermione sleepily interjected.

"They're pretty girls," Will replied, far more energetically. "I mean, I know she must be rather prejudiced – them being her nieces and everything – but the way she spoke about them. She seemed pretty definite." He nodded to himself. "All beautiful. All in an entirely different way."

"So they should be posing for Vogue," Hermione replied dryly, her head remaining fixed against the car window.

Her brother's interest in girls had been a rather recent development. Sure, for the past two years, Will had developed an interest in fashion that far surpassed her own, but it was only really in the last few months that he'd developed a real reputation. Somehow, her Xbox-transfixed, Star Wars obsessed, ever so slightly geeky younger brother who shared her passion for the starts has been transformed into a trendy and outgoing young man, who always had a different young lady on his arm.

"You ought to go see her," Will said, interrupting Hermione's train of thought. "Say hello. She idolises you, you know."

Hermione smiled, at last lifting her head from the car window. "And you really ought to stop befriending old ladies with beautiful nieces. Otherwise, your lovelies will begin thinking you're not entirely selfless."

Will cleared his throat. "It's a very clear night. View should be good."

"You know as well as I do, August's the best month for stargazing." Hermione said, satisfactorily slipping back into her previous position against the window.

"Look," Will said, a sudden urgency in his voice. "A shooting star! Make a wish."

Hermione flicked up her eyes. She didn't have the heart to tell Will it was only a satellite.

If I were to make a wish, she thought, which obviously I'm not. Because that would be horoscope-esque. And stupid. But if I were, it would be for some excitement around here.

The road bent gently, snaking among the moonlit Dorset hills, as Hermione drifted into her own darkness.


A/N: So now you've met AU Hermione, who is reading Physics at university, and her younger brother, Will. Both completely unaware that the wizarding world exists.

Please read and review! As always, I love to know your thoughts.

Happy reading. :)

- Morglay