Hermione stood there forever waiting for an answer. She just could not believe that Sarah her friend and older sister stand in was calmly sitting in the Headmaster's office waiting for her.

"No. Were you expecting perhaps the Wizard of Oz?" Sarah asked jokingly, though it seemed forced.

At those words Hermione had crossed the room in a matter of seconds and had almost knocked Sarah out of her chair with a bear hug Sarah had tried unsuccessfully to avoid. Because of school Hermione hardly ever saw Sarah, a muggleborn witch from Australia. This caused Hermione to do this every time they did see each other. When Hermione pulled back she saw Sarah smiling at her but it wasn't right. It wasn't her usual bright smile that could light up a room. It reminded her of the faces of the Professors outside. Though this fact did not change Hermione's excitement at Sarah visiting her at school.

"What are you doing here?" Hermione's voice was full of excitement but her face fell mirroring Sarah's own.

Sarah turned to Hermione and said, in the most serious voice Hermione had heard, "Sit down Hermione, we need to talk."

So Hermione took the chair across from Sarah and pulled it closer. Something was wrong. Sarah was never this serious. Hermione felt dread creeping through her being. It was making it hard to breath. She hoped for once in her life she was wrong and that Sarah was going to visit more often or something that was totally good news. But as Sarah opened her mouth to speak, Hermione knew nothing good was going to come out of her mouth.

"Hermione last night while your parents were driving home from work, there was an accident. Their car came off the road." Sarah spoke this as calmly and quietly as possible watching Hermione take the information in, noticing the mental blank she continued even though she was sure it would kill her.

"Hermione they didn't make it."

Hermione had calmly listened to all this but her mind refused to believe and compute what she had just been told. It couldn't be true and besides Sarah wasn't looking at her. Maybe it was a joke... but Sarah wasn't this heartless.

"What?" Hermione heard a voice ask and then realised it was her own. It had broken and sounded nothing like her.

Sarah sighed before speaking again. This was going to be far worse than she had first feared that it would be.

"Hermione, I'm sorry but your parents are dead." Sarah looked Hermione right in the eye as she said this so that there was no mistaking the seriousness or the truth behind these words.

The effect of this pronouncement was to cause Hermione to shut down. There was a blank look on her face and her eyes glazed over as she retreated into her own mind. She realised that it was too quiet in the office. The walls seemed to be pressing in on her, suffocating her. All she wanted to do was leave but she seemed to be frozen to this spot, this moment in time. Cursed to spend the rest of her life anchored here, listening to Sarah's words that had decimated her world in a heartbeat.

Hermione's thought's were broken when she felt Sarah pull her into a hug and realised that she had started crying. Sarah's announcement had broken Hermione. This could not be possible. Her parents could not be dead. Yet Sarah had never lied to Hermione, ever. They had always had a policy of not lying to each other. Instead they would tell each other why they wouldn't or couldn't answer the other. So if Sarah had said it, then there was no way around the fact that it was true. But part of her still screamed that this could not just be true.

Then she heard Sarah, as if she was far away from this time and place. She was talking to her, whispering something and as Hermione struggled to listen to her she realised how hard this truly was for them both. They had first met when Hermione was five. Sarah had moved in next door and had come to Hermione's rescue one afternoon when she could not get in to her parents house and they weren't due home for several hours. It had been pouring rain and Hermione felt as if she had been swimming in her clothes. Unsure of what she would do and already not feeling well she was saved when, Sarah who had moved in two days previously, had turned up with an umbrella. Hermione had jumped at the chance to use their new neighbours phone to call her parents. Hermione had instantly trusted Sarah; this trust was repaid tenfold by Sarah. Indeed when both Hermione's parents had turned up worried for Hermione's safety they had found her and Sarah talking about constellations. Before the Grangers left Sarah told them that if Hermione needed someone to watch her after school then she was quite welcome at her house. This had cemented the friendship between Hermione and Sarah but it was a year later that they became almost siblings.

It was almost Hermione's sixth birthday when Sarah saved her life. Hermione had been bullied all day about not having any friends and had run home crying. Running across roads without looking though was a bad idea. A block from home Hermione's parents and Sarah had been waiting to surprise her when they watched her run out into the middle of the street with a car barreling down on her. No one was injured but the Grangers could not explain for the life of them how Sarah had not only made it to Hermione in time but had crashed tackled her out of the way without anyone getting hurt. From that day on Sarah was family and the only one Hermione trusted with all her secrets.

Sarah had been there from then on. Through Christmases and birthdays, when Hermione was sick and when her parents had renewed their vows and when Hermione had found out about her being a witch. This had led to Sarah's admission of being a witch herself. Indeed with permission it had been Sarah who had taken them to Diagon Alley and to Platform Nine and Three Quarters. They had even gone to France the previous summer and were planning a return trip this year. Hermione realised that Sarah must be suffering almost as much as she was. Then she finally heard Sarah's words loud and clear. It was as if someone had turned the radio of her life up full ball.

"I know Hermione. I know. Just let it out. They wouldn't want you to shut yourself out of the world. Don't leave me as well." Hermione had not realised it was possible to break her heart any further until then. Sarah's voice far from its usual bright joking self was full of despair and had been breaking as she spoke. There was no mistaking the fact that right then both Hermione and Sarah were suffering from this news.

Sarah was desperately trying to reach Hermione because the thought of losing her too was breaking Sarah's heart. She had hoped that it would not come to this. Had prayed that they could be friends up until the end but Sarah knew that it was now impossible but she would help Hermione. If it killed her, as she knew it would.

Both Hermione and Sarah were shocked when Hermione found her voice. The tears were still flowing but Hermione had to be sure. She had to know.

"Are you sure?"

Hermione's question hung in the air. Sarah had brought Hermione back to her and knew that the answer would break the only hope she had left. Sarah wasn't sure she could do this but she had no other choice. When she spoke she was resigned to both her fate and Hermione's.

"I was the one who identified them Hermione. They're gone."

Those two sentences were all it took to destroy Hermione's calm. Indeed the howl of misery that escaped her before she burst into tears and buried herself into Sarah's warm embrace seemed to shake the castle and reverberate inside the room. Outside in the foyer all the adults heard the noise and a small part of them broke for her.

Inside the room after what seemed to be an eternity Hermione finally seemed to recover herself. She pulled back from Sarah and looked her in the eyes. She had a question. They both knew it was coming and neither wanted to broach the subject.

So Hermione took a deep breath and in the calmest voice she could find asked, "What happens to me now?"