DISCLAIMER. None of the characters used are a creation of mine. They belong solely to JK Rowling.
Severus was avoiding Hermione and it was as clear as the day to her. It had been four long months and he still hadn't managed to hold a decent conversation with her.
They hadn't fallen out. Not in the least. But things were different.
They would still study together and sit beside the Black Lake but the air between them would always be filled with unsaid words.
Hermione had already made her peace with it. She knew he needed time to digest everything. She could see his mind working. He was as attracted towards the Dark Arts as ever and ardently wished to join Voldemort but there was also an inkling of doubt that had settled deep into his bones.
Hermione had also come to avoid spending any time in the Common Room. She had never been one to spend much time in the Slytherin dorms anyhow. She would always leave in the morning and come back well into the night. Nobody ever dared question her. They never would. She was, after all, the sole daughter to the Lestrange House, one of the most sacred families.
Something about the cold and dreary atmosphere just didn't bode well with her. She was always so reminiscent of the high tower that was truly her home.
She often thought about sneaking in but she had enough to keep her awake at night. She didn't need another emotional rollercoaster.
Although her nightmares were far and few, she would still wake up in a cold sweat and screaming out names nobody would ever understand the significance of.
How cruel was it that the world would never know of its bravest soldiers, Hermione mused as she lay down on a couch that had appeared in the Room of Requirement.
She had spent the last two hours practicing the aviation spell. It was the hardest thing she had done but she had finally, after three full years mastered the art of flying.
And she was proud.
Very proud.
The only thing that remained was she couldn't share her elation with anyone.
Hermione shut her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief and wished she could go out into the night and test her skills in a more open and a natural environment. But she knew it wouldn't be the safest thing to do. Who knew what kind of wards were erected in the school against such a spell. The last thing she wanted was to alert Dumbledore of her dealings.
But what she had forgotten in her rush of excitement was where she was currently lying.
She opened her eyes to a starlit sky. She found herself lying not on a couch but in freshly mown grass with dewdrops adorning its blades. There was no snow laden on the grounds of this enchanted forest.
There were tiny fairies glowing a beautiful golden. They lined the tall trees on either side of her. The air smelled of herbs that Hermione had always associated with the Burrow. This brought a sad smile on her face but nothing could dampen her spirits in that moment.
She was truly and genuinely happy.
She quickly soaked in every little detail and saw how the forest extended across miles and miles of land.
Hermione gasped at the raw beauty of the scene around her and mentally thanked the magic within this mystical Room.
The Founders had indeed been the smartest people to ever grace God's Green Earth.
She removed her cloak and slid out of her shoes. Rolling up her sleeves, Hermione closed her eyes and concentrated on the centre of her soul, imagining a bright light beginning at its contours and surging through her veins and towards the extremities of her body.
She felt her body warp in on itself and turn into a misty white smoke. Despite the sudden loss of her mortal body Hermione felt no discomfort.
In fact all she felt was an unbidden sense of freedom that burst through her as she willed the white smoke emanating form her essence to rise.
She needed no vision. She needed no senses to see or hear or smell or touch.
She needed absolutely nothing.
She had surpassed the physical being of her soul and transcended into something wholly spiritual.
She truly did wonder how someone could ever call such a pure feeling dark magic. It had required nothing of her but her perseverance. It had demanded no sacrifice and no murder and no splitting of her soul. How could anyone have ever labelled this exotic feeling as anything even resembling the darkness.
But then how had Tom, a man twisted beyond the domains of common evil, managed such a feat. Surely a man of his malice could never have been so adept at a magic so innately Light.
She contented herself with the knowledge that she could never have all the answers. Some things she would just have to accept.
Forgetting everything else she pooled in all her energy to maintain the wraith like figure she had assumed and rose over the trees. She levitated herself to greater heights and truly gauged the extent of the forest the room had conjured.
She soared over the large expanse of nature and felt herself give in to the peace that had claimed her soul. As the wind carried her agile form into the deepest torrents of air she felt herself become immune to any other feeling than the complete loss of anything earthly holding her to this world.
She felt ethereal as she rose higher up and plunged into the never ending velvety blanket that the sky had threaded around her. The cold didn't bother her and neither did the soft rain that was pelting down to the ground.
The clouds below her formed a pale, translucent veil as she floated in the peaceful silence until she saw the forest end into the sea.
She dove into the water to find that instead of pulling her into its depths, the water turned her back onto the surface. She felt the vestiges of her smoke like form touch the lapels of the cold water.
Hermione circled back and rose into the air once again with the moonlight being the sole witness to her escape.
Hermione knew nothing but that this was her release from all the emotions of the aching sorrow she had been enthralled into for the last six years in this new life and the three that she had spent fighting in the war in her long lost past.
This was her reprieve from the weight of another war that was to come.
Her only relief from the darkness that kept sucking her deeper into itself.