Most children attempted to stay up late in order to see Santa on Christmas Eve, Hermione however made her mind up on getting to see the Sandman. She would lay down in her bed and stare out her bedroom window. For the past month, she's failed. But not tonight, she had a feeling tonight.
She stared out in the dark, night sky, until she noticed streaks of gold, zipping through the night. She sat up, perking in surprise.
"Gold sand…" she whispered and grabbed her camera. She raced to her window and looked up in awe at all of the tendrils that were entering the houses in her neighborhood. She even saw two of them enter her parents bedroom. She readied her camera and saw a figure in the sky, riding a golden cloud. She saw the figure stop and frown. He looked directly to her house and Hermione knew that he knew she was awake.
He was approaching her window and she scared him when she took his picture. "Hello." She said brightly, waving. She was quite the scene. Her hair, a rats nest, she had her pajamas on which had little books on them, and her blanket was lying on the floor as she had gotten up in a hurry.
"I'm Hermione Granger and you're the Sandman!" She squealed. Sandy smiled and nodded. He lifted a ball of gold sand and Hermione shook her head. "Please don't. Not yet. Is all of this true?" She asked as she ran to grab her book and opened it up to the passage of the Sandman. Sandy decided to indulge her and began to read the passage. Afterwards he nodded. Hermione squealed.
"That's amazing! Thank you so much for gifting us these wonderful dreams." She said and Sandy looked surprised. A series of symbols appeared above his head. Hermione captured all of them and managed to piece together what he was asking.
"Of course I'm saying thank you. You go to every person on this planet every night and give us these wonderful dreams. It's a lot of hard work, you deserve to be appreciated." She said and Sandy scratched the back of his head, looking a tad bit embarrassed, as well as pleased.
He beckoned her and patted his cloud. He figured that having the child come along on his nightly rounds for a little bit wouldn't hurt. Hermione beamed and hopped on, trusting the spirit. She clutched at the cloud as they lifted higher into the air. Little Hermione was scared of heights, but her excitement of seeing Sandy working overcame that. She watched him mold his sand into the dreams he would send out.
She grabbed at some of the sand that would slip through his fingers and began to play at molding it, not noticing that Sandy had a surprised look on his face. He had never seen anything like it. A human being able to manipulate his sand. Not even other spirits could do that. He held out his hand and gave Hermione a ball of sand.
Hermione took it and made a dragon. Sandy was surprised at the level of detail it held, children her age would focus on one detail, not the whole being. He mimicked throwing the sand and she did, as a result, it grew and circled around them. Hermione stared in awe.
"That's amazing… where does the sand come from?" Hermione asked. Sandy shrugged, he never really thought about it. "How did you become the Sandman?" She asked and more symbols appeared above his head. She read through all of them.
"You died and the moon made you into the Sandman?" She asked, slightly confused, sure she read that wrong. Sandy nodded and pointed to the moon. Hermione looked towards the full moon and thought it was brighter all of a sudden. Hermione felt a thought come to the surface, Man in the Moon.
"Mani…" she said and Sandy nodded, excitedly. "Norse myths, huh?" She asked. "He made you into the Sandman? What does he do?" She asked and saw a flurry of activity over Sandy's head.
"He watches over the children and spirits and makes spirits for to protect the children. Wow…" Hermione said. She turns to the moon once more. "Thank you, Mr. Mani!" She shouts and she saw a brightness that definitely wasn't there before. Little does she know, she was the first child to ever thank Mani, or even acknowledge him.
She noticed her house in view and pouted, her mini adventure coming to a close. Sandy tutted at her and she giggled. A tendril of gold sand grabbed her and she floated to her bed, her blanket being placed on her. The tendrils petted her before they slipped back out her window. Sandy waved as she was dazed with a pinch of gold sand. She waved back, eyes already growing dreary.
"Night night…" she yawned and she conked out, images of golden clouds and dragons swirling over her head. The sand was so bright it started to turn white. Sandy beamed, such a special girl was only worthy of pure dreams. And thus, that was the first time Hermione ever met a Guardian; but it wouldn't be the last.