Chapter 10

July 2nd, 1993

Hermione entered her kitchen and looked at the odd sight with a tilted head. "What're they doing here?" In front of her, Crookshanks and Snuffles were playing roughly on the kitchen floor, while Sirius and Harry sat at the table with her parents.

Even though she liked both cats, they never left their home. Well, Snuffles was a full-blown in-door-cat, while Crooks liked to go out on adventures for days. Yorkshire was pretty far away, even for a part-kneazle.

She went closer to the cats and tried to part them. "Oy! You're not supposed to kill each other." She tried, jokingly, but without success as the cats just bolted right back into their fight once she let go of them.

"Hmpf." She grunted and turned to the other occupants of the room. "I didn't know you were coming, Harry."

"Why don't you come take a seat, darling?" Her dad said, pulling out a chair at the end of the table, between him and Harry.

"Umm… Sure." She did as she was asked, and walked slowly to the chair which her dad pushed back in once she had sat down. "What's going on?" She mumbled while looking at the solemn-looking adults at the table.

Harry was all pale, and wouldn't even look at her. "We're leaving…" He mumbled quietly.

"What?" She inquired. She wasn't sure she had heard correctly, because what she thought she'd heard, couldn't possibly be right. Her dad took her hand in his, and she looked at him in question. "What did he say?"

"What he said was, that we're leaving. A lot of things have happened this past year - and not just at Hogwarts. Threats have been made, sightings have been done, and our family… is no longer safe." Sirius said in a tired voice. A voice that under normal circumstances, was only reserved for Daniel or Harry when he had to explain why they had been sent to their rooms for the fifth time in an hour.

"I don't…" She didn't know how to finish the sentence.

She didn't understand…

Sirius sighed and ran a hand through his long, disheveled hair. "We're leaving, Hermio-"

"NO!" Harry yelled abruptly and stood up so suddenly that his chair flew back and hit the floor.

"Harry." Sirius chastised and looked at his Godson in a mixture of concede and disapproval.

"No! I don't want to leave! I want to stay here with Hermione! I want my own room! And my own bed! And my broom - and- and- and snuffles! And-"

Sirius was up so quickly that Hermione didn't even think she saw him moving. But suddenly his arms were around Harry, and Harry was sobbing into his Psudo-father's chest.

Hermione could feel her father clenching her hand a bit tighter around her small one, as she felt her heart beat faster and the room growing cold around her.

"I don't wanna - I don't wanna -" Harry repeated over and over again through his sobs, muffled by Sirius's clothing as the man tried his best to console and calm.

"I know. I know. I don't want to either." He shushed in between visible, deep breaths.

She slowly stood and went to Sirius's side, where she carefully placed a hand at his arm. Sirius turned his gray eyes to meet hers and she whispered; "But… You'll come back… Right?" She couldn't hold her questions in any longer. "Right?"

Without saying anything he released the arm around Harry that was closest to her, and opened it up in invitation for her to enter. She eyed the open arm anxiously.

But this is Sirius! Her mind screamed at her and she quickly went into the embrace.

"I don't want to leave." Harry whispered beside her, as she felt tears stinging her eyes.

She didn't want him to leave either. Ever.

"No, my love, it's not forever." Her mum answered from the table. Hermione found herself wondering why it was her mum answering, and not Sirius. "They'll only be gone as long as it's necessary - and they'll come back to Hogwarts with you once the summer ends."

"But I don't understand… Why do you have to leave?" She said, muffled by Sirius's clothes as he held her and her best friend close.

"Because… It's not safe to be at home right now. Bad people know where we live, and if they find a way to get to the house, then… We won't be safe any longer." He said, seemingly struggling to find the right words.

But… If the bad people could get to them, what about her family? What about Wills who was spending the summer at his friend's house? What about Grandma?

Shouldn't they leave as well?

Should they bring Snuffles and Crookshanks with her or were Sirius and Harry just bringing them to say goodbye? Would they be set free like that house elf that Harry freed from the Zabini's before school ended?

Could you even free a cat?

She could feel the world slowly coming to an end all around her, as her thoughts whirled out and away into nothingness.

Nothing was working.

Nothing was going the right way - and now her best friend was leaving her.

She was all alone…

"Hey…Hey…" Sirius whispered, "It'll be okay - you'll see each other soon enough. And Daniel as well!"

"We will?" Harry inquired. It was with a sudden realization, that she found out how their individual worries were exactly the same. She looked at him with big eyes, hoping that the answer they hopefully would get soon enough, would be positive.

"Absolutely. We're not doing this for the fun of it - but because adults need to do what's necessary to keep their children and families safe. You two, William and Daniel are all our children, no matter blood or DNA. We're family, and you keep your family safe." She felt Sirius shifting back a bit, giving both her and Harry the choice to move back or sit down should they choose to.

They didn't move.

"Are we safe, Sirius?" Her dad finally asked one of the questions she had been dying to hear the answer to.

"We think so, yes. Rhea has been both thorough and careful when she warded your property. I only know of one place - except for Hogwarts of course - that's as warded as this place, and we might end up staying there for ourselves." He sighed hard, and didn't sound particularly thrilled about this… place. Wherever it was.

"But we can write! Can't we?" Harry's face went from excited to sad as soon as Sirius started shaking his head solemnly. She felt Harry's hand clasp hers.

"No, Harry. It's not safe."

Saying goodbye after that bomb had been hard, to say the least. To know that they could neither see nor write to each other for the entire summer sucked.

July 25th, 1993

"Let me in, damnit!" She snapped at the fireplace after she had thrown in the floo powder and called out her destination for what must have been the 5th or 6th time, within a short period of time.

"Harry!" She shouted out as she stepped out and sank to her knees on the floor in front of the fireplace, and sobbed loudly. "Harry… I just want Harry…"

What Hermione didn't know, was that Harry sat in London looking at a fireplace that had been sealed since their arrival, and just wanted to spend some time with his best friend.

July 31st, 1993

This summer was the worst. It was supposedly the hottest summer in years.

It was so hot at all times.

She was bored out of her mind.

She had had no one to talk to except her parents and their current four-legged guests - not including the cows, sheep and chickens that her parents had acquired through the years.

And also Grandma, of course, but she was busy with expanding her parents vegetable-patch and kitchen garden, so she didn't have much time either. Unless Hermione decided to join… Garden stuff just really wasn't a part of her expertise.

She had received her Hogwarts letter the week before, and had begged them to go get her books immediately. Of course, it hadn't taken much effort since her parents knew how bad she needed company - so they had left within the hour.

Of course, she had already read all of this year's curriculum front-to-back from Wills' schoolbooks, but she needed to check that the new editions hadn't left anything important out. Right?

She was looking forward to leaving in a month, so bad, that she didn't even have the proper words for it.

It was like she had spent every day since Harry left, falling apart bit by bit.

Never in her life had she felt so lonely.

So Isolated.

As isolated and alone, as she felt right now. She was currently laying in the tall grass, in the field behind her house, looking up at the big, open sky. The big, open sky that extended everywhere and made her feel smaller than ever before.

It was pretty late in the day - about 8 or 9 PM, and she felt like she had been laying there for hours upon hours, when in reality it had probably only been one and a half.

Every day felt like that now.

A continuous rustling in the grass not far from her, made her realize that maybe she wasn't as alone as she felt. She sat up a bit and leaned her hands back on the blanket beneath her. She sighed, loudly. "Come on now, I know you're there." She called out. It wasn't even two seconds before a black cat came prancing out through the tall grass and meowed loudly. "See, I knew you were there, Snuffles." The cat walked over and laid down beside her as she leaned back down herself. Here, it snuggled all the way up to her ribs and started purring loudly.

"Where's Crooks?" She asked the elderly cat. In response, the cat did nothing but snuggle closer to her.

"Off again on another adventure, then? I guess it's just you and me again." She muttered, and petted the black cat affectionately from head to tail.

She breathed out a hard sigh, before looking back up into the darkening sky. "Happy birthday, Harry." She muttered.

August 15th, 1993

You can do it.

No, I can't.

Come on, you can do it.

Nope. Not a chance.

You can do it.

Shut it already, it's not happening.

Do you trust me?

She had been having this discussion with herself multiple times during the summer holiday, but this was the first time that it was Draco's voice in her mind, and not her own.

She didn't want to hear his voice. He had ignored her for an entire year. She didn't know if she could trust him anymore.

But standing in this stupid shed, looking at her stupid broom, suddenly brought the picture of him to her mind - and she wasn't liking it.

But it didn't make it hurt any less.

She was still hurt, still confused, still ignored. Still alone. It wasn't like she was angry anymore, like she had been the first long while where he had ignored her notes or turned and walked the other direction when they suddenly found themselves alone.

She was just… So sad.

So heartbroken.

She had the sudden urge to grab the broom and break the handle in two, but found that she couldn't even step forward towards the damn thing.

"Damn you." She sneered at the broom and left the shed, angrily slamming the door shut behind her.

She tried multiple times during the last couple of weeks before school, to try and conquer her fear of flying. But all it did was make her more sad. Sad, that somehow going to ride a broom again was something that her mind thought reminded her of him.

Him, and only him.

August 25th, 1993

Hermione looked at the Daily Prophet sourly. The front page was donned by a large picture with the entire Weasley family in front of the pyramids in Egypt.

They had won some kind of lottery and had gone to visit his brother who worked there.

Of course, she was happy that he and his family got to travel and have some fun (half of the school knew that they weren't made of money). But she couldn't help but feel sad that someone as cruel as him got to have fun, while she had nothing to do.

August 31st, 1993

She was so sick of reading all her books, again and again and again. Yes, you heard that right, Hermione Jean Granger was tired of books. She must have read her new textbooks two or three times already. When that started getting boring, she started making notes - after that, she jumped onto the 4th year books. She knew them like the back of her hands, from cover to cover. Her parents had even brought her to buy some new books, but they were finished within a couple of days…

She had taken up running in the morning, when the sun wasn't frying off her hair of course. But that only took about an hour out of her otherwise empty schedule.

Going into Eyam for walks also took like an hour - maybe an hour and a half at maximum - but she didn't need for them to think more of her as a freak than they already did.

Look! There goes the girl that we only see glimpses of for two months of the year!

Yay, the positives!

Her trunk had been packed and unpacked an ungodly amount of time already, and she didn't think she could have perfected it anymore after the first two times.

She had been right, of course.

If only William had been home… But he hadn't. She hadn't seen him since they arrived at Kings cross back in June, and she missed him dearly.

And Neville! But he had spent the summer traveling Europe with his Nan. So… Nope.

Though she might have been sick of books, sick of her trunk, sick of looking at the same house for all of two months with nothing to do - most of all, she was sick of being lonely. Sick of crying herself to sleep every night because she had no one but her cats and her parents to talk to - and they still had their work.

She was sick of reacting like someone was breaking into her home each time the mailman made his way down their driveway to deliver their post. Sick of the only company during the day being her cats, that weren't even hers.

She was so sick of it.

Sick of it all.

She was heading back to Hogwarts in the morning, but right now she didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She was so excited to see her friends that she was almost vibrating with excess energy.

But then, on the other hand… Sirius had said that Daniel and Harry would be coming back to school… But what if they didn't? What if something had happened? What if she had to go by herself?

Would Daniel even talk to her? He hadn't gone with Harry and Sirius to say that they were leaving, so probably not…

Anxiety was taking over yet again - another thing she was sick and tired of. The list was ever-growing, apparently.

I just want my friends back. She sobbed and laid down on top of her comforter, hugging her pillow to her chest.