August | Hermione Granger x OFC

Chapter Twenty-Three

CW: mentions of blood and injury

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8th of May 1993

Robyn had been...off since the confrontation with Gunnar and Dylan. She couldn't stop blaming herself for Dylan's situation. No one could convince her it wasn't her fault, and Dylan had said it herself, reluctantly, but she had still said it: she thought she was being punished for Robyn's indiscretion.

But...it's not as if Dylan was being forced to marry Gunnar right now, or even this year. No, it wouldn't happen until Dylan and Gunnar had left school. Meaning, there was a possibility that Father would change his mind again. And since it was Robyn who had caused this, she had to fix it, too. If she were to nail the whole 'perfect pure-blood daughter' act for the next three years, maybe, just maybe, Father would forgive her for her transgressions. Then, by extension, maybe he would allow Dylan to call off the marriage.

Maybe.

She had to try.

So, she had been avoiding anyone who she knew her father wouldn't approve of. That cut out a lot of people. And she was sad about it, but she had to. When she wasn't with the Slytherins, she spent her free time studying, either in the Ravenclaw common room or the library, to ensure she'd be top of her year. Mostly in the library, though, as in the common room it was more likely that one of her year-mates would try to talk to her. Granger, too, had tried to talk to her, had even started occasionally escorting to her Magical Theory, but Robyn would resist conversation which made Granger seem lost and confused. She was persistent, though. Robyn would give her that.

She'd cried on Olivia's birthday, the first of May, as she missed her Ravenclaw friends. It had been two months, after all. Olivia's birthday had been last Saturday, and though the girls had put their lifeys on hold in honour of Lana, she could still hear them giggling away outside her curtains. They, of course, had tried to get her to join, but she refused. She had slipped a cute drawing of a unicorn surrounded by fairies onto Olivia's bed, though, as she had felt too guilty to not gift her anything.

It was Saturday again, and today was the Quidditch match that would decide the winner of the cup. She was disappointed Ravenclaw weren't in the running, but still wanted to watch the match. She liked Quidditch.

So, she set aside her book on etiquette (yawn. She'd rather read one of her Muggle books) and stood to head to breakfast. The others had already left. However, her vision spotted and she stumbled forward. She thought for a second it was from standing up too fast, but no, this was different. This was- a vision!

She tried – she really tried to fall backwards, hoping she might land on her bed. But, her balance was off as soon as she had stood, and she couldn't stop herself from falling forwards. Just her luck, she slammed her forehead off the bookshelf in the centre of the room on the way down. Lovely.

~~

She was standing over bodies – two bodies. Girls. They were both frozen, one was holding a mirror. They were facing away from her. She thought she might recognise them, but everything felt a little hazy – hazier than usual. She moved to see their faces—

Granger!

And beside her was—

Penelope!

They were lying in the corridor leading out from the library, petrified, it seemed. Or they were really good at staying still.

No, why would she think something so idiotic? Had she hit her head or something? Oh, wait...