August | Hermione Granger x OFC

Chapter Sixty-Nine

nice

♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡

It was almost midway through August now, and Robyn had just about gotten used to being alone all day. It was all right, she supposed. If anything, she felt like one with nature, spending most of the day outside by the sea. She probably spent more time outside than in.

And yet, she still had not seen any wild horses. Maybe Nadir had made them up to keep her mind occupied.

Well, it worked. She would stare out her window for probably longer than acceptable, waiting. And when she went on her walks, she would sit amongst the sandy dunes for probably longer than acceptable, waiting.

Nothing. No horses.

Lots of sheep, though. And seagulls.

While she waited, she made sure to practice Occlumency. She'd had her mind protected most of summer really, not wanting to fall behind without her lessons from Professor Snape, but at this point, she was more determined than ever, feeling sick of the anxiety and guilt she felt 24/7. And there were certain things Nadir did not need to see. Not that she thought he would enter her mind without permission, but it was always a possibility. Like Dumbledore had apparently done to find out she liked the beach – she hadn't even noticedhe'd done it.

Anyway, she didn't know why she wanted to see the horses so badly – she had seen more interesting magical creatures before, Buckbeak the hippogriff, for example, and, for the first time, thestrals at the end of term. But still, she just wanted to see them. It felt like she had to. Like, if she didn't, she would be insulting Epona's memory, or something. Whatever.

They hadn't shown up yet, but she still had hope.

She just had to remember to keep telling herself that – to be hopeful. It was hard though, even with her Occlumency. And some days it was too hard, and she'd remember the surprise on Cedric's face when she stupidly stunned him, or she'd make up scenarios of things that could have happened at her house this summer.

But then Nadir would come back after work and try to cheer her up, bringing home a new film or blasting a new song for her on the radio. And he reassured her that if anything did happen to her family, Dumbledore would help them. She trusted that he would.

She could tell Nadir felt guilty about keeping her isolated away from everyone and everything, so he would do his best. It was like he really cared about her.

Nice.

One day in particular, she was feeling more despondent than usual. Why? She couldn't say. She just was. Maybe the moon was affecting her; that's probably what Luna would say. Hermione would probably say she was about to get her period or something else equally practical. Either way, she couldn't really be bothered to be on top of her Occlumency today.

Plus, there had been a pain in her hand a few days ago that she wasn't sure whether to be worried about or not. It was the hand with the scar from the Dark Lord. Rather, it wasn't uncommon for her to feel a strange burning sensation, but this one had been stronger, sharper, more intense. Intense enough to make her stop and grip her wrist in distress. She had no idea why, or what it meant, but she didn't like it. She'd been worrying about it ever since.

And it was raining lightly, too.

So, she was in a bad mood.

Instead of walking along the beach, she decided to go up the hills for the first time. Something new might be good. New perspective, or something like that. It made her huff and puff a bit more than usual, but the view was worth it as she stood at the top with her hands behind her head.