Lovelight

Dancing Queen

Where the hell was Maia Rose Granger?

Hermione had to find her, desperately needed to find her daughter so she could grab her arm, apparate her up to her room, place her inside, and lock and ward the doors beyond recognition as if she was Rapunzel in her tower. There was no way that she was going to risk letting her go down to the shop, letting her see‒

Get it together, Hermione. Find Maia and then go to your room. Not here. Not now.

She took a steadying breath and lifted her foot to continue down the hall but subsequently abandoned her quest as soon as the memories came flooding back, bombarding her senses and throwing her into overdrive and‒

"There you are!" Pansy exclaimed in her elegant sing-song tone, trekking down the hallway towards Hermione, her stilettos clicking against the floor. "We've been looking for you everywhere."

Hold it together. They don't know. They don't have to know. Nobody has to know. Just hold it together ‒

"Are you alright, Hermione?" Luna cooed, her silvery-blue eyes wide as they peered up at Hermione.

No no no no no no no I am most certainly not alright. My daughter's father is ‒

Stop that. Deep breaths, Hermione. Not here. Not now.

"Where's Maia?" she asked instead, using all of her remaining courage‒ her stores having been almost depleted thanks to the idiot parade that was currently in her bookstore‒ to stifle her negative thoughts and push through.

"I think she went down to the beach," the blonde soothed, placing her warm palm on Hermione's arm. The small gesture threatened to tear down her walls and force her to break in one of the most public places in the inn.

"Why?" Pansy continued to press, her voice just as gentle as Luna's was. "What's wrong?"

That was all it took for her to shatter, the tears flowing hot and fast down her face in such a repulsive display she was afraid the Slytherin would throw her out of her own home. But Pansy didn't, instead wrapping a reassuring arm around her shoulders as she pulled Hermione's head down to rest on her chest.

Damn Pansy Parkinson and her fleeting ability to be an empathetic human being.

"It's okay," she hushed, her fingers gently working through Hermione's curls as her feet began to move underneath them.

"I‒" Hermione choked, "I need t‒to find Maia."

"I'll go find your mini-me," Luna chattered, her hand resting softly over Pansy's on Hermione's back while the Gryffindor attempted to remove herself from her friends' arms. "I'm sure you could benefit from a break up in your room, maybe with some wine?"

"Yes, that sounds really great, Luna. Come on, Hermione, let's go get something to drink."

Reluctantly, she acquiesced, following Pansy's guiding hand as it led her to the stairs, the tears continuing to fall fast and blazing down her cheeks as she let her friend take over, her inner monologue raging.

It's okay, Hermione. Pansy and Luna have you. Let yourself be taken care of. You're going to your room, it's okay. You can be a human being with emotions. Luna will find Maia‒

Maia.

Her heart wrenched at the thought of her daughter, their daughter, the girl who was born looking exactly like her father. Her father who was standing...

A fresh round of sobs clawed their way up her throat as the cavern in her chest expanded, the guilt and the remorse and the fear and the inadequacy boiling over within as she heard Luna join the pair on the stairs behind them.