Romione One-Shots

Home is where the heart is

Set in the time when Harry is still at the Dursley's after the trio's 6th year.

"Coming, Mum!", she said.

Hastily wiping her tears away, she finished packing and looked around her room for one last time. The only things remaining were the furnitures and walls, which to outsiders might seem like useless, lifeless things but even these lifeless things held some very meaningful memories.

She spots a little dent on the wall and starts thinking about a time when everything was so easy.

They were just unpacking the boxes after moving into their brand new house. A 4 year-old Hermione was jumping in excitement for getting her own room.

"Hermione, honey, take your books and arrange them on your bookshelf!", her mum called from the next room.

She began unboxing a box that lay on her bed, inside which were some of her favourite books.

She picked up a few books and turned to the other side, when she slipped on a piece of tape on the floor and landed forcefully on a chair next to her. The books landed on the floor with a thud and the weight of her caused the chair to move backwards and bump onto the wall.

She immediately got up and gasped when she saw a dent on the wall. On their newly painted wall.

Her dad came rushing in to see what had caused the ruckus.

"Hermione, are you alright? What happened?", he asked, his tone panicked.

She went pale as she slowly turned towards her dad. She hurriedly explained what had happened, her voice shivering slightly in fear of what her father might give her as a punishment.

But to her astonishment, her dad wasn't mad. He seemed relieved, in fact. He laughed and picked her up, twirling her around. Not a hint of anger could be seen on his face.

Hermione came back to the present when she felt tears sliding down her face. She quickly wiped them away and slung her beaded bag diagonally, ready to go.

As she was closing the door, she caught sight of a few markings on the edge of the door. Memories again took hold of her as she remembered how, years ago, her mother used to measure her height and marked the lines on the door. There were many a times when she complained about how little she had grown or how she wasn't growing anymore. But, sometimes she used to be pleasantly surprised by how much taller she had become.

Glancing at the markings once again, she saw that the last one had been marked at 4'11 feet. That had been her height just before she had gone off to Hogwarts. There had been no more markings after that.

Things were never quite the same after that.

She closed the door and hurried down the stairs, pushing back tears. She reached the living room and saw her parents sitting on the sofa with their backs to her and watching television.

Deciding that it would just become harder to do if she wasted anymore time; she pointed her wand towards her parents.

"Obliviate", she muttered softly.

She watched as her mum and dad stiffened for a moment and then relaxed, looking around confusedly.

She couldn't bear to see the look of unrecognition on their faces if they saw her. So she left the plane tickets to Australia on the table and rushed out of the door.

If things went according to plan, (which she assumed will go as she had triple-checked everything) then her parents should be on their plane to Australia in 12 hours. Going to start their new life, completely unaware that they even had a daughter.