August | Hermione Granger x OFC

Chapter Eighty-Eight

CW: discussion of death and...well...

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After flying beside the River Thames for a while, they landed beside a fancy white building just down the road from the famous giant clock ("Big Ben," Hermione had commented, to which Robyn stubbornly said nothing). Dismounting the Thestral without waiting for Hermione, Robyn tried to hurry after Harry towards the phone box, but someone held her round the waist.

"Stop," Hermione commanded. Robyn whipped round to glare at her, but at that very moment a car zoomed past on the road and she jumped in fright instead, which didn't exactly make her seem very intimidating.

"What?" she said, voice wobbling slightly though she tried to hide it.

Hermione gave her a knowing look, then declared, "You're not to leave my side tonight, do you understand?"

"Hermione, I'm not a baby—"

"Do you understand?" Hermione repeated seriously.

Cowed, Robyn said somewhat reluctantly, "I understand."

Hermione nodded in satisfaction, held Robyn's cheeks, and kissed her firmly right there in the middle of the street just as Ginny and Luna landed beside them.

"I knew it," said Ginny triumphantly, not hiding her grin as she passed the two of them.

"Me too," said Luna simply, following after her.

Robyn couldn't find it in herself to care.

So, she continued kissing Hermione back as if she hadn't heard a thing. She wasn't pleased with Hermione for being so bossy with her, but they were about to do something dangerous. She'd rather they not be on bad terms...just in case something happened.

Hermione then took her hand so they could cross the road together, just like Brighton.

And there was the phone box, just like Brighton.

Well, not quite, because in this instance there was five of them all crammed in (they had to take two trips), but still, memories of using the phone box in Brighton flooded her mind. She'd phoned a completely random person and talked about 'The Lion King' with them. She'd been so happy. That day – that week – had been her favourite ever, probably.

This? She wasn't sure yet whether this was her worst day – she'd had so many, plus, it wasn't over yet. So far though, it was definitely in the running.

Gods. So much for 'she couldn't wait for exams to be over', so much for 'they could finally relax'.

Yeah, no. Not happening.

Robyn had been in the Ministry before – several times. She and her siblings used to visit every once in a while with one of their parents, but she'd never been to the Department of Mysteries (not in the flesh, at least). But now, here she was. Here they all were in the circular room she'd seen in the dream-thing.

As she looked around the entirely black room, she realised with a start that Harry was right earlier when he said there were too many people. Her friends didn't need to be here. How could she have been so careless, so reckless, to bring them here? This was dangerous. Voldemort was potentially here. How could she put them in this situation? Why hadn't she stopped them from coming?

She was starting to panic, imagining all the horrible ways this could go wrong.

"Are you feeling all right, Robyn?" Neville asked warily from beside her.