•Edited•
"Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if only one remembers to turn on the light."
- Albus Dumbledore.
🐙
It was the summer term once more, and the sun found Hermione perusing through the library as always.
Hermione had gone through too much this year and she found some relief in going back to her norm, even it meant sitting in the sweltering library.
A drop of sweat fell on the book she was reading as Hermione turned a page. She wiped her head almost furiously, as if somehow the painful memories of the battle in the Department Of Mysteries would go away.
But they were never going to fade away, Hermione thought ruefully.
They were going to haunt her till her last day. She felt most sorry for poor Harry; he had taken the loss of Sirius hard. She had expected him to anyway.
He had lost the closest thing he had to a parent, and Hermione could tell that it ate away at him a lot more than he showed.
When she'd woken up in the hospital wing, it was Ron who'd smiled at her and greeted her. The scars from the brains' tendrils were already beginning to fade away and so was the spell on his brain.
Nevertheless, Ron had neglected to mention what they had lost along with what they has gained, so it was a terrible shock to her when Harry's broken, flat voice proceeded to inform her of his dead godfather.
She hadn't know Sirius all that well, but still she had liked the man with whom she'd spent her Christmas holidays and missed his jests all the same.
The sun was beginning to burn in her face so strongly that Hermione feared it would light her book on fire.
Suddenly, having no urge to read anymore, she slammed the book shut. Madam Pince glared murderously in her direction but Hermione ignored her. She was done with people for today.
Grabbing her bag, she left the library as fast as she could.
The castle was cool and calm with almost everyone spending their day outdoors. But Hermione knew that Harry would be mourning in the Gryffindor common room.
With Harry in mind, she made her way to the Gryffindor tower.
As she walked down a corridor directly below her destination, Hermione heard something move behind her.
Almost without thinking, Hermione whipped out her wand and jumped around. The fight at the Ministy Of Magic had left her too wary to ignore any suspicious movements.
"Who's there?" She demanded of the air loudly, but there was not another sound.
She hesitated to turn back again. Perhaps it was Mrs Norris or a ghost?
She had already lowered her wand halfway when her ears caught another sound.
It sounds as if someone stubbed their toe somewhere around the corner.
