Novo Nachalo

Chapter 2: Not Ready Yet

Friday, January 25, 2008

Anger was an emotion Hermione struggled with. Not because it was harder for her than others, but rather, because it came more easily to her than others.

In fact, she preferred anger to the cloud of grief she had been living in for months. There was a certain sharp clarity about fury, after all. The problem was control, and at the moment, she was so angry that the copy of the Daily Prophet she had in her hand was smoking as she apparated to the street in front of Weasley Wizarding Wheezes with a snap so loud it echoed and made an older man nearby startle dramatically.

Hermione ignored him and stormed into the shop, calling out, "Ronald!"

"Uh oh," George said as he looked at her from behind the counter. "What did he do this time?"

She ignored him and headed for the stairs that lead down to the basement, guarded by a ward linked to an age line. Ron usually manned the adults only section of the shop.

"Ronald Weasley. Why the hell did you hide the paper from me this morning?" she shouted, throwing it down onto the counter, heedless of the couple who hurriedly gathered up their purchases and headed for the door in the wake of her thunderous emotions.

Like she was a storm chasing them out.

"Er, hey Mione. I just... uh. Thought you wouldn't want to see it," he said hesitantly.

"Of course I don't want to see it, you bloody idiot, but it still exists, and I want even less to be blindsided by gossip when I drop Rosen off at school. Did you think that was good for either of us? Do you think she appreciated being unprepared for... for..."

Hermione snatched the paper back up again, unfolding it and displaying the front page with its smouldering, blackened edges beginning to curl. She had a tendency to start fires when she was this heated. Usually only on purpose, but her control had been frayed by the stress of her life of late, and she felt too full of magic and emotion to contain it all. She hadn't had a decent outlet for her feelings of powerlessness since before Vik had died, because he was the only one who ever gave that to her.

"...Appleby Arrows seeker Draco Malfoy replaces Viktor Krum on the Falmouth Falcons roster as Starting Seeker. Malfoy's defection is a blow to the Arrows that begs the question, will Malfoy's excellent performance and growing fame continue to build long enough for him to take Krum's place in the public's mind as the world's best seeker?"

"Which is all a load of rubbish, anyway, so I figured it was better if—"

"But did you read the whole thing? Just wait. It gets better," she snarled, flipping the article over with a loud snap to read the rest of it beneath the fold. "With Hermione Granger's university confirming this week that she is on indefinite leave, one must wonder: Has the death of Viktor Krum broken the Golden Girl? And if so, then who, if anyone, can replace her? Christine Chesterwick, renowned self-help author and lifestyle guru, seems to have nominated herself to step into the roles of famed quidditch wife and celebrity mind coach when she promoted her new book with the tagline, 'Grow through trauma—Seek, don't hide!'"

Ron wrinkled his nose in a visible wince. Hermione thought that was an entirely insufficient response.

"Seek don't hide? I'm not hiding or seeking, and I'm not a famed quidditch wife or a celebrity mind coach," she continued to rage. "That isn't even a real profession. She made it up because she isn't a real healer, or a real celebrity, or even someone who should be coaching celebrities."

"Right, see? Load of rubbish, like I said."

"And yet, as soon as I walked her through the door, that little shit Sebastien Selwyn asked if Rosen was going to change her name to Chesterwick-Malfoy and stop being so broken like her mother, and I had no bloody clue what he was talking about. I could have wrung his snotty little neck," she ranted.