The Invisible Wars

Chapter 1: The return of the turncoat

In a blur, it was all over, the restoration period as the Ministry would like to call it. Two years of rebuilding whatever was destroyed.

But nothing is ever really restored.

Hermione sat in the train compartment, eyes vacant, watching the blur of green fields outside. She felt a hand reached hers and she looked up.

"Where have you been?"

Harry took the empty seat beside her. "I checked to see how much students are coming back this year."

Hermione dropped her eyes to her lap and resume on staring out the window. "And?"

"Not much."

She was counting the dead inside her head. A hand squeezed hers once again.

"It's going to be alright."

She watched Ron and Ginny, sleeping side by side opposite them. This was all familiar, they had sat in the same compartment, seen the same fields unfold in the distance, it should feel like they are coming home but she felt as though she was sinking the closer they get to Hogwarts.

"Are you sure that's safe?" She could hear Harry patting his wand on his knee and mumbling spells under his breath. Practicing. "You might end up blasting something here."

They were all under Auror training now, under the direction of Kingsley Shacklebolt the Minister of Magic. With many Aurors killed by Voldemort and his Death Eaters, the Ministry permitted any of-age participants in the Battle of Hogwarts to become an Auror immediately in the condition that they are to complete their final year of study.

"Sorry, I'm feeling a little—edgy."

The Scarlet train decelerated into a stop. The thestrals were the first thing that Hermione saw. She had never seen one before and having so many of them waiting below the platform turned her head into a spin.

She stalled behind Harry, Ron, and Ginny as they made their way out. There were murmurs coming from outside, students yelling in surprise as their eyes landed on the skeletal body of the winged creature. She scanned the crowd and saw her own fear reflected in the other students. Luna and Neville stood below, comforting the younger ones.

It was all too familiar.

A flash of the castle grounds, crumbled, that same expression of fear, the screaming.

"Hermione?"

There was too much happening.

"Hermione?"

A girl started crying.

My sister. An image of a lifeless body on the floor.

"Hermione are you alright?"

She gasped. Her hands flew to her forehead to wipe sweat, three pairs of eyes watching her. "Sorry I just—" She looked around for something to focus on, anything to distract her, and she saw a speck in the distance.

His proud posture and icy glare. He tilted his chin and Hermione glared back until Harry led them outside the platform.

"You looked like you saw a ghost." Ginny told her once they were seated on the carriage that would take them to the castle.

"Did you know he'll be coming back?"

"Who?"

"Malfoy."

"I know his family has been granted a reprieve." It was headlined in the Daily Prophet along with a photo of Lucius and Narcissa standing behind their son. He was cowering away from the camera, all trace of arrogance gone. The first of the Death Eaters to be released from Azkaban. It caused a massive outrage from the Wizarding community, but what shook them the most is finding out that the testimonies that set them free came from the Boy Who Lived. Harry Potter, and his friend, Hermione Granger.

She did not get to see him during the trial, nor after he was freed. The Malfoys disappeared from the public eye since that news came out, until now.

"If he's back, does it mean..." Hermione started, her eyes on Harry.

Harry squinted. "I don't think he's planning to be an Auror."

"Maybe he just wants to finish his education, now that there's no Dark Lord breathing down his throat." Ginny said.

"Or maybe he ran out of house elves to torment and he's bored." Ron added.

Hermione glowered at the thought. She shifted on her seat to face the surrounding trees. There was nothing beyond but shadows, the right amount of stark darkness her mind needed to conjure up her nightmares. The screams, the sparks in the distance that seemed real, the acrid smell of death, and the copper taste in her mouth. She shut her eyes. Hogwarts was their home.