Draco Malfoy and the Seven

Thievery and Pretty Woman

CHAPTER 11

Friday, February 14th   2003

Hermione's POV

Hermione awoke to the sound of rain drumming against the window creating a randomized 'tinking' noise against the glass. Sinking deeper into the nostalgic feeling the mixture of rain sounds and the sinfully comfortable bed brought on.

As a child, her family had celebrated the end of summer by spending a week at their beachside cottage. Hermione would spend hours building elaborate sandcastles with her father, exploring the assortment of life that had washed up on the beach. He always indulged her need to stalk up and down the wet sand in search of the random mussel or sea crab that she was positive needed rescuing and she refused to be told otherwise.

She recalls an especially fond memory, the summer before she would attend Hogwarts and her life would be tipped upside down forever. She stood motionless in the wet sand, swallowing her bare feet as freezing water from the ocean lapped around her ankles, she didn't mind though. She watched as her mother and father walked hand and hand along the surf quite a few paces ahead of her. She remembers the way they leaned into one another, shoulders bumping as her mother threw her head back in laughter, the sound swallowed by the crashing waves of the ocean around them.

She watched he stops suddenly; knees slightly bent to inspect the sight before him. "Hermione!" tone laced with excitement, he called for her. Her feet made a 'sloughing,' sound as they escaped their sand and ocean water prison.

"Coming Daddy." She called gleefully. Her feet pounding over the hardened sand further up the beach and the gray sky above, soft raindrops caressing her cheeks as she runs, feeling the gritty wet sand between her toes.

"Hermione, look what we've found!" Her mother calls, beckoning her along.

"Oh, my word! We have to help him; he must be terrified." Her small voice carries the fear and sadness of a girl beyond her years.

"That's our Hermione, the savior of the down and trodden." His fingers run through her hair in a gesture meant to reassure her. "Don't worry Darling, I don't think this little guy has been here long. We'll help him get where he needs to be."

"Do you know what kind of turtle he is, Daddy?"

"Definitely a leatherback sea turtle. I can't say how old he is, but, judging by his size, he can't be too far along." She and her father had made it a game every summer to challenge each other on the different lifeforms that inhabited the beach.

She stares in awe at the onyx leather body, little white dots cover his back, reminding her of the stars in the sky on a clear night. "Why isn't his shell hard like normal turtles?" She asks curiously.

"That's just how leatherbacks are made sweetheart. That's what makes them so unique. Some people are born with a hard exterior meant to protect what's inside. Others, the rarest of us, like this guy, are born, seemingly weaker than the rest of the world but tough as steel on the inside, like you Hermione."

"Me?" She laughs at her father's silly words.

"You, my girl. Some people will take your kindness and passion for learning as a weakness. Never let those people convince you of that. You are as strong here." He points to her heart and her head. "As the fiercest of sea turtles." He finishes with a peck to her cheek, her mother's dainty hand on his shoulder.

Hermione lets out a carefree laugh. "A sea turtle. I think he's finally lost it, Mum. We should probably get him to the doctor."

"Alright, kiddo. What do you say we get this guy back to his friends?" Her father says lightheartedly.