The Grey | Hermione Granger

|11| Chapter Eleven

E L E V E N 

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Following Hermione through the Trophy Room reminded Saffron of when she walked up to get sorted on her first day at Hogwarts, it was a blurry dreamlike experience, that ultimately had an underwhelming outcome, but at the same time, after thinking about it, a satisfying one.

The pair walked for two minutes through the deep room, full of shelves and stands full of various cups, trophies, plaques, certificates and medals. But, where Hermione was going, was to show Saffron the end of the seemingly endless room, which had photos.

"Up four, fifth on the left,"

Hermione was letting Saffron know where to look in order to find what she was looking for, class of 1978. The class of her parents. Each frame had four pictures, one for each of the houses. Hufflepuff stood out right away, being on the left top corner of the frame, as did her father.

Oscar Mitchell sat on a bench in front of the taller students, smiling with an expression of not wanting to be in the picture. Perhaps that was why he was in so few of the photos they had of him. He must have preferred to be behind the camera rather than in front. His brown hair lay on his head messily and his eyes were not looking at the camera, they were off by a sizeable amount. It was too bad she would never know what had caught his attention. Saffron could see a bit of the twins in him when it came to their faces. They had the same warmth as him, especially Rowan.

Diagonally from that, lay the Gryffindor picture. Saffron didn't dare look at the photos, she simply read the names initially; Sage Gill, Lily Potter, Prina Adhani... Saffron looked up from the names and saw her. The ribbon in her hair was the ribbon she wore right now. Saffron moved her hand up and touched the ribbon, which came with a great pang of sadness. Looking at the beaming young adult, who looked like a slightly older version of herself, among people she had met at the same age as Saffron, would forever resonate and stay with the girl. Thinking about that fact was the only thing that stopped her from crying.

"Thank you for showing me these," Saffron said to Hermione, her eyes remaining fixed on her mother and the peers laughing with her in the photo. "It must have taken you ages,"

Hermione smiled blushing slightly. "It was no trouble, really. I wanted to examine the trophy room to see what awards you're able to get here,"

"Well," began Saffron bracingly, finally dropping her gaze from the picture. "I'm sure you'll win quite a few,"

"Your mum really is beautiful here," said Hermione thoughtfully, directing the conversation back to Saffron. Saffron got the impression that Hermione didn't want to make everything about her, which was exactly what Saffron felt like at the moment. "I can see where you get it from, not your dad --- not that he looks bad, it's just you don't look like him that much,"

Saffron nodded in agreement. "My younger siblings have his eyes," she confided in the other girl. "It's almost like someone took dad's out and put them in their sockets,"

"It must be so nice to have siblings," said Hermione with tones of sadness. "It can get awfully lonely sometimes, of course, I have mum and dad, but I don't think it's the same,"

"It's a nightmare," put Saffron shortly, making Hermione arch her eyebrows. "But a daydream at the same time, I don't know if that makes any sense but..."

Hermione paused and bit her lip before answering. She answered evenly, in saying, "You know, I don't think it has to,"

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