"Is it really a good idea to run away from war with the person you despise the most?"
A hotel, a boathouse, Narcissa Malfoy's safe-house and the worlds most powerful wand left behind by Regulus Black. What else could Hermione add to the list to make...
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By the time Hermione smoothed her hair and fixed her robes, it was nearly noon. The sun had already begun to turn the sky a light shade of orange, speckled with grey clouds that cast a thick smog of shadow across the door through the paneled glass.
"Are you coming?" A voice pulled her eyes away from the fiery glow in the sky and instead to a bundle of fiery hair that was paired alongside a strained face. "Hermione?"
"Coming where, sorry?" Her voice was muffled.
Her head felt fuzzy. It did this a lot these days, since Ron and Harry left a few weeks ago. It went fuzzy like she had been sleeping for too long, like she was confused or dazed.
She hadn't done anything about it, and she was not planning to.
Ginny stifled a sigh, shaking her head. "To lunch, Hermione, the food is probably already going cold."
Her friend seemed agitated. Annoyed, almost.
"No, no, you go" She knew her voice was shaky, barely audible. "I'm not hungry, anyway".
This time Ginny didn't bother to stifle her sigh, she sighed loud enough for it to bounce against the stone walls of the dormitory.
"You said that yesterday. And the day before, and the day before that. You've put your robes on already anyway, so you may as well come and eat."
Hermione grit her teeth together as Ginny stepped towards her and poked her ribs. "Plus, you're becoming deathly thin."
Hermione cursed Ginny in her mind before she pushed her away with her hands. The tension between them frightened her.
The tension between everyone frightened her.
She knew it wasn't Ginny's fault and she knew it wasn't her own fault either. The fault was stress, worry and the binding unconscious of the looming War.
"I said i'm not hungry Ginny. I'm going to walk outside for a while to get some fresh air, then i might catch desert." Ginny rose an eyebrow at her words, yet turned to leave down the stairs of the common room towards the great hall. "I'm sorry."
"I understand that you are stressed, Hermione. We all are. But you have to let life go on."
Before Hermione could respond, her friend was leaving, disappearing down the stairs without another word. She took a deep breath, trying to not let the tears sting her eyes.
It's was a joke, really. The amount of times she had cried since returning to Hogwarts. It wasn't how she imagined Winter term, alone without her two best friends. Alone without the comfort of teasing Ron for shoving too many pieces of bread into his mouth, without the pleasure of hitting Harry with a book when he makes a snide remark, without sending glares to their white-haired enemy from across the classroom. It's not the same without, well, everything.
