![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
evercleverest[ooc: set to some point during Deathly Hallows, ch. 22]
Harry has been worrying her for quite a number of days now.
It isn't that his health is depleting (though there is that, too - but they're all exhausted, the three of them), or that he's begun to isolate himself from her and Ron.
It's the Deathly Hallows.
The constant theories, the discussions, the possibilities, the scary, unstoppable hope that comes from his lips -
She's tried - both her and Ron - to bring him back, make him see the truth, to dissipate the idea that these Hallows are what's stopping them from a victory over You-Know-Who.
She's afraid they're losing him.
-
She waits for a door to appear, waits for something sometimes, but then she shakes it off, focuses on the situation at hand -
- and tries to forget the fact that Milliways to her (a beacon of hope, a possibility, a wish) isn't all that much unlike Harry's own desires for the Deathly Hallows to appear and save them all.
-
One evening, when Harry is fast asleep in the tent and it's Ron's turn to take watch, she awakes from a nightmare.
It's nothing unusual, nothing she hasn't dreamt before (or woken up from before), but suddenly all her worries and fears are spilling over the brim of her already full cup, and she can't get back to sleep.
She steps outside and is immediately greeted by the brisk chill of the early-hours air. She finds Ron half-dozing and gently touches his arm.
Harry has been worrying her for quite a number of days now.
It isn't that his health is depleting (though there is that, too - but they're all exhausted, the three of them), or that he's begun to isolate himself from her and Ron.
It's the Deathly Hallows.
('But don't you see? It all fits -'
'No, it doesn't,' she says.
'It doesn't, Harry, you're just getting carried away. Please. Please - just answer me this.
If the Deathly Hallows really existed, and Dumbledore knew about them,
knew that the person who possessed all three of them would be master of Death -
Harry, why wouldn't he have told you? Why?')
The constant theories, the discussions, the possibilities, the scary, unstoppable hope that comes from his lips -
She's tried - both her and Ron - to bring him back, make him see the truth, to dissipate the idea that these Hallows are what's stopping them from a victory over You-Know-Who.
She's afraid they're losing him.
-
She waits for a door to appear, waits for something sometimes, but then she shakes it off, focuses on the situation at hand -
- and tries to forget the fact that Milliways to her (a beacon of hope, a possibility, a wish) isn't all that much unlike Harry's own desires for the Deathly Hallows to appear and save them all.
-
One evening, when Harry is fast asleep in the tent and it's Ron's turn to take watch, she awakes from a nightmare.
It's nothing unusual, nothing she hasn't dreamt before (or woken up from before), but suddenly all her worries and fears are spilling over the brim of her already full cup, and she can't get back to sleep.
She steps outside and is immediately greeted by the brisk chill of the early-hours air. She finds Ron half-dozing and gently touches his arm.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-24 02:28 am (UTC)At least she's more or less decided that Ron won't be getting the birds sent upon him?
She's quiet for a moment, the late night seeming to have an effect on the way her thoughts are taking her.
They're ... surprisingly introspective.
"Did you ever think," Hermione starts, "that you'd ever end up here? I mean, as a First Year you have so many expectations for the future as a wizard. But this ... all I'd ever known about You-Know-Who had been through reading about him in history books."
no subject
Date: 2010-09-24 12:31 pm (UTC)He glances at her in surprise, almost shocked to find her still sitting there, and looks at her for a long minute before turning back toward the fire.
"He wasn't even supposed to exist anymore. A lot of wizards might have thought he wasn't gone, but everyone had hoped, right?"
Ron shrugs, half-shivering from the chill or just thinking about it all.
"I thought I'd be at Hogwarts. Head boy, Quidditch captain, winning the house and Quidditch cup for Gryffindor."
He was twelve and had big dreams.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-24 01:51 pm (UTC)That was also when she started to befriend both Harry and Ron.
Ah, memories.
"Well, you didn't do too badly," she points out. "Prefect, Gryffindor Keeper. I'd been hoping to be made Head Girl too."
no subject
Date: 2010-09-25 02:02 pm (UTC)Because she's Hermione and she's brilliant and the cleverest witch of their year and the only way Ron could imagine her not being Head Girl was because she walked away from it, much like they had.
He might not always tell her so, but he certainly thinks highly of her.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-26 04:03 am (UTC)She glances down at her lap, but the smile is there if Ron were - by chance - to look in her direction.
Dense, he might be, but when he says something like that -
Well.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-02 03:51 pm (UTC)He hasn't gone and ruined the moment now, has he? He does tend to do that often enough.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-02 05:11 pm (UTC)She nods instead, accepting the compliment - and then coming to her senses about it.
Always the voice of logic, that's Hermione.
"Well, I suppose there isn't much point in wishing for that sort of thing anyway, is there? We're quite a long way away from Hogwarts."
no subject
Date: 2010-10-05 07:39 pm (UTC)(He doesn't want to think about how far they are from Hogwarts and everyone they know. In more ways than just actual distance. They're reminded enough simply by being where they are.)
Ears red from the idea, he withdrawals his hands from his pockets long enough to transfigure one of the mushroom bits into the best looking Head Girl badge that he can manage. It flops weakly, bending in half, when he hands it to Hermione.
"Not much of a competition. Unless you want to put a wig on Harry."
no subject
Date: 2010-10-08 02:43 am (UTC)She takes it and laughs softly.
"I'm not sure Harry would agree to that," she responds, trying her best to keep the emotion out of her voice.
It wouldn't do to cry or anything.
Straightening a little, playing into her role, she says (in a more Hermione-like voice): "If I'm Head Girl, that would mean I have rule over you. And Ron? I think you ought to go to sleep now."
He looks dreadfully tired.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-08 01:41 pm (UTC)"Unbelievable," he grumbles, though certainly with more approval than complaint, "Not wasting any time settling into that role, are you? Give a girl a badge..."
He shakes his head and clambers to his feet.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-08 03:44 pm (UTC)"That's right," she says, getting to her feet as well as though to shoo him off. "I take my responsibilities very seriously, Ron. You know that."
And even after Ron's disappeared into the tent, Hermione remains standing where she is for a moment, thoughtful.
Then, snapping out of her reverie, she takes Ron's position as next watch, the mushroom-badge still between her fingers.