Voldemort had stretched his dark empire widely during the two year absence of Dumbledore and Harry, destroying the larger cities and appointing his lower class lieutenants to do with the smaller villages and towns as they wanted. Though nobody bothered to comb the near endless forests for possible rebel hideouts, they should have. The few people who had managed to evade voldemorts armies so far were in hiding in private quarters, deep in the forest where the dark lord and his forces never went. One of the most secure forest hideouts was one inhabited by a girl with curly, slightly bushy, brown hair.
Hermione Granger had left wizard hospital after almost a whole year in a bed on the fourth floor, the ward for spell damage. Hermione had arrived on the broom and collapsed as medi-wizards and witches came running toward her. They had placed her in a very full ward, casualties from several battle coming in with her, voldemort's forces were larger than anybody would have guessed and he had taken only part of his forces with him to Hogwarts, the others had launched attack an attack in London, terrorizing the muggle world.
Hermione had remained alone and untended in her bed for almost three days before a medi-witch came to give her some food and some type of potion to help her get back to full physical and magical strength. She had remained on the fourth floor for nearly a month before anybody tried to fix her eyes, she had been near the end on a very long list of people who needed to be helped. By the time she was finally being seen to the fourth floor had been almost emptied, it had been only Hermione and one other person, a female auror who had been critically wounded. Though a whole team of medi-witches and wizards had tried every last spell, potion, ceremony, and every other thing they could think of, Hermione still saw nothing but darkness and so, it seemed, it would remain that way.
A medi-witch would come to her on occasion and try a new spell they had found, but nothing ever worked, they best they could do was to give her a spell that would at least allow her to bury herself from the world the only way she knew how…….reading. The female auror in the bed next to Hermione had begun to improve after Hermione's second month in St. Mungo's, and took pity on her, introducing herself as Alice and saying she could help her. Hermione had taken to Alice quickly as a new friend, Alice first teaching her a spell that allowed Hermione to move her fingers across the pages of a book and the words appeared in her mind, so it was more or less like silent reading to Hermione.
Alice was able to provide Hermione with a number of books, most of which were filled with histories of witches or wizards who suffered from ailments like, or even worse, than Hermione's. All the books taught spells that could help Hermione to work through her blindness and Alice taught Hermione how to view her blindness as not a punishment, but a blessing. By month six of Hermione's stay Alice had helped Hermione improve her hearing, her sense of smell, how to advance her since of touch to detect if someone or something was infront of her by feeling how the breeze hit her body. Hermione's ability to 'see' things around her seemed so unnatural it was actually a little terrifying. Alice gave her different tests, such as tossing items at her and to the sides of her, Hermione, every time, catching the items, no matter if they were headed straight at her or if she had to dive to the side to catch them. Alice was extremely impressed by Hermione being able to figure out how many fingers she was holding up from across the room, it was beginning to seem intimidating to Alice.
At the start of Hermione's seventh month, Alice had begun to teach Hermione new spells that allowed her to partially 'see', the first spell she taught Hermione, allowed her project spells outward and they would bounce back, Hermione compared to a sonar, or echolocation like bats and dolphins used. It was overwhelming to Hermione the first time she used the spell correctly, something like a rather crude, black and white, sketch forming in her mind and remaining for a view seconds before disappearing. One of the favorite spells that Hermione learned, and a favorite of Alice as well, was the stealth alarm spells.
The spell allowed Hermione to send a spider-web network of invisible spells all around the hospital room, the essence of the spell connected directly to Hermione's mind, if anything moved in the room it would have to move against the invisible strings of magic and would instantly alert Hermione. If the spell was activated it would instantly wake Hermione if she were asleep, a well defined image of the room would form in her mind as each magical string was triggered, it allowed her to see, in her mind's eye, the room, in something like a infra-red sense. This had to be the most helpful spell she had learned from Alice thus far.
After that they moved on to Hermione learning spells that would allow her to heighten her still working senses to double their normal limits, and Hermione could even turn her senses on and off at will, in case she wanted piece and quiet or if she wanted to be on the alert. A few days before Hermione's one year anniversary of arriving at St. Mungo's, Alice woke her, desperate to talk to her.
"Hermione…….. I've taught you all that I can about how to live with your blindness, I wish there was more that I could do for you but there isn't, even if there was, there isn't time" Alice had been very stressed when she spoke, she was tired of Hermione being trapped in St. Mungo's for so long, she wanted her friend to at least be out in the world and enjoy life as much as she could.
"What do you mean there isn't time Alice?". Hermione turned to look at her best, and only friend, with her once sparkling cinnamon brown eyes, which were now dull and blank.
"I'm dying Hermione, that's why I've never left this place, I've been on borrowed time for so long Hermione. I don't want you to be here when I finally leave this world, I know you've already suffered so much, I don't want you to be here when it happens." Alice bit down on her lip and starred at the floor, she was lying. She indeed would never leave her bed at St. Mungo's, but she would still live for some time, Hermione at least had the ability to leave and live her life. "I want you to leave Hermione, with all the spell's I've taught you, you'll be able to survive where I'm sending you. I had a mansion, hidden fifty miles deep into a forest, I want you to go there, here….." Alice shoved a piece of paper into Hermione's hand. Hermione quickly moved her hand over the parchment and realized it was some sort of spell.
"Just say that spell and you'll instantly be transported to my mansion, you can use the stealth alert spell I taught you to set up a network through the whole place, and with your increases senses you'll be able to get around just fine. There's special enchantments on all the cabinets to automatically have whatever food or drink your looking for, and the closet in the bedroom is enchanted too, it'll have any kind of clothing you want, and in your size. Will you go Hermione?".
Hermione had nodded without speaking and immediately began to pack the few things she had in her possession at the magical hospital. She put all her books, parchments of notes, and all the clothes she had into a trunk and shrunk it, dropping it into the pocket of the set of auror's robes Alice had given her as a going away gift. Alice told Hermione she'd explain to the medi-witches that she had left and gave her a hug, saying a tearful good bye.
That had been a full year ago, and Hermione was still living peacefully in the beautiful mansion, as soon as she had arrived she had set up her stealth alert spell network all around and inside the house, able to use the invisible strings of magic like guidelines around the mansion. After a few fearful days of exploring the house, making sure her network stretched to every corner with no possibility of being avoided by intruders she began to set up the stealth alert spell network outside, though nothing much bothered the network other than the occasion animal. Hermione had been delighted to find that the mansion had an enormous library, with a seemingly endless supply of books, and was very pleased to find that Alice had not been lying about the bedroom closet or the kitchen cabinets.
Hermione had been very pleased to get away from the stuffy ward of St. Mungo's, but she always carried a since of depression about her. It was extremely lonely, living all alone, never having a visitor, not even a pet, she had no idea what had ever happened to crookshanks. Day by day Hermione was finding it harder to go on, it was becoming to much for her, the solitude and lack of human contact was beginning to drive her insane.
Hermione was becoming more and more restless, her all time favorite hobby of reading and researching for spells that might help with her blindness were beginning to disgust her. Yes, the queen of all bookworms was growing tired of the mountain of books from the mansion's library. She realized that she enjoyed reading on occasion, but not every minute of everyday, her lack of interest in the books was not a good thing, she was losing the one thing that acted as an anchor for her sanity. She would often grab a book at random from the library and make her way down the living room, laying on the couch, resting her head on the squashy armrest like it was a pillow, the book open but face down on her chest she allowed herself to slip off into her own fantasy land of imagination.
This did something to Hermione that she both hated and loved, all in the same instance. She would often imagine what life would be like if voldemort had been defeated two years ago at Hogwarts, and she and Harry and been able to be together. It was one of her most indulged in fantasies, imaging what life with Harry would have been like, whether he would have gone through auror training, or perhaps joined a pro quidditch team, and what she, Hermione would have done. She liked to envision herself at a cute flat near Hogsmead, staying at home and being and author, perhaps looking after a few little Harry and Hermione's. such a vision always made her giggle with delight, but caused her to cry in pain that night, realizing that she did not, and most likely, would never have it.
Perhaps the worst thought to ever cross her mind these days was, in fact, Harry. She had never found out what had happened to the boy she loved so desperately, the last moment she had seen him was when he had been in an indescribable state of rage facing voldemort. With her continuing lack of interest in constant reading and researching she found herself dwelling more and more on thoughts of Harry and what kind of life she would like to be living with him right now. She couldn't resist imagining Harry and herself, being married, watching their children play and going to hogwarts and growing, even when she tried to keep her mind on other things she'd be unable to keep herself from her fantasies for very long and she'd always end up crying herself to sleep.
It was now exactly two years since that terrible day in her seventh year at Hogwarts, when all her life, which had just been made perfect by Harry, had been shattered and all her joy had been torn violently from her. Hermione was in the worst state she had been in so far, her face was tear stained, her eyes red and puffy from crying so much, her hair frizzy and unkept, and she was so depressed because it was now two days before christmas, the first christmas she'd be spending totally alone. The previous Christmas had, of course, been spent with Alice on the fourth floor at St. Mungo's. It had been a fairly happy occasion, though they didn't give each other gifts, they did get to have something of a christmas feast that night, they had talked and laughed with one another late into the night before falling asleep. Now, Hermione was totally alone, nobody to even have a conversation with for christmas.
Hermione spent the night before christmas eve day walking about the house sulking, moving her hands across the frames of pictures on the walls and on the tables in the halls, most of the pictures of Alice and her family, though some were of Hermione, Ron, and Harry that she had managed to bring with her. Her eyes might as well have been waterfalls as much as she was crying that day, remembering all the happy christmas holidays she had shared with Ron and Harry. She went down the kitchen just past midnight, unable to resist she opened the cabinet and reached in, pulling out a fine glass and a bottle of wine. She spent the rest of the night up in her room, drinking the entire contents of the bottle, remembering some of the past Christmases spent with her two best friends, before finally falling asleep near dawn.
Hermione didn't wake up until only an hour before nightfall, the sun already getting low in they sky, just barely over the trees, not it mattered to Hermione, the presence or lack of light wasn't noticed by Hermione since, of course, she couldn't see. She grabbed her wand from the bedside table and flicked it, checking to make sure nothing had disturbed her stealth alert network, satisfied that nothing had even entered the woods surrounding the mansion, let alone actually coming inside, she set her wand back down and lazily rose to her feet, stumbling to the closet to get a pair of pajamas so she would at least be dressed comfortably. She picked a smooth, silk, button up long sleeved pajama shirt and a matching set of matching silk pajama pants, she smiled and walked to the bathroom, dragging a brush through her hair, taking out the frizz and leaving the light curls that had naturally formed. She fell back onto the bed and rested for a while, zoning out into one of her fantasies with Harry for a few hours.
When she finally rose from her bed to head down to the kitchen out of hunger it was already very late, she ran a hand across the front of the clock next to her bed, it read 3:06 A.M..
"Well how bout that" she said to no one, "Merry christmas to me, Merry Christmas to me….." she continued to sing to herself as she made her way down the stairs and into the living room, stopping abruptly and taking a step back in horror. Though she was slightly hung over from the bottle of wine her senses were still full on alert, as she had entered the living room she had felt the temperature rise several degrees, there was fire burning at the opposite side of the room. She, of course, hadnt lit any fire, she'd been up in her room all day, but she also hadnt felt any of her alarm spells activate.
She narrowed her blind eyes in confusing anger and fear as she looked around the room, cursing herself to hell for leaving her wand upstairs, she couldn't activate any type of locater spell without her wand. She could 'feel' the presence of another in the room with her but she couldn't tell where, who ever it was extremely stealthy, though she could not hear the rustle of a cloak of the sound of footsteps, she knew the person was moving. She could practically see the scene in her mind now, who ever it was, was moving past the couch, still ten feet away from Hermione though, she considered turning and running up the stairs to try to get to her wand. She knew it would be no use though, the intruder must certainly had their wand in their robes, if not in their hand at the moment.
Her breathing growing faster and heavier she took another step back as she felt the intruder take a few more steps toward her. "Who ever you are you better get out of my house right now!". She didn't really expect for the person to listen to her, though it made her feel better to say it. "I'm warning you" she snarled at the intruder as they took another step toward Hermione, "Y-you'll be s-sorry" she fumbled with the words as she back up sever feet and gasped as she felt her back collide with the wall.
The intruder took several rapid steps toward her before she had time to think of what to do and had reached Hermione, grabbing her by the wrists as she tried to hit her attacker, he pinned her arms against the wall and pushed himself up against her. Hermione gave an involuntary shudder as she felt a well toned chest pressing against her perfect breast.
"GET OFF ME" she raged as she tried desperately to free herself from the intruder, who was obviously male, thrashing violently against him and succeeding in nothing but tiring herself out. Unable to bite back the tears any longer she cried, sobbing uncontrollably, leaning her head back against the wall, tears streaming down her cheeks now as she waited for her attacker to do what ever it was he intended to do. "Just do what ever the fuck it is you came here to do then get out of my house" she said in a defeated voice.
"Giving up already, that's not the Hermione I thought I knew" a vaguely familiar voice said. Hermione blinked, tears still running down her cheeks, as she tried to remember where she had heard that voice, it seemed slightly familiar and also warm and comforting. The intruder slacked his grip on her wrist and she didn't try to pull away or hit him for some reason even she couldn't figure out. His hands moving slowly down her arms and down her sides, his arms wrapping around her waist and pulling her up against him in a warm embrace.
Hermione found herself unconsciously relaxing into the embrace of the strangely familiar man, and she too, wrapped her arms around him, her legs giving out and she collapsed fully into his arms.
What am I doing?! She screamed inside her head. But she could find the energy to break away from the mans arms as he lead her over to the couch and gently helped her lay down, she felt extremely exhausted for some reason. She aware of the man sitting down on the couch next to her and leaning down upon her, she could feel his breath against her lips now, and it made her shudder as before. Oh god no, she whispered in her mind, but at the same time another voice arose in her mind, Yes yes, let it happen. He seemed to somehow sense her confused feelings and pulled back a little, leaving her more confused than ever now.
"Oh god, who are you" Hermione whispered accidently, having not meant to ask the question out loud. She could sense the man grinning and had a strange sensation like she was being watched, she understood that the man was moving his eyes over her body, her curves defined very well through the silk pajama outfit. He leaned down once more and gently pressed his lips to hers is a soft and tender kiss. A low moan escaped her as she felt passion rising from deep within her, a passion she had not felt for two years, since her last night with………
No!! she thought to herself as the man pulled back after several breathless moments. She starred up at him with her dull, graying eyes, once more shining with tears as she slowly reached up with her hand, moving her fingertip gently across his face, the features seeming so familiar, yet changed somehow. She reminded her self it had been two years since she had last seen Harry, of course he must have changed. He breathing became rapid and shallow as so many memories of the boy she loved came flooding back to her in a giant wave of emotion.
"H-h-Harry?!" she asked in a desperate, pleading voice. Her fingers still playing across his face she felt him grin and also felt tears, slowly running from his eyes and dropping onto her fingers.
"Merry christmas Hermione. I love you" they both grinned and embraced one another, tears of joy streaming from their eyes as they lay on the couch, kissing each other and eventually falling asleep in each others arms, both of them, for once, sleeping dreamlessly, content at being with each other once more.
~(A/N)~ Well just a quick note, in a review to my second chapter somebody said that the point when Harry blocks voldemorts killing curse it is very much like the scene at the end of matrix reloaded. Well just so you know I wrote that chapter some time before matrix reloaded came out so the similarities are a coincidence, though I admit it would appear as though I had taken that scene from matrix reloaded. Anyway, just wanted to clear that up, NOW REVIEW, thank you.