*NOTES* Oh to all my readers this ode is to you. Okay so I'm not Shakespeare and I don't think I ever will be and I'm no JK Rowling. So this is what I feel like writing. Wait why am I telling you this? Anyway a few comments. One reviewer said that my last chapter was just a filler chapter. They were partly right but mostly wrong. You needed that chapter to know how everyone is feeling and how life might be if the trio does not come back. Notice the word MIGHT in that sentence. I actually have no clue how this story is going to end. Okay, I have an inkling of a thought, but not much more than that. I like surprises and I general let the characters move me in the right direction.
So please, as always, read and review. And also enjoy this chapter cause who knows when the next one will come around, hopefully soon.
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With lunch came the appearance that everything was right with the world, but once that last plate was cleared and Fleur came downstairs everyone seemed to tense up once again. Jane and Edward looked at the letters and then at each other. Even from their place they could see Hermione's neat handwriting and their names: mum and daddy.
Jane reached out and took the letter; she held it carefully as if one wrong turn would break it or her hope. She studied the whole thing down to the seal. It was pretty. A triangle and a book, a piece from a chess set (a knight), and a ball with wings. She smiled softly as she broke the seal and took out a rather thick wad of paper.
Mum and daddy,
First off I want to say I'm sorry for telling you some of this stuff via a letter. I know these past few years have been harder on you, what with me going off more and more, and separating myself from the world I grew up in. But it is the truth I am a witch, and my true place is in the Wizarding world.
Remember the first summer I was home and Aunt Lisa and Mindy came to visit and I had to hide everything from them. "How was school?" they would ask. I so desperately wanted to tell them about fighting a troll and learning how to fly a broom. Or even the library: so full of books and if you drew on them they would come and attack you.
It was the first time I realized what being a witch was costing me. It was costing me your world. And I know we have always said that there was always one world but this year has taught me that isn't true. This year I got to learn so much about what being me, Hermione Granger, meant.
When Harry, Ron, and I met at Grimmauld place it took a while to adjust to living with two boys. It took me a while to realize what this could cost us, a life. Now it might not be ours, in fact I could right now be trying to persuade you not to be reading this letter, but as Harry said, "someone is going to have to die."
Right now I've holed myself up in the library, Harry and Ron are on the other side of the door. I just need a moment to myself. I think I deserve that much after all I've been through.
Just this year I've been cursed, burnt, had a broken arm, learned way too many healing spells, and been used as bait for a stupid snake. And all the while we have had time to laugh, talk, and especially cry.
Through the months that have led to this moment we have come to realize our friendship is much more important than other things. Right now I can picture me as a first year just after Harry, Ron, and I have encountered Fluffy. I was so scared and frightened and there they were, my two boys, saying that we should do that again. I think I mentioned something about getting expelled being worse than getting killed. I would have been mortified at twelve to learn that I dropped out of school right before my final year.
But you mum and dad have supported my every move, though you didn't always agree. Yes, I am talking about that faithful day in July. All three of us stepped off the Hogwarts train, changed people.
All the way home you tried to get me to talk about my year at school, but I could barely comprehend a word you were saying. I was trying to figure out how to tell you that I would be leaving once again and soon, except this time I might not be coming back. It would have been incredibly cruel for me to have just said, "Oh and by the way if you wake up tomorrow morning to find me gone, don't worry. I'll be safe wherever I'm going." But we knew that that is the farthest from the truth. I didn't know if I would be safe I just knew I had to do this.
So after dinner we talked and I explained some of what had happened last year. I actually had started to hate myself for who I had become that year. I was acting like a petty, stupid girl for a whole year. That had to be left behind; I now needed to find myself more than ever. But more than that I knew that while this year was to be a journey of self discover on some level it would, more importantly, be a journey of love.
What do I mean by that? Well, let me explain something, Tom Riddle, his father, was tricked into loving his mother. Meaning this hateful war began with love. His mother loved his father so much she believed after they were married and the potion wore off he would actually love her. But he didn't and so she passed on what love she had left in her broken heart by giving her son the name of his father, Tom Riddle. But Tom didn't know that and so he grew to hate his father for what he did to his mother.
Years later a little baby boy was born: Harry Potter. His parents loved him very much; so much they gave their lives for him. His mother actually sacrificed herself to see that one day her son might grow up and kill Tom Riddle who knew of love but couldn't feel it. But, Harry, my Harry knows love and feels it every day of his life because he knew what his parents did for him.
I'm not sure I explained that correctly or even to your satisfaction, but that is why I went to help my best friend. He needed to be reminded that people love him, not just because he is the boy-who-lived, but also as Harry. So Ron and I packed our bags and we did what we did best, we made sure he remembered that.
This journey has been hard and difficult. I doubt that you will recognize me if I return. This year has brought about some changes in me. My eyes no longer hold the same light in them, or so Harry has told me countless times. Both my boys have told me how much I have changed. I laugh more now than I ever did because to laugh is to remember that there are some times that aren't controlled by fear. I also have become less pressing about studies. Life isn't controlled by how many good grades you get, it's controlled by how you live it, the choices you make and the people you love.
Mum I know that I told you about my feelings for Ron but I have to tell you that those have ended. It wouldn't have worked out and we have both realized it. It is funny to see how much my boys have matured over this year.
Ron has become less of the fool his has somewhat been. He thinks, more, before he speaks. And as always he is very valuable. He plans every mission we have gone on with the information I have given him about every object we have gone looking for. Heck he even planned the safest route to and from the grocery store.
Harry has become less withdrawn. He talks to us about his every thought and move and that is just at breakfast. I have no doubt that if he took the NEWTs he would pass with flying colors by the amount of information he has learned this year. Harry has also become very domestic, he doesn't mind doing work around the house. Which I am forever grateful because he does it the muggle way.
So mum and daddy I leave you with these remarks. I love you both. You mean the world to me, which is partly why I'm doing this. As I have realized that these are my closing remarks and possibly the last words you might read from me you should know that I have tried to make you proud with everything I have done.
Your baby girl,
Hermione
Jane Granger noticed that there were tear stains on the bottom of the letter and she gently moved her thumb over them. Her daughter had obviously let her emotions over take her as she reached the end of this letter, and she hoped that someone was there to comfort her. But she hoped that they couldn't comfort her the way she did, with the touch of a mother.
She quickly found herself in her husbands embrace as she let the tears flow. "She did make us proud," she sobbed out into his collar. "She should have known that." Jane was trying so hard to remember all the times they had told that to their daughter but there were too many of them and the overwhelmed her. "I'm sure she already knew that," Roger's voice soothed her as he rubbed her back.
Everyone looked on as the Grangers had their moment. Almost everyone in the room knew what the three best friends were up against, they knew of the horrors of this war. Bill had been mauled by a werewolf and had survived with just the scars and some premature aging, and Arthur had nearly died when bitten by Voldemort's snake. The various others in the room had seen battle after battle but the Grangers knew little of what this meant and neither cared. All they wanted was their daughter back, alive, and to let her know that she was everything to them.
Jane regained her composure and walked over to Molly and embraced the older women. "I know that even though that envelope was address to us she has always thought of you as a second set of parents. Thank you for being there for her."
Minerva smiled as she thought of Hermione and of the first time she had seen the girl. It was right before the traditional sorting ceremony and she looked just as nervous as the rest of the new first years. It must have been so hard to come from the muggle world and learn to adjust to life as a witch or wizard, especially when you are told they don't exist for half of your life and then you find out they do. Almost like you were living a lie.
Before she even registered it her hand was holding an envelope. "Stupid charm," she said as she looked to see everyone looking at her. "Well, it is addressed to me." Her Scottish accent always got thicker as she reprimanded her students.
"Figures she would write you the letter," Fred said and George elbowed him as McGonagall gave them her patented stare. The one that said, "You'll be cleaning the hospital bedpans without magic for a week if you keep that up."
She looked over the envelope and noticed that it was exactly the same envelopes Hogwarts used to send their letters; all was the same except for the seal and the handwriting.
Minerva McGonagall
Weasley Kitchen, The Burrow
The girl had obviously done this on purpose and out of respect.
Professor McGonagall,
When I first learned about Hogwarts I wanted to be in Gryffindor house and I got my wish. The sorting hat had chosen me to go in their even though it said I would do wonderful in Ravenclaw. My first two months at Hogwarts were what I expected. Being in Gryffindor wasn't all that I thought it would be, so I came to see you about changing houses.
You immediately brought me to see the headmaster. I think I was in awe of him just as much as I was in you. I told the headmaster of my problem and he told me to remember the words the hat spoke before I put it on my head. "It has never been wrong," that is what it said. And I argued that it chose Ravenclaw for me but I chose Gryffindor for myself. I have to admit that even at eleven I made a pretty convincing argument. But alas Dumbledore told me something I shall never forget, "It is our choices that show us who we truly are, far more than abilities."
He was right then and he was right when I wrote that letter to tell you I had to decline the position as head girl because I wouldn't be coming back. I just never thought that a sentence so simply spoken could define me for the rest of my life. It has helped me in many of the decisions I have had to make this year.
Being in Gryffindor house has also helped me to get through all of this. You have no idea how grateful I was, and am, for the guidance you have given me through the years. I've heard the saying that `even though you leave Hogwarts you never leave your house,' and I think it is completely true.
So I wanted to thank you for everything and for all the opportunities you have given me through out the years. You have pushed me to excel in many ways but none more important than in my friendships.
Your student,
Hermione Granger
Minerva read the letter and she looked to the portrait beside her. "This is completely your fault, Albus." A small smile graced her lips as she said these words. "Hermione was a good girl and you had to go and fill her head with that nonsense of yours."
"I'm sorry, Minerva, but she took those words into her heart and made them her own." Albus sighed as he sat in his throne like chair. Though it was only a portrait it still had a piece of Albus Dumbledore in it. "Hermione is a good girl, a smart girl, and I know that wherever she is right now she is needed. After all you taught her well."
The two professors exchanged some more talk before Minerva glared at the portrait, it offered her a lemon drop, and she turned back to the others around the table. She neatly folded the letter and put it in the envelope. Silently she handed it to the Grangers who placed it with their own.
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