Hermione's Struggle

WHAT?? Voldemort?? Here? It can't be true! Hermione said, frightened.

It is, child. There's nothing we can do, Lily replied.

Why could you only get into contact with me and none of the others?

You would be the only one bright enough to start the Wizarding World again, after it perished.

Perished?? What about your own son??

He would not have fully repaired the Wizarding World. He would eventually destroy it.

How do you know all of these things??

When you're dead, you know a lot of things, dear.

Hermione was quiet for a while. The Wizarding world was going to be perished. Perished. All of her friends, her mentors...they were all going to die....

Die.

And there was nothing she could do about it.

She looked into the direction of the castle, wondering about everybody's fate.

Wait a minute... Hermione thought, hoping Lily was still listening, I thought Voldemort was dead!

Oh really? Well remember in your first year when he possessed another even though he was meant to be dead?

Yes...

Same thing. See how I'm talking to you? He made contact with one other...rather stupid woman and possessed her. She is on her way now. So, in truth, he really is dead...but his spirit lives on.

Hermione was in shock.

Who is the woman? she asked.

Rita Skeeter.

Well, of course... Hermione thought. She looked to Hogwarts again. When is this going to happen?

In a couple of minutes. I will leave you now. Do not go anywhere. You can't possibly get there in time, anyway. With that, Hermione felt a breeze leave her.

"Wait!!" she called in the air. "Damn it!! Now I can't do anything to save my friends...no...no...they're all going to die...no..." she slowly shrunk into a ball and covered her face with her hands. "No..." she kept mumbling. Images of Ron, Harry, Ginny, and all of her friends flashed before her...they were going to die today...

BOOM.

"NO!!" Hermione screamed. She stood up quickly, and the image before her was horrifying.

Hogwarts was no more. It had been blown up - without a trace. She could suddenly hear a thousand earsplitting screams inside her head and she frantically covered her ears, hoping to drown out the noise - but it was inside her head. Please of "NO! NO!" and just plain horrified screaming filled her ears, roaring until she couldn't stand it any longer.

"NO!!!!!" Hermione screamed. "RON!! I LOVE YOU!!"

Alas - he did not hear her.

Hermione sat in front of her fireplace, reliving that same day over and over again - till she had to go to sleep and dream about all of the terrified screams of the once happy people that she knew. She had to live with those sounds for the rest of her life - hoping, every day, that she would die and meet up with all of her friends, talk to them again - say hello.

She died when she was ninety-three - seventy-six years of pain and suffering. When she got up to where all wizards lie, she entered as a seventeen-year old, in her stunning blue dress and silvery gloves that went up to the crook of her elbow, smiling - with Ron at her side.