To Dance Among the Angels

She could have smacked herself.

Hermione had agreed to help Hagrid with his Care of Magical Creatures class. He hadn't told her what it was about, exactly, but she was sure that Hagrid wouldn't pull out anything insane this early in the school year. Hagrid had assured her that it wasn't anything she couldn't handle.

When she reached Hagrid's hut, however, Hagrid had given her a long, thin woolen coat, lent from Ginny, apparently, and told her that she'd need it. Hermione was confused; it was only September, and still warm enough to wear a short-sleeved shirt.

She had waited outside, while Hagrid gave the second years a short lecture on whatever creature he would be introducing them on today. As she had heard no shrieks of terror, she assumed that blast-ended skrewts were not that day's lesson. And she figured that if she could handle Grawp, whatever Hagrid had planned was something she could deal with.

Until Hagrid called for her, and she walked to the front of his class.

Standing proudly in the center of a ring of awed students stood a very familiar looking Hippogriff. She knew better than to call him Buckbeak in front of the students, but at that very moment, all she was feeling was pure and utter fear.

Hermione was fond of Buckbeak, and he of her. When he turned his head towards Hermione, he made a soft cawing noise as a sign of recognition. She wasn't afraid of Buckbeak. She just knew what Hagrid planned for her to do.

Hermione had been afraid of heights, and flying, for as long as she could remember. Her father told her that she had fallen out of a second story window when she was very young, before she had any congitive memory, and that they had never figured out how she had survived. Hermione knew now that it was her magic that had saved her, most likely, but ever since then, she had been scared of heights. Her stomach still dropped everytime a staircase moved beneath her feet.

"Hey," came a misty voice behind her. Luna was standing behind her, wand behind her ear and firewhiskey corks dangling from her ears.

"Hey, Luna," said Hermione stiffly. It wasn't Luna that made her nervous, it was what she was going to have to do in a few moments time. Butterflies the size of Aragog began rampaging in her stomach.

"It's a nice day for faeries," said Luna, looking around the open fields. Hermione nodded. She let her mind drift, trying to steer her thoughts away from the idea of flying. She did what her mother had taught her to do, when she was younger; pick something at random, and concentrate on it. She chose fairies.

Faeries had been her introduction to magic, well before she knew about Hogwarts, or Transfiguration, or Voldemort. As a child, her sole indulgence into flights of fancy were stories and pictures of fae as they danced and sang and spun their own unique brand of magic, leaping to flower and flower, wings fluttering softly. Buried beneath her books on advanced Charm theories, and complicated Potions text, were a few faded pictures and stories from her childhood days. She still pulled them out, from time to time, and read the stories and stared at the pictures. Strange, that she would be afraid of flying, and yet often wished that she had wings of her own. She despised being afraid of heights, and flying, and had berated herself endlessly for not having the courage to summon her broom during Flying lessons.

"Are you okay?" asked Luna quietly. Hermione started, then nodded rather grimly. "Just thinking," she said. Luna nodded, then took off torwards the castle. Hermione was clearly afraid of something, and Luna went to go find Ronald and Harry, to tell them and bring them to her.

Hermione's thoughts drifted back to faeries. When she was younger, she believed that faeries were little angels, sent to guide children to a happier place when they were lost. She recalled a story her mother had read to her when she was younger that had delighted her to no small end.

"When the first baby laughed for the first time," her mother read, in her soothing tones, "the laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of faeries."

After that, Hermione spent a lot of her alone time searching for faeries, looking in every small wooded glen and valley she could walk to, trying to find one. She didn't want to capture it, or hurt it; she only wanted to see it, and maybe talk to it. But the faeries never came, and she had been heartbroken. Even when she learned that faeries were real, she still felt a little sad, because she knew that she'd never find one; they were hard to find, and they avoided humans as much as possible. She doubted that there were any at Hogwarts; even Hagrid said he had never seen one before, in all his years here.

"Hermione!" bellowed Hagrid, and she broke herself out of her reverie. She tried to put on a brave face, and walked to the center of the ring. Dimly, she heard Hagrid explain to the class how to properly introduce yourself to a Hippogrif. Hermione bowed numbly, not really paying attention to the student's faces as Buckbeak bowed back immediately. Hermione stepped forward and ran her hand over Buckbeak's smooth head, smiling a bit as she recalled one of the most frightening nights of her life. Had she ever really been that small? Buckbeak rumbled, arcing his neck as she continued to pat him. Maybe Hagrid wouldn't make her -

"Alrighty, now. If a Hippogriff likes yeh," said Hagrid cheerfully, "they'll let yeh go for one heckuva ride. Come on, 'ermione, let's get yeh up there."

Hermione's knees locked. There was no way she could do this. She had barely been able to keep from falling off Buckbeak when she and Harry had flown to rescue Sirius from the tower. She was going to die, and this was not the way she wanted to go.

She didn't say anything when Hagrid picked her up and placed her on Buckbeak. In the castle, Luna had finally found Ron and Harry, and was telling them about Hermione. They grabbed Ginny and Neville and began to race down the stairways, hoping to get to Hermione in time.

The butterflies in Hermione's stomach had grown to the size of a full grown Hungarian Horntail. She gripped Buckbeak's feathers so hard that he squawked a little, forcing her to loosen the iron grip she had on him a little.

"Ready for another wild ride, 'ermione?" asked Hagrid with a grin and a wink. Hermione merely gulped, and let out a little squeak. Hagrid took this for an affirmation, then shooed the students out of the way, leaving a wide berth for Hermione and Buckbeak to get through.

"Get on then!" roared Hagrid, and swatted Buckbeak's bottom. Hermione barely bit back a shriek as Buckbeak began to run at a dead sprint. The blood that roared in her ears pounded to the time of Buckbeak's hooves, and they ran the length of the field before Buckbeak jumped into the air.

Hermione closed her eyes as tightly as she could. She did not want to see the ground below her, moving that quickly. And if she fell, she didn't want to see it rushing up at her. But she knew she had to help Buckbeak navigate, so she opened her eyes.

They were barely three metres off the ground, Buckbeak lazily flapping his wings as he hovered, just out of sight of the students. She sighed a breath of relief; they had seen her take off, but at the edge of the hill, so they were probably assuming that they were flying near the bottom. She relaxed slightly, a smile of relief growing on her face.

She heard a small buzzing noise, and brushed it away. The last thing she needed was a wasp to sting Buckbeak and cause him to get out of hand, thereby throwing her off and probably killing her in the process. She made a vexed sound when it came back, this time with a friend. Soon, the air was filled with buzzing. Hermione finally turned around to see the cause of the buzzing. She nearly fell off Buckbeak when she saw what they were.

Hundreds of small, coloured lights floated behind her. The buzzing noise became softer as she urged Buckbeak around.

The faeries flew around wantonly. Hermione was dazzled; all her life, she had searched to find one, and now there were so many. Her breath hitched when they stopped moving and seemed to turn towards her. They moved in, and Hermione stood still as they approached. They were so small, and delicate. They danced in front of her eyes, around her face. Buckbeak hovered silently, not minding as the fae alighted on his beak or on his head. Hermione held out a hand, and one soft lavender light floated onto it, peering curiously at her as much as Hermione stared at it. Wonder and awe filled her as the fae moved, lighter than the breath of a baby in her palm.

Suddenly, the faeries clumped together in a group above Hermione's head. Murmering softly, they looked at her again, and then took off, past the trees into the cloudless sky.

Panic seized Hermione. She dug her feet into Buckbeak's haunches, and they began to hurtle into the sky. They gained speed and altitude at an amazing pace, climbing into the air as Hermione stretched one hand out towards the faeries. They were just out of reach, just beyond her grasp, and if she went a little higher, a little faster, maybe she could reach them.

Buckbeak stopped for a moment to gain some breath. Hermione suddenly noticed how high they were. She could see Hogwarts, and parts of Hogsmeade, and the entire Forbidden Forest, from her seat in the sky. The butterflies returned with a vengence, and she lay herself flat on Buckbeak's back. Buckbeak rumbled comfortingly, sensing her sudden fear. Hermione screamed when she felt something touch her face.

The small, lavender faerie was back, standing on her cheek. This close, she could see the fae's tiny face, the beatific smile, as it hopped along her smooth cheek, laughing tinnily before coming to rest on her nose. The other fae gathered around her again, running their tiny hands through her hair and walking on her shoulders. A warmth settled in Hermione's skin. The fae laughed, and danced, spinning around her endlessly. Hermione sat back up, distracted from the height. It didn't see to be as frightening right then. She held both hands out this time, and dozens of fae flew right into them, zooming along her arms and palms.

They eventually gathered into the air again, forming a large cluster in front of Buckbeak. Hermione smiled and gently gripped Buckbeak's feathers. Buckbeak made a loud, almost barking noise, as if he were laughing at the whole situation. More than anything, Hermione wished right then to have wings. She wanted to fly with the little angels that gathered in front of her. Now that she was so high in the air, so close to Heaven and so far from Earth, she felt her fear begin to seep from her, little by little. It was all so beautiful, and amazing, from this height. Hogwarts shone slightly, and the lake glittered like a zircon, polished and cut.

On the ground, Harry found Hagrid, who was watching Hermione hover in the air.

"Hagrid, why is Hermione up there?" asked Ron frantically, worried sick for his best friend.

"I asked her ta help demonstrate for th' class," replied Hagrid confusedly.

Harry's panic began to rose. "Hagrid, did you tell her what she was going to be doing?" when Hagrid shook his head, Harry's heart lept into his throat. "Hagrid, Hermione's terrifed of heights! She hates flying! She never got more than half a metre off the ground when we had flying lessons!"

Hagrid paled considerably. "I didn' know," he said worriedly. "I jus' thought... oh no..."

The faeries began to swirl, and then zoomed back down to the ground. Hermione laughed throatily, Buckbeak still seeming to laugh underneath her. Buckbeak seemed to rise onto two feet, and then began to follow them at a breakneck speed. Hermione leaned forward, willing Buckbeak to go faster, faster so they could catch the faeries again.

From where Harry was sitting, it seemed that Buckbeak had lost control and was falling, Hermione going down with him. Without a word, he started running towards where they would hit the ground, his friends hot on his heels.

One hand still latched to Buckbeak, Hermione began to shrug herself out of the jacket Hagrid had given her. She wanted to feel the air drift over her arms, her hands, everything. Her heart raced with excitement. The fear was gone.

Harry reached the bottom of the hill. There was a small copse of trees and bushes in the spot where Hermione would fall. Ginny screamed as Hermione plummted into the little glen.

Hermione didn't notice her friends gathered there. The wind whistling in her ears drowned out Ginny's cry, and she was totally transfixed on the cloud of colour and light. Buckbeak made a sharp ninety degree turn as soon as they had cleared the canopy of the glen, coming to a stop as he and Hermione began to look for the faeries. The thrill of the hunt had overtaken both of them.

Harry wondered why they hadn't heard a loud crash. Cautiously, he and the rest of the group began to edge towards the small little thicket.

Hermione laughed softly when she saw the faeries waiting for her at the edge of the wood. They took off, and Buckbeak charged, flapping and soaring quickly.

"What's that noise?" said Neville, looking around. The fae blew right over their head.

Hermione could see the fae right outside the wood.. She hurried Buckbeak on, not minding that her hair had fallen out of its neat ponytail and was whipping around her face as she and Buckbeak glided towards the edge of the thicket, going so fast now that everything was a blur.

Harry gasped when Hermione burst through the branches, over their heads. She was racing towards something. Her hair gleamed brightly in the sun as she soared, her hair flapping like a banner in the breeze. She had her arms out, letting the wind wash over her soothingly. Her skin pebbled with goosebumps, but the sun warmed her as she flew. The fae began to fly slower, circling her.

Ron watched as Hermione flew a little higher, and then gasped when she dove again. Buckbeak flew so close to the water that her feet skimmed the bottom. The fae laughed and sang.

Hermione's laughter rang like a thousand bells over the lake. She yelled and whooped, pumping her fist in the air as she, Buckbeak, and the faeries zoomed along the laike, feeling the spray of the water splash upon her face. She urged Buckbeak up, and her friends could only gape as she quickly spiraled into the sky, laughing and shouting and flying. The sun reflected off her golden brown hair and lightly tanned skin as she raced again the wind.

Hermione had found her wings.

And she danced amoung the angels.