Finding her Dream

Finding her Dream

Chapter One

She sighed. Divination was the most absurd magic art in the whole world. It caused people to behave in the most off-color way. Take right now, for example: Here she was, a perfectly brilliant and rational witch, waiting outside a fortune teller's tent for her best friend. She still couldn't believe it. Ginny was a perfectly rational witch in her own right. She was intelligent. Sure, she never achieved the status of Head Girl or any such honors, but she was brilliant in Charms and Defense against the Dark Arts. She had perfectly rational ambitions.

But no. The first thing they had to do at the carnival was see the fortune teller. This was why she always brought a good book with her, shrinking it down to a size that would travel well in her robes. Living with Ginny for the last two years had assured her one thing: there would always be a spontaneous flight of fancy that would leave herself alone whilst Ginny attended to it.

The problem now? She had forgotten her book, and the carnival didn't seem like the right place to find a good tome on the different ways the Longbottom Method would work on non-indigenous plants. She didn't want to stray too far from the tent, so there was nothing else to do but stand there, looking like an idiot, albeit an annoyed one.

"Hermione? Hermione Granger?" No matter how many years it had been, she would know that voice anywhere.

"Lavender Brown!" she exclaimed. Hermione took in the distended belly and the ankle-biter clinging to Lavender's gown, wide-eyed at her presence.

"What are you doing here? How have you been!" Lavender rushed forward, embracing her. There was an awkward moment with the kid at her dress and the distended belly, but the hug was no less a happy one.

"Oh, I'm just here with Ginny. Out having a bit of fun, you know."

Lavender sighed with happiness. She positively glowed. Hermione felt a pull at her heart. "So what are you doing now?"

Hermione swallowed thickly. She hated this question. What was she doing now? Well, as a matter of fact, she was standing outside a tent waiting for her roommate to come back into the real world of intelligence, and in the meantime staggering over the answer to a question that most people would assume to be the easiest for her to answer. "Oh, you know. Things."

Lavender widened her eyes, as if to understand. "Ohhhhh. THINGS. Yes. I see. I always knew you'd be somebody important, Hermione." The kid was tugging mercilessly at her dress, trying fruitlessly to drag the pregnant woman to a nearby kiddie ride. "Oh. I'm sorry. He's just impatient sometimes." She leaned in closer, "but you know, its worth every minute. Kids are a joy. It was great to see you again. Good luck with everything." She raised her eyebrows knowingly.

Hermione smiled indulgingly as Lavender bent to her child's will. She let out a breath she wasn't aware she had been holding. She thought of Lavender's question, one so often on her mind. What was she doing?

She'd tried it all. All the things that were suggested to her in seventh year at Hogwarts, now years behind her. Trained to be a nurse, a teacher, a magic consultant. Many times she was tempted to forsake the magic life for a muggle one, where she could go to school indefinitely. But she could never do that, of course. One thing she was certain of was the fact that her passion for magic outshined her passion for learning. Hogwarts had been a veritable heaven for her. She looked at the jobs in the Ministry, but none interested her. She looked for jobs all over, specializing in things that she loved whilst at school: transfiguration, charms, Arithmancy, History of Magic. She even took many of the jobs, going from one to the other, not satisfied. She was currently in a job as a proofreader at the Jones, Lemont and Barts Publishing Company: Publishers of Magic Textbooks. Despite what the job title was and where she would be working, she never had anytime to actually read any of the books she had to proofread. It was a very mundane task.

Maybe it was the incense wafting from the tent. Maybe it was the devastation at seeing an old friend completely happy and not doing anything great or wonderful. Despite the fact that she knew it was silly and useless to do so, she closed her eyes and wished to herself: I wish I could find my heart's desire in life. The one thing that I was meant to do. She opened her eyes. She looked around and started chuckling to herself. How silly. Really! What did she think was going to happen? An amazing job opportunity would jump right into her lap?

This was ridiculous. Ginny would just have to wait for her for a change. She was getting positively batty just standing here not doing anything. Besides, she didn't think she could bear it if another happy former classmate came to greet her and ask her annoying questions. Her robes billowed out behind her as she turned and strode off.

She didn't know where she was going to go, she just wanted to walk, to move, to get away. She spotted a snack bar. She'd put on too many pounds for her liking these past years, and was limiting her food intake. However, this was a desperate situation. And they had crème puffs, for Merlin's sake! She sidled up to the line that had formed.

It happened so suddenly, she wasn't sure if she had just imagined the whole thing or not. As she was stepping up to order, the person leaving with his food brushed by her. Her hand grazed his exposed arm as his robes rode up while he was holding his food.

It was raining. Someone was screaming. She was running, running from something. She was so scared, so terrified. Something was chasing her. It was going to get her. She stretched out her hands. But they weren't her hands. It wasn't her body. She wasn't herself.

Suddenly, she was back in the carnival. The girl at the window looked at her expectantly. She shook her head. Crème Puffs, right. She ordered two, and walked away with them in shaky hands.

She hadn't been top in her class for nothing. She knew that what had just happened was what was referred to as "a vision". The rational part of her brain thought of how stupid this was. It had to have been a side affect of the incense. Was it legal for them to use a mind-altering powder for the incense? Whoever was behind this would definitely pay. She was not going crazy. Not unless there was some outside source for it. Visions? Hah! She scoffed.

Ginny was waiting outside the tent, looking concerned but excited at the same time. Hermione braced herself for another "exciting" revelation about Ginny's future.

"Here, I bought you a Crème Puff." Hermione handed Ginny the Crème Puff.

"Thanks! Guess what? On the fifteenth, I will succeed at finally getting what I've wanted for so long."

"Isn't Harry in Greece?"

Ginny hit Hermione. "That's not what she was talking about."

"Oh, you mean that sentence wasn't vague to you?"

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Just because you don't believe in the art of foretelling the future doesn't mean that you can rain on the good day I'm destined to have today."

"What, no death in your future? Are you going to live forever?"

"Oh my God Hermione!"

"I'm just saying that their fortunes are so unreal and flimsy. That is one thing that is not different about the muggle world and the wizarding world. No muggle can predict a real future either."

"God Hermione. You're more on edge then usual, what gives?"

"Nothing." Hermione shoved the rest of her crème puff in her mouth.

Ginny wisely kept silent and nibbled on her crème puff.

Now devoid of sugary satisfaction, Hermione felt the gray cloud pass over her once again. She sighed. "I saw Lavender."

"Brown!?" Ginny exclaimed.

Hermione gave her a look. "No, the other one."

"Ahhh! I get it. She's happy, isn't she? She isn't doing anything and she's happy."

"How did you know?"

"Pavarti was the fortune teller. Didn't you wonder why it was taking so long? We spent the first fifteen minutes just talking about ourselves."

Pavarti? But that didn't make any sense. Pavarti wouldn't go to ridiculous lengths to have visions or get other people to have them. Maybe she needed more business. "You haven't had any weird... visions since you first went in there, did you?"

"What? No! Why would you ask that?" Ginny raised an eyebrow at Hermione.

"Oh. Hmm. It's nothing, nevermind."

She was not going crazy. That would be just... well, crazy.