Control

Control

Chapter 7-Breathe

Hermione Granger opened her eyes after what seemed like a lifetime of unconciousness. Her head buzzed madly, and it seemed as if every muscle in her body was aflame. She groaned softly as she sat upright, trying her hardest to view her surroundings through blurred vision. White was everywhere. A burgundy couch rested on the wall opposite from her. Artificial plants lined a large windowsill beneath a very large window. She was in a hospital. A Muggle hospital.

"Oh, look she's awake!" said a familiar voice.

Hermione looked towards the doorway where she was pleased to see Ron, Ginny, Harry, Fred, George, Mr. and Mrs Weasley, and her own parents all gathered around. They all had elated smiles on their faces. An excited smile also spread over Hermione's face as Ron came over to her and gave her a friendly hug.

"Hullo, Hermione, how you feeling?" he asked.

Glancing at Harry's joyed face, she replied, "I'm feeling all right," she lied slightly.

"Oh, darling, I'm so happy you're okay!" said Mrs. Granger, embracing her daughter rather tightly.

Mr. Granger, who was standing behind his wife, shot Hermione a grateful smile which she returned over her mothers shoulder. Just then, Remus Lupin, Tonks, and Mad-Eye walked into the crowded room, trying their best to have a look at Hermione. But when that chance came, they all beamed at her proudly.

"Good work, you," said Mad-Eye almost gleefully. Lupin and Tonks nodded in agreement. Hermione grinned bashfully.

"We shall worship you as long as...we worship you," Fred said stupidly.

"Yeah!" George added, "We'll be sure to put that in Hermione:A History!"

Hermione snorted.

"Oh, enough you two," said Molly Weasley sternly to her sons, "leave her be. Dear we just wanted to say how proud we are of you!"

Feeling the color rise to her cheeks, Hermione nodded. But she had known deep down inside that she hadn't done it alone. What if he wasn't even gone?

"Thank you, all of you," she said sincerely. Though something still tugged at her mind.

Harry, whom she had not seen much of stepped out from the crowd and sat on her bed and stared happily into her soft velvetty brown eyes. He tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear and gently stroked her face, which was full of lively color.

"I honestly thought I could never feel this way about a person in my life," he said softly, his lips forming to a smile, "I guess... I was wrong..."

And with that he lowered his head to hers and gave her the kiss he had been waiting so long for. There was a slow series of claps, and then it burst into a loud chorus of applause as Hermione and Harry sat there passionately expressing their affection, lost in the moment.

     ~*~

Two days had passed and everyone had come to the Granger's house to stay for a couple of days. This particular day, the Grangers' held a dinner outside on the patio. Hermione was pleased to hear that her parents had decided to work something out, and agreed to go to couples counceling every week. They would finally be a family again. Hermione thought about this happily as she, Harry, Ron, and Ginny were all concentrated on watching Fred and George's presentation of their new candy for their jokeshop.

"And now after eating the Chameleon Candy, my eyes change colour everytime I blink!" exclaimed George merrily, showing off his lime-green eyes, which then turned orange, then red, then violet...

"However, it only lasts three-hundred blinks," added Fred.

"That's probably about the only harmless joke you've created so far," said Ginny flatly.

"Oh, no there's side affects," said George.

"There's a slight chance of blindness," Fred said as-a-matter-of-factly.

Ron sighed impatiently and stood up from his seat.

"Well that's bloody terrific," he said sarcastically. "I'm a bit tired of this, can we please do something else?"

"Why don't we go for a walk through the woods?" Hermione suggested.

"Sounds better than this," Ron said grumpily, staring at Fred and George who were staring at each others faces an inch apart, blinking madly.

"Bright as tomato plants, them two," Ginny said shaking her head hopelessly.

"I won't argue that," said Ron, walking away towards the woods. Harry, Hermione and Ginny followed closely behind.

Something was on Hermione's mind, and it had been bothering her for quite some time, but to help with everyone's coping process, she had not brought anything about that day up. But now, seeming a good time as any, she took the opportunity to do so.

"Harry," Hermione said to him, a hint of seriousness in her voice.

"Hmm?"

"How did you all get out of there?" she asked, concerned.

Harry looked thoughtful for a moment, but then replied.

"It still has me puzzled, in fact we all don't know what happened. As soon as you fell and went unconcious, there was this warm breeze...It kind of swirled around us like a...like a whirlwind, kind of. Then we saw this bright white twister-like swirl and we just appeared back here. All of us, we just showed up in your front yard...it was odd, not even Lupin knew what it was, no one did,"

Hermione's brow furrowed confusedly. No, not even she herself could have guessed what happened. The Wizarding world was a strange, unusual place, and Merlin knows what could happen. After accepting the fact that how she got back wasn't important, she smiled. Everything that was important was standing within a fifty-foot radius of her. It was her friends, it was her family, it was Harry, it was her life. That was what was important. A lone tear fell from her eye as she took Harry's hand and leaned her head against his shoulder. He took his hand from hers and put his arm around her waist.

"Life is anything than what you expect, isn't it?" Hermione asked dreamily, nearly dozing off as she closed her eyes.

"Definitely," Harry replied with a small laugh.

Just then, a stone grey owl swooped sown to them, dropping a letter bound in red ribbon. It flew off without stopping beyond the canopy of tree branches.

Hermione caught it and studied it curiously.

"Who could this be from?" she asked, beginning to open the envelope. Inside was a neatly folded letter. Extremely neat hadwriting covered all of the foot long parchment. The elegant words read:

Mr. Potter and Ms. Granger,

I've gotten word of your situation from Professor Snape. And I do say to both of you, well done! It seems in everything you both do, there is meaning, resposibility, courage and bravery. If you are in any way confused about the end of that experience, I will make sure you do understand that phenomenon. The vortex-like transporter is called a Vorscape and is only used in the most perilous situations where many human lives are at risk. However, they are random and do not work in evey situation, as you may know, Harry. It returns the person of activation (meaning the person who sparked the Vorscape) back to their most previous place of residence. In this case, that person was Hermione Granger who finally activated it in her most intense moment. This may come across as confusing, as even I do not know everything about it. The place you were was a secret headquarters for Death-Eaters, where Voldemort himself, had resided recently. Secret as he may have thought it to be, our top Aurors and private investigative team were able to locate it using advanced wizarding skills and tactis to detect high levels on dark magic usage (By the way, Miss Granger, there is an excellent book about this called Under the Eye of Merlin which is available in Flourish and Botts) Though Hermione's powers were exceptionally strong that night, there is no way to prove that Voldemort is gone permanently. But for the time, being, his activities have not been detected, so we have reason to believe his reign is again collapsing. I look forward to seeing both of you next term,

Albus Dumbledore

Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

PS: Your O.W.L. results will be delivered to you within the next week

Hermione sighed and looked at Harry.

He shrugged his shoulders, "Well that explained some,"

"Not permanently gone..." said Harry, shaking his head, "Will this guy ever give up?"

"One day, Harry, one day," Hermione said encouragingly, patting his arm.

"Do you think--"

"Harry?"

"Yes?"

"Shut up."

"Is this coming from Miss Granger's mouth?" Harry asked sarcastically.

After giving him a playful nudge, Hermione and Harry continued their walk.

They walked through the woods, listening to the chatter of nature and breathing in simplicity, like they had done several days before. And though it seemed they lasted ages, Hermione knew in her heart that the worse things in life only lead to better times. Afterall, there would be no good times without the bad. Then, they finally reached the place where they had shared their first kiss. It was the place where self realizations were discovered.

"May I ask you for one more swim?" Harry asked Hermione, a sly grin on his face. Looking down at her T-shirt and denim shorts, Hermione agreed anyway. Harry quickly pulled of his own shirt, took her hand and jumped into the water. A pleasurable rush of brisk water engulfed the two as they plumetted underwater, hand in hand. Hermione surfaced first, then Harry not soon after. Putting her arms around his neck, she stared into his emerald eyes. Why can't this moment last forever? she thought to herself as a smile crept to her face.

It was moments like these that Hermione never thought she'd live to see agin. Moments like these gave her a will to live. And finally, both of them could say everything was all right. They could finally have time to be teenagers and have fun. Harry tucked a lock of her dark hair behind her ear gently and looked at her as if seeing her for the first time.

"You're beautiful," Harry said, looking quite dazed. And she was. She looked like a angel from heaven with her golden brown locks plastered wet on her face. Light pink lips formed into the shape of a slight smile. Honey brown and emerald jade met in a firey gaze. A grin spread over his face as he slid his arms around her waist and pulled her into a kiss. And he too wondered why the moment couldn't last forever. Then he finally spoke after what seemed like hours.

"How do you think Ron is taking this?"

~~~~~~~~~~

Hermione sat in her bedroom on her desk chair, staring intently at her hairbrush. She concentrated on every aspect of it and tried to imagine the structure of the atoms holding it together. She sat her for thirty minutes doing so. Her brush stayed in the exact same spot. She strained her mind thinking of every hard and painful moment in her life. She thought of everyone who had ever made a difference in her life. She thought of every book she had read and ever word that rested on the pages and ever letter that made up the word. She still stared at the brush. Nothing. She even became angry and frusterated. An hour. Her eyes began to tear and her brain buzzed madly with deep concentration. Nothing. She held her breath and concentrated harder until little white dots appeared and dissapeared in front of her eyes. The brush remained still.

She threw herself onto her bed gasping, sweating and crying. She did not know how to feel at this loss of her gift. Or curse.

Her powers were gone.

~EnD~