Larger Than Life

Larger Than Life

Hermione closed her trunk tight and looked around her dormitory for the last time. It was quiet apart from the distant murmurs from the common room - students saying their last goodbyes to Hogwarts. It was unclear whether the school would reopen next fall.

And Hermione would not be returning, regardless. She had stood alongside Ron and made her promise to Harry, and she didn't regret her decision.

Still, it would be a wrench to leave this place. She walked to the window set in the stone wall, looking out at the brilliantly coloured lawns. It seemed as if Hogwarts hadn't even noticed Dumbledore's departure; despite the shining tomb planted in their midst, the grounds were as vibrant as ever.

Hermione had thought that Dumbledore, the greatest wizard of the age, would have left some visible mark of his passing. But the world was still beautiful, and Hermione could not understand it.

With a sigh, she levitated her trunk up and descended to the common room, by now empty save for Ron and Harry, who stood silently waiting. Hermione bit her lip when she saw Harry, pale and drawn and determined, his eyes shadowed. Ron met her eyes and she saw her concern reflected in his blue gaze, easing her somehow.

The three of them raised their wands in a united Wingardium Leviosa (the charm that had started it all), sending their trunks before them through the portrait hole.

*

As the train screeched out of Hogsmeade, Hermione looked back through a dirty window, straining her eyes for a last, impossible glimpse of Hogwarts. A pain split her chest, and she felt keenly what she was leaving behind. The education she had worked so hard at, never to be completed. Her former home in the Wizarding world, full of amazing and terrible things. Sanctuary from a reality which had become increasingly grim as each year passed. The comfort of authority, of learning.

And the man who had made all this possible. Albus Dumbledore, who had long signified to her all that was right in this magical world, as harsh and strange as it sometimes seemed. But now he was gone.

Harry spoke, startling Hermione out of her black reverie.

"Nitwit. Blubber. Oddment. Tweak."

Hermione and Ron stared at him in shock. He was smiling sadly, eyes bright. The memory of her first Welcome Feast flooded suddenly into Hermione's mind; she remembered vividly a frightened little girl in a brilliant but terrifying new world, disarmed completely by those four words.

And a smile broke out on her face - unnatural, but undeniably real. Ron, too, grinned, and suddenly the three of them were laughing and laughing, because they had never known someone like Albus Dumbledore, and would never again know anyone like him. They laughed until they cried, and then fell silent, remembering a great man who had left a gaping hole as large as he had been - larger than life.

Hermione understood now why the world was so beautiful still.

Dumbledore had truly left a mark of his passing - he had left his imprint on their hearts and minds. And each time they acted on the lessons he had taught them, the world would change just a little for the better; the greatest of teachers acting through his students.

It was truly, Hermione reflected, a much more lasting form of immortality than Horcruxes.