Invisible Trail

Chapter Two: No News

Hermione stopped walking; she knew every single one of her moves was being carefully observed. She had not seen anybody, but she could sense it. She could feel those eyes penetrating the back of her head and it was not a pleasant experience, she didn't like it all. The place she was in was not the nicest of all either. She was in an alley she had never been in before. There were no lights and the buildings were in ruins, probably because of the lack of attention: nobody had been here in years. It was exactly as those phantom villages she had read about in Muggle books: it was dark, mysterious, and even frightening.

She started walking again and with every second she was moving faster, she was trying to get far away from those eyes. Soon she was running as fast as her legs could carry her. She looked back as she heard the sound of other feet other than hers behind her. He was trying to catch her up and she knew what to expect. Those long heavy black robes were not easy to confuse, only one kind of people wore those robes: Death Eaters.

She tried to go faster, but slowed down instead. Her legs were tired and began refusing to continue running, but her mind told them to keep on going. The Death Eater was coming closer and closer with every step; it seemed that one of his was worth ten of Hermione's.

He stretched out to grab her, but missed by a few inches. A second try was all he needed; he caught her by the wrist. Fear began to take control over her mind, but she managed to push it aside; she was not Harry and Ron's best friend for nothing. If this man wanted to kill her, she was planning to make it as impossible for him as she could. She was not going to die without a fight.

After several seconds of struggle to get herself free, she was forcefully turned around to face the man. She peeked under the cloak, but did not see a thing; he was hidden pretty well. Even though she could not see his face, there was something familiar about him. What was that something? She could not tell, but she was more than sure about having met this Death Eater man before.

Hermione suddenly woke up and sat on her bed. She was sweating and for good reason, that nightmare had been hunting her dreams for the past weeks. She had no idea what it meant and had no ways of finding out. Usually she could not remember her dreams and when she did, they never became true. So, she had nothing to worry about but she would like them to stop.

Soon sleepiness left her and she realized it was already morning. She tried to remember the events of the previous night: she had been expecting Ron's letter to arrive while she paced the room, but soon got tired and decided to sit down on a chair for a little while. 'I must have fallen asleep', she thought, 'but I do not remember getting into bed'.

She took off her pajamas and put on something comfortable quickly, she had to find one of her parents immediately. She was bound to suffer a nervous breakdown if she waited another second.

She went downstairs and found both of her parents having breakfast. When she entered the kitchen her father spoke before she could say anything. "Good morning," he said smiling. "How did you sleep?"

"Horrible," she responded, "I had another nightmare!"

"Really?" her Dad asked with a shocked expression. "Me too!"

"Oh!"

"By the way," her Dad said, "an owl arrived last night."

"What? Why . . . why didn't you tell me?" Hermione asked furiously, they knew how important this letter was to her.

"Well," her Dad answered calmly as if he had not noticed Hermione's tone, "when I went to say good-night you were sleeping peacefully on the chair and the owl sat quietly on your bed. It seemed to me it did not want to wake you up, so I took the letter and put you in bed".

"Where is the letter? And the owl?" Hermione inquired.

"The letter is over your desk and the owl left early this morning" her Mum finally spoke.

"Thanks" she yelled while she rushed back upstairs.

She arrived at her bedroom and saw the letter. She could not understand why she had not seen it before; it had been right under her nose. She opened the envelope and unfolded the letter. She read it once and waited a few seconds as the information sank. She reread it again and again, trying to find something she had missed on the previous reading, but it was not there. She dropped the letter on the floor and started walking towards the house's exit. She went outside and sat on the grass with her arms wrapped around her legs and her head on her knees.

Her Mum saw her through one of the windows and decided to leave her alone for the moment. She would talk whenever she was ready to do it. She went to Hermione's room to collect the dirty clothes and found the letter on the floor. She picked it up and left it on the desk, but curiosity got the better of her. She had to know what had upset her daughter so much and read the letter:

Hermione:

Dad says the Ministry is doing all they can, but they have not found anything yet. They are right where they started or even a little backwards. Fudge is still bloody stubborn about You-Know-Who's return is all a lie, even after Dad telling him He might be the bloody responsible for this. The house is going to be reconstructed, but it will take ages after what they did to it. The Muggles are starting to suspect even with the charms and there seems that no bloody trail was left behind. There is no bloody news concerning Harry's whereabouts.

Ron

Hermione's Mum could not believe this. 'No wonder Hermione is so upset,' she thought. 'She must be destroyed. I just don't understand why some people say "no news is good news" '.