Run away

4

March 7th 1999

It had been a month after getting another kick in the stomach. Their last address was again a dead end and Harry and Ron had dragged her back home. ''We've done our best, Hermione. But there's no way we will find them. There's no other lead left. They're gone.'' Harry had said to her, but the words hadn't come through.

Hermione blamed him. She blamed Malfoy.

She blamed him for all her nightmares, all her pain.

She blamed him because she thought that when she found him and turned him in, at least a part of her nightmares would stop. That at least a for a moment she'd feel eased, calm. That she had something done that'd make her feel better.

''It doesn't matter.'' Had been her responds. But it did matter. It mattered to her; it had always mattered to her.

Hermione walked through the streets of London. She had just gone to the Apothecary to get some more vials of Dreamless Sleep Potion and Calming Draught but now she was walking through London.

She liked walking through the city more than walking in Diagon Alley. At least she could be herself here and not be 'Hermione Granger', because in reality she had become just 'Hermione'.

Hermione held the vials in her hands as she laid them one by one in her little pink bag. She looked over at the cafés and little shops settled on the streets. She'd remember coming here with her parents from time to time. She'd always go to this specific café she stood in front of. There was a little nostalgia overwhelming her that she hadn't felt in a long time.

While being in her thoughts, she hadn't realized bumping into someone. Hermione heard the vials clatter in her bag, and she cursed under her breath. When the woman she bumped into looked at her with a worried expression on her face – hands up as she apologized for bumping into her – Hermione quickly apologized as well. ''It's not a problem! No, no! I apologize! I wasn't looking.''

Hermione ran into the café and into the bathroom. When she hid herself in one of the stalls, she pushed her entire arm in the bag - till up her shoulder - and grabbed the broken vials off the bottom of her bag. She cursed again, ''Fuck. Fucking easy breakable vials of fuck.''

When did she start cursing this much?

Hermione laid the top of her hand against her eyebrow and sighed. She had to go back to Diagon Alley to buy more vials, again. Hermione started sobbing at the sight of her broken vials. Why, why, why would they break? Why would she bump into someone? Why was she distracted by the nostalgia of this very café? It wasn't even good. The coffee tasted like rubber and the scones were hard and overly sugared.

She wiped away her tears and walked out of the bathroom. Her eyes were still red and swollen but she didn't care. She already looked like a bloody Hag without the building tears in her eyes.

Hermione walked to the barista and ordered a small coffee and a Caramel Apple and Cinnamon Chip scone to go. If she was going back all the way to Diagon Alley anyway, at least she wanted some sugar in her stomach since that made her have to go back in the first place.

After a few minutes the barista had handed her the order and Hermione steadied her bag over her shoulder to grab her order with both her hands. In her left she held the coffee, and, in her right, she held the Caramel Appel and Cinnamon Chip scone in a paper bag.

Hermione turned to the door and with her shoulder, she pushed the door open. As she did so, her eyes shifted to the row of seats beside the window. Her eyes caught attention on someone that was reading a paper in the back of the café.

She realized it was a male by the large pale hands that held the paper in place, right in front of his face. Hermione watched the man and as he laid it down to turn the page, her hands started to tremble. She felt her paper bag with the scone sink through her fingers, but she managed to grab it back before it fell.