Perfectly in Pieces

Chapter 35: Hermione

There are direct quotes from the Harry Potter series of J.K. Rowling that I have labeled with ** afterwards. She is the sole holder of the rights to these quotes.

All rights of characters and world are reserved to J. K. Rowling.
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"They are sending me to Scotland tonight to, to..."

Neville's voice breaks and Hermione watches him look around before his face meets theirs through the floo again.

"To create another sighting."

She feels her face falling, as Ron releases an unpleasant grunt next to her.

Harry...

She can't imagine how difficult that must be for Neville, to have to pretend to be him, knowing he would never talk,or walk,or breathe again. To look in the mirror, and see Harry looking back at him, knowing the truth.

I hate looking in the mirror as well.

Ever since Theo woke her up from the coma, memories both pleasant and unpleasant continued to fly off of their shelves of their own accord in her mind. Most dealing with Harry. Her best friend. Her brother.
She takes another sip of her burnt chocolate and nods her head.

"That has to be extremely hard Neville. I am so sorry you have to do that."

"That's war isn't it? Hopefully we all can stop doing all these hard things soon."

Neville, always so full of hopeful optimism.

She smiles at the familiarity of talking to him. She was enjoying getting back some of these small and bigger things from before she was captured, like talking to Neville. They were helping her, she was clinging to them desperately during the hard yet more real moments of her present reality. A reality and future that no longer included Harry.

"So we are looking at sometime next week?"

Ron shakes his head in agreement, and scans over the map he had marked repetitively in his chicken scratch that Hermione had learned to decipher years ago.

"At this time, yes. Ferret is still waiting to receive an owl with direct instructions. We will send you a copy of the agreement as soon as we receive it."

Neville had been placed as their main correspondent over the mission for The Order. He would also be coming to stay in Theo's rooms with her until they came back with the sword. The plan infuriated her. The fact that they all had decided she needed a damn babysitter, while they all went off and changed the tide of this war made her want to hex every single one of them. Yes she agreed she needed a less stressful environment. Yes she was also terrified at the prospects of having another seizure. But just because she was still healing, didn't mean she couldn't help. That she couldn't be useful. That she was fine with sitting back while everyone else acted. No. She hated it. Hated it more than anything, and if she could come up with a reasonable idea for her presence being needed, she would demand they all agreed until they gave in. Which they would. But she hasn't been able to come up with one solidable reason. If she was going to get better, to get stronger, she needed to feel useful. She needed to be a part of the big moments.

"Okay, I'll floo you both when I get back. It was great seeing you Hermione, talk to you again in a bit."

"Bye Neville, be safe."

His face disappears in the fireplace, and Hermione leans back on her hands and turns towards Ron sitting next to her still studying the map. He had been obsessive over the routes and possible options for him and Ginny. He had always been good at thinking up all the outcomes and choosing the best one. His mind worked in a very different way than hers, to both her delight and annoyance, always thinking out of the box.