tt_hermione: (Outside)
[personal profile] tt_hermione posting in [community profile] tutistempus_rpg
Date: 28 Dec 2001
Characters: Hermione Granger
Setting: On the beach
Content: PG
Status: Public : Complete



Christmas had come and gone, quietly. Oh, Hermione had gone to see her parents on Two for a strained and awkward dinner. While they had gotten their memories back, nothing could take away that gleam of distrust in their eyes whenever they looked at her, and they never seemed to relax around her anymore. She couldn't blame them. She had obliviated them. They understood that it had been to save their lives but that understanding still came with a distrust of her, a distrust they tried to hide but she knew. Hermione stayed only as long as was polite and left begging off with work.

They still hadn't found the man who had assaulted her at the Portal clearing, though now she had a squad of security guards there all day and night. She'd been back, the next morning, her head bandaged but new notebooks under her arm. That was more than a week ago, and the would on her forehead was mostly healed. Hermione had spent the day recording the portal data, and when the dusk fell, she'd taken her packed meal to the beach. There were few people who ventured down there after dark so Hermione simply transfigured a leaf into a blanket to sit on. The warm breeze coming in off the ocean was pleasant and she ate in silence, just watching the waves rolling in and curling against the sand.

Stripping down to her underwear, Hermione left her clothes on the blanket, along with her wand tucked underneath and padded down to the warm water. She slipped under the waves, taking long strokes of her arms as she swam out toward the bobbing marker that told her where the bottom dropped off enough to allow for the whale sharks to venture closer. Hermione never got within five yards of the marker. On her second day in the past, she'd seen one of the creatures breach the water, swallowing the small fishing boat that they'd foolishly believed would be safe here. She stopped, treading water before diving backwards, swimming underwater back toward the shore, watching the small fish as they darted out of her way and the slow swimming tortoise stopping to watch her.