Room 308, Friday evening

[smartestone]

There wasn't much at all left for Hermione to pack away, just the bare essentials. The rest had all been loaded into a fairly small (though extremely heavy) trunk, a carrying case for Crookshanks and a small knapsack that she would be able to carry with her. That too was a little heavy, but she hadn't been able to decide which books to bring along with her for the trip, so she just brought a small selection. The geek.

It was very strange to see her side of the room empty, and she was trying not to think about it too much so she wouldn't get depressed. Though that was probably better than that bad anxiousness she got when she thought about the end of the year at Hogwarts.


[Hermione's going to be joining book seven canon after today. If you want to say bye, this is your last chance. She will be going on townlumni status, so there will still be things in her journal from time to time. *clings to her*]

Comments

[the_merriest]

Rikku frowned at the empty half of the room. "That's everything? And you have my phone number and you'll call if you need anything and you'll be careful and ... all of that, right?"

[smartestone]

"It is, and I do, and I will to both of those," Hermione said. "It'll be all right, I'm sure." In fact, she was sure it wouldn't, but she wasn't going to go around saying that.

[the_merriest]

"Things will work out," Rikku said, hoping she sounded more sure of that than she felt. "They always do, even if it seems really bad right in the middle. Just means it's not at the end yet, you know?"

And sometimes the end meant going to the funerals and moving on, but ... yeah, that wasn't something to bring up, either. She kinda sucked at this kinda thing.

[smartestone]

Hermione nodded. "I know. Things have been headed in one direction for years. There has to be an end to it eventually."

It'd be nice if it ended well, though.

[Not cool, LJ.]

[the_merriest]

"Yeah. Hopefully sooner rather than later." Sooner ... usually meant less casualties. Usually.

"If you need anything ... uh. I've said that like six or seven times, haven't I?" She shook her head. "Is Ron going?"

[smartestone]

She smiled at the repetition, but said, "For a little while, at least. He's going to stay with his family, I'm going to stay with mine, though."

[the_merriest]

Rikku frowned. "That's new, isn't it? I mean ... I thought you guys usually met up with your friend Harry and all stayed somewhere, in case of trouble and all that."

[smartestone]

"Every year it seems the bad things happpen in June," Hermione said. "Harry's still at school and they won't accept us back to Hogwarts this late in the year. All we can really do is wait to see what happens."

[the_merriest]

"That's gotta kill your nerves," she said. She sighed, looking at the bare walls. "You know, it's really weird, seeing your half of the room all empty."

[smartestone]

She looked around, nodding sadly. "Every year at Hogwarts we had to leave, and take our things out of the Tower. I haven't had to do that for two years now. I'm not used to it," she said. "And you'll call if you need anything, right?"

[the_merriest]

"Absolutely," Rikku nodded. "And the same for you and please be careful and I hope Petey didn't chew on anything of yours that was important? And. Take care, okay?"

[smartestone]

"I haven't found teeth marks on anything I can't attribute to Crookshanks," Hermione assured her.

Taking a deep breath, she said, "I should probably be going."

[the_merriest]

"Y-yeah," Rikku said. She folded her arms, and then unfolded them again. "You ... probably should. Uh."

She reached out, hesitantly, for a massively duckable hug. Uh. Hermione wasn't normally the hug type but she was going away for dangerous stuff and that seemed like a hug sort of moment. And if she gave Rikku the 'do not touch me, crazy Al Bhed girl' look Rikku was totally going to pretend she was ... doing something else entirely. Somehow.

[smartestone]

For this, Hermione could go for a hug. "If all goes well, I'll be back in the fall," she said, hugging her right back.

[the_merriest]

Rikku held on for a moment, squeezing, before letting go. "Okay, then," she said, nodding. "Just in time for an invasion of wild pastries with spears or drunk parakeet ninjas. Right?"

[smartestone]

"I'm sure of it," she said, backing away to get her rucksack and attempt to pull the trunk before realizing it was just going to have to be locomotored out so she could carry Crookshanks and not break her arm.

"I'll see you later, Rikku," Hermione said, and started for the door.

[the_merriest]

"Take care," she said, leaning back against her desk and smiling, sadly. Hoping that it wouldn't be too much later, at that.