Chelsea and Westminster Hospital

24 August 1997 Sunday

03:18

The young girl looked at the clock hanging on the wall with tired eyes. She hadn't blinked for exactly thirteen hours. It was three in the morning, and she was sitting alone in the corridor, accompanied by the familiar heavy smell of hospitals.

She knew she looked terrible right now, but she was in no condition to care. Her eyes were probably swollen from crying, her under-eye bags were huge. The dark circles from lack of sleep were an added bonus.

Her lips were so dry that if she kept biting them, they would start to bleed. Her hair... it never stayed straight anyway.

Her parents were currently in the hospital's intensive care unit, and whether they were okay was unknown.

She thought everything was her fault. If she hadn't wanted to go to that stupid forest, maybe none of this would have happened.

All she wanted was to spend a little more time with her family before starting her seventh year at Hogwarts. Now, Mr. and Mrs. Granger's lives seemed to be hanging by a thread.

The thought of losing them forever scared the young girl greatly.

She had nothing. Damn it, she hadn't even gotten a scratch from the accident—if you could call it an accident. She couldn't help but think she should have brought her wand. But she wanted to spend time with her family in a completely normal(!) way, so she had left her wand packed in her Hogwarts trunk.

"I guess I have to accept that this is not normal for me when I'm with my family," she continued to blame herself.

She didn't want to believe what had happened. Everything seemed like part of a dream. The perfectly maintained car had suddenly gone out of control. When her father lost control of the wheel, they inevitably had an accident.

When Hermione struggled to get up, she noticed the car had flipped. There was no sound from her parents; she was trying to reach the window of the car lying on its side. When she finally got out through the broken glass, she thought she saw black smoke.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

She hadn't had the chance to think about it long, but she suspected it might have been a trick of her mind.

Once she got out, she took a deep breath and started running toward the nearest settlement to get help. About an hour later, she had returned with many people.

As the medical teams took Mr. and Mrs. Granger, a nurse wanted to take care of Hermione. But the young girl said she was fine and hurried to get to the hospital as soon as possible.

●

As she went over what she had experienced, she raised her head at the sound of the door. She jumped up as soon as she saw the nurse coming out of the intensive care unit.

Seeing the bloodstains on the white nurse's uniform, she felt she had to suppress her increasing urge to vomit.

The nurse, who drew attention with her white skin and tall stature, was trying to untie the cap tied to her head, but the young girl had already reached her.

"Umm... a married couple came here. Because of a car accident. Can I find out their condition?" she asked with what was left of her cracked voice.

The nurse smiled sadly. "You can be sure we did everything we could for them," she said with great compassion.

"But to be realistic, I don't think they'll make it through the night. Would you like to see them one last time?" she asked. For a moment, the desire to see them outweighed her thoughts that entering the intensive care unit wouldn't be hygienic.

"I don't think that's very healthy, Miss-

"Violetta. My name is Violetta," said the middle-aged woman, to help Hermione.

"Okay, Violetta, I don't think this is right, or more importantly, legal... Now, can you give me information about my parents?" she was now at the end of her patience, eager to get rid of the chatty nurse.

"Oh, of course," she said, and for a moment, she was excited to get information about her parents, but things didn't go as she had hoped.

●

She was being taken to her parents' side with the gown and cap put on her. She had no complaints, she just wanted to see, to know that they were okay.

The intensive care unit was strangely empty. There were no doctors or nurses around; only Violetta, who was muttering something behind her as she walked.

As they went a little further, two beds caught her attention.

Seeing her parents lying there, connected to ventilators, all her strength left her, and the tears waiting to flow streamed down her cheeks.

Violetta seemed afraid the young girl would do something crazy, like collapsing on them and sobbing hysterically.

She took slow, small steps towards the beds. Even though she had resisted entering here, she felt she had left all her willpower outside the door.

As she got a little closer to her mother, the strange symbols on her right wrist caught her attention. When she turned her hand over, she realized it was written in the alphabet she had seen in Ancient Runes class.

When she saw the same symbols on her father's wrist, she tried to remember what they meant. But the voice saying, "You shouldn't have seen this," distracted her.

When she looked up, she saw it was Violetta. Did she know about the runes? More importantly, who had written them?

As the young girl looked at Violetta with confused eyes, the middle-aged woman tightly gripped the wand in the pocket of her nurse's uniform.

"I didn't think we would have to leave so soon. You're more observant than I thought, Granger," said Violetta, with a mocking smile.

"Even though we have to leave, you can be sure we'll meet again, and very soon, in the most unexpected place," she said, trying to put on a sad face, but she seemed to be holding back laughter. "But when that time comes, we have to pretend we're meeting for the first time.

Hermione's eyes saw the wand coming out of the nurse's pocket. But before she could protect herself or react, Violetta whispered the magical words;

"Obliviate"

When the young girl began to recover and her focus returned, the woman realized the potion's effect was wearing off and hurriedly left the room.

As she ran away, she didn't forget to shout, "I did it!"

When Hermione finally lifted her head, the only thing she could notice was black, curly hair.