never slept with a dream before he had to go away

[honestlyrubbish]

About a month and a half after Hermione's arrival on Tabula Rasa, and she was starting to feel the threat of it under her skin. Complacency. She had done everything in her power to fight it, taking up a greater number of classes than she had taken at Hogwarts, one of which was entirely outside of her realm of comfort, which pushed her far past her

Comments

[curiously_cora]

Coraline sat watching the sunrise. She had woken screaming again. She kept having the same dreams; she dreamt of the bomb, of Adam, of Sarah lost in the dark and of Harry, sweet Harry with buttons on her eyes. And they didn't stop. She thought it got easier and it did but the nightmares didn't stop. Coraline didn't think they ever would.

Coraline watched as someone she admired, one of the bravest and smartest people she didn't know ran into the water and squealed. And Coraline thought, if Hermione Granger could be brave and if she could be okay then maybe Coraline could too. Even if- even if she never saw them again. Even if it broke her heart every day. Even if it made her so angry-

Coraline stood, pushing it all down as she wandered over to where the girl was. Coraline tightened her fingers around the dark key around her neck and swallowed the hurt and the pain and the anger. Coraline could be brave.

"How's the water?" Coraline asked curiously, stood at the edge in her wellies and her clothes looking rather Small for such a tall

[honestlyrubbish]

Feeling her heart thudding suddenly against her chest, Hermione turned around, eyes quickly darting about to see who had called out to her. All things considered, she hadn't gotten to know very many people on the island yet; faces were easy enough to remember from passing glances, but voices, she hadn't bothered with. Mostly, it was because she hadn't been ready yet to open herself up to everyone new, still silently coping and simultaneously looking out for both Harry and Ron. As her gaze dropped down to the young girl, however, she started wondering if that should have been changing.

She was once a prefect, after all. And for all that prefects were meant to keep others in line, they were also meant to be mentors, guides for the underclassmen. Hermione had taken that role to heart.

So she smiled invitingly, draping her hair over a shoulder and squeezing out some of the dripping water. "It's lovely," she replied. "A little chillier than it'll be later in the day, I'm sure, but if you don't mind a bit of cold, you should come in."

[curiously_cora]

"I'm British, I'm used to the cold." Coraline said simply as if it wasn't painstakingly obvious from her accent. Coraline sat taking off her wellies and her socks before she walked in with all of her clothes on. She was only wearing board shorts and a t-shirt but she could just imagine Bill's Face when she turned up soaking wet through and not in class.

Coraline pushed herself under the water, enjoying the silence and the cooler temperature before she emerged again. It felt like she could breathe. As long as she didn't think about them, it felt okay. She just had to be brave as brave as a Gryffindor. Or braver.

"I'm Coraline," Coraline said offering her hand with a smile. "Coraline Carter. Not Caroline. People used to call me Caroline but that's not my name at all."

[honestlyrubbish]

There was something about the way Coraline looked, walking out into the water without removing anything but her shoes and socks, then staying for some time underneath the surface of the water itself, that drew Hermione's attention. She waded on over, taking care not to go too fast, lest that set off some manner of panic in the other girl, but still with some amount of concern. This wasn't simply a shy girl going for a swim. Maybe she was up early for a reason, too.

"A pleasure, Coraline," Hermione smiled in return, taking Coraline's hand and offering a shake. Although she looked to be about Hermione's height, there was a younger quality to her actions, somehow, that the height came as a surprise when the two of them stood next to one another. "I have a name that some people have difficulty remembering as well. Hermione, Hermione Granger."

She allowed herself to dip a little into the water, the surface breaking up to her shoulders, before she stood again. "Are you normally up this early? I don't often come out to the beach, myself."

[lt_blade]

Seeing sunrises like that, it was one of the few things that made ITF training worth it. Sonya had been on the island for a month and two years, and though she was only in Outworld for four or five weeks, it was long enough that she never got over how great a sunrise could look

[honestlyrubbish]

Hermione heard the approach of steps from some distance away, one thing she was glad for as she moved off and to the side, keeping her attention partially on the woman who joined her. She recognized the blonde from a couple of her classes, but never really had a reason to speak with her, the other woman seeming quiet, and there definitely being a fair amount of an age gap between the two of them. (There was that, and the fact that the other woman did far better than Hermione in cardiovascular training, a fact which should have come as an embarrassment to Hermione, but she still would have preferred to look at others more in the eye. To be able to meet them in personal standards.)

So she waved back, politely, with a smile that was genuine enough, before she tiptoed just far out enough to let her toes break contact with the sand below.

[lt_blade]

Sonya would have to wait a little while before she's dry enough to dress again, then she had the day off. Up close, and because her underwear didn't hide much, Hermione would've been able to see the various scars along her left shoulder, torso, and...well, there was a reason why Sonya preferred wearing trousers.

"Morning."

[honestlyrubbish]

Being as observant as Hermione usually was had its drawbacks, she'd known that for quite some time. Such as the fact that she could see a great deal written in the blonde's skin, the hint of scars which immediately had Hermione resolving not to stare or give them anything more than a passing glance. Knowing where the line stood with those sorts of considerations was difficult. Some wore scars brazenly, boldly, proud of all that they'd seen and wanting the marks to remain as a sort of battle trophy. Others hid them, not wanting to remember the circumstances under which they were sustained.

Hermione wasn't sure where the scrawl of 'Mudblood' on her arm stood quite yet.

"Morning," she replied simply, squeezing some of the water out of her hair, still not precisely sure if there was anything else to say. It'd been so long since she had really been alone with a stranger, considering the way in which Hogwarts functioned.

[a_real_viking]

Dragons, as it turned out, needed just as much exercise as any other animal. Probably more, given Toothless' predilection towards destruction if bored, learned the hard way when Hiccup had found several deep gashes in trees near their hut. That was why he found himself on the beach again, picking his way through the soft sand to some rocks where he could sit while Toothless took a swim. Without a fire to worry about, the Night Fury turned out to be quite an adept swimmer.

Then the dragon spotted a new person and paused his swimming to come have a look at her. Trying to curtail any screaming or panicking, Hiccup got down from his rock. "Don't worry!" he called to the girl. "He's okay!"

[honestlyrubbish]

As soon as the water began splashing loudly off to Hermione's side, her eyes darted over, catching the hint of movement through the murky waves as she tried to stifle the yelp which tried to leap out of her throat. For the most part, she succeeded, her eyes meeting a pair of much larger, reptilian eyes that practically glowed in the morning light. It was a dragon, she was fairly certain, her eyes skimming over the pair of wings on the creature's back. And that only called forth memories of the escape from Gringott's, or of Norberta in Hagrid's tiny hut.

Not that she had much that she could do about it, either way. She was without a weapon, defenseless, closing her eyes in preparation for the teeth that the feature was sure to bare.

Then, a voice sounded from the side.

Breathing shaky, Hermione cracked an eye open and looked off to the side. "He's... is he yours?" she asked quietly, unable to look the creature in the eye twice.

[a_real_viking]

"Well I don't own him or anything but I guess." He was getting tired of that spiel so he just nodded and said, "Yeah, sure."

Since there was no yelling and, more importantly, no threatening of his human, Toothless sat down a short distance between them, waiting for Hiccup to catch up. He whuffled softly when Hiccup joined him. "Hi. He's okay, I promise. I'm Hiccup. He's Toothless."

[honestlyrubbish]

"I didn't say that you owned him, I meant more... whether he was your friend, or a pet, I- the greater point being if you knew whether or not he was wild or dangerous," she breathed, slowly exhaling through her words as she berated herself for already shaking at the hands, letting them ball into fists to steel her resolve. The dragon really did look less threatening while seated, watching with a lot more understanding in his eyes than Hermione expected to see. Most scholars made note of the particular sort of intelligence dragons seemed to have, but somehow, Hermione had never seen it at quite this level. (To be fair, she'd never tried so hard to search for it before.)

Offering a shaky smile to the newcomer, one that still carried a clear note of gratitude, Hermione knelt on the beach to pick up her towel, wrapping it tightly around herself. "Hermione," she greeted with a small nod. "A pleasure to meet you, Hiccup. And, erm. Oh, I didn't realize he was toothless, though I suppose he's yet to expose his mouth at all."

[halfscarlet]

It seemed Billy wasn't the only one taking a break from studying to do what anyone who lived near a beach was almost required to. Though he was still incredibly tentative in the water (Billy was just glad none of the other Young Avengers were here to learn he didn't know how to swim and had to take a class for it), wading in up to his thighs was a step up. He'd dunked himself once, and after a while, sand began collecting in uncomfortable places, forcing Billy to decide maybe his swim for the day was at an end.

Though the setting was a little different from their Anatomy class, he recognized Hermione running into the water. Ever since the class started, Billy'd been trying to work up the guts to go talk to her -- how often did you say you could talk to someone from Harry Potter? -- and now seemed as good a time as ever. He gave her a wave in greeting when she looked back toward the beach.

[honestlyrubbish]

Human Anatomy was one of the classes that Hermione enjoyed the most, that put Hermione in a better mood. Some of the courses she took on the island were simply for the sake of having intellectually challenging courses, to think over matters that she hadn't had the time for while in the midst of a war. Keeping her knowledge comprehensive had always been a certain point of pride for Hermione, who didn't want to shy away from classes just because they were difficult, didn't want to take the easiest route to good marks. But Human Anatomy, she took because it was practical, she took because it was a fascinating subject, even if one that she didn't have any special talent at in the way that she did Arithmancy, anything that required precision and logic

[halfscarlet]

"Definitely a good one," Billy replied, returning her smile. As far as Billy was concerned, his Saturday mornings were the calm before he plunged into an afternoon and evening of Physics and Calculus. "How're you doing?"

[honestlyrubbish]

He'd caught her at a good time, better than almost anyone else that she'd met on the island had, to the point where she could smile freely at her classmate, glad that she hadn't come off as so aloof as to be unapproachable. She did have to confess, though, that she wasn't quite sure if she was supposed to come out of the water to more readily speak to him, or if he was about to join, himself. In the end, she climbed out of the small enclave she'd stayed in on the beach, walking out just far enough on the sand to reach for her towel, then wrapping it lightly around herself and sitting down on a nearby boulder, worn smooth by the waves.

"Better than I have in weeks, or even months," Hermione confessed with a shy smile, shaking her head to herself. "It's a little difficult to believe that I've been here for two and a half months, at times, but I certainly feel that distance today."

[fatalpride]

Hermione wasn’t the only one feeling altogether complacent on the island. For the past few months, Annabeth had been trying to fight it, if only because there was a war back home and things were precarious enough. Even if Percy was no longer at home, or Luke for that matter, she still didn't know if she bought the idea of time stopping completely while they were here. The world could end within the next few days from where she was pulled from, and that thought still made her uneasy most nights

[honestlyrubbish]

When a voice called out from the distance, Hermione's eyes quickly darted back and a hand went to her side, even though there weren't pockets there, much less a wand, and even had there been a wand, it wouldn't have been able to muster a single spell. Old habits died hard, after all. But as soon as it became more clear that she wasn't in any immediate danger, that the passerby was only meaning to make polite conversation, she smiled and waded about in the water, drawing closer to the blonde, but still far enough for her to keep most of her body underwater. Once she got used to the temperature of the ocean, it was actually quite pleasant

[fatalpride]

Annabeth knows that action very well. Reaching for a weapon. She comes from a world where observing even the tiniest details could mean the difference between life and death and her body automatically tenses when the girl reaches to her side, though there doesn't seem to be anything there. She's not stupid though, so Annabeth won't completely let her guard down and she prefers to keep her knife where it isn't so obvious: up her sleeve. Either way, the other girl is far away enough that there would be very few weapons that could reach her at this point. A gun, maybe, but why would you take a gun with you into the water

[honestlyrubbish]

"That so?" Hermione asks curiously, finding herself interested in spite of herself. Of course, going to the bookshelf for volumes is a habit for her as well; in fact, at the back of the rec center, covered carefully so that no one disturbs the pile, is a large collection of books on physics and a number of other topics, anything that Hermione thinks may end up helping her find them all a way off the island. Just because she's spent the majority of her time on Tabula Rasa studying, however, doesn't mean that she isn't still interested when someone else has something to bring to the table.

Hoping that it isn't too forward of her, Hermione ends up walking out of the water, scooping up her towel and drying herself with it, draping it over her shoulders. "The usual amount. I'm impressed," Hermione admits with a nod, crossing her arms over her chest. "Mind if I ask what you're studying, then? Unless you're more of a comprehensive reader."