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"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles," she muttered under her breath as she adjusted her position just slightly, her eyes glued forward, the solid weight balanced carefully in her hands, her body taut with stress.
She took a step. And another.
She brought down her arm on the next step forward and released the ball from her hand in one smooth motion as she slid and stopped before the foul line.
Over the middle arrow, the leftover oil slid her ball down the lane, going into the pocket of the head pin and—
Crash.
8 pins fell down!
She sighed. Moving backwards, her eyes narrowing at the 4-10 pin split.
Her dad thought it would be a great idea for her to bring along some friends to go ten-pinning. Well, Wendall thought it would be a good idea.
She brought them back to England, but their memories were proving a little tricker to restore.
Minerva's obliviate was very powerful and while there was a charm for erasing memories, no one had yet to invent a spell of any kind to restore them.
Or a potion.
Or a combination of spell and potion.
She'd looked for the past five years, and so she had come up with an alternative plan between helping Minerva restore Hogwarts and going through her eighth year while Harry and Ron helped Kingsley train Aurors.
She would bring her parents back and see what happened.
So far, it was working. Her parents had a new dental practice, a new place to live, and a new apprentice to mold.
Kingsley had helped her with the paperwork, and thankfully she had the knowledge to make her lies plausible, considering she’d practically grown up in their old practice.
Unfortunately, that made her seem too hardworking as she stayed late to bask in their presence before leaving to go back to her tiny flat. She’d sold their old home to make their initial move to Australia easier.
She had been too thorough, though it helped when she came home to Crookshanks and cried into his fur.
The song changed over the alley's speakers
Whoa-oh-oh (for the longest—)
For the longest time
Whoa-oh-oh (for the longest—)
For the longest—
She missed her parents. She missed her mum to talk over her break up with Ron, to talk about her restlessness of being in a place she didn't belong but refused to leave again.
If you said goodbye to me tonight
There would still be music left to write
What else could I do? I'm so inspired by you
That hasn't happened for the longest time.
She jumped at the chance to go ten-pinning with her parents, bringing along the few people that wouldn't stand out too much with Muggles.
So Harry and Ginny, Neville and his new girlfriend Hannah Abbott, and Susan Bones, since she didn't want to be a fifth wheel with couples.
The bright pink ball returned and she picked it up again.
Her eyes focused on the second arrow as she adjusted her position, nearly touching the ball return machine. Her breathing stilled, her body was taut like before, but her hold was looser. Her eyes narrowed on the four pin and traced the invisible line back over the arrow.
"Hermione, hurry up! We haven't got all day! Some of us have places to be after this," Ginny laughed behind her. She turned her narrowed gaze on her friend.
Ginny grinned at her.
Bon Jovi started playing on the jukebox.
She took a deep breath and turned away from the redhead.
She lined herself up and one, two, ball at her side, slide and swing, release.
Her ball drifted towards the gutter and she sighed as it clipped the left side of the 4 pin and kicked it over, but it went behind the ten, leaving her with a 199 instead of the 200 game she had been trying very hard to achieve.
She walked back and slumped in her chair as Ginny gave her a thumbs up and grabbed her orange ball. She did a little shimmy as she lined up the furthest to the left as she could. The young woman walked to the line, stopped, and threw the ball.
Down, down over the third arrow and into the pocket for a 7.
She looked up at the scores and she smiled.
Hermione’s dad, as always, had beat her mother, and she had beat her mother too, but hadn’t quite caught her dad. Harry was surprisingly good, as he had 150.
She knew the Dursleys never took him bowling, and with the war and everything, she doubted he'd ever been until she started inviting him to come with her.
This was not the first time her parents had asked her to bring along a friend, and the only person she could think of at such a request was Harry.
Then Ginny started to come too.
And then Neville. Then when Hannah came, she brought Susan too.
It was fun. The most fun she'd had in a long time, actually.
Definitely the most non-magical fun since the war.
She looked over to her parents, who were smiling and laughing, her dad whispering something in her mother's ear and her mother gently pushing her father away.
They'd always been affectionate towards each other, and she quickly turned away as she felt the break of her heart once more that things between her and Ron didn't work out. Not that she really thought they would, but she had hoped.
She knew they would never last. In fact, she was the one that broke up with Ron, not the other way around. She just…she couldn't imagine living her life arguing with someone over everything and nothing every day. She wanted someone to laugh with, to make her feel relaxed, and she didn't think Ron was that person. At least not in the long term.
Besides, since Fred's death, Ron had been spending time with his remaining brothers, and even his mother.
She worried about him, but she was too caught up in her own mess to really devote the proper time to a relationship.
Ginny picked up the three pins she left and stood back to let the next person go ahead.
Harry moved to sit next to her as Ginny grabbed the ball again.
"Don't listen to her, Hermione, it's just dinner at the Burrow. Molly asked us about you. I know since you broke up with Ron you haven't stopped by. She misses you. They all do."
She frowned at him.
"I don't want to impose. Besides, with mum and dad…" Her eyes flickered to her oblivious parents. "I can't, Harry."
They had one more game after this.
Harry bumped her shoulder.
Green eyes looked at her and she smiled softly.
"Don't worry about them. They're here and we've been trying to find a cure for them. Even if we never do, they'd want you to be happy. They treat you like a daughter anyway. It won't be forever. I seriously think they were hoping you and I were…you know."
She grinned, remembering very well her dad had indeed thought Harry was her boyfriend. And that was why Ginny came to the next bowling game. Her mum looked disappointed, actually. Her dad was relieved.
She thought he might be right.
They did still treat her like their daughter even if they didn't know it.
She looked at Ginny, who dropped her ball. It went into the gutter.
Ginny swore, before she looked anxiously over at Hermione’s parents.
Her dad looked confused for a second before he snorted, and her mum looked amused.
"You and Hermione have very creative ways of not cursing like you'd get in trouble for it. It's alright to do so near adults. I know Wanda swears like a sailor," her dad said, poking his wife's side.
Hermione smiled. Yes, her mother had a bad habit of doing so at the slightest inconveniences, though she always refrained near children.
Ginny laughed, shoulders relaxing.
Poor Neville. She saw his confusion. Susan and Hannah were giggling at his expression.
She felt a calm she didn't know she could experience between her worlds. It wasn’t something she thought she would ever have again.
It felt normal, even.
Like this was the reason she’d fought so hard to survive, for them all to survive.
And maybe the puzzle pieces weren’t exactly right, but maybe one day it wouldn’t feel so strange.