Star
Hermione found herself in darkness.
It was jarring- after the bright afternoon sunlight streaming down the high windows of the library. A jolt of fear instantly washed away all feelings of anger and irritability and replaced them with a focused alertness.
Thankfully, her wand was still in her hand, and she reflexively whispered Lumos and bright white light lit up the tip of her wand.
She could see a wide open slope, grass at her feet, as far as the light penetrated. A gentle breeze washed over her, and a few of her curls moved around her face.
A flash of movement caught her eye. Her heart jumped, but when she looked closer, it was nothing but the monstrous shadow of a little dandelion swaying its head in the breeze.
The light lit up a small circle around her filled with nothing but grass, swaying dandelions and the deep shadows caused by Lumos. Beyond her circle of light was what felt like an endless abyss of darkness. It was silent, except for the gentle whispering wind. She stood there frozen and uncertain, barely moving, and slowly became aware of her thudding heart and her pulse racing in her ears.
Her thoughts conjured all kinds of blood thirsty, malevolent monsters hiding in the circle of enveloping darkness beyond her wand light.
She felt like a child. Her certainty was gone, all she knew about the world replaced by nothing. She slowly turned in a circle, holding her wand as high as she could. She took a few deep breaths, then started walking down the gentle slope.
She walked for what felt like ages. And, after a while, as nothing jumped out at her from the dark, she began to calm down.
One of her laces had popped open. She tripped over her own feet, her hands tried to break her fall, reflexively letting go of the wand that was her lifeline. The wand flew from her hand, the Lumos dissolved, Hermione crashed painfully to the ground, left wrist and knees taking most of the impact.
It was jarring, the sudden oppressive overtaking of darkness, again. Worse, she'd lost her wand. She tried to keep a firm idea of the direction it had flown in. She rose to her knees, cursing quietly, stopped to fumble with her shoelace so it would not trip her again. And then began to crawl downhill in the direction her wand had fallen in, hands searching blindly, feeling for the smooth wood.
As her eyes adjusted to the absence of light, she realized that stars, more stars than she had ever seen in her lifetime shone down on the space she was in. She was so mesmerized that she forgot she was looking for her wand and stood slowly. She'd taken Astronomy, used telescopes to gaze at the stars, sat in the great hall under the night sky, but those did not compare to the experience she was having at the moment.
She had never seen so many stars at once, never seen them move as fast as they were moving now. She felt like the sky was rotating around her and she realized, with a startling clarity, why mankind had at one point thought that the earth was the center of the universe. She was so amazed- her breath caught and her eyes tried to take in every star, every little pinprick of light shining down on her, greedily, tried to hold on to the image, to save it so somehow she could live and relive the scene.
She was so consumed by the stars, that she held her hand in the direction she knew her wand was in and muttered a distracted Accio, wishing she could get her wand so she could safely go back to looking at the stars.
Her wand flew into her hand, she had a few moments to feel surprised at the ease with which wandless magic had worked for her, but then she was back to looking at the movements of the stars.
She didn't know how long she spent looking at the stars, but after her neck started to ache, she took a moment to consider the star-lit landscape around her and decided to go to the giant tree that stood at the base of several hills. The tree was surrounded by blue flowers that swirled and twirled in the wind. She took a closer look and saw they were lupines. She relit her Lumos to take a closer look: they were glorious.
She'd just let the Lumos fade when she heard something that made her freeze: a whispered Incarecerous. She reflexively cast Protego and dove so she was hidden from sight and began moving away from the assailant.
She made it to the wide tree. It was larger than any tree she had seen in her life- the trunk several times her body width. She sent a Patronus in the direction of the assailant and then doubled around the tree so she would come at them from the back while they were distracted by her Patronus.
She disillusioned herself and walked around the tree making sure her footsteps were absolutely silent. A bright light flashed from the other side of the tree and Hermione felt her Patronus dissipate as the pull on her magic decreased. It had met the assailant! Hermione hurried, looking forward to see who had tried to sneak up on and capture her. She was almost running as she continued to turn around the tree when suddenly she ran into something invisible.
Her nerves were on edge and as she went flying back from the impact, she cast another Protego. The disillusioned assailant reappeared, staggering, just as she crashed to the ground on her behind and as he continued looking at her, she realized he had also ended her disillusionment charm.
Hermione stood so rapidly, it felt like her body was ahead of her brain. There was no continuity between the one moment she was on the ground and the next when she was up on her feet with her wand pointed at the intruder.
Her eyes, now used to the bright blue tint of the starlight, made out a human figure before her. They remained deadlocked for a few moments, wands raised at each other. Hermione's mind was racing to catalog spells and counterspells.
But, something stopped her from casting the first spell, in either offense or defense.
Maybe it was the dark eyes glittering with reflected starlight, the straight lines of a body taller than her own, the head of dark hair- like the inky darkness between the stars-, the face made of shadow or the pale hand clutching and pointing a wand like she was.
Maybe it was the relief she felt at seeing another human in this place. The stars were so glorious, they made Hermione shiver and feel small. She meant nothing and might float away or disappear and all this glory would still exist, unaffected by her non-existence. The presence opposite her seemed to belong beneath these stars, but they were human enough to relate to, someone warm in this place of cold, diamond hard beauty. The existence of another human made the beauty and loneliness of this place bearable.
Maybe it was because she was disoriented- from finding herself in this place, from feeling like she had spent eons walking under the cold stars, from her shock at being attacked when she had thought herself alone.
Whatever it was, something in Hermione was reluctant to cast the first spell, unless the other person did.