A chill wind whispered over the lake, ruffling its inky waters; beneath the surface, a blurred and rippling shape stirred restlessly. Beyond the lake, the Forbidden Forest rustled, thousands of trees blending into a single entity which shivered in the cold of pre-dawn. The grass on the sloping lawns was wet with dew, and not a single being stirred in all of the ancient castle's grounds.

Not a single being, except a girl, who looked to be nearing twenty in age, and who was hurrying down over the slippery grass, her cloak billowing behind her. Her hair flew wild and bushy in the breeze, as unrestrained as her movement - as she neared the lake, she veered to the side and headed in a fast curve around its edge and towards the forest. Her name was Hermione Granger, and she was quite alone.

When she arrived under the gently creaking branches of an old beech tree, Hermione stopped and caught her breath. It was very early, early enough that not even Hagrid was up and about, tending to the animals in his care as he did every morning, as he had done for countless years past, and would continue to do for many, many more. Hermione, of course, had planned it this way. Hermione always had a plan, and today's had involved tiptoeing from her dormitory in the misty darkness before dawn and hurrying through the castle's winding corridors and stairways before she left the castle altogether and arrived here, at the old beech tree.

Her hand sliding across the roughened bark, scrawled with the initials of generations of students, Hermione sank to the ground, leaning against the trunk and tugging her cloak around her to keep out the chill. Across the water of the lake, Hogwarts stood dark and imposing against the sky, a chiselled silhouette standing firm against the ever-receding night. Hermione gazed fondly at the castle which was her home, the castle which had given her the opportunity to discover her true identity, which had given her a purpose and a sanctuary, and the best friends she had ever had. Somehow, after all this time, a 'thank you' seemed both in order, and strangely redundant; in a sense, Hermione knew she would never truly leave Hogwarts, just as surely as Hogwarts would never truly leave her.

And yet ... and yet she was leaving, this very night. All day long, there would be ceremonies and celebrations, awards and remembrances, and tonight, after seven years at Hogwarts, she and the others in her adopted year would depart the way they had arrived, sailing across the lake to the awaiting Hogwarts Express. Hermione was ready, had been ready for the world for a long, long time. Her year hiding in the wilderness whilst tirelessly fighting for the overthrow of Lord Voldemort had proven her capabilities like nothing before.

At the same time, however, Hermione had never felt so unprepared in her entire life. It was, she thought, one thing to be leaving Hogwarts, but quite another to be leaving without the friends she had made in her very first year. She would graduate and depart the castle, not alongside Harry and Ron, but Ginny and Luna, who, whilst they were very dear to her, were of course not the ones she had expected to share her last days of Hogwarts with. The whole year had felt like this; a bizarre twist of normality, her day to day routine much more like that of other students than it had been in previous years, with two girls as her constant companions instead of two boys, and an almost constant feeling of unreality, as if the whole year had been a dream, a curious relief from the year she had spent in the wild.

She had missed Harry and Ron desperately, though of course she had seen them every Hogsmeade weekend, weekends which were a blur of delight in Hermione's mind. Ron, full of a confidence she had watched grow over the past few months, would grin and joke and hug her, and Harry, smiling, would smile and and talk and Ginny would remark that he was turning into an awkward third wheel, upon which Ron would grin and push Harry towards Ginny, before the four of them (accompanied by a dreamy but cheerful Luna) made their way to the Three Broomsticks to talk and talk until it was nearly dark.

Hermione sighed, letting her breath hang in the air. Today would be strange without Harry and Ron, certainly. But it would have been strange even if they had been here, and Hermione, ever practical, put the matter out of her mind. Dawn was breaking, and she could see movement behind Hagrid's curtains. Clambering to her feet, Hermione took a smooth, flat stone from the pocket of her robes. She had found it weeks ago, and had used her wand to engrave a simple rune into its surface. Approaching the lake edge so that the water lapped not far from her feet, Hermione drew back her arm and flicked her wrist, flinging the stone to skim across the water. As the stone finally dropped beneath the rumpled surface of the lake, the ripples spreading far, far over the water, Hermione smiled. 'Thank you,' she whispered, her gaze taking in Hogwarts, the lake, the grounds. She smiled as she walked back up to the castle, and continued smiling throughout the day, more or less. Maybe it wasn't going to be how she had imagined it, but she was proud to have come this far, and she owed it to Hogwarts to continue with spirit right until the end.

%%%

'Look, Hermione! Look at the stars!' Ginny clutched her friend's arm, her brown eyes wide and peppered with reflected shards of light.

Hermione let her own eyes travel across the night sky, before alighting on the castle once more. 'Look at Hogwarts ... ' she breathed in response. Even after all these years, she could never get over just hoe beautiful Hogwarts was, its many windows ablaze with light.

From her other side, Luna, pale and somehow ghostly in the moonlight, smiled vaguely. 'Look at the water,' she said, pointing to the ripples echoing back from their boat as they glided smoothly across the lake. The ripples created dancing spasms of light which moved eerily over the girls' faces.

Hermione, her throat tight with emotion, smiled at her companions. She was leaving Hogwarts, but it would always be her home, and she knew, with a burning certainty which coursed through her veins, that her future, whatever it might be, would always bring her back to her days brewing Polyjuice Potion and campaigning for elf rights. She was leaving her home, but her home might just be coming with her, and that was just fine.