The Cheese Stands Alone

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A/N: Ah... I've come up with yet another perfectly wacked up title. Don't worry, it's a good story overall. This was a 15-minute ficlet challenge: SCARED.

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The world around her was frozen and white, her breath coming out in short raspy white puffs. Snow crunched at her feet as she walked though the thin gathering of trees. Looking toward the blue sky she exhaled and watched the white vapor float away. The morning was not particularly chilly, of course, the lack of harsh winds helped, but it was glaringly below zero degrees Celsius, cold enough that the need of layers became apparent.

She had woken up to find the house quiet in a restless sort of way. Not particularly odd since she always woke up before her husband anyways. Sitting with her books, she decided it was a morning not to be spent studying. As she wondered what she would do by herself, exercising came across her mind and she decided a walk would be nice for such a sunny morning.

After awhile she realized she had no particular destination in mind and was wandering around aimlessly in her immense backyard, looking much like a fool. So here’s where she stood, looking very much indeed like a lost little duck. She chuckled to herself and began humming a nursery rhyme.

The farmer in the dell,

The farmer in the dell,

Heigh-ho the derry-o,

The farmer in the dell.

Lying down in the snow near a frozen rose bush, she moved her arms and legs quickly back and forth.

The farmer takes a wife,

The farmer takes a wife,

Heigh-ho the derry-o,

The farmer takes a wife.

She though back to her own wedding. Oh, it was an extravaganza to remember. Set in the wintertime, it was an outdoor White Wonderland affair. Silvers, whites, frost and crystals covered nearly everything. The bride and groom were excepting it to be a snow-less day, herself being the bride, had been a little dismayed. Imagine the delight when snow started coming down in handfuls just as they said I dos’.

The wife takes a child,

The wife takes a child,

Heigh-ho the derry-o,

The wife takes a child.

She stopping moving her arms and legs of a second to rub her vaguely swelled stomach, feeling the life beneath her fingers she grinned. Eight more months now.

The child takes a nurse,

The child takes a nurse,

Heigh-ho the derry-o,

The child takes a nurse.

Still humming the tune, she lifted herself carefully off the snow to inspect her work. Pensively, she decided something was amiss. Walking carefully around her art she selected a long thing twig. With a flick of her wand the piece of wood bent to form a circle.

The nurse takes a dog,

The nurse takes a dog,

Heigh-ho the derry-o,

The nurse takes a dog.

Waddling a little, she made her way over to the head of her snow angel and carefully placed the makeshift halo above its head. She stood back and admired her work. Looking back at the house she wondered if her husband was awake yet.

The dog takes a cat,

The dog takes a cat,

Heigh-ho the derry-o,

The dog takes a cat.

The kitty door creaked as Crookshanks ambled out meowing as he cuddled close to the warmth of Hermione’s leg. Soon after Leo bounded out wagging his German Shepard tail lazily against the ground. Crookshanks let out a meow of protest and bounded away from the large dog evoking it to catch him. The two dashed through the snow as Hermione rolled her eyes.

Leonardo, or Leo as they called him, was a dog her husband had adopted from the streets of Muggle London in the summer before her fifth year. Though Hermione didn’t particularly like, nor dislike dogs, she found them time consuming and disasters on four feet. She had first accepted Leo because she understood the tight invisible bond between her husband and the dog. Wanting nothing but her husband to be happy, she had attempted to make friends with the strange dog (who seemed too intelligent for its own good). Surprisingly, she had taken to Leo and Leo seemed to like her himself.

The cat takes a rat,

The cat takes a rat,

Heigh-ho the derry-o,

The cat takes a rat.

Staring down at the now ruined snow angel, she frowned and stopped humming.

The rat takes the cheese,

The rat takes the cheese,

Heigh-ho the derry-o,

The rat takes the cheese.

She internally jumped as she felt warm breath on her neck and a hand wrapping around her waist.

“I’ll make as many snow angels as there are trees in the world, just to see you stop frowning,” he whispered into her ear.

Smile and turned around to look into his soft gray eyes, circling her arms around his neck in a loose hug.

“I love you,” she mumbled into his broad shoulder taking in the spicy sandalwood smell that was entirely his own.

“I love you better.”

“This could go on all day.”

The cheese stands alone,

The cheese stands alone,

Heigh-ho the derry-o,

The cheese stands alone.

“Let’s go back inside before you catch a cold,” he mummers in an undertone, softly pulling her by the waist toward the safe, warm, pastel yellow house.

Looking back at her ruined snow angel, she notices that a lone blossomed rose had fallen somewhere near the angel’s heart, that is, if it where to have a heart. The rose was frosted over and barely alive, yet its red vibrancy shone with an odd rare kind of beauty making even the ruined snow angel, seem like a gift from god.

Her world had felt much like how the ruined snow angel had looked. After the war it was pure chaos. Once everything settled down, she realized she had never felt more alone and scared in her life. Having Cedric in her life was like that single rose bud. Suddenly there was something to look forward to, something more to explore, and something more waiting to be discovered. He was her color against the white and black.

He had stopped to see what she was looking at. Cocking his head he mused, “How odd that a rose is growing in winter.”

Standing on her tiptoes, she gave his a soft kiss on the cheek, “Some things are beautiful just the way they are.”

He turned his head toward her and smiled, “Like you.”

Rolling her eyes, the two continued their walk back inside the house, Crookshanks and Leo trailing closely behind.

The farmer in the dell,

The farmer in the dell,

Heigh-ho the derry-o,

The farmer in the dell.

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If you read my current author profile update, you would have known that I'm VERY stressed about my mid-term finals and have been studying all this month. If you're also a visiter of my author profile you would have known that I DID promise you a Cedric/Hermione one-shot so here it is! This took me about an hour to write but I'm VERY proud of the outcome, considering how stressed I am. No worries, the last testing date for mid-terms in on the 31st of January. After that fanfiction will take over my life once again.

Golden Like the Sun UPDATES

GltS will NOT be updated until I finish mid-term finals. Sorry. In fact NONE of the stories will be update except for maybe an ocassional 300 word one-shot.

Not Quite Perfect Fairy Tale UPDATES

I KNOW that some of you are eagerly expecting an update and I'm SO sorry! I just realised that I never wrote in my AN that NQPFT was supposed to be a ONE-SHOT. BUT... BUT... due to all the entusiastic responses I got, I'm considering making it a multi-chapter STORY like GltS. Either way, a Chapter 2 WILL be posted (rating probably M). If I do make NQPFT a chapter story, it will probably be AFTER I finish GltS. Once again sorry!