Thank you for the reviews! I realize that these chapters are quite short, and I apologize. This chapter is the shortest, but it didn't seem right to go on from here in this chapter. I'll post Chapter 9 very, very shortly. The chapters will be longer in the next story, and the one-shot you can expect in the next week or so. :)
Their eyes hazed over at the memory. It seemed so long ago, but they both knew that it hadn't been long. Harry sighed, then broke the silence.
"Hermione, I remember that, but I still don't know what that has to do with my mother, your being awake, or me being alive."
She smiled. "You would understand, if you'd let me tell the story!"
He resigned himself to silence once again. He really wanted to understand, and even though in all these years, he'd become accustomed to Hermione knowing more than he did, in this case he really wanted to know. He couldn't put it together. Hermione alive- black curse- Harry alive- protection charms- declarations of bravery- Voldemort dead- heartfelt confessions- unconsciousness. They all made sense separately, but together, they were little more than a mess to Harry.
Hermione looked at her hands. This was not going to be easy. She knew what kind of reaction it was going to earn. "Harry, I know... I know about your dreams. Your dreams over the last couple of months where your father and Sirius have been visiting you and telling you what you had to do to destroy Voldemort."
Harry's eyes went wide. He instantly became panicked. "How do you know?! I couldn't have let it slip... I knew what that meant... if anyone else knew, then it wouldn't work... it would only appear to work but-"
"-in reality, it would make him stronger. I know. But it did work, and he really is gone. And no, you didn't tell me."
He was still not at ease. "Then how, pray tell, do you know? I was the only person in the world who knew... not even Dumbledore knew."
"That's not true," she said simply. "Sirius knew. Your father knew. And-"
"They don't count! They're dead!"
"Harry! I know they're dead! Now if you'd let me explain. Sirius knew. Your father knew. As did every other dead member of the Order. They all found out how, after they died. Part of their vows to the Order were that they would not rest until the Dark Lord was vanquished. They wouldn't even rest in death. After he rose again, they all brought their knowledge together, and pinpointed exactly when the final battle was going to occur. They then had the three members closest to you help you to prepare, starting two months before the battle was going to happen."
He looked at her, slightly puzzled. "Three? It wasn't three. Only two. Just my dad and Sirius. Wherever you read this is wrong- where did you read this? It's not public knowledge. How do you know?"
"You'd know by now if you would just be quiet and listen!" Her face showed a small amount of frustration, but also humor.
He shrunk down as if he had just been scolded by McGonagall.
"Three. And my source of information was not wrong. I didn't read it. And I never said that the three people would all appear in your dreams. I said that they would all help you. And they all did."
He looked even more puzzled than before. Hermione was torturing him. Almost holding it over his head. Why couldn't she just come out and tell him?! It was maddening. He couldn't stand the feeling of being totally mystified.
"All three helped you. And my source of information was completely correct, and I put complete trust in my source. Let's just say-" she looked at her hands, and then back at Harry. "Let's just say that you aren't the only one who has been having dreams."
His eyes widened with shock, and he opened his mouth to speak, but he knew that speaking would not do him any good. She had warned him to be quiet and listen. If he interrupted now, she'd never get to it. He was dying to know. To him, it seemed like a big Muggle mystery novel, where each page gave a new shocking twist. These twists were becoming so confusing to him that he decided it would be best to just let her continue. Maybe that would give her a chance to finish. He couldn't help but think again about everything that he'd revealed to her. He'd just poured his heart flat out, and she was taking him on this roundabout trek. This new development, however, kept him interested. Too interested to interrupt her and run the risk of her not telling him. He closed his mouth again.
"All this time that you've been visited, so have I. I was visited at exactly the same time every night that you were. Why do you think Dumbledore arranged for us to have private rooms? No, our roommates didn't all get transferred into other rooms for no reason. He knew that both of us would be visited."
Every second, he was getting more confused. He questioned her with his eyes. As much as he wasn't going to speak, he hoped that his eyes portrayed the same question that he was thinking. 'Who was visiting you?'
She looked at him, and surveyed him with her eyes. She smiled, knowingly. "You want to know who visited me. I told you that the visitors that helped you would be the three closest to you. Sirius and James helped you by coming to you to teach you. The third person came to me. To teach me how to help you. How to protect you. How to come full-circle on something that she started. For the past eight weeks, I have been visited every night by none other than Lily Evans Potter."
Short chapter, I know. I'm sorry, but this chapter was necessary and it didn't sound right to go on from here in this chapter. You'll just have to wait! For now, please review!