Chapter One
"No…don't…you can't…HARRY!!!!!!"
Suddenly Hermione Granger sat up in bed, screaming. Her mother ran into the room moments later, her gentle red curls bouncing, before sitting down next to her daughter. Hermione however didn't take notice; she just sat in bed shuddering.
"Harry…where am I…where are you…I can't see anything, Harry! I'm missing! It's black…oh, it's so black…"
She began shuddering violently and sobbing. Her eyes weren't focused on anything; she seemed to be in another world.
"Hermione!" her mother shouted, gripping her daughter by the shoulders.
"It's so black," the witch sobbed, "help me, it's so black. Wait…Mama?"
Mrs. Granger held her daughter, trying to quell her shivers.
"Yes dear, it's me." The woman's fears began to subside. The girl turned and looked at her, though her eyes didn't focus.
"Why are you here, mama? It's so black…why are you here? Green…green fire…I can't see him! Harry, Harry, why did you? How could you? It's so cold…so cold…."
The fears came rushing back in full force and she began to feel panic rising in her. Quickly she moved to suppress it. She had to stay calm if she was to help her daughter.
"I'm here sweetheart. Come back to me." Tears began to pour down her cheeks. "Come back to me, my love. I can't live without you."
"No, where? It can't…no, it can't be…Papa? No, no, no!" Suddenly, the girl collapsed into her mother's arms, weeping as though her heart would break.
"You can't be here…no…you can't be…."
Mr. Granger suddenly burst into the room.
"I was outside," he gasped, looking frantically at his daughter, "Is she alright? What is she doing?" He was afraid. His girl didn't act like this; she was always calm and cool, always collected, always reasoning, always thinking.
"Harry!" she suddenly interjected in a muffled scream, cutting both of them off. "Harry, don't leave me here! Why am I here? Where are you?" The muffled sobs started up again.
The two adults looked at each other gravely, panic that each was attempting to fight off in both their eyes.
"Stay calm," they told each other, "if you have a panic attack, it will leave her there longer. You have to be calm to think."
"We have to get her back," said the mother simply, "but I don't have any ideas. Do you?"
"Do you remember when Professor McGonagoll came and told us that she had magic?" he asked, "and that one of the ways they monitored people who could give birth to wizarding children was looking at the parents?"
She looked up, her eyes shining with suppressed tears, but with a new expression of almost fearful hope on her face.
"Do you think…"
"It's all I can think of. Lets try calling her back home together."
Silently, both of them took one of their daughter's hands
`Come back to me,' they called together. Somehow, they could sense each other's actions. `Come back, my heart's own.' Both reached into the well of courage in their mind and drew out all that they could, sending it through their hands, into the void. `Let me guide you home.'
They visualized a light, a small, wavering silver spark floating wildly on a breeze like a stray ember from a campfire, a spark that would lead her home.
`Come back to us.'
"Mama? Papa?"
The adults almost collapsed with relief as their daughter's eyes began to focus in again, her tears becoming more natural. "Oh mum, dad," she said, tears flowing freely down her face, "it was dark…so dark…the darkest thing that I've ever experienced…and cold… It was pulling me in," she said, looking up and attempting to halt the stream of tears. "And…" something seemed to hit her with all the weight of a ton of bricks. "Oh mum, he's made a mistake, a huge mistake, I have to talk to Professor Dumbledore right now…he'll know what to do…" She paused and looked at her parents once more and hugged them, before leaping up and searching the huge trunk at the foot of her bed for something. When she found what she was looking for, a long, narrow piece of aspen, she quickly pulled it out and ran to the window.
"Hermione, aren't you forbidden to do magic away from school?"
She quickly brushed the question aside. "Since I'm a prefect, I'm allowed to do a few minor charms just so long as I'm discreet about them." She made a small move that twitched the end of her wand and muttered "postarious." Almost immediately, a handsome dappled brown owl swooped down and landed on the windowsill.
"Wait a sec," she muttered, quickly grabbing a quill, piece of parchment and bottle of ink from her desk. Quickly she scribbled a rather messy, ink-stained note. The pen even ran out halfway through the letter "E."
Professor Dumbledore,
I NEED YOUR HELP!!! COME AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN!!!
Hermione
"Here," she said, giving it to him. When he waited on the sill, looking disapproving, she suddenly remembered. "Oh, sorry." She ran back to the trunk, dug out a soft leather purse and pulled out three little bronze coins. Quickly, her hands slightly shaking, she pushed them into a small pouch tied to his leg. "Go now, go, go, I need to contact Professor Albus Dumbledore of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry right away!" The owl hooted almost disdainfully and soared off into the night air.
"Hermione, this is not like you. What's wrong?"
Hermione turned and faced her parents, giving them a small, quavering smile.
"I'm sorry. I'm just afraid, and I need to act now, and I can't legally apparate yet, and I need to talk to Professor Dumbledore right away, and it couldn't wait, and-"
"Shhhhh dear, we understand that from what few words you let slip. Why do you need to see the headmaster?"
Hermione sank onto the bed, burying her face in her hands. "He's made a mistake, mum. He's made a huge mistake, and I don't know what it is, but I have to fix it because it's one of those ones, if you know what I mean, and I have to talk with the headmaster to see what he thinks and to see if he can solve it or if we're all going to die, because Voldemort is back, and we need him, we can't get by without him, and-"
"Who dear? Who is this vital person that made a mistake and how do you know that they did?"
The girl finally looked up, slightly shamefaced. "Oh mum, this is going to sound crazy, but I know that he made a mistake because I saw it in my dream. I swear I'm not crazy, and I swear that it did happen, something about it pulled me away, and it was dark, and it was cold, and I was scared, oh, so scared, but I have to stop it or everything will go wrong-"
"Who Hermione?" Mrs. Granger asked, more pointedly.
The young witch looked up in surprise. "Who? Well, Harry, of course. Harry Potter."
"Harry?" she asked. "Who is Harry?"
Hermione was thunderstruck.
-->