~A/N> Thanks so much for all the great reviews! I love reading every one of them and finding out what you think
is going to happen next in the story. I'm also glad you liked the way I'm taking Ron and Luna's
relationship. I know that Luna is OOC from the books, but I'm writing her the way that I see her. I've been
working on coming chapters and the rating will more than likely be going up, unless I change the scene that I've
just written in. It could happen, but it would change the story arc so I'll have to think on it a bit. Hopefully
you guys won't mind if I up the rating? Anyway, here's the next chapter, and I hope you enjoy reading it.
Thanks again for the reviews, and thanks once more to Lisa, my friend whose encouragement makes me want to write more
:) See y'all next week!
Entering into Harry's nightmare was something completely different than what Hermione had expected. Firenze had
been teaching her dream teleportation, or channeling into Harry's mind, after he had explained how Voldemort had
entered into his mind before. As a spectral manifestation, Hermione got her bearing's and proceeded to take in her
surroundings. What she saw before her made her blood run cold, so to speak.
As the scene before her played out, she felt as if she wanted to be sick, knowing that it wasn't possible in her current state. Harry was shackeled by one wrist to what looked to be a dungeon wall, trying so hard to get free that his wrist was raw and bloody. As he pulled, he was reaching his free hand toward something and when she followed his gaze, she felt as if she might faint. There, shackeled to the wall by both hands and feet, was a likeness of her. Standing in front of her was Voldemort, laughing in a way that made evil feel as if it were a real thing to be touched. Voldemort made a motion with his wand and Hermione watched in horror as her twin screamed in agony, a tear suddenly appearing on the flesh of her stomach. "I do not understand how you can stand to be near such filth, Potter, let alone touch it. But then, your mother was a mudblood too, was she not?"
"Let her go, you evil bastard!" Harry shouted, tugging harder on the restraint around his wrist, cutting deeper into the skin. "Hang on, Hermione, just be strong. Don't leave me..."
Hermione turned from Harry when she heard a very pained, very quiet imitation of her own voice say, "Don't worry about me Harry. I'm not the one that can defeat him, only you can. Save yourself."
"No!" Harry shouted again, emitting an anguished, guttural cry that came from deep within his soul as another gash appeared on her neck. It was horizontal, running from one ear to the other, and blood seeped quickly from the wound.
Not deep enough to cut her vocal chords, the Hermione-in-shackles lifted her head just enough so that she could see him through the blood and sweat that ran down her face and whispered, "I can't fight it anymore, Harry. I just can't. Don't ever forget how much I love you, and I'll always be with you in your heart."
"No! You promised that you wouldn't leave me! You promised we would defeat him together, that our love would help to defeat him, you can't give up now!" Harry screamed, jerking his arm so hard that Hermione cringed as she heard one of his bones snap from the force.
The sound of his bone breaking snapped her from the trancelike state she had been in while watching his nightmare play out, and she quickly made her way over to Harry's subconscious self. Just before reaching him, her body was suddenly racked with a pain like she'd never felt before. Screaming as every nerve in her body seemed to catch fire and burn her blood, she moved her head just enough to see that it was Voldemort cursing her...the spectral Hermione, not Harry's nightmare Hermione. How was this possible?
"You are predictable mudblood, and you bore me," Voldemort hissed, and then lifted the curse from her.
Panting in pain, she glared up at him and said, "This isn't possible. There is no way that you could have physically manifested yourself into Harry's dreams, let alone be able to perform magic. You are not Voldemort."
"Well, I guess you are not as ignorant as those that came before you," he said, and slid the black hood from his head. Hermione lay on the floor, pain still coursing through her, looking up at Damien as he smiled evilly down at her. "It is too bad that you are going to end up just like them, you would have been fun to play with."
When Damien took a step toward her, Hermione quickly reached out, and holding tightly onto Harry's hand she closed her eyes and said, "Andrelateo Olethros Daimonion Philos!" Once she saw the golden light appear around her, she hastily said, "Portus exido!", withdrawing from Harry's mind while at the same time making sure his subconscious mind was now safe from Damien's horrors.
~*~
When Hermione opened her eyes, she found herself sprawled out flat on her stomach on the floor in Harry's room. When she thought of Harry, she went to jump up to make sure he was alright, but then cried out in anguish as her body pulsed with one giant wave of pain.
"Don't move," came Harry's shaky voice from somewhere above her. She felt him gently place his hand on her back and she flinched at the contact, causing her to suffer even more as the pain returned, but much worse this time.
"Make it stop!" she cried, wondering what the hell Damien had done to her to cause this agony.
"I can't," he whispered, sounding helpless and a bit frightened. "It was the Cruciatus curse, there's nothing to do but let it run its' course. I'm sorry."
The tears spilled from her eyes, dripping onto the floor as the pain came in waves, peaking at an intensity that made her want to scream, only to finally ebb away and give her a bit of time to catch her breath before it came again. Harry sat next to her on the floor, smoothing her sweat soaked hair off of her face, feeling worthless. This was all his fault, if he would have just cleared his mind of thought before going to sleep, Voldemort wouldn't have gotten into his mind again...
"Harry, please..." Hermione's pleading voice came, breaking into his thoughts. "I don't want to be on the floor anymore. Please help me."
Thinking on her request for a tick, he reached out and rested his hands on her side. Slowly and deliberately, he rolled her so that she was laying on her back now. After giving her time to recover a bit from the pain of the move, he put one arm under her neck and the other underneath her knees and very carefully picked her up, cradling her against him to lessen any movement of her body. Taking baby steps, he walked over to his bed and gently lay her down on it, releasing the breath he was holding. He had been so afraid of making her pain worse. "Rest now, the pain should lessen throughout the night and be gone by morning."
Trying to get comfortable, she looked at him with a sudden clarity in her eyes as she said, "You seem to know a lot about this curse."
"I know it all too well," he said, carefully crawling behind her on the bed and laying on his side. Slowly, he lay his hand very gently on her waist so as not to rest it's full weight on her and cause more pain. "Voldemort has cast it on me too, once before in my fourth year at Hogwarts. It's something I'll never forget."
After a short silence in which Hermione stared deeply into his eyes, seemingly studying him, she suddenly spoke up in a whisper, "It wasn't Voldemort Harry, it was Damien disguised as Voldemort. He somehow projected himself into your head and caused the nightmare. There was nothing you could have done to stop it. It's something I'm supposed to do, but I haven't learned how to yet. Maybe I can ask Sorcha to teach me tomorrow so that we can protect you from him."
"First I have Voldemort in my head poking around, and now Damien as well?" Harry asked, sounding a bit disgusted.
Slowly bringing up her hand she lay it gently on his cheek, barely moving her thumb back and forth in a gentle caress. "Thank you for helping me."
"I should be thanking you," he said. "The things he was doing to you, and I couldn't do anything to help. I felt so worthless..."
When he trailed off, Hermione watched as a pink tinge blossomed upon his cheeks while feeling his skin warm under her hand as well. Remembering how he spoke of loving her in the nightmare she said, "It was just a nightmare Harry, it wasn't real. For you anyway."
"But you were hurt again," he replied, sounding angry now, and she knew it was at himself because he felt he had let her down.
"Harry," she said, waiting to speak again until he met her eyes. "You may be the boy-who-lived, the wizard who's supposed to save the world from Voldemort, but I'm the one that's supposed to keep you safe so that you can do that. I've seen how powerful you are, and I have faith that you will fulfill your destiny, so stop doubting yourself. I believe in you, as do many others."
Harry just stared into her eyes, seeing a hint of pain that was probably another wave from the curse, and he leant forward to place a kiss on her forehead. "Thank you for saving me tonight. If I had continued to watch you being tortured much longer, I probably would've gone mad."
"But it wasn't me, and I was doing what I was supposed to do," she replied, and then suddenly felt very tired. Feeling her eyes drooping she mumbled, " 'M sleepy."
"Then rest," he said, reaching down for the blanket and then carefully scooting closer to her so that he could wrap his arm around her waist. "If you need anything during the night, just wake me, okay?"
"M'kay," she mumbled, and then he listened as her breathing evened out, signalling that she was sleeping. After watching her sleep for a little while he felt his eyelids grow heavy as well, and finally giving up the fight drifted off to sleep, praying that he would have no more nightmares that night.
~*~
Waking up with Harry holding her in his arms was a very nice way to start the day. Unfortunately, she didn't get to appreciate it for very long. She heard someone talking on the other side of the door, and the next thing she knew she was staring into Nymphadora Tonks now-blue eyes, which held not only questions but a bit of anger. "Care to explain why you're in here, sleeping with Harry, while Ron is in your room sleeping with Luna?"
At the sound of Tonks voice, Harry stirred and seeing Hermione, a small smile graced his face. When he noticed Tonks, that smile vanished immediately, especially with the glare she was giving him. "Um...morning Tonks."
"Morning, indeed," she replied, placing her hands on her hips in a very Molly Weasley-like gesture. "You two need to come downstairs to the kitchen. Remus and I need to have a word with the four of you, and the other two are already downstairs, so hurry up."
After she quickly left the room, Harry turned to Hermione and said, "I don't think that I have ever seen her that mad before. This is not going to be good." After staring at her for a moment in silence he asked, "How are you feeling?"
"Sore, and I have a bit of a headache, but better than I was last night. At least the waves of pain have seemed to cease."
"Good," Harry said, smiling at her. Sitting up he said, "We'd best get down there and get this over with. We're going to have to tell them what happened, you know. I don't keep things from Remus...not after what happened to Sirius."
"Alright," she agreed, gingerly sitting up. With Harry taking hold of her hand, he gently pulled her up and wrapped his arm around her waist, using the excuse that he just wanted to lend her a little support during their walk downstairs since she was still a little unsteady. When she looked at him a little uncertainly he said, "I don't think we can get into any more trouble than we already are."
Their talk around the table that morning was one that none of the four teens would ever forget. Remus and Tonks proceeded to lecture them on sleeping in the same bed together, and then to make matters worse, gave them the 'sex talk'. With her face aflame with embarrassement, Hermione sat listening to them drone on and couldn't help but smile when they mentioned waiting until 'the right moment' because she had thought of Luna and Ron the night before. A bit late to tell them that.
Suddenly realizing that the room had grown quiet, Hermione looked up from the spot she had been staring at on the table to see both adults staring at her with expectant looks on their faces. Staring back at them with a blank look on her face, she heard Tonks sigh as Remus cleared his throat and said, "Harry just said you had an explanation for last night?"
"Oh, right, sorry," she replied, ignoring the stares from the other three that sat with her. "After going to sleep last night, I had a nightmare about the Halloween Ball, but it was different than what really happened that night because Damien was there with Voldemort. He said I had to choose who would live, Seamus or Harry, and when I said that I wanted them both to live he told me that Seamus was already dead and ordered Voldemort to crucio Harry. Right after Voldemort started to torture Harry, the dream dissolved and I found myself back in Elysian." She heard Luna gasp and could feel everyone's stares boring into her, their emotions slamming into her and making her stomach turn, but she ignored it the best she could. Closing her eyes for a moment and taking a deep breath, she opened them again to look back to Remus and continued, "Lily had brought me there. She told me that she had been trying to contact me but there seemed to be some sort of evil barrier around my subconscious that she couldn't get through. She proceeded to tell me that Harry was in grave danger and that I needed to get to him immediately. Not knowing really what to do I concentrated on Harry, on the fact that I had to be with him, and the next thing I knew I was in his room standing next to his bed with Ron."
She and Harry recounted the rest of the story, Harry telling of how his nightmare began and Hermione added in the parts she was there for, explaining how it turned out that it was Damien in Harry's mind forcing the nightmare on him and how she got rid of him. Then they explained how she had been crucio'd in the nightmare, that she had actually experienced the curse physically, and how Harry had helped her cope with the lingering effects throughout the night. Once they finished telling the story, the room was uncomfortably silent and filled with tension. There were so many emotions...fear, anger, confusion...coming from everyone in the room and Hermione felt the full effect of them due to her growing empathic powers. "Would you all please get a hold on your emotions?! You're making me ill and I've had a bad enough night, thank you!"
Unfortunately her outburst caused more emotion, and she couldn't take it. Feeling her stomach turn, she ran from the room to the loo and proceeded to throw up, as if ridding her body of the unwanted emotions it had soaked up like a sponge. After what seemed like a very long time to her, a soft knock sounded on the bathroom door and Harry's voice softly asked, "Hermione, are you okay?"
She went to answer, and she meant to say 'yes', but instead a sob escaped from her and she said, "No."
"Can I come in?" he asked hesitantly. She knew he wanted to just walk in and to hell with asking.
As she sat on the floor, her head resting on the cool toilet seat lid, she listened as the door opened and his footsteps drew nearer. He kneeled down next to her, a very concerned look on his face as he reached out and smoothed her hair away from her face, tucking it behind her ear. Giving her a slight smile he said, "I nearly had to fight Luna to be the one to come check on you. You have us all worried. What happened?"
"My empathic powers are getting stronger, and when I was sitting there everyone's emotions just started coming at me. I couldn't stop it, I started to feel everything the five of you were feeling all at once, and it made me feel so sick...almost dirty, to tell the truth. I don't know how much more of this I can take."
"I know how you feel, all those times that I had Voldemort creeping around inside my mind, I'd wake up and be physically sick too. I wish there was something I could do to help you."
He reached out then, gently enfolding her into his arms, and she relished the feeling of him holding her so carefully. She could sense the worry and concern coming from him, but this time it didn't make her feel sick, just...special, to him at least. Closing her eyes, she sank deeper into his embrace and laid her head on his shoulder, drawing strength from him...a strength he didn't even know he possessed yet. As her stomach calmed and she felt her body finally relax, she took a deep breath and said, "You're already helping me Harry, more than you know."