A/N: Lucid dreaming means dreaming whatever you want at any given point in time during a dream. Like daydreaming during REM.
Ron crawled into bed. So tired... Hermione was all he could see as he fell asleep. Her glassy eyes, rock-hard skin and rigid hair. Seeing your best friend like that... Ron turned and pressed his face into his pillow. This was only a dream. Hermione would be well as soon as he woke up… Yes, she'd be wondering why his homework wasn't done as soon as he's awake…
Ron rounded the corner at a full out run, eager to find Hermione before his charms essay was due. He needed help, and Hermione was nowhere to be found. He skidded in front of the library shortcut he didn't remember existed until now. He shouldered his way behind a tapestry into a dark hallway, which he ran through and emerged from in record time. He was standing at the corner that lead to the library, but he stopped in his tracks.
Hermione and a Ravenclaw girl were lying on the floor; the Ravenclaw was holding a mirror backwards, she looked frozen, and Ron registered her as Petrified. Hermione, however was limp and pale. Ron pressed his finger to the under-skin of her wrist. It was cold and pulseless. Her face was ghost-white and no sign of life or recognition went across it.
Ron slipped his arms underneath her and set out for the hospital wing at a press-foot speed. He turned and blundered up the stairs; he tripped and fell upwards, and Hermione fell out of his arms and onto the stair above him.
With a wail of anguish he picked her up again and continued to run, Hermione's glacier-cold skin chilling his arms and chest. His eyes became blurred with terrified tears as he hurtled down the corridor. Ron was so desperately focused on getting her to the hospital wing that he didn't notice Harry walking out of it. He crashed headlong into them. Harry pushed his shaggy hair out of his eyes and looked up.
"Ron?" he asked. "What- HERMIONE?!" he stumbled over to her, touching her face and recoiling from the cold.
"Ron?" he said slowly, turning to him. "What did you do?"
Ron let out a moan. Harry was right. What had he done?
Wait.
He didn't do anything. He'd found her.
One minute.
Harry would never blame him for this. He'd listen to his side of the story. Ron must have been dreaming. So Hermione wasn't dead! He turned to her. She was beginning to stir, blood rushing to her face. Ron flew downwards to her side and raised her head off the floor. She moaned.
"Harry?" she mumbled. "Ron?"
"You're okay!" Ron yowled.
"Why are we here?"
"You died!"
Hermione gave him the most Hermione-ish look ever.
"Obviously not." She said.
Thank Merlin for lucid dreaming.
"I'm dreaming." Ron said brightly. He was so happy to hear her skepticality. She sat up higher. She blinked slowly, inching closer to him. "You dreamed I died?" she asked. "And...You saved me?" Her eyes sparkled with tears. She grabbed his collar and kissed him deeply. Then she let go of him.
"Sorry. And thank you."
Ron's eyes flew open. Had he really just dreamed that Hermione was dead? Was he that worried? He tried to ignore the last part of his dream. Maybe that just happened out of nowhere. Maybe it hadn't been lucid.
But again. Maybe it had.