"No-no-no" someone was shouting. "No! Fred! No!
And Percy was shaking his brother, and Ron was kneeling beside them, and Fred's eyes stared without seeing, the ghost of his last laugh still etched upon his face.'
"No!" Hermione screamed. She snapped her eyes open and began searching for him, before realizing where she was.
She had been dreaming again and…
"Hermione, shut up!"
…she had unfortunately woken up the whole house up.
It had had been a year since Fred Weasley, was murdered during the Battle at Hogwarts.
It had been fa year and the hole in her heart had still not healed. The nightmares were getting worse as each night passed.
Those days she would do anything to numb the pain. And worse- she never had the chance to him how she really felt about him, never had the chance to find out if he felt the same way.
I guess I never will, logic told her.
The thought was too tortuous, Hermione mind-slapped herself. She was always torturing herself with these guilt-ridden thoughts. She looked up through the curtains to see the crack of dawn -disturbing the small chance of falling asleep and decided it was worthless to try- and crept downstairs for an early breakfast.
The halls were eerie and bare. Not a sound could be heard but the wisp of the wind outside. It was so quiet the sound of a pin dropping could be enough to wake everyone up, again and she definitely did not want to disturb the house for a second time.
Hermione cautiously chose her steps, one-by-one down the creaking staircase, making sure not to make too much noise. All was quiet until . . . Hoot!
Hermione skid to a stop, paneling every corner of the house with her eyes. She looked to see Pigwidgeon (Ron's owl) hooting on the staircase and doing cartwheels here and there. Hermione sighed with relief as she tiptoed the rest of the way down the staircase.
"' Couldn't sleep, either?", a voice called in the same tone as Pigwidgeon, making Hermione jump.
Hermione strained her eyes as she tried to make out the figure that was now watching her.
Ron was sitting at the table drinking his (now-cold) coffee.
"'Had trouble sleeping." Hermione mumbled back.
"You look as pale as a ghost, Ron."
"Come sit with me." - Ron gestured to a chair encased in a green and white cushion that was piled with parchments and spilled ink.
"What's this?" Hermione asked on closer inspection.
"Oh, that? That's nothing", he retorted back, smiling tiredly.
"Come on, what is it?",she began playfully.
"No, please! It's nothing. At least not yet!" , Ron begged.
"Aha! So it is something!", Hermione teased.
No reply.
A smile reached Hermione's face as she leaped toward the parchment.
"No! Hermione, don't!" Ron bellowed!
"Shh! You'll wake everyone up!" Hermione joked.
"Oh yeah, like a certain someone did last night, eh?" Ron laughed as he scraped his chair across the floor.
"Ron, what are you…", Hermione began but could not finish because Ron was tickling her persistently and making her giggle.
"Ron! Okay, okay, I give up! I give up!", Hermione giggled hysterically as she threw the parchment back down onto the chair.
He eventually gave up tickling and decided to settle for a cuddle instead.
Hermione wished she could savor the moment more as she embraced Ron warmly.
"So why are you really here, Hermione?", he said softly?
I've never heard of a Hermione Granger not being able to sleep. Normally you sleep like my dad!"
Hermione raised an eyebrow as Ron pretended to be his dad snoring. In Hermione's mind he looked more like a yawning dog.
"Hey! I do not sleep like that! For your information I sleep like a lady!" she protested.
She glanced through the window at the orange sunrise for a moment. It was still quite early in the morning.
"Okay, okay smarty-pants!", he said, clutching Hermione's waist tighter as they hugged.
Hermione told Ron about her nightmare, worried that he might be upset by it.
But all Ron said was, "Oh. Well you know nightmares are only created so that we can be glad we aren't in a worse situation. And believe me, none of us want to go through that again. Please can you do me a favour and not mention it to everyone else? They're still a bit sensitive about it."
He said it so quietly that it was merely a whisper and with a deep sigh he was clutching Hermione's waist tighter as they hugged.
Hermione felt sympathy for Ron because it was obvious that he was finding it difficult to speak about it too.