Hermione awoke with a shudder; a sudden relaxing of muscles that had been tensed in reaction to her disturbed sleep. Another dream, she thought as she sank back onto her pillow with a sigh.
She'd been dreaming for weeks now, strange dreams only half remembered for a few minutes after she woke. Every night, without fail, she dreamed. Every morning, without fail, she woke up feeling she was missing something, something desperately important.
Sighing again, she rolled over, pulling her wand from its holster on her left arm as she did. She cast a silent tempus, groaning as it flashed a time far too early at her. An hour still before she had to be up for work. She sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed with a huff, groping for her slippers with her toes. Bleary-eyed, she grabbed her bathrobe and stumbled her way down the stairs to the kitchen. If she was going to be up, she might as well have tea.
Kettle on the hob and leaves waiting in the pot, she stood over the sink, staring out the window at the glow of the city around her. She stirred only when the kettle whistled, moving to silence it before it woke her house mate. She added the water to the pot resting on the sturdy kitchen table, then moved to a cupboard to take down a mug. Her hand hesitated; should she not be reaching for porcelain instead…? Shaking herself, she grabbed her favorite mug decisively, turning and setting it down on the table with a thump. She sat down in front of it and the pot, then crossed her arms on the table, resting her forehead on them and breathing deeply.
When she had calmed herself enough, she sat up and reached for the teapot. Again, she hesitated as she moved to pour, stopping just before the tea began flowing out of the spout of the battered old pot. I find that most problems look better after a warm cuppa tea….
"That's it," she muttered to herself. "I'm finally going mad."
"Are you now?"
Hermione started hard, a gush of tea erupting out of the shaken pot. She yelped, setting the pot down quickly, then spun towards the door. "Harry," she growled, "must you sneak about the house?"
Her best friend and house mate, Harry Potter, had the grace to look sheepish as he crossed the kitchen to settle at the table beside her, getting out a mug for himself on the way. "I did call out coming down the stairs, Hermione," he said, ignoring her indignant hmmph as he cleaned up the spill with an efficient wand flick, then poured tea for both of them. "So why do you think you're going mad?"
"It's these bloody dreams," she grumbled. "They leave me with the barest of impressions, yet I can't shake the feeling that I'm missing something important, that if I could only concentrate harder, remember a little longer…"
"Still not sleeping well, then."
She laughed wryly. "Harry, it's half fucking five in the morning. Do I seem like I'm sleeping well?" He snorted; both of them paused and lifted their mugs for a sip.
"Have you considered that this could be something left over from the war?" He asked quietly, still cradling his mug.
"It's been eight years, Harry, and I did see a Mind Healer for the first one."
"Still," he replied, his green eyes coming up to meet hers, unimpeded by the thick lenses that had once hidden them; he had gone for Muggle laser vision correction a year back.
"No," she cut him off. "What little I do remember of the dreams… This is nothing to do with the war."
"What do you remember?"
Hermione stared into space, her tea sending up wisps of steam that seemed to nearly form pictures in her mind.
"I remember yellow," she started slowly. "And I remember ice. A castle… not Hogwarts, somewhere different. And… blue eyes. The most beautiful blue eyes…."
The friends sat in silence for long minutes, their tea growing cold. Finally, Hermione's wand buzzed, startling them both. It was her alarm; time to get up and start a new day. Gently, she laid her hand on it, deactivating the spell.
Harry reached over and picked up her hand off her wand, squeezing it. "It will pass, Mione."
"Yes, I suppose it will," she sighed. With that, the two friends got up to go and start getting ready for their work day, leaving the half empty teapot sitting abandoned on the table.