A/N:Um…Hi guys. This is my very first Fanfic and I love it to bits, so…..if you do end up reading it please could you review. I'll take any constructive criticism, but please be nice.
Prologue:
The war at Hogwarts was finally over. The boy with the raven black hair and the lightning shaped scar scanned the room. His eyes finally rested on a tall lanky boy with strikingly bright red hair. The red-headed boy was leaning over the form of a girl with chocolate brown hair that went all over the place and never seemed to stop. He was crying unashamedly and uncaring to who or what saw him. The crying boy was Fred Weasley. The raven haired boy (Harry Potter) walked over with tears in his eyes and looked down at his best friend. Hermione Granger was not moving.
Professor McGonagall walked over, with her usually strict bun lopsided and falling out and an unusual limp to her step.
Fred Weasley, with tears still spilling down his face, looked towards the form of Minerva McGonagall. "McGonagall? What do we do?"
"Patience, Mr Weasley. She is only in a curse dream." Professor McGonagall placed her eyesight on the fragile and unconscious form of Hermione Granger.
"A curse dream?"
"Yes, Mr. Weasley, a curse dream. This is a very powerful piece of magic."
"What can we do about it? Is she safe?"
"Yes, she is safe but it may take a while before she can return to the living world. She can either wake up of her own accord or we can 'send someone in', as you might say, and wake her of her unconsciousness delirious dreames, I believe Albus called it."
"Please, McGonagall, she's my fiancée. I love her."
"I'm sorry, Mr Weasley, but if you really want to safe her you'll have to kill her and then yourself in her curse dream."
"Kill her?"
"Yes."
"How….how could….KILL HER?"
"Yes. I'm sorry."
"Will she still be alive in the real world?"
"Well….yes, but for her to return to the living world she will have to go through a horrendous amount of pain."
"Will….she be….happy in the curse dream thingy?"
"Depends. Its really up to her childhood and how bad her fears and nightmares are. If she has had a good and loving childhood then she will be happy yes. However, if she has a bad, uncaring childhood then her sub consciousness will delve into her worst fears and nightmares and, over time, frighten her physical form to death."
"How do I get sent into her curse dream?"
"Easily. I can send you there myself actually, but are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Very well. Excito Ventito Abeo "
There was a flash of a purpley-goldish light.
"Is he gone, Professor?"
"Yes, Mr Potter, he's gone."
Chapter 1:
I looked into his hazel green eyes and tripped over backwards. All of his strong, frightening body was looming forward. I tried to crawl away from him, but he stepped on my feet, so I couldn't get away. I was trapped. He stepped off my foot and ordered me to sit on the rough, uneven and very ugly bench beside my right forearm. I obediently did as instructed, like the goody-two-shoes I was.
When he saw that I was securely on the bench with my back towards the warm, blood red brick wall and two of his most loyal henchmen on either side of me, he sat cross-legged on the murky grey concrete in front of me. Making sure that his head was in line with mine.
His hair shone a brilliant, classic gold in the early morning sun. His strong jawbone muscles and cheek bones formed a giant, mocking smile, and I hated every bit of it. He had his twelve gang members behind him, watching different points all over the school grounds making sure that no students or teachers passed by. This of course, left me with the biggest bully in the history of Treacle Watch Private College Years 7-12, Jack Lion. I hated that I had to be the first one at school every morning and that Jack always made sure that he and his gang was the second to arrive.
I seemed to be their main focus since I had came here in year three.
Each day they cornered me like this and each day I ended up crying and running to the girls bathrooms hoping to find them empty so that I'll be able to clean myself up before class started, and each day Hope Fursley, Scarlet Lones and Emma Punter were in there waiting for Jack to finish so they could begin.
I tried to look anywhere but at Jack himself. I failed. Miserably. It was sickening that I could never keep my eyes off of him when he did this to me.
"How are you today, Hermione?" A dark low voice tumbled out of his lips to make these seemingly harmless words come to reality.
Everyday before he started he would start with something like this. He pretended to have some sense of morality. He imagined he was just a regular guy.
"He asked you a question. Now answer it!" Jay yelled his command into my right ear from his position. Jay was probably the most loyal and devoted of all of Jack's 'men'. He was at least a head shorter than me, but he was still number two on the 'bully' list. That made him scary.
"F-f-f-ine I g-g-guess. A little t-t-t-ired th-th-th-ough." I always stammered.
Jack made me say more than one syllable whenever answering one of his questions.
"Awwww. Are you tired? Why's that? This time can you please tell the truth. Yesterday was just plain humiliating. Wasn't it?" All throughout that he had kept a deep sarcastic tone in his voice that should only ever be kept for dyslexic two year olds that are asking how to build a working rocket that could travel to Saturn and back.
Yesterday I had told him that I was crying because my grandmother had passed away the night before, forgetting that she was coming to pick me up halfway through the morning to take me to the dentist. When I got back Jack was not happy.
"I-I was crying."
"Why? Was it about yesterday?" He kept the sarcastic tone.
I nodded my head slowly, very uncertain of what he would do to me.
What he did next surprised me. He stood up. He never stood up.
"What's going on here?" A deep, comforting voice came from the direction that Jack had turned his body around to face. I couldn't see the owner of the voice but I knew who it was instantly.
"Hello, Freddie. Just saying good morning to Hermione."
Relief filled every part of my mind and body. Fred Weasley. The only one in the school who was both brave and dumb enough to defend the target of Jack Lion. Especially when the target was me.
I don't know why Jack and his mob targeted me. Maybe it was because I was weak, shy, smarter than the rest of my grade and then some. Maybe because I had no friends other than teachers which then led me to become teacher's pet or just because I was easy. All he had to say was: 'Come here for a sec' and my hands would be shaking, my teeth chattering and my feet stumbling.
"It doesn't look like it." Fred, who I could now see thanks to him moving around Jack, had one of his carefree smiles on his pale freckled face that he wore around the school sometimes.
Unlike Jack Fred had a set of deep, sea blue eyes that just screamed out 'I care'. They filled my heart with joy even though I wasn't quite sure why.
"It's really none of your business, Freddie. I'm sure if Hermione wanted me and my friends to go away she would just ask us and if she did ask us we would most certainly go away."
Yeah right. I could never be able to ask Jack anything and even if I did pluck up the courage he would do the complete opposite.
"Well then, if you don't mind Jack could she please come sit with me? I would like to ask her something."
I stared at Fred with what I hoped was pleading eyes. He sounded and looked so confident. I wanted to be just like him, even though I knew it was impossible Fred was just….. Fred. No matter how much I tried I knew that I could never be like him.
Jack turned to address me. "Hermione, do you want to go sit with him?" Snapped Jack. He sounded really angry. He never missed out on his before school torture session.
I nodded slowly knowing that Jack yelled at me if I didn't tell the truth, but it was so hard to. I didn't know what he was going to do to me.
"Fine. Take her, but, remember this both of you," he jerked his head at lightning speed to face me while I was walking towards Fred, "tomorrow will be worse than what I was planning for today. I might actually start hurting her."
Even though I was standing next to the unfazed Fred, who I knew would try his best to look after me, I started trembling. Badly. I didn't want to know what a punch or a slap from Jack would feel like.
Fred held onto my elbow gently, but firmly, and led me to the grass area.
"it's alright. I won't let him go near you." He sounded doubtful though.
After that half reassurance we walked in silence for a while. My mind imagining worst case scenarios and analyzing them to find possible escape routes.
"How? Everyone knows that he always gets here straight after me and that he always gets what he wants and even if you protect me from him tomorrow what happens the day after that and when I'm in class?" It all kind of tumbled out. I knew that I sounded incredibly rude and I honestly didn't mean to, it's just that I was still really scared.
Jack and his crew had a certain reputation for beating up teachers without getting in trouble so I knew it wouldn't be hard to hurt me.
"I'll come early, like I did today and I'll stay with you tomorrow. After that I don't know. The day after tomorrow….. Thursday. I've got dentist and doctor appointments on Thursday, so I'll be out of school for the day. I seriously don't know."
He seemed to be talking more to himself than me.
"Thank you. For trying I mean."
"Oh…..um…your welcome. It was nothing I guess. I'm sorry I got you in more trouble."
"No. You did what you could and I'm thankful. I'm a bit surprised you even tried."
"Of course I had to try. I couldn't just stand there and watch."
"I'm glad you did."
"You won't be when Jack gets a hold of you. I really am sorry."
"When the time comes I'll deal with it. No matter what he does to me I'll be grateful. Is there anything I can do to repay you?" OK I know it was really cliché but it had to be said and I really didn't care to tell you the honest truth.
"One thing."
"Anything."
"Don't hate me. Trust me, you'll want to."
"Okay. I promise that I will never hate you."
"Thank you. Where would you like to sit?"
" As far away from Jack as humanly possible."
"Sit here then. It'll take him about ten minutes to get over here and by then I'll either get him to go away or get you to run and hide."
We both sat cross-legged at the very edge of the grass. He was almost in the garden.
"How could I run faster than Jack?"
"If you take heaps of twists and turns he'll get confused. He's not exactly smart. A head start usually helps, too."
"Why are you being so nice?"
He paused for a second and looked as if he was thinking about something. "Before you came to this school I was his…main…target. He started beating me up after I ran away from him."
"Oh. I'm sorry. Is that why you know so much and why you can stand up to him?"
"Yeah, something like that. It's also why I have no friends and why I know that you're going to hate me." He was plucking out the grass closest to him and looked like he was crying.
"Like I said I won't hate you. I won't ever be able to hate you after what you did today. Are you okay? If you want I can go hide in the girls bathrooms for a while."
"I'm okay. You don't have to if you don't want to. It's just bad memories."
"Sorry. I didn't me-"
"You don't have anything to say sorry for. You haven't done anything. I didn't need to say anything. It's my fault."
I saw one small tear run down his face, but only one.
A/N: Hi guys. Um….as I said this is my first ever fic and I'm not sure if its any good but I like to at least pretend to live in hope. If you can think of anything I could improve on please tell me. If there's any spelling/grammar or any other problems with it can you tell me and I'll change it as soon as possible.
Also if you want me to continue could you please review and tell me and I'll try and update asap. If you want to pm me instead that's fine. You can either search me or go to: .net/u/3258831/. Your choice.
