You know… I said I wouldn't post this. But I'm on a posting roll tonight, and it seems a shame to stop before six am. So enjoy my flurry of one-shots before I go to Arizona tomorrow (today, I suppose).

The Veil
By Rurouni Star

She was there.

She always came back. Always.

Perhaps it was an obsession. Perhaps it was a side-effect from losing someone close to her. Or maybe it was just a sick, grim curiosity.

Because Hermione Granger had not been able to hear the voices, before. And now… they wouldn't be quiet.

One foot in front of the other. It's wrong, it's stupid, you know he's not there. Gone, gone forever.

Hermione…

It was so hard to believe he was dead when his voice was so clear and so pleading.

Another step.

The voices, melding, mixing, sometimes infuriating her, sometimes reducing her to frustrated tears as she tried to understand. Only here did it quiet, become comprehensible. Soft and frightening and soothing murmurs.

Her hand reached out to brush the ghostly curtain, the black veil that moved in sighs and whispers. Her fingers grazed it, gently – and the voices stopped.

The world was quiet again.

No voices. No sound but the strange sound that silence makes.

This was the part where she was supposed to wake up.

Hermione…

This curtain meant forever. Those that passed through did not come out.

But her curiosity had gone past academic now. It had consumed her, waking and dreaming, and nothing remained now that could keep her.

Her hand passed through, then, to the cold void beyond.

And someone else's grasped it.

Not unless you mean it.

She smiled, a ghost of her old smile.

And stepped through.

All that remained was a tattered black veil in a cold, empty room.