She was swirling—dancing, even, she was spinning round and round until the colors of the pasture blended together. The pink and purple flowers smeared right into the cloudless sky that was dripping down into the grass. Her dress twirled with the wind as she inhaled the sunshine. She was spinning so fast she felt like she was flying, she was finally free—
The loud screams awoke Hermione Granger as she tipped off the edge of her hard and dirty bed, once more surrounded by gray she fell to the ground with a loud thud. She awoke from her dream. She was in Azkaban once more.
"You students will be thrilled to note" drawled Professor Snape in his usual monotonous voice, "that there is a new pensieve for students in the lab room. Now you can utilize it by reliving this class over and over again." He smirked and continued on showing the class proper memory extraction methods and other extremely interesting techniques of how to gracefully "fall" into a memory.
Out of the corner of her eye, Hermione saw a flutter of white. She glanced to her right and shook her head. She must be imagining things. Lately she has been lightheaded and easily dizzy. It has been weeks since she rode a broom without feeling like she was going to fall off! Hermione has never exactly been the most athletic but she certainly has mastered how to ride a broom by her last year of school.
The class began to practice extracting memories. Simple ones, the first time they rode a broom or the first memory they have of a favorite food. Hermione stood by her table, grasping her wand in one hand and she just started thinking. She was so dizzy. Why was she always so dizzy?
"Miss Granger?" Professor Snape is looking expectantly at Hermione, who is quite flustered for having been caught staring off.
"Yes, sir?" she asks meekly, silently scolding herself as she felt warmth flush her cheeks a bright pink.
"You are staying after class to wash caldrons. No slacking off in my class. Ten points from Gryffindor." He snidely remarks and continues with the class. Hermione shrinks down in her seat and resists the urge to just leave the room. Again, this time from the left side of the room, there is a flutter of white. She glances over but quickly turns her gaze back to her task.
After class finishes, she lags behind and walks up to Snape's desk.
"Professor—"she starts, but he cuts her off.
"Don't let it happen again, Miss Granger." He stands up and sulks out of the room. The massive wooden door to the potion's room slams shut with a loud crack and she is standing alone in the room. There is a flutter from the top of the room. Another flutter of white, she looks up at it and jumps as it swoops toward her.
It is a white paper dove, enchanted to fly to her.
It coos softly and she holds out her palm. It flies over and lands, enchanted to open only for the true receiver of the message, it settles down and shimmies like a real dove, then the paper folds open.
"MY love, please meet me in the Room of Requirement tonight at ten.
Xoxo"
Hermione's heart swells. She smiles brightly and hugs the letter to her chest. Hermione and Ron have been dating since the school year began. He has been so good to her. She reaches up and subconsciously touches the burning necklace around her neck. It is warm in her palm. A heart necklace, shaped like a small treasure it has little diamonds circling a ruby stone in the center. She lets go of the necklace and waves her wand as the caldrons become sparkling clean.
After closing the door behind her, Hermione tucks the letter into her front pocket with a smile. Her footsteps echo down the empty halls, no one is ever in the dungeons except for potions class and since it is near dinner time the halls have ceased to have life. She makes a quick stop by the infirmary to get a cure for her constant headache and dizziness.
One gross tasting potion later, Hermione gathers her books to head to the great hall. Harry is sitting in the corner talking with Dean and Seamus but Ron is nowhere to be seen. Dean is in the middle of a joke about a Bogart and his oldest brother's mother in law.
"He didn't know which was which!" Dean finishes as the small group around the table erupts in laughter.
"Hey, Hermione! How was cleaning caldrons for Snape?" Harry smiled up at her. She rolled her eyes and hits him playfully.
"It took a whole two seconds flipping my wand. How is your potions essay coming along?" she smiles teasingly at him. He groans and looks at her with a look that is says more than words could.
"…you haven't started it, have you?" She shook her head at him.
"I'm…getting to it." He says sheepishly.
Finally, Hermione passes on dinner, she does not feel very well because of the potion she just got from the infirmary. Walking down the corridor once more, Hermione sees a vase of purple and pink flowers and it catches her eye. She leans in and inhales deeply, it smells divine. There is something about it that makes her feel warm and fuzzy inside. As if there is some connection to it that she just could not place, she longed to remember.
She plucks one from the vase and tucks it between her books and continues back to her room.
Before she knows it, it is nearly ten and she gathers her stuff to go meet her boyfriend in the room of requirement. He never does any big grand gestures but they have been officially dating for three months today. At first, Hermione thought he did not remember but she is happily mistaken. Smiling, she reaches in her pocket and rereads the letter one last time before heading down to the Room of Requirement.
Walking up to the blank wall that transforms to whatever the user needs most, Hermione walks up and places her hand on the wall and thinks to herself, "You know what I need. You know why I'm here."
A soft lilac door greeted her. It is her favorite color, she smiles because he remembered. She turns the heart shaped door knob and opens it quietly.
The room is dark but lit with candles so shapes are obvious. There are purple and pink flowers strewn throughout the room, they are the same ones that she noticed in the hallway and the room smells marvelous.
Hermione smiles so hard her face is starting to hurt, she sees Ron's figure across the room.
"I'm glad you remembered…" she says quietly to him, approaching him.
He turns to her and she can barely see him, he wraps one arm around her waist and cups her face gently with the other. He pulls her up against him and she feels all the breath in her body disappear. She is too close, she is dizzy again but this time it is from the scent of him. He must have worn new cologne and it is intoxicating.
His head slowly leans in and her lips part slightly in anticipation. He sweeps her into a kiss that leaves her lips tingling and her heart pounding. She has never been kissed quite like this. It is so tender but at the same time so yearning. The passion awakens something in her she never knew was there…but why is this feeling so familiar? This scent, the grasp on her waist as he leans in for another kiss, it is all unfamiliar in the most familiar way. She is happy to oblige a second kiss. This kiss is so soft she pushes herself against him with her hand on his chest just to feel closer. His grip grows tighter and with her last bit of sense something tugs at her mind.
Something is not right.
Hermione pulls away and looks up. She pulls out her wand, whispering, "Lumos."
Her forehead is leaning against Ron's but once the wand illuminates the flower covered room she finds herself looking into the longing eyes of Draco Malfoy.
Hello everyone! My name is Rachel and I am your author. Please leave me comments/questions/suggestions and I will read them all and reply to as many as I can! My inspiration comes from knowing others like to read my story. As a good rule the more comments the sooner I feel pushed to write the next chapter. Thank you so much for reading and I will update soon! Thank you again!
