Thanks for reading! Holiday is coming up soon so I will be posting a ton then and I may upload one or to this week given I am just proof reading chapter 4.

Notes: If you haven't noticed, I am not the biggest fan of Ron so that is why he is kind of annoying. Also if at any time you think I should move my rating up to M, please let me know. Thanks and enjoy :)

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter it's characters, places, or any other thing you recognize, the plot is me being creative.

Chapter 3: Not so sweet dreams

Hermione woke up in the middle of the night in a dark room. She got up off the ground and looked around the unfamiliar space. From what she could see there was nothing else in the room. She called George's name thinking it might have been a prank from Fred that got rid of everything in her bedroom, but she got no response. Suddenly, she heard someone scream the Cruciatus curse from behind her and Hermione fell to the ground in agony. She cried out, hoping someone would relieve her from the pain, but instead the voice kept screaming curses and spells, torturing Hermione till she was knocked out. It seemed like seconds from when her vision went blank to when she opened her eyes and she saw that she was tied to a chair in the same place where she fell. Even though there was no use, she struggled to loosen the ropes so she could free herself. Footsteps echoed through the empty room as she saw Ron walk out from the darkness and into the circle of light, his eyes evil and his stance more solid and intimidating that she had ever seen.

"Come one Lav, this one will be fun." The dream Ron sneered into the darkness behind him.

"I trust your judgment, although that last one might be hard to beat." The dream Lavender walked out of the dark.

Both were dressed in all black and seemed far to sophisticated for their evil stares. Ron pulled out his wand and casted a spell that made Hermione feel like she was on fire. The pain bit at her body and she screamed finding no other way to expel the burn. Just as the pain started to subside, Lavender used the same curse the fire returning to her limbs. She felt weak and helpless not being able to fight back and defend herself.

"Stop it!" Hermione screamed in her dream. "Just stop it!"

Surprising enough, Lavender and Ron put down their wands and her limbs started easing up, a small pain still tingling in her body.

"Fine, but someone else will have to take your place." Ron said.

He and Lavender moved to the side as the rest of the room lit up. She saw George sitting in a chair opposite of her. He was slumped over and didn't even look conscious, the only thing that was preventing him from falling over was the ropes wrapped all around him.

"Wake up!" Lavender screamed as she used a curse to tighten the ropes around George.

George sat up straight moaning, trying not to cry out to show that he was stronger than them. There was a dry blood trail from his nose that made its way down to his chin; there were also other bloodstains on his skin Hermione guessed from numerous times of torture. His clothes were ripped, his hair a mess, and his skin dirty like he had been here for ages. Without hesitation, Ron drew his wand and continued the torture on George. He let out a loud groan that quickly turned into a cry of misery. Hermione watched him feeling weak; she was feeling just as much pain for George as when she was being beat.

"Stop it!" Hermione screamed, not being able to take it anymore.

Lavender and Ron turned around to the screaming Hermione. Both had evil smiles drawn on their faces. They walked over to her and Lavender started playing with Hermione's messy hair.

"Aww, is someone in love with George Weasley?" Lavender asked in a baby voice.

"No, just stop hurting him." She said ready to cry.

"Well that's too bad." Lavender said, still using her baby voice.

Suddenly, Hermione was no longer sitting but standing with nothing holding her down. George was still on the other end of the room and Ron and Lavender were nowhere to be found. She started running to George, but she ran into something. She raised her hands up to the force and saw that it was an invisible wall. She started screaming and pounding the wall trying to break it. Lavender was skipping around George's side of the room, and singing triumphantly, exactly like Bellatrix.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I can't hear you!" She said running up to the wall teasing Hermione.

Hermione banged against the wall screaming and crying as they couple tortured George once more. She turned away not being able to watch his suffering and slide down the force that was preventing her to reach him.

"Watch him! Watch him get tortured." A voice screamed from above her.

She looked up to see Ron; as soon as she met his eyes he used the back of his hand and knocked her over to the ground. Lavender pinned her down using ropes she had summoned with a flick of her wand. Hermione turned her head to see George in the same position as Hermione, except he was silent. His eyes seemed glassy and distant as he stared at her getting tied down. Soon she felt like a knife was cutting through her arm, she screamed not able to take the pain. That was when she saw George screaming her name and hitting the glass.

"Hermione?" George called her as he shook her gently.

Hermione shot up, sweat running down her face and her hands shaking, this time not because it was cold. She turned to the red head that was sitting on the edge of her bed, skin clean and unhurt, and pulled him into a long hug. At first he was startled, but then returned it.

"Are you okay?" George asked. "You started screaming so a put a silencing spell on the room, not to wake anyone up."

"Yeah I am fine." Hermione said.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" George asked backing up from the embrace.

Hermione nodded and proceeded to tell him about the room, the torture, and how evil Lavender and Ron seemed. She covered every single detail she could remember about the nightmare

"Wow, Ron is really messed up and nightmare me is kind of a git." He said, still thinking about the part where Lavender asked Hermione if she was in love with him. "Are you sure your okay because I can stay up with you a little longer if you want?"

"No, I'm fine George, it's bad enough that I woke you in the middle of the night." Hermione said climbing back into bed.

"Don't worry about it Hermione." He said crossing over to his bed shutting off the lamp turning the room completely dark except for some light peeking around the blinds from the window.

Hermione turned on her side watching George fall asleep, once she heard his steady breathing deepen, she closed her eyes too.

The sun was pouring through the window that was now open and Hermione could hear the birds chirping as she slipped out of sleep. As Hermione got up from her bed she noticed that George was already gone, so she looked out the window and sure enough he outside flying his broom. Hermione grabbed her almost finished book and went downstairs to the empty living room, taking advantage of the rare quiet time. Mrs. Weasley was already in the kitchen making breakfast for the still sleeping bunch. It took a little while for Mrs. Weasley to notice the silent Hermione.

"Good morning dear." She called from the kitchen. "What were you kids doing last night, its already 9:30 and Ginny isn't even down."

"Good morning Mrs. Weasley, we just watched a firework show by the lake." Hermione said trying to get her reading in.

"Please, sweetie you can call me Molly." Mrs. Weasley corrected while flipping a pancake.

"Okay." Hermione replied trying to end her conversation so she could read her book in silence.

"I am sorry to hear about what Ron did and no one likes that Lavender girl either." Mrs. Weasley said making Hermione's attempted to end the conversation unsuccessful.

"It's alright, I guess it just wasn't meant to be." Hermione said and for the first time when talking about Ron and their breakup, she didn't feel like she was about to cry.

"Well if you need anything, ever. I am here for you." Mrs. Weasley said. "Breakfast is ready if you want to go wake everyone up."

Hermione nodded and took her book upstairs with her. She knew this was not a safe or easy task to wake up the couples, but everyone had a busy day ahead of them and they needed to get going. She started with Ginny and Harry, feeling like that would be the safest. She opened the door to the sleeping couple. They were still in last night's clothes apparently to tired to change out of them or even climb under the covers.

"Ginny, Harry breakfast is ready." Hermione said in a peaceful voice.

The couple shifted a bit, then Harry raised his head. "Got it, we will be right down."

She closed the door to Harry kindly waking up Ginny. Her next stop was her room, mostly so she could stall going to wake up Fred, which could be rather dangerous. She dropped off her book and stuck her head out the window. She got George's attention and he quickly flew over to her.

"Hey." He said.

"Breakfast is ready." Hermione replied.

"I know I can smell if from up here." He replied.

Hermione thought of an idea. "How do you wake Fred up? I am kinda scared to do it."

"I'll help, be right in."

He disappeared from the spot in front of Hermione; she leaned out a little farther trying to see where he went.

"Boo." George whispered into her ear from behind.

She jumped at the sound of George's voice so close to her ear, while she hit him insisting it wasn't funny. The two walked to Fred and George's room, without knocking George entered the room. On a larger bed in the center Angelina was wearing an oversized t-shirt from Fred, who was shirtless.

"Good morning to the happy couple." George said loudly as he opened up the blinds letting the sun in.

"Shut up George." Fred muffled into his pillow as he threw a spare one at George's face.

George caught it and threw it back making sure that he didn't hit Angelina. Fred was sitting up, but Angelina was still passed out. George leaned over a bit and stroked Angelina's hair.

"Angie, it's time to wake up. Breakfast is ready." George said much more sweetly. "I know you made intense, passionate love last night but all the rest of us didn't get some so you have to follow our schedule."

Angelina then took the spare pillow and hit George in the face. George just smiled goofily and Angelina came up grinning as well.

"Good morning to you too George." She said.

"Get down quick cause you have lots to do today." He said then walking out the door, followed by Hermione.

She made her way downstairs and ate breakfast quickly because for the first time, she didn't want to be stuck at home or in the library reading. Once Ginny was ready also, they Apparated into Diagon alley. Diagon alley was packed as usual with people from all over the wizarding community. It was the center of everything, so she wasn't surprised at how hard it was to move along the road. Hermione felt odd given that she was one of the few people who opted to wear a jacket not a robe. Ginny took her hand as they made their way down Diagon alley stopping at every shop. Hermione didn't get much, but stack up on sweets from Sugarplum's Sweet Shop and a large amount of reading material from Flourish and Blotts, given that she was just about to finish her last book. The morning had passed by quickly, so they stopped by the Leaky Cauldron for a bite to eat. They found a booth that was empty and ordered their lunch.

"Mione, can we stop by some Muggle shops after this." Ginny asked timidly.

"Yeah, sure, any particular reason?" Hermione asked finishing off her Fish and Chips.

"Um, no." Ginny said, an obvious lie. "But was should stop by Fred and George's shop first, just to say hi."

They made their way down the crowded, cobbled road trying to knock into as little people as possible. Hermione and Ginny made it to the twin's shop, which they heard before they even saw it. They entered with the faintest ring of a bell, which you barely hear over the young witches and wizards discovering new ways to prank their friends. There were kids laughing and shouting, running around all over the place, getting their last few tricks before heading to Hogwarts. Some boys were testing out one of the new inventions and immediately, their hair turned all different colors after they popped a candy like food into their mouths. They first spotted Lee, who was restocking Weasley's Wildfire Wiz-bangs. Avoiding getting run over by kids, they walked up to Lee and shouted at him to come down from his ladder.

"Hello Ginny, so nice to see you again." He said placing the last one on the shelf. "And Granger, long time no see. You have changed so much!" Bringing both into a hug.

"Nice to see you too, but we got to get going. We just wanted to say hi to the boys, do you happen to know where are they?" Ginny asked scanning the shop. It shouldn't be this hard to find two 6-foot redheads amongst small Hogwarts students.

"Well Fred is working on some new products so he's in the back and George is in the WonderWitch product section." Lee said.

"Thanks Lee. We should talk more, just send an owl whenever you fell like it." Ginny said as she led Hermione over to the WonderWitch section.

Finally Hermione saw some girls who seemed to never stop giggling. They spotted George in the middle of the bunch, using his charm to get a little more income.

"Hello George." Ginny said making her way around the bunch.

"Hello lovely sister of mine." He hugged her then immediately turned around and saw Hermione. "Granger, get over here! Don't be shy."

Hermione battled her way through the group and then went over to George that gave her a long hug.

"So nice to see you two here, came to buy our new Foundation, matches every skin tone perfectly." He said, sounding like he was making a sales pitch.

"No just here so say hi, while in the middle of our shopping." Ginny said, holding up her bags of clothes.

"That's quite a bit Gin." He commented.

"Well I am dating someone who does have quite a bit." Ginny replied making a reference to Harry.

"Same with you Hermione."

"Mostly books." Hermione said embarrassed.

"Of course, well it was so good to see you, but I have to stop by the Skiving Snackboxes to make sure we don't have a repeat of Friday." He said as Hermione recalled the story about the young boy who fainted.

"See you tonight!" Ginny called after him.

Hermione had wondered over to the foundation section that covered a whole wall. Not trying to promote it or anything, Hermione thought. She picked up a bottle and just stared at it. She wasn't usually a fan of cosmetics, but when she remembered the scar on her arm she got a little excited that something might hide what she was ashamed of.

"Brilliant Mione. I will definitely help you build your make up collection. Just stand back and I'll do all the work." Ginny said as she started picking different products off the cosmetics wall.

Hermione held up the foundation to her arm and watched it slowly take color of her pale skin and one of the 'o's disappeared.

"Listen I am going to get these for you and I'll meet you outside." Ginny said with her arms full of makeup and perfume.

Hermione just nodded and started to put the foundation back when a tall redhead came up behind her and stuck his head on her shoulder.

"You don't need that you know." He said startling Hermione. "You're pretty without it."

"Thanks, er, but I was going to use it for this." Hermione said pulling up the sleeve on her jacket showing the scar.

She watched George's face drop and sorrow filled his eyes.

"And I thought I was bad enough to have Lavender tell you that…" He said running his finger over the scar. "But for it to remind you everyday."

"Well, you know, long sleeves help." Hermione said feeling uncomfortable with George's sweetness.

He studied the scar and ran his warm hand over it multiple times, like another stroke would make it go away.

"Why do you want to cover this up? It shows how strong you are, that you have survived." He said pointing out the positive, even though there was still clearly rage in his eyes.

"I would love it and embrace it, but there are people who are still very… old fashioned, for lack of a better word." Hermione said as she looked out the window she saw Ginny waving her outside. "I have to go, we are going Muggle shopping."

"Good luck." George called after her as she exited the shop.

Hermione met up with Ginny and they headed back to the Leaky Cauldron and used the exit to get onto the Muggle streets. Ginny took Hermione into all the clothing stores that they passed and always sent Hermione into the dressing room with a large pile of clothes. After Hermione did a fashion show for Ginny, who would sort through which ones were a buy and got them for her friend. The brown haired girl soon had her arms full of bags, not just of books this time. Ginny walked quickly passed all the shops she considered boring. Until Ginny stopped at a bridal shop and Ginny led Hermione in without any explanation.

"Gin why are we here?" Hermione asked looking at the overly white store.

Ginny checked in with a woman at the front desk and told her to wait for just a little as she got the assistant.

"I'm sorry it took this long to tell you I just didn't know how to say it." Ginny started then pulled out a large diamond ring. "He proposed."

"Oh, Ginny! That's fantastic!" Hermione said excitedly, never one to scream.

"And I would like to ask you to be my maid of honor?" Ginny asked.

"Of course!" Hermione said giving Ginny and hug, "Now lets go find a wedding dress."

Soon a woman walked up to them and showed them to a fitting room. Ginny listed off her criteria for her wedding and the women searched for the dresses. Not long she came back with about 6 of them. Ginny sorted through the options and only found one she really wanted to try on. Hermione sat just outside the changing room getting anxious to see what it looked like. After 10 minutes of waiting, Ginny glided out of the changing room and stepped on the circular platform in front of the 3 mirrors. She looked stunning. The floor length ivory colored dress made the young Ginny look very grown up. It was a strapless dress with a full, ball gown skirt. There was lots of beaded embroidery on the bodice and it trickled a little down on the dress too. At the end of the ball gown skirt there was a chapel train, as the assistant describe it. The woman soon brought in accessories which Ginny politely declined, Hermione knew she was going to use her mom's wedding accessories.

"Would you at least like to look at bridesmaid dresses and flower girl dresses?"

"Of course." Ginny said, quickly changing out of the dress and giving it to the assistant to ring up.

After she was in her regular clothes, she dragged Hermione to the bridesmaid dresses. Ginny picked out some dresses and told Hermione to try them on. Following the brides orders, she stepped out of the changing room to show Ginny the first dress, which was bright pink and very puffy, both thought it was absolutely atrocious. They worked their way through the options and Hermione became very sick of changing. She picked up the last option and tried it on. She stepped out to Ginny who started squealing. The dress was strapless and simple for the most part. There was a ruffle detail that started at the side of her left hip then moved across and down the area of her right thigh. The dress was a little above Hermione's knees and was a Marine colored, complimented her hair color perfectly. Just then the woman walked in with the flower girl dress that matched up with Ginny's dress. Ginny bought 3 bridesmaids dresses and 1 flower girl dress.

"Have you decided on a date yet?" The woman asked while ringing up Ginny's orders.

"Um, no, it's just that I want to get everything ready on time, so I'm not setting a date till we've planned almost everything out." Ginny said.

"Good thinking, I have never heard of that before. Are you going to need alterations on the dress?" the Woman asked.

"No, I already have someone willing to work on it." Ginny partially lied, Hermione knew she was going to just magically alter it.

"Well aren't you prepared? How did he pop the question?" The woman asked making some final price adjustments.

"It was 2 days ago actually, we were walking and her took me to one of my favorite spots and got down on one knee. It was so romantic." Ginny said.

"So how about you? Do you have any special men in your life?" the cashier asked Hermione.

"No, not anymore. We actually broke up 2 days ago."

"Aw I'm sorry to hear that. "

"It's fine, I'll find one sooner or later."

The cashier finished the bills and Ginny worked out the payment. The two girls were headed back into Diagon Alley so they could Apparate to the burrow. They started making plans about the wedding on their way home, soon realizing it was going to be a lot more work than they had originally thought.