Here Without You- Chapter 4

The Dream

Disclaimer- I own nothing of Harry Potter.

Harry had spent the whole week looking up information for the cases that he was working on finishing. He didn't have time to do anything other than them, and worry about how he was going to get Hermione back. That thought occupied his mind constantly. He needed to rectify what he'd done, but how? He'd hurt Hermione so badly that she wouldn't even take a letter from him through Ron. He wanted to tell her that he was sorry, and that he wanted to talk about this, but he couldn't get through to let her know.

He'd gone over Ron's letter to him about ten times in the last three days, but he still didn't see a way through, other than the address that had been added to the bottom as a postscript. He had been given Hermione's address, but he'd tried to send the letter there as well, and it had come back as undeliverable. Hedwig wasn't able to get within the perimeter that Hermione had set up around her home. And Harry didn't know how big that area happened to be. He didn't know if he'd be able to get near her if he decided to go back to England to visit them. What the hell was he thinking?! If he went for a visit, she'd think that he had changed his mind and decided to stay. He couldn't. He had so much to do here! He needed to be there for his clients. Especially for Morgan.

Now that she and her children had been set free of the monster that she'd been married to, they were all free to testify in the trial that was coming up against her now deceased ex-husband's accomplices. Even though some of them had turned themselves in for a lesser charge, Morgan's father had chosen that they would face the same consequences that Jeffrey would have if they were found guilty. Harry, himself had given testimony against the men and women that had been involved in the embezzlement, which had proven to be extremely damning to their defense. But now it was quiet in the house, and Harry had time to think.

And think is what he did. He thought about the night he'd had with Hermione at the edge of the Black Lake, the day at Cedar Point, the night that had followed, and the evening at Eddie Merlot's. He didn't even notice when it had gotten dark outside, and that it was now after ten. He'd not moved from his desk chair since sitting down that morning. He now realized how badly he needed to move; if for nothing else than to relieve his bladder.

He stood up and groaned as the blood flow started coming back into his legs and backside. He shook out his limbs as he headed down the corridor to the loo to take care of his first immediate problem. When he was finished with that, he headed to the kitchen to find something to appease the next. Without Ron there, Harry had lost all interest in shopping for food. Of course, he didn't have to buy as much with just him there. He grabbed an apple and a container of yogurt, and sat on the counter to eat them. It was so quiet in the house this evening. Too quiet. He'd gotten used to the sounds of other people in the building so quickly, and though he'd not noticed for the last two months that he was mostly alone at night, he did now. He used to find comfort in the lack of noise, taking it as the absence of the media and curious people that had always been following him around his entire magical life. Now it reminded him that there were also no friends that had stuck by him at the same time, and it made him sad.

He tossed the core and empty cup into the bin, slipped off the counter and headed upstairs. He needed something to take his mind off Hermione for the night. He went to his room, flopping on the bed with a small grunt as he landed. There was a book on his night stand that caught his eye, but he didn't move to pick it up. Now that he was laying down, he was so tired. It seemed to be all he could do to keep his eyes open as he stared at that book. Maybe if he just closed them for a minute, he'd be all right.

He opened his eyes and had to blink at the sun's glare. When had the sun come up? He looked at the clock next to the book, and read that it was almost eight thirty. He'd slept for ten hours?! He'd not done that in quite some time! But as it was Saturday, he didn't worry about that. He had other things on his mind now. The dream he'd just had for instance. It had been the most bizarre thing he'd ever dreamed before. And it had been so vivid!

He wrote down every thing that he could remember of the dream. It had been so long, Harry was sure that it was going to take at least three hundred pages, but he got it all in less than twelve. Granted they were front and back, making them a total of twenty-four, but it was nowhere near what he'd thought it would amount to. How was it that this dream had affected him so?

Harry sat at his kitchen table until the sun had moved quite a ways over to the west side of the house. He spent the time thinking of what this dream could be telling him. It was almost totally consuming him, until the answer finally hit. He sprang out of his chair and ran to his office, digging through the filing cabinet behind his desk for the deed to his house. He had to find it for the next part of the plan that was forming in his head.

"Boss, what are you doing?" he heard Trina's voice from behind him. He turned around, a sheet of paper in one hand, and another in his mouth.

"I'm looking for the deed to the house," he said around the paper. Trina came into the room and nudged him aside, opening the bottom drawer, and drew out a file marked 'House Papers'. "When did you do that?" he asked, pulling the page from his mouth. Trina handed the file to him and chuckled.

"About a month after you hired me. I kept finding papers all over the place that had to do with the house, or something with the grounds, so I decided to put them all together in a file."

"Thank you. I was only able to find these." He held up the papers that he'd been holding. Trina took them from him and laughed.

"These are for the electric and water bills, Harry."

"Yeah, I need to get those paid. They're coming due." He took them back and put them on the desk. "What I really needed was this." He indicated the file she'd handed to him.

"Why?"

"Because there's something that I'm going to be doing soon, and I want to make sure that everything will be taken care of." He looked up at her. "I'm going to be working to get all my cases closed here, then I'm going to be getting rid of the house."

"You're selling it?" Trina asked, a bit surprised. Harry shook his head.

"No, actually it's going to be a present." He found the deed and pulled it from the file, reading it over twice before continuing. "I'm going to give it to someone, and as soon as I can arrange it, I'm going back to England. I'm going home."