Later that morning I walked back into the bedroom with a cup of coffee for Hermione made just the way she liked it, strong but not too sweet. I placed it on the small table next to our bed and sat next to her. I had been awake for at least three hours since the dream. As I sat there looking down at her sleeping soundly, still wearing her clothes from yesterday, the images of it still lingered in my thoughts. Strange how something as insignificant as a dream can so seriously affect your conscious state of mind.

I nudged her gently and she began to awaken. She raised her eyelids open and blinked out the sleep still in her eyes. I would have liked to have left her sleep but I knew that she would want to see Colin. Her eyes drifted around the room as she sought to focus before settling on me.

"Hey!" she uttered sleepily.

"Hi" I said. "Here I made you a coffee." I picked up the cup and held it out for her.

"Oh, thanks!" she said as she lifted herself up off the bed and settled her body against the wall before taking her coffee and gently blowing into the piping hot drink to cool it. "What time is it?"

"It's almost seven thirty" I replied. "Creevey's awake." The words seemed to snap her fully awake.

"Have you spoken to him yet?" she asked excitedly.

"No not yet, Tarquin is still with him in the staff room. He still isn't a hundred per cent but it shouldn't be long now. He's been awake for about three and a half hours but it appears he has been Petrified for so long the healing process is taking longer than Tarquin thought."

Hermione nodded in acknowledgement before taking another sip of her hot coffee.

"How long have you been up?" she asked as if suddenly realising that she had been asleep without me for a short while at least.

"Not long" I said sensing there being no purpose in telling her about the dream. "How's the coffee?"

"Perfect!" she uttered with a smile. There was a short pause as she drank her coffee. I watched as the beverage ran down her neck before noticing that she was staring intently back at me. "Is something wrong?" Perhaps it was written all over my face or perhaps I was just a poor actor but either way she knew something was bothering me. It was not like me to get up before her. Usually we both woke up around the same time even when just one of us was exhausted let alone both of us. I shook my head in a vain attempt to throw her off but she continued to stare accusingly at me. I knew it was useless to keep up the pretence. She knew me too well for that.

"It's nothing honest" I said admitting that there was something on my mind but not wanting to go into detail.

"Well if it's nothing then you can tell me then isn't it?" Hermione continued her de facto interrogation and my partial confession had only encouraged her to press further for more details. "Has it got anything to do with tomorrow's operation?"

"Huh? Oh! I'd almost forgotten about that" I said truthfully.

"Then what is it? More nightmares?"

"What?!" I gasped. How did she know?

"I didn't want to say anything" she added softly. "But you've woken me up at least four times over the past two weeks from having nightmares."

"Two weeks?" I said taken aback. "I didn't know but then again I seldom recall dreams do I?"

I stared blankly into the corner of the room trying to assimilate this new information. Two weeks! Maybe this was worse than I thought?

"What were you dreaming about?" she asked after taking another sip of her coffee. "It must have been bad for you to wake up from it?"

"It's nothing" I interjected. "It was just a dream." How could I possibly tell her that i had dreamt of seeing her dead body? No! No matter how much she was going to push me I wasn't going to tell her. It wouldn't be fair to her and I loved her too much.

"Sometimes it helps to talk" she added.

"No!" I shot back. "No!"

"Ok. Well if you want to talk about it..." I sensed that my reluctance to talk to her had somehow upset her. It was not like the two of us to be closed about something as trivial as a dream. Nevertheless I quickly moved the subject on.

"Why don't you drink that then take a shower before we see Creevey?" I suggested to which she politely nodded.