Disclaimer: Hmmm. Still don't own a darn thing!

Author's Notes:  This right here is a really stupid chapter, sorry. I needed to push the Rosewater, Mordred, etc. or I would never get to that! And that's important! This chapter's a bit longer; forgive the sappy it will get better.

Chapter 26: Temple of Mordred, Realm of Dreams

"Are you alright?" Judy whispered.

Judy sat up, propped against the headboard of the bed she was sleeping in, and peered into the semi-darkness that she'd opened her eyes to. She felt immeasurably weak but she still managed the basics of movement. After much contemplation she'd finally gotten to the point where she simply could no longer think quietly and she decided to look around. To her left were the very unconscious Crabbe and Goyle—not that they would have been much company if awake—and to her right was the one boy that had been cut just yesterday during the flooding of the dorms.

"Yeah." Judy heard the equally hushed and raspy voice that came from the bed to her right. She didn't have enough energy to turn her head but she could see him lift his hand out of the corner of her eye.

"What happened to you?" Judy asked and tried to fix her sore jaw by moving it a bit.

"I was holding one of the bathroom doors shut and when it broke I fell back into a shelf. There was a crystal ball on it that rolled off, knocked me out and shattered next to me. The last thing I remember was a warm tired feeling and the sound of rushing water." He answered quietly and Judy let out a deep breath.

"Yikes."

"What happened to you?" He asked and coughed.

"I think I had a heart attack," Judy started and paused, "Or something like that. I was so terrified and then, I just couldn't feel my heart beating inside my chest anymore."

"That must have been terrible." He said as he exhaled.

"Not really," Judy admitted quietly, "I'd have been much more scared if I was bleeding to death like you." She heard the boy gasp. "What?"

"They just told me I'd bled a little bit and Snape had to give me a potion to sedate me…." He said sounding a tad hurt and Judy laughed.

"Well, you had you're revenge. Stained his robes—you did."

"Oh great." The boy groaned and Judy snickered.

"I wonder just how foul tempered he'll be tomorrow." Judy said through a hollow laugh.

"I'd wager twice as much as usual, at the least."

"Why would you say that?" Judy was a bit curious.

"All his private stores and rare potion's manuals were kept down there." The boy whispered and Judy croaked out a laugh.

"I feel sorry for the Gryffindor students," Judy started and closed her eyes.

"I have a feeling even we're going to get it from him tomorrow, just glad I get to miss it."

"I think I'll show up to demonstrate my ceaseless devotion to the subject." Judy smirked and the boy laughed before they both fell silent and went right off to sleep.

Judy's sleep was peaceful, mostly, until she started dreaming. Her dreams had always been strange, or horrid, only occasionally had they ever been tolerable or even more rarely 'pleasant.' It's what she got for being insane, insanity tended to do that to people.

Judy couldn't remember having woken up, or gone to sleep, or leaving Hogwarts for that matter. She found herself standing in a great stone temple, the walls and floor sanded down to a shiny and flawless smooth texture and the only light in the whole long, empty, hall was coming from behind a great stone door at its farthest end. Judy looked around and strained her ears to hear the sort of eerie music coming from behind the stones. She walked forward through the hall and approached the door. As she did the massive door faded away, like mists in the morning, and revealed a great shining sword embedded in a great stone.

"You're kidding me." Judy stared at the sword and could read the emblazoned letters on the stone from where she stood for they glowed bright as flame. "Whosoever Pulls This Sword From This Stone Is Rightwise Borne King Of All Britainage." Judy looked up at the ceiling and shouted towards whatever forces in her mind conjured this delusion of mythology.

"You're playing with me Mordred!" She screamed and the music playing in the temple ceased. The light from the door dimmed, lowered and she heard the hard footsteps that landed on the stone floor nearly a hundred feet off from where she stood.

"Am I then?" He asked, his voice didn't quite have the impact that it did when she was awake. It didn't feel as if the very foundations of her mind were being rocked and shaken apart.

"I know that King Arthur was just a myth, legend created to soothe the restless minds of men a long time ago." Judy stared him down and the fear in her subsided.

"Then surely you know all legend and myth holds behind it a grain of truth." He walked up next to her and spoke in his velvety but cold voice. "One incident that makes the whole thing perfectly believable."

"Of course I know that, and the only reason you know that is because you were there when we read it." Judy said flatly, her voice becoming dangerous as she watched Mordred walk calmly around her, dressed in his battle regalia.  "I know everything you know, just as you know everything that I do." Judy answered firmly and Mordred stopped pacing his circle around her.

"Not necessarily." He said quietly in a voice reserved for the most dangerous of psychotic killers or deepest of villains. "You see, lately, I have discovered that you've hardened your mind against me…It has been quite impossible for me to reach some of you most guarded thoughts." He smirked in a very malevolent way and looked at Judy with his dead eyes.

"It goes to show that I am master in my own mind." Judy said bravely and took a step towards him—he backed up a bit and she smiled. "It's good to see you still remember what is my territory." She narrowed her eyes and he frowned.

"Ah yes, your supremacy in the sleeping world and power during normal wake is still very much in my mind." He admitted and puts his hands behind him, taking his left wrist in his right had, a most regal position.

"Enjoy your view of the world, Mordred." Judy spat at him and locked her eyes with his. "No matter how you think you've lived in the past, you'll not override me and see the world again."

"Are you so sure of that?" He asked and the smile spread across his thin lips again revealing his sharp teeth.

"What are you on at?" She asked and frowned.

"You've seen me," He began and Judy stared at him, "My power grows with every passing minute. I was drawn to you but I'd not known you were magic." Judy held out her arm and barred his way as he tried to begin pacing again. She was losing her patience very quickly.

"I've blocked that from you," She hissed and he backed up again.

"Not quite." His smile remained. "I've always been able to hide things from you, dearest, and yet I remain capable of this talent. I grow in power and soon I will know enough to take form in your world."

Judy glared at him and threw her arms up in rage. The dream world shook and the temple fell apart leaving them both standing in a white horizon that led to nowhere in both directions. He looked around and frowned slightly before commenting.

"Really now, I liked that place. Very…refreshing." He smirked and Judy threw her arms down at her sides.

"I should deal with you as I did in Rosewater!" Judy bellowed at him and pointed her palms at the ground.

"You remember," He hissed and suddenly became very imposing. He stalked up to her; face twisted in neurotic malice and crazed backwards-hateful joy. He towered over her; teeth bared like a wild animal, and stared deep into her eyes. "It was I who saved you from that asylum, dearest, when none other wanted you." Judy stared at him and her accumulated power and confidence fell apart.

"No, you condemned me." She said and looked down at the white below her. She was reduced to a most pathetic and broken state as Mordred began once more to circle her save this time he was no longer calm but enraged and scathing. "You killed them and then left me all alone…."

"You were not alone!" He growled, eyes locked on her as she slumped down onto her knees. "I protected you from them! I saved us! I kept us alive and did what had to be done…." He hissed and Judy buried her face in her hands.

"You didn't! You didn't!" She shook her head and whispered but Mordred heard her for this was his world too.

"I did, without me you'll be alone again—just like before—always you'll be alone." He regained his deep and noble composure as he stopped and looked down at the broken Judy. "The other, he wouldn't tell me anything about you—I had to rid us of him. I'm all you have…." He muttered and Judy felt herself go cold.

Then, once more, the balance of power in the dream world was shifted back to her.

"No," Judy smiled and stood up much to Mordred's confusion. "I've hidden them from you."

"What?" He asked and went dark again, upset that she was defying him.

"You don't know!" Judy was smiling warmly and suddenly her eyes turned to him—bright and stronger than they ever were before. "I don't need you." She said quietly and held up her hand. Mordred yelled something and then was gone leaving Judy all alone in her mind for the rest of her dream—though he would return soon enough.

Judy supposed that she would have rather woken up immediately after her dream, drenched in sweat and screaming. That would have been less disconcerting. Rather she awoke in silence, freezing cold, and when she opened her eyes all she could see was black for quite a few seconds. Judy shuddered as she sat up and tried to shake off the creepy feeling by remembering the happier portion of her dream that had occurred after she temporarily banished Mordred. It was around noon when Judy had awoken, both Crabbe and Goyle were gone but the Slytherin boy was still lying on the bed to her right. He was perfectly awake and reading a book—the only activity Madam Pomfrey permitted him to do. The light from outside was pouring through the windows and Judy was forced to shield her eyes from the general bright and cozy scene.

"So you're awake." Judy squinted and watched as Madam Pomfrey walked around beside her. The nurse set her hand on Judy's forehead, as if it had some power to tell of her cardio vascular condition, and locked eyes with the squinting teenager. "How are you feeling?"

"Dizzy, slightly disoriented, an odd numbness in my limbs, and I have a distinct lack of appetite." Judy listed and Madam Pomfrey nodded.

"Well, you're doing much better—as far as I can see," Madam Pomfrey said as she stood. "You can get up and move about the castle a bit to get your blood pumping again, but don't exert yourself and come right back if you start to feel odd again."

"Thank you," Judy said politely and watched as Madam Pomfrey disappeared behind her curtains.

"Hey." Judy sat up slowly and turned to see the Slytherin boy trying to get her attention. "You do realize she has no idea what's wrong with you—heard her talking to Trelawney 'bout you earlier."

"Yeah, I figured she didn't know what was wrong," Judy muttered and swung her legs out from under the covers only to meet the cold stone floor with her left and something that felt vaguely like a shoe with her right. She glanced down and, sitting on the floor by her bed, was a pair of black shoes and socks that looked like they'd been left for her.

"Unfortunately she knows what was wrong with me," the Slytherin boy commented wryly and went back to his book. Judy laughed and put on the shoes. She snatched up her wand and stood, very slowly, to walk out of the room. Madam Pomfrey shouted another set of warnings at her as she opened the door and walked out into the hall.

"Okay," Judy put her hand over her heart and started addressing the small organ as if it understood. "Don't do that again, that totally sucked. I love them dearly, but I don't want to be a Hogwarts ghost." She grumbled and shuffled off towards the Great Hall. They'd be serving lunch soon and maybe she could catch Ginny. She really felt like she needed to see Ginny.

"Thanks Ron, I'm headed over there to check on her now." Judy heard Ginny's voice around the corner. She smiled and leaned around the stone to see Ginny talking with a group of Gryffindors, all of which were telling Ginny things to tell to Judy (Madam Pomfrey would never let them all in—even one at a time).

"Ginny, dear, all those chocolate frogs wouldn't be for me…would they?" Judy strode up right behind her friend and looped her arms over Ginny's head and around her neck and she hung over the redhead.

"Judy! You're better?" Ginny spun around, nearly knocking Judy off balance, and beamed.

"Not quite, but I'm getting there." Judy smiled and Ginny looked like she would have hugged her if she didn't think it would break Judy's bones or something equally horrible. "I just came down to mess with Professor Snape. He can't very well yell at someone who just went into cardiac arrest can he?"

"I don't know, he even yelled at a Slytherin today…." Dean Thomas spoke up and all the Gryffindors started giving Judy their messages.

"Good to s-see you better Judy," Colin said quietly while staring down at his shoes and trying not to turn redder than he already was.

"Thanks Colin." Judy smiled and Colin quickly muttered something before shuffling off like his pants were on fire. Ginny laughed and the two girls shared a look.

"Colin?" Ginny asked and Judy shrugged.

"He's cute," Judy admitted. She really did think Colin was quite adorable. Judy laughed and then someone over by the door caught her attention, it was Draco—flanked by his two, newly recovered, goons.

"Oh no, don't tell me you have a crush on Goyle too." Ginny rolled her eyes and laughed.

"Eew! No!" Judy looked affronted and wrinkled her nose up like she'd just smelled something foul. "Plus," She started, put her hand on her hip, and spoke in a very sultry fashion, "Why would I want Goyle when I'm after that big old hunk of beef-cake Crabbe?" She could barely finish with a straight face and the two girls burst out laughing.

"Come on," Ginny said as she put her hand around Judy's shoulders. "Lets go eat, you can even sit at the Gryffindor table with me!" Judy didn't make a sarcastic comment she just walked into the Great Hall with her friend and felt infinitely better than she had upon waking. She took a deep breath and just couldn't stop smiling the entire meal.

Mordred didn't know about Ginny. He didn't know she had a friend.

Reviewer Thanking Time:

Duckchick- Oh, Snape's reaction is in the next chapter—and you'd better believe he's a bit miffed. I hope you'll forgive me for crappy chapters (the last few have been suffering from 'sappy-plot-development' syndrome). Post this on FictionAlley.org? It hadn't occurred to me…dear me, where would I post it…. I didn't even think this story was good enough to post there…. Yare yare. (By the by, since No Tomorrow won't have a sequel, thanks for the review—I heard the song Mad World and it just inspired that ficlet and this story.)