Hello people! This is my little obligatory author's note. My first ever fic, :::adopts a Scottish accent::: I'm getting all emotional from it! Lol, that's enough. Am I crazy? You bet I am.
Well, I don't really have a whole lot to say, but I like to babble and since I am holding the microphone, YOU WILL LISTEN TO EVERY DARN WORD I HAVE TO SAY! And the first.... let's make it two people that tell me where that last line comes from will get a role in my fic, later on. Not a big role, but I need names and I can never pick ones myself. So that makes it so much easier.
And I bet right now you're saying, "will she shut UP? I want to read fanfiction, not listen to some idiot babble!" Whelp, who am I to keep the public waiting? So, on with the fic!
Disclaimer- Two words: Fan. Fiction. If I owned anything but the plot, (which probably has already been done, there are some 30 thousand+ fics out there) it would not be called FANfiction. It would be TheRealDealFiction. And then you all would be making disclaimers to me!! BWA-HAHAHA!!
Dedicated to Lisa, who saw this first, and my tea-party buddy Sleeze, who not only taught me I had wings, but showed me how to use them.
~**~**~**~**~
Her dream started the same as always.
She was by the small lake behind her house, which was frozen over with a thick coat of ice. Snow was swirling to the ground in thick sheets. In her hands were a pair of ice skates. She sat on a log, removed her boots and quickly laced up the skates, standing and wobbling only the slightest bit. She took a step onto the lake and pushed off, gliding smoothly across the ice.
Her skates made the familiar swooshing noise that they always had, and she felt very much at home out on the ice. She skated a perfect figure eight, ending with a small twirl. It gave her the same light-headedness that it used to, back when she skated every day, and she craved more. She quickly leapt into a fast spin, her bushy hair fanning out around her head. It gave her an indescribable rush, like she was flying. As she spun she saw something new, something that had never before been in this particular dream sequence.
There was a person watching her twirl, and as she continued to spin, the person continued to watch. The falling snow was just thick enough that she wasn't able to make out who it was, though something told her that she knew this person. The body was definitely male, but that was all she could tell.
She stopped spinning; she wanted to find out who this person was. She began to skate towards the figure, but he turned and began to walk away. She skated faster, but didn't seem to be getting any closer to him, whoever 'he' was. So all she could do was watch the person walk into the swirling snow and out of sight, somehow knowing that she would never see him again.
~**~**~**~**~
Hermione Granger woke with a start. After a few seconds wondering what had woken her so suddenly, she remembered- she'd had the dream again. Groaning, she sat up and pulled back the bed curtains. 'The same dream every night,' she thought, 'and I still can't figure it out.' She winced as the early-morning sunlight streaming through a nearby window hit her face, and it certainly didn't go away when her feet hit the cold floor.
'Of all the spells they've invented for all the useless things in the world,' she thought grouchily, 'and they couldn't have come up with one that kept the floor from freezing into a solid block of ice.' Ice... Like in her dream.
As she pulled on some socks, she tried to decipher the strange dream. Why had she ice skated? She hadn't done that since she'd gone home for Christmas break during first year. She missed it, especially now during the winter months, but she hadn't even really thought about it since she started having the dreams about a week ago.
And the man (boy? She didn't know) watching her skate... He was new. Who was he? And why did he run away? It was as if he hadn't wanted her to know who he was. That seemed to be the only logical reason for him to run away from her. And...
'And why do I care?' she thought, more than a little angry with herself. Hermione had always prided herself on being sensible, and worrying about some dream she had was definitely not. Resolving not to think about it, she strode to the window. It had snowed during the night, blanketing Hogwarts in white. The lake was frozen over on the edges. If the cold weather held out for much longer, it would be frozen the whole way through. Ideal for ice skating. Ice skating...
She gave herself a mental slap. 'What is wrong with me?' she wondered angrily. Her mind had never given her any trouble before; why did it have to start now?
She hurriedly dressed and grabbed her bag. When she reached the door she turned and looked back at the two other beds in the dormitory. Should she wake Lavender and Parvati, her two roommates? It would be the nice thing to do. Hermione didn't want them to be late, after all.
'Nah,' she thought, and left the room.
~**~**~**~**~
It was still relatively early, so Hermione was one of the first people into the Great Hall for breakfast that morning. She took a seat by herself and grabbed a bowl of porridge and took out her Arithmancy textbook. After about fifteen minutes of quiet, Arithmancy-filled solitude, she shut the book with a snap and groaned. Try as she might, nothing could keep her mind off that stupid dream.
"A fat lot of good you did me," she said, looking down at her Arithmancy book.
"I think it's finally happened, mate. She's begun to talk to her books. Time for the nuthouse," said a voice behind her. She knew that voice- Ron Weasley. And, presumably, Harry Potter with him. 'Just what I need,' she thought, 'a sarcastic comment from the King of sarcastic comments.'
But then again, beating him down would be a nice way to start the day.
"This coming from the person who calls himself the 'Supreme All-High Chess God,' and every one else his 'Faithful Yet Easily Beatable Dominions'," she said cooly, rolling her eyes as Ron took the seat next to her, and Harry the one across.
"That's Mr. Chess God to you, missy."
"I'll remember that the next time that I beat you," she said, grinning at the memory of the game they had played last night. She had beat him for the first time ever, and was planning on working her victory.
"Hey," he began, defensive, "it was only the one time. And I was tired."
"Sure, sure, whatever you say, Mr. Chess God." Ron started to say something scathing, and it was probably a good thing that he got cut off by the morning mail, delivered by owl.
The usual owl landed in front of her, carrying a Daily Prophet. She untied the paper, and the owl swooped away, another newspaper appearing magically on its leg. Hermione was about to read it when another owl landed in front of her, an owl she recognized. It had an envelope, instead of the usual parchment, tied to its leg.
"Whose owl is this?" asked Harry as he untied the letter for Hermione.
"My parents bought an owl over the summer, in case they needed to reach me in the magical world," she said off-handedly as she tore open the envelope. 'I wonder why they're sending me a letter,' she thought. 'They usually just wait until I send them one, and just use the same owl to send a reply.' She read it quickly, and then read it again to make sure she had it right. Harry and Ron watched her expectantly. She stared down at the letter for quite some time, and when she finally spoke, it was with the voice of one who was announcing plans for battle.
"Well," she said with a sigh, "I'm going home for Christmas."
Harry and Ron exchanged glances, each a little confused. "What's so bad about that?" asked Ron.
"You two are coming with me."
~**~**~**~**~
DUN DUN DUN!! So, why is this such a bad thing? And why is Hermione having that weird dream? Did Parvati and Lavender wake up on time? (Does anyone really care about them anyway?) And what is the deal between Eminem and Kim? Answers to these questions (well, some of them) and more in part two, to hit the shelves of ff.net soon!
And it would be way nice if someone could help me out with a better title.
P.S. Look at that empty box down there. Isn't it ugly? If you type little words in it, it will look a lot better! So come on, give the box a make-over, leave a review!
