Chapter 5: In The Dreaming

I'll be your crying shoulder

I'll be love suicide

I'll be better when I'm older

I'll be the greatest fan of your life

Harry felt himself falling weightlessly through the air, as if slow motion. He was experiencing a wonderful sensation of buoyancy and there seemed to be no end to the dark, vertical tunnel. He tried experimentally to shift his weight and almost banged his head because of the speed with which he turned around.

It seemed that he was moving slowly through the tunnel but when it came to moving any single part of his body, the response was infinitely faster than normal.

He gulped hard. Twice.

He went back to being limp and soon, his feet gently touched the ground. Or whatever it was that seemed to bounce him back a little up in the air. It was like trying to walk on the surface of a gelatine mould.

To his surprise, little flames lit suddenly all around him, illuminating the immediate area. He tried looking upwards but there was a gaping nothingness. He looked down hurriedly and turned his gaze around instead.

The walls were the colour of loam, like the beach after a heavy rainfall. It seemed to shift around and looked different with each view. He rubbed his eyes and looked again in awe. There was an opening to the side. He debated with himself whether he should go there or not. As if he had a choice, he thought. Besides, the golden leprechaun was gone.

He began a shuffling kind of walk, adjusting his stride until he felt comfortable walking on the bouncy terrain. To speed up, he did a kind of hop-slide walk until he got to the hole in the side. It looked like a cave, and the end could not be seen.

He wondered how he would travel inside when some flames magically appeared in a row, one by one, on the wall of the opening. Here, the floor was a bit more sturdy. He walked in cautiously, looking at the flames as they appeared where he was and disappeared after he had passed by. He stopped experimentally and the flames did not go on. It seemed that they waited for him before appearing.

As he resumed walking, the ground suddenly seemed to shift vertically --- fast. He tried to hold on to the walls but only succeeded in scraping his fingernails over them. He slid downwards, gaining speed, until he saw a small pinprick of light ahead of him. It grew bigger and bigger until he realised it was an opening and he had shot through it.

Harry landed on some soft ferns, a cluster of which seemed to have been there for breaking someone's fall. As he wondered about this, he looked around and saw that he was in some kind of surreal paradise. The colours of everything around him seemed so vividly bright, it almost hurt to look at them. He rubbed his eyes and he suddenly noticed a womanly figure in front of him. He almost backed away fast until he realised he was still on his arse.

He stood up, dusted his bottom and faced the woman, who smiled at him. He felt his jaw go slack before catching himself. She had hair which looked like it was spun out of black silk, her eyes were of raven hue and she had pale skin which served to emphasise the redness of her lips. She beckoned to him and he followed, as if in a trance.

Perhaps he was in a trance.

She had a lovely walk; her hips were swaying gently as she moved in front of him. He thought of other things to distract himself, like --- where in the world was he? He thought of Ron ("He'd probably enjoy this") and Hermione ("She'd probably be frantically trying to figure out what was happening"). He started looking at the scenery around him and was startled to find himself in a forest glade. He could hear the bubbly sound of a brook nearby, the birds chattering about the food they fed their young, and the rabbits hopping about, making noises about the cabbage patch over the dell...whoa.

He actually understood what they were talking about? First snakes, now this?

A fluffy little bunny hopped its way to him and he stopped, waiting for it to come closer. His guide paused as well, seemingly aware of everything that he thought and did.

The bunny sniffed him and smiled, baring its front teeth. It looked almost like Thumper in that old Disney film ("That's all right, he can call me a flower if he wants to") in this setting. The bunny looked at him and cocked its head sideways.

"You're looking for something. Have you found it yet?" He almost jumped out of his skin when he heard the little bunny speak. "Love is not blind, you know. It has eyes to see that which others cannot see."

As he shook his head in disbelief, the bunny hopped away. He could have sworn it was humming song by an Irish Muggle band,

"I would runaway...I would runaway, with you...And I've fallen in love with you...I'm never gonna stop falling in love with you..."

At least he had thought it was a Muggle band. Maybe it wasn't.

He saw the lady smile at him and he felt himself blushing. What a fool he must seem. The lady shook her head and her hair rippled in waves. Was she able to read his thoughts? He stared at her hair in fascination before realising that she had resumed walking. He followed her, determined not to let himself become distracted by the seeming oddities in the place. Odd, perhaps, but only to him.

Finally, Harry saw a cottage in the distance. But as they drew nearer, he realised that it wasn't really a cottage. It seemed to shift its shape every few minutes and from that point on, he stopped trying to rationalise and explain everything. Apparently, he was in a place where reason and logic didn't seem to apply.

They entered the cottage and he saw stacks upon stacks of spools filled with spun wool. There were so many that it was a wonder they could still fit inside the room. Still, the room was not cramped; it gave the impression of having unlimited space.

He shifted his gaze and saw two women inside. There was an plump, middle-aged lady who had big blonde hair, teased to within an inch of its life with the ends gathered up in a bun. She was placidly spinning some wool around a spool. Seated beside her was an old, weathered crone, who looked as though she were grey all over. She was squinting one eye while holding the thread from a spool in one hand and a large pair of shears in the other.

They seemed familiar to him but he could not quite place where and how he knew them.

The beautiful lady turned to look at him and said in a musical voice, "We knew you would come. I am Lucky, she is Chloe," she said, pointing to the spinner and then to the one holding the shears, "and she is Arty." The spinner and the cutter looked up from their work and smiled at him.

The spinner said pleasantly, "Oh, the nicknames you come up for us, Lachesis." She smiled fondly. "I am Clotho."

The monochromatic figure beside her waved around the hand holding the shears before croaking out, "Atropos here."

"Yes, but it seems very old-fashioned if we called ourselves that. It is the twenty-first century, after all." The lady chided her companions.

"And we wouldn't want to scare off this nice, young man. It's been a long time since we've had visitors, since that sun-god from an alternate universe came to find out something or another --- I can't remember now." The crone smiled and Harry thought he had never seen so many wrinkles on just one face. He automatically smiled back and the old woman positively beamed.

The lady picked up the measuring tape on top of the table beside the spinner. She started measuring and re-measuring the thread in the spool used by the spinner before transferring them to another spool.

The spinner stopped what she was doing and looked penetratingly at Harry. "Do you have any questions for us? You can only ask each of us once and the answers might not be as you expect them to be."

Harry was nonplussed. He opened his mouth and closed it again. He did not know what he was expected to do. He felt extremely foolish and wished that Hermione was there. She would surely know what to ask.

The lady looked at him and laughed, a lovely tinkling sound. "Why, I do believe that he has no idea why he's here. Perhaps he ought go back first and think about the questions he needs to ask."

The spinner shook her head wisely. "I agree. A word of caution though, young man. The way that has been used cannot be used anymore." Harry was confused by the cryptic message. Hermione...she could have helped him figure that out.

The old crone cocked her head in agreement. "So much for the first visitor we've had in centuries." She stood up and came to his side. He took a step back in reaction, alarmed that she still had a pair of shears in one hand.

The old woman noted the direction of his gaze and cackled. "Oops."

She pocketed the shears and suddenly took him by the arms, shaking him powerfully. All the things in the room began to spin around and he felt himself becoming limp...

************

He woke up to see Ron's anxious face looming over him. "Harry, what's the matter with you?"

Ron had been trying to shake Harry awake for nearly ten minutes and it scared him that Harry, who usually woke up ahead of him, was still out cold. Harry finally stirred.

Relieved, Ron gave a cocky grin. "Hah, for once, I'm up and about while you're still flat on your back. And did I hear you say Hermione's name?" he said incredulously. "Don't tell me you were having a nightmare about her --- although, that is entirely possible. Or is there something you're not telling me..." he trailed off suspiciously.

Harry felt himself blush and Ron looked at him in horror. "Don't tell me...why, you never even gave a hint..."

Harry diverted the attention from himself. "Ron, I just had the weirdest dream and here you are, getting all riled up because you thought it was about Hermione? What if I told you that it was all about this older woman who's as sexy as Ysabel Fey?" he said, mentioning the hot witch who was currently featured on the cover of the recent Wizards' Quarterly.

Ron was not so easily diverted. Almost. He looked appraisingly at Harry before deciding to give him the benefit of the doubt. "Okay, so what was it about?"

Harry told Ron hurriedly about his strange dream whilst preparing for their first class. On the way out of the common room, they met up with Hermione and Ron quirked an eyebrow at Harry behind her back. Harry gave a shrug before turning to Hermione. "I need to ask you about that old book Professor Ascension gave me..."

Hermione looked at him with a furrowed brow. "What about it, Harry? I've been wondering when we could talk about it because Professor McGonagall has been quite worried about the Death Eaters. They've been stepping up on their attacks. Did you hear about the trouble that happened at the Three Broomsticks last night?"

Alarmed, Harry and Ron stopped in their tracks. Ron asked, "No, we haven't. What was it about?"

"Two men in dark cloaks went into the inn at almost midnight and started casting spells over the men who were having a few butterbeers. They made the men thrash the whole place. Madam Rosmerta had to be given a potion to calm her down. The people at Hogsmeade were scared out of their wits but they helped to put the place to rights. The halls have been buzzing with the news."

Ron and Harry looked at each other in alarm. Things were starting to move very fast and they had to keep on top of things.

"Ron," Hermione said, "the prefects will have a meeting tonight at half past eight. Please go straight to the Prefects' Meeting Room after supper."

Ron gave a nod and turned to Harry. "Can you go ahead to class? I've got to find Ginny and make sure she's safe."

Harry nodded and watched as Ron ran back in the direction of the Gryffindor Tower.

He turned back to see Hermione looking at him worriedly. "Seamus told me that you had a nightmare. Care to tell me what it was all about?"

Harry felt a sense of relief that she brought it up. He had been thinking about his dream as well but did not know how to broach the subject. He took a deep breath and started pouring out the more worrying aspects of his dream, the parts which he left out so as not to alarm Ron. They were almost late to class --- thank goodness it was not potions.

The others looked up from their books as Harry and Hermione came in. Neville looked at them and started whispering to Parvati, who in turn, whispered to Lavender. They all grinned goofily as Hermione and Harry sat in the adjacent table.

Lavender propped her chin against one hand and asked, "So, where's Ron?"

Hermione looked at her in puzzlement. "I don't know. Am I supposed to know where he is?"

Parvati, Neville and Lavender exchanged looks mysteriously before Professor Binns started his favourite lecture on goblin uprisings in the 1600's. Harry was almost in a stupor when he was awakened by Ron, who was sliding on the bench beside him, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. Professor Binns did not notice him at all but Malfoy smirked in his direction. Ron debated momentarily with himself against sticking out his tongue immaturely but eventually gave in. Hermione saw him and frowned. She scribbled a note and passed it to Harry, who passed it to Ron.

Ron unfolded the note and almost shouted out loud. He scribbled furiously on the note instead, ending it with a flourish.

Harry passed it back to Hermione, who read it and wrote in reply before passing it again to Harry, who gave it to Ron. Ron wore a look of outrage on his face then wrote on the parchment, making sure to cover all the remaining space. Harry passed it back to Hermione and read the note over her shoulder. It said:

Ron, minus 5 points to Gryffindor. YOU are a prefect, act like one.

How come Malfoy gets off without losing any points?

What exactly did he do, pray tell?

He LOOKED at me.

Harry almost laughed when he saw Hermione squeeze in a small sentence.

Ron, you idiot. I can't strip points off him if he only looked at you.

Harry passed the note back to Ron, who read it in disgust. He angrily stuffed it into his bag and sat there, steaming. As soon as class was over, he stormed outside the classroom. Harry and Hermione had to run to catch up with him.

"Ron..." Hermione started.

Ron whirled around and exploded, "That was unfair!"

"What?! Let me see...you wanted me to strip points off Draco just because he looked at you? You stuck your tongue out at him! Wasn't that very childish of you?"

"So now it's Draco, isn't it? Don't tell me he's your new best friend."

Hermione's face coloured in anger. She bit out, "Don't you think that if someone saved your life, it would be strange not to be on first name basis thereafter? How dare you."

Hermione turned in the opposite direction and began running to the North Tower, where their next class was. Ron, his anger spent, gave a huge sigh. He felt a twinge of shame but thought resolutely of the way Draco had smirked at him and felt very put out.

Harry was at a loss whether to stay with Ron or go after Hermione. He compromised by speeding up his walk. They had almost reached Hermione when he saw her brush away something from her cheek as she sped up even more to avoid them.

After the rest of the classes were over for the day, Harry mumbled an excuse to Ron about needing to consult Hermione about their Charms assignment for tomorrow ("We have an assignment in Charms?! How much feet was it supposed to be? Pah, what a time for Hermione to be in a huff with me! Tell me what she tells you, okay?") before rushing off in the direction of the library, where Hermione was sure to be when she wasn't spending the breaks in between classes with them.

He was puzzled not to find her at her regular spot, which was the table nearest to the library shelves. Deciding to scout around, he went through all of the shelves before finding her, naturally, in the very last place where he thought to look: at the end. In the tiny space between the last bookshelf and the grills of the restricted section was Hermione, sobbing her heart out.

Harry sat carefully beside her, gingerly fitting himself in the cramped space. His shoulder touched Hermione's and she gave a start upon seeing who it was. Her face was blotchy with tears and the sight tugged at his heartstrings. He opened his arms and she flung herself in them without hesitation. He rubbed her back as she kept on crying.

Finally, when her tears abated somewhat, she spoke. "Why does it seem that Ron and I regress whenever we disagree on things? I mean, is it just me or do we sound exactly the way we did whenever we argued four years ago?"

Harry gave a slight grin. "Er, you actually do. I just refrain from sending you both to your time-out corners whenever that happens."

This brought a upward tug to the corners of her mouth. She said wistfully, "Why can't we go past all that? We're already in our seventh year, for goodness' sake."

"Maybe you and Ron just need to hash things out." Harry thought that perhaps Ron also needed to grow up a little, since he was still prone to reacting to Draco. Even with the unspoken slight truce they had because of Hermione. But he refrained from mentioning it to her, due to a sense of boyish loyalty.

They continued talking in hushed voices until Harry noticed that Hermione was no longer responding. He looked carefully and lips twitched in a slight grin upon seeing that she was asleep. All that crying had made her tired.

Harry rested his cheek on top of her head and thought for a while. He really had to talk to Ron about this...

The next thing he knew, someone was shaking his shoulder. He opened his eyes blearily and noticed that Seamus was grinning from ear-to-ear. Seamus moved back and Harry saw that some students from assorted houses were looking at him and Hermione, like they were zoo animals. He looked down on his chest and saw that Hermione was still fast asleep. He motioned for the others to go away but they refused to budge, waiting for both of them to stand up. He exhaled sharply and the motion of his chest caused Hermione to stir. He stood up by pushing his feet against the shelf, his back against the grills, he half-dragged her with him and twisted to shield her from the curious looks of the others.

"Hermione, wake up. It's time for supper."

Hermione yawned, covering her mouth with one hand. She rested her forehead on his chest and drowsily asked, "What time is it?"

She was startled into wakefulness when she heard Ron say, "It's time for supper. And since half of the seventh years were curious and decided to look for the both of you --- I went along to make sure they behaved themselves." Ron glared at the others.

Suddenly, Hermione wished for the floor to swallow her up. Whole. Now. Her heart sank as she realised the picture they must have presented to the others.

She wondered what Harry thought about it. She risked a peek at him and was caught in his gaze. Her action had brought her face too close to Harry's. She felt her heartbeat quicken.

Harry was startled when Hermione looked up at him. Only an inch more and they'd be kissing. His sudden intake of breath signalled that his heart was pumping overtime --- it seemed as if all the oxygen in the room had been sucked out and he needed desperately to breathe.

He never knew that her brown eyes had golden flecks in them.

"Are the two of you going to stay here or are you coming down for supper?" Ron's voice cut through their trance.

They sprang apart and averted their gazes from each other. Hermione picked up her things busily and Harry dusted off his robe. The others seemed to have disappeared.

Harry looked at Ron gratefully. "Thanks, Ron."

Ron smirked. "Anything for the two who keep my bet going. Hopefully, it'll go on for a long time."

"I want you to stop that, Ron." Hermione spoke up. "It's not a very nice thing to do."

"Why, am I about to lose my bet soon?" Ron fished a little.

"Ron. It's. None. Of. Your. Business. Really, now. Harry..."

Harry looked at Hermione mischievously and brought his hand to his chest theatrically. "You have cut me to the quick. My heart may never recover from that rejection. And all this time, I thought..."

He was cut off by Hermione whacking his arm. "Harry!" She blushed hotly and brought her hands to her cheeks. "Oy..."

Ron looked suspiciously at them. "Okay, is there anything I really should know?"

"Nothing!" They both said quickly, which only served to raise Ron's suspicions a notch.

"Anyway, I'm hungry," said Harry, striving for a casual tone. "Ready to go, Herm?" He gallantly held out an arm for her.

"Ready when you are, Har." She all but withered him with a look.

Ron sensed that everything was back to normal and decided to play along. "Hey, I don't have a nickname." He sulked playfully.

"Well, there's Ronniekins..." Harry said thoughtfully, stroking an imaginary beard. He grinned and dodged when Ron tried to smack him in the arm.

"But that would have even doubled the length of his name instead of shortening it..." Hermione countered.

"Guess we'll all have to revert to our old names, then." Harry said decisively.

Hermione slipped a hand into the crook of each boy's elbow and that was the way they all went down to the Great Hall.

************

After supper, Hermione and Ron went off to the Prefects' Meeting Room while Harry went on to Gryffindor Tower. They were the first ones to arrive. Hermione started writing immediately on the board, listing down the order of the topics for discussion. Ron sprawled himself on one of the chairs around the round oak table.

Draco was next. He and Ron eyed each other warily before giving a terse nod to acknowledge the others' presence. Terry Boot, the Prefect for Ravenclaw was next, with Susan Bones, for Hufflepuff, arriving soon after. The house prefects for the fifth and sixth forms were slowly making their way inside. After a few minutes, making a grand entrance was Tracey Davis, the Slytherin Prefect, who plopped down in the chair beside Susan, waving vacantly at the others. "Now that I'm here, on with the show," she said sarcastically.

Draco smiled flirtatiously at Tracey, who positively preened upon being given a bit of his attention. He was amused to see this and turned to face the board, hiding a smirk. He felt a little put out when he saw that Hermione seemed annoyed at him for what he did but decided to brazen it out and smirked at her.

Hermione felt disgusted. Draco was as vain as ever, playing on a crush probably he knew his fellow Slytherin had on him. She turned towards to the board, while Draco walked to the front from the back of the room to take charge of the meeting. They had arranged to take turns; the first one was his.

Hermione set up a Quick Quill for recording the meeting; she recalled Rita Skeeter briefly, she of the exaggerating quill and shivered a little in disgust. At least this one was charmed to write things verbatim, without adding any extras.

Draco cleared his throat and rapped his knuckles on the table for attention. The others stopped immediately from conversing with each other and turned towards him expectantly.

"I formally declare this first meeting open. We have convened in order to talk about some very important topics on hand (he inclined his head slightly towards the board for emphasis) and we count on your cooperation towards implementing them.

The first order of business is the attacks on the students. So far, some mysterious men have attacked both our Head Girl and the Prefect for Gryffindor (he refrained resolutely from mentioning the words "Death Eaters"). It has been speculated that the attack at the Three Broomsticks last night was connected to this in some way, although there is no conclusive proof for this.

"In order to facilitate a better method for preventing additional attacks on the students, we have been advised to assign everyone to go about in pairs. Gr--, er, Hermione and I will be assigned as partners, you (he pointed to Ron) and you (he indicated Susan) will pair up and the two of you (he pointed to Terry and Tracey) will partner each other." He quickly paired off the prefects in the lower forms in the same manner, by year level. "Is that understood?"

Tracey tapped her long fingernails in an impatient tattoo on the table. "Shouldn't we stick to each other by houses?"

Draco shot her a withering look and she pouted. "We are assigned like this as Prefects. However, the rest of the students will be assigned partners in their own houses. In the future, kindly refrain from interrupting. In short --- shut up."

Tracey sulked at this reprimand. She crossed her arms defensively in front of her and huffed a little.

Draco ignored this and went on with the agenda. "The prefects are assigned to each other for convenience, so that information dissemination can proceed more smoothly. Everyone should stay with their partners at all possible times. It is imperative that partners know where the other is. Otherwise, the purpose of the task loses its point. Is that understood?"

He banged his fist on the table for emphasis; Susan jumped a little in her seat while Ron frowned at Draco after noticing that Susan was startled.

Draco went on. "The next is the night curfew imposed on all the students. As soon as darkness falls, everyone should be inside the castle. No student will be allowed to go out at night. This is set for immediate implementation until further notice."

The others nodded in complete understanding.

"Third, a headcount will be done every so often to assure us that no pair will get lost. This will be done periodically; the prefects are expected to do this in addition to their tasks."

Draco glanced at the board for reference. "Fourth, students can only go down on weekend jaunts to Hogsmeade in groups. No one should go about outside Hogwarts on their own. Safety in numbers, blah-blah.

"Any questions?"

"I have a question," Susan said timidly. "What about the year levels? Will students have to be assigned a partner according to their year?" Her voice grew stronger as she warmed up. "Are there any changes in routine that we might have?"

Draco looked towards Hermione, who addressed the concerns. "Ideally, everyone should be assigned to someone in their year. That way, they have the same schedules. The only change in routine would be the fact that no one should go about on their own, even inside the school premises. It allows us to keep track of all the students and would make it more difficult for anyone with bad intentions to target students."

Susan nodded in satisfaction.

"We now put this meeting to a close. Inform your houses by this evening about the changes."

Everyone stood up and filed to go outside the room. Draco and Hermione fixed the room and waited for everyone to leave before going out. Hermione saw Susan and Ron going off in the direction of the Hufflepuff dormitories, while Terry and Tracey headed towards the Slytherin ones.

Draco brought Hermione in front of the Fat Lady and she waited until he had turned the corner before whispering, "Cherry cordial."

"Ooooh, where?" The Fat Lady swung her portrait open, looking disappointed as she remembered that this was the current password. Hermione stepped inside. She went over to the couch and sat down wearily beside Harry, who scooted over and she automatically laid her head on his shoulder. Neither noticed that all conversation in the Common Room became excited whispers. They waited for the portrait hole to open again, for Ron.

Ron stepped in tiredly and crossed the room to sit on the couch. He sat down beside Hermione, who straightened up and leaned back against the couch, making space for him.

Neville went to the couch, urged on by Lavender and Parvati. He asked hopefully, " Are the two of you going out now? After what we saw in the library..." he trailed off, addressing Harry and Hermione.

Hermione pretended to misunderstand the question and deliberately said, "Well, the three of us have always gone out..." She felt a nudged from Ron, glared at him before resignedly saying, "No, we're just friends."

A chorus of groans greeted that announcement. Neville slapped his thigh in disgust and moved back to the table where Parvati and Lavender were.

Ron gained his second wind. He jumped up energetically and went around, collecting from even more people than the last time. He plopped back into the couch, stuffing the money in his pockets. His face looked like it was about to split from grinning so much.

Hermione whispered heatedly. "That's the very last time. Promise me that."

Ron whispered back, "Okay, I promise." He raised his right hand in a pledge. "No more bets. I've got enough for a new broom anyway. After the spectacle you made of yourselves in the library, so many people were sure about winning...but the next time, I might not be as lucky." He quirked an eyebrow inquiringly at them.

Hermione changed the topic. "Everything okay with the Hufflepuffs?" she asked.

"Yes, Susan made the announcement." Ron eyed the Gryffindors who were looking expectantly at him. "Guess I have to make the one here now."

Ron stood up and clapped his hands twice as a signal. Everyone immediately stopped their conversations.

A hush fell as Ron told everyone about the new developments. He started assigning partners and the Gryffindors paired off in response. A solemn hush fell on the occupants of the Common Room. It seemed that everyone realised the gravity of the situation.

Hermione turned to Harry, wide-eyed, her heart beating fast in trepidation. Would something happen to him next? she thought.

Harry glanced reassuringly at her, looped an arm over her shoulders and squeezed gently. He could take care of himself --- she shouldn't worry about that. He removed his arm as she smiled at him. He felt his heart catch in his chest, skipping a beat. Uh-oh. This was Hermione, he reminded himself.

It was not the speechlessness and nervousness he felt around Cho before; this one punched him hard in the chest. He felt himself growing a bit hot under the collar.

Harry was blushing. Hermione was surprised to see a red flush creeping on his cheeks. It made him look more...vulnerable. She felt like throwing her arms around him in a hug, except that there were so many people and she was unsure about why she felt like that. His hair flopped over his glasses and she got the urge to brush it off his forehead. She started to reach out, only to find her wrist trapped in Harry's gentle grip.

Ron spoke up again, breaking them out of their reverie. They moved a little away from each other self-consciously. Harry stood up to join Neville, who was his new partner.

Chattering away to each other, the Gryffindors got ready to go up to dormitories and get ready for bed. Ron and Harry brought Hermione to her own quarters, said their goodnights and went back to Gryffindor Tower.

Hermione prepared slowly for bed, walking around in her bare feet while checking her windows. She climbed into bed and lay down, thinking about what happened earlier. But this was Harry...

Harry took out the old book from under his bed and placed it over his trunk, to remind him to talk to Hermione about it the next day. Hermione...

Neither of them got much sleep that night.

End of Chapter

Thanks to those who reviewed Chapter 4:

HarryNZ (Harry!) - sorry for the delay, got caught up in other duties for FA --- and don't worry, I plan on finishing this; Clepsydra Delphinus (Cle!) - you schneaky little funny wench. Of course, loff you lots; JBob-a-licious (Jy!) - hope this chapter lived up to your expectations; erin - you rock, too! Thanks for the compliments; lilahp - Of course, Ron, Harry and Hermione will always be best of friends --- that's why I write about them with this in view. It naturally takes precedence. Glad you liked their relationship with each other here *g*; calicutie11 (Carla!) - I'm happy that you liked the little details, I like trying to write exactly how I imagine things to be --- and I laughed at the image of your brother thinking you had gone nuts. *lol*; Tamz - yes, you can guess. *snerk* Now you see how things are moving along --- I always look forward to your comments; Koriander (Myrene!) - yes, you will get to see more of Draco but as for the doppelganger --- wait and see. *g*; Smilie117 (Sabs!) - Thanks for being such a great twinnie --- my, how far we've gone together; wild prefect (wildie!) - glad you persevered and gave in a review, I really appreciated that; Ebonyink (Eb!) - well, you knocked me for six when I saw that you reviewed. I know you have such a busy sched --- thanks!; little* - thanks! I enjoy writing this; Lucky11 (Elia!) - and your gift for thoughtful reviews amaze me as well. I like all your comments --- it made my day when you complimented me on my "gift" for description and for the flow of the story. *blush* You know what they say, a person can live for a month on a compliment...it helped to push me into finishing this chapter. Not to worry, I will be faster with the next one; HViper182 - keeping it going!; NovaGirl - capitalisations excused *lol*; Truxy - there's a little spice in Harry. *wink* And Hermione could only remember the part before she passed out, actually; maggie potter - thanks! Hope you figured out by now what the dream was all about; Sakura - I'm flattered! Anyway, I hope you come aboard and register --- I'm sure it'll be fun to have you around; and Hermione M. Potter - enjoy the rest of this fic. Strap in for the ride.