Disclaimer: bla bla bla…I don't own these characters and I never will.
Poor me. ;)
Hermione and ?:
Sleepless Nights
By Kate Potter
February 26, 2002
Hermione continued to have the dream most nights. They never changed at all, either. She was still running through the forest, still crying and feeling awful, still the flash, still the graveyard and mysterious tombstone, same inscription. But she had yet to be able to remember the name on the stone. She didn't really think much of it. She hated to admit it, but she was pretty sure that if she did remember the name, it would be Harry. It just seemed as if every year, ever since he came to Hogwarts, he came close to dying at least twice. There had to be a day where he'd be…well…less fortunate. She hated thinking about it. She told him more than once to stop being the hero, but he'd never listen. She just hoped that when the day came, she were far away and didn't know him anymore.
"Hello? Hermione?"
Hermione found herself staring at Dean Thomas in front of her at breakfast. Of course she wasn't looking at him, she just happened to zone out while looking his way.
"Are you okay?" he asked. He looked both confused and quite amused at the same time.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Hermione fixed her eyes on her plate of uneaten food. "I'm such a moron" she thought to herself.
"Actually, Hermione," Harry said concerned, "You have been acting quite odd lately."
"Yeah," Ron laughed, "maybe you've been working on your homework too hard!"
"Really guys," she said stubbornly, "I'm fine."
But that was far from the truth. Not only were the dreams she was suddenly having getting to her, there were always the over-expectant teachers, the Slytherins, the monotonous classes, the strenuous classwork, and, of course, Malfoy. Ever since his scuffle with Jason a couple weeks ago, he was far more irritable, making him even more evil to that Gryffindors than usual.
But on the bright side, a Quidditch match was coming up. It was Gryffindor Vs. Slytherin, in fact. Harry was now the captain of the Gryffindor team, along with his other teammates, Seamus Finnegan, Ginny Weasley, Natalie McDonald, Jordan Patil, Curt Wethersby, and Alice Stewart. Although Hermione didn't have as much of a liking for the game as much as Ron and Harry, she took the break from school as a relief.
Hermione left her breakfast on the table and left before Harry or Ron could discuss her mood any longer. That was another thing that was always bothering her. Harry and Ron had become quite protective of her because of all that had happened in the past years. They had all risked their lives at least twice in their seven (well, six and a half) years of schooling. In the summer between their fifth and sixth year, Voldemort had already risen to a power stronger than he ever had. His army made frequent raids on unsuspecting muggle communities. In one year, they had murdered nearly 10,000 muggles and 800 wizards or witches either caught in the cross-fire or trying to stop them. The dark times had ascended once again, and one of the few safe places was Hogwarts. Hermione didn't want to think of what would happen to the school once Dumbledore passed away. Sure, there were many other powerful wizards and witches, but none as powerful as Hogwart's current headmaster. The school wouldn't last long and one of the few refuges would be no more.
"Hey," Ron said through a piece of bacon, "where'ya going?"
"The library" said Harry and Hermione at once.
Hermione looked at him with a stern look. Harry just smiled and she couldn't help but smile back. She rolled her eyes and walked on. Before she left, she looked around at the Great Hall. Sadly, many of the seats were empty, at least, more than there used to be. Some parents didn't feel safe sending their kids away, but there were a few exceptions. She thought sadly about her friend, Parvati Patil, who was killed along with her parents after their fifth year. They left behind their son, Jordan, and other daughter, Padma, who now lived with his grandparents. There were others, too, who moved away, thinking it was safer away from Voldemort, but they were naïve. Voldemort, although settled in Britain, traveled far, gaining spies, cohorts, allies, whatever you called them. Hermione remembered once on one or her annual family summer vacations to France, that there was an attack by the Deatheaters near the city they were staying in.
Hermione, lost in thought, realized that she was already out of the hall, and down a familiar corridor; the one that eventually led to the library.
"I even go to the library unconsciously!" She thought to herself. It was a Saturday she was free to wander. Perhaps she wouldn't go to the library. Although it was one of her favorite places in the school, she didn't think it could help her at the moment. Even thought it was the weekend and even thought it was pretty early, the hallways seemed even more quiet than usual.
After contemplating where to go for a few minutes, she decided that she owed Hagrid a visit. She hadn't seen him in a while and she thought he might be lonely. Now, because of Voldemort, all classes that took place outside were cancelled until further notice. Meaning that Care of Magical Creatures was done with and half of the Herbology and Astronomy units were cancelled as well. This also meant that Hagrid was once again jobless, besides his groundskeeper duties. The game of Quidditch was almost taken away as well, but many people objected, saying that it was a way to take their mind off the horrible times. In the end, Quidditch could only be played under special circumstances and permission from the ministry.
Hermione walked up to the common room to drop of her books and grab her cloak, since it had gotten quite chilly outside. Just before making it to the large, front doors, someone called to her.
"Hey!" It was Harry, "Where are you going?"
"I was just going to go see Hagrid." She replied, "You know, he must be lonely all by himself."
"He isn't," he said with a smirk, "he has Fang."
"That's a whole lot of company."
"Say," he said, turning towards the stairs, "Can you wait up a bit? I'll come with you."
"Oh, sure." She said. She didn't know whether to be glad for the company or if she should be annoyed that Harry didn't think that she could make it to Hagrid's cabin in one piece.
Several minutes later, Hermione saw Harry walking down the stairs from Gryffindor with his cloak in hand. He passed two second-years who were going up and they waved casually to him. Harry, by far, was one of the kindest people she knew. He didn't let his fame go to his head and she admired him for it. He didn't become insane, either, with all the praise he got.
"He isn't too bad looking, either", she thought, looking at him keenly. "But he'll never like me like that. I'm not really his type. Why am I thinking about this anyways? I have more important things to think abo…"
"Ready to go?" He said cheerfully.
"…What?"
Harry laughed at her.
"Wow," he said sarcastically, "Hermione lost in thought. There's a first."
Hermione frowned and playfully punched him in the arm, which he tried, and failed, to dodge. Harry noticing that Hermione thought she had won the fight, reached out and messed up her already frizz-ball hair, and ran out the door. Hermione then realized why Harry and her could never be together. He thought of her like a sister, nothing more. She tried to figure which was better, but she couldn't. She ran outside after Harry, trying to catch up, but it was no use, he was extremely quick.
There was at least an inch of fresh snow on the ground when she stepped out. It hadn't been there that morning and the snowflakes could still be seen falling. Trying not to let him notice, Hermione pretended to tie her shoelace so she could grab a small snowball. Luckily he hadn't, and she ran to catch up with him. Unfortunately, he couldn't stop talking about the upcoming Quidditch match. It was driving her crazy.
"Smile and nod" she thought, "…just smile and nod."
That night, Hermione went to bed early. She had had a snowball fight with Harry, Ron, Seamus, Dean, and Ginny for nearly an hour. They boys had teamed up against her and Ginny, and they had been devastatingly outnumbered. By the end of it, the boys had gotten hit by probably two or three snowballs while Hermione alone was hit by nearly thirty. She was extremely wet and cold and tired when she finally got inside. Before she went to sleep, however, she sat in front of the fire, listening to Harry and Ron talk about the Quidditch game next weekend. As always, it was quite bland to her, but she laughed at the way they could go on and on about the same topic for such a long time.
As usual, Hermione had the same dream…but this time, it was slightly different.
In the normal graveyard scene, before she would look down at the name, someone called to her. It wasn't a normal voice, either. It was raspy and weak and it sounded distant. She turned around. A silver-white form was floating towards her. It scared her half to death, but she couldn't move; she was frozen where she stood.
"Hermione…you…must help…sacrifice."
She couldn't even say anything. It got closer to her. The temperature around her was dropping and she could feel herself shivering even though she was wearing layers over her dress. The figure was now close enough to her that she could see it more clearly. It was obviously a human, but she couldn't see the face…yet. It reached out to her and touched her shoulder. She had expected it to be like gas and just go through her, but it was solid…and freezing. It was so cold in her dream, it made her wake up.
When she woke, she saw a person in white, with their hand on her shoulder. Hermione was about to scream at the top of her lungs, but the figure talked.
"Hermione! Calm down! You were having a nightmare!"
Hermione looked around, breathing hard. Ginny was standing above her…in a white nightgown. Once again, Hermione felt like an idiot. She pressed her palm to her forehead and groaned.
"Stupid nightmare." She said.
"You seem to be having a lot, lately." Ginny said, sitting back in her own bed.
"Yeah, I dunno what's going on." Hermione said, "I think it's stress or something."
"You? Stressed out? No way!" Ginny said sarcastically.
Once again, another thing that annoyed her. The people she knew best, and even people she didn't, always made funny little remarks about being at the top of her class or always on time or always doing classwork. Since when was it wrong to be smart?
"I think you should take a day off." Ginny said. "Just sit, read, sleep, you know, anything but work. It'll help."
"Thanks Ginny." Hermione said, laying back down.
"No problem." She said, yawning and laying down and pulling the curtain around her once again. "But, mind you, I'm not going to be too happy if you're waking me up at all hours of the night when you have nightmares."
"Okay. I'll make a note of that."
"'Night"
"Goodnight."
Hermione stared up at the ceiling of the room. She didn't want to go back to sleep. She knew that she would have that awful dream again. Now that she thought about it, I really wasn't all that scary, but she knew that she would always be scared in the dream, no matter what she did. She looked at her clock. 2:00 a.m.
"Let's see, the Quidditch game starts at ten, but besides that, there's nothing else going on tomorrow. I can try to sleep in." She thought.
She tossed and turned in her bed, but nothing seemed comfortable anymore. She just couldn't get the dream out of her head. She tried thinking of something else. The first thing that came to her mind was Harry. It seemed like she thought about him a lot, but she didn't think she liked him in that way. Sure, he was really good-looking, really nice, and her best friend, but like she said before, he thought of her as a sister and nothing more. That didn't make her feel much better.
Next, her mind focused on Ron. Hermione was really close to Ron, as well, but Ron had his eyes on Padma Patil for the time being. He had liked her in their fourth and fifth year, but she had let him get away. Another sign of depression.
Hermione looked at her clock again. 2:10 a.m.
"Ten minutes!" She thought to herself, "Only ten minutes? This is going to be a long night."
Hermione was up before anyone in Gryffindor the next day. After her nightmare, she hadn't gotten an ounce of sleep, making her groggy and tetchy. She didn't think that she'd be able to get through the day.
"Maybe if I'm tired enough," She thought, "I wont have that blasted dream."
That day, Hermione spent most of her time in the common room, resting her head in her hands and closing her eyes. She almost forgot that she had a report to write for Defense Against the Dark Arts. At around 8:00 that night, she slowly made her way up to her dormitory, where her schoolbag was laying on her bed. She got her book out and a quill and started for the common room once again. She was about to go for her usual spot by the fire next to Harry and Ron, but some other Gryffindor, some other sixth-year, no, some other sixth-year girl had taken her spot. She glared over at her. She was giggling madly at something that Harry or Ron had said, but Hermione was glad to see that Harry was giving her a 'whoa-what's-wrong- with-you' look. She walked over and sat next to Ron instead, who flashed her a quick smile and 'Hey' before turning to his own homework.
Hermione could barely keep her eyes open as she wrote her paper. If she were only more awake, not only would the paper be done quicker, but it would be done better, too. Even Ron was done with his paper before her. It was getting late, and he had stayed up and waited for her to finish. Another half hour passed as it turned 11:30 and Ron had fallen asleep while sitting on the couch. Hermione prodded him with her quill.
"Ron…"she said, "Go to your dorm and go to sleep, okay?"
"Are you done yet?" He said groggily.
"Done worry about me." She said. "You need to get your sleep."
Ron smiled weakly at her and got up.
"Thanks a lot for staying with me, though." She said before he left.
He smiled again at her and placed his hand on her shoulder and yawned.
"I'll see you tomorrow at breakfast, then?" He said.
"Yeah, goodnight Ron"
"'Night."
Hermione watched him walk up the stairs to the dorms before turning back to her paper. She was almost done. She only needed two more inches of parchment to meet the length requirement. She spent the next ten minutes writing before she finished the paper. She felt like she was going to just fall over at any moment. She didn't think she'd be able to make it back up to her bed in her state of tiredness. She placed her parchment on the floor beside the couch and laid down, falling asleep almost automatically.
Hermione wasn't running this time. She was just standing in the forest now. She looked around her. It was completely black, but she could here the rustling of the leaves above her. It was cold and damp in the forest. She wanted to leave, but she couldn't move. Her feet just didn't want to leave to ground. Suddenly, out of the darkness, the white figure appeared to her left. She watched it walk up to her slowly again and speak.
"Hermione…please…I need you"
Once again, she couldn't speak. She wanted to scream. What was going on?!
**flash**
The graveyard again, but this time she was in a different spot. She didn't even know if it was the same graveyard or not. She turned around to see a large tombstone with and angel sitting upon it. This one had a very long inscription, but it was completely in a different language. She looked at the name on it…it…it was hers!
She woke up suddenly again. She looked around her. Everything had been the same from the night before. She breathed in deeply and sighed. She didn't think she could take it anymore.
She felt slightly refreshed, but still very tired. She grabbed her quill, book, and parchment, and walked back up to her dorm, being sure to be very quiet as to not wake up Ginny. She got into bed and looked at her clock. It was 3:29. She still had quite a while before class that day, but she didn't think she'd be able to sleep again. Once again, she tossed and turned, but to no avail. She couldn't get to sleep. She thought of going to the infirmary and asking for the potion for instant, dreamless sleep. Perhaps if she had that, that would solve her problems. Then she remembered a rule placed in Hogwarts a few years back; the doorways into the common rooms were locked at midnight and the wouldn't be opened no matter what (unless, of course, there was an emergency or something).
Hermione sat in her bed, again, staring at her ceiling.
"This is going to be a long week." She thought to herself.
Well…*wince* what do you all think so far? I'm still not sure. I haven't gotten many reviews yet, in fact, the last time I checked I only had one. :( Oh well, I'll still write, unless I don't get any reviews at all. That wouldn't be too good for my self-esteem. Okay, well, please review my stories. I don't mind flames. Oh yeah, this chapter got out a lot sooner than I thought. I was really bored one night, so I decided to stay up and finish it. The next chapters will probably not be out as quick, but it shouldn't take a month or anything. Well, until then!
-Kate
Hermione and ?:
Sleepless Nights
By Kate Potter
February 26, 2002
Hermione continued to have the dream most nights. They never changed at all, either. She was still running through the forest, still crying and feeling awful, still the flash, still the graveyard and mysterious tombstone, same inscription. But she had yet to be able to remember the name on the stone. She didn't really think much of it. She hated to admit it, but she was pretty sure that if she did remember the name, it would be Harry. It just seemed as if every year, ever since he came to Hogwarts, he came close to dying at least twice. There had to be a day where he'd be…well…less fortunate. She hated thinking about it. She told him more than once to stop being the hero, but he'd never listen. She just hoped that when the day came, she were far away and didn't know him anymore.
"Hello? Hermione?"
Hermione found herself staring at Dean Thomas in front of her at breakfast. Of course she wasn't looking at him, she just happened to zone out while looking his way.
"Are you okay?" he asked. He looked both confused and quite amused at the same time.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Hermione fixed her eyes on her plate of uneaten food. "I'm such a moron" she thought to herself.
"Actually, Hermione," Harry said concerned, "You have been acting quite odd lately."
"Yeah," Ron laughed, "maybe you've been working on your homework too hard!"
"Really guys," she said stubbornly, "I'm fine."
But that was far from the truth. Not only were the dreams she was suddenly having getting to her, there were always the over-expectant teachers, the Slytherins, the monotonous classes, the strenuous classwork, and, of course, Malfoy. Ever since his scuffle with Jason a couple weeks ago, he was far more irritable, making him even more evil to that Gryffindors than usual.
But on the bright side, a Quidditch match was coming up. It was Gryffindor Vs. Slytherin, in fact. Harry was now the captain of the Gryffindor team, along with his other teammates, Seamus Finnegan, Ginny Weasley, Natalie McDonald, Jordan Patil, Curt Wethersby, and Alice Stewart. Although Hermione didn't have as much of a liking for the game as much as Ron and Harry, she took the break from school as a relief.
Hermione left her breakfast on the table and left before Harry or Ron could discuss her mood any longer. That was another thing that was always bothering her. Harry and Ron had become quite protective of her because of all that had happened in the past years. They had all risked their lives at least twice in their seven (well, six and a half) years of schooling. In the summer between their fifth and sixth year, Voldemort had already risen to a power stronger than he ever had. His army made frequent raids on unsuspecting muggle communities. In one year, they had murdered nearly 10,000 muggles and 800 wizards or witches either caught in the cross-fire or trying to stop them. The dark times had ascended once again, and one of the few safe places was Hogwarts. Hermione didn't want to think of what would happen to the school once Dumbledore passed away. Sure, there were many other powerful wizards and witches, but none as powerful as Hogwart's current headmaster. The school wouldn't last long and one of the few refuges would be no more.
"Hey," Ron said through a piece of bacon, "where'ya going?"
"The library" said Harry and Hermione at once.
Hermione looked at him with a stern look. Harry just smiled and she couldn't help but smile back. She rolled her eyes and walked on. Before she left, she looked around at the Great Hall. Sadly, many of the seats were empty, at least, more than there used to be. Some parents didn't feel safe sending their kids away, but there were a few exceptions. She thought sadly about her friend, Parvati Patil, who was killed along with her parents after their fifth year. They left behind their son, Jordan, and other daughter, Padma, who now lived with his grandparents. There were others, too, who moved away, thinking it was safer away from Voldemort, but they were naïve. Voldemort, although settled in Britain, traveled far, gaining spies, cohorts, allies, whatever you called them. Hermione remembered once on one or her annual family summer vacations to France, that there was an attack by the Deatheaters near the city they were staying in.
Hermione, lost in thought, realized that she was already out of the hall, and down a familiar corridor; the one that eventually led to the library.
"I even go to the library unconsciously!" She thought to herself. It was a Saturday she was free to wander. Perhaps she wouldn't go to the library. Although it was one of her favorite places in the school, she didn't think it could help her at the moment. Even thought it was the weekend and even thought it was pretty early, the hallways seemed even more quiet than usual.
After contemplating where to go for a few minutes, she decided that she owed Hagrid a visit. She hadn't seen him in a while and she thought he might be lonely. Now, because of Voldemort, all classes that took place outside were cancelled until further notice. Meaning that Care of Magical Creatures was done with and half of the Herbology and Astronomy units were cancelled as well. This also meant that Hagrid was once again jobless, besides his groundskeeper duties. The game of Quidditch was almost taken away as well, but many people objected, saying that it was a way to take their mind off the horrible times. In the end, Quidditch could only be played under special circumstances and permission from the ministry.
Hermione walked up to the common room to drop of her books and grab her cloak, since it had gotten quite chilly outside. Just before making it to the large, front doors, someone called to her.
"Hey!" It was Harry, "Where are you going?"
"I was just going to go see Hagrid." She replied, "You know, he must be lonely all by himself."
"He isn't," he said with a smirk, "he has Fang."
"That's a whole lot of company."
"Say," he said, turning towards the stairs, "Can you wait up a bit? I'll come with you."
"Oh, sure." She said. She didn't know whether to be glad for the company or if she should be annoyed that Harry didn't think that she could make it to Hagrid's cabin in one piece.
Several minutes later, Hermione saw Harry walking down the stairs from Gryffindor with his cloak in hand. He passed two second-years who were going up and they waved casually to him. Harry, by far, was one of the kindest people she knew. He didn't let his fame go to his head and she admired him for it. He didn't become insane, either, with all the praise he got.
"He isn't too bad looking, either", she thought, looking at him keenly. "But he'll never like me like that. I'm not really his type. Why am I thinking about this anyways? I have more important things to think abo…"
"Ready to go?" He said cheerfully.
"…What?"
Harry laughed at her.
"Wow," he said sarcastically, "Hermione lost in thought. There's a first."
Hermione frowned and playfully punched him in the arm, which he tried, and failed, to dodge. Harry noticing that Hermione thought she had won the fight, reached out and messed up her already frizz-ball hair, and ran out the door. Hermione then realized why Harry and her could never be together. He thought of her like a sister, nothing more. She tried to figure which was better, but she couldn't. She ran outside after Harry, trying to catch up, but it was no use, he was extremely quick.
There was at least an inch of fresh snow on the ground when she stepped out. It hadn't been there that morning and the snowflakes could still be seen falling. Trying not to let him notice, Hermione pretended to tie her shoelace so she could grab a small snowball. Luckily he hadn't, and she ran to catch up with him. Unfortunately, he couldn't stop talking about the upcoming Quidditch match. It was driving her crazy.
"Smile and nod" she thought, "…just smile and nod."
That night, Hermione went to bed early. She had had a snowball fight with Harry, Ron, Seamus, Dean, and Ginny for nearly an hour. They boys had teamed up against her and Ginny, and they had been devastatingly outnumbered. By the end of it, the boys had gotten hit by probably two or three snowballs while Hermione alone was hit by nearly thirty. She was extremely wet and cold and tired when she finally got inside. Before she went to sleep, however, she sat in front of the fire, listening to Harry and Ron talk about the Quidditch game next weekend. As always, it was quite bland to her, but she laughed at the way they could go on and on about the same topic for such a long time.
As usual, Hermione had the same dream…but this time, it was slightly different.
In the normal graveyard scene, before she would look down at the name, someone called to her. It wasn't a normal voice, either. It was raspy and weak and it sounded distant. She turned around. A silver-white form was floating towards her. It scared her half to death, but she couldn't move; she was frozen where she stood.
"Hermione…you…must help…sacrifice."
She couldn't even say anything. It got closer to her. The temperature around her was dropping and she could feel herself shivering even though she was wearing layers over her dress. The figure was now close enough to her that she could see it more clearly. It was obviously a human, but she couldn't see the face…yet. It reached out to her and touched her shoulder. She had expected it to be like gas and just go through her, but it was solid…and freezing. It was so cold in her dream, it made her wake up.
When she woke, she saw a person in white, with their hand on her shoulder. Hermione was about to scream at the top of her lungs, but the figure talked.
"Hermione! Calm down! You were having a nightmare!"
Hermione looked around, breathing hard. Ginny was standing above her…in a white nightgown. Once again, Hermione felt like an idiot. She pressed her palm to her forehead and groaned.
"Stupid nightmare." She said.
"You seem to be having a lot, lately." Ginny said, sitting back in her own bed.
"Yeah, I dunno what's going on." Hermione said, "I think it's stress or something."
"You? Stressed out? No way!" Ginny said sarcastically.
Once again, another thing that annoyed her. The people she knew best, and even people she didn't, always made funny little remarks about being at the top of her class or always on time or always doing classwork. Since when was it wrong to be smart?
"I think you should take a day off." Ginny said. "Just sit, read, sleep, you know, anything but work. It'll help."
"Thanks Ginny." Hermione said, laying back down.
"No problem." She said, yawning and laying down and pulling the curtain around her once again. "But, mind you, I'm not going to be too happy if you're waking me up at all hours of the night when you have nightmares."
"Okay. I'll make a note of that."
"'Night"
"Goodnight."
Hermione stared up at the ceiling of the room. She didn't want to go back to sleep. She knew that she would have that awful dream again. Now that she thought about it, I really wasn't all that scary, but she knew that she would always be scared in the dream, no matter what she did. She looked at her clock. 2:00 a.m.
"Let's see, the Quidditch game starts at ten, but besides that, there's nothing else going on tomorrow. I can try to sleep in." She thought.
She tossed and turned in her bed, but nothing seemed comfortable anymore. She just couldn't get the dream out of her head. She tried thinking of something else. The first thing that came to her mind was Harry. It seemed like she thought about him a lot, but she didn't think she liked him in that way. Sure, he was really good-looking, really nice, and her best friend, but like she said before, he thought of her as a sister and nothing more. That didn't make her feel much better.
Next, her mind focused on Ron. Hermione was really close to Ron, as well, but Ron had his eyes on Padma Patil for the time being. He had liked her in their fourth and fifth year, but she had let him get away. Another sign of depression.
Hermione looked at her clock again. 2:10 a.m.
"Ten minutes!" She thought to herself, "Only ten minutes? This is going to be a long night."
Hermione was up before anyone in Gryffindor the next day. After her nightmare, she hadn't gotten an ounce of sleep, making her groggy and tetchy. She didn't think that she'd be able to get through the day.
"Maybe if I'm tired enough," She thought, "I wont have that blasted dream."
That day, Hermione spent most of her time in the common room, resting her head in her hands and closing her eyes. She almost forgot that she had a report to write for Defense Against the Dark Arts. At around 8:00 that night, she slowly made her way up to her dormitory, where her schoolbag was laying on her bed. She got her book out and a quill and started for the common room once again. She was about to go for her usual spot by the fire next to Harry and Ron, but some other Gryffindor, some other sixth-year, no, some other sixth-year girl had taken her spot. She glared over at her. She was giggling madly at something that Harry or Ron had said, but Hermione was glad to see that Harry was giving her a 'whoa-what's-wrong- with-you' look. She walked over and sat next to Ron instead, who flashed her a quick smile and 'Hey' before turning to his own homework.
Hermione could barely keep her eyes open as she wrote her paper. If she were only more awake, not only would the paper be done quicker, but it would be done better, too. Even Ron was done with his paper before her. It was getting late, and he had stayed up and waited for her to finish. Another half hour passed as it turned 11:30 and Ron had fallen asleep while sitting on the couch. Hermione prodded him with her quill.
"Ron…"she said, "Go to your dorm and go to sleep, okay?"
"Are you done yet?" He said groggily.
"Done worry about me." She said. "You need to get your sleep."
Ron smiled weakly at her and got up.
"Thanks a lot for staying with me, though." She said before he left.
He smiled again at her and placed his hand on her shoulder and yawned.
"I'll see you tomorrow at breakfast, then?" He said.
"Yeah, goodnight Ron"
"'Night."
Hermione watched him walk up the stairs to the dorms before turning back to her paper. She was almost done. She only needed two more inches of parchment to meet the length requirement. She spent the next ten minutes writing before she finished the paper. She felt like she was going to just fall over at any moment. She didn't think she'd be able to make it back up to her bed in her state of tiredness. She placed her parchment on the floor beside the couch and laid down, falling asleep almost automatically.
Hermione wasn't running this time. She was just standing in the forest now. She looked around her. It was completely black, but she could here the rustling of the leaves above her. It was cold and damp in the forest. She wanted to leave, but she couldn't move. Her feet just didn't want to leave to ground. Suddenly, out of the darkness, the white figure appeared to her left. She watched it walk up to her slowly again and speak.
"Hermione…please…I need you"
Once again, she couldn't speak. She wanted to scream. What was going on?!
**flash**
The graveyard again, but this time she was in a different spot. She didn't even know if it was the same graveyard or not. She turned around to see a large tombstone with and angel sitting upon it. This one had a very long inscription, but it was completely in a different language. She looked at the name on it…it…it was hers!
She woke up suddenly again. She looked around her. Everything had been the same from the night before. She breathed in deeply and sighed. She didn't think she could take it anymore.
She felt slightly refreshed, but still very tired. She grabbed her quill, book, and parchment, and walked back up to her dorm, being sure to be very quiet as to not wake up Ginny. She got into bed and looked at her clock. It was 3:29. She still had quite a while before class that day, but she didn't think she'd be able to sleep again. Once again, she tossed and turned, but to no avail. She couldn't get to sleep. She thought of going to the infirmary and asking for the potion for instant, dreamless sleep. Perhaps if she had that, that would solve her problems. Then she remembered a rule placed in Hogwarts a few years back; the doorways into the common rooms were locked at midnight and the wouldn't be opened no matter what (unless, of course, there was an emergency or something).
Hermione sat in her bed, again, staring at her ceiling.
"This is going to be a long week." She thought to herself.
Well…*wince* what do you all think so far? I'm still not sure. I haven't gotten many reviews yet, in fact, the last time I checked I only had one. :( Oh well, I'll still write, unless I don't get any reviews at all. That wouldn't be too good for my self-esteem. Okay, well, please review my stories. I don't mind flames. Oh yeah, this chapter got out a lot sooner than I thought. I was really bored one night, so I decided to stay up and finish it. The next chapters will probably not be out as quick, but it shouldn't take a month or anything. Well, until then!
-Kate