Que Sera Sera
By Aldesina
Chapter 2
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Disclaimer: You know the drill, I own, nada, neda, niddle, zip, zoop, zap, zomp, dittle, diddly, dit, squat, nothing, zero, nil, zilch……………need I say more?
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"Hermione, Hermione!" Hermione heard her own name being shouted at her, bringing her back from her memories of last month. She stared up at that looming fortress again, how on earth can a thing like this not be seen? How on earth can it be possible?
"Hermione!"
"Yes Harry, I'm here, I'm sorry I just, I just blanked for a second" Hermione said quietly. She did not want Harry to know that she was thinking back to that time, about a month ago, she didn't want him to relive in the daytime what he had to live through during the night time when his eyes closed.
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Two and a Half Weeks Ago, Boy's Dormitories, Gryffindor Tower
"No….." Harry tossed and turned in his bed
"No……….. no how? But, but, you're…. you really are? Are you? No wait, I, I don't understand, come back, tell me how wait, no………." Harry thrashed once more in his sleep, then went still. Suddenly Harry sat bolt up in his bed.
"RON!" he screamed. Harry jumped out of his bed and ran over to the one across from him, flinging open the covers expecting to see his best friend. There was no one there. The scar on the top of his head was glowing bright green, and could be seen clearly, even though it was obscured by the moment by his bangs. The burning sensation that Harry usually felt whenever his scar acted up didn't seem to bother Harry. He didn't feel even feel it burning.
"Ron?" he asked again quietly, he glanced around the room, and it seemed that none of the others had awakened or had been disturbed by his thrashing, they were all still asleep. He shook his head, trying to clear it of the nightmare he had. He had nightmares almost every night now, they were usually of Ron's last minutes alive, being tortured and mutilated by Voldemort. However this dream was different.
In this dream Ron was not dead, and Voldemort had not been by his side afflicting pain upon his body. Instead he was chained to a wall, held up by the shackles around his wrists.
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"Harry….." Ron croaked weakly, he looked terrible. His red hair was mangled and matted on top of his head, there was dried blood on his forehead and his face was so pale that Harry could almost see the veins that ran underneath. His body was twisted, and it seemed like he was about to collapse at any moment. His eyes looked bloodshot, and he looked older then his 17 years. His fingers were bloody, and his arm seemed to be at a odd angle and his lip was cracked and broken, yet he was whole, His insides were not ripped out and his legs were not smashed and slashed apart.
"No…………no how?" Harry thought that Voldemort was playing a trick on him, how else could Ron be there, whole in front of him, it made no sense.
"Harry you have to open your mind, you have to see, you have to let your mind see…. Open your mind, but shield it, always remember that! " He continued.
"But, but you're you really are? Are you?" Harry took a step forward in his dream, reaching out to Ron, trying to grasp the chains that held him; but Ron always just seemed to be out of his reach.
"Harry, you can do it, I know you can see with your mind, forget your eyes, they are useless, trust in you mind, and trust in your friends, your true friends, They'll see too! And she; she'll also understand what you see." Ron's voice was getting more and more imperceptible with every word. "Don't just let anyone read your mind, don't just let anyone in, you must, you…….. "
"No wait, I, I don't understand, come back" Harry made a last attempt lunge to reach his friend.
"You must shield your mind. Remember those things, always remember them, never, don't ever forget……….." Ron's voice faded to nothing and he disappeared along with it.
"Tell me how, wait, no……….." Inside his mind, he heard Ron's scream and then laughter, horrible evil laughter.
"RON!"
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Harry told Hermione about that dream the next morning, during breakfast in the Great Hall. It was the first time that he told her about the nightmares that he had after he saw Ron's body. However Hermione knew this was not the first time that he had been having nightmares. She had seen his face early in the mornings; at breakfast Harry would show up with bloodshot eyes. She'd seen the way that he tried to keep himself busy at night. So busy that he did not have to sleep. Or perhaps tire himself out so much that if he did sleep, it would be a dreamless sleep. She saw it, but did not push it, not because she did not care, but because she did not know how to act when Harry was like this. They had become apart in the past two weeks, more apart then they had ever been. They didn't speak to each other as much anymore, didn't look at each other. Didn't spend time together. It seemed to Hermione that Harry hardly had time for anyone anymore, least of all her; he worked harder and harder in his classes, and took more and more extra assignments to do on his own. When he wasn't preoccupied with his schoolwork he was constantly training, physically, mentally, magically, preparing himself in everyway possible. And he did not like to be interrupted
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Three Weeks ago
Hermione had stopped in one afternoon when Harry was practicing his spell casting in a spare classroom. They had barely spoken to each other since Ron's death and she was worried about him, and missed him. She looked in the classroom and saw that he was sweating and panting, and looked as if he was in intense pain. He was almost doubling over and held on to his wand as if his life depended on it, and there was a bright silver lighted bubble glowing around him.
"Harry!" she cried, running over to him wrapping an arm around him, completely disregarding the bubble of silver light. " Harry are you….."
"Hermione what are you doing in here?" Harry asked in a very irritated way, he stood up straight and shook off her arm roughly.
"I, you, you looked like you were about to collapse and kneel over, I…"
"I was not going to kneel over, I was concentrating on a new spell that Remus, Sirius and I developed"
"You developed a spell together?" At first Hermione felt crushed that Harry hadn't asked her for help as well. She felt excluded, but was still intent on trying to be positive "That's great Harry," trying to sound as cheerful as possible, "so what does it do?"
"It's a magical shield that you can put up around yourself while you're dueling, that way your opponent's curses simply bounce off you and you don't get hurt, yet you can still cast spells to hurt him while you are inside the shield. Not only that, but it can repel physical attacks on you as well." Harry said while brushing his robes, and wiping his forehead with a towel that he had left on a desk near him. He took a sip of water from the cup he had on the table and regarded Hermione with a curious look in his eyes.
"Although it seems that my shield is not quite up to par since you were able to just burst in here and break through."
It was only then that Hermione noticed that the little bubble of silver light was no longer around his body. Again with the suspicion, Hermione thought, what is it these days? She hated when people were suspicious of each other, it brought so much turmoil between friends, and these days Harry was being deliberately difficult, well too can do that.
"Well Harry, considering the fact that you were about to kneel over, I'm not surprised that I broke through that bubble easily, you were probably just too tired to maintain it anymore." Hermione said very matter of factly.
"Harry was not the only one maintaining that shield around him, I was also aiding him, and I was not weakened by it as he was." Came a voice from the corner of the room. Hermione turned around and found the owner of the voice to be Sirius Black.
"The shield was still very strong even though Harry himself was weak" Sirius continued, "You must have developed quite an arsenal of powers within yourself, to have been able to break through that shield so easily." Sirius was staring at her when he said that, but not the way a teacher looked at a student who accomplished something to be proud of. Sirius stared at her like she had done something wrong, stared at her in a way that made her hesitate, the same way that Dumbledore had stared at her when she had told him the reason why they had forgotten about Ron. Suspicious.
"I was worried about Harry" Hermione said defensively, why were they all looking at her that way? "He, he looked like he was about to…."
"Never mind what I looked like I was about to do Hermione," Harry said not looking at her at all, "Could you leave us so we can continue practicing?" His voice snapped at her coldly, indifferent. It had been that way the entire week, and her heart broke to hear it.
"Alright," she said softly, "I'll see you later." She turned around and left the room without turning back.
When Hermione had shut the door behind her Harry had heaved a sigh and looked at Sirius sadly
"I should have been a lot nicer to her."
"I know Harry" Sirius said resignedly "I should have been too."
"But I told all of you to be mean to her, I told myself to be cold to her, that way, maybe she'd find other friends, friends that won't get her killed because someone else has a vendetta against them."
"I know, but she is still loyal to you"
"It will harm her in the end." Harry glanced at the door.
"Perhaps not, you know Harry, maybe you should tell her about that dream you had last night, she is the cleverest witch that I have ever seen, I'm sure she'll be able to make heads or tails of it."
"But Sirius, it's not only dreams now, they're visions, and other things that come along with it, sometimes I swear I can almost hear other people's thoughts. Not like when I heard the basilisk's" Harry said quickly when Sirius was about to interrupt him.
"But I can hear people, their actual voices talking to themselves in their heads." Sirius cocked his head to the side at this and frowned.
"Have you told Dumbledore about this? I'm sure he'll be able to come up with some sort of a solution."
"Yes, and he's looking into it." Harry was still staring at the door; he had been this entire conversation. Hermione had looked so hurt when she left.
"Well then," Sirius started, "why don't we practice this spell one more time, and then go see if Dumbledore has come up with any new developments about these visions, and dreams of yours." Harry nodded, picked up his wand and began the spell again.
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That following week after they had the argument Hermione was sitting by herself at the breakfast table thinking about a new spell when she heard a voice behind her
"Ahem, is this seat taken?" It was Harry
"No, it's free." Hermione replied, and went back to reading
"Look, Hermione, I'm sorry, I know I should have been nicer to you, but, I've been having these problems and well I didn't want you to be involved, I mean, I didn't mean it that way, I just didn't want any more people to get hurt," And with what Harry told Hermione about the dreams, the visions, the voices, and all the other weird things that he had been holding back to himself. Hermione had been so happy that Harry started to talk to her again that the second he stopped rambling to take a breath she started spinning out ideas.
"Have you asked Dumbledore? Could it just be from shock, no wait, that last one defiantly was not from shock. Perhaps Mad Eye Moody would know, I'm sure an Auror would know all sorts of things. I'll go look it up immediately in the library this evening, don't worry about a thing Harry, we'll get it sorted out faster then you can blink your eye!" She seemed so enthusiastic and confident that she could solve it that Harry had to smile, it was good to have his friend back, he missed her so during those weeks.
"Well Hermione, I have already blinked several times throughout this conversation, does that mean you have already solved this mystery in your head many, many times over?" Harry asked with a wide grin on his face. Hermione simply stared; Harry hadn't even shown a hint of smile the entire week, a whole grin from him was like a small miracle.
"Smart ass" She said, lightly punching him on the shoulder, while smiling widely at him. Seeing Hermione happy made Harry somewhat happier too, and he flashed her a small but genuine smile.
"Mr. Potter, Ms Granger," the two of them turned around looking up but not seeing anything
"Ahem, down here if you please." They looked down into the face of Professor Flitwick, the tiny sized Charms teacher.
"Professor Dumbledore would like to see the two of you in his office after dinner tonight at 8' o clock please be punctual. Enjoy the rest of your breakfast." He said and then proceeded to walk forward to the head table where all the professors ate.
"See Harry," Hermione said enthusiastically, Dumbledore must already have some information about those dreams and visions."
"If so, if they are true, then there could be a chance that the body on Hagrid's roof was not Ron's, that he is alive." Harry exclaimed, he bit his lip "Oh Hermione do you think that is possible? That Ron's still alive?"
"Absolutely Harry, your visions could give Professor Trelawney a run for her money!"
"Miss Cleo could give Professor Trelawney a run for her money." Harry said rolling his eyes. Hermione stared at him for a second then giggled, causing Harry to laugh right along with her. Having both grown up in the muggle world they both knew about television psychics who could supposedly see the future. And it felt good for both of them to be able to occasionally laugh and smile again. Now there was hope, and that was defiantly something to be glad for.
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Author's Note; I realize that I said this was to be a Draco and Hermione fic yet Draco has yet to make an appearance. He'll be here, he just plays a part in the latter part of Hermione's life. This is also partially Hermione/Harry by the way, nothing like a love triangle
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