Basilisk Dreams: Chapter Five- Old Friends and New Feelings
*
Disclaimer- Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers, not
me.
* AN: Sorry it's been a while, I've been busy.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed it's appreciated and although I haven't been quick with this (uh-oh- opposite!) and I don't think I'll be able to fit Tom Riddle in, I hope to hear more from you all. Anyway here goes.
*
The day was sharp and cold, the blustery winds sending chills throughout Hermione's body. She had gratefully accepted Professor Vector's offer of an afternoon off, sensing how unusual this was for his gifted student he had frowned worriedly and promised to clear it with the rest of her teachers.
Now she walked the worn down path that led around the lake. She knew the path well: as did most Hogwarts students. It was where they would go to think and get away from school life: it was also a favourite with the young couples of the castle. The snow had begun to melt but it was still bitterly cold and Hermione felt that more was on it's way.
She sat down on one of the benches that where dotted along the pathway rubbing her eyes. She was tired- proper sleep seemed like a luxury that she'd given up. She didn't sleep properly is she dreamt and the potion induced sleep did not really bring a good nights sleep. She suddenly felt very old and worn for all she was only eighteen.
All because of the dreams. Hermione shuddered remembering what she had been told by the enigmatic Professor Vablatsky the previous day. Voldemort was planting the dreams- planting them to get at Harry. She would never forgive herself if Voldemort was able to hurt Harry because of her.
As if summoned up by her thoughts suddenly the skinny (still despite Hogwarts meals and intense Quidditch training), raven haired boy was in front of her.
"Hi," He said quietly sitting beside her.
"Hello," She said trying to smile.
"I couldn't face going into that class." Harry said.
"What? Divination? But Ron said its better now, with Professor Vablatsky. Don't you like her?" Hermione asked confused.
"Well, yeah I do, it is better," Harry said, "It's just."
"Just what?" Hermione asked.
"I don't know. but look at this." He said fumbling in his cloak pocket. He took out a neatly folded photograph and handed it to her. "What do you make of that?" He asked her.
Hermione unfolded it carefully and studied it: it was a picture from the photo album Hagrid had put together for Harry at the end of their first year at Hogwarts, it showed the Potter's wedding.
"Next to my mum- the bridesmaid!" Harry said, pointing at the figure in the deep blue dress.
Hermione gasped. The raven black hair, pale skin and intense eyes: Professor Cassandra Vablatsky!
"Harry." She said, shocked.
"She knew my parents," He said a funny look in his emerald eyes.
"Yes." She replied- what else could she say?
"So why hasn't she said anything about them to me? She must have stories to tell, memories." Harry trailed off.
"Maybe she didn't feel it was her place- I mean Sirius is your godfather." Hermione said quietly.
"Yes and Sirius I don't understand that either. Didn't you notice in Dumbledore's office yesterday? How they weren't comfortable being in the same room?"
"No- but then again I was concentrating on the dream- but I do remember she didn't come down to dinner that night. Maybe she was uncomfortable about seeing him there!" Hermione said,
"But why?" Harry asked, "They must have known each other- they where both at the wedding!"
"I don't know."
"You don't think." Harry started stopping abruptly.
"I don't think what?" Hermione asked.
"You don't think she's another traitor, like Wormtail: do you?" He replied his voice shaking.
"No," Hermione replied firmly, "Dumbledore wouldn't have hired her!"
"Maybe Dumbledore doesn't know."
"But Sirius would have said something if there was a real danger!" Hermione argued.
"Yes, yes," Harry said lowering his eyes, "You're right."
"Why don't you just ask her- or Sirius, you can talk to him?" She suggested.
"No, something just doesn't feel right. I feel as though I'd be intruding."
"Oh." She said falling silent.
They sat there, lost in their own thoughts for quite sometime before Hermione came out with: "Hagrid!"
"Hagrid?" Harry asked puzzled.
"Hagrid! He would know, you can ask him when he gets back!" Hermione exclaimed.
Harry grinned, "Hermione! You're a genius."
"I'll second that," Came a voice from behind, they turned round to see Ron, his cloak thrown on haphazardly. And his bright red hair dishevelled, "Mind you, you've just missed a brilliant divination lesson Harry."
Harry grimaced.
"What?" Ron asked innocently. They filled him in on Harry's discovery about Professor Vablatsky and his plans to ask Hagrid about her.
Ron grinned, looking pleased with himself when Hagrid's name come up.
"What?" Hermione asked him.
"I've just overheard Madam Pomfrey talking to Professor McGonagall in the entrance hall. They were saying Hagrid should be back at any time. They've had an owl and everything."
Harry suddenly looked a lot more cheerful, "Great! The place just isn't the same without him."
"Yes, but Ron!" Hermione chided, "You shouldn't eavesdrop! It's rude!"
The boys suddenly fell about laughing; Hermione not seeing what was funny looked on in bemusement.
"What?" She demanded, "What?"
"Nothing," Harry said, "Just suddenly we were back to normal. Putting plans together and then you."
"Made it perfect" Ron cut in," By telling me off. It was juts like old times!"
Hermione smiled sadly, "We sound like we're eighty not eighteen. Old times indeed!"
"Yes but you know what I mean," Ron said, "The good old times. Before Voldemort."
"When where we ever free of Voldemort?" Harry asked.
Ron stopped laughing and Hermione went pale. No, they realised, they had never been free of him.
"Never," Hermione whispered feeling a shiver run up her spine and the cruel voice from her dream filled her head.
"But we will be," Ron said determinedly. "One day."
"One day." Harry agreed.
*
Cassandra was faintly concerned about the absence of Harry from her class that afternoon, still she accepted it when his tall red haired friend: Ron Weasley said that he'd had a "bit of a headache".
Knowing that Voldemort was using one of your best friends to get at you couldn't have been easy for the boy. He deserved a rest.
She was sitting in her office mulling it over when someone knocked at her door. She went to open it, to find the head boy- Harry's friend standing there.
"Excuse me Professor, but Madame Pomfrey sent for you. She said one of her patients might appreciate your company."
"Who is it?" Cassandra asked.
"I don't know, someone coming in from a mission I think. She sent me to get Professor Black as well but I couldn't find him."
"Oh, I see, well I better go down. Thank you." She said grabbing her cloak from the peg on the wall and locking the office door.
"Goodnight," Ron said, leaving somewhat abruptly.
Cassandra frowned; she could have sworn that his manner towards her had changed since he'd left her classroom that afternoon. He seemed almost as if a question had been on the edge of his tongue but he had held back.
She would puzzle over that later; she was much more intrigued about the patient who might "appreciate her company". So she hurried down to the hospital wing.
*
Remus' head felt like was jam-packed full of bricks and the pounding refused to go away despite Madam Pomfrey's medicines. His body was a mass of bruises and what little strength he had left was spent on staying awake. He needed to speak to Sirius.
The door opened and he heard a woman's voice addressing Madame Pomfrey: it seemed strangely familiar.
"Just in here dear," Madame Pomfrey said leading a woman behind the grey curtains that surrounded Remus' bed and leaving again with a rustle of skirts.
The woman smiled, nervously, obviously not expecting to see him there and Remus gasped. It couldn't be! Not after all of these years! She'd hardly changed- the hair as black as ever and skin that still mad her look as if she spent all of her time indoors: so pale! Yet the shadows in her eyes where as dark as the ones in his own- no- she was no longer the Cassandra Vablatsky he had known.
"Cassandra?"
"Hello Remus." She said, sitting down on the chair beside the bed.
"Hello," He replied, still overwhelmed.
"You look terrible," She said.
"And you haven't changed," He replied, at last able to smile.
"Thank you." She said, "Oh its so good to see you! And you're not angry? I thought you wouldn't be able to speak to me."
"Oh Cassie," Remus said, "Of course I'm not. We were the only two left: we should have stuck together but we didn't- we each had reasons not to."
She bit a lip and Remus caught a glance of the young girl he had known: unsure as sacred of her powers. The ones that led them to several victories on the battle field- the visions that had always been so accurate.
"No-one has called me that for years." Cassandra said referring the nickname he had used.
"This is the longest conversation I've had with a female in years," He said laughing.
She grinned, her old mischief returning. To someone who didn't know Cassandra she was a distant, powerful inhuman sort of person, but Remus knew better. As did Sirius- well he would know best of all.
"You'll have seen Sirius?" He asked.
"Yes," She replied with a pained expression on her face.
"Oh." He said.
"I don't deserve any better: I ran away." She said, tears filling her eyes
"So did I. But he is completely innocent. You know that, don't you?"
"I know." She replied quietly.
Deciding not to press her any further and that this was something that could be discussed later, Remus changed the subject.
"Your teaching divination I take it?" He asked "Yeah I am," She replied.
"Not lost your touch then?" He asked.
"No," She said, "Not at all."
"And Harry? What do you make of him?"
"Harry," She smiled sadly, "Just like them. It's like looking into the past."
"Have you spoken to him? About his parents?" Remus asked, "About Lily? You knew her the best."
"No, I haven't. I'll have to and I will but I'm dreading it." She said.
"Don't worry- I put off telling him when I first met him for ages too." Remus said sympathetically.
"It's just so difficult!" She said.
"I know, I know." He was cut off from saying any more by the sudden arrival of Sirius who took one look at Cassandra and glared dangerously.
"I'll go now," She said quietly.
"You don't have to," Remus said, angry with Sirius for being so hostile.
"No, really. I better go," She bent down to hug him then left quickly, her long hair swinging behind her.
"Sirius?" Remus asked.
"She thinks I'm guilty doesn't she?" Sirius asked angrily.
"No I don't think she does. It's weird, she's acting almost as if she's guilty of something." Remus said wearily.
"I don't care," Sirius said stubbornly.
"You must feel something still, surely you cant hate her, after all you where nearly."
"I know! I know! But people change. I've changed." Sirius said. "How did the mission go anyway Sirius asked to change the subject.
"Well.."
*
"Hermione?" Ron asked.
They were sitting in the little office adjacent to the Prefect's room that they had been allowed as a base to carry out their duties from. It was late and Ron could tell Hermione was anxious to put off going to bed.
"Yes?" She replied, looking up from the first year essays she was marking for Professor McGonagall, her face pale and the skin around her eyes dark from lack of sleep.
"It's just that." He started.
"What?"
"I was wondering."
"Yes?" She asked, pushing a curl that had wrestled free of her pony tail back behind her ear.
He suddenly felt a little dizzy- it seemed to happen a lot when all of her attention was directed on him. She looked so vulnerable suddenly for all her cleverness: she couldn't fight the dreams and he felt helpless in that he didn't know what to do to help her.
"Nothing," He managed to say.
"What? Spit it out!" She demanded.
"No, really, nothing." He said.
She returned to the marking her quill moving swiftly her brown eyes bright with concentration. He never failed to notice how brown her eyes were.
Why? He asked himself. What exactly did he feel for his female companion? He shook his head- she was so confusing: sometimes she was no different to Harry, other times he felt unbearably protective of her- or he felt extremely awkward around her.
Pushing the questions to the back of his mind he smiled at her as she caught his eye and blushed. He didn't stop to wonder why she was blushing (too confusing) instead he said:
"Come on, lets get back before it's too late and the teachers are patrolling the corridors."
She put her quill down, smiling wearily, "Yeah you're right."
"Come on," He said picking up her cloak for her and handing it to her as he pushed her out of the door. He muttered the locking spell to the door and led her back towards the common room.
He practically had to carry her to her room, she was so drowsy. Her nearness made his heart beat faster, though she was barely aware of what was going on and he felt a deep sense of regret as he left her sitting on her bed taking the sleeping potion that would allow her a dreamless sleep.
"Goodnight," She said sleepily.
"Night," He said, leaving before he could feel any other unwelcome emotions. It was important to keep his head at such a time: personal feelings couldn't plough him down: he needed to be there for Harry and Hermione: his confusing feelings for her would have to wait.
* AN- ok, so what do you think? I'm not all together happy with chapter but still I'm back into it now and let's just see where it goes from here. Please review!
* AN: Sorry it's been a while, I've been busy.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed it's appreciated and although I haven't been quick with this (uh-oh- opposite!) and I don't think I'll be able to fit Tom Riddle in, I hope to hear more from you all. Anyway here goes.
*
The day was sharp and cold, the blustery winds sending chills throughout Hermione's body. She had gratefully accepted Professor Vector's offer of an afternoon off, sensing how unusual this was for his gifted student he had frowned worriedly and promised to clear it with the rest of her teachers.
Now she walked the worn down path that led around the lake. She knew the path well: as did most Hogwarts students. It was where they would go to think and get away from school life: it was also a favourite with the young couples of the castle. The snow had begun to melt but it was still bitterly cold and Hermione felt that more was on it's way.
She sat down on one of the benches that where dotted along the pathway rubbing her eyes. She was tired- proper sleep seemed like a luxury that she'd given up. She didn't sleep properly is she dreamt and the potion induced sleep did not really bring a good nights sleep. She suddenly felt very old and worn for all she was only eighteen.
All because of the dreams. Hermione shuddered remembering what she had been told by the enigmatic Professor Vablatsky the previous day. Voldemort was planting the dreams- planting them to get at Harry. She would never forgive herself if Voldemort was able to hurt Harry because of her.
As if summoned up by her thoughts suddenly the skinny (still despite Hogwarts meals and intense Quidditch training), raven haired boy was in front of her.
"Hi," He said quietly sitting beside her.
"Hello," She said trying to smile.
"I couldn't face going into that class." Harry said.
"What? Divination? But Ron said its better now, with Professor Vablatsky. Don't you like her?" Hermione asked confused.
"Well, yeah I do, it is better," Harry said, "It's just."
"Just what?" Hermione asked.
"I don't know. but look at this." He said fumbling in his cloak pocket. He took out a neatly folded photograph and handed it to her. "What do you make of that?" He asked her.
Hermione unfolded it carefully and studied it: it was a picture from the photo album Hagrid had put together for Harry at the end of their first year at Hogwarts, it showed the Potter's wedding.
"Next to my mum- the bridesmaid!" Harry said, pointing at the figure in the deep blue dress.
Hermione gasped. The raven black hair, pale skin and intense eyes: Professor Cassandra Vablatsky!
"Harry." She said, shocked.
"She knew my parents," He said a funny look in his emerald eyes.
"Yes." She replied- what else could she say?
"So why hasn't she said anything about them to me? She must have stories to tell, memories." Harry trailed off.
"Maybe she didn't feel it was her place- I mean Sirius is your godfather." Hermione said quietly.
"Yes and Sirius I don't understand that either. Didn't you notice in Dumbledore's office yesterday? How they weren't comfortable being in the same room?"
"No- but then again I was concentrating on the dream- but I do remember she didn't come down to dinner that night. Maybe she was uncomfortable about seeing him there!" Hermione said,
"But why?" Harry asked, "They must have known each other- they where both at the wedding!"
"I don't know."
"You don't think." Harry started stopping abruptly.
"I don't think what?" Hermione asked.
"You don't think she's another traitor, like Wormtail: do you?" He replied his voice shaking.
"No," Hermione replied firmly, "Dumbledore wouldn't have hired her!"
"Maybe Dumbledore doesn't know."
"But Sirius would have said something if there was a real danger!" Hermione argued.
"Yes, yes," Harry said lowering his eyes, "You're right."
"Why don't you just ask her- or Sirius, you can talk to him?" She suggested.
"No, something just doesn't feel right. I feel as though I'd be intruding."
"Oh." She said falling silent.
They sat there, lost in their own thoughts for quite sometime before Hermione came out with: "Hagrid!"
"Hagrid?" Harry asked puzzled.
"Hagrid! He would know, you can ask him when he gets back!" Hermione exclaimed.
Harry grinned, "Hermione! You're a genius."
"I'll second that," Came a voice from behind, they turned round to see Ron, his cloak thrown on haphazardly. And his bright red hair dishevelled, "Mind you, you've just missed a brilliant divination lesson Harry."
Harry grimaced.
"What?" Ron asked innocently. They filled him in on Harry's discovery about Professor Vablatsky and his plans to ask Hagrid about her.
Ron grinned, looking pleased with himself when Hagrid's name come up.
"What?" Hermione asked him.
"I've just overheard Madam Pomfrey talking to Professor McGonagall in the entrance hall. They were saying Hagrid should be back at any time. They've had an owl and everything."
Harry suddenly looked a lot more cheerful, "Great! The place just isn't the same without him."
"Yes, but Ron!" Hermione chided, "You shouldn't eavesdrop! It's rude!"
The boys suddenly fell about laughing; Hermione not seeing what was funny looked on in bemusement.
"What?" She demanded, "What?"
"Nothing," Harry said, "Just suddenly we were back to normal. Putting plans together and then you."
"Made it perfect" Ron cut in," By telling me off. It was juts like old times!"
Hermione smiled sadly, "We sound like we're eighty not eighteen. Old times indeed!"
"Yes but you know what I mean," Ron said, "The good old times. Before Voldemort."
"When where we ever free of Voldemort?" Harry asked.
Ron stopped laughing and Hermione went pale. No, they realised, they had never been free of him.
"Never," Hermione whispered feeling a shiver run up her spine and the cruel voice from her dream filled her head.
"But we will be," Ron said determinedly. "One day."
"One day." Harry agreed.
*
Cassandra was faintly concerned about the absence of Harry from her class that afternoon, still she accepted it when his tall red haired friend: Ron Weasley said that he'd had a "bit of a headache".
Knowing that Voldemort was using one of your best friends to get at you couldn't have been easy for the boy. He deserved a rest.
She was sitting in her office mulling it over when someone knocked at her door. She went to open it, to find the head boy- Harry's friend standing there.
"Excuse me Professor, but Madame Pomfrey sent for you. She said one of her patients might appreciate your company."
"Who is it?" Cassandra asked.
"I don't know, someone coming in from a mission I think. She sent me to get Professor Black as well but I couldn't find him."
"Oh, I see, well I better go down. Thank you." She said grabbing her cloak from the peg on the wall and locking the office door.
"Goodnight," Ron said, leaving somewhat abruptly.
Cassandra frowned; she could have sworn that his manner towards her had changed since he'd left her classroom that afternoon. He seemed almost as if a question had been on the edge of his tongue but he had held back.
She would puzzle over that later; she was much more intrigued about the patient who might "appreciate her company". So she hurried down to the hospital wing.
*
Remus' head felt like was jam-packed full of bricks and the pounding refused to go away despite Madam Pomfrey's medicines. His body was a mass of bruises and what little strength he had left was spent on staying awake. He needed to speak to Sirius.
The door opened and he heard a woman's voice addressing Madame Pomfrey: it seemed strangely familiar.
"Just in here dear," Madame Pomfrey said leading a woman behind the grey curtains that surrounded Remus' bed and leaving again with a rustle of skirts.
The woman smiled, nervously, obviously not expecting to see him there and Remus gasped. It couldn't be! Not after all of these years! She'd hardly changed- the hair as black as ever and skin that still mad her look as if she spent all of her time indoors: so pale! Yet the shadows in her eyes where as dark as the ones in his own- no- she was no longer the Cassandra Vablatsky he had known.
"Cassandra?"
"Hello Remus." She said, sitting down on the chair beside the bed.
"Hello," He replied, still overwhelmed.
"You look terrible," She said.
"And you haven't changed," He replied, at last able to smile.
"Thank you." She said, "Oh its so good to see you! And you're not angry? I thought you wouldn't be able to speak to me."
"Oh Cassie," Remus said, "Of course I'm not. We were the only two left: we should have stuck together but we didn't- we each had reasons not to."
She bit a lip and Remus caught a glance of the young girl he had known: unsure as sacred of her powers. The ones that led them to several victories on the battle field- the visions that had always been so accurate.
"No-one has called me that for years." Cassandra said referring the nickname he had used.
"This is the longest conversation I've had with a female in years," He said laughing.
She grinned, her old mischief returning. To someone who didn't know Cassandra she was a distant, powerful inhuman sort of person, but Remus knew better. As did Sirius- well he would know best of all.
"You'll have seen Sirius?" He asked.
"Yes," She replied with a pained expression on her face.
"Oh." He said.
"I don't deserve any better: I ran away." She said, tears filling her eyes
"So did I. But he is completely innocent. You know that, don't you?"
"I know." She replied quietly.
Deciding not to press her any further and that this was something that could be discussed later, Remus changed the subject.
"Your teaching divination I take it?" He asked "Yeah I am," She replied.
"Not lost your touch then?" He asked.
"No," She said, "Not at all."
"And Harry? What do you make of him?"
"Harry," She smiled sadly, "Just like them. It's like looking into the past."
"Have you spoken to him? About his parents?" Remus asked, "About Lily? You knew her the best."
"No, I haven't. I'll have to and I will but I'm dreading it." She said.
"Don't worry- I put off telling him when I first met him for ages too." Remus said sympathetically.
"It's just so difficult!" She said.
"I know, I know." He was cut off from saying any more by the sudden arrival of Sirius who took one look at Cassandra and glared dangerously.
"I'll go now," She said quietly.
"You don't have to," Remus said, angry with Sirius for being so hostile.
"No, really. I better go," She bent down to hug him then left quickly, her long hair swinging behind her.
"Sirius?" Remus asked.
"She thinks I'm guilty doesn't she?" Sirius asked angrily.
"No I don't think she does. It's weird, she's acting almost as if she's guilty of something." Remus said wearily.
"I don't care," Sirius said stubbornly.
"You must feel something still, surely you cant hate her, after all you where nearly."
"I know! I know! But people change. I've changed." Sirius said. "How did the mission go anyway Sirius asked to change the subject.
"Well.."
*
"Hermione?" Ron asked.
They were sitting in the little office adjacent to the Prefect's room that they had been allowed as a base to carry out their duties from. It was late and Ron could tell Hermione was anxious to put off going to bed.
"Yes?" She replied, looking up from the first year essays she was marking for Professor McGonagall, her face pale and the skin around her eyes dark from lack of sleep.
"It's just that." He started.
"What?"
"I was wondering."
"Yes?" She asked, pushing a curl that had wrestled free of her pony tail back behind her ear.
He suddenly felt a little dizzy- it seemed to happen a lot when all of her attention was directed on him. She looked so vulnerable suddenly for all her cleverness: she couldn't fight the dreams and he felt helpless in that he didn't know what to do to help her.
"Nothing," He managed to say.
"What? Spit it out!" She demanded.
"No, really, nothing." He said.
She returned to the marking her quill moving swiftly her brown eyes bright with concentration. He never failed to notice how brown her eyes were.
Why? He asked himself. What exactly did he feel for his female companion? He shook his head- she was so confusing: sometimes she was no different to Harry, other times he felt unbearably protective of her- or he felt extremely awkward around her.
Pushing the questions to the back of his mind he smiled at her as she caught his eye and blushed. He didn't stop to wonder why she was blushing (too confusing) instead he said:
"Come on, lets get back before it's too late and the teachers are patrolling the corridors."
She put her quill down, smiling wearily, "Yeah you're right."
"Come on," He said picking up her cloak for her and handing it to her as he pushed her out of the door. He muttered the locking spell to the door and led her back towards the common room.
He practically had to carry her to her room, she was so drowsy. Her nearness made his heart beat faster, though she was barely aware of what was going on and he felt a deep sense of regret as he left her sitting on her bed taking the sleeping potion that would allow her a dreamless sleep.
"Goodnight," She said sleepily.
"Night," He said, leaving before he could feel any other unwelcome emotions. It was important to keep his head at such a time: personal feelings couldn't plough him down: he needed to be there for Harry and Hermione: his confusing feelings for her would have to wait.
* AN- ok, so what do you think? I'm not all together happy with chapter but still I'm back into it now and let's just see where it goes from here. Please review!