A/N: Another update, finally. I've had this chapter in my notebook for a few weeks now but I haven't had enough time to type it till quite recently. I hope that you'll like this chapter. Thanks for reading!

Chapter 3

A week after the start of term, late Saturday night, Ron was on the way to the kitchen to get some midnight snack when he heard screaming coming from Hermione's rooms. After knocking a few times and not receiving any answers from inside the room, Ron started to panic and started to bang his shoulders against the door. After a few hard knocks, the door splintered apart and Ron rushed to Hermione's bedroom, wand out, ready to hurl hexes.

In the bedroom, Hermione was thrashing on her bed screaming at the top of her lungs. Her covers were around her feet and her arms were flailing around. Keeping his wand back into his pocket, Ron was relieved that she was only having a very bad nightmare. Shaking her shoulders gently, Ron tried to wake her.

"Hermione, Hermione! Wake up!"

Hermione gasped and opened her eyes to dark auburn hair and a pair of vivid blue eyes. She sat up and tried to calm her ragged breathing and her racing heartbeat. Her hair clung to her sweat-drenched face and her skin was pale. Her pupils were dilated and her hands were clammy. Ron sat next to her and rubbed her back to calm her down. After she managed to calm down enough to think coherently, she turned to Ron and asked, "What are you doing in my room?"

"I was on my way down to the kitchens to get snack when I heard you screaming so I tried to open the door but it was locked. I kind of broke through you door," Ron said, looking slightly sheepish.

"It's alright, I'll fix it later," she said, giving him a small smile. "Thanks for waking me up because that was a very bad nightmare."

"Why don't you come down to the kitchen with me? We'll drink some cocoa, eat some cookies and you can tell me all about this scary nightmare. It won't be so scary once you share it."

Hermione saw Ron's puppy dog eyes and she gave in. She grabbed her wand and a robe before following Ron out of her quarters. She saw the splintered remains of her door and shook her head.

"What did you use to break through my door?" she asked totally amazed as she inspected what's left of the door that was hanging by its hinges.

"My shoulder, I totally forgot I that I could use my wand to open the door, so I rammed my shoulder against it," he said, turning very red, hanging his head low.

Heroine shook her head and chuckled softly. With a wave of her wand, she repaired her door and made her way down to the kitchen with Ron. "It's alright Ron. See? It's all fixed. Now, let's go down to the kitchen."

It seemed like they weren't the only ones who wanted a midnight snack. Harry and Dhyana were already seated at the table with a mug of cocoa each and a plate of cookies. Harry explained to the newcomers that he bumped into Dhyana on the way to the kitchen so they sat down together. Once they all had a mug of cocoa each, Ron told Harry and Dhyana about how he broke the door of Hermione's quarters when he heard her screaming. With a little persuasion, Hermione told them about the nightmare she had in as much detail as she could remember.

"A woman was chained to an altar and a man, I think, dressed in a robe was standing above her. He stabbed her repeatedly, while he chanted some strange language. He raised his hands in the air and was surrounded by a blood red light. That's when Ron woke me up," Hermione said softly, shuddering at the memory. "I couldn't stop the person from hurting that woman. I wanted to help the poor woman so badly but I couldn't move."

"That was awful! No wonder you were screaming, " said Dhyana.

"It's just dream. Relax and don't think about it," Harry said, patting her hand gently.

"Yeah! Besides, if you have another dream, I could come and wake you up again," Ron said, smiling at her.

"Just as long as you don't break it into pieces like you did just now," Hermione said jokingly, causing everyone to laugh.

After finishing their cocoa and cookies, they went back to their respective quarters; Harry and Dhyana walking together back to their floor and Ron and Hermione walking back to theirs. At Hermione's door, she turned and faced Ron. She stood on her tiptoes and gave him a chaste kiss on his cheek, shocking him speechless momentarily.

"What was that for?" he asked, touching his cheek with his fingertips.

"Thank you for waking me up from that terrible nightmare. I hope that I don't have that dream again."

"No problem. That's what friends are for. Now go on in and have a good sleep the rest of the night."

"Ok. G'night Ron."

"G'night 'Mione." He watched her close the door. Once he heard her lock click, he turned and walked back to his rooms, still touching the cheek that she kissed.

Weeks went by and Hermione totally forgot about the nightmare. Halloween came and for the first time in Hogwarts' history, Headmistress McGonagall had authorised a Muggle horror movie marathon and Hermione and Harry were in-charge of the event. She looked at herself in the mirror and smiled. She was dressed in a t-shirt from one of her favourite bands, Helloween, and a pair of black jeans in the spirit of the day. She tied up her hair and grabbed her wand before making sure that all her windows were closed. After checking, she made her way to the Great Hall.

It was the perfect night for a horror movie marathon. A terrible storm had rolled in just as the sun set. The rain was pouring by the barrels and the thunder was deafening. Lightning would periodically spear the sky and only a few torches along the corridors were lit, giving the castle a very spooky air. When Hermione arrived at the Hall, Harry had gotten the screen and the projector up and was setting up the sound system. All the equipment was charmed to run on magic instead of electricity. The rest of the teachers, even the potions master, were helping to conjure cushions to scatter through out the carpeted Hall. The house elves had set up a drinks station on either side of the Hall and popcorn was available by the buckets.

At the back of the Hall, sofas, armchairs and beanbags were set up for the staff and guest. After making the last minute checks, the Hall doors were opened and the students rushed in to get the best seats. Professor McGonagall entered, accompanied by Professor Dumbledore who was invited to the event.  Once both professors were seated and all the students had settled down, Hermione stood up and welcomed them to the first Hogwarts movie marathon. The lights were dimmed and the first movie was started.

Hermione, Dhyana and Harry settled back into their beanbags as they waited for Ron to return with snacks and drinks. A few minutes later, he came back with a huge container of popcorn and a drink cooler. He settled himself beside Hermione and passed the popcorn and rinks to the other three.  As the three movies played on, Hermione unconsciously inched towards Ron and buried her face in his chest when she was shocked by the sudden appearance of the monster or ghoul. Ron patted her shoulder awkwardly as he battled the feeling of rightness of having Hermione in his arms. He couldn't stop thinking about her since she kissed him many weeks ago. He started to notice everything about her, like how her eyes would light up when she talked about her students, or how beautiful she looked when the sunlight hit her hair when she sat by the lake to read or even how cute the two dimples on her cheek look when she smiled. He just realised how good she smelled, like jasmine.

Hermione raised her head from his chest to apologise for using his chest to hide her face and found herself staring into Ron's beautiful, vivid blue eyes. The look in his eyes made her heart race and heat pool n her tummy. She saw him bring his lips down towards hers and the only thoughts that were racing through her mind were, Oh Merlin he's going to kiss me. I wonder how his lips are going to taste like.

Ron's lips were just an inch away from hers when the moment was interrupted by a scream followed by a popcorn shower and laughter. Both Hermione and Ron looked away, embarrassed at what they were about to do and they sat slightly apart. Hermione turned to her left and saw Dhyana hitting Harry, who was rolling on the floor with laughter, with a cushion. She found out that Harry had jabbed Dhyana in the waist during the scary scene where the dead spooky girl was crawling out of the TV, causing her to scream and toss the entire contents of the popcorn container into the air. Shaking her head at both of them, she leaned back away from Ron and watched the rest of the movie.

~ * ~

In London, Seth Kane was inspecting his face in the mirror, taking note of every wrinkle and grey hair that was starting to appear slowly each day. It had been almost eight weeks after his last sacrifice and the magic that was sustaining his youth was fading. As the last sacrifice was a Muggle girl, the amount of magick that he raised was not as much as he could have it had been a witch. Fortunately, he already had a witch tied to the altar, ready for the ritual.

"I need to look my best when I meet Marianne. I can't make her fall in love with me when I look like a wrinkly old man. She might think that I'm a pervert," he said to no one in particular.

Taking a last look at his reflection, he turned and moved into his bedroom to change into his ritual robes. He retrieved his ritual dagger from its box and admired its serrated edge. He loved the way it sliced through skin and muscle, causing it to bleed very badly while the victim experienced every bit of pain without passing out. Putting his cowl over his head, he made his way to the altar and was pleased to fine the woman already awake.

She wasn't very pretty but then, beauty want important. What was important was the amount of magick he could raise with her suffering and death. The more she suffered, the more she screamed, the more magick he could raise. Also, as she was a witch, the amount of magick produced in the ritual would be five times as much as he would get if he sacrificed a Muggle.

He was bubbling with anticipation and excitement as he watched the girl struggle against her bonds. He could smell her fear and he smiled widely at her, causing her to fight against the chains even more. Seth took the dagger from his robes and removed the girl's gag. He raised the dagger and started chanting as he made his first cut on her skin, beginning the ritual.

~ * ~

At the same moment back in Hogwarts, Hermione was helping to clear up the Great Hall after the last movie, gasped and collapsed, rubbing her temples. The last thing she saw was Ron's worried face looking down at her, before everything went black and she was overcame by the vision.

A/N 2: Helloween is really a band. One of my favourite metal bands from Germany. They're really good and their mascot is a smiling pumpkin. I watched both versions of The Ring, the Hollywood and the Japanese version. As I live in Asia, I saw the Japanese version first. I found the Japanese version a lot more scary than the Hollywood. If you don't mind movies with subtitles, you to see the Japanese version. It's one of the scariest movies I've ever seen, scared me for a whole week. Anyway, I hope to update again soon. Please read and review this story. Tell me what you think. Thanks!