Hermione awoke to find herself lying on a cold hard floor in complete darkness. For a moment she managed to forget where she was, and what she was doing, and fear made it suddenly difficult for her to breathe. Closing her eyes, she struggled with memories of Harry lying on the hospital bed, of Dumbledore's grave face, and finally of Severus Snape kissing her outside the infirmary. Eyes flying open, but seeing nothing, she remembered why she was where she was and what she had been there sent to do.
'I am only an extension of my mind,' she reminded herself carefully. 'And I am somewhere inside Harry's subconscious!'
Gingerly, she climbed to her feet and reached out her hands to pat down her body, observing as she did so that she felt real enough, and at least corporeal. Relief flooded through her as her search revealed her wand in the inside pocket of her robes, and she extracted it with trembling fingers.
"Lumos," she whispered, and was rewarded with a narrow band of light, enough to illuminate her surroundings. She squinted a little and was at last able to discern that she was standing in a long tunnel, neither at the beginning or the end, as it stretched away for an unknown and seemingly endless distance in both directions.
"Harry?" Her low call echoed back to her from deep silence all about, and Hermione hesitated, looking first one way and then the other. She was about to begin walking to her left when she saw the winking light way off to her right. Frowning, and certain that she would have spotted it before if it had been there to spot, she started towards it, flicking her wand left and right before her, making sure that the tunnel floor contained no potholes or obstacles that could injure her.
She seemed to walk for a long time, and was growing uncomfortably cold as the tunnel stretched before her. The light continued to blink this way and that, almost like a mirror reflecting sunlight on a hot summers' day, but did not seen to increase in size as Hermione continued in what she hoped was towards it. She was beginning to give up hope of ever reaching it when the tunnel abruptly lightened all around her and she found herself standing what appeared to be a cave.
Wondering if she was dreaming, but knowing that she was not, Hermione spotted a tiny disc halfway up one wall towards the ceiling. On closer inspection, it appeared to be letting the light into the cave. It was the light she had seen distantly glinting at her, what seemed like hours ago. Wondering what it was, and more specifically what it was doing in Harry's mind, Hermione stared up at it for a moment before casting her gaze around the cave itself.
It was completely empty, and bore no signs of human habitation, but there was a small round opening recessed into the floor at its centre. Hermione approached it cautiously, before realising that it was a well.
A well? In the middle of a cave?
She peered into the murky depths, and was considering dropping a stone down into them to see if it really was a well when the pale face materialised from out of the dark and what she supposed was the bottom.
The face was dirty and careworn, thin and surrounded by hair that was far too long. It wore an expression of surprise that Hermione rather thought was matched by her own. Of all of the places in the world that she had expected to find Harry Potter, the bottom of a well in the middle of a cave at the end of a tunnel was the last!
"Harry?" She ventured cautiously, and when he did not respond. "Harry, can you hear me?"
There was an extraordinarily long pause while they stared at each other.
"Hermione?" When he spoke, Harry's voice was croaky and low as though it had not been used in some time. "Hermione? Is that really you?"
Smiling, she nodded, chancing a little more light to illuminate her face and noticing at the same time that there were rungs embedded in the side of the well, leading down to where Harry now sat.
"Of course, it might not be you," Harry muttered almost to himself. "They've sent others you know, who told me that they were you, that they'd come to rescue me, but they were all pretending." His brow furrowed, he looked confusedly up at her again. "How do I know that it's really you, Hermione?" He asked loudly.
"Who else would I be?" She asked him softly. "Can you climb up the ladder, Harry? I want to speak to you."
He climbed slowly to his feet, she could see that he was painfully thin, and her heart went out to him. Trapped in a place like this, was it really any surprise?
"Funny," he said as he climbed towards her. "I don't remember there being a ladder there before."
Hermione waited until his head and shoulders were above the level of the well before hauling him out onto the stone floor beside her. Harry looked around the cave with interest.
"I remember this place," he said. "But it used to be much bigger, and where that bit of light is, up there, used to fill the whole room. But then it started to change, it got dark...and cold," He met Hermione's eyes, and sighed. "I felt safe until then." A frown. "I don't feel safe now."
"Harry." Hermione placed her hand on his arm, feeling that he was cold through thin material of the raggedy robes that he was wearing. "Harry, I've come to take you back out again, back to Hogwarts. Do you know the way?"
"You left me," he said thoughtfully, reaching out a hand to stroke her cheek. Hermione tried not to wince. "You left when I asked you to – to..." He suddenly looked quite distressed. "What happened, Hermione, where did you go? I missed you."
"I'm truly sorry, Harry, really I am," She could not prevent the tears that pooled in her eyes with the bittersweet memories. "I never meant to hurt you, not like this!"
"Where did you go?" He repeated, green eyes intense upon her face.
"I became a muggle again...until very recently. Someone...persuaded me to return to Hogwarts, to see you." At the thought of Snape, her heart twisted slightly. "They said...they said that I was the only one who could rescue you, from this place. Is that true, Harry?"
"Who made you come back, was it Dumbledore?" Harry wanted to know. Hermione would not lie to him.
"No, Harry. It was Snape...Professor Snape, who made me return." She could not look him in the eye and speak of this, she discovered.
"But why?"
"I don't know," she said quickly. Too quickly.
"Why, Hermione?" Harry's voice had suddenly become hard, his face was grim.
"Because I think I'm in love with him." There! She'd said it.
"You don't love me?" His face fell, and Hermione felt a rush of protective feelings towards him. Leaning forward, she embraced him in a gentle hug, trying desperately to reassure him.
"I do love you, Harry, as much as anyone can love a friend. Please believe me."
Tentatively, she felt him hug her back.
"I do believe you," He mumbled into her shoulder. "It's just that...I wish that...I've been here so long, I was beginning to think that you were never going to come!"
"Oh Harry! I'm so sorry, but I'm here now! Please come back with me? Please...just come home!"
He drew back slightly; she could see the tracks of his tears on his dirty face.
"You won't leave again, will you? Promise me, Hermione? I need you to be with me, by my side so I can finish this thing once and for all!" His face was earnest. "If you promise to stay, I'll come back with you now."
Hermione stared at him. What he was asking of her was something that had seemed impossible not one month ago, but now...her time spent back in the castle, with the magic and most of all with Snape had changed her mind almost completely. She did not want to go back, she realised suddenly, even if there was anything to go back for. What was the point of a sad lonely life when she could be happy, truly happy, with her friends in the place that she had once thought of as home? This was what she had been born to do. She was a witch, and it was time for her exile to be left behind once and for all!
"Yes, Harry," she brought her attention back to her old friend. "I'll stay. I'll stay forever." She was thinking of Snape as she said this, thinking of what a life with him might be like. Her heart hammered against her ribcage. Together, they climbed to their feet and stood facing the tiny spot of light halfway up the wall.
"Before we go," Harry murmured into her ear, "Can I ask you a question?"
He linked hands with her.
"Of course. Ask anything you like."
"Does he love you too?"
She hesitated.
"I really don't know," she said softly. "I haven't had the chance to speak to him about it, but Harry he's changed so much! He's nothing like I remember him at school, he's softer somehow, and protective. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be standing with you now."
Harry managed a small smile, a smile she recognised as being one of acceptance.
"He should be worthy of you, you know," he said. "I wouldn't have let you go to just anyone."
"He is worthy, I promise," Hermione tightened her grip on his hand, wondering as she did so what Snape really thought of her. They shared a special bond, that much she knew, forged in adversity when he was trying to get her to leave her cottage. She was equally sure that she did not imagine the way that he looked at her, the fear in his eyes that she might not return when he sent her here. Hermione was filled with hope, and she smiled suddenly.
"Are you ready to go home?" She asked Harry. Looking slightly apprehensive, he squeezed her hand and nodded.
"I'll be there, Harry. I promise."
Hermione watched as the circle of light began to widen, and glancing at the look of concentration upon Harry's face, she at last began to understand what it was he was doing. The light expanded quickly until it was almost filling the entire wall of the cave, and squinting, she could make out the infirmary, and those standing around the bed where she knew the real Harry was lying. The light was taking the form of a gateway, she realised, and all they needed to do was step through it. Harry would be woken! Hermione took a deep breath.
Stepping forward with Harry, she was briefly surprised that instead of stepping into the light everything went dark, but then she abruptly knew no more as her consciousness slid quickly away and the darkness once more rose up to meet her...
TBC...
A/N: Don't own it, never will, although I doubt JKR would want to claim ownership of this particular chapter somehow!
This is the penultimate chapter. As soon as I get the time to write it, the final chapter will be posted. I'm not sure how this is going to end, but as you can tell, something is not quite right with Hermione's return to consciousness. She will, however, be having a reunion with Snape (eventually) – promise!
'I am only an extension of my mind,' she reminded herself carefully. 'And I am somewhere inside Harry's subconscious!'
Gingerly, she climbed to her feet and reached out her hands to pat down her body, observing as she did so that she felt real enough, and at least corporeal. Relief flooded through her as her search revealed her wand in the inside pocket of her robes, and she extracted it with trembling fingers.
"Lumos," she whispered, and was rewarded with a narrow band of light, enough to illuminate her surroundings. She squinted a little and was at last able to discern that she was standing in a long tunnel, neither at the beginning or the end, as it stretched away for an unknown and seemingly endless distance in both directions.
"Harry?" Her low call echoed back to her from deep silence all about, and Hermione hesitated, looking first one way and then the other. She was about to begin walking to her left when she saw the winking light way off to her right. Frowning, and certain that she would have spotted it before if it had been there to spot, she started towards it, flicking her wand left and right before her, making sure that the tunnel floor contained no potholes or obstacles that could injure her.
She seemed to walk for a long time, and was growing uncomfortably cold as the tunnel stretched before her. The light continued to blink this way and that, almost like a mirror reflecting sunlight on a hot summers' day, but did not seen to increase in size as Hermione continued in what she hoped was towards it. She was beginning to give up hope of ever reaching it when the tunnel abruptly lightened all around her and she found herself standing what appeared to be a cave.
Wondering if she was dreaming, but knowing that she was not, Hermione spotted a tiny disc halfway up one wall towards the ceiling. On closer inspection, it appeared to be letting the light into the cave. It was the light she had seen distantly glinting at her, what seemed like hours ago. Wondering what it was, and more specifically what it was doing in Harry's mind, Hermione stared up at it for a moment before casting her gaze around the cave itself.
It was completely empty, and bore no signs of human habitation, but there was a small round opening recessed into the floor at its centre. Hermione approached it cautiously, before realising that it was a well.
A well? In the middle of a cave?
She peered into the murky depths, and was considering dropping a stone down into them to see if it really was a well when the pale face materialised from out of the dark and what she supposed was the bottom.
The face was dirty and careworn, thin and surrounded by hair that was far too long. It wore an expression of surprise that Hermione rather thought was matched by her own. Of all of the places in the world that she had expected to find Harry Potter, the bottom of a well in the middle of a cave at the end of a tunnel was the last!
"Harry?" She ventured cautiously, and when he did not respond. "Harry, can you hear me?"
There was an extraordinarily long pause while they stared at each other.
"Hermione?" When he spoke, Harry's voice was croaky and low as though it had not been used in some time. "Hermione? Is that really you?"
Smiling, she nodded, chancing a little more light to illuminate her face and noticing at the same time that there were rungs embedded in the side of the well, leading down to where Harry now sat.
"Of course, it might not be you," Harry muttered almost to himself. "They've sent others you know, who told me that they were you, that they'd come to rescue me, but they were all pretending." His brow furrowed, he looked confusedly up at her again. "How do I know that it's really you, Hermione?" He asked loudly.
"Who else would I be?" She asked him softly. "Can you climb up the ladder, Harry? I want to speak to you."
He climbed slowly to his feet, she could see that he was painfully thin, and her heart went out to him. Trapped in a place like this, was it really any surprise?
"Funny," he said as he climbed towards her. "I don't remember there being a ladder there before."
Hermione waited until his head and shoulders were above the level of the well before hauling him out onto the stone floor beside her. Harry looked around the cave with interest.
"I remember this place," he said. "But it used to be much bigger, and where that bit of light is, up there, used to fill the whole room. But then it started to change, it got dark...and cold," He met Hermione's eyes, and sighed. "I felt safe until then." A frown. "I don't feel safe now."
"Harry." Hermione placed her hand on his arm, feeling that he was cold through thin material of the raggedy robes that he was wearing. "Harry, I've come to take you back out again, back to Hogwarts. Do you know the way?"
"You left me," he said thoughtfully, reaching out a hand to stroke her cheek. Hermione tried not to wince. "You left when I asked you to – to..." He suddenly looked quite distressed. "What happened, Hermione, where did you go? I missed you."
"I'm truly sorry, Harry, really I am," She could not prevent the tears that pooled in her eyes with the bittersweet memories. "I never meant to hurt you, not like this!"
"Where did you go?" He repeated, green eyes intense upon her face.
"I became a muggle again...until very recently. Someone...persuaded me to return to Hogwarts, to see you." At the thought of Snape, her heart twisted slightly. "They said...they said that I was the only one who could rescue you, from this place. Is that true, Harry?"
"Who made you come back, was it Dumbledore?" Harry wanted to know. Hermione would not lie to him.
"No, Harry. It was Snape...Professor Snape, who made me return." She could not look him in the eye and speak of this, she discovered.
"But why?"
"I don't know," she said quickly. Too quickly.
"Why, Hermione?" Harry's voice had suddenly become hard, his face was grim.
"Because I think I'm in love with him." There! She'd said it.
"You don't love me?" His face fell, and Hermione felt a rush of protective feelings towards him. Leaning forward, she embraced him in a gentle hug, trying desperately to reassure him.
"I do love you, Harry, as much as anyone can love a friend. Please believe me."
Tentatively, she felt him hug her back.
"I do believe you," He mumbled into her shoulder. "It's just that...I wish that...I've been here so long, I was beginning to think that you were never going to come!"
"Oh Harry! I'm so sorry, but I'm here now! Please come back with me? Please...just come home!"
He drew back slightly; she could see the tracks of his tears on his dirty face.
"You won't leave again, will you? Promise me, Hermione? I need you to be with me, by my side so I can finish this thing once and for all!" His face was earnest. "If you promise to stay, I'll come back with you now."
Hermione stared at him. What he was asking of her was something that had seemed impossible not one month ago, but now...her time spent back in the castle, with the magic and most of all with Snape had changed her mind almost completely. She did not want to go back, she realised suddenly, even if there was anything to go back for. What was the point of a sad lonely life when she could be happy, truly happy, with her friends in the place that she had once thought of as home? This was what she had been born to do. She was a witch, and it was time for her exile to be left behind once and for all!
"Yes, Harry," she brought her attention back to her old friend. "I'll stay. I'll stay forever." She was thinking of Snape as she said this, thinking of what a life with him might be like. Her heart hammered against her ribcage. Together, they climbed to their feet and stood facing the tiny spot of light halfway up the wall.
"Before we go," Harry murmured into her ear, "Can I ask you a question?"
He linked hands with her.
"Of course. Ask anything you like."
"Does he love you too?"
She hesitated.
"I really don't know," she said softly. "I haven't had the chance to speak to him about it, but Harry he's changed so much! He's nothing like I remember him at school, he's softer somehow, and protective. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be standing with you now."
Harry managed a small smile, a smile she recognised as being one of acceptance.
"He should be worthy of you, you know," he said. "I wouldn't have let you go to just anyone."
"He is worthy, I promise," Hermione tightened her grip on his hand, wondering as she did so what Snape really thought of her. They shared a special bond, that much she knew, forged in adversity when he was trying to get her to leave her cottage. She was equally sure that she did not imagine the way that he looked at her, the fear in his eyes that she might not return when he sent her here. Hermione was filled with hope, and she smiled suddenly.
"Are you ready to go home?" She asked Harry. Looking slightly apprehensive, he squeezed her hand and nodded.
"I'll be there, Harry. I promise."
Hermione watched as the circle of light began to widen, and glancing at the look of concentration upon Harry's face, she at last began to understand what it was he was doing. The light expanded quickly until it was almost filling the entire wall of the cave, and squinting, she could make out the infirmary, and those standing around the bed where she knew the real Harry was lying. The light was taking the form of a gateway, she realised, and all they needed to do was step through it. Harry would be woken! Hermione took a deep breath.
Stepping forward with Harry, she was briefly surprised that instead of stepping into the light everything went dark, but then she abruptly knew no more as her consciousness slid quickly away and the darkness once more rose up to meet her...
TBC...
A/N: Don't own it, never will, although I doubt JKR would want to claim ownership of this particular chapter somehow!
This is the penultimate chapter. As soon as I get the time to write it, the final chapter will be posted. I'm not sure how this is going to end, but as you can tell, something is not quite right with Hermione's return to consciousness. She will, however, be having a reunion with Snape (eventually) – promise!