A/N: This is a bit of a long chapter, I hope you don't mind... but I figured it better to include all of this information in one chapter inside of dividing it into two or more...
Harry had just fallen out of his bed, his scar now possessing a burning sensation.
Now kneeling on the ground, Harry rubbed his head, and started to climb back into his bed and shake it off when...
"Ow!" a familiar voice sounded in the distance. Harry's face had now twisted up in confusion. 'No,' he thought, 'couldn't be, I'm hallucinating...'
A question that was meant to be said aloud popped into his head, yet he found he was too afraid to actually ask it. After a moment's consideration, he decided that he should ask it after all, no matter how foolish it seemed...
"Hermione?" he asked quietly, barely louder then a whisper.
"Harry! Oh, I'm so glad to see you... where are you? More importantly, where are we?" Hermione replied excitedly.
Harry was astonished that after all this time, Hermione was not to be found, and now, she was popping up in the boy's dormitories of Gryffindor.
Suddenly, Ron's head had just popped out of his bed hangings and he too felt the need to be sure that Hermione was in the room with them. "Hermione?" he asked in a tone of bewilderment.
"Oh, Ron! You're here too... that must mean I'm in the boy's dormitories again," she replied, whilst straightening herself up after an apparent fall.
Even though Ron had no idea where she was, he had started to grope around in the darkness of night for her hand, or even her hair, something that would show her physical presence.
"Where were you?" both boys asked at the same time, Ron continuing to search around for her.
"Oh, this is ridiculous!" she exclaimed, before murmuring a spell to light up the tip of her wand. And As soon as the meager amount of light poured into the room, Ron had instantly run up to her, beaming for the first time Harry had seen for a while.
He then hugged her, and whispered, "Hermione, I have missed you so much," and closed his eyes to savor the moment of her return.
She responded awkwardly, uncomfortable with the situation. "Oh - erm, Ron, yes, I missed you too... now if you don't mind, could you let go of me? You are squishing me..." Harry laughed at the scene between his two best friends.
Ron quickly let go of her, remembering how awkward the scene must've looked, and stepped backwards bashfully.
Now looking slightly embarrassed, Ron seemed to stumble across any words that he had wished to say, "Oh - erm, yes, uh, so erm, where uh were you Hermione?"
"Oh, you both make it sound like I have been gone so long - have I really?" she paused quickly, looking at their faces. "Drat! I must've missed so much, I really wish I had..." she started muttering, obviously upset.
"That's okay, Hermione," Ron responded beaming, "you can make it all up with me-"
"What does that mean?" Hermione asked suspiciously, with an underlying serious tone.
"Well, uh-"
Harry cut Ron off, his temperament getting the best of him, "Hermione, who cares? I mean, where have you been all this time anyway?"
"I want to know about -" Hermione began just as impatiently before getting cut off.
Harry rolled his eyes and replied: "How about this... Ron will tell you about his little story, AFTER you tell us yours!"
"Alright, well I suppose..."
"Good, it's settled then... Now tell us your story..."
"Alright, well, it's a very odd story, actually," she continued on, "it all happened on that day I had the fight with you, Harry."
"The last day we saw you...." Harry said in a whispered voice.
"Correct," Hermione replied quickly.
"That was the day you were badmouthing Quidditch," Ron replied slowly, "you were WAY out of line, Hermione, I mean..."
"Er - actually," Hermione said, interrupting him, "we'll talk about what actually happened later..."
"What do you mean, what actually happened?" Ron asked, throwing a confused look at both Harry and Hermione.
"ANYWAY," Hermione said loudly, shifting uncomfortably.
"NO, I want to know what that was -" Ron exclaimed furiously, to only be cut off again.
"As I was saying," Hermione hissed while staring at a now grumpy Ron, who began to shoot evil looks at his other two friends. "I had just stormed off, out of the Common Room, raging mad - because of Harry's irresponsibility-"
"I was not being irresponsible!" Harry interrupted, shooting Hermione a glare similar to Ron's.
Hermione roller her eyes, and huffed impatiently. "Can I continue?" she cried, exasperated.
"Yes," both boys chorused almost inaudibly.
"So I had just gotten out of the Common Room, and had started to walk down the corridor when it happened..." Hermione stopped, checking if they were still paying attention, and continued on. "A man wearing a black cloak had attacked me, his face was masked of course, and so I couldn't really see who it was..."
Harry and Ron looked at each other nervously. It had sounded like she had an encounter with a Death Eater. Although this was most likely what had happened, Hermione had shown no signs of fear, only of frustration and confusion.
She muttered on, "I had my suspects of course, but..." she trailed off, focusing on the ground while her thoughts drifted back to the past, and while Harry's and Ron's impatience and anticipation remained growing.
"AND THEN?" Harry yelled, getting clearly annoyed at how long it was taking to get this story out of Hermione.
"Oh yes," replied Hermione, now coming out of her daze. "Er - um, yes, where was I? Oh that's right... ok, yes, so the man had come out of nowhere and attacked me: he put his hand over my mouth, and dragged me into the wall... or so it seemed, and then there was no way I could escape," she paused, "I just didn't respond fast enough, I was caught off guard, I froze, I didn't know what to do..." she trailed off, starting to cry. She seemed very ashamed of the fact that she let this happen to herself. Harry became concerned as he watched her breakdown before them, and he started to calm her down so she could continue - he needed to know what had happened.
"Hermione, it's okay," he said calmly, "anyone would have been caught off guard..."
"Yes, but,"
"Hermione," he said strongly, with a firm voice.
"Okay," she said, weeping off the last of her sentence. Then, taking in a big breath, she continued, and seemingly shook off her momentary problem. "It was weird, the wall must've been a portkey or something...Oh I don't know!" Hermione huffed, flustered.
"Wow!" said Ron, "I never though I'd hear Hermione say that..."
Harry laughed, hearing Hermione huff repetitively in the background.
"Gee thanks Ron, next time you want to be kidnapped for about a month, tell me and I'll arrange it!" she said, both irritated and threateningly.
At Hermione's last comment, Ron had gained the appearance of someone who just got slapped in the face, and from then on remained both shocked and silent.
Hermione grumbled, but eventually from the persuasion of Harry had continued on. "Alright, Harry, I suppose you do deserve to hear the rest..." she paused and then sighed, as if this was some heavy burden. "So once he had taken me behind the wall, or wherever the portkey led to, I had remembered entering this very dark room. As soon as I had entered there... I immediately felt trapped."
Harry continued to listen more intently as she proceeded to tell her story; he didn't understand how she got back here in the first place, why she mysteriously popped up after he had collected the key in his dream, and thus, more importantly, if it had anything to do with the new prophesy.
"I couldn't see anything - where I was, but I had the strangest feeling – as if I was glued to the ground, almost stony even." Harry was about to ask her a question, but she already knew what it was by looking at his expression, and answered it.
"No, Harry, no spell - just, well, more of a gut feeling you could call it. I felt compelled to stay there, you know. I felt sort of dazed, lost, just kind of out there..." Hermione said, still quite perplexed at her previous situation. "Anyway, once that man had dropped me off there, he just simply disappeared. He didn't Apparate though - or at least I didn't hear it, as I said... this was all very strange. The rest of it is really simple actually, considering I didn't do much - or couldn't do much rather, being stuck in that horrible room forever!" she trailed off angrily; frustrated at the helplessness she had to endure. Yet, she brought herself quickly back to normal tones in an attempt to shake off what she obviously could not change any more. "That is, until Harry saved me..." she said now bright and cheery.
"I ... what? How?" Harry asked, now extremely confused.
Ron looked at them both, and then turned on Harry, as if he were to blame. "You mean..." he paused, the color in his face rising, "you have known where Hermione was all this time? You were HIDING her from me? Mate, I had homework that needed to be done!"
"I swear - I..." Harry started, extremely flustered with the whole situation.
"I'm glad that all I am is a homework checker to you!" Hermione snapped back, displaying a face that showed a disappointed fury.
"Oh, heh, err no, not at all..." Ron blushed a deep red, and then quickly sat down, burying himself into the chair. "Heh, um, continue on..." he trailed off, sliding further down the chair.
Hermione continued to glare at Ron and mumbled something under her breath that sounded oddly like, "Well, I'm glad I have your permission... git!"
"Would you stop it you two?" Harry cried, exasperated, "We're NEVER going to find out the rest of the bloody story IF YOU TWO DON'T STOP ARGUING!"
"I suppose you are right," Hermione said, slightly reproachful but reasoning the situation. "Yes, well," Hermione said, starting up her story again, "I was sitting there in the dark for what seemed like forever – time stretched on and on, and I could do absolutely nothing," the frustration prominent in her voice yet again, "when I heard a voice in the distance, a female voice..." she trailed off, her voice lightening considerably.
"I thought you said I saved you?" Harry asked, intrigued by the strange situation Hermione was put through.
"Oh, you did, there's no doubt in my mind that you did," she paused for self-reflection, "she was just there... like her only purpose was to comfort me, to soothe my nerves and frustration – she was very kind to me..."
"Well, what did she say...?" Harry asked.
"She said..." Hermione began, almost breathless, winded and tired from the experience she had just endured, yet trying to muster her strength. "Don't lose faith so fast, your courage mustn't linger my new friend, help remains on its way", she plowed on, "Follow your heart, it will always lead you in the direction," she paused. "You don't mind if I just show the whole thing to you, you know... like on a movie on a screen... it would be much easier."
"That'd be even better!" exclaimed Harry.
Within the next moment, Hermione whispered a spell underneath her breath and flicked her wand in a grandiose motion. Ron and Harry then watched as a giant movie screen appeared in front of them, obviously intending to display the situation Hermione was attempting to speak of.
Harry and Ron then watched as the screen fuzzed and flickered – eventually displaying a completely black screen, which finally afterwards, molded into a color picture.
"W-Who are you?" a confused Hermione asked blindly into the darkness.
"I am a mere citizen of the magical world, concerned of your health, and concerned about saving lives from Voldemort – which, by the way, I'm sad to announce you fall under that last category."
"I- yes, I thought so... but why can't I see you?" Hermione asked the darkness again, searching around for a person she couldn't see.
A caring smile was apparent in the speaker's tone of voice. "I fear you can't see me yet, my voice is simply transmitted here from a secluded area."
"Oh, so have you come to save me?" Hermione's voice perked up.
"No, I'm afraid I cannot go to such measures, it is not my choice for your rescue, it is but another's." Alongside the obvious loss of joy from Hermione, again, one could tell the speaker's facial expressions - a frown. "Do not be disheartened my friend, the Order has faith in your rescuer, they believe that this person will be prompt."
"Who is this person?" she paused abruptly, "You're in the Order?"
"Ah yes," replied the speaker, "I have pledged my allegiance to Dumbledore long ago... and I'm afraid I cannot reveal the identity of your rescuer - strictly confidential, especially if you aren't of legal wizarding age." Hermione groaned, as the speaker just laughed in return. "Yes I feel that way about that law also, but a promise to Dumbledore is a promise..."
"Well, I don't remember you from the Order - or recognize your voice at least..." Hermione sounded slightly annoyed.
"Well, you wouldn't have, you've never met me before..."
"Oh, that might explain it, but when will I know when this person is to come and save me..."
"I will send you a short glimpse of their face when the time arrives..." Hermione smiled, possibly at the thought that someone was to save her soon. "Well, now that I've explained the basics to you - I'm afraid I must leave," the speaker replied much to Hermione's dismay.
"Oh, please don't go! I need someone to talk to, it's so lonely here..."
"I'm sorry," the speaker replied, "just remember... don't lose faith!" she said while fading out.
The last thing the screen displayed before fading out and disappearing into thin air, was Hermione kneeling on the ground, crying silently to herself in the darkness.
A soft "Oh," escaped Ron as he looked at Hermione with eyes full of sorrow. Hermione, in return, smiled warmly at his sympathy and for a brief moment, locked eyes with him.
"So - erm, who do you think it could be?" Harry asked randomly, wishing this didn't have to be the strange, awkward situation it was.
"I don't know, but that voice sounded of one of a young woman – not really an adult, more of a teenager even..."
"But I don't think they'd let teenagers in the Order, would they? I mean they were so strict of making sure we weren't involved..." Harry trailed off uncertainly.
"Yes, I suppose, that doesn't make sense does it...?"
"So... How'd I 'save' you?" Harry inquired; still confused on the role he played in all of this.
This question was the last straw for Hermione, who was truly tired of all this explaining and questioning after being stranded in a dark deserted location for who knows how long. Still, Hermione decided that it would be best that they all know of this mysterious encounter, and to be quite honest, talking about this girl had kept her energized – mainly because there was so much mystery behind her identity that it kept Hermione pondering.
Harry had noticed that Hermione was thinking hard about something - mainly because he had already called her name about three times, and saw not one stir of recognition in her eyes as she seemingly looked straight through him.
"Hermione!" He called out for what would be the fourth and final time.
"What - oh, what? I'm sorry Harry, I was just thinking..." Hermione said, dismissing her previous behavior away with the wave of her hand.
"When don't you think?" Ron retorted underneath his breath.
'Well,' Harry thought to himself, 'there goes the idea of a peaceful conversation.'
"You know, I could've left you both in the dark about this..." said Hermione threateningly.
Ron sat tiredly in his chair, mocking her as would a five year old: moving his lips and contorting his face into funny positions to indicate that whatever Hermione had just said was not worth listening to.
"I think we all need some sleep after this ordeal," Harry said, creating a reasonable excuse to avoid hearing any more of the fight that ensued, "especially at..." he paused to look at the clock, "5 A.M. IN THE MORNING?"
"Wow! I guess we have been talking for awhile, haven't we?" said Hermione.
"Could you please just tell me one thing Hermione.... how did I save you?" Harry asked pleadingly.
Normally, Hermione would've shrugged it off and asked him if she could tell him tomorrow, but by the look on his face, she just couldn't do that this day, for she knew that she too would've been curious.
"Well, you were asleep, right? I think somehow, you released me from your sleep," she paused, trying to make sense of it all, "and I know it was you, because I saw your face flicker in front of me before I landed here - well what happened in your dream?" Hermione asked, still trying to make sense of everything, and form connections between the two seemingly unrelated subjects.
Harry briefly explained what had happened during his dreams, at which Hermione seemed to have reached a conclusion from.
"Hmm... When you thought of me and grabbed the key, that's how I must have been released, I think it must have been a spell or something binding me to that place - because I obviously couldn't leave - and when you did what you did in your dream, it broke the spell - like a fairy tale isn't it?"
"Yeah," Harry replied slowly, "Well, um, thanks Hermione, I'll see you tomorrow," he finished off his sentence, still quite perplexed.
Harry and Ron then led Hermione out the entrance door to the boy's dormitories, and Harry couldn't help but think that the rest of the boys in his dorm must've been some heavy sleepers had they slept through all of that.
Hermione left their room and found herself at the girl's dormitories alarmingly fast - especially for someone who was so tired... maybe it was the excitement of the night that got her up here so fast.
"Maybe I should start all the homework and class-work I missed..." she paused, "ooh," she said while putting on a face that looked like she had just sucked on a lemon, "that won't do, I don't even know where to begin," she groaned. Without Ron or Harry to tell her what to make up, it'd be pointless.
She paused to think, 'Ron never did tell me why he never did any of his homeworks anyway.' She thought in deep concentration, 'well I suppose I shall ask him tomorrow then.' She yawned and then plopped down onto her bed, which although had a very discreet sound, managed to wake up one of her roommates regardless.
"W-who's there?" Lavender asked suspiciously.
Hermione got up and smiled, "Sorry to disturb you, Lavender."
"Hermione?" Lavender exclaimed, afterwards magicking a light at the tip of her wand and starting towards Hermione. "Oh, where were you?"
Lavender seemed like she hadn't gotten sleep in awhile, but still acted bright and cheery, "Tell me all about what happened!" she grinned excitedly.
"Oh, Lavender," she really didn't want to disappoint Lavender, "I really need some sleep, if you don't mind, I mean - I just got back from, erm, that place where I was..."
"Oh," Lavender replied, slightly disappointed, "alright then, tomorrow?" she asked hopefully.
"Alright," agreed Hermione, smiling wearily, nodding her head slightly.
"'Night."
"'Night," said Hermione, who blacked out as soon as she hit the covers of her bed.
....
Harry climbed slowly back into his bed, groggy but still awake and curious. He couldn't help but feel like Hermione left something out, that there was just something missing - maybe it wasn't that Hermione left something out, but it was him that was missing something or even... someone. Harry sighed aloud, if only he could figure his life out. He was only 16, yet he had lived through so much - he could barely handle it all. Why'd his life always have to be so dramatic, why'd everything always have to happen to him? Sometimes he wished that, as cruel as it sounded, that someone else had his life to put up with. If only he had someone to relate to nowadays, Ron was his friend - but he would never understand. Sirius was as close as he got to someone who understood him, but then, well, frankly, Harry didn't like to remember what had happened to Sirius. Well, he just wished he had someone to relate to - anyway.
"Mate? You still up?" Ron inquired.
"Yeah, erm sorry mate, was I disturbing you?" Harry asked, feigning concern, "because I'm going to sleep now anyway..."
"Alright, just be quiet about it..." Ron's voice replied back tiredly, as both boys within minutes of speaking to each other, fell asleep.
