The pain had dissipated somewhat. It was still there, in the back of her mind. Whenever she thought about it, it tried to push its way forward. The easiest way to ignore all of it was to focus on Severus.

"Try to stay awake, Hermione. Leave your eyes open, think of Walking as an extension of your body," Severus coached her.

She found Draco's eyes again. He was waiting inside of the Slytherin Common Room. She'd been here before. But she startled when she heard a crash.

"Damn it!" Hermione watched her own body convulse on the floor. It was having a hard time keeping up with the lesson. Draco stood up, walked toward her, and deposited her once again safely inside of her mind.

"It's fine. Try again." Severus encouraged her, and she had to think it was only because she'd be suffering from enormous bruises before the night was over.

Hermione entered Draco's mind once again, and turned around quickly to find that her own body was still standing, and still keeping its palm against Draco's temple. Draco himself was holding her up by the shoulders, and she was relieved to see that her body hadn't crashed to the floor again.

The lesson took hours, and Hermione was dead tired by the end of it. Severus had been an almost cruel taskmaster, forcing her to try increasingly difficult things before she'd even mastered the basic, most essential aspect of walking - staying awake.

Draco had already gone to his room. Well, he had trudged to his room and fallen on his bed before even taking his shoes off. She was not the only one tired.

Severus was sitting at his desk, looking over papers for the Order. Hermione was sitting in her seat, keeping her thoughts to herself.

It was actually harder than it sounded. Severus would periodically glance up, give her a stern look and say, "I can hear you."

It was part of the lesson, he'd said, to make sure thoughts, dreams and unwanted opinions wouldn't be drifting off for other people to hear as they pleased. She had been trying to keep her thoughts from Severus specifically. Truthfully, she had been more successful that he assumed. She'd guarded most of her thoughts, and only occasionally let one out for him to hear.

She felt a ruckus upstairs. Albus Dumbledore was storming - that only happened when he was furious. Severus noticed it too, and he gave her one quick glance before hurrying out of the room in a flurry of robes. Hermione followed, dazed at the amount of confusion upstairs. Remus, Tonks, Kingsley and one more, but she couldn't place it. They were meeting in the Headmaster's office.

"What's happened?" Severus asked as he burst through the doors.

Dumbledore turned weary eyes to Severus, and then Hermione.

"We have suffered two losses tonight. I suggest you find Mister Malfoy and bring him to us. I'm afraid his mother won't last much longer."

Severus nodded his understanding and rushed out of the room.

Suddenly, Dumbledore sent her a flurry of thought. She winced at the sudden onslaught of Legilimency before understanding why.

Arabella Figg had been murdered. The house wasn't even standing anymore.

"I'm sorry, Hermione. It's truly a loss," Dumbledore consoled her.

"Thank you… sir." Hermione sat down at the nearest chair and thought about Bella. Truthfully, Hermione had known she would die the moment they left the Summerhouse, and Hermione had already mourned. She felt as if it had already happened, and all her sorrow had already been offered. What was left was a deep void in her heart. A thought fluttered in her mind, and found itself caught at the front.

Sorrow was a luxury. Emotion was a luxury she could not afford.

The thought imprinted itself on her mind and left without another word. Feeling vaguely empty, Hermione glanced at Draco, who ran in and wailed at the sight of his mother's prone body. She watched his tears - some of them stuck to his eyelashes while tracks ran down his cheeks. Those tears were a road. She watched as lines formed between his eyebrows, and on his forehead. Years of regret washed over him, and years of love. He pushed love at his mother, who was barely alive. She said two words to him, which Narcissa had been repeating in her mind over and over. "Goodbye, Goodbye."

Draco threw himself over his mother, weeping or moaning at the loss. Hermione felt the pain through Draco, who was hugging his mother's dead body.

She felt guilty, sitting in her chair far away from mortality, and reacting very little to Bella's death. She had so little sadness left.

Hermione left when everybody else did, out of respect. She went to her room and crawled into bed. There was nothing else she could do now, not until morning at least. She closed her eyes and tried not to dream.

"Are you feeling alright?" The man with the apple coloured hair appeared from behind his tree.

"Yes." Hermione smiled at him, glad to have his company.

"I thought you were in shock. You didn't say a word to anybody, and I couldn't feel you thinking." Severus painted the sky a lovely pink and blue. The sunset was gorgeous, but it never went down. It was just there, perpetually dusk.

"I feel…like there's no more left to feel. All the sadness and regret's been sucked out of me." Hermione leaned on his shoulder, delighted that he had embraced her.

He didn't say anything, just held her against his body.

"I only want to feel content with life, happy with it. And all these terrible things are happening and I can't find where to start." Hermione sighed, leaning into him some more.

He smiled at her. "One second then. Sit down."

She obliged, tucking her legs in beneath her. Severus leaned up and plucked an apple from the tree. It was the same color as his hair. He brought it to her, wrapped in warm light. Hermione bit into it, relaxing at the memory of their first meeting.

He had given her an apple, and she had made it sweet. They had talked about pointless things, bantered back and forth. Hermione cherished the memory, beyond anything. That was the night she could never forget. It was all breathtaking, and Hermione wished she could go back to the time when he was her only worry.

"Do you remember?" Hermione asked, watching the sun really set.

"I do. I don't wish you the pain of Walking, Hermione. But you've so much potential," Severus whispered into her ear.

"I'm sorry I hurt you," She said, remembering the night before, when she had abused him, smothered him.

"It wasn't so much pain, Hermione." He chuckled, "It was something else that had me worried."

"It's something lovers do," Hermione protested, for some reason unembarrassed.

"As equals. We will find the right time, Hermione." He closed his eyes.

Hermione watched over him. The sun had set, and the sky was a myriad of distant stars against a canopy of black. She held on to him as he slept - he had never trusted her so much before.

He had Walked into her dream. Hermione realized she was actually awake, and he was in her mind with her. She turned her head and watched the gentle rise and fall of Severus' chest. He was asleep beside her, and within her.

She fell once again inside of herself. Their shade tree rustled slightly as the warm wind passed through it. Hermione leaned against the apple tree. She held Severus, who had fallen asleep with his head on her lap. She guarded the edges of her Dream, so they would not be bothered. Exhaustion finally found her, and Hermione slept.

--

How do you find? Guilty, not guilty of overly short chapters? Sorry, folks, but you have to like my quick update, right? ..er, right? -ducks as barrage of books attempt to bludgeon her-

Anyway, So tell me what you think! Are you sad about Figgy? Don't worry, I am too, but there isn't really anything else she could have done but die. Le sigh.

There are a few things going on, and I've reached the latter half of the fic with this chapter. It's kind of an ending to all those questions, you know? What happened to figg, what exactly is Walking, who was her dream lover etc. More details in regards to heinous murder in the next chapter, and Draco Copes, Hermione Forgives and Severus Snarks (yeah, I know you're thinking finally some snark.)

Read and Review, because I'm a review whore. I think I desperately lacked attention as a child and it's backfired now. Stupid Korean culture leaving me bereft of Human Parents. Cry cry cry
Jenny

I think my dog's feeling better by the way. I think he'll live a few more months, and maybe longer once he gets his surgery. He's a strong puppeh (though he's really old) and he's handled a lot in his life (you know, the usual. Parvo, nearly choking himself on his leash, starvation (that one time my dad was supposed to take care of him but forgot…), back cysts, and now armpit cysts. I feel sorry for the poor guy, he's had so much crap in his life. But it's okay. I let him sleep on my bed and he has a bucket of toys and treats and I feed him from the table (even though I really shouldn't…)

EDIT : I HAVE HERE ---

The Greatest Story Ever Mini-Mized!

basically, I can't link. So go to livejournal, and look up the user, veruslumen. my first entry will have the Greatest Story Ever Mini-Mized, and you have to leave a review.

It's really pretty cool, it's a cartoon of Hg/SS, comical in nature of course, but it's the standard SS gets summoned to Voldy and forced to do heinous things, and gets his back stabbed by voldy anyway. comes home to hogwarts, bleeding and bruised, only to have Hermione, the lovely new mediwitch have to care for him. You guess what happens o.O. Sexy Legos Involved.
/EDIT!