Disclaimer: Still borrowing J. K. Rowling's wonderful characters. Still not making any money. Sigh. Life can be so unfair!

Chapter 4 - Fairy Tales

Snake watched the Fates, prowling around the edge of their fire. They worked only in laughter and drumbeat, never in words. However, they were willing to take orders, as long as they were few.

As he gazed, two figures clarified in the flames. One was a witch and the other a wizard, hanging limply. Passion and Cruelty chuckled, flicking their puppets idly. They jumped to life. Their faces were lit by the orange fire, and Snake gasped in recognition and triumph. Entranced he moved forward.

"Good...good..." he whispered. "Now, trade them..."

Passion's midnight threads released their hold on her puppet and they squirmed over to the other. They briefly tangled with Cruelty's iron chains before gently nudging them off. Cruelty's chains crossed the space and lifted the crumpled doll. She snapped the figure's head up and the two were animated once again.

"You will still have power over the other, Passion," Snake told her. "But this will be your new charge. They need to learn." Cruelty's silence vocalized her anger. "You, too, will have a part. But wait until they're vulnerable."

He resumed his circling. His plan was working wonderfully.

Hermione turned to the books lining the aisle, scanning the titles. There was no other copy of Myths You Thought Weren't Real: True Stories About Gods and Fate, nor did she understand why Malfoy was so interested in it. He didn't seem one for fairy tales. She glanced at his receding back, and realizing she had no idea of how to find her way back to the main area of the library, jogged after him. Just as he rounded the corner, however, she slowed to a stop.

The bookshelves resounded with echoes from a hollow crash as a book fell into her path. She looked at it warily; dark texts had internal motives, too hidden and obscure for any but the authors to understand fully. Yet when she attempted to step around it, a wind flew down the aisle, causing the cover to fall open and the pages to flutter. She knelt beside it, curiosity overcoming her caution.

At the top of the page, she read:

There, at the Center of the World, at the Heart of all mortality and immortality, where Death and Life meet, a wound gapes wide. From there, time weeps forward to penetrate the dream reality that coats the human world, the single connection to the true happenings of the universe. Few know of this — fewer yet have seen this — though it has been known to be glimpsed through Dream, when an individual is chained to the Heart in a line of events that will determine the future of all things Sensed and Unsensed...

She started with surprise. Hastily, she clapped the book shut and shoved it under her arm, looking around for Malfoy. He was gone.

She hesitantly stepped out of the alcove, hoping she would recognize where she was. She followed the only passageway, twisting in dark musty walls and avoiding the candles that haphazardly lit the corners on cold spikes. It was a surprise, then, when she stepped into the white light of the library's familiar windows. She glimpsed her table around the edge of a shelf of Potions texts, yet when she turned to look at the passage she had emerged from, there were only yellowed books marching into the horizon.

"Hermione!" a startled Harry said, grinning. "You're back!"

"Finally," Ron added. "I thought I was going to fail Charms without you. Did you hear what Flitwick did to us?"

"I heard you were sick," Ginny Weasley interrupted. "How are you feeling now?"

"What?" Ron gaped. "You were sick? From what, missing all those lessons?" He laughed at his own joke, then turned serious. "I didn't hear about that. What happened?"

"You were supposed to owl us," Harry said sternly.

"How? I don't have an owl," Hermione answered. There was an uncomfortable silence as the others waited for her to answer their concerned questions as she desperately thought of ways to avoid the subject. "So," she said, licking her lips nervously, "what'd I miss?"

Ron opened his mouth to pursue her health, but Ginny quickly elbowed him. "N-nothing," he answered. "I mean, the teachers have been a pain in the ass recently, but no big lessons. Professor Nockford has completely loaded us up on Defense of the Dark Arts homework — we're supposed to start shielding spells soon."

"You won't believe what our next lesson is going to be!" Harry laughed. "We're supposed to learn how to conjure Patronuses."

"Really?" Hermione said keenly. "Any idea on how she's going to do it? I mean, we learned with you, but it's like you said: it's nothing compared to when you have to face the real thing."

"She mentioned something about asking Dumbledore if she could take us to the gates and we could face a real dementor, but I don't think Dumbledore will go for it," Ron said.

"Of course he won't!" Hermione said. "It would be too dangerous. Remember, Voldemort is still on the loose and the dementors are on his side. How do you think Lucius Malfoy got out of Azkaban so easily?"

"Money," Ron and Harry chimed together.

Hermione smiled and sat back, her face cracking with the unfamiliar expression. "Speaking of Malfoy," she said, "something weird happened in the library today, before I came up here."

"What?" Ron asked, looking hurt. "You said hello to Malfoy before coming to see us?"

"Shut up, Ron. Like I was saying, Dumbledore had mentioned something about Snape giving us an outrageous Potions essay —"

"—greasy git—"

"— shut up, Ron — and I thought I might as well get a start on it before tomorrow. So I was looking through some of the books there and lost track of time. But when I looked up, I was in a completely different section of the library, one I had never seen before. What was weirdest though, was that Malfoy (the younger) was there too, and he said it was a section full of Dark texts."

"Did he take one?" Ginny asked.

"Yes. One called Myths You Thought Weren't Real: True Stories About Gods and Fate, or something. I don't know what it's about."

"Seems pretty obvious, doesn't it?" Harry mused. "He's looking for bedtime stories to scare off the nightmares. I never knew Malfoy was a sucker for fairy tales!"

"You're not to go shouting this around, okay?" Hermione said. "I somehow don't think that it would be a good idea."

"What do you mean it wouldn't be a good idea? He would kill us!" Ron said, laughing.

"Precisely."

"Oh," he said, his face falling.

"Yeah, remember that look he gave Hermione the day before she left? He already wants her blood," Harry added.

"Maybe that was his revenge," Ron suggested hopefully. "Luring Hermione into this aisle of Dark texts and then leaving her to starve. Except she got out."

"I don't think that was revenge," Hermione said uneasily. "I think it's still coming."

"Now, what about you? Did you take one? We could probably get Malfoy in a lot of trouble for being in that section," Ginny said.

"And I could get in just as much trouble." Hermione hesitated before saying, "I didn't take a book. It seemed too dangerous."

Both boys cursed. "We could've done a lot with those!"

"And fried yourselves in the process."

Her gaze wandered to the stairs, thinking longingly of her four-poster bed at the top of the tower.

"Long day?" Ginny asked.

"Very."

"Then let's get you upstairs. It won't help you to get better if you stay up till eleven and have to get up early tomorrow to go to lessons." Hermione smiled, glad of the fact that her exit was offered, not gracelessly shoved in their faces.

"Don't bother saving any dinner for me," she said, rising and clutching the book to her chest.

The trio exchanged looks.

"Er, Hermione," Ron said, "dinner finished three hours ago."

She stopped and turned back. "What? But I got here at two o'clock!"

Harry looked just as startled. "You did?"

"Yes! I went to the libra– oh. Of course, that Dark alcove. I guess time must have a different pattern there or something."

"Time have a different pattern?" Ron scoffed. "Where the hell did that come from? Nah, you just lost track of time, that's all. You said it yourself earlier."

"That must be it," she answered absently, her mind already spinning with possibilities. "I'll see you in the morning, then."

She quickly undressed and settled onto the bed, determined to have a second look at the book. She drew the red curtains shut and placed the book carefully in front of her. In privacy, she could afford a closer look. It was a handsome book, bound in blue leather with gold stitching. There was no title on the spine, but across the front, an elegant hand had scrawled the word Sense in glittering ink. There was no author.

She tried to open to the first page, but the covers remained firmly shut. Even when she pulled with all her strength, the book was closed, locked with an invisible binding that would only open for the lost key. She threw it to the floor in frustration, hoping halfheartedly that it would magically flutter open like it did in the library. It didn't.

She lay back on the bed, head softly resting on the pillow. If she couldn't answer her questions that night, maybe she could at least sleep. Her Dream was waiting.

She was deeply asleep when the book rose to her sinking chest, cracking open to reveal the mysteries contained in simple ink and thought. There, on the first page, lay her fate, sealed and unable to change save in death.

When she woke, the book lay on the floor, still closed.

A/N: Hello, hello loyal readers and reviewers! Sorry there's a lack of Draco/Hermione interaction in this chapter, but I had to bring back Ron and Harry and Ginny SOMEHOW. There's another bit of action in the next chapter though, but like I said before, it's going to start fairly low-scale. Give me five chapters, and both of them will utterly at my mercy...

Thank-you's:

Ally: Hello, dearest. Sorry to delay the development of our luscious hero and heroine, but Draco will be back in full force next chapter. And as for the Fates...they always remain fairly obscure. Snake will be explained, of course, but the others are simply what their name implies: destiny. Or puppet masters. Whichever. Hope this next installment passed the Ally-test!

Lorett: Darling! I was just over at Keys, but didn't have time to review. Expect me over there tonight though, and I'll leave you a glowing review, as usual. I keep meaning to check out that other author, but time just seems to be flying by...there is most definitely no time for anything I want to do anymore...sob. I still can't believe it's been ten days or so since my last update. Whew. Anywho, thank you so much for the compliments. As a first-time writer, it helps to know someone out there is reading.

Kristina Chang: Welcome aboard, dear! So glad you like the last couple of chapters...I worked really hard not to entirely overdo the drama. I completely agree about the whole thing about Hermione's abusive parents...it gets old. I wouldn't have killed her mother off, but I didn't quite have a choice.

Slythswn: Hello, hello! Glad to see you approved of the last chapter. (By the way, of course Filch has to be an ass...that's who he is! No, not really. There's a story behind him, too, but I don't think he identifies with the moment Hermione and her dad shared - one of a loving family. Kids were never his thing.) Kisses!

Everyone else who's reading and not reviewing: Thanks for stopping by. There's still a little button down there though, who's begging for some attention.

Kisses to everyone!
Alison