UNREAL REALITIES
Chapter 5: Halfway There
DISCLAIMER: Yeah, right.
A/N – Thanks so much to all my great reviewers! Seeing those 'review alerts' in my inbox just makes me smile so much!
Hermione felt Ginny shiver slightly as she followed down to the dungeons.
"So, where exactly are these things that McGonagall wanted us to check out?" Ginny asked apprehensively, listening to the way her footsteps echoed hollowly off the bare walls around them.
"Just a little bit further," Hermione replied, "I think it's just round this corner."
As they turned the corner and made their way down a long corridor noises drifted through the oppressive air. Angry noises.
"Hermione, what's that noise?" Ginny tried to keep her voice steady but she'd never been this far into the dungeons of Hogwarts and couldn't stop herself remembering a scary story involving the Hogwarts dungeons, a third year girl and an ogre that Fred and George had found it amusing to tell her right before her first ever potions lesson – in the dungeons.
"It's just Malfoy, McGonagall enlisted him to help too and he's not very happy about it," Hermione lied, an innocent look on her face.
"I can tell," the noises grew louder as they drew closer to the locked door of the cell where Hermione had imprisoned Draco, the banging and cursing coming from within were perfectly audible, even through the thick oak door.
Before Ginny could notice that it was locked, Hermione whipped out her wand and muttered "alohomora". She watched the bolt draw itself back just before they came to stand in front of the door.
Hoping that Malfoy was at the other side of the room Hermione turned to Ginny, "he's not too happy with me at the moment, I kind of threatened him with the bat-bogey hex to get him down here to help us, would you do me a favour and go in first so that I'm not the first person he sees? 'Cause he sounds really mad to be down here."
Ginny looked slightly puzzled but merely said, "sure, Mione" and opened the door to the sight of an extremely irate Slytherin in an otherwise empty cell.
"Hey, where is everything?" She started to ask before a hand on her back sent her flying into Malfoy and the door was slammed shut.
Hermione locked the door once more and leant her head against the wood, trying to ignore the pounding headache forming behind her eyes.
"Hermione? Hermione, what's going on?" She could hear Ginny shouting and moved slightly away from the door as the girl started banging on it.
"Give it up Weaslette, that door is solid oak, it isn't going to budge. Believe me, I've been down her for the past half an hour." Malfoy's icy voice was full of rage, "now, do you have any idea what the hell is wrong with the Mudblood? 'Cause it would be nice to know why the hell she locked me in this frigging dungeon!"
She could hear his voice rising and tried to block it out, tried to ignore the kicks on the door, which punctuated every word.
"Don't you dare call her that! I should be asking what you did to her, since whenever something goes wrong it's usually your fault."
Hermione put her hands over her ears, the shouting was growing too loud, she couldn't bear it.
"SHUT UP! JUST SHUT THE HELL UP!"
Her screech broke through the arguing and a shocked silence fell as Hermione breathed heavily.
"I can't take this anymore." She started pacing outside the door, "when will it all end, when can I go back?"
"Hermione…" A tentative voice came.
"I said SHUT UP!" She roared in reply, "just shut up! You're nothing! You don't exist, it's all just in my head. I need to be in control," her voice grew quieter as she talked, more to herself than to her two prisoners. "You're both just figments of my imagination, I'm ill that's all, there's nothing wrong with that, I just need to get better."
"What do you need to do to get better Hermione?" A worried voice interrupted her rant, as though unsure whether she would start yelling again.
"It's simple really Ginny, Snape told me and it all makes perfect sense. Then I can go home." A smile formed on her lips as she thought of all the things she would do once she got home. Shopping with her mum – that would be first on the list.
"Wait, Snape? As in Professor Snape?" Malfoy sounded shocked as he too listened to what Hermione was saying.
"Doctor Snape," Hermione corrected him, "Professor Snape doesn't exist, remember? Haven't you been listening? None of you exist, you're all in my head. Although…" She paused, a slight frown on her face now, "why haven't you all gone away yet? Now that I know you're not real?"
"Because we are real Hermione!"
"No you're not!" She snapped at the red-head's answer, "so just be quiet, I'll just have to ask Doctor Snape the next time I see him. After all, I'm not a doctor, I don't really know how all these things work. I haven't been back there for a while though, so maybe the next time I seem him and my mum will be after I've set the fires."
"Set what fires?" Hermione giggled at the raw panic in Malfoy's voice.
"The fires that will burn down Hogwarts, Malfoy. Fire is said to be purifying, you know, so when I set the fires all this should be purged and I'll be better again. Don't worry though," she reassured as she heard Ginny's faint sob, "I'll kill you both before I set the place on fire. You won't even feel the flames, I promise."
"Thanks, I feel so much better now. Why don't you just kill us now and get it over with?"
She smiled listening to his sarcasm. "I'll kill you soon enough, I'm just going to go get Ron and Harry first, it'll be easier to kill you all at once, I'll bring them back down here soon."
She turned to go, ignoring the fresh bout of pleading and shouting as Ginny and Malfoy started banging once more, alternately begging and threatening her to let them out.
Finding her way out more quickly than she had before Hermione almost ran through the entrance hall and out into the cool air of the grounds.
She stopped by the lake and almost collapsed onto the ground, sobs racking her whole body as she fought to take deep cleansing breaths.
Knowing that it had to be done didn't make it any easier. She'd been happy here, in this world. Even though she'd accepted the fact that it wasn't real she was still finding it difficult to destroy the only thing she'd known for five years.
The smile had faded from her face as the noises from her two schoolmates had grown fainter. It had been a lot harder than she'd thought to listen to Ginny's cries as she just walked away and left her there.
Eventually her sobs quieted and the thoughts stopped going round in her head, giving way to the pain that had been building all day. Her whole body was literally numb, a brief moment of panic enveloped her as she realised she couldn't feel anything except the pounding pain in her head. A particularly violent throb caused a wave of dizziness to pass through her. She closed her eyes and silently begged for it to all be over.
"Mynee?"
Her eyes flew open to see her mother's matching brown eyes hovering over her, worry etched on her features.
"Mum?" She whispered, her voice thick and still hoarse.
"Oh thank God." Her mum smiled, "you were crying in your sleep, I was worried about you. Especially since you haven't been lucid for a few days, I started thinking that maybe…" she paused and stared down at her daughter sadly, "never mind, you're here now."
Before Hermione could question her mother about what she'd thought, Snape entered.
"Ah, you're awake Hermione. That's good to know, we were starting to worry you'd had a relapse."
So that was what her mother was going to say. Hermione tried to watch her as she moved away to allow Snape to get closer to the bed Hermione was still strapped to, but her head was held in place so she couldn't move it and her mother soon disappeared from her sight.
Snape carried on; "tell me, Hermione, have you given any thought to what we discussed the last time you were lucid? About what you had to do to get better."
"Yes." Her voice was barely more than a sigh.
"Excellent," he flashed that disturbing grin at her once more, "and how is it going? I'm assuming you're doing well, since you obviously haven't relapsed."
"I…I locked Malfoy and Ginny in the dungeons." It was hard to get the words out past the sudden lump in her throat.
"You locked them up? Hermione, my dear, that isn't going to work, you need to eliminate them completely, eradicate them. Just think of it as cleansing your mind." His voice was slightly too eager for Hermione's comfort.
"I know. I just…I just wanted to get all four of them together so I could kill them all at the same time, so it would be easier."
"That would make sense, I suppose," Snape looked thoughtful, "just be careful that you don't wait too long, the longer it takes, the more chance there is that you will relapse and you won't be able to come back to us."
"I know." Hermione repeated, conviction strengthening her voice, "I'm going to get Harry and Ron soon and then I'll…" she stopped and composed herself as more tears threatened to spill from her eyes, "I'll set Hogwarts on fire."
A/N – Well there you go, another chapter. Here comes the shameless plug for my other stories: I have more stories, check them out, you might like them:-) Now that's done, please REVIEW! Please? If I ask really nicely!