UNREAL REALITIES

Chapter 6: Nightmares

DISCLAIMER: I didn't do it, nobody saw me do it, you can't prove anything! Um...sorry...ok, it's not mine!

A/N – Sorry about the length of time between updates, I know it's an overused excuse but I have been so so busy!

Hermione didn't know how long she'd been lying there. Shortly after she'd told Snape that she would burn Hogwarts he'd left her. Unable to fight the tears back she'd whispered to her mother that she needed to sleep. Once her mum had exited the room the hot, salty tears poured down her face through tightly closed eyes.

Sometime during the tears she'd fallen asleep, only to be haunted by a dream of raging fires and burning flesh. Ginny, against a backdrop of crumbling towers and glowing embers of what was once Hogwarts, reached out a pale hand to her, a grimace of pain on her face accentuated by her tears. Her hair, so bright it was often described as flame-coloured, was now living up to its name as a tongue of fire licked its way up the hair, enveloping her face and carrying on, until the only thing left of Ginny that was recognisable was the hand, still reaching to Hermione, begging her to take it and save her. And there was the screaming. Ginny screamed one last scream. So heartbreakingly painful, full of such fear and anger that Hermione answered with a scream of her own and collapsed to the ground.

Then there was Ron. He stood next to the pyre that was his sister and looked at Hermione with soft eyes. "Hermione, don't do this." His voice was pleading as she reached out her hand to him, an echo of what Ginny had done to her, "Hermione, please, please! Hermione!" His words rose to a shout as he faded before her to be replaced by darkness. Blessed darkness.

But the voice was still there, still shouting her name. "Hermione! Hermione, where are you?"

She opened her eyes slowly to the moonlight. She lay on the grass beside the lake, her back on the ground, staring up into the sky, tears still drying on her face.

As she sat up the world wavered, like a curtain blown by the wind. Just for a second she caught a glimpse of white walls and a window with bars behind that curtain when it dropped back into place and the shout came again.

"Hermione! Where are you?"

"Ron?" She replied, standing up, the silver of the moon reflecting on the lake, giving her more than enough light to see the red haired boy running her way, "Ron? What's wrong?"

"Oh, thank Merlin! I couldn't find you! I thought…Well, never mind what I thought, something's happened, do you know where Ginny is?"

He reached her and pulled her into a huge hug before pulling away to look into her face, concern and fear in his voice. He didn't notice that during the hug she'd removed his wand from the back pocket of his trousers.

"Why? What's wrong?" Hermione's throat got tight. Did they know? Had someone found out what she was trying to do?

"I can't tell you out here, it's too risky, come back into the castle and we'll find Harry." He grabbed her hand and almost dragged her back towards the entrance to the castle.

"What's happened to Ginny?" She knew that she had to seem concerned about her friend if there was any chance of getting Ron to follow her down to the dungeons, it would seem too suspicious if she was as cold and heartless as she needed to be.

"We don't know, that's the problem. Parvati saw her leave the common room with you this morning but no-one's seen her since, and we couldn't find you either. Dumbledore got some new information from the Order and he's about to make an announcement in the great hall, but me and Harry got away and came looking for you and Ginny. The Slytherins are all moaning because Malfoy's missing as well but hopefully he's just fallen in the lake or something." Hermione had to almost run to keep up with Ron as he strode up the hill towards the doors, his voice frantic and breathless, "Harry's looking inside and I searched the grounds. What happened today? You were the last person to see Ginny, where was she?"

They had reached the entrance hall now and she stopped him before he could carry on up the main staircase – no doubt to find Harry. Casting an uneasy glance at the closed doors to the great hall, she turned to look into his face. His eyes were wide and showing too much white, he really loved his sister and the concern he felt for her was like a blow to Hermione.

"I think I know where Ginny might be," she whispered, averting her eyes from his as relief spread through them.

"You do? That's great! Where is she?"

"Ron, I need to tell you something before we go find her."

He seemed to catch on to her trepidation as he placed a hand under her chin and raised her face until his searching eyes met hers once more. "Hermione, you can tell me anything."

"I know." She managed a weak smile. "I just wanted you to know that I love you. No matter what happens, you're the first boy I ever loved and I'll never forget you."

"What's going on?" He looked really worried now.

"Nothing," she said, a little too hastily, "it's just that you said Dumbledore had information from the Order, and that's never been a good thing, has it."

He looked slightly mollified, "sorry, I'm just a bit tense, it's been a hard day."

"Yeah," Hermione agreed quietly, her mind on Ginny's shouts, the real ones in the dungeon mingling with the screeches that had ripped through her dreams, indistinguishable from one another.

"Anyway, you said you knew where Ginny is," his voice brought her out of her reverie.

"Yes, I do." She shook herself mentally, there was no point getting sentimental now, she had decided what had to be done and she must stick with it. Then all this would be over, all the fear, the worry, the pain would be over and she would be in her mothers arms again.

Grabbing his hand, Hermione smiled tentatively up at the red-haired boy she'd come to love and began leading him down through the dungeons to his fate.

Ron had been the hardest person to capture so far. Not because he'd struggled or cried or shouted, but because he'd just followed her willingly, trusted her implicitly.

Hermione knew that even when she got better, left the mental hospital, went back to lead a normal life, the look of mute betrayal and confusion on Ron's face would still haunt her. She would see the question in his eyes as she closed the door until the day she died.

Unlike the other two he hadn't uttered a word, hadn't screamed, shouted, pleaded, threatened or cursed her. He'd just stared at her.

She wandered the deserted fifth floor corridor trying to think about something, anything, to take her mind off him, but no matter how hard she tried she couldn't get him out of her head. Just as she was mentally noting the irony of this, she turned a corner only to be knocked backwards, hitting the floor with a thump and she closed her eyes at the pain in her backside.

"Hermione! I'm so sorry," Harry's voice came from above her. "Are you alright?" She slowly opened her eyes, unwilling to see the raven-haired boy.

His emerald eyes met hers and she had the uncomfortable feeling that they were boring into her, seeing the secrets she had locked away, all her doubts, everything about that other world and how she was trying to get back to it. The feeling disappeared almost as quickly as it had come and she looked into his eyes for another second before taking the hand he offered to help her up.

"Have you seen Ron or Ginny?" He asked once she'd stood and dusted herself off.

"Er, the last time I saw Ginny she was sorting a couple of things out in the dungeons for Snape, but I haven't seen Ron all day, why do you ask?" She tried her hardest to look innocent.

"Where have you been, Hermione? We've been looking for you all day, there's big news from the Order and all the teachers are going crazy. Malfoy and Ginny are missing and we couldn't find you either so me and Ron came looking for you but we were supposed to meet up half an hour ago and he didn't show."

"Maybe he went down to the dungeons to try and find Ginny and got lost?" Hermione suggested, fighting the urge to ask what the big news was that everyone seemed to be going on about – it was nothing, just something invented by her twisted mind in order to distract her and stop her doing what she had to.

"How would he know she was down there though, if you're the only person who knows but you haven't seen him?" Harry was looking rather suspicious of her now, an expression that she hadn't really seen on his face since before the last battle. Before I realised that he doesn't actually exist, she told herself.

"Maybe Snape told him, or maybe someone else saw Ginny go down there, I don't know, but have you checked the dungeons yet?" Hermione tried not to sound too edgy.

"No, I started at the top of the castle and made my way down, if you hadn't noticed, this is quite a big place Hermione," he answered with a similar twinge of irritation in his voice.

"Sorry, Harry, but you've got me worried now." She hugged him to emphasise her apology and, like she'd done with Ron, she relieved him of his wand. "Anyway, Ginny had quite a lot to do down there so it's possible that she's still there."

"It's worth a try I suppose," he said and started down the corridor, stopping after just a few steps. "Hermione, you are alright aren't you?"

"Yeah, sure, why do you ask?" Her heart was in her throat. Not here! It was inevitable that she was going to have to get rid of him, but not here! Anyone could walk by and see.

"You've just been a bit weird since…you know, the summer." Harry sounded awkward.

"Well, I watched my mum get murdered, what do you expect?" She snapped back at him, starting to walk again only to be stopped by his hand on her arm.

"I know, but it's not just that, you space out for hours at a time, you don't pay any attention in class, you didn't seem that surprised about Malfoy and Ginny being missing, you wander off and don't reappear for ages. You just seem…distant."

"I'm just trying to deal with everything in my own way, Harry. I'm fine, don't worry about me. I have a feeling that I'll be better soon. In fact, I'm feeling better already, maybe by tomorrow all this will be over and everything will go back to normal." She smiled at him, and was rewarded with a small smile of his own. Of course, he didn't know that 'normal' for Hermione meant that he wouldn't exist anymore.

She sighed and started walking again, "come on, we'd better find the others before we miss the whole of Dumbledore's announcement."

This time when she reached the dungeon with Harry in tow she grabbed his hand as they reached the door, the shouting had died away long ago when her prisoners had realised it wasn't going to do them any good.

The corridor was deathly silent as she pulled him along, navigating her way through the warren of passages easily.

She gulped as they got closer and closer to the cell and, shushing Harry's attempt to ask her what was going on, she opened the door and shoved him inside, this time following him in and locking the door behind her, leaving her in the room with the four people she would have to kill.

A/N - Please review! You know you want to...