Chapter 3
Blinking, "where am I?" Looking over to my left, I see a woman with Black silky waves. She's awake, she notices that I'm awake. "But I'm not awake." I sit up as she walked towards me. I was looking around me, at my body, "I'm smaller?"
The woman was at my side, "oh good, I'm so glad you're awake," she cooed. "Sweetie, there are a few people that I would like you to meet." I feel myself nodding slowly, confused as to what was going on. But it wasn't me who was confused, it was the little girl.
The woman picked me up and carried me on her hip. She walked down a short corridor and walked down a grand staircase. There were smiling moving pictures decorated nicely on the walls of the corridors. Then the woman opened one of the doors of a pair of double doors. Once inside, I saw silhouettes of five bodies. The one with their back towards me, slowly turned, as the woman holding me spoke. "Anya, I would like you to meet…"
Gasping awake, Hermione quickly sat up, and immediately groaned at the screaming pain that currently shot through her abdomen. Lifting up her shirt, she took another look at her angry red healing wound. She ghosted her fingers over the wound, not wanting to cause herself any more pain. Wincing, she slowly back herself to the top of the bed so she could continue sitting up without experiencing too much pain. Looking at the window, she took note that it was early evening. She looked to her right and found Harry, who was waking up after hearing the witch's groan. Using her slightly sore vocal cords, she called out, "Harry…"
"Huh?" Shaking himself awake, he found an awake and smiling Hermione Granger. "Mione!" He launched at his best friend and hugged her for dear life, but at her groan in pain, he quickly released her. "Sorry," Harry said sheepishly. Just looking at him, Hermione could see the dark circles under the boys, and seeing him release a sigh of relief, Hermione realized as to how stressed her best friend was. Grabbing her hand, Harry spoke again, "oh, Hermione, you have no idea as to how happy I am to see you awake." Hermione saw the tears that were welling up in the corners of the boy's eyes.
Laughing, "Harry, didn't Luna tell you that I woke up earlier? We had a lovely conversation before Madam Pomfrey gave me some healing potions, one of which was a sleeping draught. She said that I needed more rest." She squeezed her friend's hand, laughing lightly with smiling eyes.
Sighing, Harry returned the smile, "I'm just glad that I can see you awake and smiling. I don't know what I would do if I lost you. You are a sister to me, Hermione, you and Sirius are my only family." Harry said with a few tears escaping his eyes.
Gasping at Sirius' name, Hermione asked with wide eyes, "How is Sirius? The last time I saw him, I stupefied him away from Rudolphus' curse."
"Oh, he's fantastic! Every thanks to you! You saved my godfather's—and your father figure—life! Our family is safe and alive because of you." Harry exclaimed excitedly, but quickly his excitement darkened to sorrow. "Hermione, I'm so sorry that I didn't listen to you when you told me to leave. But I didn't, and you almost died, Sirius almost died." Harry began sobbing, feeling guilty at his actions.
Hermione gingerly pulled Harry into a hug, comforting and allowing him to cry his feelings of guilt out. After about a minute later, Hermione spoke up. "Harry, what's done is done. There is no point in crying over it or feeling guilty. I'm alive, Sirius is alive. No one besides me was critically injured. You finally got to hear why all these years your life has been in danger. It's okay." She said all the while rubbing Harry's back while they were still hugging.
After a few more minutes, Harry stopped crying and sat back in his chair. Choosing to change the subject, Hermione spoke again. "So, how long was I asleep?"
Grinning cheekily, "oh, just a few hours."
Swatting at the cheeky boy, "no shit, Sherlock!" I meant before I woke up to Luna."
"Umm, about two days, which surprised us. You woke up earlier than expected. Madam Pomfrey said that you should have been asleep for at least another five days. But it seems you still have a lot of healing to do."
This shocked Hermione, "I wonder why I woke up early."
"Me too. It took for the better part of that night for Pomfrey, McGonagall, and Snape to save you, but unfortunately, that scar will never fade. The redness will, but the scar will always be there. And Professor McGonagall has been flustered ever since. You know she sees you as a daughter, so she's been anxious to see you awake. She has also been talking to Snape about brewing stronger healing potions to speed of the healing process, but he keeps telling her that the spell that hit you takes time to heal from. That spell was meant to kill you, Hermione. If Luna hadn't started to heal you right then and there, then you would have died." Harry looked about to cry, but he ultimately kept his composure, not wanting to break down again.
Grabbing his hand, she squeezed it while she spoke. "Harry, like I said earlier, I'm okay and I'm not going anywhere." This earned her a small smile from the green-eyed wizard. However, Hermione's mood changed. "Harry there is something that I need to tell you."
"What's up, Mione?"
"You have to promise me to have an open mind and to keep this a secret." She received a nod from the wizard. "Please don't be mad at me when I tell you this."
"I promise, and I don't think I could ever be truly mad at you."
Looking down at her lap, she released a deep sigh and then lifted her head to make direct eye contact. "So, while you were battling Malfoy and Rabastan Lestrange with Sirius, I had knocked out and silenced Nott. Then when I went to go help you two something stopped me. I felt like someone was boring holes into the back of my head. So, I turned around and found Bellatrix Black staring straight at me." Hermione paused, gauging Harry's reaction. He had a calm and interest expression, so she continued on. "She said my name, though she seemed to hesitate on my last name. Then she said that she knew me. I was confused as to why she would know me and my name. But she further confused me, even more, when she asked me if I knew her. I told her that I didn't, that I had only met her that day. But then she cocked her head and asked me, with an amused look in her eyes, if I was sure. But before I could respond, a blast went off behind me and the next thing I know is that I stupefied Sirius and you know what happened after that."
After her confession, there was a pregnant pause. Hermione was anxious about her best friend's reaction. Finally opening his mouth, his next words floored the witch. "What do you think she meant by her saying that she knew you?"
Realizing what he had just said, Hermione let out a heavy sigh of relief, Harry wasn't mad at her and didn't hate her. "No idea, but she did seem to be familiar for some reason. Also, there may be something that could help as to why. Harry, you are the only person that will know what I am about to tell you. And I would like to keep it that way until I can implicitly trust that person, so Luna would be finding out soon enough—"
"Hermione, you're rambling and don't worry. I won't tell anyone."
"Right so, umm…I've been having these strange dreams since summer. Each dream centered around this one little girl with beautiful bouncy auburn hair. And each dream became more and more weirder. She looks to be around 3-4 years old. She also seems very spunky and energetic, but careful and extremely compassionate."
"Right so, what happened in your first dream?"
"Well…"
In an ornate corridor, filtered with warm sunlight that contrasted the cold winter snow outside the windows, a laughing little girl with bouncy, silky, auburn curls runs into the arms of a man who appeared to be her father. He has finally returned home from a long stay away. "Papa!" He was smiling broadly as he picks her up and twirls her around for a couple of turns. "Ahh, my Malenkaya! Oh, how I have missed you!" The girl's father says affectionately.
Thinking on it, Harry spoke up, "That does sound strange. Who do you think that man was? What does Malenkaya mean?"
"No idea, but that man does seem familiar. That's what makes this dream strange, it's the familiarity. As for 'Malenkaya', I'm not sure about that either, but it sounds like one of the Slavic languages."
"Right, so what happened next?"
"Well, the second dream was a complete contrast to the first one."
"Hush little baby don't say a word, sissy's gonna buy you a Mockingbird. And if that mockingbird doesn't sing, sissy's gonna buy you a diamond ring…" the little girl, with bouncy soft curls, softly sings to her baby brother. She's sitting in a rocking chair with her baby brother laying in her lap, facing out a tall window overlooking an elaborate garden meant for royalty during a beautiful summer day. Looking down at her brother with an adoring smile continues to hum the song to the now sleeping baby.
"Well, I can see why you described her as careful and compassionate. What happened next?"
"These dreams continue to become stranger, especially this next one…"
"Hahahahaha!" The little four-year-old girl with bouncy auburn curls laughed as she skates over the ice-covered lake in the gardens of her palace like home. She's skating around with a girl who was a little taller than her and looked extremely similar to her as well. Her little baby brother was sitting on the edge of the lake, wrapped up in elegant blankets with the wet nurse and the children's mother, who were watching her girl's skate.
Suddenly a man, tall with a nicely trimmed dark brown beard, walked up to the mother. They spoke quietly, but the girls could tell something was wrong. The atmosphere around the lake had changed with the approach of the strange man. He looks different from the rest of them, and the conversation he was having with their mother was obviously bad due to the hard expressing habituating her face and looked to be keeping herself from attacking the man. Then suddenly, she spits out, "you're no longer welcome here, get out! You will perish if you step one foot in the direction of my family and our homes!" With that, the man replies with something that could not be heard from where the girls stood. And with that, the man vanished into thin air with a loud crack.
The woman looked back to her children, she opened her mouth, "come, girls—"
"I had woken up before she could finish her sentence. But the bearded man, he seemed very familiar. Familiar as in I feel that we both know him and see him on a consistent basis."
"That's strange; the only bearded man that we know is Dumbledore, but that doesn't make sense. But I do have to admit that I wouldn't be surprised if that was him, considering what he has done and neglected these past five years." Harry replies to the witch. "But these dreams don't seem to be connected to Bellatrix."
"That's exactly what I was thinking, but the next one seems to be connected to Bellatrix specifically." She received a nod from the wizard to continue on telling the sequence of the next dream. This dream was different from the rest. This time, instead of watching the dream play out, I was the little girl, watching through her eyes. I woke up from what seemed to be a deep slumber. There was a woman with black silky, wavy hair at my side. She told me that she wanted for me to meet a few people. She picked me up and carried me downstairs into a room that seemed to be a library. I noticed five silhouettes standing and sitting around the room; there was one who had her back towards me. She started to turn around as the woman holding me said, 'Anya, I would like you to meet…" And then I woke up to see you waking up."
Taking in all of the information, Harry made a realization but instead of voicing it, he chose to ask more questions. "Hermione, were you able to discern any defining features of the woman with her back towards you?"
Thinking on it, "umm, she had long black and curly hair, I believe. She seemed to be a few inches taller than my height now."
Nodding, he questioned further, "Do you know who Anya is? Does that name sound familiar to you?"
Confused, yet intrigued by the question, Hermione answered the unusually inquisitive boy. "I've not heard that name before, or at least I don't remember hearing it. I believe that that's the little girl's name."
Finally deciding to voice his theory, Harry posed one more question, "Hermione, based on the description you gave me about the woman, who does that remind you of?"
Under Harry's inquisitive, yet concerned gaze, Hermione thought on the description and then it hit her. With shaking hands, she looked at Harry hesitantly. "It describes Bellatrix, doesn't it?" She received a tentative nod from her green-eyed friend. Gulping, she asked her next question. "Based off of my dreams and my conversation with Bellatrix, do you think that I could be this little girl, this Anya?" Again, she received another tentative nod.
Sighing, she too thought of the possible chance of being this little girl. This highly confused her, she would've had to be adopted in order for this to be possible. But I'm not adopted, I look like my parents. I look nothing like that little girl, Hermione thought. She looked at her friend, "Harry, that's not possible. I wasn't adopted, and I look like my parents, not this little girl. Besides they would have told me if I was adopted, right?" Hermione only received a grimace from Harry.
