A.N.: Hey guys, here's another chapter for you. I hope you like it. My motivation to write has suffered quite a bit in the last days, but I am going over the betaed version of my other story at the moment, so this might be the reason why. But if you want to leave some words of encouragement for me, that surely wouldn't go amiss. ;-)

Chapter 21: The dreams we have

24th of May 1981

Hermione was in a brilliant mood when they left Snape's home at Spinner's end and went back to the twin's house. It seemed like Harry's parents were really safe as Pettigrew was finally out of the way. Even if keeping him prisoner was not the solution Hermione had hoped for, it seemed to be the only way as Lupin and his friends simply refused to listen to her. And it wasn't like Hermione felt too sorry for the traitorous rat.

"Do you want to see the necklace now?" Gideon asked her as soon as they had taken off their travelling cloaks and they were just about to sit down on the sofa.

Hermione nodded enthusiastically. "If it isn't too much of an effort for you? I'd love to see it, just to put my mind at rest."

Fabian smiled and took her hand. "Well, come along then. We'll quickly give you a tour. It's not far."

It really wasn't, as the two of them just lead her into the library of the house. There they went straight to one of the shelves at the right wall of the room and stopped in front of it.

"Have you hidden it behind the books?" Hermione asked in a disbelieving tone, but they just looked at her with twinkling eyes.

"Well, that wouldn't really be a good hiding-place, would it?" Fabian said with a grin and pointed to one of the books. It was a smallish, boring looking copy of "Easy household spells" that looked like it had never been touched before which wasn't surprising in a house that was run by two young bachelors. "Now watch." He took out his wand, carefully tipped the back of the book three times and said: "I am a Horcrux hunter". But nothing happened.

"Ehm, alright?" she said with curious eyes but the redhead just grinned at her knowingly. "And now?"

"Now I go through," he said and waggled his eyebrows before he made a big step and disappeared right through the shelf, much like one passed through the wall at King's Cross for the Hogwarts Express.

"Wow," she said and looked at the remaining redhead admiringly. "Can I go next?"

Gideon smiled. "Sure, but you'll have to repeat the procedure Fabian just showed you."

"Alright." She took out her wand and tapped the back of the book three times with her wand, before repeating: "I am a Horcrux hunter." Then she smiled at her friend and made a big step to pass the shelf. It worked perfectly and before Hermione knew it, she found herself in a small circular room with a circular table in the middle. Fabian was already waiting for her with a proud grin on his face.

"Welcome to one of our hidden little rooms," he said and just as he finished, Gideon stepped through the wall behind her.

"There are more rooms like this in the house?" Hermione asked them with wide eyes and they smiled.

"Of course there are more. We are warders Hermione. One could say creating secret passages and rooms is one of our hobbies," Gideon replied instead of his brother and stepped next to her.

"That's…" but Hermione was lost for words.

"Amazing? Sexy?" Fabian helped her out with a grin.

Hermione snorted. "I was more thinking in the lines of useful, but those two might work as well," she agreed, before she could think about it twice and stepped closer.

Gideon laughed. "Just to let you know, this room is very well warded. Only the three of us can enter as we keyed it explicitly to our magical signatures. One could say that for any other person the room doesn't even exist."

"That's brilliant!" Hermione said and beamed at them. But then her eyes travelled to the round table on the middle, where she spied a big metallic jewellery box that was decorated with several carved runes. Her eyes widened.

"Is the Horcrux in there?" she asked and the twins nodded synchronously.

"Yeah, you can try to open it, if you want," Gideon said with a smile and Hermione nodded. She carefully stepped closer to the table and took the box into her hands. But as she tried to open the lid it didn't budge. She frowned.

"I guess using the same words as in the library won't work, right?" she said and looked at the two of them questioningly. They shook their heads with a smile.

"No," Fabian confirmed and stepped closer. "You don't need another sentence to open it. But you'll always need two of us."

"Yeah, we thought that would give us additional safety if one of us falls victim to the Imperius Curse or decides to take the Horcrux without the agreement of the others," Gideon finished for him. At that Fabian put his hands on the box next to Hermione's and the lid sprang open with a satisfying click.

"Brilliant," Hermione breathed and looked at the two of them in awe. And she meant it. Those two were really the best allies she could have wished for her self-appointed task. And she was glad that fate had brought her to their door and let her save their lives, because without Fabian and Gideon Prewett wouldn't have been half as good and more importantly: the world would have been a much more lifeless place.

"Hermione, love," a voice whispered into her ear and a moment later she felt the gentle hand that caressed her body. It felt good, she thought as the sleepiness slowly faded away and made room for the world around her. Slowly Hermione blinked her eyes open and they focussed on the smiling redhead above her – Ron. Something in her mind said, that he shouldn't be here, no that she shouldn't be here, but a moment later she didn't care.

"Ron? What is it?" she asked and looked at him with blurry eyes, but he just stared back at her with bright blue eyes as a smile tugged at his lips.

"Do I need a reason to wake my beautiful girlfriend up in the middle of the night?" he whispered with twinkling eyes before his lips were on hers. Hermione sighed and melted into his arms. Gods it felt good when he touched her like that. His large hands captured her cheek while he stretched himself out over her on his elbows and his tongue traced her lip ever so slowly until she finally opened her mouth for him. Her mind began to race as his tongue gently caressed hers as his fingers twisted with her curls.

"No, I was just wondering if something happened. After the war, I keep expecting bad news to come. And George…"

But he silenced her with another kiss. "Don't worry about George, Mione. He's fine… and I really don't want you to think about my brother just now." With that, Ron's hand trailed lower, across her shoulder towards her breasts. She tensed for a short moment before she willed herself to relax in her boyfriend's arms. It was Ron for Merlin's sake and he definitely didn't mean to scare her.

"Alright," she mumbled before concentrating back on the kiss. Meanwhile, she moved her hands to his back to trace his spine and shoulder blades with her fingers. Just now she realized that his torso was completely unclothed and goosebumps were starting to spread on his skin. "Are you cold?" she asked uncertainly which produced a smile on his lips.

"Absolutely not, it's actually quite the opposite," he confessed before kissing her again. But Hermione couldn't really comprehend what he was saying as her head started to get more and more empty and coherent thoughts would no longer come. Ron's thumb started stroking her breast through her pyjama top while his mouth sucked at her lip before he kissed his way down over her jaw towards her throat. And Hermione felt goosebumps spread on her skin now, too.

"Definitely not cold," she mumbled and gripped his shoulders to pull him closer towards her. She could feel him smile against her skin before his teeth started scraping and nibbling at her throat. Hermione moaned and pressed herself into the pillow.

"Gods Hermione, you're so gorgeous," her boyfriend mumbled and he could feel his fingers fumbling with the buttons of her pyjamas. "I want you so badly," he confessed and stared at her with big vulnerable eyes. Her heart started to thrum in her chest with nervousness. "Please Hermione, could we…" his eyes raked over her body before he fixed her eyes with his again. She knew what he wanted to ask, could feel the need radiating from him.

"You mean…" she trailed of unsurely and cupped his face with her hands. Gods, she wanted him too, had for such a very long time. The last year had been just crazy and there had never been the right moment between school, funerals and helping his family through the grief. But now there was time, now they could be together if they really wanted. She searched out Ron's eyes and could see the uncertainness and love for her reflected in them. Hermione's heart melted for him. "Alright," she said with a nod and pulled him closer into another kiss. "Yeah, let's do this," she said in between kisses as her hands roamed over his back. The smile that spread on his face at her words could only be described as beautiful.

24th of September 1999

Hermione awoke in her bed with a start and realized that she must have had another dream – or vision. Whatever it was that made her see herself back in the other timeline, it got more and more frequent and almost every morning she awoke with an ache in her body, that wouldn't go away for several long minutes or even hours. Sometimes the images she was seeing followed her throughout the whole morning, leaving her moody and sad, as they reminded her of things that could have been, no, that could be, if she was just willing to allow it. And some of these things she wanted so badly. The Ron of her dreams, her Ron, was always gentle and understanding with her. Would the two of them really move their relationship forward when she decided to go back to him? It only made sense, she realized. After school, she would probably stay with him at the burrow and even though he would still be helping his family, the nights would be theirs. Her dreams kept showing her more and more clearly what could happen during those long hours when the house around them was asleep. It was like she could still feel his hands on her skin after waking up and sometimes her body was still thrumming with need, that it made her breathless and desperate. Going back to sleep was never an option after that, even though she often wished herself desperately back into her dreams and into his arms. But it wasn't meant to be.

She threw herself around in bed and groaned into her pillow. Why were her dreams torturing her like this? It almost felt like the other timeline wanted to lure her back, wanted her to decide to go back and just let things happen. Was that possible? Could the universe have some sort of strategy to protect itself against changes by meddling humans? Hermione frowned. That would imply that the universe had something like a consciousness, but from what she was experiencing during the nights, it almost felt like someone wanted to convince her to go back. Because the things she saw in her dreams were always good, always things she really wanted. But Hermione knew that she had gone back for a reason because people were suffering. Visions like that were suspiciously absent from her dreams though.

It was 5 a.m. when Hermione finally crawled out of bed and dragged herself into the bathroom. She knew from experience that sleep would not come and she needed to take her mind off the dream if she didn't want to be haunted by it for hours. And the best way to do this was a hot shower, tea and a good book. But not today. The images would simply not stop replaying, her mind was turning and turning, looking for a way to have both, but she always came back to the realization that it was either her own happiness or the others. It was so unfair.

Hermione barely made it onto the sofa before the tears started coming. She wrapped herself in a thick blanket as heavy sobs began to wrack her body. She didn't even notice the heavy steps that came towards her through the living room and she just realized Severus was there when his strong arms suddenly wrapped themselves around her and pulled her close. He didn't say a word and just kept holding and rocking her as all the sadness and frustration bubbled out of her at once. The tears ran dry after a while. Even though her heart was still full of sorrow, her body too wrung out to cry any longer.

"Better now?" Severus mumbled gently, stroking her hair.

She nodded with a sigh. "Yes, thanks for holding me and helping me through. Sometimes it all just gets to be too much, and…" but she didn't know how to finish the sentence so she stared into her lap awkwardly.

"What's wrong Hermione?" he finally asked, before he gently took hold of her chin and pulled it up. "You've been moping around the flat for days and I keep wondering what's wrong with you." He sighed before searching out her eyes. "You can tell me, you know? Whatever it is, Hermione, I'm here for you."

She sniffed and wiped her tear-stained face with her sleeves. Severus looked at her with dark, honest eyes that were so full of kindness that it made her realize once more, how different this version of him was. And it made her heart ache even more. "A few days ago I visited Professor Dumbledore," she started in between hiccups, as she tried to get herself back under control. "I asked him about the time traveller's curse."

He nodded encouragingly even though his face remained solemn. "I thought so," he said and offered her a tissue to clean her nose. Hermione accepted it with a shy smile. She knew she probably shouldn't tell him as it would bring him into an impossible situation. But right then she felt selfish and that meant unloading her burden on somebody that could understand the whole scale of the decision she had to make and the impossibility of it. And so Hermione told him. She told him about what she had learned from Dumbledore, about her meeting with Ron and the other Weasleys, her visit with the Potters and about the dreams. Once she had started to talk, the words just kept tumbling out of her mouth and the longer she talked, the better she felt. Snape never once interrupted her and just kept handing her tissues and rubbing her back. It was almost surreal but she was thankful nonetheless.

"Well? Say something Severus," she said and looked at her friend pleadingly. "Please."

He stared at her for a moment longer, before he blinked and squeezed her shoulder reassuringly. Then he took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment before he said: "I am in a quite difficult situation here Hermione. As you can imagine, I have a lot to lose through the decision you have to make. I am therefore far from neutral. But I am also your friend and will try to act accordingly. Never doubt that."

Hermione nodded understandingly and leaned herself against his side. "I know. That's why I was struggling to tell you. And really, the decision I have to make should be an easy one as most of the people are much better off here. But still…"

He nodded. "Yes, you feel like you're not. But that's the thing, Hermione, I don't see it quite that way. Even though you probably lost Harry and your boyfriend, you also have friends here. At least I hope you see me and the Prewetts that way."

Hermione nodded awkwardly. "Of course I do, Severus."

He smiled. "Good, because that's what we are." He patted her shoulder. "I know losing the person you love is hard, but believe me you can find another love for yourself if you just give it a chance. Your Ron might have been the perfect guy for you, but he might also not have been."

She shrugged helplessly but didn't really feel like saying something. So Severus continued.

"Believe me, Hermione, I know how you feel. Remember? I've been there. You have seen my other self, pining after Lily for what, decades? It was really hard to let her go and be open for something new, as I always thought she was the love of my life. She probably could have been, but it wasn't meant to be. I found Charity and we are happy Hermione. And you can be happy, too."

The traitorous tears had started falling again and Hermine wiped them furiously with her sleeve. "You really think so?"

Severus smiled encouragingly. "Absolutely. You just need to allow yourself to let go. I know it hurts, but it gets better. And then you can find somebody that makes your heart flutter."

Hermione nodded with a smile. "Alright, I'll try to let him go. But it's not easy when these dreams keep forcing themselves on me."

"Are you or are you not friends with a potions master, Hermione?" he asked her with a raised eyebrow. "If you really no longer want to have them, then I'll brew you a modified, not-addictive version of the dreamless sleep potion. You could take it until it's time for you to make the decision. Afterwards, those dreams should no longer be an issue."

She looked at him with wide eyes. "You'd really do that for me?" But that just made him snort.

"Are you serious? I am a Slytherin Hermione, self-preservation is our second nature. It is in my best interest to make you as happy in this timeline as you can be. If this is through brewing you a potion or playing matchmaker myself doesn't matter.

She stuttered. "You wouldn't."

But Severus just looked at her with gleaming eyes. "Draco is still single as far as I know. Or maybe the Weasley twins? You could easily be part of the Weasley clan again if this is what you want to be."

"Merlin, you're serious, aren't you?" she said and looked at him with wide eyes.

"Absolutely. Whatever it is you need Hermione, don't hesitate to ask for it. And I say that as your friend, not as an interested party."

She nodded awkwardly. "Alright. But I think a shoulder to cry on and the dreamless sleep will be enough for now."

"As you wish," he said with a nod and looked at her with dark, scrutinizing eyes. And Hermione couldn't help but think that he was already making plans for her anyway.