Images flashed behind her closed eyes; her dream's heartbeat quickened with the pace of nightmares, horrid memories…
Professor Sprout, dead, being hovered above the fray by some sympathetic Hogwartian, trying to prevent her body from being any more sullied… Terry Boot, coated in third degree burns, screaming, his voice echoing above the sound of the battle…
Her head gave an almighty pound, her visions twisting, fact mixing with fantasy- her parents were in a portrait behind Tonk's body, Ginny swimming beside them, blaming Hermione for what happened, yelling about the jellyfish, why hadn't Hermione stopped it?
Mr. Weasley had Crookshanks for a head, Dumbledore hanging suspended from the ceiling like Sprout, but his face was livid, sparkling blue eyes turning into red, slit like holes…
Harry was angry at her, whipping her with Nagini, scolding her on how she had let him down, how useless she was…
Ron was riding a spider, telling her to come on, it was fun, the Death Eater was torturing a kangaroo, for some reason thinking it was her father….
"Hermione." The kangaroo said, shaking violently. "Come on, Hermione. Once you eat me you'll feel better. Come on, pumpkin."
"No." She replied firmly to the kangaroo. "I don't eat you."
"What?"
Now who was that?
She was once more blessed with darkness, but then the darkness faded, a roguish, orange shade radiating from her eyelids- eyelids-
"Hmm?"
Hermione Granger blinked; she was so dizzy, he stomach literally pitching as if a small sailboat in a storm, she didn't want to see more light- it would pierce her, break her apart, and tear her body…
"Here, dear-"
Something was pressing against her lips; they wanted her to take a sip-
She closed her mouth around the small vile, tilting her head back as fast as it would allow her, letting the biting, icy liquid to slide down her throat, she was reminded of an equally frozen potion, long ago in a dark room, she had been scared, so very scared then…
She felt the ice spread through her veins, clearing the passages blocked in her head, she gave a little shudder, but then it was over, the throbbing in her head cleared, the pressure gone.
"Thanks." She murmured, pushing the hair off her face, sitting up maybe a bit too fast- she was woozy still, her eyes closed again as she made to lay back down on her cushioned mat-
"No, honey, better to stay up." That voice- she hadn't heard it in the longest time- she hadn't noticed how much she missed it, how much she craved it, until this very second.
"Mum." She sighed, opening her bright brown eyes slowly, afraid, like that it would be just another stage of her sickening dream…
"Yes, I'm here." It really was her mother, smiling down at her- her wide smile; Hermione had always been envious of her mother's smile, so warm, so cheering…
"And we promise we won't make you eat us." Ginny was laughing on her other side- Hermione blushed; she hadn't talked in her sleep in ages-
"What's going on?" She was so confused. She looked up, around- they were still in the ocean Atrium, how long had she been out? Where was everyone else?
"Well. You, since you haven't eaten in, you know, twelve hours, and since you're not used to being chased around a giant labyrinth and then battling runaway Death Eaters-you passed straight out." Ginny lectured, mock serious, now throwing a banana at her friend, who clumsily caught it and wolfed it down.
"I knew you should have had breakfast." Mrs. Weasley sputtered, embarrassed to be admitting mistreatment of someone under her charge in front of said charge's mother. Hermione remembered a faint image of turning away waffles before they left for the ministry, ashamed of how Mrs. Weasley was ashamed. She hated this whole guilt trapping thing. This made her, for the most part, brutally straightforward. But at least she usually got to avoid situations like this.
The banana was already helping; she could feel her stomach accepting the fruit into its clutches, sending small gas bubbles back up her esophagus.
The door on the other side of the hallway opened, making everyone's head turn as anxiety momentarily took control of their minds-
But it was just Harry.
"Hullo." He said as he got closer, striding confidently down the hall, his robes torn and hair grey with dust. "Hullo Mrs. Granger!" he remarked pleasantly, shaking her hand after an awkward attempt to –maybe hug her mother? Hermione giggled.
He looked down at her, disheveled hair and banana peelings included-
"See your feeling better." He grinned, pulling a chair over from near the wall, ignoring the rather large shark that was staring at him greedily. "Mrs. Granger, I can not begin to tell you how much Hermione has done for us." She glared at him. "She's one of the reasons I'm still here." She bent over to slap him, Harry sliding over to avoid her hand.
"And she didn't loose a bit of spirit." Ginny finished, walking over to lean on the back of his chair, Harry's emerald green eyes good-natured and winking.
Hermione threw her peel at him.
Her mother was laughing.
"I'd believe that." She chortled, reaching for her daughter's hand and rubbing it lovingly.
Hermione looked up at the people staring down at her from her perch on the thin mat, she felt small, a newborn her family was fawning over.
Her checks began to color again. This was just all too strange.
The loud creak of noise told them the door was opening again- this time bringing Mr. Granger and-
"Hermione?" Ron sprinted past the adults to run over to her, almost knocking Ginny out of the way as he went around her to stop short behind Hermione, sitting down as fast as he could without his rather long limbs getting in the way, his freckled cheeks scrunched up in worry, relaxing when he saw her bemused, but otherwise absolutely normal, expression.
"I'm fine." She said quietly as his face began to blush from making such a scene. "Thank you." She whispered, far quieter, smiling at him. Oh, Ronald.
"So." Mrs. Weasley said tentatively, zoning Hermione back to the hall, releasing her eyes from the grip of Ron's. She turned and saw her father- she got herself up and ran to him, hugging him tight, his arms shaking as he held his only child.
Everything that she had been though, from battles to funerals, camping to nightmares, melted away as she buried her face in her father's chest- suddenly she was six, being picked up after falling down the stairs- eight, after being teased, eleven, getting her Hogwarts letter during dinner one summer day- fifteen, seeing the looks of disappointment on her parent's face after telling them she would have to stay at Hogwarts that Christmas…
"We missed you." Her father's voice was trembling, she could hear the muted conversation continuing behind her, but it wasn't real, nothing had happened, all she had done was fall down the stairs….
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"…And that's when-"
"We fell into the ocean." Hermione finished for Ginny, loving the sounds of surprise coming from the rest of the table.
"Seriously?" Ron asked from her other side, baffled.
"Seriously." She replied, leaning back in the wooden chairs of the Doxy-Day, kicking him softly underneath the table cloth, watching his blue eyes flicker in the firelight...
"It was a type of farm." Ginny tried to explain, maiming swimming to the amusement of them all. "And there was jellyfish."
"How in hell's name did you end up there?" Harry asked, laughing and shaking his head.
"Oh, shut up." Ginny nudged him; Hermione threw the crust of her bread at his head.
"Be nice, girls." Mr. Granger said before taking a long draft of Butterbeer. He loved the sweet drink.
"Anyway." Hermione started again, raising her voice above the laughter. "They were cultivating some type of plant, and there was a door on the bottom, so we had to swim down to it-"
"Let me guess-" Harry said, holding an empty tea cup to his eye- "The dregs told me you used a- er- bubble head charm!"
Hermione clapped, Ginny praising his immense seer traits.
"How did you get out of there?" Mrs. Granger asked, clearly worried about her daughter's previous predicament.
"The door, Mum!" Hermione answered reassuringly- she smiled at her Mother, thinking some other stories would have to be left untold in her presence.
"What?" Ron asked, smirking- "Where the bloody 'ell did you find a door?"
"Ronald." Ginny started, leaning down the table to get closer to him. "Sometimes there is just a door!"
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Ron laughed, waving her off.
"I'm with Ron." Harry pointed sharply with his spoon, splattering Hermione's dad with treacle tart. "Oh, sorry about that, Mr. Granger"
"No Problem, Harry." He said, patting him on the back, beaming in the dim light of the Doxy-Day's dining room.
"Anyway-" Ginny resumed telling the story, waving around her goblet a bit drunkenly. "We got through the jellyfish and those creepy plants-"
"Gillyweed." Tia said picking up Hermione's finished dinner plate, smiling as Hermione nodded her thanks at the waitress.
"Excuse me?" Harry asked, mouth hanging open.
"Gillyweed." Tia responded, eyebrows raised. "Our Ministry is famous for their Gillyweed."
Harry groaned, head in hands, drawing a tremendous laugh from the table. Tia walked hurriedly away from the table, wondering about the sanity of those famous foreigners.
Ron was still banging his hand on the table when they had stopped their hysterics enough for Hermione to speak.
"Enough about us though." She said, brushing tears from her cheeks. "What happened to you, Mum?"
Her mom looked a bit nervous.
"You really want us to tell you?" she asked, looking at her husband.
"Of course you don't if you don't want to!" Hermione said quickly, a bit surprised. "It's just that, you know, suddenly you were there and I have no idea how, it just really- was, er, a shock, you know?"
There was a pause in which the chatter and sounds of the other people around them penetrated their painfully silent table.
"Okay." Mrs. Granger said slowly- everyone leaned in a bit, like if they were school children sharing a piece of juicy gossip.
"What day is it?" she now asked, deep in concentration.
"Er- June fifteenth. 1998." Ron deciphered from his golden watch, squinting his eyes to better see the symbols underneath the glass.
"Right." Mrs. Granger sat up, pushing her light brown hair- thick, like her daughters, away from her face, taking a deep breath before she started her story.
"Well, then, it's been about eleven months since we left England under your charm." She gestured to Hermione, who was glad the faint light hid her blush. She was very happy her parents hadn't brought that up before hand. It was just one of those things where you just didn't want to talk about it…
"And, my dear, what a charm it was. We had no inkling of anything of you, or of anything. It seems like such an empty time when I look back on it now. It's a little scary, what your spells can do." She gave a small tremble, and breathed deeply.
"We lived comfortably." Her father picked up the thread, shrugging his shoulders. "We visited the sights, rented a condo, cooked our own dinners. It wasn't bad. We had some good times."
"It still was strange though." Mrs. Granger said, nodding to her husband. "Everything, still was okay until we decided to go to-"
"New Zealand." Mr. Granger stated, taking another sip of butterbeer.
"Yes, New Zealand." Hermione looked at her Mother. She had her brave face on. What had happened to them? Guilt flooded her heart.
"And that's when they found us. Not to sure how they did that. But, anyway, that was when Wendell and Monica Wilkins faded back into Kathleen and Kenneth Granger."
"It took them a while though." Her dad started, his face, even now, shinning with pride. "And when they finally did, they couldn't get information out of us anyway."
Hermione's Mom looked troubled. "Something happened then, though. Something big. They were talking about being caught, it all being over."
"Must have been after the 23rd then." Ginny whistled softly to herself, engrossed, as them all, in their tale.
"So they brought us back to Australia." Mrs. Granger glanced fleetingly at Mr. Granger. "But they were much…gentler, then before. And then we waited."
Hermione felt something was wrong.
"Mum- before that- did they- hurt you?"
Mrs. Granger shifted uncomfortably. "A bit." She said quietly. Hermione's anger bristled. If they were like any other Death Eaters, they would have tortured the Muggles senseless. She felt sick. They had better get the most horrendous punishment possible.
"And, and then, half of them left. Earlier today. And then they took us to that building."
Mr. Granger took his wife's hand. "And then we were rescued."
Mrs. Weasley was saying something about how happy they were that they were fine, Harry was talking about how that was the last of the bad guys; everything was going to be okay now.
No, it's not. It's not okay, Harry. She wanted to scream, to yell. Anger was buzzing in her ears, she wanted to do something, hurt them for hurting her so much- she couldn't stand it.
Someone tapped her shoulder.
"What?" she snapped.
It was Ron, pointing to the middle of the dining room, where, she saw, there was a band, and people dancing.
"Would you like too?" he asked slowly, sensing her fury.
"Oh." She sighed. His face fell a little bit.
"Yeah, why not." she said, trying to give a convincing smile.
He beamed back, taking her hand and dragging her out of her wooden chair, she was giggling- now they were dancing, he was holding her close, they were spinning around to the loud beat, with every stomp she released some of her irritation, her heart lifted up as they laughed together, bumping into the other dancers…
Death Eaters can wait- She thought, letting Ron spin her around. And when we do get to them, they better be prepared for the worst we can bring.
A/N: okay, hope you like it! If you have alerts to this story (and thank you if you do!) watch out, I'm going to be proofing and re-posting chapters, so they won't be new, just prettier. Thanks, and please review and keep reading!