Tangled
by Rsuth
DISCLAIMER: As the author of this fanfiction story I do not, in any way, profit from the story or claim any rights to the 'Harry Potter' universe. All creative rights to the 'Harry Potter' universe belong to J.K. Rowling. Thank you for letting me play in this amazing world.
CHAPTER SIX
She was once again stuck floating in the darkness. No lights, no sounds, nothing. But she didn't care. She was safe here, she didn't feel pain here. The lights couldn't get her here. Something poked the edge of her consciousness, trying to wiggle itself towards her, but she wasn't ready to acknowledge it yet. Something told her she needed to stay in the dark, at least for a while.
Occasionally she would get a hint of something. A feeling. Something told her it was her hand, being pressed, grasped. A flash of a dark room around her, someone sitting near her. Maybe there was a thunderstorm, maybe that's why she was only getting flashes of the room in the darkness. She thought she recognized the person sitting near her, but they were gone too quickly, and the heavy darkness pushed the memory of them away from her.
ooooooooooooooooooooooooo
She felt like something was pressing on her. Not painfully, but perhaps heavy enough to hold her down. This feeling started to come to her for longer periods of time, then leave her again. Maybe it was trying to tell her something, remind her of something. Was there something she needed to remember? It was so hard to think, everything was choppy and slow. Trying to escape her grasp.
Her room was illuminated again, another flash of light. She could see a white ceiling, a light. Why wasn't the light on before? Maybe that's what she had seen, not lightning. She couldn't move, her body was frozen, her chest heavy. The lights were wiggling into her vision again, bringing with them the burning throb. They covered her eyes, made it hard to see the room. She focused on them, tried to push them away from her once again, but they persisted, trying to overwhelm her with their pain.
Something pushed a few of the lights away. A sound. But she didn't know what it was, it was garbled from behind the crawling wall of lights. She wanted that sound again, wanted it to help free her from the burning lights. She focused on hearing it again. There it was again, a bit clearer this time, the sound finding a way through the gap in the lights. She knew that voice. Somehow she knew that voice. Knew it from her soul. It pushed through the lights once more, and they began to move away, traveling down her limbs, releasing their grasp on her frozen body, but instead leaving a trail of burning heat in their wake.
Somehow she managed to move her head, seeking the voice in the room. She couldn't see clearly, but knew it was him. She needed to tell him that he helped her, that he had freed her, but it was so hard to concentrate on the words she wanted to say. She was so tired, so confused, in so much pain. She concentrated on the one that mattered and forced her lips to move.
"Ron."
She didn't recognize her own voice, but she knew she had made that sound. He must have heard her because he gripped her hand. She wanted him to speak again, wanted to hear the voice that was pulling her away from the lights.
Someone was missing from the room, someone who was also usually beside her. Harry. A thought pushed its way from the back of her mind. She should be worried about something, something had happened. Why couldn't she remember? Her thoughts were just a swirling darkness, something she couldn't quite access. She needed to ask him, needed to make sure they were okay, even if she didn't know why.
"Are you okay? Is Harry okay?" She eventually pushed out, the words echoing sharply in her painful head, making it hard to breathe. Another squeeze to the hand, and she knew they were. But she knew she had to keep talking, even though the darkness was reaching up and twirling itself around her. She had to remember what she couldn't remember.
Maybe he could tell her where this room was, and why she could only see it sometimes.
"Where are we?" Her chest was heavy again, the darkness closer. But she needed to know, needed to make sense of what was happening around her. He spoke, but it was though he was far away, the wind blowing away part of what he was saying.
"Bill…Cottage…Ocean…" She nodded her head, trying to reassure him that she understood, but she was going back down, the darkness swirling into her thoughts, making her confused, trying to make her forget his words. She couldn't fight it anymore, so just let it take her.
oooooooooooooooooooooooo
The lights returned, seeming to move at different spots around her, floating hazily and innocently until they would abruptly flare up and burn her, then just go back to floating. She watched them, not knowing what to expect next, trying to hide but never succeeding. It seemed like she had been there for an eternity, not able to find the room again, when unexpectedly she was aware that something was moving. She tried to move to see what it was, but she was stuck. She pushed against the darkness, trying to move it aside so she could see, but it fought with her, pushing against her with its bottomless weight. She needed to fight back. She had sought its refuge for so long, and now she wondered if it was bad, if it was evil despite the relief from the burning lights it provided. If it was tricking her into hiding within it, hiding her from her friends. She needed to get to them. She felt it holding her again, and she struggled and yelled at it,
"Why are you keeping me here?" she croaked out at it, surprised when the weight lifted off her, "I need to find Ron and Harry, they need to help me!" Her efforts left her with an intolerable stinging, a blasting heat shooting throughout her body, but the darkness stopped trying to pull her down. A voice shot through it, pushing it even further away. She was winning, she was so close.
"Hermione…" the voice whispered, " Hermione... right here, Ron and Harry…right here…need to sleep." She could have cried with relief. They were there, they would help her escape. She needed to tell them, or she would never get away.
"Ron, help me, please. It won't let me go…It hurts…everything hurts…"
She tried to hold on, needed to see if anyone had heard her, had understood her, but it won again and she sank back down into the dark.
But she wasn't going to let it win this time.
She pushed against the boundaries, testing their taught edges as they bounced her away from them. They were waiting for her, Ron and Harry were there, waiting for her. Just on the other side. She focused her energy on pushing at one spot in the darkness, but it kept trying to distract her, tantalize her with an unsaid promise to keep her safe, keep her in a place where she could be nothing, feel nothing. She ignored it, ignored its long tendrils as it grasped at her. The more she fought it, the more it fought back.
It sent the lights after her, their cheerful colours deceiving as they burned her, changing into deep, throbbing shades of red. She was tempted to go back into the nothing, escape the pain, but she knew now that this was false, that she was imprisoned here. She pushed against the lights, trying to get them away from her so she could fight the dark, but they crowded her even closer, the pain and colour disorienting her, overwhelming her.
She didn't know how long she had been fighting , how close she was to giving up again when the voice, his voice, broke through again.
"…Wake up Hermione…" it whispered to her, echoing around her.
"…We're lost without you..." It pushed through the lights, releasing her slowly from their crowding. She had strength again, he was coming for her, coming to save her.
"…I love you, Hermione…" She felt the darkness release her from its grip, recede from her. She fought harder to push it away, so close to escaping.
"…I'm sorry…I love you, come back to me..." She could feel her body again, feel sense running up and down her limbs. She remembered…remembered that they had been captured…that Ron had saved her then, too. Her memories were returning to her, released from where they had been hidden behind the darkness and pain. She put all her effort into one last push, and suddenly she was in the room again, light burning her eyes, the scratch of fabric beneath her sore body, her breathing to loud for her ears. She blinked away the tears, needing to find him, wanting to tell him she was there. She was back.
"Ron."
A/N: Next chapter will give context to what is happening around Hermione in this chapter. If this didn't make much sense to you, never fear it will all be explained!
