A/N: thanks for the reviews :) but i hope i could have more ...

Fall to Pieces

Chapter 7

Hermione spent the next day up in her room reading old copies of National Geographic. In one issue there was an article about wildlife along the Maine coast. She studied the photographs with interest. She didn't wander downstairs until late in the afternoon, when her stomach was grwoing with hunger. Jennny was on the pohone in the kitechen. She hang up when Hermione came in and smiled uncertainly.

"Jerry just called and asked me to go see the Rodin exhibit at the art museum before dinner. He's invited you, too. How about it? I want you to meet him. He can pick us up in about tweenty minutes." When Hermione didn't answer, she walked over and gave her daughter an awkward hug. "Honey, are you all right?"

"I'm okay," Hermione answered faintly

Jenny looked doubtful. "Maybe I'd better stay home. You look funny."

"No, it's fine. Really, Mom. You go right ahead. I'm just tried, you wouldn't believe. I'm going to eat something then just hang out."

"But wouldn't you like to come with us? You like sculpture."

Hermione took a box of crackers from the cupboard and carried it to the family room. She flopped down on the couch. "Some other time, Mom."

Jenny followed her. "Do you want a pillow? Should I turn up the air conditioner?"

"No thanks," Hermione murmured. She felt she was behind a glass wall. Her mother's voice came to her only faintly. "I'm really fine. You have a good time." She flicked on the TV. Within seconds, it seemed, she was asleep. Or half asleep-for she heard the sound of the doorbell over the laugh track from the sitcom, heard her mother's voice in the kitchen and Jerry's deeper rumble. The door to the family room creaked open and she knew jen was looking in on her just the way she did when Hermione was sick. 'And maybe I am sick', she thought. 'Maybe that's why everything seems so weird.'

She heard them leave the house, heard Jerry's car in the driveway. And then nothing more. Eyes closed, she was floating. After a while she fell straight into the dream

This time I can see that the walls of the hallway are paneled and the floor is covered with a thick Oriental carpet-all deep reds and browns. There the doors on both sides of the hallway, dark wood, with gleaming brass handles. I hover at the top of the wide staircase, looking down the hall. This time another girl floats beside me. She was wearing a long dress.blonde braids are wrapped around her head.

There's a man's deep voice rumbling through the thick wooden door at the end of the hall. Then there's a shriek, high and keening, full of pain. Driven by a desperate urgency, I float down the hall and reach out for the doorknob. The girl right behind me, grabs my arm. "No!" she cries.

But I shake her off as I know I must, and I push the door slowly open. The next cry I hear I recognize as my own.

Oh, there is blood everywhere. On the bed sheets. On the woman who lies so still atop the coverlet. On the man who bends over the bed. He hears my scream and whirls around. His face above his dark beard is white. Teeth bared in a grimace, his spits words at me: "Now we've lost her. Damn you!"

Behind me, the girl is crying.

I try to run, but my legs pump air. I must get away, must get away. And somehow I reach the stairs. At the bottom I catch sight of the ornate wall mirror and stop. The room spins dizzily around me and my stomach lurches with sick dread, for the face in the mirror is not my own but that face of the rosy-cheeked girl in the hall.

"Hermione! Come on, Hermione! Let us in."

She opened her mouth in a cry that wrenched her, finally, fully awake.

"Hermione, we just want to talk to you for a few minutes."

She sat up on the couch and saw Amanda and Draco tapping on the glass of the slidding door to the patio. She stared at them, twisting her hands together, trying to separate reality from the dream.

Amanda's wry smile was clear through the glass door. "It isn't every evening I make such an effort to talk to a friend," she called. "But I figure you're worth it."

Dazed, Hermione walked slowly over to the door, reached out a hand as if to open it, then instead grabbed the tie that released the blinds. She tugged hard. They clattered down from the ceiling, covering the glass, obscuring the trepassers from view.

"Hey!" Cried Amanda.

Hermione run to the kitchen and grabbed her mother's keys off the counter. Then, heart racing, she slipped out of the kitchendoor and ran out to Jenny's car. Thank God she and Jerry had driven off in his. Amanda's blue car was parked behind Jenny's in the driveway, but Hermione turned the key in the ignition, gunned the engine, and spun the wheel hard enough to make a tight turn onto the grass. In seconds she would be away from them.

Then she saw Draco running towards her across the grass. "Hermione! Hermione, wait."

In blind panic, she wrenched the wheel to the right and careened across the lawn, narrowly missing him. She spun down Valley Road toward route 21. "It's nothing to do with me!" She yelled at the top of her lungs.

She slowed to a safer speed as she neared the shopping center. 'Calm down, calm down,' she told herself. She would be absolutely fine just as long as Draco stay away from her. Just as long as no one mention water or blood, just as long as she stayed awake and on guard and didn't didn't let herself dream even for a second about old houses and long hallways. Or hatboxes. She was one hundred percent fine as long as she pushed from her mind the memory of the face she saw in the mirror-the face that was not her own.

How much finer could anyone get?

When she was stopped at the traffic light back near the shopping center again, she saw Amanda's blue car turn the corner. Amanda was driving with Draco beside her. At the sight of him, Hermione stomach felt hollow again. But he should be the one feeling quilty-after what he'd done to her!

She heard the whisper in her mind: And after what you did to him!

She accelerated with a lurch and zoomed down Route 2, right into the next town. After tweenty more minutes of drving aimlessly through unfamiliar nighborhoods, she felt considerable calmer, and headed home. When she let herself in the kitchen door, the house was queit. But the flashing red light on the answering machine didn't have to be loud to get her attention. It made no sound, but flashed there, on and off, with the impack of an emergency siren at top volume.

Hermione threw the keys into the counter. She rewound the tape on the answering machine without listening to the message and ran upstairs. She flopped across her bed and stared up at the ceiling, willing the calm of her room to quiet her pounding head. Was she really cracking up? Jenny would be ashamed.

Downstairs, the doorball rang. And rang. And rang.

She pulled her pillow over her head and waited until Draco and Amanda went away again.

Finally, all was quiet. She started to cry. She had to get away from here. Draging herself out of bed, she crossed the room to her desk and picked p her adress book. She sat on the edge of her bed and reached for the phone on the bedside table. She dialed numbly, staring out the window. Dusk had fallen.

John answered on the first right.

"Hello, Dad?"

"Hermione! What a surpise!"

"Dad-listen, I've changed my mind. I do want to come see you and Paulette. Right away."

"Hey, that's great. Why the sudden change of heart?"

She clutch the receiver tightly, winding the cord around her hand. Her line to safety.

"I"ll admit I'm flattered. And relieved. But what does your mom say?"

"Oh, you know Mom." Hermione hesitated. Then she tried to make her voice light. "She'd rather I stayed here, actually. She's got me all signed up for swimming lessons at the rec center."

There was a slience. Then john cleared his throat. "I see," he said. "Yes, I think I'll make those plane reservations right away. Don't you worry, honey. You're on your way to nice, peaceful Hibben, Maine. There's not a rec center for a handred miles."

They talked another few minutes. In the background Hermione could hear Paulette's giggle of excitement. By the time Jenny returned from her date, Hermione and John had settled all the details of the arrangements: Hermione would leave on Monday, the day after tomorrow. Her tickets would be waiting at the airport.

That night Molly slept Dreamlessly.

Hermione pressed her forehead to the window and stared down at the cleveland area as it disappeared beneath a fluffy layer of clouds. As the plane whisked her to Boston on the first leg of her journey, she closed her eyes, and muted hubbub from all the other passengers receded. She felt the vibration of the aircraft through her body. Taking a few deep breaths and rubbing the back of her neck, she resolved not to think about anything but the restful vacation that layed ahead. She would forget all about Michael's surpise at her sudden change in plans when she called to tell him her new summer address. She would forget about Jenny's annoyance and the fact that she had not called Amanda to say good-bye. She resolved especially not to think about Draco Malfoy.

.:Flash back:.

Her mother had not been pleased when she'd learned of Hermione's plan to leave. She seem angry that John made the fight arrangements, but Hermione suspected the anger was really at her for having arranged her escape.

"You're running scared," Jenny told her, shaking her head. "It's weak, Hermione." She was sitting on the edge of Hermione's bed while Hermione threw her clothes into two suitcases, and she reached out her hand to smoothed one of the rupled T-shirts. "Honey, I'd really rather you stayed here for another month. Take swimming lessons during the day, go out with your friends at night-then fly up to see your dad when you've gotten yourself back together. Running away won't help any."

Hermione had taken a deep breath and replied firmly. "Look, Mom. I miss Dad like anything, and i want to see his new house. I want to meet Paulette-and I'll write you all the details so you can have a good laugh. Okay?"

Jenny shugged. "What can i say? You don't fool me for a second, and you're taking the coward's way out. I want you to promise me one thing. Promise me you'll learn to swim while you're there."

"I promise." She'd promise anything for the chance to be handreds of miles away from Draco Malfoy

.:End Flash Back:.

A/N: please review!next chapter will be up soon :)