I looked in the mirror before I decided to go back and see Professor Lupin. Can you do this? I asked myself. The idea of seeing Ron in my dreams and actually being with him was so great that I wanted it now, let's go! The idea of seeing Voldemort? Not so much. I walked back out to Professor Lupin and decided that I needed much more clarification.

"Professor Lupin.."

"Please, Hermione, call me Remus. I'm no longer your Professor and we're going to be working together quite often."

"Alright, Remus I have some more questions. When you say that my dreams will come alive, how does that work and what does it exactly mean? Also, anything that happens in my dreams, will that happen in reality? What happens if I have a nightmare?"

"Let me try and answer those as best as I can. Remember, this magic has not yet been fully explored and I do not know the specific details. Your dreams will not 'come alive' and I apologize for my earlier wording. The host will not know that you will be entering his or her dreams. You cannot enter a mind that we do not specifically target. For example, if I specify you to enter Harry's dreams you will not be able to enter Ginny's or Ron's, understand?"

I nodded as he talked, it made sense but dreams were constantly changing as people's imaginations took over.

"When you enter a host's dream, you can manipulate your interaction with the host. If you touch someone, it will feel as though you touched them but you will not have touched them in reality. Emotionally, they will be affected but not physically. Also, you will be in a dreamless state. I will be putting you under with a sleeping potion and then casting a spell in order for you to join a host's dream."

"I am understanding you Prof… I mean Remus but dreams are constantly changing. They do not have a set time and what about the part of going insane?"

"Excellent questions! I can't tell you about the duration of the dream visits it depends on each person. Here's where it gets tricky. The person will be constantly manipulating their dream. The imagination takes over and the scenarios change rapidly. However, here's where you come in. Your creative side will try and adapt and change with the dreamer. You must not do this. To try and control someone else's imagination would completely destroy your mind and you would be lost. Your logical side must control your impulses and let the dreamer do what they do best: Dream."

I stared at him. "This sounds absolutely terrifying."

"Yes, it does but you will not be alone. I am going to help you with this. We will be doing this together."

I took a minute to try and process all of the information he was giving me. I had some serious reservations about it all but I considered my current situation. What do you have to lose? If you go insane would it any different than the life you're living now? "Alright, Remus. I'm in."

Remus Lupin smiled and said, "We're going to start with someone you are not so emotionally connected to for your first host invasion. Since you and I are the only two people who know about this, let's try someone who you think you will be able to interact with but not be affected by?"

I thought and thought and thought about all the different people that I knew from my life. I looked at him and shrugged.

"Anyone that you just met and would be familiar with their dreams?"

"No, I don't… Oh! What about one of the Weasley's wives?! I just met them and they would probably be dreaming about something Weasley."

Remus considered it and said, "Alright, this worries me because if they dream about something random then you might not find your way out of the dream but I'm not sure what other choice we have. Yes, it will work. Alright, Hermione I will come to your flat tonight around one o'clock in the morning."

"Why so late?"

"People are usually asleep at this hour, no? We could try them now but I bet we wouldn't get very far."

I blushed. Of course we wouldn't. "Alright Remus, I will see you tonight. Do I need to do anything to prepare?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary. Try to stay as relaxed as possible. Other than that, try and mentally prepare what you will be seeing and doing with the dreamer. Saying something, etcetera."

We said goodbye and I just sat in the bakery staring out the window for hours. I daydreamed about Ron and what possible things I could say to him and what possible things we could do in the dream. For the first time since seventh year, I found myself excited when I thought of Ron. The reassurance of not the dreams not being real was huge for me and gave me some confidence that I could actually pull this off.

I wandered around the city for the rest of the day. I tried to think of different scenarios that could happen within the dreams and how I could not control them, even though I would want to. Not getting people to think my way has always been tough but I was going to have to try and control any and all impulses.

Around 12:30 I was completely restless and exhausted. I had been up since 5:00 in the morning and it was way past my normal bedtime. I couldn't stop pacing around the room though. I finally heard the knock of Professor Lupin around 12:45. I opened the door and quickly ushered him in. "Hi, Professor. Come and have a seat. Where should I be? How are we going to do this?"

"Easy does it, Hermione. I know you're nervous and I am as well but we need to calm down as we discuss each step that will be happening."

Calm down? Easy enough for him to say…

He slowly sat down and took out what I assumed was the sleeping potion and his wand. He seemed to be taking his sweet time with everything he was doing. "Did you get a chance to play out some scenarios and how you are going to interact with the host?"

"You mean Charlie's wife? Yes, I figured we'll talk about shopping or some nonsense."

Remus Lupin stared at me. "Do you know anything about shopping"

"I, uh, I mean I've done it before but I don't go constantly." I started to stammer. How was I supposed to have a conversation with someone about things I don't know anything about? "How about Charlie? I could talk about him!"

"That's a start and it will have to do. Ok, I think we're all set and ready to go. Remember, you won't know how long the dream will last so if you start to see things fading or blacking out you need to say the incantation to get yourself out of the dream. The dreams can change suddenly but they are distinctly different than fading and blacking out. Are you ready?"

I looked at everything in front of me and muttered, "No."

He took my hands in his and said, "Hermione Granger, I have every confidence in you. You can do this."

I nodded my consent and he poured some sleeping potion into a small goblet. He took his wand and asked, "Have your wand ready?" I showed it to him. "Tell me again the spell to bring you back?"

"Somnium Tergum."

"Good. Alright, drink this potion." I gulped the potion down and I barely heard Professor Lupin say, "Somnium Absentis!"

At first I felt as if I was dreaming. I saw images start flashing before my eyes and it felt like watching the television with someone flicking the channels as fast as they could. I could have sat there and just watched forever when I felt something sharp jab me in the arm. I remembered that I had a job to do. I held my wand in the air and said the name of Charlie's wife. Suddenly, the channels stopped flickering and one image started coming at me. It surrounded me and then I stood up into the dream. I looked around and saw Charlie and tried to say hi but quickly Charlie's wife came into the room. "Why, hello, Hermione! Good to see you!" Before I could talk I could see Charlie's wife had changed. She was a bit taller, more slender, and gorgeous! Charlie had short hair and was cooking and it was so odd! They were them but different. Suddenly we were in the dining room eating and I looked at my own appearance. I had straighter hair and was less pretty than I thought I was. "Hermione, it is wonderful to have you, I just love to entertain."

I decided to try and talk. "Thank you so much for having me." They both smiled at me. I tried to reach out to touch one of them when we were plunged into water. Charlie and his wife were struggling to breathe and looked like they were in trouble. Oh no! I tried to swim and save them but no matter how hard I swam, they were not getting any closer.

"Hermione! Help us!"

I looked up to see the image flicker and start to go blurry but I was determined to get to Charlie and his wife. I started to feel light headed which I attributed it to me swimming so hard. The water flickered again and I stopped swimming. The picture was fading fast and I screamed as loud as I could, "Somnium Tergum!"

I awoke gasping for breath. "Easy, Hermione! Easy does it!" I was punching and kicking anything that was touching me. "Hermione, it's me. It's Remus!"

I stopped. "Professor Lupin, Charlie and his wife are in trouble. They're drowning somewhere!"

"Listen to me! You were in a dream. Nothing happened, nothing has happened. Shh.." Remus tried to comfort me but I was scared out of my mind. Everything felt so incredibly real. I felt the water, I heard them scream to clearly in my mind.

"I don't understand. It felt so real!"

"Yes, it did. But it's not. Think, girl. Did the sequential images make any sense? Tell me!"

I thought back to the order of what happened. The images of the kitchen, the dining room jump, and the water came back. It was incredibly disorienting thinking back to each one and telling yourself that it did not happen. "Remus, I could talk to them. I tried to touch them but the image changed."

"That was Charlie's wife changing the dream. She either didn't want to be touched or subconsciously she was trying to create a scenario with you and them. What else did you notice?"

"I saw Charlie and his wife but they were slightly different. I was as well. Everything was just off."

"Ah, yes. That is the dreamer creating the images either out of memory or out of want. What was different about them?"

"Charlie had short hair and cooking. She was taller, thinner, and incredibly beautiful and I was this mousy-looking girl."

Remus started to chuckle which I was about to get offended by when he started to explain. "She was creating her ideal image in her dream. She clearly would like to be taller, thinner, and prettier. She wanted shorter hair for Charlie and him to cook! And it looks like she's slightly jealous of your looks."

I looked at him incredulously. "That can't be."

"Definitely seems that way. Now the interesting thing is going to be the reaction out of Charlie's wife. Somehow we are going to have to figure out if you made an impact at all."

"How are we going to be able to do that?"

"I'll get back in contact with Ginny and see if she can work her magic with Charlie and his wife. That girl can get information out of anyone!"

Remus left shortly afterwards and I decided to try and get some sleep. The realness of the dream was incredible and I couldn't wait to try it again.