Chapter 18

She was walking through somewhere. She wasn't sure where but it was familiar and comforting. She couldn't see anyone around her but she knew she wasn't alone. Her surroundings came more into focus, there was grass under her feet and the sky was blue, not a light blue, a darker blue. She surmised it was early evening, her favourite time of day. She smiled and carried on walking, feeling the presence of the person who she knew was there but couldn't see, move towards her.

He liked this time of day, the sun was streaming down on him and the sky was a light blue colour. The grass was soft beneath his bare feet and he felt calm as he walked. He didn't really know where he was, but he liked it. He felt safe, and there was a presence here that made him feel comforted. He looked to his right and felt the pull of … something, lure him in the same direction, like when the pull of the wind turned a broomstick that way and you let it follow it's natural course. Whatever that presence was, he presumed it was a person that was over there, he wanted to move towards it.

The two of them walked a path that brought them together. They moved in parallel for a while, just knowing the other was there whilst they were walking. After a while they stopped and turned to face each other, neither had consciously thought to stop but they both did so at the same time.

They looked at each other and smiled, they took a step towards the other and joined hands. It was comfortable and felt like the most natural thing in the world. He leaned down towards her and she tilted her face towards him and they kissed.

…oooOOOooo…

Hermione woke with a start and took in a deep breath and rolled onto her back. She stared at the ceiling, her heart racing and her breathing heavy. The images that had been filling her subconscious mind flooded her conscious thought and she couldn't get rid of them. Not that she really wanted to, but she couldn't let herself carry on thinking about that. She wouldn't be able to look Ron in the eye for the rest of the day if she didn't.

She cleared her mind and thought of her calming environment. I field of grass, in the early evening …

She tutted.

'Well that's just fantastic!' she mumbled, before rolling back onto her side and trying to get back to sleep.

This is bloody ridiculous! Ron thought to himself as he stared at the ceiling. He'd been doing it for the past five minutes, and was starting to get annoyed with himself.

He'd tried thinking of what relaxed him, Quidditch obviously, but that, and remembering the feeling of just letting the wind take you where it wanted to, took him right back to what woke him up in the first place.

Kissing Hermione.

Yes, he'd dreamt about her before, but that was definitely the first time he remembered kissing her properly.

He thought about it for a few more seconds before physically shaking his head to clear his mind of the image. He couldn't let himself think about that. It's just because of this connection, thing, he thought.

'Yeah, that's all it is,' he mumbled as he turned onto his side and tried to get back to sleep.

…oooOOOooo…

Hermione woke up at the sound of their alarm clock and rolled with a small moan onto her side. She was tired and she knew exactly why. It wasn't the dream she'd had that stopped her going back to sleep, it was the fact that her brain seemed intent on analysing what it meant whilst he was supposed to be relaxing and getting back to sleep that was the problem. She sighed and pulled her curtains back from her bed and walked into the bathroom.

Ron heard Hermione get out of bed and knew he had five minutes lying around time before she would be finished. That was they way it worked, that was what they had decided to do every morning, since the third morning they had been here. They'd never really discussed their 'bathroom usage' arrangements, but had just fallen into a pattern. It suited Ron. Whilst he knew he couldn't go back to sleep without a mental fight from Hermione, he could at least enjoy five minutes of lying in a nice toasty bed.

Well, normally he would enjoy it, today he was thinking far too much for his liking.

'It was just a dream, Weasley. Nothing more, you've dreamt about her before for Merlin's sake!'

But not like that! He thought to himself.

'You can shut up!' he mumbled in response to the reasonable thoughts his mind was making him think.

Is it such a bad thing you're dreaming of kissing her? He thought.

'Yes!' he said out loud. 'It's Hermione!'

'What's Hermione?' the girl herself asked from the other side of his hangings.

If he had been sat down he'd have fallen off his chair he jumped so much. As it was he sat straight up in bed, eyes wide and face reddening.

'Er, it's you … you're here … that means you're out the bathroom, which means I can go in.'

His sentence got a lot quicker as his lie fell into place, bit by bit.

'Oh, that really was a massive lie, Ron. Surely you haven't forgotten I can feel the panic that your feeling at the minute, and felt the moment I asked "What's Hermione?"'

Bugger! He thought.

He actually had forgotten about their emotional connection.

He was about to argue Hermione's point, still through his bed hangings before she cut him off.

'As much as I would love to continue this discussion with you, Ron, I have a feeling it would make us late for breakfast. So if you wouldn't mind, I'll just get changed and you can use the bathroom.'

'Er okay,' he mumbled.

He walked to the bathroom the long way round, taking the route down the side of his bed that was further away from Hermione.

Five minutes later the two of them were sat in the Great Hall, ready to face their school day like normal. However, both of them were slightly concerned about the uncomfortable feeling in their stomachs.

It was strange, it wasn't nervousness, worry, jealousy, (they both definitely knew what that felt like,) anger, jubilation or anything else they could think of. It was just, strange! And it stayed with them throughout the rest of the day.

…oooOOOooo…

Ron sighed as he collapsed backwards onto the foot of his bed, eyes closed and lying down, legs hanging over the edge and his feet still touching the floor. He was glad the school day was over.

He opened his eyes a touch and watched Hermione do the exact same thing, which surprised him.

'You okay?' he asked as he propped himself on his elbows and looked over at her.

'Yeah,' she sighed.

'Wow, that was convincing!'

She smiled. 'Sorry, I'm just tired. Didn't get much sleep last night, actually that means you didn't either. Are you tired?'

'A bit.'

He was glad Hermione hadn't turned to look at him, he knew he had turned slightly red, but he wasn't surprised, he had grown hot every time he had thought about the previous nights dream.

Hermione's eyes were open, there was a simple reason for this; every time she closed them she saw herself kissing Ron. She was glad neither Harry or Ron had asked to copy her notes from their classes today, they were not up to her usual standard. She had been mortified to find herself daydreaming, and more than once a well!

'Hermione,' Ron started before thinking for a few seconds.

'Yes?' she asked.

'Have you been feeling…weird today?'

Hermione sat up and turned so she was facing Ron.

Ron watched as Hermione pulled her legs in front of her and leant on her hand, leaning to her left. Ron's eyes fell to her legs and they lingered there for a few seconds.

'Er…' Hermione said.

Ron's eyes flew to her face and away from where they had been looking. He reddened instantly and wished Hermione would look away.

'Actually,' she continued, 'I have a bit, but I don't know why and I can't really understand what I've been feeling.'

'Me too!' Ron said quickly, startling Hermione slightly. 'I dunno what I'm feeling but I'm definitely feeling something! I'm guessing that we're feeling the same thing.'

'Yes, I think so.'

Hermione watched as Ron fiddled with the cuff of his robes. She looked at his long fingers and thought about how light his touch was, but how powerful his hands looked.

In her peripheral vision she saw Ron look back up at her. She bushed and quickly looked away from him.

'So, we have no idea what this feeling is that we both have and have had all bloody day. Brilliant!'

'Ron, there's no need to swear! I know this feeling is strange but at least we're not collapsing from unbearable headaches. We must at least be grateful for that!'

Ron sighed and collapsed back down on his bed. He watched as Hermione stood up off hers and walked around it to the head of it. She pulled off her outer robes and folded them neatly. She then pulled off her school jumper and did the same with that.

Ron couldn't help but stare at her, then he realised how obvious he was being.

Stop staring at your best friend while she takes her jumper off Weasley!

He tried, he really did, but he couldn't help but steal a glimpse as Hermione loosened her tie and pulled it over her head and undid the top button of her shirt.

He realised he had stopped breathing and quickly started again before he suffered from hypoxia.

'Do you mind if we stay up a bit longer or do you want to go to sleep?' Hermione asked Ron. 'Only, if you don't mind I'd rather stay up longer, then hopefully I'll be tired enough to sleep through the night and not have very vivid dreams in the middle of the night.

Ron sat up sharply and stared at Hermione.

'Did you have a strange dream too? He asked.

'Er,' Hermione replied, blushing once again at the thought of where her mind had taken her to the previous night. 'Yes, it was strange.'

She couldn't meet his eye as she took some parchment out of her bag.

'Oh, me too,' Ron mumbled.

'What, er…what was yours about?' she asked with an attempt at nonchalance.

'Oh er, I can't really remember the details. How about yours?'

'Same really,' she replied, still not meeting his eye. 'So do you mind if we stay up for a bit longer?'

'No, not at all. Anything to keep me dream free!'

…oooOOOooo…

They walked hand in hand in hand for a while, walking in silence. The sky was a royal blue, not quite evening but the sun was setting and leaving distorted shadows on the ground.

After walking for a little while longer they stopped and turned to each other, still holding hands and gradually closing the gap between them. Their lips met. Her hands found his hair and his neck and his found her waist and her back. The kiss deepened and they pulled their bodies together so they were touching.

The sky above them was getting lighter, gradually losing the bright blue colour and fading to white.

'Hermione!' Ron shouted, at the same time Hermione yelled, 'Ron!'

They both lay in their beds, breathing heavily and stared, eyes wider than they had ever been before, at the ceiling.

They knew the other was awake and had both heard the other's outburst. They both know knew that they had been sharing a dream and both realised their previous night's dream had been joint too.

'Ron?' Hermione asked in a whisper, hoping against all hope that a miracle had happened and Ron was still asleep.

'Yeah?' he answered as quietly as she had spoken.

'Er… So we're er… sharing…'

'Dreams,' he said matter-of-factly, but he couldn't hide the slight shake in his voice.

'Yeah,' she replied.

'Do we er…need to talk ab-'

'In the morning, Ron, if you don't mind.'

'Oh! No I don't mind! Yeah, in the morning. The morning's fine! Of course. Well… goodnight then.'

He scowled at the amount of insincerity in his voice. He had never heard himself sound so fake. He didn't like it.

He heard Hermione roll over and let his mind wander back to the kiss they had both just shared in his, their dream, and despite the uncomfortable situation he now found himself in with Hermione he smiled.

Hermione rolled over and suddenly the image of her kissing Ron filled her mind. She tried to ignore it and come up with all sorts of logical reasons as to why they were now sharing dreams as well as everything else. But as much as she tried, she kept remembering how good it had felt. How natural and normal it felt.

She couldn't help but smile.


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