A chance meeting – 1/3 (Sleeping to Dream prompt)

A single moment in time where three lives crosses.

Kind of long author's note: This is the 8th out of the 10 tunes - so that means 2 more to go. I have signed up to do NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November, and my novel will be a Tom/Ginny. The last three 10 tunes prompt will serve as a preface for my story. It will be a series of three-shot of three different characters' point of view, and their take on one single event. This is kind of sloppy and I apologize, but I am training for NaNo and the best way is to "write now, right now!" and save the editing for later. Please check out my profile for more info about NaNoWrimo, and PM me if you have any questions. (I take forever to reply, but that's because I'm busy and have a short attention span.)

Thank you for reading! As always, concrit/comments are appreciated and welcomed!

Part 1 – Ginny realizes that in dreams, some things as what they seem, and some things aren't.

Ginny was dreaming again. Nowadays it seems like she was always in dreams, even when she was wide-awake. She rarely ever remembers her dreams, but she is sure they are not extraordinary – or even exciting. Instead, she dreams of the ordinary, the mundane, and the familiarity wraps around her like a comfortable, warm blanket. Idly, she remembers Hermione saying in her matter-of-fact way that dreams were merely "ways your subconscious works through problems." Did she imagine that conversation? No, it had really happened, ages and ages ago on a summer day at the Burrow. It was before the Second War, before the Carrows siblings and the horrors of her seventh year, before all the deaths (before Fred's…) she had been forced to grow up in the aftermath of the death of Voldemort, and in the shadows cast by the Death Eaters who were still-at-large and dangerous. Weren't the happily-ever-afters supposed to kick in if the light side won, she had fumed to herself? Instead, the Wizarding world was plunged into chaos, and the days melted into each other like one long, horrible nightmare where no one could wake up.

Ginny closes her eyes, and wonders again if she only dreams when she is asleep. It had been almost 5 years since her graduation from Hogwarts, but she still dreams of the same, ordinary things she did since her First year. Only now, visions of Tom Riddle are no longer confined to her dreams. Lately, she has been catching glimpses of dark-haired, paled-skinned boys as she went about her days. She'll be walking home from work, and out of the corner of her eyes, she'll see Tom – his slight frame and those piercing green eyes. However, every time she turned around, he'll be gone as if he was never there to begin with. Every time she feels a bit of her sanity slip away, and she wonders how the mere absence of something can hurt this badly.

Tonight, the dream is different, stronger and more vivid, as if all her senses were attuned to her desire to see Tom, to make love to the man/memory who stole her heart unwittingly. She can almost feel the warmth of his hands, and smell a mixture of fire whiskey and sweat as he moves to kiss her eyes first, the tip of her nose, and then her mouth. On some levels, she knew this was a dream, but her conviction grew weaker with each fervent kiss and lingering caress. Her skin felt feverish and she ached for him with such an intensity she thought she would scream. She fought the desire to open her eyes, to see the person who had never really left her, and she squeezed her eyes shut until they ached from the strain. It felt so real, he felt so real, and if she were to open her eyes and find herself alone in her cold, drab apartment, again, she knew her heart would break.

A single tear escaped from her clamped eyelids, and lost in her own bitterness and self-pity, she wished she could stay asleep forever.

She shoved these painful thoughts aside and focused on the feel of warm, large hands unbuttoning her top, as she tried to stifle her moan as a hand trailed slowly down towards her panties.

Ginny vaguely remembers the sound of her bedroom door opening before his large hand reached its destination. Her mind went blank, and her ordinary, mundane world came tumbling down, down, down…

To be continued...