A/N: Thanks Aisling's Corner and Cubye4! I'm glad you two are liking this story so far. I'll be sure to check out some of your stories soon!

Chapter 4

He was screaming. He was screaming so loudly that his pain became her pain and suddenly she was sitting next to him. No. Not next to him. She was inside him. She could see as he could, she felt her arms tied down, she could feel the pain in her chest, and she could feel the cruciatus curse invade her body. But then, it wasn't really her body or her chest or her arms. They were his. Manlier, broader, frecklier.

"Come on boy. You don't need to die here tonight. Tell us where Potter is and you don't need to die. We'll make you a good meal and send you on your way. We don't really want to spill any more pure blood. You are one of us, you can be one of us" A voice. It was a harsh voice, yet obviously trying to appeal to the boy in the chair to get him to talk. To get him to give information as to where Harry Potter was.

There was no response for a while from the limp body in the chair. Then, after a few long seconds there was a quiet whisper.

"What was that boy?" The harsh voice again. The voice was hopeful now, as if maybe the boy was going to tell him what he wanted to know.

"If being pureblood makes me anything like you, then spill all of mine. I don't want it." This voice was weak, barely above a whisper, but so defiant.

"Secumsemptra"

More screaming. Bright red blood was spilling out of his chest.

They have Ron.

Hermione snapped awake, having barely fallen asleep again since her conversation with Harry a mere hour or so earlier. Ron had been gone maybe 4 or 5 hours. It was still nightfall.

Even as her eyes adjusted to the surroundings the dream, so real seconds ago, faded away. Ron had been there, that she knew. She had known the surroundings during the dream, but as she tried to remember it, the details just kept slipping away. Ron was in pain. He was being tortured. But was it real? Or was it her fears manifesting into vivid dreams?

Should she wake Harry? She knew the location, where he was being held. But the more she tried to recall, it just kept slipping from her. She didn't even know if it was real! Her mind felt fuzzy.

Hermione had never been so terrified. Well, she had actually, she had been this terrified twice before. When Ron was unconscious lying in the hospital wing after drinking the poison that was meant for Dumbledore. She was terrified then. And also when Ron was splinched, just weeks ago. When there was blood pouring out of his arm where huge chunks of flesh were missing. When he was lying on the ground twitching and bleeding out in front of her as she tried desperately to heal him, she had been terrified then too.

Every time Harry wound up in the hospital wing, Hermione had been scared. She had been worried for her best friend, her brother. She would sit by his bed and fuss and fret. But that fear was different than the fear she felt when she thought about losing Ron.

When Ron was hurt is was as though she couldn't breath. Her mind would go fuzzy, and she would be unable to comprehend what was going on. It was very un-Hermione like. She was usually so logical and so practical. But when Ron was hurt, everything would stop. Well, everything except her pure terror.

She needed him. She made the decision to stay because she had to be there to help Harry. But now, with the fear clouding her judgment, she was worried she wouldn't even be much use to Harry. Should she have gone with Ron? She could have convinced him to come back. She knew she could have. She should have told Ron earlier how she felt about him.

"I get it, you choose him." His voice rang out in her head.

"No, Ron" she whispered. "It was you. There never even was a choice. It was always you." Hermione was filled with regret.

Maybe she should have said that. When he left the tent, and she ran after him begging him to stop, maybe she should have swallowed her pride. She should have shouted "I LOVE YOU" as he walked off. That would have stopped him. He would have turned around, dumbstruck. He would have looked her in the eyes and knew she meant it. Would he have left her then? Something in her heart told her he wouldn't have.

He had needed reassurance, and she hadn't given it to him. She could have stopped this from happening, and she didn't.

She got out of bed, and moved to the entrance of the tent where Harry sat keeping guard, but even as she was just thinking about what to say to him, the words sounded stupid in her head.

'Harry, I had a dream that Ron was being tortured. We need to go find him.' It sounded ridiculous even without being said out loud.

It just didn't logically make any sense. Her dreams weren't real the way Harry's were. She didn't have that connection.

Then it hit her.

"Grimmauld place." She said allowed this time.

"Hermione?" Harry questioned hearing her voice.

"I… I think Ron is being tortured at Grimmauld Place" Hermione voiced. Harry's eyes widened. "I had a dream." Hermione finished, trying to get Harry to see past her fears for what the truth could be.

Harry was not one to take dreams lightly. "Are you sure? How did you know it was Grimmauld Place?"

"I recognized the room. He was in that sitting room where we slept our first night there" She finished.

"Have you ever had a dream like this before? Where you saw what Ron was doing?"

"No…" She answered honestly. And even now, after being awake for a few more minutes, and the initial reality of the dream passing, it seemed less likely and less plausible that she had actually seen him being tortured.

She was trying to be rational. Logical. The Hermione Granger she was used to being. But everything was all coming out wrong in her head. Nothing was making sense. How could she possibly have been in Ron's body during the dream?

"I don't know, Harry" she said, eyes filling up with tears again. "I don't know if it was real or not. I want to go just to be safe, but what if we walk into a house of Death Eaters and Ron isn't there?"

She was trying to curve her passion and her love for Ron to balance with her logic. She wanted to storm into Grimmauld place, just to be safe, just to be sure he was not there. But logically, that could get her and, more importantly, Harry killed. Could she sacrifice the hope of the wizarding world just to make sure Ron wasn't being held there? And she knew Harry would never let her go alone. He loved Ron as well.

Harry seemed to sense her confliction and said nothing further. If Hermione wanted to go, he would go as well. If she were certain enough that Ron was there, he would go too. If Ron needed him, he would be there. But the dream wasn't his. It was a huge risk for them to take. He'd let her decide.

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