For all that it had been a home away from home for the last two years, Nasrin found her dorm was not the safe haven she remembered the last two days.
She would lay in bed, surrounded by the sleeping bodies of her Pokemon and with both Eggs tucked safely in her arms, and find no dreams.
Sometimes, exhaustion would lull her into the grey of dozing, but then wood would creak, or blankets would shift, and the half-Gem once again found herself wide awake.
"Nazz?"
Gaze jerking away from the pockmarked stone overhead, said pinkette blinked when she found Hermione staring back from her own bed.
"'Mione? Why are you up?"
"I just…" She whispered, uncertain. "Are you okay? After class…"
"I'm fine." She assured automatically, a smile covering the pain.
Thoughts filled the silence between them, buzzing with white noise, and Mulan rolled over, ear-sensors trembling, as Hermione met her eyes once more.
"Would you really be that upset if I died?"
Nasrin's heart twisted then, insecurity and worry and hope washing over her skin.
"In the illusion, there was Harry and Ron and Neville, and-and me, too, and you were crying, and-"
The bushy-haired girl sniffled, throat clogged with emotion.
"I thought, after the Chamber…"
"Oh, 'Mione." She murmured, carefully sliding free of her sheets and Pokemon to cross and cover the other girl into a hug. "I don't hate you. I didn't. I was hurt, and…and felt betrayed, but I never hated you."
Hermione buried her face in the half-Gem's soft sleep shirt, voice weak and shaky.
"Really?"
"Really."
And, finally, they found dreams.
Pink flowers swayed in a gentle breeze, softening the edges of a fallen palanquin with growing vines and rounded petals, the grass long and soft under bare feet as Nasrin stared.
This was where the war had begun its catastrophic end.
This was where…
"I'm sorry."
And there was Rose Quartz, bleeding guilt and regret into the air like mist, tears sliding down grief-darkened cheeks.
"I never meant…I thought they would…"
Dark eyes met a vivid, unearthly pink.
"I'm so sorry."