The Other Side

She ran into something tall and black, it was him, he was back. She had to get to Harry, to tell him, and warn him. She had to tell him their nightmare was back, that the ghost they had been fighting for years was within her reach. She looked down as she tripped over something. The corpse of her dead mother stared back at her. She screamed loudly.

"Hermione?" her mother looked up at her, an expression of extreme sorrow on her face, "Hermione?" but it wasn't her mother's voice. The voice was deeper, more frightening.

She woke up.

Tom was standing over her. She wondered how long he had been standing there, and if she had said anything that would give her away.

"Hermione, are you okay?" His face betrayed his worry. He was actually worried. This shocked her. "Hermione, what were you dreaming of? It must have been terrible for the way you screamed."

Hermione shuddered remembering the dream, and how real it had seemed. Her mother had looked so alive. It made Hermione want to see her, touch her. It was an unbelievable feeling of sadness.

She wept bitter and angry tears. It was the man sitting right in front of her that had caused this. He was the one who had so carelessly slaughtered her parents.

Hermione opened the door to the warm familiar house, expecting to see her parents waiting for her to have supper. They always had dinner out by that time, her mother would always ask if she had learned anything that day, her father would ask about her current reading. She loved those moments with all her heart. Moments that vanished in a second.

They were waiting for her, in a sense, but they were not warm or welcoming. And the minute Hermione saw them she screamed, she knew who did this. It was no product of the ordinary muggle world her parents lived in. It was not even the work of an ordinary witch or wizard. This was the doing of only one, lord Voldemort. The king of death and destruction.

It was awful, for Hermione, to know that her parents were killed because of her world. They were killed because of her.

The pain was overwhelming.

Then Jack came running in, "Hermione, what happened?" He said wide-eyed, looking suspiciously at Tom.

"I had a bad dream that's all, Jack. Thank you, but I'll be fine."

"Are you sure?" He asked worriedly. This was a normal response for a Potter, but it still surprised Hermione that Tom would be able to express anything like worry, for that was an emotion, a 'weakness.'

But still Hermione cried, remembering her parents' dead faces. The expressions worn there were not angry or sad, but peaceful. However, that did nothing to ease the pain. She cried. Jack was getting worried, and Tom moved around, uncomfortable.

"Hermione," Jack said softly, "Please let me help you. Anything at all I can do, I will. I just hate seeing you like this."

"No, Jack," she cried, "I'm fine thank you. You're unbelievably kind."

"Well you'll let me know?" He started leaving the room, motioning for Tom to follow. Tom shook his head once. A brief and yet extremely powerful command. It hurt her that Jack obeyed and left, it was almost like he had to. Like he was one of the Death Eaters.

"Tom," Hermione said, glaring at him, "I really don't need your company, but thank you." She was disturbed by his request to stay. That couldn't have been a good thing.

"I think you do, Hermione," He sighed, "You look awful."

"Gee thanks I love it when men say that to me." She smiled half-heartedly, the tears lightened up. She knew her parents loved her, and she knew it wasn't really her fault.

"You know what I meant," he sat down by the bed, "Do men say that to you a lot?"

She laughed, "No, the men I was around weren't able to focus on women much, so it didn't matter what I looked like."

"What do you mean?" He tilted his head, his brows furrowing. She needed to be more careful; she was finding it too easy to talk to him, and soon she'd be telling him how she used to fight off a dark lord. That would be an interesting conversation.

"Oh, nothing," she looked down, fiddling with her hands, "Just that boys were preoccupied with other things."

"Yes, I understood your statement, Hermione, I asked what you meant by it."

She glared; he was so rude, "I used to hang out with a lot of quittage guys."

He smiled slightly, "You know you do that when you're lying?"

"Do what?" she looked up, frightened that he would be angry.

"Play with your hands."

"How do you know I'm lying, Tom, because I'm not."

"You think that if you really went to Hogwarts I wouldn't remember you?" He smiled scarily, "I remember everyone, and you were playing with your hands when you told me that."

"No really I went there, I just looked a lot different." She couldn't come up with anything better unfortunately.

"Oh really?" He smiled again, knowing he was winning, "And you got a name change right?"

"Uh, yeah." He laughed.

"Stop lying to me, I get that you don't want to tell me the truth but at least improve your lying skills. It's horrendous to watch you try."

She smiled, knowing he wanted the truth, but was not demanding it. He smiled back, an odd expression in his eyes.

"Hermione?" he asked looking at her, deep into her eyes.

She faltered for a moment, "Yes?"

"What's your biggest desire? You know, if you could have one thing in the world, what would it be?" He leaned closer to her, actually interested. This surprised her, as many things had recently. She was so sure she had known him, but apparently she was wrong.

"Well," she mused, she knew it would be to end the war, end the pain, but she couldn't tell him that. "I guess it would be that the people I love would be safe and free of any pain."

It was the truth, just in different terms. She would, however, give anything to see Harry and Ron happy again. For so long they had worn frowns on their faces. It was a common side effect of the war; unhappiness, worry. She would give anything to have their happiness and innocence back.

She looked up, Tom was frowning.

"That's incredibly unselfish." This seemed to disturb him.

"Well," she smiled, "Not really, it's actually pretty selfish."

"How is that?"

"Well when they're happy, so am I. It's impossible not to be. They're happiness is contagious that way." She laughed, remembering.

"No, it's still unselfish, but I guess that's just who you are." He was still confused, angered almost by this confession.

"And you?" She asked, trying to lighten the mood.

"Hmm?" He was distracted, looking off in the distance.

"What's your biggest desire?"

He looked at her for a long moment, something like agony in his eyes.

"You don't want to know."

And with that he walked out of the room, leaving Hermione shivering. It wasn't hard to guess what his answer would be.

A/N: Okay so these chapters are apparently meant to be short, because I can't make them much longer. Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed it. Review please!