Nightmare

Author's Note: I wrote this quite a while ago, and it sat on my computer for months under the heading of "needs work"; however, with some excellent help from my beta, I've turned it into a very decent piece of fanfiction. I think the idea is kind of creepy. Thanks to Saja_Natalia for beta-ing for me.

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Harry rang the doorbell of Lupin's little cottage. He, Ron, and Hermione were visiting Mr. and Mrs. Lupin and their daughter for lunch today before they went back to school at the end of spring break.

No one answered the door. Harry rang again.

"Maybe they're busy," said Hermione uneasily after he had rung several times. "Let's just go on in..."

Harry pushed the door open cautiously. "There's no one here..." From the front door, he could see the living room, kitchen, and dining room, but not the bathroom or the bedrooms.

"Let's check the house," said Hermione nervously. The three of them entered the house close together. Harry walked carefully toward Lupin and Tonks' bedroom--he knew the other was only a guest room for now. The baby, Andromache, slept in a pink bassinette in her parents' room. He pushed open the door. Hermione, a few feet behind him, stifled a scream.

Remus Lupin's limp body lay sprawled across the doorway, his eyes staring into nothing. Hermione began to tremble as Ron reached down around Harry and pushed Lupin's eyes gently closed. Ron's face had turned a strange green color. Harry stepped over Lupin's body with a lead weight in his stomach.

"Oh, Harry!" exclaimed Hermione, her face pale and her hand trembling as she pointed to a grey hand sticking out from the other side of the bed. Harry traveled around the bed and found Tonks lying sprawled on the floor. She looked almost as if she was sleeping. Hermione began to sob quietly.

"Shh! Hermione!"

Hermione choked on her sobs at the order from Ron. Harry ignored the two of them and made his way to the baby's cradle.

"Ron! Hermione!" There, lying happily in the cradle, lay Andromache.

"Andromache!" said Hermione, hurrying to the cradle and lifting the baby out of it. She cuddled Andromache on her shoulder as she sobbed.

"Here, Hermione. We've got to get out of here!" Ron and Harry threw a few diapers and a bottle into a nearby bag, and Ron slung it over his shoulder as they turned to leave. Hermione, fighting tears, pulled her cloak over the baby. "Let's go," she whispered.

The three left the house warily, traveling close together with wands out.

"Let's Apparate back," Harry said uneasily. "We've got to tell the Order--"

A high, evil cackle stopped Harry in mid-sentence. A pair of black-robed Death Eaters sprang out from behind a nearby hedge. "Oh no you don't, Potter m'boy," shrieked the first. The second let out an evil snigger.

"Run!" shouted Harry.

Ron and Hermione heeded. The second Death Eater reached out with spindling fingers to grasp at the hem of Hermione's cloak, nearly tripping her.

"Hermione!" bellowed Harry, running to help her.

"Harry!" she gasped, shoving the baby at him. "Take Andromache! Take her! Let me go, Harry, and take her! She's more important--" Harry grabbed the baby from her, and Hermione pulled out her wand. Ron began toward her, but the first Death Eater blocked his path. Hermione's Death Eater dragged her behind the hedge. Ron and Harry heard a mumbled incantation, saw a flash of light, and heard a shriek from Hermione. Ron froze in shock.

"The other Death Eater, Ron!" Harry yelled. Ron forced himself back to the present.

"Impedimenta!" he bellowed, pointing his wand wildly at the Death Eater. Surprisingly, the spell hit; Ron and Harry, however, didn't have time to marvel at such a stroke of luck. They sprinted around the hedge to find both the Death Eater and Hermione sprawled on the ground. The Death Eater seemed to have flown several feet, while Hermione had simply crumpled where she had fallen.

"Hermione!" Ron gasped. He turned white, his freckles standing out starkly against his skin. "Hermione..." He fell to his knees beside her. His trembling hands pushed her hair from her face as his shoulders shook with heartfelt sobs.

"Ron!" shouted Harry as the first Death Eater casually rounded the hedge. Ron turned, but not quickly enough. Harry, his hands full of the baby, couldn't do anything--

"Avada Kedavra!" shouted the Death Eater.

"NOOO!" howled Harry as a jet of green shot at Ron and his body slumped limply across Hermione.

"Look, Master," the Death Eater said, speaking to someone behind Harry. Harry turned so he could see--

"So we meet again, Potter," the sibilant voice was unmistakable.

"Voldemort," Harry whispered. He glanced at the inert forms of Ron and Hermione and pulled the baby closer to his chest. If nothing else, could he at least save Andromache?--

****

Harry woke with Voldemort's shrill laughter ringing in his ears. He was crying, sobbing bitterly, and Ron, Hermione, and Ginny all stood over him.

"Are you all right, mate?" asked Ron.

"Harry, you even woke me and Ginny up!" exclaimed Hermione. She was pale, and looked frightened. "What were you dreaming about?"

Harry told them.

"Oh, Harry!"

Ron had gone paler. Hermione leaned down and gave Harry a comforting hug.

"There, there, Harry. It was just a dream." She drew back and looked at him in a motherly way.

"But what if it happens--"

Hermione shook her head. "Don't worry, Harry," she said again, firmly. "Lupin and Tonks don't live in the house you described, and anyways, they're perfectly safe. Don't worry, Harry."

Harry's eyes flashed angrily, and he felt tears coming. "Yeah, well, look at my Mum and Dad, Hermione, they thought they were safe, too, didn't they?"

Hermione shook her head again. "Harry," she said softly. He looked at her.

"What?" he asked irritably.

"Harry, you have to trust me." She said it simply.

"Why, Hermione? It could happen to them--it could happen to all of us..."

Hermione had tears in her eyes now, too. "Harry," she said softly. "We have to trust sometimes. Hope and trust in something bigger--fate, luck, I don't know, something. We can't go on every day on tenterhooks, never smiling, never trusting. Because then he's got us."

She took a shaky breath. "V-Voldemort, I mean. We have to stand up to him, and to do that we have to trust. We have to trust that no matter what happens-- no matter what-- we still have each other and we still have our memories. Even if your dream did happen, Harry, we'd have to keep going, you'd have to keep going. We don't have to accept it--no! We can fight it, and never quit fighting it; but if we die-- when we die-- we know it's fighting for a future where no one has to worry like we've had to, a future where no one has to dream like that and wake up to worry that it's come true--"

She paused. Her face glowed with a steel will polished to a shine by hope for future generations: for her children, for her grandchildren, for all the coming denizens of the face of the earth. "We have to trust in each other," she said quietly. "We have to trust with everything we've got and love with everything we've got and work as hard as we can to spread that trust, and love, and spread the will to fight it."

Her eyes searched the faces of each of her friends in turn, her brown eyes meeting those of green and blue. Harry felt as if her eyes seared her message into his soul. From the rapt looks on Ron and Ginny's faces, he deduced that they felt the same.

"Now go back to sleep, Harry." She handed him a glass of what looked like rose-colored water. "This will give you a dreamless sleep. When you wake up, it'll be another day. Another day to fight, another day to love. Another day to live. Every day we live, we've beaten Voldemort." Her eyes were granite and iron and everything that had ever been, and would ever be, strong. "Now go to sleep. You'll feel better--better rested if not better in general--in the morning."

Hermione and Ginny crept quietly back to their room, and after Harry had drunk Hermione's potion Ron crawled into bed, too. Harry drifted off to sleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. There were no more nightmares.

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A/N: Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment on your way out. Come again soon! :)