The Weight of the World

Chapter 28 - Hermione

Shortly after Harry dozed off to sleep he awoke and found himself in what he knew right away was a dream. But somehow it was more than a dream because he was conscious of it. He knew that he wasn't at the school anymore. He was lying on some sort of small sofa in a room that was very dark. It seemed to be in a bedroom but he really couldn't tell for sure because the only light was coming from an adjacent room that had a large sink whose shiny handles were reflecting the dim lamplight. He walked towards this light and moved slowly so he didn't trip on any furniture or anything else that might be in his way.

When he made it into the room, he confirmed that it was a bathroom when he turned the lamp up brighter. It was a large bathroom with a very fancy deep bathtub and huge cotton towels beside it. He grabbed the lamp off of its hanger and carried it back out to the main room that he had just wokeup in. He saw that it was a bedroom and also saw that someone was lying on the large bed asleep. He looked around the room to see if anyone else was there, but the person on the bed seemed to be the only one here.

As he walked closer to the bed he saw right away that it was a girl. She was laying flat on her stomach and he couldn't clearly see her face so he walked closer trying not to make a sound.

He was right up next to the bed before he recognized the face that was partially hidden behind the bushy brown hair. It was Hermione. He reached out and gently shook her awake.

"Hermione wake up."

She jumped up quickly and looked around before she met Harry's eyes.

"Harry! What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I'm not here; at least I don't think I am. I think we're dreaming," he said.

"How can we both be having the same dream?" she asked rubbing her eyes.

"Hermione, I'm not sure. All I know is that I went to bed back at Hogwarts and I was lying in bed trying to figure out a way to find you and I fell asleep. When I woke up I was on that couch over there,” Harry said pointing over his shoulder.

"Harry oh no..but you couldn't have,” Hermione said sounding confused.

"Couldn't have what?"

"Harry, I think you apparated here," she sounded worried.

"How could I have? I don't know how to apparate."

"Well you don't know how to get into people's dreams either but you seem to think you did that."

"That's true," he said still confused.

She leaned in and hugged him.

"Harry I'm so glad to see you. I was so worried that he killed you."

"I was really worried about you too. Are you okay? Where are you.or we?"

Hermione didn't let go of the hug.

"I'm okay Harry. He's keeping me here to try to get you to come after me. I don't know where we are though, I think underground somewhere."

"Hermione, we have to get out of here,” He said as they separated from the hug.

"Harry we can't. The door is locked, and there are Death Eaters here. I think Voldemort is here too."

Harry reached into his pocket and looked for his wand but he didn't find it.

"Wait a minute," he said.

"What is it?" Hermione asked.

"Hermione, I don't have my wand. And..,” he stopped.

"And what?" she asked.

"Hermione, I'm not wearing my pajamas," he said pulling on the dirty shirt he was wearing that day.

"I don't understand," she said.

"Hermione, I went to bed in my pajamas, and I know, I am sure I know I put my wand in my front pocket. I don't go to bed without it anymore."

"So that means.. whatdoes that mean?" Hermione stopped to think.

"It means I don't think I really am here."

"But you are here, and you hugged me," she added.

Neither one of them could make sense of what was happening.

Hermione finally looked up at him and grabbed both of his hands with both of hers and looked down at the bed.

"You aren't really here are you?" she said softly.

"I don't think so. I think we must be in a dream,” Harry said.

Hermione sniffed and let go of one of his hands to wipe her eyes.

"That's good," she said.

"Good? What do you mean?"

"It's good because it's too dangerous for you to come here, Harry. That's what he wants. That's why he took me because he hoped you'd come looking for me," she said trying not to cry.

"Hermione I'm so sorry. I should have stopped this..but I was stupid."

"It's not your fault Harry. Don't blame yourself for this."

"He knew Hermione. He knew how I felt about you. If you wouldn't have been up there with me he couldn't have taken you."

"I chose to be up in that cave with you, remember? You asked me not to come; you tried to warn me that it might be dangerous. So quit thinking that you are responsible for this. As for Voldemort knowing how you feel about me, he does know. He told me, and I'm glad he knows. I think he thought that after your parents there wouldn't be anyone that would love you, but he was wrong. A lot of people love you Harry. Sirius, all of the Weasleys, Hagrid, and...I love you Harry."

Harry looked into her teary eyes and brought her hand up to his mouth and kissed it.

"I love you too Hermione and I'm going to get you out of here."

"Harry you can't. If you come here to get me, he'll be ready. He'll kill you, and then he'll just kill me anyway."

"I'm not going to let him kill you Hermione. I might die trying but I am not going to let him kill you," Harry tried to sound forceful but his voice broke.

When Hermione heard his voice break, it brought on more tears from her.

She tried as heard as she could not to cry when she started talking again, but it was too hard for her. "Harry, you can't be selfish like this."

"Selfish? What do you mean selfish?" he said wiping a tear from his eyes.

"Harry, I mean with what you've been given. Even Voldemort said that you might become one of the most powerful wizards of our time. If you give yourself some time to learn, you can help a lot of people. Look at what Professor Dumbledore has done, all of the people he has helped. You could be even greater than he is, and you can't be selfish with your gift by risking it all for me."

"Hermione, you can't ask me to just leave you here and let him kill you."

Hermione was now crying fairly hard, but she tried to get control of it as she spoke again but the sobs were hard to control.

"Harry, listen...listen to ...me. I don't... want you ...to sit and do nothing. I need you to... tell Professor...Dumbledore where I am.. maybe he'll know where...this place is,” She stopped talking and wiped the tears out of her eyes. She then grabbed Harry's hand again and held it tightly.

"I need.. you to do..something else for me.. Harry."

"Anything.just tell me Hermione," he said.

"Can you...can you send an owl... to my parents... and tell them...what has happened..and tell them..tell them..that I love them..."

Harry could only nod at her. He was trying as hard as he could to be strong in front of her, but he was right on the verge of breaking down severely and he didn't want her to see that. He didn't want to think of the possibility that she might, in fact, never see her parents again.

Harry closed his eyes for a second to try to fight back the tears that were welling up. When he opened them he was lying back in his bed at Hogwarts. He sat up in bed and began sobbing loudly. He would give everything he had if he could just make this all go away. His Firebolt, his invisibility cloak, all of his gold in Gringotts, he would even give up all of his magic and go back and live with the Dursleys as a muggle if it would all just go away.

If ever he felt the weight of the world coming down on him, it was now. For the first time in his life he thought about just giving up and running away. He could just get his broom and fly as far as he could until he passed out from exhaustion, or died of thirst or hunger. Just get away as far as he could as fast as he could.

He lay there in bed and listened to his heart beating between the sobs that were now starting to subside. Something inside of him told him that he had to get out of bed, find Professor Dumbledore and do everything he could to get Hermione back. He had to keep fighting. And that's just what he did. The sun was just beginning to rise but he got up, washed his face, changed out of his pajamas, went to the Headmaster's office and told Dumbledore what had happened in his dream. Dumbledore didn't seem a bit surprised at the accomplishment that Harry had described when he spoke of the quality of the dream and how they were able to speak and to touch one another. It was obviously another one of these magnificent powers that Harry had inherited.

That afternoon Ron and his dad arrived at the castle. Ron found Harry in the Great Hall and for the first time, the two embraced. They didn't say a word, they didn't need to say a word; they just hugged one another tightly like brothers who hadn't seen each other in years.

After they let go Harry suggested that they take a walk around the grounds of the castle. It was during this walk that Harry had filled Ron in with all of the events of the past couple of days. Ron had already been told by his dad about Hermione. His dad had received an owl from Dumbledore telling him that he was needed at the castle immediately and he suggested that Ron come as well. Harry told Ron about his dream and about how Hermione asked him to write a letter to her parents.

Ron couldn't think of anything to say to this. He didn't think he would ever be able to do something like that, but he didn't hesitate to tell Harry that he would help him write it if he needed it.

That night in the common room, Meagan and Ron sat close to one another and held hands. It wasn't their fault and they didn't know they were doing it, but the sight of them sitting there that way was very painful for Harry. He wanted Hermione there with him more than ever and the thought of her alone in that room made him get up and say goodnight to the two of them. He had just started up the steps when he heard the common room portrait-hole open.

If there was one person other than Hermione and Ron that could make Harry feel better it was Hagrid, and he couldn't have squeezed through the portrait hole at a better time.

"Hagrid!" Harry said jumping off of the stairs.

He ran towards Hagrid and slammed into his stomach as he hugged him.

"Harry! I got word on my way back that we had trouble here. I was worried that you might not be here when I got back."

Normally Meagan would have been terrified to see an abnormally large strange human standing in the room with her. But after her short time with Harry, Hermione and Ron, she knew that she should only be worried if she saw that they were worried, and Harry's reaction and the smile on Ron's face told her that this huge man was a friend.

"Hagrid! We were worried about you too. Did everything go okay?" Ron asked.

"Of course it did. But we can talk about that later. What's happened? And who's your new friend?" he asked pointing to Meagan. "And where is Hermione?"

Ron spoke up and Hagrid could tell right away that something was wrong.

"This is Meagan, her mom is a new teacher here and..Hermione.,” Ron hesitated and looked at the floor.

"Voldemort has her,” Harry said softly.

Hagrid didn't say a word, he was stunned.

He sat down on one of the sofas while they explained to him about Hermione's kidnapping and the events of the summer.

Meagan made tea for them all and she stared at Hagrid's hands when she handed him the tea cup. They were enormous. She had never seen, or much less even imagined that a person could ever be that large. She wasn't afraid of him though. She could tell right away by his reactions to the events of the summer, and the tears welling up in his eyes when he heard the news of Hermione, that he was a friend to them all, and a good friend at that.

"You don't know how glad I am to see you Hagrid,” Harry said.

"It's good to be back, Harry. It's late though, Fang's tired from the trip back and so am I. I need to get him fed and get us some rest. I'll see you three tomorrow. I'm going to stop by and see Dumbledore and tell him about my trip and see if he has any word on Hermione."

Hagrid got up from the chair and ruffled Harry's hair before he turned to walk out. On his way out he saw the Foe-Glass in the corner. It had a large blanket pulled over it. They had covered it and put it in the corner of the common room because everyone was tired of seeing the shadows inside of it.

Hagrid walked over to it and lifted the blanket enough to see the dark shadowy image in the mirror.

"Is this who I think it is?" he asked the group without taking his eyes off of the mirror.

"Yes,” Harry said.

Hagrid stared at the image with a mean look on his face, then dropped the blanket back over it and turned around to face them.

"We'll get her back. Don't worry. If it's the last thing I do, I'll make sure we'll get her back.