Promise You Won\'t Forget Me

~Chapter 6: Lost~

Hermione must have passed out at some point because, when she opened her eyes she was lying on a great stone slab in the middle of nowhere.

Literally the middle of nowhere. The floor was as hard as marble, it was quite dark, as though the sun had just gone down, and the ground stretched out for miles in all directions; Hermione could see no end to it.

She tried to sit up, but the raging pain in her forehead nearly caused her to black out again and she stayed still. A moment later she felt a cold compress pressed to her head.

"Thank goodness you´re awake. I was worried that fall had done some real damage. I remember when I entered, I fell on to something much softer. But that was during Growth season and that´s when there are plants. You fell during the Frosts when there´s nothing but the cold, hard floor."

The voice sounded very familiar, and Hermione opened her eyes again, blinking and trying to focus in the darkness. It started to get a little lighter, just enough for Hermione to see her companion.

She had short blonde hair, slightly greying, and dark brown eyes. She looked just like an older...

"Alexa?"

The woman moved back, startled. "Do I know you?"

"Alexa Frieburg?" The woman nodded. "It´s me, Hermione! We met on the cruise, what´s going on? Why are you here?"

The woman sighed. "I see. You didn´t meet me on that cruise, dear. You met my sister, Candace."

Hermione sat up quickly and clutched her head in pain. "Candace! Candace Bailey?"

"You´ve heard of her?" Alexa asked.

"I read about her trial, the one about the Portals."

Alexa nodded. "Make yourself comfortable, and I´ll try to explain."

She took a deep breath before launching into her narrative. Hermione found herself completely enthralled.

"Candace is my twin sister. Undoubtedly she looks younger because she´s quite vain and has made use of several youth potions and spells, but I digress. Several years ago, Candace became obsessed with the idea of Portals. We were both working in the Magic Fluctuation Office of the American Magical Government, and Candace decided that Portals were of no use if only one person could travel in and out of the dimension. So, after several years, during which she cut off all communication with the world, she did it. We´re both rather old, you see, but Candace likes to pretend she´s still young, to make up for all those lost years."

She picked up a cup of water and offered it to Hermione who took a long drink. "Anyway, one day I received an express owl from my sister begging me to come to her laboratory. I went, and I was her first human guinea pig. It worked, too. I successfully traveled in and out of her personal dimension. But Candace had to put me there. Her method involves the magic of the original Portal creator."

Hermione had been staring at the other woman open-mouthed. "So your own sister put you in here?" she asked flabbergasted. "Why? Alexa, I mean Candace, seemed so nice!"

Alexa smiled. "Oh, she is. She´s the best. Smart, funny, devoted to her work. No, Candace didn´t put me here."

"But you said that the creator of the Portal has to be the one to put people in! And why is Candace masquerading as you?"

"Candace Bailey has a suspicious record as long as my arm. Never convicted, mind you, but often implicated. My sister is possibly a little obsessive, and she attracts trouble like nobody´s business, but she´s not evil. She obviously had to be on your cruise and she couldn´t go as herself."

"But why?" Hermione asked. "She trapped you in here so she could travel as you?"

Alexa shook her head. "Darlin´, Candace didn´t make this Portal."

Hermione stared blankly.

"Think about it, hon. I´ve been to Candace´s dimension, and this isn´t it."

Hermione was still staring blankly. She looked around at the hard grey floor, the dark sky, and the open emptiness all around them. "How can you tell?"

Alexa smiled. "Hermione, I´ve heard about you. I know you´re not stupid. Think about it."

So Hermione thought about it. And everything clicked. If this wasn´t Candace´s dimension, then it was obviously someone else´s. And that someone had the ability to put people in their dimension, which was Candace´s discovery. So this mystery person was using Candace for her discovery and needed her on hand to perform whatever spell was involved.

"So some person, in whose dimension we´re sitting, needed a place to dump his or her enemies. He or she created a Portal to his or her dimension. But without Candace´s discovery," Hermione said slowly, "the Portal was useless. I understand that, but why are you here? What threat could you possibly pose? Was it just so Candace could travel as you?"

Alexa shook her head. "I suspect that was just a bonus. No, I´m here as a hostage to ensure my sister´s good behavior. This person must have threatened to harm me and once Candace showed him or her how to do it, he or she threw me in here to keep an eye on me. It´s rather ingenious; these places are escape-proof unless the creator of the Portal decides to let you go."

"Escape-proof?" Hermione repeated. "No, I have to get out of here! I have to save Ron!"

"Who´s Ron?" asked Alexa.

"He´s my--" Hermione stopped. She still didn´t really know. "My friend. And I think he´s in danger." She looked down and realized her dress had no pockets. "My wand! I don´t have my wand!"

"Hermione, in case you haven´t noticed, you´re in danger yourself. Whomever owns this dimension could reach in and crush you where you stand. Have you any idea who it is?"

Hermione hesitated again. She had found Ron´s Hogwarts, A History on Martin´s bed, hadn´t she? And he had been so knowledgeable about Portals. Was it possible that Ron had done this? Had he become a Death Eater?

"No," she answered finally. "I haven´t a clue. I don´t have a clue about anything."

She sat down and, to her dismay, broke down again. She started sobbing and crying so hard she shook. Alexa came to her side and rubbed her back, reminding Hermione of her mother, and she took comfort in the older woman´s presence.

"Look, I promise I´m not evil, Hermione," Alexa said softly, "but I am a good listener. So why don´t you tell me the whole story. You´ll feel better."

Once Hermione was able to talk, she spilled out the entire story. She told Alexa about how she had been thinking of Ron more and more before the cruise started, then how she ran into Harry, and then how Ron had just appeared, not remembering anything. She told her about Martin, and the captain´s strange behavior, about Rita Skeeter and Ron´s friends. By the time she finished she did indeed feel better, but no less confused.

Alexa looked thoughtful. "I´m beginning to understand. So, whom do you love?"

Hermione fell off the block she had been sitting on. Dazedly she looked up at Alexa.

"I beg your pardon?" she returned. "How can you ask me something of that magnitude like that?"

"Simple," Alexa said with a shrug. "I used the words `whom´, `do´, `you´, and `love´ and put them together in a sentence. A child could do it."

"It´s just that no one," Hermione said as she clamored back onto the block, "has dared to be so direct with me."

Alexa picked something off the floor; it was a winter flower, pure white and very small. She started to pull the petals off.

"It sounds like it´s about time that someone was. I repeat, whom do you love? This Harry or this Ron?"

Hermione sighed. "I´ve asked myself that very question a million times in the past two days. I don´t know. I don´t think I love Harry, as more than a friend, that is, but I can´t love Ron."

"And why not?"

"Because he´s a mirage. He´s not the Ron Weasley I know. Even though I´m positive the real Ron Weasley is in there somewhere, I´m worried he´s lost forever, and how can I enter into a relationship like that?"

Alexa dropped the stem of the flower onto the floor. "Some times you need to take chances. Hermione, I was married for fifteen years before I divorced my husband. We grew apart. But you know what? I wouldn´t have given up a minute of those fifteen years for anything."

Hermione raged. "I would give my soul for things to be like they used to! Do you think I like my life the way it is? I don´t. I hate it. I´m miserable, and..." She trailed off. When she continued it was in a quiet calm voce. "And I think I´m crazy. I dream. Not ordinary dreams, but dreams of people who are dead. I think I´m in the middle of a psychotic episode, and that when I open my eyes it will all go away. Everything. Harry, Ron, the cruise, this dimension, even my magic."

Alexa gasped. "You´d exchange you´re magical powers to make your life go away?"

Hermione stared at her. Her eyes were bloodshot and lifeless. "Yes. I used to be so proud of being a witch. But look where it´s gotten me. I´m mad. I´m schizophrenic, I´m seeing things that aren´t there. For all I know, you´re not real, you're a fantasy just like everything else."

"Hermione, have you lost your faith?"

Hermione laughed humorlessly. "I lost all my faith the day Ron disappeared."

"But he´s come back now! Surely that means something."

"I don´t want a lecture in theology," Hermione said rudely. "I don´t believe in anything anymore. Why should I? I´m just going to reach out, touch it, and have it dissolve in front of my eyes. Nothing´s real anymore."

"You can´t believe that," Alexa argued. "Look at you. You´re real, aren´t you?" She reached out and put a hand on Hermione´s arm; Hermione flinched. "I´m real. I am."

"No," Hermione said, pulling away. "You´re not. You can´t be."

Alexa´s look softened. "Why not, dear?"

"Because if you´re real, then everything´s real. I couldn´t bear that."

Alexa was concerned. "I don´t understand."

Hermione leapt up and turned. "If you´re real then it´s all real. Harry´s in love with me, Ron doesn´t know who he is, someone´s dead, and I don´t know what to do about any of it!"

"Is that the problem?" Alexa asked quietly. "The not knowing what to do?"

"I beg your pardon?" Hermione returned frostily.

"You´re used to having all the answers, aren´t you? And now you don´t."

"I don´t want to talk about it. Especially to you. Why didn´t you stop your sister? Couldn´t you have done something?"

She stalked off a ways, ashamed at how she had just treated Alexa. How dare she tell Hermione what to do about her life. But Hermione felt guilty. She shouldn´t have spoken to Alexa that way. She turned to apologize and saw that she was gone. Hermione was now all alone.

"Hello?" she called out tentatively. "Alexa? Where are you?"

There was no response. Chills ran down Hermione´s spine; something was seriously wrong with this. She looked around, but there was nowhere Alexa could be hiding. She was simply gone.

"I took her away temporarily," said a voice.

Hermione turned abruptly and came face to face with--nothing. No one was there. She was still alone.

"Where are you?" she called out. "Who´s there? And where´s Alexa?"

"She´s gone. I´ll put her back," said the voice calmly. Hermione couldn´t tell if it was male or female. "I decided that you really didn´t need the company."

Hermione sat down, refusing to play his or her little game. "If you aren´t going to say anything useful, I´m going to ignore you."

"What if I said I can let you go?"

She looked up. "Let me go? Honestly?"

"I said if," the voice stated, a ripple of laughter in his/her voice. "I want something in return."

"What?" Hermione asked curiously.

"That book."

Hermione looked around and for the first time since waking, noticed that the copy of Hogwarts, A History was lying on the floor. She bent down to pick it up and flipped through the pages. They were all blank.

"I had to remove the words in order to put my Portal into it," the voice said calmly, as if it was nothing extraordinary. "I would like it back."

Hermione fought the intense urge to laugh. "I have your Portal and you expect me to just hand it to you?"

"It´s not of any use to you," the voice said. "You can´t use it."

"Who are you anyway?" Hermione asked. "What am I doing here?"

There was silence, which only enhanced the dreariness all around her. Hermione was desperate, she had to find a way out. She looked down at the book in her hands. This was the key, she was sure of it. But she didn´t know how to use it.

She crossed to the pile of rags that Alexa must have collected, and sank down onto them. She put her head down, closed her eyes, and willed herself to sleep.

* * *

When she woke again she couldn´t be sure how much time had passed. All she knew was that she was still in the alternate dimension with absolutely no hope of getting out. Oh, and she had a blank book. Fat load of help that would be.

She had just stood up and dusted off her dress, when something fell from the sky on top of her. To be more clear, someone fell from the sky on top of her. It was a man.

"Oof," Hermione groaned, having had all the wind knocked out of her. "Who the hell are you?"

She was obviously in a very foul mood having been locked up against her will. But the man didn´t reply because he was unconscious. Hermione felt for a pulse; it was there, but it was faint. She looked at him. He was young, at least as young as she was, but she didn´t recognize him. Had he too been on the cruise?

Then another thought struck her. If she had the portal, the Hogwarts, A History, how had he gotten there?

She shook him a little bit, and then grabbed one of the rags she had been lying on and dipped it into the barrel of water that was next to the great stone slab. She pressed the cloth to his forehead and was extremely relieved to see him stir. He opened his eyes and blinked twice.

"Etes-vous?" he asked dazedly.

Hermione sank back onto her heels. "You´re French," she said dully. "Why are you French?"

"Pardon?" the man asked confusedly.

She shook her head. "I´m sorry, it´s not your fault. I just don´t speak French. Uh, je (that is the word for `I´, isn´t it?) ne parlez pas le Francais."

The man smiled. "Eet eez `parle´ not `parlez´ when one eez referring to onez zelf."

Hermione stared dumbly at him. "You speak English."

"Mais oui. Does not everyone?"

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Hermione asked angrily. Was the world playing games with her sanity just for fun? She felt as if she had lost her mind and everyone around her was playing `keep-away´ with it.

"I am François," he said, inclining his head toward her. "And I do not know why I am `ere."

Hermione growled in frustration. "Doesn´t anyone know anything anymore?"

"Pardon?" François said again.

"This is so frustrating," Hermione cried. "I have to get out of here!"

"Where eez `ere?" François asked curiously. "Eet eez not pretty."

"We´re in someone´s alternate dimension," Hermione said, dismissive. "And we´re trapped. What I don´t understand is what you´re doing here."

François appeared to be thinking. Suddenly he brightened and raised a finger. "Ah, of course. I know precisely why. Eet must be because of ze--"

He never got a chance to finish his statement. From out of nowhere a great lightning bolt came down and struck François directly on the chest. He toppled over, a looked of horrified shock frozen on his face, a smoking hole where his heart should have been.

Hermione jumped up and screamed. She looked up at the sky imploringly, trying to avoid looking at the man´s dead body at her feet. She was trembling.

"Why?" she asked. She screamed, "Why?!"

"Because," said the voice. "I needed to teach you a lesson."

"A lesson," Hermione repeated angrily. "You killed someone to teach me a lesson?"

"Hermione," the voice said harshly, "what you don´t seem to understand is that you´re alone. Always. You have been, are, and always will be alone. It´s what makes you so powerful. You can never rely on anyone but yourself. I have to make you realize that you´re isolated."

The anger had become cold and fierce. "Isolated. I know. I´ve always known. Who´s that buried behind the pile of books? Oh, that´s Hermione Granger. Always on top of everything. Who´s that with those two boys? Oh, that´s Hermione Granger. Always on top of everything. Who´s the youngest Professor ever to teach at Hogwarts? Oh, that´s Hermione Granger. Always on top of everything." Hermione´s eyes glittered dangerously. "No one ever understood. Ever."

"What about Ron Weasley?"

It was as if the voice had thrown a knife and aimed for her heart.

"Damn you," she whispered harshly. "When I find out who you are, I´ll kill you."

"When you find out who I am, you´ll be dead."

"Do you enjoy provoking me?" Hermione asked furiously.

"Yes, I get great pleasure from it."

"You know what?" Hermione asked in a complete change of mood. "I´m dreaming. This is all a dream. You´re not real, this place isn´t real, and when I wake up, I´ll be back in London, in my flat."

"Alone."

"I´m always alone, aren´t I?" Hermione asked, the anger returning. "And you killed a man to teach me a lesson I already knew."

"Don´t feel too bad. He needed to die anyway. I won´t even tell you what it took to get him here."

"He needed to die. For what? He didn´t tell me anything!"

"That doesn´t matter. He did something that required his death. I simply decided to wait until I could do it in front of you."

"I´m mad," Hermione whispered to herself. "This is all a dream, it isn´t real!"

"Oh, it´s quite real," the voice said with a tinge of amusement. "You´re not crazy. But, Hermione, don´t you understand? Join me. Instead of making things difficult for me, help me. Put that beautiful mind of yours to use."

Hermione screwed her eyes up tight and clasped her hands to her ears. `It´s all imaginary,´ she thought desperately. `I´m dreaming. It can´t be real!´

Hermione. Do you really think you can escape me in my own universe? I control everything here, including your thoughts.

`No,´ she fought. `No. You can´t.´

Images flashed through her mind. Herself as a small child, her first trip to Diagon Alley, Ron and Harry at Hogwarts. Then there were flashes of people she didn´t know. They went by so quickly that Hermione had no idea if they were of the past or the future. She grasped at the fragments, clinging to them as if they were her last hope at sanity.

"I won´t let you go!"

Her face was bright red and all the rage that she had accumulated over her twenty-three years poured out from her. She shrieked furiously and power billowed around her in clouds. She had seen an innocent man killed before her. She was being held prisoner. She was losing her mind, the thing that made her Hermione.

"I am not going to give in!" she screamed, the words tearing themselves from her throat.

The clouds became rapidly more solid, until they became physical blocks of magic and energy which pushed themselves against the walls of the dimension, forcing their way outward. Hermione, still plagued by images and whispered words, fearing for her mind, was still screaming, releasing all of the rage that was inside her.

A tremendous pressure was building up inside of her head and a small part of her worried that she was going to explode. But she had lost control and couldn´t stop herself. Her magic walls continued to force themselves against the walls of the dimension. But the dimension was pushing back, forcing her magical blocks back toward her. She realized that the dimension was winning the struggle, and that if she didn´t do something, she would be crushed.

With great effort, she managed to stop herself from screaming vocally, although she was still radiating rage. She ran to one of the blocks and climbed up it until she reached the top. It continued to move backward, rocking with such force that Hermione was nearly thrown off. The blocks collided with a thunderous boom and there was a bright explosion of light that caused Hermione to shield her eyes. It was as bright as staring into the sun. The she looked down and saw to her horror that the explosion of energy had caused a wormhole to appear and the blocks were spiraling into it. Hermione scrambled to the highest point she could reach. It was no use, she was still sinking and would be pulled to where ever those blocks were going.

She looked around despondently and noticed something. It looked different from high up. There was nothing. It opened up into nothingness, as if the walls didn´t climb that high. Amidst the rumble and roar of the dimension swallowing itself, Hermione made a split-second decision. She closed her eyes tightly and stood up, trying to keep her balance, lest she fall into the chasm.

Then she leapt into the air. But she didn´t fly or float away into the nothingness.

With an agonized shriek she plummeted into the abyss.

~*~