Harry Potter and the Fantasy Quest

Epilogue

Harry awoke suddenly and reached automatically for his sword.

Sword? He didn't own a sword. The only time he'd ever used one was in the Chamber of Secrets two years ago. Harry shook his head to clear it. He sat up in his bed, blinking and wondering why everything looked so blurry.

Of course, glasses. He groped on the nightstand and put them on. He'd worn glasses for years; how could he have forgotten that? Harry frowned and rubbed his scar absently. For a change, it didn't hurt. In fact, for the first time since he'd come back to Privet Drive for the summer, he didn't think he'd had a nightmare. He did remember a very confused blur of a dream, but it was fading quickly. All he could clearly remember was an image of Ginny's face. Only it wasn't Ginny the way he'd just seen her a few weeks ago. There was something different about her. She seemed...older, somehow, and her hair had been pulled back behind her head, which he had never seen. Her long, red hair was always down. Except maybe at the Yule Ball, but he hadn't really paid attention.

Why had he been dreaming about Ginny, anyway? All he knew was that remembering that image gave him an odd dual feeling of comfort and loss. Harry stretched and decided to get up. He felt as though he had been asleep for a very long time.

Hedwig showed up a little while later with a letter from Ron. As usual, it said very little. Harry remembered that he had been very angry with his friends just yesterday, but he felt much less so now, for some reason. He also felt strangely more confident about anything he might face today. Maybe it was just the effect of not having a nightmare for a change. He shrugged and went downstairs to find some breakfast.

Ron woke up gradually, wanting to hold on to the dream he was having. He slowly opened his eyes to see the sunlight filtering through the curtains of the room he was using at 12 Grimmauld Place. He glanced over to the empty bed next to him, which Harry would hopefully be occupying soon.

Ron was aware that he had been having an unusually vivid dream, but the images were scattering and dispersing even as he tried to hold onto them. There had been a lot of fighting, and a giant spider had bit him. He also remembered kissing Hermione. Ron smiled and closed his eyes again. This wasn't the first time he'd dreamt about kissing her, but this time had felt unbelievably real.

Suddenly, there were two loud cracks as Fred and George appeared in his room.

"Ahh!" Ron yelled, taken by surprise. "Would you guys stop doing that?"

"Sorry if we scared you," said Fred, not looking sorry at all.

"We just couldn't wait to tell you -" George added. The conversation was interrupted by two girls in dressing gowns bursting into the room, probably drawn by Ron's shout. One was Ron's sister, and the other was the object of his prior musings, causing him to blush. This situation was not helped by the fact that it had been a warm night, and he had gone to bed shirtless. Ron quickly pulled the covers up over most of his chest. Hermione's gaze seemed to linger for a moment at a point somewhere below his chin before her cheeks grew pink and she looked away.

"Doesn't anyone knock anymore?" Ron demanded.

"What is going on here?" Hermione asked, still not looking at him. Ginny seemed to be trying not to laugh at her, but Ron couldn't imagine what was funny.

"You see, the thing is -" said Fred.

"We couldn't wait to tell Ron -" continued George.

"About this dream we both had -"

"He was in it -"

"And you two -"

"And Harry -"

"Harry?" Ginny interrupted, looking startled.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"It's just...I dreamed about him, too," she admitted, and now it was her turn to blush.

"Is that so unusual?" remarked Ron dryly, glad to have someone else embarrassed for the moment.

"This was," she retorted hotly. "I remember us talking. I mean, really talking. About serious things."

"I had a strange dream, too," Hermione admitted. "I had some kind of mystic healing power. And..."

She looked over at Ron again, quickly. Ron's eyes widened. Did she somehow know? Or could she have dreamt the same thing he had? But how was that possible? The twins unwittingly came to the rescue.

"I was a sorcerer," George said.

"And I was a rogue," Fred said.

"What's so odd about that?" Hermione said tartly.

"Fine," George sniffed.

"We know when we're not wanted," Fred added. And with another pair of cracks, they were gone. The remaining three exchanged glances.

"It was just a dream, wasn't it?" Ginny asked uncertainly. "I mean, we don't all remember the same things, so it wasn't necessarily that we had the same dream. We just all had striking dreams the same night."

"Fred and George certainly seemed to share the same one," Hermione pointed out, brow furrowed.

"Ah, they're twins," Ron shrugged, though something niggled at the back of his mind that this wasn't quite right. "They do that kind of thing all the time."

"And even what I remembered when I woke up is fading," Hermione admitted.

"Well, then, I guess that settles it," Ginny said matter-of-factly. "This house is just starting to get to us."

"Yes, I suppose that's it," Hermione said a bit doubtfully. Then she and Ginny left to get dressed and allow Ron to do the same.

Ron lay back for a moment, hands clasped behind his head. This dream, or whatever it was, had given him an idea that Hermione might not necessarily object if he tried to kiss her. He would have to think about that some more.

Siofra the Elf slid back through the universal rift, right onto her bed at home in Texas. She shook herself and saw that she was back in her original clothes. She hurried to a mirror. To her disappointment, the elfin features had already faded. She stuck her tongue out at herself.

"I didn't even get to properly see myself as an elf," she muttered. Just then, her mother knocked and asked if she was ready for breakfast. Siofra answered that she'd be out in a few minutes.

Honestly, Siofra couldn't even remember if this was a school day or not. She'd spent so much time in Liselle's fantasy world - hey, wait! That's right; she'd finally met Liselle! She wondered if what she'd seen was accurate. Had Liselle really had her baby in this world? How much time had passed?

Siofra shook her head in confusion. This was all too disorienting. She'd think about it later. In the meantime, she had to find a caulk gun or something and seal up that universal rift....