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SIYE Time:17:27 on 28th March 2024
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Dreaming of You
By EarthRowan

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Category: Post-OotP
Characters:All
Genres: Humor
Warnings: Violence
Rating: PG
Reviews: 4
Summary: *** The author has been reminded via the e-mail address on file that this story is listed as incomplete and has not been updated since 2004 ***

This is the First installment in a series comprised of various characters strange and whacky dreams, based off of fairy tale stories. The first dream is Hermione's, the Second and Third will both be odd dreams of Ginny's, the Fourth will be Tonk's dream, and the fifth will be Molly Weasley's dream. (More dreams to come, but Ginny's dreams have gotten me a bit hung up). All take place the summer after Fifth Year.
Hitcount: Story Total: 2652







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A/N: As with any fanfiction, The author of this, (myself) Is not the illustrious J.K. Rowling. If I were, I'd be off playing with my children or working on book 6 instead of this drabble.

This is my first completed fic, and part of a series of dreams by various characters. Some characters may have more than one dream, (Ginny so far in my writing plan has two, one of which is Nearly complete) and they shall all be posted under the title "Dreaming of You".

Any review or comments will be appreciated. Many thanks to my Beta, Cliodne (Cammie) and to my almost beta read but never got me the return of my story, Hope and Tema. Cammie, you're great.

The blame for this story and the rest of the stories in this series lay souly in the fact that my TV gets funny reception, and while watching Sleeping Beauty on the sunday evening broadcast, I suddenly thought, "My, the prince looks an awful bit like Ron would, all grown up with less freckles, and, wow, Princess Aurora looks like Hermione if she was a bit closer to being anorexic and her hair were a few shades lighter" and the rest flowed from there.

Anyhow, Here you go, please read, review, and Enjoy!
On:

"Ginny! It's almost time to go! Hurry Up!" she heard Ron call up the stairs. Ginny snorted, looking at Pig as she finished fastening her satchel.

"The way he's yelling, you'd think he was the one going to stay with Hermione." Pig hooted as Ginny rolled her eyes.

"GINNY! Come ON!" Came a plaintive yell. Half laughing, she hoisted her bag and headed down the stairs, Pig twittering behind her.

They'd invited Hermione to stay the summer at the Burrow, but Mr. and Mrs. Granger had been adamant about the fact that they hadn't seen their daughter in AGES, and that she spend the summer at home, at least until the week before school. Hermione had argued quite passionately to be allowed to visit, and when she was denied had, unexpectedly thrown a fit. As a compromise she'd been allowed to invite someone to stay with her. Knowing that her parents would never allow Ron or Harry to stay, and the raised eyebrows any such request would receive from them, Hermione had instead invited Ginny. After the episode in the Ministry of Magic at the end of Ginny's fourth year, the two had started to become closer friends.

Ginny thumped off the last stair and walked thru the living room into the kitchen. Ron was glaring at her, and her mother was tutting over a few last things on the kitchen table.

"You've got everything packed up, right dear?" Molly Weasley asked.
"Socks, shoes, anything else you might need?"
Ginny sighed and nodded.

"Well, your father's managed to get the Grangers hooked up to the Floo network for the day, so we'd better be going, they expect us any second." She bustled around, fidgeting Ginny's shoulder bag and checking that the trunk was secured.

"Ginny, you and I will go through first, Ron, you can come right after us with Ginny's trunk." Molly said, then grabbing a pinch of floo powder in one hand and Ginny's hand in the other, she called out "The Grangers!" and pulled Ginny with her into the fire.

Grates and fireplaces spun past, and a few moments later they stepped out into a rather pristine living room lined with books. A startled Mr. Granger grinned at them, Mrs. Granger at his side, smiling politely.

"Ginny!" she heard Hermione cry out, and the older girl rushed to her and gave her a big hug, then hugged Mrs. Weasley. Hermione reintroduced her parents to Mrs. Weasley while Ginny helped Ron wrestle her trunk into the room. After that Ginny and Ron greeted the Grangers, and Hermione managed to nicely avoid their having to sit and hold conversation with her parents by taking them to carry the trunk up to her room. They chatted for a bit, but it wasn't long until they were called down stairs again. After a short visit, an admonishment to behave, and hugs all around, Mrs. Weasley and Ron left.

They talked with Hermione's parents for a moment, Mr. and Mrs. Granger asking questions about how she was, if there was anything Ginny especially liked or disliked, and news from the wizarding world. A quick glance at Hermione's face told Ginny that her parents had no idea about the entire goings on or the Rise and Return of the Dark Lord. Eventually conversation dwindled, and the two girls retreated to Hermione's room, ostensibly to unpack Ginny's trunk. They chatted and caught up, discussing what really was going on, how people were, and plans for the coming year. Hermione asked after all of the Weasley brothers, and Ginny suppressed giggles several times as Hermione skirted around asking specific things about Ron. It wasn't hard to unpack and find space; Hermione had sacrificed half her drawers for Ginny's use over her two-week stay, though she didn't make much of it.

"Oh, it's nothing, we donated most of the stuff anyhow. I'd out grown a lot of it, and well, I spend so much of my time at school and there it's basically a uniform. Clothes have never really been a big deal to me." Hermione said, shrugging. Ginny was quick to notice that the dress robe, the one she'd worn to the Yule ball in her fourth year long too short and outgrown in other aspects, was carefully hung in her closet, protected in a plastic garment case.

"So, what do you want to do?" Hermione asked, sitting down on the bed next to Ginny, who was thumbing through a magazine for teen aged muggle girls. "Urg, give me that. I don't know WHY Mum bothers to subscribe to it, she even puts the ones that arrive while I'm at school away for me to read when I get home." She grinned a bit. "Actually, I think she keeps hoping that I'll turn into, well, into more of a *Girl*."

Ginny grinned back at her. "I know what you mean, Mum's constantly grumping over why I can't be more of a girly girl, how it's all the boys' fault that I'm quidditch mad and how she shouldn't have let me trail around with Ron, following after Bill and Charlie and the Twins when we were little. But I know she doesn't really mind."

"What, she doesn't blame Percy?" Hermione asked. Ginny's expression sobered.

"Percy was always well behaved, telling the rest of us what was proper and what to do. We... we don't talk about him much." Ginny said, biting her lip. "He still won't have anything to do with us."

"That's his loss." Hermione said, hugging Ginny about the shoulders. Mentally she was thinking, 'Stupid Git'.

"So, what do you want to do?" Hermione repeated.

"Well, first, I want to look through this." Ginny said, snatching back the magazine, laughing. "Then we can take bets on who we know who'd actually try this stuff, and then you can show me what Muggles do to have fun during the summer."

It was much later, long after dinner, when Hermione and Ginny settled down in the living room. "So, you want to watch a movie on the Telly? I'll let you pick" Hermione asked, opening up the bottom of the telly case to reveal shelves of movies.

They'd all ready exhausted all 247 channels of cable, and both of them were so hyper with the sheer excitement of spending a fun day together that they couldn't settle down and read a book, or sleep.

"Sure! But only if we can have popcorn. Dad's said that it's traditional in the muggle world to eat popcorn while watching movies" Ginny said, dropping to her knees in front of the case and starting to thumb through the movies, pulling out a few likely ones.

Hermione laughed at her enthusiasm. "Okay, I'll go into the kitchen and fix some while you pick." she said.

Ginny pawed through the movies for a few moments before she found something that really caught her interest. "Oooh, this looks interesting. I wonder how close it is to what actually happened?" She asked, just as Hermione came back in with a big bowl of popcorn. She was holding up a copy of Disney's "Sleeping Beauty."

"Close to what actually happened?" Hermione repeated, incredulous. Ginny laughed and sat up on her knees to snag some popcorn.

"I'll tell you after the movie, come on."

Ginny watched as Hermione popped the movie into the VCR, telling her that her Dad would kill her if she didn't tell him every detail of what she saw of Muggle life during her stay. They settled onto a few pillows and blankets on the floor, the popcorn between them, and started to watch the movie. Ginny was enraptured, and did not notice when Hermione dropped off to sleep less than half way through.


*********

"I grant thee, child, the gift of Knowledge, that you may love and treasure it's value," The first witch said. Her hair was pulled up into a severe bun, she was dressed in all plaid, and she looked strangely familiar as Hermione watched over the scene. She realized suddenly that it was Professor McGonagal, and shook her head. She glanced about her and realized she was in a royal court, hung with banners, and filled with people. A man and woman dressed in royal garb stood at the head of the cradle which contained the infant McGonagal had had just blessed.

They both wore crowns, and Hermione was startled to see that it was her own mother and father, smiling down at the infant. She looked around, and noticed other familiar figures nearby. Dumbledore was near to the King and Queen, his robes similar to those that denoted a chief royal advisor. A red--haired man and woman who looked suspiciously like a younger version of Arthur and Molly Weasley stood near by, and Severus Snape was across from them, dressed in the severe black robes of a Cleric.

She wondered who else was there and stepped closer to get a better look, and realized as she did that no one noticed her. A second figure approached the cradle as McGonagal stepped back, and Hermione's brow puckered in consternation as she realized it was Professor Sprout. "I grant thee, child," she said, slowly waiving her wand over the infant, "The gift of patience, that you may see things come to pass and blossom, and be better capable of dealing with what ever difficulties may come your way." She smiled, and stepped back, and Hermione shook her head in disbelief. What, by Merlin, was going on?

A third witch approached the cradle, and Hermione saw the naturally warm and friendly face of Madame Pomfrey. She pulled out her wand, and just as she began to speak a loud CRACK! echoed through the chamber, causing people to jump and scream. A cloud of darkly colored pastel smoke bellowed forth, and from it walked a tall, thin figure. Huge glasses obscured a face that held a misty, dreamy look. Overly large clothes and shawls billowed around her like bat wings, and everyone gasped as Professor Trelawney stepped forward. Everyone, that is, except Hermione, who groaned. What was that big old fake doing here?



"You're not welcome here, Sibyl." The King said clearly stepping around the cradle to stride towards her. Professor Trelawney shot him a misty smile, and then with a flick of her wand she whispered, "Petrificus totalus" she stopped him in his tracks. She stepped toward the cradle, and Hermione watched as Sprout and Pomfrey held McGonagal back.

"If all the other best witches of the nation are allowed to bestow a gift to our new born princess, surely no one will begrudge if I~" She interrupted herself with a 'vision', her voice going even more airy fairy and fake than usual.

"The princess shall grow older and beautiful, her ki-"

A derisive snort punctuated the middle of her spiel, as well as a loud murmuring from McGonagal of "Fraud." Trelawney turned towards her, and was about to her open her mouth to comment when her voice suddenly shifted, going deep and low.

"Dark Times befall the land, a shadow of evil is cast, and the danger shall follow the princess and all like her. She and her kind shall be marked for death by the wrath of those who name them unworthy, and danger shall take her from our realm before her Seventeenth Birthday, a danger that will separate her possibly forever from all she knows." She raised her wand, and light flashed out. Then she seemed to come to herself.

"What on earth was that about?" She murmured, her voice soft.

"You just...just CURSED the Princess!" McGonagal said, angrily.

"I wouldn't do anything like that." Sibyl said, affronted.

"Well, if you didn't curse her, you just predicted her demise and did something with your wand!"

"Why, my visions are to aid those of more mundane aspects, I would never--"

"Well you Just DID! OF ALL THE OUTRAGEOUS! HOW COULD YOU--" McGonagal's ranting was interrupted by Dumbledore's telling the Castle Guard, (which was, surprisingly, lead by Sirius Black) to seize her. With an outraged shriek, and much more of the vilely perfumed smoke, Trelawney disapperated. Dumbledore removed the hex from the King, and he and the Queen rushed to the cradle to pick up the baby. The queen tearfully turned to Dumbledore and the other assorted witches and wizards.

"Can you, Can you do anything, to, to..." her voice trembled too much as she looked at them, beseechingly. Madame Pomfrey stepped forward, and Dumbledore gave her a look.

"Poppy?" He asked, and she looked at him, and nodded. Then she approached the Queen, who was holding the infant, and raised her wand.

"I grant thee, Child, a gift of protection, that, rather than having the events predicted come to pass, that should any sudden danger befall you that would cause your being lost to us, you shall be placed into an enchanted sleep, until by some means of stronger magic, you might be safely revived." There was a soft flash of light, and it was done. Hermione shook her head, still trying to make sense of all the hoopla, when Dumbledore stepped forward again.

"We need to insure the safety of the Princess, until the time of the curse is safely past. We do not yet know what we face, and I'd think it best if..." Dumbledore's voice faded off, as the view before Hermione slipped away. A deep and slightly familiar voice started to speak,

"And so it came to Pass that the Princess was sent off to live with the three witches, McGonagal, Sprout, and Pomfrey, and to be cared for and kept safe until her Seventeenth Birthday was past. The Three witches were kind, and taught her many valuable less-"

"WHAT is a Voice Over doing in my dream? Who are you? What are you doing here?" Hermione asked.

"Gilderoy Lockhart at your Service Miss, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Winner of the Witch Weekly best smile award... Five times I might add, member of-"

"Oh, go away, you pretentious, silly, stupid..." Her voice and figure faded away.

***************

Hermione awoke slowly, to the sound of birds chirping. 'What an Odd Dream.' she thought, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. She expected to find herself on the floor of the living room, but instead stared up at the thatched walls of a cottage. She got out of bed and found herself fully dressed, and went down stairs, as if this was normal, even unexceptional, but part of her sat back and observed, knowing it was. As she rounded the bend in the stairs and approached the bottom she heard shushing sounds and admonishments to be quite.

"Good morning Professor McGonagal, Professor Sprout, Madame Pomfrey," she said.

"Good Morning Hermione, did you sleep well?" Madame Pomfrey asked, bustling about. She was packing off what looked like the remains of breakfast, taking a portion and wrapping it in napkins, then into a larger bundle. She placed a few apples in it as well.

"Very well, thanks." Hermione replied.

"We've got several assignments we'd like you to take care of on your own today, as well as some chores." McGonagal said. She gave her rather stiff, but still kind, smile, and handed Hermione a list as she hurried her towards the door. "Everything you should try to accomplish today is on this list." She said.

Madame Pomfrey walked up and pressed the bundle of food on her, "Here are some provisions, breakfast, lunch, and a snack, plus some chocolate should you run into anything unpleasant. That way you won't have to come back here until evening."

"Watch out for Devil Snare or any other dangerous Plants." Sprout warned her.

"Yes, and remember your protective charms and transfigurations." McGonagal told her.

"Don't forget to eat the chocolate should anything happened. Be careful. Remember not to try to heal yourself should anything happen, come straight back here to be treated by a trained medi--witch and--"

"I know Madame Pomfrey, I know." Hermione told her. She was out the door and down the path with further admonishments, (and requests for any useful or interesting plants) following behind her. She headed on down the path, and was soon out of sight and earshot of the cottage. She looked at her list, and decided to go over it as she ate. She sat down on the edge of the stream bank and opened her bundle of food, munching a scone as she read over the list. Couldn't they have assigned her anything more challenging? These tasks could be time consuming, but other than that, were not difficult. Why were they trying to keep her away from the cottage?

Sighing, and knowing they had their reasons, she lay back in the grass, and looked at the list. First was to practice a spell for McGonagal, transfiguring animals into household objects or other animals and back again. Where was she going to get them though? Summoning them would make them *very* grumpy, and she didn't relish the thought of an irritated porcupine rushing towards her. Thinking a moment, she decided to charm them to her. It worked and in a few minutes she was surrounded by little animals, squirrels and rabbits, a deer, birds of every sort and, awfully enough, a few reptiles as well.

They were all happy to simply be around her, and she was pleased with the effectiveness of her charm as she began to transfigure them, back and forth. Rabbits turned into boots, squirrels into socks, and the reptiles into a nice leather belt, which she was tempted to leave them as. She started to hum as she worked, and then to softly sing. The animals, not realizing that her voice was far from the best, were enthralled due to the charm they were under.

She was working on the color of the sock-squirrels when she heard a soft neighing, followed by a masculine voice. "You silly thing, don't go that way go this way. Honestly, I don't know why I didn't just use a broom." The next thing she knew a horse was walking out of the woods, being fussed at by its rather perturbed owner. He stopped fussing at his horse when he noticed her, just as she stopped singing. He hopped down off his horse and walked up to her.

"Um, Hello." He said, his face and ears turning a bit red. His hair was a russet red color, short, and he was tall, with strong clean features.

"My horse seems to want to-" he stopped and blinked at her. "Hey, are those chipmunks?" He asked.

"Actually, they're squirrels. Or rather, they were, it's a simple transfiguration, I could show you, if you want?" She said. "You are, err, magical, aren't you?" She'd heard him say 'broom', but nonetheless she flinched inside at the thought of revealing herself to a potential muggle, risking being burnt at the stake or whatever stupid way they decided to rid themselves of witches these days. The thought of being put to the stake wasn't pleasant, as she wasn't very fond of being tickled, it made her nauseous.

"Yes, and I know that one all ready, thanks." The young man replied, pulling his wand from his sleeve. He aimed it at a rabbit and muttered the spell. Nothing happened, and the rabbit twitched its ears at him as if to say, 'Pathetic', before hopping back to Hermione.

"Honestly." Hermione said, ignoring how the young man rolled his eyes.

"That's not how you do it. Here, watch." She showed him the proper form, then sighed as he failed again, miserably.

"Are you sure you're magical?" She asked him. He looked at her, affronted,

"Of Course I am! You listen here, Miss-"

"Hermione. And you are?" Her voice was polite, but unintentionally held the slightest whiff of pretension, as if her nose was in the air in superiority.

"Ron, now, you-" She interrupted him.

"You had the wand movements and pronunciation all wrong, did you know? I'll show you how to do it until you get it right, if you'll help me with my chores and such." She offered.

Ron blinked at her. "You're nutters, you are. " He said. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Do you want me to show you the proper way to do that spell or not?" She asked. He shrugged,

"Sure, might as well." came the reply. Hermione repressed the urge to copy his eye rolling.

"But you have to help me with my chores afterwards. I would say my school work, but, well, THAT'S obviously out of the question."

Ron snorted, but settled "Obviously. You know the more time we spend talking about it the less time we have to actually _do _ anything, right?"

Hermione heaved an exasperated sigh. "All right, come here and let's get this over with." She said, taking him by the wrist and positioning his hand. "Watch me, it's up then down then swish and flick" She told him, drilling him through the movements, fussing when he started to try slacking off.

They worked through straight till lunch, not noticing until they bent to examine the hedgehog Ron had managed to transfigure into a hat and felt the sun beating directly down on their backs and necks. "That's some fairly decent work." Hermione told him, picking up the hat to examine it.

"High praise," He muttered, and then blushed as his stomach growled, loudly.

"Maybe if I feed you you'll do better." She told him. "Besides, it's getting on to the afternoon." They split Hermione's lunch along with the few provisions Ron had brought in his saddlebags, then decided to get started on Hermione's work and chores, her coaching and coaxing Ron all the while. By the time they finished, dusk was settling, and the charm she'd used to lure the animals to them had worn off. When they caught the hat trying to wriggle away they'd returned it to it's original state, and been met with an extremely disgruntled hedgehog. After it wandered off and they'd packed up all their things, and thenthere was an awkward pause.

"Well, thanks for the help," Ron started to say, "It really-"

"Meet me here tomorrow, about noon." Hermione told him. "We can keep practicing together. Goodness knows you'll need it if you try to slack off as much in your lessons as you did today." She told him.

"Bloody know--it--all," he muttered.

"Excuse me, what did you say?"

"You're a tremendous help and all, I, ah, don't know how I'll manage to thank you."

"Oh, well, just be here tomorrow."

He nodded his head, and after saying goodbye led his horse off through the woods. Hermione gathered up her things, berries, leaves, and roots wrapped up in the napkins that lunch had been in. She reached the cottage just before true darkness fell, and muttered a sigh of relief as she slipped in the door. She was already trying to plan reasoning’s and excuses to use to be allowed out the next day, and after telling her guardians of her day, and excluding any mention of Ron in it, she headed up to bed.

The next morning dawned and Hermione got out of bed, ready to talk the Professors and Pomfrey into letting her have another day on her own, but found it unnecessary. As they had the day before, they packed her a breakfast and lunch and shooed her out the door.

The dream went hazily along, in the manner that some dreams do, and somehow Hermione found herself at a point of knowing, for some reason, that it was Thursday, two weeks later, and she and Ron had spent each day practicing spells together, fussing and bickering the whole time. Despite it though, she also got the feeling that they'd become friends, although both were hesitant to speak of their family or circumstances to the other.

It was that afternoon that things changed. They'd been practicing Cheering Charms when it began to rain. They ran for shelter beneath a large oak, but not before being drenched. Their teeth were chattering and they were shivering, and Hermione was glad that Ron had brought a blanket in his saddlebags that day, saying he'd gotten complaints about grass stains on his clothing.

"H-h-here, you take it." Ron offered, holding it out to her as she shivered.

"N-n-n-no, that's okay, it's y-y-your blanket, I'll be fine." Hermione said, hugging herself as she shivered. She rubbed her arms and jumped a bit as he tucked the blanket around her shoulders. She sank down on the ground. "Here, we can sh-sh-share. It'll be close, but we can manage."

"Th-that's okay, I'll just start a f-f-fire, then we can both be warm." His teeth were chattering loudly. He started to gather up some fallen wood and twigs from around them, (because even Magical fires need some fuel), when they heard a rustling sound above them. Both of them glanced up to see what looked like a moving pile of twigs lunge at Ron, as if to gouge out his eyes.

"Bowtruckle!" Hermione said, whipping out her wand. "Stupefy!" The bowtruckle's lunge at Ron fell far short as it was, for all intents and purposes, knocked unconscious. Ron stood, staring at it, while Hermione stood and started to pull at his arm.

"Come on, bowtruckles usually only live in wand-quality trees, and where there's one there maybe more. We need to move to another tree." She told him. Nodding quietly, Ron followed her along, under the protection of the trees as much as possible, until they were a ways off. They'd had to dash through the open a bit, and were both shivering again in full force by the time they stopped. Hermione sat again, pulling Ron down beside her, and wrapped half the blanket around him. They sat there shivering for a moment, and then Ron turned to her.

"You stopped that thing from getting me back there. Thanks." He told her. He looked into her face. Her hair was wet and plastered to her head, and water was running down her face, which was mostly pale, with rose tints in her cheeks from the exertion of running.

She shouldn't have been pretty, but she was. There were raindrops on her eyelashes, glistening, highlighting her large, honey brown eyes.

Ron felt his throat tighten, and he forgot to breathe. Slowly, tentatively he leaned forward, and brushed his lips against hers, watching as her eyes widened and then closed as he moved near, before closing his own. Her lips were soft and sweet, warm and wonderful against his own, and he felt her return the kiss. It seemed to last an eternity, and yet not long enough.

Slowly, unsteadily they pulled apart, breathing just the slightest bit heavy. Each of them blushed and diverted their gazes as they fell into an awkward silence.

"Here, let me do a warming charm." Hermione said, clearing her voice and raising her wand. A few moments later neither of them was shivering.

"This should last a while, I'd, I'd better go, the Professors will be worried and-" They were both standing now, and she handed him his blanket.

"No," he said, shaking his head. "You take it. I'll be fine."

"But-"

"You take it. I'll, I'll see you tomorrow, right?" He asked. She smiled at him.

"Right." She turned to go, and he stood, watching. She was about twelve yards away when she turned and called, "Ron?" He met her gaze, and she smiled at him. "Thank you."

She walked back to the cottage, not noticing the rain, and was smiling
a bit as she opened the door and entered.

"Young lady, where have you been? You're soaked to the bone!" Madame Pomfrey scolded her, dragging her over to the fire. She sat her down in a chair there, pulling the soaked blanket off of her and immediately started assembling a concoction to warm her from the inside, out.

"We've been quite worried about you." Professor McGonagal admonished her, stout little Professor Sprout by her side, nodding her head in firm agreement.

"Let's get you warm, and then we have something important to discuss with you." Madame Pomfrey said, bustling up with a cup of hot tea.

"There, that's better, now drink it quickly, before it cools." They sat there in silence for a few moments as Hermione drank the tea.

"Hermione, you're a bright girl, and we know you've always wondered why it is you live here, with us, rather than with a normal family." Professor McGonagall began, her voice slightly tight.

"Yes, but I've always assumed I was a foundling or something. I was fine here with the three of you." was Hermione's response.

"Yes, well, it's time we told you why you're here, about your parents and who you are." Hermione looked at her, startled. "When you were born, you were the pride of your parents’ lives, so much so that they invited all of the nobles of the land, all of the high witches and wizards, and the rulers of neighboring nations, to attend your christening. Hermione, I know this may be difficult to grasp, but you are the daughter of Royalty, King and Queen Granger, monarchs of our land." She left off a moment to give Hermione a moment to absorb all this, and looked at Poppy and Sprout. Their eyes were tight with worry over the effect these words would have on the girl.

"Unfortunately, they neglected to invite one person, and when this..."Her nostrils went white with suppressed anger. "When this witch found out she apperated, without invitation, to your christening and placed a curse on you, along with a prediction. It was because of that curse that something would happen to you before your seventeenth birthday and you would never rule. That is why your parents, as much as it hurt them, sent you here, to live under our protection."

"And you're telling me this because tomorrow is my seventeenth Birthday?" Hermione replied.

"Yes, and because tomorrow we will all make a journey to meet with your parents and your betrothed. We felt it was better we told you before we left than-"

"My Betrothed! What do you mean my betrothed! Professor, this is the, well, I don't know what century it is, but surely we are past the point where arranged marriages are anything but a barbaric historical event."

"As a member of the royal family your marriage has been arranged since before your birth." Madame Pomfrey said, kindly. "It's been expected of you since-"

"You think I CARE what's expected of me?" Hermione's cheeks turned bright pink as she looked at her three caregivers "One day I think I'm just a foundling taken in by three kind witches, the next I find out not only am I a Princess, but one who's life is in danger and who's parents, who sent her off solely for her own good, expect her to marry an absolute stranger, simply because that's how Princesses are supposed to behave! Excuse me if I'm a little irate, professors, but I do believe I have cause and reason not to care about what's expected of me!" Hermione said, and turning on her heal ran up the stairs to her room.

"Oh dear, I don't think we handled that well." Professor Sprout murmured.

"None the less, we leave tomorrow, and Hermione will have to deal with being a princess." Professor McGonagall said, and stood up.

Hermione went to bed in a huff and awoke in one, and with a bit of a puffy face and headache the next morning. After getting dressed she went down stairs and found porridge, a package, and a note on the table waiting for her.

Hermione, (the note read)

After breakfast please dress in this. We have gone to get your security guard and will return shortly to escort you to your parents. Please stay inside

The professors and Madame Pomfrey had signed it. Hermione, deciding that she'd have to deal with this at the source, ate her porridge and then changed into the gown that had been provided for her. She then took out a quill and parchment and wrote a note to Ron saying she would not be able to make their meeting today, and didn't know when she'd be able to again, and to please not be angry with her. After tying it to the leg of the household owl, she sent it off.

They arrived with a guard of Aurors a few hours later, and quickly made their way to a clearing and onto broomsticks to fly to the castle.

"It might not be the safest way, but it is the quickest." One of the Aurors muttered. No one seemed to care that Hermione, or, "the Princess" as they referred to her, was not very good at flying. After a few moments they were on their way, flying high above the lands below,

"Behold your kingdom, Princess." Someone called, and Hermione snorted. She was about to reply when suddenly someone screamed, and she turned to see a group of darkly clad wizards in pursuit, wands out.

"Death Eaters!" Someone shouted, and there was a great upheaval as half of the Aurors moved to protect the princess and the rest went out to face the Death Eaters.

"Kill the Mudblood!" One of the attackers screeched, and as one they all started hurling curses. Hermione, who at this point was rather shaken, tried to reach for her wand. A curse made it through the Aurors and hit the tail of her broom, which went spiraling towards the ground.

At this point in the dream Hermione screamed, and tried to think of something, anything, to slow or stop her descent. "Wait a minute, this is a dream, just a dream, so!" She managed to stop her decent, partially, by casting herself into third person role as she watched her dream-body fall to the ground.

"Great, just great. Now what do I do?" She tried waking herself up, but that didn't work, and none of the others seemed to see her. "I guess I just have to finish the dream." She watched as Death Eaters approached her body, and was relieved to see that the spell that Pomfrey had put on her as a baby, (and that now that she was in third person in her dream she could remember) had worked. One of the death eaters tried a killing curse, and nothing happened.

"Let's take her to the Master, he'll know what to do." They said, and Hermione found herself blurring through the dream and then arriving at a dark stone tower. Suddenly, they were inside and standing outside a large wooden door.

"Enter." said a high, cold voice. Hermione shivered. Voldemort. The death eaters, one of them floating her body forward, entered the room.

"Master," One of them said, and both of them dropped to their knees.

"We have captured the Mud blood princess, but when we try to kill her our spells will not work. We've tried other methods, but we cannot seem to do her injury."

"Well." Said Voldemort, turning his snakelike gaze onto Hermione's floating body. "Well indeed." He said. Then he smiled.

"I could break this curse, but I think I may have found a better use for her. Put her body in the topmost chamber, and let us wait. Mr. Potter cannot help but come rescue her; you know how he loves thwarting my plans. If that old Muggle Lover Dumbledore continues to keep us from getting to the Boy, then we'll just bring the Boy to us!" He turned to one of the Death Eaters. "Malfoy, I'm putting you in charge of this. When you find the boy, bring him to me. "

"Oh no," Hermione thought, "They're going to use Harry's Ssaving people thing against him." then "Damn," as she started to whirl away.



"What do you mean I can't go out riding today? I go out riding everyday. And you CAN'T be expecting me to wear these!" a young man said holding up the court clothes a woman, assumedly his mother, had just handed him. Hermione recognized her as the other Queen who'd attended her christening, but could not place her otherwise. And she knew she was supposed to. She couldn't see the young man’s face, as his back was to her while he held up the maroon clothes

"Stupid Dream." Hermione muttered to herself.

"No, you may not go out riding today, and yes, you WILL wear those. We're going to the Grangers to meet your betrothed, you remember Princess Granger, don't you?"

"My WHAT? Who? Mum, have you gone Nutters?" He asked, horrified.

"Betrothed dear, you met Princess Granger at her christening ceremony, that was, oh, you wouldn't have been more than a baby, so perhaps you don't remember." she said, biting her lip.

"But mum, that was years ago, and besides, you can't be expecting me to marry a complete stranger!"

"I'm sorry dear, but that's just how this dream goes. You know you can't control someone else's dream, and besides, we're going."

"None of the others were forced to marry someone or had arranged marriages!"

"Young man, you WILL be marrying Princess Granger, end of Discussion! Now, get dressed, and-"

"But Mum, they're maroon!"

"Oh, very well!" The woman snapped, and with a quick spell changed them to a navy blue color. "Happy now?" she said, and when the young man didn't respond she Hrrumff'd. "Get dressed, we don't want to be late."

Hermione was just walking around to see the young man’s face when she was whisked away by another dream haze. "Oh drat!" she said, just before she re-materialized in what appeared to be the main court.

"I'm afraid I have bad news." A man said, and Hermione noted that it was Dumbledore. "Voldemort has kidnapped the Princess, and is apparently keeping her hostage, for what purpose we do not know."

"He's trying to lure me out." A slightly bitter voice said, and Hermione sighed to see it was Harry, dressed in all black, looking very pale, the bitterness showing on his face.

"Yes, I believe that is his intention, though we have no evidence."

"And the only way to get the Princess back is to go in and get her?"

"So it would seem," Dumbledore door replied. Harry looked at him, then turned away,

"Then I guess I've got no choice but to-"

"Hey Mate, hold it." Ron said, grabbing his shoulder. "We can't risk you, and besides, you know it's a trap. You'd have to be blarmey to actually tramp into it."

"How else are we going to get Princess Granger back then?" Harry saiid, his voice tight with anger.

"Listen, the Princess is my betrothed, right? So it's my job to go get her back."

"But Ron! Those death eaters won't let you get anywhere near the place!" his mother cried. "And if you think we're going to let you go off alone to do this, then you've got-"

"Mum," Ron said, his voice serious "if I'm old enough to be getting married in this dream, I think I'm old enough to save the princess." He looked over at Harry, then at Dumbledore. "Besides, I'm not going alone. I'm going to have some back up and a distraction."

The next thing Hermione knew she was floating over the tower again. "Great, just Great," she thought. "I'm really getting sick of this dream moving around!"

She reappeared next to the tower and watched as a swarm of Death Eaters rushed out the door past her. A taunting voice called to them, and she realized Harry was out there somewhere, trying to lure them away.

Suddenly, he popped up over to the side of them, then on another side, and Hermione realized that it wasn't Harry, but someone, some bodies, trying to look like Harry. Then she saw Ron sneak around the group of death eaters and into the tower. Up and around and around and around the tower steps he went, up to the very top, and surprisingly enough, there was no one there. Until they reached her door, that was. There stood Crabbe and Goyle, looking especially stupid.

"Damn." Ron muttered, looking at them, and then called up the stairs, "Hey, we need some help out here with Potter!"

"The master told us to stay here and guard the door until he returned!" Called down Goyle.

"Fine, I'll go tell Malfoy myself that you refused to help." Ron called back. He made stomping noises down the stairs, and then quietly went back up. Through a crack in the stairs he aimed his wand, then called out

"Petrificus Totalus!" Instantly, both Crabbe and Goyle fell to the floor, still as stone. Ron stepped over them, kicking them, then cursed as his foot throbbed. He hobbled through the doorway, cautiously, and was surprised to find no charms, curses, or spells on it. He walked over to the dais (the sight of which had Hermione snorting) and climbed the few steps, then nervously sat down next to her prone body.

"Hermione!" He said, his voice soft and wondering, "Not a total stranger, after all." Quietly, gently, he took her hand, rubbing it. No response. Next he tried shaking her shoulder. Nothing. He knew she wouldn't appreciate him pouring water on her, and yelling wouldn't work. He didn't know what to do, so he did the only thing he could think to. He leaned over and kissed her.

Hermione's eyes opened with a sigh as the kiss ended. "Well, I... Ron! Where are we? What're you doing here?" Somehow or another, in the odd way dreams often do, Hermione was seeing events from two perspectives, through her own eyes and also outside of herself, as a viewer.

"I've come to rescue my Betrothed." He told her, grinning a bit. "We, err, um, need to get out of here, rather quickly." He looked out the window, and Hermione, who'd sat up, looked with him. The battle was raging outside, though someone seemed to be having fun if the sight of a few death eaters with rabbit ears hopping about was any indication,

"Probably the twins" Ron thought. He pulled a broom out of his pocket, and a whispered incantation turned it back to full size. He stood on the window ledge. "Come on." He said, offering Hermione his hand then waiting for her to sit behind him. He reached and wrapped one of her arms around his waist. "Hold on tight" he said, and then they took off. A jet of green sparks shot over their shoulder was the all-clear signal needed for those below to know the mission was accomplished. As the folks behind them started to Disapperate, Hermione and Ron flew off into the sunset.

**************


"Hermione! Hermione, wake up!" a panicky voice called, "Hermione! How do I make this thing stop!?" Hermione sat up with a start, Ginny shaking her shoulder and the television making a very nasty static sound that indicated that the video had finished. Quickly she flipped off the set and then hit the rewind button. Then she sat back, feeling a little dazed.

"Are you okay?" Ginny asked, noting her friends odd expression.

"Yes, I just had an odd dream. I'm fine." Hermione replied. She looked over at Ginny. "Gin, what happened in the real story of Sleeping Beauty?"


Authors Note: Well, that's it, The Next installment, which will be Ginny's dream(s) Should be up soon, once I can finish writing it (have been wrestiling with it for a while) and Get it to my Lovely Beta, Cliodne. Thanks a ton, and I'm going to ask for reviews as this is my first fic
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