The Secret War | Dramione

Chapter 8

Hermione plummeted down the secret passage.

A white mist wrapped around her, binding her body and suspending her in thin air.

She tried to move, but her arms were pinned to her sides.

The mist swallowed her whole. It covered her from head to toe and a sweet-smelling scent filled her senses, drugging her.

Her eyes started to close...

Then the mist pushed Hermione forward, building in speed, but she could do nothing to stop it.

She sensed a shift in her surroundings, and her eyes shot open. There was light, so much light it was blinding.

Then she saw a large wooden door. She hesitated. She had no idea what was behind it...

She was about to reach for the handle when she was yanked back by an invisible cord.

The scene changed.

She was outside, walking in a field of lilies, but something was wrong. When she tried to touch the flowers they moved just out of reach, and the sun was bright on her face but she didn't feel its warmth.

The flowers started to grow.

Hermione jumped back.

They shot up and towered over her.

She ran blindly, trying to fight her way out...but then the scene shifted and she was pulled back into the white mist. It reached for her with icy fingers and twirled her like a spinning top.

Hermione's stomach clenched and everything shifted again.

She was standing on a roof now. The air was warm around her and the sun was setting. Harry was next to her. He was standing beside a well. He looked at her with his bright green eyes, beckoning her to follow him. He gestured to the open door behind him...a door that revealed a long spiral staircase.

Hermione froze.

She'd had this dream before, and she knew how it ended. She couldn't follow him.

She turned away from Harry and walked back to the well, but just as she reached it, the scene in front of her vanished. The ground tilted and she fell back into the mist.

What had Pansy said? Don't dream or you'll be lost....don't dream or...

Another door appeared in front of her, but she moved away from it. It wasn't real, none of this was real.

The mist dissolved.

Hermione fell through thin air and eventually hit solid ground.

She cried out in pain.

"She's disoriented," someone said, but their voice sounded like it came from very far away.

"We'll have to give her a shock."

Hermione's head snapped to the side.

She felt her eyes water and her cheek stung.

Someone had slapped her.

She blinked at her surroundings. She saw blurred shapes and it was several seconds before Pansy and Roman came into focus.

"What happened?" Hermione asked them slowly. "I kept falling and—"

"You only fell ten feet, Granger," Pansy interrupted.

Hermione looked up, she could still make out the outline of the trap door.

Why had it felt like forever?

"It's a spell," Pansy said. "An illusion to trap unwelcome visitors."