Unbroken

Sunday, Week 2 (5)

Hermione POV

Dream

Harry and I are laying on his cot in the tent, happily sated and content in each other's presence. Our naked bodies fit together like two pieces of a puzzle and I am breathing softly while lying against his hard chest. I can feel his hand twirling my hair but my attention is solely on the ring on my finger. It is a gorgeous thing, an emerald stone in a princess-cut while being encrusted by diamonds. The band is golden and the design on it makes it look like it is twined.

"It's not going to disappear if you stop looking at it, you know?" I hear Harry quip from behind me. I swat his chest before turning my head to meet his eyes, his eyes that are the same color of ring's stone, and lean up to kiss him.

"I love you, Hermione Granger," he passionately declares to me. My eyes tear up and I can't help but feel like this is a dream. I get the distinct feeling that this is too good to be true and that I don't deserve him. He notices it immediately.

"Hey, what's wrong?" My chin is tilted upwards so I can look at him. I see the full breadth and genuineness of his love for me within his eyes but I still feel like questioning him.

"Are you sure about this, Harry? Are you sure you want to marry me?" I know I can't bear the thought of him denying me, of him saying this is all a prank, of this all being a dream, so I make to leave his embrace.

He pulls me flush against him and then adjusts my legs so I'm straddling him. Without warning he strips the sheet off my naked body, baring me to his appreciative eyes, while he rises up with his hands pressed firmly on my hips.

I can feel his erection pressing against me and he grinds it into my center as he peppers kisses into my neck before sucking a dark spot into it. I am ready to take the plunge and let myself fall because I know he'll catch me when he suddenly stops and meets my eyes. My breath catches at just how much love for me is being displayed in the pools of emerald green.

"I want you to be my forever."

Flashback End

I barely register the fact that I'm awake until Ron's incessant snoring alerts me. I rise from the bed and hastily exit to make myself a cup of tea. I refuse to think about the vision until my mind is clear. I don't even notice that tears are on my face until one falls haphazardly into my teacup.

The memory of the vision is too much for me and I cover my face into my hands in a desperate attempt to shield myself from the world, from my torment. It was so real that I feel like I've lost something precious because I am now with Ron and not with Harry. The vision showed me a reality—a universe—where I'm with Harry James Potter and, against everything I stand for, I dearly wish it were real.

It seems impossible that a dream, no, a vision, can make me feel more loved than I have ever been in my life. I close my eyes and the only thing I can see are those brilliantly green eyes staring at me with enough love to make even the most heartless of a person smile. I feel ashamed to admit it but I don't think I've ever seen Ron look at me like that.

"I want you to be my forever."

Those words were within my vision and they were also the same words Draco said to Ginny. I remember gasping in recognition at the familiarity of them and wondering where I heard them from before. Now, it seems like I've got my answer, right? No, I don't think it can be so. If Harry was the one who said those words to me, then I'm admitting that he lied to me. I'm admitting that he never wanted me to be his forever or else he would have fought for me. He wouldn't have done that.

The vision has to be a figment of my imagination and nothing else because I don't think I can bear the pain of it being real. Harry never loved me like that and he never would, so why was my mind insistent on showing me scenarios like that?