Paradise called Ojén

2. Nightmares and comforting.


“Your parents will die the moment you open the letter.” A high-pitched voice screamed at her.


“Your parents are dead!” She looked down on the porch. Her father laid in a heap on the concrete, her mother in a pool of blood with her torn clothes next to him.


“MUM! DAD!” she yelled. She stood in her bedroom in front of her window. But who was talking to her? She hung out the window and looked around. There, from under a big tree, five dark figures were coming toward the house.


Hermione tossed and turned in her bed. She was dreaming of Voldemort standing near her parents dead now and saying awful thing to her. Her eyes flicked under their lids and she was scared. She would be the next to die.


“We’re coming to get you, filthy Mudblood! We’re coming into your home and kill you…”


“No…no…please…” she whispered in her dream. In her dream she saw the Death Eaters with Voldemort standing in front of them. They still stood in the garden and were about to enter the house to make an end of her life.


“No… Professor Snape…help me, please.” She said but suddenly she saw Snape standing between two huge hooded men.


“Miss Granger, whatever you do, don’t let them get you.” Snape yelled up to her window.


“Traitors must die too, you know that Severus. And now your time has come too…”


“NOOO!” Hermione screamed as Voldemort raised his wand and shouted the unforgivable curse. Snape fell on the grass, dead.


“NOOOOOOOOO! NOT SNAPE. HE DIDN’T….” but suddenly she was grabbed from behind. Someone shook her shoulders. She turned around and looked into the hood.


“It’s over…” she heard him say and tried to loosen the grip. She was slowly waking up.


“Miss Granger, it’s over. Wake up. Miss Granger…” Snape knelt down next to her bed and was shaking Hermione’s shoulders to wake her up. With a shock she opened her eyes, gasping for air and shuddering in fear.


“HE DIDN’T DO IT…” she screamed and looked bewildered.


“Shhhhh, it’s alright.” He said and pulled her to his bare chest. “I’m right here, no one will hurt us.” Hermione looked up and met his dark eyes. Tears were falling down her cheeks. She buried her head in the crook of his neck and sobbed.


“I-it was s-so real…Vol-demort, Dea-th Ea-ters, mum-dad, y-you dead…” she tried to say but his shoulder and the sobs made it almost impossible for Snape to understand. Snape caressed her back and rocked her back and forth.


“I’m okay. You’re okay. The Dark Lord isn’t here.” He said comforting as he slipped his wand in his boxers. When he heard Hermione screaming his name he’d grabbed his wand and ran to her room. Only then he saw her sitting up in bed with her eyes closed. “Tell me about it, Miss Granger. Tell me about your dreams and I can make them go away.” Hermione didn’t spoke for at least three minutes. She just cried in Snape’s embrace while he held her and tried to comfort her. Apparently he did a good job, she stopped sobbing and placed her own hand on his lower back. Snape felt very uncomfortable with her touching him however innocently. He did the only thing he could, he pushed her away. He wasn’t used to being touched by anyone but Dumbledore. Hermione noticed it and pulled her hand back.


“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…” She said but he raised his hand to stop her from speaking further.


“Please, Miss Granger. Just tell me what the dream was all about and I will make a potion for you tomorrow. But hurry up a bit, I need my sleep!” He said in his usual teaching tone, brisk and firm. He wouldn’t let emotions take control, he just wouldn’t. Hermione told him what she saw in her dream and started shaking again. She told him she saw her parents laying dead on the concrete porch and then Voldemort who killed him.


“The moment I felt those hands on my shoulders I knew it was a Death Eater. I turned and only saw a dark hooded man, but no face. Not… not even a silver mask.” She ended and looked at her professor. “Maybe it was a Dementor, they don’t wear masks.”


“No, no it definitely was a Death Eater, Miss Granger.” He said watching her cringe. “Not all Death Eaters wear masks these days. Mister Malfoy for example.” He sighed and once again placed a hand on her shoulder. “Try to get some sleep, it’s only three in the morning.” He said and stood.


“I’ll try.” said Hermione and lay down again. Snape stretched his arms and walked to the door.


“Professor,” Hermione sat up again as Snape turned to her, “Thank you.”


“Your welcome, Miss Granger. Now go back to sleep.” He answered sternly and left.


He walked straight to his room and shut the door behind him. What was he going to do, he thought as he sat on the edge of his bed. He placed his wand on the nightstand and sighed.


“I can’t let this happen, I won’t let this happen. She’s only a child.” He said and pulled the sheet up over his legs. “What would she think if she sees me walking through the house in my boxers? What are you doing to yourself, to her?” With these thoughts swirling through his mind he fell asleep.


In the other room Hermione thought about the man who sat next to her in his silk boxers. “He was in my room wearing only his boxers.” She whispered to herself and blushed seven shades of red. “Don’t go there, Missy. He too old, too tall, too well built, too much your teacher and too ugly.” She said to herself. The first four were true, but too ugly? She squeezed her arm. “He isn’t ugly, Hermione and you know that…” she sighed, lay down again and tried to get some sleep. “You’re not in love with an old man!” she sighed and closed her eyes. She didn’t get much sleep actually. She kept thinking about the nightmare, her parents and the tall, well built man in boxers.