Dreams
“Expelled?!” As soon as Hermione came back home and explain what happened, her step-dad, Eric, stood up from his chair marched towards her. “That is the fourth time you got kicked out of your school! What the hell have you’ve been doing? Trying to break a record?!” she tried to restrain herself from yelling back at him and stay quiet. “I can’t believe this! Why can’t you just stay out of trouble?”
“Eric, please calm down.” Her mother, Jean, tried to not let the situation from getting worse as she placed her hand on the man’s shoulder to hold him back. She turned to her daughter and asked, “Hermione, did you do something that the headmaster had no choice but to expel you? I know you wouldn’t do something reckless.” her mother looked at her in the eyes, trying to give her comfort.
Hermione just looked down and tried to make a decision if she should tell what happened on the field trip. Because if she does tell them, they would think she’s insane. And she got to admit, she thought so too. Because, how do you tell your mom and her excuse of a husband that she almost got killed by a monster that turned into dust when she pierced her with a ring that turned into a sword. And the said ring was still in her pocket. Yeah, they would think that she completely lost it. So she just remained silent.
Her step-dad got fed up with her lack of answer, “That’s it, I’m tired of this shit. I need a drink.” Eric stormed out of the house and slammed the door shut.
Jean just looked at the door and shook her head. She turned back to her daughter with worry in her eyes. She knows her daughter, she would talk and explain everything when she’s ready. And Jean is understanding enough to give her daughter some space she needed to prepare herself, and that’s what Hermione loved so much about her mother. So she headed to her room and closed the door gently then laid down on her bed. While she stared at her ceiling, she kept asking herself why her life is like this is. Has she done something wrong to make the universe hate her so much? She felt her eyes starting to get watery as she let the tears fall. She’s tried so hard to stay out of trouble in school so she can save her mother the trouble, but, whenever she tried to help others, the blame is somehow dropped on her. She just wanted to help, why is she the one getting punished for doing the right thing? And then there’s her step-dad, Eric. She and her mother would be better off without that poor excuse of a father. He doesn’t even have the decency to take care of his ‘family’. Sure he has a job, a police officer, but whenever he’s at home, he always like to drink, smoke, and gamble with his gang. And he has the nerve to call himself a person that saves lives and respect the laws when he’s doing the opposite. Seriously, what did her mom see in him?
As she wiped her tears and laid back, she reached to her pocket and grabbed the ring that her professor handed to her. She noticed that the ring also have something carved around it, much like the sword. But this time, the carving is different from what she saw on the blade. She rolled it between her fingers and observed it, like the ones written on the sword, the words are definitely not English. The letters are just weird symbols as she looked closely and… the symbols are shaking? She shook her head and rubbed her eyes, thinking that she’s hallucinating. When she opened them, her golden brown eyes widened. The words are written in English now. How did that happened? She could’ve sworn that the words are just weird symbols that are really hard to make sense of but now, she can understand it. She read the words that are written all over the ring as she rolled it between her fingers. The written symbols which she can translate as, ‘This ring can only be touched by his descendant.’ Which made questions pop up in her head and confused her. Whose ring is this? Why does Prof. Dumbledoor have it? And why did he gave it to her? She put the ring on her palm, closed it into a fist and tried transforming it to a sword again. But it didn’t. She furrowed her eyebrows and opened her hand to see the ring just lying there. Another question came to her. Why didn’t it transform? It worked the last time she held it. Does she have to be on some kind of danger for it to transform? She sighed helplessly and stared at the ring. Then, an idea came to her, should she wear it? Does she have to wear the ring for it to transform?
“Well… worth to try…” she mumbled. She held the ring and wore it on her right middle finger. She stared expectedly at the ring and waited. When nothing happened, she sighed in defeat and lifted her left hand to take off the ring. But before she did, the symbols around the ring glowed again until the whole ring was erupted with a bright red light. Her eyes widened when she saw the ring slowly growing and morphing into a sword. She felt the handle against her palm as the sword disappeared from her finger and went to her hand to hold. And when the bright red light was completely morphed into a shape of a sword, the light slowly faded as she saw the familiar weapon. The sword was exactly like she used against the monster at the museum. She stared at it with awe and she felt her body getting lighter and relaxed. She felt a warm feeling when she held the dangerous weapon close to her. The ridiculously sharp blade that can literally cut her to pieces made her feel safe and relief. As if a warm embrace is wrapped around her body and made her feel secure.
And just like what she did with the ring, she observed the sword. The blade has something carved on it as she remembered. Carvings she can read as, ‘This sword shall bring back the lost and corrupted souls back to whom they are sent from.' What the hell? Lost and corrupted souls? Like Ms. Umbridge or should she say, the creature? Someone sent it to kill her?! Who?! And why?! She couldn’t recall doing something so bad to someone that they had to send a monster to kill her?! And if she did, (which she didn’t) why would they go so far as to get an unknown creature, make it act like their substitute, and then send it after her?
She took deep breathes and tried to calm down. Once she was calm a few minutes later, she looked at the sword in her hands again and tried to turn it back into a ring. It was rather easy than morphing it into a sword as she just has to will it back into its smaller form. A few seconds of light later, the ring was back, wrapped around her middle finger again. She yawned and realized that she was exhausted. So many happened earlier and she decided to take a rest for a few hours. She closed her eyes as she swept away the tiring events that happened yesterday from her minds, and went to sleep.
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Darkness. That’s all you can see and feel. There’s no sounds or anything that can be made around you.
Until you saw something. Light. It was small and blurry but it’s there. And it was getting closer and closer to you. You felt someone hold you but you don’t know what or who it was. You didn’t know what’s happening as you cried and squirmed under their touch.
Until you heard a soft and calming voice. “Shh… I’m here baby.” And from that moment, you felt safe. As if you were floating.
You heard another muffled voice, “She looks just like you.” It was a different voice and it was deep. “For now, she’s got your eyes. But when she grow up, she might inherit mine.”
The previous soft voice chuckled, “That’s fine with me. It will remind me of you.”
The moment was interrupted when you suddenly felt hungry. You cried and reached out to the voice in hope to satisfy your hunger. The deep voice chuckled again. “Looks like she’s ready for her first meal, love.”
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You felt something poking your cheek as you raised your hands and tried to grab the source of it. You felt something as you catch it with your tiny hands and pulled at it out of curiosity.
You heard someone laugh deeply and felt something touch your forehead. “You’re getting stronger, my princess.” You made a small noise and pulled at the finger in your hands. “I shall never let anyone hurt you.”
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You were crying. You don’t know why. But that’s all you can do now.
“Dear please, there’s got to be another way!” You heard a woman’s voice. It was familiar but you couldn’t make it out.
“I’m truly sorry, my love.” And then, the same deep voice followed. ”But I have to go. I need to make sure your safe. Both of you.”
“But, what about our baby? I can’t do this alone! I’m not strong enough!”
“You will never be alone. And you are the strongest person I’ve ever met. Please take care of our princess.”
You felt something poke your cheek again. You grasp it and held it tight, not wanting to let go.
“Be strong, my little flame. Protect your mother for me. I will always be with you until you’ve grown and I will never let any harm come to you.” He kissed your forehead as you felt something drop against your cheek. And then a warm feeling was spreading through your chest. But it disappeared as quickly as it came. “As long as you have my mark, I will always be there to protect you. I love you, my princess.”
That’s the last thing you heard until you saw a flash.
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Hermione jolted up from her pillow as she sat on her bed in cold sweat. She was also breathing heavily and there were traces of tears on her cheek. What was that dream about? Was that her? Whose voice did she hear then? Her mother? Then who’s the other… Her father. She has no doubt about that. She was sure that was her father talking to her. She peered at her alarm clock and saw that it was seven in the morning so she slept through yesterday. She wiped her sweat and the traces of tears off her face and took a shower. While undressing, she noticed that she’s still wearing the ring so she took it off and placed it on top of her drawer before she went inside her bathroom.
She has nowhere to go now since she’s expelled, so, after her shower, she pulled her red hoodie, black pants, and got dressed. She grabbed the ring from her drawer and put it inside her pocket, just in case. She went down for breakfast and saw her mother washing some dirty dishes. There was no sign of Eric so that’s a good start for her. She has so many questions about her dream last night and she was hoping her mother can answer them. But first, “Hey mom… Good morning.” She greeted her mother.
Jean turned around to find her daughter freshened up and ready for breakfast. She smiled and greeted her teenage girl back. “Good morning, sweetie! We’ve got some pancakes and berries for breakfast, come sit down and eat plenty.” Hermione smiled a little and sat down as her mother placed her breakfast in front of her. Jean caught a glance at her daughter’s eyes, they were far and she knows that she’s in deep thought. So, she placed her hand on her shoulder, gaining her attention. “Is there something troubling you, my dear?” She asked.
Hermione thought about what she’s going to say before making up her mind. “Actually…” She started, making her mother pay close attention to what she’s going to say. “I had a dream last night. A really weird yet confusing one.” She lifted her chin and looked at her mother in the eyes. “And I was hoping you know about some of them.”