Where I Found You | Dramione

15. Fractions

"Ginny, dear. Wake up.."

Despite their best efforts to stay quiet, someone was making a lot of noise, and it took Hermione a few more seconds to realise it was Professor Sprout. She rubbed her eyes and saw the professor taking Ginny with her. Hermione immediately got on her feet, wearing her morning gown and grabbed the hem of the professor's sleeve gently. "What's going on?"

Sprout was startled but was also in a hurry. "Ms. Granger? What are you— anyways, come with us. Your friends might need your help,"

Her help? What was going on? Was someone injured? The panic started to rise in her as they climbed down the stairs, she had no idea what was going on and the road they have taken to the Headmaster's office was all blurry, she had a hard time grasping the things that were happening and held Ginny's arm as the professor took them there. When they reached the office, Ron was sitting with his brothers and they all looked pale and stressed. When Ginny went to sit with them, Hermione joined her as well.

Dumbledore was rushing around the room talking to the portraits, giving them instructions to check on certain places. Harry stood in the middle of the room, sweating and panting.

"Is he safe now?" Dumbledore spoke to a portrait and the portrait told him that they reached him just in time.

Despite her need to understand who was safe, she couldn't take her eyes away from Harry. He seemed to be having a hard time standing on his feet when he suddenly yelled at the Headmaster. "Listen to me!" he said, his face contorting in ways Hermione had never seen before. He looked like he'd seen a ghost, as Muggles would say. "What's happening to me?" he pleaded. She had never seen him beg like this before, not to anyone.

"It was real, wasn't it?" Harry sounded weak. She wanted to do something to help her friend, but she didn't even know what was happening.

Dumbledore moved a step closer to him. His eyes were filled with worry and distress as he raised his hand wanting to touch his shoulder but halted after taking a glance at the door. "Snape! I'm afraid we cannot sit any longer, you must begin immediately,"

Snape eyed Harry warily and took him out of the office. Dumbledore turned back to the Weasleys. "Do not worry, Mr. Weasley is alright, you'll be using my portkey to go and see him tonight,"

McGonagall turned to Hermione. "You should also go to your dormitories Ms. Granger," after seeing the confused look on her face she put her hand on her shoulder and got her out of the room, "I'm afraid I don't have time to explain things Ms. Granger. I know you're trying to be there for your friends, but I must ask you to go back to bed now. I'm guessing you'll learn more from Mr. Potter soon,"

"Yes, Professor." Hermione nodded and went back to her room, thoughts blazing in her head. All she knew was that all her friends were in great distress and she had to do everything in her power to be there for them.

Later on, it was revealed that Dumbledore genuinely believed the dark lord had returned and attempted to protect Harry by keeping a safe distance between them. He insisted that he had a good reason when Harry kept asking questions. The truth was far more terrifying than they could have imagined. Harry had the ability to look into Voldemort's mind and see what he was thinking or what he had already seen. In these moments, the strong impact of Voldemort's emotion would get a hold of Harry and he'd look like he had the dark lord inside his body. Dumbledore suspected that Voldemort would possess Harry at some point and take control of him to force Dumbledore to kill Harry. Harry would have lots of nightmares, it wasn't new. Yet, she never thought of the possibility that the images Harry saw were a fraction of Voldemort's mind. No one had ever heard of something like that before. His sudden outbursts and late night sweatings all made sense. She had begged him to visit Dumbledore before or at least to try more often, but it was only when Harry witnessed Mr. Weasley being attacked by a snake at the Ministry that he was able to do so. Harry started taking Occlumency classes from Professor Snape that evening and he would continue to do so until the end of the semester.