~18~ NIGHTMARE

The girls parted ways with the boys. They climbed stairs leading Ravenclaw tower.

" Can you name three consecutive days without using the words Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday?" asked the lady in the portrait.

They thought for a while. Sue said, "How can we name without the days? Hmmm." Others agreed with her. Suddenly Hermione recalled a similar one she solved in the past and quickly found the answer.

"Yesterday, today, tomorrow that's the answer " and the door opened to let them pass.

Thankfully nobody was in the common room after the announcement and they went to sleep without finding out their leave.

Hermione said goodbyes and entered her room silently. She sat for a while and mediated and in no time slept soundly.

In the middle of the night, her body shook and sweated then she began crying unconsciously and murmured some words unnoticed.

She fought a troll and escaped without casualties but it took its toll on her. Before she could finish her meditation she slept.

At first, it was a good one she dreamed. She reconciled with Harry and Padma they studied together and she spent her time with her mum and dad, Mr and Mrs Granger.

Then it suddenly changed. She found herself in a car driving under the rain. She tried to leave and even tried to use magic to no avail. She couldn't leave and struggled to open the doors of the car but she couldn't. It was as if she was a third person viewing what happened but she had no authority to do anything. She was forced to watch the coming tragedy.

She lost her control and felt like she was the little girl playing with her toy in the backseat and answering what the woman asked while driving.

"Please, no-no-no. Stop the car, please. " Hermione began to cry. She didn't want to see what happened for the second time like this.

She tried to warn the woman at first. "Please, don't go. It's raining and *sob* if you go *sob* you will die"

She was listening to their conversation but the duo was in their world and couldn't see or hear her. Hermione forgot that she was in the dream and it's real.

After trying to warn the woman dozens of time she changed her target and tried to warn the little girl.

"Mummy when daddy will come? I want to be with him, I want to see him" asked the little girl.

"Sweaty, we're going to where daddy is. He has a meeting and will meet us at home in the evening. Don't worry daddy won't miss his little angel's birthday." She smiled.

"Look out!" shouted Hermione. She knew what's coming. She struggled more trying to save them.

The wheels slid and the woman lost her control. The car flew over the barrier and fell into the lake. It was slowly sinking.

"Hurry, sweetheart, come to mummy. " asked the nervous woman. She tried to unlock the doors but the water pressure was blocking their way out.

Hermione lost herself, cried and cried within her hysteria she saw what happened. She knew but couldn't save her. *sob, sob, sob*

The water-filled in the car as they were drowning. The lady in the blacks finally broke the window and with a push, she took little Hermione and swam.

But their luck didn't help them anymore. As she was swimming toward the shore her ankle stuck between the roots of a tree under the water. She swam toward the surface and let the little girl swim to the shore while trying to save her ankle.

She refused at first. She wanted to be her mother but after witnessing her struggle she accepted and swam. In a little while, she arrived at the shore but didn't see her mother behind. She yelled at her.

Her mother tried to save herself but couldn't. Her strength left her slowly. She heard her daughter's shouts but didn't even have the strength to answer her.

The little girl called for help. She shouted for hours until a passing car heard her voice and called police, ambulance and fire-fighters.

She was in shock and couldn't answer their questions after the first ones she said about her mummy to be in the water and didn't surface for a while. It was as if she lost her soul.

Her mother drowned in the lake after futile struggles. She saved her daughter but she died.

They found her corpse two hours later because of weather conditions. Hermione fainted after they took out her mother.

She felt cold, soaked in the rain and waited for her mom to come for hours like that. They sent her and her mother to the nearest hospital. After searching the victim's ID, they called her husband waiting for their return at home. He called them but they didn't answer his call.

He found his daughter in the intensive care, she opened her eyes the next day but didn't remember who she was or the man hugging her.

After losing his wife his daughter closed her mind to protect herself. The shock caused a trauma and she needed care and love to recover.

While all of it happened, Hermione watched them. She tried to save the woman and jumped into the lake. She yelled cried and cursed but had nothing to do except watching her losing her life slowly in front of her. She cried next to the little girl and waited for help. But it was too late.

She saw the father running in the hospital to reach his daughter after visiting the morgue to identify his wife. He cried in front of his wife's corpse and finally remembered his daughter and left his wife after kissing her cheek fearing to harm her more, his heart ached to leave her alone laying in the cold room.

He waited for the little girl to open her eyes. They waited 24 hours before she opened her eyes but losing her soul and happiness.

Her father tried to make her smile but she seems to have had facial paralysis. She lost her smile. They moved to another city to cure her. It was near nature and she even had pets to help her. ' It was told that animals could understand their master's emotion and calm them'. Her father bought an animal each year for her. Sometimes she could twitch her lips as if smiling but that's all. She couldn't smile genuinely anymore.

Hermione woke up in the morning and found herself crying. She recalled what happened last night and sighed. It was a memory she wasn't very fond of. The little girl was herself while the woman was her deceased mother. It's been 15 years since she lost her mother.

At first, she had forgotten about that accident but after finding her mother's picture in father's study room she recalled every detail. The memories she locked deep in her mind came back as she collapsed holding the picture. In the picture was a family of three.

She remembered everything and when her father found her collapsed holding his wife's picture he understood and called an ambulance. She stayed at the hospital for a week and after that, she visited her psychiatrist once a month to talk about her trauma.

Hermione returned her daily life and behaved as if she was happy for fearing to lose her father as well. She studied hard to be helpful for her father and devoted herself for him and worked in the company as the CEO after his retirement who silently suffered and mourned for his wife at the same time trying to smile for his daughter left behind by his love for years.