eachdraidh | ( video ; seelie + unseelie )

(ooc: link to a video representation here! tw for torture/blood)

THE DREAM;

[ It starts of as nothing more than blackness and screaming, the sounds flickering desperately and the panicked breathing soon taking over. When Hermione remembers this moment it's the pain that surfaces first, then the panic, then the horror of her memories, but it takes so, so long for the memories to crawl out and be more than just echoed sounds.

Then there are visions, flashes of a face bearing into her own, whispering to her and a wand moving in front of her eyes, the sound of a curse echoing around her body as she screams with the pain, twitching. Her vision swims, now, from the agony, even as she lies through her teeth - and she is lying, desperately, not expecting to be believed but relishing the fact that even now, when she's on her back on a cold floor with a witch trying to Crucio her to death, she can protect her best friends.

It doesn't take long for the other woman to come back and take over Hermione's light of sight completely, leaning close and shouting in her face even as she tries to bite back desperate sobs. It's almost impossible, not with the ravaging pain that's taking over her, and it's not until the woman moves to the side and jerks forward, body twitching as she does something out of Hermione's vision but she still screams, body lurching and everything twisting as she tries to get away.

Everything is burning pain and agony and there's nothing she can do but breathe and try to keep going, despite her tears, desperate sobs that overtake the entire nightmare. The one word that echoes, over and over, is Mudblood; mudblood, mudblood, each hiss like a stab to her heart and another cut to her body.

Eventually, finally, the screaming is over, her voice is hoarse, and she's left just... Staring. Her gaze is a little fuzzy and distant, a little lost, and her hands twitch a little, her body readjusting to it's pain threshold being pushed too far, too fast, pulling all her energy out of her and leaving her worse for it. Eventually there are more whispered shouts behind her and a hand lifts, grabbing her, a knife pressed to her throat and her best friends in front of her, their lives on the line again and she'd failed --

and then she wakes up. ]

ADDED ABOUT AN HOUR LATER, text;

I don't suppose there's any way to get rid of this, is there? I'm sorry for anyone who had to see that. I'm truly sorry.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Hermione, there is no need to apologise for- this. [There is mark of disgust to end his words, not aimed at her. Even so it is calm, too. The young girl was very pleasant to him, and she is a friend of Merlin's.]

This is from your memory?

[It's sort of rhetorical, with an audible ache of sorts in his voice. A trauma no young lady should be put through. And to be sure she needs no more immediate rescuing, in case it happened in this world. Lately Arthur's been told this is what has been shown over the lockets. Merlin seems to understand their workings better.]

I - yes. This, um, all of it, it was a nightmare but a nightmare about something that happened. All of this happened to me.

[ She's a little more comfortable with being on video now, mostly because Legolas has held her until she felt better and she feels a little less like a weight is dragging her down towards the pit of nothingness she's been suffocating from. Still, she looks tired, gaunt, sad. ]

It's not as bad as it seems? [ Except it is. ]

I'm sorry. [Arthur dips his head, feeling such words are scarcely enough. But his sympathy for Hermione rests clearly in his gaze, worry creasing his brow. His voice is quiet, almost warm.]

I trust you've friends nearby? I fear we are some distance travel away. [Though were she in need of a guard to rest a little more securely, he would offer his watch. He is quiet a moment, knowing she is not the first to have show visible to all, a memory offered against their will.]

And perhaps we ought not to be so quick to trust the enchantments of the lockets, if they are so easily to share ..these nightmares. [He's using her words, carefully so. The lockets, they did it. Did they not?]

[ She shakes her head, trying to look a little more self-assured than she had moments before. She doesn't want pity or sympathy, even if she had basked in the comfort a few of her friends had offered. She simply wants to move passed this and become stronger from it all over again. ]

Yes, there - I do. One came to visit me and they're all taking good care of me. I could travel to them in a few seconds if I wanted, but... It's nice here, for now.

[ She hesitates, though, wondering if this was a mistrust of magic or a mistrust of this place as a rule. ]

I trust the lockets. I think it had something to do with the stars. I... I didn't give mine back.

( video ; seelie + unseelie )

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