11Woodland Dream
By Oriondruid
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Summary: Two famous young heroines meet in their dreams and vow friendship. Will they ever meet for real?
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Disclaimer:As should be self-evident from my site profile photo I am neither Suzanne Collins or JK Rowling! Therefore I hold no claim to these characters. They are all the brilliant work of the two authors themselves and I thank them both for the opportunity to 'play' in their amazing 'worlds' for a while. This work is intended to be entirely 'Not for profit'.
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Author's Note: I should be writing the fourth chapter of Grand Alliance at present, as I posted the third last night, but this aggressive yet fairly cute 'plot bunny' seized me by the throat and wouldn't let go this afternoon. It insisted on getting written right away and as it is fairly short I complied, in order to get some peace. :o) I hope you enjoy it. I may continue if enough people want it, but as crossvers seem to tend to get fewer viewings it'll take a fair number of requests to justify the work involved, so let me know via reviews please folks. That's something else it seems crossovers often get less of, sadly, or maybe mine are particularly bad, 'cos they never get any. Boo hoo. :o(
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Hermione Granger had been having a tiring but fun day. It had been the day of her OWL's Transfiguration Exam and, whilst she was not certain she had done as well as she should have, she had enjoyed the challenges that had been set by Professor's McGonagall and Flitwick to her magical skills and hoped for at least a reasonable mark. Hermione always liked exams anyway and could not understand why almost all her other friends and schoolmates hated them so much.
Harry and Ron had been particularly grumpy all day and had moaned about how hard the tests had been all through dinner that evening. She was thoroughly sick of hearing how horrendous they'd found their 'ordeal' so excused herself and headed off alone to the Gryffindor girl's dorm and the chance to revise in peace for the next day's Herbology Exam.
After a couple of hours or so laying on her bed re-reading key points from her notes on the past year's Herbology course work she began to feel drowsy and decided that going to bed early might be a good idea, as she wanted her mind sharp for the next day. Soon she was sleeping soundly, tucked up in her warm and cozy bed.
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Katniss Everdeen had spent the morning helping her mother around the house as she loathed school, which in District 12 was pretty basic anyway and had nothing more of interest to teach her. She had taken the day off, with her mother's help by sending in a 'sick note' to the school with her sister Prim. In the afternoon however she had slipped away from the house and into the woods where she'd done some very successful hunting, managing to shoot several squirrels, a brace of grooslings and several rabbits, her largest haul for months.
She was delighted and had taken some of the rabbits and two squirrels to Greasy Sae at The Hob and got a good price for them, also two more squirrels had gone to the baker, Mr. Mellark, who had a fondness for them and in exchange he had given her some good bread and also a small cake for their evening's desert. Prim would be very pleased by that she thought. Along with the baked goods she took home the grooslings and another pair of rabbits. Her mother was most pleased, hung the birds and gutted the rabbits in preparation for their evening meal, which tonight would be almost a feast. Prim, as Katniss suspected she would, had eyed the cake with glee, scarcely able to wait to have some.
After the meal and with the dishes done the three of them spent an hour or so watching television. Caesar Flickerman was interviewing the star of a new theatre show which was popular in the Capitol, although of course in the Districts they never had theatre shows tour there anyway. Even if they did so Katniss and her family were too poor to go, so it wasn't too relevant but it was always fun to see the outrageous outfits that such people as the 'star' wore.
The second part of Caeser's show after the interview focused on the upcoming Reaping for the 74th Hunger Games, due in three months time. It reviewed some old footage of the dramatic moments from the previous Arena in gory detail. Prim became very agitated seeing this, as it would be her first Reaping that year and Katniss knew she was terrified she'd be picked, even though with only one entry in the ballot it was very unlikely she would be.
Prim said she felt tired, although Katniss felt sure it was in order to escape the frightening images of the killings on the screen, and so went to bed early. When she was settled in Katniss went to see her to 'tuck her in' and Prim asked her to sing The Valley Song to her to lull her to sleep. This Katniss did and eventually Prim relaxed and slipped off into slumber. Katniss kissed her beloved sister gently on her forehead, saying "Sleep well 'little duck'."
Then Katniss rejoined her Mother and they chatted for a while about Prim's upcoming twelfth birthday and what they could do as a treat for her, before they too went to bed. Katniss was tired, but happy and soon drifted off to sleep herself. It had been a good day.
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In her dreams Hermione found herself in what she thought was the Forbidden Forest, which although it had a bad reputation, in fact in daylight was usually perfectly safe for the most part. Indeed herself, Harry and Ron often went in there by day on Saturdays, to accompany Hagrid as he went about his work and sometimes help out. A gamekeeper's job never being completed. Hagrid rarely took anything more than a Sunday off, although he often need to do that if he'd been for a 'session' on Saturday night in The Three Broomsticks.
The part of the forest Hermione found herself in was very beautiful, although not one she was familiar with, she did not however feel fearful as nothing seemed threatening about the place. Hermione walked for some distance enjoying the scenery and wildlife and noticed that the birdsong was most unusual, not the normal familiar sounds but far more melodious than usual. Looking up in the tree tops she saw a number of birds there in a small flock. It was a variety of bird she didn't know and they were obviously what had been doing the singing. They had dark plumage, were somewhat oddly shaped, quite large, about crow sized. They possessed, she noticed when one took flight, an elegant forked tail such as she'd only previously seen on rare Red Kites before.
'Odd sort of creatures.' she thought, 'But pretty though and good singers. They look a bit like big magpies, but muchbigger, with different tails and longer beaks. Unlike magpies they're all the one colour though, lovely dense black plumage but with an iridescent blue sheen. They must be foreign escapees living wild, I don't think they're a native species.'
Hermione studied the birds in a reverie, thinking she should perhaps report their presence to Hagrid when she next saw him. Then she was startled as there was a noise in the nearby undergrowth like someone had thrown a stone and then another pair of birds of a different type flew up from a bush. As they did so one of the pair was hit by an arrow and fell nearby, the shot had been perfect and the bird was dead before it even hit the ground. The flock of birds in the trees above flew off in panic at the commotion below them.
Hermione was still gazing at the shot bird's corpse when a strange girl whom she'd not met in Hogwarts or the village emerged from the undergrowth, carrying a bow, with a quiver of arrows on her back. She had a pair of birds similar to the one on the ground dangling, tucked into her belt.
The two girls stared silently at each other for a moment then the newcomer said; "Hi, didn't see you there or I wouldn't have taken the shot, that big tree blocked my line of sight. Just as well you were standing behind it's trunk and didn't step out. I never really expect anybody other than my friend Gale to be here in these woods and I know he's at The Hob trading at the moment, so I thought I was alone. Glad I didn't hit you by mistake or I'm afraid there'd have been another customer for my mother's healing skills. I'm Katniss Everdeen by the way, haven't seen you around town or in the Seam, who are you?
Hermione introduced herself saying "I'm Hermione, Hermione Granger to be exact. Katniss, that's a lovely name and very unusual, a type of water plant isn't it?" Hermione asked, remembering her Herbology of foreign plants, even though the subject wasn't really part of the OWL's curriculum and was something she'd just studied for fun, for a bit of 'light reading'.
Katniss replied, "Yes, like a sort of lily actually, one that's fond of very boggy, soaked ground."
Hermione watched a little sqeamishly as Katniss picked up her kill, removed her arrow from it and added her prey to those already tucked into her belt. She felt she could never hunt herself, but didn't really object to anyone doing so as long as they were skilled enough to quickly and humanely kill their prey (as this girl obviously was) and provided they only killed and ate what they needed, and did not indulge in 'slaughter for fun'.
On close inspection to Hermione's eyes the bird Katniss had shot looked a bit like a grouse or small wild turkey, but as far as she could see was another species unknown to her, however it looked plump and edible.
Katniss smiled and winked at Hermione, saying; "Another for the pot. All I need now is a few rabbits and I'll head home via The Hob myself and trade some of 'em for something nice for my sister. It's Prim's birthday in a couple of weeks, she'll be twelve and eligible for her first Reaping this year, so I want to get her something extra special as a present to take her mind off of it, because she's terrified."
Hermione was very confused by what Katniss had said, not really understanding a word, but the sentiment was obvious, her fondness for her younger sister shone through the confusion. Hermione smiled at her, saying; I'm an only child myself, my parents are both professionals, dentists actually, and they decided to limit their family to just me. It must be nice to have a brother or sister though, but then again I have to look after my two school friends Ron and Harry who are always getting into scrapes, so I guess I almost do have brothers."
She smiled at Katniss and went on, saying; " I haven't seen you in Hogwarts or in the village and I notice your accent is American, have your family just moved here and have you transferred to our school? If so it'll be nice to have a new face around."
Katniss too was confused and replied. What's Hogwarts? Some sort of school you say? What an odd name, mine is just called District 12 Elementary School and is very boring. And as to my accent, what's America? Hang on, isn't that what they used to call Panem centuries back, before all the troubles? I'm native here in District 12, it's you I took to be from some other District as your accent's strange to me, a bit like a Capitol one but not quite. Say what part of Panem are you from anyway?"
Both girls were very confused by now and each had began to wonder if the other was perhaps a bit deranged. However they each had formed an initial good opinion of the other. Hermione saw a strong, self-reliant girl, almost a young woman, not 'conventionally' pretty but striking nevertheless, with olive skin, grey eyes, with an athletic build and her dark hair in a single braid. Katniss picked up on Hermione's obvious intelligence, her friendliness and thought that she was very pretty, with her masses of curly and slightly wild auburn hair and chocolate brown eyes.
Hermione smiled and said, "I think we'd better sit down and talk for a while Katniss, we obviously have much to sort out, like where we are and what we are doing here to start with."
This the pair of girls did and Hermione went on to say, "OK now let's start with the last thing we remember before we got here, because I for one don't remember leaving the castle. I'll go first if you like." She then began to relate what she could remember to the other girl and as she did so she came to realise that she was probably dreaming, as the last thing she could remember happening was being in the dorm in Gryffindor tower. Hermione was shocked, as the dream she was in was so vivid and so like real life. She couldn't remember ever having had another like it. The other thing that amazed her was the fact that the dream didn't become dispelled, despite her recognising it for what it was.
As Katniss listened to Hermione she also realised that she too was dreaming, she remembered the details of what she'd done that evening, the lovely and for once substantial dinner, the TV show, tucking in Prim and singing to her, everything. Yet just like Hermione the dream continued for Katniss also, a now 'lucid dreaming' experience, but just as 'solid seeming' a reality as before.
The two girls smiled at each other realising just how weird an experience they were sharing and then Hermione, the ever curious, proposed they experiment with this odd state of being they found themselves in. She said, "I wonder if we're like ghosts to each other or can we touch?" So they tried shaking hands and found in fact they could do so. This was amazing Hermione thought and then realised that they both had the chance to find out about each others world.
Hermione told Katniss much about her life at Hogwarts School, about being a witch and about her friends and her studies there. Katniss was amazed by what she heard.
Katniss then told Hermione about District 12, her family and hunting friend Gale, and also about The Hunger Games, upon hearing about which Hermione became furious to the point of tearfulness.
She said; "You mean to tell me those evil sods in your Capitol make children fight to the death in some sort of bloody arena for their amusement, all because of something that happened decades earlier and might not even be your ancestor's fault? They make kids as young as twelve kill each other like ancient Roman gladiators? That's sickening, bloody barbaric, words fail me! And your poor sister and yourself have to face the possibility of this 'Reaping' until you're eighteen, it's sick, just plain awful, I'm so terribly sorry Katniss!"
Hermione, visibly shocked and upset went on to say; "I wish I could help but it seems from what you tell me we are centuries apart and maybe even from a 'parallel universes', so there's nothing I can do. Even if I could get hold of another Time Turner they only take you back in time, not forward and you might not even be from my 'version' of reality. It's so horrible I don't know what to say Katniss. All I can do is ask Professor Dumbledore if he has any ideas when I get back to Hogwarts. He is so wise he might be able to think of something.
Hermione then pulled Katniss into a tight hug and both girls sobbed on each other's shoulders, Hermione's words having crystallised Katniss's fears for her beloved Prim.
When they eventually broke apart Hermione smiled slightly and then said, "Well at least there's one thing I can try to do for your dear sister Prim. Her birthday's coming up soon you say?" Then reaching into the pocket of her weatherproof jacket she pulled out a small but well bound and virtually mint copy of a small book. She handed it to Katniss who took it in her hands and read the title. It was called The Tales of Beedle the Bard and was not a book she was familiar with.
Hermione saw her puzzled look and said, "They're stories written long ago and loved by all magical children. I got that the last time I was in Flourish and Blotts in Diagon Alley and I carry it everywhere. I'm reading it a bit at a time to try and make up for the fact I didn't get the chance to do so as a kid, being muggleborn. They're wonderful stories and I hope that book makes it through to your world when you awake there. I'm not sure if it'll work but it might and I'd like Prim to have it for her birthday.
Then she reached behind her neck, undoing the the clasp of a gold chain that was around it and pulled a pendant she was wearing out from under her sweatshirt. It was a five pointed 'pentacle' star enclosed in a circle about an inch across. Hermione explained it to Katniss saying, "This is an ancient symbol often associated with us witches, to whom the five points represent the four classic 'elements', Earth, Air, Fire and Water, united by the top point of the pentagram, representing Spirit. The circle of course is where witches of old supposedly worked their magic, although we modern witches don't need one to do so.
Handing it to Katniss Hermione said; "Here, I want you to have this too my dear, as a keepsake, it carries a protection charm I placed on it. I hope we see each other again someday and I pray it'll help keep you all safe 'till then, both you, your Mother, Prim and your friend Gale as well. I'll never forget this meeting."
Katniss tried to refuse the gift, saying it was too much and far too expensive, but Hermione was adamant. In the end she reluctantly agreed to take it and Hermione placed the chain around her neck and fastened the clasp for her.
Katniss racked her brains to think what she could give Hermione in return, saying to her; "We are so poor in District 12 Hermione, I wish I had something I could give you as well for being so kind and sympathetic, for being so generous to myself and my sister, but we have almost nothing and what little I do have by way of possessions are at home. Then she smiled as inspiration hit, reached into her quiver, and handed Hermione one of her arrows, saying, "This is not nearly as valuable as what you have given me and Prim dear Hermione, but I did make it myself by hand. It's all I have to offer, will you accept it?"
Hermione beamed at her and replied; "I will treasure it Katniss, knowing you made it makes it more valuable to me than all the gold pendants in the world and all the books in Hogwart's library." Then the two girls smiled and stood as they kissed each other on the cheek.
As they did so the mockingjay flock returned above them in the trees, singing a loud and beautiful tune. Katniss looked up at them curiously saying, "I've never known mockingjays sound or act like that, it must mean something. I'm afraid we might be about to part Hermione, goodbye my dear new friend."
Then the flock of birds swooped down and began to fly in a tight circle around both girls, spiraling around them. Hermione became dizzy at their antics, swiftly feeling herself falling into a dark and warm place.
She awoke that morning in her Gryffindor dorm bed and thought, 'What a truly odd dream, thank God there's no such place as Panem, it sounded horrible! It's as well that Katniss was just a figure of my imagination too. She was lovely and I liked her a lot, but at least I won't have to worry about her and her sister Prim having to face those horrid so-called 'Games'. Then she rolled over, intending to get up and get dressed, but gasped as she did so and saw a single finely crafted arrow with groosling feather flights on her pillow!
Katniss awoke in her home in District 12 and also recalled her 'dream' as well, but unlike Hermione she didn't for an instant doubt it's reality, as she felt the gold chain and pendant around her neck. And looking at the top of the night stand by her bed she saw there was a small volume there, it's title The Tales of Beedle the Bard!
Both girls were shocked their night's adventure had been true, but both had just one wish, the same one. To one day see each other again, and next time not just in a 'dream' but in the real world.