diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/fetch/FetchSubPhase.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/fetch/FetchSubPhase.java
index 7141f5aac0635..d1ac77f254060 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/fetch/FetchSubPhase.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/fetch/FetchSubPhase.java
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
 import org.apache.lucene.index.AtomicReader;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.AtomicReaderContext;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.IndexReader;
+import org.apache.lucene.search.IndexSearcher;
 import org.elasticsearch.ElasticSearchException;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.fieldvisitor.FieldsVisitor;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.SearchParseElement;
@@ -44,6 +45,7 @@ public static class HitContext {
         private int docId;
         private FieldsVisitor fieldVisitor;
         private Map<String, Object> cache;
+        private IndexSearcher atomicIndexSearcher;
 
         public void reset(InternalSearchHit hit, AtomicReaderContext context, int docId, IndexReader topLevelReader, int topLevelDocId, FieldsVisitor fieldVisitor) {
             this.hit = hit;
@@ -52,6 +54,7 @@ public void reset(InternalSearchHit hit, AtomicReaderContext context, int docId,
             this.topLevelReader = topLevelReader;
             this.topLevelDocId = topLevelDocId;
             this.fieldVisitor = fieldVisitor;
+            this.atomicIndexSearcher = null;
         }
 
         public InternalSearchHit hit() {
@@ -66,6 +69,13 @@ public AtomicReaderContext readerContext() {
             return readerContext;
         }
 
+        public IndexSearcher searcher() {
+            if (atomicIndexSearcher == null) {
+                atomicIndexSearcher = new IndexSearcher(readerContext);
+            }
+            return atomicIndexSearcher;
+        }
+
         public int docId() {
             return docId;
         }
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/highlight/PostingsHighlighter.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/highlight/PostingsHighlighter.java
index b45f8b560a172..bbf3a17b94485 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/highlight/PostingsHighlighter.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/highlight/PostingsHighlighter.java
@@ -22,10 +22,7 @@
 import org.apache.lucene.index.FieldInfo;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.IndexReader;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.Term;
-import org.apache.lucene.search.MultiTermQuery;
-import org.apache.lucene.search.Query;
-import org.apache.lucene.search.ScoringRewrite;
-import org.apache.lucene.search.TopTermsRewrite;
+import org.apache.lucene.search.*;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.highlight.Encoder;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.postingshighlight.CustomPassageFormatter;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.postingshighlight.CustomPostingsHighlighter;
@@ -109,7 +106,7 @@ public HighlightField highlight(HighlighterContext highlighterContext) {
             //we highlight every value separately calling the highlight method multiple times, only if we need to have back a snippet per value (whole value)
             int values = mergeValues ? 1 : textsToHighlight.size();
             for (int i = 0; i < values; i++) {
-                Snippet[] fieldSnippets = highlighter.highlightDoc(fieldMapper.names().indexName(), mapperHighlighterEntry.filteredQueryTerms, context.searcher(), hitContext.topLevelDocId(), numberOfFragments);
+                Snippet[] fieldSnippets = highlighter.highlightDoc(fieldMapper.names().indexName(), mapperHighlighterEntry.filteredQueryTerms, hitContext.searcher(), hitContext.docId(), numberOfFragments);
                 if (fieldSnippets != null) {
                     for (Snippet fieldSnippet : fieldSnippets) {
                         if (Strings.hasText(fieldSnippet.getText())) {
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/percolator/PercolatorTests.java b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/percolator/PercolatorTests.java
index 2cf55ff2248ee..dfbc66d1cb710 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/percolator/PercolatorTests.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/percolator/PercolatorTests.java
@@ -1314,6 +1314,19 @@ public void testPercolatorWithHighlighting() throws Exception {
                                     .endObject().endObject()
                     )
                     .execute().actionGet();
+        } else if (randomBoolean()) {
+            // positions hl
+            client.admin().indices().preparePutMapping("test").setType("type")
+                    .setSource(
+                            jsonBuilder().startObject().startObject("type")
+                                    .startObject("properties")
+                                    .startObject("field1").field("type", "string")
+                                        .field("index_options", "offsets")
+                                    .endObject()
+                                    .endObject()
+                                    .endObject().endObject()
+                    )
+                    .execute().actionGet();
         }
 
         logger.info("--> register a queries");