Dream a Little Dream

Both of the people were around Becci's age. One was a girl with a lot of bushy brown hair and quite a pretty face. She was holding a suitcase and wearing a huge grin. The other was a boy, about the same height as Becci, who was fairly short herself. He had messy, jet black hair and round glasses. Through the glasses. Becci noticed bright green eyes. This occurred a sudden thought. She glanced up and saw, under his untidy fringe... Yes! A scar in the shape of a lightning bolt!

"Ron!" the girl shouted, running over to hug him.

"Nice to see you too, Hermione," Ron laughed.

"All right, Ron?" the boy that was Harry Potter asked, with a nod and a smile.

"All right, Harry."

"How is everyone?" Hermione asked, beaming around at Mrs Weasley, Fred, George and Ginny - then she noticed Becci, who smiled shyly. Hermione's brow furrowed, as though she was figuring out whether she should recognise this stranger or not.

"Oh, sorry," Ron said. "This is Becci, my cousin. She's gonna be starting at Hogwarts in our year."

Harry grinned and walked over to shake her hand.

"Another Weasley!" he laughed. "Nice to meet you. I'm Harry -"

"- Potter," Becci finished for him without thinking. "I mean, hi Harry, nice to meet you too..."

"I'm Hermione Granger," Hermione told a crimson Becci. Then she turned back to Ron. "Erm, let's go up to your room and unpack," she said with a slightly strange expression on her face.

"Oh, no, you've got to have breakfast first!" Mrs Weasley exclaimed in her motherly way.

"Oh, well, all right then," Harry said as he sat down on the other side of Ron. Hermione sat opposite Becci, beside Ginny.

After an enjoyable breakfast of Hermione telling holiday stories, Mrs Weasley said "Ron, Ginny, Rebecca, take Harry and Hermione upstairs and help them unpack."

Once both trunks were upstairs (helped by the fact that Becci had not been banned from magic over the holidays), Harry and Hermione exchanged awkward glances. Becci noticed Harry give Ron a meaningful look. Becci wondered if they wanted to talk about something... She decided she'd better leave them to it, she didn't want it to seem as though she was trying to invade.

"Come on, Gin," she said. "Let's, um, leave these three to catch up while we check out your stuff, okay?"

Ginny looked a little confused, but shrugged it off, and she and Becci left. Ron waited for them to get down to the second floor, then hastily pushed his bedroom door and walked over to Harry and Hermione.

"All right, Harry, what's going on?" Ron asked, looking a tad nervous. "Mum won't be best pleased if she finds out I've snubbed my cousin for my friends."

"Well, I'll try to make it quick," Harry said.

"Have you already told Hermione?" Ron wondered aloud.

"No, he wanted to wait to tell the both of us," Hermione assured him.

"Okay, basically... I've been having dreams again. It's like last year, only, a little different. I think. I mean, last year I sort of felt like they were real, but now it's like I'm certain. Only, well, that one with the old man, that happened, you know, while I was dreaming it. But these dreams... It's more like they're visions. I'm sure they haven't happened yet, because I took out a subscription to the Daily Prophet, and it hasn't said anything about them, unless they're being covered up -"

"What are the dreams about, Harry?" Hermione asked in her most serious voice.

"I'm not sure, they're a little... blurry. That's another difference, last summer they were perfectly clear, but now they're short, less than a minute, and undetailed."

"Do you have any basic idea?"

"Well, yes. They're... they're mostly flashes of people, um, well, being killed."

"What?!" Ron and Hermione exclaimed.

"By the killing curse," Harry nodded solemnly. "And I don't know what to do! I'm not sure if these are just forewarnings, or if they're even real, though I'm almost certain they are."

"And... and what do you think they mean?" said Hermione in a voice that implied she knew what was coming.

"I... I think I'm supposed to save these people."

"But - but you don't know that," Ron said, his eyes wide. "I mean, like you said, they might not be real, right?"

"I want to believe that, Ron, more than anything, but I don't think I can... and... I saw... there were some people I knew in there." Harry shut his eyes and turned away.

"What? Who?!" Ron said, looking terrified.

"None of us, none of your families," Harry reassured. "But there was... Sirius and Lupin and Snape and Dean Thomas and Cornelius Fudge and Dumbledore. I saw all of them... getting cursed."

Suddenly, they heard something at the door, and all three of them looked over to it. Standing there was Becci, with a look of utter horror on her face. She opened her mouth to speak.

"You what?"

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