Dreams

Dreams

Chapter One

Through the haze of pain, the one hope in Harry's mind was that might yet die! He was suspended in mid air; limp with exhaustion. He couldn't have moved or screamed, even if his life depended on it. The pain that coursed through his body meant that he couldn't even remember what had happened, just moments before. He could feel the warm trickle of blood dripping, mainly from his oh-so-famous scar but also from multiple other places on his body.

Harry wasn't even exactly sure where he was at that point in time. He heard a menacing cackle of a laugh, which made his body tense instinctively with fear. More laughs echoed in a noisy mess around him. A long, skinny white forefinger brushed his scar. It left a burning path in its wake, which caused the boy's back to arch in pain. The finger trailed the left side of Harry's face, down his neck, and chest until it stopped at the boy's lower waist. A hand rested ominously over his bladder.

Something was whispered, in a low menacing hiss that Harry couldn't quite understand, and laughter rang out in the room once again. The hand pressed down suddenly, which caused an enormous blossom of pain; so much pain! A scream of pain fell from Harry's lips, only to be greeted by more tinny laughter. The pressure remained deep within Harry's body, even though the hand was lifted.

"This will all stop," a voice whispered in Harry's ear. He could feel the breath as it made the tiny hairs on his neck and cheek ripple slightly. The iciness of the voice gave away the man it belonged to --if you could call it a man; he was more like an 'it'. The Master... The Dark Lord... Voldemort. One and the same, a man of many names, none his own.

"All of it can stop," Voldemort said to the boy in a hoarse voice. "All you have to do is come to where I am." The pain Harry felt was joined by a deep feeling of rage and hatred. "I'll kill you as quickly as I did your parents. Then again, James tried to put up a fight." Voldemort walked in a tight circle around Harry's prone form.

"I remember it all as if it were yesterday: I had just entered your home at Godric's Hollow; your father was there to meet me." Voldemort paused and gave a small chuckle before he went on. "He yelled at me to leave his house. Of course, I wouldn't; he was a fool to think that I would. I was there for you, dear Harry; the little boy (no comma) who is supposedly the saviour of the entire Wizarding World."

Harry tried to take his mind away from the pain, but he couldn't! All he could do was tremble as he listened to Voldemort's taunts about his mother and father's deaths.

"When he realised that it was utterly futile to challenge me, he called to his beloved Lily to run and take you with her! It was too late for him, even though he reached for his wand. I remembered before-hand that, in spite of James being at the top of his class, he was always slow to reach for his wand in a duel. That was his last and, sadly for him, fatal mistake." Voldemort stopped his tirade and bent down slightly in front of Harry. He stared into Harry's eyes, his face mere millimetres from the boy's.

"I whispered two little words to him," Voldemort said in a low voice. His rancid breath washed across Harry's face. "Avada Kedavra." There was a tiny flash of green light and James Henry Potter was no more; your mother watched every tiny second of it. Before I killed James, I wanted to make him suffer, so I put him under the Crucio Curse. Lily, the stupid fool, just had to stay and try to help James. Of course, she couldn't; James was already dead." Harry broke the Dark Lord's gaze and dropped his eyes to the floor. He felt a wave of grief pass through his body and he choked back a small sob.

Voldemort sneered cruelly as he witnessed the boy's anguish. "All she could do was sit silently on the floor, peeking out from behind the sliding door. She just rocked you back and forth in her arms and told you that it was okay and that Mummy was going to keep you safe." Voldemort paused briefly and put his finger to his lips in a moment of silent consideration. "Well, she succeeded on that occasion: she did protect you. But, on the other hand, she's not going to be able to save you again."

Voldemort paused for a long moment to let everything he had just told Harry sink in. He paced the room slowly and deliberately as he continued. "So you see Harry, there are only two things you can do: the first is to take this torture until you die, or at least until someone finds a cure for it; the second is to drop out of Hogwarts and come here, so I can kill you. Which will it be Harry?"

The stabbing, searing pain intensified on Harry's bladder. He screamed again, unable to control himself through the agony. He could no longer see through the white and red haze of the pain mixing with his own blood.

Through the burning sensation, Harry managed to yell out, "I'd rather die than drop out of Hogwarts."

Voldemort didn't try any further to get Harry to change his mind. He gave a slight sneer. "So be it." He pointed his wand at Harry and whispered "Crucio."

The agony was unbearable; it felt as though a thousand little knives were being stabbed into Harry's body. Harry screamed as loud as he could to make it stop. It was all he could think of to do. However, nothing happened and the pain just kept coming...

The dream carried on for a while longer; each moment of searing pain that coursed through his body felt like eternity. Harry stopped screaming. He just laid suspended in mid air, with tears streaming down his face in glistening rivulets. He clutched his stomach, in the hope that it would dull the agony that he felt. The only sound that he could he through the deafening constant thud of his pain was a small whimper, which he thought had most probably come from him.

Voldemort became rapidly rather bored because Harry wasn't screaming any more; he wanted to hear the boy suffer by his hand. He removed the curse with a small flick of his wand and let the boy drop to the ground.... hard. Harry closed his eyes and willed for the pain to go away. By that point, he would have willingly died, if he couldn't fall asleep or faint. He would have done anything to make the pain stop.

He just lolled, in too much pain to think properly, on the floor, not knowing what to do. He couldn't run away... he could barely even move enough to carry on breathing. Something was pressed up against him, but Harry couldn't tell what it was. It felt strangely soft... like a hand, he decided. He tried to lean into the hand, but his frazzled nerves screamed in protest and kept him pinned to the ground. Harry relaxed and allowed the hand feel his forehead and his cheeks, while his body began to recover. He dimly heard Voldemort scream with intense rage. Harry felt happy with that.

"Harry... Harry, dear. Come on now, you need to wake up." Harry listened to the voice. It was a soft voice: very soft, soothing, loving... 'What is happening?' Harry wondered to himself through the remaining fogginess that clouded his mind. 'Voldemort doesn't have a soft voice. No one cares about me...' Harry thought to himself rather bleakly. 'Wait a minute, that's wrong! People do care about me.' Happiness at this realization peeked through the clouds in his brain like a shaft of bright, warming sunlight. 'Ron, Hermione, Sirius, Hagrid, Hedwig, Mrs. Weasley... all of the Weasley's!' Harry paused thoughtfully. 'That voice! It's Mrs. Weasley's!'

'Harry! Harry, if you can hear me dear, you have to open our eyes," Mrs. Weasley's voice instructed. Harry opened one eye a tiny bit, just enough to see. Everything was blurry. He realized that this wasn't a sign of permanent damage; he simply wasn't wearing his glasses. As if reading his mind, his glasses were pushed gently onto his nose. He opened his other eye partway and cast his eyes gingerly around the room. He realized that he was in Ron's room, mainly because there were several bright and lively Chudley cannon posters adorning the walls.

"Harry can you hear me?" Mrs. Weasley asked. Harry managed to nod his head slightly, even through the remaining haze of pain. Mrs. Weasley nodded her head and gave him a gentle smile. "Fred! George!" They both snapped to alert attention. "Fetch me two cups of cold water and a wet cloth."

For the first time in the twins' lives, they didn't need telling twice: they both knew how serious this must be. Harry felt the all-encompassing pain ebb away for a moment before it returned at full force. He allowed his eyelids to slide shut once again.

Harry saw a short, squat figure that rather resembled Wormtail muttering something, extremely quickly. Before he had a chance to really register the change of scene, he felt Mrs. Weasley shake him into consciousness again.

He looked around in a wave of confusion at the latest shift, but found that he simply couldn't keep his eyes open. He drifted through the darkness of his addled mind and found himself in the place where Voldemort was still waiting.

Harry yelled in shock as he felt a cold slap, biting sharply against his face. It felt like a jet of ice-cold water, which was so cold that it made his cheeks sting. His eyes fluttered open immediately, just in time to see a cup of cold water rushing towards his face. He was now fully awake and the fog began to retreat from the edges of his mind.

Fred and George were standing over Harry's prone form with mixed expressions on their faces: they looked torn between amusement at the fact that they had gotten him soaked and a look of extreme worry.

Harry struggled mightily to sit up. Mrs. Weasley stopped him with the gentle push of a restraining hand. "No," she said sternly as she pushed Harry back onto his makeshift bed on the floor. Harry surrendered and lay there quietly while Mrs. Weasley looked over him with worry in her eyes. Harry admitted to himself that whatever had just happened had taken a lot out of him and the pain might go away altogether if he could just lay still and quiet for a while.

While Harry stayed as still as he could, he allowed his eyes to roam around the room. Practically all of the Weasley's were present. Ginny was lying unconscious on the floor. She had most probably, Harry realized, fainted at some point. Bill, Charlie and Mr. Weasley were lurking in the doorway, talking in hushed voices about moving Ginny out of the room.

Hermione sat on Ron's bed with a hollow, shocked expression on her face. So looked so pale that she was almost completely white. She was so white that, if Harry didn't know any better, he would have thought that she was a ghost! Ron sat next to her and looked more lost, confused and upset than Harry had ever seen him.

"Mrs. Weasley?" Harry whispered in as loud a voice as he could muster. Mrs. Weasley turned and focussed her full attention on him. She nodded briskly and motioned for him to go on with a wave of her hand and an encouraging smile. "What happened?" Harry asked her finally. Mrs. Weasley closed her eyes for a moment and pinched the bridge of her nose with two fingertips.

"Dear, I really don't know," she replied quietly, with a worried tone in her voice. "Ron woke up because you started screaming and didn't stop. He said that you were shouting for help at the start of it, but then you just started to scream. We all heard you screaming and came up." Molly paused for a moment to give Harry a pat on the cheek.

"Dumbledore and 'Snuffles' will be on their way here soon," she continued in a reassuring tone. "Albus has an idea what this is all about but he said that he couldn't tell me. Do you remember anything?" Harry nodded his head to indicate that he did. "Well I'll just let you tell 'Snuffles' when he gets here. That will be best. Are you feeling any better, dear?" Mrs. Weasley smiled and squeezed Harry's hand gently.

Harry nodded again. "It felt like I was being crushed and I couldn't get away," he said softly with his eyes lowered. "Then the pressure stopped, but the pain was still there. It hurt so much after a while that I couldn't scream any more; I couldn't run; I couldn't move." Harry's voice grew increasingly husky and hoarse as he spoke. Mrs. Weasley nodded her head sympathetically and Harry could see tears shining brightly in her eyes. Harry felt a stream of warm, salty tears begin to run down his face. Mrs. Weasley stretched her arms out and pulled Harry into a tight, comforting hug.

"Its okay. Let it all out," she said over and over again. She patted his back and rocked him backwards and forwards gently in a soothing manner. All Harry could do was to carry on crying as the rest of the family walked quietly out of the room, carrying Ginny along with them.

DUMBLEDORE'S OFFICE

"Yes, we'll be there immediately," Dumbledore said gravely to Mr. Weasley's head. With a brisk nod of his head, he left his office and began sprinting down the halls of Hogwarts School of witchcraft and Wizardry. He had to find Sirius Black, Harry's Godfather. Dumbledore found him, thankfully, just outside the entrance hall to the school.

Sirius, in his shaggy black canine form, looked up as Dumbledore came to a halt in front of him. As the older man came to a halt, Sirius transformed into a man in a fluid motion. His features and limbs began to stretch and turn paler, while his paws exploded into long, strong hands and fingers. He gave Dumbledore a look of concern.

The old man took several deep breaths. "Sirius! Thank goodness... there's trouble at the Weasleys' house. Harry needs us; needs you!" Dumbledore panted.

Sirius nodded gravely. Harry needed him? This must be bad. Sirius took off at a run, transforming back into a dog on route, away from the Entrance Hall and towards the front gate of Hogwarts. The moment he got outside the grounds, he Apparated, still in dog form, to the Weasleys' residence. He was followed mere seconds later by an even more out of breath Dumbledore.

BACK AT THE WEASLEYS'

Percy Weasley gave a start as a large black dog landed in the middle of their living room. He grabbed his wand in a shaky hand and pointed it unsteadily at the animal. The dog didn't appear to take any notice of him or the wand and sprinted up the many stairs, finding his own way to his godson.

Percy trotted along after the dog, which bounded quickly and lightly up the stairs to the top of the house. Padfoot managed to find Ron's room rather easily, by following the scent of it. He pawed lightly at the door for a moment until Fred, who was still in the room watching Harry's every move, opened it.

Harry looked to the side of Fred at the big black dog, which had just trotted in and given Harry an appraising look up and down. After a couple of seconds, not sure what to do the dog transformed back into the shape of Sirius Black... Fred and George's jaws dropped. They quickly pulled out their wands and pointed them at Sirius, who once again took no notice of it and hugged Harry. The boy wizard had a huge grin on his face and looked positively thrilled to see him.

Percy let out a small yelp of surprise as Albus Dumbledore suddenly materialized in the middle of the room. He looked around the room and gave a gentle smile to the twins and Percy. He cast his glance to Harry briefly before continuing.

"Please kindly put your wands away. I know what you may think, but please let me explain downstairs where the rest of your family will be waiting," Dumbledore said with a longer, more concerned look at Harry, who was still in a tight hug with Sirius. "Don't worry boys, nothing will happen to Harry while Sirius is with him. Follow me, please." Without the slightest protest, they turned and followed the old man out of the room.

"We'll be just outside if you need us," Hermione said with a concerned frown. She got up, pulling Ron behind her, and walked out the door. There was a quiet click as the door closed behind them. Sirius broke his hug with Harry and gave him a smile and ruffled his hair. Both of them were more than happy to have some time alone.