Masters of Illusion

Chapter 1 - Drenched in Dreams

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Lightning flashed over the black, turbulent waters, briefly searing the storm-filled night sky into silvered daylight.

A resounding crack of thunder momentarily drowned out the screams of all the drowning muggles.

Three cloaked and shadowed figures on broomsticks hovered over the tumult, searching for something... or someone.

Suddenly, a red flash of light grazed one of the three. Cursing, the other two fled while their comrade floundered between water and air.

Five new figures on broomsticks raced to the scene. Two started to give chase until a grizzled old figure called them back to help with the search. The flickering light revealed a profile whose nose looked to have once had a bite taken out of it.

The five did what they could to try to aid the many muggles, but their focus was on searching, not rescuing.

"There!" the man with the tattered old robes and long graying brown hair shouted, pointing at a half-submerged figure. Reaching down, he dragged a young woman, barely more than a girl, out of a tangled morass of wreckage and onto his broom. Though she wore the jeans and T-shirt of an American-born muggle, she had a death grip on a small, slender piece of wood that could never be mistaken for a piece of muggle flotsam. "Found her."

The grizzled figure, paranoid as ever, flew over to confirm the girl's identity. Nodding curtly, he resumed his scan of what was left of the cruise ship. Scowling, he noted the approach of a muggle rescue team in boats. "No sign of him," he grumbled to the others, " we'll have to recover him after the muggles are finished, there's too many of them."

The others nodded and followed him quickly, zooming away before the muggles' searchlight could find them.

They didn't see the dark figure gliding in behind the boats. The figure pointed his wand at what remained of the cruise ship's engine. He laughed maniacally as it exploded, taking two of the rescue boats with it. He then turned and fired a red bolt at the figure carrying the girl.

---

Harry jerked bolt upright in his bed at Number 4 Privet Drive, sweating profusely and scar throbbing.

"No," he gasped, "not him too."

He looked around his darkened room frantically, as if searching for something to deny what he'd just seen, or to fix it somehow.

Struggling with his sweat-soaked blankets, he half-fell out of bed, reaching towards the trunk containing his school things as Hedwig hooted agitatedly from her cage atop the dresser. Forgetting his trunk, he stumbled to the window and opened it, sticking his head out in the hopes of cooling it on a night breeze.

Closing his eyes, he tried to slow his breathing. "Just a dream," he murmured, "just another bloody dream." But then why was his scar throbbing?

His hands tightened on the windowsill until his knuckles were white. He'd had many dreams since returning from Hogwarts for the summer, nearly all of them nightmares; and those nightmares had become almost continuous since contracting a summer fever two days ago.

The only good thing about the fever was that, between it and the warning from the Order of the Phoenix, his horrid aunt and uncle had left him pretty much alone. Even his piggish brute of a cousin Dudley hadn't bothered pestering him much over the past month.

But even that couldn't entirely make up for this wretched fever. How he longed to be back at school, where Madam Pomfrey could have cleared it all up in seconds. Where he could see his friends. Where he could go to Dumbledore, or McGonagall, or Hagrid, and have them confirm that it was just another fever induced vision... or another trick from Voldemort, another attempt to draw him out, or cripple him into making another mistake.

Like the mistake that had led to Sirius's death.

Harry didn't care what Dumbledore said, it WAS his fault Sirius had died. If only he had gone to Snape instead of trying to use Umbridge's fireplace.

If only he had remembered the gift.

He turned back to the room, leaving the window open since it was at least slightly cooler outside. From the top of the dresser, Hedwig hooted consolingly. He stared at her for a moment, then blinked, realizing that while HE couldn't get to anyone else, Hedwig could.

Going over to his desk, he turned on the desk lamp and grabbed some parchment, ink, and a quill. He quickly scrawled a note to Ron and Hermione (since she'd written before to say she was staying with the Weasleys again) begging them to let him know if anything had happened recently. He stopped when he realized he was rambling on about the fever and his nightmares. Shaking his head, he turned to let Hedwig out of her cage and tied the note onto her leg.

"Stay until they have an answer, ok?" Hedwig nipped his ear affectionately and chuffed at him, rustling her wings in agreement.

Walking to the window again, he watched until Hedwig was no more than a speck in the slowly lightening sky, and then a bit longer.

Harry went back to his bed and collapsed onto it, immediately falling into an exhausted stupor.

And yet another nightmare.

---

He was awakened late the next afternoon by a commotion downstairs. Blinking in the light he got up and stumbled to the door of his room.

Peeking out, he saw two hazy figures coming up the stairs. He guessed by the loud ranting that the second figure was his Uncle Vernon, and the shockingly blue hair told him who the other blurry face belonged to.

"Tonks?" he said, voice cracking slightly from surprise and slight dehydration.

"Wotcher Harry?" Tonks replied cheerily, completely ignoring Uncle Vernon.

Harry then blushed furiously as he realized he was standing there in nothing but his shorts. "Um, jus' a minute," he murmured, shutting the door and hurriedly grabbing a pair of jeans and a T-shirt and pulling them on. Opening the door again he managed a weak grin. "What are you doing here?"

Tonks slipped through the door and shut it in Vernon's still-ranting face. "Oh, Ron read yer note an' showed it to his mum, begging to come get you. Molly, Arthur, an' most of the others are a bit tied up right now" she shrugged, "so they asked me to come check on you, see if you wanted to come on out to London again." Her eyes twinkled as she admitted the last part, clearly knowing his answer.

"Bloody right I would," he replied almost before she'd finished offering, turning to start grabbing what he needed and stuff it in his trunk. He swayed a bit as he bent over, and ended up sitting down, head hanging over his lap. "Jus' need.... a minute," he panted.

Frowning, Tonks came over and checked his forehead. "Blimey Harry, yer burning up. You just sit here and nod, I'll pack fer you."

Deciding this was a wonderful idea, and why didn't he think of it before? he nodded and pointed out to Tonks what needed to be packed, quite happy that she decided not to use magic to do the job, considering her self-admittedly abysmal skills with domestic spells. He grinned watching her as she banged into nearly everything in the room at least twice while gathering his things.

Not too much later Tonks helped him down the stairs, levitating his trunk in front of them. Harry called out his good-byes to the Dursleys without looking back.

Once outside in the gathering dusk, Tonks appraised him quickly, shaking her head. "No way you'll be able to sit a broom like this," she said, sticking her wand arm out to the side.

With a sudden loud bang, the Knight Bus pulled up in front of them.

Stan Shunpike leaned out to greet them with a grin. "Wotcher 'arry? Blimey, you look done in mate! Wot've them muggles bin doin' t' ya?" Shaking his head, he helped Tonks maneuver Harry onto the bus and into one of the beds.

Harry barely heard whatever it was that Tonks told Stan, just glad to be lying down again. He drifted off immediately, not even waking up when the knight Bus banged and lurched off to its next destination.

---

When he finally woke, he was surprised to see he wasn't on the Knight Bus any more. Sitting up carefully in case he got dizzy again, he looked around him, noting several other beds as well as some curtained-off areas.

"Hospital," he murmured, "but how did I get here?"

By the quality of light slanting through the windows, he guessed that it was mid-afternoon, but that didn't tell him what day it might be.

He looked up as he heard what sounded like a heated row coming from the curtained-off area closest to the door. Frowning slightly, he was surprised to see Mrs. Weasley come out from behind the curtain shaking her head.

"Hello there Harry dear," she smiled as she came over to him. "Well, you're looking much better then."

"I guess. What was that all about?" he asked, nodding towards that first curtained-off bed.

"Hmm? Oh, just a poor girl insisting on seeing her guardian, apparently he's on another ward. Poor dear nearly ran me right over as I was coming in."

"Oh? Why's she in St. Mungo's? And who's her guardian?"

Mrs. Weasley just shook her head and patted his hand a bit. "Oh, don't you mind that dear, nothing for you to worry about I'm sure. Now then, if you're feeling up to it, what say we get you on out of here then."

Harry smiled and nodded at this, reaching for the clothes she pulled out of the small clothes press for him. "Definitely."

While he got dressed after closing the curtains around his little area, Mrs. Weasley left to handle the needed paperwork.

As Harry was putting the curtains back where they were once he was dressed, he noticed a nurse coming out from behind the curtained-off bed by the door, shaking her head and mumbling under her breath about difficult and headstrong patients. Harry offered her a rather wan smile as she was walking out again, but she just glared at him for his efforts.

At the door, Harry hesitated, still curious about the girl behind the curtain. After glancing quickly out the window on the door to make sure no one was coming, he slipped over to the first bed. Peeking through a slight gap, he caught a glimpse of a small form huddled under many blankets. With her back to him, all Harry could make out was her long, slightly tangled black hair. From the flamingly bright red of the tip of one ear poking out from under that hair (and the copious amounts of steam), he guessed that she'd recently been given some Pepper-up potion, a common wizarding remedy for colds and flu. But surely someone wouldn't be in St Mungo's for just a case of the flu?

More curious than ever, he watched almost without blinking, or breathing, as she started to turn over.

"All ready to go then Harry?"

Harry started guiltily as Mrs. Weasley came back in. Whirling, he stammered out a reply, hoping she hadn't noticed him acting like a peeping tom. "Er, yes, all ready."

---

Fortunately for Harry's peace of mind, Mrs. Weasley didn't mention anything about his snooping. Instead, she led him outside to the street and headed for an Underground station. "We're staying in London for a bit, visiting Fred and George," she told him after asking him to handle buying their tickets, since she didn't know much about muggle currency. "They're doing quite well with their new... business," she stated only a little stiffly, clearly proud her boys were doing well, but still not entirely approving of how they were making a living.

"That's great," Harry replied a little awkwardly. "I've, uh, been looking forward to seeing their new shop."

Mrs. Weasley smiled, "Well, it's certainly something." After catching a glimpse of Harry's uncertain expression, she smiled. "Oh, it's all right Harry, I am proud of them, I just always imagined they'd do something a little more, well... serious. You'll understand someday when you have boys of your own," she assured him.

Privately, Harry wondered if such a time would ever come.

As the Underground train rattled along, Harry noticed the headline on the newspaper a man was reading a few seats down. It read "American Cruise Ship Disaster." Just under it in slightly smaller type was the line "Two Bodies Still Missing."

Frowning, Harry was so distracted he nearly missed their stop. Fortunately, Mrs. Weasley was paying more attention to the station signs. "Here we are then Harry."

Once back on the street, he followed Mrs. Weasley down a little ways and then into the Leaky Cauldron. Nodding to Old Tom, they both made their way out to the backyard, where Harry took out his wand and tapped the third brick from the left above the dustbin. They watched the bricks fold back into an archway, and then they stepped through to Diagon Alley.

---

Author's notes:

And off we go...

Interesting note: the original title for this chapter was "Wet Dream," lol, but, much as I loved it, I figured that might just give folks the wrong idea, so I changed it.

Next chapter, coming soon: Canary Creams and Living Dreams - Harry gets his first look at the Weasely twins' new joke shop, the Order's new headquarters, and Fred's new girlfriend...