Harry Potter and the Path to Power

Chapter VII

Suddenly Harry lurched upright, barely holding in a scream.

Only after a few moment he remembered were he was - Ron's room. He had been woken by another nightmare.

He had already had several that night - nightmares including Cedric's death, Voldemort and Vernon, each had been more terrifying than the other.

He was exhausted.

As he sat on his mattress Harry very consciously decided he didn't want to go back to sleep right now. The dreams seemed to exhaust him more then just staying awake.

Quickly he slipped on a T-shirt over the boxers he had been wearing, still not having pyjamas.

As he made his way downstairs, he noticed there was still a light on in the living room.

It was Hermione; she had installed herself on the couch, looking quite comfortable and totally absorbed in 'Hogwarts: A History'.

Harry hesitated, should he join her or go back upstairs?

He wasn't given a choice though; Hermione suddenly looked up as if noticing someone looking at her; when she saw Harry standing at the bottom of the stairs she said: "What are you doing here, Harry? Why aren't you in bed?"

"I could ask the same of you," Harry replied.

"I couldn't sleep, decided to read a little but didn't want to disturb Ginny.

Harry, you look all sweaty and you're so white. What's wrong?"

"Nightmares," was Harry's only reaction, not really wanting to talk about it.

"Oh no," Hermione whispered, a look of worry flowing across her face.

"Come sit here," she continued in a normal tone of voice and patted the couch next to her.

When Harry sat beside her she pulled him in an embrace.

Harry gave in to it, reluctant at first, very much aware of the little clothing they were both wearing, but then, feeling comforted by her touch, he leaned in towards her hug. As he felt her body heat seep into him he felt the tight knot in his stomach unwind a bit.

When she felt him relax Hermione prodded Harry to shift positions and soon Harry found himself lying on the couch with his head in Hermione's lap. She was soothingly stroking his forehead as she had done twice before. Harry felt himself relax further.

"Tell me." Hermione said; it was only half a question.

"You don't want to hear." Harry answered, his eyes now closed.

"Maybe not, but you need to tell someone. Tell me... please?"

"I'm not sure..." Harry said, but seemed to change mid-sentence.

Harry started to tell of his nightmares. Of Voldemort, Vernon, Cedric, and how sometimes Cedric would change into Ron, or Hermione would be the one Vernon was torturing.

The more Harry told the more the words just seemed to flow from him; he found himself unable to stop talking.

He told only of his nightmares, not of what had actually happened either in the graveyard or on Privet Drive; sometimes reality was worse than dreams. It also allowed him to leave out the more upsetting details about what had happened the day of Voldemort's resurrection; no one knew the full scope of that story except Dumbledore and Sirius, who had been present the first and only time he had told it.

Hermione was shocked by Harry's dreams; the images his words conjured were like ice cold knives being plunged into her stomach.

As Harry continued, his eyes focused on those past horrors, she felt the need to cry.

As nightmare followed nightmare, she felt the urge to empty her stomach as each new telling settled into her like acid.

She did neither for the sake of her friend. When Harry was done, they both remained silent. There was nothing to be said.

"May I ask what you are doing?" It was Mr. Weasley; he looked displeased with what he saw.

Harry suddenly realised what this must look like, the both of them downstairs in the middle of the night, wearing only their sleeping clothes. He seemed to fly of the couch, but before he could say something Hermione said in a calm voice: "Harry was having nightmares."

"Ah," Mr. Weasley replied in an understanding tone, comprehension clearly dawning in his eyes. "You best go to bed Hermione, it's getting late."

Hermione nodded. "Goodnight Harry."

While Hermione was going upstairs Mr. Weasley was walking to the cupboard.

"Want to talk about them?" he asked.

"No, not really," Harry replied, sounding tired.

"Told Hermione about them?"

"Yes."

"Well that's good at least." Mr. Weasley was taking something out of the cupboard.

"I know of only two cures for nightmares. One is dreamless sleep potion; unfortunately you can't use that more then two or three times a month. More and it causes brain damage, a person needs to dream, besides that, it's strongly addictive. The other thing is this."

When he sat down he placed two shot-glasses, both filled with an amber liquid, on the coffee table in front of him. He put a half empty bottle beside them.

"You're a bit young, but if you take the right potions tomorrow it won't damage you. Drink up."

A bit hesitant, Harry took up the glass and sipped. The liquid burned in his mouth and when he swallowed he felt it go all the way down, warming him. He coughed a bit.

He took another sip. It was getting better.

He saw Mr. Weasley take the glass a swallow the drink in one gulp.

He decided to do the same. A lot of coughing followed.

A burning sensation flowed towards his stomach and upon arriving there seemed to explode, creating drops of sweat on his brow.

"Not bad, Harry, not bad for a beginner." With a smile, Mr. Weasley refilled the two glasses.

"Come on, you can't stand on one leg, as the saying goes. Drink up." Again Mr. Weasley needed only one gulp. Harry took the glass and downed the drink.

"I started this habit during the first rise of Voldemort," Mr. Weasley said.

Harry had an astonished look on his face.

"Oh Harry, don't look so surprised; I can say Voldemort when I've had a couple of drinks.

Now where was I? Oh yes, habit.

The advantage that wizards have over Muggles is that we have hangover-potions. It makes your headache go away and has the added benefit of making sure your liver doesn't get damaged. It also prevents any physical addiction. I've found out, that if you do this with moderation, a drink here and there helps on the really bad nights."

"Do you have nightmares, Mr. Weasley?" Harry asked, while watching Mr. Weasley refill the two glasses.

"I won't say mine are as bad as yours, Harry, but I have my share.

Maybe someday I might tell you some of them." Mr. Weasley said with a distant look on his face.

"I think it better not to tell any of this to Molly, or any of my children for that matter.

Not that she and the eldest don't know I have a few drinks on occasion.

No, I mean about you drinking yourself; Molly wouldn't take it well." Harry only nodded, knowing how protective and mothering Mrs. Weasley could be.

They finished a third glass and Mr. Weasley returned the bottle and cleaned the glasses.

"Best try to get some sleep.

If you have a headache tomorrow, just take the potion in the medicine cabinet marked as 'Arthur's headache potion', a sip should be enough.

If you have other nightmares feel free to take a drink, but remember: with moderation. I know how full the bottle is." Harry again only nodded.

"Of to bed now, I think Ron has a busy day planned for you tomorrow."

Both Harry and Mr. Weasley headed upstairs.

When Harry lay down, he felt relaxed. The drinks had done him good; it had taken the edge of his nerves. Harry fell asleep quickly and although he wasn't nightmare free, they were more bearable.

*****

The next day Harry was awakened by a bouncing sensation. It was Ron, jumping up and down on Harry's mattress. "Come on sleepy head, wake up; breakfast will be ready in five minutes. WAKE UP!" He yelled cheerily. Ron had clearly been up for awhile.

"I'm awake, I'm awake," Harry responded in a gruff tone of voice. He had a mild headache and Ron's yelling and bouncing wasn't helping.

"Sorry," Ron said, a bit put down, "didn't know you were going to bite my head off."

"I'm... sorry, Ron. It's just that I didn't sleep that well.

I'm going to take a shower."

Harry took a hot shower and a sip op the hangover potion after that. His head cleared right up.

He closed the medicine cabinet and saw himself in the mirror.

Harry was startled.

He was huge.

Well, not huge, but he was certainly a lot bigger then he had been.

Suddenly he understood a few things a lot better. Like what some people had said, why people seemed not as large to him, and why those big clothes had fit him. He had shot up somewhere between 6 and 7 inches and his shoulders were a lot broader now. He still wasn't big or heavily muscled, but he wasn't scrawny any more.

Harry realized he didn't have any clothes other then the ones he had worn yesterday. He would have to remedy that later.

Dressed, he went down for breakfast still a bit amazed about his new size.

"Good morning, Harry dear. What would you like for breakfast?" Mrs. Weasley was in her usual good mood. "Sleep well, dear?"

Harry was a bit put of by the question. His sleeping problems were not for the whole world to know. It was bad enough that Hermione and Mr. Weasley knew about it. He decided to treat the question as a politeness, not a real inquiry. "I slept well, thank you. Are there any pancakes?"

Hermione gave him a questioning look at his answer but didn't say anything.

"Pancakes it is. They'll be ready in four minutes," and with that Mrs. Weasley immediately started baking.

"How about a game of Quidditch after breakfast, mate?" Ron was already eating scrambled eggs and bacon like there was no tomorrow. "Fred and George are joining us after breakfast; they're in their room right now."

Ron looked at his mother, bowed over to Harry and whispered: "They've been inventing all summer. Some nutter invested in their company. Mum doesn't know; she's already confiscated more gags than I thought those two could cook up, and they're still at it."

Harry only smiled a small smile, knowing exactly where the money had come from. He would have to look in on the twins, see if they had come up with anything interesting.

"Ron dear, do remember it's your turn to help with the dishes this morning."

"But Mum..." Ron groaned.

"No buts, young man.

Harry, why don't you go see what those two mischief-makers of mine are up to? It's been quiet for far to long, I don't trust it." Mrs. Weasley directed a suspicious frown towards the ceiling in the direction of the twins' room.

"I'll help Ron," Hermione said before Mrs. Weasley could make another suggestion. Ron quickly turned to hide a silly grin at this.

"Yeah Harry, you go get the twins and we'll do the dishes." Ron's tone of voice was completely different from before. If Harry didn't know any better he would have sworn Ron was now happy about doing the dishes.

*****

When Harry knocked on the door of the twins' room there was an immediate reply: "Just a minute," it sounded, two voices speaking at the same time.

It was a minute later when the door opened. "Oy, Harry. Why didn't you say it was you? That would have saved us a lot of trouble" one of the twins said. Harry thought it was Fred.

"You can put everything back, Fred," Harry had been wrong; the twin opening the door had been George.

When Harry stepped into the room Fred had just opened a small box. All of a sudden the room was twice as large and looked a bit like the potions dungeon at Hogwarts, but not as moist or cold.

"Mobile Magic Laboratory," Fred said after seeing Harry's amazement, "bought with a portion of your money, I might add. It cost a pretty Knut but it was worth it. It contains everything we need to develop our products. It also comes with its own very well stocked supply room, so Mum doesn't notice us bringing in as many things."

Harry was impressed by the level of professionalism the twins had reached in such a short time.

"Wow," was all he could say.

"That about sums it up," George smiled, "and one third of all this is yours.

We've decided that you as our main..."

"And only," Fred chimed in.

"And only investor," George continued, "should be our silent partner. We've already taken the liberty of transferring one third of our company shares to your Gringot's vault. Our company is, by the way, registered under Weasley's Wizard Wheezes."

"But..."

"I'm sorry Harry, but we won't take no for an answer; besides, it's a done deal." Fred and George now had identical grins on their faces. "And you should know that there are many added benefits to being our partner." Fred said.

"Such as access to our experimental products," George continued.

"Not to mention custom made gags on request." Fred took over.

"And don't forget access to this laboratory."

"And last but not least; we'll let you in on any pranks we pull that we think you'd like."

"Now how can you say no to something like that?" They finished together.

"All right, all right. You've convinced me," Harry chortled. "It's an honour to accept. Just do me a favour and don't think that, just because I'm your partner, I'll be your guinea pig."

"Ah Harry, you spoil all our fun." Fred had a grin on his face despite the disappointed tone of his voice.

"Ron sent me to tell you, Quidditch after he's done the dishes, which should be about now. So, are you coming?"

"Let's go."

The twins grabbed their brooms, closed the box and followed Harry downstairs.

They spent the rest of the day playing Quidditch.

*****

That night Harry's slumber was fitful due to several more nightmares.

A few contained Voldemort killing and torturing several people, but as his scar didn't hurt, Harry figured they were just nightmares without significance.

The majority of his nightmares now featured Vernon.

After having woken up several times and having gone back to his slumber, Harry came out of his sleep having had an especially vivid dream. His body was covered with cold sweat and his sheets were lying next to his bed, so violent had his movements been.

As he looked at Ron's watch he saw that it was about three hours past midnight, he decided to go downstairs; trying to sleep right now was pointless, his heart was still beating at a high rate.

Downstairs Harry sat on the couch and his gaze turned towards the cupboard. For a few minutes he considered what to do, remembering Mr. Weasley's offer, but also his warning

He opened the cupboard from where he'd seen Mr. Weasley take the bottle.

It was there, but there was a note attached:

Dear Harry,

As I said, if your nightmares bother you, feel free to take a drink.

I however remind you to use moderation and the mature judgement I have come to expect from you.

Sleep well,

Arthur Weasley

He did need to get some sleep and this stuff seemed to do the trick.

Harry took another look at the bottle:

Ogden's Firewhiskey 40%vol.

He took the bottle and a shotglass and sat down in front of the fireplace, although there had been no fire that day.

After he had downed the first shot Harry felt himself warm up on the inside as well as the outside. Slowly he felt himself relax a little. A second and third drink relaxed him even further. Should he take another one? Mr. Weasley had advised caution... well, one more wouldn't hurt and then he was off to bed.

Harry had another night of sleep filled with nightmares, but at least he had sleep.

*****

The following days went by at a rapid pace.

During the day they would all play Quidditch or Ron and Harry conspired with the twins.

Everyone in the house was the victim of a prank at one time or another, all except Mrs. Weasley.

Harry didn't want to play a prank on her and the Weasley boys were afraid to.

At one point Ginny walked around with purple hair, Hermione had sprouted little horns and Ron had yellow skin.

Percy had been especially indignant when he was fed a Backwards Brownie after a dinner visit; every word he said came out backwards and when he left he was heard to say: "oN tcepser, on tcepser reveostahw rof a yrtsiniM laiciffo."

Ginny turned out to have quite a temper as she too reacted with anger at being a victim.

As Harry had been the main perpetrator of the foul deed (as Ginny called it) he took the brunt of her verbal assault. For once Ginny didn't seem to have a shy bone in her body, as she berated Harry for being in league with her 'Brothers from hell'.

Her brothers tried to commiserate with him but did a poor job of holding in their laughter.

Harry, on the other hand, was quite proficient at dodging the twins' pranks and even had one backfire on them.

They were both covered in itching-potion when they went through a door they had forgotten they had booby trapped, when Harry called them down for lunch even though it was an hour early.

George was hit first, but his twin was right behind him and collided with his already furiously scratching brother.

Ron and Ginny, who had been waiting for the results of the prank, howled with laughter when they heard the Twins' cries; they had fully expected Harry to fail.

As Harry was one of the first to take proper revenge on the Twins, all was forgiven by Ginny, who clearly stated that 'anyone who could fool the Twins could be forgiven anything'.

Harry was finally a victim to a prank when the twins enlisted Ron's help.

While Ron distracted Harry with a game of wizard's chess the twins snuck up behind him and put a potion in his pumpkin juice.

After Harry had taken a sip he could only sing everything he wanted to say. It was a variation on the Backwards Brownie, lyrical potion.

The whole Weasley family had little to eat after Harry sang a particularly fetching song about the delicious chicken Mrs. Weasley had made.