A/N--None of these fine characters are mine; they belong to a lovely woman named J K Rowling. Enjoy!


Dreams Series: Part One


Harry sighed and got out of his sleeping bag. Once again, counting sheep was no use. He checked to make sure he hadn't woken Ron, but he was still lying in bed with his mouth open, surrounded by pictures of sleeping Chudley Cannons. "Maybe a glass of water would help," he thought. "Not that it ever does..."

He was walking down the hall when he heard sobbing coming from down the stairs. "Ginny?" he wondered as he hurried down the stairs to her room, almost running into Percy as he apparated right in front of Ginny's door.

"Percy?"

"Harry?" Percy looked at him bleary-eyed, obviously asleep until a minute ago. "Go back to bed, Harry; I've got it," he whispered back. "She'll be all right."

"No, it's ok, I'll come in with you." Where had that come from?

"No." Percy's voice, though still soft, held the finality he often heard in Dumbledore's voice. More gently still he said, "Harry, this is horrible enough for her without being humiliated because you're there. Go back to bed." With this he knocked on Ginny's door, but receiving no answer opened it and was shutting the door behind him when he turned back around to whisper, "Please don't tell anyone, Harry. No one knows except Mum and Dad."

Harry stood there a moment looking at the closed door, more than a bit confused.

"Ginny, Ginny, wake up. Shh, shh, it's over now, it's past. Wake up, Ginny. There's my girl." Her crying became muffled as Harry supposed she was crying into Percy's shoulder. "Shh, I'm here. It's past." Her sobs slowed and finally stopped, Percy whispering all the time that she wasn't alone, that everything was ok now.

"Must be nice," Harry thought. "To have a family to hold you when you cried and be there for you after bad dreams to tell you it was all over and everything was ok." Whatever Percy Weasley's faults were (Harry was privately afraid that he would grow up to be another Cornelius Fudge.), he was clearly devoted to his sister.

He was turning to go up to bed in an attempt to stop his further descent into self-pity when he heard Percy say, "You ok now, Gin? The same one again?" A reoccurring dream?

"Why can't they just stop, Percy?" Ginny sounded at once like a little girl and a weary grown woman.

"Wish I knew, little bit. But I'm here, I'll keep on being here--you remember that."

She tried to cover her fear with irritation. "So it was your turn tonight, huh? You know, I'm fourteen now. I can take care of myself after some stupid dream."

Percy answered seriously, "You know how important your dreams are, Ginny; they aren't stupid at all. I know you've only seen the past so far, but that's still a lot to deal with, even if they don't progress. I do know you could take care of yourself just fine if you had to, but what you have family for, after all, is so you don't have to face these things alone."

Ginny sounded as if she was close to crying again. "Yeah, me, but what about-"

Percy cut her off with a smile in his voice, "Well, we're working on that, too, aren't we?"

She giggled a bit, then stopped abruptly. Her voice was strained as she began. "What if they don't stop when I go back to school? Everybody's going to hear me."

"Don't worry about that. Mum and Dad got an owl from Dumbledore tonight after you went to bed. There's a new charm on your bed; he'll be able to hear if he needs to wake you up from a nightmare, but nobody else."

"Like here? Just you and Mum and Dad?"

Percy paused. "Yes, like here. Time to go back to sleep now. Do you want me to sit by your bed until you fall asleep?" Ginny must have nodded. "Ok, little bit. Don't stick your tongue out at me; I'll call you that until you're a hundred. I'll see you in the morning."

Harry, thoroughly confused by what had just transpired and feeling guilty for eavesdropping, went back up to Ron's room. A sudden wave of tiredness washed over him and he fell asleep.


End part one. I hope you enjoyed it! If you did, I'll be putting up more parts, and all will be revealed in time, but I have to warn you they'll be pretty slow in coming. Schoolwork is piling up as I write!

Read and Review, folks! I follow Professor Dumbledore's example-you are free to call me a "barmy old codger" if you like! :)