Wings of the Dragon
Summary: They fell around him like a cocoon every night, shielding him from the world with strong red wings.
For DobbyRocksSocks
Written for the Monthly One Shot Exchange (October)
There's smoke filling his nose, making it burn as he opens his eyes, staring up through planks of wood, up at Dumbledore as his long-time mentor raised his hands in the air, now wandless.
The thin gray puffs keep obscuring his vision for a moment, like little clouds that are trying to suffocate him. Harry pushes a hand over his mouth to stop himself from coughing, from giving his position away as the Death Eaters move above him in the Astronomy Tower.
Where was the smoke coming from? He couldn't sense any heat, if there was a fire it had to be far below him. There was no telling when it would catch up to his current location. Not that they seemed to be in a rush; they were taking their time.
"Good job, Draco," Bellatrix is hissing into her nephew's ear, dancing around the boy on her tiptoes to face Dumbledore with a little grin plastered over her face. "Dumbledore, such a great wizard bested by a mere child. What would your fans, say? If you still had any that is."
Harry squeezes his eyes shut, to try and drown out the woman's voice as she continues to taunt the Headmaster. But her voice isn't going away, it's just morphing in his ears to form other words, "I killed Sirius Black! Ahahaha!"
"You can't do it, can you, boy? Heheh. It only works if you hate me. Really, hate me. Do you think you can do that?"
He forces his eyes open, again, to see a new face above.
Severus, except he's not pointing his wand at Dumbledore. Alecto has her arms wrapped around him, whispering something into his ear. It's only when he hears the scream that his gaze is torn from them and back to Dumbledore himself.
Fenrir is wrapping a coil of rope around the man's neck, but his teeth are bloody. It's evidence of what he just did, as is the crimson splotch on Dumbledore's robes, steadily growing bigger. Severus is starting to shout, but Harry can't make out the words as the fire roars beneath him, too loud for him to hear as Severus struggles in Alecto's grasp.
The flames are in his hiding spot, only the smoking obscuring him from above if any of the Death Eaters happened to look down. It's licking up his sides, making the heat unbearable, but Harry doesn't move his gaze from Dumbledore. Not even when the body is flung over the edge of the building to dangle in the air on that rope.
And a scream finally tears it's way up his throat.
The warmth from the flames digs into his shoulders, forming into hands as he's shaken from the dream, waking in a cold sweat once again. A sigh of relief nearly escapes him. That what he just saw wasn't the truth. Dumbledore didn't die so horrifically, it was just his dreams - his nightmares - again.
"Harry," Charlie's voice finally penetrates into his clouded mind as he's given another rough shake. "Are you awake now, Harry?"
"Yeah," he replied, tongue feeling thick in his throat.
Charlie let out a soft sigh, hands falling from his shoulders. "I'm sorry. I only went out to get some more wood for the fire. I didn't mean to leave you susceptible to those dreams again."
Harry turns his head, lips falling into a frown. "No. It's not your fault. I've had them since I was a kid. There just much worse now."
"But they don't bother you when I'm by your side and I left... I could hear you screaming from my place in the woods and came back as quickly as I could. I'm so sorry." Charlie placed a kiss lightly on his lips. "We need to find a way to destroy that locket as well. I think it's making them worse."
Harry's gaze dropped to the locket hanging below his neck. One of Voldemort's many horcruxes that he was trying to find so he could finally get rid of him once and for all. So no more people died because of him. "Yeah. It's just the locket acting up." Though he couldn't quite understand why Alecto would be holding Severus back. Why the man had seemed to be shouting for Dumbledore's release. It had to be his mind playing tricks on him - or the locket.
"Do you want me to hold it for you?"
Harry laid his hand over the locket, hiding it from view. "No. I can handle it." He didn't want the thing anywhere near Charlie. He didn't want it trying to change the man he loved. "Just get back into bed."
Charlie didn't say another word, just slid under the covers with him, wrapping those arms around his rather thin frame, breath warming his skin. Much like a dragon would wrap itself around it's treasure hoard, shielding him from the cruel world with strong red wings.