Authors note: SO HI EVERYONE LOOK WHO FINALLY DECIDED TO PUBLISH SOMETHING OF HER OWN. Das rite, me. So this is something quite special. My friend and I, played with the thought of us attending Hogwarts. And me being me, decided to put the idea into action, isch. As much as I could anyway. I wrote about it. So this will be a simple collection of stories about me, my two friends and our time at Hogwarts. I wanted to challenge myself and decided to start with the hurt/comfort thingy. And since I didn't want to put my friends in danger (well sure I would love that, but not in the hurt kind of danger) - I had to do the honorable and take one for the team. Enjoy. Or beware. Idk.
Soundtrack: A window to the past - Harry Potter PoA soundtrack (it's on tha youtube)
Disclaimer: I do not own Hogwarts, Hufflepuff or the magical world surrounding my furry friends in this story. They belong to J.K Rowling. I hope.
Trigger warnings: Nightmares, feels and awesome writing.
One foot wrong and she was falling. But she never hit the ground. She kept falling and falling into a dark nothing. Fear and anger surrounded her. Fear of the dark. Anger over her helpless being that so desperately tried to break the veil between reality and the fall, but never succeed. She knew very well what this was. A nightmare. A crystal clear world of the unknown. A world that would give her scars from the shattered thoughts and instincts thrown at her. All of this while still laying unconscious in bed, unable to do anything about it. It was cruel and terrifying. These nightmares consumed Hanna's entire being, pulling every string it could to make sure she knew that she was stuck. Over the years, the fights between her mind and the nightmares had developed into some sort of contest. The nightmares, being rudely ignorant of the term "fair play" - would always grab her by the shoulders and whisper sweet nothings in her ear to distract her from waking up. And Hanna (being Hanna) would always try to win by insulting the nightmare, spitting out every little fiber of stubbornness she could attract in that moment. I don't know what book you've been reading, but nightmares doesn't like it when you bite back. Especially not this one. And in this very moment, Hanna bit back. And the nightmare's dark eyes - (yes the nightmare had eyes, the universe isn't quite sure why yet) - would soon narrow and throw her back into the falling, dark pit. Only this time to be accompanied by her biggest fear. She was still falling down the unknown. But this time, there was an echo creeping up from the darkness. The sound would spread it's ice-cold consistence through her body while the name of it's source would scratch her brain with panic and fear. The Groke.
She hadn't had a nightmare in months and had almost forgotten about their existence. Usually they would give her a few nights to prepare for the fall. They would let her know they were on their way by giving her clues and cruelty to stumble over in her sleep. And then one night, she would eventually fall down the rabbit hole. And then she would be stuck. For hours. But she would be slightly prepared, and found comfort in that.
That however, wasn't the case tonight - she was completely unarmed and struck by surprise of the sudden outburst from the sleeping monster - also known as her nightmare. So she was rudely reminded of their existence and thrown into something she never learned how to control. And it angered her. It angered her that she was scared. She knew that she wasn't in any danger. Not really. Or was she? She had never managed to actually hit the ground in her nightmares. But the feeling of falling was so, so real - that the thought of hitting the ground consumed her. And suddenly she was awake. Just like that. Her body trembled in chock and her breaths were heavy and slightly uneven. She pulled herself up in a sitting position and bit her lip as she tried to compose herself. A sudden puff in the side and Ellie made her existence acknowledged. She purred softly and made her way toward Hanna's lap. Once she was settled into a nice ball of fluff - she looked up at the pale sixteen year-old. Her golden eyes to meet the blue. Hanna saw nothing but pure comfort in them, and were just about to pet her beloved cat when Ellie's mind took a sudden turn of track. The cat quickly arose from her owners lap and soon enough her small paws met the cold floor. She was clearly exited over whatever cats got exited about and jumped up to settle by the window. Hanna - feeling slightly offended by this, felt free to let the universe know. "Prat" she mumbled to the oh-so-careless furball by the window. She got no response and sighed in defeat. As if there had been anything to feel defeated by in the first place.
Hanna knew that she couldn't go back to sleep now. The nightmare would only return at once with a mocking grin, welcoming her back as if it had expected her. She pulled her hand through her hair and looked around in the room. Her two friends were still fast asleep in their beds. Those lucky bastards.
She pulled her feet over the edge of the bed, and slowly let them touch the cold floor. She sat there for a moment, still trying to concentrate on thinking straight. The nightmares really messed with her head. After a few minutes of nothing - she let her feet take on the weight they were designed for as she stood and walked up to stand by the window. Ellie welcomed her with some sort of sound that surely meant something really pleasant in the official cat language, but in Hanna's ears sounded something like "Hmpf".
It was a beautiful night. When one finds themselves in a nightmare, one figures that the entire world surely must be panicking under some great big storm of lightning, thunder or rain. When in reality - the world carries on just as normal. Unaware of your individual suffering. Hanna wasn't sure if she found that comforting or scary. Maybe a bit of both, in a confused mix of nighttime philosophy. She petted Ellie one last time before leaving the window. She already knew the view and needed a better distraction. Hanna entered the small bathroom that she shared with her sleeping friends. She walked up to the mirror, pulled the tap and let cold water pour down the sink in front of her. She splatted some on her face, dried herself on a small Hufflepuff towel and then took a good look at herself in the mirror. She was pale. This was usually kind of her thing, so she didn't take much notice of it. Instead she tried to flatten her hair, which apparently had had a night adventure of it's own. After a few minutes she gave up the mission and left the bathroom.
She closed the door behind her and turned around, only to let out a startled shout as she suddenly stood face to face with her now very-much-awake friend. Emelie stood with her arms crossed over her chest and had some kind of serious face on while eying her dorm-mate.
"Bloody hell Emelie, you can't just slender-man me in the middle of the night. At least give me a heads up." Emelie snorted and took a few defiant steps across the room. She was now standing up close in front of Hanna as she studied the girls pale face.
"Are you going to kiss me?", Hanna said with a smirk. Emelie rolled her eyes and then simply put her arms around the other brunette's neck. Hanna accepted the embrace and simply hugged her back. They stood there for a while, and then letting go as Ellie started to stroke her soft fur at their bare legs. Hanna picked up the needy cat and went over to her bed. Emelie watched her pull up the duvet and lower herself underneath it's surface - still holding the cat in a firm grip. Emelie sighed as she watched her two best friends. One of them - clearly upset about something obvious - laid in bed hugging her cat close. And the other one, who's duvet laid on the floor next to said person's bed - were now hugging herself in her sleep as the cold November night had spread it's way through the castle. Will they ever learn how to take care of themselves? I'm like their fricking mother-hen. Emelie shook her head as she walked up to the fireplace. Their dorm were one of the ones closest to the lake, which often led to cold nights. So the castle had granted them a fireplace as a simple solution to the problem. "Incendio!" Emelie said, pointing her wand at the hole in the wall in front of her. Flames rose at once in the fireplace, crackling merrily as though they had been burning for hours. She really liked that fireplace, it was pretty amazing - or as Hanna had phrased it on their first night - "totally awesome". Emelie took a step back and admired her work, she never grew tired of her magic.
Josefin opened her eyes and looked around in the room. Emelie sat on the carpet in front of a sparkling fire, staring into the flames with glassy eyes. Her mind seemed to be pretty far away from home. Hanna sat up straight in her bed with blue eyes fixed on the walls, observing the dancing shadows from the fire. After a while - Josefin broke the comfortable silence, "Nightmare?" she asked. Emelie jumped and turned to look at her, and then at Hanna. Silence. A small sigh. And then a short nod. "Typiskt" Josefin said and smiled when she heard the amusement in her friends movements - as only the best of friends can. "Something like that." Hanna said and leaned her head back, staring up at the honey-colored wooden ceiling. She liked that ceiling a lot. It had become a source for her to rest her eyes on when she was thinking, or daydreaming. Yes, she really liked that ceiling. "What was it about?" Josefin asked - now also staring at the ceiling. "Same old, same old." came the reply. Emelie pushed herself from the floor and went to sit down next to her friend on the bed. She put one arm around Hanna's shoulders. "What made you wake up?" she asked. Silence. More silence. "Honestly... I have no idea... but, I have some sort of suspicion." her friends kept quiet, simply waiting for her to continue. "... I remember that I started to think about what would happen if I actually hit the ground, you know? And I think that my instincts or whatever sensed real danger and woke me up... does that make sense?", Josefin thought it through for a moment. Then she said "I think it makes perfectly good sense." Emelie nodded in agreement and then stated the unsaid, "Although, you have to remember that you're not in any... well... you're not in any real danger in your dreams. No need for your survival instincts to kick in. If you know what I mean?", Hanna knew what she meant. But she was thankful anyway and made a mental note not to mention that to her instincts. They were pretty handy after all.
Emelie looked at Josefin again, met her eyes and gave her a small nod. Josefin jumped off her bed and quickly rounded it. She bent down, and eyed the area underneath it. She mumbled for a while, gave out a triumphant "aha!" and then popped her head back up to look at her friends - now with a big grin on her face. Hanna felt unease. Whenever one of her friends had that face on, it usually meant trouble. Emelie took the weight of her arm from Hanna's shoulders and went over to stand next to Josefin. They were now sharing the big grin. "Guys, please don't tell me you've smuggled diet coke through the castle again. Filtch will have you beheaded if he finds out." Emelie shook her head. "No my dearest Hanna, we haven't smuggled any diet coke around the castle." Josefin filled her in, "Yeah that only happened once. And that was you." Hanna frowned. Brows furrowed in concentration as she thought back to their third year. "oh yeah right" she said, now smiling over her fond memories. But then suddenly replaced the smile with a suspicious look directed toward her friends. Josefin took a deep breath and opened her mouth to say something when Emelie interrupted her "Well, you know how you've told us about the nightmares, and about how they are really annoying and stuff. And I've been in the library on a few occasions to look them up but I found nada. But then Josefin here had this brilliant idea -" Josefin nudged Emelie's side with her elbow and took advantage of the sudden gasp from said friend to continued the story "I had this brilliant idea that should be praised from the north tower or something. I pointed out to our Melie over here, that the old Indians used to believe in the power of dreams or some voodoo crap like that. And how they used dream-catchers to ease the bad dreams." Josefin pulled her hands from where they'd been hiding behind her back to show Hanna the small object. She held the dream-catcher above her head so they all could admire it. And then continued her story. "And we looked them up as well, apparently they're non-magical and there are no proof of them actually working. But they are really pretty and we thought it might give you some kind of comfort. Or you know, to all of us since we all have nightmares once in a while."
The dream-catcher was beautiful. The dancing shadows from the fireplace seemed to investigate the dream-catcher and the room grew silent. "I love you guys." Hanna finally said. "We know" Josefin said with a small smile and bent down to embrace her friend. As she did, Emelie caught her off guard and grabbed the dream-catcher from Josefin's grasp, ignored the offended "Hey!" and walked up to the window. "I think we should hang it up here, by the window. High enough for everyone to see it. But not low enough for the cats to eat it." It wasn't a question, so she simply pulled out her wand and pointed it at the small object. "Locomotor!" she said and the dream-catcher rose in the air in front of them. With a flick of her wand, the dream-catcher's hanger folded itself around an old nail above the window frame. "There we go." She said, as the shadows from the fire played with the atmosphere in the room.
Later that night when the three friends were all fast asleep again, and the fire long since gone - Hanna's dreams took a sudden turn as the dark eyes appeared in-front of her. She tripped over the rabbit hole. But for the first time in her life., she didn't fall in. She'd been able to grasp a branch from a big old tree and pulled herself out before she fell in. When her feet stood steadily on the ground again she looked up at the tree. And smiled. For at the top of the tree, a dream-catcher could be seen. Dangling from it's branch in the wind.