Author's Note: For the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition, Season Two/Round Eight, as Captain for the Caerphilly Catapults, writing a fluff fanfic including inferi. Also, for the If You Dare Challenge, prompt 511. Dreams. Thanks to jumpsinpuddles for the inspiration.
To Speak of Dreams
(Victoire has a strange dream about inferi, and this starts a conversation.)
Victoire sleepily walked into the living room of Shell Cottage. She could see Mum and Dad in the kitchen, Dominique at a table. Louis was probably still asleep, as it was summer, and Teddy, Teddy was…
"—Boo!" someone yelled from behind her.
"Expelliarmus!"
Teddy's wand flew out of his hand. "Whoa, easy there." He went to retrieve it.
"You shouldn't sneak up on people."
"I wouldn't call it sneaking." He ruffled her hair, which she had just tried to smooth out after sleep. Then—
"—DAD, TEDDY AND VICKI ARE SNOGGING AGAIN!" Louis shouted as he came into the room.
"Are you trying to get me kicked out of this house?" Teddy asked.
"Ignore them, Louis!" their father called back.
Teddy stuck his tongue out at Louis. He and Victoire sat on a couch, and Victoire curled up against Teddy's side, his arm around her.
With Louis joining Mum and Dad in the kitchen, and Dominique otherwise occupied, Vicki looked up at her boyfriend and said, "I had a strange dream."
"What was it about?"
"The inferi apocalypse, really."
"The inferi apocalypse?" Teddy echoed curiously.
"Well, everyone was dying and then being turned into one, and we were the only ones left, and we had to survive, but then you turned into one, and—"
"Hold up, why was everyone dying?"
"I don't know," she said. "Anyway—"
"And—?"
"—Just let me finish my story!" She shoved him.
"I just want details," he pouted. "Like how we survived."
"We were fighting them off," she said. "Anyway, then—you still knew who you were and who I was, and you thought it was really important that we—as Louis put it—started snogging, so I said—"
"Why?" Teddy continued.
"You thought you'd properly come back to life."
"… Okay."
"So I said fine, and we did, but then I turned into an inferi, too, so I freaked out, but then all of the inferi could understand each other, so it was okay, but for some reason we were in charge of the world, so we had to rebuild society as inferi." She took a deep breath.
"And then?"
"And then I woke up."
"Hmmmmm…."
"And I think everyone else was there, too. Mum and Dad and Louis and Minnie."
Dominique vaguely looked up.
"I see," Teddy said mock-seriously.
"And I have no idea what any of the dream means," Victoire continued.
"Why does it have to mean anything specific?"
"It doesn't. It would just be helpful if it did."
"Well, if your dreams tell the future, I think we're in a whole lot of trouble," he teased, and got up to get a plate of the food that Louis was bringing into the room for everyone. Victoire put one together, too, and everyone sat to eat breakfast.
"I think there was a lot of food in my dream," she said to Teddy. "We were collecting it for the apocalypse."
"Well, that seems smart."
Victoire shrugged and tried to wake up enough to actually be hungry.
"Should I transform to look like an inferi and 'sneak up' on you again later?"
"No!"
"You're sure?"
"If you do, I'll use something better than Expelliarmus."
Teddy pouted again, and Victoire stopped him with a kiss. "So did you dream last night?" she asked, returning to her food.
"Yes," Teddy deadpanned, "I dreamed I had the most beautiful girlfriend in the whole world, and then I realized I wasn't asleep."
Victoire shoved him again.
"Aww," Louis put into their conversation, the word dripping sarcasm.
Victoire rolled her eyes. "What about you, dearest little brother? Did you dream?"
"Well, I dreamt that I had the most beautiful—"
Victoire threw a couch pillow at him. Louis stuck his tongue out in an imitation of Teddy. "I don't know," he said. "Ask Minnie, she kept me up all night by talking in her sleep."
Victoire was glad she was the oldest and never had to share a room with her siblings.
"Minnie?" she asked.
Dominique frowned. "I think I dreamt, but I don't know what it was about."
"Well you were talking about flowers and sunshine, so I think it was happy," offered Louis.
"Flowers and sunshine," Dominique mumbled. "I think I was the Herbology professor in my dream."
"Maybe you thought you were teaching a class, because you wouldn't shut u—"
"Louis," said Victoire.
"What?" he demanded.
Victoire sighed dramatically.
"A Care of Magical Creatures lesson on inferi," Teddy whispered to her. "And—"
"—Why would we be caring for inferi?" she asked, while the other three started talking about Mum and Dad's dreams.
"Because we could," he grinned.
She just rolled her eyes again, and listened to Dad talk about his dream of a very important Quidditch match whose importance he had spent the whole dream trying to figure out. Apparently there were multiple golden snitches involved in a special match, and it was all very confusing.
Mum didn't remember having a dream, and attributed it to a dream catcher she had recently bought. Dominique had bought a dream catcher, too, at the same fair, so they started talking about them.
"Yes, very handy… very pretty, too… keep away nightmares…."
Then there was silence, as they all finished eating.
"Strange things, dreams are," Dominique concluded.
"Indeed," said Teddy.
END