Summary: When Ron wakes from a bad dream, he goes to find Harry. However, it may seem that he's not the only one suffering from no sleep.
*cough cough* All rights belong to J., i do not make one penny from this. At all.
Ron woke with a gasp, sitting bolt upright. He put his head in his hands, trying frantically to regain his composure. Shaking his head, Ron made his way over to Harry's bed, needing some human comfort. However, when he looked, the curtains were already drawn back and the bed empty. Frowning, he examined it closer. The sheets were obviously slept in, but the bed was cold. Ron's frown deepened. He grabbed a robe by his bedside and slipped in on over his pj's, the slowly made his way down to the Common Room. By now, Ron could not say why he felt the need to talk to Harry; to comfort him or Harry, cause obviously something was bothering him. Shrugging, he continued on, telling himself he'd deal with that when he found his best friend.
He found Harry sitting on an armrest in the common room, staring quietly into the fire. He looked up startled when Ron entered, then almost guiltily looked back at the fire.
"Couldn't sleep?" Harry asked.
Ron shook his head. "Bad dreams. And you?"
"Hm?"
"Why are you down here at," he checked his watch. "Two thirty sitting on an armrest when you could be in bed or at least fully in the chair."
Harry scowled. "Oh. Well. Bad dreams too."
There was an awkward silence.
"I'll tell you mind if you promise not to laugh."
Harry grunted, and Ron continued.
"I dreamed that spiders took over the world, which is a lot scarier than it sounds." He added hastily when Harry raised an eyebrow. Ron shuddered. "They were everywhere, flying through the air, crawling up and down me, ugh…" he shuddered again.
There was a slight hesitation, then Harry started to speak slowly. "I was at the Dursley's. I was in the kitchen, cooking waffles and bacon. The bacon got a little burnt, and-" he stopped abruptly, unwilling to go further.
"And?" Ron prompted quietly. Contrary to popular belief, he could see when someone was hurting, and he sensed this was not just a bad dream but also a memory.
Harry took a breath. "He hit me. And threw me around the kitchen. The frying pan was still full of hot oil, and it fell on my, er, my arm. I had two weeks in the cupboard just for messing up the floor of the kitchen…" he fell quiet, grimacing slightly.
This time, Ron let him be. He was past the point of rage and tantrums. Instead, he felt sick inside. How long had this been going on? How else had Harry been abused? And through out that whole time, did not one wizard even think to stop by and check if he was ok? Ron looked at Harry, who was shivering slightly.
Without thinking, he walked over to where Harry sat on the armrest, and put a careful hand his arm. When Harry didn't react, Ron tightened his grip. There was be no need for words again that night, just a kind of brotherly love. Eventually, the sun was coaxed out of it's hiding place, and Ron and Harry went about their days, both a little more subdued than normal.
Harry never mentioned that night again, and Ron followed his example, knowing that if he betrayed his trust, he might never get it back. But both of them knew where to go to find a listening ear if something was ever troubling them again, even something as trivial as nightmares.
Hey! Thanks for reading. This is definitely not one of my favorite stories, but it needed to be written, the plot would not leave me alone! I kept going, I need to write this down, I need to write this down, soooooo, this is what you get. Anyways, I would absolutely love it if you reviewed, but if you don't want to do that it's perfectly understandable, after all i hardly ever review so I can't really complain. Well, thanks for reading!
~sififantasygirl