Through Emerald Orbs

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling does.

A raven-haired teen was sitting alone in a big clearing in the forest. He'd gone out there in order to be alone. Unlike most he did not find the forest uninviting or even scary. The tall trees and thick underbrush made him feel strangely safe. Out there the only person who would ever disturb him was a small girl with dirty-blond hair and big protuberant silver-grey eyes named Luna Lovegood, and she seldom said anything to him. She would simply sit down by one of the trees and pull out a sketch book or a magazine. She only ever appeared there when he didn't mind her company… almost like she knew. It had been that way since his second year at the school they both attended. That year had been her first.

School, well to him it felt more like an animal reserve where he was one of the animals with the way people kept staring at him. "Welcome to Hogwarts School of Ogling and Gossip," he muttered. Not that it mattered how they treated him. Even if they hadn't acted like his life was everyone's business, he still wouldn't have felt like he belonged there. It all just felt off to him. From how the magic didn't really come to him to how he cringed whenever people compared him to his dead parents.

Sometimes, however, he had dreams. Dreams of a smooth bass that told him stories or sang to him or simply talked about nothing in particular. He would always wake up from those dreams feeling even more out off place than usual. It was almost like he belonged wherever that voice was. Like that was his true home.

He'd never felt like he belonged. Not as far as he could remember at least. Of course back with his so called relatives it hadn't been all that difficult to feel out off place since they all hated him.

A soft sigh left his lips. He guessed he'd have to go back to the halls of backstabbing brats. Sometimes he couldn't but agree with Snape. The children at Hogwarts were imbeciles. If the man hadn't hated James so much they could have gotten along really well.

Walking past a small pond, he heard a rustling sound coming from his right. He slowly turned his head towards the noise only to realise that it was an Acromantula. He hissed menacingly at the eight-legged creature before simply moving on. The spiders knew not to attack him unless they had a death wish.

Silent steps moved through the forest that wizards feared so much that they had named it Forbidden. It really was an unoriginal name – very uninspired. Dark and gloomy people found it but the raven couldn't agree with that. It was dark yes. He'd like to see a forest so full of tall trees that wasn't dark. But why darkness would mean that it was dangerous he would never understand.

He yawned. 'I really need more than three hours of sleep tonight,' he thought. He'd been getting nightmares for several weeks now and it was messing up his sleep pattern something awful. He honestly couldn't understand what was so fascinating about a dark corridor leading up to a think metal door.

A pale hand reached out and pushed one of the great doors leading into Hogwarts open. The raven stepped into the empty hall on the other side. He pulled himself together and replaced his normal half grumpy mask. It wasn't so late that he'd get in trouble for being out yet, but he'd rather not meet anyone on the way up to Gryffindor tower.

…

Green eyes met him as he looked into the bathroom mirror. He sighed. 'I really look pathetic,' he though as he turned away from the mirror. Out of the corner of his eye he saw his body flash in the mirror. He'd been taller and healthier but strangest of all his arms had been covered in black scales. 'What the hell was that?' he wondered. He stepped away from the reflective glass and shook his head. Had it simply been a mirage created because he was so damn tired or … had it been something else?

He snorted as he walked over to one of the showerheads. 'Great now I'm seeing things. Like I didn't have problems enough without that happening,' he thought. He ran his hands through his unruly hair before walking in under one of the showerheads. He turned the shower on and hummed as the warm water cascaded down his body. He turned the temperature up until it should have scalded him, but it just felt nice. He grabbed a bar of soap. It was strange how he was still so pale despite the warmth of the water. He guessed it was a good thing that he was alone in the bathroom because his dorm mates would react to the heat.

He pulled a towel from the rack and dried himself off before throwing it in the laundry hamper. He was tired. He pulled his pyjama pants on before walking out of the bathroom. The maroon hangings around the beds really pissed him off that evening. Not that he knew why.

"Harry aren't you coming back down… are you going to bed already?"

The raven turned around. Ron was standing in the doorway looking just about as stupid as usual. 'Yes Ronald I'm going to bed already not that it's any of your business,' he thought. "Yeah Ron… I'm tired those damn nightmares have been keeping me awake," he said.

Ron looked like he had trouble processing the information for a moment before saying, "Oh, O.K. I'll let Hermione know. She wanted to do homework."

"Yeah thanks, tell her not to worry about that," the raven said.

Ron nodded dumbly and walked back out off the dorm.

The raven rolled his eyes before falling down on the soft bed. He knew he wasn't all that nice when it came to the ginger. At least he didn't say most of that stuff out loud. He rolled over and pulled the curtains around his bed closed. He made certain that no one else could open the damn curtains before laying back. He let his breathing even out. "Can I have one night without dreams, please?" he breathed. He started up the meditative exercises that Snape wanted him to do before going to bed. If only the man knew how much time he'd spent doing similar things as a child. He spent some time working on his mind shields and fake mind before slowly falling asleep.

…

Green eyes opened slowly. It was dark. He tried to move but he couldn't. 'What is going on?' he wondered. 'Why can't I move?'

His eyes slowly got used to the gloom. It looked like he was in some sort of medieval bedroom. He tired to move again but nothing happened.

"Are you awake Haryn?" the raven could hear a soft bass say. 'He sounds familiar,' he thought. The man came into view as a soft light spread through the room. He had fiery orange eyes and dark hair that could be brown or maybe red. 'Ah, that explains why I can't bloody move,' the raven thought as the man lifted him up. He was tiny.

"You should be sleeping bérren-ka," the man said. "Why are you awake?" He held the baby close and walked back out off the room.

The raven found it very annoying that he couldn't turn his head and the baby, he was currently seeing through the eyes off, through it was great to bury in the man's chest. O.K. sure it was soothing to lay there and listen to the man's heartbeat, but he wanted to know what was going on. Once the man started talking calmly though, his ability to concentrate was out the window. He could feel himself drifting off to sleep once more.

Darkness

The corridor was painted out before him. He'd been there before, and he still didn't know why he was there. It was just as dark as usual with no real light source which did make him wonder just how he could see anything at all. He had a while ago started wondering just how these stupid dreams made their way into his head. Actually he'd started searching for some sort of breach in his mind shields after he'd seen Arthur Weasley attacked by Voldemort's snake. He had yet to find one though.

He turned around and started walking in the opposite direction from the stupid door in the corridor. He took a deep breath as he made his own mindscape appear. He'd done that before with no success what so ever in finding anything. He sat down on top of one of the towers he'd built in there. Maybe he needed to use a different tactic. He always tried to find something that shouldn't be there but what if that wasn't the case. What if… he tilted his head to the side. He stood up before jumping down from the tower.

After wandering around for who knows how long, he finally gave up. Whatever it was that allowed those dreams or visions through his mental shields, he couldn't find it. He took a deep breath as he made himself wake up.

"Great," he whispered. "Another night of not enough fucking sleep." He rubbed his eyes as a yawn spread over his lips. Now he had to deal with his classmates without snapping at them to much. That would be interesting.