Disclaimer: I own nothing…..unless you count, noooooo……or the, noooo….not that either, well darn it…..
Harry was in full dream mode. He knew as soon as his head hit the pillow a nightmare would begin, but he forced himself to sleep for as long as he could, which wasn't long at all.
He was tied to the grave stone and Voldemort had turned to Wormtail
'Now untie him, Wormtail, and give him back his wand.'
'Bow to death Harry.'
'Crucio!'
Then pain, excruciating pain. He was screaming. So much pain, so all consuming. Everything hurt. He couldn't think. He was going to die. Die at Voldemort's feet.
Then he was dosed with freezing cold water, as he sat up screaming.
"No please stop…..!"
"Its okay, it's okay. It was just a dream. I'm here." He heard a voice in the distance, but couldn't think clearly enough to know who they were.
He felt someone trying to comfort him just by letting their hand rest on his shoulder. They placed his glasses on his face and he finally realized who it was. Sirius. Just great of all the bloody people he could have woken up it had to be the only one who could get the truth out of him.
When his breathing calmed down Sirius said "Why don't we go down and get something to drink." He agreed. He was happy that he hadn't woken Ron; if he had been loud enough to have woken up Sirius then he must have been pretty loud. Usually his screams went unnoticed. He wondered how Sirius had heard him. Wait…he must have been in the room. Just Great! Now Sirius was worrying about his sleep, just something else he had avoided telling him.
They sat silently and drank their butter beer for a while.
Harry was grateful for the silence and was happy Sirius wasn't asking him a bunch of questions. After awhile though Harry asked "Did I wake you up?"
"No" came Sirius reply "I was already up."
"Oh" was all Harry could think to say.
"Harry" Sirius said after a few minutes "do you have nightmares often?"
"Ummm…." He wasn't sure how to answer this question "I guess you could say that" he replied trying to come up with an answer. He just couldn't lie straight out to Sirius when he asked him something directly.
In reality he'd had nightmares ever since he could remember and they had just gotten increasingly worse with each year that passed.
Sirius didn't say anything for awhile then he said as if he already knew "About the third task?"
Harry thought about that for awhile and then answered "That and other things". It was true, yet he didn't exactly know what else to say. He didn't want anyone to know about the horrible dreams he has.
"Is that why you hardly ever sleep?" inquired Sirius.
Harry didn't answer this, but only met Sirius' assumption with an awkward silence. He hardly slept unless he had to, but it wasn't just the dreams that kept him from sleeping, years of waking up early at the Dursley's had gotten him into a routine he just couldn't seem to break.
Sirius who seemed to be reading his mind, eyes studying Harry's face said quietly "The Dursley's…"
They didn't talk anymore until Remus entered the kitchen yawing. When he saw Harry and Sirius he jumped.
"What are you doing up this early?" said Remus suspiciously.
"Nothing" both Sirius and Harry said at the same time.
Remus looked up at them calculatingly. He looked around as if something was going to jump out and attack him at any second. Finally he looked back at them and said " What did you two do?".
"Noth…" was all Sirius got out before Harry cut him off and said "what makes you think we did anything?"
"Well" replied Lupin " one marauder, and one marauder's son up before dawn, alone in an empty room, where they know another said marauder will eventually make an appearance have got to be up to trouble."
"Hey!" said both Harry and Sirius.
"I repeat what have you two have been up to?" said Lupin
"We haven't done anything, unless you count…." He stopped and looked over at Sirius who said "and the..." back to Harry who said "or the…."
They both looked back to Remus who looked at them with a shocked expression on his face. Then he shook his head and mumbled something about "people cracking under pressure and having to be more careful".
As he was sitting down he said "You two are broom heads."
"Broom head, what's a broom head?" said Sirius.
"That's exactly what I mean" Mooney said, looking at Harry, "a total broom head!"
"Hey!" yelled Sirius.
The rest of the morning was followed by random chatter about muggle's and their crazy technology. By the time Ron and Hermione finally came down Harry was fed p with trying to explain why muggle's used brooms to sweep with instead of to fly.
"Oh! I GIVE UP! Ask Hermione!" he said before he left to get changed.
When he came back down they were all sitting at the table, Remus and Sirius on one side and Hermione and Ron on the other, who had left a place for him in between them.
He sat down defeated.
There was no way Remus and Sirius were letting him out of this one.
So with a sigh he sat down and said " where did we leave off?"
"I think it was with you not knowing anything about how your parents were sadistically murdered by a ruthless, psychotic, mad mass killer, until Hagrid told you." replied Sirius.
"Well, technically you're the only mad mass murder out to get me and Voldemort's dead. According to the ministry of course." said Harry.
"That's not funny Harry" said Lupin, but even he was having a hard time keeping his laughter hidden. Hermione and Ron had a harder time controlling their laughter.
When they calmed down Harry said "Okay, what happened next….i guess the next big thing was getting on the train. I didn't know how to get on the platform and Uncle Vernon sure was no help. Especially when he left so quickly thinking that there wasn't a platform at all. That's when I heard Ron's mom talking about muggle's and I just followed them."
"You didn't know how to get on to the platform?" Inquired Lupin, but was drowned out by Sirius saying "Made sure it didn't exist, then left" fuming. Yet he refrained from further comment by rubbing his temples as if to get rid of a huge headache.
"No, I guess Hagrid thought it was either something everyone would know or he just forgot that I knew nothing at all about the wizarding world. Either way it lead me to the Weasley's" said Harry.
"So who did you sit with?" asked Sirius.
"In an empty compartment till the twins introduced me to Ron, who asked if he could sit with me." said Harry.
"So that's how you two became friends" stated Remus.
"Over eating every candy known to Wizard, that Harry bought" said Ron.
"Hey, I don't remember you complaining then, besides I'd never had anything to share before and it felt good!" said Harry.
"What do you mean one of everything?" said Remus smirking.
"Well, Harry here got some of everything off of the trolley because he had never had any before and wanted to try everything." Answered Ron, then mumbled "didn't even know that pictures moved" under his breath.
"Then Hermione comes barging in asking if we've Trevor" said Ron, "Neville's toad" he added at Lupin's confused look.
"I did not come barging in!" said Hermione, throwing Ron a glare.
"Did to" he said to Harry so that Hermione couldn't hear him.
"Anyways, I guess the net big thing was meeting Malfoy, who tried to tell me that I should be his friend and not Ron's." said Harry.
" Harry just glared at Malfoy's hand, and said he thought that hen could tell the right sort for himself thanks, you should have seen the look on Malfoy's face, it was hilarious" said Ron.
"Then McGonagall came and got us to be sorted" said Hermione.
"Oh, yes, I love the sorting!" yelled Sirius.
"What, WHY? You have to what on the food!" said Ron.
"I like guessing which house each first year is going to be in" replied Sirius.
"You're so wired!" everyone said together.
"So sorting, let's hear it!" said Sirius
"Wait, food first" said Ron, "I'm starving!"
"Fine food first then we'll keep going" said Remus.
"But…..but…..but….moooooonnnnnyyyyyy! I wanted to know what happened next!" whined Sirius.
