Disclaimer: Everything belongs to J

Disclaimer: Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling, except for Jake Potter (mine)and the song (Evanescence).I own nothing.

…Words… Dream

Chapter 4

Holiday Cheer
Pt.3 of 3

Two relatively quiet hours had passed since the grand climax of the snowball fight, and everyone appeared to be much calmer then they were during the screaming fest. Remus was currently lounging in one of the comfy, plush chairs scattered around the Potter's living room, conversing with James and Sirius about random topics of interest. Both men were quite calm and serene compared to their uptight attitudes out in the yard, which was a relief for Remus, who also felt quite peaceful and comfortable settled in the chair with a cup of warm tea resting on the arm. Lily had excused herself about a half-hour ago so she could prepare the Christmas dinner for that evening. The familiar tantalizing fragrance lolled in the air, foreshadowing the magnificent meal that lie ahead for them. Jake sat at a small child size table placed in the living room, drawing some unidentifiable figure to hang up on the refrigerator door for the world to see. His eye was only slightly bruised and swollen, but there was no pain for that had been taken care of with magic. All and all, Remus thought it was quite the enjoyable scene; that is, until his eyes rested on a picture of Harry on the mantelpiece.

Instantly, he felt sadness enter and spread throughout his being. Everyone seemed so happy and content down here, surrounded by the cheerful and festive decorations, and it pained him to know that Harry couldn't enjoy this experience with the rest of the household. Harry deserved to have this happy memory implanted into his young mind. He should have been downstairs with everyone else, not upstairs, in his room, doing whatever toddlers do when they are terribly upset. He wished dearly that he could just run upstairs and grab Harry into his arms and bring him to the living room. He wished dearly to see his smiling young face illuminated by the glow of the fairy lights on the tree while he happily and joyfully drew some type of Christmas scene with his brother. But he knew he couldn't do that unless he wanted to have another argument with James. And that wouldn't make Harry smile at all.

"Remus…Remus….Remus!" Remus jumped in his chair when someone grabbed his arm and cussed aloud when he spilt the still scolding tea onto his pants. After muttering a quick cleaning charm he looked up into the sheepish looking face of Sirius Black. "Sorry about that...didn't mean to make you jump. You were just off in your own little world there, and Lily called us for dinner."

Remus looked up to see that James had already stood up and was smiling down at the scene in front of him. It amused the man when ever Remus was spooked by someone or something. It was always worth a good laugh, at the unfortunate expense of their lycanthropic friend.

"It's okay, don't worry about it," Remus absently muttered as he half-heartedly glared at his friend, causing said man to give a small chuckle.

"The meal smells amazing, hurry up and let's go eat!" James rubbed his hands together and licked his lips slightly as Remus rose from his chair, no longer glaring.

"Sounds like a good idea, but shouldn't one of us go get Harry?" Remus stated, and felt a minor pang of annoyance when James' smile faded at the mention of his son.

"Oh yeah…umm, maybe one of you two would like to do it? It's just, I think he may appreciate it more if you got him, plus I should really help Lily out with Jake…"

Remus ignored the growing pang of irritation towards his friend, and replied, "I'll go get him, he is my godson after all."

Sirius was about to object to that, and offer to go, when a small set of feet was heard scurrying towards him. Sirius looked over to see Jake running right at him. He prepared for impact, though it never came. The energetic boy stopped right in front of him and started to pull on his arm. He knew Jake was just a child, but he couldn't help the mild worry that the boy was going to tug his arm right off.

"Uncle Siri! Come look, come look! You gotta see the pie Mummy made! It's HUGE! And apple!" He tugged harder.

Sirius bent down and lifted the child into his arms. He let out a sigh. The boy had a good grip. "Okay, okay, let's go! You just point the way!" Jake lifted his arm and pointed a finger towards the door leading to the kitchen.

Sirius gave one last fleeting glance towards Remus and headed for the direction pointed out by the toddler in his arms.

Remus watched the retreating back of his shaggy haired friend with minor regret. Remus knew that Sirius would have liked to come with him to see how Harry was doing, but the man would just have to wait till the toddler came downstairs.

"Well, I'm going to go get Harry. We'll be with you guys in a few minutes, alright?" James nodded his head and started walking towards the kitchen. Remus turned around and headed up the staircase. He padded through the hallways silently and stopped just outside his godson's door. He stood quietly for a few seconds, trying to catch a noise of some sort that would indicate what kind of state the child on the other side was in. But there was no noise. Remus slowly creaked open the door.

The room was silent and appeared vacant at first glance, but after studying the lump in the sheets a little more carefully, they appeared to be moving. Remus quietly made his way over to the bed and gently sat down on the edge of it. He placed a comforting hand on the quivering lump and piercing jade eyes peeked up at him. Remus was relieved to see that they were neither red nor puffy from recent tears, although he could tell that at one point they had been shed. Remus slowly pulled off the blanket covering the head of the toddler so he could get a good view of the young face. His heart ached when he saw the fear and betrayal that was still written on the youths face from his father's words. Remus reached out a hand, and not knowing what else to do, took Harry's smaller one into his own. They stayed like that for about a minute, with no words being spoken, and Remus silently offering the young boy some support. Eventually though, the time came for Remus to brake the silence, which he did reluctantly.

"Harry, we can go down stairs now," Remus gently said.

Harry's response was barely above a whisper, but Remus caught every word, "Is Mummy and Daddy still angry at me?"

Remus shook his head slowly from side to side, "No, they aren't mad, but they do want you and me to come downstairs so we can eat supper. Your Mum even made a gigantic apple pie, your favourite."

Harry smiled slightly at this statement, though the werewolf could tell the toddler still wasn't quite sure. Remus watched as the boy started to wiggle out of his cocoon of sheets and slowly stood up from his bed. Remus also stood up from the bed and held out a hand for Harry to take. Instead of grabbing onto it though, Harry walked over to his Uncle and held up his arms with a pleading look upon his small face. Remus instantly crumbled under the youths request and lifted him up into his arms. Holding Harry securely, yet still loose enough for the child to twist his body slightly, Remus headed out the door and down the stairs.

--

Dinner past by rather slowly for Harry. It felt awkward for the toddler to be sitting there with his family, when he knew they were still angry with him. No matter what Remus said to reassure him, he knew that they were still upset. Harry had always had a gift of some how knowing an emotion someone was feeling, and right now he could feel annoyance and anger coming from his parents. Although it was greatly overshadowed by the positive emotions they were feeling right then, like humour from a joke someone would say or happiness from the whole scene itself, Harry could feel their displeasure for him buried under all the other emotions. This made the whole meal not very enjoyable, even with the apple pie.

After dinner they all moved into the living room and kept busy doing random things. When 8:30 rolled around Lily took Jake up to bed, with Harry once again following behind with no complaints. He had long ago become accustomed to getting ready for bed by himself. He trudged up the stairs absently, and impulsively turned left down the hallway towards his bedroom. He quickly changed into his pajama top and bottoms and turned off the lantern by his bed with a turn of a knob. After making sure the door to his room was open a crack to emit a sliver of light from the hallway, the toddler crawled under the warm blankets and stared out the frost covered window as he awaited the blissful unconsciousness that accompanied his dreams. Little did the small child know that as he drifted off into the realm of sleep, it would be filled with anything but bliss.

--

Darkness…cold…freezing emptiness. Harry could feel chill creeping throughout his tiny bones. Spreading to every inch of his being. Where was he? He didn't know. Bugs were crawling under his skin. Squirming. And wiggling. It didn't hurt. But he could feel it. He could feel them. But he couldn't see them. The darkness was too great. But there was a dot. And it grew. And grew. And grew. And Harry could see a picture. It was moving. People were moving. Running. Screaming. Pleading. Begging for salvation. It was an anguished symphony chorusing through the houses. The streets were alive with the sound. There was fire. Dancing and swaying to the music. Engulfing everything in its path. Like the bodies of the deceased. And some of the living. There was so much blood. It was everywhere. Lots and lots of the crimson liquid. Puddles. Everywhere. Coating the ground. The trees. The people. Everywhere.

The bugs started to crawl faster. It itched. Harry scratched.

Cloaked shadows moved around. Conducting the symphony with their sticks. And their red lights that made the people scream. And convulse. And bleed. And their green lights, making them silent. And empty. And gone. Harry had seen the green light before. Somewhere. But where? That night. He'd heard the screams before, that night. From his Mummy. And his Daddy. And himself. And that bad man. With the red eyes.

The bugs squirmed even faster. It itched. Harry scratched. And scratched.

The chaos continued. So did the screaming. And bleeding. And running. And shouting. And cursing. Lights flashed. Red and green. People fell. The fire consumed. The noise was deafening. And painful. His ears hurt. But so did his heart. But nothing could be done. He couldn't stop the cloaked shadows. Or the pain of the innocence. Or the pain in his heart. People plead for help. Begged. He could help! He could save them! But he couldn't move. But he could watch. And suddenly all was quiet. The chaos continued. But a shadow stood out from the rest. Laughter filled the air. Dark, unfeeling, mirthless. Evil. He looked at the shadow. The cloak revealed nothing. But then the shadow tilted its head up. The creature had red eyes. Like that man. Harry shivered.

Suddenly he was in the picture. In the chaos. The sound returned. He looked around. Death. Destruction. Fire. Pain. He ran to the nearest person to help. A burning feeling was filling his veins. White fire. He needed to stop their pain. But the person ran through him. And so did the next. And the next. He let out a cry. And suddenly the sound was gone again. Harry looked at the red eyed shadow. It smiled at him. Harry shivered. It lifted its hand, palm directed at him. Harry's feet left the ground. He sped through the air. And then he was in the man's arms. A hand wrapped around his neck. And tightened. Harry gasped. The man leaned forward. His breathe tickled his ear. He would have laughed. If his forehead didn't hurt so much. And the bugs under his skin would stop moving. And the hand around his neck wasn't so tight.

The shadow whispered into his ear. Its voice was that of the purely wicked. He couldn't help but listen closely.

"You're mine." The words burned into his skull.

The hand around his neck released. And he fell to the floor. Shaking and shivering. And scratching. And clawing. The bugs just wouldn't stop squirming! And his head hurt so much. He wanted to hold it. Help make the pain in it go away. But he couldn't stop scratching. The scene was fading. All he could see were blurred figures. And all he could hear were echoed screams. But soon those faded too. He shut his eyes tight. His head hurt so bad! And the bugs kept crawling and crawling. He couldn't take it.

So he screamed.

--

Remus and Sirius had decided to head up to bed earlier that night than the one before. Both decided that it would be a good idea to get a good night's sleep that night since they were planning on catching the Knightbus early the following morning, and would need all the rest they could get before that traumatizing experience.

The two marauders were quietly trudging up the stairs, immersed in hushed and light conversation when a piercing scream echoed down the staircase, ringing through their ears, causing both their hearts to clench painfully in their chests. They knew that voice anywhere, whether in the form of a quiet whisper or an earsplitting cry. It was Harry.

Both men snapped into action, sprinting up the remaining stairs two at a time and racing down the hallway like their heels where set on fire. Once they reached the door that lead to the room of destination, both men flung it open and entered the darkened room. They stopped in there tracks, mouths opening in small, silent gasps at the scene in front of them. Moonlight filtered in through the iced window, providing a slight stream of silvery light that fell gently on the convulsing, whimpering boy writhing amongst the bed sheets that had been tangled around the youth' legs, exposing his upper half. The pajama top had been ripped open, exposing the child's stomach, and with it a gruesome sight. What looked like deep and bloodied scratches ran up and down the toddler's forearms and abdomen, oozing a dark substance out onto the youth's torn and broken finger nails, which appeared to be the culprit of the deep abrasions. The child's mouth was opening and closing pitifully, emitting soft gasps and pleas that were left unheard in their hushed tone. Arms and legs flung everywhere, hands leaving more and more deep incisions on the child's already torn skin. The boy's head flung back and forth, side to side, in a desperate attempt for the pain to stop, and the two men could see dark bruising encircling the child's neck and already turning a sickening bluish purple.

They stared on in horror for a few seconds before their bodies were able to catch up with their minds screaming 'Do something!', and they were finally able to run over to the shaking bed. After a few failed attempts of calling out the child's name, Sirius jumped on to the bed and tried to hold down the convulsing youth. Harry started to beat his small fists into Sirius' large form, leaving bruises in their wake. The animagus just ignored them, and started calling out Harry's name, trying to bring him back from whatever hell he was going through. Remus grabbed onto Harry's hands in a gentle, yet strong hold so they could no longer attack Sirius, and joined said man in the chanting of the erratic boy's name.

A minute passed. And then another. It most have been at least five minutes before the child finally stopped his seizure-like behaviour, and finally fell to a crumpled heap under Sirius, who promptly got off. The small body curled into himself, quivering and shaking.

The room was eerily quiet compared to the raucous that filled it only moments before. The only sounds that could be heard were the heavy breathes of the older men and the occasional sob emitted from the bent form on the bed. Slowly, Remus gently sat down beside the quivering boy and laid a hand atop the shoulder. There was an almost immediate response. Harry flung his injured arms around the surprised man and held on to his side as if for dear life, mumbling nonsense words like 'So cold' and 'Helpless'. Unsure about what else he should do, Remus wrapped an arm around the quivering shoulders and pulled the boy in tight, whispering that it would be okay and that it was just a nightmare, although he himself highly doubted that. Harry seemed to have disagreed with what he was saying too, for Harry's arms instantly retreated and he started shaking his head back and forth rapidly.

"No! No...It wasn't a dream…it wasn't a dream…," he sobbed out, and seemed to get lost in his own thoughts as his eyes glazed over.

Sirius sat down on the other side of the out-of-it child and shook his shoulder slightly, knocking him back to consciousness. Harry's eyes seemed to focus back on Sirius, his lower lip quivering slightly as he held back more sobs. Seeing this, Sirius pulled the child to him and gave him a loving hug, trying to strengthen the child through this motion. Still holding on tightly to the boy, Sirius asked quietly, "What happened?"

Harry was quiet as he seemed to think about the 'dream' he had just had. He mumbled quietly into Sirius' shoulder, "It was cold… and there was a man and all these shadows. A-and there were people screaming, and they were asking for help. I tried to help them! I really did! I tried so hard…b-but I couldn't," he looked up fearfully at Sirius before exclaiming almost frantically, "You have to believe me Uncle Siri! I tried, I tried, I tried! But I-I…just…" He broke off with a fresh wave of sobs.

Sirius' heart ached horribly within his chest at the slight of the broken down innocent child. He held on to him tighter, mumbling reassuringly that it wasn't his fault, that he couldn't help it, and that it would be okay.

Eventually Harry calmed down, emitting only a few hiccups here and there, with only a few stray tears still streaming down his face. Remus, who was now sitting close to Harry's side, wiped them away. A minute or two passed in silence before Remus broke it by asking to see Harry's arms. Harry looked at him questioningly through his puffy eyes, before lifting them up for the adults to see, an expression of shock spreading across his face before quickly changing to realization.

"I was…itchy," he ran a finger over the incisions, and to the foremost surprise of the two men, the cuts started to close up. Soon, the only thing left were faint white lines, which also faded away into the skin, making the surface smooth and unmarred once again.

"Ha-Harry, what did you just do?" Remus asked in awe, taking the boy's arm onto his lap, and studying it for himself.

Harry looked at him unsurely before replying in a small voice, "I just healed it. It hurt," a worried expression spread across his features as he asked quickly, "Is that bad?"

Remus shook his head back and forth before giving Harry's little hand a reassuring squeeze before releasing it gently onto the youths lap. "No. No it isn't. It's just a little...surprising is all," Remus caught Harry's brilliant eyes with his own before asking, "Have you ever done this before? Healed yourself by just thinking it?"

Harry was about to nod his head and go into an explanation of how he healed the cut that red eyed monster gave him, when he stopped in his tracts. If he were to tell his Uncles about that cut, then they would know that he had been injured that night as well, and by the hand of the evil wizard, no less. This was not what Harry wanted. Just because he had a nightmare, didn't mean he had to tell everyone his secret about that night. He was stronger than that.

Instead, Harry told them that he had fallen out of a tree a month or so ago and had healed the bruises on his cheek and leg so his parents wouldn't find out about it.

As soon as Harry had said these words, Remus knew it was a lie. Harry was very graceful when climbing trees, and though it was believable that he had had a small mishap and didn't want his parents to know about it, the fact that he would have climbed a tree at the end of November, when the branches were cold and icy, was not. Harry was hiding something, and the lycanthrope had a feeling it had something to do with the night of the attack. The problem was he had no legitimate evidence to back up his theory, so he opted to stay quiet about it. For now.

Remus looked down at the now calm form of his Godchild, resting his head tiredly against Sirius' side, eyes closed in fatigue. He looked up into the sculpted face of his best friend and caught his eyes, both men silently agreeing that it was time to put Harry back to bed.

Sirius shifted his form slightly so he was able to lay Harry's drained body so it was lying flat on his bed, head drooping against the pillows. After tucking Harry into his covers, making sure he was secure and warm with his red dragon tucked under an arm, he stood up off of the bed, and walked over to the door where Remus stood waiting for him. Following the man out the door, he was just about to close it lightly, when a quiet and slightly timid voice broke the silence that had enveloped them.

"Uncle Siri?" Glowing green eyes peeked up.

"Yeah kiddo?" He responded softly.

There was a pause. "The man in my dream h-had red eyes." There was a slight rustling of fabric as Harry seemed to turn over, and there was silence once again.

Sirius closed the door quietly, his mind going a hundred miles a minute.

--

The following morning seemed to pass by slowly for everyone at Godric's Hollow, although when the time came to say goodbye to the two house guests, it still came too soon.

Everyone stood outside on the freshly fallen snow that covered the ground in the front yard. Lily grabbed onto Remus and then Sirius and gave them a couple rib crushing hugs, while thanking them for coming and wishing that they didn't have to leave so early. James did something similar to this, although his one armed hug wasn't as damaging to his manly pride as Lily's constricting embrace would have been.

Jake was crying a river, and as he was embraced by his Uncles, he cried loudly that he didn't want them to go, and had to be gently encouraged by Lily to release his bear-like hold on the two men.

Harry was the last one to say goodbye. All the sobs raking his brother's form and all the noises his parents made to try and calm him down fell to the background. Remus bent down and wrapped his arms lovingly around the straight-faced child, and held on tightly for a few seconds before letting go. Sirius had than engulfed the youth in a tight embrace and whispered that he loved him and would see him again soon.

As his two Uncles walked up to the side of the road and held out their wands to summon the triple-decker, Harry had to try very hard to keep a neutral face, but he had a feeling he was losing that battle. When the bus finally did arrive, Harry only got to see one fleeting glance of Remus' face before the doors quickly closed and the oddly coloured vehicle sped away.

He couldn't stop the single, traitorous tear that streaked a path down his cheek.

Once again, he was all alone.

They'll never see
I'll never be
I'll struggle on and on to feed this hunger
Burning deep inside of me
But through my tears breaks a blinding light
Birthing a dawn to this endless night
Arms outstretched, awaiting me
An open embrace upon a bleeding tree

-'Lies' by Evanescence

And to everyone else who reviewed, thank you! You guys make my day! Yeah! Go you!

Please Review!