Aha. Ahahaha… APOLOGIES THAT THIS TOOK SO LONG! *Kiri bows her head and screams for forgiveness from the fans*
Third Dream – Approaching Similarities
Sora blinked his eyes awake when he felt the warm first rays of sunlight fall on him. Sitting himself up, he was surprised when he felt hard floorboards instead of the soft grass he had become accustomed to feeling over the past month.
He then recalled what had transpired the night before, and turned to look for Harry. Seeing the Ryu Dragon Spirit lying on the bed had Sora tense up, until he saw the head of messy black hair on the pillow, the Spirit having wrapped the teen with its wings.
Quietly snickering over the fact that Harry was going to be in for a rude shock once he woke up, Sora decided to observe his host's sleeping form. While he watched, Sora pondered over the startlingly familiar green eyes of Harry's that he saw the night before. Now that he was fully awake, Sora was sure that Harry's eyes were a similar, though not identical, shade of green he often saw in Riku's own eyes, and though Sora knew that it could simply have been a coincidence, the similar shape of Harry's eyes to Riku's own and the same pale skin color both of them had made him wonder if it was simply that.
"Why are you staring at me?"
Suddenly seeing unblinking green eyes look at him as their owner asked the question caused Sora to yelp in shock, before he shook his head and asked, "It wasn't that I was staring at you, but I was wondering, are green eyes like yours common around here?"
Gently pushing the still sleeping Dreki off him, Harry frowned at the question and responded, "From what most people tell me, its not, but why the sudden curiosity?"
"No reason," Sora lied, before changing the subject, "By they way, I think I'll be staying around you for a while longer."
"Why?"
"As I said last night, wizards tend to be more prone to changes in moods compared to non-magicals. You're the only wizard living in this district for miles, putting you in danger of attracting more Nightmares than normal."
Sora watched as Harry stared at him in suspicion, before shrugging it off and leaving the room. Sora sighed in relief. He was sure that Harry was going to press on with his questions considering how Sora had tried to change the subject so obviously. He did not know how he was going to explain the real reason he asked about Harry's eyes.
Following Harry down, Sora took notice that the other occupants of the house weren't awake yet. Despite that, Sora watched as Harry headed straight for the kitchen and began making breakfast. Sora however frowned when he saw this. It was usually the adults in the household who did this right? While it could be that Harry was just a filial teen, Sora knew it wasn't that, especially considering what had happened the night before.
Sora flinched when he felt someone walk right through him. The same walrus like man from the night before, complaining about how breakfast was not on the table yet. By then Harry had finished cooking, and had set the table. Sora watched as the teen grabbed a few pieces of the burnt bacon for himself, before snatching the newspaper to read before Harry's uncle could read it.
Which resulted with the man snatching it back and smacking him with it, startling Sora when he started yelling at Harry.
"Why the bloody hell do you keep on trying to read our news?! Aren't your lot telling you anything?!" The man roared.
Sora watched as Harry sighed and then did something that surprised everyone in the room, including Sora himself. Harry decided to give into the frustration that had been building for the past few days and talked back.
"Considering I never received the news from my lot –" Sora saw the air quotations and stared as Harry snapped at his stunned uncle, "in the first place, is it wrong for me to depend on your news? As much as I am a part of the Wizarding World, at least I care about what is happening to non-magicals, unlike some people."
Then Sora flinched when, with the surge of negativity, a group of Nightmares appeared, prowling in the background. Dreki hissed at them angrily. Sighing, Sora gestured to Harry to leave the house to lure the Nightmares away. The teen huffed and left the living room, slamming the front door as he walked out, his Uncle howling curses at him.
Flicking his hand to summon the Kingdom Key, Sora quickly dispatched the Nightmares that followed the surprisingly indifferent Harry. Dreki trailed after the green-eyed teen, crooning gently and protectively as Harry calmed himself.
Finally dispersing the last Komori Bat that appeared, Sora turned to Harry and glared, "Okay, what was all that about?"
"Hmm?" Harry looked at Sora.
"Last night too, you didn't even try and resist getting beaten by your uncle," Sora confronted Harry, "Why are you living with such cruel people? In fact, where are your parents?"
Harry scoffed, "What parents? My parents died when I was a baby. My aunt and uncle are hate anything related to magic. I only tolerate the beatings and insults because its either that or I get thrown out of the house, and I don't exactly have a place to stay."
Sora flinched. That had not been the answer he was looking for. But at the same time, it hurt, because the way Harry reacted to his question, it was similar to how Riku if he lashed out in anger, full of sarcastic remarks and bitter truths.
With a sigh, Harry retreated into the house, where an irate uncle and aunt began to berate him once more, before locking him in his room.
Sora could only watch. His interactions with the Realm of Light was limited to those who could see him, leaving him unable to help Harry outside of dealing with the Nightmares or healing him.
Over the next couple of days, Sora fell into the routine of destroying any Nightmares that dared come within the vicinity of the Dursley household. Dreki did a good job defending the room from Nightmares, but when it came to the Nightmares that stemmed from the Dursleys themselves, Sora had a bit more work to do. It didn't help that one Dudley Dursley had an encounter with a creature that drained positive emotions, and unfortunately made Harry's cousin a little more vulnerable to the creatures.
Harry himself spent most of his time ignoring the on-goings of his invisible house guest. He was already a pariah in the household without being seen talking to thin air. Instead, he took to checking the skies for the still missing Hedwig from the window of his room, or allowing Dreki curl up around him at night. The Dream Eater's presence helped in dispelling the growing loneliness and resentment that came from being kept out of the loop, and the growing fear that he would no longer have a home in the Wizarding World if he was ruled guilty.
These fears and insecurities plagued him, leaving him emotionally exhausted and apathetic, and when the Dursleys left the house on Friday, he didn't bother arguing with any of Vernon's demands.
He was just… tired.
It was still surprising to Sora that he could dream within a dream. Sure, there was a danger the Organization taking advantage of his helpless state and manipulating his dreams once more, but it was a risk he had to take whenever he was in the Sleeping Realms. However, what he was experiencing was less of a dream, and more of a memory. A very familiar and long cherished memory. What triggered it, he had no idea.
His three-year-old self peeked from behind his mother's legs at their new guest, his mother's face blurred, a faded memory. Their guest however, had beautiful green eyes, standing out like bright gems, that had him both mesmerized and curious as to who this was.
"Sora, this is Riku. He'll be staying with us for the next year okay?" his mother hummed.
"Why?" Little Sora asked, curious.
"Riku doesn't have parents so he needs someone to take care of him."
Seeing the sullen look on the silver haired boy's face, Sora gathered up his courage, and approached the boy.
Riku glared at him, "What?"
Sora only gave him a blinding smile and said, "Hi! I'm Sora! Wanna be friends?"
Riku blinked in surprise, "You aren't mad?"
Sora tilted his head innocently, "Why would I be?"
Riku stared, before shaking his head and smiling, "It doesn't matter."
Giving his hand to Sora, Riku said, "My name is Riku, and I would like to be your friend."
Sora smiled back again, glad that those green eyes were filled with happiness about being accepted. He knew, deep down, that it was the beginning of a friendship that would become something more.
The memory then changed, flitting between the time Riku spent with Sora and his mom, the time with Riku when his friend was staying with a different foster family, and the day they made the promise to get Riku home. To his real family.
Sora shook the sleep from his eyes as he woke up from his short nap. The memories of the promise still lingering in his head as green eyes stared back at him. Perhaps, it was Harry's similar, but not quite the same, green eyes that triggered the memory.
The house was quiet. A quick check found that the Dursleys had left, bringing with them most of the Nightmares that was plaguing the house. Harry, on the other hand, was found sleeping with Dreki on his lap.
Sora smiled. With all that was happening, with all the surprises and stress that had piled up on him for the past few days, Sora was relieved that the younger teen could get the sleep he needed.
Then, Sora blinked when he spotted something from the window.
'A group of Dream Eaters following something in the sky?' he wondered, 'Wizards, perhaps?'
He continued to watch as the group landed, the robes and brooms confirming his suspicions that they were wizards. What set him on edge, however, was the scarred Tyranto Rex Spirit that was with the group. Sure, they couldn't see it, but Sora could. He knew Tyranto Rex Spirits were powerful, and it spoke volumes of the power of the person it was bound to.
Returning to Harry, he gently shook him awake, "Harry. Wake up, we have guests."
The sleepy reply was interrupted by a loud crash downstairs that served to wake fully Harry up, and put the both of them on edge.
Harry scrambled to grab his wand, while Sora readied his Keyblade. Next moment they flinched as the lock to the room gave a loud click, and the door creaked open.
Harry stood motionless, staring through the open door into the darkened stairway. Sora himself kept himself alert, waiting for more sounds. Other than Dreki's quiet hisses and swishing of his tail, nothing happened.
Sora gave a subtle nod to Harry, and while the teen hesitated for a moment, looking out the window to the intimidating Rex outside, he steeled himself. The two of them cautiously made their way down the stairs.
Sora held his breath. He could make out eight, no, nine figures waiting in the hall. And among them was someone who had a Keeba Tiger prowling around for a Spirit. From the corner of his eye, Sora noticed Harry flinch as he held in a scream, and instead raised his wand up defensively, green eyes narrowed and wary.
"Lower your wand, boy, before you take someone's eye out," a voice growled out.
Sora watched how Harry reacted to the voice, not lowering his wand as a caution as he questioned the voice's identity. Even when the voice ascertained that he was this 'Moody', Sora watched as Harry still didn't lower his wand as he came into their view.
It was with the second hoarse voice that Harry lowered his guard a little, before Sora had to blink as the light from the spell cast by a cheery voice brightened the room. A haggard but smiling man stood closest to the stairs, Keeba Tiger growling next to him cautiously. A scarred man with a fake eye and peg leg was just as cautious as Harry had been, causing Sora to immediately realize the scarred Tyranto Rex was his. The other wizards gathered around, craning their necks to look at Harry.
"Oooh, he looks just like I thought he would," said the violet haired witch who held the glowing wand, a similarly violet coloured Majik Lapin bouncing on her shoulder, "Wotcher, Harry!"
"Yeah, I see what you mean, Remus. He looks exactly like James."
"Except the eyes, Lily's eyes."
"Are you quite sure it's him, Lupin?" the scarred man Sora guessed was Moody growled. "It'd be a nice lookout if we bring back some Death Eater impersonating him. We ought to ask him something only the real Potter would know. Unless anyone brought any Veritaserum?"
"Harry, what form does your Patronus take?" asked the haggard looking man.
"A stag, Professor Lupin," Harry said quietly, "but I could be lying. Ask me something else."
Sora watched as Lupin sighed and asked again, "Who is my godson?"
At this, the rooms' occupants stared in surprise when Harry confidently replied, "A wolf of the earth with sea-green eyes and hair the colour of the moon."
"You have a godson, Lupin?" Moody growled. Lupin looked down, not answering. Instead, introductions and explanations began as the group prepared to move Harry to a new location.
Sora watched the proceedings, quietly summoning a Pegaslick and mounting it to follow Harry and the wizards from behind. Peepsta Hoos and Komory Bats trailed after them, leaving Sora and Dreki to keep the Nightmares away from the group.
As they landed, Sora blinked in surprise. He had passed by Grimmauld's place while exploring the area before, and had noticed the missing house. Perhaps…? Glancing down at the note in Harry's hand and memorizing it, Sora looked up to see Number 12 emerge from nothing, and spotting the rather worrying horde of Nightmares around the house, Harry's flinch indicating he had noticed the infestation as well.
Sighing, Sora followed Harry and the wizards into the house, his mind starting to drift to the oddly familiar description Harry gave of Lupin's godson…
Watching the anomaly and the wizards enter the dimensional pocket he knew was there, a young man wearing a black hoodie took out his phone and sent a text message before walking back to the city, a pair of graffiti like wings sticking out of his back, grumbling. He'd better get a promotion for sticking his neck out like this.
Ha…. Writing the Third Dream was both weird and annoying due to the number of interruptions, distractions, loss of focus, real life issues, and other fic updates that was getting in the way. This chapter isn't as long as I wanted. Still 2000+ words, but still not as long as I hoped. If it seems very weird and choppy, I am sorry, because I struggled writing/finishing this chapter. Its only because I binged watched Re:CREATORS and it pretty much reignited my urge to write that I finally finished the chapter.
You've notice I've been dropping hints to something regarding Harry, along with hints of the secondary crossover that will be dropping in soon. Look forward to that second crossover by the way. I have a prequel chapter in the works!
Also, if you were wondering, yes, I plan on key characters having their own Spirits. As you've noticed, Moody has a Tyranto Rex, Lupin has a Keeba Tiger, and Tonks? A Majik Lapin. I know she isn't key but she stands out so much I think Sora would notice her.
Hopefully the next Dream will not take as long for me to finish. *Sigh* But I hope you've enjoyed!
Kiri Kaitou Clover
Next Dream – Guiding Heart
PS I'll be posting this fic on AO3 as well. I feel the need to move some of my fics there for some reason…