"Look, all I'm saying is that your older brother is a complete and utter prat. Also, if it makes you feel any better, you are one too."
Albus shook his head and rolled his eyes, hitting Scorpius on the arm playfully, trying to hide the smile creeping on his face. Scorpius had spent the past few weeks making easy jabs at James as Albus' older brother incessantly pulled seemingly harmless pranks against Albus and Ravenclaw House.
Rose sighed, "you're all being immature, honestly it's a wonder you made it into Ravenclaw."
"We all know how you were destined for this House, Rosie, no need to make a stink about it," Scorpius reminded the red headed witch. "Besides, who's the only student beating you in Potions right now? Hmm? Is it perhaps, me? The one and only Scorpius Malfoy? 'Nasty boys, those Malfoys are, terrible company to keep. Make sure to beat him in every subject, Rosie.'"
Albus snorted. The last bit was Scorpius mocking Rose's father, Ron Weasley, who, before he and Rose had gotten on the train, had spotted Scorpius and told Rose to beat him in everything. Obviously, Rose wasn't taking her father's advice, as Scorpius had her beat in Potions.
Albus neglected to mention that Scorpius was ahead in Defense Against the Dark Arts and Herbology as well.
"Nevertheless, dear Albus, James is only looking for trouble. He's messed with the wrong eleven year olds," Scorpius joked, pretending to crack his knuckles menacingly and winced as a bone in his index finger popped out of its socket. Scorpius shoved it back in place and continued with his dinner.
"Pig," sneered Rose, flipping her red hair over her shoulder in distaste.
"Vindictive, she is," mumbled Scorpius, though not quiet enough for Rose not to hear.
A smack on the head. "Sorry."
Albus returned to his dinner, ignoring his friends' antics. He might never understand them, so he saw no point in bothering at that point.
Only a few weeks had passed since Albus' meeting with Harry in McGonagall's office, and the year was approaching November, meaning Halloween was coming up shortly. In fact, it was tomorrow, Albus remembered, as he thought about how he saw Peeves setting up his Pre-Halloween tricks and decorations.
"I wish Hogwarts did trick-or-treating," Rose was saying, "then I could dress up as a fairy princess and get candy for free."
A thin layer of sweat covered Albus' body, but the chilly night air caused it to sit on his skin, sticking, but not heated, therefore leaving him uncomfortable in his clothes. Albus tried to get his eyes to focus, but it seemed none of his senses were working properly. He couldn't see, hear, or smell anything, and when he reached out, his hand hit a surface, but his touch was so dull that he couldn't register what the surface he hit was. He only felt a tingling on his fingertips, so he moved on.
Albus tried to figure out his position, if he was sitting, lying down or already standing. If he was standing, then the next step was easy, figure out how to walk. Albus didn't know why, but he felt like if he figured out how to walk, the rest of his senses would come back naturally.
Based on the way the blood was pumping through his body, Albus reasoned that he was not lying down or sitting, he would feel more stationary, and his feet wouldn't be aching. He had obviously been standing for a long time.
With effort, Albus moved his right foot, inching it along the floor uneasily, before taking a full step. Almost immediately, his eyesight began to clear up, his hearing coming back, and his grip on really tightening.
Albus was in a room. A small one. He knew this because of the wall that stood in front of him, and he reached out slightly with both arms, only to find that his hands hit more walls immediately. Other than this, he knew nothing of what was going on. The lights were off, and he couldn't feel a light switch as he ran his hands over the walls. He felt as if the room was getting smaller, and he was enclosed in it.
Albus took a step forward, and his foot hit something. A door. The door creaked open and Albus immediately began walking out of the room, sighing in relief as cool air washed over his face and the back of his neck.
The hallway was a lot wider than the door, but there was still no light, so Albus kept one hand on a wall and continued down the hall, his brain working out scenarios of where he might be.
Was it a trap? Had his dorm mates set up a prank in the Room of Requirement? Though Albus knew of the room, his father wouldn't tell him where it was located, and therefore Albus wondered how it was possible that his dorm mates knew and he didn't.
A light flickered a few hundred feet down the hall, and Albus picked up his pace, beginning a light jog as he tried to reach it before it went out again. He needed to know what was going on, he needed to be able to see.
The light flashed green, a bright green that hurt his eyes, even at the distance at which he stood. Albus began running, a hand still lightly trailing alongside the wall, and he began calling out, trying to get the attention of someone, anyone, that was near him, to help.
"Hello? Anybody here? Hello? I'm alone, I need help! Hello?"
The green light went out, Albus saw black-
-and then he woke up.
"Mate! Bloody wake up, will you? I've been trying to get you stop that screaming for twenty minutes now! What's your problem?"
Albus opened his eyes, realizing he was in his room, on his bed, his blue sheets scrunched up at the bottom of his bed, almost rolling off, his comforter already strewn across the floor. His pajamas were bunched around his knees, his long sleeves pushed up to his elbows uncomfortably. Sweat dripped down his spine and covered most of his body with a fine layer. Scorpius eyed Albus warily, and he was suddenly aware of his other roommate's eyes on him.
"You alright, there, Potter?" Oliver Hanson asked, his thick eyebrows scrunched in concern. Henry Victor, the boy standing next to him, nodded in agreement.
Scorpius scanned Albus' face for any sort of lie after he replied with, "I'm fine, Hanson. I'll be alright in a minute, just need some time to cool off."
Henry and Oliver walked back to their beds, satisfied. Geoffrey Stevenson stood for a moment or two, being the most quiet of the group he had nothing to say, just addressing the situation quickly with his eyes, then slinking back to his bed in silence, not disturbing anyone.
Only Scorpius remained. Albus breathed a sigh of relief and flopped back down on his bed, his brain still rattling from his nightmare. If he could even call it that. It hadn't lasted long enough for him to realize what was happening, and if he didn't know what was happening, then how could it be a nightmare? Albus shook his head, further ruffling the mess that was his hair.
"We'll talk about it at breakfast with Rose, Al. You're not getting off that easy. Must've been a hell of a nightmare for you to wake up screaming and shaking."
Albus jumped. He hadn't realized Scorpius was still standing there watching him, so he sat up and looked at his friend. Scorpius' blonde hair was ruffled, having woken up so suddenly because of Albus' nightmare. His pajamas were wrinkled, and it was the first time that Albus had seen his friend looking anything less than well-put together. Scorpius always had a smirk on his face, or his hair styled perfectly, his clothes always smooth and never wrinkled. It dawned on Albus how serious Scorpius was taking the situation. His only friend in Hogwarts had been yelling in his sleep from a nightmare, and from what the students have learned from their parents, nightmares always lead to something else in the wizard world.
"Scorpius," Albus said, realizing he needed to find a way to comfort his friend. "I'm alright. A lot better than I was a few minutes ago, but I'm alright. The dream wasn't even that bad, it's been blown way out of proportion."
As Scorpius turned away to his own bed, Albus heard him mumble his final words before breakfast.
"That's what I'm afraid of."
Later that morning at breakfast, Albus, Scorpius and Rose all sat together at one end of the Ravenclaw table. Before Oliver and Henry had went to sit down with their friends, they had each given Albus a pat on the back and an encouraging smile, arousing already present suspicion in Rose even further. She could tell by the dynamic between her two friends that something was off.
Then Geoffrey came and offered Albus a shy smile, and Rose lost it.
"Okay," she said, face quickly turning red with anger, "what are you two keeping from me?"
Albus and Scorpius exchanged looks before looking back to Rose. Scorpius provided the response. "We're not keeping anything from you."
Rose huffed. "That's no possible. Geoffrey Stevenson hasn't said a word to a single soul since he got here and all of a sudden he's giving you smiles and pats on the back like you've done something? What happened?"
Albus sighed and shook out his hair. "I had a nightmare."
Rose was quickly silenced, sitting back on the bench with a thoughtful expression on her face. "About what?" She finally asked.
"That's just it," Albus replied, his head still lowered slightly, "I don't know what happened. All I knew during the dream was that I was somewhere I shouldn't have been. I didn't get anything, it was all so quick and confusing. It happened within seconds."
"You know what those types of dreams meant to your father, right Albus?" Rose asked, her expression now worried. Scorpius only looked confused.
"Yeah, I do. But it wouldn't make sense for me to have those types of dreams. I didn't battle an evil wizard when I was one, I don't have a psychic connection to the most dark wizard to ever grave the planet. I'm just me, I'm normal."
"Okay, now I'm confused," Scorpius piped up. "What are you two blabbing on about?"
Rose glanced at Albus, then back to Scorpius, her eyebrows still furrowed monumentally.
"You know how Albus' dad defeated the Dark Lord when he was seventeen, right? The Second Wizard War?"
Scorpius nodded. "Everyone's heard of it, my father told me a few stories about it, too."
"Well, apparently Uncle Harry had a connection with Voldemort through their minds, because when Voldemort tried to kill Harry when he was a baby,the curse rebounded because of Lily Potter's love for her son. When it rebounded, a piece of Voldemort's soul latched into Uncle Harry, since he was the only living thing in sight, and so until Uncle Harry was killed, the piece of Voldemort's soul still lived in him.
"Because of this connection, Uncle Harry often had nightmares relating to Voldemort, and those nightmares were a lot of the time connected to what Voldemort was doing. For example, one time Uncle Harry had a dream about our Grandpa Arthur being attacked in the Department of Mysteries in the Ministry of Magic. As it turned out, it was Voldemort's snake that did the attacking, but because both the snake and Uncle Harry had pieces of Voldemort's soul in them, he was able to see the event happening.
"Eventually, Voldemort learned of the connection between himself and Uncle Harry, and he started manipulating Uncle Harry's dreams to see awful things, some real and some untrue events to get Uncle Harry paranoid or scared. He used the mind connection to lure Uncle Harry, my father, Uncle Neville, Aunt Luna, Aunt Ginny and my mum into the Department of Mysteries, because Voldemort made Uncle Harry believe that his godfather Sirius Black was in danger. There, they were greeted by your grandfather, Lucius Malfoy, and Uncle Harry was forced to hand over a prophecy that told the story of how the rivalry between Uncle Harry and Voldemort would end. It was also during that night that Sirius Black was killed."
"My father told me about that night," Scorpius mumbled, having the good grace to look ashamed.
"I figured he would," Rose replied. "Anyways, dreams and nightmares have always had a significance in this family, so I guess I'm just a little paranoid about the fact that Albus here is having unexplainable and confusing nightmares."
"So you thought Albus' mind was connected to that of an evil wizard, and that's why he couldn't explain what was happening?" Scorpius asked.
Rose nodded.
"Most eleven year olds have nightmares about failing tests, or maybe even of their parents being sucked into a tornado in a completely unrealistic turn of events. But not a lot of eleven year olds have nightmares about wandering down a dark hallway towards a flashing green light."
"Flashing green light?" Rose asked. Scorpius nodded in confirmation. "Curious."
Albus' head cocked in confusion. "Why is that curious, Rosie?"
Rose shook her head, like she was trying to clear thoughts from it. "It's just that, from what I've heard and read, when the Killing Curse is cast, the wand of the caster emits a bright green light. Like a flash."
Scorpius scoffed. "You think Albus was dreaming about being murdered?"
"No," Rose said, "but I do think that the two are somehow connected, and that this dream might be something that shouldn't be overlooked."
"I'd rather talk about something else now, please," Albus admitted, spooning some cereal into his mouth before taking a long gulp of pumpkin juice.
Truth be told, Albus didn't want to think about his dream. He didn't want to let his thoughts wander over to the countless stories his father used to tell him about his dreams and what they meant for his investigation during his fight against Voldemort. He didn't want to think about his mind somehow being connected to a villain, or his thoughts being shared by a crazy, homicidal wizard who was out for blood. He didn't want to think about that, he wanted his school years to go differently then his father's did.
Because Harry had been through too much in too short a period of time. He didn't want to think that his fate was similar. He wanted to be as normal as possible, and the dreams were making him anything but.
A/N: Hello! This chapter is a lot shorter than the previous one, but that's because I didn't want to put too much in this chapter. I prefer to leave this one as it is with the information we get.
So Albus had a dream, and if you're a fan of the Harry Potter books (which, I highly doubt you aren't, since you chose to read a Harry Potter fanfiction) then you know the significance dreams have. Some mean something, and others don't, and I am hear to say right now, that I am not going to reveal whether the dream Albus had meant something or not. That in itself may have given it away, but I'm still not going to reveal anything.
A few quick notes before I leave, if any of you read my story, "Fragments", then I am hear to tell you it is on a short hiatus because of everything that's been going on lately. I am, however, currently on my Spring Break, so I don't have to worry about school, so I might have more time to sit down and just write.
Also, if any of you are reading my story, "Cold Ones", which is a Vampire Diaries story, that is also on hiatus due to lack of ideas. If anyone has any ideas on how I could continue that story, please feel free to read through it real quick and leave a review with an idea on how to keep the story going. Until I break free from my temporary writer's block, I don't want to half-ass anything and publish it, especially if I don't think it's a good idea.
Lastly, as always, please, please, PLEASE leave a review telling me if you liked the chapter of it you have any notes or questions to ask me. I am up to answering any questions regarding any of my stories, and if you'd rather have a private conversation about a story or one shot, please feel free to PM me, as I have that open to all of the public to contact me about anything they need to ask or say to me.
Thank you, and happy reading!
-Clary
