I apologized to him. And he kissed me. Not in that order.
Stop. Start over. At the beginning.
He was there waiting for me. And I was right that he had been alone when I took Dreamless Sleep. Though he wasn't in the mood to parley when I turned up. He-
Is there any point in writing this down? He knew what I had been working on and how I had been strategizing. So either my Occlumency failed me in the dream (small surprise, given what he did to me) or every moment I'm not maintaining an Occlumency shield, he can leech off my thoughts. So these notes are an open book to him, just like I am. Maybe they'll help someone piece together my awful death, if he ever finds me again.
Stop. If this journal does nothing but help me collect my thoughts enough to not be hysterical at breakfast, it's enough. I'll skip the terrible part for now. I'll just write down the result, and worry about the rest later - the result is bad enough.
I was correct that he would want me to stop avoiding him. I was incorrect to think that my absence gave me any bargaining power. I am permitted to sleep tonight, but in two weeks' time, I have to turn up again to keep him company. And I've been tasked with improving my conversational Parseltongue. So it's daily Ashwinders (mind the eggs!) or maybe more. Since he only promised not to always torture me.
But I can't get out of Scheherazade-ing if there's any chance he might be able to do what he threatened, punch through the Dreamless Sleep and [crossed out heavily].
No. I don't have to think about that today. Not till after breakfast. And as much chocolate as I can stomach. And maybe with a Patronus up, I need the practise as much as the protection.