Sunlight streaked through the burgundy curtains, painting a stripe of gold across Norah's sleeping face. She tumbled over in her bed as the bright light startled her into consciousness. Her eyes snapped open, remembering her dream.
It was so real, so lifelike, unlike the dream of the midnight corridor that replayed over and over whenever she fell asleep at night. Not that she resented the recurrences; each time she watched Tom's hand stretch out for her in the dark her heart beat furiously with excitement that her subconscious could only explain as curiosity.
As Norah laid still under her blankets she realized something that was different between the two dreams. The corridor was nothing that she could compare a real experience to, but this new dream had been so real she could swear it was more like a memory…
In the dream, her father and mother were crowded around a bed with a group of other relatives. Norah sat on a hard, wooden chair in the corner, detached from the adults. Her favorite china doll was perched in her lap; she had called her Violet because of the purple bow tied in her ebony hair.
There was a woman in the bed. Her face looked young, yet she laid back on the mattress like she was too tired to move. She talked to the group around her, answering their questions and smiling. It seemed like a happy scene to Norah, until the woman began to cough violently. She stared in horror, wanting to do something, but she had a feeling that she wasn't supposed to leave her seat.
Several handkerchiefs were offered to the woman, a casual gesture, but someone left the room and returned with a man in white who was carrying a syringe. The relatives backed into the pale walls, and it was the first time Norah took the initiative to look around the room. The walls were a bleak green, a single widow let in the faint daylight. There were wheels on the young woman's bed, which she now saw was surrounded not only by people but flowers as well.
The doctor flipped the woman's arm over and stuck the needle into the crease of her elbow. Her coughing fit continued and everyone held their breath. Eventually, she cleared her throat and her head fell back on the bed. As the doctor retreated, the swarm of adults converged on her. A woman in a deep blue sundress bent over the sick woman and kissed her forehead. The man in the dark gray suit sat in the chair by her bedside and grasped her shaking hand. The others tentatively wished her better health.
"Thank you all," she croaked, her face white and covered in a thin layer of sweat. "I will recover soon enough, I am sure."
Norah's mother was at her side now, trying to usher her from the room. As she left, Norah looked to the young woman. She smiled weakly at her, and Norah smiled back.
Norah shuddered when she reached the end of this dream evaluation. This dream was a memory. A memory from seven years ago, from her first visit to a Muggle hospital. Her parents had taken her to see her favorite cousin, Evangeline, who was very sick; she had contracted a bad case of influenza.
Norah had been so assured, at age nine, of Evangeline's full recovery. Her cousins last smile to her had filled Norah with more than hope; it was comforting.
Just two days after that visit, Evangeline died. She was just nineteen years old.
Norah's bed curtains were viciously pulled open, startling her even more. A dark shadow stood over her, the sun shining around the figure.
"Good morning," Miri said as she sat down, dressed in her Gryffindor Quidditch team uniform, on Norah's bed.
"Good morning, Miri," Norah replied with a grimace on her face; she was still confused by her dream.
"What's wrong?" Miri caught on quickly to her mood; she was always very perceptive.
"Nothing," Norah said as she rubbed her eyes, concentrating on any resent events that might have brought out that particularly painful memory. She was drawing a blank. "I just had a dream about my cousin last night and…I was just surprised, I suppose."
"Alright, just making sure."
Norah raised an eyebrow; usually Miri never dropped subjects so willingly. She wondered what she had to say that she felt was more important than anything that might be bothering Norah.
"So?" she asked Miri impatiently when she just stared at her, silent.
"So, what?" Miri replied, bewildered.
Norah sighed. "So what did you want to tell me that made you wake me up this early on a Saturday morning?"
Miri smirked. "Technically, you were already awake." She continued when Norah opened her mouth to reply to her smart comment, but Miri stopped her. "But that's not important. What I really needed to talk to you about is your, er, patrol last night."
An impish grin spread across her face as Norah's mouth opened in surprise.
"How did you--"
"The Fat Lady wouldn't be my first choice as a confidant," Miri said, her smile growing wider.
Norah's jaw tightened. "More like eavesdropper."
"But seriously, Norah," her smile was gone now, replaced by curiosity. "What happened between you and Tom? Judging by your expression, the Fat Lady wasn't lying. But I want to hear it from you."
Norah didn't think she knew anything about the trip to the forest or the lake. The Fat Lady had only seen her return to the tower…and Tom kiss her cheek. Norah's felt the spot warmed as she thought about it, like it had just happened.
"It was nothing," she looked down and picked at a loose thread in the blanket.
Miri crossed her arms across her chest, unconvinced. Norah sighed. Now she chooses to be stubborn, she thought.
"Miri, honestly, it was…nothing more than a goodnight kiss. On the cheek."
She dropped her arms, her eyes wide with shock…or was it horror, Norah couldn't tell. "He…he kissed you? That wasn't something the Fat Lady just made up?"
"Yes," Norah said.
Miri stared at Norah with amazed eyes, but it eventually faded and she rolled them, back to being herself. "And how did you feel about this?" Norah pursed her lips, thinking. How did she feel? It seemed easy, and right, to be flattered last night. But she knew what Miri had meant: Did Norah feel the same way about Tom that he obviously felt for her? She had no idea.
"Miri, I really don't know," Norah honestly replied.
The sunlight filled the dorm room now. Norah noticed that the dormitory was empty except for the two of them; it was unusual, considering it was Saturday. She remembered Miri's attire then, her red and gold robes' colors enhanced by the golden light coming through the windows.
Norah smiled. "But I do know that Gryffindor is going to teach Slytherin a lesson or two in Quidditch today."
"No doubt about that," Miri smiled in return. She leaped up off the bed in excitement. "You are coming to the game, right?"
Norah got up, too, and stretched. "Of course, Miri."
"Good." Miri was grinning from ear to ear as she left the dormitory for a pre-game meeting.
Norah sat back down on the bed, thoughts of the memory dream flooding back into her head. She couldn't explain this sudden nostalgia, but she wasn't going to dwell too much on it anymore. This memory was one that she wouldn't like to revisit a third time.
