HARRY'S NIGHTMARE

Harry ran through the cold stone rooms of Hogwarts castle, searching for what he had lost. Inside the classrooms lay beaten and bloody bodies, beyond recognition, so mangled were they. After him rang cold, high laughter and tormented screams. He stumbled and tripped. In front of him stood Cedric Diggory and others who had died in the war, between his Fourth and Sixth Year.

"It's your fault!" Voices with no body screamed at him. Though they did not open their mouths, Harry knew it was those who were no more, blaming him, condemning him.

"You could have saved us. You are weak, and a coward. Weak. You betrayed us. You are the cause of our deaths. You deserve to die," Cedric stepped forward and kicked Harry in the stomach before moving back again.

As Harry sobbed and begged for forgiveness, the apparitions moved away, forming a path for the owner of the high, cold laugh. The creature that walked forward was more horrific than anything Harry had ever seen. Blood dripped from blood-stained hands. It's twisted and mangled body stepped forward, dripping blood. Sections of its skin had been torn away, revealing pulsing muscles and clean white bone. The flesh was scorched in places. When Harry met its blood red eyes, he saw pain and torment, centuries of anger and vengeance, the promise of slow and painful, never ending torture.

"It's your entire fault, you know. You should have saved them. You are weak. You are a nuisance. You should have died instead innocents. Instead of the young First Year Hufflepuff, torn apart by a werewolf. The two year old, skinned alive in front of her mother. That old man, who died of the pain caused by the Crucio as he struggled to reach his wife, who was soaking in a bath of her children's blood, eating their flesh all the while struggling against the Imperio. Countless thousands, killed by a flash of green light. You could have stopped it. You don't deserve even the cold yet forgiving of death. You need to live, tormented by what you could have done, should have done but didn't. You are a murderer Harry Potter. Thousands of lives on your account, and you will pay." The thing towered over Harry, dripping its blood onto his upturned face, laughing shrilly as Harry screamed. The dead vanished, as did what Harry knew was supposed to be Voldemort.

He stood, shaking and sobbing, shaking his head in denial. From behind him his father, black hair wet and matted with blood, grabbed him and shook him, meaning to tear him apart, as penance for all those who died because of him. Harry screamed…

END NIGHTMARE

Harry screamed and screamed as his friends tried to wake him. A small crowd was gathered at the doorway as Hermione shook her friend, sobbing. She recognised this kind of nightmare. Harry was not going to be able to wake yet. He could not wake up until the dream had run its course. She knew, she had tried every single time he had woken up Ron even through the strongest silencing charms he could use.

For countless long seconds Harry screaming, pain and terror colouring his voice. Then, suddenly, he was silent and still, where he had been thrashing and shouting. Hermione looked on with worry. She knew silence was a worse indicator than screams. And so she watched and waited with Ron, gripping Harry's hand and continuing to cry as she waited for Harry to wake up from his own personal hell.

HARRY'S NIGHTMARE

Harry tore himself away from James, breathing heavily. Suddenly the scene around him changed. Now he was in a peaceful glade, trees surrounding it. A crystal clear brook bubbled merrily in front of him, ending in a large lake that vanished into the trees. Harry knew where he was and he wanted out, but instead he sank to his knees, unable to move, unable to tear his eyes from the scene in front of him, shimmering as though it was a mirage. It was a memory, of a time when he had faced Voldemort. Neville Longbottom had stepped in.

"Harry, run! You need to get away!" Neville yelled at a bloody version of Harry that lay on the other side of the brook from where spectator-Harry was watching.

"No, Neville. He'll kill you! You should leave, get back to Hogwarts. Please, too many have been killed by him, don't add yourself to the list," Harry pleaded. He coughed up blood and tried to stand, helpless, weak. Useless.

"CRUCIO!" Voldemort yelled suddenly. Neville fell to the ground, screaming in sheer agony. Both Harry's watched on in horrified silence.

"Go now, Harry!" Neville yelled again, throwing a rock at Harry. It hit Harry in the face and activated, pulling Harry away as Voldemort cast a final spell… "AVADA KEDAVRA!"

The scene changed once more. Harry floated, ghostlike, as he watched the mass burial of Aurors, Hogwarts students and even some parents, Professor Flitwick and Professor McGonagall. Expressions on agony and fear were uniform. Harry sobbed silently, realising that this was the scene just before Harry had gone after Voldemort, alone and armed only with his wand.

The scene changed again, but this time it was not some horror from his past. He sat upon a throne crated of human bones. He was commanding figures clothed in blood red, with black masks showing expressions of excruciating pain and terror. He was instructing them to attack muggles, and not only muggles but muggleborns and halfbloods. This was Harry's greatest fear; that one day he would turn into Voldemort. After all, they had far too much in common. The scene faded then became clear again, as though it had a life of it's own and was attempting to keep Harry trapped forever, but something invisible grabbed Harry, hugging him tightly and washing away remnants of blood with their tears, pulling him away from the sight that was trying to pull him in and keep him imprisoned forever.

END NIGHTMARE

Ginny clung tightly to Harry, sobbing, tears falling onto Harry's face. She barely noticed the faint moaning that came as Harry woke up, shoving Ginny off none too gently and jamming his glasses onto his face.

"Ginny? Uh, sorry," Harry apologised immediately, seeing Ginny sitting on the floor, still crying. He guessed that she was the one he had just pushed off of him as soon as he had woken, just seconds ago.

"Its okay, Harry. You've been asleep for at least four hours. We couldn't wake you and you would scream on and off. And then you went so quiet. We were worried. None of your nightmares have ever lasted so long," Ginny wiped her eyes, getting up off the floor and watching with extreme concern at Harry. Harry smiled weakly, pushing himself up so he was leaning forward.

"Harry, what were you dreaming about? You woke up the entire Gryffindor tower. A First Year came running to get me, saying someone was killing you," James was leaning against the door, having sent all the curious and scared onlookers away. Harry shook his head sighed, rubbing his eyes with the heel of his palm.

"Nothing, really. Now do you see why I need to put silencing spells up? It would have prevented this," Harry said wearily. He felt more tired than he had already been feeling when he had gone to bed. Looking around he noticed Remus and Peter looking freaked, Sirius looking understanding and Hermione, Ron and Ginny looking like they were going to either pass out or start screaming themselves.

"You call that nothing? What has to happen for you to admit that something was wrong?" James sat down on the bed, looking hard at Harry. Harry tilted his head, seriously considering answering. Then he decided to say nothing. After all, they had not yet found out what Harry's limit was for trying to pretend that everything was fine.

"James? Can you please tell us what the time is?" Hermione asked quietly. She was too tired and wound up to do even that simple spell herself. James nodded and waved his wand. Blue ribbon twisted itself into numbers, reading 6.30. Hermione groaned.

"What's wrong, Hermione? Apart from Harry's mother of all nightmares?" James asked quietly. Hermione yawned before answering.

"I can't go back to sleep. Come on, Harry. Grab the LightningBolt and let's go. Flying will help you to calm down," Hermione practically dragged Harry out of the room before realising that he needed to get changed. She let him go and Harry shut the curtains around his bed and changed in record time, then grabbed his broom. Ron, Ginny, Hermione, James and Sirius followed him out of the room. When they had stepped out of the portrait, Hermione grabbed him, allowing James to take the lead.

"Come on, the Quidditch pitch should be free, so you can do whatever without worrying about hitting other people. By the way, where did you get your broom?" James was staring at the highly polished broom with awe. The broom was almost black, with gold etching on the handle proclaiming it as a LightningBolt.

"My godfather bought it for me. It's a prototype, and no more are going to be made," Harry said. This at least was true. Sirius had ordered a broom to be specially made to suit Harry exactly. Speed, steering and diving were what it was designed for. Harry could move at speeds fast enough to easily keep pace with the snitch, and the agility if the broom meant that it was quite simple to make the fast turn or sudden dives needed for Harry to stay right beside the Snitch at all times.

"Damn, you're lucky. Your godfather must be one hell of a guy," Sirius exclaimed. Harry couldn't help but grin. Sirius had just complemented himself.

"Yeah, he's brilliant. He would do whatever I asked him to, buy me whatever I wanted. I have a complete Quidditch set at home," Harry trailed off, looking at the ground, and then he perked up suddenly. James noticed, and looked at Harry suspiciously.

"What are you so happy about suddenly?" James asked, watching Harry closely. Harry looked mischievously at James, before deciding to show him. He swung his leg over the broom, and then kicked off. He pushed his broom to its limits, going over 80mph. revelling in the speed, Harry dived suddenly. Then he pulled out of it, and performed several loop the loops, each consecutive loop smaller and tighter. Then he pulled the handle of the broom so it went vertically up, and then levelled off. Waving at the small ant like figures of those watching him, Harry went vertically again, this time straight down and without holding onto his broom. As soon as his broom had passed him so that his head face level with the tail, Harry grabbed it and levelled the broom off. He was only millimetres from the ground when the broom was fully straight, and he was leaning back, resting him head on his arms against the tail, feet up and crossed over at the other end of the broom, completely relaxed and stationary.

"Harry James GRANGER!" Hermione screamed, running up to him and tipping the broom so that Harry fell off it, laughing.

"Calm down, 'Mione. When have you ever seen me fall off a broom without dementors or bludgers near?" Harry grinned; the most relaxed Hermione had seen him for years. Since the end of his fourth Year, to be exact.

"Well, never. But you shouldn't do that! What if you did fall? Even you have to make mistakes on a broom every once in a while," Hermione sank down onto the grass, looking sternly at Harry.

"I'll be sure to make the mistakes when I'm low to the ground, then. Stop worrying, I'll be fine," Harry tugged on Hermione's long blonde hair. Hermione huffed, and then smiled, hugging Harry tightly. The others were still too busy opening and closing their mouths to say anything to them. Harry looked at them and laughed.

"You know, I don't think that there are any Snitches to catch here, so you can actually shut your mouths now," Harry said, eyes sparkling.

"Sorry, Harry, but catching Snitches by swallowing them is your specialty, not ours. And when the hell did you learn to do that dive? I've never seen even you do a completely vertical dive. What next, diving on an angle upside down while juggling?" Ron's face was practically green with envy. Harry looked at him with an amused smile. After all, they had been through this year after year after year.

"Oh, calm down Ron. If you go any greener you'll look like an apple," Harry kicked Ron, who laughed reluctantly and sat down.

"I think you don't even need to try out, if you're that good. But I'm not sure if you're allowed to use that broom in a match. So you'll need to use a school broom, but that shouldn't really bother you," James said, turning business like. Harry shook his head, happy again, and so he would stay until he started to think about anything other flying.

A/N: I hate this chapter, personally. Anyone has any ideas on changing it? Also, I would like to know why I am apparently on 35 alerts, but I am getting very few reviews? (Thank you very much to female half-breed, demolitionxlovers, australiaman, kcmprincess, froboy and charl1e for reviewing. I would reply, but I have no time. Thank you again!) More reviews or updates will take longer. I have several chapters ready to post, if the readers are good and review! Please?