A/N: This chapter is dedicated to reader and reviewer TwoHeartedMarauder. I'm glad you decided to go back and read through, because those details scattered throughout do matter, and there's a LOT of accumulated details, you know? Even I go back and periodically read through from the beginning just to be sure I'm not missing critical things. Anyway, I hope you continue to enjoy, and I really appreciated your love triangle insights, although let's be real, calling this a love triangle is super overcomplicating things, because the memories of Sirius and Lily are still very much involved in the picture.

-C

Lydia had just about had it with Percy Weasley. When she realized she still had two more years with him, it almost brought her to tears. It wasn't that he was mean or problematic or difficult in that sense. It was that he was so terribly thoughtless. He'd nearly reduced a girl to tears for perhaps the fifth time since he started Arithmancy. She asked him to stay after class, and he looked puzzled, like why he was asked to stay when he had better things to do.

"Do you understand why I've asked you to stay here, Mr. Weasley?"

He looked startled, and she knew why. She almost never called students by their surnames. He shook his head that no, he didn't know why he'd been asked to stay, but he clearly knew that he didn't have a congratulations coming to him.

"I've told you before," she said softly, "you should be very careful how you speak to correct people, perhaps especially if you only have a vague idea of what you're talking about."

His cheeks went pink, and Lydia knew it was the right choice to have a more candid conversation with him in private instead of trying to correct the behavior in front of everyone else. She could almost hear the gears in his head, wondering if she'd ever had to talk down his brothers in any way. She hadn't, but every child, even within one family, had different tendencies and faults. She didn't really know what Bill's faults and weaknesses were, but Charlie's were almost certainly his daredevil nature leading him headlong into dangerous situations, like friendship with Nymphadora Tonks.

"Different things are difficult for different students, Percy," she said. He relaxed a bit when she used his first name. "There are, I am sure, things you struggle with."

She waited, and he didn't seem like he wanted to answer. She let the question sit between them, and then he whispered, "Potions is hard for me." Then he quickly said, "I mean, I'm doing fine. I'm not…"

Lydia nodded and raised a hand before he dug himself any deeper into that hole.

"I suppose," she said, "that you wouldn't appreciate if, say Penelope decided to laugh every time you didn't do things perfectly in that course, or if she rolled her eyes or sighed if you asked Professor Snape a question."

Again, Percy's cheeks went pink, although they were closer to red than pink now. She let it sit with him for a moment, then whispered, "Do you see why I'm disappointed, Percy?"

He hesitated, then nodded. She wasn't sure he really did, but he was at least half-getting the idea. She dismissed him to his next class with a note for Minerva, then rubbed her temples. It didn't feel like so long ago that Percy was a nervous first year with his hair charmed pink by Charles Bysshe in a stupid Quidditch feud.

Her hand dropped suddenly. Severus was wrong. She knew it now, she remembered why it couldn't possibly be Quirinus who was attacking her. She hurried out of her office and down to the dungeons.

She was worried, almost as soon as she arrived, that he had a course going, but he was examining the cauldrons when she barreled in. Severus looked at her with alarm, his eyes scanning for injuries or signs of illness.

"It can't be Quirrell," she said breathlessly.

"What?"

"Albus wanted us to remember back to when the nightmares started, yes?" Severus inclined his head, relaxing now that he knew there was no immediate danger. "It wasn't so recent as Quirinus's first year. It was when my fifth year students were first year students, when Terentius was here. Remember? You thought it might be because of Terentius, like a traumatic trigger from Dalia."

"And the first attack was not that year," Severus said slowly. "Because if it had been, I'd have ended him myself." Lydia hesitated, realizing he was correct. "The nightmares may have been unconnected worsened by the attacker, Lydia, or exploited by him. But even if you are right, even if they are connected, it does not rule out that Quirinus is involved. There are fewer vampires in Albania than in Romania, but they are more plentiful there than here. And the change in demeanor has been notable. What's more, if it is not him, Lydia, and it is connected to the vampires…" His voice was so low and smooth, it was chilling. "Then we would be in a great deal more danger than we are prepared for."

All of Lydia's excitement at the realization of when the nightmares began sucked out of her. She shuddered, and she realized he was right. She'd not proved anything except that it might all be more serious than they realized. She still didn't believe Terentius meant her any harm, but they'd still not heard anything about how his attempts to rein in the vampires had gone. Was he even still around? Had he been ended? Albus would have told her if there were good news, she presumed, but bad news? He wasn't always ready to hand that over.

"I have students to prepare for," Severus said, checking his watch. "No doubt you have work to do before you deal with the third year students. We can discuss this more later, yes?"

Lydia nodded, but she was reluctant to leave. There was a crawling sensation around her shoulderblades that wouldn't go away. She left his classroom and headed for their quarters. The smell was still there, subtle under everything, a scent that only she could pick out. It seemed stronger when she was thinking about it, seemed to fill the space. Lydia ran her thumb along the spines of Severus's books and found his old Defense Against the Dark Arts book from school. She slipped it off the shelf and opened it to humanoid creatures. Werewolves were the first, and he had extensive notes throughout the chapter. She shivered, thinking of how he'd used those to try to expose Remus so many years ago.

He had far fewer notes on vampires. This made sense. He wouldn't have met any until after school, and then he would have started putting notes in his journals, not in his textbooks. There were some notes about the nature of compulsion, the preferred feeding habits, and a re-shaded map over the one in the book that corrected or updated the known locations of vampire colonies. When had this map been redone? Albania was mostly covered, Romania completely covered. Lydia tried to imagine what might have happened when Terentius arrived in Romania, but she didn't really want to.

Lydia tried to remember what her earliest nightmares had been about. She paced the room, trying to peel back through the years, to find a pattern or a shift, something that would indicate when the danger truly began and what it meant. She hesitated, knowing Albus would have some solution, but did she want to ask him for help? What would she owe him if she did?

She paused when a letter was slipped under the door. Probably Albus, she thought, or a house-elf. She picked it up and saw the seal of the Malfoy family on the back, Narcissa's handwriting addressed to Lydia on the front. Lydia broke the seal and read the letter, pacing.

A simple letter, warm and unconcerned. Narcissa asked about something she'd read in a magazine about Lydia's latest lines of research, inquired about whether they might have tea again before the end of the year, asking for Lydia's take on Severus as a Quidditch referee. Lydia sighed and set the letter aside. She could deal with this later. Narcissa wouldn't expect an immediate reply, and none of this was as important as figuring out what was wrong with Lydia.

She decided she had to bite her pride back and ask for help. And while she would owe Albus something, almost certainly, going in with eyes wide open had to be better than not going in at all and still wondering about her nightmares. She went to his office as quickly as she could, knowing she had limited time until her third year students would be gathering and waiting for her.

Albus was in his office. Several of the portraits in the office eyed her with interest and curiosity, but most pretended to sleep. She hugged her arms around her torso, aware that really, they were all watching and waiting.

"What can I do for you, Lydia?" he said.

She hesitated, then said, "I need to know if there's a way for me to access a nightmare, my earlier nightmares, and see them, to look for patterns and changes."

Albus's smile dimmed and he folded his hands.

"A wise question," he said softly. "When one has lived as long as I have, it can be very difficult to find the trends in one's memories. And I suppose when one has had as many nightmares as you have, the same is true. There is a way, but I would suggest you allow me to assist you. Particularly with nightmares, as opposed to typical memories, it can be too simple to become…lost in them. And I suspect you asked me because you have decided not to ask Severus."

Lydia hesitated, then nodded. She didn't like having him go through them with her, but he wasn't wrong. Even when she did Occlumency lessons with Severus, it was nearly impossible not to let the nightmares take over when they cropped up. To go looking for them…

"Very well. We will use my Pensieve. I shall tell Severus I need to go over some Alchemy with you, shall I?"

Lydia agreed, glad that he was offering to tell the lie and not asking her to do it. She agreed with the plan, then went to teach her lesson.

The third year students were attentive, but Cedric seemed concerned. He always knew when something was on her mind, much in the way that Bill had. She smiled, focused on the basics of their lesson, and tried to stoke any sparks of discussion that came along. When she dismissed them, she took a deep breath, then smoothed her hair and went to Albus's office. He was waiting in the corner, with a very large basin out of its case. Lydia shivered.

"I am going to make a copy of all the nightmare signatures in your memory," Albus said, "and keep them in one vial. If that's quite alright with you."

"I suppose," Lydia said, rubbing her elbows.

"And if you have any more," he said, raising an eyebrow, "we shall collect a copy of that as well."

"Right."

"Now have a seat and hold still. Stare at something across from you. Yes, like that. This might take a moment."

She could feel more than see Albus's frown in her periphery as he touched his wand to her head and looked at her eyes. He was searching her memories, her walls totally down, and she was worried about what he saw. Remus, Sirius, Severus? Her parents? The funerals? All the years she spent living alone in the summers and watching Tobias Snape beat his wife and son?

It seemed to take a lifetime. Memories swam before her eyes, and Albus pulled his wand from her head every few moments, then less and less frequently. He was quick with his work, and Lydia wondered how long it would take for him to search his own mind for nightmares. She wondered if he had the power to pull the memory out altogether, not just make copies.

"Very well," he said, putting a stopper on the large jar he'd labeled with her initials. "You did very well, Lydia. Shall we take a walk through one of them?"

"Walk?" Lydia said, aware she was trembling.

He gave her a bracing smile and said, "It is both like and unlike your Occlumency lessons, Lydia. Instead of feeling yourself in the moment, you will walk around the memory with me. It is the best way to see details you've forgotten, without the same emotional impact. You will see it like a stranger, a bystander. I will be with you every moment, and if it is every too much, we will leave at once. Now, are you ready?"

He held out a hand, and Lydia hesitated. She didn't love the idea of wandering around her nightmares, but she would have Albus with her. She was safe. None of it could hurt her. Slowly, she reached out, and he grasped her hand tightly when she touched his fingers. He pulled one thin, silvery strand of semi-fluid from the collection with his wand and flung it into the swirling mass of the Pensieve. They leaned over the edge together, and she could feel herself tumbling in.

She and Albus stood in the middle of a very crowded street, too crowded. They should have been jostled about, but no one touched them, and Lydia saw herself, standing there, looking around, puzzled.

"Do you know this place?" Albus asked.

Lydia hesitated. It seemed familiar, but she couldn't place it. London, perhaps. Too crowded for how dark it was outside.

"Maybe," Lydia whispered. "It seems…it seems almost like where Artemis used to live. But not quite."

"Dreams often change the shapes and sounds and colors of the familiar," Albus said, looking around. "I expect the place is about to catch on fire."

Lydia hummed. Not a moment after he spoke, there was the sound of an explosion, and about halfway up the street a flat was up in flames. Cackling, she could hear Bellatrix Lestrange's cackling like it was right in her ear. Lydia watched herself shudder and rub and a spot on her arm as the people screamed and scattered. More buildings went up, and it felt hot, so hot.

"How very unusual," Albus said softly.

"What?" Lydia asked, unable to look away from herself.

"Your arm, Lydia."

She looked down, but he said no, her other arm. She realized he meant the version standing in the middle of the street. She looked at the arm and saw little depressions on the skin, small scratches. They vanished, and she heard a familiar laugh. Lydia looked up slowly, and Albus's hand was on her shoulder.

"We can leave any time you want," he said gently, but Lydia barely heard him. She was staring at the man in Death Eaters' robes and a grotesque mask. The height, the build, the laugh… She knew it was Sirius before he lifted the mask and stared at her, still laughing, the street on fire around them. He looked at the version of her in the dream, not Lydia where she stood with Albus, but still, his gaze had a paralyzing force to it. Lydia screamed, the Lydia who was dreaming, and Lydia watched herself scream with a tightness in her chest, a helplessness she couldn't shake.

The world faded around them, and suddenly they stood in Albus's office again. He held her shoulders, bracing her, and he checked her eyes and pulse. Her pulse was racing, but he made her a quick cup of tea. Lydia sank into a chair.

"A very interesting dream, if not terribly surprising," Albus said. "Would you say that was early in the scheme of your nightmares, or more recent?"

"It's been a while," Lydia said. She rubbed her temples as the tea cooled. "It's been a long time since I've had a nightmare about Artemis's death. That might have been while Terentius was teaching or…or maybe Priam? I don't remember."

"Four or five years," Albus said, making a note in a fresh journal. "Good. Do you remember the sensation of whatever happened on your arm?" Lydia shook her head. "That's alright. And Sirius. How often is Sirius in your nightmares?"

Lydia felt an urge to sick up, but she just shrugged. Often. Almost always. Any time she closed her eyes, it felt like.

"I'm not sure," she whispered.

"Well, that's something I can track. I think that's quite enough for one day, but let's say…tomorrow evening? After dinner? Or would you prefer to take your free period just after lunch and do some more work then?"

Lydia wasn't sure she ever wanted to do this again. But she knew it was the best, the only way to do what needed to be done. The only way she could prove Severus wrong about her nightmares, the only way she could maybe stop taking the stupid sleeping potions, was to figure out what was causing the nightmares in the first place.

"Can we do both?"

Albus watched her sip her tea appraisingly. She thought he might say no. After all, Severus had spaced out her Occlumency lessons considerably. This was, in some ways, even more taxing. Not physically, perhaps, but emotionally?

"I suppose we could," Albus said. He spoke more slowly than usual, almost as if he still hadn't made up his mind. "As a trial. But if it doesn't go well—"

"We tamp it back to less often," Lydia said, sighing. "I'm aware of how this works, Albus. I'll be around after lunch, then. Are we going to keep saying alchemy until Severus cries foul?"

"Naturally. I doubt very much that you want to tell him the whole of it until you have your answers. Am I correct?"

Lydia hummed. It wasn't that she thought Severus would disapprove of the venture, but his pride would be hurt that she went to Albus before talking with him. And more than that, he'd want to join them. She'd had quite enough of Severus walking through her past and her nightmares while they were working on Occlumency. It was hard enough to do then and put such a strain on them. She didn't want to presume their friendship could take too much strain. Everything had a breaking point.

She walked down to the Great Hall, only a few students trickling down for dinner. A few greeted her, but Lydia was tired, and she barely spared a decent greeting back. She still felt like she was on that fictitious street, the flames licking higher, and Sirius laughing down at her.

A/N: So Lydia has a heart-to-heart with Percy, comes to a decision on how to deal with her nightmares, and begins to dig into the mess with Albus. I'd love y'alls thoughts on this, as it's an arc I'm excited to explore. I'm sure you'll have all kinds of interesting thoughts and feelings.

Review Prompt: How's everybody's Christmas/Holiday/Lack of Holiday?

-C