A/N: Soooooo sorry this took so long to come out. I had no idea where this was going until I finished writing this part. But now, I have a pretty good idea, so parts should be coming faster. I finally got myself a beta-reader: Elanor Gamgee is a writer and beta-reader on the staff of sugarquill.com (great place--I really recommend it!) She is absolutely wonderful, though I had to make corrections on the entire story; that's part of what made this part so late. This part isn't that long or great, despite how long it took, but it should be getting better soon. I have big plans for this! Anyway, enjoy and review!!!
Tem's mouth went dry. He hadn't heard Harry right. No. He had to be mistaken. How can you die in dreams? Well, sure, you could die in dreams, but you weren't actually killed. You woke up. But you didn't die. That wasn't supposed to happen. His mouth dropped open and he tried to say something, but nothing came out. Finally…
"B-but how?" he asked, not wanting to know the answer. "They're just dreams. Really, really scary dreams, but still…" He looked around the room at his friends. None of them would meet his gaze. Hermione choked back another sob; she had finally gained control of herself, but the dam was threatening to break again.
Ron was silent, absent-mindedly trying to wipe his tear-soaked shirt dry. It wasn't working. Harry looked uncomfortable; it seemed as though he wanted to say something, but didn't know what. Tem supposed that this was because he had just told his friend that a psychopathic killer was after him in his sleep. Really, what did you say to something like that?
"W-well…" Harry stammered, filling the empty silence. "Dumbledore couldn't explain much. He said it had something to do with a dagger, and that you should be watched over. Then he rushed out. I'm sorry, I really am. I wish I could tell you more…" He trailed off, not wanting to meet Tem's disbelieving eyes.
The latest victim of the Dark Lord's wrath sat there, stiff as a board, on his bed, staring at the wall. Millions of thoughts raced through his mind. He couldn't take it all in. How? How could it all happen? The thought of his parents entered his mind again. They were still devastated over the loss of Becca, his mother's best childhood friend to the same evil wizard. How could he tell them everything that was happening? He could picture the letter home now: Dear Mum and Dad, it would say, Hi! How are you? Hogwarts is great; I've already made tons of friends. I even managed to turn my matches silver. They should be pins within the next day or so. By the way, I was almost killed twice so far. Hope you're doing well without me. Love, Tem
He felt sick at the thought. How would he ever sleep again? Tem vaguely remembered as a kid watching the old American Freddy Krueger movies when his parents weren't around. It was about some Muggles getting attacked in their dreams by this insane wrinkly guy with knives for fingers. The situations were similar, except this time, it was real. And it was happening to him.
"Oh, Tem," Hermione's sorrow-filled voice snapped him out of his reverie. "Tem, I'm so sorry. We'll work as much as we have to to find out how to stop this. We'll research day and night. I'm so sorry that you had to get caught up in our crazy lives." The tears burst forward once again and streamed silently down her face, but her voice remained steady.
Tem didn't know what to say. His friends felt it was their fault that this was happening to him. He really didn't think so. Madam Pomfrey stuck her head in through the curtains once again, shooting Harry and his companions a look that said they had been there long past the allotted time limit. With one last unhappy backward glance, the trio left in single file, wishing their friend a good rest. Tem didn't feel like having a good rest. He never wanted to sleep again.
That day and the next dragged by slowly. Tem sat in the hospital wing while his friends went to classes, reporting back during each break. Every now and then, he took a short nap, forced by Madam Pomfrey's Dreamless Sleep potion. He would wake again in a fit, sweating and struggling as if something held reluctantly at the back of his mind were trying to force its way up again. Tem knew what this was, and dreaded going to sleep even with the potion, for fear that even its powerful spell could be broken through his subconscious, freeing the malevolent entity to take over his mind.
At the end of the second day, Madam Pomfrey grudgingly released Tem from the hospital wing. He was instructed to go straight back to his common room and take the sleeping potion, so that he would be refreshed before restarting classes the next day. He returned to Ravenclaw, but disregarded his orders to go to sleep and decided to look for his friends in the common room instead. As he crawled through the passageway into the common room, several of his fellow Ravenclaws turned and eyed him curiously, though were too "polite" to say anything to him about what had happened. Instead, they turned to back to their half-whispered conversations, casting surreptitious glances every now and then in Tem's direction.
He sighed; he had been expecting this: people much preferred making up their own versions about what had happened to him than learning the truth. Actually, for that he was quite relieved. He didn't think he could take the horror and false sympathy that seemed to come with an attack by Voldemort. He really didn't know how Harry could cope with it on a day-to-day basis. As he walked towards his dorm room, he noticed Alan and the girls sitting off to themselves in a dark corner. They waved at him to join them.
Tem slouched into an overstuffed armchair and said nothing, waiting for the inevitable barrage of questions. He didn't have to wait long. Fay immediately set in, voicing the question that was on all of their minds. "So? What's the verdict? Have you heard anything from Dumbledore?" Her tone was bright and airy, but a slight quiver in her voice and the wrinkle in her brow gave away the fact that she was much more concerned than she let on. It was here that Tem realized that he had to make a decision. Did he tell them the truth, or did he leave them to blissful ignorance?
He looked at each of their faces in turn, all three were staring at him with some measure of wide-eyed anticipation and anxiety. He then looked to the rest of the common room. Those that had been staring at him quickly averted their gaze and simply went back to pretending to study or whispering quietly to their companions. None of them seemed really to care what was happening to him; they simply wanted a good gossip. Tem turned back to those sitting in front of him. Again the question came to mind: Did he really want to endanger these people by taking them into his suddenly dangerous world?
Then another thought came to his mind; not a question, but a piece of advice that his father given him a long time ago: "Choose your friends wisely," he counseled, "the true ones are hard to come by. And don't turn your back on those you do find, for those will always be there for you, whether or not you want them to." That was the deciding point. He gazed once more into Fay's glittering brown eyes, then Alyssa's pained gray ones, and finally Alan's icy blue stare, all three filled with concern, and realized that he had to tell them. He needed these people as his friends.
"Where do I begin?" Tem asked, breaking the heavy silence. He quickly related to them everything he had heard in the hospital room, concluding with the chilling truth of his dreams as delivered to him through Harry. The three sat there for a moment, as he had, trying to swallow the measurable amount of information given in that one little sentence: "Voldemort is trying to kill me."
All three responded immediately with a sharp intake of breath. Fay whispered, "Oh, my god," covering her mouth with her hands. Tears threatened at the corners of her eyes, but she smiled softly and reassured him that everything would be OK.
Alyssa just sat there, staring into space, no sign of emotion on her face. Finally, she met Tem's eyes and said, "What can I do? I'll always be here to help you."
Lastly, he looked to Alan, whose impassive face suddenly split into a grin. "Ever see that Muggle movie, Freddy Krueger?" Tem took this as a good sign from all three and smiled, knowing he had made the right decision.
The next few days passed wearily by. Tem refused to sleep until all of his friends had gone to bed late at night. They, in turn, stayed up as late as possible, putting off slumber as long as they could to help their companion through this hard time. In those long nights, Alan, Fay, and Alyssa went from "the kid from the robe shop and his friends" to the closest friends he had ever had, barring Harry.
They swapped stories of their childhood between games of Exploding Snap and taught Tem everything they could about Quidditch without him having to see an actual game. He told them all about the Muggle world, and he, in turn, learned all about his companions. Fay was a pureblood witch, whose parents worked in the Miracle Division of the Ministry. (This was a division set aside for the new development in the form of Muggle memory charms. They specialized in charming Muggles to think that they had witnessed a spiritual event.) She was a very flighty person. She had fun wherever she went, and could laugh at almost anything. While to an untrained eye, she could seem rather ditzy and not all there, she was actually very bright and intuitive.
Alyssa was of mixed blood, her mother a witch Herbologist and her father a Muggle landscaper. She had grown up in the wizarding world, and was given a magical education from the day she was born. Her parents had established a giant greenhouse and ran it, selling to local magical nurseries. Her father learned the properties of all the magical plants, and was even better at growing some of them than her mother. They passed their love of plants and environment on to their daughter. Alyssa herself tended to be somewhat reserved until you got to know her, though she was quite witty and very sarcastic when she opened up. She was also an artist, and would draw on anything that was sitting in front of her.
Alan was from a pureblood family, but had a fascination with Muggle movies. His mother worked closely with Arthur Weasley in the Muggle Division of the Ministry, and he had found an old television and VCR in the attic while playing with the ghosts one day. Alan had never had the same love of Muggles as his mother, though he found that he loved their moving pictures. The stories they wove were mesmerizing, and their attempt to portray magic laughable. He hoped one day to be able to integrate them into the Magical community, maybe even make wizard movies, too. Alan's nature was that of a comedian, using humor as a defense mechanism. He made jokes at everything, particularly when he (or anybody else for that matter) was upset. This made him a great person to be around when you were sad.
At the end
of the week, most of Tem's arm and facial hairs were burned off from the
numerous late night games of Exploding Snap. He was really tired, but happy for the first time since this whole
"dream affair" had begun. While he
would often find himself drifting off in class, he could always count on
whoever was sitting next to him to give him a sharp jab to his side. By the end of the week, his side was well
bruised, too. In spite of everything
that was happening, Tem was determined not to get behind in his classes. On the contrary, once he was caught up from
his missed days, he easily surpassed most of his class, finding himself doing
exceptionally well in Charms and Transfiguration. In no time, his matches were pins, his feathers were hovering,
and his locks were unlocking themselves.
That weekend was their first in the castle. While they were free to spend it as they would, the air outside was thick and gloomy. The rain showed no signs of stopping; even the wind was fiercer than usual. Tem found himself avoiding even the normally merry Great Hall, as the oppressive clouds on the enchanted ceiling were depressing him. Instead, he and his friends opted to spend the time in the library, polishing up for their first exam that was looming on Monday. Alan sat in the corner, quizzing Alyssa on her wand positions while Fay plugged herself at a table, pouring over her Charms text. Tem sat across from her, though instead of looking through his textbook, was wearily scouring the reference pages for any sign of the dagger from his dreams. He was flanked by Ron, Hermione, and Harry, who sat crowded around the table next to them with books piled high, all with the same objective: to figure out the dream.
Suddenly, Tem sat bolt upright, staring at a picture in a book titled: Dreams, Prophecies, and Relics: A Look at History's Most Elusive and Dangerous Treasures. Startled by his sudden movement, all six of his friends focused their attention on him. "I've found it," he hissed, "I found the knife!"
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\Oooh-- the plot thickens!! Well, like I said, the next part should be better. Just a warning to you folks: try to brush up on your Tolkien before then! If you've never read Lord of the Rings before, A) What's wrong with you?! Those are the best books!!! And B) You'll be somewhat lost, but only on some background info; you'll still get the gist. I wouldn't do anything to confuse you way beyond hope. Hope you enjoyed this one; the next part will be out in a week or so. PLEASE REVIEW!!!