Disclaimer: Much as I'd like to, I don't own Draco Malfoy, or any part of the magical world that J.K. Rowling has all the copyrights to ... please don't sue me. There are some parts of this story that are quotes from the book - it can't be helped - events are the same as in the book, but Draco's opinion of these events may vary from Harry's.
Author's Notes: I needed to do some re-writing, after reading OotP. I have made some minor changes to this chapter, mostly spelling and grammar.
dragonsprincess: Thank you - I thought those names would suit it. My demon-cat is a he ... and he's only about 5 months old. We've only had him for four weeks.
angekas: Yeah, I thought he looked a bit gay ... that's why I think it's so funny to have people see that, when he's actually not gay. Well, you saw how Macnair was about the Buckbeak incident ... it seems to fit with what little I know about him that he'd have hacked people to pieces when he was a Death Eater. I don't know how Lucius knew the snake was female, so I can't really tell ya.
Starre: Thanks ... oh ... I never even knew there were trading cards.
Caz Malfoy: Nah, Lucius isn't the same as ATHSS ... this fic is based entirely on canon - it is not and will hopefully never be AU (except Anti-Umbridge - it will be that - oh, the plot-bunnies for OotP are everywhere! *waves a cross at all the bunnies* back, demons, I'm not writing you for ages yet!).
Logan: Yeah, I know that curse takes a lot of power ... you'd think that Harry's rival at school would be close (if not actually equal) to him, wouldn't you? Which plot-twist might that be? *fake innocent look that's fooling no one*. Thanks for the long review.
slytherin-punk-rocker311: Sorry, I'm not on Neopets. I'm debating revealing more about Severus in GoF ... but I'm afraid if I do reveal what I think about him I'll end up having to do a total re-write of it when the next book comes out. I have ideas, though ... after all, there must have been more in that Pensieve in OotP than the one memory we saw *evil grin*.
Bob: I had just finished publishing PoA when I started the rewrite - I uploaded the last chapter of PoA two days before OotP was released. I have several unfinished stories that I never published ... I may or may not finish them, it depends on my muses. And I don't have the right muses or motivation to rewrite ATHSS right now ... maybe some time I might ... maybe.
I took far too much inspiration from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, for the nightmares in this chapter ... but I was high on caffine and insomnia at the time ... and besides, *whines* it was FUNNY!
"Why spiders? Why couldn't it have been follow the butterflies?" -Ron Weasley, CoS movie.
Chapter 13 - Dreams From The Dementors
The first night back to school, I had another nightmare ... the frightening thing was it was so real - so believable, when it was happening. I was in the Chamber of Secrets again, apparently alone. That is until I was grabbed from behind.
Tom held me tightly, by the arms, "Welcome back, Draco." he whispered, "Welcome to your worst nightmare."
"What's going on?" I asked fearfully, "You're dead - Potter killed you. You can't be real."
"I'm as real as your fear of me, Draco. As real as your loathing of me." Tom replied, "I was created by your darkest, most hated fears."
"I don't know what you mean." I whispered, struggling to free myself from his grasp.
"Don't fight me, Draco. It'll be worse for you, if you do." he whispered, forceably turning me to face him - he looked the same as he had done in the last dream I had of the Chamber of Secrets, except his eyes were now red instead of turquoise.
"What do you want from me?" I asked.
"What did you always fear I wanted from you?" he replied, "Your innocence ... your soul." he pulled me towards him, and I felt ice-cold lips on my cheek, kissing me violently.
My eyes widened with horror, as I realised exactly what he meant - exactly what he wanted. This really was what I had always feared from him, since that kiss the day Hermione had been Petrified - I had deliberately not considered it, consciously, before. "No." I whispered, trying to keep the choking sound out of my voice, "Please don't."
His hand moved to grip my jaw, tilting my head back to force me to look up at him. "You don't really expect me to listen to your pleas for mercy, do you?" he asked condescendingly.
I bit my lip and held my arms up between us, trying to push away from him, but he was too strong. "Let me go!" I shouted, kicking at his legs. My reasoning was that he was already dead - this had to be simply a nightmare from my own mind, so he couldn't hurt me if I could just get away from him now.
Tom laughed, "Don't be so foolish, boy. There's nowhere to run." Suddenly, the entire Chamber started to shake, almost like an earthquake. "What's happening?" Tom asked, letting me go, in his confusion.
As soon as I was free from his grasp, I woke up. I found myself being violently shaken awake by Theo.
"I'm awake." I snapped, "Stop it!"
Theo immediately let go of my shoulder, "You were having a nightmare ... and even if you hadn't been, I'd have woken you to tell you about mine." he said, sitting down on the edge of my bed.
I sat up, wiping a cold sweat from my forehead, "You don't need to hear what I was dreaming about." I said quietly.
"You were kicking, and shouting 'let me go'." Theo noted.
"You said you wanted to tell me about your nightmare." I said, carefully avoiding the subject of my own - I didn't want to share that little horror story with anyone else, at all. I subconsciously rubbed the side of my face - I could still feel the cold in it - if the dream had been real, I was sure it would have been bruised. I think He even bit me.
Theo gave me an odd look, before sighing in a way that said he really wanted to be a nosey git, but would refrain from doing so, for now, "It was a nightmare I'd thought I'd outgrown years ago. I was wandering through a labyrinth, totally lost, and something was following me. It's the freakiest nightmare I'd ever had, and last time I had it I stayed awake for seventy-two hours straight, after it." he said, watching my reaction - I just stared straight back at him, impassively, "The only thing is, this voice that wasn't there before, saying, 'what's behind you? Scared of your shadow, eh, Theodore? I'm not surprised, but you're the easiest - you're worst horror is so simple to recreate'. I don't get where that came from."
"Weird. My nightmare, there was someone else in it, and he said he was created by my darkest, most hated fears." I said quietly, staring across the room, at the stone wall.
"Who?"
"I told you I wasn't going to tell you about it." I growled.
Just then, Crabbe sat bolt upright, his hands over his face, gasping with terror. He looked around, slowly taking in the fact that he was in the dormitory, "Just a dream." he whispered.
"What was it?" I asked.
Crabbe looked at me dumbly, for a second, before answering, "I went up to the Great Hall for breakfast, and everyone had turned into ghosts and all the food was rotten like at ghost parties, and there was nothing to eat."
"That sounds like a nightmare to me." I said in a snide tone, while Theo tried not to laugh at Crabbe's idea of a nightmare.
"And this voice saying, 'greedy git, try the haggis, the maggots are nice this time of year'." Crabbe added, shuddering.
"There's a running theme, here - voices taunting us in our nightmares." I said, "Who thinks this might not be a coincidence?"
"Given that you don't believe in coincidences, I'd say you think something's going on?" Theo asked.
I nodded, but didn't get a chance to speak for Goyle jumping up and whacking something imaginary off his shoulders and hair. After at least half a minute, he realised it had been a dream, too. "What was your nightmare, Goyle?" I asked.
"Out in the desert ... following the trail of red biting-butterflies ... then the swarm ... I had it before, Malfoy - you remember I told you?" Goyle replied.
"Yeah, I remember that one. You had to wear incontinence pants for a week, in your sleep, cause you'd wet yourself that night." I said, and Theo snorted with badly suppressed laughter. "Seriously, though - any strange voices that you didn't recognise from before?"
"Yeah." Goyle answered, too daft to notice I'd just told Theo about his bedwetting problems from six years previously, "It said, 'Scared of this. Why don't you just kill yourself now? I'm going to take you over the edge and there's nothing you can do about it'."
"This is getting creepy." I said, getting up and getting changed. "No way I'm going back to sleep, now."
"Me neither." Theo noted, starting to get dressed, himself.
Crabbe and Goyle followed suit. Goyle, muttering, "Why butterflies? Why couldn't it have been follow the bunnies?"
* * *
The four of us wandered out into the common room, at about the same time the four girls from our year emerged, also changed into normal robes, from the girls' corridor.
"You had nightmares too?" Theo asked. All four of them nodded.
"What were yours?" I asked.
Blaise shifted uneasily, before saying, "Demonic bunnies, with fangs ... evil fuzz-balls, hippity-hopping all over my vulnerable flesh ... and a voice saying, 'hippity hoppity, hippity hoppity ... you like my bunnie-wunnies? I'll bring more next time'."
"There's that voice, again." I muttered.
Cat then spoke up, "I was tied down on a stone table, like a sacrifice alter ... my lips were sewn shut, and there were needles in my arms and neck ... the voice was almost singing, 'Can't even scream, can't even cry, you won't get away no matter what you try. Can't even shout, can't say a word, you're gonna die screaming and you won't be heard'."
I looked to Pansy, "Pansy ... what was your nightmare?"
She looked up at me, trembling, "Fire." she whispered.
My jaw dropped, and my eyes widened, "Oh, Pansy." I whispered, and I immediately stepped forward and hugged her, in what I hoped was a comforting way.
"It was all round me, like when it really happened, but you weren't there to save me this time." she whimpered, wrapping her arms around me and holding on like I was a lifeline.
"You're safe now, Pansy. It was just a dream." I said soothingly, rubbing her back. When we had been small children, I had had a tree house in the Manor grounds. We had always played up there together. A stray spark of accidental magic had set the place on fire, and I had saved her life. She had been absolutely terrified that day. She's still afraid of fire, in all shapes and forms, and even refuses point-blank to use Floo Powder.
"The v-voice." Pansy whimpered, "It said, 'I've brought you back to your worst experience. Fire pretty, tree bad. Won't you play here anymore, dear?'."
I looked over Pansy's shoulder at Milli, "What about you, Milli?"
"I was alone, in the dark ... sitting on my own, with nothing but shadows all around, and eyes watching me from the shadows. All different eyes - different colours and sizes and shapes, but all watching me, evilly. I kept hiding my face, cause after last year, I wondered what if one pair of eyes was the wrong pair to look into -"
"Like a Basilisk?" Theo asked.
Milli nodded, before continuing, "And the voice, like you guys all said, saying, 'I'm watching you. I don't need eyes to see your worst fears. I'll bring you back to this place again and again, until you scream and cry ... until you die'. Of course, I refused to degrade myself by crying - I have pride."
"Of course you do. We all do." I said, still holding Pansy, protectively.
Pansy sniffed, and rested her chin on my shoulder. I was going to have to decide when she had stopped being traumatised and when it simply became an excuse to hold me. I chose to leave that decision for a while, since I was grateful for someone I knew and felt safe with hugging me, too, at this point.
"Worst fears, memories and nightmares." Theo muttered, "And it said to Milli that it didn't need eyes to see her fears."
"Eyes." I said, suddenly, catching on to what Theo was implying, "Dementors don't have eyes."
"You think one's strayed up to the school?" Blaise asked.
"I think one has deliberately wandered up to the school - no straying - straying implies lack of intent." I replied coldly.
"Our dormitory is right at the outer wall, at the end of the corridor." Theo noted.
"Ours too." Milli said.
"That could be why we got the nightmares, when no one else did." Crabbe said, surprisingly intelligent comment for him. I made a conscious check of his hair-colour - I do that every time he makes an intelligent remark, after the Polyjuice incident.
"Or maybe they just didn't get them as badly as we did." I noted.
"Someone should go tell a teacher - Dumbledore'll not be pleased if those soul-suckers are wandering onto the grounds again." Theo said. I shuddered slightly at the description he used for the Dementors. Pansy tightened her grip on me and I gently stroked her hair, trying to use the fact that I was comforting her to distract me from the nightmare I'd had myself. This was real - that had been a dream ... just a dream.
"I'll go to Dumbledore." Theo volunteered, "Lupin actually sent me to the Headmaster's office, last term, so I think I know the password."
"We'll go with you." I said, gently pushing Pansy away from me, but still holding her hands to indicate that I meant I wouldn't leave her alone. She nodded slightly, wiping her eyes.
The three of us followed the secret passage to Snape's office, and from there, along a corridor to another passage up several rickety flights of stairs, "I hope you know where you're going, Theo." Pansy whispered.
"I know." Theo replied calmly, "It's just opposite the exit from this stairwell, on the third floor."
And so it was. The password turned out to be Sherbet Lemon. "Been that for twelve years, apparently ... so Lupin tells me." Theo noted as we ascended a moving spiral staircase. "What's the betting he knows we're coming?"
"I wouldn't dare bet on that." I said nervously.
Sure enough, though, Professor Dumbledore greeted us as we reached the top of the staircase. "Good morning, children. What brings you here at this hour?"
"We think there's a Dementor hanging around near the castle - we all got nightmares - really bad ones." Theo said bluntly.
Dumbledore frowned, obviously not pleased, though whether he was displeased because we had bothered him or because of the Dementor, it was impossible for me to tell at that moment. "What makes you so certain?" he asked.
"We all heard voices in our dreams, saying they were our worst nightmares, memories or fears, and that it was to torment us and drive us over the edge - I think it was mocking us." I said coldly.
Dumbledore nodded, "I see." he then started down the staircase, still speaking to us, as we followed him, "Please return to your dormitories - I will deal with the situation." As we were about to leave, towards the dungeons, he added, "Thank you for informing me of this."
After we returned to the dormitory, none of us were brave enough to go back to sleep. Snape arrived at five in the morning to tell us that we had been right and to get some sleep, but we still stayed up ... much coffee was consumed by the Slytherin third-years, that morning.
* * *
End of chapter 13
Author's Notes: I needed to do some re-writing, after reading OotP. I have made some minor changes to this chapter, mostly spelling and grammar.
dragonsprincess: Thank you - I thought those names would suit it. My demon-cat is a he ... and he's only about 5 months old. We've only had him for four weeks.
angekas: Yeah, I thought he looked a bit gay ... that's why I think it's so funny to have people see that, when he's actually not gay. Well, you saw how Macnair was about the Buckbeak incident ... it seems to fit with what little I know about him that he'd have hacked people to pieces when he was a Death Eater. I don't know how Lucius knew the snake was female, so I can't really tell ya.
Starre: Thanks ... oh ... I never even knew there were trading cards.
Caz Malfoy: Nah, Lucius isn't the same as ATHSS ... this fic is based entirely on canon - it is not and will hopefully never be AU (except Anti-Umbridge - it will be that - oh, the plot-bunnies for OotP are everywhere! *waves a cross at all the bunnies* back, demons, I'm not writing you for ages yet!).
Logan: Yeah, I know that curse takes a lot of power ... you'd think that Harry's rival at school would be close (if not actually equal) to him, wouldn't you? Which plot-twist might that be? *fake innocent look that's fooling no one*. Thanks for the long review.
slytherin-punk-rocker311: Sorry, I'm not on Neopets. I'm debating revealing more about Severus in GoF ... but I'm afraid if I do reveal what I think about him I'll end up having to do a total re-write of it when the next book comes out. I have ideas, though ... after all, there must have been more in that Pensieve in OotP than the one memory we saw *evil grin*.
Bob: I had just finished publishing PoA when I started the rewrite - I uploaded the last chapter of PoA two days before OotP was released. I have several unfinished stories that I never published ... I may or may not finish them, it depends on my muses. And I don't have the right muses or motivation to rewrite ATHSS right now ... maybe some time I might ... maybe.
I took far too much inspiration from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, for the nightmares in this chapter ... but I was high on caffine and insomnia at the time ... and besides, *whines* it was FUNNY!
"Why spiders? Why couldn't it have been follow the butterflies?" -Ron Weasley, CoS movie.
Chapter 13 - Dreams From The Dementors
The first night back to school, I had another nightmare ... the frightening thing was it was so real - so believable, when it was happening. I was in the Chamber of Secrets again, apparently alone. That is until I was grabbed from behind.
Tom held me tightly, by the arms, "Welcome back, Draco." he whispered, "Welcome to your worst nightmare."
"What's going on?" I asked fearfully, "You're dead - Potter killed you. You can't be real."
"I'm as real as your fear of me, Draco. As real as your loathing of me." Tom replied, "I was created by your darkest, most hated fears."
"I don't know what you mean." I whispered, struggling to free myself from his grasp.
"Don't fight me, Draco. It'll be worse for you, if you do." he whispered, forceably turning me to face him - he looked the same as he had done in the last dream I had of the Chamber of Secrets, except his eyes were now red instead of turquoise.
"What do you want from me?" I asked.
"What did you always fear I wanted from you?" he replied, "Your innocence ... your soul." he pulled me towards him, and I felt ice-cold lips on my cheek, kissing me violently.
My eyes widened with horror, as I realised exactly what he meant - exactly what he wanted. This really was what I had always feared from him, since that kiss the day Hermione had been Petrified - I had deliberately not considered it, consciously, before. "No." I whispered, trying to keep the choking sound out of my voice, "Please don't."
His hand moved to grip my jaw, tilting my head back to force me to look up at him. "You don't really expect me to listen to your pleas for mercy, do you?" he asked condescendingly.
I bit my lip and held my arms up between us, trying to push away from him, but he was too strong. "Let me go!" I shouted, kicking at his legs. My reasoning was that he was already dead - this had to be simply a nightmare from my own mind, so he couldn't hurt me if I could just get away from him now.
Tom laughed, "Don't be so foolish, boy. There's nowhere to run." Suddenly, the entire Chamber started to shake, almost like an earthquake. "What's happening?" Tom asked, letting me go, in his confusion.
As soon as I was free from his grasp, I woke up. I found myself being violently shaken awake by Theo.
"I'm awake." I snapped, "Stop it!"
Theo immediately let go of my shoulder, "You were having a nightmare ... and even if you hadn't been, I'd have woken you to tell you about mine." he said, sitting down on the edge of my bed.
I sat up, wiping a cold sweat from my forehead, "You don't need to hear what I was dreaming about." I said quietly.
"You were kicking, and shouting 'let me go'." Theo noted.
"You said you wanted to tell me about your nightmare." I said, carefully avoiding the subject of my own - I didn't want to share that little horror story with anyone else, at all. I subconsciously rubbed the side of my face - I could still feel the cold in it - if the dream had been real, I was sure it would have been bruised. I think He even bit me.
Theo gave me an odd look, before sighing in a way that said he really wanted to be a nosey git, but would refrain from doing so, for now, "It was a nightmare I'd thought I'd outgrown years ago. I was wandering through a labyrinth, totally lost, and something was following me. It's the freakiest nightmare I'd ever had, and last time I had it I stayed awake for seventy-two hours straight, after it." he said, watching my reaction - I just stared straight back at him, impassively, "The only thing is, this voice that wasn't there before, saying, 'what's behind you? Scared of your shadow, eh, Theodore? I'm not surprised, but you're the easiest - you're worst horror is so simple to recreate'. I don't get where that came from."
"Weird. My nightmare, there was someone else in it, and he said he was created by my darkest, most hated fears." I said quietly, staring across the room, at the stone wall.
"Who?"
"I told you I wasn't going to tell you about it." I growled.
Just then, Crabbe sat bolt upright, his hands over his face, gasping with terror. He looked around, slowly taking in the fact that he was in the dormitory, "Just a dream." he whispered.
"What was it?" I asked.
Crabbe looked at me dumbly, for a second, before answering, "I went up to the Great Hall for breakfast, and everyone had turned into ghosts and all the food was rotten like at ghost parties, and there was nothing to eat."
"That sounds like a nightmare to me." I said in a snide tone, while Theo tried not to laugh at Crabbe's idea of a nightmare.
"And this voice saying, 'greedy git, try the haggis, the maggots are nice this time of year'." Crabbe added, shuddering.
"There's a running theme, here - voices taunting us in our nightmares." I said, "Who thinks this might not be a coincidence?"
"Given that you don't believe in coincidences, I'd say you think something's going on?" Theo asked.
I nodded, but didn't get a chance to speak for Goyle jumping up and whacking something imaginary off his shoulders and hair. After at least half a minute, he realised it had been a dream, too. "What was your nightmare, Goyle?" I asked.
"Out in the desert ... following the trail of red biting-butterflies ... then the swarm ... I had it before, Malfoy - you remember I told you?" Goyle replied.
"Yeah, I remember that one. You had to wear incontinence pants for a week, in your sleep, cause you'd wet yourself that night." I said, and Theo snorted with badly suppressed laughter. "Seriously, though - any strange voices that you didn't recognise from before?"
"Yeah." Goyle answered, too daft to notice I'd just told Theo about his bedwetting problems from six years previously, "It said, 'Scared of this. Why don't you just kill yourself now? I'm going to take you over the edge and there's nothing you can do about it'."
"This is getting creepy." I said, getting up and getting changed. "No way I'm going back to sleep, now."
"Me neither." Theo noted, starting to get dressed, himself.
Crabbe and Goyle followed suit. Goyle, muttering, "Why butterflies? Why couldn't it have been follow the bunnies?"
* * *
The four of us wandered out into the common room, at about the same time the four girls from our year emerged, also changed into normal robes, from the girls' corridor.
"You had nightmares too?" Theo asked. All four of them nodded.
"What were yours?" I asked.
Blaise shifted uneasily, before saying, "Demonic bunnies, with fangs ... evil fuzz-balls, hippity-hopping all over my vulnerable flesh ... and a voice saying, 'hippity hoppity, hippity hoppity ... you like my bunnie-wunnies? I'll bring more next time'."
"There's that voice, again." I muttered.
Cat then spoke up, "I was tied down on a stone table, like a sacrifice alter ... my lips were sewn shut, and there were needles in my arms and neck ... the voice was almost singing, 'Can't even scream, can't even cry, you won't get away no matter what you try. Can't even shout, can't say a word, you're gonna die screaming and you won't be heard'."
I looked to Pansy, "Pansy ... what was your nightmare?"
She looked up at me, trembling, "Fire." she whispered.
My jaw dropped, and my eyes widened, "Oh, Pansy." I whispered, and I immediately stepped forward and hugged her, in what I hoped was a comforting way.
"It was all round me, like when it really happened, but you weren't there to save me this time." she whimpered, wrapping her arms around me and holding on like I was a lifeline.
"You're safe now, Pansy. It was just a dream." I said soothingly, rubbing her back. When we had been small children, I had had a tree house in the Manor grounds. We had always played up there together. A stray spark of accidental magic had set the place on fire, and I had saved her life. She had been absolutely terrified that day. She's still afraid of fire, in all shapes and forms, and even refuses point-blank to use Floo Powder.
"The v-voice." Pansy whimpered, "It said, 'I've brought you back to your worst experience. Fire pretty, tree bad. Won't you play here anymore, dear?'."
I looked over Pansy's shoulder at Milli, "What about you, Milli?"
"I was alone, in the dark ... sitting on my own, with nothing but shadows all around, and eyes watching me from the shadows. All different eyes - different colours and sizes and shapes, but all watching me, evilly. I kept hiding my face, cause after last year, I wondered what if one pair of eyes was the wrong pair to look into -"
"Like a Basilisk?" Theo asked.
Milli nodded, before continuing, "And the voice, like you guys all said, saying, 'I'm watching you. I don't need eyes to see your worst fears. I'll bring you back to this place again and again, until you scream and cry ... until you die'. Of course, I refused to degrade myself by crying - I have pride."
"Of course you do. We all do." I said, still holding Pansy, protectively.
Pansy sniffed, and rested her chin on my shoulder. I was going to have to decide when she had stopped being traumatised and when it simply became an excuse to hold me. I chose to leave that decision for a while, since I was grateful for someone I knew and felt safe with hugging me, too, at this point.
"Worst fears, memories and nightmares." Theo muttered, "And it said to Milli that it didn't need eyes to see her fears."
"Eyes." I said, suddenly, catching on to what Theo was implying, "Dementors don't have eyes."
"You think one's strayed up to the school?" Blaise asked.
"I think one has deliberately wandered up to the school - no straying - straying implies lack of intent." I replied coldly.
"Our dormitory is right at the outer wall, at the end of the corridor." Theo noted.
"Ours too." Milli said.
"That could be why we got the nightmares, when no one else did." Crabbe said, surprisingly intelligent comment for him. I made a conscious check of his hair-colour - I do that every time he makes an intelligent remark, after the Polyjuice incident.
"Or maybe they just didn't get them as badly as we did." I noted.
"Someone should go tell a teacher - Dumbledore'll not be pleased if those soul-suckers are wandering onto the grounds again." Theo said. I shuddered slightly at the description he used for the Dementors. Pansy tightened her grip on me and I gently stroked her hair, trying to use the fact that I was comforting her to distract me from the nightmare I'd had myself. This was real - that had been a dream ... just a dream.
"I'll go to Dumbledore." Theo volunteered, "Lupin actually sent me to the Headmaster's office, last term, so I think I know the password."
"We'll go with you." I said, gently pushing Pansy away from me, but still holding her hands to indicate that I meant I wouldn't leave her alone. She nodded slightly, wiping her eyes.
The three of us followed the secret passage to Snape's office, and from there, along a corridor to another passage up several rickety flights of stairs, "I hope you know where you're going, Theo." Pansy whispered.
"I know." Theo replied calmly, "It's just opposite the exit from this stairwell, on the third floor."
And so it was. The password turned out to be Sherbet Lemon. "Been that for twelve years, apparently ... so Lupin tells me." Theo noted as we ascended a moving spiral staircase. "What's the betting he knows we're coming?"
"I wouldn't dare bet on that." I said nervously.
Sure enough, though, Professor Dumbledore greeted us as we reached the top of the staircase. "Good morning, children. What brings you here at this hour?"
"We think there's a Dementor hanging around near the castle - we all got nightmares - really bad ones." Theo said bluntly.
Dumbledore frowned, obviously not pleased, though whether he was displeased because we had bothered him or because of the Dementor, it was impossible for me to tell at that moment. "What makes you so certain?" he asked.
"We all heard voices in our dreams, saying they were our worst nightmares, memories or fears, and that it was to torment us and drive us over the edge - I think it was mocking us." I said coldly.
Dumbledore nodded, "I see." he then started down the staircase, still speaking to us, as we followed him, "Please return to your dormitories - I will deal with the situation." As we were about to leave, towards the dungeons, he added, "Thank you for informing me of this."
After we returned to the dormitory, none of us were brave enough to go back to sleep. Snape arrived at five in the morning to tell us that we had been right and to get some sleep, but we still stayed up ... much coffee was consumed by the Slytherin third-years, that morning.
* * *
End of chapter 13