Chapter Fourteen: Opening Up
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
"Aaahhhhhh!!"
Reagan sat straight up in bed, sweat beads rolling down her cheek. She buried her face in her hands, trying to shut out what she had just seen. She squeezed her eyes shut, but the image of her Uncle Fred was etched in the back of her eye lids. His face was scarred, his eyes wide open, and a flash of green light...
"Stop it, Reagan," she muttered to herself. She threw her blankets off her and went down stairs for a glass of water.
"Good morning," her father said to her as she came into the room.
"Morning," she said. "Though its a bit too dark to be considered morning."
It had been this way for the past week. Reagan had returned home Saturday evening and that night she and her father took down their mental doors. Her Aunt Hermione had been there, coaching them along.
"Now, just think of your mental door opening, and open it very wide," she had said. Reagan had shut her eyes and opened the door to her mind and as he father did the same they were instantly feeling what the other was. The sensation knocked them off their feet literally.
"Now remember Reagan," Hermione had said. "You can't panic every time you experience something of Harry's. Somehow you have to learn how to live with the sensations and images your pick up from him."
"Its not very easy," Reagan had grumbled, trying not to get upset. The first thing she recognizably heard was her Uncle Ron's voice going on about how much of a know it all her Aunt Hermione was.
"Honestly, no wonder she hasn't got any friends."
Each night afterwards Reagan's dreams were filled with horrible images from her father's past, and each night they met in the kitchen, both to shaken to go directly back to sleep. Sometimes his memories were fused with her own into completely confusing dreams.
"Sorry about that one, Reagan," her father said to her. "I don't know what made me think of it."
"It was diner," Reagan replied. "Gran said slipped and mentioned Uncle Fred."
"Oh."
Reagan stared at her water, swirling it around the the glass till it spilled out. Having their Connection wide open was draining. She couldn't think about anything for the fear of having her father know what she was thinking.
"You know, I started to learn Occlumency my fifth year," Harry said. "We might try..."
"It doesn't work with this," Reagan replied. "I read about it in one of those books. I wish it were as simple as learning Occlumency."
Harry laughed. "Yeah."
"I'm going back to bed, Dad," Reagan said. She stood up and placed her glass in the sink, kissing her father on the forehead on her way out.
Reagan crept back into her bed and curled up with Eclipse in her arms. After a while she drifted back off to sleep...
Gryffindor was up by ten. If they caught the Snitch now they would win 260-100. She looked frantically for Josie, hoping she would realize this in time.
"Potter scores! Gryffindor leads 120 to 100! And... and... Josian Malfoy has seen the Snitch! She's in a dive, Josie and Mathias Malfoy are neck and neck, though Mathias has a better broom, wonder who's the favorite in that family. They're in a dead dive, and ... and SHE'S GOT IT AND OH!!!"
The crowd went silent and in the middle of the pitch was a head of red and gold Quidditch robes. Professor Murray, the Flying teacher and Quidditch referee ran over to the heap on the grass. Madame Pomfrey was at his side and slowly they rolled the heap over. It was the bloodstained lifeless face of a young blond girl that stared up into the stands and someone somewhere screamed.
Reagan woke up, realizing it was she who had screamed. Her hands were clammy and her face was sweaty again. She sat in her bed and tried to control her breathing as the morning sunlight came in through her window. She couldn't get Josie's lifeless face out of her mind; it was the same image that she had seen when she woke up in her dormitory, the morning after the Winter Ball.
"Its just a nightmare," she said to herself. "That never happened, that never will."
Reagan was a bit amazed that no one had come bursting into her room after she had screamed. The only reason for this she could think of was that her father must have cast a Silencing Charm on her room in the event of her waking up from a dream screaming.
Getting out of bed, Reagan grabbed her towel and bath robe off the back of her chair and went to take a shower, thinking a cold shower would calm her down.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Reagan, are you--" Harry began.
"Ready to go? Yes," Reagan replied, coming down the stairs. She was wearing a black V necked Muggle dress that stopped just above her knees, her hair pulled up into a loose up-do on her head. Her father grinned at her as he ushered her out to a black Ministry car waiting in the driveway.
"Evening Captain," the driver said and Harry nodded at him.
"Lets not loose the Minister shall we?" Harry said as he got into the car.
"Dad, your tie is crooked," Reagan said to him and began to fix it.
"How do you know how to tie a tie?" Harry asked.
"Honestly, Dad," she replied as she finished. "I know because you know."
"Of course," Harry replied.
"Now if I could know everything you know about History of Magic it would help me out in Binn's class."
"No luck there," her Uncle Ron said. "Your father didn't pay much attention in that class."
"Neither did you," Harry replied. "And why aren't you riding with your wife?"
Ron blushed. "She, uh, got a bit short with me this evening. I thought it best for Ginny to take my place in the first car and for me to ride with you."
"Why did Hermione get short with you?" Harry asked. "You weren't criticizing this tradition of hers again, were you?"
"I have no problem with the ballet," Ron said. "If she sits through the Cannons for me then I will sit through men in tights for her. I only asked why we had superb seats for the ballet, but we had mediocre seats for the Cannon's game."
"Ah, that old argument again?"
"It was not an argument, it was--"
"Uncle Ron, if you're in our car, then it was an argument," Reagan cut in.
"The girl has a point," Harry said.
"I got the twins ready to go to make up for it," Ron said. "Caitlin and Paul had to help though."
Reagan rolled her eyes at her uncle and caught her father's eye. They both had to swallow their laughter to not antagonize Ron any further.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Reagan walked along behind her father, looking around at the Muggle already seated. She didn't really have an opinion on Muggles, as far as she was concerned the wizarding world needed them to exist. Besides, they were interesting to watch, and sometimes they had good ideas. Reagan enjoyed muggle motion pictures and that had these things that allowed them to talk to each other no matter where they were. She looked around, hoping to catch a glance of one of those things, Professor Stalk, her Muggle Studies teacher, had called them cell phones. It was interesting to think that she could turn into a white fluffy dog, and she could fly on a broom and all the Muggles had was cell phone things. In some aspects they were better off than wizards. Wizards could talk to each other through the fire, but if you needed to contact someone who wasn't near a fire place was sometimes difficult. Owls worked, but it wasn't the same as talking to someone and hearing their voice.
"Are you going to sit down?" Darenn asked her, startling her. She stepped into the aisle, and took her seat, trying to make it obvious that she kept turning to watch when she heard a Muggle talking.
The orchestra began to warm and and Reagan relaxed into her chair. Her Aunt Hermione ahd the best ideas sometimes, though she wasn't sure about the men in tights bit yet. She watched as the ballet began, and the dancer that played Clara reminded her of Josie.
Further along in the play, something caught Reagan's attention. A man dressed in a long back cloak stepped onto the stage, holding a wand. Reagan glanced around her and saw that no one else was seeing this. The Muggles in front of her didn't seem to notice. She squeezed her eyes shut hoping the man would go away. When she opened her eyes, she saw not one man, but three me. One was tall with dark messy hair, and the other was tall with a long white beard and matching long white hair. The dancers on stage didn't seem to notice them. They danced around, the large rats taking on the toy soldiers with their swords.
"Stay back," the old wizard said.
"But sir!"
"It is not up for discussion!" the old wizard exclaimed. Reagan looked around again, wondering if anyone else was seeing what she was. No one was, or if they were they didn't show it.
"Sir, I won't let you go alone!" the younger wizard said. Reagan could hear them as if she were standing next to them on stage.
"There is not time to argue with you, Harry," the old wizard said. Reagan tensed when she realized what was going on. She was seeing her father's memory, his memory of when he defeated Voldemort. The old wizard was Dumbledore, and the man in the black cloak must have been Voldemort. The young wizard was her father.
Reagan watched as Dumbledore began to duel with Voldemort, her father standing and watching, not wanting to disobey Dumbledore. Around them, the dancers performed as if there were no wizards on stage. After a few moments, there was a flash of green light and Reagan saw Dumbledore begin to fall to the floor. Instantly her father waved his wand and Voldemort fell too, hitting the ground seconds after Dumbledore. Reagan gasped, covering her mouth with her hand.
"Reagan, what's wrong?" her mother asked. Reagan stared at the scene on the stage where two wizards lay on the floor, and the other stood looking at them, a look of horror on his face. A red headed woman ran to his side and put her arms around him, before they both fell to their knees. Reagan realized that that must have been her mother running to comfort her father.
"I can see you," Reagan said to her. Ginny looked at her daughter, not sure what she mean. "I can see you, Mum. You're on stage. You're hugging Dad."
"Reagan what are you talking about?" Ginny asked.
"Thats so sad," Reagan said. "He had to stand there and watch him die. He couldn't do anything."
"Reagan, what are you talking about?" Ginny repeated.
"Mum, its okay," Reagan said. "I'm not scared this time."
Ginny looked from her daughter to the stage and then at Harry, who was oblivious to what was going on.
"Dad, I'm sorry," Reagan whispered to her father.
"For what, sweetie?"
"You had to watch Dumbledore die."
Harry turned and looked at her in bewilderment.
"What--?"
"I just watched it happen," she replied. "I just say you on stage."
"And you didn't get scared?" he asked.
"At first it startled me," she said. "But I just watched, like they were apart of the play, and I watched you defeat Voldemort."
"Harry, what--"
"Reagan, can you see them now?" Harry asked.
"Yes," Reagan nodded. "Its you and Mum, you're sitting on the floor, there's no one else around you, but I can see the magic flying through the air."
"Can you make them go away?" he asked.
Reagan stared at the figures on the stage, willing them away. To her amazement, they faded as the dancers leapt across the space they had been.
"Yes, I can," she replied. "They're gone."
"You're doing it," he said. "Somehow you were able to control it without blocking it out."
Reagan grinned.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Reagan!" Ginny called. "You've had an owl!"
Thats odd, Reagan thought. Usually my owls come to me. She got down off her bed and went quickly down the stairs to take her letter from her mother.
"Its from Josie," her mother said as Reagan took the letter from her. "For some reason her owl came to the kitchen."
Reagan shrugged and ran back up the stairs, shutting her door carefully. She didn't want to attract too much attention; for some reason she had a bad feeling about what Josie had to say.
Reagan,
Sorry about having to use my brother's owl, mine was off delivering a letter to Cal. Anyway, Mathias didn't even notice he was gone, fact I caught his owl before he even knew he was back.
Thank you for the box of Sugar Quills, I was desperately needing candy! I was grateful to not get any more books, Father insists that you can never have too many of them!
I keep having these horrible dreams. I've dreamt that I'm flying in a Quidditch match, against Slytherin and Mathias and I go into this dive to get the Snitch and out of the corner of my eye I see a big black bear like dog, and my dream self thinks its a Grim, and then when I catch the Snitch I crash into the ground and I hear someone scream. I known I can't be predicting things because we've already played Slytherin and I've been having them for a while, since before the Winter Ball. I know your Aunt thinks that Divination is rubbish, but does she have any ideas? Do you? What about your parents? If I ask mine, then they'll think I'm loosing my mind. They won't take me seriously. So can you see what you can come up with. I saw a lot of dream interpretation books in your father's study while I was there. Sorry, the door was open and I just peeked in! I hope you can help me, Reagan, I'm beginning to get afraid of going to sleep!
Love ya!
Josie
Reagan folded the letter up and thought for a moment. Josie's dream sounded awfully like he one she had had, though there was no Grim in Reagan's dream.
Reagan sighed. She wished that she could have a normal peaceful holiday without having to look anything up. However, she was curious to what the dream meant. Making up her mind, she quickly drafted a letter to a friend of her father's, Anna McCormick, who was renowned for her dream interpretations. She was able to interpret her father's dreams during the war with Voldemort, and helped the Order of the Phoenix in many ways.
"Often while at rest, the mind picks up on time continuum and we dream of what is to come," Reagan recited to herself. Anna was one of the only member of the High Divination Council that she would ever listen to.
After she sealed her letter and send Vira off, she sat back down at her desk, looking at the pictures.
"Time is a continuum and your mind in a way is able to see what will happen or what has already happened and you see these images as dreams."
Sirius' words popped into her head, and she wondered for a moments whether or not that was why Josie was having a dream similar to hers.
Thats silly, Reagan told herself. Josie can't have a Connection with her father. She just can't. And that wouldn't explain why her dream was so similar to mine.
"But what is she was just picking up things in her dream," Reagan said out loud. "If time is a continuum, then she could pick up on things in her sleep. I do it because of my Connection, but the images I see are much stronger and much clearer. So maybe she's just seeing something that hasn't happened yet."
But we already played Slytherin.
Reagan sighed again. "Maybe she just had a dream and it means nothing."
A/N: This is the Yahoo!Group I created for my fan fiction. Everything is archived there also. There are also character pics, Animagus pics, fiction lists and other fun stuff. http:// groups.yahoo.com/group/ericaevansff/
If that link doesn't work or if it doesn't show up, the link is on my aurhor page, under homepage. ~EE
