Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
A/N: Okay, remember how I told you guys that I wasn't getting any reviews? Well, a brilliant reviewer of mine came up with a genius idea as to why I wasn't getting any. It was because I had it set so that I could only receive reviews from people with accounts, and even those people couldn't review unless they were logged in. So I fixed that, and now I'm hoping to get more reviews. I feel like such an idiot. I'm telling you, if I weren't a brunette, I would make the perfect blonde (no offense to any of you blondes out there, my BFF is blonde, and she and I are the biggest ditzes in the world!! It's so much fun!! I do have blonde highlights, so I think that some of that blonde may have leaked through to my brain!!) Okay, so, here is the second chapter to this story, sorry it's taken so long to update. I'll update the other stories really, really soon, I promise.
Oh, and thanks so much to m-girls for the brilliant solution that I never would have come up with on my own!!
Also, in the last chapter I said that anything in italics was a flashback. Well, I lied. From now on, anything in italics is either a flashback or a dream. I'll leave you to decide which is which.
On with the story!!
Chapter 2: Dreams
"Harry?" a voice asked. Harry's heart began to pound. He knew that voice. He looked up into the light blue eyes of Ron Weasley. A disbelieving smile spread across his face.
"Ron!" he exclaimed, throwing his arms around his best friend. "It's so good to see you again! I can't believe you're actually here!"
Ron looked down at his raven-haired best friend. "Harry, what are you talking about, mate? I've been kicking your pathetic butt at chess for the past half hour."
Harry started. "What?" he asked, confused. Ron gave him a very strange look.
"Yeah, we came up here after lunch, and you asked if I wanted to play. Hermione went to the library saying that she couldn't stand watching us melt our brains. Don't you remember?" Ron asked. Harry shook his head. As he did so, he caught sight of Ginny sitting in the chair next to the chessboard. He wondered what she was doing there, as she wasn't speaking to him at the moment. Though, he realized, she wasn't speaking to him because Ron was dead, but Ron was clearly not dead. Harry also noticed that he was sitting in the Gryffindor common room, without any knowledge of how he had gotten there. He looked back at Ron, who was watching him curiously.
"Well, I'm not really surprised," Ron said matter-of-factly. "I mean, you kinda zoned out on us there for a minute."
"I did?" Harry asked, completely bewildered. "Really?"
"Really. I though you were having some kind of fit or something," Ron said, worry etched in his features. "You kinda trailed off in the middle of a sentence, and when I looked up at you, your eyes were all rolled back in your head, and you were staring somewhere over my head and kind of muttering to yourself. I really had no idea what you were doing. Ginny and I have been trying to get through for about five minutes, and we were only just able to a minute ago. What was going on?"
Harry shook his head. "I don't know," he admitted. "It was kind of weird. It was almost like a dream, I guess, but it felt so real. I really don't know what it was." Ron gave him another weird look and sighed.
"Whatever," he said, not wanting to continue the conversation. "Let's just get back to the game."
"Okay, where were we?" Harry asked. Ginny answered before Ron was able to.
"You were just about to make the move that would allow Ron to crush you flat," she said, her eyes sparkling and a small smile playing around her lips. Harry glared at her.
"Oh, stuff it, Ginny, I'm trying to concentrate," he said in mock anger. She placed her hand over her heart and slumped over the arm of his chair into his lap.
"Oh, Mr. Potter, your words are so cruel and spiteful," she said in a dramatic whisper. Harry fought hard to keep a straight face as he mock-glared down at the red head spread across his knees.
"There'll be more than cruel words if you don't get off me," he warned. She grinned and burrowed further down between his legs, so that she was almost on the floor.
"Ah, foolish Harry, I'd like to see you try and make me," she said playfully. She stood up off the floor and once again draped herself across his lap. "I'm not moving," she said in a singsong voice. Harry burst out laughing.
"Okay, seriously, Gin, get off," he gasped through his laughter. "I need to finish this game."
"That's okay, it won't take long," she said confidently, climbing off his lap and settling back down in her chair. Harry looked at her.
"How can you be so sure of that?" he asked. She grinned.
"Because Ron always kicks your butt in about three minutes," she said, her voice full of malice. Harry scowled.
"Yeah, well, he's not gonna win this time!" he declared. "Knight to H3!" (A/N: I really have no idea how the board is labeled, I only know a little bit about chess. I'm only quoting the first movie when Ron sacrifices himself in order to move Harry further. Remember that? I do, so I'm using that line.) The small white horse moved over one square and up two, where it was promptly taken out by Ron's queen. Ron grinned triumphantly.
"Checkmate," he said, looking slyly at Harry, who was frantically searching the board for some way to save his king. When he found none, he sighed.
"Ronald Weasley, I admit defeat. You are truly…a chess genius," he said dramatically, holding out his hand to his red haired best friend. Ron laughed and shook Harry's hand.
"Thank you, grasshopper," he said, taking on a very bad Asian accent. "Perhaps one day soon you too shall become a master of the game. The day when the student surpasses the teacher." Ron grinned, dropping the accent. "Yeah, like that'll happen in the next millennium." Harry punched him lightly on the arm and they both sniggered. Ginny sighed loudly.
"Are you finished now?" she asked impatiently. Harry grinned at her.
"Yeah, we're done," he said, nodding. She grinned.
"Good," she replied, and promptly took up her former position on Harry's lap. Harry sighed.
"I'm never getting rid of you, am I?" he asked her. She shook her head and grinned.
"Nope, never. You're stuck with me for the rest of your life," she teased. Harry laughed.
"So there's no point in trying to make you stop speaking to me?" he asked her. She laughed.
"Nope," she declared grandly, making Harry burst out laughing again. Ron watched the interaction with an amused look on his face.
"You know, you two are perfect for each other," he said. Ginny gave him a strange look.
"I know, Ronald, that's why we're dating," she said slowly, as if speaking to a three year old. Harry started.
"What?" he asked her. "What about me and Hermione?" Ginny looked at him as if he had sprouted an extra head.
"Harry, you broke up with Hermione last week, and then you asked me out," she said. Harry though for a moment.
"Oh," was all he said. Ginny was still giving him a strange look. Fortunately, Ron came up with the perfect excuse.
"Ginny, don't worry about it. I think that that trance thing that he went into wiped out some of his memory," Ron said, glancing at Harry. Harry nodded. "He remembers as soon as we say something about it, but he doesn't remember it off the top of his head." Ginny sighed in relief.
"Good," she said, wrapping her arms around Harry's neck. "I though you might want to break up with me." Harry smiled and slinked his arm around his girlfriend's waist.
"Ginny, I wouldn't break up with you," he assured her. "You're too perfect." Ginny smiled and snuggled down into his arms. Harry smiled. This was how things should be, he thought. All of his friends surrounding him, everyone laughing, no one crying. This was the perfect life.
Suddenly, things began to go blurry. Harry put one hand to his eyes in an attempt to clear his vision, but no luck. Everything was being pulled away from him. He caught a glimpse of Ginny's frightened doe-brown eyes.
"Harry?" she asked him. Her voice seemed distant and echo-y. "Harry, are you alright?" Harry opened his mouth to answer, but found that he had lost control of his vocal chords. The only thing he could do was sit there and watch the world melt away before his eyes.
Harry woke with a start, sitting in his own bed, his arms wrapped around nothing but thin air where Ginny had been moments before. It had all been so real. He had actually felt the girl sitting in his arms. Then it hit him. It had all been a dream. Just a dream. Nothing more. Bitter tears began to roll down his cheeks as he realized that it would never be like that again. Ever. None of it was real.
It was all just a dream.
A/N: Oh, poor Harry. He's just not having a very good time, is he? Okay, I know things may have gotten a little confusing there, but just hang in there with me. All will be explained in time. Yes, he will be getting to Hogwarts soon, most likely in the next chapter. Yes, I know this whole chapter was only Harry's dream, but it does have a purpose, and that will be explained later on in the story. So just hang in there and keep reading, and I'll try to update as quickly as possible so you won't be confused. And you all know that I love reviews so…
REVIEW!!!
