HARRY POTTER and the DARKEST NIGHT

Chapter 19 - Dreams of a Watery Grave

By: Zero Star (zrostar)

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Harry floated alone in a pool of sun warmed water. A wonderful time to relax and he was content. It was the end of spring and everything smelled of flowers and greenery.

While relaxing he was only vaguely aware of a dark form slinking in his direction.
Eyes closed in contentment, he didn't see the face of coming danger.
He didn't see the face, but he heard a familiar voice. It set off alarms deep within him,
every part of his body. A laughing that was high and cruel.

Before he realized what was happening, he felt something evil rising under the water, coming for him.

The warm sunny water suddenly turned black and cold, like being encased in ice.
The sky went dark, the sun died away.

Cold iron chains that stretched from a dark eternity beneath him grabbed Harry so tightly and painfully he couldn't cry out for help. He couldn't struggle. He could only feel his own pain and the stabbing cold across his entire body.

The chains pulled him down into the frozen darkness.

Harry gasped for the last breath he would every take.

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Harry fell out of bed, choking and coughing. He sputtered up water, as if he'd taken it with him from his nightmare
into the waking world.

"Harry!" Ron whispered loudly. He was beside his needy friend.

Ron had again been watching Harry fight in his sleep and instantly had rushed to Harry's aid when he began to cough
horribly.

Harry breathed heavily trying hard to catch his breath, he was cold and he felt half drowned. He was about to thank Ron for his attentiveness when he choked hard again, this time uncontrollably vomitting.

A get swell of water burst out of Harry, and splattered across the floor. It was cold and foul and the two of them moved backwards to avoid it.

"Mate, you didn't drink a gallon of lake water before you went to bed did you?" Ron grew worried and pale at the site of his dearest friend.

"No..." Harry gasped, laying backwards on the floor. It helped him steady his swirling head.
"I dreamt ... I dreamt I was drownding. Like ... someone ... had - was going to ... murder me."
He seperated his words with sharp intakes of breath. "Had murdered me."

"This is water from your dream?" Ron looked at the black puddle on the stone floor. It seemed evil somehow. "We have to tell someone."

Harry's lungs were sore, he was more tired than he'd ever been after one of these nightmares. The last thing he wanted to do was to take to any of the staff about it.

"Harry!!" Ron cried louder. "We have to tell someone! I don't want you to drown in your sleep."

Harry Potter was overcome with a stressed and irrational rage, he sat up and clentched teeth and fist. About ready to shout at his best friend who only wanted to help him. The words were at the tip of his tounge until he saw Ron's face.

Ron looked about ready to cry, his eyes wide and watery. His face pale as a sheet. He seemed to be shaking with complete fear and worry. All for Harry. At the site of this, Harry was nearly overcome with tears of his own. He was greatful for his friends and all they had done for him. He'd never treated them well enough, now that he was thinking about it.

"Alright..." Harry nodded. "Let's start with Hermione... We'll go from there."

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Hermione had not been asleep, she had been reading in the common room, again. The same book of Slytherins Ron had brought her.

"You woke up drowding?" Hermione's voice was small and frightened for him, as helpful as she was trying to be. But she too was worried for Harry.

"Yeah... then I choked up the water... after I'd woken up..." Harry said. His voice making a slow recovery.

"We should save some." She said firmly. "Maybe a teacher can tell us more about it if we have something to show them."

Ron nodded. "She's right Harry! Like Snape's aura charm. There's all kinds of things stuff like that can tell the right wizard."

After convicing an embaressed Harry, Ron finally ran back to the boy's dormatory to try to collect some.

"Really Harry, it's alright." Hermione pressed her hand gentle into his own. "We'll help you as best we can, you know that."

"I know..." He said thoughtfully. How well he knew, considering all the three had been through together.

After much debate, Hermione finally agreed to let them go back to bed. If Ron kept an eye on him, and in the morning, since it was Sunday, they could tell a professor about it.

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The morning came and Harry slept as long as he could. Ron sitting in bed, not having slept a wink after the previous night's event.

The other boys curious but not snoopy, puzzled and left the two alone. Ron had given them excuses about nightmares and Harry sleep walking. He did know or care of they believed him, as long as they left. Ron finally decided to wake Harry after a considerable time.

"Nooo..." Harry shrugged his sheets over his head. "I'm so tired."

"But Harry, it's nearly lunch time!" Ron emplored worriedly.

"What?!" Harry sat up slowly in bed, reaching for his glasses. He looked at his clock to discover it was nearly twelve sharp. Just beginning the middle of the day.

"I let you sleep as long as I could. I know how tired you were. But mate, it's time to get up, Hermione's waiting."

Ron was right, Hermione had worked hard enough for Harry without his thanks as it was.

Hermione had been waiting for them in the common room, she was doing homework but quickly packed up her things in her school pack when she saw them at the top of the stairs.

The three went to lunch first, they could talk in the Great Hall.

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Lunch was a healthy serving of roast beef and boiled vegetables with a large slice of apple pie for dessert. A meal surely made to fortify a young student's overly stressed body.

The three ate in silence for a while, when Neville leaned towards them with his nervous squirly look.

"Did you hear about Penny Silverton?" Neville asked them.

"Who?" Ron snapped. It wasn't his job to keep a list of all the students in this vast school, and he'd had a long night.

"She's the Hufflepuff out of the group of blonde first year girls." Hermione snapped back at Ron. Also having a long restless night. "What about her Neville?"

His nervous eyes darted between them. "Well... I heard from her sisters that she had been sleepwalking and talking to herself, and fell." He looked at them all again. "She fell down several flights of stairs from the Library all they way to door of the Dungeons. Snape found her first, he was going to give her detention for being out of bed, but Professor Sprout talked him out of it, just this morning.

Hermione looked hard at Ron, then they both glanced at Harry. He was all to aware of it.

"She wasn't hurt," Neville continued, "Just scraps and bruises, but Madam Pomfrey seems to think just a sleeping potion would keep her from doing it again."

"Neville," Harry clentched his teeth but spoke civilly. "Why are you telling us this."

"Uh, I just thought you'd like to know!" He sputtered, not wanting to be attacked by friends. "I was awake last night harry. I saw it all! My uncle Dwervin used to suffer from a dream curse, one of Gran's simple sleeping potions was all it took. You might be the same way... of course if he missed taking it a single night he'd be cavorting on the roof until dawn..."

"Is that why Snape and his... friend... were brewing so much of it?" Ron suddenly stated, putting two and two together. "We already know that a lot of students besides us suffer from these dreams. Don't think it's a school wide curse, do you?"

"No." Hermione said shortly. "I've done a lot of reading about all that lately, and sometimes even strong sleeping potions don't fix a thing to do with dream curses or messages. We'll still have to tell Professor MacGonagal, and that's that."

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Greetings readers.
This chapter was pressed out in kind of a sleepy/hungry hurry.
If it doesn't make sense I'll fix it sooner or later.

Here is the for mentioned Mandragora portrait that went missing.
It was drawn by a good friend of mine. Minus a few details.

angelfire -pr/zrostar/ -zaksart/drakeinprofile.jpg

no spaces, or dashes... fanfic won't let me post a URL.

written: 07-10-04