Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters. All I own is my original characters and settings that will come up later is the story.
I am rewriting/adding parts of this story to improve it and get rid of inconsistencies. If you see any let me know. Guys, there are so many inconsistencies in this story that it's not even funny. Why didn't anyone tell me? Oh well. More have been erased at this point. Tell me if you still find some in these rewritten chapters.
Another chapter rewritten and extended. Tell me if it's improved if you've read it before. And if you're a 'virgin', so to speak, just drop a line and tell me how it's going.
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Severus walked to the center of the room away from the glass shards and pulled a black velvet jewelry box out of his pocket.
Lupin's wand went dark. He pointed it at the trunk, shrunk it down, and slipped it into his pocket. He picked up the owl cage that had remained intact hidden in the corner and walked back to Potter. He knelt and tipped his head up. "Harry. We're going to take you somewhere where you'll be safe. They--they may be able to make the dreams stop."
Potter's eyes snapped in and out of focus. He wrapped his hands around Lupin's arm and pulled him closer. "They can make it stop? They can keep me safe from him?"
Lupin's eyes closed before he forced them back open. He pushed Potter's hair out of his eyes. His scar was red and crisscrossed with red lines. He'd tried to scratch it off. "I don't know what's wrong. I can't know for sure, but they may know--"
"Let's go." Potter jumped up. He spun around three times and dropped back to the floor. He crawled over to the bed and started pulling at floorboards.
"What is he--" Severus froze as one of the boards came free of the floor. Potter pulled out his wand, the damn invisibility cloak, and a brown book. Lupin took the trunk out of his pocket and enlarged it. Potter skipped over and opened it, throwing the retrieved items on top. He spun around a few more times and dove under the bed. He squirmed back out with his shoes dangling from one hand.
Lupin barely moved as he watched the boy hop onto the bed and try to pull his shoes on without untying them. "Don't--Don't you even want to know where you're--"
Potter pulled the second shoe on and shook his head. "I have to make it stop. Can't do it again. Have to make him stop." He dropped back to the floor and crawled over to the dresser. He stuck his arm under the small gap between the bottom of the dresser and the floor, pulled out his glasses, and slipped them on. He squinted toward the light. "Who's that?"
Lupin whipped around, grimacing, and then slowly turned back to Potter. Come on. Tell the boy the truth. Let's see if he remembers whom he saw a few minutes ago. "That's a--a--a new member of the order. Uh--S--Steven." Steven? Merlin, that's not even creative. Idiots. Both of them.
Potter squinted again and tilted his head to the side. "Oh. Hi."
Severus nodded. The boy must be having some kind of short-term memory loss and obviously he's having mood swings. What else? The destruction of the room. What brought him to that point? Is he hallucinating? So many different things could have caused the obvious symptoms. Perhaps Biara will be able to discover more.
Lupin coughed. "We should--uh--get going."
Severus opened the box, the hinge groaning and protesting against the movement, and pulled out a large silver locket. The headmaster's idea of a joke. At least the blasted lion didn't actually roar.
Lupin handed the owl cage to Potter and moved in closer. "Nice concealment charm."
Idiot. The boy would have never left if he knew that I was involved. Severus held out the locket and everyone touched it. "Nice name." The three figures disappeared from the barren room, the glass shards settling from the air displacement.
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