Nightmares Are Normal

Four Days Later…. Over the past four days, The Winchesters have become incredible comfortable around this misfit bunch of magicals. With everything Sam and Dean have been through, you think they would be untrusting. However, when Dean suggested the Bunker become a safe house that is definitely out of the way being across the pond and all, he felt a sort of pride to be able to save people no matter how few. Sam was reluctant to agree, but he came around after spending time with 'The Golden Trio'. The Winchesters especially found Ron to be quite entertaining with the stories of his mischievous twin brothers Fred and George. So much so, that Dean is really looking forward to meeting the Weasley clan. Harry would voice his side of some of the stories during Ron's retelling, but Hermione just mostly read and stayed to herself. After a very embarrassing incident the first night since Malfoy Manor, Hermione tends to keep her distance from the Winchesters even though she really has no reason to. Who would have thought she would be embarrassed by this, even they have ...nightmares.

That First Night After going over the plan for breaking into Gringotts several times everyone called it a night. Bill and Fleur in their room, Ron and Harry in another, Luna shared with Hermione, Griphook shares with Olivander. Olivander and Griphook were already in their room when the Winchesters arrive, they were in no rush to meet the muggle hunters. The Winchesters stayed in the small living room, on two twin beds that were once couches using transfiguration. At least they weren't on the floor. Everyone had already said their goodnights and started settling in. "Dude, what are you doing? Volunteering the Bunker as a safe house? What has gotten into you?" Sam whisper yelled at Dean. "I don't know. It just felt right. And it's not like you weren't thinking the same thing?" Dean trying his best to keep his voice down, but this whole situation was getting to him. When he looked at those teenagers upon arriving he saw himself standing in front of his father's pyre watching his body burn, feeling empty, cold ...lost. If Dean and his brother could help in anyway, then that's what they were going to do. The bunker is so massive, there's whole floors they haven't even explored, why not put them into good use.

It's anyone's best guess what time it was when the screaming started. Surprisingly it was Dean who jumped up the fastest, heading in the direction of the screams with his gun at the ready not knowing what he was running in to. The sound of the screams were definitely that of a woman, especially coming from Luna and Hermione's room. Dean wasted no time in barging in the room, Luna was sitting up in her bed looking over at her roommate in pure horror. Dean stowed his gun in his jean waistband when he saw that it was Hermione screaming and writhing in her sleep like she was in severe pain. Her pajamas were soaked with sweat, her unruly hair sticking to her face, her arms were at her sides bent at the elbow while her hands tensed open to the point her knuckles and joints seem displaced, almost like misshapen claws. Before Dean could take a step closer to Hermione she screamed so loud the entire cottage was awake. He sat next to Hermione on her bed and tried to wake her up. It is said you do not wake someone who is having a nightmare, but Dean couldn't help it. He did not want to see her like this, like she was in pain.

Dean had barely put his hands on her shoulders when she bolted upright, her wand to his throat, panting like she couldn't catch her breath, eyes clouded unsure what's real. "Hermione. Hey, it's me. It's Dean. You're safe." Dean said while staying still until she fully woke up and her eyes focused on Dean. "Dean…" Whispered Hermione still out of breath, at least she's awake. She drops her wand and starts to cry, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry." "Hey, hey. It's ok. You're safe. You're not there anymore, you're here with us. Ok. Nobody is going to hurt you here." Dean comforts Hermione, hugging her tightly while rubbing small circles on her back. Sam looks to brother comforting a sobbing Hermione and decides that Dean is right, they should help any way they can. Sam walks further into the room to talk to Luna, he found her quite interesting, a bit strange, but interesting nonetheless. "You ok?" Sam asks Luna. She looks up at Sam and just says, "He did not want to be there but could not intervene, he would have gotten everyone killed including himself. He does not want what has become of his life." And with that Luna laid back down and went back to sleep like nothing ever happened. Sam looks to the sleeping girl wondering what in the world did she mean.

What seemed like hours but was only about 20 minutes, Hermione had stopped crying, her breathing slowed and evened out. Soon she was asleep still being hugged by Dean, leaning into his chest. He slowly laid her down on her bed, covered her up and left the room. Heading back to the bed he is currently sleeping, with Sam trailing behind him, "You think we should call Cas? See if he could do something about her nightmares?" "I doubt it Dean. He said he was able to alleviate some of the pain, but not heal the damage. That probably includes the nightmares. If he was able to help with nightmares, we wouldn't have them anymore." Sam says as he's getting back into bed. "Yeah, you're probably right. Hey man, what was with Luna? Do you know what she meant?" Dean rubs his hands over his face in frustration. "She was talking about Draco Malfoy. He is the nephew of the woman who tortured Hermione." Harry stated tiredly walking into the living room hearing the two of them talking. "He was there and he didn't do anything?" Dean asks leaning on his elbow facing Harry. "Unfortunately, Draco had no choice, his aunt would have tortured then killed him too. Family or not, Bellatrix does not care. She will kill anyone that gets in the way of 'magical Hitler' as you two call him. If Draco would have intervened, we more than likely wouldn't have escaped. He actually saved our lives." Harry looks down at his feet. "How so?" Sam asked.

Harry took a deep breath and sighed, "While we were searching for the horcrux, something happened. I had gotten very angry and frustrated, and I said the taboo. It is a difficult spell that's put on a word or name, when it is spoken, Snatchers and Death Eaters are immediately transported to your location. We had to run and try to escape. But we were caught. However, just before they captured us, Hermione hit me with a spell to disfigure my face. She was trying to hide me in plain sight. We were then dragged to Malfoy Manor, where Bellatrix and her Snatchers had Draco try to identify me." Harry gave the Winchesters a half smile, "She had literally threw Draco in front of my face, we were mere inches apart, and repeatedly asked him to identify me." Harry looks down at the floor once more, "He could have said it was me, but he didn't. He chose not to tell his aunt it was me, even though he knew. He risked his life by not identifying me." He takes another deep breath before continuing, "After Bellatrix was done torturing Hermione, she told Draco to contact The Dark Lord, but he stalled. He knew if The Dark Lord showed up, we were all dead, starting with Hermione."

"Why was Hermione tortured?" Sam asked. "We came into possession of something Bellatrix believed was in her vault at Gringotts. She accused her of breaking in and stealing from her. The item itself wasn't what triggered her, she was scared we had found something invaluable. That's when Hermione figured out Bellatrix is hiding a horcrux in her vault. And that is why we have to break into Gringotts." Harry stopped talking to let out a yawn. "All right, time to go back to bed. We can finish talking later." Dean says as he is rolling onto his back. "Good idea. Goodnight." Harry gets up and goes back to his room where Ron is snoring, and mumbling about spiders on roller skates. "Dude, if I ever see that Bellabitch, I'm putting one right between the eyes." Dean starts to close his eyes. "Not if I beat you to it." Sam groggily says.

Present At this point Hermione has read every book in the small cottage, and was re-reading one of the few she found interesting on Ancient Runes. Dean took it upon himself to try and talk to her and reassure her that it is 'ok' to have nightmares. "Hey… How are you holding up?" Dean squats down next to Hermione since she is sitting in an armchair with her feet tucked under her body. "As good as expected. I mean, I did pull my wand on you. I could have killed you, or set the place on fire." Hermione is not sure why she told Dean that, maybe she feels more comfortable around him then she thought. "You set something on fire before?" Dean questions her. "Yes, she has. Shocked everyone, considering we were all in the room." Ron states while looking at Hermione for far too long. "What? That armchair was ugly and you know it. Sirius wasn't even that mad, gave him an excuse to buy a matching set since everything was old anyway." Hermione shrugged causing Dean to chuckle which quickly turned into a full body laugh with tearing eyes. "Wish I could have seen that." Hermione couldn't help herself and started laughing with Dean, and soon everyone present in the room was laughing. "Thank you, I needed that." Hermione says wiping the laughing tears in her eyes.

"Hey mate, the port key has arrived." Bill walks over to Sam with an old dress shoe. Sam looks at it with raised eyebrows, not sure if he was serious. "My father feels common 'Muggle' items are less conspicuous. All it needs is a word to activate it. Do you have anything in mind?" Bill looks to Dean since he joined the two of them. "I do actually…. Poughkeepsie." Says Dean. "Poughkeepsie?" Bill looks at the both of them confused. "It's one of our code words. It means drop everything and run." "Well fitting. What other code words do you have?" Bill's curiosity piques. "Uh, we have a few. Five-O means I've been caught get yourself out. Funky Town is there's a gun pointed at my head. Something's Stuck to My Shoe means I'm being followed. And yes, we've had to use them all on more than one occasion." Dean finished going over the list when he noticed everyone staring at him. "Ok, this port key is it only good for one use?" "Yes, this is the only one for now. They won't issue any more until one of us has seen the bunker. No offense, but they are not very trusting of new people." Bill is trying his best to reassure the brothers. "It's understandable. We can see if Cas can take one of us and two more back to the bunker." Dean suggests since he kind of wants to go back to the bunker and grab as many weapons as possible. Never can have too many guns or ammo. Bill nods his head, he was thinking he would go, but not sure who else should go with him. He knows everyone would volunteer so he will have to just pick someone that is not at the cottage. "I'm going to contact the Order see if one of them would join us." Bill writes out a coded message for the order and ties it to his owl, asking Errol to deliver the message quickly. At that very moment an ancient Great Grey owl swooped out the open window in the kitchen. "We should have our answer within a few hours. In the meantime, I'm curious, how did you become friends with an angel?" Bill asks the brothers while sitting down at the table with a fresh cup of tea Fleur had poured him. Sam looked around the room noticing everyone is very interested in the answer.

Sam clears his throat, "well that is a long story." "Please, enlighten us." Hermione spoke up from her armchair. "Dean, you want to take this? Since you and Cas share a 'profound bond'." Sam could not help himself. "Shut up. You guys remember what we told you what we are? And how dangerous it can be?" Dean looks around the room at all the curious faces nodding their heads. "Ok, long story short, I was in Hell and Cas pulled me out. Literally in Hell, not a metaphor. I was dead for four months topside, but time moves differently in Hell. In reality I was there for forty years, every day was the same for the first thirty, I was tortured, pulled apart and put back together just for it start all over again." Hermione clasp her hands over her mouth, she then understood how Dean was able to calm her down that first night. She realized he has been through worse and knows what it feels like to be tortured. "Well, at least you were only stuck for forty years, I was down there for one-hundred and eighty with Lucifer." Sam says under his breath, he didn't realize Hermione and Ron heard him. They both gasped in shock at the brothers, hearing what they went through and they're sitting here amongst the living. "What about the last ten years?" Ron asked. "That's a story for another time." Dean gets up to get some air and call Cas. "Cas, if you can, a few of us need to go back to the bunker."

At that moment a familiar sound of fluttering wings, as well as a loud 'Crack' and two more people had shown up to the cottage. One was a tall man with dark hair, piercing blue eyes, a trench coat and wings that looked more like shadows. The other was a short portly redheaded woman. Her facial expression was that of a very kind but concerned mother. "Hello dear, I'm Molly Weasley. You must be one of the Winchesters." Molly looks over Dean. "Yes ma'am." Dean extends his hand to be shook but is cut off when Ron comes barreling out of the cottage to hug his mum. "I missed you. Look at you, you're all skin and bones! The lot of you!" Molly says after hugging Ron. "Sorry mum." Ron looks down at the ground. "Well, we must be off. Don't want to waste any time. WILLIAM! You coming dear?" Molly yells for her eldest son. "Yes mum." Bill yells back at Molly. "I'll be back soon. Keep everyone safe." Bill kisses Fleur goodbye then looks to Sam, "I'm trusting you to help keep them safe." And just like that they were gone with the sound of fluttering wings.