Chapter 26

A/N: Wow another update! Yay! I'm getting quicker on the updates—or my muse is more inspired. Either way, yay for updates!

So I don't own the Lion King or Harry Potter. If I did, well I wouldn't be hunting for a job now would I?

So my poll is still active—please vote on it! It helps me decide which story to update first, and I figure all of the stories have people who want to seem them updated. I'm just trying to figure out an order.

Oh news! I'm going to be in California for the next few days. I'm going to Disneyland with my grandmother and my cousins, so I'll be away from my computer during that time. I'm really looking forward to it—I've never been to Disneyland, only Walt Disney World down in Florida.

Please review!

Simba took a deep breath to steady his nerves. Today was the day that he was finally going to talk to Lupin. He had been putting it off for so long. First it was because the man looked ill and really, Simba didn't want to bother him. Then it was because he didn't want to add on to Lupin's duties and worries after Simba discovered that the man was teaching Harry how to deal with Dementors.

There were no more legitimate reasons why Simba kept delaying. Lupin was the only adult that Simba knew of that would listen without jumping to conclusions (McGonagall, Sprout, Flitwick, Hooch, and possibly Hagrid), insisting that he stay in the Hospital Wing (Pomfrey) or poison him (Snape). Simba had no proof Snape would poison him but it was better to be safe than sorry.

He didn't want to bother Harry with this, and Simba wasn't comfortable with Ron and Hermione knowing just yet. He was getting closer with Ginny and he enjoyed the company of Fred and George, but this wasn't something they could help with.

Oh he could go to Dumbledore but the man was busy protecting the school from an escaped mass murderer. He sure had time to deal with a 13 year old's inability to sleep.

Wow, I'm sarcastic when I'm tired, Simba thought as he stared at Lupin's office door. If he was going to keep his sanity, then he was going to have to talk to someone. Hell if he had to, he'd talk to Sirius. But Simba would rather start with someone who was remotely sane in the first place. Sirius may be innocent but the man still had issues.

Scratching on the door, Simba was surprised to see the handle turn instead of hearing someone call out from inside. He tensed up only to look up at a slightly bemused Professor Lupin.

"Hello Simba," the older man said, making room for the lion to walk into the office. Simba had never been inside the office of the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor before. He could only imagine what it had been like under Lockhart—on second thought maybe it'd be better off if he didn't know. He couldn't even picture what the office had been like with Quirrell.

Maybe full of books on how to kill Harry or dark creatures, Simba thought as he remembered what his brother and their friends had told him about his brother's adventure first year.

"What can I do for you?" Lupin asked as he sat down behind his desk, breaking Simba away from his sarcastic thoughts. Simba swallowed the lump slowly growing in his throat. It was do or die—not literally of course. He wasn't going to actually die if he didn't talk to Lupin but the saying sounded nice and dramatic.

"I was wondering if you knew whether or not Dreamless Sleep was safe to take for lions," Simba asked and Lupin raised an eyebrow, the bemused expression still present on his face.

"Interesting question. One I believe would be more suited for Professor Snape."

"Well I would but I don't want to bother him," Simba replied, choking back the bile threatening to come up by just pretending to be nice to Snape. He was a git, pure and simple. Lupin leaned back in his chair and looked straight at Simba. "Besides, Harry seems to trust you—what with the anti-Dementor training."

"Is something wrong Simba? I know professors are usually supposed to help students but you should know that my door is always open," he said. Simba sighed—the man was practically inviting him to spill his guts! Why wasn't he seizing this opportunity? What was wrong with him? Simba, I mean. Not Lupin.

"I've been having nightmares," Simba said slowly, as if the words themselves were reluctant to leave his mouth. Lupin looked up startled and had this been any other situation, Simba may have been amused. It was almost as if the man had expected resistance from Simba. "Every night since term started back in September. It's made it almost impossible to sleep."

Lupin nodded, concern evident on his face. "Have you talked to Madam Pomfrey?" he asked. "I'm sure she'd be more than happy to help."

Simba snorted. "I'd rather not risk being trapped there for a few weeks. Besides, I may have already been to see her?"

The embarrassed tone of Simba's voice made the statement sound more like a question and he growled under his breath at Lupin's curious look—ignoring the fact that it was Simba who had sought out Lupin and not the other way around.

"I may have passed out on the stairs in Gryffindor Tower and Harry and Ron took me to Pomfrey's lair," Simba grumbled, inwardly impressed at Lupin's ability to get him to spill his guts without saying a word. Simba braced for the onslaught of concern, judgment—anything really. But to Simba's surprise, Lupin just nodded and sighed.

"I'll see what I can find out," Lupin said and Simba sighed with relief. "I believe it's safe but I'm not the best potion maker out there and I'd rather you not get hurt because of something I said."

"Yeah I think the Board of Governors would frown on that," Simba nodded but then looked confused. "But then would they frown on me being here? After all, I am a lion and not an approved animal on the letter."

"Dumbledore's given his okay," Lupin told him. "Usually that's all the Board of Governors needs—and if not, Dumbledore can argue that you're just a really big cat. Give me a couple of days to look up the information. I'll let you know what I find."

Simba nodded—hopefully he'd be able to get some sleep and soon!

000

It turned out to take much longer than a couple of days, and Simba found himself continued to be plagued with nightmares and worse—concerned friends. Well, minus Hermione. He still wasn't speaking to her and she him—despite Harry and Ron's best efforts.

"Simba, Lupin wants to see you," Harry called out three weeks after Simba's initial meeting with the man. The wizard winced upon seeing his brother's state. The bags under Simba's eyes looked like they'd been there since Harry had known him. But if Harry dared to even mention it, Simba would tense up and stalk off, muttering about the nosiness of wizards. Sometimes it would take days before Harry would even see his brother, let alone have a conversation with him.

"Thanks," Simba yawned and made his way down to Lupin's office, ignoring the concerned look on his brother's face. It was better if he ignored it. Otherwise Simba would have to plan another few days of avoiding Harry and he just didn't have the energy to do that anymore. The room had duplicated again—or at least that's what it looked like to Simba. It took him three tries to get through the portrait hole. He was so focused on getting out of the Common Room that he hadn't noticed how wobbly his footing had become.

"Oh for the love of Merlin!" he heard a voice mutter when he was about a few feet away from the portrait hole and suddenly he felt his body get picked up off the ground.

"Let me go!" Simba growled as he twisted his head to see that the person carrying him was Fred Weasley. Well, levitating him was more like it.

How had Fred done that? I never heard him cast a spell! Simba thought as Fred stopped and turned to speak to him.

"So where are we going?" Fred asked with a smile, not fazed in the slightest at Simba's glower. "You forget Simba that I have two younger siblings. Three if you count George—which not many people do now that I think about it."

"Do you have a point or are you just going to stand there blathering?" Simba asked, struggling to get down from the spell. Fred just continued to smile at the lion.

"I know when people are hiding something. You've changed since the start of term. George and I didn't want to get into it since we figured it was personal. But then Ron came to us after Christmas. If Ronnikins noticed something was wrong, then it was so glaringly obvious we had to do something."

Simba stopped struggling upon hearing that it had been Ron and not Harry who went to the twins. While Ron had been there in the Common Room after Simba had been released from the Hospital Wing, he hadn't figured that the redhead had cared so much to bring the twins into the mix.

"We don't say it much, but you, Harry and Hermione are like family to us," Fred continued. "Family takes care of family—even uptight family like Percy or secretive family like you."

"Gee Fred, you really know how to charm a guy," Simba grumbled.

"You've gotten really sarcastic since second year, you know that?" Fred told him as he turned to start walking.

"Being petrified with no one to talk to but yourself can do that to you," Simba told him. "You're not letting me go are you?"

"With as many stairs and lack of railings Hogwarts has? You'd fall off or miss a step when the stairs changed and seriously injure yourself," Fred told him. "Then Harry would probably kill me for letting you go."

"I'm not that bad!"

"It took you three tries to leave the freaking common room!" Fred turned around and exclaimed in exasperation, taking care not to throw up his hands as he was still levitating Simba. "You ran into the doorframe after you stormed out on George and me. Oliver almost pisses his pants at the thought of angering you again and Hermione glowers every time we mention your name. What in the world—"

"I'm going to see Lupin!" Simba exclaimed, cutting off Fred's rant. There was a brief moment of silence as Fred just stared at him.

"Lupin? Why?"

Simba sighed and then looked at the older boy. There was just no getting out of it, was there? "I haven't gotten a good night's sleep since we left the Burrow. Three weeks ago I asked Lupin if he knew if Dreamless Sleep was safe for lions to consume. Lupin asked me to come to his office today. That's where I was going."

Fred continued to stare at Simba and the lion realized that he may have said too much too soon. While Simba had already admitted that he was having trouble sleeping to Lupin, this was the first time he'd admitted it to one of his friends.

"You know Dreamless Sleep's addicting right?" Fred asked, snapping out of his silence after a few minutes. Simba was grateful, as he wasn't inclined to talk about the memories.

"It's just a few doses," Simba told him. "Just until I can sleep without them popping up. I'm sure the school would be relieved if I started to sleep."

"Harry too I bet," Fred chuckled and then asked gently "Has it been every night?"

Simba nodded, unsure on how to continue.

"Since the Dementors came on to the train," Simba told him and Fred stopped in his tracks, causing Simba to crash into the ginger menace's back.

"That was back in September! I mean George and I have been sleep deprived before but nothing that bad!"

"When have you two ever been sleep deprived?" Simba asked as Fred started walking again.

"This past year," Fred told him. "It's our OWLs year and while we don't care much for grades or school tests, we've got Percy on our arses to make sure we actually go on to get some NEWTs, and because of this, our work keeps us up late at night—what with Percy double and triple checking it to make sure it's 'suitable for a fifth year'. "

"But aren't you guys going to open your joke shop?" Simba asked, relaxing a bit and rather enjoying the flight. He must have been tired if the simple act of walking took too much energy.

"Yeah," Fred nodded. "But we figured that it might be a good idea if one of us knows some subjects and the other one knows the other one. Besides, Snape would have a heart attack if we managed to get into his NEWT level class."

The two of them continued to talk as Fred made his way to Lupin's office. Simba learned that George was making great progress on the Animagus and reverse Animagus potions—so much in fact that they might be finished with the potions sooner than they thought.

Secretly, Simba hoped that they could solve his sleeping problem before the potion was finished. He didn't want to find out what being horribly sleep deprived would do to someone under the influence of the potion. He was so deep in thought that he hadn't even realized that they had made it to Lupin's office nor had he realized that Fred had just walked in.

"We have no way of explaining this," Simba told a bewildered Lupin, who was staring at the sight of a floating lion. Actually, that would explain a lot of the weird looks they got on their way down.

"Your lion professor," Fred said and cancelled the spell. Simba grunted as he landed on his stomach and ignored Fred's smirking.

"If you make a crack about cats landing on their feet, Fred I swear…."

"Do you really think I would come up with something so unoriginal?" Fred asked with a chuckle. "Well, I think my work here is done. See you Simba! Professor."

Fred nodded at Lupin and made his way out of the office. Lupin just stared at the ginger's retreating back, as if he had never seen anyone like him before.

"Is that it?" Simba asked, eyeing the bottle of potion on Lupin's desk. The question seemed to break Lupin out of his thoughts and he nodded.

"Madam Pomfrey was more than happy to help me with this, and thankfully there are no ingredients in Dreamless Sleep that are harmful to non-humans," Lupin said, holding the bottle up.

Simba stared at the man, kicking himself for not asking sooner. Had he just gotten over his pride, then maybe he could have had more sleep!

"Why is there a bed in your office?" Simba asked, noticing that for the first time.

"Madam Pomfrey didn't know if you wanted to take the potion now or if you wanted to wait until you were back in the Gryffindor Common Room," Lupin explained. Simba went to answer but instead let out a huge yawn that shook down his back.

"I take it you want to have it now?" Lupin asked and Simba nodded. Simba hopped onto the bed and took the offered potion. For the first time all term, Simba welcomed sleep and curled up on the bed.

00

Ten hours later, Simba finally woke up—only to find Harry standing in Lupin's office.

"Anti-Dementor lesson?" Simba asked, stretching out on the bed. Harry nodded, smiling at the sight. It was hard to remember a time when Simba looked so rested.

"Here are your vials Simba," Lupin said, handing the lion a bag full of the Dreamless Sleep potion. "Once a week, now."

Simba nodded and grabbed the bag with his mouth. Bounding out of the office, he couldn't remember having this much energy before. Getting back to the Common Room was a breeze instead of taking forever.

"Look who finally got some sleep," he heard a sixth year mutter to his friend as he walked into the Common Room.

"Think he and Granger will make up now?" his friend muttered back and Simba felt the feeling of dread fill his stomach. He would have to make up with Hermione now wouldn't he? But Hermione wasn't here—she had taken to working in the library while Simba holed up in the Common Room.

Hopping up on one of the couches, Simba gradually closed his eyes and went back to sleep, resting his head onto a pillow. However, the Dreamless Sleep had worn off by this point which meant only one thing.

The nightmares were back!

00

Simba sat back up, panting after a severe nightmare left him drenched in sweat. It was his third time trying to get some more sleep and he felt even less rested than he had in the beginning. All he wanted to do was sleep!

He eyed the bag Lupin had given him with interest. Surely it couldn't hurt if he took one more vial of the stuff. I mean, Lupin said once a week but it was clearly necessary. If the nightmares came back after one does wore off so quickly.

Thankfully, Simba's resolve seemed to be distracted by Harry walking into the Common Room carrying his Firebolt, the broom looking the same as it did when it got taken from his brother.

"See you got your broom back," he said once the crowd dispersed. Honestly you'd think that they'd never seen a broom before.

"Yeah," Harry nodded, bringing the broom off his shoulder to examine it. "I can't wait to fly it!"

"Can't blame you," Simba nodded. "Maybe now Oliver will stop looking like he's about to cry every time he looks over at you."

"I think that's because of you," Ron piped up as Neville walked up to the Common Room. Simba winced at the reminder of that. It wasn't his proudest moment. I mean, it was insane for the team to fly in that weather but maybe he shouldn't have threatened Oliver.

"Are you going to make up with Hermione?" Harry asked. "I mean, she was just trying to do the right thing."

"Yeah, I should," Simba nodded. "Maybe tomorrow."

"Great!" Ron smiled. "I'll tell you, it's very unnerving to be the one on the outside of the fight. We're used to you siding with Hermione, not fighting with her."

"Okay, I get it!" Simba chuckled and didn't miss the look shared between Ron and Harry. It seemed as though all was right with the world—well it would be once the missing member of their gang was back with them.

"Hey Harry, want me to take your broom upstairs?" Ron asked. "I have to give Scabbers his tonic anyway."

"Thanks Ron," Harry told him and Ron gently took the broom up to the dorm as if it was made out of glass. Simba curled up and rested his head on Harry's thigh, determined to get some natural sleep if it killed him. Well, he was determined until he heard screaming coming from the third year dorms. Bounding up the stairs, he was astonished to see blood stained sheets covering Ron's bed.

"Ron!" he called out.

The redhead was standing by his bed, looking at it in shock. Simba walked over only to find pieces of long ginger fur on the pillow, and some more pieces of fur clenched in Ron's hand.

Looks like things aren't going back to normal for a while, Simba thought as Ron stormed out, presumably to look for Hermione.